Daily MelWear: Hello World!

HIIIIIIII!!!!!!

Hey, look what I can do! I can BLOG! Or something. 

You guys are so awesome. Thank you SO much for all of the very, very sweet comments on my last post, the Facebook messages, the Tweets, the emails...it means a lot to know you've missed me {almost} as much as I've missed you!

So let's get caught up again, shall we? Hm...I'm still working. Still a single mom. Still not independently wealthy (stupid lotto...). Still like to play dress up. That about sums it up. My daughter and I have started looking to buy a house, there's some fun news. Let's see if it takes us half a decade or not. I'm hoping not. 

My girl has been doing FABULOUSLY in VPK this year. I can't believe it's already time to get her registered for Kindergarten. We want to get her into a charter school nearby, so this morning was spent getting everything done to apply there. Now we just have to wait a couple of MONTHS (seriously?!) to hear if she's in or not. That seems too long. 

Oh wait, this is supposed to be a style blog, right? Well...I did wear this outfit today. I know it's winter and all, but guys, I live in Florida. It's almost 80 degrees today. This sweater is perfect because it's cool and breezy and short-sleeved, but it's seasonally appropriate too. In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that the heels came off for flip flops later only because I got my toenails painted. 

 

Now my girl is napping (i.e. lying in her bed, talking and singing to herself and claiming she isn't sleepy), I'm having a beer and blogging, and tonight will be dance class then going to Perkins to visit her favorite server because they share the same name.

So there you have it, my life in a nutshell. Exciting, no? 

My hope is to be able to post a couple times a week. I'm not going to stress if I can't though. Real life has to come first. I opened a WordPress account too, but I think importing will be way too much for me so I might just start blogging from there and ask you all to subscribe to that feed instead. Be on the lookout for that. 

Hope you're having a fabulous Friday and that you have an exciting weekend planned! Mine includes shopping for Valentines for my daughter to hand out. I live on the edge, y'all. 

Today's outfit:

Purple Sweater: Kohl's

Black Tank: Target

Jeans: Salvation Army

Leopard Belt: Wal-Mart

Heels: Rack Room

Wow, this makes me look pregnant. I assure you, I most definitely am NOT. I need to lay off the chocolate, maybe. Geez.

Daily MelWear BBCA: BBCA Begins!

This post is going to be short and sweet! This is what I wore yesterday and rest assured, I did wear pink on Saturday, the very first day of the challenge, but I don't have pictures of that. You'll just have to trust me. :)

How are you all feeling about the BBCA challenge in this first week, do you have lots of ideas for how to sprinkle pink into your wardrobe? Remember, pink doesn't have to be the dominant color of the outfit; it just needs to be present.

I've updated the list of participants, so be sure to check that out and let me know if you're taking part and would like to be added as well.

How was everyone's weekend? Mine was fabulous. And happy. :) Have a great Monday, friends!

Today's outfit:
Dress: Ross
Belt: Salvation Army
Necklace: Wal-Mart
Sandals: Beall's

Daily MelWear: Weekend Attire

I don't normally post my weekend outfits but a few people have asked about them and I have some extra time today (my daughter is with her dad for Father's Day and my parents are out visiting my brother and his family) so I thought I'd go ahead and post some. So exciting, no?

There are no photos of today, because I slept in and haven't showered (and may not today. TMI? Sorry, but this is the ONE day I have to stay home and get things done!) and probably will not be wearing anything cute. Moving on...

Friday is my day off work because I work 10 hour days Monday - Thursday. My daughter knows Fridays as Mommy Day since we always have the day together. I love my Mommy Days!

I was originally going to wear this dress just by itself, but then it seemed like WAY too much pattern so I threw the cardigan on top even though it was almost 100 degrees outside. Pops of yellow in the belt and shoes are always fun with the blue and green pattern. Usually I wear something underneath too when this dress goes to work but since it was the weekend, I left that off. 

I spent the morning with my daughter, having pillow and tickle fights, and then I had a nail and hair appointment at 11AM. When I came home, we had lunch together before her nap. After her nap, we played, had dinner, then took a trip to Target so that she could pick out anything she wanted with the gift cards/money she was given for her birthday. She picked out the new Alice In Wonderland DVD with Johnny Depp (that's definitely my daughter!), a bath toy, a Toy Story car racing toy, a Rapunzel doll and some new black sandals that matched my yellow ones I was wearing.

On Saturday, we went to my cousin's daughter's dance recital in the morning and then to lunch with the whole family. After lunch was nap time, then I brought her to her dad's house so that he could spend Father's Day with her. He opened his Father's Day gift then instead of waiting so I could see him open it. I found Star Wars lightsaber chopsticks! One adult and one kid-sized pair. He was so excited and so was our daughter. Yay for good gifts! :)

I went back home, picked up my mom and headed to Wal-Mart and Bath & Body Works, then we went back for my dad and he took us to dinner.

That was my weekend! Now for a few other things to mention...

Daphne from Fashion Confessions of a Mommy tagged me in a What's In Your Bag post. My bag isn't all that exciting, but here's a photo (I have one of those purse organizer thingies because I'm a neat freak - there, I said it):

And here's what's in there (basically): hairbrush, medicine case with ibuprofen, dramamine and chewable pepto, gum, pens, business cards, sanitizer, lotion, make-up, thigh-highs in case my boss freaks about us not wearing hose, and two extra pairs of panties in case my girl has an accident. I usually have my wallet, keys and phone in there too but didn't take a picture of them.  I'm entirely unexciting, I know. Heh.

One other thing is that I was awarded the Lovely Blog Award by B. Inspired at Bravoe Runway. I know this has gone around several times (and I also really don't like leaving anyone out) so I'm not going to tag anyone else, but I'll quickly share seven things about myself.

1. I like to sing. A lot. I'm no star or anything but I do get paid to sing with an entertainment company during Christmastime. In fact, my ex-husband and I met at a restaurant where we both worked, where the waitstaff put on shows each night. I was a hostess, he was a chef. FUN times! :)

2. I have weird fears of elevators and water. I'm claustrophobic so I HATE elevators for fear that I'll get stuck in one, and I don't like natural bodies of water. I'm okay with pools, but lakes, oceans and other natural things freak me right out. And I also hate flying. The last time I flew was on a missions trip to Thailand back in 2005. Nothing happened on any of those flights, except that I had a panic attack for no good reason. Even though the flights were "okay", I'm still PETRIFIED of flying.

3. My favorite color is green.

4. If our daughter had been a boy, we would have named him Giovanni Michael. However, I'm SO GLAD we had a girl and that we had EXACTLY the girl we have. I adore her!

5. My two favorite jobs were working as a barista at Barnie's and as the administrative assistant in the music department at a huge local church.

6. I'm a little bit terrified of the day when I'll pay off my bills and be able to move out of my parents' house into my own place with my daughter. I've never been on my own and it scares me. Plus I'll have to learn to cook. Meh.

7. I could probably live on coffee, chocolate, and pizza. Not for long, cuz I'm sure eating that badly would kill me young, but I do love those things. :)

And that's it for my weekend post! I have the next 7 hours all to myself to get several loads of laundry done, more blog posts written, guest posts completed, organize my room a bit and who knows what else. Hopefully I can even get all of that done!

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend and Sunday!!!

Daily MelWear: Outfit 26/30

Hey gang!

I'm going to make this one short and sweet. We've been at Disney all day today, spending the day with my daughter's father, his mom and her husband (Grammy and Pops according to my daughter) because Pops has accepted a job in Hawaii and he's leaving next week! Grammy will leave in a few months but we wanted to spend a day together making memories before Pops leaves. 

We had a great day! I do feel like this outfit is kind of a copout because I've worn this dress the exact same way but with a different belt and shoes before...but seriously, it got up to 87 today and the rest of my 30 items were picked for cold weather. I couldn't risk dying of heat today! I'm not entirely sure this counts as a separate outfit, but at this point, I'm going to MAKE it count because I need my spring items already!

I'm making this short because I'm exhausted, I'm starving and finally getting to eat my Panera You-Pick-Two (a mediterranean veggie sandwich without onions and black bean soup, if you really want to know), drinking my wine, watching the Oscars red carpet and getting ready to catch up on responding to emails and reading blogs. 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are ready for Monday!!!

Today's Outfit:

Purple Dress: Plato's Closet

Zebra Belt: Payless

Black Flip Flops: I can't remember and I really don't think it matters. You can find some anywhere.

Daily MelWear: Outfit 25/30

Good heavens, those are some white legs. Wow. Don't look.

Well guys, I'm now a day behind. Because we went to Disney yesterday and I didn't have any of my dresses clean, so I had to wear some shorts and a tank that were not in my 30. Oops.

And...in the interest of being completely honest, I need to point out that these sandals are not in my 30 either. After walking around all day yesterday, I used my gift certificate from Christmas for a pedicure last night, then I decided that I couldn't wear closed toe shoes all weekend with pretty new polish on! So I wore sandals. 

I'm a cheater. But my toes are so pretty! 

This outfit was inspired by a suggestion from Cara and while I was too chicken to wear it without the cardigan to break up some of the pattern mixing, I do really, really like the two patterns together! Thanks Cara!

Oh yeah - and new hair! Actually...it's the same old hair but I haven't had it cut/trimmed in a LONG time so it seems like new hair.

Thank you to everyone who commented and emailed in regard to yesterday's post. As I mentioned in some of my replies (I'm trying to reply to everyone if there's an email attached, but I haven't been home all day and I'm about to crash right now!), I totally felt like a party pooper when I wrote it but the response from those of you that feel the same has been overwhelmingly reassuring. I just feel the need to point out again that I am completely in support of the nominations and awards, I'm glad that so many bloggers are being recognized for their hard work and that it's been such fun for so many people. It's just not my cup of tea, that's all. They're English Breakfast, I'm Earl Gray. 

Or something.

And by the way, have you entered to win a $100 Shopbop gift card yet? What are you waiting for?

Today's outfit:

Black/White Skirt: Salvation Army

Striped Sweater: Wal-Mart

Black Cardigan: Kohl's

Pink Sparkly Belt: Charlotte Russe

Black Sandals: Payless

Black Rose Ring: Charlotte Russe

Necklace: Charlotte Russe

Daily MelWear: Outfits 18, 19, 20/30

Happy Sunday, everyone!

We are FINALLY 2/3 of the way through this challenge! Only 10 more outfits to go. And it's going to be in the upper 70's to lower 80's from here on out. Why, oh WHY, didn't I choose more warm weather pieces?!

I'm going to level with you right now, I do not have very much confidence in my remixing abilities to be able to finish this out creatively. I think the rest of my ensembles are going to be fairly boring. And for that, I apologize in advance!

I will say, however, that I'm kind of proud of myself for not taking Saturday off even though we spent the day at a theme park. I worked with it and it turned out okay! Wish I could say the same for Friday and Sunday, but I'm trying to pretend those outfits never happened. Eh...oh well. 

So, okay, Friday was spent at an appointment in the morning, then lunch, then hanging out at home with my baby nephew. Saturday was spent at the theme park. I have to be honest...but the time we walked outta there, I was wearing leggings and flip flops with the dress. So the flip flops weren't in my 30, but my feet were killing me.

Sunday was a lazy morning playing dolls with my daughter, then we met up with her dad for lunch. He took her for his custody days after lunch and I went grocery shopping. Now I'm home, trying to catch up on food prep, laundry, outfit posts, getting a little freaked out over having 170 unread style blog posts to read and comment on. Not sure that's going to happen. I may have to use the almighty "mark all as read" button for the ones that I don't get through before bed tonight. I'm sorry!

Hope you're all having a great weekend and a relaxing Sunday night! Oh, and before I forget - Jenna from Lust, Love, Lose interviewed me! Click here to read the post!

Daily MelWear: Outfit 13/30

Making this short and sweet tonight. I'm exhausted but I want to catch up on reading blogs before I have to go to bed. I just had dinner with my daughter and her dad (he took these with my iPhone; my daughter is in the chair behind me) and she'll be with him tonight and tomorrow night. Which means that on this, my first Valentine's Day being single in over a decade, I'm not going to have my girl with me either. *Sigh*

But I *look* happy in the pictures, right? Right?

Where are those Girl Scout cookies...

Look at those cute little feet in the chair behind me. I love that girl.

Today's outfit:

Black/White Skirt: Salvation Army

Black Tee: Forever 21

Cranberry Cardigan: Forever 21

Gray Belt: Charlotte Russe

Gray Leggings: Charlotte Russe

Black Boots: Belk

Necklace: Gift from my aunt - it's a Bible, isn't that cool?! Since I don't even own a cross necklace anymore, this is a great alternative.

Don't forget, the Custom Designed Pronta Scarf Giveaway ends tonight! The winner will be chosen tomorrow. Get those entries in if you haven't! And Fabulous In February continues tomorrow!!!

Daily MelWear: Outfit 12/30

So, there's good news and there's bad news. 

The good news is that I'm getting a little more creative on the weekends, since I can't really be as creative at work during the week.

The bad news is that I'm already running out of outfit ideas with my 30 pieces. And frankly, having to do laundry more often is making me a little cranky.

 

Let's dissect this outfit, shall we? My plans for today included having my car detailed (to remove the ever-alluring fragrance of sour milk - new rule: no milk in mommy's car), then taking my girl to do "arts and craps" (she's 3, she doesn't quite have her "f"s down yet), then going to see Huey Lewis at SeaWorld. So I started with my purple dress that always looks blue but I assure you, it is purple. I layered my striped sweater over it. Then I decided to add another color with the fuchsia tights and figured I'd throw another pattern in there with the black tights on top. Before I left for the concert, I added another pair of cotton black tights underneath the fuchsia ones and I added another black long-sleeved tee under the dress, because the concert was outside and it was supposed to get cold.

Yes, I KNOW this looks like blue and purple, but I assure you that it's purple and fuchsia in person!

Then...we found out the concert was WAY earlier than we'd thought, and we had missed it. So we went to see Just Go With It with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston instead. Granted, I was a little warm in all those layers indoors, but I felt cute. And the movie was HYSTERICAL! Predictable, of course, but so funny. 

And at least I was home early enough to put my girl to bed. I miss not having her every night like I did when we were married, so when I do have her it means a lot for me to kiss her good-night and spend every second I can with her.

Hey, time is running out to enter the Custom Designed Pronta Scarf Giveaway! Entries are accepted only through tomorrow night, the winner will be chosen on Monday morning so enter if you haven't yet! 

Also, don't forget about Fabulous In February: A Month of Positivity - start thinking of three more positive things to say about yourself on Monday!!!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Today's outfit:

Purple Dress: Plato's Closet

Striped Sweater: Wal-Mart

Fuchsia Tights: Target

Black Tights: Target

Black Long-Sleeved Tee: Forever 21

Black Bow Belt: Charlotte Russe

Black Boots: Belk

Black Rosebud Ring: Charlotte Russe

Daily MelWear: Outfit 11/30, A Princess Story and Go RED!

 So let me tell you guys a little story.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young (let's say hypothetically, about three years old) princess who was normally the sweetest girl in the land. One day, the princess decided that she was going to be whiny and grumpy. The queen asked the princess if she needed a nap. Whining yet again, the princess declared NO NAP! 

Fast forward a few minutes and the princess comes to the queen asking permission to close her bedroom door so that she can put herself to bed. 10 minutes later, the princess has successfully put herself down for a nap three hours ahead of schedule. 

Hence the reason I'm blogging now.

The end. 

PS - This afternoon should be interesting now...

 

Today's outfit:

Skinny jeans: Kohl's

Red Blouse: Wal-Mart (Go RED For Women in February!)

Black Cardigan: Ross?

Black Belt: Charlotte Russe

Leopard Flats: Target

Necklace: Can't remember. Geez.

Ring: Charlotte Russe

Daily MelWear: Outfits 4, 5 & 6/30

Originally my plan for this weekend was to get caught up on reading blogs, organize my jewelry a little, search for the online owner's manual for my dad's camera that I've been using and just rest. This is my daughter's weekend with her dad so I wanted to keep my time occupied and stay distracted from missing her. 

Then we decided to do a family day at SeaWorld on Friday and another one at Disney on Saturday. So YAY! 

Friday at SeaWorld was really warm, close to 80, and I didn't pick many short-sleeved pieces in my 30. Plus it was Go Red For Women, so I needed something red as well. I think I pulled it off pretty well. 

Saturday at Disney was warm too for part of the day, but it was also rainy and gloomy and by the end of the day, I was extremely grateful for my leggings and scarf!

Today my daughter is with her dad at a Renaissance Fair, so I did some grocery shopping this morning and I've gotta be honest: now that my pictures are done for today, I'm about to just throw on some sweats. I really want to spend the rest of the day catching up on your blogs and resting.

Don't forget - tomorrow is the first installment of Fabulous in February: A Month of Positivity! Remember to include {at least} three (3) positive comments about yourself in your posts tomorrow (or leave them as a comment here if you don't have a blog!) and then come back and link up on either my post or Hope's.These should be comments that are positive about WHO you are and WHAT you are, not about what you have (it's awesome to be grateful for your job or your family, but we want to hear what makes YOU awesome because we know that you ARE awesome!).

Hope you're all having a great weekend! Can't wait to read your positive thoughts about yourselves tomorrow!

Daily MelWear: Friday Funday

The Friend Friday topic for today is blogger authenticity. 

Well, I'm authentically out of time and wasn't able to write a post for this week. I'm sorry! I've really enjoyed reading everyone else's posts, though!

So instead, I thought I'd show you some photos of what I ended up wearing today! How's that for exciting? Not so much? 

Hm. 

Annnnyway...

I started this outfit thinking that the weather today was going to be in the 70's, close to 80, and rainy. I dressed in the skirt with the teal tank and pink tee, thinking I would just throw on some black flats and leave it at that. 

Then I saw the weather report where they said the high today was going to be around 65 or something. And windy.

Cue the black cardigan, tights and boots! How's that for taking an outfit from warm to cool weather? I was going to just wear black leggings but then I thought it'd be much more fun to add another color with the tights. And I was right. This is much more fun. :)

This weekend is going to be fun, I think. My brother's family is here because he's fixing some of our cars (he fixed the AC in mine today, woo-hoo!). My mom and I spent the morning/afternoon with my sister-in-law, her baby boy and my daughter going to my mom's office, my sister-in-law's mom's office and then to lunch. Now the babies are napping and we're going to have a pizza shindig tonight! 

Tomorrow's plan is to have everyone in the family over for our monthly Family Dinner. This isn't my weekend for my daughter, but her dad is going to be here for Family Dinner with us and then he'll take her with him afterward, so I'll have Saturday night and Sunday without her this weekend. Start writing some blogs, people, and sending me emails (aworkingmomscloset at gmail dot com) and other things (Formspring, Facebook, Twitter!) to keep me occupied because I can NOT go shopping this time!

I think my daughter is about to wake up from her nap so I'm gonna go. Hope you're all have a fabulous day!!!

Today's outfit:

Black/White Skirt: Kohl's

Teal Tank: Target

Pink Tee: Plato's Closet

Black Cardigan: Target

Black Belt: Charlotte Russe

Purple Tights: Target

Black Boots: Belk

Necklace: Charlotte Russe

Ring: Forever 21

Daily MelWear: Criteria

Oh, this outfit is not a favorite.

Tonight's gig is for the Santa Sisters, which requires black leggings, black boots and a black long-sleeved tee to wear underneath red tunics.

I don't particularly feel like changing, so I wanted to find an outfit that could incorporate those things except, oh WAIT - it's Thursday and that means jeans at work. I don't have to wear them but I promised a co-worker that I would, so that she isn't the only person wearing jeans. :) Now I had to add jeans to my list of required pieces.

I would have worn my skinny jeans but I don't think I would've been able to zip up the boots over leggings AND jeans.

So I'm wearing black leggings under my jeans, black knee-high boots and a black long-sleeved tee under my purple sweater. I was almost going to wear another black sweater on top of this but I really wanted more color in this outfit, so I picked the purple.  I don't have very many sweaters to choose from.

If only I could have worn anything at all that I wanted from my closet, without having to incorporate so many specific pieces into one outfit. That woulda been nice. Eh, oh well. And then I couldn't find any jewelry that made me happy with this sweater/neckline. Geez. I'm whiny today, sorry! :)

I'm getting some REALLY great submissions for my Favorite Holiday Party Outfits Post! Please email me your photos so that I can include your sparkles!!! My email is {aworkingmomscloset at gmail dot com}.

Have a great Thursday, everyone!

Today's outfit:
Jeans: Kohl's
Black Tee: Charlotte Russe
Purple Sweater: Target
Black Belt: Kohl's (came with a dress)

Daily MelWear: Jeans At Work!

Did I mention that in my new position, we're allowed to wear jeans on Thursdays if we put $1 towards the charity that's been chosen for the year?  Well yeah. That's cool. :)

Today I can wear jeans because it's MOVING DAY! This post has to be quick because I'm not sure when the movers are coming.

And with that being said, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post in the next couple of weeks, starting my new job and everything.  Maybe I'll try to start posting at night and see how that goes. We'll see.

I chose my skinny jeans for today so that I could wear flats, and this top is one of the new ones from Ross. Actually I only bought two tops over the weekend and now I've worn both of them. I love the flower detail on the neckline of this one.  It's going to be a great top for fall/winter in Florida, with the long sleeves but lightweight material.

That's about it for me today! I want to get this post up in case the movers come in the next few minutes!

Have a great day everyone!

Today's outfit:

Skinny Jeans: Kohl's

Purple Top: Ross

Black Belt: Ross (came with a dress)

Leopard Flats: Target

Necklace: Gift from a co-worker

Daily MelWear: BBCA Days 15, 16, 17

I wanted to blog over the weekend, really I did, but once you see the pictures you'll see that I was pretty busy!

Friday: did a little shopping with my daughter in the morning, met The Beast for lunch, a friend came over during nap time, The Beast came home early and we brought The Princess to a birthday party and then to my parents' house while we went to another party.

Saturday: got up SUPER early and headed out to Islands of Adventure to walk the queue of The Forbidden Journey (the Harry Potter ride, for those of you wondering) but we didn't actually go on the ride.  We had some frozen butterbeers and then walked over to Universal to see the Moster Make-Up Show (HYSTERICAL) and see the Scare Zones that they set up for Halloween Horror Nights.  After that we went to my parents' house for family dinner and then we took the Princess out for a later dinner with The Beast's parents. I started out the day in leggings and a jacket, but those came off once it warmed up and I just stuck with the dress and boots.

Sunday: went to Panera for breakfast, brought The Beast to his gig while The Princess and I went to our church, then we went to SeaWorld where we met up with The Beast and his dad so we could take The Princess around Shamu's Spooktacular for trick-or-treating! That night, we put her to bed early and finished watching a movie.

I. Am. Exhausted. And we did not do any packing over the weekend, did you notice? Yeah. I'm starting to have anxiety issues.

So that was our weekend.  What did you guys do?