An outfit and new social media handle alert!

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!

Craziness and sorryness

sweater: New York & Company
Oxford and slacks: thrifted
shoes: Target
necklace and bracelet: Etsy
I apologize for the lack of quality posts this week. My friend Hayley is getting married this weekend, and I've spent most of the week fulfilling various bridesmaidly duties and just generally preparing myself for a weekend in Pittsburg. And just kind of catching up on life in general, since this weekend was kind of a major bust in terms of productivity (but not in terms of fun...there was lots of that).

And I guess while I'm at it, apologies might be owed for these photos as well...they were my first indoor shots of the season, from a few weeks ago when we got that wild flurry of snow. Ugh. It's warmed up since, so I have a few more outdoor shots to share, but I know those days are numbered. Guess I'll have to improve my indoor shooting skills as well. They were never all that good to begin with, but I'm hoping that now, thanks to the help of my DSLR and the wonders that are RAW Photoshop editing, I might be able to improve upon them. What I really need is a quality light and some reflectors, but let's be honest. Ain't nobody got time for that.

What are you all getting into this weekend? Fellow U.S.-dwellers, any fun plans for the long Veterans Day weekend?

Keep it going

t-shirt: Old Navy
button-down: New York & Company
slacks: thrifted
flats: Target
necklace: Stella & Dot giveaway win
bracelet: H&M
Let's talk about this outfit for a sec. I don't know why, but I kind of love it. It's so simple and classic, but with fun accents that keep it from being boring. I won the necklace in a giveaway hosted by Jess over at Here & Now. I never win giveaways, so it was pretty exciting! I love how she styled it with a bold shirt, but for my first time I wanted to keep it fairly simple and let the necklace speak for itself.

When I was putting this outfit together, my mind flashed to Fran's post about how to wear a button-down under another shirt without all the bunching and weirdness. At the time, my sleepy brain thought, "Nah, you're good girl. No need to take off that tee, find a cami, put it on, then put the tee back on. Let's goooo!" But looking at these photos, I'm thinking I should have done it. Note to self: Morning brain is kinda cray.

Like this morning, when I woke up and for some inexplicable reason, was overcome by energy and the intense desire to clean everything in my house. Well, I guess only the energy was inexplicable. The cleaning bug probably was because the house is a *tad* overdue. So I tidied my closet and wiped down the kitchen counters and stove instead of writing a post this morning. Cause I can write a post on my lunch break, but I sure can't clean my kitchen, amiright?

I'm just hoping I can keep that energy/desire to clean this evening. It's my off night at the gym and I don't have any immediate deadlines to work toward, so instead of vegging out on the couch for an Adventure Time marathon, I want to try to catch up on house stuff. Including a couple projects for Phase 2 of house decorating :) It might be a coffee-in-the-afternoon type of day...I also find that music is a great motivator for me. So I'm trying to think up a good "getting shiz done" playlist for this evening. Any suggestions?

Upcoming changes and awesomeness

Okay. So for those of you who have been long-time readers (or as long-time as you can get for a blog that's two and a half years old) will recognize this as the post where I apologize profusely yet somehow lackadaisically for the upcoming infrequency of posts. Yup, that pesky thing called "life" is happening again (go figure) and I'll be a bit quiet for the remainder of the month. But instead of the old "freelance work is burying me alive!" excuse, I actually have a fun reason.

Matt and I are moving!

We'll still be in Columbus--in fact, our new house is only about half a mile from our current one--but the new place is a major upgrade. It's a side-by-side duplex, so we have an upstairs for the first time! (Our current place is a one-over-the-other duplex, so our neighbors live above us.) Also, it has air conditioning, about 50% more space, a claw-foot bathtub, and an enormous six-by-nine-and-a-half-foot room that will be my very own closet. Needless to say, we're chomping at the bit.

Fortunately, we find ourselves with a bit of an overlap. Or a lot of an overlap. More than three weeks' worth. We got the keys last week and started painting over some ugly trim, narrowing down paint choices for the rest of the house, and just generally figuring out how much furniture and whatnot we'll need to fill the space. This weekend we'll paint pretty much every room in the place, thanks to some help from friends, and next weekend we officially move in. Then it's just a matter of cleaning up the old place, filling a multitude of nail holes, and all the other little things that will help us get our deposit back.

So what does this mean for Verbal Mélange, you might be wondering? Or not, I mean, I'm sure no one is as deeply interested/invested in this little corner of the internet as I am. But in case you're curious, I'll tell you. It means the aforementioned shortage of posts for now, but also a HUGE FLOOD of house-related posts in the near future. I'll still post outfit photos, of course, along with the occasional recipe. But the DIY- and decor-related stuff around here is gonna be featured in a big way. What can I say? I love to nest. And this house is actually worth nesting in, unlike our current one that features not-up-to-code flooring, teeny tiny spaces and generally sub-par potential.

So for now, I leave you with these unfortunately blurry photos. Sorry, guys...I didn't realize it until I deleted the others from this shoot. Womp womp.






dress: secondhand
button-down: New York & Company
shoes: Buckle
necklace: The Limited

One Piece Many Ways linkup!

Howdy y'all. Today I'm linking up to Audrey's One Piece Many Ways link-up over on Putting Me Together. If you've followed this blog for any amount of time, you've probably noticed that some pieces tend to appear and reappear around here. That's because remixing = awesome and it's the best way to pretend that your wardrobe is bigger than it really is, I think :)

For today's link-up, I'm featuring a plain white button-down-style shirt. To be fair, I'm kind of cheating here and using four different styles of button-down: a sleeveless, a short-sleeve, a short-sleeve with polka dots and a long-sleeve. Honestly, if you have those four pieces in your closet (or three, if you wanna nix the polka dots), you can create about a billion different outfits. Give or take. Here are my favorite ways to wear these:

As a plain ol' shirt


(original post: top, bottom)

Layered


(original post: top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right)

Layered...with a dress (yes, it's very different)


(original post: left, middle, right)
So yeah. One (type of) piece, nine ways to style it. I'm telling you, if you don't have a white button-down shirt in these three sleeve lengths, run (don't walk) out and get them now! I'm actually working on my color collection, too...I have a short-sleeve in a few colors, a sleeveless in black and a long-sleeve in a couple colors. Need...more...button-downs...

Falling back into place

If you follow me on Instagram, then maybe you saw this photo I posted last night:



That's right! My insurance claim was finally processed, so I went out and snapped up my new Macbook. (Using the credit card that earns me Amazon points, which I will promptly pay off when my check is deposited on Friday. Free money, woop woop! Also, new computer, woop woop times infinity!)

I also decided to try to re-install my Adobe Creative Suite. I knew if I was able to install it, that would mean the pawn shop had uninstalled all my software on my old computer in addition to wiping my other info from it. And sure enough, Adobe installed! So good news all around.

It seems fitting, then, that I'm down to the last photos from my point-and-shoot camera. And they happen to be from the morning that all this ish went down. I've been kind of avoiding these pics, to be honest, and for a while I thought I wouldn't post them at all. But not posting them won't change anything, and I'm sick of letting fear and regret dictate my choices and actions. So here they are.






button-down: New York & Company
dress: eShakti
nude shoes: Franco Sarto via Marshall's
silver shoes: DSW
necklace: gifted
The top photo is what I had planned to wear to work that day. I stuck the heels in my bag because walking long distances in them is pretty awful, so I was wearing flip flops. (Yes, I tried to chase down a thief wearing flips flops and a dress.) Needless to say, those nude shoes are gone. I would up wearing the silver ones when I went to work for a few hours that day in a vain attempt to distract myself.

I suppose the silver lining to losing those Franco Sartos is that I didn't wear them much because the heel height was a bit too much for me...and my insurance pays out replacement value for items, so they gave me $95 for these shoes instead of the $25 or so I paid. So, that's cool, I guess.

Those bottom two side-by-side photos, by the way, are what I wore to my sister's high school graduation party. It's so crazy to think that she's going to college in just about a month--but she's going to my alma mater, so I'll have plenty of excuses to visit her ;)

Balancing act

oxford: thrifted
slacks: New York & Company
heels: Target
hair flower: H&M
necklace: gifted
ring: American Eagle

I often try to achieve a sense of balance in my outfits. Sometimes it's about balancing out a heavy, full skirt with a slim top. Other times, it's about brightening a neutral palate with a few pops of color. With this outfit, it was all about adding feminine touches to an otherwise masculine ensemble of a white Oxford and slacks. I thought the heels, ring and hair accessory did a pretty good job.

By the way, I have a sale alert for you guys from one of my sponsors! From now until the end of July, eShakti is offering Verbal Mélange readers 10% off their orders with the promo code VE24ART. The best part? You can even get 10% off the 40% off sale items.

In other news, I have no idea why I'm not smiling in these photos. And I accidentally edited the top photo too purple. Oh, well. Guess they can't all be winners, haha!

First world problems

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The Perfect (Anti-Blogging) Storm

It seems like lately the universe is conspiring to make blogging particularly difficult for me to accomplish. For one, it's been quite rainy these past few days/weeks, meaning indoor photos or no photos at all. For the record: I hate taking indoor photos. The lighting is just never good enough.

Take, for example, this outfit. I wasn't going to blog it, but I liked the look so much that I decided to just bite the bullet and shoot inside (no word yet on how winter will affect me...either I'll have frostbite or I'll just get used to crappy inside shots).

Then there's the general craziness that is my life. Our company was just bought out by another media outlet in town (if you follow me on Twitter you probably already know this), which means big changes for my coworkers and me in the coming weeks/months. I'm considering taking another freelance job so I can quit waitressing. It's not as lucrative as the hiring manager swore it would be ($30 on a Friday night? No thank you) and it's really adding more stress to my life than it's worth.

On top of all this? I'm coming down with something. I've had a sore throat since Monday and I have been ex. haust. ed. Honestly, just dragging my butt out of bed in the morning is a miracle, let alone getting dressed. Suffice to say that few of my outfits have been blog-worthy lately. Slacks and a T? That's my not-feeling-so-awesome attire.






shirt: don't remember
button-down: New York & Company
slacks: thrifted?
pumps: definitely thrifted
watch: Walmart
I did manage to pull out this gem of an outfit, however. I really like it, even though the purple shirt is a bit too tight to layer over a bulky button-down. Still, it looks nice, and that's the important part, right?

I promise, I'll start dressing better again, despite it all, and I'll try to start cooking some more so there are delicious recipes for me to share. And tonight, I'm going to try to hit up Joann Fabrics with my grandma, so there may be a how-to-make-your-own-curtains tutorial coming up at some point. Oh, and stay tuned for a product/shop review. I have a gorg dress hanging in my closet that I can't wait to share!