the casual classic

My Weekend in Chicago

2013-06-28T10:46:00.001-07:00

Sweater: Gap (old, similar here) / Bag: Onna Ehrlich "Rachel" (here) / Tank: Anthropologie, by Eloise (here)

view from the Ritz Carlton Chicago

volleyball at the beach

drinks at Drumbar (new favorite rooftop bar)

Top: Babaton for Aritzia (sold out, different color here) / Clutch: J.Crew (here) / Pants: Babaton for Aritzia (here)

at the John Hancock doing touristy things

dinner & drinks at Japonais

Navy Pier sightseeing... Top: Babaton for Aritzia (sold out, similar here) / Shorts: Lululemon (here)

My boyfriend and I went to Chicago for the weekend a couple weeks back to visit some of my friends from college (better late than never to post this, right?). We had such a blast sightseeing, shopping, playing volleyball, hanging out, and doing touristy things. It wasn't my first time to the city, but it's always fun to go to the top of the John Hancock and see the view, or walk Navy Pier and people watch. The one place that is always a mandatory visit for me when I go to Chicago is Aritzia - my absolute favorite store ever. They finally made their website available for online shopping, but a couple months ago, the only place you could get their clothes was in their physical store, which is only in the big cities like Chicago, NYC, Dallas, etc. Needless to say, I probably spent a bit too much $ in there, since the same weekend happened to be their huge store wide sale. Whoops. Anyways, it was so great to see the friends again and just get away from Columbus for a weekend. Chicago is such a great weekend getaway for us since it is less than an hour plane ride, and flight are usually extremely inexpensive, so I'm sure we'll be making a trip back sooner than later...

Happy Shopping!

Celebrate the Red, White & Blue

2013-06-27T13:42:00.002-07:00

Bracelet: Gorjana (here) / Dress: Lilly Pulitzer Foley (here) / Bikini: Ralph Lauren Blue Label (here) / Tee: T by Alexander Wang (here) / Lipgloss: NARS in Misbehave (here) / Heels: J.Crew Collection (here) / Sunglasses: Francesca's (here) / Sneakers: Converse Chuck Tailor (here) / Shorts: Thakoon Addition (here) / Nail Polish: Essie in "blanc", "long stem roses", and "bouncer it's me!" (here) / Hat: OndadeMar (here) / Pillow: Pottery Barn (here) / Tote: Vineyard Vines (here)

The 4th of July is only a week away! What are your plans, and most importantly, what will you be wearing? The 4th is one of my favorite holidays. It means BBQs, boating, sun, friends, great weather (usually), and most importantly time off of work! This year, I will be heading up to Michigan to spend the long weekend with my boyfriend, friends, and his family. I couldn't be happier to have a few days off of work and spend the weekend on the lake. To say I'm looking forward to it is an understatement. Look for pictures and highlights of my mini vacation to come afterwards!

Happy shopping!

What I Wore Wednesday: Spring Weddings

2013-06-26T12:42:00.004-07:00

This Spring was wedding season for sure. Between the months of March & May, I had four weddings to attend, and only one of them was in town. Needless to say, it was an eventful and fun filled Spring season full of travel. I searched for months for the perfect dresses to wear to each wedding, and being the perfectionist I am, it took me quite a while to find outfits I liked. So here they are...

1. Downtown Columbus, OH: The one and only wedding that was local for me. The wedding ceremony was held at Saint Joseph Cathedral in downtown Columbus, and the reception that followed was at the YWCA, which was also downtown (I know, not something you would typically expect for a reception, but the ballroom was beautiful). It was still chilly, as it was early in the spring, and I am a HUGE fan of black, so I went with the following outfit:

Dress: DVF Zarita (here) / Shoes: Pour la Victoire (on sale here) / Purse: Tory Burch (here) / Earrings: DanaCastle for Etsy (similar styles here) / Coat: J.Crew Stadium-Cloth Cocoon Jacket (here)

2. Charleston, SC: This was one of our close family friends getting married, and her wedding was so gorgeous and one of the preppiest weddings I've ever been to. It was also the first time I've been to Charleston, which is the cutest little town with the best shops and boutiques. When packing, I didn't realize how preppy it would be, so I was probably could have gone even more southern/preppy with my outfit. The groomsmen were in seersucker suits, and the bridesmaids in blue, pink and white color blocked dresses with ruffled collars. I absolutely loved it. The wedding ceremony was held at the Citadel, which down there is known as the "West Point of the South" - a gorgeous military campus. The ceremony was held outdoors at the Thomas Bennet house, which is the definition of a beautiful, old, southern mansion. I somehow did not take a picture of myself in my outfit, but here is what I wore...

Dress: J.Crew Arabelle (on sale here) / Shoes: Aldo (on sale here) / Clutch: Aldo (here)

3. Scottsdale, AZ: This was by far my favorite wedding of all. It was held at the Boulders, a Waldorf Astoria resort, which was absolutely incredible. We spent the days at the pool and our evenings at the scheduled events. The first night was a western style rehearsal dinner at the Buffalo Chip Saloon, where they had live rodeo riding. You could even sign up to ride a live bull if you signed your life away on a waiver, but luckily, my boyfriend decided not to do so (thank god). The wedding itself was held outdoors on the resort, with the reception a short five minute walk away, also on the resort. I wanted to throw a western twist into my outfit, so I decided to go with some bright turquoise earrings from Kendra Scott (absolutely love her jewelry). My full outfit is below.

Dress: Joie Somi (sold out everywhere but here!) / Shoes: Calvin Klein Vivian (here) / Clutch: Tory Burch (here) / Earrings: Kendra Scott Danielle (here) / Bracelet: Gorjana (here)

4. Buffalo, NY: Last, but not least, we have the Buffalo,NY wedding. One of my best friends from high school got married, and I was a bridesmaid in this wedding. It was such a blast, except for all the money I had to drop on this for the dress, shoes, hair, makeup, gifts, photos... the list goes on. The bride is very earthy and outdoorsy, so she went with neutrals for the wedding party - the groomsmen were in grey suits, and the bridesmaids in nude dresses. Yes, that sounds somewhat bland maybe, but the photos and wedding ended up being absolutely gorgeous. The wedding was at the brides church, and the reception was at the Pearl at the Webb in downtown Buffalo. I had never been to The Webb before this, and it was adorable inside - exposed brick walls, Christmas tree lights, tall bay windows... Gorgeous. The bride gave us custom clutches from Etsy (shown below) as our gifts, filled with goodies for the day of the wedding including gum, chap stick and a mini bottle of liquor. Oh, and we also got to pick our own shoes and jewelry, which I was so excited for because I finally had a reason to purchase the Zara heels I've been longing for...

(photo credits to Bill Kramer Photography)

Dress: Jenny Yoo Kiera (here) / Clutch: Jenny Girl Designs for Etsy (custom colors & designs here) / Shoes: Zara (sold out, similar here) / Earrings: Perini Designs for Etsy (here, and similar designs here)

So many weddings, so little time. As you can tell, I had a blast going to them all, and picking out the outfits was even more fun. I absolutely loved everything I wore and I'm sure I will be reusing all dresses in the near future. Have you been to any fun weddings lately? What did you wear?

Happy shopping!

SALES!

2013-06-25T10:51:00.002-07:00

I'm never one to miss a sale, so when I found out two of my favorite stores were having major discounts, I couldn't help but stop by...

SHOPBOP always has sale items, but rarely do they add on an extra discount, so now is the time to splurge.

So far, I've only purchased the UGG Maylin Boots (find them here), but I'm still searching. They were an additional 25% off the 50% already discounted. I'd say that's quite a steal. A couple more things on my wishlist that I'm thinking about:

Madison Marcus Fascinate Dress

DVF Kamaris pant

AG Legging Jeans

Tory Burch Britton thong sandals

You can never have too much Tory Burch. Their friends and family sale this spring was unbelievable - I got a pair of flats for $80, which is unheard of. This season I am also am obsessed with the silk track pant trend. The DVF ones above are almost sold out, but a great alternative is at Aritzia (Babaton Casper Pant), also on sale. And last but not least... AG Jeans: BEST. JEANS. EVER. Enough said.

The second sale is, of course, J.Crew. They sure have been doing a lot of these lately, and thank GOD, because J.Crew has always been one of my favorites. Make sure you use the code below, because it was sent via email only. It is only valid for the next 2 days, so use it while you can.

I've had my eye on the Tartine Satchel forever (find it here). Its the perfect handbag, so simple, classic and beautifully made. I already own one of the J.Crew Biennial Satchel (Biennial Satchel), and it is in the top 3 of my favorite bags in my closet. J.Crew makes really great bags. Some more of the items on my wishlist include:

Collection silk maxi

Silk Sorrento Top

Boardwalk linen skirt (on sale)

Collection featherweight cashmere anchor sweater

Collection gauzy stripe maxi

You can always count on J.Crew for the preppy and nautical basics... It just never goes out of style. I've been loving the maxis lately because you can so easily dress them up as well as wear them casually. They are such a versatile dress! Another of my favorites that I wear on a regular basis you can find at Revolve Clothing (VELVET Shivan Sheer Jersey Maxi).

Happy shopping!!!

Dr. Oz's 3 Day Detox

2013-02-22T09:29:00.003-08:00

So I did it. I tried a detox. I'm not usually into the diet fads that come around, but lately, I've been feeling gross, craving bad food, and just all around not eating great. I found the detox on Ox's website, and thought, why not? It's 3 days, it can't be that bad can it? Boy was I wrong.

Day 1
I woke up craving my usual coffee. Of course I couldn't have that, so I went with the green tea with lemon as directed. I added a bit of natural honey (it's not processed sugar, so it can't really be that bad, right?), and also made my breakfast smoothie to go. Since I work a 9-5, I usually would need to make things before hand, but I decided that I would make it home during my lunch breaks to make the lunch time smoothie.

The breakfast part was pretty decent: the green tea wasn't too bad (I'm not a huge tea drinker, much more of a coffee & latte type of girl), and it did give me the tiny bit of caffeine I needed. Next was the breakfast smoothie, which was actually pretty good. The consistency was fine and I was able to gulp it down over the span of an hour. I thought, well this isn't too bad... I think I'll probably be able to survive 3 days worth of this.

Next up was the lunch smoothie. This one had me a bit apprehensive. Cucumbers, kale, AND celery in one smoothie? That couldn't end well... and that proved to be right. I only put 2 celery stalks instead of 4 in (because I REALLY hate celery), and half a large cucumber instead of a full one, and the smoothie still was pretty terrible. My mom did the detox with me, and as she would describe it "it tasted like drinking someone's throw up". Gross right? Probably not something I needed to share, but there is no other way to describe the horrible consistency of this smoothie. No matter how much you blend it/mix water in, its somewhat of a chunky consistency that makes you feel like you need to chew it before you can swallow. I chased the whole smoothing down with big gulps of water. So far so good...

3 o'clock rolled around, and it was time for the snack smoothie as the detox recipe called for. Was I hungry? No. I was already tired of drinking my meals, and it was only about half way through the day. I ended up just chugging more water and skipping the snack smoothie.

Now on to dinner time. I got in a good workout after work, and all I craved was some solid food. Unfortunately, since that wasn't going to happen, I went on to make the dinner time smoothie. This smoothie calls for 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper. Unless you're big into spicy food, I would NOT recommend putting this much in. I put a pinch in and was still choking down the smoothie. Good thing I had tried a drink with Cayenne pepper before, because I knew how strong it was and if I had put the whole amount in that smoothie, there was no way I would have been able to drink it. This smoothie wasn't nearly as bad as the lunch time one, but not as good as the breakfast one either. I finished about half of it and climbed into bed.

Day 2
Day two went about the same as day one. The only change was that I couldn't finish the lunch time smoothie or the dinner time one. I drank about a half of each. I also cheated a tiny bit by eating some almonds around 3 o'clock (hey, one of the smoothies calls for almond butter, I didn't cheat that badly right?!). One thing I found interesting though, was that both days, even though I didn't finish my smoothies completely or have the snack smoothie, I still never felt hungry.

Day 3
Ok, I have to admit, by day 3, I was over this whole detox thing. I had pretty bad headaches both day 1 and day 2, I'm assuming from the lack of caffeine (as I said before, I'm a pretty big coffee drinker). I still went ahead and had my tea and breakfast smoothie. By the time lunch time rolled around, there was no way I could force myself to drink that green smoothie again. I instead ate some of the things that went into it (pineapple, mango, etc), and never made the smoothie. I know, BIG cheater here. I finished the day out with a spinach/turkey/egg white omelet. So day 3 was somewhat of a bust for me. Honestly, I didn't feel that much lighter/less bloated/clearer etc etc after 2.5 days, so I didn't feel like finishing it. I was proud of myself for completing two full days of this, so I wasn't mad that I couldn't finish the third.

All in all, I decided that if I were ever to try a detox/juice cleanse again, I would go with something like blueprint cleans. It's expensive, but the juices are all natural and delicious, and it would be much easier to swallow (unless you want to buy a juicer and make your own).

Tips
For all of you out there who want to try this, I think you should go for it. Even if it doesn't really change the way you feel (which I highly doubt it won't), it something that I think is extremely healthy and beneficial - just look at those ingredients you're putting into those smoothies! Here are some tips I would recommend if you plan on going through with this:

1. CHOP up those greens! Chop that celery and cucumber up so much that your blender doesn't have to do any work. If you don't, the celery makes the smoothie a bit stringy (which is obviously pretty gross to drink).

2. Do not put the called for amount of cayenne pepper into the dinner smoothie unless you can handle very hot/spicy things. I just put a pinch in

3. Drink a ton of water throughout the day - I know the detox never says anything about that, but you can never have too much water, and it helps you to feel full. It also helps flush toxins out of your body.

4. For the detox bath, I used lavender flavored Epsom salts - I think either way works really

5. Find activities to distract yourself from missing food - its a lot of mental work to complete this detox. Don't be weak. It's only 3 days of your life and you can do it (I know, coming from someone who didn't complete it, but I had my reasons).

6. I would use some frozen fruit (freeze the bananas, raspberries or blueberries) for the smoothies, or at least add ice. The smoothies are much easier to swallow if they're nice and cold.

Links
Below is the link for Dr. Ox's detox, and well as other helpful links to help you through this.

Dr. Oz 3 Day Cleanse
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/dr-ozs-3-day-detox-cleanse-one-sheet

Blueprint Cleanse
http://blueprintcleanse.com/

Blueprint Cleanse Copycat Recipes!
http://homefitnessmanual.com/diet-tips/hacking-the-blueprint-cleanse-how-to-get-the-same-results-but-at-half-the-cost/

Top 10 Foods for Detoxing
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-7748/top-10-foods-for-detoxing.html

Top 10 Juice Cleanses
http://www.newbeauty.com/slideshow/161-top-juice-cleanses-for-2013/

Good luck!