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!