[Life] Vacation! Tybee Island, GA

WARNING: Picture heavy/long post!!!!

Before I talk about my fabulous short vacation this past weekend, I had to share a bit of interesting news. I found out today that I'll be spending 2 weeks in the UK for work at the end of August into September. This isn't really all that big of a surprise, since my boss and most of my department are based in the UK, but non-essential, non-customer-funded company travel has been nonexistent for about a year now, so this was a bit of a surprise. Why is that interesting? Just yesterday I began my 30 days of no spending. It is so hard to travel abroad and not do a bit of shopping, simply because there are new stores and things you simply can't buy at home. I really don't want to break my shopping fast, but at the same time I will be there over a weekend and there is not much to do in Southampton aside from shopping. Le sigh.

Anyway. Onto vacation.

Saturday morning we took off and drove to Tybee Island, GA, which is just this side of the GA/SC border and a skip away from Hilton Head, SC. It's small and quaint, and close enough to be accessible from Atlanta. We made a pitstop at a friend's new apartment on our way, got into our rental home (more on that later), had a few quick drinks, and headed directly to the beach.

We totally forgot about lunch. Around 5:30 some nasty clouds rolled in and the sand started blowing into everything, so we decided to head home and go to an early dinner. We couldn't make it to dinner because we were starving so we stopped for ice cream. We went to a place called Rock House and actually only ended up snacking on a few appetizers. Our friend David whom we had stopped to see on the way to Tybee came out to the island to hang out with us for the night.

We hopped from bar to bar to bar and let me tell you - there are some interesting places in Tybee. There was a bar with a flip flop glued to the ceiling near a pole where you got a free shot if you could get your foot in it. There was a place where the youngest patron was about 50 and the average age in the place was mid-60s. There was a place where more than 50% of the folks inside were not wearing shirts. There was a bar with terrible karaoke. We ended up back at the Rock House which had moved all the tables off the floor and brought in a DJ. (Interesting....) This is the only pic I have from the whole night.

Sunday we woke up and went to breakfast at the Sunrise Diner. It was delicious!! We went back to our house and then headed to the beach, where we spent most of the day until about 3pm when I decided I had had enough sun. (I'm so pasty, you guys. Seriously. I burn just stepping into the sun for 1 second. We had bought a beach umbrella that promptly fell apart when we opened it on the beach Saturday. Thank God for No-Ad sunscreen. Seriously. I escaped only minorly burned Sunday afternoon).

We again stopped for ice cream on our way out to our place. After a quick shower, I went out to do some shopping. We had friends who were watching our dog and wanted to bring them back something from Tybee. I ended up getting both them and us some salt water taffy (ya'll I'm ADDICTED!) and I also got myself a pretty starfish necklace. When I got back, hubs and I hopped in the car and went to a fancy pants birthday dinner in Savannah at a new restaurant called A.lure. After dinner, we listened to a band at City Market, then headed back to Tybee. We popped over to a local bar called Tybee Time and watch the olympics over a frozen drink (for me) and beers (for hubs).

We left fairly early Monday morning, but not before I went down to the beach one last time. I got some great early morning shots.

After the beach, we got in the car and headed towards home. We made a quick stop on River Street in Savannah to pick up some pralines and truffles from the Savannah Candy Kitchen (yum!!!) - it's one of our must stop locations every time we go to Savannah or Tybee!!

One thing that didn't happen this past weekend was outfit shots. I had big dreams that I would be able to have hubs take the pics, and I could get some of those beautiful "on the beach" shots some other bloggers have posted. Unfortunately, either it was too dark, or we were in a hurry, or I forgot, or it wasn't convenient to the beach. I didn't get any pictures of me and hubs outside of the beach, and I didn't get any pictures from my fancy birthday dinner and I'm a bit bummed about that. I guess I was just too concerned about enjoying myself!!! Plus, we stayed about 6 blocks off the beach so it was kind of a hike to go for just some outfit pics.

Interesting thing about the place we rented - we had reserved a studio apartment on the second story of a home, and they contacted us Friday asking if we'd like an upgrade. We got upgraded into a FIVE BEDROOM HOUSE. And it was PINK. No lie. Check the pics!

(This is the room we chose...and we're big Buffett fans!!!)

Happy Wednesday, ya'll!!!

[OOTD] An Outfit and Some Housecleaning

Hey ya'll!! I'm back from the beach and refreshed, but now playing catch-up on all the stuff I ignored this weekend. A few housecleaning items:

• I'm at 45 followers. I think 5 more followers is call for a giveaway!! Soon, soon...!
• Yesterday I spent the day doing whatever I felt like - although the 4 hour drive back from the beach was not what I felt like, instead was merely a had to. Regardless, I did nothing else I didn't feel like and that included uploading all the amazing pictures I took at the beach. I'll try and get to that sometime this week. I took a ton, loving playing with the new camera!
• I really think that blogging has really improved my personal style. Last night, hubby and I went out for a lowkey dinner at a local pizza place. Our server complimented me on my maxi dress and then later in the meal on a ring I was wearing. Then the girl at the cash register also complimented me on my dress and followed it up by saying "I love your entire look. I wish I had your kind of style. I don't know how to look put together!". What a huge compliment for me, especially since I never really feel "totally" put together! I totally credit the blogging. (An aside - of course I have no picture of the cute outfit I was wearing. And I didn't take a single outfit pic while on vacation, though I wish I had taken the time to. More on that in my vacation post later this week.)
• I'm going to put myself on a spending freeze for a month. I don't have to financially, but we're paying for the husband's college in cash, so we have to be wise about our spending and I am curious to see how I fend with not buying anything new for a month. This is only limited to clothes/accessories/etc. I'm not going to make some big thing out of it, but I wanted to mention it on the blog here so that you all can hold me accountable. Today, I am going to spend my birthday money from my family to purchase 3 things: the sandals I posted about Sunday, the monogram necklace Molly found for me yesterday, and a cheap point-and-shoot camera (if there is one thing I learned over the weekend, it's that as fabulous as my new camera is, it's not convenient for, say, pictures on a night out. No one wants to lug that thing around all night!!! It's cumbersome in certain situations!). Once those purchases are made, no more frivolous ones until Sept. 7. This mostly includes clothing and accessories. This doesn't include makeup or other beauty supplies - I still need to wash my face and hair, and look presentable at work. :) So that's that.

Now, how about an outfit of the day?

Dress, Flip flops: Old Navy, $12, $2 | Earrings: Silpada, gifted | Necklace: Gifted, old | Bracelet: INPink, $23 | Grand Total: $37

[Find It] Something New!!

Here is another post in the same vein as last week - I need help finding something!!

I am in love with the larger monogrammed necklaces I've seen other bloggers sport. Like this:

I get so excited when I see them, but inevitably, clicking on the source of many of these necklaces find me staring at a price of $200+ (and that's for silver!!!). I get that when things are monogrammed, it may be more costly as each one has to be made individually. However, I refuse to believe that there isn't a monogrammed necklace like this out there that can be found for <$100. 

So this is another call to my readers.

Anyone know where I can find one of these in the sub-$100 range? I have a script necklace that I think I snagged for about $40 so I'm sure this can be done.

Any ideas?? :)

PS - This is posting on my birthday so any suggestions could be considered a gift, yes? :)

[Random] Sunday Soup 3

Hey ya'll! Happy Sunday! I'm typing this from the front porch of our rented beach house. :) Felt like blogging and it's been a week or two since my last Sunday soup, so I thought I'd do a short one for today.

Fun links of the week:

• Olympic divers make funny faces
• As a Pitt alumni, I loved the fan takeover of #AskASU (a quick history - in 2011 Pitt got a new football coach, Todd Graham. He made all sorts of comments about being with the school in the long term and yadda yadda yadda. Then at the end of last season, he sent the team a text telling them he was going to ASU to coach the next year. It was all very shady how it happened The ASU athletic department then hosted a thing on twitter where fans could ask their new coach a question using the hashtag #AskASU, and Pitt fans took over.)
• There is a floor in the Empire State Building that almost nobody sees

I think these are going to be my birthday present to myself:

Via

To me, someone who is a bit on the cheap side most of the time, this is a lot of money to spend on a pair of what are essentially glorified flip flops. But they're so cute and they've been on my wish list for months now. And I think about them when I start thinking about items I'd like to add to my closet. So perhaps that will be my gift to me. :)

Speaking of being cheap, I also am love love loving this necklace:

Via

And yes, it's very affordable. Until you see that the company selling it is in Canada. And it costs $20 to ship to the US. Seriously, I cannot justify spending the same amount on shipping as I spent on the item!!! Boo!!!


OH!!! Husband gave me my birthday present early - Kelly Clarkson tickets!!!! W00t W00t!!! The concert is this Wednesday, so he wanted to make sure I had a few days to ask someone to go with me. I'm so excited!!!!

[Random] Silly Randomness

You guys, I am in such a random state of mind right now, this post will be all over the place. I apologize in advance but I'm blaming it on birthday/vacation brain. Today is my last day of work before three glorious days on a beachside island.

Via

That's right. My birthday is Monday. I'm not ashamed to say I will be 31 on Monday. Honestly, everyone made 30 out to be a big deal and it wasn't, and I also forsee 31 going by in a similar fashion.

Haha. "Welcome to my box" - anyone get the reference? :)

Next bit of randomness: shoes. So, I've spend the last 15ish years of my life going immediately to the 10 section in shoes. I've just always been a 10. But recently I've been paying closer attention to how shoes fit. And I'm finding that in some cases a 9 or 9.5 fits soooo much better than a 10!!! I've just been blindly assuming my shoe size for years!

Now I'm putting on older shoes now and again and noticing they're actually too big. Wow. This has been such a revelation for me! Has this happened to anyone else?

Also on my mind - nail polish. I saw She Finds post about the Saved By the Bell nail polish from Wet N Wild and I just had to have it. Unfortunately, I haven't yet found a CVS that carries it around me. Bummer.

Yeah buddy!

Although I think the reason I really want it is because I grew up with and loved Saved by the Bell, and they're only 99 cents each, so I can buy the entire collection without much spend. Although, I likely already own some of the same shades, I don't care. They're so cheap and I love SBTB.

Via

As an aside on the nail polish thing, I have been buying up cheapy nail polishes like they're disappearing from earth. Ever go in spurts with buying a bunch of varieties of the same item? I've done this with sandals, scarves, and cardigans before. Oy.

The last thing I feel like randomly talking about today is trends. Do you ever find that there are just some trends you really don't like?! I do!!! Frankly, I think peplum looks ridiculous. Some ladies wear it well, and I've actually really liked peplum in some outfits (so if you're a peplum lover that's all good!), but take it out of context of being worn by someone and I think it's such a ludicrous looking piece of clothing.

Is it a too-tiny dress? Did they forget where the waist is? Are they trying to hide a bump? Was there just extra material lying around?

I also feel this way about other trends, but of course, the one that was in my head to write about has now slipped off into some locked compartment in my brain, because I can't for the life of me remember what it is. If I do, don't worry, I'll come back and update the post.

Happy Friday!!!

[Linkup] Pattern Mixing!

Lucky you guys, 2 posts in one day! My roundup post was scheduled for the first and then Marion's linkup happened to fall on the same day so you all are blessed with 2 doses of yours truly!

I've talked before on my blog about my comfort (or lack thereof) with pattern mixing. So when Marion at Marionberry Style made pattern mixing this month's trend of the month, I did frownie face just a bit. Great trend - but obviously not in my general comfort zone.

I take baby steps to pattern mixing currently, and today's look is no different. As seen before, my pattern mixing consists of a patterned shirt with a differently patterned scarf. Don't laugh, I'm still an amateur.

Also debuting on the blog today - pictures taken with my new camera!!! W00t W00t!!!

Top: Gap, $15 (recent) | Jeans: JCPenney, $13 (Fall 2011) | Heels: Shoe Carnival, $25 (they always have these and they're so comfy!!) | Scarf: Ebay, $2 | Blazer: Steve & Barry's, $20 (old, 2009) | Sunnies: NY&Company, $5 | Earrings: Foxy Originals, won a giveaway from Mary Ann! | Bracelets: Charlotte Russe (dangle), $5, Boutique in Helen, GA (blue and white), $20 | Watch: Target, $13 | Grand Total: $118

[Round-Up] July 2012

Ok, ya'll. Here's my monthly sidebar roundup with commentary!

This month....

I read:

{Fifty Shades of Grey - E L James}


{Fifty Shades Darker - E L James}

{Fifty Shades Freed - E L James}

Let's talk about these books altogether. First let me get this out of the way: the writing is atrocious. The author herself has admitted this, and generally this turns me off from a book. Secondly, we all know there is a lot of rather risque content in these books. I'm not even going to bother with that when talking about the book because it definitely adds a little somethin somethin but I also believe that it's kind of an aside in this whole thing. Lastly, and this goes hand in hand with the horrific writing, some of the plot action happened in a way that made me laugh because it was so unrealistic. Like, some character changes happen so quickly and it's ridiculous. 

Looking past all of that - I surprisingly really enjoyed these books. I think there are a number of reasons for that. Let me first say that I tend to enjoy the "dark and twisty" type of story. I'm not one for fluff and flowers in books - I like a story with grit, with grime, with a little something sinister and surprising. I don't like to be able to see the end coming a mile away (now, don't get me wrong - you can see a lot coming a mile away in 50 Shades but this is an exception for me). Fluff and flowers has its place, but I like the unexpected. Some of my favorite books are 1984, The Book Thief, Lolita, The Road, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Glass Castle, and White Oleander, to give a frame of reference. 

I thought the Fifty Shades books were just dark enough to reel me in, in light of the stuff mentioned above. I felt that though the author didn't write well, I could see the story she was trying to write. It was a story of a very, very broken man and a naive lovestruck girl, and the connection between past and present, cause and effect, and how the past shapes the future. I liked the angle because his lifestyle is not one most of us know or think about, and the story was raw, racy, and thought provoking to me. I really felt that I saw the vision the author had for these characters, for the story, and for the progression of character, and I found it enthralling. 

There are a lot of opinions out there on these books and everyone is entitled to feel how they feel about it. One of the biggest complaints about this book is the controlling relationship between Ana and Christian. Frankly, I think that's exactly why the book is so catching. I'm not saying it's right. Any smart woman should see it for that. But it may make you think. And without giving away anything, I think you can become understanding of the struggle as you move through the books. 

I enjoyed the books for the darkness, for the different, for the sheer idea of the evolution of Christian Grey. I also don't think you can get the full effect without reading all 3 books. The characters you meet in book 1 are not the same characters as you leave in book 3, and to me, that was part of the appeal of the books. The evolution (though the fairly quick character turns are obviously a bit too easy). Overall, I found the series intriguing and thought provoking, with some definite spice.

I listened to:

{Wild Ones - Flo Rida}

This is a great cd to get up and dance!! Only one song on here I'm not a fan of - Wild Ones. I freakin hate that song. The girl sounds like a dying animal with her ooooooooooooo in the chorus. Ugh. Sorry if you love that song, just don't play it around me.

{Chopin (Preludes) - Philippe Guisiano}

(If you've read Fifty Shades you might guess why...lol)

Been playing this one at work as I study client architecture. Good if you like classical.

{When the Devil's Loose - A.A. Bondy}

Into singer-songwriter?? Listen to this album!!!!

I wore:

{a French manicure}

I have been hearing these are out of style for about 5 years now. Yet gals seem to still wear them with alarming frequency. Frankly, I think they're clean and classic. I will occasionally sport the French mani for years to come, no doubt.

{Wet N Wild Grey Area}

{Revlon Silver Switch on ring fingers}

I actually really liked the little pop on the ring finger, but my husband was not a fan. He asked "why is your one finger a different color??" and my answer was met with a grunt. Not a believer in the trend, that man.

{Sally Hansen Choco-Latte}

{Revlon Minted on ring fingers}

I liked this color combination but every time I wear the Choco-Latte color, I have to put on so many coats to make it a darker color than my skin tone. This might be one to just get rid of. But it's such a nice nude!!!

I worked on:

Cleaning out/straightening up my second closet in the guest room.

Guys, I'm still working on this. It's my shoes. I got all my handbags and hats and scarves organized but the sheer number of shoes to organize is making it daunting to even start.

I saw:

{The Amazing Spider-Man}

Surprisingly really liked this!!! I'm not always a fan of the superhero movie but this one was good. I thought Andrew Garfield did an excellent job as Spiderman.

{The Dark Knight Rises}

I loved this movie. However, it was 2.75 hours long. I did get a bit restless, not gonna lie. At least the movie was good cause if it was bad those would have been some looooong hours.

And watched on TV:

{The Sopranos}

I cannot get into this. We've watched 4 episodes and I still feel like picking up a magazine and only half-paying attention after about 10 minutes. Does it get better? Like Mad Men?

{The Bachelorette}

Love this show though Emily is not my favorite. Thought Jef ended up being a good pick. Ready to see who will be the Bachelor next!!! Sean?? Anyone??