Cranky Photographer

Dress: Charter Club
Belt: J Crew
Shoes: Naturalizer

I don't know what on earth "Charter Club" is but when I saw this dress at the thrift store, I prayed it would fit me. It's a shirt dress, which I love. The paisley pattern reminded me of all the paisley J Crew has going on, which I also love.  I tried it on, despite being two sizes too big and petite. Low and behold, it was a pretty good fit. It just need a little belting.Yah for 4 dollar dresses.

Yah also for morning lighting. Yes, I pushed RDog out of bed this morning to take this pictures. This habit works way better for my schedule, I just hope I can get him on board. He was a pretty cranky photographer this morning. I'm just asking him to get up ten minutes earlier (7:50am, instead of 8am). That's not too crazy right?

Tomorrow is Another Day

Blouse: Ricki's
Skirt: Cassis
Bracelet: Banana Republic Factory
Shoes: Naturalizer

Today was my second day back at work. Boo! The first day was not exciting fashion wise. It was a case of "let's get some clothes on my body and get to school on time."

Usually during the school year, I wait for RDog to come home at night to take my pictures (and then I promptly put on pjs). But sometimes he can come home really late and I get impatient so I thought we should try morning pictures instead. I thought this would avoid the inevitable wrinkles from a long day and hoped it would inspire me to work out in that space between when I get home and RDog arrives.

So I pushed RDog out of bed this morning and made him to the photo thing. I ended up with a wrinkly skirt and when I came home, I ate a piece of ice cream birthday cake instead of exercising.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Totally Overdressed

Dress: Target
Shoes: Banana Republic Factory

I bought this dress during our recent Maine trip. One of my favorite things about visiting Maine is going to Target. Unfortunately, RDog set a time limit to curb me from spending hours in there while he waited bored in Starbucks (it's happened before).

So I zoomed around the store and found this dress. I"ve been looking for a lace dress for some time and fell in love with this casual version. It's much too short to wear to work, so there are not a lot of times I will actually wear it. But I didn't mind it, because it's Target priced people!

I wore this to a neighbor's BBQ (Team J, woot, woot). I was totally overdressed but I think my friends are used to me always being totally overdressed. I'm grateful they understand my fashion fixation.

Hunger Games Birthday

Dress: Loft (thrifted)
Bag: Burberry

I celebrated a birthday on Monday (eek - 31). To celebrate, Rdog and I took a weekend trip down to Freeport, Maine. I like Freeport because it is a cute little village with great outlets. The best part of the trip; going to TWO J Crews. I completely destroyed my monthly clothing budget.

The J Crew Factory store in Freeport was a hit for me. I found lots of treasures (that I will show soon). We also took a drive into Portland to go to the newly opened J Crew. There wasn't much for me in there. Being a sale shopper, I didn't buy anything because the store was brand new and nothing was on sale yet! But it was nice to see things I have been looking at in real life. And that hen sweater just doesn't do it for me.

Another highlight (?) of the trip; listening to the audio book of The Hunger Games for many, many hours while driving. RDog had to read the book for work but he is not a reader so we listened to it for the driving part of the trip. When we arrived home on my actual birthday, we had to watch the movie. I'm dubbing this my hunger games birthday.

Slow Blinker

Tank: J Crew
Skirt: Loft
Shoes: Super Old

I wore this last weekend to RDog's boss's pool party. I don't meet RDog's co-workers very often so the goal was to make a good impression (in other words, look as skinny and hot as possible).

I have a really hard time dressing in the summer. My school year uniform of pencil skirts and cardigans doesn't cut it. For this party, I didn't want to wear the same clothes that have been on repeat around the house for most of the summer. So I decided to go with a skirt that I would typically wear to school and dressed it down by pairing it with one of my go-to summer tank tops. I also got a little inspiration from Kendi.

On an unrelated topic, ever wonder why I almost always wear my sunglasses? I do have a sensitivity to sunlight and wear my sunnies on even cloudy days. But I also am, as RDog calls it, a slow blinker. 75% of my picture without shades, end up looking like this.

To save my vanity a little bit, I choose not to include the cross eyed versions of this look.

Edie is Everywhere!

I have long lusted over J Crew's Edie bag, especially after seeing pictures like this . . .

Source: extrapetite.com via KDot on Pinterest

I knew I wanted to the bag in red but, me being me, I knew I would only buy it on sale.

After a year of waiting, I was getting pretty antsy for my purse. Once I saw the purple version of the bag appear in J Crew's sale section. Another day, it was the green bag. But my beloved red Edie would not go on sale.

A couple of weeks ago, J Crew had an extra 30% off sale and a great thing happened. The Edie attache bag in red appeared on the sale page.

Originally, I wasn't lusting after this bag; I tend not to dream about things out of my price range. At $100 over the Edie bag price, it would be torture to lust after something out of my price range.

But then it went on sale for less than the Edie bag with another 30% off. I read the reviews; the big drawback about this purse it seemed was the lack of a zippered top. One of my purse regulars is a pink Coach bag with an open top. I wouldn't use this purse when travelling through busy airports or the like but for my regular life, an open top purse is fine.

So I bought the Edie Attache Bag.

And it arrived.

I was excited.

And very happy.

This is a great sized bag for me. I can fit all my stuff into it easily. The open top, as I suspected, doesn't bother me. The bag arrived with a couple of scuffs. After reading reviews about how easily this bag scuffs, I decided to not let it bother me. The scuffs have already started, saving me a freak out the first time I ding the leather. It's a beautiful color and I forsee carrying it a lot this fall. For my first purse purchase in three years, I was very pleased.

Then the next day, I foolishly (brilliantly?) peeked in on J Crew's sale section.

There it was, The Edie bag, the original that I wanted, on sale. So I decided to dive right in and buy it too. But I couldn't get it in red like I originally envisioned. It would just be foolish to have to red purses (as if buying two purses within two days wasn't already foolish enough).

So I went with . . .

. . . the Edie in dark pewter.

I love this bag as well but ironically, I don't see myself using it as much as the attache bag. It is just too small for regular use. And this comes from a girl who doesn't tote a whole lot of stuff around. I can just fit my wallet, cell phone and keys in there. That's it. And if you have been reading my blog for awhile, you'll know I like my Raybans and my lipstick. And they just won't fit. So I can see this purse being mostly a date night purse when I take very little out with me.

So that is the story of how I went three years without buying a purse and then bought two in two days and loved them both.

Cottage Land

Tank: J Crew
Skirt: J Crew
Necklace: J Crew wannabe via EBay
Shoes: Old

Last night we had to run out to cottage-land to do an errand at RDog's family cottage. We decided to make a night of it and go out for supper too.

 I wanted to look pretty but it's been so darn hot lately that my outfit options were really limited. So I stuck to my summer uniform of a tank and skirt and added to a statement necklace to pretty things up. Topping things off was the new purse RDog recently gave me. I felt spiffy!

To give you an idea of how pretty cottage-land is around here, here is a shot of the beach.

And then RDog got me in front of his family's cottage.

Every Time He Goes Away . . .

. . . he comes home with presents!

Everytime RDog goes away for business, he always comes home with presents. It could be something small like my Sephora wishlist fullfilled or it could be something big like this.

Recently, RDog went to Seattle and his coming home present did not disapoint.

I've always been a big fan of Kate Spade from seeing advertisements and pictures on the blogging world. I never told that to RDog, but when he saw the Kate Spade store in Seattle, he knew I would love Kate Spade too.

So what did he pick out. . .

It's a pretty color.

A new purse!

It's been about three years since I've got a new purse so this is a much appreciated addition to the collection. Yah for presents!

Short Dress, Tall Heels

Dress: J Crew via EBay
Shoes: Banana Republic Factory
Pearls: RDog a la 4th anniversary gift

This dress is way shorter than anything I ever wear so I thought, "what the heck" and paired it with my tallest heels.

Then I wore the dress to party the night away after two friends got married. Wedding days are the best!