new favorite work blouse

silk crepe de chine blouse via

Pretty sure the post title gave it away. I am obsessed with this Banana Republic silk top. The only colors available online are the coral pictured and dark navy. But, in the stores they have it in a creamy off-white color, which is what I got! I'm wearing it right now with a coral tank underneath (because it is very sheer), and black cropped skinny pants, which BR hasn't uploaded online yet. They were only $69.50 and Sunday was Friends & Family day, so they were 50% off!  If only I had some bright shoes to kick this outfit to the next level... I'm thinking along the lines of these beauties:

Jessica Simpson Halie

Aldo Capecoral

Sam Edelman Tacoma

Happy Tuesday!

weekend inspiration: green

Happy almost St. Patrick's day! As a red head that pretends to have Irish lineage, I LOVE this holiday! And I truly don't think green gets enough attention in the fashion and interior design world. It is my second favorite color (second only to purple) and has some seriously gorgeous shades in its color wheel.

If you watched 30 Rock last night, you saw Jenna Maroney rock one amazingly monochromatic emerald ensemble. I'm sad to say I can't find an image of it yet on the internets, so hopefully you have it saved on your DVR. She looked glamazing.

Depending on the time of the K-State game tomorrow (Go Cats!) I will be heading out to the St. Patty's Day parade in historical Westport in both green AND purple, which is.... wait for it..... also one of my favorite color combinations! Not Barney the dinosaur purple and green, more like this:

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Here's where I give lots of love to the beautiful shades of green that should be more prevalent in design and style. Please, out with the pink that clashes with my skin tone and hair, and in with the green! Who's with me?

Enjoy the visual feast, I'm off to imbibe in pre-celebration of St. Patty's!

{All images via my Pinterest boards: doors, interiors, style, accessorize this, over the hills and far away}

hump day playlist

Happy hump day everyone! I am in sunny Orlando at a conference for my job, and have really been needing some motivational music to keep me awake during the long hours of traveling and sifting through spreadsheets, so I thought I'd share what I'm listening to right now with you all.

Fun. - The whole album!
Penguin Prison - Don't F*ck With My Money
Little Dragon - Ritual Union
Electric Guest - This Head I Hold
Ellie Goulding (Bassnectar Remix) - Lights
Dire Straits, Sting - Money For Nothing

Enjoy!!

happy jeans

By now I'm sure you've all seen at least twenty bloggers confess their love of bright, colored jeans for the spring season. I'm in complete cahoots with them. I can't get enough of the images I've been seeing on Pinterest lately. And they're so accessible! Walk in to a Gap, Old Navy, Nordy's, J. Crew, Loft, etc. and you're going to find a lovely assortment of colorful jeans. I added these teal jeans from Nordstrom to my closet a few weeks ago and get compliments every time I wear them, which makes me really happy. So now they're my happy jeans... because of the compliments, but also because they were a steal!

And just in case you can't get enough happy jeans images in your life (who can?).... here's some of my favorite ensembles right now:

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the cutest...

...birthday cards. If you're a regular reader, you already know my love of gold and dots, so these are just too perfect. Thanks to Molly and Sally at A Piece of Toast for bringing these to my attention! They are now saved in my "to buy" list once Easter rolls around and I can start shopping online again.

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valentine's cookies

Happy Friday readers! Remember when I said back here that I was making Valentine's Day sugar cookies with my friend? Well that happened, but ditzo here forgot to write down the recipe! I will update this as soon as I get the recipe so everyone can enjoy slaving over these yummy cookies next year. I say slaving, but it was actually really fun. Stasia had the dough pretty much all made by the time I got there, so I started here, with rolling and cutting it out!

In very specific quantities, here's what you'll need:

Dough:

1. A bunch of granulated sugar.

2. Many, many sticks of Land O Lakes salted butter

3.  Flour. Lots of it.

4. Probably eggs? I'm obviously rewriting this for you when I get the real recipe. 

Icing:

1. About 12 pounds of powdered sugar (you wish I was kidding.....)

2. Almond flavoring

4. Vanilla extract, get the clear kind so it doesn't tint your dough

5. Meringue Powder. I didn't even know this stuff existed before, but it's a sub for egg whites.

6. Butter flavoring

7. Water. The only semi-healthy ingredient you'll see all day. 

Once the dough has chilled, been rolled out and cut, you'll stick them on an ungreased cookie sheet for 7 1/2 minutes at 375 degrees. Then roll, cut, repeat!

By the time we got through all the dough Stasia had prepared, we had made 225 cookies. WTF. It was awesome. Cookies were taking over her gigantic kitchen. 

Now on to the icing. The key is to make two types with different consistencies from the same batch. Start with making the "piping" icing. This is the thicker of the two that you'll use for the outline of the cookies and any words, polka dots, or other details you want to add. 

Once you've got the icing to the color you want, pour half of it in to an icing bag with a medium-sized tip. Then add more water to the rest of the icing in the bowl. This half will become your filler icing, use it after you've outlined the cookies with the piping icing. Pour the filler in to another icing bag with a smaller tip. See what I'm saying? Two different consistencies, same great color. That's the secret. Repeat until you've made all the colors of icing you want. Keep the bags of icing setting in cups (we used red beer pong cups) so the icing doesn't spill all over the place. 

Next, you decorate! Don't forget to outline with the piping, then fill with the thinner icing. Wait for the filler to dry if you want to write something (like those rose buds or the big "A"). If you want to make pretty designs (like the chevron-ish lines or the Salvador Dali hearts), don't wait for the filler to dry, hurry up and pick up a different color filler and get to work with a toothpick!

And voila! At the end you have some beautiful cookies and a hand cramp! And they'll be so pretty that no one will believe you made them yourself. All your valentines will be delighted when you show up at their door with these treats. And your co-workers will love you forever. 

Thank you Stasia for teaching me how bake and decorate these delicious sugar cookies! Can't wait until next year!

giving it up

It's official, Lent is upon us yet again and I now don ashes on my forehead and have been trying to come up with what to give up for the better part of a week. Well I think I finally have it figured out.... drum roll (totally unnecessary, but I'm keeping it)........

I'm doing the same thing as last year. No more online shopping. Plus a bonus for my newly formed (like 6 months ago) bad habit: no more pop. Soda. Coke. Whatever you call it wherever you are. I call it pop. And I can't have it at 2:00pm on weekdays anymore, or when I had too much to drink the night before, or really anytime over the next 40 days.

Now, the whole point is to give these things up and not make a big deal out of it, which I promise I'll do, but I need to somehow keep myself honest and I figured posting it on finer feelings will do just that. Every time I want to buy this or this (and yes, I'm still in the polka dot phase), I'll just need to remember that I can't cheat; my Lenten promise is on the internets for all to see and judge.

And just because I want a pretty picture in this post, here's some hump day inspiration for ya.

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