Taking a vacay

Today's the last day at week before a long weekend / mini vacation. Yay!! I'm so freaking excited. Hubby and I "won" a free hotel stay in Myrtle Beach and we're leaving for the beach in the morning. Too bad I still need to wash aalllll my laundry tonight in order to pack. ... I wonder if I could get away with only packing swimsuits and fedoras.

So as much as I wanted to wear a sweatshirt to work today and pretend that my vacation has already started, I decided to take the higher road and at least wear something that appeared that I was ready to work. Even though I may still try to avoid doing any actual work....

Sweater: Target - Tank: Old Navy - Pants: F21 - Heels: Nine West - Sunnies: Dollhouse

Motherly weekend recap

As you know, my mom came to visit for a long weekend and we had a wonderful time. I hadn't seen her since Christmas, so it was great to spend some mother daughter time. Here's everything that we did!



We took a cruise down the canal, past our apartment and back to downtown.

We visited Charlottesville, Virginia and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

We ate a lot of food (This is a peanut butter, banana and bacon burger which was surprisingly good.)

We explored and visited tons of monuments, museums and Civil War museums.

We went to the river.

We visited some gardens and waterfalls.

And we (...well, maybe just I) drank a lot of beer.

Trousers

I hope you didn't miss me too much!  I had an amazing, long weekend with my mom in town. Pictures of our weekend to come, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share one of my outfits while she was here! With trousers so stylish again, I had to take these for a spin again. I've had these suckers for years and am happy I've kept them around.

Jacket + Trousers: Gap - Tank: Target - Heels: Boutique in Santa Monica

Prepared

The maid has came and sucked out all of the dog hair from our apartment. Pictures and tables are dusted. Dirty dishes are washed. And our bed is actually made. (...all of these things never happen). I'm ready and waiting for my mom to arrive!!

Mom's coming to visit from MN this weekend and I can't wait for her arrival. That said, her flight doesn't land til midnight, so I have a lot of waiting ahead of me. So although I look cute by day, I will likely greet her at the airport in sweatpants and glasses with a half-awake expression on my face.  Good thing she has to love me no matter what I look like.

Tank: Old Navy - Skirt: F21- Flats: Lorenzo Chilini via Marshalls

 

I feel like a [old] woman

Channelling my inner Shania Twain there. I don't know why my mother used to love Shania Twain, but she did. So I had the joy of listening to her music much more often than I'd care to admit... But really now, I'm off to wearing my granny pants again. I really do love how comfortable and mostly in-style these are. But they really do give me a granny butt. SOoooo, no pictures from the back.

Top: Target - Pants: Asos - Necklaces: F21 and Target 

Today I'm linking up to:

Whatever, Whenever Wednesday at Rolled Up Pretty

What We Wore and Made Wednesdays at Rae Gun Ramblings
What I love Wednesdays at Lollipops

What to Wear Wednesdays at Transatlantic Blonde

What I Wore Wednesday at Pleated Poppy

What I Wore at The Letter 4 

Work it Wednesday at A Little Bit of Laquer

For the love of skirts

This stretch skirt from F21 is one of my favorites. It's trendy, matches with just about anything, and always fits. Even though I ate an entire pint of Birthday Cake Remix ice cream from Cold Stone last night, I can still fit into this skirt. That's enough for a nobel prize in my eyes.

Vest: Old Navy - T: Target - Skirt: F21 - Heels: Nine West

Today I'm linking up to:
Monday Mingle at Glamamom

 

Sunday Storytime: A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness is a wonderful twist on the vampire mania that is both intriguingly intelligent and lacking a shallow teenage romance.

Diana Bishop has lived her life trying to be a normal human being. But coming from the famous Bishop family of witches, descending from the first witch burned at the stake in Salem, she is anything but a normal human being. One day while conducting research, Diana summons an alchemical manuscript and can feel the magic in it's pages. Shutting magic out of her life makes the manuscript a confusing and strange thing that Diana does't want to give into, so she quickly returns the book to the stacks and goes about her way. Unfortunately for her, the manuscript has sent out a magic sound wave for every creature to hear. Soon hoards of witches, vampires and daemons descend upon Oxford trying to get closer to the witch that was able to summon the infamous lost manuscript.

And summoning that manuscript started waves of magical outbursts, uninvited creatures pushing Diana to summon it again and help them answer long lost questions. Never did she expect to find an ally and confidant in a vampire. And Matthew Clairmont, a geneticist vampire becomes that ally helping Diana protect herself against the creatures that are out to hurt her and use her power against her.

This is a smart, complex story that is nothing like the other teen angst-filled vampire novels out there. Historic relevance, a romantic love story and some pretty surprising action made this book a page turner. And I can't wait for the next book of this trilogy, Shadow of Night, to come out in July.  I give it four and a half stars. Enjoy.

Brighten up my day

Thank you to everyone who voted for which outfit I should be wearing today. The beautiful yellow trousers won out in a landslide. Y'all must have realized that I'd need a little something to brighten up my day. TGIF!

Top + Belt: Target - Trousers: JCrew - Sunnies: Dollhouse - Sandals: Rainbow

Today I'm linking up to:
Friday Free For All at Five Days Five Ways

What to Wear Friday

Well friends, I've been able to choose my own outfits without your help for a couple of months, but I think it's time to bring What to Wear Friday back. I need your help!!  What should I wear tomorrow?  This or That?

Pretty trees

How pretty are these trees behind me?
Answer = very.

Happy hump day. And happy haircut day. (Don't worry, it's just a trim. You won't even notice.)

Jacket, Tank + Necklace: F21 - Jeans: Gap - Heels: Madden

Today I'm linking up to:

Whatever, Whenever Wednesday at Rolled Up Pretty

What We Wore and Made Wednesdays at Rae Gun Ramblings
What I love Wednesdays at Lollipops

What to Wear Wednesdays at Transatlantic Blonde

What I Wore Wednesday at Pleated Poppy

What I Wore at The Letter 4 

A 10 month hiiatus

I've been 'practicing' yoga for around seven years now. I say practicing in quotes, because I am definitely still a novice. But moving to a new city means a lack of time and a lack of information on the 'good' studio's in town. I've walked past a few yoga studios in the city, but nothing that seemed like the right fit for me. But after a 10 months hiiatus, I finally found a studio that I like. I have returned and boy do I feel refreshed.

I found a great little studio on the other side of Richmond. From the outside it just looks like a storefront.  Yoga apparel, yoga mats, yoga socks...you get the idea. But in the back, they have one adorable little studio and a few pretty amazing instructors back there too.

Last night was my first class and it was like I never left. It may have taken my body a little longer than typical to get into some of the positions, but after the first flow, I was in. My breathing slowed. My body relaxed. And my mind cleared. My god - why did I wait 10 months to find a yoga studio in Richmond??

I swear people at work are actually commenting on how relaxed I look today. Other than not sleeping well last night, I'm completely refreshed, un-frazzled and a little calmer. What do you think, do I look more relaxed?

Jacket + Tank: Target - Jeans: Old Navy - Heels: Madden - Watch: Thrifted

Get a little closer

Happy Monday everyone. I hope you all had wonderful holiday weekends. My weekend was filled with lots of food and pool time, which I love - and finally emailing and calling some of my close friends that I've been meaning to do for months. Here's my weekend recap in pictures.

 

On Thursday I went to NYC and purchased quite a few cupcakes from Crumbs.
We had Easter brunch, which was delish.
The dogs rolled around in the comforter on our bed.
We went for a walk past the Virginia State Capital.
I spent lots of time in front of the pool. Or staring out my apartment window at the beautiful river.
And then I emailed and Facebook messaged a ton of friends!

One of the most important things I want to accomplish before I turn 30 is to build stronger relationships with my friends. I have friends across the entire country -  in seven different states to be exact - and living so far away from so many of them makes it difficult to be the good friend that I know I can (and should) be. The saying 'out of sight, out of mind' comes to my mind. When you're so busy with life, time gets away from you and all of a sudden a year has gone past without doing so much as emailing some of your best friends. I'm so bad at this. 

So I've decided that I need to start taking a more active role in those long-distance relationships. I call this my Spring Resolutions, since I'm a few months late to the New Years Resolutions party... I'm not a phone person, even with my bestest of friends, so emailing and Facebook appear to be my main points of contact. And I'm OK with that. I took a couple of hours of my day yesterday to email my friends from back home that I miss horribly. Yes, it's been a year since I've talked to them. No, that wasn't intentional. And boy, do I hope that they don't hold that against me because I really do love those girls, no matter how often (or not so often) we talk. 

Do you live across the country from your friends? What are your tips for staying in touch with them? 

Want to see my other 30 before 30 items that I'm slowly checking off? Check them out here! 

Sunday Storytime: At Frist Sight

Sunday Storytime has taken a bit of a hiatus. A couple months worth to be exact, but it's back!

Over those past couple of months, I have half-read a lot of books but only finished a couple. I am a person that gets bored veeerry easily. If a book hasn't completely won me over in the first half, I will very often move onto a different book for awhile before coming back to finish it. If I ever come back to it at all.

Luckily, I have a couple of pretty good books to review until I need to go back to that stack of half-read books. This week, I'm feeling like a mushy romantic so I'll be reviewing Nicholas Sparks' At First Sight.  I'm not typically a Sparks fan because I prefer a little bit of flair and unpredictability. But then there are days that all I want is a straight-forward, no surprises, love story.

At First Sight is a part two to his previous book True Believer. I haven't read True Believer, but luckily it didn't hurt because there was plenty of explaination in the first couple of chapters to get caught up. At First Sight begins with Jeremy Marsh, a writer from NYC who debunks frauds and hoaxes. Jeremy is packing up his belongings while getting grief from his best friend Alvin about packing up his New York life for a small town girl that he met while on assignment.

But meeting Lexie and falling in love was not in Jeremy's plan when he traveled to North Carolina to write an article on a strange phenomenon in a small town cemetery. But now Lexie is pregnant, and Jeremy wants to be a good man and make a family with this beautiful new woman and his soon-to-be child. But as his friend Alvis so kindly points out, he may not know Lexie as well as he should. Secrets squeeze their way between their relationship and soon Jeremy is following Lexie around town and sneaking around trying to find answers - including answers to anonymous 'tip' emails about his fiancé's past.

Jeremy asks himself if love at first sight is real? And how well he really knows the love of his life.

Overall I can only give this book a three star. It's predictable as any Nicholas Sparks novel is, but the romanticism is still somewhat entertaining.

It'll be a good Friday

It'll be a great Friday, because I have the day off! I'm actually sitting on my couch, watching GCB wearing my big baggy sweatpants right now. Definitely not this cute outfit that I wore last week.

Does anyone else have the day off?

Blouse: H&M - Skirt: The Limited - Wedges - Payless

Today I'm linking up to:
Fashion Friday at Blonde Episodes
Friday Free For All at Five Days Five Ways

Traveling again

I'm in NYC for the day and don't feel like embarrassing myself in front of thousands of people in Times Square to take an outfit picture. So this is the only picture you get today. Enjoy!

Bohemian Rhapsody

Alright, so this outfit isn't exactly bohemian. Or really even close. But I do feel it a little with the length of this flowy, flowery skirt and all the pleats. Pleats maaayyy be one of my favorite trends of this year, so why not double them up, right?!



Today I'm linking up to:

Whatever, Whenever Wednesday at Rolled Up Pretty

Real Style at Momma Go Round

What We Wore and Made Wednesdays at Rae Gun Ramblings
What I love Wednesdays at Lollipops

What to Wear Wednesdays at Transatlantic Blonde

What I Wore Wednesday at Pleated Poppy

What I Wore at The Letter 4 

Those in-between days

Today is one of those in-between days. The mornings are cold but within hours it warms up to the 70s. When you walk to work, these are the hardest days to dress for. Do I dress for the 30 degree mornings or the 70 degree days.....or the 40 degree office....?

I may end up freezing my ass off. But at least I'll look good doing it.

Blazer: F21 - Tank + Shorts: Target - Heels: Marshalls

Bright and sunshiny day

A bright outfit to match the bright and sunshiny day outside. But it's an indoor picture for me, because it is wiiiindy out there. I would hate to moon someone while trying to take my amazingly amazing pictures today.

Cardigan + Plaid Top: F21 - Skirt: H&M - Boots + Socks: Target 

Today I'm linking up to:
Monday Mingle at MomTrends

I'm back

It's been a busy week. But I'm back and ready to start dressing like a human being again. So, outfit pictures to come tomorrow. In the meantime, here's what I've been up to all week.

There was one day that I dressed well enough to warrant taking a picture. Only one.

Working hard or hardly working? - on production.

My hotel was pretty.

The cloud covered mountains outside of Vancouver. It really is a beautiful city.

I tried oysters for the first time ever. They were surprisingly good and the restaurant had some damn funny T-shirts.

I saw lots of airplanes and airports. It took me 17 hours to travel home after a couple of cancelled flights. Boy was I happy to see my own bed after that day.

Yesterday, I ran the Monument 10k with friends in Richmond.

And then we quickly drank all of our calories back in beer.