well suited

There's nothing like a freshly dry cleaned suit to start the week off right. I'm attempting to find ways to be more creative with my suits, and even though this idea isn't groundbreaking, I decided to wear a bold necklace while also subduing it by "hiding" it against the backdrop of a blouse in the same color. The fact that I love this suit and that I was having a good hair day made me feel pretty good all day. But then I came home to take pictures and it was so windy the good hair day took a turn for the worse, haha. I found out I'll be driving to Key West on Thursday to deal with a case down there. Sort of sad that my first (well, actually 2nd) time in Key West I won't be able to relax and enjoy the place!

Blazer: Theory Gabe B

Pants: Theory Max C

Blouse: Ann Taylor Marina Sleeveless Blouse (now on final sale)

Shoes: Forever 21 (similar) 

Necklace: Amrita Singh (similar)

Belt: Ann Taylor (similar)

Bag: Loeffler Randall

October Budget Recap

I'm linking up with Franishh for my October Budgeting Recap! This is my second month on a budget and I can say I've made some improvements. I spent much less on food and dining than last month - this was partly due to several lunches with my bosses where they paid, and partly because I made an effort to not go out to expensive dinners every weekend. There are still 4 days left in October though so I expect to spend a little more on food, and I'm going out tonight so I'm expecting to use up the rest of my entertainment budget.

The clothing budget is still in the red because I decided to carry over the extra from last month to encourage me not to spend more this month. I was VERY good this month, but I gave in to Forever 21 a few days ago and I purchased some cute dressier black flats and a J. Crew lookalike bracelet for ~$20. I love the J. Crew version but I just cannot justify spending $125 on a costume bracelet at this time.

Forever 21 Sparkling Link Bracelet

Forever 21 Metal Bow Ballet Flats

This month I also FINALLY went to the tailor and dry cleaner. I spent a whopping $180 at the tailor, but I got 2 shirts for work re-worked so I could actually wear them (the sleeves were constricting before so I had the tailor cut them off), I got 4 pairs of pants hemmed (and one of them was wide-legged style and I had the tailor taper the leg to be straight - they are now my favorite pair of work pants), and I got 2 skirts taken in so they fit at the waist. Basically I have an entire new work wardrobe and I couldn't be happier.

In terms of beauty, this month I'm in the red because I purchased a laser hair removal treatment for ~$199. I have to tell myself it is necessary/worth it because it's working already, and I can't wait to have smooth legs all the time! I spent $10 on an eyeliner kohl from Sephora, and Sephora was running an online promotion where whatever you bought you got 5 free samples. I decided I really wanted to try some new fragrances so that is really the only reason I bought the eyeliner. I'm loving the Tocca, Marc Jacobs, and Marchesa fragrances, but Angel by Thierry Mugler is the most disgusting thing I've ever smelled in my entire life - and I am not exaggerating, lol. The reviews online are very 50/50. Some people love it, and some people adamantly hate it. I fall into the hate it category. To me, it smells like a mixture of urine and body odor...but that's my opinion! 

Head on over to Franishh's blog to see the other Budgeting Bloggers and read about how we managed our budgets this month!

Women Who Work

I'm so excited to say that I'm being featured over at Along the Lines of Style today for her weekly "Women Who Work" segment! I'd love for you to head over there, read a bit about my style philosophy and how it is guided by my day job, and see some of my favorite outfits!

rule breaking

The no white after labor day rule can get outta town! For one, I live in Miami where white is pretty much acceptable any time of year, and two, I dressed down these pants for fall with a plaid flannel shirt today. I saw a similar outfit on I Am Khatu's instagram, so I want to give credit where credit is due. I wore this out to dinner for Thai food. I always seem to wear white when I eat potentially messy/stain prone foods! Luckily I didn't spill my pad thai on myself, haha.
In other news, I figured out my Halloween costume today. I decided on an 80's prom queen while browsing the dress racks at Goodwill. There were several contenders for the dress, and I think I found a hot-pink-ruffled-with-shoulder-pads winner! The sad part is one of the workers saw me debating between dresses and I don't think she understood that I was picking one for Halloween.. oh dear. I immediately washed the dress when I got home, and threw in some of my other laundry with it......... andddddd for the first time in my life (and hopefully last time) I turned all the white clothes in the wash a shade of pink, lol. Thankfully, I think the only white clothes I had in the wash were some pajama pants and socks, but I haven't unloaded the dryer yet to make sure. You win some you lose some, I guess. I'm happy these pants weren't in that wash!

Shirt: H&M (similar)

Tank: Old Navy

Jeans: Forever 21

Shoes: Sperry

Necklace: Forever 21 (similar)

Bracelets: Etsy (similar)

Bag: B. Makowsky

navy, green, burgundy

I'm finding that green, navy, and burgundy can go together more ways than one. I didn't even realize until I was coming up with a title for this post that I recently did the same color combination, but with an emphasis on the green pants. I wore this to work today and to a trip to the Apple store. My boyfriend has the worst luck with his computer. He's on his third hard drive, second battery, and third charger! I would brag and say my computer has fared much better, but recently, on my way back from my cousin's wedding, I cracked my screen! My computer is still useable for now, however, so I'll either be waiting to get it fixed or get a new computer in a few months. Despite my BF's and my own issues with our MacBooks, I have to say I LOVE Apple products and doubt I will ever revert back to PC's. Despite the cracked screen, my computer is working better after 3 years than any of my previous computers after the same amount of time! Just like Apple products that last longer than PC's (in my opinion!), this blazer is a workhorse. I've had it for 6 years and it has held up better than my other "cheap" blazers bar none. I recommend Theory suits to every professional I know. They have a great slim fit and come in classic styles. Unfortunately I have never been able to find a matching pant or skirt for this blazer, so if anyone ever happens upon one on Ebay or something, please let me know!

Blazer: Theory Nettie (old style)

Blouse: D.E.P.T (similar)

Jeans: 7FAM

Shoes: Forever 21

Necklace: Unknown (similar concept)

Bag: Kate Spade (similar)

Ann Taylor Pink Pants @ Work

I work in a pretty casual office, where we really only wear suits if they are seeing clients or going to court, so most days I wear jeans, heels, a nice blouse and blazer, but the Jeans + Blazer look can get old. I'm certainly getting sick of it. But at the same time, I feel out of place and look a bit out of place when I "dress up" when everyone knows I have no clients to see and no court to attend. The pink pants are my idea of how to be somewhat in-between jeans and full fledged business attire. The material and cut of the pant is dressier than jeans, but the color takes it far away from a full suit. I'm liking it for my office - I would consider adding other colors (especially a cobalt blue) to my work wardrobe. I also wore this outfit to a criminal defense lawyer mixer at one of my favorite restaurants in Miami - Dolores But You Can Call Me Lolita (odd name, I know). I happen to really like their food, but what I like more is the decor (it's VERY Miami), the atmosphere (lots of loud music - sometimes impedes conversation), and the fact that bottles of house wine are something like $14. Everyone was sweating so badly at the mixer it was kind of gross haha. Almost everyone was wearing suit jackets because they came from work. I felt the worst for all the men because their dress shirts were just completely soaked through. Dolores needs to get some better fans outside on their terrace!

Pants: Ann Taylor

Blazer: Theory

Blouse: K-Mart (best $5 purchase ever)

Necklace: Danielle Stevens (similar)

Bag: Kate Spade (similar)

Shoes: Ann Taylor

P.S. For anyone who cares - I've seen a lot of these pants on sale racks in-store for great prices. After a full day at work the butt did sag a bit, but because of the stretch to the pants they didn't look horrible. Plus I wore a longer blazer to cover my butt anyway. 

black, white, & tie dye

This shirt has probably been worn the most out of all the shirts in my closet, but I think this is the first time it's been shown on the blog, weird eh? I had a pretty eventful Saturday... took my dog to the vet, got about 120 small pricks/shots in my arms to test for allergies, and went to a nice lunch with some friends and my BF. I probably don't need to say it, but the allergy shots were the worst. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I broke out in hives, presumably from eating shellfish, but the test today confirmed that I am NOT allergic to any foods (or at least the 60 major foods they tested me for). I'm happy I'm not allergic to anything crazy, but I still wonder what caused me to break out in hives a few weeks ago. I may never know... Do you have any allergies? I'm always curious about this type of stuff!

Blazer: H&M (similar)

Blouse: Arden B.

Jeans: Forever 21 (similar)

Sandals: Loft (cute by Tory Burch)

Necklace: Forever 21 (similar)

Bracelet: Forever 21 necklace wrapped

Bag: Loeffler Randall 

Same but Different

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. The last two weeks have been extremely busy, but in a good way. I'm learning a LOT, I'm writing a lot, and I'm getting to try new things at work. Believe me, I have been getting dressed, but with the days getting shorter and my work days getting longer (ya kno, being busy and such) there just hasn't been time to take pictures. And sorry this outfit is similar to another that I wore recently. I wore this to work today for "casual friday" even though every day really is pretty casual for me. I'm trying to get into wearing more styles of jeans because for the past few years I've really only worn my skinny pairs. When I was in college I was really into designer jeans, and that happened to be when flare and boot cut pairs were in style, so I have probably at least 10 pairs of designer jeans sitting in my closet unworn because I don't like the style. Thankfully, it seems like bootcut and flares are coming back in style, so maybe you'll get to see more of them on this blog. I'm curious, what are your go-to style of jeans? Have you been wearing only skinny for the past few years or have you been more brave in your jean choices, lol? 

Blazer: Forever 21

Blouse: Ann Taylor

Jeans: Rock & Republic (old)

Shoes: Forever 21

Bag: Longchamp

Necklace: Barneys (similar style)

Bracelet: old ID bracelet (similar)

Lips: Revlon Just Bitten Lip Balm Stain in Honey

Linking up for "Casual Friday"!

Wedding Weekend

This past weekend I trekked to Abingdon, VA for my cousin's wedding. This was a big deal because he is the FIRST cousin to get married! I was very excited to see all my family and catch up with everyone. Abingdon is a really beautiful town, but not much to do :) It was also a pretty far journey (2 hour plane ride plus 3.5 hours driving) for really only 36 hours in the town. I had a "dress crisis" about 5 days before the wedding where I decided I hated everything I own and needed to get something new. I first tried looking at Rent the Runway but I narrowed it down to 2 dresses I loved and both were not available for the weekend. Somehow my mom agreed to buy me a dress so I went on Macys.com and found this BCBGeneration dress that looked promising. I decided I really like the look of one-shoulder dresses and will probably stick to this style from now on... all of my strapless dresses just seem so "bleh" to me now. Anyway, this is what I wore! (PS, sorry for the really creepy blurred out faces but my cousins and dad probably don't want me posting them on the internet - and I had a little champagne at the wedding and blurted out that I have this blog - so HELLO cousins if you are reading this!)

Dress: BCBGeneration

Heels: Corso Como

Necklace: Forever 21

Bracelet: (not pictured, darn it!) Ann Taylor

Clutch: Urban Expressions

Hair: bought the Conair Infiniti "You Curl" clipless curling iron and this is how it ended up

September Budget Recap

I decided to open up a Mint.com account in August to track my spending. I'm finally on my own now and I figured I needed a way to visualize where my money is going. September was my first full month I was able to track and all those red marks don't look so good! Mint.com is a pretty good tool, but there are some things I'd change if I could. For example, purchases are automatically arranged into categories and you have to manually change them if they are incorrect. For example, if I go to the gas station to pick up a gatorade the transaction will be marked under "gas and fuel" instead of food. Similarly, if I eat at McDonalds (my guilty pleasure) it will be marked as "fast food" and not merely "food and dining." The other thing I'm having trouble with is the "entertainment" category. For me, food often IS my form of entertainment, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this category...

I obviously did the worst in clothing - but let me explain myself! Some of it carried over from last month, so in actuality I probably only spent $400 instead of $573. I understand this is a LOT of money for clothes, but then again clothes are somewhat of entertainment for me too. My largest purchase was the Loeffler Randall Rider satchel. I also picked up some shoes from Forever 21, and a dress and blouse from Old Navy.

Obviously other than clothing the other category with the most spending was Restaurants. This month was a HUGE month of celebration, however, and I hope the worst of spending in this category is over - I passed the bar and went out to 2 Morton's dinners to celebrate that, one of my good friends got engaged and it was her birthday so we did a brunch for that, and one of my good friends' cousins was visiting Miami so we went out to dinner twice the weekend he was visiting.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll keep doing budget posts because it's really for my own benefit than for interesting any readers, but feel free to let me know in the comments or via email if you like it/hate it! Whatev!