Dinner Date

These are my other polka dot pants, and a whole different look to go with them. And this oatmeal-y sweater thing is so warm. Perfect for doing a little pre-dinner shopping with one of my best friends (below).

We've been friends since the 5th grade, and grew up down the street from each other. She came to visit for the evening, so we did a wee bit of shopping downtown, had a delicious dinner, then spent the rest of the night catching up. I stayed up way too late and paid for it today, but it was so worth it to see one of my best friends.

Here's us dancing at my wedding. Don't you love her hat?

She's also the first friend I've told about this here blogging adventure. She's worked retail for 5+ years, and I love to bounce outfit ideas off of her. Even though we've got such different styles, she's full of great ideas & advice, and encourages me to take risks (she even helped me go through my closet a few weeks ago - only a really good friend would do that). She took my outfit pictures tonight and gushed over my outfit. She's pretty excited about me blogging, which in turn makes ME really excited. 

That being said, here's to becoming a better blogger, with the support of one of my best friends :)

Shirt: Gap
Sweater: Eddie Bauer
Pants: Ann Taylor Loft
Boots: Rackroom Shoes
Watch: gift from my brother & sis-in-law
Bracelets: pink - from a friend; bangle - thrift store

A Tweed Jacket

see the snow behind me? Snow. On May Day. Belize it.

This jacket is the other item I "bought" on my shopping fast. A whopping 93 cents, AND I used store credit. Big spender here!

In other news, it snowed. On the first of May. I was worried I wouldn't be able to wear my new jacket until next fall, but never fear, Colorado weather fritzed and snowed just so I could wear my new purchase! Not really. 

I just hope with all this late snow that there are no fires this summer. The ones last summer were pretty terrible, and seemed to burn forever. I drove past the fire crews staging area on my way to work every day for 6 long weeks.

Enough about fire - it's still snowing here!

Have a great rest of the week - I'm having the hardest time squeezing in some last minute running before Sunday...oy.

Shirt: Maurice's

Jacket: Express via Trends

Pants: Joe Fresh via ARC

Boots: Rackroom Shoes

Scarf: gift

Watch: gift from my brother & sis-in-law

April Outfit Recap

Here's a collage of the oufits I posted in April, for all you visual learners out there. Obviously I got dressed the other 14 days of the month, but these were the ones worth sharing on the days that also I put some effort into my hair & makeup (get more sleep or do my hair & makeup? it's a debate I have every. single. day).

My goal in doing this is to see what I do & don't like, see what is worth remixing, and see what needs to go. And also to evaluate my posing skills & choice of landscapes - I kid. But really, I do need to take some photos not by our apartment...Goal #1: take pictures somewhere other than by our apartment. 

I feel like I'm back in school and writing an analysis paper on the pros & cons of what I wore, how to fix it/make it better/make a profit (I was a business major), what I would change, and what I learned in summary. Maybe I should throw in a profit & loss statement, or some currency conversations for good measure. Just kidding - don't get me started on currency conversions. That's a story for another day when we have absolutely nothing to talk about, and you have a serious question about international finance...

Observations:

- Annie likes to wear brown boots.

- She likes to wear bright colors, purple & pink (not necessarily together).

- Scarves are pretty great.

- Annie likes to smirk.

- Apparently, she also loves to wear maxi skirts.

- She is into skinnies, even though her Mr. is not.

- She likes to dress in layers.

From the above observations, I have come up with these goals for our participant:

1. Take pictures somewhere other than by your apartment

2. Incorporate different hemlines & silhouettes by wearing more dresses, skirts, maybe even shorts?!

3. Continue to mix textures

4. Print mix more!

In conclusion, we can confidently say that Annie is coming out of her wardrobe shell, and is getting away from being matchy-matchy & boring. She still has some work to do, but she is making progress, and we estimate that with the implementation of the four goals stated above, next month's report will receive even higher scores. She should also get herself out of bed in the morning to work out, and then make herself look nice, because she knows she should.

Mr. Picks Mondays: Bright Stripes

Here's another bright shirt on a Monday - I think he's into bright colors for spring, don't you?

 

bracelet my mama got me

"It's what's on the inside that counts"

WHY can't I keep that in mind more often?!

I'm not sure that horizontal stripes are doing me any favors lately (too much snacking), BUT, my half marathon is this weekend. I can hear you asking: "Why haven't you been training consistently for the last 3 months?" That, my friends, is a great question. 

Seriously though, I get pretty bad blisters on my feet: on the balls of my feet, my heels, the sides of my feet, even between my toes. It's no fun to run when your feet are killing you. Couple that with the fact that I'm really slow (I mean REALLY. Somehow I walk faster than I run), and I always wind up really sore after a run. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten my rear in gear like I should have.

My dad is doing this half marathon with me, and he's been training, so we all know who will be feeling better after running 13.1 miles. Not to worry: I've scheduled a massage for the day after, and a mani/pedi might be in my future, too. 

I'll keep you posted on how it goes. One way or another - walking, crawling, running, handsprings, or on piggyback, I will finish those 13.1 miles! And I've set a pretty generous window as a goal for myself ;)

Top: WalMart

Jeans: Gap

Sandals: via Trends

Necklace: Kohls

Watch: a gift from our honeymoon

Bracelet: gift from my sweet mama

Sunny Sunday

 

I got to wear a skirt and a tank top today - the temperature got up in to the 80s! Whaaat? Tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful as well, but don't worry, Wednesday is calling for snow

...BUT...

there's nothing I can do about it, so I'll just roll with it ;)

It was windy when we took these pictures, so it was hard to get a flattering shot, 

especially from the front. Does that happen to anyone else? 

Just me?

Happy Sunday - have a great week!

Tank: American Eagle

Skirt: Chico's (thrifted)

Shoes: RocketDog

Necklace: ???

Bracelets: Target

Watch: gift

Polka Dots

I don't know why my hair is so messy. It's nice for a few minutes, then POOF! #unruly&messykindofcurls

I scored these Old Navy polka dots pants at Plato's Closet this week, and I'm in love. 

I have another pair of maroon-ish pink polka dot pants, so now I have two pairs of polka dot pants.

I know what you're thinking - I broke my shopping fast. Well, yes and no. I also bought a jacket from Express at Trends this week. BUT, both items were purchased with store credit, so they didn't cost me anything up front. Now you decide: did I really break it? Or was I just "exchanging" items?

This was the start of our date night: Sports Authority (for a gift), Lowe's, dinner, then Kohl's to shop for my Mr. Pretty exciting, eh? Today on the agenda: Petsmart, exchanging at Kohl's, and picking up my mom's Mother's Day gift. Don't worry though - last night we DID go to an Avs game in Denver with some friends, and I wore these pants. Again. Sadly, no outfit pictures were taken.

Shirt: Target

Sweater: Eddie Bauer

Pants: Old Navy via Plato's Closet

Flats: Kmart

Fedora: Kmart

Bag: Coach via ARC

A Teeny Bit of Print Mixing

You might not be able to see it, but my shirt was striped. And my scarf was a pretty paisley print. Aaaaand, I put them together for a wee bit of print mixing. Baby steps. I really admire other people who can put together prints so easily, but I have a harder time with it.

Sorry for the terrible pictures - I wasn't feeling well this afternoon, so I snapped these as soon as I got home before crawling into sweatpants and curling up with one of the pups.

Shirt: Gap

Sweater: via clothes swap

Jeans: via Trends

Boots: Rack Room Shoes

Scarf: from my sweet sis-in-law (bridesmaids' gift), with my (maiden) monogram