BAG LOVIN' @AMERICANAPPAREL

I wandered my way around #FedHill today after I ran an errand or two (I'll be discussing these in detail later), and ended up in American Apparel in search of a new button down--the one I currently own was my ex's and I'm in desperate need of a new one, I've almost worn this one out; I love it that much.

I didn't have any luck with the button down, but I did manage to find two bags that I desperately want to add to my Birthday Wish List :)
My only hesitation is that these items are RIDICULOUSLY overpriced (because they're AA), but they look so good! AND I definitely know I'd get ample use out of them.

Scratch all of that!!!... I really just want this bag:

Stripe Canvas Large Carry All Bag

in Navy Wide White Stripe
$72

I REALLY REALLY WANT THIS!!! 

B.A.D.

The stripes, the stripes, the stripes... just screams ME ME ME!
And it's a big bag! Which is perfect size for ME ME ME :)

But I love this one too:

Small Leather Carry-All Pouch

in Plum Ostrich

$40

However, the quality of the Plum Ostrich isn't that great--AT ALL (I fiddled with it in the store), plus for $40--YouveGOTtoBEkidding!

So getting back to the BIG STRIPED TOTE BAG!!!

I WANT IT! :)

and it is taking EVERY BIT OF SELF RESTRAINT that I have

to not go and buy it tomorrow morning before I head off to the beach for work.

Gah!
Dammit!

Bills.

DAMMIT.

ROMANCED! LOL!

Remember when I told you I was being romanced by #MOBD... 

Well Senor Future Baby Daddy lived up to his word!

He sent me a practice rugby jersey!!!!!!

Say whaaa?!

I'm a few weeks late on my update post for you, but here it is:

 

Excuse the SERIOUSLY cheesy smile/smirk/grin on my face!
I most definitely DID NOT expect this!

Can you tell that my gift excited me?!

Maybe just a little bit too much--considering the bathroom photo shoot.

To read more about the ever popular saga...

Follow Me on Twitter

for the full story

#MailOrderBabyDaddy #MOBD

Outfits: Skippy Doo for New Shoes!

March 11-

I scored myself some sweet little gray oxfords from UrbanOg, as well as two other pairs of shoes I don't need but wanted anyways. You can see them/buy them HERE if you like. I'm kind of wishing I bought the camel ones now, but too late. The gray ones are plenty cute and I think I'll be able to wear them with more outfits.

Anyways, I'm quite proud of this outfit. I managed to combine a chiffon dress with a "boyfriend" sweater (don't ask me why they named it that, they just did) and not look like a total bum. Well, at least I don't think I look like a total bum.

March 12-

These new lovelies are some flat ankle booties. I should have taken a picture of the insides... they have the cutest floral print in there. I really wanted the brown version but those didn't come in my size. Boo! You can check them out HERE.

Hope you are all having lively Saturday afternoons (I meant to type "lovely", but I suppose lively works, too)! Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Outfits: Cheapy Cheapy

I'm switching to every other day outfit posts, just FYI. I felt bad for junking up everyone's blog rolls. :)

March 1st-

Uhm, super cheap outfit, am I right? When was the last time you saw an 8 piece ensemble for only $20.25? Granted, the dress didn't cost me anything because my mom made it for me, and the jewelry didn't cost me either (well, other than supply costs) because I made it myself, but STILL.

March 2nd-  

I love this skirt I found at St. Vincent's on my last trip there (which was oh so long ago... the first thing I'm going to do when I stop working 6 days a week is dedicate an entire day to thrift shopping). It's kind of like a faux-leather. It is perhaps a little longer than I'd like, but I can deal with it since it's not the type of material that your just hem up in 5 minutes.

Outfit: And then came the shoes...

Well I was on my way to another spectacularly inexpensive outfit, but that I couldn't resist myself and went with my favorite Seychelles pumps. Sue me.

This cowl is a late Christmas present from my sister that I got in the mail yesterday. She was going to try and make wristlets, but then I fell in love with cowls so I told her she could make me one of those instead. And I wanted a mustard one, and mustard is exactly what I got. Isn't the color fabulous?

And I realized this morning that I love turquoise and mustard together. I think I'm going to try and make excuses to wear those colors together all the time now. The ring is one that I saw my mom wearing yesterday and I immediately stole it from her (if my mom asks any of you if you know what happened to it, it wasn't me. Don't blow my cover.)

Outfit: Hair Insecurity --- Day 20: Education

I realized that it's been, like, centuries since I've worn my hair back. OK, well really it's been like 2 weeks, but it feels like forever. I love having my hair down. Maybe I have one of those deep psychological issues that make people view their hair as a security blanket or something.

Day 20: How Important You Think Education Is.
At the beginning of this challenge I thought these topics were really fun, but as I've been going along they have been getting less and less fun. I don't know why that is, but it kind of sucks. I'm super glad that Mckenzie is a day or two ahead of me in this, though, so I can steal her ideas for the days that I don't like. On her blog, Mckenzie talked about her own educational experience so I think I'm just going to do the same thing.

I have probably the weirdest list of schools ever. Are you ready for this?

Preschool: Some place in Australia where all we ever did was play. It was pretty sweet.
Kindergarten-5th grade: Homeschooled by my mom
6th Grade: Homeschooled for all core classes, went to middle school part-time for Band, PE, and AR (Accelerated Reading).
7th Grade: Homeschooled for math and science, went to public middle school for Band, PE, Language Arts, Social Studies.
8th Grade: Went to public middle school full time.
9th-10th grade: Went to public high school full time.
11th-12th grade: Did online high school full time.

So I've pretty much done it all, and let me tell you that homeschooling is AWESOME. You get to sleep in and eat lunch whenever you feel like it, and when you get done with one subject you can just go right to the next one. Online school is equally as awesome, because you get to do all the same stuff as homeschoolers, but you get online teachers instead of your mom (don't get me wrong, I love my mom. But having her as my teacher for high school probably would not have gone well).

The low point of my educational experience was definitely going to public high school. I really liked it in middle school because it was something new and different, but when I finally got settled into the routine, the novelty wore off for me. Both of my older sisters had similar experiences with being homeschooled and then going to public school and both of them went through all 4 years of high school with out any problems, but I just couldn't stand it. The amount of time wasted in the classroom was beyond ridiculous.

But that's all behind me now and I'm looking forward to the future! I can't tell you guys how excited I am for next year. I've been getting more information about the school I'm planning on going to and it's perfect for me. Hurray!

Outfit: Mismatched

On the way to work this morning my mom told me she doesn't think my outfit matches today. Well tut tut on her, because I think there's not a thing wrong with wearing a navy dress with dark brown tights with red shoes. In LeannaLand that's the only thing people wear, duh.

The necklace I'm wearing today was a present to myself a few weeks ago. I don't let myself wear the necklaces I make to sell on Etsy, so mostly the necklaces I have to wear myself are just the ones I've bought at Forever21 or received as gifts (and as you can imagine, I don't receive jewelry as a gift very often). Every now and then I make a conscious effort to make something for myself, though, and this necklace is one such item.

I love Chinese Porcelain!

I'm wearing something else new today... new shoes! I blogged about them on my shoe blog!

Seychelles for only $35? Yes please!

Outfit: Bully For You --- Day 12: Bullets

ModCloth called this the Bully Mammoth Tee. Don't ask me why. But I think I'm going to make it my goal to use the word bully 5 times today. Bully for me!

I am having camera woes at the moment, so that's why these pictures pretty much suck. Which is kind of sad, because I love this outfit. It matches so well without being matchy-matchy. I wore the gray tights to match the gray of the woolly mammoth on my shirt, the navy socks (I know they look black in the pictures, but they are really navy) compliments the blue text on the shirt, and the cardigan and boots are also very complimentary tones. And black matches everything so no worries there.

30 Day Challenge!
Click HERE for the full list of prompts.
Day 12: Bullet Your Whole Day
Like Mckenzie did, I'm going to do this for yesterday because today is yet to happen!
-Wake up, hit snooze.
-Wake up, hit snooze.
-Wake up, hit snooze.
-Wake up, hit snooze.
-Get up and get dressed.
-Have a minor crisis when the planned outfit decides to break (you can read about that HERE).
-Pick a new outfit.
-Straighten hair because I slept on it wet and it was crazy funky.
-Get everything together for work (laptop, lunch, purse, reading material).
-Double check that I have work keys.
-Get picked up, go to work.
-Because I am 15 minutes early, I go to the coffee shop next door and get coffee and some mini donuts.
-Work from 10am-6pm.
-Mom picks me up, we go home.
-Watch Li Na kick Caroline Wozniaki's butt at the Australian Open on ESPN2.
-Eat dinner with my mom. We have leftovers because my dad is gone on business.
-Watch Kim Clijsters kick Vera Zvonereva's butt at the Australian Open.
-Fall asleep on the couch.
-Get woken up by mom.
-Trudge to bedroom.
-Pick out an outfit for today.
-Wish that I could stay up and watch Djokovic play Federer play, but because of the time difference their match didn't start until after midnight.
-Go to bed around midnight.
-Have weird dreams about tennis.

This has pretty much been my life for the past two weeks. I work all day, come home and watch tennis, pick out an outfit, then go to bed. Thrilling, I know. But the Australian Open will be over on Sunday so then I'll probably take a TV break for a while, other than Biggest Loser on Tuesdays because that show rocks.

Exchanging Presents with the BFF

Janell and I have been friends since middle school, and best friends for about 4 years or so. For our graduation we got to go to France together for two weeks, where we stayed in Paris for 3 days before visiting her former exchange student in Dijon for a week and half. Fun stuff!

Not a face I ever wish to recreate... but oh well.
In the second pic we are standing inside of a giant wine taster. Don't drink me!

Anyways, Janell came over last night so we could watch a movie and swap Christmas presents, and I just have to show off my creations that I gave her. Well, mostly I just want to brag about this awesome wallet I made. Huzzah!

As a graduation present a friend gave me a mini wallet that she had made, and I wanted one like it but full-size, so I copied her dimensions and then made one for myself. I like it so much (and use it all the time) that I decided to make one for Janell.
It's all lined on the inside, and you can't really tell because of the striped pattern, but there are 4 slots in the front for credit cards and such. This was also my first experience with non-sewing snaps. So much easier than hand-sewing!

I also made her a simple Moss Agate necklace that's a nice earthy shade of green. She's more into simple designs than big chunky stuff, so it seemed like a good match for her.
In return, Janell gave me beads! I love getting beads. She gave me beads for our birthday, too (we share the exact same birthday), and a few times before that as well. She always tells me that I have to make something nice for myself with them. Yes, ma'am! :)

Chrysoprase and Blueberry Quartz. Pretty pretty!

I'll be sure to post pics of what I make out of them.

Sorry I missed Music Monday yesterday! I had zero time for blogging.

GIFT GIVING RANT a la THE HOLIDAYS

I truly love the holidays.

Aside from the typical stress that surrounds my family during the holidays, I enjoy the season. I love the weather (even though I complain when I'm cold and complain about my car sucking), I love the down time of just relaxing by the tree just reading a book, I love the traditions that the holidays bring about, and the new ones that I like to try to create from the old. I love opening gifts, getting in touch with those whom I have lost (regular) touch with throughout the year, and I love giving gifts.

I believe that gift giving is the greatest part of the holiday season. Whether the gifts are homemade baked goods, clothing, electronics or a gag gift just to make someone laugh, giving a gift and seeing someone's reaction is the highlight of my holiday. I love seeing the reaction that a gift can bring someone; be it tears of joy, laughter, shock--you really got this for me, or the acknowledgment that they know you care. That is what I truly enjoy about the holidays... making someone happy.

I don't care how much a gift costs. If it is something that will bring the recipient joy then I am happy to be the gift giver. Granted I'm not going to get you a CAR, but damned if I won't get you a hot-wheels to show that I tried :)

I hate that people feel obligated to give gifts. I hate that people feel obligated to spend as much as someone else did. You DO NOT have to do this! Doing that is BS! Just getting someone a gift, or even just words of love and happiness (sorry, that sounds kind of corn-ball), is enough.


This is how I think:

If you are going to get me a gift. Thank you so much for thinking of me. If you cannot afford to get me one (or just didn't plan on doing that)... that's okay too you don't have to... it's not going to upset me. But dammit if you will make me feel guilty about getting you something (regardless of the price). I like giving gifts. I do it to make the recipient happy, and selfishly to make myself happy--because seeing whoever I am giving my gift to smile because of what I gave them makes me smile and happy to have made them happy.

Gift Ideas For Stylish Women

The holidays are just around the corner, and you might be wondering what the beautiful, stylish woman in your life might like for the upcoming holiday(s). Whether she is your friend, mother, girlfriend, wife or daughter, she deserves a gift that is special and thoughtful. Here is a short list of gift ideas for the style-conscious woman (in no order).

* Stylish trench coat
Trench coats look great on most women. They look classy and stylish.

* Scarf with a beautiful brooch (pin)
A scarf with a brooch adds flavor to any outfit.

* Pearl necklace
Every stylish woman should have a strand of pearls. Classics and trends can blend beautifully to create a style that is unique to each woman.

* Diamond stud earrings
These are a staple in a woman's "jewelry box."

* Spa/salon gift certificate/ appointment
Every woman deserves some time for herself to relax and enjoy being a woman.

* A beautiful dress and/or heels (IF and only if you know her true size(s)... enough said.)

*A gift basket of relaxation items and/or items that she will find fun and/or useful (like chocolates, coffees, scrapbooking items, accessories, shoe inserts, oil burner with oils, candles, a cute robe, slippers, etc.).

*A new magazine subscription to Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Elle, Vogue, Lucky, TIME, etc. (This depends on her interests, of course.)

Good luck, and enjoy the holidays!!! :)