Fash'nspired: Ketchup?

So after my super stylish mood last week, I decided to go simple today. I wore my pinstriped dark gray slacks with a light gray sweater over a white top.

Typically when I wear this outfit, the white top I wear is just a spaghetti strap tank top. But for whatever reason, I decided to wear my white cap sleeve sweater under it today (maybe for warmth?)

Turns out it was a good choice! This afternoon as I was sitting at my computer and just finished talking to someone who stopped by, I leaned over to pick up a pen I knocked on the floor. As soon as I did something red caught my eye. Was I bleeding? No, I had ketchup stains ALL OVER my shirt. Seriously, all over. I had been back from lunch for at least 45 minutes. How did I not notice this...worse, how did no one else notice (or not tell me???) Melissa?!?

Haha, well I quickly headed to the ladies room (with my notebook strategically held close by) to clean up. No luck. It was totally obvious I had stains all over myself. So fast on my feet, I decided to make my undershirt a sweater vest.  It turned out alright I guess. While I might not put this look together again, it did the job for this afternoon.

The Silver Lining

Yes, I'm a glass half full type person and someone who always sees the silver lining.

While I've been in freak out mode over getting everything done before the holidays & vacation, I've had to step back and remember that the whole reason I need to get these things done is so I can enjoy my time off without worry!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and taking time to sit back & relax, too!

And speaking of silver lining, I decided to share the outfit I wore to my husband's Christmas party earlier this week. This was my first week working back in the office, and I feel like I've been overcompensating my work outfits this week to make up for looking like such a slum last week. Haha. On Monday, I wore a cute dress with black sweater tights and some fun heels, whipped out my new pink burberry style scarf on Tuesday, etc., etc.

On Thursday, I decided to make an easy day to night outfit change. I wore the following dress & boots to work, but styled it with a gray belted blazer instead of this ruffled coat layover which I put on for the party. I have to say this may be one of my favorite new outfits.

Both the dress and the coat are from Forever 21. Boots are from lulus.com. The only recent purchase is the dress but I didn't have any luck finding it on their web site. Here's another cute one if you like the general look: Starry Night Dress.

Welders Don't Wear Pink

Ever since I received my contingency job assignment, people have gotten quite the kick out of the fact that I'm going to be a welder. First of all there's not many women welders, second I work in HR and third, people definitely have a hard time picturing me in something other than my heels.

Well there's no need to try to picture it anymore, the people I work with have seen me all week in my factory attire. It's quite fashionable. Huge steel-toe boots, dirty jeans, t-shirt and my weld cap are what I'm sporting around the office after I'm done with my shift (surprisingly the weld cap is kind of cute - - it's what I wear under my weld helmet).


In the shop I'm covered in a large green weld jacket, weld apron, helmet, etc.

But when I went into work last night, one of the salvage welders came up and told me, "Welders don't wear pink,” which I replied, "We'll see about that."


Besides what I'm wearing, the training's actually going pretty well. I'm definitely tired, but I'm proud of myself. So if you see one of these out in your travels, just think I may have welded the frame it sits on all together!

Just add leggings

Soon enough I'll be enjoying fine wine and stinky cheese in the fashion capital of the world!

I've got a lot of work to do to finalize details (and figure out how in the world I'm supposed to pack light...for Paris...in winter!)

But I've got my priorities straight. My NYE outfit is coming along.

But in 30 degree weather, I might need to add some leggings...or at least tights!

My first flats

Besides my gym shoes, I can't say I remember the last time (or a time) I've bought a pair of flat shoes. Hence the name of this blog, "HEEL, ball-change".

But when you know you're going to be walking around all of Paris and Spain for vacation, it's time to suck it up. Since we'll be going over winter I decided to check out some cute flat boots. After trying on one pair after the other, I finally found one I liked on me (plenty of them looked great on the stand, but just weren't working on me).

I decided to start breaking them in this weekend.

As much as I have fallen for these, 2 weeks and no heels doesn't seem doable for me. So, I splurged and have these cute Hunter rainboot wedges on order! I figure it'll be a bit chilly & wet in Paris, so they're definitely a necessity.

With a name like Stuart

Last year, I bought these shoes for my birthday. In terms of style - I absolutely adore them. In terms of price - they're the most expensive shoes I've ever purchased (and they were 60% off the original price when I did buy them). In terms of comfort - they may be the most uncomfortable shoes I own.

Seems a little ridiculous. The most expensive shoe is one of the most uncomfortable??? Well, I did purchase them online and it was a final sale, so couldn't do much about it. Fortunately, I still love the look so I wear them out or to work when I know I'll be sitting most of the time. Today, was one of those days.

Party like a (80s) Rock Star

For the 10th, yes 10th, year in a row we went to see TranSiberian Orchestra's Christmas show. It's become a Christmas tradition.

And for the 10th time (actually 11th - we went to 2 shows last Christmas) it was awesome!

In case you don't know TSO, they're a bunch of 80s rock stars gone classical. (Think The Nutcracker meets  80s rock, lasers, fire and 20+ semis worth of lights!!!)

During last year's Chicago show, we sat right behind an old groupie who head-banged and threw up his rock star hands throughout the show. It was awesome. So, I decided this year, I'd style myself a little 80s rock as well. No, not a faded black concert shirt - 80s glam rock with a modern twist.

 

Gray lace dress - Forever 21

Buckle boots - lulu.com

Necklace - Apricot Lane (note it completely fell apart...wouldn't recommend)

Belt - from another coat I own

Bomber jacket - Express

Here are a couple shots from the show as well. Now that we've been to so many, we change up where we sit each year so we get a different view.

Fash'nspired: Girls Night!

My friend Steph helped us start a monthly Girls Night Out with a few of us that hang out from work and a couple other friends she knows. Last week was our 3rd one and the first one I actually made it out all night for.

Quick recap:
1st Girls Night - I came home from work ready to get myself together and go meet everyone. Robert's car was in the garage, but there was no Robert. I immediately assumed he was hiding somewhere and was waiting for him to jump out of a closet or something (note this is a regular event). But after 15 minutes or so, nothing. I called his name, searched the house and he wasn't anywhere to be found. Bella was home so he hadn't taken her for a walk. So I called his cell - no answer. I called again (and within the next hour probably close to 10 times). My husband was missing. Because I worry (a lot) - I get this from my mom - scenario after scenario went through my head. After missing the first hour of girls night and not knowing where Robert was, I figured it was best to go out and get my mind off this. I knew I was overreacting. I was right - he had gone on a bike ride with some friends. Whoops.

2nd Girls Night - It was going to rain so Robert and I had to move in some donations for the Salvation Army that were sitting out on the driveway. Almost everything was moved in and we started to move the last piece of furniture. As I went to set down the desk, Robert must have still been moving it and the next thing I knew my toe was bleeding all over and my nail was hanging off. Didn't make it to girls night - spent the night at Prompt Care.

3rd Girls Night - I had been out of town for work the last 2 nights. When I got home Robert had bought me flowers and was excited to spend the night with me. I quickly reminded him that it was girls night...and I wasn't letting him get in the way this time. (Ok, I said it a bit nicer than that and I did feel really bad but I wasn't missing another night out).

This night was a success! Jenny set us up to go to Free to Bead in the Heights before hitting the bar. We had to pick out our beads to make a necklace. It took a little while for me to get fash'nspired, but eventually I found my inspiration piece and got to work.

Red, White & Blue

If I've learned anything about politics since I've been old enough to vote it's that I'm no republican, and I'm no democrat. Needless to say my ballot is typically a good mix.

So therefore, for midterm elections so was my outfit.

Bring it on Windy City!

What is up with this weather? Trust me, I'm not complaining mid 70s...in late October...in the Midwest...in Chicago???....is awesome!

But I have to say I love the fall, so I do somewhat wish (don't kill me for writing this) it was a little chillier out. On Saturday, I headed to Chicago to meet up with some of my sorority sisters. It's been way too long since we've done something like this, and it was a blast! A photo of 4 of us before partying it up on Rush & Division. We had a great time dancing the entire night. I didn't even notice how much my feet hurt until around 3:30 when I finally stopped moving.

Back to the weather, as you can see no one is shivering in this photo. Chicago was gorgeous, even though it was supposed to rain and storm all day and night. When we were out shopping during the day, I even had to take off my light fleece because I was so hot. The problem is this weather doesn't do much for my LOVE of cute coats. My coat problem may even be worse than shoes. Because not only do you wear them during certain times of the year only, but they're not actually an outfit - although I wish they could be. Since Fall 2010 has come along, I've bought 3 new coats (I won't even mention how many are already hanging in the front closet).

Here's a look:
1. H&M

2. Anthropologie

3. XXI

Like I said, bring it cold weather, bring it!

Fash'nspired: Charming Charlie

About a month ago, a couple of friends from Chicago were visiting us. When we drove by the mall, Lauren was super excited that we were getting a Charming Charlie's. I had no idea what it was, but turns out it's all things accessories!

And it really is great. For an accessory store it's huge. On my first trip, I found a few cute things - a gift for someone, a cute flower ring and this. Rather than buying it, I decided to use it as my next fash'nspired piece.

Necklace at Charming Charlie (top); My creation (bottom; satin beaded belt intertwined with a flat silver necklace and some black beads)

Who knew shoe shopping could be so...boring!

Yup, I said it...boring.

You can see this was no normal shoe shopping, at least not for me. The shoe I ended up buying didn't even come in a woman's size so I had to buy a shoe 2 sizes smaller in a men's. As you can imagine a 5 1/2 size shoe in men really limits you.

But in the end I found a shoe that meets the safety requirements to weld. Yup, I said it...weld. This week, I'll be in the shop training as a welder for my work's contingency planning. Probably a lot more entertaining blog posts to come of this...stay tuned.

Which one of these is not like the other?

Physikal Linguistiks - Pay it Forward

Robert & I went to see Chicago's Hubbard Street fall dance show earlier this month. It's been a while since I had been to a HSDC show, so I was really looking forward to it. For me, I can appreciate a lot of different types of dance because I understand the difficulty (or at least begin to) and the 'film' major in me tries to interpret what it might mean or what it means to me.

But why I love dance is when it moves you, changes you - simply, gives you goosebumps. Their 3rd piece, "Physikal Linguistiks" made the entire show all worth it. A group of dancers would physically move the other to their next position, posing them if you will. And as the dance went on, the movements became more fluid and as each dancer moved each other, there was a point where you couldn't tell who was moving who, but that each hand gesture, stretch or turn would affect the dancer next to them and so on & so on. The message - every moves affects the other.

Whether it's big or small, remember that everything you do has some affect on those around you.  Sitting in the theater that day, I thought about the affect the suicide of my little brother's best friend had just had- what a few hours had done to the life of my brother, to the life of Mike's other friends, his parents, his sisters and worst of all what had been so horrible, so drastic that made Mike think he'd had enough of life. Unfortunately, we'll never know. But what I do know is that even a simple hand gesture, facial expression or even lack of acknowledgment has the opportunity to change someone's day or maybe their life. So even if you're just at the check out line there's no need to be grumpy towards the cashier. It doesn't take too much effort to smile and say something pleasant...does it? It may just change their day. Physikal linguistiks - pay it forward.

Fash'nspired: My Saddle Shoes

I've decided to start a new stream of posts entitled "Fash'nspired," basically some fashion element that inspires an outfit I'm wearing or something else in my life. My "fash'piration" may come from something I already own, something I see in the store, on someone walking down the street...or maybe even something you're wearing. So beware for me to get out my handy dandy phone camera and snap a photo for a future blog post!

My first post is on a new pair of shoes I bought just a couple weeks ago. I decided to share these for a few reasons: 1) I love them. I bought them. I don't need them. Don't know what I'll wear them with. But I bought them anyways; 2) After seeing the black & white it finally inspired me to go a new direction in my dining room; 3) I haven't been able to wear them yet because of the toe incident and 4) It just so happen the outfit I'm wearing this evening is BW with a bit of a retro twist. So here it goes.

I was "fash'nspired" by these lovelies.

I painted a donated dining room set I got this spring/summer. I love how the black turned out, but unfortunately painting the chairs didn't go as well as the big pieces. After a couple tries, I decided to toss them (actually sold the frames in a charity garage sale) and have been trying to find something new. I didn't want just plain black chairs - I was looking to spice it up. I was after either 2 sets of 3 different style chairs or 3 sets of 2 different styles. However, until now my eyes had only been on any black chair and I hadn't found what I was looking for. Then this past weekend, I headed back to the stores and found these. After pulling chairs from across the store side by side (surely the sales assistants thought I was crazy) I fell in love with these. A white leather, black wood and gray suede. Love!

I'm pretty happy with the results! Still need to paint the 2 table leaves and then I can fit the other 2 chairs at the table.

And today, I decided to base my outfit off of a new black/white retro striped cardigan I purchased from H&M a few weeks back. Just thought it fit well with today's post.

Stay tuned for my future "fash'nspired" looks.

Heel, toe, OUCH!

Heading home from prompt care last week, Robert laughingly said, "I have the perfect name for your next blog post - Heel, toe, OUCH!." Which I quickly replied, "Crap. I totally forgot I have a blog." Crazy but true. In the past 6 weeks life has been insane and I guess since I've only been blogging for the past 7 months or so it hasn't quite become the norm yet for me.

So for any followers out there, I apologize! Thanks for sticking with me and for my brain lapse these past weeks.

On to the heading of today's post...
After hosting a garage sale at our house for Easter Seals, we were moving the leftover merchandise off the driveway for Salvation Army to pick up. After moving everything and with one desk left to go, I went to set it down while Robert kept moving forward and all of a sudden I let out a scream, cry and hopped all over the garage swearing how bad my toe hurt. After a couple minutes, I got myself together and thought, wow, could you overreact any more? But then I looked down.

Blood gushing
and what was that? oh, a part of my toenail I'd never seen before! Ahhhh, so gross!

After getting inside and helping me clean it off, Robert called his mom (a nurse) for advice. Next we were off to prompt care. And so not to get into any more nasty details, I headed back home without a trace of my big toenail. OUCH!

So, my running is on hold for a bit and the 2 new super cute shoes I had purchased just days before will sit in my closet for a while longer. I can't wear any closed-toed shoes quite yet. In fact, I even slummed it around the office for a couple days in my sock - so professional.

Lost & Found

The other day, I was trying to find my Riverplex punch card to go take a BodyJam class. After searching my wallet, I decided to look in my other purses to find it. NOTE: I have not gone to the Riverplex for a class since August 2009...

After searching through 7 purses, I found it and plenty of other things I've lost. Beyond the 30+ pens, hundreds of old receipts, old boarding passes and garbage wrappers, here's a look at some of the other items stored away:

I'm always saying, 'I have no idea what happens to my hair ties.' I've fallen to the check-out aisle chapstick purchase all too often after not know where I put my last one. I also found a couple giftcards with anywhere from $10-25 left on them, a DMB ticket stub from 2004???? (wow), packs of old gum, my business card holder, 4 things of lotion, a lost USB stick and more.

Sadly, as I came across an old necklace, I was hopeful I'd find some of my many lost earrings. No such luck. Wonder where I'll find those.

To My Biggest Fans

Today barks marks my one year anniversary with Erin & Robert. Hard to believe it's been a year since that drive down here. I remember being all set to jump in the car and head out of Chicago back to Colorado with Scott and my dog gang..but then they left..

There were two people talking in high-pitched voices trying to bribe me into their car instead(thinking to myself -I'm a dog, not a baby). I'd met Erin & Robert before, my sniffing sensed they were good people, but I didn't really know them. I sat in the back with my head down and wimpered little by little during the first half hour of the ride. Where was I going? Then my Robert pulled over and sat with me in the back seat the rest of our 3-hour drive. What a sweetheart. Little did I know I'd be spending my life with them. Lucky me ::wagging tail::

Yup, these two turned out to be my biggest fans. In the past year, I've found my voice and become quite the rock star. I woof, roof and bark now with confidence. I have amazing blonde hair, I enjoy long runs in the subdivision, bike rides by the river and a good game of hide-n-seek. Like any good rocker, my groupies have even come up with several names for me. While my official title is Bella, Erin & Robert will call me any one of the following on a given day:

• Bell-a-lini
• Bellini
• Bells
• Bell
• Punk
• Rebel-a

Yes, they've spoiled me like the star I am.

I am sprinkled with treats for special occasions.

I have time for my beauty rest.

Sometimes I even get spa treatment.

I love to surround myself in the latest fashion.

And I even get this fit-for-a-queen couch all to myself while Erin & Robert are slaving at work (well, they aren't supposed to know that). 

But even when I'm caught in the act, my fans still love me (I guess you could compare me to Lindsay Lohan). And I truly love them. Thanks for an amazing year! I couldn't imagine life without you.

Always shedding, 

Bella

LOOKBOOK.nu: "find irresistible." by Nadja Seale

Yes. Irresistible. I heart coats, so a coat you can pull off as a dress - I'm in! And love the shoes (even though they are flat).

LOOKBOOK.nu: "find irresistible." by Nadja Seale: "Vintage Vices"

Back in Power

The latest Elle magazine and elle.com both announce the pointed-toe heel is back in power! Thank goodness!

In case you didn't know, I only buy pointed-toe stilettos, no round-toes here! Maybe this means I'll actually be able to find some new work shoes this year. My black, zippered pointy-toed shoes have been through a lot (including today's instant street flooding!).


http://www.elle.com/Accessories/Trends/Pointed-Toe-Shoes

Vegas by night

Plans for the bright light nights in Vegas!

Not sure about the shiny dress yet. Want to wear it, but need some thoughts on how to style it!

Look what I've started

So after e-mailing my Vegas outfits to my friends (will post my evening wear tomorrow - - or better known as 'you can dance in those shoes?!' wear), one of my friends photographed her outfits, too!

I won't post them all, but LOVE this one. Where did you get this dress?