LOTD: Little Miss Sunshine - Lunch Date Attire

Top: Urban Outfitters | Skirt: F21 | Shoes: Dolce & Gabanna

Necklace: Henri Bendel | Ring: Vintage | Arm Candy: Michele, David Yurman

Call me dorky if you'd like, but whenever I have a set date with my boo piece, I get excited and dolled up as if he's never met me before. Idk there's just something about being asked to go somewhere at a set date and time, doesn't matter where, but it's a date. Nonetheless, when I woke up this morning, it was all dreary and rainy, and I have this thing when it's gross outside I decide to brighten up the day with my attire. Strange, I know. But it brightens moods, I tell ya!

I've wanted to play with the trend of mixing prints and monochromatic looks for a while, and this stripes and pleats yellow look gives me a tad of both worlds. Whenever I wear yellow I always pine over silver or gold accessories, but today rose gold and brushed silver took the lead, so I thought I'd show off my baubles. The grey patent slingbacks I nabbed from Mommy's closet perfectly complimented my grey stripes and the rain :).

I hoped to brighten the gloomy day when he saw me, but the Sun wasn't having my competition and came out just in time for our lunch date in Chinatown. Great food and greater company.

Happy Tuesday! 

xox

Cooking The Way to Your Own Heart (Recipes Included!)

Years ago, women sat their daughters in the kitchen and told them things like "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." That little tidbit of advice was enough to have young girls watching wistfully in the wings, taking mental notes of the secret recipes Mommy and Gram never wrote down. The promise of possessing a culinary prowess that no man could deny and all desired such a characteristic of his wife-to-be was tantalizing. But somewhere along the way, maybe with less of such a focus on "love and marriage" and an overt presence of ready-made meals, the power of such a skill lost its luster to many, but not all.

I'd be lying to say that the thought of being able to cook well, keep a nice home, and embodying the hostess with mostess might make me a stand out amid the swarm of other girls that don't know how to turn the oven on, serve meats atop paper plates and without cutlery at that, hadn't crossed my mind. But even more prevelant than that, I was simply bred with the taste for fresh and finely prepared foods. Some call it spoiled, I call it exposed, but it's unlikely you'll know the correct pronunciation of filet mignon without it being announced and served nearby, or on a screen these days, I guess.

Nonetheless, not sure my parents meant to, but all their fine dining, reared a foodie. A foodie who went to college in and decided to make one of the best food cities in the US her semi-permanent home. And what does a foodie on a recent grad budget have to do? Learn to make the masterpieces herself. 3 times the meal, for a 1/3 of the menu price, that's quite the deal. Say yes to leftovers!

LOTW: I did it! 5 Work Days w/o Black!

               Weds             |               Thursday          |             Casual Friday

Monday                  |                 Tuesday 

Casual Friday Shirt: Ralph Lauren (Men's) | Pants: Banana Republic | Shoes: Tod's
Thursday Shirt: Poof | Skirt: F21 | Shoes: Boutique 9
Wednesday Blazer: Talbot's | Tank: J. Crew | Skirt: T.J. Maxx | Shoes: Zara
Tuesday Shirt: J. Crew | Pants: H&M | Shoes: Zara | Necklace: ILY Couture (J. Crew inspired)
Monday Sweater: J. Crew | Top: Zara | Skirt: Laundry | Shoes: Steve Madden | Necklace: J. Crew 


Clearly this was a personal challenge, as my morning routine is usually consists of grabbing a black skirt or pant and pairing it with a white tank, J. Crew cardigan, and a Tory Burch flat. Makeup - psh, now you're really pushing it. Obviously earlier in the week (post bachelorette party raging) were glasses days (aka sans M.A.C. help), but I think I did well trying to incorporate a little more color and effort into my attire. I will admit that I did feel better when I liked my outfit.  Did I struggle not to put on my black skinny pants this morning for Casual Friday? Hecks yeah, but went for my khaki ones instead. ;)

And the desire to be comfy but cute this Friday morning led to my menswear moment with my Men's Pink & White striped Oxford and Tod's driving shoes. But when I saw this oldie but goodie sitting in my jewelry box, decided to add just a little bling. :)

Happy Friday!! Hope you've got something fun and/or relaxing planned for the weekend.

xox

21st Century Communication Etiquette...Is there such a thing?

I've been going back and forth over writing this post for a while now. Mostly because I realize the dichotomy of this situation and subsequently can relate to both sides. With the dawn of the multi-(read:ALL)purpose smartphones, we are essentially plugged into these communication devices at all times. Some times for leisure, other times for business, but there exists the common assumption that all refined participants of society rarely leave home without said device. And with that assumption comes an entire host of other assumptions...mostly surrounding response time and mode.

At my previous place of employment, they were very clear about the possession of a Blackberry device. In fact, instead of it coming with my nicely wrapped technology bundle upon hire, I was given a choice to have to have not, because with it came the expectation that I would be accessible outside of standard working hours. There was an expectation that I would respond in a timely fashion...because they're paying for the phone and for me to do so. 

So where does the line get drawn when it comes to personal lives? I personally, am one of those people that's almost constantly connected to the rest of the world via my iPhone. It annoys those I'm closest to, and I'm working on giving my undivided attention to them when necessary, but I'm also known in a positive way by other friends and family for my responsiveness. I simply think of it as common courtesy to respond to a phone call or text message in a timely fashion, and most times that means within the hour, if not immediately. This is probably because I hate WITH a passion when I send a message or call a person, that whenever I'm with them they seem to have their smartphone in their hands fiddling away, but yet there's a delay in response. Not to mention if I called you, I kind of expect the same mode of response, unless your text message is explaining why you aren't calling me back...But I think I'm old school in that regard, I savor hand-written letters and phone calls at decent hours and honestly almost abhor text messages. Yes I said it, I really don't like texting, I think it's obnoxious the way a sleuth of them send my phone buzzing in a frenzy and its quite impersonal because inferring tone is incredibly difficult. But I digress...

On the real, where does the problem actually lie? Are our expectations so skewed by developing technologies that we've lost patience completely? Or has the etiquette of 21st century communication simply yet to be updated and widely accepted?

LOTD: Blue Hues

Top: J. Crew | Necklace: J.Crew/ILY Couture | Pants: H&M | Shoes: Zara

Woot woot! So far this week I'm 2 for 2 on the non-drab corporate colored attires! I'm clearly really milking the last few weeks of summer and being able to get away with cropped pants and cute sandals. And yes, I know navy was one of the colors in my go-to palette, but blue + neon green = turquoise! And who can resist smiling at such a pretty color??

Happy Tuesday!!

xox

LOTD: Trying to Pep Up

After a ridiculous weekend in AC to send a dear dear friend off into married life correctly (read: awesome day/night of bachelorette festivities), this pretty much sums up how I feel this morning. Oddly enough it seems to be the days you feel the craziest that you end up looking more put together than most other days.

Sweater: J. Crew | Top: Zara | Skirt: Evelyn | 

Necklace: J. Crew | Sandals: Steve Madden

As you can see, I thought to incorporate this little peplum top that I recently acquired from the crazy sale Zara is having right now might add a little pep to my step. ;) Even if it didn't do that, it at least put me on a good path toward my attempt of staying away from dreary dark colors for the few weeks of summer that are left. The cool breeze this morning reminded me that summer heat while oppressive is so short lived. So these last few weeks are going to be milked for all the bright, sunny, warmth it's got left.

Happy Monday! 

xox

LOTW: Black, White, Accent Color Apparently...

Look1 - Sweater: J.Crew | Top: H&M | Skirt: Jones NY | Shoes: Zara

Look2 - Sweater: Urban Outfitters | Top: H&M | Skirt: J.Crew | Belt: F21 | Shoes: Zara

Look 3 - Blazer: Jones NY | Top: Gap | Skirt: Pink Rose | Shoes: Calvin Klein | Bracelets: F21

So I haphazardly snapped the looks a few days this week. And I clearly noticed a pattern. I'm apparently a classic black/navy and white kinda girl, with an accent color probably inspired by the color of my nails that week. And this week it happens to be Mint Candy Apple. But on the real, if I don't wear color during the summer, when will I?? Goal for next week...be a little brighter in spite of the 9 to 5!

LOTD: Bonjour Mate!

Top of the morning! So after stumbling upon a few gems in H&M yesterday (if you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw a few fit room flicks ;), and yes, that's the coral dress hanging on my armoire...), I got inspired to start doing a LOTD - Look of the Day series on here, both to display the fun things I've found and a way to make sure someone sees a great outfit, even on a grey gloomy day like today.

Katherine over at A Bit of Sparklefarkle has a series called "Powder Room Fashionista" and posts fabulous looks from various available toilets she encounters lol. Since I don't have my own personal photographer to follow me around, mirror shots might be the way to go.

Online Shopping Haul!!

Ok, so I don't know what exactly classifies a "haul" per se, but I've seen a number of vloggers use the term, and thought why not use it to describe the little binge e-shopping I did last month. I wrote a bit about the shoes I found for a steal at Zara not too long ago. But I also got a few additions to my beauty and bauble collection.

First up - BHCosmetics. So I'm all about learning new makeup techniques, you know to enhance my pretty and all, and while most of the YouTubers are makeup artists and use way more makeup than I could ever imagine, I try to learn a thing or two. I'd heard a couple of them mention this BHCosmetics place for amazing deals and good quality. And when I stumbled upon the site, I honestly couldn't help but have my suspicions. It was just price slash after price slash EVERYWHERE! But I'd seen multiple YouTubers do tutorials with the palettes and have awesome results. So I went ahead and added a few things to my shopping cart. I got a 15-piece brush set, a 28-smokey eye palette, and a 28-color neutral eye palette - get this - all for the bargain price of $42 (+nominal shipping & handling). But seriously?!? My mac eye shadows cost like $15 a piece! Anyway, I was quite delighted when my package arrived, quite promptly I must say.