Obsessions

Things I am obsessed with right now:
1. The weather. I have always been a big fan of the weather channel, but I must check the weather app on my phone at least once an hour. It's become a problem. I need help because I can't stop doing it. I just can't believe the awesomeness that is the extended forecast and I keep waiting for the numbers on the screen to go from in the 70's to back in the 40s where they belong this time of year.
2. My cute new Lauren Conrad tops from Kohl's that I just purchased. They tie in perfectly with my spring weather obsession.
3. Peep toes, enough said.
3. The Hunger Games. Can't. Stop. Googling. Hunger. Games.  I don't think I've ever watched a live stream of anything, but I had to check out last night's Hunger Games world premiere red carpet extravaganza. I have not looked this forward to seeing a movie in a long time. Maybe ever. I probably won't even be able to see it when it opens because I'm assuming it will be sold out and this annoys me. That is just crazy and I'm scaring my 35 year old self. No wonder Jennifer Lawrence is nervous about this movie publicity, there are crazy people like me out there! Too bad my hair isn't long enough for a Katniss braid :)

Tank: Kohl's (Lauren Conrad) recent
Cardigan: Gap (old)
Pants: NY&Company (last spring)
Shoes: Kenneth Cole Reaction (last spring)

Fantasy vs. Reality

I've had it in mind to where this outfit a few times this year and never went through with it. That's because I knew deep down that while this outfit would look fine, even good, I would be majorly uncomfortable all day. As a teacher sometimes it's hard to wear high heels and pencil skirts. As a Kindergarten teacher, it's even harder. Ever trying squatting down to a 5 year old's level in a pencil skirt? It's not fun! I mostly have a fear of the skirt ripping, lol. Primary grades involve a lot of sitting in little chairs and on the carpet, which make more structured skirts and dresses a little difficult to wear.  I pulled the trigger on this dress/cardigan/heels combo because it was parent/teacher conference day and I like to look more "dressed up" on those days. I have to say, I felt pretty in this dress yesterday. I also felt like I couldn't move around as freely and my feet were killing me an hour into the day (and I usually have a back up pair of flats but forgot them!) Needless to say, it was sweatpants and snuggie time as soon as I walked in the door to my house! I do like this dress though, so I'll try to sneak one more wear in before the end of the school year... on a day when I have 2 specials.. and with flats :)

Dress: Loft (spring 2011)

Cardigan: Loft (fall 2011)

Shoes: Nine West (old) 

Pink and Grey on Valentine's Day!

I hope the blur is at least hiding my wrinkles :) 

I've always thought of Valentine's Day as more of a "pink" holiday than a "red" one. Red is for Christmas if you ask me. And I happen to like pink more than red so there you go!

Oh and Valentine's Day + 100th Day of School falling on the same day = INSANITY
The good news is.. 100 down, 82 to go!

Jacket: Gap (really old)
Dress: Loft Outlet (fall 2011)
Boots: Nine West via Macy's (fall 2011) 

Ahh, Saturday..

Got up early this morning, grabbed some coffee at D&D. Got to the car dealership, sipped coffee, caught up on paperwork, enjoyed the peace and quiet.. Got home, husband and R just ran off to husband's car dealership. I'm alone, house is quiet... Later on, date night with hubby.. R gets to hang out with his Nonna who misses him.. everyone wins. Oh happy Saturday :) 

Purple Cardigan: Loft (Fall 2011)
Lace Tank: Loft (fall 2011)
Jeggings: Macy's (last year)
Boots: Nine West Via Macy's (fall 2011)
Cross body swing pack: Coach (Christmas gift 2011) 

The "Itch"

It happens to me every year without fail, usually around mid-winter. I get the "itch" to buy new stuff. And I don't mean new winter stuff that's on really great sale or clearance, I mean new spring stuff because, you know, I don't have another 2 + months of cold weather to get through! It makes PERFECT sense for me to run out and buy sleeveless tops,  cute little sundresses, and peep toe wedges. Yes, I am rolling my eyes at myself right now. I usually don't get this feeling until around February or so, but I guess since our winter has been so tame, it's hitting me a little sooner. (Now that I've typed "tame" and "winter" in the same sentence, I'm sure a blizzard will be forecasted by tomorrow!)
Well I've convinced myself that I can have patience and wait it out, not buy new stuff just yet. I'm focussing on trying to bring out things I haven't worn in a while, maybe try some stuff on and remix if I get a chance to. I put myself on shopping restriction this month... well I was weak and broke it in banana outlet (only bought 1 thing, but still..). I'm trying to learn to enjoy what I have, not rush into buying new stuff, and most importantly, not rush time. I have a big ugly habit of doing that! So the cute Kenneth Cole Reaction espadrilles that I ALMOST bought will have wait, a least a little while longer :)

Sweater Dress: Macy's (last year)
Leggings: Loft (last fall)
Boots: Nine West via Macy's (last fall)

The Best of What's Around

Uh-oh, I'm back to using Dave Mathews Band songs as post titles. Actually, I'm only using it this time because it fits in with my t-shirt, which my husband bought for me when we went to the Dave & Tim acoustic show back in November. I wore this last Monday, it was a jeans and T-shirt kind of day. Today is a shorts and t-shirt kind of day, with temperatures near 65 degrees here in NJ! I'm not complaining, totally loving it!
T-Shirt: Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds concert at the Palace Theater in NYC
Jeans: Old Navy
Boots: Nine West

Oh and it's goodbye pony tail, hello super short stacked bob. Got myself a haircut today!

Snowflake Style

Today we went caroling through the halls of our school with 7 Kinder classes. They wore various adorable hats and the teachers decided to get festive as well with snowflake sweaters and santa hats. I pulled out this old Eddie Bauer snowflake sweater and tried to figure out a way to make it a little more current. Hope I did a good job!

Snowflake Sweater: Eddie Bauer (old)
Button Down: Old Navy (old)
Leggings: Loft
Boots: Nine West via Macy's (fall 2011)

Who are you calling "worst dressed"??

I was listening to my favorite Christmas music station in my classroom this morning and the trivia question of the day was "what is the worst dressed profession?" "teaching" I blurted out before I even had a chance to think! Wow, I am a traitor to my own career and colleagues. But sadly I was correct. Well, "not me" is what I thought as I stood decorating my classroom with more gingerbread houses in my 3 inch skinny heeled metallic Kenneth Cole boots. "I am stylish," I thought to myself... I mean, how many Kindergarten teachers do you know who wear 3 inch skinny heels to work?? Yes, I was pretty impressed with my stylish self.. and then I nearly tripped over a small chair. As you can see from the picture, the boots did not make it through the day. At least I WAS smart enough to bring a back up pair of flats with me.. they were also metallic, don't want to mess with my style :)

Sparkle Sweater: NY&Company (old)
Cords: NY&Company (recent)
Flats: Nine West (a couple of years ago)

In the Spirit

Shawl Sweater: Macy's (recent)
Tank: Gap Outlet
Jeans: Old Navy
Boots: Nine West 

I realize I have not been posting many (any) work outfits lately. This is happening for a couple of reasons.
#1 I am not good about re-mixing stuff and I repeat outfits often.
#2 With it getting dark so early, I pretty much put my sweats or p.j.'s on as soon as I get home from work, plop down on the couch in front of my Christmas tree and then think "oops, I forgot to take a picture for the blog!" I DID take a picture today.. but I'm saving it for tomorrow's post. I figured since I have an outfit picture from this past weekend, might as well use it!

I am still feeling exhausted from our fun Christmasy weekend. We saw the Muppet Movie on Saturday (funny and soo cute!) and headed out to dinner after. Sunday was a fun filled day in the city. First we saw the Big Apple Circus, then headed to FAO Swartz, saw the windows at Bloomingdales and Tiffany's, and finished up with a visit to that little old Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza. I really do consider myself lucky to live so close to NYC, and as anyone who has ever visited I'm sure knows, there is NOTHING like New York at Christmas!

The lovely window display at Tiffany's 

Me and R in front of the tree

Rockefeller Christmas Tree 

Long Time No Blog

Yes it's been a while. I"m going to attempt to get back into the swing of things now that my basement remodel is done and I don't have contractors in my house until 7:00 P.M. every evening (yay!) So this is what's been going on:
*Basement is done and I love it!
*November was/is crazy busy with some kind of birthday celebration every weekend.
*We got to see a Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds acoustic show at the Palace Theater in NYC on Friday night. It was my 2nd Dave and Tim show and didn't disappoint. The theater was beautiful.
*I made several new purchases this month through gift cards, coupons, and just a plain "I have to have these" moment (a pair of 3.5 inch red loafer wedges, I can't wait to get them!)
*I even bought a few Christmas gifts. That NEVER happens, I never shop early. So I'm proud of myself. LOL

This navy bag is the only Anthropologie item I own.. well besides a cute dish towel that I ruined and had to get rid of :(
Actually, I don't even own this bag.. I'm "borrowing" it from my sister.. As in, I plan on keeping it until she realizes (hopefully 3 years from now) that I still have it. It's stylish and roomy and I always get a ton of compliments when I use it.
I had been looking for a new pair of grey boots and this Nine West (via Macy's) pair are a recent purchase.

Sweater: LOFT (couple of years ago)
Cami: H&M (old)
Jeans: Old Navy 
Boots: Nine West (via Macy's)
Bag: Anthropologie (via my sister :) 

What a Week!

 This week has felt like a month to me. I'm looking around at the jack o' lanterns in my house and thinking, "Wow, I need to take these down was't Halloween, like, 6 weeks ago?" Because that's how long this week has been. I'm pooped but we'll be bouncing away tomorrow afternoon at little R's 4th birthday party!

red zip sweater: Loft
lace tank: Loft
pants: Marshalls (really old)
shoes: Nine West
small child with lollipop holding i-phone: ithappenedonenight.com :)

A "Me" Day

Yes I realized I had a sticker on my jacket before I left the house.. the joys of 4 year old boys!
I did NOT realize that I left the tag on the back of my Loft sweater. No one to blame for that but my 35 year old self! 

On Saturday I had a day to myself. I haven't had one of those in a while so it was nice. First I headed out to make some returns and pick up some new clothes for little R. I love to shop for him as much as I love to shop for myself. Oh who am I kidding, I love to shop for everyone and everything. Well except maybe for food, that is kind of annoying. After the shopping trip I headed down to my sister's house where she was hosting a Willow House party. There were lots of nice housewares for sale and I had more fun.. shopping! AND eating delicious desserts that the hostess baked herself. Hello huge brownie made with nutella. I ate the entire thing and have no regrets!

My "me" day came in handy because when I got home Saturday night I started feeling weird and woke up with the classic fever and body aches that can only mean one thing.. some kind of flu bug :( I missed my nephew's christening yesterday, I just could not get out of bed. I didn't even make it into work today but I'm starting to feel more like a human again now so hopefully I've survived the worst of it!

Jacket: Loft (recent)
Sweater: Loft (recent)
Jeans: Old Navy
Boots: Nine West via Marshalls
Bag: Coach Madison Leather Lindsey Satchel (recent)

Pink is my Signature Color

I threw on this pink jacket over my new green Loft sweater dress. I found this dress on the sale rack, actually I found A LOT of these dresses on the sale rack and that had me thinking it wouldn't work out for me, but I tried it on and thought it was cute. I wore it to work today and got a ton of compliments on it. This will be a go to dress for me during fall/winter..  it's easy to move around in and perfect with tights and boots.

Lately I have blogger paranoia. Nobody in my life besides my husband knows about this blog and I want to keep it that way for now. Today when I was getting compliments on my outfit I had a panicked feeling for a minute and I thought to myself "I wonder what they would think if they discovered this blog?" I know I shouldn't care but I hate when people are overly critical and I know there are people in my life who won't get why I'm doing this. I've actually been thinking about stopping for a while, but that will only hurt me.  Writing is a great outlet for me to release stress. Then I thought about steering away from the fashion angle and focussing more on other things. I like the way I dress, but I'm not the most creative and I'm actually OK with that. Plus I'm on my own with taking pictures and have a plain old point and shoot camera (with no plans to upgrade any time soon) so my pictures don't come out great. Maybe I can make myself more anonymous somehow. Or maybe I just need to step away for a while. Anyone else go through this and have any suggestions??

Dress: Loft (recent)
Jacket: Gap (old)
Tights: Dress Barn
Boots: Nine West
Necklace: Sunshine Daydreams

Eshakti Dress Review

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a representative from Eshakti and asked to review a sample from their clothing company. Of course I jumped at the chance. The thing that's great about Eshakti is you can customize their clothing by providing your measurements. You can even change sleeve lengths and hem lengths to your liking. You can also just order standard sizes and keep the clothing as is, which is what I chose to do. The Eshakti website is very user friendly and has lots of clothes to browse. I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to sample! I wound up choosing a dress. Here was my experience in a nutshell:

*Great customer service. E-mails were answered promptly and with courtesy.
*Wide variety of clothing on the website to choose from.
*Prices are reasonable. I chose the Pointillist Tweed Dress and it is $69.95 which is an amount I would spend on a work appropriate dress.
*Shipping took a while, I didn't receive my dress until about 3 weeks after I put my order in, so that was a draw back.
*The fit of the dress is great, and I didn't even use the custom sizing option.
*The dress I chose is nice quality! The top of the dress is tweed, has a pretty black fringe that lines the neckline, back, waist, and zipper. It is also fully lined. The bottom portion of the dress is a multicolored stretch cord material. I loved that it's stretchy.. very teacher friendly! Even though the cord fabric stretches, the dress still retained its shape throughout the day (and I move around a lot!)

I decided to wear this dress to work today for class pictures. I wore it with a black cardigan this morning since it was chilly, but I can pair it with many different colored cardigans or jackets. It will also look great with tights and boots. I got a lot of compliments on this dress today and am very happy with my selection! I plan on wearing it again to a family Christening this weekend. Would I ever consider ordering clothing from Eshakti again? Definitely!

Dress: Eshakti
Shoes: Nine West
Jewels: Lia Sophia

Pick, Pick, Pick a Fat Pumpkin..

Shorter hair.. I'm still getting used to it. 

Hay rides are the best! 

We went pumpkin picking today and it was the perfect day for it. Blue skies, crisp weather, and a not-so-crowded pumpkin farm. It was great!

Now that the craziness of the beginning of the school year has settled down a little I feel like I can really enjoy this time of year.. and I do. I love the weather, decorating the house and my classroom at school, doing fun fall projects and knowing that the    holiday season is just around the corner makes me happy! 

Shirt: Dockers (don't remember what store)

Sweater/Cape: Old Navy (last year)

Jeans: Old Navy (A couple of years ago)

Boots: Nine West via Marshalls (several years ago) 

                                                                                       

Hot cider donuts.. yum! 

Lofts of pumpkins! 

Spooky hands :) 

Pink and Grey

I have continued to wear my pink for breast cancer awareness.  I've owned this pink jacket from the Gap for many years and I still break it out every fall. You can't really tell from the picture but I'm wearing a grey cardigan underneath the jacket/over the tank. I love the pink/grey combo. I also love the lace detail that I've seen on a lot of LOFT stuff recently. 

Today I had to find a field trip for my grade level, reserve tickets, and submit all the paperwork by the end of the day. Originally the deadline for field trip submitting was November 1st but it was changed to today and I found out about that TODAY! I also had lunch duty with the 1st graders. Ugh. And now I have a splitting migraine headache. On a happy note, tomorrow is Friday! AND my sample dress from eshakti arrived today. I can't wait to wear and review it! 

Jacket: Gap (old)

Cardi: LOFT (recent)

Tank: LOFT (recent) 

Pants: Gap Outlet (old)

Shoes: Nine West (old) 

Little booshie (as I like to call him) decided to
crash my photo :)