#111: Cribs

Was I the only person to watch that show on MTV? I remember watching the episode with Mariah Carey's New York Penthouse (ooo, and this is weird, she just popped up on my iTunes...). Anyways, I completely drooled over her closet. It was literally the size of my whole basement (almost 1,000 square feet). So ridiculous. I aspire to own a closet that big one day (I have already discussed this with J, including the zebra print rug I intend to have in it). But for now, this is what I have to work with:

1. My "closet": This is actually the second clothes rod I've had since I moved into the basement in September 2008. The first one (plastic) could not hold up the weight of my massive amounts of clothes. Oh, and did I mention my laundry basket is full? Yeah, I could really use a real closet!

 2. My "drawers":  My mom is planning on using this to house part of her massive fabric collection once I move, and oddly enough, I won't miss this storage. It didn't really fit anything practical. This is what is housed in these bins: t-shirts, camisoles, leggings/tights, socks, workout clothes, and I'm ashamed to say, I have three pairs of tennis shoes in the bottom right bin. Oh, and hey, there's the magazines I "threw" out in this post...you caught me. I'm doubly ashamed now because I just realized that post was from the beginning of November. I guess I should go throw them in the trashcan tonight, since trash day is tomorrow.

 #3: My dresser: I wish this was mine, but in fact is my sister's. When I faux inherited it, it had wooden, brightly painted square knobs. Literally, they were painted red, green, blue and yellow. I removed them, and used a magic eraser to get rid of most of the residual paint. Mom hunted down these knobs for about $10 at Target and voila! It's a tad classier now.  This is a very sturdy piece of furniture, but truth be told, the drawers are rather small and don't hold too much. This dresser houses my belts and unmentionables on top, seasonal tops (tanks are in there now, and sweaters in the summer), jeans, shorts, pjs and the random miscellaneous clothing drawer. I think I have a couple men's flannel shirts, a random Hanes sweatshirt and two tank tops that are too big for me in there.

To the right of the dresser is a plastic four-drawer bin. In here I have: wallets and clutches, scarves and some really random things that I have no other place for. These things include: my cords and sashes from my GMU graduation in 2008, some glow sticks (told you it was random!), and a crocheted wine bottle bag. Please excuse the rest of the stuff piled up (although I kinda like that my shoes and jewelry bags are in this picture!). You don't even want to see the rest of the stacks of boxes and bins.

So there you have it! I can't wait to have my own space with a real closet and cohesive, practical storage. But before then, I need to purge a lot of what I have. I plan on going through all my clothes once spring hits. Every winter item that doesn't fit or won't be worn again will be donated. What I keep will be packed up. And of course, spring items I currently have will need to make way for a few new friends :)

#110: Pink Before You Leap

I love the weekends! Even though I had to work this morning, it still ended up being a good day! I got off work at noon, met Jewel for lunch, then called up my favorite nail lady, Susan, to see if I could stop by for a quick manicure. Unfortunately, she didn't have anything for over an hour, so I went home and changed into more comfy clothes and then went over there.

As long as Susan has known me and has been doing my nails, I'm pretty sure she's seen my two trends: pink and whites, and dark short natural nails. Well, I sure surprised her today. I went with a PINK shimmer polish. She was caught totally off guard and immediately expressed her surprise. My response? "Time for a change!" We both agreed that the polish I picked is very pretty.

When I get a manicure with a new color that I like and don't have at home, I'll usually head over to Ulta to buy it soon after my appointment. The bummer is...there was no tag on the bottom of this bottle. Sad face. So I went to my favorite helper, Google, and searched "pink shimmer OPI nail polish" and this came up in the results. I'm pretty sure that this is the polish, so I'm going to go ahead and order it and see what happens! I'm hoping it comes before this manicure chips off, so that I can see if it matches correctly or not. Here goes!

#109: Remix

I'm not doing the 30for30 Remix and I'll tell you why: I'm too chicken. You see, the rules are that you can't SHOP for 30 days. And according to this post, that would be a huge problem. I think I might try to do it for the spring/summer 2011 edition, but I'm just not mentally or emotionally ready. Seriously.

I thought I would do my own little version of a remix. Since I'll be moving in four and a half months, I'll probably be paring down my wardrobe quite a bit, so I don't end up moving things that I'll just throw out once I get down there. That would be a waste of my massive biceps' strength. So I thought I'd try to wear things that I haven't worn in over a year, to see if they're both practical and stylish with the other clothes I have. You see, all the kids have to play nicely with each other. Or they get put up for adoption. If only parenthood worked that way, right? Just kidding? (Don't worry about our future children, they'll be just fine!)

So anyways, as I laid in bed last night, I remembered this army green skirt I bought from Target probably a good five years ago. I haven't worn it in easily over a year, but it could be as long as two years. I thought I'd pair it with the new brown tights I got for five buckaroos at Target yesterday and of course, my trusty mocha knee high boots. I've gained a bit of weight in the past couple of years. Not very noticeable to the average person, but I've noticed most of my clothes are fitting a little snugger these days. So I chuckled a little at the thought of this skirt even still fitting me!

To my surprise this morning, I got the skirt on, over my hips (quite a feat) AND zipped up, and it fit pretty dang well. I tucked in a brown v-neck sweater (with a white cami under it for warmth) and added a little bit of color with a blue and white patterned scarf that one of my friends got me for my birthday two years ago (thanks Jennifer!). Tell me what you think :)

Sweater/Skirt/Tights: Target//Scarf: gifted//belt: Kohl's//boots: Alloy

#108: Hanging Out

I'm not going to lie. I love making money. It allows me to pay my bills and buy food...and of course buy all the beautiful things I own. But sometimes, I like to stay home and do nothing. Or in the case of Thursdays, stay home and hang out with Little Monster. I can't believe he'll turn three this year. He's growing and learning SO much. And he's the biggest goofball I know. I love to laugh with him.

This morning we were hanging out...literally.

I wish I knew what he was doing with a damp paper towel...

Goober

Hanging out on the couch

Almost upside down

 

 

Love this guy

And here's a "hi, bye" video just for you!

#107: Garden Ridge

I heard about this mega store called Garden Ridge through John and Sherry from Young House Love. Located in Richmond, it can be a tad overwhelming when you first walk in. J and I went on Saturday afternoon. We walked in, grabbed hands and headed off to the right once we entered the store. We first encountered lawn furniture and terracotta pots (quite an assortment, I might add!) and then came into the furniture section. Let me just say, I was impressed. They had really nice couches and loveseats for $299 and $249, respectively. They were nice looking and very comfortable. They also had a lot of nice armchairs. I think we'll definitely be going back there once we start our serious search for furniture.

J really enjoyed their vast array of silk trees and bushes. I, on the other hand, was not quite as amused as he was. Once I got my four-year-old fiance out of the trees, we headed to the rugs section. There were a lot of rugs, but I also noticed a lot of duplicates. We already have the rugs for our bedroom (I bought two of these to put together and at $40 total, not a bad deal!), so my next goal is a rug for the living room. We found a few that might work and the prices weren't too steep.

We then ended up in pillows and linens. I had picked out a really cute black and white accent pillow for our room, but then remembered I have pillow forms and fabric for FIVE pillows at home, three of which are for our bed. I should probably finish those first. I did, however, pick up a table runner for a whopping eight bucks. It's a really warm golden yellow and I think it will work well, whether we end up with a dark wood kitchen table or a black one.

After linens, we set off in search of the largest rectangular mirror we could find. Why, you ask? I'm planning on leaning it against a wall in our bedroom in order to: #1, have a full length mirror and #2, to open up the room and make it feel larger than it really is. However, the price tags on these mirrors was enough to send us running. And besides, we really have nowhere to store huge pieces of furniture, etc.

Running out time before we had to meet the Meltons for dinner, we quickly checked out all the goodies they had around their checkout queue. One bag of white cheddar popcorn and a bag of hot fries later, we made it out of the store with our table runner and snacks. Only $13. Wahoo. Can't wait to go back and fill up our home with goodies!

PS: It's Two-a-Day Thursday! Stay tuned for post #2 later today :)

#106: How We Do

I mentioned our duckpin bowling adventure on Saturday night, but what I didn't show you was our unique styles of bowling. So enjoy these videos :)

1. J: I love that he used to be on a bowling league. I tease him endlessly about it, but secretly I am super jealous. He actually taught me how to curve the ball :)

2. Beth: She was having a little trouble at the beginning so we told her to granny style it. This is what ensued.

3. Me: You're actually catching me in the middle because I had already walked up and then decided I didn't have enough room, so I'm backing up in the beginning of this video.

Sadly, I didn't get a video of Bryce bowling, which would have been cool because he bowls left handed! I'm left handed too, but I only use my left hand when I'm writing and eating...everything else is right handed. Sad, I know.

But here's a couple pictures too :)

Handsome :)

Beth and Bryce! :)

#105: Addiction

I love to shop just as much as the next girl. Sometimes, though, I wonder if I like to shop TOO much. I've never seen Confessions of a Shopaholic but I could definitely see myself chipping a credit card out of the ice block I put it in to go buy some Louboutins.

Luckily for my credit score and my bank account, I don't own a credit card (outside the two store ones I have from NY&Co. and Kohl's, and even then, my credit limits on both are super low). And I'm much too paranoid about being in debt to go on extravagant shopping sprees. We bought J's suit and wedding band at Kohl's and I paid the balance in the store the following week, before I even got the statement in the mail. Yeah.

I do a lot of online browsing though. And I always put stuff into my "cart." Sometimes I end up getting it, sometimes I don't. I had this cute pair of brown ruffled flats in my online Target cart for weeks, and ended up not getting them. Right now though, I have these two beauties in my cart. And I'm about 99.9999% sure they'll be showing up at my house sometime in the near future:

1. Cowboy boots: I've been looking for a super cute (and inexpensive pair) to wear with skinny jeans now and with dresses/skirts in the summer. I think these will do the job. And at $30, they won't break the bank.

Photo Courtesy of Target.com

2. Sandals: I'll admit it, I want these to wear on our honeymoon. But that doesn't mean I'm waiting until then to wear them. I have a similar pair that I got this past summer for our engagement party and I wore them SO much. At $18, they'll last at least a couple summers and they'll be well worth the money. They go with just about anything!

Photo Courtesy of Target.com

I seriously heart Target sometimes. I actually just bought a cross-body bag for the honeymoon as well (I guess I'll have to break that in too...sigh...such a hard life). I really liked it and J could tell. He doesn't usually encourage me to spend money, but if HE tells me to get something, then that means he probably really likes it too. I was a little wary of the $30 price tag, but I figure I'll get a lot of use out of it, especially upon the move to Richmond. I have a feeling Louis won't fit in very well. Don't tell Louis...but he's not real. He's a knockoff I got in Ocean City. But I still love him. Hence the reason he's sitting next to me right now. But this new bag will be a little more practical and easier on the crook of my left arm. And hopefully a little safer?

My sister has off work this coming Sunday, so we're going to hang out. And I'm pretty sure "hang out" is code for shopping. Especially since we both have payday Friday coming up. We usually hit up Kohl's because they always have great deals. And I mean ALWAYS. I was perusing their site today...and I'm pretty sure some major damage will be done. Stay tuned for the update!

What is the one store you can't live without for apparel, etc? What about for home decorations (don't even get me started on how much I LOVE HomeGoods)?