what i've been up to lately

I haven't much felt like blogging lately. I've just been kind of busy, and kind of lazy, and doing a ton of reading. Business, laziness and a good book (or three) take precedence over the internet for me. Here are some snapshots of some things I have been up to in the past couple of weeks.

Cooking dinner for the boyfriend & I

Car rides with Mia to go get...

Really delicious ice cream!

Getting my hair highlighted, rum cocktail in hand! Love my salon.

An amazing girls weekend in Portland, ME. Another delicious rum cocktail.

At Oasis in Portland, where we were dancing like fiends until some guy hit my ass like I was Seabiscuit. Then we got the buck and a quarter out of there. Creepster.

Picnicking at the Crane Estate in Ipswich with Boyfriend. Amazing idea, though we didn't account for the BUGS. We got eaten alive.

We had our picnic on a quiet corner of the beach. Is there anything better than a dinner picnic on the beach in the summer? I think not. Especially not with a fella that handsome. ;)

where did i park my boat?

I feel like this outfit belongs on a yacht somewhere. Though I almost always aspire to look like I just stepped off a yacht in the summer. Or I aspire to look like I just rolled out of bed. Could go either way.

[Shirt - Forever 21/Hat - Forever 21/Skirt - Old Navy/Shoes - Forever 21/Necklace - Forever 21/Sunnies - Betsy Johnson/Watch - Fossil]

This outfit is actually really old. Like, sometime in May old. I've been hoarding pictures. And trying not to take new ones until I use up these. Then I plan on cutting back my outfit photos, because it's just getting a bit tedious for me. I'm not ditching the blog - just switching it up a bit.

I felt pretty good in this outfit. It was such a gorgeous spring day that I decided to take a bit of a mid-day break and walk to the coffee shop near work and treat myself. Then I sat on a bench by the river and just relaxed. It was such a treat to just do that in the middle of the day, instead of being trapped in my crappy little cubicle. I need to make more time like that this summer!

Plus, someone saw me out walking and said "Oh cute outfit!" and just made my day. ;)

The whistle necklace in the picture below (you know, the one I accidentally cropped almost completely out of the picture?) is from Forever 21. It cost $1.50, I believe. But it has proved invaluable. You know why? It's the only thing my scrappy little mutt will respond to. I brought it home and just gave it a toot to see if it worked, and next thing I know a little white puppy is sitting at my feet, looking up at me obediently. Mom and I ran back to Forever 21 and bought another one, because this is seriously the only thing that little punk will come to.

neon + neutral

I've been stalking Kristina's Blogger's Do It Better feature since she started it, but kept missing the deadlines. I finally managed this one - Neon + Neutral. This is actually a trend I think is really cool, because I kind of love neon things. Though when the time came to put together an outfit, it turned out I don't own a whole lot of neon. I don't know how this happened.

[Shirt - Madewell/Shorts - Old Navy/Belt - Target/Clutch - DIY'd American Apparel/Shoes - Sam Edelman/Necklace (worn as bracelet) - vintage/Bead bracelet - Express?]

This challenge just so happened to perfectly coincide with my newest DIY project. I decided my leather American Apparel clutch needed a neon stripe across the bottom. I used this tutorial and got crackin'. 

Clearly I haven't done crafts in awhile, because this project was more confusing to me than I anticipated. First I went to the craft store and wandered into the paint section. There were no neons. Everything was expensive. I was confused. "Where are those little squeeze bottles of paint we used to always use on crafts when I was a kid? They came in eighty bajillion colors! Do they not make them anymore?" I wondered, as I selected a lame looking yellow and hoped it would have the effect I wanted. Then I looked for paint brushes. "What the hell, where are those cheap foam brushes? Why are these so fancy? I'm not painting a portrait here, just this little clutch." I definitely was not buying some fancy-ass paintbrush, so I wandered a bit more, and LO AND BEHOLD I found the aisle with the little squeezy bottles of paint and my beloved foam brushes. Peace was restored at A.C. Moore.

A few notes about the process if you want to try it:

• Electrical tape is not a great substitute for painter's tape. As you can see above, we had some seepage.
• You will need to do approximately 68,767,854 coats of paint if you pick a pale color like I did. I can only assume this is normal. It didn't seem to effect the bag.
• I'm not sure you need to water down the white primer paint, as she suggests. I've only done one side but on the other side I'm not going to water down that first layer. The bag color still showed through, so I am thinking a solid white might help with this. 

I got about 50 mosquito bites taking these pictures, so I'm going to go scratch them and whine. Enjoy your night, everyone!

southern lady

This is the final Savannah post, which means that I guess I have to finally accept the fact that I am home now and vacation is over. Le sigh. I've totally got a backlog of outfit posts from before the trip too. I have just been chillin' over here, dressed like a bum and not taking pictures. ;)

[Dress - H&M/Sandals - American Eagle/Hat - Forever 21/Bag - Dooney & Bourke]

Boyfriend and I are kind of looking for another apartment. We're not huge on renting again, but we're also not big on living apart. We figure if we find something worthwhile we'll move, if not we'll stay where we are. Rent is just so expensive around here, and we'd still be living in a dump site in the ghetto. Damn you, Northeast! Don't even get me started on buying a house around here. I'd love to relocate somewhere more affordable, but I doubt that's something that would actually happen.

In other news, my work computer finally died! If you follow me on Twitter you may have noticed of the few times I tweet, a bunch of them have just been complaining about that shitty computer. It finally kicked the bucket yesterday and a new one has been ordered for me! I'm so pumped. Of course, until then I have to work on whatever spare computer I can find every day, which is awful, but I'll deal. There's nothing like a fresh new computer.

Jamie snapped this last pic just after I stumbled over the curb like an idiot. What a good friend, capturing a moment like that! (Okay fine, might be payback for that time at her birthday a lawn chair collapsed and instead of helping her we all whipped out out cameras...)

wandering the squares

Day two in Savannah. Something light and easy for a hot, hot day of walking around. I affectionately call these shorts my diaper shorts, since I am fully aware of how diaper-like they are. I am also fully aware of how comfortable and breezy they are, and how much I love them. Even though things get really awkward when I sit down.

[Tank - Express/Shorts - H&M/Necklace - NY&Co./Sandals - American Eagle/Sunnies - Ray Ban]

I actually really liked this outfit and I was comfortable all day. It was definitely a good hot weather vacation outfit, that's for sure. This is the day that we toured the Mercer House and ate non-stop. So the extra room in the shorts was quite welcome, really. I jazzed up the black and white with a big colorful beaded necklace that I think will get a lot of wear this summer. 

There's my little diaper butt from behind! I almost went back and bought these in another color, but then I asked myself how many weirdly shaped pairs of shorts a girl really needed. Oh and that is my trusty Dooney & Bourke cross body that comes on every vacation with me. The color goes with pretty much anything and it's the perfect size. Sigh. I wish I was on vacation every week!

river street

This outfit is from out first night in Savannah. I am obsessed with the color of this dress.

[Dress - Forever 21/Wedges - Nine West/Belt - J.Crew Outlet/Sunnies - Ray Ban]

I kept the rest of the outfit simple with neutral accessories. I was on vacation after all, and the color of the dress stands on its own quite nicely. I think it will be fun to mix with other bright colors though, too.

Please ignore my flat greasy looking hair. Before the trip I decided to try the new Organix Keratin Smoothing 30 Day Treatment. I didn't have high hopes - I'd tried the Garnier one and it was lame. But this one? Amazing. You slather this treatment on and blowdry and flat iron it into your hair, similar to a professional keratin treatment you'd get in a salon. You can't wash your hair for two days, which is why I look like a street urchin, but when I finally did wash it out, boy I was I surprised!

My hair was stick straight and completely frizz-less. My hair is kind of messy-wavy and frizzes like nothing else at even a whisper of humidity. After I used this product I could let my hair air dry after the shower and it's perfectly straight and soft. It was a bit too straight at first, but it's about two weeks later and it dries a bit fluffier on it's own now. I haven't used a blow drier or flat iron on it once since I did this treatment. It's so perfect for the summer.

Special thanks to my super best friend and amazing vacation photographer! She put up with all my vain photo taking and even told me my legs looked skinny! Love you Biffy!!

savannah: part 2

We spent our second full day in Savannah just wandering around the town. We leisurely strolled through many of the squares, took in all the beautiful architecture, and grabbed some nice cool drinks at the Sentient Bean while we walked around Forsyth Park.

 We found an amazing breakfast place right across from our hotel called Goose Feathers. Their bread pudding is to die for! We ate lunch at the Six Pence Pub, which was a little British place. Then we got ice cream at Leopold's. Told you we did a lot of eating! We capped off our day with a tour of the Mercer House, where we had our first celebrity run in! We'd seen earlier that morning that Sofia Vergara (Gloria from Modern Family) was in town, and thought nothing of it. She ended up being part of our tour group!

Unfortunately, she and her boyfriend showed up a bit late and booked it out of there once the tour was over and photos weren't allowed on the tour. But she was there! Jamie and I both saw her because she was wearing a cute sundress with a scarf (It was a summer scarf, but it was 95 degrees. Way too hot for any scarf!). Then it clicked that we knew her!

We went back to the hotel and read outside on the terrace for awhile before gearing up for our dinner at Paula Deen's restaurant, Lady and Sons. We originally weren't going to go, since it didn't get great reviews and we'd heard it was awful to get into. We did end up with late reservations, but it worked out perfectly for us since we'd been eating all day and needed to recuperate! We ordered calamari for our appetizer, and it was a HUGE plate. I had the chicken pot pie...delish! It was just so much food!

We spent the next day out on Tybee Island sunning ourselves and splashing around in the bath-water warm ocean. It was so beautiful out there, and I was so happy we got in a beach day! They have a shuttle from the visitor's center that cost $6 round trip and took us right out to Tybee at 10am and dropped us at the beach. The bus had return trips to Savannah at 2:30 and 5:30, but we headed home at 2:30 since it was so freaking hot.

Since it was our last night, we made our way over to Lulu's Chocolate Bar and had ourselves some booze and dessert. We had a strawberry suspension cake slice and my drink was called the...wait for it...Sparklebomb! How could I not get that?! It was amazing and had a flower floating in it. We actually hustled back to the hotel in time to catch the tail end of The Voice like huge nerds.

Our return flight home was a disaster. There were major thunderstorms and tornadoes (!!) in the Northeast and Massachusetts, so all our flights were delayed, we missed our connecting flight, and didn't get home until 1am. When we were supposed to be home at 8pm. Yikes. Aside from our travel snafus, the trip was amazing and we can't wait to go back! I love Savannah. I'd move there in a heartbeat!