Daily Outfit: Rain All Day and I'll Stay All Day with You

So forgive me for that blurry spot in the middle of these pictures. Apparently I got my dirty jam hands all over the lens and didn't notice it until I was editing these pictures. It's cleaned now, so no more dirty jam hand lens for pictures tomorrow.

So today when I heard the UPS truck pull up I danced around in the middle of my living room and the moment he knocked on the door I jerked it open snatched up the package he left and tore into it! It was my swap box from Sarah of And She Loved. And I have to say I was even more excited when I saw all those colorful patterned pieces staring up at me from inside that box. I giddily held them up one by one and then stuffed them back in the box and ran to my closet to play dress up. I can't wait to show you guys her lovely clothes remixed with my stuff! It's going to be so much fun! (!!!!) Please humor me and tell me you're excited too!

Dress: Vintage, Spanish Moss Vintage

Sweater: ModCloth

Belt: H&M

Socks: Sock Dreams

Shoes: Steve Madden

Daily Outfit: Come on Let Your Colors Burst

So if you follow me on twitter you might have noticed how obsessed I am with the Katy Perry shatter polish.  I saw Nancy of Pigglywinks showing off how she painted a rainbow on her nails and covered it with the shatter polish and I was ridiculously excited to do the same.  And I have to say... I'm completely in love.

So I'm also loving the Kermit the frogginess of these tights.  I think that's what attracted me to them. They're just THAT green.  And I don't know that i have ever worn these shoes on the blog or not. I've had them for ages and I love them dearly. Not only are they awesome to look at, but they are one of my more comfortable pairs of heels, which is always a major plus.  This whole outfit kind of came together by accident, but I really love it.  Apparently throwing things together while I'm half asleep and headed to a meeting in half an hour is a good strategy for me.

Blouse: Target

Dress: Banana Republic

Tights: We Love Colors

Shoes: Tahari

Necklace: Express

Daily Outfit: And Puppy + Pool Drama

So this outfit lasted all of two hours on me. Why you ask? Well now here is comes... another one of those "how do these things happen to you" stories.... So we got a new puppy. She's precious, she's tiny, and for the first hour she scared the hell out of our 1.5 year old basset hound. So we're outside in the backyard, and Hanna (that's the puppy's name) is following Macy around and Macy is literally running away from her. Well my mom and I go inside and are standing at the kitchen window watching my dad try to walk between the edge of the pool and Hanna. And I'm laughing and saying to my mom "Remember that time Sweetie was chasing Bo around the pool (those were our two bassets we had years ago) and Bo clipped that corner too close and fell in the pool?" She laughs... and then...

Macy cuts the EXACT SAME CORNER too close and in slow mo I see her falling into the pool. I start yelling NO NO NO! and running down the stairs and out to the backyard and my mom is right behind me. Ok so first, this wouldn't have been nearly as big of a deal if it weren't for the fact that the pool has been mostly drained so they can do work on it, which means she was about six feet below the rim of the pool, in the deep end, in extremely cold water. So by the time we get out there my dad has already gone in the pool after her. Now we have the dog and my dad in the pool. Well my dad is trying to push Macy along and swim at the same time, and it's not really working. It's at this point that my mom starts to freak out.

Mom: "Smokey, are you ok?"
Dad: "No."
Mom: "JENNIFER GET IN THE POOL, YOUR DADDY'S GOING TO DROWN!"
Me: "uhhh..."

So then I get in and sort of inch myself in to get when I can reach the dog and get her out and then help my dad. So we get everyone out of the pool and my dad looks at my mom and says "Cindy, why would I drown? There's only four feet of water in that pool." And as for the puppy... she was just trotting around the the backyard as if nothing was happening.

So yeah... then I had to take this off because it was half soaked in dirty pool water.

Top: Talbots

Shorts: Gap

Tights: Cynthia Rowley, via Gilt.com

Shoes: Target

Jacket: Gianni Bini

Belt: Unknown

Daily Outfit: I Guess It's Spring, I Didn't Know, It's Always Seventy-Five with No Melting Snow

Finally some outfit pictures that I am excited about.  I really haven't been feeling my outfit photos since this post. A lot of this is probably lack of time during the week.  You'd think that longer hours of daylight would mean more time for pictures, but nope.  Work is busy and after 5pm it's a game of dodge the dog walkers and grounds crew.  And not to mention with the pollen count climbing being outside for any length of time is inevitably going to leave me sneezing my face off for an hour! Which sad to say I'm pretty much used to after so many years of it!

It's funny how I prefer the cold of the winter for outfit photos over the nice weather we're having right now. Winter and cold means the likelihood of random people wandering close to my photo location and then standing there staring at me or asking me prying questions is diminished, but warm weather on the other hand brings out people in droves and most of them fill the need to point out to me that it's weird that I'm taking pictures of myself.  Thanks random strange... now move along.

Dress: BB Dakota, via ModCloth

Cropped Jacket: Heart Moon Star

Shoes: Calvin Klein

Necklace: Gift

Side by Side: Yellow & Maroon

So today things look a little different, huh? So a while ago Ana, of Better in Sepia, and I realized that we have the same yellow J. Crew Skirt and the same Maroon We Love Colors tights. This led to the idea that we should do a side by side outfit post where we each styled the skirt and tights together. So here we are! What do you guys think? I think Ana's outfit is fantastic! I love the pattern mixing she has going on and that collar is always amazing!

My outfit actually morphed during the photo shoot. I originally had this shirt tucked into the skirt, but every time I moved a different part of the shirt came untucked, and I finally gave up and untucked it all. When I looked at the picture I took with it untucked I actually liked it better! (Go figure...) Unfortunately this meant starting all over with the pictures... siiiigh. So forgive me that these are not the beat outfit photos I've ever taken! Also I need to iron this skirt... my momma would be ashamed!

Ana's Wearing

Skirt: J. Crew

Tights: We Love Colors (Maroon)

Top: Urban Outfitters
Belt: J. Crew

Shoes: Seychelles

Collar: Consigned, via Modern Millie

Jenni's Wearing

Blouse: Thrifted, via Ragtime (Asheville, NC)

Skirt: J. Crew

Belt: Forever21

Tights: We Love Colors (Maroon)

Shoes: Betsey Johnson, via Nordstrom's Rack

FBFF: Lesson Learned

This week FBFF is talking about the hardest blogging lessons we've learned during this process and how they have helped make us better bloggers as a result.  Some people may be giving five things, which is what the question this week originally said, but I really only feel strongly about two things that I have learned so far. Therefore I will be sharing two of the hardest lessons I have learned while blogging. So here goes!

ONE

Well when I first started blogging I was self conscious about people liking me.  As I say to my best friend all the time "This is a lot to handle." (complete with hand motioning to me).  It's true in life as well as blogging.  I was finding it hard to be myself in the beginning because I was self conscious about who might be reading my blog and what they might think of me. It took me a year to get to the point where I decided that if I lose a few followers because of my bluntness/weird quirks/lack of political correctness or because I'm am open about dating both women and men, then so be it.  I want to be honest with everyone in my life and if you know me in real life my personality quirks and my sort of blunt honesty is unavoidable. So I have stopped over-thinking what I write on my blog and have just started writing from the randomness that is me and writing it how I would say it to my friends. In this way I have really gotten comfortable with my voice as a blogger and I feel more connected to my readers because I feel like I'm being candid with you guys.

TWO

Networking is a must.  I honestly feel like the word networking is a dirty word in my vocab at this point.  I'm so sick of hearing it and sick of knowing that it's a must.  I am a desperately bad networker.  I am almost cripplingly shy in large social situations if you can believe that. I think I just over analyze social situations and try to say the exact right thing which usually just ends in me being so overwhelmed that I don't say anything at all or I blurt out something completely random and everyone just sort of stares at me.  You can imagine how this goes for me as far as career networking and even dating.

I've found that this still extends to the internet and blog networking as well.  I am always terrified to email a blogger or jump into conversations or things because I'm afraid to seem like I'm trying to butt in or I just feel self-conscious.  And I feel like in both real life and in the blog world I some times come off as a bitch or like I'm not friendly... but honestly I'm just unbelievably shy and a bit on the socially awkward side as well.  I'm really a very nice person, I swear!  This is one that I am still working on.  I think more than anything I've been able to understand this about myself further through blogging.  I'm getting better in real life as well as in blogging, but it's a slow slow road for me.  I'm just taking it one day and one interaction at a time.  I know that conquering this will help me to expand my blog (and you know get a job and meet people and date and what not), so it's something I need to focus on more than I do.

So That's my musings on lessons I have learned blogging and how they have helped me or are continuing to push me in a direction that will help me eventually. Head over to ModlyChic to find the full list of participants and see what others had to say on this topic!

My Weekend: North Carolina Mountains

So this past weekend was my 25th birthday, which of course is a great excuse for my best friend Ashley and I to get together, rent a cabin in the middle of the North Carolina mountains, and drink wine every night in a hot tub.  Yeah that's pretty much how my weekend was spent. And it was beyond glorious!





The first night was spent wandering around Dillsboro, NC (which is where we actually were).  Then we headed back to our lovely little Inn (Dillsboro Inn) and climbed in the hot tub on the river side with two bottles of wine and two coffee cups and had inappropriate conversations and laughed ourselves to tears.



Then we spent the Friday in Asheville, NC shopping and eating and hanging with a friend of mine from college who I have missed terribly!  It was snowing in the morning, but very pretty by the afternoon.  We hit up Early Girl Eatery for breakfast, spent time combing the shelves of Malaprop's Bookstore, hit up the giant Goodwill on Patton, had lunch at Burgermeister's with my friend, did some shopping at Minx Boutique and Ragtime before stopping off at Earth Fare for our dinner or roasted veggies, assorted cheeses and more wine. 





Then we headed back to the inn, enjoyed our dinner, consumed smores at the campfire, and then climbed back in the hot tub with more wine and more inappropriate conversations and laughter.  It was pretty much the perfect day.





So we hit up Cherokee, NC on Saturday went to the museum there had a pancake breakfast and hoagies for lunch.  Then we wandered around and after that we headed off to do some letterboxing, which was completely unsuccessful and entirely frustrating! And then Ashley followed me around with that stick saying she was Spearfinger... which is a Cherokee legend that makes my skin crawl a bit (look it up, it's creepy)... then we made a bunch of inappropriate Spearfinger jokes involving liver tacos and such and called it a day with another night of smores, wine and hot tub.

Blouse: Anthropologie || Dress: Olsenboyle || Tights: We Love Colors (Lilac) || Socks: Sock Dreams || Shoes: Steve Madden || Jacket: Gianni Bini

The above is what I wore on my birthday and hiking... yeah I wore that hiking, but only for a really short hike, then I changed into something else for the more intense hiking later that day.

So as you can see the theme of the weekend was wine, hot tubbing, and inappropriate conversations. Pretty par for the course with us!  Now it's back to life as usual, but with a much more intense need to move to Asheville, NC ASAP. 

Daily Outfit: You've Got a Gypsy Soul to Blame & You Were Born For Leavin'

This is one of the dresses that I picked up in Asheville over the weekend and one of the belts I thrifted there as well.  I am not super crazy about this dress over this top because it gives it a little too much volume when there is already a lot of volume in the top to begin with.  I just really needed to make it a bit more weather and work appropriate.  Today was probably not warm enough to be going bare legged, but I'm tired of cold weather, dammit!  I am just going to start dressing for spring and maybe mother nature will pick up on it and get with the program!  This dress is going to look so cute on its own!

So my current obsession is bread making... or really right now learning about bread making.  I'll have to wait for the weekend to get any quality bread making time in this week.  I have been reading the book The River Cottage Bread Handbook by Daniel Stevens, which I picked up at Malaprop's in Asheville, and it brings me all kinds of joy.  It's fascinating and then on top of that it's got these beautiful pictures of the process.  Ashley and I were joking that it's like bread porn... ha. Once I'm done devouring the information I'm going to give some of Daniel's recipes a try... maybe even try my hand at them all.  I mean how do I know if I like them if I don't try, and plus, practice is the only way to become a better baker.  I have a feeling my friends are all going to get bread in the mail if I do this. I promise I won't over load you with baking posts, though there will of course me some... it's unavoidable.

Dress: Peppermint, via Minx (Asheville, NC)

Blouse: Anthropologie

Belt: Thrifted

Booties: Marshalls

Thrift Store Haul: North Carolina

So more about my birthday weekend in North Carolina is to come, but I am so excited to be able to do a thrift store haul post once again. I haven't had a lot of time to thrift, and practically no luck when I did I have time, so I was literally bouncing all over the place after the massive success I had thrifting with my besty in Asheville. We hit up the HUGE Goodwill on Patton and Ragtime downtown.

I can't wait wait this adorable top with a pencil skirt or my J. Crew mini skirt. It's going to be so darling.





The Goodwill was seriously huge. And it apparently had an outlet center in the back where they sell everything by the pound. Yeah... by the pound! Ashley and I didn't brave that one though... I think that would have been a little much for me.



And then... Ashley spotted this! I could never manage to find it in my size when Target actually had it, but now it's mine and for only three bucks! I say I win, glen cocoa!





And I added an assortment of belts to my collection, including a skinny brown belt and a taupe one which I have been after for awhile. And that black and gold one is going to look freakin' amazing with a new dress I purchased over the weekend from Minx (which is the most adorable little boutique in downtown Asheville that I will spend all of my money at when I live in Asheville).



And lastly... these babies. I have plans for these babies. We'll see if things work out the way that I am planning, but if they do then I'll finally have navy flats AND sparkly flats! But this also might end in a messy disaster too, soooo... it's a good thing they were only like three bucks.



So as you can see... I scored majorly. And I spent under $50 on all of it! I can't wait to style these pieces up!