Meet My Friend Erin

First of all, when my friend Lindsey told me about the Singles Day linkup at Kelly's Korner, I knew I had to do it. In fact, I may have to do it more than once depending on how this goes because I have multiple fabulously awesome and beautiful single friends.

Here's one of them. This is Erin.

Erin is a 29-year-old teacher who loves kids but does not have any of her own. She does however have a nephew that she loves to hang out with and spoil like the good aunt she is.

Erin is down for whatever's going on. She loves to get out and do things like going to theme parks and amusement parks, going to concerts, checking out festivals, seeing movies, dining at fun restaurants, horseback riding, swimming, sledding, camping, and basically anything else fun you can think of. She also likes to relax at home with a glass of wine and enjoy some of her favorite TV shows.

Erin is looking for a Christian guy in his late 20s or early 30s. She's shy initially and would really need someone who can bring her out of her shell. Bonus points if you're funny because Erin loves to laugh. Her friends and family are very important to her, and her ideal man would understand her need for unwinding time with the girls.

Erin is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. She's a great and thoughtful friend, and would definitely be someone you'd be proud to take home to meet the parents.

Avocado Lap

One of these days, I'll wear this blouse without getting anything on it. This was not the day.

Top: Fred Boutique; Cami: Target; Pants: Gap; Shoes: Kohl's; Necklace: H&M

While trying to assemble a sandwich at my desk without a napkin on my lap (rookie mistake), I flung an avocado pit onto my shirt and pants. If you remember, last time I attempted to wear this shirt, I got as far as Bridget's daycare before she got sick in the car, and it was all over herself and me when I picked her up. I'm new to the whole avocado thing - will it still be good on a sandwich after it sits in the fridge for 5 hours? Because that might save me some messy clothes in the afternoon.

In other news, Hubs has cut me off from shopping. Honestly, I needed that. After doing a shopping trip to the mall with friends three times in the last three weeks, the two packages that were delivered Tuesday were the last straw. Now I'm on a much-needed shopping ban until who knows when. Christmas hopefully?

OK It's Fall

Coat: Talbots (gift)

Dress: Simply Vera via Chasing Davies blog sale; Blazer: Target; Tights: Old Navy?;
Boots: Madden Girl; Necklace: NY&Co

I embraced the fall weather today by wearing tights for the first time since spring, pulling out my cape coat, and ordering a salted caramel mocha at Starbucks.

Although I think my print mixing is improving, I got this commentary from hubs this morning:

Hubs: That's quite the outfit.
Me: What's wrong with it specifically? I can change something.
Hubs: Nothing, it's very fashion forward.

Then when I put my cape on, I was like, "Oh no." He confirmed my suspicions by saying, "Now it's even more fashion forward." Fashion forward is a good thing, depending on the situation. Corporate America? Maybe not as much, but I don't think it was too crazy. I'm sure my dear ole husband would've told me if it was. Seriously though, I do appreciate his input. I find it pretty funny that he has so many opinions on what I wear.

Yet Another Pencil Skirt

Top: Kohl's; Skirt: NY&Co; Necklace: Maurices; Shoes: Poetic License via (shoo); Sunglasses and Bag: Target

For someone who didn't like pencil skirts until this year, I sure do have a lot of them now. This is the fourth one I've acquired this year, I believe. It's probably time to stop. Speaking of things I have too many of, I counted 11 blazers in my closet. I'll have to make sure to put those on heavy rotation this fall to justify all that silliness, or else get rid of some of them.

Country Music

Since I was going to see a country band, I decided to dress the part and wear plaid. Ingram Hill didn't used to be country, but they released their new album as such. Luckily, since I'm not a fan of that genre, they don't sound country at all live. Plus, in general, their music sounds even better live, so it's always fun to catch one of their shows. They're also nice guys. They're still on tour; I highly recommend checking them out if they're in your area.

These are the tight jeans I was talking about. When I showed my husband after I bought them, he asked if they were Neoprene. My friends approved, though.

Shirt: Willam Rast for Target; Jeans; Kut (Hot Mama); Boots: Kohl's; Watch: La Mer via RueLaLa; Bracelet: Pandora

If you were wondering, that is a banana peel behind me. It's not mine, and I probably should've moved, but I didn't.

America's Next Top Model: College Edition Episode 4 Recap

The episode began with some drama between Kristin and the rest of the girls in the house, especially Destiny. First, Kristin complained about always getting the "too pretty" critique and not wanting to rely on the fan votes each week. Then, she angered Destiny by taking a lighter out of Destiny's bag without permission. It escalated to Kristin yelling "hit me!" and then stating she was going to piss off all the girls in the house in order to get them to hit her and be kicked off. Well, that's one strategy, I guess.

Next was the acting challenge with Tyler Perry. Tyra and Tyler assigned each girl a persona (diva, tourist, rapper, and street performer) that they had to act out in public on the street. Most of the girls did pretty well since they had Tyra and Tyler in their ear the whole time.

Source

The only one they really showed struggling was Leila. Although Yvonne boasted about her acting experience, the winner of the challenge was Kiara with her portrayal of a diva.

For the photo shoot, the girls headed to Universal Studios to the War of the Worlds set, where the girls would be transformed into zombies.

Source

Along with Jonny Wujek, Bryan Boy also joined them on set to give them some social media feedback to incorporate into their photo. Some of the standouts were Brittany, Laura, and Leila, who have all been doing consistently well so far. Johnny told Allyssa she was being too sexy, and he said once again how he didn't enjoy working with Kristin because she relied too much on being pretty. Destiny gave her standard dead eyes, which you think would've worked with taxidermy and zombie shoots, but they didn't.

It's a pretty short recap today since not a whole lot happened. Plus, I was distracted by Bridget while I was watching, so I may have missed stuff. Anyway, in panel, the callout order was:

1. Laura
2. Leila
3. Brittany
4. Allyssa
5. Kiara
6. Nastasia
7. Victoria
8. Kristin
9. Yvonne

Eliminated for now: Destiny

On the next episode, Alicia Keys visits, and the girls do a cheerleading photo shoot and a charity fashion show. We also see Laura crying about Leila saying she's obsessed with herself. Oh no, hopefully that doesn't mean one of them is going home! They're probably the two strongest in the house right now.

Predictions:
For the win: Leila
Eliminated next week: Kristin...wishful thinking

Tumble

Dress: Kohl's; Cardigan: Target; Belt: Forever 21; Leggings: Old Navy; Shoes: Mr. Shoe

I took probably the most embarrassing tumble of my life while wearing this outfit. Let's just say, thank goodness I had leggings on. I was trying to cross a busy street in the rain before cars came, and of course there was someone also from work right behind me. I forgot how slippery my shoes were, and I started to trip. I tried to recover, but instead I lost my balance and fell to my knees, and then my side, and then my chin. On the wet ground in the middle of the street. Except I didn't scrape or hurt anything because it all happened in slow motion. Seriously, I was falling in slow motion, which was the most embarrassing part. It almost would've been better had I been thrown to the ground and came up bloody. The guy behind me asked if I was OK, and I was like, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Apparently my shoes are slippery," trying to make light of the situation. I then hurried away as we both walked into the parking structure. You can kind of see my wet leggings in the pictures above.

This is how I felt about that.

On top of that, there was so much traffic, and I was so frustrated trying to get to the mall to meet my friends. As some retail therapy, I ended up buying $90 jeans. The cost doesn't bother me too much because I've been wanting to buy good jeans for awhile. As long as they were under $100, I figured it wasn't too bad. We checked out Hot Mama for the first time, and the crazy saleslady there convinced me to buy a size 12 pair of black skinny jeans. I'm normally a size 16 in pants. I probably should've gone with a 14...buuuuut, I'm supposed to be losing weight anyway, so it works. If in a future outfit post it looks like I'm wearing too tight black skinny jeans, I probably am.