Circle Skirt Giveaway Winners

I decided since I bought both colors of fabric, I would select two winners to receive a custom-made circle skirt. The person whose comment corresponds to the random.org generated number that comes up first will get the first choice of color. Then the second winner will get a skirt made out of the fabric not selected by the first winner. Two chances to win--woohoo!

Color choices

The first winner of the custom-made circle skirt in the color of her choice is...

The winner of the second circle skirt is...

Congratulations ladies! I will be contacting Cabootique shortly, and I will contact Flying Purple HIppos after I hear back from the first winner to let you know what color your skirt will be and collect your measurements.

Thank you all so much for participating! Now I gotta get sewing!

wear*it Wednesday: How to Wear Gold

Let's see your gold-infused outfits, ladies!

World-Class Surgeon Dress

I call this my Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh's character on Private Practice) dress. In the spring, I'll have to style it more like her--no shirt or tights underneath and a long necklace instead of a stack of bracelets. Except my accessories will most likely be from Target or Kohl's instead of Chanel or YSL.

Dress: Target; Blouse: Christian Dior Chemises via E-Collectique; Tights: Simply Vera/Kohl's; Shoes:  Poetic License via (shoo); Watch: NY&Co; Bracelets: Charming Charlie, Target, probably Claire's

Oh hey, I found another pair of tights hidden away. I forgot about these.

Also, Nigel and Tyra would be very critical that I did not find the light in these photos. And that is why I'm only a top model in my mind. My specialty is runway anyway, haha. OMG I just remembered that Top Model starts back up tomorrow!!!!!!!!!! It might be super lame this cycle, but I'm still excited.

Remember to link up with wear*it Wednesday: How to Wear Gold tomorrow! The post will go up at midnight. Like I said, if you guys don't like this format or it doesn't work that well, I'll switch it up again next week.

GlassesUSA Review

As far as glasses go, I was kind of late to the game. When I had Bridget, I started to notice that digital clocks from across the room and street signs at night appeared blurry. I didn’t necessarily need glasses, but they were nice to have, for instance, when I was driving somewhere new at night and needed to read signs.

Last year, I bought a very practical pair of glasses that look nice on my face; but since then, I’ve been wanting to buy glasses that were a more fun option, too.

I spent way too much time playing with GlassesUSA’s Try-It Virtual Mirror feature and must’ve tried each pair of eyeglasses three times or more. Each time, I kept coming back to two styles:

Occhiali 3166

Product Description: Want to look more studious without looking like a book worm? Occhiali 3166 are the best glasses online to help you achieve that! These full frame glasses come in a nice, deep cherry wood hued exterior that adds warmth, while the muted green interior adds a unique contrast. The rectangular lenses add a certain geek chic quality to these frames which are balanced by the classic structure of the frame.

iSee 716

Product Description: Feminine and classically styled with a hint of elegance, iSee 716 glasses are the epitome of style! These black plastic frames are quite lady like, especially with the unique metal detail at the temple that's topped off with a rhinestone for a luxurious feel. Step into something more indulgent!

Besides the virtual mirror, another aspect I liked about the GlassesUSA.com site were the fun product descriptions, which actually did influence my two favorites. Through the product descriptions, I learned that another style I was looking at was a popular one with young boys, so I ruled that one out right there.

GlassesUSA would like to offer you a really great discount--get 50% off any pair of eyeglasses on orders over $80 using code SPECIAL50. Or, take 10% off any order of prescription eyeglasses with code Blog10.

Fine Print: I was compensated for this post, but all opinions are my own.

Weekend Outfits and Activities

Saturday, I had a busy day planned. First, I ran errands in the morning and then headed off to my friend's baby shower. I can't believe my friend is almost 8 months pregnant. She doesn't look it at all. Since they don't know the sex of the baby, I wanted to represent both by wearing pink and blue although all of us friends are hoping she has a boy since she's been geeking out over cute preppy baby boy clothes forever. I'm sure she and her husband don't care either way.

Blazer: Gap; T-shirt: Land's End (gift); Jeans: Old Navy; Necklace (lengthened by a bracelet): gift; Shoes: Kohl's

On my way to the shower, I had to run to Buy Buy Baby (For those of you who need to buy baby stuff for whatever reason, I HIGHLY recommend Buy Buy Baby over Babies R Us.) to get a gift since I procrastinated as usual. Then I had some extra time to kill, so I wandered into World Market next door. Bad idea. I ended up buying a scarf, two necklaces, and a travel mug for myself. Whoops.

One of my new necklaces from World Market, lengthened by a bracelet

After the shower, a friend and I had plans to do a little shopping in Milwaukee and then go ice skating at Red Arrow Park, which is an outdoor rink downtown, conveniently located adjacent to a Starbucks. We learned that there was a Danny Gokey show (American Idol guy) about an hour's drive from my house later that night, and we considered squeezing that into our plans as well. It ended up just being too much, and we stuck with the original plan of shopping and skating.

There were only two places we definitely wanted to hit--shoo to see if they had any TOMS ballet flats and Luci Boutique because we each had a coupon/gift card. shoo had two ballet flat options--the black leather and the red and purple patterned ones. I wasn't a fan of the red, but I loved the black. I just couldn't find it in me to drop $80 on them yet. Plus, I don't know if I really need another pair of black shoes, so I may just order a different color online at some point. But they were pretty sweet looking. For those of you looking to buy, they run HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE. I normally wear a 10, sometimes 11 if the shoes are narrow. The 9.5 would've fit perfect with socks. I probably could've even squeezed into a 9. My recommendation would be to order a full size down from what you normally wear. My friend E did end up buying a cute pair of light purple regular TOMS.

At Luci Boutique I picked up a really pretty blush-colored cowl-neck sleeveless top with lace on one of the shoulders and a mustard dolman sleeve tunic/short dress/long shirt. E got a cute blue floral dress/tunic and a gray thick belt to go with it. I love how my friends are getting into belting.

Next, it was off to the ice rink, where I got to try out my new skates I bought earlier that morning (more money spent, ugh). It was sooooooo worth it. Usually, I'm complaining the whole time about how much pain I'm in or how tired my ankles are from wearing the rental skates, but having my own brand new skates really made the difference. Hopefully they stay that way for years to come so it's worth the investment.

Sunday, hubs and I actually got up and ready in time to get to church. After that, we had hub's friend's son's third birthday party. Bridget, although everyone was saying how cute she is, was being quite sassy and naughty. She kept hitting the birthday boy and threw a hard plastic toy that hit his 4-month-old sister. Luckily, the baby is one tough cookie and didn't cry, but yeah. Bridget is back to her old hitting ways. We're working on remedying it, but I don't really know how.

Another unfortunate moment was when I left my soda unattended, and Bridget proceeded to try to drink it like a sippy cup, instead dumping it all over her face and clothes. That was my bad. Plus, I must've looked like a drunk because I was the only one at the party to grab a beer. Mind you, this is the third birthday party--the first two, all the guys were drinking beer. This time, just me. And then I left my empty bottle laying somewhere, and when I went back for it, someone already picked it up. I am a drunk slob, and people are judging. OK maybe not, but I felt awkward as usual.

T-shirt and Boots: Target; Cardigan: Old Navy; Skirt: self-made; Leggings: American Apparel; Necklace: garage sale

Anwayyyyyyyyyyyy, that's what I wore to church, and then I changed into jeans for the birthday party. I must have had that skirt hiked up more than usual--it looks short. Also, I must clean that mirror. There's little Bridgey prints all over it.

In summary, I spent way too much money this weekend, and I've decided to put myself on a shopping ban for the month of March. My shopping has been more out of hand than usual lately. I have to get a few things in the next couple days, and then the only thing I can spend money on in the month of March is food. That means no DVF for Gap Kids stuff for Bridget until April. We'll see if there's anything left.

Tomorrow, I have a salon appointment so that my friend can practice doing a facial on me and so I can have her try and fix my bang massacre. OK, it's not that bad, but the one short piece is kind of silly looking. So I'm looking forward to that!

Week Six Weigh-In

Current Weight: 198.4 (down 1 lb)

I didn't know how this week was going to go because I quit entering my points on Friday. Even with my being home all day Friday, a baby shower Saturday, and a kid's birthday party Sunday, I managed not to eat too much and lost a pound. It probably helps that I don't like cake. Like I said at the baby shower, had they served brownies, it would've been all over.

That's about all I have to say this week. I still have 8-1/2 more pounds to lose before I get to my next incentive of buying a plane ticket to Tulsa. It sounds like quite a ways to go, but hopefully I can do it in the next month. I guess I'll make it official...

Goal: Lose 8.5 lb by April 2 (since Mondays are my weigh-in days).
Incentive: When I hit 190, I can make travel plans for my May trip to Tulsa.

wear*it Wednesday Preview: How to Wear Gold

I'm trying something a little different with wear*it Wednesday.  If it doesn't work, I'll switch it up again! I'm going to post the theme for the week on the wear*it Wednesday page on the blog. Then Wednesday, the post will go up at midnight with a link-up that will allow you to upload a thumbnail that will link to your blog (similar to Everybody, Everywear and other link-ups like that). Ideally, I would like to have bigger images and add the functionality of you being able to write a description for your image, too, so I will continue to look for solutions to those.

In honor of the Oscars tonight, the theme for this week is How to Wear Gold. Anything goes--whether it's gold jewelry, gold-colored clothing, or gold hardware on handbag. Feel free to link up an old blog post if you don't wear gold this week. All participation is encouraged!

Here's a bit of inspiration:

Source

Source: habituallychic.blogspot.com via Salina on Pinterest

Source: thatluciegirl.tumblr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Whitney on Pinterest

Fever

This is what I looked like after Zumba and after having developed a fever yesterday. AND after some Photoshopping to fix a shiny forehead and crazy sticking-out hair. In retrospect, Zumba was probably not the best idea, but it wasn't until later in the afternoon when I started feeling feverish. Needless to say, I'm home sick today.

Dress: Kohl's; Sweater and Leggings: Old Navy; Boots: Target; Necklace: gift; Headband: Jaxie via Fred Boutique

I was excited to wear this dress, though. I bought it for a wedding when I was pregnant because it was kind of tight in the middle and bump-showing. It didn't fit for awhile after that, so I was considering getting rid of it. I'm glad I don't have to now. It's not the most flattering cut on me, but I have trouble getting rid of anything yellow.

Enough about me, let's focus on something cuter. This is my favorite outfit of Bridget's right now. I love the little skirt attached to the shirt.

She's holding her monkey bath toys that my mom just bought her. I think monkeys have taken the place of ducks as her favorite animal. Unfortunately, the dog got a hold of one of them, and now the monkey no longer has legs. ("I have no legs!" Can't Hardly Wait, anyone?) Yeah, dog toys and baby toys look a lot alike.

Runway to Reality

The idea for yesterday's outfit began with my pinning this picture from The Curvy Blogger's Vantan Tokyo runway show post.

I knew I wanted to try the yellow tights peeking out from the black (probably just because I have a weakness for anything yellow, no matter how ridiculous), but I didn't know how it would work with what I had in my closet. I used Polyvore to try to come up with a good combination of pieces similar to what I own.

How convenient, the yellow tights with a blue top would look lovely with my new Jason Wu for Target scarf that I haven't worn yet.

Blouse and Cords: Gap; Cardigan: Target; Shoes: ModCloth; Tights: ?; Scarf: Jason Wu for Target; Watch: Michael Kors

Of course, I don't have that much time to over-think an outfit every day, but it's fun to have the resources to try out something different once in awhile.

Birthday Giveaway: Week 4 - Custom Made Circle Skirt

This month marks my blog’s 1st birthday on February 4 and my 29th birthday on February 14. To celebrate, I wanted to give you guys the chance to win some goodies that I’m pretty excited about. Each of the four weeks in February, I will be holding a giveaway to thank you for sticking around or visiting for the first time or whatever!

The winner of the silver and turquoise ring is...

Mrs. T! Congratulations! I will be contacting you shortly to collect your information.

So I can't paint, and I have no patience for knitting, but sewing I can do! That's why for my final birthday giveaway, I would like to offer one of my readers a custom made circle skirt!

It will be made out of the same type of material with which I made mine--a comfortable crinkle cotton with a little stretch. As for the color, you may choose between rust orange or cobalt blue (which is what my skirt below is).

The skirt has an exposed elastic waist, and it is based on the Made tutorial, if you would like to see how the waistline will look. All the winner will need to do is send me your waist measurement and how long you would like the skirt to be (in inches or centimeters).

Whoops, guess I have to branch out in how I style this thing.  Same shoes, same color scheme, and same low ponytail, and a statement necklace.

To enter, simply leave a comment on this post, and be sure to include your email address so that I know how to get in contact with you. You have until the end of the day Tuesday, February 28 to enter. I will select a winner using random.org and then announce the winner Wednesday, February 29.

Terms and Conditions: Open to US and Canada residents only. One entry per person. The winner will be announced on the blog, emailed, and have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. Please be careful when taking your measurements to ensure the right fit of the garment, and please allow up to three weeks for construction and delivery.

Ladies' Night

Last night was the fourth annual (my third) ladies' night shopping event here in town.

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

My mom and I went earlier than usual, and I had Bridget strapped to myself in the Baby Bjorn, which made it more of a laid-back experience than past years. We mostly just wandered in, ate the free food samples, and my mom bought a couple things. I saw a wrap watch that I liked (I have a bit of a watch obsession, I'm re-realizing), but I didn't have my birthday coupon with me, so I'll have to stop back another time, assuming I haven't thrown out the coupon. Part of the event is that if you get stamps from all the places you visit, you get entered into a drawing, but we didn't bother with the stamps or hitting every shop this year.

I don't have any pictures from during the event, but here's what I wore:

Sweater: H&M; Jeans: Old Navy; Vest and Boots: Macy's; Scarf: Boston Store: Arm Warmers: Fred Boutique

Thankfully, it wasn't as cold as past years, so I didn't bother with a coat. Most of the time, I didn't even really need the arm warmers.

I must say, carrying Bridget kept me from eating and drinking as much as I normally would have, and I got extra exercise on top of it. I probably would've spent money, too, had I been more inclined to linger. She was a great sport and enjoyed some of the cheese and cracker samples. Still, hopefully hubs will be available to watch Bridgey next year.

Check out how the other wear*it Wednesday participants styled their faux fur at shopfreak.

The Men of Celebrity Apprentice

Clay Aiken is the reason I tuned in to Celebrity Apprentice for the first time on Sunday. But the reason I’ll keep watching is the men’s team as a whole.

Although I was rooting for the ladies this week because Patricia Velasquez just seemed so sincere and hard-working for her charity, I couldn’t help but laugh every time one of the men opened their mouths. They are a hilarious bunch.

Let’s start with my friend Clay (I wish), the hustler. The challenge this week was to run a deli and sell sandwiches to make money for charity. Clay was the cashier for the men’s team (called Unanimous), and I was surprised at what a good job he did getting money out of people. One dancer girl who donated $1,000 made her cash rain over Clay, which was pretty awesome. Even though my mom (who was watching the show with me) is/was a Clay fan, she didn’t think she’d pay a lot of money for a sandwich. After I declared that I’d drop some money for Clay, she admitted, “Well, maybe if he sang for me.”

I was kind of annoyed with Paul Sr., who was the project manager for Unanimous this week. He seemed to have it out for George Takei for no reason. Not that George took any of his crap. But I liked having Paul around just so the other men could do impressions of him. I started cackling, as I tend to do, when Arsenio did an impression of him talking/grunting through his mustache. Although he’s definitely not my favorite, Paul was able to raise the most money by a long shot; he’s going to be around for awhile.

Arsenio Hall is by far the funniest person on the show. I was a little too young to watch him when he hosted his own show, but I did not realize how hilarious he is. One of my favorite parts was when he told the anecdote about meeting Ruben Studdard who said, “Do not be the first black man to lose to Clay Aiken.”

George Takei is another funny guy. I did know that, but sometimes I don’t know if he even means to be funny. Just his tone of voice makes things comical. I like how Trump stood up for him during the boardroom meeting. George did not at any point strike me as “meek” either. I tried to get hubs to watch the show by telling him Sulu from Star Trek was on, but no dice.

Lou Ferrigno. I don’t have much to say about Lou except that he seems like a big teddy bear of a guy. I am glad he put a shirt on while he was doing his gun show for the crowd, though. He’s in shape, but he’s still got some old man boobs.

Penn Jillette probably should’ve been the project manager over Paul Sr. Maybe it’s because he’s really loud, but he seems like a good leader and a positive guy.

Another surprisingly positive guy is Dee Snider. He didn’t have much of a role in this week’s episode, but whenever they showed him, he was saying something constructive and seemed like a team player.

Adam Carolla I could take or leave. He’s amusing and had some good one-liners, but I don’t know if he’s as focused as some of the other guys. Time will tell.

You can’t really say anything bad about Michael Andretti since he came on the show to take the place of his son, Marco, who was originally slated to appear but was absent due to the recent death of a race car driver friend. If anyone does seem “meek,” I would say that would be Michael, but it could just be because he came late and was just trying to help out.

That’s it! Next week, the teams are going to Medieval Times as for their next challenge. I’ve been there a time or two as a child, so that will be interesting. I was cracking up during the preview when Teresa Giudice flipped a table. “You were engaged NINETEEN TIMES.” I used to quote that scene from her Real Housewives of New Jersey blow up all the time.

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Completely off topic, but remember to send in your How to Wear Faux Fur outfits to shopfreak14@yahoo.com for wear*it Wednesday tomorrow!

And there's still time until the end of the day to enter my giveaway for a silver and turquoise hand-knit wire ring!

DVF ♥ GapKids

Have you guys seen this yet? My friend texted me over the weekend and informed me that Diane von Furstenberg is collaborating with Gap. Before I read the whole text, I was thinking, "OMG, I'm going to buy it all!"

"For kids," she finished. For a second, I was a little disappointed until I watched the video on Gap.com. Then, I wanted to buy everything in Bridget's size!

The collection comes out March 15, and until then, you can tweet along your excitement using #dvflovesgap.

Nail Polish Dress

Inspiration Monday photo:

My interpretation:

Dress: Kohl's; Cardigan: Target; Cami: Express; Tights: Missoni for Target; Necklace: ?; Shoes: Irregular Choice via E-Collectique

This dress...I haven't worn this dress since October when I spilled nail polish on it and haven't had the motivation to try to remove it. Yesterday, I finally decided to give stain removal a shot with a hairspray suggestion from a friend and Goo Gone suggestion from the Internet.

I tried the hairspray first by spraying some on the stain, letting it sit for about 10 minutes, and then washing as normal. Basically no change. Then, I tried the suggestion I found online to douse the area with Goo Gone, let it sit for a half hour, then wash normally. That method was a little more effective and seemed to take a layer of the nail polish off. Unfortunately, what started out as dark gray polish that blended in pretty well with the purple dress is now very light gray marks that are much more conspicuous. Luckily, the sweater I'm wearing hid the stain.

I may give it one more shot with either the Goo Gone or find another home remedy; otherwise, I'll cut my losses and toss the dress or refashion the fabric into something else. I haven't tried Windex yet...that was another suggestion. If you have any other ideas, I'd be willing to try them out!

Week Five Weigh-In

Current Weight: 199.4 (no change)

My scale likes to play tricks on me sometimes. We keep the scale in the bathroom closet because there's not really a place to put it otherwise. Whenever I take it out of the closet and something is either on top of it or leaning against it, the scale seems to take a couple tries to re-calibrate. The first two times I weighed myself this morning, I was 198.4. I should've just stopped there, but I tried once more...199.4. No change from last week, arg! I thought I earned that one pound loss. I weighed myself five more times, just to make sure. I did have that big drop last week, though, so I am happy I didn't go back up. Maybe that means next week, I'll start losing again.

No new goals or incentives. Just keep it up!

Wearing Even More Jason Wu

Dress: Jason Wu for Target; Cardigan: Old Navy; Trench Coat: NY&Co; Tights: ?; Belt: Forever 21; Hat: T.J.Maxx; Shoes: Famous Footwear

My friend felt a little under the weather yesterday, so we skipped the outlet mall shopping. Probably for the best because I've been buying way too many clothes lately. Like this dress, for instance.

This dress may have been a little short and a little casual for work, but it was Friday, so I went with it.  I only have one more dress and one scarf to wear before I've worn all of my Jason Wu for Target loot. Yeah, I may have gone a tad overboard.  Going into it, I predicted I'd spend between $100-$200 on the collection, so I don't feel too guilty. Only slightly. At least it fell around the same time as my birthday--that definitely helped.

Oh and I have to give credit where credit is due. This outfit was inspired by this one on the right. It looks even cuter with the red shoes, doesn't it? I should get myself some red shoes...I actually almost bought some red flats at Target yesterday, but I resisted. Hooray for occasional willpower!

Source: whatiwore.tumblr.com via Rebekah on Pinterest