Yay Melissa!

Yay Melissa! And I don't mean myself!

The ever-adorable, endearing and drop-dead-gorgeous Miss Melissa has bestowed upon me the "One Lovely Blog" Award! Thanks Melissa!

What I'm supposed to do is reveal seven facts about myself and then pass the award along to seven other bloggers.

Both of these things are difficult for me.  Mainly because I find myself to be rather boring and can't come up with any interesting facts.  And then also I have a really, really hard time limiting myself to only seven bloggers.  I love them all!

Okay so here goes nothin'. 

1.  When I was in elementary school, I was in a baton twirling group.  I have photographic evidence...just not with me where I am writing this post. Darn. *smirk*

2. I danced for ten years, started when I was 3 and stopped when I was 13 because I had a boyfriend who went to a different school and dancing was cutting into my after-school time visiting with him.  I had JUST gotten en pointe, too. What a MORON I was. I appreciate my mom letting me make my own mistakes, though.

3. My daughter is, hands down, the sweetest, smartest, kindest most gentle, thoughtful and beautiful little three-year-old girl EVER. Not sure if that qualifies as a fact about myself, but this is my blog and I do what I want.

4.  My husband and I met at a restaurant (Harmonious Monks, if you've ever heard of it, although our location was in Central Florida, not Jacksonville, and has since closed.) where the staff put on shows every night. I was a hostess; he was a chef.  Hence the reason I do not cook. Oooh! There's another fact!

5.  I don't cook.  See number 4.

6. I have issues with correct grammar.  I enjoy it.  I do not enjoy people using grammar incorrectly.  It makes me die a little inside. 

7.  I am a chicken.  I'm scared of lots of things; elevators (too closed in and what if the doors won't open?!), water (yes, I enjoy taking showers and maintaining cleanliness, but I'm not a huge fan of the beach or water parks and the like), and flying (I did fly to Thailand for a missions trip, had a panic attack on the first leg of our flight from home to Chicago, thought they were going to have to LEAVE ME IN CHICAGO because I WAS NOT getting on another plane...although I did, and went to Thailand, and came back, and there were no issues, but I still don't like flying). Just to name a few things.

And now for part two of my task: to present this award to seven other bloggers.  I'd love to give it right back to Melissa because she DOES have a lovely blog, but since she's the one who presented it to me, I have a feeling that would be a no-no in bloggy land. So Melissa, consider yourself virtually awarded again. Sort of.

Here are my seven:

Taylor (although she's on a blog hiatus and may not see this anytime soon)
Sadie's Momma
Megan
Lisa
Tricia
ShyGirl
Sarah

I can't wait to learn more about all of you fabulous girls!

Daily MelWear: Blue Zebra

I don't know if America runs on Dunkin, but I definitely do.

It's not something that I have very often but oh, how I love Dunkin Donuts coffee with cream and sugar! Yum! {Um, does anyone else like to drink coffee with a straw, or am I the only weird one?}

Tonight my parents and I are taking my daughter to see Nick Jr. Live! She is SO excited.  Every time the commercial came on the radio she would squeal and say, "We're going there! We're going to see them!"

However, she came down with a fever yesterday and was REALLY warm last night, so I'm hoping she'll still be okay to go.  We gave her some children's motrin last night and another dose this morning {side note: did you know that all of the tylenol infants' and childrens' meds are STILL not on the shelves? Hasn't it been months since the recall? What's the deal?}. My BFF Heather is an RN (and also a professor!) and said she thinks it might be strep. Oh, I hope not. My girl felt much more normal this morning and when we asked her how she felt she replied, "I feel great!" That's my little trooper.

So all that to day, I wore an outfit that is super comfy. I decided on flats since we'll likely (hopefully?) do a lot of walking and climbing stairs tonight.

This is another dress that I bought at Ross over the weekend.  I'm head-over-heels in love with this dress.  It's a tank dress; the neckline and straps have ruffles. It has an empire waist. I could wear it by itself and it's super flattering. I wish I could buy it in every single color in the world! I've never loved a dress this much, seriously. It's so simple and SO comfortable.

I originally pulled out a pink tee to layer underneath but then I decided that I didn't want to do pink again. Plus I haven't worn this cardigan very much and I really like it, so out it came! I happened to see my turquoise flower pin next to this yellow one and decided that I like the blue and yellow together, so I added the yellow accents.

Mmmm, coffee!

Speaking of which: I still need yellow shoes. Closed-toe ones that I can wear to work. I hate that I'm not allowed to wear open-toed shoes (not even peep toe!) to work. It seriously limits my shoe options!

Anyway - here's today's outfit:

Black Tank Dress: Ross

Blue Zebra Cardigan: Wal-Mart

Black Belt: Salvation Army

Black Flats: Target

Yellow Flower: mother-in-law (was clipped onto my daughter's Easter basket!)

Yellow Necklace: Wal-Mart

Daily MelWear: Purple and Pattern

Today's outfit is brought to you by a night of not-enough-sleep.

Last night my husband and I rented The Hangover.  Which, by the way, is hysterical. Yes, it's crude and the language is awful most of the time, but it's funny.

Anyway.

We heard our daughter doing her normal groaning in her sleep and decided once the movie was over we'd go check on her (which is something we rarely ever do because she's such a good sleeper).  Well...as soon as we opened the door to her room, we were greeted with the overwhelming smell of vomit. I was trying to come up with another word to use but really, they all sound gross. 

It was all over her bed, her clothes, her pillow, her blanket, her floor, in her hair and on her face...it was AWFUL.  And that poor baby was SLEEPING! She was so startled when we woke her up but once she realized she was going to play in the bathtub, she was a happy little clam. She thought it was the silliest thing ever for me to brush her teeth while she was in the tub, so that was fun. :)

It took us about 45 minutes to an hour to get her cleaned up, get her room cleaned up, put her clothes/bed stuff in the wash and remake her bed. Needless to say, I did NOT wake up at my usual 4:30AM to work out this morning. 

She didn't eat dinner last night, we had pasta which she normally likes but she decided she didn't feel like eating (which is typical of her, half the time we make her favorites and she'd still rather play than eat) so she had one bite and that was it. Very, very normal, everything went as usual. I have no idea what could have caused her to get sick.  And this is the FIRST time she has ever gotten sick. I cry when I get sick like that, it hurts and it's scary! I'm surprised that she just went right back to sleep, there were no retching sounds, she didn't call for us or anything. 

She woke up this morning at her normal time (I really thought she'd sleep later but not so much) and was her usual, happy self.  No fever, said her stomach felt okay.

 

The whole thing is just WEIRD, ya'll.

On to the outfit: when I woke up, I decided I wanted to try the all-white that I've been seeing on some other bloggers. I only own one pair of white trousers and I picked a plain white tee for the top (still need to find a great white button-down).  I figured my scarf would look nice and I don't wear it often, so this was a good opportunity.  To make it a little more professional, I added the striped blazer then to top off the outfit, my silver stilettos. I kind of like the little bit of pattern mixing between the scarf and the blazer.

I did end up pushing the sleeves up because it just seems like a more summery look instead of having them down.  

So...how was YOUR night?

Today's outfit:

White Trousers: Charlotte Russe

White Tee: Target

Purple Floral Scarf: Plato's Closet

Purple Striped Blazer: hand-me-down from a co-worker

Silver Stilettos: Payless

Daily MelWear: Pink and Red

Hey gang! Did you all make it through Monday unscathed? Sometimes that's hard to do!

Last night my husband and I took his father to dinner at a tiny little place in town that has soups, sandwiches and all sorts of things. A full bar too. Not that I noticed that. *ahem*

After dinner, my father-in-law graciously offered to put our daughter to bed and stay with her so that we could run to Wal-Mart for a few things.

Isn't it nice to break out of the work-night rut of coming home, having dinner and going to bed? As much as I'm usually exhausted and would rather just come home and crash, sometimes it's really great to change the routine and do something different on a work night.

With photo effects

This skirt is one of those that I snagged at the Salvation Army store this weekend. I was originally going to pair it with a teal tank, white cardi and brown accessories, but then I decided that I wanted to play with the pink a little bit, add some red with the belt and another shade of pink (I usually call them wine) with the heels. I really like the result, it turned out better than I'd expected.  Don't you love it when that happens?

Without photo effects

This outfit makes me feel feminine, classic and chic. I feel very odd saying that because I typically don't speak very highly of myself or give myself compliments.  I'm normally very overly critical of myself and I don't really like me very much.  I'm trying to change that.

I bought a new photography iPhone app last week and decided to play around with it for the blog this morning. It's NOT hipstamatic! This app is called Lo-Mob and you can edit the pictures with all sorts of different "lenses" after you've taken the shot.

 

So what do you think?

 

Original picture without effects

With effects - look, pockets!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today's outfit:

 

Floral Skirt: Salvation Army

 

Black Top: Target (from my pre-weightloss era, it's a little big but cinches nicely with the belt)

 

Red Snakeskin Belt: Salvation Army

 

Wine Rosebud Pumps: DSW

 

Floral Statement Necklace: Target

Daily MelWear: I'm Copying Myself

Hi friends!

Hope you all had a great weekend.  We had a pretty fun and event-filled one.  On Friday (Mommy Day! Since I work 10 hour days Monday-Thursday, I have Fridays off with my girl.), I took the girl to the playground for a couple of hours and we had a picnic lunch.  It was so nice, lots of tree coverage, shade, breeze...perfect! That night, my husband and I went out to dinner at the Mellow Mushroom (awesome place, every time!).

Saturday was FUN.  We took the girl to a kids' cooking class at Maggiano's! A fun little surprise was seeing my uncle's daughter (technically she's my cousin!) and her son there too! We all sat at the same big table and learned how to make their chicken manicotti.  After we prepared our food and got it wrapped up to bake at home, they set up a fantastic buffet lunch. The kids had a blast. I know we're going to do it again the next time they have one, and they mentioned the possibility of an adult class too. Yay!

I got to go shopping at the Salvation Army store and Ross while my husband stayed home with our daughter during naptime. That was a nice little treat! I found three skirts, a belt and two dresses, and spent less than $40. Whee!

Sunday was church, our first time back in a couple of months since my husband has been singing somewhere else lately, then we hit the outlet mall and sweat out any water we've ever had in our entire lives.  The outlet mall is outdoors and the heat index was 110 yesterday.  It was HOT. I must admit, though, that I'd rather have it too hot than too cold! That's why I live in Florida!

Okay this has been a little bit too wordy. Sorry! It seems like all of my Monday posts are filled with weekend details and I just continue to babble!

Pretty, pretty flowers.

This dress is one of the new ones I purchased at Ross on Saturday.  It has pockets! Perfection! I like that it's strapless so I can layer a shirt underneath for work (or over top, which I will likely do soon too) or I can wear it as is with some jewelry for a fun night out, or throw on some flip flops for a relaxed afternoon.  I already love this dress!  And look at the fun floral details at the waist!

I am, however, wondering if maybe it's a tad too short for work. What do you think?

Yay pockets!!!

The color scheme is one that I've worn before. I liked it and decided Wonder Woman makes me feel powerful. So I'm channeling her again.

Today's outfit:

Black Strapless Dress: Ross

Blue Blouse: JC Penney

Red Pumps: Mom (Payless?)

Black Necklace/Earrings/Bracelets: Wal-Mart

Frances Joy over at Mad Dress Game tagged me to share more about myself, so I'm going to quickly answer her questions (if my verbose self is capable of answering quickly!).

1. Why did you start blogging?
I've always answered that I started because I feel like I can learn a lot from the other fantastic women who blog, and that's true.  I also read someone else's answer to this question who said that they've enjoyed reading fashion blogs for so long and decided they wanted to join in the fun.  So ditto!

2. What's your favorite kind of ice cream?
Oooh, I'm gonna go with Cheesecake from Cold Stone with Oreo mix-ins. Yum!

3. Favorite book? Why?
Wuthering Heights.  I'm not sure why, I just love it.

4. What do you like most about your day job?
My co-workers and the fact that I get to sit at a desk most of the time (I love computers!). Don't ask me what I like least.  Let's not go there.

5. What's the most amazing place you've ever visited?
Thailand. My husband and I went with my boss, his wife and some others for a mission trip several years ago.  It was one of the most life-altering experiences ever.

6. Heels or flats?
Depends.  I typically go with heels because I'm so short, but I like flats for comfort and to be casual.

7. What do you always carry with you?
My iPhone!

8. What's one beauty product you can't live without?
Hm...a beauty product.  That's a tough one, because I'm just fine leaving the house on Fridays with my girl without make-up on.  Does deodorant count as a beauty product? Cuz then I'd pick that.  Definitely can't live without that.
 
I'm supposed to come up with my own 8 questions and tag other bloggers to answer, but I feel like I've been WAY too chatty in this post already so I'm just going to ask you ALL a couple of questions.
 
Answer in the comments!
 
1. What do you consider your most classic piece of clothing and why?
 
2. What trend are you most looking forward to for fall?
 
3. Do you enjoy fashion blogs that post pictures with very little text or would you prefer that the writer include more information (and if so, what kind of information? about the clothes or about their lives, etc.)?