Orange You Glad...

I don't know if it's the cabin fever or the lack of beautiful sunny weather that's done it. But I had fun playing around with color today. To be honest, I feel like a fruit salad. All in all, I like how it turned out. You can get more inspiring color combos by heading over to Kileen's Color Brigade over at Cute and Little. Below is my attempt at incorporating contrasting color into an outfit. The goal was to coordinate 3 separate colors into the same outfit. I think, goal achieved! Here I am rockin' the peach, purple and musturd all together.

I know, terrible job with the tripod. We have super limited space in our room. I figured I'd mix it up and do something a little different than the white bedroom door.

Fun jewelry trick. Here, I connected two short necklaces clasp to link and vice versa to make one long necklace. Put it on, then adjust the length to your liking.

Top: Coral button down, Thrifted ($1)
Skirt: Purple Wool Skirt, United Colors of Benetton, Thrifted ($2)
Belt: Thrifted, ($0.75)
Shoes: Xhilaration, Target Clearance ($5)
Jewelry: Cookie Lee (Gold hammered bangles, copper rose pendant, 2 short necklaces attached to make one, hoop earrings)

Color Blocking

Stylejacking.com

Candy of My Childhood: Anyone remember these tasty little guys?



The title of today's post certainly made me think of one of my fave knock knock jokes from my childhood. And let me tell ya, boy, did I wear it out.

Boy: Knock, Knock
Girl: Who's there?
Boy: Banana.
Girl: Banana who?
Boy: Knock, Knock
Girl: Who's there?
Boy: Banana.
Girl: Banana who?
Boy: Knock, Knock
Girl: Who's there?
Boy: Orange.
Girl: Orange who?

Boy: Orange you glad I didn't say banana?*

*Here's your chuckle for the day



Greatest Day Ever: Coach Purse

I'd like to introduce you to my "new to me" Coach purse and matching wallet. First of all, I am very fortunate to have a super sweet and thoughtful friend. In conversation she had asked if I had seen her new purse yet. My eyes light up, of course, at the mere mention of accessories. "You got a new purse?!", I exclaimed, "Show me, show me!" At the moment, it didn't dawn on me that it was pink and a bit more fashion vs function for her practical style. She held it up, extending her hand to me, purse dangling from it. I gave it an all over looksie... "I loved it! It's super cute and pink." Well I guess those are just the words she wanted to hear. And then came the words, "It's yours." OMG! "Are you joking?" I must have hugged her like 10 times! She told me that a client of hers was way into purses, had maybe used it twice, and in doing some spring cleaning thought my friend could use it- in reality she wouldn't. And that ends up being awesome for me.

The purse even goes lovely with my lilac, pink and blue Eeyore Scrubs.

Also an update on my last thrifty finds:

Green Silk Scarf ($1.50) , Navy Purse ($2.50), Leather Belt ($1), Blue Printed Top ($2), Blue Silky Scarf ($1.50)



Five Things Friday- Glove Lovin'

Just a quick hello to my fellow blogger friends on this lovelly morning. I am lucky enough to get a SNOW DAY from work! Yep that means the office is closed, and it's safer and much warmer to stay in. Reports around our county are showing upwords of about a foot of snow- which is wonderful. Just this morning it started to stick here and we now have about an inch and there is more on the way- yay!

On that note, I wanted to share five lovely gloves for this cool and chilly weather. What are your faves?



Pink Bow Gloves

These are adoreable with their bow and button details.



Blue Mittens

Cute and Cozy!



Dooney & Bourke Gloves

Stylish and classy!

Natalie Fingerless Gloves

Fun and Fingerless

Ugg Gloves



Warm and Fuzzy



The Look for Less: Chopard Floating Diamond Watch



Cookie Lee Jewelry's  Loose Diamond Watch, $54
(Or get it 1/2 off by booking a show, ask me how!)




Chopard's Happy Sport Watch,
Retails for $15,000+

 

The Look of the moment is the floating diamond watch. Such a unique and glam piece. Wear it to work or a night on the town. Either way you are sure to get noticed. 



Making a list and checking it twice...



Gonna find out if it's a good price. Oh Mandy's got some thrifting to do! I know I have a ton of clothes already- all of which are buried deep in storage from our big move. I believe that by the time we finish building our house, and unpack- things will definately not fit me and gasp! may even be out of style. I feel that style challenges such as those posted on Everybody,Everywear certainly get my hamster wheels a-turnin and make me excited about getting dressed in the morning. Now I'm not so afraid to be so matchy-matchy with my clothes and shoes, thanks to...  Kileen and her color brigade and Sally @ AlwaysPretty.com . It's so refreshing to see their use of vibrant colors. Sally has some great tips and ideas for incorporating color into your outfit with shoes.



  

I got these babies for $5 clearance at Target about 3 yrs ago. They have been worn maybe twice- simply because I didn't know what to wear them with for the longest time. I intend to show them some love.

Round Toe Pumps: Target (Already In My Closet)

Below are a few items I'm dreaming about. Patterns and textures and color mixing and repurposing.

 

Bright Colorful Shoes/Sandals

Sally @ Always Pretty

Nude Shoes

Haylow Sandal- Steve Madden

Leopard Print

Keysha Pumps-Paris Hilton
(I love the hint of print on these)

Button Up Shirt Dress

Sally @ Always Pretty

Bright Colored Skirt

Floral Top/Floral Cardigan

  



Floral Top Fang @ Kohl's

I like these 2 prints. Not so much a fan of the drop-waist however, but it's nothing that a bold belt couldn't hide. 



Floral Top- Byer California @ Kohl's

  Floral Dress



Lauren Conrad for Kohl's

Love this dress!

Brown Boots



Tevin Western Boot- AE by Payless

Panoa Boot- GUESS



More Ballet Flats (you can never have too many flats)

Gingham Audrey Flat- AE by Payless

Orchard Flat- Zoe&Zack by Payless

Feebe Bow Flat- AE by Payless

Wedge Sandals

Plaid Pants/Skirt

Plaid Skirt Forever 21



Super Long Skinny Belt

As seen on Molly @ Leaving the House in This



Kimono-Type Wrap Obi Belt

Sally @ Always Pretty

Patterned Tights

Argyle Tights by Payless

Bright Tights

Tights by Payless

Cuffed Shorts



Just for kicks this is an outfit I threw together. I hope to wear it once I'm feeling well again.

I'm loving this new statement necklace from Cookie Lee's Spring Collection. What do you think?



• Shirt: Faded Glory
• Cardigan: Old Navy
• Necklace: Cookie Lee Jewelry

Graype Soda

Here I smile, though I feel yucky, so forgive the no make-up/hair up in a bun look,
I promise this will not be a re-occuring theme.

This is me without makeup. Which is big for me- (I divulge I am a notorious glam camper- I can't leave home without it.) Spent the whole day in my pj's today. But I felt a bit better after throwing some clothes on to run a little errand. It gave me a great opportunity to debut my newly dyed purple top. This little guy was originally white, with white eyelet trim at the neck, and I absolutely loved it. That is until I noticed the little unsightly little yellow stain in front, how long and how it got there beats me. I'd tried several of my faithful over the counter spot removers with no luck, so it's been banished to the get rid of it pile- until now. One of my roomates- (and when I refer to roomates I mean inlaws and sister in law because my husband and I are in process of building our home right now and this allows us to save and build- we are so lucky to have them). So yes... my roomate was dying a costume for her school dance performance and at last minute we ran around  the house looking for other things to try dying. No need to waste a batch of perfectly good dye, right? Suprisingly, the shirt came out better than I expected, and due to the different materials it absorbed different amounts of the dye.

With all of the beautiful spring-like weather we've been having these past few weeks, I forgot that it's still tecnically winter. Last nights storm dropped a few inches of fluff in the higher elevations, so they cancelled school for all the kids. I planned to make a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up soup, lozenges, tea and juice before the next storm hits. Who know's what tomorrow will look like...

Heather Gray V-Neck Tee: Old Navy

Purple Shirt: hand me down (formerly white)

Gray Wrap Cardigan: ROSS

Jeans: Old Navy

Belt: Thrifted

Jewelry: Cookie Lee Jewelry

Scarf: Old Navy (One Day Only Sale $1)





I Heart You

Feb 13, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day to my fellow Blogger Fashionistas! How are you spending your day?

Today my hubby, Ryan and I celebrate the 4 year anniversary of our engagement. Awe... I know mushy, right?





Deliciouso!

 This year we decided on going out a night early, which as an after-thought we pride ourselves on doing. (No reservations needed, no wait to be seated, no trouble finding parking, no couples being mushy mushy and ruining our appetites over dinner *gag* haha j/k). We went to our absolute fave local Mexican Restaurant, Maria's, which with our luck when we got there, they announced they were honoring their Vday Special For Two a day early. It included two entree's, two cocktails, salads, and a desert to share for $39! That sounded much more yummy than getting our usual (which would come sans drink/salad/desert) and plus it was about $20 cheaper.

Nom nom nom nom: Mocha Ice Cream & Fudge



Feeling Glam
Dress: ROSS
Jewelry: Cookie Lee
Makeup: BareEssentials

Our server Audrey, complimented me on my Cookie Lee Jewelry and asked for a card and catalog, to place an order. I love that my jewelry has the ability to sell itself. :)

And now for the story about us... Please note ahead of time that I have no intention of offending. I will let ya know that I have a sense of humor and hope that my blog sisters will understand my reason for sharing the events of that joyous day.

~*How He Proposed*~

Like many girls.. I grew up dreaming about my prince charming, and what it would be like when he asked me to marry him. You hope for something romantic, memorable, and yes-- creative. I got all of these in one. To be perfectly honest it's not really a story our future children will want to hear when they ask how we got engaged. This is not your typical proposal... nor will you find us reinacting it on TLC's "Proposal Story."

Now, I'm sure some of you have seen or at least heard of the infamous "Special Christmas Box" SNL skit performed by Justin Timberlake. Ryan joked that it was an inspiration and since Valentine's was coming up in the next few months... he thought he'd give me one. And that's the last time I thought anything about it.

Little did I know that the little Christmas Package was making a big Valentine's comeback.  He certainly had me fooled by proposing to me on THE most expected day of the year.
While waiting for our movie to start we sat in the car parking lot, talking and sipping wine- I know, classy. He checked his watch, and said, "Ooh I almost forgot there's more. So he got out of the car and went around to the trunk (fiddled around back there for a minute- and now I can only imagine how suspicious he may have looked to our parking lot neighbors- since he was attaching his creation to himself haha). He then came around to my door with a relatively good sized box wrapped in pink metallic paper with a big bow. Of course I'm suprised by this because I don't expect anything- besides a nice dinner and maybe a movie. *Hey, I was fine with just renting one)...

So he opened my car door and said, "Happy Valentine's" with the box in front of him. Then he looked at me and smiled, then let go of the package, while the package itself remained waist level- *yes no hands*.


One: cut a hole in the box*


I immediately burst out laughing... as the box is suspended from his belt... and my only thought was "omg- he did not just do this" :). I opened the box thinking maybe there was chocolate inside or something practical (Ryan is always Mr. Practical) but instead found an engagement ring in the center... he got down on one knee, both of us still laughing, me with tears streaming out of my eyes... and he asked me to marry him. I could barely get a "yes" out because I still found the whole scene to be histerical... I was suprised and impressed.

*Disclaimer: no boxes were hurt during the making of this post


My late grandmother, Gran, once told me that a sense of humor is very important in a relationship. I know that if she were here with us, she'd be laughing right along with us on this one. She most of all, would have been verrrrry proud of Ryan for his creativity. And truely I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.




 Song of the day: Happy Valentine's Day by Outkast

Biggest Little City: Part 2

Back from the trip and by golly did we have some fun :)  



Outfit Trial Run- wearing my new and recently thrifted shirt

Song of the Night: We'll Be Alright by Travie McCoy



We arrived, changed into our pretties and then off we went to dinner. Our ultimate destinations being Rum Bullions- Dueling Piano Bar for some laughs and sing-a-long fun and then later somewhere to go dancing. When the show died down, half of our group went to gamble, hopefully to double their paychecks... lol and the other half of us went to shake our groove thangs at the Aura Bar in Silver Legacy.



It was great fun. Before we had known it 3 hrs had passed by. We were drenched with sweat and feeling it was about time to call it a night. And a night it was, Whew! and what a workout! My friends and I re-hydrated then made a stop at the ladies room. Now this is where the fun begins... and I can't help but laugh at myself.





On the dancefloor!



 



Does anyone out there remember the hilarious Friends episode with Ross and his leather pants? That was me- I had a heck of a time peeling these skintight sweaty jeggins off (yeah I know gross, right?). One of my girlfriends was in the stall next to me and started laughing as I wiggled and danced about trying to peel myself out of them.. and nearly toppling through the closed stall door during the process. Then came the whole dreaded process in reverse- this time included hopping and wiggling. Man did I wish I had a bottle of lotion with me. I should have just worn a dress.

Lesson learned, don't ask a drunken stranger to take your picture.



How My Picture Should've Looked



3am: Back to the hotel room, and ready for a shower and some Z's.

All in all it was a fun trip in which we all needed. My husband got his needed boy time as well. I was so proud of myself, I only gambled 4 dollars worth and lost only 3.80 of it- it helps that we stayed so busy, I didn't have time to gamble. I got my cashout voucher for $0.20! lol I should frame it. All in all it was a fun trip in which we all needed.

Outfit Details:
Shirt: Thrifted $2
Tank: Charlotte Russe
Belt: Thrifted, $0.25
Jeans: Old Navy
Flats: Wanted Brand, Thrifted $1
Jewelry: Cookie Lee