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.