Splurge

It's no secret I'm a super cheapskate (and proud of it), but I've learned over the last year or so that sometimes I just have to suck it up and splurge a little on something that is really really good quality that'll last. So, I've gathered myself a few key investment pieces, including my latest purchase just last night - a Betsey Johnson hooded anorak with a detachable faux fur liner. It is 110% my new favorite thing.

(buy it here)

Truth be told, I didn't just say "time to invest in a Fall jacket!" and run out shopping. Instead, I did what you would expect I would do - I spent WEEKS running to every store imaginable, trekking to the outlet mall and searching online to try to find something I loved for a bargain. But, the very specific list of requirements that I had for my new coat left me with very few options, and this Betsey Johnson find was literally exactly what I wanted. For the record, the list included: hood, water resistant, goes past my butt, detachable liner, drawstring waist so it doesn't just hang on me, not a peacoat style, and preferably gray so it would work with my black bag that I carry everyday and/or my navy Hunter boots. (I wasn't being super difficult about this or anything) ;). So even though this coat checked every single requirement off my list, at $139 on sale, it still took quite awhile to convince myself to just go for it.

In the end, my decision was made thanks to a few factors:

- I had literally been to every store I could think of to look for a coat

- I had talked about needing a coat so much that even my boss was on the lookout for one for me

- The amount of time and gas money I was spending looking for something that I liked as much as the Betsey Johnson coat was getting a little ridiculous

- It was chilly and raining almost every day last week and I was VERY crabby about my lack of a hood to keep my glasses dry

So I splurged. $150 after taxes is a major hit on my monthly shopping budget, but I couldn't be happier about it. And if things go as planned, I'll still have several weeks left to sport my new coat before the temperatures really drop, and thanks to the detachable liner this baby will also be perfect in the spring!

If I had a Million Dollars: Target + Neiman Marcus

Sometimes, I feel like Target just knows me. Given some of the marketing research I've seen, they sort of actually do in a weird way, but I'm talking about personal stuff here. Like I feel like Target is a real life friend that's there when I need them and knows exactly how to make me feel better. And don't bother pointing out that this is somewhat pitiful, I am fully aware, and not ashamed in the slightest.

Last night, I was wandering through my favorite Target location when I spotted a really sadly stocked endcap of Nate Berkus goods. Mind you, the Nate Berkus line isn't supposed to debut until Sunday morning, and I have been hyping this day up in my mind for MONTHS, so having it suddenly in front of me four days early was about as sad as a deflated balloon. What's worse, the endcap looked terrible and the packaging on everything was a disaster. I'm holding out hope that the items I saw were damaged in transit and that's why they put them out early, but that seems like backwards marketing, and either way, I was bummed.

So, I was pretty angry with my favorite store.

Then this afternoon, right as I actually felt like I could take 10 minutes to tool around online after a morning of meetings and craziness at work, I get an email from the beloved retailer announcing the first looks at their upcoming Neiman Marcus holiday collection partnership with some MAJOR big name designers (half of whom I've never heard of, let's be honest).

And there it was. More than 50 insanely gorgeous holiday gifts for me to peruse and pin and swoon over. My love for Target was immediately reignited. See what I mean about them just knowing? It's like they sensed that I was seriously mad, and figured they'd better do something big to make it better.

Obviously plenty of items in the collection would make perfect gifts, but I figured it was more fun initially to put together my personal favorites for the first installment of my newest blog feature - If I had a Million Dollars. You know, to buy whatever I want.

Clockwise from top left:

Proenza Schouler Sweatshirt ($29.99) - Nothing screams my name like a "nice" looking sweatshirt.

Marc Jacobs Pouch ($69.99) - Let's be real for a second here. I LOVE Marc Jacobs stuff. Every time I walk past a store without going in my heart hurts a little. But it's one of those brands I'm just not quite ready or able to invest in just yet because, well, I'm a major cheapskate. And these pouches aren't cheap either, but I can already imagine how pretty and soft they're going to be!

Band of Outsiders Best Friends Hats ($29.99 for two) - Bridget and I are going to be the coolest kids on the block with these. If I were you, I'd be a teensy bit jealous. ;)

Band of Outsiders Cookie Cutters ($29.99) - A slightly obnoxious price for 5 cookie cutters, but I imagine if I were to show up at my sister's door with a box of bow tie cookies she'd never stop telling me I'm the best sister in the world, and the wayfarer style glasses are bananas amazing.

Tory Burch Lunchbox ($19.99) and Thermos ($24.99) - What professional adult woman wouldn't want a trendy lunchbox? Nobody? Just me? Well whatever. I think it's awesome.

Is anyone else looking forward to this collection? See any items you want to get your hands on?

In the Kitchen

I knew pretty early on that I was going to love our updated kitchen, but it really didn't completely occur to me until this weekend when we finished up a few more pieces of it and I utilized the heck out of my new counter space with lots of baking.

First up was FINALLY getting the doors on the cabinets. I was honestly very very VERY little help in the door-painting, so this chunk of the kitchen work is all thanks to Dan. Thanks cakes! I am loving how clean the whole kitchen looks with the doors on. And look!!! We have drawers!!! In our kitchen!!! You have no idea how exciting this is.

We also grabbed some shelves (finally) at Ikea over the weekend and Dan hung those up for me Sunday. I of course wasted no time at all styling them, and am totally smitten with all my colorful little kitchen goodies being out in the open and brightening up what used to be an unused wall.

(I just realized that the majority of the stuff on my shelves is from West Elm - the pretty little bowls, owl butter dish, and 'L' mug and small plates underneath it. Guess it's pretty clear who's homegoods make my heart skip!)

With lots of the clutter off the kitchen cart and the counter, I started up some baking right off the bat, beginning with homemade breadcrumbs that were toasting in the oven before the shelves were even fully hung.

Considering how insanely simple the breadcrumbs were, I imagine no stale bread will ever go to waste in our house again. I just threw chunks of bread into my food processor, spread the crumbs out on a cookie sheet and toasted them in a 350 oven for 7 minutes, and then mixed in a bit of olive oil and italian seasoning before throwing them all in an airtight container for later use. 

My infatuation of baking with apples continued with a recipe I make every year because it is THAT good - caramel apple cheesecake cookie bars. The hubs and I enjoyed a piece with a movie last night...

...while my caramel apple cinnamon ice cream base steeped in the fridge. After churning, I added in ALL of the below - cooked cinnamon apples, a caramel drizzle and graham cracker chunks. I have no doubts this is going to be decadent.

Overall, a bit of an indulgent weekend mixed with lots of hugs from my adorable nieces, a little bit of sleeping in and some shopping with my mom, sister and aunt. It's back to the grind today, but at least it's already Tuesday!

Just in Time

I finally decided to give up on finding the perfect sectional for the front porch and work with what we have. After all, a sectional would have run us at least $500, and spending a chunk of money on a really nice couch for the front porch isn't really top priority for us right now. And, the weather is at that perfect temperature where I just want to put on a hoodie and hang around outside (or on the porch with all the windows open). So, cheap updating it is!

I didn't exactly plan for quite so many matchy pops of my favorite teal, but it happened and I'm sort of loving it. And my sunshiney yellow chair adds in plenty of other color, so it works pretty perfectly.

The chair is from craigslist, the pillow cover is from Target, and the tall vase is from Ikea (and will likely get a happy dose of color in the form of spray paint someday). The amazing little tables were a score at Dan's new church's community garage sale this summer. I grabbed them for $8 each and spray painted the bronzy frames teal. The glass tops keep the small space from looking too crowded, and I love that they have kind of a bamboo look (although they're actually metal and super solid!)

The couch is the one I found in our alley (don't judge) and made Dan lug home with me at the beginning of the summer. I found the two flowery teal pillows on a Target endcap for $5 each just last week and LOVE them - they're heavy duty indoor/outdoor pillows, which makes them perfect for a space that's likely to get dusty and a little dirty. The sequined pillows were another Target clearance find last year on New Year's Eve and have migrated around the house since then.

I shoved a few thumbtacks into the wall to hang leftover pinwheels from the wedding, and a few more tacks in the ceiling were perfect for paper lanterns (also from the wedding)!

There's still a little decluttering to be done on the opposite side of the porch, but for now, I think this little space is perfect and ready for a glass of wine and a board game with friends!

Nautical Nursery

Don't get too excited dear (3) readers. I'm not planning a nursery just yet. But one of my besties is, and she made the mistake of mentioning liking nautical stuff to me, so naturally I have now taken it upon myself to become fully obsessed with anything and everything I see with anchors or whales on it. I was also looking for an excuse to not fold my laundry yesterday afternoon, and for one reason or another I find it thrilling to try and fit images together in a photoshopped square, so this happened -

Really, I'm not that crazy. See that a.maz.ing. ship's wheel mirror in the top right corner there? I found that bad boy on craigslist for a measly $30 yesterday morning during my typical browsing (yes, I like to type in my town regardless of if I need anything just to see what people are getting rid of - it's an addiction). I emailed the mama-to-be and nicely pointed out that I (really - she) could plan an entire nursery around that mirror, and I felt like the fact that it was just minutes from my house was a sign that it was meant to be.

Thankfully, she agreed that the mirror was a must-have, and since I had preemptively emailed the guy just in case, it was basically already ours and all I had to do was pick it up! And then the rest of this little mood board followed.

So, for anyone out there that's looking to plan a nautical nursery that doesn't scream "a baby lives in here!", peruse the links below and let me know what you think. And for anyone that doesn't like the lack of super-childish stuff, just imagine a crib, rocking chair and adorable bouncing bundle of joy in there, and it's instantly perfectly baby!

Clockwise from top left:

Moby Whale Wall Decor ($39)  |  Cast Iron Anchor ($8.50)  |  Ship's Wheel Mirror (craigslist)

Storage Boxes ($7.99)  |  Night Drops Pillow Cover ($39)  |  Ollie the Octopus ($14.99)

Chevron Pillow Cover ($14.99)  |  Sailor's Knot Bookend ($18)  |  Storage Chest ($69.99)

Nautical Art Prints ($30)  |  Anchor Box ($28)  |  Letter Hooks ($14 each)

Wedding Week: Little Touches

Well it's official - I suck at blogging. While I had every intention of posting wedding goodies every day this week, here I am Thursday writing only my 2nd post. Regardless, I'm excited about this one.

It was important to me that I have lots of little sentiments with me throughout our day - nearly everything we did, no matter how small, had true meaning to Dan and I - and I wanted that to carry through to what I was wearing and carrying as well.

First there was a little bit of my mom's wedding wear on my shoes - in the form of the awesome little pouf flowers she made out of her veil that we attached to the toes. I loved how fun the poufs made my shoes, and loved that although I didn't wear my mom's dress or veil, I still had a tiny part of it with me all day.



Speaking of my shoes, they were just one of 2 "something blue" items that I wore that day. The second was a little Bolingbrook, IL pin that my grandma helped me fasten to the inside of my dress. My father-in-law gave me the pin at his 50th birthday party, which was one of the very first times I met him seeing as Dan and I had just started dating a few weeks prior. The party was at the Levy Center (where we had our reception!) and my F.I.L. gave the pin to me right off his jacket saying "Now not just everyone gets these pins you know, so you'd better keep it forever!" I did keep it, and I wore it on my wedding day as a little reminder of the incredibly awesome relationship I have with my very special father-in-law. I was excited to show it to him at the reception, and he thought it was awesome that I'd worn it.



I never knew either of my grandfathers, but I sure did get lucky with my grandmothers, and definitely wanted to carry something to remind me of both of them. My mom's mom lent me a bracelet that was the perfect little touch considering I wanted to keep my jewelry minimal.



When my dad's mom passed away when I was a teenager, all I wanted from her room was her jar full of buttons. My cousins and brother and I LOVED that jar of buttons, and it makes me incredibly happy that I have it. I took a gold button from the jar and Manda meticulously painted it with a tiny brush for me. We added a teeny rhinestone and fastened it to my (DIY) hairpiece flower. Given how many times I'd gone through that jar of buttons in my life, using one of them on our wedding day was the perfect way for me to have my grandma with me.



Outside of all the family sentiments, I also had items from two of my very best friends, starting with the "Mrs" hanger that Rachel got me for my birthday that 100% made the photos of my dress amazing.

(yes, yes that is an entire room dedicated to Elvis at my gramma's house.

I could not be more thrilled that my dress photos are in that room.)

Then there was the bouquet wrap from Bridget that had a something old, new, borrowed, AND blue on it. She gave it to me in a little box when we were all getting ready, and I immediately wanted it wrapped around my bouquet. You can also see the lace wrapped around the bouquet below - that was also from my mom's veil!

I've said it a million times and I'll say it again - it's the little things! The little things that make me happy, make me feel loved, make everything a little more special. And I'm thrilled that I was able to incorporate so many of them right into my wedding attire.

Wedding Week: First Look

Today is our one year wedding anniversary! 

I'm having some trouble settling on exactly how I want to go about breaking all the wedding goodies up over 5 days of blog posts, but I thought I'd start by chatting about one of my favorite wedding decisions of all - having a first look!

Originally, I was a little bit torn on whether or not to have a first look. I was very clear all along that photography was one of my top priorities for our wedding day, so I loved the idea of having those first couple of (semi-)private moments documented forever. But I was also somewhat traditional and loved the idea of not seeing each other until I walked down the aisle in church. Eventually, two things helped make my decision to have a first look:

1. I learned that the tradition behind the bride and groom not seeing each other until the wedding has to do with arranged marriages where the two had literally never met before, and therefore not seeing each other until the ceremony knocked down on the chances of runaway brides (or grooms). That obviously didn't apply to us, so tradition wasn't going to stop me!

2. I am an extremely anxious and nervous person (that's an understatement), and I literally wasn't sure I would make it down the aisle without fainting, getting sick, or both if I hadn't already seen Dan. Even with a first look, I was still a complete mess walking down the aisle and the pictures of that time go from me looking like I saw a ghost, to complete and sheer joy, and everything in between. So, seeing Dan alone first (with only our photographers and videographer there) gave me a few minutes with him to calm me down and get ready for our ceremony.

I should note that Dan left this decision completely up to me, and although he found the idea of standing and waiting for me in the backyard of our church while people took pictures of him a little bit awkward, he did it for me, and I am eternally grateful. And as anticipated, these are some of my absolute favorite photos from the entire day.

I love how excited we both look in the photo above. While I had seen Dan in his suit before, I had never seen his entire outfit all together with the tie and everything, and he hadn't seen ANY part of my day-of wear, with the exception of my earrings. It was incredible to see each other and get to have that final "here we go!" together.

Note to future brides: if it rains all morning and you don't want your dress to get dirty before church, at least bunch it up on the side your photographers aren't on. I can't stand how my dress looks above and in a couple of the other pictures, but there are worse things.

I, of course, cried, but did a decent job of holding it together for the sake of my makeup.

After a couple of quick photos and a good few minutes calming myself down, we walked over to church together, ready to get married. Again, I cannot stand how my dress looks here, but overall I love the photo and the fact that we're walking in to church together for our wedding.

For anyone wondering, my walk down the aisle with my dad was no less special having seen Dan beforehand. I was still a mess of every single emotion under the sun, and I am so, so grateful that I had my dad to hold my arm and make sure I didn't fall. It was still incredibly exciting seeing Dan at the end of the aisle waiting for me, and although we had seen each other prior, it was such a thrill walking through church knowing I was heading towards my soon-to-be husband. For me, having all of these special photos and those first few minutes alone ahead of time made it all worth it. 

Did you do a first look at your wedding? If you aren't married yet, how do you feel about first looks?

Go Bold

While shopping with my mom this afternoon I decided to go a little bolder than my usual and snagged a pair of skinny printed pants at H&M. Had they cost more than $12.95 I honestly probably wouldn't have taken the chance, but they were a total steal, they fit me well, they looked good, and they're fun. Considering how busy the pattern of the pants is, I'm sure I'll play it safe with the rest of my choices when outfit planning and pair them with basics.

black sweater (similar) | printed pants | flats | necklace | nail polish

While I'm excited that I can "dress down" the pants for everyday wear, it's clear they could easily be dressed up a little more with heels or booties and a nicer black top or blazer for a night out. Now to just figure out the perfect place to wear them...

Knockoff: Polka Dot Chambray

I'm super excited with the fact that there seems to be a rush of polka dotted items in the lineups for many of my favorite store's Fall lines. I kicked off the season's shopping with Bridget the other night with a quick trip to the Old Navy and Gap stores right by our houses, and snatched up a new polka dot chambray shirt to pair with all of my colored skinny jeans in the cooler weather ahead.

J.Crew has a nearly identical shirt for a ridiculous $88, and thanks to a coupon I got mine from Old Navy for less than $20. Maybe it's the fact that I thoroughly enjoy a good steal on an item I love, get a thrill out of using a coupon, or simply make less money than other women, but I flat out do not understand why anyone would ever buy ONE shirt for $88 when they could get the exact same style for a fraction of the cost. Love me a good deal!

And speaking of polka dots, I cannot WAIT to try this insanely simple DIY that's sweeping the blogosphere. I've got 3 identical pairs of dark skinny jeans from Forever 21 that ran me a whopping $10.50 apiece, so thanks to inspiration from The Average Girl's Guide I will be tackling a pair with some bleach just as soon as I do some laundry :).

Lately

I've got good reason for being MIA the last week - we spent the glorious extra long holiday weekend away in Charleston for the fabulous wedding of our friends Bev and Randy! We had so. much. fun. Perhaps even a little too much, hehe.

We had to walk outside to get to our tiny plane from Chicago to Charleston. For someone who dislikes flying just a tad (that'd be me), this was completely distracting and sent me into a bit of a panic. The chick in front of Dan in the fedora and white pants looks like she does this all the time, all stylish and walking out to her private jet at 8am. I was in leggings and a cardigan and on the verge of tears. Womp.

We decided to stay in Charleston and see the sights for an extra couple days. After a rough morning-after-the-wedding we finally dragged ourselves out of bed to check out Folly Beach. SO glad we went - the fresh air was just what we both needed!

Back home and at work, I got an email from West Elm about a book signing at the Lincoln Park location with one of my favorite bloggers, Oh Joy! My work pal Stacey and I headed over there and I ended my evening at home flipping through my newly signed book with a bowl of Cheerios.

Last night, Bridget and I headed to Target to grab sets of the limited edition Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup cans. They're already sitting pretty on top of our newly-painted cabinets in the kitchen.

What are your plans for the weekend? Mine is shaping up to be pretty low-key, and I'm certainly looking forward to it!