Today

That is all.

Pinspirations

Here are three more Pinspirations with pieces all available for sale now at Keaton Row. Check out my prior Pinspirations from Keaton Row here.

(1) D.ra  (2) Halogen  (3) Plush  (4) Falke  (5) Steve Madden  (6) Fossil  (7) Marc by Marc Jacobs

This look is inspired by a pin found here. I love finding a way to wear skirts and dresses in the winter and this does it perfectly. I actually have everything to recreate this outfit now except the booties. Alright Laura, you're right, I need some damn booties.

All items can be purchased here.

(1) Top Secret  (2) Dolce Vita  (3) Commando  (4) Charles Albert  (5) Izzy & Ali  (6) Michael Kors

This look is inspired by a pin found here. Black on black with accents of gold is one of my favorite all time looks and I find myself recreating it over and over. This look is so easily recreated and so dang chic.

I love it!

All items can be purchased here.

(1) Topshop  (2) Topshop  (3) Ralph Lauren  (4) Giles & Brother  (5) Kate Spade  (6) Nadri  (7) Michael Kors

This look is inspired by a pin found here. I told you black on black with gold was my favorite! I just love this look, can't help it, it's just too perfect.

All items can be purchased here.

What do you think of these looks? Don't forget to send me any pins you want me to recreate!

Sunday Dinner, Fat Jokes and Happy Memories

I got made fun of the other day for saying that I would rather spend my money on a good meal than on a shopping trip. My preference was used as a fat joke of sorts, “That’s why you have to drink smoothies for lunch and I don’t, har har.” And it made me feel kind of shitty. I mean, obviously.

And then last night, Mike and I started a new tradition of Sunday dinners at our house where we finally break open the fancy cookbooks and make something for dinner that takes more effort and preparation. We eat our meal at the table together, no tv and no take out. Our first meal wasn’t really fancy, it was just a perfectly roasted chicken with root vegetables. It might not have been fancy, but it took care and time and thought and it was delicious. Mike and I sat at the table marveling over the flawlessly moist chicken, tasting a new wine, planning next week’s Sunday meal, and talking about instilling the love of good food into our future kids. It was lovely.

I woke up this morning to get ready for work and when I walked into the kitchen to get some coffee, I spotted the cookbook we used last night and smiled from the memory of the lovely dinner. And I thought to myself, when do you get THAT from a shopping trip? Heartwarming moments, deep conversations, smiles, and memories happen for Mike and I while bumping into each other in the kitchen prepping a meal and around the kitchen table clinking together our wine glasses. Did little miss fat joke’s last solo shopping trip bring a happy memory and a smile to her face the next morning or just a look of shock when her credit card bill came in the mail? I’m guessing the latter.

And yes, I love to shop as much as the next guy, but it’s so nice to be reminded every once in a while that it’s the little things that can really make a moment. Nothing fancy or expensive, just a nice meal with your husband in your pjs. I’ll take that any day, fat jokes and all.

 

This Sunday Currently

Currently I am...

Reading: Still reading the 4th Outlander book...I'm slow.

Writing: Not much other than this blog.

Listening: To Mike cooking a chicken in the kitchen, the dogs running around, and the washing machine going and a few minutes ago, I was listening to the second Hobbit movie because our base theater had an extra showing today. Do not ask Mike what he thought of the scene with Bilbo and Smaug. Do not.

Thinking: That I'm kind of brain dead right now.

Smelling:  Nothing, but about 2.5 hours ago I was smelling the hot dogs at the movie theater and they smelled AWFUL.

Wishing: That this work week will be better than the last and that the ice covering our apartment roads will thaw by tomorrow morning.

Hoping: Same as always...not internet appropriate...for now.

Wearing: Pink pajama pants given to me as a gift at my bachelorette party and a long sleeved grey tee.

Loving: That my husband is making his first fancy Sunday dinner; a new tradition he wants to start. This first week is roasted chicken and root vegetables from Ad Hoc At Home.

Wanting:  A glass of wine and clarity.

Needing: To figure out how to get the text to curve the way I want it to in the Annual Report I'm designing.

Feeling: Tired and worried and happy all at the same time. Chicks are complicated.

Clicking:  IMDB to see who played the skin changer guy in Hobbit and I just googled substitutes for kitchen twine.

A couple other things...

Mike finally used his new moscow mule mugs to make me my first moscow mule and oh man, tasty. 

Don't have leftover chinese for breakfast. Just don't.

What?! The quote on the back is the best part.

Snow!

The weather forecasts here call for snow quite a lot. And it never snows. Or it does, but it's really just mushy precipitation that doesn't stick or look pretty at all. So earlier in the week when it called for a lot of snow, we weren't sure what to expect. And then it didn't just snow, it SNOWED. I mean for here, this isn't Canada status or anything, but it was a lot for our little neck of the woods.

It was beautiful and dreamy and cold and we got to stay home from work Tuesday and snuggle up and Gizmo ran through the snow like a crazy snow fox and it was amazing.

And then it didn't melt like it normally does. It was freezing ass cold outside and everything turned to ice. So we tried to drive to work Wednesday and slid around two corners and gave up and went home.

Today is Saturday and it still hasn't melted. The streets are no longer icy where we live, but everything else is still covered in this hard, dirty snow, covered in dog pee and it's no longer pretty or amazing it's just flippin' cold and inconvenient.

And yet Mike is still super excited that today's forecast says there's a 30% chance of snow. We're desert kids, we just can't help ourselves, I guess.

Side note:  It's been averaging 70 degrees back where we moved from. Here, it's been in the low 20's. Hmph.

Mike grabbed the camera and ventured outside the first night. My favorite part of these photos is you can see how fast the wind was moving the snow around. It was a pretty crazy storm.

My view from the gym the first night, icy pool.

I do not enjoy waking up to this on my phone! Brrrrr

The view out the front door of my office at work.

Snow corgi

Snow pug, he hates it so much.

P.S. A couple hours after I wrote this it effing snowed. Which is both annoying and awesome because it covered up the ugly, old, pee-covered snow. 

Madison Reed - Dying Your Hair At Home

This post is going to sound like a sponsored post...it's not...I'm just really this excited about the product and thought I'd share it with all of you!

So recently I have become disenchanted with going to the hair salon. I get really bored sitting there for sometimes up to three hours (I have a lot of hair) and spending almost $200 to dye my hair brown and get trims. My local stylist is nice, but we have very little in common and she's one of those that feels the need to talk the entire time and as much as I love to talk, that's a lot of awkward small talk. So I've been putting it off and was planning to try to go back to box dying my own hair. I also started trimming my own bangs and surprisingly, they look pretty dang good.

I've been researching box dyes and trying to bite the bullet and just do it when I received a promotion about a new company called Madison Reed that offers salon quality hair dye at home. I loved the price and selection and jumped on the opportunity.

Shipping was really fast and the dying kit comes in a super cute package.

You get a lot more with this kit than you do just dying from the box including good sized shampoo and conditioner, two sets of gloves, a cap to put on after all the dye is on, barrier cream to help keep your forehead and ears from being dyed, and a cleanser wipe which amazingly actually gets dye off of you (usually you end up with dyed skin for days after doing it yourself at home). These extras and the great amount of dye you get makes the price totally worth it. I usually have to buy two boxes of dye for my super thick hair and with Madison Reed, I only needed one and I got all the extra goodies. Definitely good bang for your buck.

The dying process is pretty much the same as with the box.

You do your roots and leave them on a lot longer than the rest of your hair. My roots were blonde so this was much needed for me.

Then you do the rest of your hair, pop on their handy cap, and let the dye sit for the proper amount of time. My thumbs up here is terrifying, sorry.  Weird thumbs.

I always worry about missing chunks of hair since I have so much of it, but it turned out pretty well this time!

It was really hard to get a good after picture since it's so dark and gloomy today and I'm too lazy to set up my fancy camera, but I think it looks great. It's a little darker than expected, but I reckon that will fade after a couple of washes. The dye smelled great, just like the hair salon, and made my hair shiny just like you want from a dye job. I'm really happy with how it turned out and will definitely be using it again.

A couple other cool features of Madison Reed are that you can order extra for a smaller price if you know you generally need a lot of hair dye. This is really handy for people like me even though this time, it wasn't needed. Now I have that extra for root touch-ups in a couple of weeks! They also have a cool feature where you can sign up for auto renew where they automatically send you the dye every 4-6 weeks so you don't forget or run out. If you sign up for that service, you get a small discount on the price of each kit. They also do the same service for their shampoo and conditioner which smells amazing by the way.

Check out Madison Reed today if you're a lazy bum like me who hates going to the salon and loves saving money!

Revolt Move of the Week

On Monday, I started doing the Revolt workouts again.  You'll remember Revolt from back in March and April when Mike and I did a six week diet and I did her exercise program. I decided to stop doing it when Mike convinced me to add much more weight training to my workout.

Recently, we've gotten in kind of a workout rut. I've been horrible at cardio since we can't run outside in this weather. Well, if we were Kara we would run outside in this weather, but we ain't. I hate running on the treadmill so I've been a big slacker about it. Mike also had us stop going to our big gym and now we workout at the tiny apartment gym and since then I've just sort of lost steam. I've put on a little bit of fat and it's made me miserable so I really need to up my fat burning workouts.

So I re-started Revolt starting yesterday and holy hell I'm sore. Which is pretty awesome because being sore always makes me feel great and motivated. It means you got off your ass and did something!

I'm not doing the diet because I just cannot be a dieter. I will work out hard in the gym so I don't have to diet. I'm doing my smoothies for lunch and trying to cut back on fatty crap in general, but Mike and I find so much joy through food, we're just not willing to diet to be skinnier. I say "we" like Mike couldn't eat anything he wanted and still have a six pack. Bastard.

In honor of Revolt being so damn awesome and to motivate myself to keep it up, I'm going to post my favorite Revolt Move of the Week every week. Nichole always adds new and interesting moves to her workouts to keep you from getting bored and I wanted to share them with you guys!

This week's move of the week is a hamstring move that I've never done before. It looks easy peasy, but it killed my hamstrings, let me tell you.

And now let's see the world's most awkward workout photos...

Seriously though, where was I supposed to look? Ugh, awkward.

So you just roll the ball up to your butt so your butt goes in the air and then roll it back out until your knees are locked. You feel it like crazy in your hamstrings.

Enjoy!

And make sure to check out Revolt...duh.

Birthday!

Last week was my birthday! I'm officially 31. Which somehow seems so much older than 30. Time to get my shit together? Nah, that's for your 40's...

We had a pretty low key birthday since I had to work that day and the day after.

The night of my actual birthday, I celebrated home alone with some wine and pizza while Mike played soccer. Just me, wine, and trashy tv...it was pretty good.

My awesome husband made me homemade cheesecake. it doesn't look like much, but it was crazy delicious. Why the hell did I ever buy grocery store cheesecake? His is wayyy better.  And, yes, I took a couple bites before the picture...

We drank some champs with our cheesecake of course.

The dogs didn't care that it was my birthday, they just wanted some cheesecake.

Saturday, we ventured off to Fredericksburg for some shopping and eating.

We had lunch at Bistro Bethem and it was DELICIOUS. This is my "I've had a shitload of champagne with my delicious lunch" face.

This is Mike's "I ordered an appetizer, salad, main course, dessert, and tons of wine and I'm still not full" face. Also, major husband points for switching entrees with me when I liked his better.

After lunch and some more shopping, we were in the car headed to find a local winery and Mike pointed out that we were only 15 minutes away from my dad and step-mom's house. So we decided to just show up because why not. Thankfully, they didn't mind and we ended up hanging out, taking them to a tasty dinner, and even staying the night. Now I could go on a tangent about how I told Mike 40 times to stop ordering more glasses of wine so we could drive home that night and he didn't listen to me and we had to spend the night with no pjs, or preparation and then he woke up at like 2:00am and felt really guilty. But you know, I won't. :) It actually turned out be really fun and if you spur of the moment spend the night at my step-mom's house, she makes you fancy french toast for breakfast with bourbon peaches displayed all pretty like. So yeah, worth it!

All in all it was another great birthday and I'm not totally freaked out about getting older. I have started using an exfoliator brush thingy on my face every night and old lady moisturizer, but I also still sometimes eat cheesecake for breakfast so it all evens out, right?

30 Day Closet Remix Week One

I mentioned here that I was starting a 30 Day Closet Remix on Instagram in order to inspire some new outfits from my own closet and to not buy anymore unneeded (but really, aren't all clothes needed?!) pieces of clothing for at least 30 days.Week one has been pretty hard actually. My forte is mixing and remixing dresses and skirts and week one was COLD. Actually cold enough for me to wear pants almost the whole time. And really, there are only so many ways you can remix the same sweater. But, I didn't buy anything this week so that's something right? Here are week one's outfits in case anyone cares.

And dammit all to hell it's supposed to snow today so I'll have to wear pants again. Lesson learned, do remixes during the summer!

I thought I may run into a fancy board member at work this day so I wanted to look a little nicer. I felt pretty dang boring, actually.

Dress:  Forever21, gift

Sweater:  Gap

Necklace:  Premier

Shoes not shown:  Dillards (black wedges)

Is wearing your husband's sweater cheating on a closet remix? We share the same closet so I say no!

I personally really love the crazy neon necklace with a traditional fair isle sweater.

Sweater:  JCrew, Mike's

Leggings:  Ann Taylor Outlet

Necklace:  OASAP, gift

Boots:  Steve Madden, gift

I felt really cute and comfy in this one. The slit in the skirt made me feel less maxi dress dumpy and more maxi dress sexy.

Dress:  ASOS, gift

Sweater:  Banana Republic

Shoes:  Clark's, gift

This outfit is pretty dang boring without the necklace...

Sweater:  Shop Sosie, gift

Jeans:  Uniqlo

Boots:  Steve Madden, gift

Necklace: JCrew, gift

I wear this dress constantly, I loved pairing it with oxblood accessories.

Dress:  Zara, gift

Scarf:  Etsy, gift

Boots:  Hunter, gift

Socks:  Urban Outfitters

Earrings:  JCrew Factory

Boring outfit, ugly picture. I wore a coat most of this day so it really was all about the earrings.

Sweater:  Forever21

Jeans:  Uniqlo

Boots:  Steve Madden, gift

Earrings, OASAP, gift

Who am I to lie to anyone? This is what I wore all day yesterday so it's part of the 30 days!

Top:  Disneyland

Leggings:  Ann Taylor Outlet

Thassit. I look horrid.

This Sunday Currently

Currently I am...

Reading: Still reading the 4th Outlander book and just finished Gone Girl and I liked the ending so there everyone else. Can't wait for the movie.

Writing: This blog of course and some Keaton Row lookbook notes for people.

Listening: Top Chef playing on Amazon per usual, Mike watching soccer, and earlier today I was listening to a bunch of Downton Abbey episodes. We're finally caught up!

Thinking: That I'm really tired and don't have the energy to properly blog or do styling right now.

Smelling:  Nothing, but I did have a troubling thought the other day. Mike and I laugh all the time over how often that man farts all over our house. During a joke-fest about this the other night, I stopped and yelled out, "Oh my god, do you think I smell like farts to other people and don't realize it?!" Something to ponder, I reckon.

Wishing: That I had more energy right now.

Hoping: Same as always...not internet appropriate...for now.

Wearing: Black Ann Taylor leggings and a red Minnie Mouse shirt from Disneyland.

Loving: That I've got hope and that I have tomorrow off, huzzah!

Wanting:  Nothing right now, maybe for more hours in the day?

Needing: To get off my butt and go in the other room because I'm about to fall asleep in front of the computer.

Feeling: Sleepy and happy and hopeful and silly.

Clicking:  Pinterest, blogger, and Amazon.

I've started drinking a smoothie for lunch every day instead of lunch to help get my weight back on track and oh man some of them are gross. I did find a recipe I like from Revolt and will share it next week! This is me drinking a nasty shake and being miserable at work.

Fun fact:  do not tell people you're doing this or they may make fun of you and call you fat several times in the week so that's fun and also people suck.

Pinspirations

Today's Pinspirations are all created through Keaton Row with pieces on sale now. If you'd like any of the pieces found elsewhere or for a lower price point, just let me know!

(1) Ulla Johnson  (2) Topshop  (3) Adia Kibur  (4) Kenneth Cole  (5) Kate Spade

This first look is inspired by a pin found here. I love the muted pallet and boxy shapes. So chic and effortless looking for work!

All items can be purchased here.

 

 (1) Jag Jeans  (2) d.Ra  (3) Plush  (4) Madewell  (5) London Fog  (6) Chloe  (7) House of Harlow
This look is inspired by a pin found here. This is seriously a look that will never go out of style. It's simple, comfy, and classic.
All items can be purchased here.

(1) Madewell  (2) Collection XIIX  (3) Mother  (4) Sam Edelman  (5) Rebecca Minkoff  (6) Kate Spade
You guys know how I feel about Olivia...she really can do no wrong. This look is such a great example of being both comfortable, casual, and put together.
All items can be purchased here.


Which is your favorite Pinspiration? Are there any pins you'd like me to recreate?

 

 

 



Clothes, Styling, & Other Nonsense

Hello All! Please take a moment to check out the new tab on my home page called Styling. My husband cleans, messes with the dogs, or plays soccer during his downtime so I get very bored and also this is something I'm incredibly passionate about and love doing, so use me please! (I'm free)

Be prepared for more fashion posts on this here blog, but probably not very many pictures of me in my outfits, you're welcome very much. If you have any requests for items to be found, Pinspiration posts, inspiration of any kind, let me know so I can use it for blog posts!

On that same note, starting today, I'm going to do a 30 Day Closet Remix taht I keep seeing all over the place on Instagram. I decided to participate after I caught myself spending $50 at Forever21 online. There were two things I wanted from my sale but I ended up buying EIGHT things to rack it up to $50 in order to get free shipping and one of the things is leggings with elephants on it and no one needs that, do they? So I caught myself doing that and then thought to myself, self, what are you doing?! Stop buying shit you don't need! So the 30 Day Closet Remix is just you shopping out of your closet only, putting together new outfits with what you've already got. If you want to participate, use #30DayClosetRemix on Instagram and we can always make it a link up if we want.

So that's all my nonsense for now. What's up with you guys?

Just because.