OOTD: The Maxi Dress

Simple outfit for a morning of errands and lunch with one of my amazing friends~

I wore this dress for lunch with one of my friends, Lac, on my Friday off a little over a week ago. This dress was one of the first maxi dresses I had ever purchased! I'm only 4'11" so I had always thought that maxi dresses were a big no-no for me since I didn't want to look shorter than I already was. Fortunately, the cut, print, and fabric of this particular one was flattering on me.

Nail Polish Haul!

Hi, readers! Today, I'm very excited to share with you my first nail polish haul on this blog! Yay!

L to R: Stone Cold, Harvest Moon, Hook and Line, Peachy Keen, Sea Spray, Below Deck

I had a list ready of all the polishes I wanted to purchase. Most of my list consisted of colors from the China Glaze Capitol Colours collection for The Hunger Games. (I'm a tad bit obsessed with the book series...) Anyways, from my list of 6 Capitol Colours polishes, I was able to purchase 2 of them, Stone Cold and Hook and Line. I also picked up a third color that was not on my list because I was on the fence about, Harvest Moon.

OOTD: Office Frills

Another work day, another office-appropriate outfit.

I received this vest as a Christmas present from my sister, Kathleen, whom you met a few posts ago.

Initial Little Black Bag Impression!

image source

For those of you know don't know what Little Black Bag is, here's the basic rundown.
For $49.99 a month (or $59.99 for one month and no commitment), LittleBlackBag.com is a subscription service for accessories. The items on the site range anywhere from home decor to handbags to jewelry. As with other subscription services, when you first enter the site you're taken through a style quiz. Based upon your answers to the quiz, you are then directed to a gallery of accessories picked for you.

You get to choose one item that you definitely want to put into your "little black bag" along with 1-4 other "surprise" items that the stylists choose for you. Then you can purchase your bag, see everything that you have, and start the trading process!

Sister Lunch (and Introductions!)

Last Thursday was my day off from work before a small holiday for Easter. Since it was also spring break for two of my sisters, Kathleen and Katie, we decided to go out for lunch and do some thrift store shopping together. The original plan was to have lunch at Juan's Flying Burrito in Mid-city since Kathleen had never been there before. Juan's ended up being too crowded and had no parking when we arrived so we drove over to Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro in Uptown for lunch. Neither of my sisters had eaten at any of the Cheesecake Bistro locations before so this was a treat for both of them!

From top L to R: Kathleen's Chicken Alfredo and half brownie; Katie's Shrimp and Chicken Pasta (she also had a half brownie); and my Jambalaya Pasta (with cheesecake in the bg) 

Dessert is definitely the best part of any meal!

{ - click Read More for introductions to my sisters! - }

Easter Sparkles

I'm back with yet another nail polish post! (I seem to be doing these a lot.) This time, my nails were done with Easter in mind. As you can probably tell from previous posts, I love the accent nail trend that's been going around for the past year. Today, I'm sharing with you a manicure that combines the glitter accent nail trend with the spring pastel color trend.

{close up photos after the break!}

OOTD: Dressy Fleece

Good afternoon! As promised, I am continuing to blog about my trip to Paris last winter. 

During the weeks before I left the US for Paris, my excitement for the trip resulted in super early outfit planning/packing/worrying. Since I was going to Finland for work after Paris, I had to make sure that I pack appropriate business attire and everything I'd need for work. Unfortunately that meant I had a lot of extra paperwork, etc to bring with me which left little room for personal items. Plus the planes from Paris to Vaasa, Finland were much smaller than the domestic planes back in the US so the size of my carry ons were also restricted.

Smoldering Sugar Coat

Hello, fellow bloggers! I'm back with yet another nail polish post on the look I wore for the majority of last week.

Wet-n-Wild's Sugar Coat and Revlon's Smoldering both purchased at  Walgreens.

As you can see above, I did a spin on the classic french manicure. For the base color, I chose to do two coats of Wet-n-Wild's Sugar Coat which is a very light pink. Its definitely lighter than a baby pink. In a previous nail polish post, I mentioned that I purchased three colors from Wet-n-Wild's Spring 2012 collection. This is one of them. While I was impressed with the opacity of "I Need A Refresh-Mint" after just one coat, "Sugar Coat" definitely requires at least two semi-thick coats, maybe even three thinner ones.

Coming soon!

I'm working on a few book reviews at the moment of novels I've read in the past few months (i.e. 6 months or so). Most of them will be about sci-fi / distopian / young adult novels since those are the books I'm typically drawn too. I'll try to throw in a few reviews of all-time classic books as well that I either love or hate for varying reasons.

Of course I'll be doing a series of reviews on the entire Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins since the first movie just came out. I'm debating on waiting to publish my book reviews of Catching Fire and Mockingjay until the movies are released since they'd be more relevant then.

I'm currently reading the second book in the Uglies series by Scott Westerfield called Pretties. A book review on the first book, Uglies, will be published soon. I also recently started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson which is the first book in the Millennium series.

So many books to read!! I also got a copy of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 as a Christmas gift from my sister that I have yet to dive into.

Stay tuned and happy reading!