what's in a name?

Hi guys. Remember me? The girl who was awesome at blogging in August until a few days ago? Yeah, about that.

what i used to do at night

It's not that I've had a lack of interesting stories to tell or pretty things to share. Quite the opposite actually. But there have been a ton of things to wrap up and tie a pretty bow on, figuratively, this week. Stuff like finishing a book, emptying my dirty laundry basket, a Fantasy Football draft (and the studying up to it!) and a trip to the Ozarks with my high school friends.

going on 12 years of friendship with this crew  ♥

So I thought I'd take a few minutes to blog about something I've never addressed on little miss finer feelings before (because my blog is a girl, ya know). The name. How I got it, where it came from, and other options I considered.

I wanted to start a blog about six months before I actually did. The main reason for the wait was that I worked ridiculously long hours at a company that sucks the life out of its employees. Yikes. The other reason was because I couldn't decide on a name.

My favorite option when I was brainstorming a blog name was "Bordeaux in the Bedroom". Because I drink a lot of wine. In bed. I've knocked the glass off and spilled wine on my carpet a time or two at every place I've lived at since Senior year of college. I've broken a glass the next morning as I launched it from my bedside table trying to turn off my alarm. My side of Blue Eyes' white comforter is speckled covered with red wine spots from a similar alarm-induced spill. Call me a lush, but there are few things I enjoy more than sipping on some wine while reading my Kindle or browsing on my laptop.

Bordeaux in the Bedroom got the ax when I brought it up to Blue Eyes and he said, "Sounds like bored in the bedroom." That was that, no more BITB.

The other options all had something to do with feathers, gold, glitter or lace. But there were already a bunch of well-established blogs with hundreds of followers with similar names. Obviously I started following them all and have fallen in love with the content, but I knew I'd need to get a little more creative to find a title that would stand out.

So I'm listening to one of my favorite bands on my iPod one day and up pops the song Finer Feelings. By this point, I knew I wanted my blog to be something that makes people feel good when they're done reading it. And I figured "fine" was a perfectly suitable synonym for good. It also didn't put limitations on my content, since you might feel fine after reading something about fashion, hearing new music, looking at pretty pictures or when I'm poking fun at myself.

There you have it. That's how finer feelings was born. Now go out there and enjoy your Labor Day weekend. I will be in Manhappy tomorrow, cheering on the Wildcats!

four eyes

Thanks to some pop culture icons for turning one of my nerdy necessities in to a hot trend. You know what I'm talking about already, right?

via

The so-called geek chic look is so desirable that people blessed with 20/20 vision are wearing specs with no prescription. I dig this look. I dig it because I have never had perfect vision (or anywhere close to it) and have been rocking some pretty thick frames for the last 20 years.

My first pair of thick frames were white with pink speckles.

real-life strawberry shortcake

The above picture is especially cute/sad when you know I believed (even back then) I looked like this:

cutest redhead with glasses ever? yes.

Thank God for moms who instill confidence in their daughters at a young age.....

In fourth grade, I got contacts and refused to wear glasses for the majority of my awkward pre-teen years. This was an excellent decision on my part, as I didn't need any unflattering additions to my red hair, bangs, braces, pale skin and bone-thin physique.

Notice there is no picture of this stage of my life. I mean, I'm not a masochist.

When high school rolled around, it was time for some new glasses. This time I went outside the box of the thin wire-framed glasses that were all the rage (remember the iconic CK glasses?) and bought a pair that sparked the short-lived nickname Rivers. It's pertinent to note this is also when I started to listen to Weezer (completely related to the nickname) and my music rebirth/obsession as I know it began.

Since I wear my frames infrequently, I usually keep one set of glasses for at least four years. Can you believe I don't lose them? I hardly can.

With that said, I'm still rocking my college frames. They are by far my favorite pair I've ever owned. And not just because they're Prada. OK maybe a little bit. My mom decided to start working when I left for K-State,  and got a receptionist job at an optometrist's office. Mom really liked the work and paychecks. I really liked the designer frame selection and her discount. This is where my affinity for designer sunglasses was born, but that's another story for another day.

two-toned and tortoise. can't go wrong.

So although I still treasure my current frames, I can't help but start planning for my next pair. There are so many options now that Ashley Olsen has been wandering around the world with big thick specs! Below, my two top contenders. What do you think?

bon look jungle chic

warby parker winston

updates

Today I am providing updates on the many ongoing projects and goals I've put in place over the last few months.

First topic of discussion: Fantasy Project Runway

This season is going about as poorly as last year. I drafted one awesome competitor, Sonjia, who is carrying my team. Andrea was a coward and left the show in the middle of the night, and Raul is the bain of my team's existence as he continually ends up in the bottom of the bunch, awarding me with negative points each episode. When he finally got kicked off a few weeks back I was thrilled he wouldn't drag my team points farther in the red. But as Project Runway has been known to do, the producers invited the man with the ugliest hair in the history of the show back, just to give Heidi Klum the task of saying auf wiedersehen to him for the second time last week. I just about poured a glass of wine over my head when I saw him back in the work room.

Second topic: Spending freeze

Five days in and $0 spent on clothes/accessories/shoes.

brunching @ Gram & Dun

$70 spent on brunch yesterday. Good thing I decided food & drink weren't part of the freeze.

Third topic: 2012 resolutions

1. Learn Spanish. Doing a pretty horrible job on this lately.

2.Work out three times a week. I'm averaging three work outs each week and really enjoying the classes offered at Woodside.

3. Go to church. Summer is tough on church attendance with lots of lake weekends. Probably now averaging 2-3 times per month.

4. Eat more veggies. I'm making a concentrated effort to up my veggie intake, but am not at the level I'd like to be at yet.

5. Read 12 books. I finished book one of the 50 Shades trilogy and can't imagine taking any more time out of my life to finish the series. I'm now over halfway through Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? tome. So I've read 6 1/2 books in almost 9 months. Does anyone else slow down their reading over the summer?

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. And if you have any quick but enjoyable book suggestions for me, I'll take them! I really want to cross that resolution off in December.

freezing

A welcome cold front has moved over Kansas City the last couple days. I sat outside last night and actually wished for a sweatshirt (!). Although it has been cool, this is not the freezing I'm talking about today....

I've made the rather impulse challenging decision to go on a spending freeze for the next month. This isn't out of necessity, but really to see if I can muster the self-control it is going to take to not spend frivolously during my favorite shopping season. And if I add a couple hundred dollars to my savings, that'd be an added bonus.

you stop that, j. crew

History shows I'm not so good at not spending money. Last week I dropped $60 on this Chiefs pullover. I don't regret it because it's adorable & I only have one other Chiefs shirt to get me through the upcoming season, but this is the type of impulse shopping I do on the reg. Sales are typically involved, but even then I'm spending money on things I don't need, like more clothes.

History will also tell you I am not great at practicing anything related to self-control. Just last month I tried to go five days without red meat. I lasted three.

This exercise is a challenge to prove to myself that I have some degree of shopping self-control. Hell, maybe I'll get in the habit of being frugal.

Frugal as in 'let's spend less money more wisely', not 'let's never spend money again, ever'.

I'm putting it on the blog to hold myself accountable. The freeze is intended for clothes, shoes, and accessories (like this iPhone case I want so badly). The freeze does not include food or booze. A girl has to stay happy somehow while in a spending freeze, am I right? It also doesn't include beauty products, which as previously mentioned I get mostly from CVS and is not a huge chunk of my budget.

There is one caveat already - I have to buy my first pair of Spanx for a wedding this weekend. I felt a tad depressed by the fact I need Spanx until I read this article by LC.

So there you have it. Thanks to Morgan at xoxo, me for the inspiration. Wish me luck!

an extra $250

That's all I need.

west elm perfection

It's hard to believe, but I don't think I've written about my love of blue & white on this here blog before.

Note to self: write a post on blue & white obsession. 

If you're interested in what other color combos I adore, check out my "color combos" Pinterest board. (So creatively named, I know.)

I'm also quite sure I haven't disclosed my love of elephants (or seahorses or owls) on the old blog. There's so much more for me to share with you all, and I'm so glad you're following along.

workout playlist

i wonder what they listen to during their work outs.... via

It's been two months since I joined a gym, and I'm shocked thrilled to say I'm keeping up with my goal of working out three times a week. OK, there was one week where I only made it twice, but celebrating special occasions with friends is not something I'm going to miss for a work out. Happy hour > Gym.

What I've enjoyed most about my membership are the group fitness classes. My favorite one is called CXWORX. It's a 30-minute core-focused class developed by Les Mills and taught in over 14,000 gyms around the world. There are new releases every 6 weeks with a fresh playlist and routine. I think the reason I like it so much is because it reminds me of dance class. Let's be honest, that's definitely the reason I like it so much. Anything that brings me back to my dancing/drill team glory days is a winner in my book.

Another reason I like the class is because I get introduced to new pump-up music. Here are some of my favorite songs to work out to right now:

1. Cinema - Benny Benassi, Skrillex remix (at 1:24, I have no words. It's so awesome.)
2. Bass Head - Bassnectar
3. Free Fallin' - Zoe Badwi
4. End of Time - Beyonce (participating in a flash mob might need to get added to the bucket list. This one literally makes me cry everytime.)
5. Alive - Dirty South, Thomas Gold, Kate Elsworth
6. Little Bad Girl - David Guetta, Ludacris, Taio Cruz
7. Heartbeat - Childish Gambino (I have a HUGE crush on Donald Glover, especially after this video.)

What are your favorite work out songs?

rated x

Title caught your interest, didn't it?

In an attempt to be more cultural, I've added 'watch AFI's Top 100 movies of all time' to my bucket list.

Sunday night, Blue Eyes & I sat down with the movie list and marked off the ones we've seen so far. I've only seen 23. That's a lot of movie watching, which is going to be a struggle given my attention span lasts about 15 minutes before I need to do something else while watching the TV. I usually break out the iPhone and play Words or Sudoku. The newspaper crossword is also a common distraction. (Yes I get the newspaper. In paper form. I love it.) Now that fall is on the horizon, maybe I'll start up knitting again. Maybe, maybe not.

Back to the top 100. We scrolled through NetFlix until we found the Classics movie section, and picked the first movie that met our criteria: on the top 100 list & not dreadfully long. We ended up with Midnight Cowboy, which I thought was going to be a wholesome Western. Sooooo wrong.

Did you know that Midnight Cowboy is the first and only X-rated movie to win an Oscar for Best Picture? Granted, I had no idea it was rated X until today. It easily could have passed for a semi-raunchy R rating by today's standards. But back in 1969, referencing gigolos & drugs, brief nudity and a smidge of swear words & gore got your movie an X*.

I'm no movie buff. I go to the movies less than five times a year. I watch maybe three a year at home, which is obviously going to need to change if I'm going to cross this item off the bucket list. The last movie I saw in the theater was Magic Mike with my mom and 83 year-old grandma. So I'm not going to write a review on Midnight Cowboy. You can read those here. All I have to say is Dustin Hoffman - wow. He's SO good. And I kept thinking how much Angelina Jolie looks like her dad.

Jon Voight

It was a good movie. It's gritty, emotional, and has a pretty legit theme song. Movie #24 - check!

*FYI: The movie was changed to rated R in 1970 but I'm choosing to ignore this fact because it won three Oscars while it was still rated X. And it makes for a cooler story.

fall weakness

My beloved boots have been sitting on the top rack of my closet waiting for Autumn football season. Here I go, rushing the season again. 

please don't judge the hangers. i am too cheap to buy coordinating ones.

Eleven pairs of boots is more than enough for a girl who doesn't ride horses, don't you think? Granted there are many different types in this population: wedges, Sperry's, equestrian-style, cowboy, rain, and vintage. Yep, vintage. Two pairs (#6 & #10) were originally my mom's from the 1970s.

Until yesterday, Pair #7 were my newest and possibly my favorites since they have my college mascot branded on them. Go Cats!

I noticed I really need boot shapers. Just look at sad #4 and #8. This post has tons of great ideas for diy boot shapers. This is happening, stat.

So maybe this closet isn't lacking in the boots department. But boots are my weakness. And the Nordstrom Anniversary sale was chock-full of glorious boots in all shapes, heights and colors.

So I accidentally took these guys home.

Steve Madden Judgemnt boots

And by accidentally I mean I can't wait to wear them. I love the two-tone leather (black and brown might be my favorite fashion color combo), the harness detail, and saving $80. I don't think I'm going to be able to wait until the temperature is in the 60s. I'll be that ridiculous girl with boots and skinny jeans on in end-of-August humid heat.

Are you getting new boots for football season? What is your weakness when it comes to fall shopping?

you look pinteresty today

Possibly the best compliment I've ever received came from a co-worker today. In order to truly appreciate what I'm about to tell you, I think you need a little insight to my corporate life:

1. I work with men ages 27-55 90% of the time. Some Fridays a female consultant or two will drop in.

2. Our lunch conversations mainly involve sports (fine by me) or politics (zzzz.....).

3. Dress code is business casual. Emphasis on the casual.

So when my 29 year-old co-worker came up to me at the coffee station and said "you've looked very Pinteresty this week", I laughed, then thanked him, then glowed (still glowing). How cute is that? His wife has just started using Pinterest and was showing him her favorite style looks last night.

So here are some of my favorite "pinteresty" looks this week:

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What the best compliment you've received recently? I hope it's that you're Pinteresty. I think we should start using that instead of "your outfit is cute". Who's with me?

month in photos: july

Let's jump right in to this.

Singing "Call Me Maybe" in Aggieville // Rio, this month last year visiting Christ the Redeemer

cutest packaging for my new anchor bracelet // Fill the Ville's welcome sign in Aggieville

cobalt blue dress & my fave shoe color: nude // Blue Eyes sky diving (please note grandma to the left)

watching the 4th of july fireworks // Blue Eyes flying off the dock

gallery wall project: love art print from MadeByGirl // taking a break at the nordstrom anniversary sale

girlfriends at the vine (boo, blurry iPhone photo) // getting my lashes dyed, more on this at a later date