halloween

Late yesterday we were told that yes, we could dress up for work today. Hey, anything to put a little spice in the day & make it go by faster, right? I saw this costume on Mary-Kate and so wanted to recreate it:

(please disregard a very excited cheerleader Marc!)



Every store was completely picked over for Halloween goodies, but I found the makeup I needed and figured I could just wear a cute dress. Well, the more I thought about it the more I chickened out. I didn't want to be over-the-top-bloody for a daytime workplace, a la Meredith Palmer (bottom righthand corner- she grossed everyone out with her bloody head!):


So instead of being fabulous, I went as a witch with black cardi & jersey skirt, black lipstick, witch hat, and $3.99 neon-green-and-black-striped tights from CVS. I was relieved to choose this milder costume, however, since only 3 of us dressed up! And one of the "costumes" of a co-worker consisted of jeans, a t-shirt, and butterfly wings. Lame! It's all well and good because my CVS tights only lasted about 4 hours until they sagged around my ankles and the crotch hung to my knees. I changed into pants for the rest of the day, so my costume ended up being lame as well. If I ever actually do anything for Halloween one of these years, maybe I'll try MK's glam vampire!

she doesn't belong

A lot of pictures on Go Fug Yourself shock me. But this one shocks me for a different reason:




Why? Because she absolutely doesn't belong anywhere near the word "fug". She is so gorgeous and always looks polished & unique. Well, maybe her natural beauty can pull off any look, or maybe I'm biased because she is one of those people who can do no wrong in my book, ever (others on my shortlist include: Lily Allen, and Gwen Stefani). Anyway, I love it!

shopping + 12 x 12

Today was my first real day off working retail in over 2 weeks, so what do I do?

Go to the mall.

By the end of the excursion I was kicking myself for the idea, but I did find some good, uh, finds. I am really trying to stay away from Forever 21, but I stopped in to see if they have any of the stretcy $4.80 plain t-shirts that I love (they did!) I noticed that they converted a huge part of the store into Twelve by Twelve, their new "line". It is trying to be more design-forward and the prices are much higher than traditional F21 stuff. From far away,it looks very similar to Zara. But up close, you definitely know you're at F21. The fabrics aren't improved; the endless jersey dresses are just as chintzy and clingy as the other dresses that I always pass up. I think they just added some extra embellishment to their regular clothes then doubled the prices. Some of the outerwear was ok, but nothing you can't find at every other clothing store right now. The one item that stood out to me was this trench:

I saw a cute girl trying it on and it fit nicely, but for $80, I'd rather buy something, um, not from F21.

Then came literally hours of birthday-gift searching for mom (finally ended up withthis and this from Banana Republic). Then, of course I had to stop in to Anthropologie to see some of the sweaters in my previous post. First off, that beautiful dress I wanted is no longer drool-worthy.

The top half is cute; the bottom cheap-looking (lace over flimsy polyester). And it isn't exactly flattering, ick (is my arm really that huge? yikes).

The sweaters, however, were super adorable.


If there was ANY way to justify spending $98 on a sweater when it is still 90 degrees outside, that first baby would be mine right now. The second had such cute detailing (close up here), but the neckline is just a little wrong: the square shape shows the corners of my bra, but an undershirt would ruin the look.

Lastly, their clearance section wasn't the usual disappointment. There were some cute vesty things that I would wear over a t-shirt to make it interesting.


At $20, I had to have one. Which one do you like better? I went with the neutral one. I will wear it to my painfully less fashionable place of employment tomorrow and probably get some raised eyebrows from the polo wearing crowd.

Must go watch Gossip Girl...even my man is SO addicted (but would never admit it)! To be fair, he is flipping to the world series during commercials :)

*EDIT* holy crap, Vanessa is SO not supposed to be a homegirl! or so creepy/annoying!

delicious knits

I have always loved beautiful, well-made sweaters (bonus points for applique/hand-sewn details). Growing up, I always chose my special "Christmas present from Grandma" as a sweater from the J.Crew catalog, since their soft pretty sweaters were out of our family's everyday price range. I still have them all and would wear them if it weren't for living in this year-round humidity inferno known as Florida. So, imagine the torture when I get Stitch, a new catalog from Anthropologie, in the mail. I don't really know why it has its own name or what its purpose is, but I ate it right up. On the website, they call Stitch a catalog "devoted to keeping you cozy". Well, being cozy is nice but not exactly my biggest priority right now (that would be staying as un-sweaty as possible). Anyway, here are some of the gorgeous knits that are totally unwearable right now, but incredibly tempting nonetheless (forgive the poorly, hastily scanned pictures):






*sigh* well, there was ONE item in the catalog that I might actually be able to wear, and it happens to have me drooling:



Maybe that is what I'll ask for for Christmas this year.

FOUND!

So a few months back I was completely obsessing over the shoes in this post. Today, in my search for comfortable yet cute shoes for my retail job, what did I find?

EXACT.REPLICAS.



I can't even tell a difference, except for of course the $350 difference in price. At about $90, they still aren't cheap enough for me to click "Add to cart" right this very second, but I am so excited that the option is there. I wish I could try them on first...Does anyone have Dolce Vita shoes? I am hoping they're comfy!

xoxo

It's time once again to talk about my most blatant obsession. I SO love Gossip Girl. I tell everyone I know to watch it, and even my man is involved! I have used my newly brunettiness as an excuse to become more like Blair (um, in the non-evil way. although she is deliciously evil, I could never plot & scheme like her).



I have long wished to dress like a fictional 17-year old, which is sad, but have you ever seen a fictional 17-year-old pull off a serious blazer like this? So perfect. She is my fashion inspiration for the polished yet unstuffy look. Just watch the show or browse the photo gallery. Watching her flawless wardrobe helps me stick to my plan (buying only high-quality, nice clothing) even while I am working in a trendy, heavily discounted retail environment.

Thank you, Gossip Girl, for restoring my desire for style!

a few reasons

going from a blond to a dark brunette was a big change for me. I was a blond Florida girl for the last 3 years, my man only knew me as a blond, and I felt that it totally went with my identity. But then it grew boring, and many girls such as:



...made me want to change my image. It was really hard to get used to at first, but I have grown to really love it over the past couple weeks. I think it compliments my skin and eyes, and I can even wear different colors! Bright yellow now looks ok on me! A change of hair can always boost your look and your style more than clothing ever could. I always feel infinitely better about myself after a good haircut. It becomes part of your style and can make or break your image.

Even more importantly, now I have absolutely nothing in common with Heidi Montag, not one thing.

losing it

...Inspiration, that is. The past few days have seen me not caring about my outfits, looking like crap, totally sick of clothes. Why? Probably because I have spent 24 of the last 48 hours helping to unpack approx. 80,000 boxes of clothes at my new job. We're opening a new store, and obviously it takes a lot of work to go from an empty warehouse-like building to a friendly, fully stocked, diverse retailer. It has been a long week, and the more clothes I've seen the more I hate them all. After folding and sorting clothes for hours on end, I had to come home and do laundry and it made me want to puke. I can't bear to look through my closet.
In the last few days, my daily aspiration has gone from this:


to this:



Ok, not that bad. But I did stoop to wearing *GASP* running shoes today with jean capris. I know, I know, it's gross. I just couldn't be bothered, and the concrete floor was totally killing my feet yesterday. Well, I only have a couple more 12-hour days left and hopefully my fashion sense will come back!

faux-mertime*

Wait, what? What's that you say? It's October? Sorry, the 90+ degree weather, blazing sun and 100% humidity are throwing me off. So how do Florida girls satisfy the craving for new, yummy fall clothes without sweating to death? You just have to mix it in where you can. And ladies, please, try to accept the loss of your tan. It has taken me about 3 years to become comfortable in any skin other than warm olive-colored skin, but it is so much healthier to your skin (& wallet) to stay away from habitual tanning bed-ing. In these here parts, it seems an absolute must for girls under 35 to have a year-round tan, I don't know, to prove that we live in Florida. But, let it go. Your future skin will thank you, and a little bronzer can fix everything.

Anyway, to me nothing screams "fall" more than chunky knits, schoolgirl-inspired choices, and a color palate of grays/reds/blacks. I tend to wear a lot of black, smoke up my eyeshadow choices (this in choco-latte plus this in black coffee are my everyday favorites), and pray for that day sometime in December when I'll finally feel a crispness in the air. But, even though we might not be able to stand wearing knee-high boots yet, there are tons of shoes that give you that cool October feeling.

MICHAEL Michael Kors, $129 at Nordstrom



Steven, $129 at Nordstrom



Calvin Klein, $110 at Nordstrom

Although these dresses would look fabulous with opaque tights and the above mary-janes, they also work with bare legs for now:

$78 at Nordstrom

$56 at Nordstrom



$58 at Nordstrom

Yes, I have been pretty much living on the Nordstrom website for the last couple days. I am trying to justify buying $95 worth of beauty/fragrance to get their new gift-with-purchase. It's probably not going to happen; that's more than I spend on beauty in a few months put together. But shoes, shoes I can always justify!

* say it fast. it almost rhymes with summertime, right?

vintage antm

Well it looks like my life is finally coming together (knock on wood!). I finally got a full-time job with benefits! yay! This is good, since I haven't been to the dentist in...uhh...let's not think about it. I am also studying for the LSAT and think law school might be the right future for me. And, I went from blond to dark brunette. So anyway! Change is good and things are looking up.

It's my first Saturday night off in, well, about 6 months, so how do I spend it? Watching reruns of America's Next Top Model, cycle 6 (the one where Danielle wins). It is by far one of the best "cycles," I loved all the models EXCEPT Jade. Ick. I think she is NOT cute at all and I hate how she condescends absolutely everyone around her. I am finally watching the episode where she goes home, and it is so great. When it first aired, I remember screaming for joy when she finally lost. "the one regret I have is that I think the judges made the wrong choice". And then her leaving poem "leftover lady"! UGH. Just go away. I was going to put a picture of Jade on here just to refresh everyone's memory, but I cannot put that girl on my page.

So, my new job. It is in retail! haha. Big surprise. Once you're in retail for so long, it's like a trap. Luckily I'm working for one of the bigger/better companies out there, so the pay & benefits are good. I just have to tell myself to NOT go crazy with the employee discount and stick to my plan of saving up for high quality basics. Such as:

Frye Liv T-Straps $178 at shopbop

Generra short- sleeve dress
$375 at shopbop