Plans, I Have Fantastic, Wonderful Plans...

Two full weeks into my new job and I am ***EXHAUSTED***. All I did today was a Walmart run & registering Bookey for softball & I really feel compelled to lie prone & whimper, Why are you torturing me?

Really, why?!?

Hehehe. That's just life, forcing me to get off my ass. Much like my personal trainer. My new job has a gym in the call center. Membership is only fifteen bucks a month, and includes unlimited workouts with a personal trainer. I made appointments for Monday, Wednesday, & Friday (upper body, lower body, core) & went in Thursday as well just to jump on the treadmill for some cardio (zoned out with my book, am reading Bullet by Laurell K. Hamilton).

I have been wearing good outfits every day except one. My black pants and hot pink sweater made me look like I was five feet tall and as wide as I was tall. Sweater looked great with leggings but unfortunately that wardrobe staple is verboten at my job. We can wear SHORTS on the weekends, but no leggings??? I am so glad that the world makes sense.

I filed my taxes this past weekend & hoped to have a nice check to do some shopping this weekend. Alas, it is postponed; I won't get my check for another couple of weeks, but in the meantime, I created this outfit off the Gap website & think that I may treat myself once the bird in the bush has alighted in my bank account, I mean, hand.

I think I'm a little bit in love with this outfit...a little terrified of buying an entire outfit for full retail price....we'll see what happens! What do you think, lovely reader?

New Year, Old Cliche

Seeing my hair lately in photos has been an unpleasant revelation. Starting my new job tomorrow, I want to feel confident & upbeat. Saw a cute photo of Jennie Garth's new cut yesterday in Us Weekly magazine, so I took it to the salon today and got a new haircut. I hate my chins, but I love my new hair!

Silver Bells...

Actually, silver necklaces. One of the advantages of seeing yourself from full length and further away in photos is seeing what your outfit needs. I love this all black outfit and own NUMEROUS all black outfits, but I definitely need a long, bold silver necklace. I tried one on at Lane Bryant while shopping, probably a year or so ago, and rejected it because I felt it made me look old: wrong decision, I wish I had that necklace now! Have looked in a couple of places but haven't found "the one" yet.

I kind of like this necklace, but I think it may be too young for me!



This picture doesn't do the piece justice, the chains are really long and come almost down to your waist. I love the drama, but just not sure if this would work for work.

Sheer Shearling Extravagance

Coat: lipstick red, shearling lined suede from the Victoria's Secret catalog closing in on ten years ago. Sweaterdress from Lane Bryant, gray velour leggings, also Victoria's Secret. Turquoise beaded earrings from my early AM Black Friday Target run (which was actually to buy an outdoor firepit for my honey...can't wait til he opens it on Christmas!)

could say much more but just found out I gotta run--back soon, pinky swearsies!!!

I resisted resisting temptation

Shoes are my weakness. Always have been, right? And with our financial situation right now, I should not be buying ANY shoes. In fact, I think I've only bought one pair since I moved to TN (can that be right????) (if so, yay me, and yet...so sad.)

I have followed Allie at http://www.wardrobeoxygen.com/ religiously for years as a shining example of how a real woman with a real budget and a real body can look good every day, and I love to look through her blogroll and check out other stylebloggers when I have the opportunity. I found Yvonne at Vogue Inspired Fashion For The Real World and wow, is she ever inspiring with her bustier in the boardroom and over the knee boot looks! Her pictures are amazing and I was particularly fascinated by the shoes in her post titled, Leggings: Argyle Sweater. She credited them as being from Aldo and POOF I was off to check out the Aldo site. The style is called Rhiane and it was on sale for TWENTY DOLLARS AND NINETY-NINE CENTS with free shipping & handling. Before checkout I used another great Allie tip and did a quick Google search for an Aldo coupon code that saved me 2.10, so these shoes from a nice store in the mall ended up costing me *LESS* than full price Payless shoes.

Don't you want to see them? You know you want to...hehehe...

Coping with Your FashionWEEsta

There are so many versions of the term "fashionista" now. Recessionista. Maxxinista. Et al.

I, myself, have a fashionWEEsta (or two)!

Note: my daughter is the one matching her hair accessories to her jeans. I don't know WHERE she gets that from...

Both pairs of five inch heels courtesy of My Closet~and the black boots my daughter is wearing? Yep, those Alice + Olivia Stompy Boots of Amazingness that I craved so long ago, courtesy of eBay!!! Life truly is grand. And full of wonderful footwear.

Yaay!! Christmas Has Come

Thanks to my darling, wonderful, incredible, fantastic, and all other sorts of good things mother, I am now the proud and happy possessor of many of the clothes that I craved in the past 2 posts. The blue jacket from Old Navy? Score! The backseamed black ponte dress with the skinny patent belt from Lane Bryant? Oh yes.

I'll confess that with the Christmas money coming in from family, I really did have visions of sugarplums dancing in my head. My mind spun with thoughts of facials, massages, being able to buy the Philosphy Vitamin C scrub that I love so much (and that costs 75.00...) Of course money only goes so far; when I saw my mom over Thanksgiving she was more than generous with her resources-took me to Old Navy and we bought stuff for the kids (and that blue coat for me!), Victoria's Secret for sprays and lotions (and I cannot even remember the last time I was able to go in VS or Bath & Body Works for some skin treats), and Lane Bryant for basically a whole new wardrobe in my now larger size-bras, jeans, dresses, black pants, sweaters, tunics, even a new purse. Lane Bryant was having a buy one, get one free on THE WHOLE STORE. Then at checkout Mom was offered 30% off her entire purchase if she applied for the LB card. So between the sale and the 30%, we made out like bandits!