Have fur, will travel

Longtime readers of this blog will remember my blue teddy bear, Sprinkle, and my penchant for posing her in random spots for my own amusement. Jeremiah and I decided to take her on our cruise, and she got into some adventures of her own. From climbing Mayan ruins, visiting port cities and hanging out with her pet ladybug on the ship, photo evidence suggests she had more fun than we humans did ...

Lately

Thought I'd share the bits and scraps of the last couple weeks. To know me is to know the inside of my car, and since I've spent an inordinate amount of hours in it in the last month, it has definitely provided ample time to experiment with my camera. The hardest part of this shot? Not getting my camera in the mirror!

This pretty frock has been sitting in my closet for almost a year. I really should get it hemmed to fit me, but gosh, doesn't it look romantic just sitting in the window, like a ghost of a different time?

This  1950s favorite gets some star treatment ...

And it matches my favorite bear, Sprinkle.

A storm on the way to the airport that defied physics and sanity. I still get chills thinking about driving on I-85 and not being able to see.

I made funfetti cupcakes for my friend Rachel's bachelorette party that I hosted. Baking and not burning down the house is a victory around these parts.

Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. 

Show and tell

Just a few silly things from the last month:

We went to trivia recently and I took photos from my Coke Zero's eye view.

It snowed on Christmas Day (a freak occurrence in Georgia) and Sprinkle made some snow angels in the yard.

And finally, a very blurry introduction to 2011:

Carol of the bears

Not to be outshone by any red-nosed prodigies this year, Sprinkle decided to audition for Santa's reindeer casting call. Jingle bear rock indeed.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Aftermath

In case you were wondering what ended up happening to those balloons ...

Worth the extra effort

Paint splatters, or: Dress #2

 

 

  

  

(Sprinkle wanted some camera time today)

Dress: Ann Taylor Loft, fall 2009, $5;

Sweater: Mossimo, Target, fall 2009, $30;

Boots: Kady in cognac, Target, fall 2009, $30;

Tights: Ann Klein, Marshall's, fall 2009, $7/two-pack;

Trenchcoat: Banana Republic, fall 2009, gift;

Poncho, worn as shawl: Burlington Coat Factory, spring 2005, don't remember price.

How I've worn the dress: here, here.

How I've worn the poncho: here, here.

 Sorry these photos are up later than usual. I had some issues with uploading and it took almost an hour longer than it should have.

About this outfit: the dress was a fall final sale piece that I score for $5. The abstract brushstroke print reminded me of the YSL Splatter Paint dress Demi Moore wore a few seasons ago, and I liked the color palette on the one I bought. The trench was a lovely early Christmas gift from my mom. The poncho, which I seem to keep wearing as a scarf, is what I used as a shawl for my high school senior prom.

It's day two of The Dress Project, and I've been pretty excited about keeping this momentum up and trying to figure out how to style the rest of what I have. Thanks so much for your enthusiasm and kind words about the project -- I'm glad many of you are interested!

I have noticed from a few comments saying that 45 seemed like large amount and felt like I should elaborate a bit on how I reached that number. Buying dresses for me has become a bit of an obsession the last few years -- it seemed easy to buy one piece that could encompass a whole outfit, and they are the one theme that take up my closet. But what I have in dresses, I lack in other areas, particularly blouses and sweaters, which is why you'll probably see a lot of those repeated during the project. I've realized many of the dresses that I have come from many of the same stores or brands, and I think very soon I'm going to do an inventory list of what's in my closet that I'll post here so I can better understand what places trigger my spending habits. Plus, as my fellow blogger Fashion Therapist has mentioned recently, we all seem to have some voyeurism when it comes to seeing what's in others' closets.

I've asked this question before, but I'm curious: what could be considered your shopping obsession  -- is it a store or a particular item of clothing?

Olympics women's figure skating is on tonight -- I've been waiting for this! Hope you all have a wonderful night!

Two down, 43 to go.

Like candles on your cake

 

 

Shirt: Kohl's, birthday gift.

Jeans: Ann Taylor Loft;

Silver bangle: gift;

Minnetonka moccasins: gift;

Bag: NYC street vendor.

It was a little weird to start out the week at a funeral and oscillate from the extremes of being sad to being excited about my birthday two days later. But as much as it could have been easy to linger on sad thoughts, it was refreshing to change course. I'm alive, you're alive! It seems worthy of an exclamation mark, and worthy of celebrating.

Thank you all for the sweet birthday wishes, they really made my day.

About the outfit. Mother Nature must have read my thoughts because it's been insanely nice weather for January -- the high was 60 degrees. Since I'm not a big fan of snow and don't really like getting it on my birthday, I was so happy to discard my coat for the day. I knew I would spend part of the day with my mom to go shopping so I wanted to be as comfortable as possible. The shirt is a birthday gift from Jeremiah's family and I like the paint-splattered look to it. I don't normally wear empire-waist shirts because I don't think it's the best silhouette on me, but I love this one so much. Actually, most of this outfit is gifted -- moccasins from my grandmother, a bangle from my mother for my birthday two years ago. Please excuse my messy hair -- I didn't feel like styling my hair this morning.

One of my mom's traditions is to celebrate my birthday both on the 18th and 19th. I was born in the Philippines on the 19th at 3:00 am, but because of the 13-hour time difference, it was still the 18th in the U.S., where we now live. So if you want to get technical (and I mean, technical by the hour), my birthday would be sometime in the mid-afternoon on the 18th, because the Philippines is already experiencing the new day. So my mom likes to tell me happy birthday a whole day early. I'm not complaining, because it gives an excuse for two days of celebration!

It was a great couple of days: panang curry at a new Thai restaurant; steak dinner and presents at my in- laws' house; makeup shopping with my mom (I'm so excited to experiment with my new products); treating myself to a new dress (though it was with a gift card); seeing my brother and sister, and getting surprised by a classic movie dvd set and Burt's Bees lip balm; spending time with Jeremiah; getting free drinks at trivia from our awesome waiter; seeing my friends and winning trivia; and my friend Vargas winning me a watch from the prize machine at Taco Mac.

One cheerful thing that happened included Jeremiah rounding up my stuffed animals and having them "sing" Happy Birthday to me. Sprinkle, my blue bear, apparently arranged it and taught all of the others how to sing in tune.

Okay, so it's a little silly, but it was quite funny and a great way to start my birthday.

Hope you have a great week!