Storm Aftermath

Hey guys.  I am alive and well and so is the rest of my family. The storm that caused the horrific damage in Alabama passed over us as well, but no tornadoes touched town in my area. The storm did however drop tennis ball sized hail.  I swear to you I thought that the sky was falling... it was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. Come to find out, the hail smashed most of the glass on my car and dented the crap out of the body. It's been really stressful all day dealing with insurance, rental cars, and repair places... and it doesn't look good right now.  I'm trying to keep perspective because in the grand scheme of what this storm has done I was incredibly lucky.

It's a good thing that next week I already have guest bloggers lined up, because right now I'm having a hard time just doing the things that need to get done without bursting into tears, so safe to say the blog is taking a bit of a backseat right now. So if I'm MIA for awhile this and vacation of the reasons why.

Daily Outfit: Hey Look a Blog Post!

So first off, sorry guys for being completely MIA. I haven't had a chance to answer any comments or emails lately.  So don't think I'm ignoring you if you haven't heard from me! I will get to emails and comments soon, I promise! I've read them all, but I've just had next to no time lately with trying to get prepared for next week and accomplish everything that needs to be done this week.  I had outfits picked out for this past weekend that were so cute... but I didn't photograph any of them. Instead I opted for family time and left the camera at home. It was really nice, but it meant nothing for the blog this week.

My niece was precious on Easter. She was so into hunting easter eggs. She had her little bucket and every time we pointed out an egg she'd run over and rummage around for it. Then drop it in her little bucket all proud of herself. Then she'd look up at us and go "Where's eggs?" and hold her hands up in a questioning way. SO FREAKING ADORABLE.

Dress: Libertine for Target

Belt: Thrifted, via Goodwill

Shoes: Mix No. 6, via DSW

Sunglasses: Ray Ban

Daily Outfit: One Too Many Nights Spent Fumbling Someone's Heart to the Floor

So the other day I made the statement to a friend that I wasn't sure if I'd ever get married and she looked at me like I had three heads. She then proceeded to question me about why and stare at me like I was on crack. Here's the thing. It's just not even on my list of priorities. I'm not saying that if I met the right person and all that, that I wouldn't. No, I won't be surprised if I do get married.  But the point here is that I don't care if I do or not.  And I don't think that makes weird, I think that just makes me honest.

Top: LOFT
Short: Gap

Belt: Thrifted

Shoes: Steve Madden

Necklace: Vintage, Eagle's Wings Antiques (Roanoke, VA)

Daily Outfit: Every Highway Takes Me Where You Are

You guys probably notice that I make typos from time to time and random syntactical errors.  And when I pick up on them myself I always feel really silly and go back and fix them even if the post is already up. It makes me feel silly because I'm always a little afraid that someone is going to think I'm stupid because I used the wrong version of a word or spelled something wrong. The truth is it's not that I don't know the difference, quite the opposite.... I have a teacher for a mother who always corrected me, so I can't help but know the difference. It's mostly that I'm careless. And maybe that's worse, I don't know.

It's always been that way. I was a nearly straight A student my entire educational career, but I almost never checked my work. When I finished a test I turned it in, I didn't agonize over the answers I picked and when I wrote a paper I very rarely went back and read over it. It was like it took so much effort to get out my initial thoughts and I just couldn't bring myself to muster the energy it would take to read back over it. I swear the day I have to proof my thirty page college thesis was a miserable day for me. I loved the material it dealt with, but I was just so tired of looking at those pages it made me sick. 

And I think some of that holds true on posting for my blog. I put a lot of effort in to editing and arranging the pictures and writing something out for the post that when it comes to proofing it to makes sure it makes sense I just stare at the paragraphs for a minute or two without actually reading it and then hit publish. It's really a nasty habit, but I don't foresee it breaking anytime soon. It's been twenty or so years this way... and that's just how it is.

Top: Target

Jeggings: Jessica Simpson

Scarf: Thrifted

Shoes: Steve Madden

Guest Posting at Required2BeInspired

I'm guest posting for Natasha over at her lovely blog Required2BeInspired. Check out my version of an office to evening outfit.

My Name is Jenni and I'm a Pinterest Addict

I am one of those people that chronically saves images to their computer.  I have folders of random inspiration scattered between my desktop and my two external drives. And this is all well and good until I'm trying to write a post that includes these pictures... that's the point when I get frustrated and end up not writing the post because I can never seem to find the sources for all the photos I want to use. That was until I found out about Pinterest.



Pinterest is sort of like a bookmarking site. In the same way that you can clip something to a site like Polyvore, you can "pin" things to Pinterest and group them into boards for inspiration or just for fun.  I have never run into a site that Pinterest wouldn't pin from. It doesn't pin in frames, so if you read blogs through bloglovin' you'll have to X out of the bloglovin' frame to pin the images from that page, but that's simple enough.

I love that I can keep all my different inspirations in one place AND keep track of their sources. It's especially nice for keeping track of DIY projects I want to do because the photo links to the tutorial.  I have two boards for DIY one for projects I want to do in the future and one for projects I've already done, this way if they pertain to the blog I'll know where to go to reference it for you guys.



And I also love that I can keep track of all of my favorite looks from my fellow fashion bloggers too. It's great to be able to scroll through them in one place when I've feeling particularly needy in terms of style inspiration. And I have actually used something I pinned as inspiration for an outfit already (right here)!


My favorite of my boards are definitely my DIY board, Style Inspiration, and Pug pictures (because when I need a smile I scroll through all those precious pugs and I feel warm and fuzzy inside). But you can find all of my boards here. And since you can follow other people's boards you get an ever updating stream of inspiration and pretty things.

So now for the best part! Pinterest is giving you, my lovely readers, the opportunity to get an invitation to Pinterest. All you have to do is comment below with your email and Monday evening 15 commenters will be randomly picked to receive an invite to Pinterest!  Then you too can join in the addiction (I'm such an enabler)!

*Full Disclosure: Pinterest asked me to write a post about their site. They will be featuring one of my boards on a dedicated page along with other fashion bloggers and are offering up 15 invitations to Pinterest to my readers. I would never promote something that I do not personally use and love, so rest assured that I am genuinely addicted to Pinterest!

Daily Outfit: In Love With Love and Lousy Poetry

I love this skirt. Love love love it. And part of that might be because I had a hand in making it my own, which I might add is addictive.  But yes, this skirt is definitely going to be a spring favorite. I had been looking for a skirt this color for a while and when I saw this one I fell in love. It was long and boxy when I bought it, but I knew it had the potential to be what I had been dreaming of finding. And I was so right. It took a little awkward finagling to make it work because it had a slit which I had to work around and get rid of to make it the length I wanted, but it was so worth the frustrated moments.  And even better? I used the excess fabric to make a bow belt! I roughly used this tutorial, but mostly I just winged it and I loved how it turned out! And it can go with this skirt or with a ton of other things. So excited!









And this is me making a really awkward face while showing you that this belt isn't part of the skirt. Yeah, you enjoy that awkward face... bask in it's awkward glory.

Top: Anthropologie

Skirt: Thrifted & Altered, via Goodwill (Franklin, TN)

Belt: Made by Me

Shoes: Calvin Klein

Necklace: Unknown

Daily Outfit: Like a Bird Upon the Wind, These Waters Are My Sky

Hey Suze, I finally got pictures of me wearing this dress! See Suze sent me an awesome birthday package and this dress was one of the things.  I have actually worn this dress twice before, but didn't get any pictures because both days it was raining cats and dogs. But finally I get to share with you the adorable dress that Suze sent me! It's so bright and fun and thus deserves bright and fun accessories to style it up!

And taking these pictures was hilarious.  I don't know why I pick the location s I pick sometimes... this time it was a weeping willow on a windy day. I was ducking and dodging half of this photo shoot so not to get whipped in the face by a branch! It was very amusing.

Dress: Gift, c/o Suze

Cardigan: Lilly Pulitzer

Sash: From an Anthropologie Dress

Shoes: Gianni Bini

Daily Outfits: Folk Singers Sing Songs For the Working, Baby

When I first saw this dress of Sarah's I loved the colors and pattern and shape of the dress. The problem with it for me was that the top portion didn't fit all that well and was kind of low cut for my taste. You see I'm all for a short skirts, but I try to keep my tops in the more modest realm. So anyways... I thought about it for awhile and yesterday morning while laying in bed it hit me that I the perfect top to put on top of it.  With a little folding up of the top and a little finagling of the tie portion of this wrap dress, and I voila! I really love how this turned out! Sarah's things are going on their way home this week, so this is the last of my stylings of her things. I have really enjoyed this whole swapping thing!

And to check out how Miss B styled some of my items hop on over to Love Fox Vintage.  Here are two outfits of mine including some of the items that Miss B styled: Blue Skirt and 70s Dress.

Dress: Swapped (Sarah's)

Top: LOFT

Shoes: Seychelles, via Zappos.com

Daily Outfit: Hey I Found the Safest Place to Keep All Our Tenderness, Keep All Our Bad Ideas, Keep All Our Hope

So with this skirt I have achieved a couple things. Number one: I know own a blush colored skirt, which I have been pining for. Number two: I have now sewn a piece of clothing! Yep, that's right. This is the first piece of clothing that I have ever sewn. AND I LOVE IT. Monday night I was bouncing all over the place in excitement after I finished it. Thanks to super easy tutorial on Tania's blog What a Nerd Would Wear, I have officially dipped my toes into the hand sewn clothing pool and... I like the water! I got a few compliments on it today, one of which was that it looked like a skirt that someone had seen from J. Crew... so I am very pleased with myself, as you can see!

Dress (as top): H&M

Skirt: Made by Me (Tutorial from WWANW)

Shoes: Calvin Klein

Earrings: Unknown

Bracelet: Gift

Daily Outfit: Bring Your Swiss-Army Knife, and a Bottle of Something

So apparently all it takes to make my ENTIRE BODY itch is to sit in the grass. Yeah... after this I itched for like 2 hours and I had to take sinus medicine to quell quickly swelling sinuses. Have I mentioned how much I hate pollen? Honestly if I could have a genie lamp and three wishes the first thing I would wish for would be to never ever been allergic to anything.  Siiiigh.

On a less complainy note, I am in love with my aviators. It took a lot of debating, but I finally gave in and bought them in my prescription and I love them. I feel like such a badass when I'm wearing them.  I have always associated aviators with coolness for some reason. Maybe because all of the people I have ever been intimidated by or thought were badasses wore aviators... I really don't know. But seriously I have a major thing for aviators.

Dress: Free People

Hat: Target

Shoes: Rainbows

Necklace: Unknown

Sunglasses: Ray Ban

Thrift Store Haul: Goodwill in Nashville

So I spent a few days in Nashville over last week and over the weekend for work, and while I was there I hit a few stores, one of which was the Goodwill in Franklin, TN.  At first I wasn't really having any luck, but then I saw these two beauties side by side on the rack and I was so excited! 



I have been on the hunt for a mint green skirt for awhile now, and so when I saw this beauty I was so excited! Then I put it on in the dressing room and was really disappointed by the shape. It fit perfectly, but the shape was boxy and unflattering... then I folded up the bottom and presto! It suddenly became the skirt I have been dreaming of. Now as soon as my blind hem foot comes in for my sewing machine I will be shortening this baby.  I can't wait... I have so many plans for this skirt I can't contain myself!