My Favorite Thing: Fall Fashion

I hate to see summer end. Sure it's about a hundred degrees in the shade but summer is by far my favorite season. The beach, more things to do, the bright colors, the white manis, sandals, flip flops, white pants, easy make-up... My second favorite season though would be when the seasons change. There's just something so great about all these fabulous new clothes hitting the stores. I pour over the quarterly fashion mags to see what's "in" for Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer... you name it. So with fall teasing us with cool mornings my favorite thing of the moment is all this fab fall fashion hitting the stores.

Here are a few of my favorites - let me know what you think.

Can I talk about how much I love this cardi/jacket? It's so Jackie O/Chanel/Audrey... I tried it on probably three times before I just gave up and bought it. And that's huge for me because my rule is don't buy it full price when you can wait for a fab sale. And of course it's from where else but The Limited.

Super cute tweed skirt from The Limited. I haven't bought it yet but don't think I haven't been eyeing this up as the perfect companion to the jacket above.

I love this lace skirt from The Limited. I'm trying to be good and wait for it to go on sale but every ounce of self control I have is forcing me not to run out to the store right this second and snatch it right up.

I've really gotten more into Ann Taylor Loft recently. I've snapped up a few good purchases at the end of summer sales and spent some time scoping out what I want when the sales start to hit. Here are a few finds...

This outfit is so super cute. I love the hat. The skirt, the jacket, everything. I want it.

How cute is this whole look? I'm loving her hat, the skinny jeans and the tweed jacket. The boots - not so much but you can't win them all. Target had a similar hat to both of these in a commercial for probably half the costs so I make snap that up just in case I find I'm not much of a hat girl.

One thing I'm loving about Ann Taylor and Loft is they carry petites which is huge if you're like me and barely 5'4. I hate having to get clothes hemmed. It costs even more money and is just a huge pain in the neck. If I can buy pants that are the perfect fit - amazing! (I will say my only problem is there are times when it's close - I'm not quite a regular but not quite a petite - nothing screams lame like high water pants that aren't intentional).

Ok this is it for now - I think I hear a netflix and glass of wine calling my name. I'll try to post more later of some more favs for fall - Ann Taylor (Loft's more expensive older sister) has some fab skirts and dresses and of course my jean favorite Old Navy has some really great skinny jeans for cheap. What are you shopping for this season?

I have a secret...

I started a new blog. I'm officially cheating on this blog.

The thing is - I read this story on CNN a few months ago that basically said you couldn't have a blog about everything. It just wouldn't work. (That was a bit of a downer). So I got it into my head - I could have a new blog. A blog about growing up or maybe it's just getting older...

So here it is: http://secretsofarealgirl.blogspot.com/

Check it out - follow if you like - and let me know what you think. I'm still going to post to this one because now I can officially have my cake and eat it too....

Travel

I have to travel for work. Weird things always happen when I travel. I seem to have a sign that says "strangers please talk to me". I'm not saying I'm opposed to a little friendly banter on a plane ride. I'm just opposed to it going any deeper than what to do you, what are you reading, etc.

For example:

1. On a train ride to NJ - my seatmate told me he was a fighter with an HBO fight coming up. I had a sneaking suspicion that he might have been hitting on me. Unfortunately, he followed up the conversation with the fact that he had eight children. Not that I was interested to begin with but deal breaker. Besides which afterwards, K and his brother tried to find him on HBO and couldn't.

2. On my recent plane trip. This lady comes up to me as we're boarding and says I look familiar and was I from Montana. I said no and she walked away. My seatmate and I chatted a bit during the flight (normal conversation that you'd have with someone you don't know). The plane stopped at one stop before my stop and he got up and left. The woman who had come up to me when we were boarding sits next to me and says "I've been wanting to talk to you all flight." Red flag. She then proceeds to blabber about how I look like her neighbor or something and how she's traveling on vacation to WV (ok...) then to see her son and that gangs are after her - wait... what?? Yes, she's in a bit of a rough spot but don't worry she has a restraining order out. And by the way did I think my seatmate was legit? She thought he stared at her funny in the airport then looked away scared and she thought he might be in a gang. Really?

3. This one couple on another plane ride. I thought the woman was travelling with her father (so sweet). She slept most of the flight and he talked my ear off. Then right before we land - the two of them start making out hardcore. Gross.

That's all I can think about right now. But I have a lot of time tonight so who knows... Does this stuff ever happen to you?

To Greige Or Not To Greige...

As far as beauty treatments go, nail polish is one of those things I like but don't spend a lot of time on. I'm not much of a mani/pedi girl (talk to a dermatologist for five minutes and you'll swear off them for life), I can't keep my nails from chipping past a day or two, and I just don't like the hassle or base coat/top coat/polish/polish remover. I'm tired just thinking about it. But I like how polish looks - especially all those cool trendy colors. It's like this quick and cheap little statement about yourself - like hello I know what's cool and it's this $7 bottle of color.

So I've been reading a lot about greige polish. Funny name for basically a grey/beige combo. It sounded kinda perfect since grey has been what I've secretly been wanting to paint my bathroom forever (that or lime green - big difference). But grey sounded like a hard color to wear - you don't exactly want to look dead. But then I saw an article that said if it had a pink tone to it - you'd nix all that pale vampire look and get a pretty complimentary color to your skin tone. Worth checking out if I do say so myself.

While at Target picking out a wedding gift I swung by the nail polish aisle and scooped up It's Possible be Nicole for OPI. OPI is by far my fav but I don't have time to swing by Trade Secret every time I need polish and Nicole works just as well. So I tried it out. After a few mishaps (I was trying to get dressed and do my hair for the wedding and paint my nails) I had a pretty perfect set of polished fingers.

The color? A pinky grey/brown with just the right amount of shimmer.

The verdict? I don't think I look as tan as when I wear white polish and it's not as summery as my bright pinks and corals... but it's a pretty color and much more work appropriate then my bright blue nails of a few weeks ago. I would say it's actually the perfect trendy color for a job interview. It looks professional enough you can skate by without calling attention to bright purple tips.

What do you think? (I'll try to post a photo when I can).

Update

So obviously I'm not good at weekly resolutions anymore than a yearly one. And maybe that just proves that people can't follow a resolution for a year. Sure you start it with good intentions but halfway through you're just bored. The sad thing is I have a list of 52 I made up at the beginning of the year but it's on my old computer and it's too much of a pain to switch back and forth between the two... the old one is unplugged and not connected so it takes forever. I've just felt busy too. Which can be a good thing.

But I'm going to be better about posting - that is my latest resolution and maybe my last. If I get back to the weekly ones I'll back track for all the weeks I missed. Until then though... have fun making your own resolutions and let me know how you're doing.

Week 28 and 29 of the 52 Week Challenge

So I've been a bit MIA recently but I was on vacay for a week in lovely NJ. And you can say what you will but NJ is very nice and I had a fab time (thanks for asking). So I just got home and want to post something so here we go:

Week 28 - read something for fun - you read the hard book so now read something you want to read. I'm going to read Chelsea Handler's book which I've had forever and keep putting off in favor of library books.

Week 29 - this relates to my last post about starting a new blog - I'm pretty much sure I'm going to start one - I just need to finalize my name and tell everyone. But the main reason is I'm going to use it to talk about things that I don't talk about here... more on that later when I intro it. But this all got me thinking about a Cosmo article I read on the ride home - it was all about moving forward with your life. You can't sit back and hope things are going to happen - you have to take steps to make things happen. And the first step was keep a running list of things you like or things that make you happy. You keep the list for a week then look for a commonality. Maybe you like things that are creative, or you like math (haha that won't make my list but maybe if you secretly dream of being an accountant...), or you like taking photos... I don't know. So I'm going to keep a list and see where that takes me.

I don't expect to move forward tomorrow or next week even but it has been playing in my thoughts a lot recently about where I see myself in five years, ten years, etc. And yes, part of me sees myself sipping cocktails on a Caribbean island somewhere (rich and carefree) but the realistic part of me is striving for the next best thing (a successful career and home somewhere near a beach in the US). So I know part of my list will be researching beach-front living on the east coast and see where that takes me. Where do you think your likes would take you? Let me know what you come up with.

Week 26 and 27 of the 52 Week Challenge

Hello All! Sorry for the delay but just forgot about this and I'm debating starting a new blog... more on that later.

So week 26 - read a classic. I picked Lady Chatterley's Lover. I've never read it before and they had it on a shelf when I first came in the library. So far it's ok. Not nearly as boring as I expected but not as racy as anything today either. I also have a Tree Grows in Brooklyn (I think that's the name). I haven't started that one yet but I've always heard about it... so we'll see.

Week 27 - I'm hoping to get the beach again sometime this summer. And as luck would have it - I do have to go for work in a few weeks. So this week - I'm all about my new medicine ball and this ab video I have... so I'm going to make my resolution the week to do my ab workout at least once a day. K says I have to do at least 100 a day to see any kind of results. So here's to a flat stomach in a few weeks!