My Little Secret

I loved this outfit today.  I had a crappy morning, which threw off my day, but this outfit made me happy.  Oh, buying four new bottles of wine at Cost Plus World Market after work also helped.  So this outfit looks super modest for the office, but my little secret was that I was wearing thigh highs.  Technically these are knee high socks, but American Apparel and I differ on the idea of the distance between feet and knees.  Oh yeah, I noticed after I took my pictures today that my glasses need cleaned and are doing funny reflective things.  And I noticed in the photos I took without the sweater that my shirt was a bit see-thru in the more stretched out areas.  Thank goodness I'm always cold and bundled up!

Top: Forever 21

Skirt: Anthropolgie

Sweater: American Eagle

Socks: American Apparel

Shoes: Naturalizer

Necklace: Cost Plus World Market

Awesome texture of my super soft socks.

And a super cute picture of Zadie sleeping on top of a blanket on top of a box in the living room.  Also note just one small portion of my vast collection of cookbooks.

Wine Tasting in Temecula

My wine tasting trip was SO much fun!!!  A few highlights...

     

Top & cardigan: LOFT Outlet

Jeans: Paige

Boots: Target

Necklace: Old Navy

Earrings: bought in Mexico

Mini-Vacation

I'm taking a few days off from my blog to go here...

To taste some of this...

And hang out here after...

I hope you have a great weekend too!

This may be a repeat.

I have a feeling that this outfit may be a repeat, but I liked it.  Plus I'm working thru the outfit archives.  Plus I am wearing my boots that I was so excited to find this month.

Tunic: American Apparel

Leggings: Forever 21

Shoes: Naturalizer

Necklace: LOFT Outlet

My Favorite Part of LA

My favorite thing about Los Angeles is that there is a ton of great hiking.  This weekend my friends and I went to Escondido Falls in Malibu.  The trail started after a walk down a private road with big Malibu houses.  The first part of the trail was a nice wooded park with a creek that the trail passes over several times.  The path ends at the first waterfall.  It's pretty, but smells like sulfur.  Beyond the first waterfall there was a small path up a loose gravel that led to steeper rocks.  I won't lie, I had a mild panic attack when we got to a part that had ropes to assist in the climbing/hiking.  We eventually got to some smaller falls, then the path was more just going over rocks and tree roots.  Finally the path opened up to the main waterfall.  And it was amazing.  Worth the work to get there!!!

 

Lower Escondido Falls

 

Upper Escondido Falls

Outfit of Anthropologie + A Review

This post is dedicated to everyone's favorite store.  It's not exactly in my price range for clothes, but I love the store anyways.  This may be the most Anthropologie clothes I've ever worn at once.  I really liked this outfit for my office.  Also, I feel that I should mention that this is still from the outfit archives (Jan 11).  Maybe one day I'll catch up on my posts.

Dress & cardigan: Anthropologie

Tights: American Apparel

Shoes: Naturalizer

Flower hair clip: Forever 21

On Friday I spent some time in the mall.  I purchased a few items on clearance from American Eagle, basic long sleeved tees.  I also tried out a new ice cream place, LA Artisan Creamery.  It was amazing!  The lavender honey and Jack Daniel's were my favorite flavors.  Next up, I spent a lot of time in Anthropologie.  I browsed the home section for a long time.  I want to pick up some hooks for my entryway for coats and keys.  I like these: flourish hook, place-setting hooks, big key hook, and other key hooks so far.  I also tried on a few dresses.  This one was disappointing on me because it was not meant for someone so petite.  However, I'm in love with this one!  It needs hemmed, but that's easy.  I'll have to wait until it goes on sale though.

  

Sun Shades Dress

Warby Parker Glasses

When I discovered the Warby Parker website, I was so excited.  I wear glasses everyday.  I cannot wear contacts for more than a few hours/week (ophthalmologist's recommendation), so it's very important that I love my glasses.  One of my friends in SWE has several pairs of glasses that she switches between, and I love the idea of glasses being an accessory.  Unfortunately, normally glasses are very expensive, but not Warby Parker.  Now I love my current frames, but I want to add a black pair to my daily options.  I might even pick out a brown pair later this year.  For now, I took advantage of Warby Parker's free home try-on option.  I order 5 pairs of narrow frames (based on the size of my current glasses).  They were out of one of the frames, so they sent a replacement.  I wasn't a fan of the Finn glasses, and I still really want to try the style I didn't receive.  I would love if you would vote for your favorite style out of these (or the Harper that I didn't try on).

Finn

 

Cailin

 

Sheridan

 

Aubrey

 

Madyson

 

LACMA

I love the LA County Museum of Art, LACMA.  It's free to county residents after 5 pm.  Can't beat the value!  My friend Jen and I went to the museum on Monday after work to check out the visiting exhibits: Tibetan Furniture, art of Lucknow, and European Fashion.  We also stopped in the Broad contemporary art building to see Band, a giant work of steel, and took pictures outside at Urban Light, with a lot of other people including a wedding party.  I highly recommend you check out LACMA if you visit LA.  It's free on holidays for everyone and the regular tickets don't cost much anyways.

Dress: American Eagle

Sweater: LOFT Outlet

Shoes: Naturalizer

Belt: Anthropologie

5k Personal Record!

I ran a 5k last weekend in Venice Beach, and I set a personal record!!!  I finished in 36:01, under a 12 minute mile pace.  I know I'm still not super fast, but I beat a time that I set on Thanksgiving 2009.  Also, this race was really fun.  There were a band, drummers, and fire breathers along the route.  In addition there were food trucks and another band at the post-race party.  I would definitely recommend doing one of these races if there is one in a city near you!

  

The 5k started about 15 minutes after the half marathon, thus the clock doesn't read my actual race time.

Last Weekend

Wow, I can't believe I still have outfit photos from over a week ago.  These were from last Saturday.  It was still colder outside then, not hot like now.  First up, an outfit for day.

Dress: Urban Outfitters

Cardigan: Victoria's Secret

Tights: American Eagle

Shoes: Clarks

Headband: Forever 21

 Close-up of my purple tights paired with brown flats.

Last Saturday night I went out with friends to downtown LA.

Top: Banana Republic

Jeans: Paige

Blazer: H&M

Shoes: Naturalizer

Necklace: Forever 21

Perfection!

And now for a break in old outfit photos...an actual outfit of the day!  I had to share with you because it seem so unbelievable.  While the rest of the country is covered in snow, Los Angeles was 80 degrees F and sunny.  Yep.  I even went to the pool today.  I also went to the farmers market, Blue Table for lunch, and window shopped in the mall.  Doesn't hurt either that this morning the scale read a lower number this week than it did last week.  It was pretty much a perfect day!

Dress: American Eagle

Cardigan: Target

Shoes: Naturalizer

Hair clips: Forever 21

My look for the pool today.

Tee: American Apparel

Hat & one-piece (not shown): Target

Shoes: Old Navy (from Angeline's wedding)

Flower pin: Forever 21

 

View from my balcony & view from my pool chair

Work Wear

Despite working in a "California casual" office, sometimes I like to wear very professional outfits to work.  People have finally stopped asking me if I am giving a presentation or something.  I guess my coworkers finally gave up on questioning what I wear.

Top & cardigan: Banana Republic

Pants: LOFT Outlet

Shoes: Naturalizer

Necklace: Old Navy

Reinventing the 90's

This dress from Target reminds me of a print from the 90's.  I made it into a skirt by layering a sweater over it for work.  I love this look, plus it's super comfortable!

Dress (as a skirt) & sweater: Target

Tights: American Apparel

Shoes: Clarks

Belt: Anthropologie

Necklace: Cost Plus World Market

 I also love this hairstyle.  I did inside-out french braids from the front and secured them with a tiny hair band and used a clip to hide it.  I've also been very frustrated with my bangs recently, so I secured them to the side with a tiny brown bobby pin.

It's Not Easy Bein' Green

Actually it is - when green means fantastic peep toe pumps with bows or ruffled cardigans.  I bought both of these items during my holiday vacation to Georgia.  The shoes were a gift from my mom, and the cardigan is from the outlet mall.

Tee: Victoria's Secret PINK

Skirt: Anthropologie

Sweater: LOFT Outlet

Tights: American Apparel

Shoes: H&M

Necklace: Old Navy

Welcome Back to Cali

Since I had misplaced my camera cable for several days, I have a backlog of outfits to post.  The day I got back into LA, I wore one of my new Anthropologie sale scores.  This top has a fun print and shape.

Top: Anthropologie

Sweater: Victoria's Secret

Jeans: Paige

Boots: Franco Fortini

Necklace: Cost Plus World Market