Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Bathing suit or diaper?

If you follow my blog, you know I LOVE all things Anthropologie... but I find myself somewhat perplexed by their new bathing suit styles... high wasted bottoms.

While I enjoy the idea of having my lower poodge stomach covered, I also think these would be incredibly unflattering... I mean, look at these poor models who are probably less than a size zero with no hips and the bottoms make them look big-ish.

I also think these are borderline 'diapery' looking, not to mention the weird tan lines you would have.

Where are the belly buttons?? I just think it spoils a potentially cute suit...

What do you think? Are you digging this new style or are you with me and thinking "Huh???".

And not to be outdone, ModCloth joins in on the fun as well...

And on a completely different note... how beautiful is this Anthro bathing suit cover up? Love it! It's about $648 worth of beautiful... yikes! I would like to meet the person who spends that much money on just a bathing suit cover up. Granted this isn't 'just' a bathing suit cover up - it's gorgeous...but still.. $648. Geez!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Forever21 strikes again...

I've read how Forever21 tends to copy designers with their clothes and then sell them way cheaper... and now I've seen it for myself...

Check out this gorgeous skirt from Anthro - I bought this when it went on sale for probably $60 or so dollars. It was originally over $90... I ended up returning it because the fit was off, but I thought it was so pretty...

Well today I was browsing Forever21.com and came across this skirt - not identical, but pretty darn close...even down to the waistband!?! Should I feel guilty that I contributed to Forever21's cheating and bought it? It was only $15.80... how could I not!?! Fingers crossed it fits better than the Anthro skirt.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Springtime...and the living's easy...

Happy Friday! I am SOOOOO glad it's finally Friday....

My favorite time of year in Charleston is the Spring... the weather is perfect {upper 60's to 70's} and we get to start beach weekends long before the tourists arrive and take over. Another favorite tradition we have is going to Red's Ice House on Shem Creek in Mt. Pleasant for happy hours after work. You sit on their deck right on the creek, drinking cold beer, eating delicious seafood, watching boats float by and occasionally a dolphin or two swim by... it's {in the words of Will Ferrel} "glorious"!

So today my friends and I are kicking officially kicking off Spring and going to Red's after work for happy hour... I'm staring at my clock, willing it to hurry up and be 5pm already.

Figuring out what to wear this time of year, however, can be tricky... it's warm during the day, sometimes breezy, and majorly cools off at night... what to wear? what to wear?

While in Europe, I loved people watching and seeing what all the fashionistas were wearing... there was one definite reoccurring trend that I noticed - and even my fiance noticed - that all the girls were wearing. We saw it in Copenhagen, all over Germany, and in Switzerland.

Black leggings.

Yup... black leggings were VERY popular over there. Black leggings as pants with either flats or boots {mostly boots in Copenhagen because it was so cold - I am digging black leggings with tan/brown boots} with tunic tops or sweaters. Girls of old and young were wearing them... from grandma's to preschoolers... all ages we saw this trend.

{click on photos for source}

It was so prominent that Bradley and I would sit at the train station and count the number of girls walking by wearing black leggings.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I've said numerous times that I dislike the leggings as pants trend. And a lot of my close girlfriends {you know who you are!} are adamant that this is a no no. And let's face it...sometimes, yes, some girls don't need to be wearing black leggings with their butt showing.

But the more I saw the black leggings trend in Europe, the more I liked it. None of the girls had their butts hanging out... they styled the leggings with a long tunic-like top and their rears {probably to my fiance's disappointment} were covered.


I'm already a converted fan of jeggings, so the idea of wearing leggings {think comfort!} really appeals to me...I already wear leggings under short dresses - only because I am modest and I like the extra coverage - but I like the idea of trying to pair them more with tunic tops and in other versatile ways. And I think this look is perfect for this transitional Spring weather.

So today I'm going to try out a new pair of black leggings I just got - yes, shape wear leggings from one of my fave reality stars, Bethenny Frankel - with a really cute tunic top I got majorly on sale from Ideeli. I'm going to pair it with a black cardigan, possibly a black belt, red patent wedges from Target, a taupe bag, black sunglasses....and a cold beer!


So what do you think? Are you into the leggings trend at all? Do you ever venture to wear them as 'pants' with tunic tops??

Monday, March 21, 2011

Hello Again.

So I hope I haven't lost most of you - I can only imagine that many of you saw 'last post three weeks ago' and immediately deleted me off of your ever busy blog rolls. Sigh.

So where have I been?

Those who guessed Copenhagen, Denmark on my last post were correct! I had the honor to be invited to a conference in my line of work as a presenter - this included a paid trip to Copenhagen, Denmark for a week! Of course my fiance and I decided to turn the opportunity into a two week vacation.

The first week was spent exploring Copenhagen and attending the conference - meeting some amazing people in my field and doing some killer networking.

Then my fiance and I headed down to my favorite European city (via sleeper train!) to Munich, Germany. There we spent a few days exploring Munich, visiting the castle Disney World's Cinderella castle was modeled after and visiting Salzburg, Austria. From there we headed to Switzerland where we spent several days visiting Luzern, Lausanne, Bern and Zurich.
I could bore you with details about the whole trip, but I'll spare you that and just say it was amazing and a welcomed break from the day to day grind.

We came back last Sunday to a very happy to see us and very needy puppy, two weeks of work and emails to catch up on, and figuring out how to get back on the normal timezone...including incorporating Daylight Savings. We were so backwards. So that's why last week I was pretty much mentally still gone.

But I'm determined to be back to the routine this week - I HAVE TO get my workout routine back, starting with Hip Hop tonight, and eating healthier again. I spent Saturday on the beach (loving this Spring weather!!) and was not a happy camper about wearing that bikini - especially after indulging in two weeks of really tasty European wine, beer and food.

It's also time for wedding planning galore - let the craziness ensue.

And Mr. Willow is ready for training classes at the local PetCo...but I have a feeling my fiance and I will learn more than the puppy will.

And your blogs... oh how I have neglected your blogs {sorry!}. I'll be back to reading (and commenting) this week.

So I hope everyone is doing well and I hope you haven't abandoned me... here's to being productive again! Cheers!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Where am I?

Can you guess?

I've been M.I.A. from my blog this week and won't be back to 'normal' until next, next week. Until then... Cheers!