So the last few weeks have been something of a whirlwind. I was completely overwhelmed with the task of finishing and mailing our wedding invitations; I left a few things (like getting the dang things printed, ahem) to the last minute and found myself scrambling to get them sent out in time. Granted, they still technically went out "early" — eight weeks instead of four to six — but our hotel block's cutoff is in about a week and I wanted to make sure everyone who wanted a room could get one.
Anyway, I designed them, fretted until the last minute about said design, said "screw it" and just sent them to be printed, was disappointed to see that they turned out purple instead of navy blue, said "screw it" again and started stuffing, stamping, addressing and sealing. The addressing took forever; I wanted them to look fancy, so I bought a calligraphy pen and promptly regretted that decision. After much trial and error, they turned out okay. I ordered 25 more envelopes than I needed and with mistakes, I ended up with one to spare. That's what I call luck. I then proceeded to stay up until 2 a.m. last Friday, stuffing, licking and stamping 125 envelopes. Have you ever licked 125 envelopes by yourself? It sucks.
But aren't they pretty?
A little obsessed with the lettering on this one. For some reason, I just love it. You can see my secret, too: Write it in pencil first, trace over with the calligraphy pen and India ink, then erase the pencil when the ink dries.
On top of all that, Matt was gone for two weeks to do a training in Colorado. I wasn't jealous or lonely at all. He came back on Saturday, and I'm still trying to get back into some semblance of a schedule. I kind of devolved into bachelorettehood while he was gone. I didn't hate it, but I much prefer having him around ;)
I've also been SERIOUSLY slacking on the outfit photo front lately. Something about the frigid temps and the snow lately have just crushed my motivation. I'm dressing for comfort, not style, which has meant leggings under slacks, three layers of shirts, big sweaters and generally shapeless silhouettes.
I did manage to dress nicely on a semi-warm (read: temps in the 20s instead of single digits) day last month. I straight-up copied this pin, but honestly, I was just glad to bust out my beloved maxi skirt and look somewhat pulled together again.
sweater: H&M
oxford: thrifted
maxi skirt, kitten heels: Target
necklace: giveaway win (originally from Nordstrom)
Just realized you can see my remote in the last photo. The illusion is shattered! Womp womp. Anyway, there's my secret to wearing skirts in winter: Wear long ones so you can rock some bomb-ass fleece-lined leggings underneath. I was so toasty, you don't even know. But you could. If you got a maxi skirt and fleece leggings.
Anyway, this was the first outfit I've worn in a long time that I really put effort into and liked. I hate how winter just saps all of my energy and creativity. Oh well, at least it's almost over!
And finally, in other news, if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, my usernames have changed! They're easy to remember: @verbalmelange. Hooray, brand alignment!
It's official: If I'm not at work or working on an assignment, I am in full-on hibernation mode. I had yesterday off for President's Day, but took today off as well thanks to either a stomach bug or something I ate yesterday. And with the frigid temps outside, all I want is to hide under 18 thousand layers of blankets and sleep until it's spring. Heck, I'd take temps in the 30s if I could get 'em; it's 17 right now (4 with the wind chill) and we're not supposed to see anything above freezing until the weekend...when we're supposed to get another dump of snow before the temps plummet down to highs in the 20s again. I don't know if this is winter's last dying gasps or if things are gonna stay this crappy until after Daylight Savings kicks back in, but I sure hope it's the first.
But enough about how much I hate the cold and the snow.
t-shirt: H&M
cardi: Forever 21
jeans and flats: Target
necklace: Jane.com
I'm fairly sure I've blogged an outfit like this before, but I have this lovely new, unshrunk mustard cardigan and I went to a trusty ol' standby for styling it. Honestly, I've been doing a lot of repeats lately; this weather just saps all the energy out of me and makes it hard to style an outfit creatively. But I said I was done complaining about the weather, right?
I guess it could be worse. Now I have an excuse to stay in and work on projects in the evenings and on weekends; I don't feel like such a recluse for spending my Friday nights with a hot glue gun when everyone else I know is doing the same with Netflix or what have you. And the central Ohio area has been spared a lot; we've received nothing compared to the feet of snow that's been dumped on New England this year. Still, I find myself daydreaming more and more about the Mexican beach where Matt and I will be spending our honeymoon. We're inside the three-month mark now, and I couldn't be more excited!
I've been pretty terrible about taking OOTD photos lately. That's about to change, thanks to some really cool photography-related Christmas gifts I received, but that's a topic for another post. Today's post is strictly about what I wore for the various and sundry holiday gatherings I attended this year (and every year, really, because big families rule).
sweater: H&M
short-sleeve oxford: New York & Company
skinnies: Forever 21
boots: Madden Girl via Famous Footwear
necklace: Express
If the background looks unfamiliar here, it's because these photos were taken by my sister at our parents' house. I literally dragged her away from the party and snuck into an empty room so we could snap these really quickly. I bet being a style blogger's relative is so much fun, haha. We celebrated Christmas with my dad's side of the family the Sunday before the holiday, so things got kicked off nice and early for us.
sweater: Express via Discount Fashion Warehouse
jeans, flats: Target
necklace: Jane.com
This is easily one of my favorite sweaters, and I guess I must have good taste because I always get compliments on it. I swear, this thing no sooner comes out of the laundry before it's back on me. I don't know if it even ever gets put away on the shelf. Anyway, I wore this to a few gatherings on the unseasonably warm (like, 60s warm, it was magnificent) Christmas Eve. We started at my parents' house for our immediate family's celebration just west of Cleveland. It sounds like it'd be small, but even with one of my sisters in Hawaii with her husband and his family, we still were up to nearly 20 people. Between my parents, me and Matt, my two sisters and their fiancé and boyfriend, my two brothers and their girlfriends, and my youngest brother and sister who are way to young to have significant others, it was quite a party. From there, Matt and I popped over to Akron to hang out with his dad's side of the family for a few hours before driving back to Columbus and collapsing exhaustedly into bed.
sheer button-down: Express via Discount Fashion Warehouse
red plaid tank top that you can barely see in the pic: Target
skinnies: H&M
boots: Target
necklace, bracelet: Etsy
Christmas Day dawned much colder (welcome to Ohio), but we roused ourselves and prepared for another long day. Fortunately, this year we were able to stay in Columbus the whole time, heading over to Matt's parents' house for a quiet present-opening sesh with them and Matt's sister and brother-in-law. Then Matt's mom's side of the family descended on the house and everything dissolved into chaos. I kid, it was a really nice gathering. My soon-to-be-in-laws are pretty rad. After that was over, we popped over to Matt's grandparents' retirement home for a quick visit, then over to his aunt and uncle's house (on the other side of the family) to greet the newest addition – an eight-day-old little girl who basically stole my heart. Matt got to hold her and, having never held a newborn in his life, he did pretty well! (Though if you ask him, he'll say it was the most tense 10 minutes of his whole life, haha.)
Wow. I'm getting exhausted again just thinking about all the festivities last week...and that's with us skipping out on a gathering! Yup, big families rule, but they also are crazy as hell. And I wouldn't have it any other way :)
sweater dress: secondhand (H&M)
earrings: gifted (Lia Sophia)
shoes: Target
Can you call this a sweater dress? I mean, I'm going to anyway because it's my blog and I do what I want but I'm not 100% convinced that I'm right. Whatever it is, it's cute and comfy and cost me $4 at my friend's garage sale. And that's all that really matters, yeah?
Speaking of absolutely nothing because I have a terribly short attention span and am horrible at transitions...
So I think I mentioned that I had a fitness coaching meeting recently. A friend-of-a-friend is a personal trainer, and she gave me some tips on how to achieve my personal fitness goals. It was insanely motivating, and her ideas were spot-on in terms of what will help me make a plan and stick to it. I've been getting up half an hour earlier on weekdays to squeeze in some yoga, because I never manage to do it before bed, and I've been getting a lot better and making time for evening workouts. Yesterday was my first real "blow it off" day, as the class I wanted to go to got cancelled and an Ikea order I placed was delivered. It's like the universe WANTED me to spend my evening drinking bourbon-spiked cider and building a few chairs and a closet. (On that note, I will have a home-decor update soon; the living room is *nearly* finished, finally!)
Tonight might be a little rough for me as well, because I scheduled a massage therapy session for right after work (I get a lot of wrist pain from my job and freelance schedule), and working out right after all my muscles got worked on seems counterproductive. I might just do a longer, slightly more intense yoga sesh instead of hitting the climbing gym. Actually, that sounds really pleasant. I have a couple hour-long yoga vids I've been meaning to try.
(And mom, if you're reading this, my "blow it off" day TOTALLY doesn't count for our wager. If anything, I should get seven freebie days, since you started your workout regimen a week after I started mine :P I've been brainstorming where I'd like you to take me to dinner when you lose...! Haha.)
Okay, yesterday things got a bit heavy and I was/am dealing with some triggers. I'd be lying if I said I'm feeling back to 100% normal, but my motto is "fake it till ya make it" so I'm just gonna do that. We now return to your regularly scheduled frivolity.
t-shirt: thrifted
jeans, flats: Target
belt: H&M
necklace: Jane
In other news, I am so so relieved to finally be showing some fairly sharp pics again on the blog. I think I've finally figured out the weirdness I was experiencing, namely that I had changed my focus area settings without realizing it and was messing around with pre-focusing my camera on a stationary object instead of letting the remote focus for me because apparently my cheapo remote does that. That noise you hear is me cheering, obvs. And okay, maybe these still aren't totally perfect but they're such a vast improvement from the entirely-out-of-focus-crap I've been shooting that I don't even care.
I don't usually tuck my t-shirts into my jeans because hello, nerd alert but honestly, the pearls kind of give it more of a ladylike vibe than a dorky one, I think. Plus, leopard print. Speaking of, this is an H&M belt so obviously it is falling apart after like a year of ownership, so I am in desperate need of a replacement. Never thought I'd be saying that about something with leopard print on it, but there you go. So, a call-out: Has anyone seen something like this belt recently, at a reasonable price?
Alas, I had hoped I would have better photos to share once I returned from my self-imposed blogging hiatus. For some weird reason, I've been having issues with focus on self-photography lately, and a lot of the shots I'm getting turn out unfocused. Which I don't realize until I upload them, because my camera screen is tiny and (I suspect) fairly low-res.
shirtdress: Express via Discount Fashion Warehouse
hat: H&M
gladiator sandals, bracelets: Target
I did manage to get one in-focus shot (perhaps not coincidentally, it was one where my "focus marker" tripod was still behind me, so I had to crop). Unfortunately, I'm making a weird face.
Oh, well. The important thing is that several time-consuming projects--two three-story freelance writing assignments and an in-depth dance residency--have come to a close. That's not to say I'm totally free; I still have a batch of photos from a baby shoot to edit, and as soon as I'm done with those I'll have to edit our engagement photos, which my friend Emily is kindly shooting this weekend. On top of that, in the next two months, I have: the Color Run, aforementioned engagement photo shoot, my cousin's wedding, shopping with my mom for her mother-of-the-bride dress, a friend's weekend bachelorette party, a beach trip, and a secondary engagement photo shoot at Ohio University in Athens (where Matt and I met). I just wish I could keep myself this busy in the winter months, instead of just sitting around binge-watching Netflix and eating way too much junk food :/
Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this whole "kill yourself with activity in the summer and with boredom in the winter" thing. Right? RIGHT??
Step 1. Find a Thing you really, really want.
Step 2. Realize that you have to wait X number of days to have Thing.
Step 3. Resign yourself to the established waiting period. Try to find distractions, or try to forget about Thing in the meantime.
Step 4. Jump for joy when Thing Day arrives!
Step 5. Realize you still can't have Thing.
Step 6. Go back to Step 2. Repeat as necessary.
In my case, Thing is my scooter. I bought it in January and put it in the garage and the back of my mind, where it's waited patiently for The Longest Winter Ever (capital letters necessary) to end. But the friend who sold it to me hasn't actually used the thing in more than a year, so it needs a lot of initial maintenance. So far we've charged the battery, filled her up with gas and fresh motor oil, and sprayed some cleaner into the carburetor. She tries to start, but just won't turn over. Our next step is to change the spark plug, but if that doesn't work, I have to wait until next weekend for my friend's "scooter guy" to get back in town and clean the carb out proper. I get that this is all part of standard maintenance, but I'm not very good with the whole patience thing. Especially when it's gorgeous outside and I'm still relying on public transportation and/or exorbitant parking fees to get to work.
So, distraction time! Short-attention-span-powers, ACTIVATE!
shirt: secondhand
cardi: thrifted
skinnies: H&M
boots: gifted (via Old Navy)
In other news, warmer temps also mean the return of cute clothes! Spring florals, skirts, cute sandals, here I come! I busted out the first of my springwear--a floral shirt-- by mixing it in with some fall/winter attire that's about to go back into storage. (I'm looking at you, boots.)
Storytime: I got this shirt from my friend Hayley. She and her husband moved from an apartment to a house, and like me every time I move, she found a bunch of stuff she didn't want to pack and unpack. Most of it was clothes, so I told her to drop it off at my house and I'd take whatever I didn't want to the thrift store.
She showed up with literally 20 bags of clothes, bedding, appliances, purses and even a dog bed. We do not have a dog.
Needless to say, I donated more than I kept. Fortunately, Volunteers of America was scheduled to do a neighborhood pickup the next week, so it all just sat in my living room until pickup day. Matt wasn't thrilled, but I considered it a price worth paying for otherwise free clothes. Hayley got rid of her stuff, I got new stuff and nobody had to schlepp to Goodwill. Everybody wins! Except Matt. He got nothing. The end.
You all are familiar with Galentine's Day, the completely necessary holiday invented by Leslie Knope of Parks & Rec fame, yes? Good. For those who don't know, here's a quick rundown: It's celebrated the day before Valentine's Day by showering affection on the special ladies in your life. This year, I swapped the two; Matt and I celebrated V-Day on the 13th with our traditional epicmealtime, and I celebrated G-Day on the 14th with my friend Emily, who was up from West Virginia.
We went to a wine tasting at the grocery store (so. much. fun.), grabbed a couple of burgers and caught a movie. When we came home, I begged her to shoot some photos of my Galentine's/Valentine's outfit. Emily went to school for photojournalism, and she is crazy-stupid-talented. I have her work everywhere--in my house, in my cubical at work, on my phone. Hell, a shot she took at OU of the "Athens Block" bricks is even my Facebook banner...and a shot she took of me is my current profile pic. Anyway, she acquiesced, and now I just have to convince her to move to Columbus and shoot my outfits full-time.
shirt: H&M
chambray: thrifted
skinnies: The Limited via Discount Fashion Warehouse
boots: gifted (Old Navy)
necklace: giveaway win (Stella & Dot)
bracelet: Etsy
blouse: The Limited via Discount Fashion Warehouse
lace cami: Marshall's
skinnies: H&M
boots: gifted (but they're from Old Navy)
necklace: Express via DFWh
Not woof woof like a dog's bark, but wooooooof like the slightly frustrated/exhausted sound one makes when simply no other sound will suffice. I had yesterday off for Presidents Day, and the three-day weekend felt like a five-day business extravaganza. Which was kind of rough, considering the fact that I have yet to have a real "off" weekend this year.
Usually I like to spend long weekends in one of two ways: Manically cleaning my house/tackling my to-do list, then relaxing and doing nothing for two and a half days; or going on a mini-trip of some sort. This weekend, I did all the things. (I wore the above outfit to none of them; it was just in my backlog of outfits to post, haha. Still, it's a cute outfit that would have done nicely for many of the following activities.)
Friday night, I took my friend Emily out on the town for a little Galentine's action. She was visiting from West Virginia, so we hit up a wine tasting and caught a later showing of Her. (If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen the Valentine's feast Matt and I enjoyed a day early to accommodate Em's being in town. Oh. Boy.) A really irresponsible driver nearly plowed into us on the way home, but luckily we missed a collision. After that excitement, we came back to my house for an impromptu outfit photo shoot — Emily's a really talented photographer, and I can't wait to show you the results! Anyway, she met up with another friend for breakfast Saturday morning, and I headed up to my parents' house to wish my dad and little sister happy birthdays. The adults of the family went to a fun little fundraiser for my old high school's band that night.
On the way back to Columbus Sunday morning, I nearly wrecked again — this time because I took a sharp curve too fast on a slick road. Again, I managed to avoid disaster and made it home safely, just in time to rush off to rehearsal for a dance performance I'm in...and on the way, yet ANOTHER driver nearly plowed into me when she merged into my lane without signaling or (presumably) checking her mirrors. I was forced into the oncoming traffic lane, but I was lucky that no one was occupying it at that moment. Emily took me out to dinner after rehearsal, and Monday morning we did a little shopping at our favorite store, Discount Fashion Warehouse. Oh yeah, I have another haul to show you guys at the end of the month ;)
I got to relax with Matt a little Monday afternoon while we caught up on Walking Dead, but then it was off to the gym for a swim lesson and some climbing. Needless to say, I passed out nearly the second my head hit the pillow last night...and of course, I overslept this morning.
TL;DR: I think I need a weekend from my weekend.
sweater, skinnies: H&M
booties: Walmart
necklace: InPink
Apparently I spoke too soon last Wednesday when I said I was getting "over the hump" of this cold. Because as I found out at the doctor's this weekend, it's not a cold. It's bronchitis. Whee!
I'm no stranger to bronchitis; I got it a lot in college when I lived in the dorms. And given the timing of this onset, I'm suspecting I may have picked it up on the plane coming back from my visit to Emily's. Oh, well. The important thing is that the doctor gave me lots of awesome drugs and now I can take a breath and even laugh without going into a coughing fit. Yay, drugs!
Kids, don't do drugs.
Unless your doctor tells you to.
Anyway, I took yesterday off to let the meds do their magic, and I'm heading back to work again this morning. I did nothing but sleep, drag my butt to said doctor's visit (and to a haircut appointment that I'd already rescheduled twice) and watch a ton of Girls this weekend. (Which, by the way, WHY am I just now starting this show??) So I'm kind of glad to be getting out of the house. Even if it's for work ;)
dress: H&M
heels: Lane Bryant via Discount Fashion Warehouse
bangles: gifted from Matt's aunt
Confession time: My favorite part about New Year's Eve (aside from copious amounts of bubbly, of course) is getting dressed. It's just so much fun to plan a fancy-pants (or in most cases, no-pants) outfit, do my nails all special, and wear way more makeup than I usually do. The ritual of it just gets to me, ya know? I usually put on some dance music and jam away as I'm getting dressed--this year, it was Grouplove leading into Lady Gaga and Ke$ha. As it turns out, I was more dressed up than most people at the party, but who cares? I felt fancy and I loved it.
So even though it's a full week later, I'm posting what I wore. Relevant? Not really. But definitely needs to be posted. After all, I spent so much time getting dolled up, and then made Matt wait even longer as I cried, "I just need five minutes to shoot blog photos! Five more minutes! Five more!" for fifteen or twenty minutes, I figure I better put these to use :)
(Semi-unrelated: I've just noticed that I didn't get a very good close-up of my favorite "party" look, aka gold eyeliner over winged black eyeliner. I'll have to see if I can find a good shot that I can crop. Stay tuned for an update, if you're into that kind of thing.)
Did you do anything fun for New Year's? Do you prefer to get all fancy, or do you like to keep things pretty low-key?
