I don't think I can express to you how much fun I had reaching back into my closet for the button downs. I could finally worry less about sweating out everything I own and more about which necklace would go best with this skirt.

Dress off. Like Face Off but without the bloodshed and unfortunate face switching? How about you just go with me, I promise it'll make sense in a minute.

Lately I've been running up against the reality that summer is not my season and finding new pieces to wear is a pain in the rear end. Tops have been almost impossible so I decided to switch to dresses in the hope they'd be more enjoyable to shop for with a bigger payoff in the end.

....I might be an idiot.

I picked this up on a whim while browsing the Modcloth site, not realizing until later that I'd seen the dress on Kaelah of Little Chief Honeybee - a wonderful coincidence! I love the retro fun print, and I would wear this to work in a heartbeat (office environment be damned). My only concern is that I can be super picky about fit and the slight puckering around the bust buttons might be a deal breaker. But maybe things will stretch a little bit with time? What do you guys think?

I had to take about a million different pics of this dress because the fit problem in the bust is enough of an issue that bra was just trying to peep out everywhere. No matter how wonderful the pattern the pancake boob look, or mono-boob ala Stacey and Clinton, is not going to work with me. Lesson? Pay attention when ModCloth says no stretch - they mean it, and since I've found that a lot of their items run small it can definitely be an issue.

This is one of those pieces that I stalked at Anthropologie. It immediately caught my eye when I saw it in store and initially I wouldn't even let myself try it on because the price was well above my budget for a dress (even one that's life/work appropriate). I bought it during the last 20% off sale-sale, lol, and now that I have it in my hands I just can't decide. I could be having a fat moment (I can't explain them, they just happen) or it's that I haven't quite figured out the perfect undergarment to compensate for the extra room in the shoulders (damn me and my narrow shoulders!). Help?

Thankfully I can say my summer top wardrobe has increased by 1, but I'm still missing collared tops. Fall come back to meeeeee!

Ugh. Wrinkles. I hate them and this skirt produces them in a disturbingly fast amount of time. Also, looking at these pictures makes me realize that the cap sleeve is never gonna be my favorite, but hey - COLOR EVERYWHERE! 

I first saw the trailer for 20 Feet From Stardom at E Street Cinema when I went to see Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing, and I could tell within 30sec that this movie had something special. I'd never thought much before about what the backup singers had meant to some of my favorite songs, but just seeing things from their perspective a little and hearing about their struggles to make it as solo artists, was incredibly moving.

The full theatrical release was, as you can imagine, even better. Darlene Love, Judith Hill, Lisa Fischer - there are so many women out there whose only job was to make that person singing in the front sound fantastic. They had to work to either suppress, accept, or change their own dreams in order to do that, and the bittersweet agony of watching them talk about it was just....amazing. The musical talent portrayed is off the charts and I think the individual characters portraits are what draw you in to the story. Except the story is the lives of these women which means there isn't always a happily ever after, and one is definitely not guaranteed.

I highly recommend this movie for everyone!

At some point I inadvertently put this dress in my 'fancy occasions only' mental box. Luckily I was combing the closet for hot weather options and even with lining, the full skirt and lack of sleeves make this more comfortable than most. Plus since I didn't get any weird looks/comments I'm definitely going to wear it again!

So I complained about the rain last week, which I'm not apologizing for, because damp moist heat is disgusting. But I can't say 97* full-sun heat was exactly the solution I was looking for. Thanks for NOTHING D.C.

Still, In trying to figure out what the heck to wear this week, my friend Jessy came up with a quicky solution (and a skirt loan) - tuck the peplum top I purchased from H&M into my spanx and throw a skirt over it for a new floral combination. I don't normally do soft pastel colors but I have to admit this is one of my new favorite combinations!

1. She & Him, while not my normal concert fare, was a lot of fun. I wore a cute fit and flare dress from Anthropologie, enjoyed some munchies with the bestie, and had my umbrella on hand for the intermittent sprinkles.

2. Hey DC - can we stop with the rain now? I know that you think you're giving us a break from the heat but really the only thing you're accomplishing is an incredibly sucky commute, frizzy hair, and keeping me from wearing the new stuff in my closet (that isn't rain friendly).

3. Excuse the slight TMI, but hormonal acne sucks. It sucks a LOT and I really wish this week was over already so I could sit in my room with a face mask, low lights, and YouTube.

4. Catching up on last night's Sharknado tweets was fantastic! I wasn't able to watch it but as soon as I've got some quality time with the SyFy it's going to happen because anything that can make Wil Wheaton go -


 is something I need to see.

So....about this outfit. In my head it made total sense - different patterns, but both in shades of blue, with white-ish backgrounds to connect the two. Once I had it on my body though I couldn't help but feel like the execution was questionable.

Normally I would just put these in the 'eh' outfit pile and move on, but you know what? We all have 'eh' days so I feel like it's only fair to share mine too :).

When people talk about shopping in NY this is what they mean right ;)? I tend to use my trips to stock up on face essentials, because while in DC K-town might be super far away and not really metro accessible, in NY it's just a few blocks away!

A pricey face mask I admit, but these are some of my very favorite - say they control oil (in my experience) and afterwards my face is super soft. 

Gotta love a bargain! The Face Shop mascara I picked up in Hong Kong is awesome and I was hoping one (or both) of these would live up that. Sadly the formula's not the same and while neither of these are bad mascaras, I've still got my eye out for that 'Freshian Volumizing' one. 

So......about how I'm a sucker for new face things. But really we all knew this so no one should be surprised that Bubzbeauty's video on facial massage got me to purchase one of those stone massager thing-ys. And with THAT I needed a product to keep my face slick to avoid dragging and after a disastrous turn in Chinatown (no I'm not crazy checkout ladies) the woman helping me at the Face Shop pointed me to his, specifically for my oily acne prone skin. I have to wash it off after I'm done but as soon as I have an opinion about this I'll let you guys know.


And that's it! No shiny jewelry, no spiffy clothes, the only thing I did in NY was eat and buy face stuff. Hopefully that's not too disappointing, lol! I'm trying to get back in the spirit of work after my 4 days off but let me tell you - it's not easy! All I'd like to do is go back to my pool and curl up with a good book.

Happy Fourth of July everyone! I had a full (HOT) day in D.C. eating and drinking on the National Mall that ended with some spectacular fireworks. Though I have to say all the scaffolding on the Washington Monument made me a little sad :-/.

And to be completely honest this outfit is not what I was sporting on the day of, lol. As nicely patriotic as this look ended up being, I spent yesterday in a pair of jeans shorts and t-shirt.

Some of the awesome fireworks

I know, I know, back to the super original names but it was all I could think of! Happy Monday! (blech)