Birthday Weekend

Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm hoping to have a lovely day. Josh asked me what I wanted to do and I replied that I'd like to go to my favorite museum, the Amon Carter, and have a game night with my family. So, that's what is on our agenda. There are two photography exhibits at the Amon Carter I want to see- one focusing on landscapes and the other on work. I've picked up all my favorite snack foods for game night and Mom is going to make some German chocolate cupcakes for me. I don't know if I'll do it on my actual birthday, but I'm also hoping to use some gift cards to pick up a few items I've been eyeing. There are some nude flats at Payless that I want, and a scarf at Old Navy that's piqued my interest. I'm also planning on getting a new necklace, to replace a duplicate Christmas gift that was returned. And Josh's mom got me one of the necklaces I asked for at Christmas, but didn't receive. It's shaping up to be a stylish birthday this year!


















Skeet McAuley (b. 1951)
Navajo Housing Project, Chinle, Arizona, 1984 , 1984
Dye destruction print
Courtesy of the artist and Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Gift of M. Lee Hutchins
P2009.7.22

Goodies

While Josh is in the UK until the 19th, I've got a lot of free time on my hands. Surprisingly school work has been slow to pick up. Holly came over yesterday and we went to lunch and then to check out the new J. Crew store over by my office. Luckily there weren't any sale items out yet to catch my fancy. Somehow that didn't stop me from spending too much though, as we also went to Anthropologie and Old Navy. I got two of the striped sweaters, the other one in black and cream. Everything but the last top is from Old Navy. The roll-necked tee is from Anthro. I also picked up a 40's style teal sweater there, but can't find a pic of it.

New Year

Well, it's a new year now, isn't it? Josh and I spent NYE day celebrating the 1st birthday of our best friends' twins, and then spent a quiet evening at home watching Simpsons, snacking, and doing laundry. Exciting I know, but there's nothing else I would rather have been doing.

New Year's Day was a marathon shopping day. Holly picked me up and we grabbed some breakfast before heading to Stephanie's. I got to play with the twins a little more while she finished getting ready. Then we headed to Home Goods, Ikea, and lunch at Chili's. Steph went home, and Holly and I moved on to Anthropologie and Target. I got several cute things at Anthro, including the Hop, Skip, Jump skirt that I wore to work today. At Target I got some great basic sweaters on sale, a second pair of jeggings, and a new belt, all of which were paid for with gift cards. Then we went back to my house and I forced Holly to help me make some new outfits with my purchases so I knew I didn't waste my money. Holly left, I tidied up and went to bed.

Josh had been in Houston for a show and driven back w/ a bandmate, arriving home early in the morning. We both slept in Sunday, however I got up before him and worked on framing up some photos for our bedroom over coffee and some Bob Newhart Show. Once he was up I had moved on to watching some Simpsons and started putting together the new drawers I'd bought for my closet at Ikea. I went to work installing them, which led to a reorganization, which led to some closet purging. I worked on Josh's side a little bit too. It took me quite a while, but I finally got things just the way I wanted, including a new pull out peg rack that stores my necklaces. I showered and we made a late run for groceries. So, all in all, the first weekend of the New Year was pretty darn productive.


Oooh, aaaah, organized.

Whoa

Wow, I haven't updated at all this week. I've been busy with field trips, voting, keeping Josh and I fed, belated grocery shopping, and the past weekend was full of Halloween parties. I got an A on my second English paper, a 95 on my Math test, and I'm impatiently awaiting the grade for my second History Essay, so all is going smoothly with school. Tonight I'm going out for tacos with the girls, and most of this weekend will be spent cleaning house. Conan returns to TV Monday night, and we'll be hosting a dozen or so friends to watch the premier. So excited to be able to see my favorite funny fella on my television again!

In other news, in a short two weeks they are opening an Anthropologie store across the street from my office. Look for my declaration of bankruptcy about two weeks after that, ha. They are also bringing an H&M to the area, but it will be in Dallas so it's not as much of a threat to my financial stability. Such pretty things will soon be so closely within my reach. Well, of my hands. Not so much of my pocketbook. ;)

Cowl-necked Confession

It's barely out of the 90's here, but I am yearning for lots of comfy fall fashions. Loving this sweater from Old Navy, as well as about half of their other new sweaters. Alas, I can only window shop for now. My pocketbook will thank me. It better!

Bad Blogger

Oof, I've been a bad blogger lately. I guess I've just been preoccupied with other things. I did end up going shopping this past weekend, but did not end up walking out with those shoes or the plaid top. I did get the chambray shirt though, along with a corduroy vest and a $19 pair of jeans. Not too bad, I guess.

Tonight I get to leave work a bit early so Josh and I can get to Dallas for the Telegraph Canyon/Built To Spill show. It's the Granada Theater's 6th anniversary and they invited a bunch of local bands/music scene people for free. And I mean FREE- free entry, open bar for the hour before the show, free food, and a couple of drink tickets for during the show. Very excited!

Friday I've got an all-day orientation at school. Feeling a little awkward about it. I still feel a bit like a character from 21 Jump Street, as if my youthful looks are merely a tool for my nearly 30 year old self to get the inside scoop. Except I don't want the inside scoop. I just don't want the cool kids to make fun of me, and I think I'll be fine from there. (Are there cool kids at a community college? Besides the ones in that TV show, I mean.)

And Saturday me and my bestie Steph get to go to an event at a Carraba's in Plano, thanks to Foodbuzz. We'll get the inside scoop on their kitchen, recipes, stuff like that I guess. And some yummy food, for free.

Actually, now that I think about it, I get a free lunch at orientation too. Free food seems to be the theme of this week! And insides scoops, since I've used that phrase twice in this post, ha.

Back To School Shopping

I technically don't need much more than my textbooks and a big notepad. Lord knows I've got plenty of pens, notecards, highlighters, and such around my house. But that doesn't stop the intense urge to do some back to school CLOTHES shopping. Realitiscally is doesn't stop the urge to buy a bunch of pretty highlighters either, but I can manage to deny those urges. I'm really liking these items at Old Navy. I might have to stop in and pick up the chambray shirt. I've been dying for a J. Crew one, which would probably be a bit nicer than the ON version, but at a quarter the cost I think I can live with a little less quality. :)

New Dress

I was finally able to order this dress I'd been pining for from Anthropologie. I showed it here once before. I ordered it Monday night and it arrived yesterday! Wrapped in adorable tissue paper and my invoice had it's own little linen bag. This was, sadly, the first item I've purchased from Anthropologie and they have wooed me well, as you can tell. Not to mention the dress itself is fabulous; just what I was hoping it would be. It is the perfect shade of green and fits wonderfully. Think this is what I'm going to wear when we go to MEET CONAN O'BRIEN. Sorry, I really am still that excited about it. I gotta get some shoes, maybe a belt and, maybemaybe a necklace. But I love the dress as is and can't wait to wear it.

Momma wants a Brand New Bag

I am trying to think up some ways to get some spending money. Between taxes, car repairs, being out sick, and a firm desire to take a vacation or two this year I am very low on spending money. Josh makes extra money by playing gigs with Back In Black and his other bands. If only I had such a skill that I could easily monetize! I replied to an ad on Craigslist today from an event coordinator looking for an assistant for the occasional weekend wedding/party/corporate function. We'll see if anything comes of that. Looking for someone to clean your house? Maybe you'd be interested in discussing the stocking of your freezer with some meals? I enjoy pulling weeds. Perhaps I should put up my own Craigslist ad: "Girl desperate to shop willing to trade domestic skills for cash." Because I wants:

Christmas Plans

The past week or so I've been trying to decide what decorations I would like to buy for Christmas this year. I cleaned out a lot of our old, discolored hand-me-down ornaments after last Christmas. It made sense to me to have a bit of a fresh start for our first Christmas in our new house. I didn't realize just how stressful I would find narrowing down my choices for our new decorations would be. Don't get me wrong, it's the fun kind of stressful! But so many ornament options! But here's the general idea I've put together. I've already gotten 4 wreaths and a roll of red velvet ribbon. I plan on hanging them in the front windows by a loop of ribbon with a bow on the bottom. I will hang our same old wreath on the front door, with the addition of an small wooden "H" that I plan to paint with gold glitter paint. I have a couple lengths of garland that I will trim the front porch in and a few faux white and red poinsettias added to it for some color. I hope to be able to put some classic white house lights up, but was waiting until we get our gutters installed and I'm waiting on the color samples to get that under way. That pretty much covers the outside decor for this year. And for the tree I think I've settled on a similarly classic selection of ornaments in red, green, silver and gold along with pine cones, snowflakes and the several boxes of icicles that we kept last year. Then our smattering of personal ornaments that always hang on our tree. I know we'll put white lights on our tree, and in the past we've also put colored lights on- not sure if I'll do that again or not. And there's definitely some bargain hunting involved here because I'm doing it all with the gift cards and money that my dad and sister's were super kind enough to give us for our housewarming. I got the wreaths and garland for 50% off and ribbon 30% off, so I'm off to a good start I think. :)





















House photo found via Between Naps On The Porch

Pants Party

As noted in my weekend roundup, Holly and I went on a turbo shopping trip on an already tightly scheduled Saturday. It was required however to take advantage of our 30% off reusable coupons for Old Navy and Gap. And even better after our first purchases at Old Navy we received a coupon for 35% off at Gap, improving the total savings. And better than all of that, I got to use said coupon to get pants. Glorious pants! I know have 10 pairs of pants that actually fit me well. Apparently I just have to spend more money on clothes to find some that will work for me. I picked up three pairs of straight leg, nearly skinny, corduroy pants in dark blue, gray and yellow. Also got a new denim skirt, as the one I owned was woefully outdated and a bit too big too. At Old Navy I picked up two more striped tops, a black & white tee that seems a bit of a cross between frenchie and mod, and a yellow and gray sweater with shoulder button detail. And for layering I picked up two tanks with ruffle-front detail in white and a soft pink (not shown). Yay pants!

A Balanced Wardrobe

I've been trying to work a bit more on all those New Years Resolutions that I seemed to have promptly forgotten about by Groundhogs Day this year. And one of those resolutions that I was carrying into 2009 from the previous year was to improve my wardrobe. I've definitely made some strides, but lately looking in my closet had become a frustrating thing. I felt like I was lacking some key things to make my wardrobe work for me. Revisiting an article I had kept from a past issue of Real Simple, The Essentials of a Well-Balanced Wardrobe, I made a list of things I felt were missing from mine. And then this weekend Stephanie, Holly and I hit the stores (with a Gap/Old Navy/Banana Republic 30% off coupon in hand) to try and fill in the gaps. Followed the shopping excursion up with a few calculated online purchases the next day.

Basics bought:
.T-shirts- I lacked a lot in this department, and what I had was wearily worn. I got three v-neck short sleeve tees in gray, black and navy and three crew neck long sleeve tees in white, black and gray from the J. Crew outlet. All of them were on sale, so it averaged out to a mere $10 per tee! I followed up with the additional online purchase of a crew neck short sleeve tee in white from Gap, as they were out of my size in white at J. Crew.
.Chinos- After going to FIVE Gap stores on Saturday and not finding my size at a single one of them I had to throw in the towel and order the khaki chinos that I love from their website. I had these same pants in a gray, so knew that this cut was exactly what i wanted to replace my old khaki pants in need of retirement.
.Denim Jacket- I didn't go into the day with this item on my list, but I have avoided wearing my denim jacket for quite sometime. It fit me poorly and was in a wash that I no longer thought remotely attractive. I found a new jacket that seemed to be a vast improvement at a good price.
.Sweater- Gray and white argyle sweater, not really a basic (unless you're me and love argyle as much as I do), but it reminded me of a J. Crew sweater I coveted from a previous season. How could I resist?
.White button down- I ordered a short sleeve version of the classic white button down shirt. The one hanging in my closet was a whopping 12 years old. Seriously overdue for retirement! I have a long sleeve button down which I may also need to replace, as the fit is poor and I of course didn't return it in time after originally purchasing it. I might be able to have it altered, an extra button and a little nip in the sleeves might fix things.




















Left to buy:
.Tennis shoes- I need a new pair of black Chuck Taylor's and want to get a white pair as well this time. I love my chucks and wear them constantly!
.Straight leg jeans- I've got a nice pair of trouser jeans, a couple of pairs of skinny jeans, and a few pairs of boot leg jeans. I think a pair of straight legs would round everything out well.
.Pencil skirt- I could use one in denim and one in another color/material.
.Black pants- I own no black pants. Aren't I breaking some sort of law?
.Jewelry- I own very little jewelry, so I really need to work on this area.

Additionally I think part of the reason I feel confused when I look in my closet is it feels like it lacks cohesion. I'm going to try and rearrange everything by color this weekend, and see if that makes a difference for me.

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
-Sleep in
-Breakfast
-Clean house
-Shower
-Finish reading Teacher Man
-Grab some Chipotle with Josh
-Eat and watch some Arrested Development while the storm moves through
-Hit the hay

Saturday:
-Up early
-Cereal and coffee
-Get ready
-Shopping and lunch with Holly and Steph at Grapevine Mills
-Score loads of tees at J. Crew Outlet and goods at Old Navy
-Great pant hunt with Holly, failed
-Grab some Schlotzsky's for dinner
-More Arrested Development while eating
-Surrender to big fat sinus headache, take ibuprofen and benadryl
-Climb in bed and watch Netflix movie, Because I Said So
-Remember how much I love Diane Keaton and fall asleep watching Manhattan Murder Mystery

Sunday:
-Sleep in late due to benadryl
-Leftover Chipotle for breakfast/lunch
-Make menu plan and grocery list
-Place online clothes order
-Grocery shopping
-Put groceries up and start laundry
-Clean and prep veggies while watching A Mighty Wind
-More laundry
-Put slipcover on living room chair
-Shower
-Homemade pizza for dinner and finish Manhattan Murder Mystery
-Finish laundry and ironing
-Bedtime

Things Bought

Josh and I have been very, very lucky in that the recession stuff hasn't negatively affected us (yet). Knocking on wood, throwing salt over shoulder and keeping an eye out for ladders, black cats and sidewalk cracks. I am still keeping an eye on our spending, and sometimes I worry that we spend too much. But we have a sizable emergency fund, and we're putting more than 30% of our monthly income each month into our retirement, mutual fund, house, car, vacation and tax funds. So doing our part to stimulate the economy isn't so bad, right? I figure not.

This weekend we bought a new TV for the bedroom. Our old tube TV took up so much space in our cozy bedroom, and despite having a similar sized screen the new one takes up less visual space making the room feel more open. And actually giving me more space on top of our dresser, so that I was able to put my grandmother's mirrored tray up there.














Yesterday I received a new necklace in the mail and I'm in lurve. Literally. I ordered this sterling silver Lurve necklace from Etsy seller KatyScudieri after a week of hemming and hawing. And I'm so glad I landed in the "buy" column on this one. I use "lurve" all the time to express my adoration for people, places and things. The necklace itself is wonderful. And what could be better than having a Woody Allen reference hanging around my neck?
















And lastly I finallyfinallyFINALLY found some boots. And I have a big, hearty recommendation for endless.com. I ordered these boots from them last week. They are on clearance, already marked down 45%. On top of that there was a special offer for $20 off a purchase of $100 or more, and I received free two day shipping. And as if all that weren't good enough, the shipping didn't even take that long. I placed my order Thursday afternoon and the boots arrived on my front porch Friday evening! It's not quite boot season in these parts (although we've had rain the past three days, hallelujah) but I am so excited to get some great fall/winter dresses and skirts to wear my new boots with!

New Tool

I'm hoping this will help tip the cleaning scales in favor of the white furniture. And the cheap Big Lots price didn't hurt.

Going Shopping

Josh actually asked me today if we could make some time to go shopping this weekend. Any guess as to my response? He wants to go to Old Navy. Me likey these, hope they have them in store when we go.

Pants and Such

Went shopping on Saturday with Holly and made a lot of progress on my resolution to improve my wardrobe, including pants! Pants had become my arch-enemy, so I was super excited to find some Gap pants that actually fit properly. Some pairs could use a hemming, which I'll be doing soon I hope, but overall they're great. And it seems as though I have definitely been influenced by Joanna and Joslyn in their attempt to dress more like a French woman. Lots of black, blue and gray, and the stripes don't stop here. I also got a $5 deal on a gray turtleneck with black stripes at Forever 21. And your eyes don't deceive you, there is something a bit bumpy about that blue dress. It's a maternity dress. And no, I'm not pregnant. But the dress is awesome. They actually took the XS off the baby-bumped hanger for me so I could try it on. I'm weird, I know. So, next steps? Accessories- shoes, bags and jewelry. I asked for a few things I've found on etsy for my birthday, so we'll see if I can make some progress without spending anymore cash monies. Not pictured is the cute octopus tee I snagged at Old Navy, a floral cross-front top also from ON, the F21 top, and a Groucho-faced tee from Kohl's. I heart Groucho.

Guilty As Charged

As you might have noticed from my Weekend Roundup below, I did a big closet purge yesterday. It really was big. I tried on lots of clothes that had been hanging around in my closet for a long time. I cleaned out my sock, underwear, and lingerie drawers. I packed away some of my more summery clothes and pulled out all my sweaters. I changed out some hangers and rearranged the order in which some of my clothes hang. One of the most important things I did was collect all the items that I haven't worn yet. Items that still had tags on, a few that didn't but that I knew I hadn't worn yet, and I totaled up their cost. I had a $150 dollar pile sitting on my bed. That's a lot of money. Especially for a girl who is squeamish about spending more than $35 dollars on an article of clothing. Actually, that was how much the most expensive item of clothing was, which just goes to show me that my attempts at frugality often backfire. Items bought with the idea that I would have them altered, hemmed, taken in. Things I bought while under the pressure of external influence- time, budget, friends.

So, from here on out unless I have 100% knowledge of my size needs with a particular brand, I will not buy pants online. I will not buy pants without trying them on. I will not assume that I'll get around to going to a tailor soon. I will not tell myself that I'll just wear them with taller heels. I will not settle for things that are only going to end up a total waste of my money and space.

Good, Better, Best

Buying pretty things: Good

Buying pretty things made by individuals: Better

Buying pretty things made by local individuals: Best

New Suit

Got a new bathing suit for the cruise. You know, that cruise that is about 10 or so weeks away. Excited much? But then again, it's not like I'll be able to walk into any store and pick one up in September. If only that waist came with the suit. But it doesn't, so it's hanging quite visibly in the closet as a workout reminder.