Learning to Dress Myself: Yeh! & Meh.

Let's get the "meh." out of the way. I don't like wearing the same outfit twice. I can't financially avoid wearing the same piece twice, but for some reason wearing the same pieces together more than once makes me feel like I'm a copycat. Of myself. Which should be acceptable, but "hey, I'm Jess, nice to meet you." The useful factor of keeping track of how I put something together always ends at a dead-end of "yeah, but, I've already worn that combo..." I don't make my life any easier than it already is; where's the challenge in that?

Rhetorical question. There isn't one. (a challenge, not a rhetorical que...whatever.)

Alas I've been vogue-ing it up for myself anyways. Well, at least six-ish times. So I guess the "Yeh!" is I have these pics just in case my Level of Effort should drop sub-nonexistent. Some of these are pin-spired, like the first ('find patterned shirt, pair with colored pant.' BOOM. done.) and probably the fif.

This blouse. I paid too much for it. NOT full price ("hey there, coupon code!"), but still too much.  I couldn't resist the gold buttons and sheer printed fabric (Banana Republic). 
It pairs just as nicely tucked into wide leg black or brown trousers with mint colored accents, as it does these velvety burnt orange britches. And those shoes? Those shoes might be the most comfortable pair of heels I own; thanks, Naturalizer!

Want: Apple&Mint

I saw a dress from Modern Vintage Boutique on FB (and unsuccessfully tried to win it by "sharing" it. womp womp) The dress has inpired me to find an outfit I can't get out of my brain. So I've since been on the hunt for red pants and a mint colored top.

Like this:

The pants on the left are Arizona brand from JCP & are only $17!! Of course, they only have sizes 1 & 21 available right now. The right pants are exactly what I had in mind but cannot find their origin. That red sizzles! The other tops are otherwise arbitrarily found via google image searches and didn't yield any helpful information. But mint is popular right now so finding a similar top should be a breeze.

While perusing the webz I saw something similar to my apple-mint child here, at MyDressyWays.com, but the red wasn't quite right. So, here we are. Heck, maybe this is a played combo from last year and I just didn't get the memo, but I'm definitely digging it for this spring!

So, I'm getting married.

Stephen asked that I be his forever and I said "omg omg omg omg omg omg YES!" There was some jumping around, smiling like smiling is my favorite, and all around "AAAAAAAH's!" throughout the evening. He got the boys in on it - just after I finished taking their pictures on the porch of them in their costumes, they insisted I go back in because "Daddy needed my help with something." 

I'll be honest - I was suspicious. They way they were smirking was indicative of more than "I'm about to get a bunch of candy, y'all!" It was more of a "I'm about to load up on candy like I'm on Oprah's Favorite Things episode!!" smirk.

But another nugget of truth - I really had no freaking idea. 

This was no trick, it was allllll treat :)

We picked a venue before we picked a date - of which we now have both. I've found an amazing duo of wedding coordinators, Fabulous Fete, to help me out. Photographer is booked. And the really important parts - the food and bar - are underway. This is soooo stinking exciting!

In the midst of all this I'm taking a few more classes - I aced Accounting 100 & Humanities 112 last semester. I'm working on (well, supposed to be at this very moment) Sociology 100 and my first Project Management Class, BUS 375. 

Even more important than that, though, is that my best friend in the world, Sarah, got engaged mid-November! She's opted for a short engagement so life is about to get a lil bit more fun for all of those closest to me! I'm getting a hot pair of red heels out of the deal, too, sooyouuuknooowwww, I'm absolutely delighted!

The biggest project I've worked on so far is finding a way to officially ask my girls to be my wingbitches. I scoured the internet (*pinterest) for ideas and came up with a box full of goodies relevant to The Big Day (TBD from here on out. ain't nobody got time to keep typin that shit out.)

Here's what I came up with, from their POV:

she's all like "GASP! I have maaaaaaail!"

A Conversation had Approximately 25% of Every Year:

The commitment of being noncommittal.

Hey.

Its been a while, but I mention that without apology because let's be honest, neither of us holds it against me.

full disclosure, I had to change that sentence because I couldn't figure out how to spell unapollogetically. 

Had a little photo shoot action last weekend. It was of a new (to me) variety that I had the opportunity in which to participate; thanks to the BFF for that :)

However, it was bad timing for the shoot becaaAAause: 

I started back to school this week. Your mom goes to college. I'm taking an accounting class, of which SHOULD span over 11 weeks, in five weeks. Things aren't off to a great start. I can't quite comprehend the slightly-more-than-basic accounting equation. I get it - money in, money out. But, no, it's not that easy. So, I guess I do naught "get it." After this class I'll take another Humanities class, same squeezed in style. Classes end just before Christmas so I'll be all stressed busy this fall.

This weekend Q will get some serious parenting time in with all three boys since I'm flying to Jackson, MS for my brother's wedding. My mom and her boyfriend will be there, plus a ton of other people I don't know or haven't seen since I was 11ish. 

Shout out to mom, btw, for confirming / unconfirming the jazz-age lawn party theme. I read that as "let's dress up with pearls and feathers and shit!" 

Mom, being her awesome self, read that as "I should make sure I do / do not need to dress up." She saved our seats as 'family' instead of 'the entertainment.' Again, thanks mom for stealing my excitement but for a really wonderful reason. 

School for the little ones is going well, I guess. I only really know about Josh since we see his homework agenda every day. He's got an issue with keeping his pie hole shut, but I've hopefully threatened that out of him (for at least another few weeks; fingers crossed). 

Autumn is really setting in around here which is great because a certain permanent roommate ;) has been jonesing to not induce sweating by simply thinking of how hot it is outside. Beautiful stuff going on here, y'all. I'm excited to start layering; I got a little taste yesterday: 

Oh, weight loss is going well, too. I knew after I broke 165 that it'd jump right back up - that's normal - but I wasn't going to let that knowing steal my getting-skinny joy. This morning I was exactly 165 and have been losing .2lbs/day for a few days now. I hurt my groin the other week, took the week off to heal and am back at it this week - although with less vigor. I'm using my excessive brain function as an excuse.   Since I stopped doing the 30 Day Shred in the middle of level 2 I just started over Tuesday.  Almost vomited / passed out no less than three times. So, I think I'm doing it right this time! 

We've got some serious stuff going on around here. Most of it revolves around me, naturally. :::insert lolz::: I've had to remind myself many times that if I'm going to be this busy, I'd better commit to not doing it all with 100% effort. That might sound terrible, but really I guess I'm just aware of my limits.