Galentine's outing outfit

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

Differences

shirt: thrifted
skirt, belt: H&M
flats: Target
necklace: VeryJane
Okay, so let's pretend that this outfit isn't basically the exact same thing as this outfit. I mean, the difference in shoes, accessories and hair make it a new outfit, right? Well, I'm going to say yes because I am dying of allergies or a cold (seriously, how do you tell the difference?) and this is the next batch of photos in my queue.

I really don't have much else to say this morning, y'all. Sorry bout that. But when you spend the night half-propped on pillows, mouth-breathing until your throat is raw...let's just say it's not really conducive to an articulate morning.

Happy Labor Day!

chambray-type shirt: Banana Republic
ruffled shirt: thrifted
cropped pants: New York & Company
heels: Target
necklace: Etsy

If the purpose of Labor Day is to not do labor, then I haven't been celebrating in full force. After I met my friends for brunch at Katalina's (Columbusites, you have to try their Nutella-filled pancake balls. You have to), I headed home and hung seven shades and four windows' worth of curtains. I would have hung six windows' worth, but I'm an idiot who can't math and therefore didn't get a long enough curtain rod. Womp womp. Oh well, a new one is en route, and I can still use the too-short one. Minor success?

Now I'm sitting at Panera getting a quick late lunch/dinner number one after running a few errands...then it's off to the grocery store, then Goodwill to drop off some things, then home to do some cleaning. Oh vey. Can I get a vacation from my day off?

If you had today off work...how did you spend it? Hopefully doing more fun stuff than I did, haha!

Oh yeah, there's a birthday in here somewhere...

Hint: It's mine! And it's today! Things are still super crazy right now, what with filing insurance crap and tracking down receipts and making up for lost freelance work, but I made it a point to take this weekend off and just enjoy turning 25. Saturday we went climbing with a couple friends at the Audubon downtown for like four hours, and then we went to Dirty Frank's for a very late lunch. That night, we went out with some friends on to a new brewery in town called Seventh Son. There, I probably enjoyed myself a bit too much, because Sunday was a tad bit miserable ;)

Today, though. Today was pretty sweet. I slept in, then grabbed lunch at Panera and headed off to my spa day, courtesy Matt! I'd been trying to give myself a birthday spa day for a few years now, but something always came up to screw up my budget in April or May. This year, I had the appointments made and everything, and two days later my stuff got stolen. As I was lamenting the loss of my stuff and the cost to replace everything, I realized I would have to cancel my spa day yet again...but then Matt stepped in and made that my present! He's so awesome. I should mention too he spent all of yesterday taking care of my hungover self! I'm needy when I don't feel well. Like, really needy. Did I mention how awesome he is?

Anyway, here's what I wore out Saturday night. Casual but cute was my goal, and I think I achieved it pretty well!






shirt, shorts: thrifted
necklace: gifted
shoes: Target
belt: H&M
Now I'm off to meet my grandma for dinner. She's the sweetest :)

Overly excited

tank, cropped pants: The Limited
chambray-style shirt thing: Banana Republic
heels: Target
necklace: gifted
You guys, can we just take a minute to appreciate how great these photos turned out? I practically didn't have to edit them at all; the lighting was pretty much PERFECT. I can't get over it. I feel like I'm more excited about this than I should be, haha. #stylebloggerproblems, maybe? Am I the only one who geeks out when photos turn out unexpectedly well?

Ok, so I have to admit...I Photoshopped the kiddie pools out of the edge of the frame. Don't judge us for having kiddie pools in the backyard, kay? The house doesn't have A/C.

Tomorrow, I'll be at the aforementioned Fall Out Boy concert (omgomgcantwaitcauseimadork), but I'm pre-scheduling a Food Fridays post because I haven't done a food post in a while. And teaser: it's one of my favorite dishes, so you'll DEF wanna come back and check it out :)

At last!

chambray, jacket: thrifted
skinnies, flats: Target
belt, necklace, bracelet: H&M
You guys, I think spring has finally arrived. Today I got to experience a balmy 71 degrees and it. was. glorious. But here's the weird thing about Ohio. The lows on Friday night reached down to 29. Wednesday is looking like it'll see a high of 81...and then Friday, we're back to high 48/low 37. Seriously, Ohio? It's spring. Stop trying to pretend otherwise.

You wanna know how I know what Friday's low temp was? Well, I looked it up, but I also lived it, man. One of our friends' parents has some land outside of town, so Matt and I and about 20 of our friends camped out Friday night. There was a little pond, a campfire and lots of grilling/toasting. (And booze. There was quite a bit of booze as well.) But it was freeeeezing. I'm talking leggings under jeans under sweatpants. Two shirts, hoodie and a down jacket. Gloves and a hat. In other words, way too freakin' cold for April.

Sleeping actually wasn't too bad...for Matt and me. We had a nice, snug little tent, five layers of blankets, and super warm sleeping bags that were actually rated for that kind of weather, thankfully. Others weren't so fortunate...two people in a big four-person tent shivered all night because they only brought one comforter. For once, I was pretty glad to be one of those "just in case" types, haha.

Now that the weather is picking up a bit, our calendars are really filling up. We're planning a few fun trips in the coming weeks/months.(I don't really want to talk about them specifically until after the fact--not trying to broadcast to the world, Hey we're gonna be out of town on X days! Come rob us!) But I can't wait to blog them afterward!

Vacation (part 2)

(Like the Grumpy Cat, only unfortunately not as awesome)

shirt, belt: H&M
chambray-style-thingy: Banana Republic
skinnies, flats: Target
necklace: The Limited
Remembering to take outfit photos on vacation is hard. And awkward. You think you can be sneaky about it, throwing the camera at your boyfriend while you're sister and brother-in-law take the dog out for a bathroom break. You frantically pose, hoping the door won't open mid-snap. And then it does, and you're embarrassed for no good reason because everyone you know knows about your blog because you talk about it embarrassingly often. So yeah, that's pretty much what happened here.

If you're thinking to yourself, self, that outfit looks a lot like the one in yesterday's post, well, you're right. And I didn't realize the similarities while packing, so there you go. I wore this to brunch, but apparently in the south, brunch is something you're supposed to wear a dress to, so I was kind of underdressed. But like I said yesterday, that food was so damn good...it was easy to pretend that I was just as fancy as everyone else.

These were the only two outfits I was able to/remembered to get photos of, but the others were kind of repeats. If you're interested, I did a variation of this outfit, only with these skinny jeans and moto-style boots, for the trip down and the first night out. The trip back featured this outfit, again with the same skinny jeans and boots. I can't believe I've never really worn those boots on the blog before (well, I did for Halloween but they were rolled up and not really cute at all). So here's a pic.

Uhh, Walmart. Can you believe it? Because I couldn't.

So fellow bloggers, tell me. Do you take outfit pics on vacation? Or is your vacay a break from blogging, too?

Zombies and menus and birthdays, oh my!

cardi: The Limited
chambray-ish top, slacks: New York & Company
flats: Target
necklace: InPink
Zombies and birthdays...that's about all my brain has room for right now. Every other nerve, every other synapse is fried from powering my way through the end of this workweek. The menu bit is actually pretty good for the ol' blog...I revised our old rotating-menu system to include some new, delicious-sounding dishes, which means I'll be doing food posts again :) The birthdays part is for my friend Kellen, who's having her birthday dinner tonight at one of those Japanese steakhouses where they cook the food on a giant grill/table thing in front of you. It's corny, but I love that shiz.

Oh, and the zombies? Matt's killing tons of 'em on Xbox right now. I love watching him play this game, but I hate playing it myself...I get too scared, haha!

Uninspired

Blech. I hate those mornings where I wake up and just feel like I have nothing to wear...even though my closet is practically bursting at the seams, thanks to a few recent thrift outings. Maybe it's because the weather is so gloomy and gray, and it's getting me down because we had such beautiful weather earlier in the week. Who knows.

Anyway. I feel like this outfit is kind of channeling the 50s (again), but only just a bit. Something about this skirt just tends to feel retro to me, I suppose.






chambray shirt: thrifted
skirt, pearls: H&M
shoes: Buckle
Also, this is technically my first true chambray shirt! I have a few others (in white and green) that are definitely too casual to be called Oxfords, but aren't true chambray because of their general style and material. So I'm kind of excited to start styling this shirt differently. (Now all I really need is a gingham button-up and I'll be a real style-blogger conformist, haha.)

Everybody, Everywear: Green

It's Everybody, Everywear time again! Which means my photos were taken and edited in a hurry this morning before work, and I probably definitely have goofy faces in some of them. Hooray! (Except for that last one. The last one is golden.)






green chambray: Banana Republic
t-shirt: Old Navy
skirt, belt, heels: thrifted
necklace: New York & Company
bracelet: street vendor in NYC
You may notice that I'm outside. For the first time in months, I was able to take my photos outside. And you know something? I'm not wearing a coat to work today. Not even my lightweight spring trench. Because it is B-E-A-YOOOTIFUL outside and it's gonna hit 70 degrees this afternoon and I COULD NOT BE MORE EXCITED!!!

Sorry.

That's what spring does to me.

Want to hear a funny story? Well, as some of you may know, I have ridiculously vivid and random dreams on a fairly regular basis. Last night, I dreamt that I was talking to Spazzy (my cat, to you EBEW newcomers). That's actually a fairly common occurrence in real life. But in the dream, she talked back. In Jane Lynch's voice. Jane-Lynch-Spazcat and I had a full conversation. And the weirdest part was, I thought to myself, Wow, this is the coolest thing ever. I'm definitely awake right now. Wait till I tell everyone!

Yeah. Weird.

Monochrome

I try to avoid the monochrome look. I tended to gravitate toward neutrals before I started blogging and part of the reason why I blog is because I want to push my boundaries, come up with new remixed outfits and stay away from old, bad habits. But for some reason, I woke up the other morning and decided this was a good outfit, despite its lack of color.






gray shirt: old, don't remember
button-down: New York & Company
slacks, shoes: thrifted
necklaces: gifts from my dad (pearls) and Matt (diamond)
And you know something? I kind of love this look. I like how balanced it is: wide-leg, loose bottoms with more form-fitting tops. Masculine elements with heels. And I am so in love with layering collared shirts under other shirts this season! With this combo, the wider neck of the gray shirt gives a little more interest than a typical scoop or v-neck.

I can pretty much guarantee this outfit will be repeated some day when I don't have time to think about what to wear. Definitely one of my favorites over the past few weeks.

As for yesterday's promise to live with more purpose? Well, baby steps have been taken. I woke up before my alarm went off (thanks, Spazzy) but I stubbornly stayed in bed until the time I had set the alarm for. Hey...it's a start.

Weekend happenings

Tuesday isn't too late for a weekend recap, is it? I say nay. Even though I had quite the busy weekend, I still didn't get quite as much done as I had hoped. (Isn't that always the case?) But I did manage to run up to David's Bridal to buy a bridesmaid dress, stop by JoAnn Fabric and a Halloween store for costume supplies (hint: Matt and I are cross-dressing to go as a cartoon couple), get started on sewing said costumes (by hand! ugh) and work two full shifts at the restaurant/bar. In fact, I think I'll have to do an awkward/awesome post on Thursday just to detail some of the weekend. But anyway.

Matt and I also carved pumpkins! By far one of my favorite things about Halloween is carving pumpkins (and baking the delicious seeds...YUM). Can you guess which one I did?


Yeah, not too hard to guess on that one, haha. Matt went a bit metal with his. I love the effect he created by carving some thin lines, instead of actual cutouts. And the 3D horns are pretty cool too! I still think mine is fun, though.


I also got the curtain tutorial started. Just have to find a spare minute to edit those photos...sigh. Anyway, I've some outfit photos too! Because you know, I couldn't go two full days posting non-style things :)






chambray shirt: Banana Republic
tank: Old Navy
black jeggings: The Limited
belt: thrifted
shoes: Payless
trench: Esprit via Burlington Coat Factory
Clearly, I still refuse to listen to the "keep the light behind the camera" rule. When will I learn? Also, can we call these pants cigarette pants? Because I really want to. Just sounds cooler, amiright?

Mannish

I love the women-wearing-men's-clothes trend. When I saw Elaine's recent post on wearing your guy's clothes, and the recent VMA/Emmy attire of Lady Gaga and Jane Lynch, I knew I had to give it a try!

Unfortunately, I am woefully shy about going out on a fashion limb, at least when it comes to what I wear to work. Wearing Matt's shirt seemed just a bit too casual, particularly because it was so big on me, so I went with all-me pieces that gave a little more masculine/feminine mix. So really, I suppose this outfit isn't "mannish" at all...I just like the way the word sounds as a post title.






button up: New York & Company
tank: Walmart or Target?
belt: thrifted
skinnies: The Limited
shoes: Payless

See that headband? It was actually once a ribbon that came with a pair of flats. It looped through the back of the shoe and tied around my ankle. The shoes fell apart (of course) but the ribbons were still nice, so I washed them and kept them around. Glad I did, they're the perfect length for a double-wrapped headband :)

Do you watch Glee? Did you see the season premiere last night? I won't go into a Gleek rehash, but I have to say I was a little let down. I watched it with the girls who live upstairs, and one of them put it really well: It seemed like a mid-season episode, not the blowout season starters we've come to expect. We watched New Girl with Zooey Deschanel (love her!) after that. It was good. I can't wait to see the show/characters evolve.

Now that the fall season is underway, what shows (haha, I just accidentally typed "shoes"--ever the style blogger) are on your must-watch list?

(Not so) sweet dreams

I must be stressed, because I have been having some crappy dreams lately. Yesterday morning I dreamt Matt and I were getting married, but the morning before the wedding I realized I hadn't booked any vendors. No flowers, no food, no cake...I didn't even have a dress. When I was talking to dream-Matt about it, he was trying to tell me we could still have a wedding, when suddenly he just walked off to go talk to some giant marshmallow dude. This morning, I had a dream about robbers breaking in and threatening me with a chainsaw, then the cops showed up and I punched one in the face. And then I dreamt that my best friend sabotaged me at work...it involved getting key lime pie dumped on my head.

I am not making this stuff up. I just don't have normal dreams. Ever.








black shirt: Old Navy
button-down: New York & Company
skirt and necklace: The Limited
shoes and belt: Target
bracelet: don't remember
ring: American Eagle, years ago
In other news, this is my last outfit post from my old apartment! As my sister would say: Happy or sad? (i.e. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?) To be honest, I'm not sure. I didn't really like that place most of the time, and I definitely like the house we're in waaaaaay better, but I'm still a little nostalgic. I guess it's just because it was Matt's and my first-ever place together.

I found a cute project on Pinterest that I might use to commemorate our first apartment, but I'm going to be a stinker and not tell you about it until after it's done. (Though, I guess you could just go troll all 400+ of my pins and find it. Just don't ruin the surprise if you do, haha.)

Oh, well.

That's what I said yesterday when I decided not to wear any of my 30 items to the Fourth of July party Matt and I went to. I mean, there was a food cart, and a bounce house, and a slip and slide...none of that really matches up with any of the 30 items I picked out, haha. So, it's a holiday. I took a little break.

But now I'm behind about two outfits in the challenge. Maybe I'll catch up...or maybe I'll just end it a few days late ;)

items: 10, 14, 22, 29
necklace: don't remember
earrings: The Limited

Please ignore that silly face in the last photo. That's my "I'm trying to smile but secretly I'm terrified I'm going to fall" face. Oh, the things we do for blogging.

I really love wearing this shirt tied around my midsection. I've done it a few times in the challenge so far, but I think I should probably try to mix it up a little if I wear it again before the challenge is over. Or not. Hey, it's my challenge :)