Friday randoms

Glasses: Rough Justice | Scarf: Express (option) | Earrings: JCrew (option) | Top: LOFT (option) | Bracelet: Tasha | Skirt: NY&Co (gifted) (option) (option) | Boot socks: Hue (option) | Boots: Frye (in grey)

1. Sorry for the unexpected leave of absence this week. I was traveling for work Monday and Tuesday and the husband (aka my photographer) has been gone since Sunday. 

2. I attempted to take the tripod with me to take selfless at this sculpture park by the office, and the results were not pretty. So, unfortunately, this is all you're getting from me for this work week. However, you can always check my Tumblr for my outfits of the day. Even if they just end up being iPhone photos, I always try and document what I wear. I somehow get a bit anxious if I don't or can't.

3. Why don't I just use Instagram for my OOTD photos, you ask? Well, I have coworkers and other randoms following me on Instagram that don't exactly know I'm a fashion blogger. Sometimes I'll post OOTD photos there, but they're *always* on my Tumblr.

4. Someone asked me about my glasses. I've had two other pairs of plastic framed glasses in my life, and while I love the look, I never felt like I could see out of them because I don't have a proper nose bridge to hold them up. I was on the hunt for a pair of plastic frames that actually had nose pieces as well. This was literally the only pair in my eye doc's office that fit this criteria. I had never heard of the brand before, but luckily they looked and fit exactly the way I wanted them to. I've worn them all week, which never happens.

5. So, this poinsettia was given to me by a co-worker LAST Christmas. I am so awful with plants. They always end up dying on me, but this poinsettia has lasted 10 months - it's got to be some kind of record. I've had it at my desk at work and basically give it my leftover water every other day or so. Well, I was super bummed when the office manager sent us an email saying there was a gnat problem and the exterminator said it was due to some kind of fungus from over-watered household plants. They told us we all had to take our plants home, and any left after last Friday would be thrown away. I brought him home and set him in my kitchen window, but after just one day of being here, he was already saggy and sad looking. I couldn't let my little guy die! This room gets the most light in the house. I brought this little side table in here just so I could give him a place to sunbathe all day. He *has* to make it to a second Christmas! And don't worry - no pets are allowed in this room. The office door stays shut at all times.

6. The light situation in the office is also the reason why any photos I take indoors end up being in this room.

7. And last, but not least, the World Series is over and the Cardinals are not the champions. I was (and am) pretty heartbroken, but I can't complain because they took me through an amazing season and I just love those guys so much. Boston played a better series, and honestly, after everything the City has gone through, I'm happy to see their year end on a positive note. I'll leave you with one last Cardinals plug on this fine Halloween… our costumes! Team Fredbird!

Right: Actual pic of the husband | Left: Source

I was so excited the husband agreed to dress up! We got invited to a Halloween party, which was our first invite ever. It was tough coming up with a couple's outfit, but I had an ah-ha moment and came up with this. The challenge was finding a redbird costume... except that it wasn't a challenge at all! We walked into the store and the head was right there looking straight at me. I squealed with delight and we made arrangements (after he tried it on) to pay the rental fee and get it reserved. Of course, right after we reserved it, we secured the tickets to Game 3, which landed the same day as the party. We intended to hit up the party after the game, but by the time the game was over, it just got too late. We figured since the rental fee was non-refundable - might as well get some photos!

Sorry to cram so much verbiage into one post. Next week should be relatively back to normal. I'm sad that October is over and I barely had enough posts for half the month! Hopefully November will be more blog productive.

Happy Halloween!

Linking up with:

Bethany and Meghan for Three-fer Thursday

Tara for What I Wore to Work

Erin for Working Girl with Style

Elle and Jacqueline for Spotlight Weekly

Agi for Tres Chic Fashion Thursday
Amy and Amber for Friday Five
Christina at Simple Easy Style
Lauren at Style Elixir
Sherry for Fashion Informant

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Another late night

Necklace: Banana Republic (option) | Chambray: JCrew Factory | Belt: Target (option) | Bracelets: 1, 2 (similar), 3 | Skinnies: Express (option) | Boots: Corso Como (option)

I'm pretty sure every Cardinals fan watched the game last night with only one eye open. We didn't know if it was going to be another shameful performance like the night before; if we were going to take another beating. Luckily we pulled through and the Redbirds are coming home with the series tied at 1-1. Unfortunately, I had work to do last night - cramming for meetings I had all day today. I couldn't take my eyes off the game and ended up not even starting my work until AFTER the game ended, staying up until 2:30am. 6am came very quickly and I found myself, once again, jammed for time this morning. (Story of my life really.) I originally tried this chambray over a striped maxi dress, but the shirt was too long - it looked odd proportionally with the maxi. So I grabbed one of my foolproof pairs of colored skinnies and without hesitating, added some leopard and cognac touches to finish me off.

We have tickets to game 3, and you can only imagine how excited I am! In the meantime, I need to catch up on a lot of sleep!!

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Feeling lazy

Jacket: Express | Scarf: Express | Dress: Express (option) (similar in another color here) | Earrings: Express | Tights: Target (similar) | Boots: Frye (in Bordeaux)

Welp, the  Cardinals got butchered in game 1 last night. It was painful. And it was all our fault. Three big errors cost us 5 runs in the first couple of innings, and it was all downhill from there. Needless to say, I drank and emotionally ate. A lot. I wasn't hungover or anything like that this morning, just tired and not feeling inspired. I stayed up kind of late watching the last few innings of Game 6 from the 2011 World Series. Kind of like how a lamenting divorced woman would watch her old wedding video heartbroken that her world was over. Yes, baseball is that serious.

You can always tell when I'm feeling lazy because I throw on one of my striped Express dresses and call it a day. It's pretty nifty in the colder months because I can layer stuff on to make it look like I legit planned the outfit. But don't let me fool you. I got ready in a half hour this morning. Skills!

Linking up with Amy and Amber, Christina, Lauren, and Sherry.

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It's the World Series, people!!

Jacket: Sports Authority (Youth) | Jersey: Target | Earrings: Gifted | Lanyard, nail appliqué, wrist bands from Cardinal's stadium store | Jeans: Express (similar) | Shoes: Isabel Marant "Bobby"

As I've said before, I have been really happy to not have to travel this week and be able to post normal blog posts. But then for today's outfit, I was so torn! I wanted to show my team spirit for game 1, but I hated not being able to have an outfit post for today. The husband asked why I couldn't just blog my game day outfit, especially considering how big a fan I am. (More history here.) Hmm. Good point. This is *my* blog after all. A diary about me. And, well, I'm a pretty ridiculous Cardinals fan. Anyhoo, the game is starting in half an hour and the appetizers just showed up at the house, so I shall leave for now, but not without saying GO CARDS!!

Linking up with:

Bethany and Meghan for Three-fer Thursday

Tara for What I Wore to Work

Erin for Working Girl with Style

Elle and Jacqueline for Spotlight Weekly

Agi for Tres Chic Fashion Thursday

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Blavy

Sweater: J Crew Factory | Scarf: Marc Jacobs (Neiman Marcus/Target Collabo) (option) | Bracelet: Cara (option) | Ring: BCBG (option) | Skirt: DVF | Tights: Target (similar) | Booties: Tracy Reese (option) | Purse: Kate Spade (option)

One thing about blogging is that photographs capture things in your outfit that you could potentially go the whole day without noticing. Today's "accident" was that when I picked this outfit last night, my dim closet room lighting made this sweater look gray and black, however, when I was looking at the photos on my way to work (the husband driving of course), I realized (remembered) it's actually gray and NAVY. Whoops. I totally wore blavy today (black and navy.) Oh well. If anyone at work noticed, they successfully hid their disbelief and I strutted like I didn't know any better either!

On a side note, my bun was spectacular today. The bigger the better!

Linking up with Lindsey and Shanna.

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Vest Weather

Vest: Dena Products (Nordstrom) (option, option) | Top: J Crew | Bracelet: Forever 21 (option) | Purse: Kate Spade | Jeans: 7 for all Mankind (option) | Boots: Coach

It's funny because last season, I bought this vest on the eve of spring, so I didn't get to enjoy it. I ended up only wearing it once here before the weather warmed up. This year, I wanted to make sure to bring it out early. I honestly don't really understand the idea around vests, but I'll say that today was perfect "vest weather." It kept me quite warm - if not *too warm* - the lack of sleeves evened out my body temp. I had a feeling I'd be too hot to wear it indoors all day long, so I was sure to wear something that could function on its own without the vest. I adore this shirt. It's just a tee shirt, but better. I love the stripes, I love the fit, I love the necklace neckline. I decided to go with white jeans today because I rarely, if ever, do white jeans with boots, but yet I love it when I see other people do it. So why don't I do it? No idea. Perhaps this will get that ball rolling.

You really have no idea how excited I am to write this post, to take these photos this morning, to wear something that didn't come out of a suitcase. It's so fun! I wish blogging was my day job... except with my real life salary :) Otherwise, how'd I be able to shop?!

Linking up with Christina, Kayla, Tori, Lauren, Erin and Laura.

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New listings on Poshmark

Shop my closet here

This was my first weekend home in about 3 weeks, so needless to say it was a ridiculous one. Ridiculously productive, that is. I'm so awful at unpacking, I still had leftover clothes from my trip to Chicago at the end of July. I know, I know. Don't judge! But, I'm happy to say, the house is under control. All the laundry is done, including towels and sheets! All of my suitcases and random overnight bags are unpacked! I even reorganized the closet room a bit so that some of my regularly used purses are more accessible than they were before. And on top of all that, I managed to list more shoes on Poshmark  I hope you'll check it out and that you find something you love!

I'm looking forward to a normal work week consisting of no travel and blog worthy outfits!!

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Improvising

 

It's been a bit of a whirlwind for me these last couple of weeks. Let's see, I was in Florida from Thursday the 3rd to Sunday the 6th, home a couple of days then flew out to San Francisco Thursday the 10th to Monday the 14th. I was home long enough to have dinner, blog, and watch the Cardinals game before having to wake up at 3am Tuesday morning for my 6am flight back to Florida. Exhausted reading that? Yeah, imagine how I felt living it.

Needless to say, the last thing I wanted to do on Monday night was pack *again.* Next to laundry, packing is my most dreaded chore. Unpacking is even worse! My only agenda item for the trip was to appear at a City meeting at 6:30pm Tuesday night. I knew with the early morning that I wouldn't feel like wearing my meeting clothes all day, so I just threw on a chambray and leggings along with my Report booties for my travel outfit. I'd have plenty of time to shower and properly get ready before the meeting.

Well, when I got to the meeting, I found out that there was a second meeting the following night. I completely did not plan to attend this second meeting, and normally I wouldn't have had to, but an issue came up that was causing big concern and everyone felt that it was important that I stay for that second meeting. I couldn't argue with them, I knew I should stay. But the first thing in my head was - oh crap, what the heck am I going to wear?

I had plenty of time to be able to go to the mall and such, but half the reason why I packed so light was because I only brought two shoulder bags with me. One for my toiletries and one for my extra outfit and my laptop. I really didn't have room for more clothes. Not to mention that I really could use that time in the day to actually catch up on work - I didn't want to waste a couple of hours shopping. (Yes, I actually said that.) 

So. I improvised.

 

Tuesday evening outfit for meeting #1

Top: Express | Skirt: JCrew Factory | Bracelets: 1, 2 (similar), 3 | Pumps: Kate Spade  (other colors here)

 

Wednesday evening outfit for meeting #2

Top: J Crew Factory | Skirt: JCrew Factory | Bracelets: 1, 2 (similar), 3 | Pumps: Kate Spade  (other colors here)

 Wednesday evening outfit for dinner (by myself)

Top: J Crew Factory | Leggings: Two by Vince Camuto | Bracelets: 1, 2 (similar), 3 | Booties: Report  (option, option)

  Thursday outfit for travel and office

Top: Express | Scarf: Kate Spade | Leggings: Two by Vince Camuto | Bracelets: 1, 2 (similar), 3 | Booties: Report  (option, option)

Luckily I always always always pack more undies than I would ever need, so I didn't have to worry in that department. And this dilemma just made me realize how important it is to be able to mix and match the pieces you pack because you have no idea how long you will be living out of your suitcase! So glad to be headed home. Ready for regular life and proper outfit posts!

Linking up with:

Bethany and Meghan for Three-fer Thursday

Tara for What I Wore to Work

Erin for Working Girl with Style

Elle and Jacqueline for Spotlight Weekly

Agi for Tres Chic Fashion Thursday
Sherry for The Fashion Informant Linkup

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Weekend purchases

My shopping outfit:

Sweater: Express | Tee: Express (option) | Necklace: Express (option) | Skinnies: Express (option, option) | Boots: Coach

Yesterday was my last day in San Francisco, and we decided to end it with shopping, duh! I felt like I spent a small fortune, but I'm pretty happy with all my purchases and super excited to wear them. 

We ended up going to the mall downtown and we decided to hit up JCrew first. I was really excited to see this top on clearance. I have always loved it! Not only was it already marked down, it was an extra 20% off plus 25% off your entire purchase. This looks perfect on. Such a great alternative to a regular tee. It will be great alone, tucked into a pencil skirt, or layered over a chambray with skinnies and riding boots.

J Crew Necklace Tee

(J Crew website link is not working, so I am giving you the pin link instead)

Our next stop was Zara. It's always fun to go in here since I really don't have one close to me, other than in Chicago. Nothing really peaked my interest except for this jacket. 

Zara  Contrasting Quilted Jacket

The model really doesn't do it justice. It fits like a glove. I did size up just to give myself some wiggle room to wear a sweater or something thicker than my tee underneath, but I loved how it hugged my body. Super comfy and I wished I had bought it prior to freezing my arse off on the bus tour the day before!

I had to hit up Kate Spade. I just can't resist. I really really want a Beau bag. Not sure what color - perhaps one of each? 

Kate Spade Park Avenue Beau

It was $75 off $250 and $150 off $500. So I could have gotten a Beau for $350. Hmm. Maybe I shall ask for one for Christmas. In the meantime, I just got a new iPhone case. My new iPhone 5S is waiting for me at home and I can't put an old case on a new phone or else it just doesn't feel like a new phone! Decided to go with a glitter stripe, although I debated on dots and a leopard print. 

Kate Spade Glitter Jubilee Stripe Resin iPhone 5 case

Next was my old faithful, Express. I realized when I wore my chambray dress for the first time that I needed a better moto jacket in black because my current one is too boxy, and not flattering when worn open. I tried on about 3 different styles, and decided this was my favorite. 

Express (minus the) leather moto jacket

I was prepared to pay full price for it - $118 isn't all that bad to be honest. But when they rung me up, it only came out to $70 and some change. Score! I didn't realize sweaters AND outerwear were 40% off!

I have to be in the mood to go into H&M because I feel like sometimes it's disheveled and hit and miss in terms of selection, sizes, and quality. And my $10 item isn't necessarily worth the wait in line. But for the sake of shopping comradarie, I took a gander around the store and ended up finding this infinity scarf. I loved the blush on blush color. I wasn't necessarily in love with the lip print, but the colors were too good to pass up.

Banana Republic was next. I was on a hunt for emerald green skinnies but ended up finding an emerald green skirt instead. This shall do for now!

Banana Republic Boucle Zip Pencil Skirt

We shopped for a good 3-4 hours and while my wedge boots are generally walking friendly, there comes a breaking point where nothing is comfy anymore and any kind of heel height is bad. I knew even after we left the mall that more walking would be involved - the consequences of living a city life - no surface parking lots, which equals lots of walking. We were headed to dinner after the mall so I decided to take a look at the shoes on our way out of Bloomies to see if there was a comfy option that I could wear outside of tonight's festivities as well. And that's when I found these. 



DV Lace up oxford flats

I had been wanting silver oxfords ever since I saw someone post them from Boden. Realistically, I know I'm not a flat shoes person so it didn't make sense to spend a lot of money on a pair. Plus, I wanted a pair of perforated shoes, oxfords to be exact. My good friend has a navy pair with a wedge heel and I've been craving a similar pair since I saw hers. When I saw this perforated metallic peeptoe, I thought it was a perfect marriage of both kinds of oxfords I was looking for. Two for the price of one! And on sale for $79. My feet were happy! .... Whew! Told you it was a small fortune. But all great pieces and I can't wait to style them over and over again!! Please share what you have bought lately!









Linking up with Lauren, Erin and Laura.

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