Happy Halloween!

If you were deft enough to notice in my outfit photo yesterday, you got a sneak peak at my costume as it was hanging on the door behind me.

:)

Happy Halloween everyone!

Goals Update: October

Not going to lie, I'm kind of over these goals.... just like I am starting to feel about blogging in general.  Maybe I just need to readjust my priorities and that will get me interested in writing again.

In any case, I only have a few more months to update on the goals, so I'm committed.  I can at least follow through with this.

1. Complete at least 2 items from my 101 IN 1,001 LIST each month - I did TWO!  SUCCESS!!!  This one and this one.  So yay!

2. GET IN SHAPE - Well, at least volleyball started again so I am doing something on Thursdays.  I tried to get to the gym when I can, but with class on Tuesdays and volleyball on Thursdays, I have only a few days a week to go and I can always find other things to do.  I am debating cancelling my membership.  I joined to have a way to train for the half marathon in the winter and also because of the classes.  And I have never gotten to  a class.  I'm going to try to focus on the next two months on picking classes and going when I can before making a decision to quit the gym or not.

3. EAT BETTER -  My eating has been sporadic at best.  Many times, especially at home at night, I feel almost vegetarian.  I have a giant plate of veggies for dinner and salads during the day for lunch.  Of course, some chicken or fish or an occasion piece of red meat always tastes delicious, but I tend to crave something simple and veggie-centric for dinner.  Halloween candy has not been helping curb my sweet tooth, which is really what I am focusing on - addressing that issue.

Yeah, leather leggings

I have been on a hunt for leather (or fake leather) leggings.  It's been a lot harder than I thought.  Either they are CRAZY expensive or I think they look ridiculous so I don't even bother to try them.

All these companies making leggings with stripes of leather or bands of leather have been nice alternatives.

Towards the beginning of the summer, Sprangers and I took a try to Express and I found this pair of leggings.  I liked them on, so I bought them.

Well today was the first time I bothered to try to wear them - I actually still had the tags on them.

So today, outfit by Express.  I LOVE this shirt, though I have a problem keeping the button closed on the top.

#35 - Make a new friend

I haven't really updated on this, but I guess I did this a while ago.

When I started this list, my goal was to meet some new people aside from my good friends from school.

I figured that I would make friends through work - which I guess is sort of true.  It's not that I haven't tried.  It's more that I don't really have much in common with people from work.  Most are older with teenage kids and the younger single people are, well, younger.  So maybe a little more like work acquaintances that occasionally hang out outside of work.

Recently, I have developed a friendship with Heather from Vavoom and a few of the other girls who have been working in our little group.

So, while I am really going to be sad when my two closest friends leave Chicago - yep, talking about you Brooke and Sprangers - I will do okay.  Better than what I think I will be.

On that note, making friends in your 30s is hard.  So I'm still working on this goal even though it's technically completed.

Project DIY - October

FINALLY, my October Project DIY box arrived yesterday and I wasted no time breaking everything out and making the pieces.

This month was "Punk Revival".  Still not completely my style, but more my style than the equestrian stuff from last month.

Here's the box - this month it came without all the fluff in the box, thank God.

The three pieces were a pin...

A collar necklace...

And a spiked chain...

They were all fairly easy (even the last one that they deemed difficult).  And now I have a few more accessories to wear.

Wanted: Cozy Sweaters

Sorry I haven't been posting much.  Aside from feeling really busy, I also don't really know what to write about.  Maybe I'm over this whole blogging thing?  It has been three years.  Guess I'll see how I feel over the next couple of months.

It's gotten colder here suddenly and I have to admit that my closet is not prepared.  I need more sweaters.  I seem to only have 3-4 thick, cozy sweaters.  Don't get me wrong.  My closet is teaming with cardigans and tissue thick sweaters.... but big chunky sweaters?  Hardly any.  So I'm on a mission.

I've been taking pictures of my outfits this week, and just forget to post them.  So here is my outfit from yesterday and today.   Enjoy. :)

Vintage Shopping Weekend

In a pretty quick turn of events, my weekend's tentative plans completely changed.  I had originally planned to meet up with Brooke and Sprangers on Friday evening and hang out with Brooke for a bit on Saturday, but none of that ended up happening.

While I was in Austin on Thursday, I got an email from the pin up photographer to see if I could come and work her photo booth at this vintage fair going on downtown.  Of course, I said yes because I knew it was supposed to be over by 8pm.  After a flurry of activity on Friday afternoon and with Brooke and Spranger's plans changing as well, I ended up staying pretty late at the fair.  I did manage to snag a couple of photos though.  The theme was punk and paper dolls - you can see my "paper doll tabs" in the second picture. :)

I did some window shopping that night and found some really great items.  It was an accessories fair so there was a TON of jewelry and hats and there was some clothing.

I convinced my mom late that night to go back with me on Saturday.  My aunt, Lindy, met us down there and we spend about 5 hours browsing and shopping.  All of us managed to find at least one thing, but I definitely hit it big.  

I got a great jacket....

and amazing floor length velvet opera cape (with the original tag)

this adorable hat

and a nice necklace (no picture sorry).

I tried on SOOO many hats between Friday night and Saturday.  I love hats.  I think I need to just make that my thing... hats. :)

Here are two I didn't end up getting.

I had a blast hanging on with my mom and aunt and it reaffirmed my love of vintage shopping.  While I may not be able to fit most of the vintage clothes (why were all the women so tiny), I can certainly partake in the accessories!

Ugh.... Monday

After my babysitting weekend, I am exhausted.

Kayla didn't sleep well, so I was up a good portion of the night trying to negotiate her to sleep and eventually prying my hand from her death grip and barrel rolling across the floor to get out of her room. :)

Even with a quick nap yesterday and a fairly early bedtime last night, I'm still tired.  This is going to be a long week.

Also, its officially becoming fall weather when it is pretty cold in the morning.

Today's outfit was strictly an effort to stay warm, be comfortable and still look presentable for work.

*jeans - Gap, shoes - Sole Society, sweater - Express (old), tshirt - Victoria's Secret, scarf - Gap

#71 - Babysit Kayla for a weekend

Back when I added this to my list, my thought was "It will be great.  I can take Kayla for a weekend so Melissa and Justin can be back to a one kid family for a night."

Well, this past weekend was Melissa and Justin's 4 year anniversary and months ago they had asked me if I would be willing to babysit both of the kids so they could go out of town for the weekend.

Knowing that I would most likely be overwhelmed with both kids and my own furry baby, I solicited my mom to help me.

And BOY was I right.  For the most part, they were really easy kids.  The difficultly mainly came at night when I was up lying on the floor of Kayla's room because she wouldn't release the death grip she had on my hand and then Brody woke up crying.

I honestly don't know how you single parents or parents who have to be single parents occasionally.

So even though my list said babysit Kayla, I'm counting it because we had a 1:1 kid/adult ratio. :)

They were good kids and I managed to snap a couple photos while eating dinner (sorry they are blurry) to send to Justin so they would stop texting me.  :)

Kayla loves to watch videos on the ipad.  Gigi was trying to find some good ones for her.

Warning - boring post ahead

You guys - work sucks right now.  My meeting planner just gave me her two weeks notice last week so now I am doing double duty.  When we have our biggest meeting coming up in a month, an incentives trip we are coordinating travel for (at the same time as the meeting), and then three meetings in the first three months of 2014.  Yeah, I'm feeling stressed.

So posting may be lighter than I intended for it to be.  Sorry.

Here's an outfit post to make you feel better.  :)  The weather has been cool at night but then gets into the 70s during the day - so fun to try to plan for!

*skirt & sweater - Jcrew (old), shoes - Nine West (old), necklace - a cute boutique shop in Milwaukee

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

My mom is the best mom ever and bought me The Wizard of Oz 75th Anniversary Limited Edition set.   

The set includes a blue ray version of the movie with a 3D option, a book of the timeline of the development of the movie, a wizard of oz notebook, three pins of the 3 things her friends ask for, a globe (see below) and a thumbdrive of the red shoes.

So awesome.

Also, when I took out the globe I realized that he had a little button.  I pushed it and that's what happens...  As you can tell from the video, I was pretty excited.

Hit or Miss

Okay, I know this is two days of outfit posts in a row, but it's my blog and I do what I want to. :)

I am giving this outfit a shot today.  I'm not sure if I like it or not - I think it might be a miss.  But I committed and I am giving it a full day.

Also... crazy hair today... crazy hair.

On a completely unrelated note, the world's best ice cream place, Jeni's, is finally open in Chicago.  It is so exciting AND it is only a block away from where I play volleyball on Thursdays.  I celebrated the start of league with ice cream for dinner.  And it was delicious.

The flavors I had were salty caramel (my favorite), whiskey pecan and sweet corn and blackberry.  I know that last one sounds not so great - but it was delicious.

Dusting off an old favorite

I think I bought this dress the first year I started working.  Its BCBG and at the time buying a dress for over $100 was making a big investment.  I did it because its a classic wrap dress that I figured wouldn't go out of style anytime soon.

I was so smart back then. :)

It's been a while since I've worn this and it's a great fall transition dress - especially when it's going to be almost 80 and it's October.

*dress - BCBG (old), shoes - Target, necklace - old

Project DIY

Through no fewer than 3 blogs a month ago, I heard about M&J Trimmings Project DIY monthly subscription box.

I know there are tons of monthly subscription boxes out there - I used to have birchbox myself.  (Which was nice, but I wasn't using enough of it to keep getting it)

So the premise of Project DIY, each month you will receive all the supplies needed for 3-4 accessories.  The website also provides step-by-step instructions on how to make them all.

So when the box arrived just after I got back from vacation, I couldn't wait to open it.  Even if I couldn't really work on the pieces until after I got back from NYC. 

Here is a photo of the box.  It has a welcome card explaining the "theme" and then three little envelope boxes for each of the pieces.

I opened one of the boxes to see what was inside.  As you can see, it includes all the equipment and really nicely written supply list, measuring place and info on the piece.  The best part, Project DIY also has an option for you to by a toolkit with your first box if you don't have any jewelry making tools.  I had previously purchased a pack of tools at Michael's so I didn't buy that part.

 On Sunday, I was clearing off my dining room table and was finally able to start working on it.  Here is the finished necklace - a fringe necklace with equestrian details (the theme for this month).

Here is the wrap bracelet, the second piece.  I don't have a picture of it on because the glue was drying.

The last piece for this month was a tassel key chain.  I don't have any pictures of it because the tassels were all drying so it's not finished yet.

At $30 a month, it is triple what I was spending for Birchbox, but I like that I am actually getting some jewelry each month for $30.  That makes the price a little better.  You also have the option to "pause" your subscription if you need to take a month or so off, for whatever reason.

So far I like it, so we'll see what the next couple of months hold before I make a real decision.

A little reminder

Today is a day that reminded me how much better I feel mentally and emotionally when I make an effort to get dressed for work.  Not defaulting to jeans or something a bit more casual.  Doing my hair and makeup.  It makes a difference.  I need to remember this feeling for the rest of fall/winter.

Plus, I really missed you pencil skirts.  I am not exactly sure why I didn't wear you much during the summer - too hot maybe?  But I'm glad you are back in my regular rotation.

*sweater - Gap Mens, skirt - Jcrew (old), shoes - Nine west (old), necklace - jcrew knock off

Also, I forgot to tell you about my no-chip manicure experience.  I did a lot of research before I went on vacation, because I wanted something easy for my nails that I wouldn't have to worry about while I was gone for two weeks.  So after all my research and finding a location near me, I got my first no-chip the Saturday before we left.  The salon I picked had over 50 colors to choose from (which was refreshing from what I read in my research).  I picked a shimmery grey/green color.  It lasted a legitimate two weeks without chipping (just the typical grow out) and it wasn't until Monday of last week that I started to pick at looser parts.  So it was time to make an appointment to go in and get it properly removed (the one important piece for me).  In my craziness of coming home and leaving right away last week, I decided that if I was going to make an appointment to go get it removed, maybe I'll just get one more manicure for another two weeks and then I have more flexibility on scheduling a time to get it removed.  This time I picked a really deep hunter green color that really looks more like black in the dark and dark teal in the daylight.  I like it (see pic).

No-chip is definitely easy to deal with and the place I found took care to remove it properly so I didn't see any damage to my nails (I was checking).  I can see using this for special occasions or reasons (like vacation) that I would not want to deal with it for a few weeks, but I won't be doing it regularly.  Aside from the expense, I do like to change out my nail polish more frequently.