Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Last year I purchased Anthropologie's De Chelly dress after I saw it on another blogger and thought it was sweet.  I scored it on sale and have definitely gotten a lot of wear out of it.  Depending on what I pair it with, this is a dress I can wear year round.  When I wear this dress with cream tights and Miss Albright's Rensselaer T-straps I feel like a little kid going to a tea party, which is exactly what I look like here, except instead of a tea party, I had to go to work. Definitely not as much fun.

Dress: Anthropologie's De Chelly Dress, Winter 2010-11
Cardigan: Field Game Cardigan, Spring 2010
Shoes: Anthropologie's Rensselaer T-Straps, Fall 2010

This weekend, a friend of mine who couldn't make it to the pirate party is coming into town to visit.  Standby for a post about our antics and outfits.

How To Throw a Pirate Party

Looking to throw a pirate themed birthday bash?  Search no more!  Follow these simple steps!

Step 1: Rent a pirate ship.  I would recommend the Fearless, sponsored by Urban Pirates.

Step 2: Purchase the most ridiculous pirate outfit you can find on the internet.  You can't tell in this picture, but my tights have skulls and crossbones up the back.  Awesome.

Step 3: Buy booze.  Beer won't do- pirates drink liquor, not beer.  I would recommend one bottle for every 2 people.

Step 4:  Invite lots of friends.

Step 5: Make all of your friends wear ridiculous pirate tattoos, eye patches, and hats.

Step 6: Have an amazing friend surprise you with a cake shaped like a pirate ship.


And there you have it!  follow these directions, and you can have a pirate party of your very own.

Purple People Eater

I enjoy a deep purple in the fall.  While this purple is a bit brighter than some, it still works for the changing season. The scarf was a birthday present from a friend a few years ago.  I don't wear it often enough, but I love it as an accessory!

Over the weekend, many friends and 2 sisters came to visit to celebrate my birthday (more on that in a later post).  I am still recovering from the party weekend, cleaning the house, and trying to get back in the swing of things at work, so this post is a bit short but I wanted to post an OOTD.

Dress and scarf: Banana Republic circa 2008
Shirt: Express, circa 2007
Shoes: Ann Taylor Loft, Winter 2010

As you can see, it is yet another day of wild hair as well! (This will probably last until spring).  Do you have much purple in your wardrobe?

Ruffles Galore

Last year when Anthropologie's Rock Slide Skirt went on sale, I spent hours calling around the nation trying to find one on my size.  As you can see, I was victorious. I love this skirt and the blue layered ruffles.  It is hard to pair it with something, though, and I often end up on ruffle overload every time I wear it!

This is the hardest time of year for me clothing-wise because I am so eager to bust out my fall clothes, yet it still isn't quite cool enough to wear many of them.  I am also trying to get one last wear out of some of my summer threads so I am pairing more and more summer dresses and skirts with fall colored cardigans.

This outfit is head to toe Anthro: the skirt, blouse, cardigan, belt, and shoes are from Anthropologie.  Only the necklace is left out, it is from Ann Taylor Loft from the fall 2010 season.

Here are 2 awesome facts about these pictures.  First, I overslept and went to work with my hair dripping wet. I brought my hairbrush with me so I could tame it, however, I forgot to do that once I got busy in my office so my hair is HUGE and unruly in every shot. Second, I got not one, not two, not three, but FOUR runs in these pantyhose today.  How is that even possible?! I didn't do anything unusual- just the normal standing and stilling that goes along with a work day.  If you look closely at some of the pictures you can see it.  But don't look at my legs too hard because that's a little weird.

I Am No Longer a Child; I Wish to See the World

On Wednesday, I officially left my youth behind as I crawled out of the twenties and entered a scary new decade known as "The Thirties." Gulp.  Leaving childhood and becoming an adult was not as unfortunate as I imagined, and luckily, I'm still alive to tell the story.

The day began with many early morning texts, phone calls, and emails from well wishers. I then went to work to show off the birthday OOTD. You'll get to see that in a minute. At work, I received a plethora of flowers, candy, and treats!  It was an excellent day.  I definitely tip-toed that fine line between "working hard" and "hardly working."

Afterwards, I went to dinner with a friend and then we went to the Kennedy Center to see Sheer Madness.  It was an evening of fun, murder, and mayhem to be followed by a weekend party which will be featured in a separate post.

Dress: Banana Republic, Mad Men Collection, Summer 2011
Shoes: Banana Republic, Jenna Round Toe Pump, Summer 2011
Stockings: Fishnet tights, J. Crew Fall 2011

This ensemble was carefully selected for my debut as a 30-something.  The pearl jewelry and lace dress scream of sophistication and elegance while the fishnet stockings and snakeskin heels yell "I may be 30 but I can still walk on the wild side." If you don't hear them yelling that, listen more carefully.

As a birthday surprise, my roommate sent this beautiful flower arrangement.  You can't tell in the picture, but the vase has candles painted on it.  Cute!

Then, I got this flower arrangement from my parents!  It was definitely a floral birthday, and I love how sweet my office smells with all these flowers around.

And that, my friends, is how a 30th birthday is done. :) 

Fright Night

It's been awhile since I've posted any cards.  Last weekend I attended my upline, Mary Walker's Stamp Camp.  We made a number of goodies including 2 Halloween treats.  In August, I made my own personal Halloween cards to send out to family.  I not ready to reveal those yet, though, as I don't want anyone to see them until I mail them out.

This fall's holiday mini catalog features narrow Cellophane Bags (2 dollars and 50 cents for 50 of them!  Quite a bargain) which we used to make a Halloween treat:

These treat bags are filled with M&M candies. We used the 1 and 3/8 inch square punch to punch out a plain black square.  Then, after using the Wicked Cool stamp set to stamp the words ("have a wicked Halloween") and the web, we used the 1 and 1/4 inch square punch to punch it out and glue dots to adhere it together. 

We used Wicked Cool again to create this card:

For this card, we ran the Pumpkin Pie card stock through the Big Shot using the Spider Web die.  Then we stamped Goblin Greetings from the Grateful Greetings Stamp Set onto white cardstock after shading it in with a marker.  Next we used the hat and witch boots from the Wicked Cool set to stamp around the words and finally added the final words ("May your Halloween night be filled with delight!") in Pumpkin Pie Ink.

Want to make Halloween cards of your own?  Shop here to purchase Stampin' Up! materials!

Tights on Parade

Last year I fell in love with tights.  I know they've been back in style for a while now, but I am generally a few years behind these types of fashion trends.  I am not sure what I will do when they are no longer in style, because I've become obsessed with them.  They keep me warm and cozy all winter long, and make certain shoes more comfortable.  A few weeks ago I went shopping at outlets near my sister.  I bought a TON of tights!  It was hard to pass up the low initial cost plus the additional 30 or 40% discount outlets generally have.  Over the weekend, I was out and about and found MORE must have tights at J. Crew that were surprisingly on sale, so I snatched them up too.  Now, if I ever mention needing more tights, PLEASE STOP ME!  These are all the tights I've purchased in the past 2 weeks:

That's more than enough tights (considering I already have 10+ pairs from last year) so don't let me buy anymore.  Do we have a deal?  Thanks.

(PS I know some of you are anxiously awaiting the Birthday Outfit from yesterday's main event.  You'll have to wait just a little bit longer... this is a BUSY birthday week and I probably won't have time to post until next week, unfortunately.  Hang in there...it's coming!)

Life Begins at 30, Right?

I'm having a lot of anxiety about the dirrty 30 birthday that is approaching, and, well, by the time this post runs, it'll be HERE!  In retrospect, the 20s were a pretty good decade for me.  While I didn't accomplish everything I had hoped to, I did have many adventures, travels, and experiences I wouldn't trade in!


In anticipation of a new decade, I thought I would look back through the past 9 birthdays (if I can find pictures of each one!) to recap...  I used to be a mad scrapbooker, so some of these photos are scanned from books and are pretty heavily cropped; you'll get the idea, though.

20th Birthday: 2001

Sad truths about this picture: 1. I still own (and sometimes wear) this shirt 2. The belt, which you can see from another picture in the upper left hand corner is definitely a sparkly gold... I just threw it away last year and 3. I have no idea who the boy in the bottom picture is.  Do you?

21st Birthday: 2002

Okay, I definitely know who all of these people are, I am just not quite sure what we are doing.  Check out the X on my hand... yep, that's what they do at Penn State for your 21st birthday so you can't take any shots

22nd Birthday: 2003

Can't find any pictures from this birthday. This was shortly after I moved to VA, and I didn't know many people, so I am guessing I didn't have much of a party to take pictures of!

23rd Birthday: 2004

This was a fun joint birthday party where all things started with D... Desserts, Doorprizes, Dominoes, you name it. Why do we have blue lips?  Your guess is as good as mine!

24th Birthday: 2005

This was definitely the most embarassing birthday thus far.  Too many cocktails is definitely bad news.

25th Birthday:2006
Sadly, I can't find pictures from this birthday, either.  I know my sister came down, and the party was at Jen Heywood's house.  I got a HUGE red card... all my friends chipped in and paid for a trip to Stonehenge, as I was going to London a few weeks later.  Since I can't find the picture of the party, I'll toss in a London picture for good measure (they were only 2 weeks apart!)

26th Birthday: 2007

For the life of me, I cannot find a picture from this birthday.  I know I wore a short sleeve back sweater and black and white pants.  I know we had dinner at Magiano's and Amy Egoville had to drive me because my car broke down. The pictures seem to be MIA...

27th Birthday: 2008

 

Extremely wild hair... joint birthday party at the Melting Pot with Courtney

 

28th Birthday: 2009



Yep- we had a bridesmaid Bash for this party... 'nuff said



29th Birthday: 2010

 

Skirt: Anthropologie, summer 2010
Belt: Anthropologie, winter 2009
Cardigan: J. crew, circa 2009
Top: unknown
Necklace: Ann Taylor Loft, Fall 2010

 

For extra measure, here are birthday socks I got a few years ago from my friend, Raechel.  I try to wear them at some point during my birthday week, if not on the actual day:

All leading up to the main event... stay tuned to see the 2011 Birthday Outfit!

You May Be Right, I May Be Crazy, But It Just May Be a Lunatic You're Looking For

Get ready for a million pictures in this post.  I recently purchased a gorgeous headband from Rosy Posy Designs that I want to share with you.  Too, Friday my friends and I went out to celebrate our darling Courtney's birthday.  She was looking beautiful in a purple sweaterdress. (Friday was the first truly chilly day we've had this season).  We went out for cocktails and dinner at Chima.  If you're not familiar with Chima, it is definitely an experience!  It is a Brazilian steakhouse where Gauchos roam the dining room continually offering rotisserie meats.  We ate and ate and ate.  It is definitely a place to go if you 1) like red meat 2) like to eat and 3) are able to eat A LOT.

Here are all the girls at dinner (yes, we are all sharing one HUGE chair in the second photo):

In the morning, I had a presentation for work and then met some friends for happy hour before dinner.  I decided to wear Anthropologie's Lost Time Skirt from last summer to get me through the entire day.  This is another great sale purchase for me; the material is thick and I can wear it in every season. Last year I debuted the skirt in mid-October at my niece's baptism.  I figured a clock-themed skirt was the most appropriate item for a fairy godmother to wear.
I added a pop of color to the outfit by wearing red shoes and the red flower in my headband.  Here's the outfit of the day:

Skirt: Lost Time Skirt, Anthropologie, 2010
Blouse: Express circa 2006
Cardigan: Banana Republic Petite Spring 2011
Shoes: Nine West, Fall 2011
Headband: Rosy Posy Designs
Tights and Necklace unknown origin

I debuted these new shoes from the Nine West outlet.  They are super comfortable.  Yes, I wore tights with open toed shoes.  A major fashion faux pas, but I needed to be warm... plus, here's a secret, I didn't want to take time to shave my legs in the morning.

When looking for some new and interesting hair pieces, I stumbled across the cutest shop on Etsy, called Rosy Posy Designs.  If you are looking for some floral accessories, you should definitely check it out here! When the box arrived, the headband came in the cutest packaging, including a hand-written note from the designer.  Check it out below: