Leopard print is my love language

Purchased this in Iowa

 

 

And I don't want to steal pictures from someone else's blog because that's creepy but this vest is so damn cute, I can't get over it. I have on a gray shirt, dark jeans and black wedges.

 

 

Let the fall leopard obsession continue!

 

Ps - fashion blogger I am not. Don't judge.

The end of the monogram saga

I've been obsessing over monograms for a while. I took to the Twitters to complain, too. Sorry about that...

A few weeks ago I found a Groupon for one, and it finally came in the mail. I love it! I ordered the rose gold 18" extra-small monogram from monogramonline.com and it's wonderful! A little larger than I was dreaming and hoping for, but after 3 days it's grown on me.

I even bought one to give as a gift! Guess you'll have to wait until the holidays to find out who it's for.

Have you purchased anything lately that you are just obsessed over?

Leopard Print Update

As seen in today's "Stand Out in the Spotlight" from Steve Madden...

leopard print is SO not out of style.

Phew.

leopard print

I have acquired all of the following things in 2011. That's 6 weeks. 

That's 1 leopard print item per every 2 weeks. 

And yes....



Disclaimer: These aren't mine, and I don't remember where I found the picture! I have a pair that are verrrrrry similar from Fab'rik!

 A second pair of flats. I HAVE A PROBLEM!

I am the furthest thing from fashion forward basically... ever, so am I incredibly behind the times? Do I need to keep my leopard print flats and my shirt and all my other leopard print things hidden at home with my snuggie?

Speaking of, I really hope that snuggie isn't getting tossed out by my roommate with my extra fabric.

Today

I didn't set an alarm last night. On purpose. I woke up this morning, went back to sleep, woke up again, and finally got up. I didn't even look at my closet as I stumbled into the bathroom and showered. I still didn't look at my closet as I made a few phone calls and wrote some thank you cards. I finally looked at my closet, and I had already decided I was going to wear jeans today. Bossman in China = jeans and sundresses all week. Now to come up with a top... and shoes. I put on something. I was comfy, and super casual. I didn't care. But I kept thinking I was showing a little too much cleave for work and maybe I was a little tooooo casual. Dangit. Back to the drawing board.

How I miss the days of personal assistant-ing, when my biggest clothing concern was whether or not I had to go to "the scary store" aka Intermix at Phipps Plaza, in which case I would panic momentarily and then pretend I was some Buckhead mom fresh from my workout and carry on in the workout-esque attire I was going to wear originally. But anyway, that's not my life anymore and clearly I've moved on and don't miss it at all. Clearly. And don't mind my freakish fears. I know you have them too.

So I finally settled on a shirt that has way too much sentimental value, a new tank top underneath, and a pair of wedges that hurt my feet. A lot. It all goes together kind of, but really, none of it matches, and somehow I convinced myself before walking out of the house that I had that 'messy mismatching thing' going on. Well guess what. That lasted all of about the 45 second walk into my building, and I've spent the rest of the day wishing I had not wasted 30 minutes trying to be "creative."

And you better believe I even convinced myself this would be a GREAT outfit for my 5th of May celebrations. Well, guess who's going home to change after work?

This girl. Learn from my mistakes, and think twice before you put on a 'messy mismatching thing' and just stick with what you know. Or maybe I should take my own advice. And just so you know, tomorrow I'm wearing a tshirt. And maybe my sweatpants. At least that's what I keep threatening. Somebody has to keep things interesting around here, and I've appointed myself.

Sitting uncomfortably at my desk trying to hide my outfit from everyone even though I work with all men who tell me daily that I look wonderful,
Miss Katie

At the end of the day...

What do you look forward to most?

You have been sitting in a stuffy office, answering phones, sending emails, and avoiding annoying bosses. You snuck around quietly and tried to fly under the radar while everyone got yelled at or criticized for something. You checked all your go-to internet sites, you did everything on your to-do list, and now it's time to go home.

You sit in traffic for an hour just trying to go 3 miles, you deal with all the idiots in your city who apparently never took the same driving course you did, and you finally make it home and you are WIPED. You probably have plans to make or go to dinner, head to the gym, or even just sit down on the couch and watch your favorite TV show.

But what is the FIRST thing you do when you walk in the door?

For me, it's taking off my work shoes, putting them back in their hanging bag on the door, getting out of my work clothes & hanging them back up in the closet, and sliding into my grungiest, most comfortable clothes. Even if it's only for 15 minutes while I prepare myself for a workout or for dinner with a friend, there is something comforting and relaxing about being in my 2001 Pi Kappa Alpha rush tshirt that has holes in it, a pair of xxl basketball shorts that my belonged to my dad and somehow ended up in my drawers, and my slippers.

New Shoes

Now that I have been living in the world of "wake up and go to work Monday through Friday every week no matter what" for 4 months, I remembered what I missed about not working in a traditional office. There are a lot of great things about being a personal assistant, but the most important of these things is clothing and attire. As a personal assistant I wore whatever I wanted to work. Jeans, ok! Sweatpants? Probably only on the day when Phipps Plaza was on my list of places I had to go. Mainly because that's just my luck. But I could wear them, and I could be happy with my sweatpants and flip flops and sneakers and tshirts.

But now, I go to work every day. I sit in a cube. I have a desk and post-it notes and a computer and a boss who sits down the hall and likes to startle me just when I think no one is paying attention to me. So clearly, my wardrobe has changed (although apparently not that much). And now I need work appropriate shoes. The ones I had to start quickly bit the dust after wearing them every single day, and I realized on more than one occasion that uncomfortable shoes NEVER GET MORE COMFORTABLE. But, shoes are expensive. Or at least more expensive than I want them to be. And I learned my lesson, and will not be purchasing $8 Payless shoes to wear to work every day.

But, it's like a catch-22, because I didn't want to spend the money to buy new shoes, so I keep wearing out more and more of the shoes I have, until now today I am left with no functioning brown shoes, black shoes that make that clicking sound every time I walk on the tile floors because I wore out the tip on the heel, and white stripper shoes that really aren't work appropriate. Or comfortable.

I have been perusing Aldo, Zappo's, Dillard's, Bloomingdale's, and a bunch of other shoes places I think with the hope of magically finding free shoes. Obviously that didn't happen, and I decided I was just going to suck it up and order shoes from Zappo's. I did it. After having them in my shopping cart for almost 2 weeks, I just hit PURCHASE today. 3 new pairs of work appropriate shoes will be at my door in probably 2 days. My feet are doing a happy dance and my wallet is crying, because shoes are expensive.

Hopefully these are the last non-fun shoes I buy in 2010. Plain black and plain brown are just no fun, although I did make a small attempt to spice it up with brown crocodile. It's the little things people, the little things.

Pantsless = Problem

I left my house Tuesday morning (after a debacle with my alarm clock) fully armed with Tuesday & Wednesday's lunches packed, clothes for Tuesday evening, Wednesday work clothes, as well as all the things I need in the morning to get ready for work. I was packed and ready to go. I do this once a week because I stay overnight with a family because their mom works overnight at the hospital. (It's easy money and I like the kids!) I'm feeling pretty good because I think I've got it all covered despite my 45 minute delayed start. Stupid alarm clock, who knew I actually had to turn you on?!

So I set my now faithful alarm this morning for 6:28am so I could have plenty of time (read: 2 minutes) to wake myself up, then wake the small people up, shower, cook breakfast, and all the other things that school-going-small-people require between waking up and leaving for school.

Everyone gets up, everyone gets dressed, everyone eats breakfast, and 2/3 get out the door and go to school. I'm showered but still in my jammies. Their mom comes home and takes the last 1/3 to her school, and I go back down to my basement cave to finish getting ready for work. Take off pajamas. Put on shirt-dress I like to wear to work. Dig around in bag for pants I wanted to wear with it. Dig around bag some more. Start to panic and throw the rest of the bag's contents around the room. That's when I realized that I had forgotten a CRUCIAL part of my work ensemble... the pants.

Normally, I am not an outfit drama queen. I can make the best of most situations. I would have even worn brown pants with my black/grey shirt-dress because I'm that easygoing. BUT I HAD WORN A SKIRT TO WORK THE DAY BEFORE. And not just any skirt - a zebra striped, patterned, stands out x10,000 skirt that I just couldn't repeat. We had visitors in the office. European visitors. Important visitors!!! Now... this shirt-dress is barely long enough to be worn as a dress when going to the club. It is definitely not long enough to wear as a dress when going to work. I couldn't have worn it to high school when the fingertip-rule still applied. So I think I'm a genius, and I put on tights. I feel that I have solved the world's problems. Life is better because my legs are covered.

I walk out of the bedroom, look in the mirror in the bathroom, and very quickly realize that my problems are nowhere near solved. FYI... tights are not pants. I panic some more. HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN MY PANTS?!?!?!?!!?!? I'm still not really sure if I forgot my pants, or if I thought that my tights would pass as leggings, but either way, I had to fix my problem stat, preferably before work.

One quick stop at Target, and I had a new, albeit entirely ridiculous looking, ensemble. A knee length knit skirt was the cheapest, best solution I could find that I would ever wear again. Of course they didn't have any opaque leggings in my size. Of course they didn't have any dresses that interested me at all. Nope. So I wore a dress over a skirt with tights underneath and called it a day.

And what a day it was. Want to know the best part of it? When I came home and took my most awesome outfit off.