Friend Friday: Beauty Products

Katy from ModlyChic has invited me to be a part of Friend Friday.  To read more about what that is, click here. 

So here's my very first Friend Friday post! This week, we're talking about beauty products.  I'm not a huge beauty product person.  I use my main make-up items and that's about it. Without further ado, here are the items for discussion!

1. What are the three products you couldn't live without?

ProActiv, deodorant, eyeliner

2. Which products do you never leave home without?

Hm...this is a hard one because I typically do my make-up at home and then forget about it.  Let's go with lip balm.  I usually have either Burt's Bees or ChapStick in my purse.  I never (okay, rarely) use lipstick or gloss because I can't stand having to reapply all day long, plus I drink a lot of bottled water and the taste on the bottles is ick. So I use lip balm a lot to keep my lips moist.

3. When purchasing what is your one big beauty weakness?

Huh.  There's a good question.  I don't really have one.  I have my basics that I use every day (eyeliner, eyeshadow, mascara), I typically stick with the same brand and shades, so I don't have a big weakness for anything else.  Wow, I sound really boring...

4. Do you have a secret remedy, concoction, family tradition that you use?

Nope.  The only "secret" I have is white eyeliner.  Some Mary Kay chick told me before my wedding that I have "hooded eyes" and need to use a light eyeliner on top.  I decided to go REALLY light and use a white kohl eyeliner just towards the inside of my eyes.  I use my normal purple liquid liner on the outside and bottoms. 

5. When it comes to your face, what area do you usually try to accentuate?

Considering the only make-up I use is eye make-up, I'd say that I try to accentuate my eyes.  :) My skin isn't all that great so I steer clear of foundation, powder, blush (unless I'm going somewhere that I know a lot of pictures will be taken) and we've already discussed my lack of lipstick usage. I don't think my eyes are anything great, so I try to make 'em pretty and leave it at that!

So there you have it!  My very first Friend Friday post!  This was fun.  Because really, who doesn't like answering questions about themselves? I can't wait to see what next week's questions are!

Thanks for inviting me to be a part of Friend Friday, Katy!

Daily MelWear: WAY Casual Friday

For some reason, I had a really difficult time figuring out what to wear today.  And what I ended up with is no prize, but it'll do for today's activities. Which include my monthly weigh-in at Medi...and that's about it.  Oh, right, I'm coming back home afterward so the bug man can spray.  So, for a day spent mostly at home, I suppose this easy, breezy outfit works okay.  Especially because the high is supposed to be close to 90! 

I'm still trying to figure out what to wear to see Sex and the City tonight.  I have a few outfits in mind but haven't made a decision yet.  I might post my final choice if I think to take pics before I leave the house.  

And now, for today's outfit's stuff:

Pink Tank: Plato's Closet

Denim Tiered Skirt: Gap (pre-pregnancy)

Floral Flats: Target

Green Necklace and Earrings: Beya

Silver Bangles: Wal-Mart

 

Daily MelWear: Yellow Pumps Wanted

Every time I wear this dress, or the green/blue combo at all, I want to wear yellow with it.  The last time I wore the dress, I wore it to my friend April's birthday dinner without the white shirt and with some yellow peep-toe wedges.  As I've lamented before, I can't wear open-toe shoes to work so I can't add yellow that way.  (I'm still on the hunt for the perfect closed-toe yellow pumps.  Perfect = cute + affordable. Affordable = CHEAP.) I decided the only way to throw in the yellow was with my necklace.  I think the fact that they're plastic beads makes the necklace normally a little too casual for the office, but the dress, heels and white button-down shirt up the professional ante, if you will.

I've wanted to wear this dress to work but didn't know how to make it office appropriate, considering how low cut it is.  I usually pin it closed higher up anyway but I felt like I needed to do a bit more for work.  The idea came to me a few weeks ago to layer the white shirt underneath, but I haven't tried it until today.  It actually turned out better than I had it pictured in my mind.  I love it when that happens!  So today I feel office-appropriate, stylish, Mommy-like, pretty and comfortable.  Score!

Speaking of Score!, my mom sent me a text that my daughter actually requested to wear big girl panties this morning!  She'll be three next weekend and has been saying she'll use the potty once she turns three because she'll be a big girl then (she makes sure to mention that she'll only do it AFTER she's had her birthday cake). We started trying to potty train her around two, but there have been other issues so we've let it go and not mentioned it at all.  We figured when she's ready, she'll be ready and we'll work on it then.  It seems like she's starting to be ready, so I'm getting excited!  Yay for not having to buy diapers! 

Ooooh, tangent.  Sorry for rambling. I'm just excited! 

Okay, today's outfit (Eh, looking at this picture I feel like I look a little bit pregnant.  This is not good.):

Dress: From my mom

White shirt: Target? Wal-Mart? (pre-pregnancy)

Black Mary Janes: Wal-Mart

Yellow Necklace: Wal-Mart

Daily MelWear: LBD

 My original plan for today's outfit was thwarted...in a good way.  I was going to wear this with a brown belt and brown shoes (I have been against black and brown for too long, I really want to try them together now), but my brown belt is too big now!  It's a little sad because it's not that old, but I'd rather it be too big than too small!  And this gives me an excuse to go shopping for a new brown belt...or two. Looking back at this pics, I'm feeling like this white belt is a little too big as well (it's from an outfit that I bought WAY before I lost the baby weight but I figured since it was stretchy, it might work...now I'm on the fence about it).  Hm...perhaps I need to go shopping for brown AND white belts...and other colors too!

So today I'm wearing my Little Black Dress with my new black and white striped tee from Macy's.  I love the ruching on the sleeves of the tee. This shirt is so versatile and I can already see tons of outfits using it. When the brown part of my combo didn't work, I decided to grab my white belt instead and add in some pops of blue.  I'm pretty happy with how the outfit turned out in the end.

This Friday I have plans to go see Sex and the City 2 with some co-workers and my mom, so I stayed up late last night watching the first movie.  Still, I got up at my usual 4:30AM to do my Insanity workout.  I'm exhausted, but I love that movie and I'm proud of myself for still getting up to exercise.  Now I have to come up with my outfit for Friday night.  Any suggestions?

Here's today's stuff:

Black Dress: Plato's Closet (thrifted? consigned?)

Black/White Tee: Macy's

White Belt: Kohl's (belongs to a dress I bought a few years ago that doesn't fit anymore - belt too big now?)

Black Bow Pumps: Wal-Mart (clearance!)

Blue Necklace and Earrings: Beya (clearance!)

Daily MelWear: Pink, Yellow and Gray

First of all, is it gray with an "a" or grey with an "e"? What's the difference?  Considering how persnickety I can be about language, you'd think I'd know the answer to that but I don't.

Anyway.

In theory, I really liked this outfit.  Gray (grey?) pants, yellow and white striped shirt, pink cardigan, nude shoes.  I like the combo of gray, yellow and pink.

In life, however...I'm not sure this meshed very well.  I think it'd be better if the sleeves of the cardigan were a little longer, if the pink was more pastel than deep, and maybe if the cardgan was longer too.  And maybe a belt.  At any rate, I think up my oufits either during the day or while I'm drifting to sleep at night and I don't normally have time before work to try anything out.  I picture it in my head and hope it works because I don't have time to change.  :) (Notice the wet hair every day?  I used to have time to dry it...not sure what happened.  Workouts taking longer?  I dunno.)

Oh, I had my annual job eval yesterday.  She used the word "excellant" a lot.  There was nothing she told me that I needed to improve.  However, there was also no mention of a raise.  I do know that within this corporation, if you get good marks on everything you're pretty much assured of a raise.  This year I think it's 2%.  I'm pretty sure she just forgot to mention it, since she's not really the one who decides if I get it or not.

Today starts a new study on a blood glucose meter (I work in Diabetes Research as the Clinical Research Support, which is really just a fancy name for Administrative Assistant but it gives my boss the excuse to forget Administrative Professionals Day because she says that I'm not just an Administrative Assistant. Heh. It'd still be nice to get taken out to lunch or something.).  These meter studies are EXHAUSTING and I'm not even a Research Coordinator!  We have patients coming in and out of our office all day long, so much paperwork to do, questions to answer, places to run.  This one is going to run for the next 4-5 weeks.  My goal is to be dressed comfortably since I'll be running around like a chicken with its head cut off most of the time.  But I still wanna be cute! :)

Whew! This post got a little lengthy.  Sorry about that!  Here are the items in today's outfit:

Yellow/White shirt: Macy's (clearance) (first wear)

Pink Cardigan: Plato's Closet

Gray Pants: Charlotte Russe (pre-pregnancy)

Nude Snakeskin Pumps: DSW (clearance)

Necklace and earrings: Wal-Mart

Daily MelWear: Annual Evaluation Day

This is the dress that I bought with my Macy's gift card over the weekend.  Love it!  Today is {supposed to be} my annual job evaluation at 3PM so I decided to wear the dress simply. 

I've been wanting to try the red/blue combo without looking like a poster for 4th of July fireworks and I think this pulled it off pretty well.  I have on my new red/wine pumps (I know they look black in the picture and I'm wearing a blue cardigan that might be just a tad too small.  Maybe.  But I like it and can't afford shopping for a new one right now, so it stays.

The only thing I feel like I'm missing are some pearls.  I don't own any pearls!  I think several strands would look perfect with this dress.  Anyone wanna send me some pearls?  Fake ones would be fabulous!  I can't handle the responsibility of owning real ones.

Here's hoping my job eval ends with the announcement of a raise! It'll likely be small but any raise is better than none at all!

Today's outfit:

Dress: Macy's (clearance!)

Wine Pumps: DSW (clearance!)

Cardigan: I have no idea (pre-pregnancy days)

Earrings: Wal-Mart

Here's a shot that I took last week of the pumps, so you can see the color a little better. 

Do you wash your new clothes before wearing?

Quite a while ago, I won a giveaway from Lindsey at She's Still Got It for a $50 Macy's gift card. 

I've never shopped at Macy's in my entire life, but I'd recently lost all of my pregnancy weight and needed some new clothes. I stopped in a few weeks ago and found a great outfit of your basic black pencil skirt and a white button down shirt (with ruffles - yay!).  Unfortunately, they weren't marked down as much as I'd thought and they far exceeded my gift card.  I put them both back.

Today was my next opportunity to stop in.  I spent almost two hours in the store trying to get the most out of the gift card (spending the entire thing on one item was not an option) and finally settled on three items: a gorgeous black and white dress, a yellow/white stripped t-shirt and a black/white stripped t-shirt. 

What was the first thing I did when I brought them home?  I removed the tags and put them all right into my hamper.  

I wash EVERYTHING before I wear it. Yes, I can be a little bit OCD at times but think about how many people use the restroom but DON'T wash their hands, and then they go clothes shopping and put their dirty, bacteria and germ-laden hands all over the items!

Ew.  So yes, I don't wear any new item until I've washed it. Do you wash all of your clothes before wearing them, or am I really weird?

Daily MelWear: Friday is Mommy Day!

Fridays are awesome.  They're usually awesome for most people because they signify the end of the workweek and the coming of the weekend.

For me, however, they mean an entire day with my daughter! My husband works on Fridays and I don't (I work 7:30AM - 6PM, Monday - Thursday), so I treasure my Mommy Days with my girl. 

My plan today is to take her to the park to burn off some energy and possibly hit a couple of baby consignment stores to see if I can sell any of her clothes to generate some cash for this weekend.  Because otherwise, I. Am. Broke. 

Today's outfit is a dress that I bought at Kohl's with a gift card a few weeks ago.  This is definitely not a dress for work because the skirt looks like denim and that's a big, fat "never" at my job. Even adding a blazer wouldn't help, so I usually pull this out on the weekends.  Especially a weekend like this one, where the high temp is supposed to be 92! That's hot, ya'll. Stinky, sweaty hot. This dress will keep me cool and feeling pretty! The only thing that would make it better is POCKETS!  I need to find a dress and/or skirt with pockets.

By the way, we took the pictures in the kitchen near the french doors to the back porch today.  I think the lighting is a little better, yes? Not so much? Eh. We tried. iPhone cameras were not made for this. 

Today's stuff:

Dress: Kohl's (clearance!)

Green necklace and earrings: Wal-Mart

Black flats: Target (clearance!)

Daily MelWear: Blue, Green and Purple

I have got to find a way to take better pictures.  You can't even really see the colors in today's outfit and I really like the combo! (Update: my co-worker took some pictures outside at work...they're a little better to see the colors, but I kind of hate how I look a little bit. Scroll to the bottom to see them.)

After writing yesterday that I couldn't come up with a better outfit for my new shoes, I realized that I actually could have worn them with today's outfit.  But I didn't.  I decided instead to wear my patent purple slingbacks that I haven't worn in probably a year.  They're comfy and I like them.

I took pictures with the cardigan button in the middle and also without.  I decided it was a bit too snug buttoned like that so I'm leaving unbuttoned today.  The air in our building is fixed which means I'm freezing and glad that I wore a cardigan with long sleeves!

Today's stuff:

Green t-shirt: Target

Blue zebra cardi: Wal-Mart (clearance)

Blank pants: Charlotte Russe (pre-pregnancy!)

Purple slingbacks: Wal-Mart

Necklace and earrings: Wal-Mart

Oh, and last week sometime when I was taking pictures of my shoes, my girl decided she wanted to take a picture of her feet too.  This picture was taken by my almost-three-year-old herself! She's so stinkin' cute. And look at her cute little feet!!!  I love that girl.

Daily MelWear: New Shoes!

I went to DSW over the weekend to use a gift card from my birthday (thanks Laura and Jeff!) and found TWO pairs of shoes in the clearance section.  I meant to only spend the gift card, but I just couldn't say no. 

NOTE: I did in fact call my husband to ask if he minded me spending the extra unbudgeted money.  He said to go ahead. 

So I did. 

I've been wanting to wear these shoes all week and thought they'd be really easy to style, but they've proven a little difficult with my current wardrobe.  I decided to be lazy with my outfit today because I just wanted to wear these shoes.  They're so comfy! Strangly when I tried on the first pair, they hurt my toes after just a few minutes.  A while later I tried on another pair, same exact shoe, same size...but they were comfortable!  Weird. I'm not going to ask questions, I'm just going to take my cute new shoes home. :) They are a really pretty, deep wine color (red...ish?) with flowers on the sides.  Love them!

 

Today's outfit is your basic gray pant, a black cami and a sheer black tunic with a rope belt and ruffled v-neck. Such a comfy day! Albeit a little boring, but comfy nonetheless. 

Cami: so old I can't remember

Black tunic with rope belt: Plato's Closet

Gray pants: Charlotte Russe (pre-pregnancy!)

Pumps: DSW (clearance) 

Daily MelWear: Cats and Ruffles

So I can't decide if this cardigan is leopard print or some other feline.  I'm not sure.  If you know, let me know. I feel a little dumb.

I've had this dress for months and months but it's a little clingy so I've been too afraid to wear it.  Then I decided it wouldn't be awful if I put a cardigan over top of it (which I'd probably do anyway).  It's really cute!  It's still more clingy than I would like (I need some Spanx) below the cardigan but it works okay. 

I was going to wear yellow jewelry but then I remembered my turquoise set that I haven't worn yet.  Makes me happy!

Yesterday the air was broken in our office and I meant to dress cooler today.  So much for that idea!  I just pushed the sleeves up and I'm hoping the air will be fixed today.  It's still pretty warm in here though. Maybe it'll be fixed soon!

Dress: Plato's Closet (thrifted? consigned?)

Cardigan: Wal-Mart (clearance)

Belt: Salvation Army

Necklace, earrings, bracelets: Wal-Mart

Shoes: Payless (gift from my mommy!) (the quality of the picture stinks but they're gray with black piping.)

Close-up of dress and turquoise jewelry - I love the ruffles on the V-neck!

Daily MelWear: Leopard and Snakes

This weekend was exhausting.  Full of no plans at all and yet it completely drained me.

Saturday was a shorts, tank top and no make-up kind of day.  I went to the grocery store.  That's about it.

Sunday is normally church day but we were all so worn out (but WHY?!) that we slept in and stayed home. I took some pictures of my unshowered, no make-up self that morning before we went out for a late breakfast, but I'll save those to post for a day when I think you all need something to laugh at.

And now for today.  This outfit is based on a suggestion from my aunt when she saw my first outfit last week, with the leopard shirt and khaki skirt.  I like the idea of wrapping a button-down shirt instead of buttoning it, but it's starting to get on my nerves a little bit and I'm not sure it'll stay this way.  I may end up buttoning it soon.  I rolled up the sleeves too but this shirt is so silky-like that they keep coming down.  Oh well.  The skirt fits better than it did the first time I wore it - thanks, I'm sure, to the Insanity workout! 

Leopard Shirt: Salvation Army

Teal tank: so old I can't even remember (pre-pregnancy!)

Belt: Salvation Army

Black pencil skirt: Target (one of their daily deals a few weeks ago!)

Nude snakeskin (fake) pumps: DSW (clearance!)

I have GOT to figure out how to get Blogger to position things the way I want.  Everything looks kind of screwy to me and I have no idea how to fix it. I'll have to work on that.  

Daily MelWear: Friday, what to do?

The plan for today was to go hang out with a friend and our kids, so I dressed for that but our plans fell through.  Now my plan is to bring my husband his lunch and maybe go grocery shopping.

I lead such an exciting life. Envy me. 

Dress: Wal-Mart (clearance!)

Green necklace and earrings: Beya

Yellow belt: Salvation Army store

Floral flats: Target

 So now I need to figure out how to occupy our time  without sitting my girl in front of the TV all day. 

I love Fridays with my girl, but this is the first one in months where Pat has had to work, since he started a new job.  I miss our family Fridays!

I'm glad I dressed comfortably today though!  It's still a great outfit even just for sitting at home.  Comfy and I won't look frumpy if we go grocery shopping. 

How do you dress on stay-home-and-do-nothing days?

Daily MelWear: Pattern Mixing, Take 1!

Technically this is take 2 of pattern mixing, but my first attempt was before I started the blog so I don't have any pictures and it doesn't count. I should wear that outfit again just for the blog.

I LOVE this outfit.  Love it.  It just makes me happy.  I was using my gift cards in Kohl's and tried both of these pieces on (clearance!) together, but didn't intend to wear them together...until I saw it in the mirror.  It was an AHA! moment for me.  I can do pattern mixing!  Whee!  Look at me! 

Now, the reason I think this works is because it's mostly a black and white color scheme with just the blue added for color.  Plus neither of the patterns are really wild and crazy; they're pretty tame.  The belt (which came with the shirt; the shirt has beltloops but I'm wearing the belt over top of the skirt) makes it look more like it's "meant" to go together.  Personally, I think these were meant to go together anyway!

I just have to bring up one thing.  Yesterday on academichic, E. wore an outfit to accentuate her strong, sexy mom arms. That makes me wonder...does anyone else have mom legs?  You know...where you only have time to shave the bottom half when you wear a skirt or capris so that the upper leg is just as hairy as your mom arms? 

Yeah.  Me neither. 

And now for the outfit.

Shirt and skirt: Kohl's 

 I decided to wear my black blazer just to give the outfit a little more of an office vibe and not be too casual. I did keep the sleeves pushed up.  I like it.

Necklace and earrings: Wal-Mart (gift from co-worker)                                           

Black Pumps: Wal-Mart (clearance!) (I love the bow details on these shoes, although you can't really see them in the pictures...)

So what do you think, was my first attempt at pattern mixing a success or should I have tried something else?

{For some reason Blogger is making my posts look really screwy today.  It's annoying.  I'm sorry. I'm not doing it on purpose, just so you know.}