Christmas!

At this point, I think I can definitively say that Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday (followed closely, of course, by Halloween. I mean who doesn't love Halloween?). Sure the presents are nice (and I humbly consider myself an excellent gift giver) but the best part, for me, is the festiveness of it all. I live for picking out red and green outfits, donning glittering necklaces and earrings, and getting all dolled up to celebrate the holiday season with the people I love.

This year, as I mentioned in my Christmas Wish-List post, I had two gorgeous Bauble Bar necklaces on hand for my holiday outfits. Obviously, I based what I wore around these beauties and used one on Christmas Eve and the other for Christmas dinner.

For Christmas Eve I wore a skirt from Madewell, a sweater stolen from my Dad's closet years ago, wedges from Tom's (crazy comfortable, I highly suggest them), and, of course, one of my new Bauble Bar necklaces.

Our festively decorated front door, a sure sign of how enthusiastic we are about christmas.

And finally on Christmas I wore my favorite Gap pants, a striped long-sleeved tee from J. Crew, Dolce Vita boots (that I haven't taken off since their purchase), and the other Bauble Bar necklace.

Sea Pre-Fall 2014

Right now I'm really loving Sea's Pre-Fall 2014 collection. The minimalistic shapes and monochromatic color palette are awesome, particularly in combination with the delicate cutouts in the maxi dresses and geometric holes in the white skirt. Most of all, though, the fuzzy sweater over the delicate maxi at the end is absolutely killing it.

Style.com

Christmas Wish-List

Here are a few of the things that I have my eye on this winter.

First, I've been longing for a weekender bag for sometime now. Literally just a medium/large bag that I can carry stuff in when I go home with friends from school or take weekend trips to Chicago or Canada. The decision between "will this beat up roll-a-board be too much?" or "will this fake Longchamp not be enough?" is driving me crazy and I've decided now is the time to end it. I fell in love with this gorgeous and functional gold dipped Baggu bag while casually flipping through a West Elm catalog when I was home for thanksgiving. It is now at the very top of my wish-list so I can stop carrying around unnecessary luggage.

West Elm

Next up, I have a weird obsession with planners. There is a stack of every planner I've ever owned piled up in my closet simply because I just can't bear to let them go (and also probably because I'm a bit of a pack rat, but I really do like planners). Since I'll be needing one for the coming year, I figured why not put it on the Christmast List, right? I found this one on Etsy and immediately began to picture using it (this is how much I like planners). It's cute, funny, and handmade. It's perfect.

Etsy

This one I specifically put on my list hoping my brother would get it for me because of our shared love for all things DailyGrace; The Camp Takota Movie. If you haven't hear of it, first of all do you even KNOW what Youtube is? second of all, go check out their website. It's a movie staring Grace Helbig, Mamrie Hart, and Hannah Hart, all very very funny Youtubers who I love and slightly obsess over. You can preorder it now (with bonus documentary video!!!!!) and I'm praying someone has already done so.

Camp Takota

Finally, I already bought myself a spontaneous (and early) Christmas present on Cyber Monday from Bauble Bar because who can resist statement jewelry for 20% off?! I'm in love with both pieces I ordered and can't wait to wear them through the holiday season (and probably forever).

Bauble Bar

Thakoon Addition Pre-Fall 2014

Ok, once again I've taken a bit of a break as a result of yet another crazy hectic schedule but I mean it when I say that I'm back to regular blogging this time!

Let's talk about the Thakoon Addition Pre-Fall collection. I LOVE Thakoon, there's just something about the combinations of clashing prints and textures and shapes that works so well in every single collection they put out. Pre-Fall 2014 is no exception. The combination of dark florals (awesome and definitely an up-and-coming trend for for fall/winter) and bright plaid is fantastic and exciting. I'm also really feeling the layering going on, dresses over pants are still a thing I'm not sure about but I think I'm ok with it here. I'm also dying to get my hands on some of these heavy knit scarves, sweaters, and pants.

Photos via because im addicted

Emmy's Red Carpet Review

After a bit of a break from posting and a very busy start to the year, I'm finally getting back to blogging!

While I didn't actually get to watch the award show or the red carpet, I'm still really excited about the looks from the Emmys this weekend (mostly because I watch too much TV so I love all the people wearing the looks). Because I'm so excited, I'm just going to focus on the gowns that worked rather than even think about those that didn't.

First off, Cobie Smulders in J. Mendel. How I Met Your Mother is definitely up there in my top 5 favorite shows so I know that Cobie looks phenomenal almost constantly. But this gown/hair/makeup/accessorizing combo is simply drop dead gorgeous.

January Jones in Givenchy. I always love Givenchy, the gowns are typically ethereal and incredibly detailed, always making the person wearing them look like some kind of princess from the future. But this dress has a really nice simplicity and traditional shape to it that compliment the details of the lace quite well.

Kerry Washington in Marchesa. I mean talk about princesses. Kerry Washington looks like what I can only hope my fairy godmother would look like were I lucky enough to have one.

Kaley Cuoco in Vera Wang. I love Kaley Cuoco. I want Kaley Cuoco to be my best friend and then I want her to let me borrow this dress.

Rose Byrne in Calvin Klein Collection. I absolutely love Calvin Klein for the red carpet. There's something about the simplicity of this style of gown that makes it so much more interesting than nearly everything else I saw from the Emmys.

Laura Dem in Naeem Kan. I know I literally just said I love the simplicity of a Calvin Klein gown, but Naeem Kan just does the intricately detailed, beaded gown so well.

Kiernan Shipka in Delpozo. Little Kiernan, always age appropriate as well as overwhelmingly beautiful. I love the floral theme, especially in the metallic 3D flowers on the skirt.

Side note: It wasn't until I'd run through a compilation of red carpet photos looking for my favorites that I realized I nearly entirely picked blush toned gowns. Apparently I'm really into blush right now.

Photos via The Huffington Post

A-Sohs or A-Sauce?

Once again, all I can think about is fall fashion and ASOS's Fall 2013 collection isn't helping (by the way, I know it's A-sauce no one actually says it that way right?). This is literally everything fall should be, a lot of denim, thick knits, warm colors, and SOCKS! Plus there's this wonderful playfulness in the shapes of the pieces that seems like it's built out of an androgynous school uniform type situation. I especially love the thick gray dress with the exposed zipper in the back. I'd pair it with warm black tights and the ankle boots at the end for the most comfortable outfit of the fall. Plus check out how on-trend the accessories are. Asos (A-Sauce), you're killing it.

via Refinery29

Looking Into Other People's Lives

I am both an avid reader and an Internet enthusiast, and for that reason I'm always looking for something new, exciting, or interesting to read on the world wide web. Sure, the bright screen and inability to hold the text in my hands kind of stresses me out, but if I want the latest and greatest it's gotta be off the internet.
I read a lot of blogs, like a lot of blogs (my "Other Bookmarks" tab is approximately 5 miles long), especially those that are written about fashion or interior design. But what I look for in a good blog aren't necessarily the typical OOTD posts or random collections of images from another blog without explanation, that's the stuff Tumblr was made for. What I look for are the blogs that show the writer's voice (or voices if there's more than one writer, which honestly a lot of the good ones have). If you're going to post a bunch of pictures of what you wore today, tell me about it! Because I really do want to know about it! I LOVE reading about other people's lives, especially in their own voices. This is why I'm so excited about the blog, Forty Days of Dating.
Forty Days of Dating is a blog created by two friends, Jessica Walsh and Timothy Goodman, who got tired of the single life and decided to try dating each other for 40 days straight just to see what would happen. The results are fantastic. After every date they each answer a series of questions that remain the same for the entire project, things like "Did you see Jessica today?", "What'd y'all do together?", "Did anything interesting happen?" and so on. I've only read up to day 7 and I can already see that this is an amazing project that I am definitely addicted to.

via Forty Days of Dating

Club Monaco Fall 2013

It's been a wonderful and relaxing couple of days at home doing nothing but sleeping, P90X-ing the Parisian bread and cheese away, and catching up on online TV. But alas it's time to get back to the real world AND TALK ABOUT HOW GREAT CLUB MONACO'S FALL LOOKBOOK IS.

It's no secret that I think fall is the best season for so many reasons and as I struggle through this far too hot, far too humid summer all I can think about is fall fashion. I mean just LOOK at this stuff, it's the perfect combination of neutrals and prints with that random, glorious royal blue coat thrown in for good measure. It's these ankle boots, the fur, the black, the OVERALLS (which I think are super awesome but still don't know how to wear them), the edgy prep, the miniskirts, and the skinny trousers that are floating through my heat stroke dreams as I anxiously wait for cooler temperatures.

How perfect is every single one of these looks for that weird sort of cold sort of warm october weather? Club Monaco has clearly mastered the early fall layering outfit and is showing it off in their Fall 2013 collection. And also, I want to buy all of it, move to northern Canada, and wear it immediately.

via Refinery29