If I had a million dollars...

I would buy you a nice reliant automobile, or a monkey. AND THESE things for me...

Kate Spade Trench

White House Black Market shoes and bag

Anthropologie Skirt

Anthropologie cloche hat

Anthropologie dress

1. Rachel Roy Teal Booties 2. Knit Heeled MukLuks

1. BGBG Green Suede boots; 2. Sofft Savona Boots in Kenya

If I had a million dollars...Anthropologie

If I had a million dollars...

L.L. Bean Signature

Kate Spade

Kate Spade

Talbots

L.L. Bean Signature

L.L. Bean Signature

I'm Loving: Mar y Sol Handbags

These handbags from Mar Y Sol are so bright and cheery I want one of each! I love the wooden details, structure, and natural texture. And they are actually affordable for a regular gal like me!

I bet you can guess which one I like the best...

Lemme upgrade ya....Part 2

I know this is a departure from my usual topics, but for those of you who know me, I am a shoe fiend. FIEND. And I am just so excited about my new comfy, exuberant flats that I am living in!

for the next installment of Lemme upgrade ya, I bring you these flats from Restricted. They have replaced my old brown tweed ones. These seriously lift my spirits when I look down! They also come in black and tan, but why would you pick those when you can have ORANGE?? I think the only way I can get away with wearing these all the time is because they are flats. With a rounded toe. Just imagine pointy toed heels that are orange suede with studs. yikes! Ok, dad, you are saying yikes right now about these, I hear you.

I think they look mighty nice on Eileen's blue porch furniture, no?

Lemme upgrade ya....

Ok so not so much Beyonce style like Hermes belt and Gucci cuff links, but I AM upgrading my flats.

I have learned that just because a shoe is flat, it does NOT mean its comfortable! A few of the things that really count in cute flats are breath-ability, stretchability, and padding. I know this isn't very PC, but I totally think its worth it in a shoe to get leather. (sorry cows!) If you have pleather, you probably won't get any breath-ability or stretchability.

I had a gold pair that I REALLY wanted to like, that I bought to take the bar exam (in Virginia, you have to wear business attire while you take the test...and I didn't want to wear heels), but they got really scuffed up. So I went over the scuffs with a gold paint pen, but it turned out being the wrong color gold...anyway, they have been sitting in my closet for a few years now. So I decided to chuck them and replace them with....

TAH-DAH!

These beautiful new metallic, breathable cutout flats from Dolce Vita! I am really liking them and they go with absolutely everything. They also feel like sandals because of the cutouts but have a little bit of a dressier or more proper feel because of the closed toe and heel.

Stay tuned for more upgrades...from plain black pvc ballet flats and brown tweed that hurt my feet to the new, more fun and young versions! Did I really mention my new, younger and less formal work environment? :-D

Second Upholstered Brooch Display

After I made an Upholstered Brooch Display for all of my old brooches, my mother-in-law Jane said she wanted one as well!

Brett and I found this beauty of a frame at Marshalls for $5.00. Unfortunately it was a dingy gray, and it looked so much better once I painted it a shiny white.

Here is the finished product! I upholstered it with some fabric I happened to have from covering a lampshade. When I make these, its difficult to pick a fabric because you want it to be interesting and pretty, but you don't want the fabric to overwhelm the brooches you display on it. I thought this one would work well, and it is very delicate and feminine with the details on the frame.


I really hope Jane likes it! No one tell her before Christmas please!!!!

Beauty (D)Evolution

This is a one-minute video that has been making the rounds--its a fast-forward version of the process a woman goes through in order to be "beautiful" enough to be published.




It's thought-provoking, even though we know there is lots of retouching, to see it in action.

DIY: Old Purse Updated with Bamboo Handle

Before:
After:

I've had this macrame purse for years, and I love it. Its totally my hippy dippy side coming out--I wore it to Rusted Root this summer! However, me being a small person, the strap has always been too long. This is what has kept me from wearing it more often during our approximately 10 years together.

I was at a cafe the other day and saw a woman with a totally chic version of my fringy hippy purse, and it had SHORTER HANDLES! Before I could ask her where she got it, she had disappeared into the street and I was left feeling sad. Then I started seeing purses like this everywhere:Lilly PulitzerKate Spade

I figured if it was good enough for Kate and Lilly, it was good enough for me! I ordered these bamboo rings off of the internet, and then started brainstorming how to incorporate them into my purse. I couldn't find any as large and chic as the mystery woman's, but these did nicely!

At first I thought I could kind of weave them into the macrame, but I ended up having to cut the handles--warning, these things have a metal post on the inside! I started looking at the purse and realized there are these handy holes at the end of the zipper on each side.

Not being one who burns bridges, I decided to stuff the old, long handle into the space between the macrame and the lining so I could take it out later if incredibly long purse handles come in style. No kidding folks, this thing practically hits my knees!
Once I got most of it stuffed inside, I sewed the leftover part to the edge so it would stay in place and look like a decorative detail.
Strap?? What strap? I don't see a strap!I slid one end of the bamboo ring into the hole where I stuffed the strap, then turned it until the sawed part was on top again. I only used one of the rings. Then I got out some wood glue and clamped the ring back together. When I spun it around so the cut section was inside the purse, no one is the wiser!

The finished product...much better!
Has anyone else played with these bamboo rings? They are pretty cheap and bamboo is so eco chic right now that I can imagine using them all over the place, especially in the house.

Clothing Overload and Catching up

Hola! Its been forever since I blogged, so this is probably going to be a long one!

My most recent project has been putting my entire closet online, so I can plan my outfits, like clueless. I know, as Ashley said, "Wow you must have a lot of free time..." haha. But I have a ton of clothes, and I don't really know what I have, and my life has been changing from student to professional, so I really need to take stock and edit. I used to live in jeans, and now its kind of like an even when I put them on!

So I signed up for this website, http://www.mycloset.com/. Its free. All you do is sign up and you get a virtual "closet" where you can upload your clothes. It looks like this:

There are preassigned categories like "pants," "shirts," "suits," "sweaters," where you can organize your stuff. then you can plan an outfit and put them all together like this:

So that's pretty cool. then you can get other people who have an account to comment on outfits you are planning, and they can suggest other jewlery or shoes or whatever. I really like that! BUUUUUT...this has taken me months! I have too much stuff!! seriously! I need Tim Gunn to come to my house and help me get rid of shit! I still havent even posted my sweaters. I originally signed up because I thought I would stop randomly shopping for stuff if I knew what I had and could actually use it to its best advantage. UHHHH yeah...haven't stopped shopping...AND I feel bad about myself because I don't know how to wear my scarves. (I'm pretty sure that sentence would never come out of a man's mouth!)

Enough about clothes...

Things have been going pretty well at work. My firm has decided to send me to the Richmond office in January, and right now I am working out of that office once per week. Its really small, but I think I will like it. I LOOOVE my office there because it has floor to ceiling windows and we are on the 6th floor and there are a bunch of hawks that fly by all the time. Sometimes they hit the windows. Thats's not so cool. lol

Brett and I are house shopping in Richmond, hopefully to close sometime in January. I AM SO EXCITED I Can bARELY CONTAIN MYSELF! So excited to have a back porch and a yard and a dog and a garden! Its also pretty exciting to be somewhere for more than one year. I'm already planning the housewarming party. And the spring croquet and sangria party. And the first christmas party. etc. :-D

Brett and I have decided to do Thanksgiving in WV and Christmas in Vermont. So for any of you parkersburg people, I think we should go bowling for old times sake!

Ok, that's enough for now. I love you all. Please write back and let me know how things are going for you!

xoxo

c