snapshots & selfies

left: target dress, jcrew jacket & hat, ebay tote, old navy sandals

right: forever 21 hat, tunic, & sandals, gap maternity leggings, ebay tote

left: old navy dress, jacket, & shoes, old scarf, ebay tote

right: isabella oliver dress, new balance tennis shoes 

left: target dress, gap sneakers

right: target dress & sandals

If you can't tell, there's a serious theme of comfortable shoes happening in these photos.  In the past two weeks, it's basically become painful to...well, stand.  I'm counting my blessings though - I've had a back pain free pregnancy, and I think that would be much worse!  

In sum, my pregnancy dressing guidelines at this point: if it's not striped, it's stretch jersey.  If it's not sandals, it's sneakers.  If you don't feel like fixing your hair, wear a hat.  

Keeping it simple!  

forever 21 round-up

What do you say we kick this week off with my personal favorite find, the Rag & Bone sweater of Pinterest dreams that Forever 21 chose to recreate for only $30?  

Told ya.  That is good stuff right there, and they continued to kill it with the basics the past two weeks.  Read on for great white blouses, a perfect red shift dress, and some really cute wedges.  

spend your pennies: forever 21

It was a good week for Forever21!  So much cute stuff for summer, which is perfect since apparently summer decided to arrive early this weekend!  Not complaining about the heat - seriously, reprimand me in the first post that happens, because this winter I PRAYED for some warmth - but St. Louis springs are just never long enough, especially considering how pretty they are.  

Here are my favorites from the last two weeks, and happy shopping!  

What a great dress for a summer wedding, am I right?  Also, I hope they put those shoes up for sale soon.  $27, here.  

spend your pennies: forever21

About a year ago, my favorite blogger of all time quit doing her Forever 21 round-up posts.  I really loved that she did the wading through of the website for me, and I miss them!  Forever 21 is kind of my usual (non-pregnant) wardrobe bread & butter.  Being able to shop there again is one of the things I look forward to most.  So I decided (like the Awkward & Awesome posts) to just purloin the idea and start doing it myself!  I figure, someone out there should benefit from my pointless stalking of the new arrivals section, even if I can't do a dang thing with any of these pieces for at least 2-3 more months.  I hope you enjoy it, because I had a lot of fun putting this together!  So without further adieu, my favorites from Forever 21 for the past few weeks, after the jump: 

i want to be wearing...

Anybody been to Forever 21 lately?  I have a lot of friends who have quit shopping there (probably because, um, we're no longer 21.)  I can't really stand going into the physical store, their customer service is terrible and they only let you take 6 things into the dressing room at a time, but I love to keep tabs on their site as my favorite place to find inexpensive dresses.  I nabbed this one a couple days ago and I think it's basically the perfect incarnation of this summer's cutout trend - playful without being at all trampy or too revealing.  I can't wait to wear it to my next picnic outing.  Now if only it would show up on my doorstep, like, NOW!  THIS gif perfectly captures my feelings about online shopping....

Pretty Quotes and Leopard Coats

I did not have a good Monday morning, so in the interest of keeping it positive, I'm going to leave you with a pretty quote, and my outfit from yesterday....which I loved.

wearing: hat-forever21, wedge boots-alloy, jeans-gap1969, shirt-bittensjp,

leopard coat-topshop

"Maybe if they all could be combined - art, rock and fashion. Those were always my favorite things."-Stephen Sprouse

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.

I'm sure the last week of no posting needs no explanation - i've been celebrating thanksgiving with my family....well, families. I count my boyfriend's family too : )

After a way-too-big meal, failing at 4 am Wal-Mart black friday shopping (but I made it too the gap for 50% off before 10am) , and finally getting all but one person on my list the PERFECT gift, we are finally decorating the family tree with our mismatched, children made ornaments and then heading off to St. Louis to celebrate a holiday well-done.

Although Thanksgiving is a "break" and a very welcome one from work, I think by tomorrow I'll be ready to return to my little house with Darrell and collapse on our couch .

Although I'm always sad about a holiday ending, there is one light to Thanksgiving being past us: I now consider it completely legitimate to blast Christmas music at all hours. My favorite!

plaid shirt, fur vest, and boots-f21, jeans-gap

"Maybe if they all could be combined - art, rock and fashion. Those were always my favorite things."-Stephen Sprouse

Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own.

So despite the autumnal nature of these photos, I spent all day today thinking about Christmas. I made Christmas music playlists for my iPod, my office was decorated for Christmas today, and I actually made my Christmas shopping lists! I love to buy presents, and half the fun is trolling around for the perfect gift on the internet - I am not a mall gift shopper.

What will I be going to the mall for? A sparkly frock. I'm going to two Christmas parties for sure, and I'm going to have to find the perfect dress - it will ideally be totally covered in sequins.

wearing: dress-charlotterusse, aviator-forever21, boots-jeffreycampbelllitas

"Maybe if they all could be combined - art, rock and fashion. Those were always my favorite things."-Stephen Sprouse

"action is character. i think that means that if you never do anything you'll never be anybody."

So after a few months of obsessively following the photography on my favorite blogs of late (song of style & late afternoon) and being bitter that their boyfriends took their lovely pictures every day, while I was stuck with a self timer camera and my front door, I finally struck up a deal with my boyfriend. I do the dishes - his absolute least favorite chore - and he wakes up an hour earlier and takes my blog pictures before I go to work at 8. I figured it was a fair trade, an hour of sleep for 10 minute of dishes every day....in the long run, I really think I made out well, but don't tell ; )

Today's weather was sort of hilariously bipolar: 40 degrees when I woke up, 65 by lunchtime, 70 this afternoon, and down to 50 again by nightfull, hence the fur vest, cardigan, scarf, and t-shirt I layered up.

wearing: fur vest-ebay, oatmeal cardigan-dkny, tshirt-trulymadlydeeply, chinos-americaneagle, scarf-nightmarketinchina, booties-forever21

"Maybe if they all could be combined - art, rock and fashion. Those were always my favorite things."-Stephen Sprouse