Jackets and Blazers and Vests, Oh My!!

My favorite time of the year has arrived! No, not Christmas or Wine & Chocolate or even football season....it's Old Navy's Outerware Sale!!!

All jackets are 50% off in stores (less online, but still on sale!)!!! I'm seriously like a kid in a candy store when this puppy rolls around. 

I know what you're thinking. Old Navy may not be known for its quality but trust me on this one. My Old Navy jackets have lasted WAY longer then I ever expected them to. I own a gazillion of them and I don't think I've ever had one crap out on me. I have a trench that dates back to college...and that's saying something, friends.

Here are a few of my favs (prices are online, will be less in store):

Leopard (For you spicy gals) - $35.00

Tweed-esque - $24.50

Classic White (I own way too many of these) - $45.00

Comfy Vests - $14.50

Did someone say "ruffle"!? - $59.00

I'm AM going to own something with fur this winter - $39.50

There are even blazers!!

Another obsession of mine - $35.00

If you shop online make sure to spend more than $50 to get free shipping or use my other trick of also buying something from Piperlime (Extra 15% off right now! Use code EXTRA15) and then shipping is always free for the whole order.

Tonight I'm off to a Lia Sophia jewelry party so I'll be sure to have some pretty things to talk about tomorrow. 

Ciao!

Elections Blues...and Reds

I don't know about you but last night's election results left me downright depressed. This isn't the place for political rants but let me just say that the thought of moving to Antarctica is looking more and more appealing (my jacket collection would sure come in handy, wouldn't it?). Then again, don't communists wear tall boots and furry hats? Looks like I'm set to stay in the States after all! ;)

OK, I'm done, I swear.

In honor of Election Day, I put together this patriotic outfit and for a few hours it actually gave me hope. I mean, doesn't a bright red shirt just scream "Republicans FTW!"? Apparently not. (Sorry, that one just slipped out..)

Blazer: BR Outlet, Shirt: Ann Taylor, Skirt: BR Outlet, Shoes: Nine West, Watch: MK

Later in the evening as I sat watching the country slowly circle the drain (last one, I promise), I decided that this oh-so-special occasion deserved to be saluted with a nice RED wine. 

Wine: Cupcake Vineyards - Red Velvet: A blend of Zinfandel, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah. You can usually find it at Costco for around $8.

Taste:  I love this wine, but it's not for everyone. It's rich and fruity but mellow and dark like chocolate. The best part is the finish which is literally creamy with hints of vanilla and coconut. 

Experience: You mean besides the weeping? I ate it with leftover pizza (see Paesanos post) in my backyard, which are two are my favorite things, so all in all the night wasn't such a nightmare?

And just in case the adorable outfit and delicious wine didn't make you forget about the state of our communist nation, I leave you with this parting gift. Enjoy!

Channing Tatum named as People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive....do you agree??

Better Late Than Never: Paesanos Midtown

My husband and I met 4 years and 7 months ago. You know how I remember that? Because he was exactly 7 months late taking me on our our 4th Annual First Date Anniversary dinner. I suppose I should cut him some slack considering we had a few other things going on these past 7 months (two weddings and a trip to Italy to name a few), but that's just not my style. So finally my prodding wore him down and last night I got my date night!

Our first date was at Paesanos in Midtown Sacramento, one of my favorite restaurants for a number of different reasons.

Common sense dictates that the entire point of a restaurant is to enjoy the food, but Hubs and I have our own ranking systems and food is not even in the top 3. As far are we're concerned it goes:

1) Patio

2) Service

3) Wine List/Beers on Tap

4) Food

Paesanos aces all four categories (heated patio+string lights=extra credit).

They are known for their pizzas, but everything is pretty damn tasty. True story: On our actual first date we only ate bread and were so wrapped up in conversation we forgot to eat dinner. So every year we order the bread as a nod to that fateful night, but have since wised up and now order actual dinner. This time we split the Sicilian pizza (onions on half!) which was salty and spicy and chewy like a good pizza should be. The wine list is short but sweet (Lambrusco, anyone?), and their beers are the the good microbrew kind you find at a lot at places that have a little hipster in their bloodline (Racer 5, Great White and my personal fav, Monkey Knife Fight).

My choices were a glass of Boeger Barbera and one of the Graffigna Malbec (see previous Malbec-related post). Both were good, neither were great. I ran into the unfortunate case of being served bottles that had probably been opened over the weekend and tasted a little stale. Nothing to write a blog about, as they say. Oops.....

Seriously, though, go to Paesanos if you're in the area and looking for a casual, fun and delicious meal. I've even heard the inside is nice, but you'd be hard pressed to find me anywhere but the patio!

What I Wore:

BTW, how fabulous is this jacket? This is one of the treasures from my shopping expedition at H&M this past weekend. I wore it to our date and I'm officially obsessed. I love me some ruffles on my jackets! The next time I wear this I'll pair it with a scarf. Oh, the possibilities....

Question: What would you wear this with?

Jacket: H&M (also available in black)

Mondays Blow. Let's Talk About Shopping.

My original plan for this post was to talk about some of my problems, but let's be honest, neither you nor I have that much time.

Seriously though, I have issues. Not like Lindsay Lohan has issues, but issues nonetheless. For instance, I hate things that are round. And I am literally terrified to use the phone. Listing my quirks (that's what I like to call them) would take all day, but there are couple that I think are fantastic fodder for blog content, especially when it comes to fashion (my unhealthy relationship with jackets or Michel Kors watches, for instance). Before we dive into that craziness, though, let's start slow and start with the standard girl obsession  - shopping!

{I probably should have prefaced this whole blog by warning everyone that I don't actually have a freaking clue what I'm talking about. I'm in no position to preach a GD thing about fashion or wine or anything for that matter. I just know that I really enjoy these particular things, among many others, and if someone gets a little pleasure from my ranting or even learns a little something from what I have to say then I've made a little difference  and that makes me smile.}

Now that that little disclaimer is out of the way, we can move on.

Yesterday was one of those glorious shopping days where you come home with sore arms laden with shiny bags full of so many good deals you feel like you just robbed the mall. My sister and I spent the day hitting up our favorite regular haunts, including the new H&M in town (which was fab!). I did some damage, as usual, but I now have this blog to blame it on. I mean, I need to shop for new things so I have something to talk about, right? (I can just feel my husband's eyes rolling).

The day resulted in lots of Fall Wardrobe Enhancements to talk about in future posts, so as always, stay tuned. For now, here is the outfit I wore shopping.



Sweater: BR Outlet, Shirt: American Eagle, Pants: BR Outlet, Shoes: ALDO, Watch: Micheal Kors

Fashion Tip

Both my sister and I believe in dressing strategically when attempting a retail marathon. The key here is "minimal", or "easy off, easy on". Unless you're a dude, you're going to be try everything on (you DO try everything on, right??). This means you'll be spending most of your time undressing and redressing, so your "dressing"should be  simple. Choose outfits with as few layers, fasteners, zippers, and accessories as possible. There's nothing worse than wrestling your ass into and out of those skinny jeans, socks and do-me boots 10 different times. All that sucking in and you're getting into dangerous pass-out territory, my friends. Trust me. 

My outfit this time included slip-on flats and skinny (but not TOO skinny) pants, which are perfect shopping staples. I also wore a button up shirt and cardigan which kind of violates the minimal fasteners rule, but it's actually a great idea. Wearing a button up eliminates the horrible makeup smears that inevitably end up all over everything I try on. Also, I rolled the cuffs of the shirt OVER the cuffs of the cardigan (LOVE doing this), which makes them connected so they come off/go on as one piece. Throw a neutral tank or cami underneath and, bam, you have a great base layer you can leave on for items that need a little something underneath. 

Speaking of underthings, Rule #2 is to ALWAYS wear a nude bra and undies when shopping. It's not sexy, but it sure helps to not look like a prostitute when trying on that white Easter dress.

I'm positively giddy thinking about the new items now residing in my closet. Hopefully I can get my s**t together and think up some fun outfits this week. Happy Monday, friends!

Friday, (Ox)Bloody Friday...

It's not a secret that Friday is up there on my list of favorite days of the week. Once that proverbial bell rings and I survive the grueling 4-mile commute home from work, I rush to check the mail like a 12 year old waiting for her signed One Direction poster. Because to me Friday means one thing: a new US Weekly and a glass of wine. OK, two things.

Anyway, that's the start of my weekend in a nutshell. More often than not I also make a sizable dent in my DVR's queue, not to mention the junk food section of my pantry. I don't know what it is about Friday that makes me feel like a death row convict on a weekend pass in Vegas, but I sure do enjoy the hell out of it.

This Friday was particularly awesome because I received one of my favorite fall wardrobe enhancements (how much better does they sound than "unnecessary online impulse purchase"?) in the mail yesterday and got to bust them out!!

If you have a pulse and a vagina (or wish you had one), you know that you can't swing a dead cat these days without hitting something "oxblood"-colored. The faint of heart call it burgundy or maroon or berry, but I personally like the edgy name. And I'm OBSESSED with the color. So when I ordered these boots online I couldn't wait to wear them. They scream "fabulous", "sexy", "trendy". Too bad I have no idea how to actually dress like any of those adjectives. All I could come up with in my fog filled brain this morning was this yawn-inducing, albeit cozy as hell, ensemble.

(You see that print? Guess what it is?...BIRDS! Apparently Old Navy is going a through a bird stage - see previous post - and apparently I'm all aboard. Who knew?)

I hope to improve on this in the future. These puppies are simply too cute to keep under wraps. Stay tuned for more fun posts featuring my favorite new fall color.

In conclusion, I must apologize for the dull Friday post. I had much bigger plans that were thwarted by the Hubs' fantasy basketball draft which took priority over my blogging. Four computers, two iPads and I'm somehow still left to peck this post out on my phone like a Quaker. First world problems, right? OK, I'm done complaining.

Until next time, friends!

Halloween: Prints and Sheriffs and Squirrels, Oh My!

Last night was Halloween which in my opinion is about as exciting as Columbus Day.  I’m not sure where my apathy for this holiday comes from. Perhaps it’s my aversion to dressing up in things designed to make you look horrific/awkward/slutty (I didn’t jump on that chance in college when I SHOULD have been slutty and I’m sure not interested in it now that I’m in my freaking 30’s!). Or maybe it’s the fact that Halloween usually falls on a weeknight and work doesn’t seem to care. Which, come to think of it, makes Columbus Day way more exciting considering some people actually get time off for it.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I may not be donning a sexy (insert uniformed occupation here) costume and shaking my groove thang in exchange for strangers’ candy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t LOVE the favorite American tradition of embarrassing the crap out my dogs. And boy did I. 

That's Rocky, the Sheriff of our house, and Dublin the Squirrel (which ironically is one of her favorite things to terrorize). 

The only other highlight to the day was my outfit, which I chose specifically for the occasion. See, I'm not completely boring.

Outfit

If you know my style, you know that I avoid prints like the plague. Give me stripes all day, but start curving those stripes into shapes (or God forbid, florals!) and I start getting lightheaded. However, in my recent attempt to step up my game fashion-wise (hello, Pinterest), I've come to the realization that a print here and there won't actually kill me and might even give my wardrobe a much needed pop of interest. 

So I went out on a limb and bought this printed dress from Old Navy...in an actual color...with BIRDS on it, no less! And I have to admit, it's pretty freaking fabulous. It reminds me of The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock, so it shall forever be known as my "Hitchcock Dress". Since it's technically fall and the temp was actually below 75 degrees for once, I wore it with black tights and boots. (I'm thinking I might as well post pics of my outfits like the real bloggers do. Stay tuned...)

 

Mix all of that fun with a couple Blue Moons (sorry, no wine tonight), some leftovers (again, not that exciting) and some "me" time and it turned out to be a pretty fab Halloween. Expect for the dogs. They were pissed.

We Now Return to My Regularly Scheduled Life, Already In Progress….

We meet again.

Two years older, two years wiser and oh so much to talk about! A lot of life has happened in the last two years and somewhere along the line my little blog got put up on a shelf to collect dust – which come to think of it is exactly what I feel like my brain has been doing lately. So here I am, rescuing both of them from certain death, polishing them up and displaying them proudly. Sure, I realize the only two people who ever read this blog were my sister and my mother-in-law (yes, Loving BF is now Loving Husband – we’ll get to that later) so it’s not exactly an extravagant display, but a display nonetheless. 

When we last spoke I was 29 (ah, youth), enjoying my “summer break” and dating my wonderful boyfriend. Fast forward to 2012. I’m now 31, putting my degree to work again and am married! I’ve picked up hobbies and habits along the way and recently discovered that this whole blogging thing can be pretty damn cool. It all started with Pinterest (doesn’t everything these days?) which lead to one fashion blog which lead to five and then 10 and is now a full-blown craving for constant stimulation in the form of cozy knits, skinny jeans, pumpkin-themed recipes and crafts I admire but will never actually make.  

So I’m bringin’ it back. Wine, dine, love and so much more. I’ll be updating you non-existent followers on all things me, as random as I’m SURE that will be. Read if you want, stay if you like. I’m not promising much, but I’ll do my best.Welcome (back), friends