Black and red-ish

The shirt that I'm wearing here is from the clothing swap that I attended a while ago. I really like this shirt, but I'm not always sure how to style it without repeating the same look again. All I did this time was add a cardigan and change my boots. Maybe next time I'll try to switch up the pants or something.

Cardigan: Khol''s

Shirt: from clothing swap

Pants: Old Navy

Boots: Express

Earrings: Francesca's Collections

Bracelets: Zebra stripes: Express

 Leopard Bracelet: Old Navy 

Jaguar Bracelet: Francesca's Collections 

Snow Leopard Dress

Happy New Year! 

This outfit was not what I wore on NYE, but the outfit that I did done was very similar to yesterday's post, so I felt that I should post another outfit instead. The outfit in today's post is from a date night with the man. I almost wore this dress to the man's work Christmas party, but it just didn't have a "Christmas feel".

Dress: Express (on sale, may still be in stores)

Leggings: Target

Boots: JcPenny

Gold Feather Bracelet: Francesca's Collections

Earrings: Francesca's Collections

Nails: OPI Jade is the New Black

Rings: Silpada and vendor from the Maryland Renaissance Festival

Necklace: I think it either came from Express or Target, but I cannot remember 

Belt: It came with a sweater 

I've been thinking about what I want from life in this coming year. I want to try to be the best person that I can be, and to get the most out of life. 

Some of the resolutions are the same as years before, and some are new to me this year. I won't go into detail with them all, but I have decided to share a few on my blog with you today.

1. Learn something new everyday. Know this one has actually been something that I have tried to do since the summer after my freshman year in college. The way that I will be adding to this resolution compared to years past is that I plan on writing down what I learn everyday. The world has so much to offer, it is a crime to not even attempt to learn about it everyday.

2. Read a minimum of 25 books for the year. Now this is actually a decrease in the number that I've had in the past two years. My old job required that I be physically at the work place, but many a day I would have two to three hours to kill where I had absolutely nothing to do. I use to read at least two books a week with that kind of time, but now since I switch jobs, I no longer have that amount of time to read. 

3. No Soft Drinks. Okay, this has been a resolution since my freshman year of college. Last year I changed it a bit and allowed myself to drink sodas as a mixer in drinks, but I'm not going to do that this year. I have found that I don't crave sodas and have learned how harmful they are to the human body. When you dive into the facts about sodas, you realize that they are just not worth it to consume. However I will admit that occasionally it is hard to have a strict "no soda rule". One of my old jobs in college was working at a catering company. They had a soda machine for the worker's to use whenever they wanted, but the machine did not have a water button on it. The water that they gave the customers was always in plastic water bottles, so we could not drink them because it cost too much for the employees to drink them. The only way that you could drink water was from the sink that you washed dishes in, which was not always clean. I usually would just end up drinking unsweetened tea or would just bring my own water from home. 

Now this is not my entire list of resolutions, but I thought that it was a good list to share.

Purple and Black

Please excuse my absence over the past week. I spent the week with my family in Virginia, and never got around to unpacking my computer to post any new blog entries. In fact, I didn't even take any pictures of my outfits while I was there. (WHAT?!?) The lack of pictures was not because I did not have any cute clothes to wear. It was because I just didn't feel like going through the motions while my whole family was there. I enjoyed spending time with them, and forgot about my computer altogether for a few days.

So the pictures that I do have are from over a week ago. I actually got the same sweater that I am wearing in this post for Christmas, but in royal blue. I've already worn it, but I suppose that I get to wear it again since there is no photographic proof. :)

Many of my Christmas presents were clothes, so you can expect to see them make an appearance on this blog in the near future!

I'm still not sure what I'm wearing tonight (New Year's Eve). The man and I are going over to his brother's house for a small get-together, so I have no need to dress fancy-like. I still have a few hours to decide what I am actually going to wear. haha.

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!

Sweater: Express (recent)

Pants: Target

Boots: JcPenny

Necklace: Charming Charlies

Earrings: Francesca's Collections

Summer dress during the Winter

During the summertime, I love throwing on a fun little dress and wearing it around town. Since the man and I live above restaurants, we like to go out a few times a week whether it's for drinks, a meal, or dessert. I have a firm belief that you should always try be overdressed rather than under-dressed, so I usually lean towards my dresses when I'm deciding on what to wear. I swear that I always get at least one compliment on my outfit, simply because of my dress. 

Obviously I'm not going to be running around town with bear legs this time of year, so I've been having to winterize my outfits. I tend to not wear dresses as much as I do in the summer, but I still like having the option to wear a dress. 

For this outfit I simply added a pair of leggings and my colored boots for a winterized dressy outfit. I've also worn this dress with maroon leggings and gray boots, as well as brown legging with these burgundy boots for a slightly different look. 

Dress: Express (This particular is from Spring 2012, but they have a couple that are similar in the stores right now).

 Belt: Francesca's Collections

Leggings: Target (They have so many colors right now!)

Boots: JcPenny's

Necklace: Express

Pinspired Outfit

This outfit was completely inspired by Bree over at Dream in Fashion. When I saw her outfit, I knew that I had to immediately recreate it (on the same day). Since I do no own cognac boots, I decided to go with a pop of color instead of reaching for my dark brown boots. I liked how she paired this outfit with a short necklace, and decided that my new gold collar necklace from Express would be perfect for this outfit. 

I will be honest, layering clothes is something that I am still relatively new at doing. I am always looking for "new" ways to style my clothes, and this is just one reason why I love Pintrest. Currently, I do not own very many sweaters so I feel limited in my options, but I will not let this stop me in my quest for cute outfits. When I was in Target the other day, I noticed that they had a bunch of chunky cable knit sweaters in stock.  ( Too bad I'm on a budget right now, lol).

I'm excited for this weekend as the man's work Christmas party is on Saturday night. I have always had a great time at this party, and I'm hoping that this year is no exception. This year I wasn't going to dress up as fancy as I normally do, but then a few of his female co-workers asked me what I would wearing this year. I had no idea anyone really looked at my outfits at these parties, much less remembered what I was wearing.  Once I heard this, I knew that I couldn't let them down. I went over to JcPennys to see if they had anything that would work as a fun holiday outfit. Stay tuned as I will reveal my outfit sometime next week!

Have a great weekend.

Sweater: Express

Chambray Shirt: Target

Jeans: Express

Boots: JcPenny

Necklace: Express

Earrings: Francesca's Collections

Rings: Urbana Oyster Festival, Silpada, and Maryland Renaissance Festival 

Burgundy Boots Everywhere

In case you haven't noticed, I am in love with these boots. I made a little mash-up towards the end of the post with all of the outfits that I have created while wearing these boots. (I'm having issues making the collage   appear bigger on the blog. Sorry!) There are three outfits in the collage that haven't actually been blogged about yet, but I felt like giving you a little sneak peak. 

I thought that in today's outfit post I should include an outfit wearing said boots. This shirt came from my black Friday shopping trip at Express (during the 50% off sale). I love the lace detailing at the top of the shirt because, well, I just love  lace. I'm usually not a big fan of graphic designs on clothing, but I am loving this rose. I feel like it is a rocker shirt, but I'm not really sure that a rose and lace classifies as "rocker". Haha. I'm excited to mix it up for another outfit soon.

As I looked closer to this outfit, I realized that I'm almost wearing all Express clothing. What can I say, I really like that store.

Shirt: Express

Necklace: Express

Jeans: Express

Boots: JcPennys

Ring: Gifted

(Sorry that it is so small. Outfits 1, 3, and 4 have not yet been blogged, so think of it as a sneak peak).

Outfit Post: 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Winey Pants

Our building had a wine and cheese pairing last night. It was put on by our local grocery store that specializes in organic and local foods. The pairings were spot on, and I wanted to eat all of the yummy cheeses that were offered. I mean all as in the entire quantity that was brought because they were so tasty. It was a lot of fun meeting people that live in our building, and we met a lot of people that were our age! (YAY!) 

On another note....I am sick today. I am not sick from last night though! I promise!  I woke up this morning feeling like a ton of bricks. It feels kind of like the flu, but I'm hoping that it's a 24 hour thing. I hope to be back up and running as normal tomorrow. (I'd rather be normal tonight as the town center is having a special holiday tree lighting that I was looking forward to attending.) Ugh. I'm going back to bed now. 

Sweater/Cardigan Thing: Express

Shirt: Express

Jeans: Target

Boots: Charlotte Russe

Belt: Target

Necklace and Ring: Maryland Renaissance Festival from this Vendor. 

(Necklace) The ring is retiring soon. 

P.S.- Do you like me play on words in the title? Lol...This is what happens when you don't feel well. 

Another Clothing Swap Outfit

Yup, this is another shirt from the clothing swap. It had a pattern so I picked it up from the clothing pile at the swap. I wasn't sure if I was going to really like this shirt, but I figured that I might as well try to to make it work. My first instinct was to pair the shirt with my black pants, but they were packed in the bottom of my suitcase for the Thanksgiving holiday. The man and I were going to go out on a last minute dinner date before I left town, but most of my pants were either dirty or already packed up. I saw these boots sitting in my closet and decided to pair them with this outfit. 

BAM!

I just needed to add a necklace and this outfit was made. I am still loving my "new clothes" from the clothing swap. 

Shirt: Liz Claiborne (from the clothing swap)

Pants: Old Navy

Boots: JcPenny

Earrings: Francesca's Collections 

This necklace is old and I can never remember where it from, but here is a nice alternative. 

Snake Print and Burgundy

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I felt like I was in a car for the entire weekend, but it was nice to see my family. I tried to make sure that I packed comfortable clothes for the weekend because I knew that I'd be riding for hours in a car. 

I was also able to score some deals on black Friday. Express had a 50% off the entire store sale, so I made sure to hit them up. (I know that their sale started on Wednesday and was also online, but I was in a car all day Wednesday and I wanted to try on clothes). I was able to get some amazing deals on items that I had been looking at for a while. If shopping on black Friday is your thing, I hope that you were able to get some great deals! If you prefer to wait until Cyber Monday, then you better get shopping! 

Black Sweater: Khol's (similar) 

Snake Print Tank: Express (this top is still in some stores in the clearance section)

Jeans: Target

Boots: JCpenny (I think these booties are adorable) 

Necklace: Express 

Animal Instinct

Some days, you just have to take a walk on the wild side. And by this I mean wear an animal print with a touch of color. The color that I'm loving right now? Burgundy...hence the boots that I'm wearing in this outfit. 

One thing that I really like about this shirt is the necklace. It has a jewel embellishment around the necklace, so there this no need to wear a necklace. Sometimes I just don't feel like getting all dolled up and worrying about accessories, so shirts like this come in handy. 

I personally think that one of the hottest trends for fall this year is the combination of leopard and burgundy. These styles compliment each other so well that it's hard to not wear them together everyday. 

Do you have a favorite fall trend?

Shirt: Dress Barn

Jeans: Target

Boots: JcPenny

Bracelet: Old Navy

Earrings: Francesca's Collections 

Oh the Boots!

I love these boots. They bring out the perfect pop of color to any outfit. Have I mentioned that before? This outfit wasn't really inspired by anything, but rather looked comfortable and cute. Sorry I haven't posted in a while, life has been crazy. I hope everyone got an opportunity to get out and vote yesterday! 

Sweater: Express

Pants: Old Navy

Boots: JcPenny

Belt: Target

Undershirt: Express (this one is old but they always have some in the store, usually on sale)

Scarf: Target (old, but they have so many)

Jacket: New York and Company (from Plato's Closet)

Necklace: Maryland Renaissance Festival 

Pin on Jacket: Silpada  (This pin is retired but there are lots of pretty things to buy!)

Sequins

I was actually wearing this outfit when I found the vest that I love so much (from Dress Barn). I tried it on with this outfit, and I fell in love. Plus, the vest is so soft, and I couldn't stop petting it. Is that weird? O well, I like soft and furry things. 

I got this shirt a while ago from Express....love that semi-annual sale. I'm usually not a big fan of graphic prints or designs on shirt, but I like the design and style on this shirt. (Obviously or I wouldn't own it. ha). 

Shirt: Express (old)

Jeans: Target

Boots: JcPennys

Belt: Target

Watch: Tissot

*Note: I am wearing a black lace tank under this shirt as it's slightly see-thru, and the sequins can be a bit itchy. I found a great (and cheap) lace tank at Forever 21 that works great under so many of my shirts. I like having a lace tank peek out of clothes instead of skin. 

Burgundy Boots

I am in love with these boots. When I first saw them on display, I knew that they would be a great addition to my wardrobe. I saw them right before the big Black Friday sale, and went ahead and tried them on so that I wouldn't have to worry about the wait and hassle on Black Friday. Lets face it, the shoe section is a mad house. I don't remember why I was at the mall on Thanksgiving, (maybe it was the day before Thanksgiving), but there was a 50% off sale on all of the shoes. I figured that it was a good enough deal, so I went ahead and bought them. When I went back to the store on Black Friday, the sale was up to 70% off, and I was slightly bummed that I had not waited, but glad that I wasn't in the middle of the shoe mayhem. I said something to one of the sale associates, and she told me that she could still give me the 70% off. Obviously I was excited as I was able to get the sale, but I didn't have to worry about the madness. 

Do you ever take advantage of Black Friday sales, or do you value your safety and stay at home and wait for Cyber Monday?

I love that burgundy is so hot right now, but I think that this is the only burgundy thing in my wardrobe. 

Sweater: Francesca's Collection (September 2012)

Jeans: Target

Boots: JcPenny's (old)

Earrings: Jared (May 2012)

Rings: gifted (old)