New Shoes!

Well I had a crappy morning.  I was rear-ended this morning and it was a hit & run.  Thank goodness there wasn't any damage to my car other than scuffed paint.  Mostly, it was irritating and pissed me off.  Since my day kind of sucked, I went to Off Broadway Shoes after work (and the insurance adjuster).  I fell in love with glittery peep-toes and pumps at Kate Spade a few weeks ago that I couldn't afford, so I went in looking for something similar.  I got SO lucky!  I found a pair of pewter glitter covered pumps in my size that are comfortable which is insanely lucky in a size 5!!

And a theme song for this post:

Dynamic Zigs

Last month, I used my birthday discount at Anthropologie to buy the Dynamic Zigs dress.  I have worn it a few times since I bought it, and I took photos of it twice.  I haven't changed up how I've styled it, but I thought I'd share my two takes on it with you.  The length feels a bit long for me, but since midi-length is in style right now, I've left it as is.

Shoes: Clarks

Belt: Forever 21

Sweater: Banana Republic

The second set of photos were from my birthday.  I wore my birthday candle necklace that I received last year from Anthropologie with my discount coupon.  I went to dinner and martinis with friends at a local thai restaurant.  It was a ton of fun!

Chocolate Chipotle Chili

(Image from myrecipes.com. No picture of my actual dinner tonight because I ate it before I thought about taking a photo.)

I made chili based on a Cooking Light recipe.  I think it's a good start to creating my own championship chili.  I love it!  It smells like chocolate and chipotle.  It's spicy, but not too spicy.  It's super colorful too!

Ingredients
1 (7-ounce) can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
Cooking spray
1 large sweet potato, peeled & diced
1 3/4 cups chopped onion
3 cups chopped red, green & yellow bell peppers
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 links fresh spicy pork sausage, out of the casing (about 8 ounces)
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 (15-ounce) cans black beans, drained & rinsed
3 (14-ounce) cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (11-ounce) can no-salt-added whole-kernel corn, drained
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Juice of 1 lime
Salt & black pepper to taste
3/4 cup fat-free plain greek yogurt (optional)
Frito chips (optional)

Preparation
Remove 2 chiles from can; finely chop, reserving remaining chiles and sauce for another use.
Heat a large Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Break up and brown sausage. Add chiles, onion, bell peppers, and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Add chili powder and next 7 ingredients (chili powder through corn), stirring to combine. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, covered, 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sweet potatoes are soft. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate, lime juice, salt, and black pepper.
Serving size is 1 cup, top with 1 tablespoon greek yogurt and serve with Fritos if desired.

Fashion's Night Out - Charlotte

I wasn't able to go downtown for the big event in Charlotte, so I went to the mall.  Neiman Marcus had a fabulous event with a fashion show, drinks, and food.  I mostly attended for the people watching.  It was my first taste of Charlotte's fashion scene.  The theme was neutrals, strappy heels, and perfect hair and make-up.  In LA, the trend was to look fantastic without looking like you tried too hard.  In Charlotte, it's apparently appropriate to look like you put a lot of work on your appearance.  There was even big hair, but not on everyone, thank goodness!  I've browsed a few websites to try to find looks that fit what I saw last night.  In addition to these, there were skinny jeans with heels and nice tops, and imagine these outfits with perfectly applied lipstick and not a single hair out of place!

  

 

 

Images from Forever 21, Banana Republic and Piperlime

My Favorite Home Decor Store

It's not what I expected to be my favorite home decor store.  Since I'm not scheduled to close on my townhouse until mid-October, I've been curbing my desire to shop for furniture.  I've been restricting myself to only buying decor items for now.  Almost everything I've bought so far has come from one store!  And it's a store I had previously only bought clothes at - Urban Outfitters.  Who knew they had such great home stuff?  (I used birthday money to buy the last print today, thanks Grandma!)

   

Mirror, picture frame (purchased in white), Paris print, & this must be the place print

You & Tequila

This music video is just beautiful.  They did a great job of capturing Los Angeles.  The song is also one of my favorites right now.

Summer Whites

It's finally not raining!  This is exciting since I feel like it's rained a lot since I moved.  I was able to go over to the outdoor mall without carrying my umbrella.  I wasn't planning on doing much actual shopping, but I did pick up a few items at Francesca's Collection.  One of those is this watch (no, I hadn't set the time yet when I put it on).  I've wanted a sparkly white watch all summer, so although fall will be here soon, I finally bought one.  This is one of the dresses I purchased from Banana Republic as well.  I took this photos just outside of my apartment.