7.6.11

UNIQLO White Tee (similar)

LOFT Red-ish Skirt (similar)

Target Teanna Sandals (similar)

Nordstrom BP Braided Belt (similar)

Forever 21 Gemstone Earrings (similar)

Plans for this weekend:

- Nap (I had two kickball games last night and the last one ended at 11:15)

- Get a library card (my first ever)

- Greek lunch with my mom

- Schlafly brewery tour with my mom

- BFF's graduation party

- Bars with BFFs after said graduation party

- Harry Potter

- Bed Bath and Beyond

- Shred (x2)

- Grocery Shop

See you on the other side!


(PS, happy birthday to my buddy Sam!)

Ashley Getting Obsessed: Natural Jewelry

I would say I'm a pretty straight laced, classic person. Sure, I enjoy a chunky statement necklace every now and again, but I'm usually not a fan of more bohemian, "crunchy" styles.

That is, until I started seeing these earthy, chunky natural crystals and rocks dangling from chains. Maybes it's my years spent underground with my parents, exploring caves and caverns, or maybe it's that fascination I've always had with sparkly rocks....but something about these shiny, unscripted necklaces really strikes a chord with me.

Here are some of my favorites currently available:

this fool's gold beauty would look wonderful with a coral top or dress

these natural amethyst pendants are so chunky and lovely

This little crystal piece reminds me of something you'd see in a Spencer's Gifts, circa 1998...only with a dragon or fairly wrapped around it.

I don't think it gets much more natural that leather and driftwood

Do you these natural mineral style necklaces? Or do you prefer your rocks to be cut, polished, and set in platinum (I don't blame you!)?

7.5.11

Charlotte Russe Baby Blue Tee (similar)
H&M Oversized Pocket Olive Skirt (similar)
Target Teanna Heels (similar (and $24.99!))
Forever 21 Necklace (similar)

Ugh, you guys. As I told Kathleen yesterday, you know it's hot out when your local weatherman starts comparing our temperature to what it's like in Phoenix and San Antonio. For the record, we're only about 6 degrees cooler than them, but with humidity factored in we actually have heat indicies HIGHER than both of the cities. In the immortal words of Gwen Stefani, this sh*t is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S. But hey, we're breaking heat records over here, so that's something.

In other news, there's some giant mutant fly buzzing around my office, so basically my life is ruined.

7.4.11

H&M Pink Ruffle Tank (similar)

Forever 21 Black and White Striped Skirt (similar)

Charlotte Russe Black Flats (similar)

Anthropologie Swirling Drops Earrings (similar)

The Limited Black Skinny Belt (similar)

Random thoughts:

- Ombre glitter nails are my new favorite thing (and so easy to DIY!):

(I did mine fairly subtly since I work in an office and I guess I'm supposed to be an adult (?).)

- I'm on day 8 of The Shred and while I might not LOOK different, I definitely feel different. 8 days ago I couldn't do more than two push ups - now I can 15 or so!

- two of my really good friends from college got engaged last week, and they had an engagement party last night. It was so fun, and I'm so happy for them! BUT I also feel bad for the bride because they're moving to Fort Worth, Texas in a few weeks for work so she basically has to plan the whole wedding now. Eek!

- on the way back from the party J and I stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts! Now, this might not seem that exciting, but there are TWO DD in St. Louis, and one's in the airport, so it was really exciting for me. I haven't had DD in.....forever?

- We also stopped at a Walgreens (we have those everywhere, don't worry), where my car decided to die. at 8:30pm. On a Sunday. In a not-so-nice part of town. Awesome. After a less-than-helpful call to my mom (she suggested calling our insurance agent. Ha!), we decided there wasn't anything we could do at the time and called one of my coworkers who lived nearby for a ride. We then gave a ring to Jeremey's dad who is a mechanic, and went back this morning to try some new options. Thankfully my car died on a block that also had two auto mechanics and an O'Rielly Auto Parts store, so $70, a little bit of sweat, and a little bit of dit later, I have a new battery and my car (knock on wood) is working better than before (seriously - some of my gauges and my radio wasn't working properly - now it's all fine!)!

- This weather can go suck it (upper 90s-100s all this week!)

- I feel like the only person in the world who hasn't seen Harry Potter yet! It's on my list, I just haven't had time! (or anyone to go with...so I've gotta get brave enough to go to a movie by myself!)

- Some sorority sisters and I went out on Saturday and at one bar this group of 40-ish year old guys were hitting on us (in a nice way...it wasn't too creepy). Anyway, they ALL looked like celebrities. It was crazy - there was a George Clooney doppleganger, a Ben Affleck doppleganger (he was a bit of a stretch), and a Steven Baldwin/John Travolta doppleganger. It was the strangest thing!

- It drives me crazy when other bloggers mention something like "reader Lucy said I should...." if Lucy has a blog. If Lucy has a blog, then say "blogger Lucy said I should....", and LINK! The blogging/social media community is all about connections, so if someone is worth mentioning on your blog, give them the courtesy of a link (which takes about two seconds to do!). (Now, I might not be perfect in this and might miss someone every once in a while, but there are some bloggers who do this on the regular and it drives me crazy. And no, it didn't happen to me. But I care about my fellow bloggers as much as I care about myself!)

- I got a letter from my federal student loan provider telling me my interest rate went down (!) (yay!). I called to ask what my new payments are....it's $.24 less. Not 24 dollars. 24 cents. So, basically beers are on me.

- If you didn't see it, I guest posted for my blogger bff Kimmie last week. You can check out the post here!

6.29.11

H&M Leopard Print Tee (similar)
Old Navy Black Skirt (similar)
Target Red Wedges (similar)
The Limited Mr. T Necklace (similar)

Whoooo buddy, it is H-O-T HOT outside. Today the actual temperature is 100*, but combine that with the humidity and it is disgusting outside! I am grateful for air conditioning, I'll tell you what!

I had a pretty good weekend, how about you guys? Saturday I made a yummy breakfast then got my hair cut and highlighted for the first time since March (eek! I think my stylist was ready to smack me) - you should be seeing the results of that later this week - then my boyfriend and I went to see Horrible Bosses (seriously SO funny - go see it!) and went to BARcelona, one of my favorite tapas places in St. Louis. We ended the night watching Batman Begins and Jurassic Park (well, Jeremey fell asleep halfway through Batman Begins, but I watched it!)

Sunday my kickball team had our first practice - have I mentioned that? Some of my coworkers and I are in a kickball league here in the city for the summer - our first game is Thursday night! Anyway, it was in direct sunlight at the heat of the day (they were saying the "feels like" temperature was 107* and I believe it!). I thought I was going to DIE. Thankfully our games are all at night, because if I had to play a full kickball game like that I would be vomiting and that is NOT cute.

Anyway, I somehow managed to twist my ankle on my first kick at our first practice. Thankfully due to years of figure skating and cheerleading I'm more than used to a little twisted ankle, so I kept playing on it....then I got home and did the 30 Day Shred with Jeremey (we are going to be SKINNY in 30 days, just you wait!), and now my ankle is a giant swollen mess. I've been icing it and everything, and I had our medics look at it at work today - it's just a twist or slight sprain, so there's really nothing to do - I've just gotta man up, I suppose.

So yeah, that's the story of Ashley and her athletic adventures.

Have any of you ever completed the 30 Day Shred? I started it in college (by "started it" I mean I did one day), but I feel like I'm actually going to complete it this time - twisted ankle and all!

6.23.11

Forever 21 Red-Orange Sundress (similar)

New York and Co Lavender Cardigan (similar)

Express Gold Leaf Necklace (similar)

Antonio Melani Nude Peep Toes (similar)

Hey guys! How was everybody's holiday weekend? Between Canada Day and Independence Day it was a party up in North America, amiright? Mexico really needs to get with the program, fo' sho!

We had some roofers show up early Friday morning (like 5am early) to put a new roof on my house (thanks, landlord man, for letting us know....NOT!) - which meant I had to get out of there by 6:30am so they could use a crane to lift shingles up. The loverly roofers then proceeded to start working at 5am every.single.day since. They finally finished up this afternoon, so hopefully I'll be able to sleep past 5am tomorrow and I am looking forward to THAT! There's nothing worse than a nice long weekend where you are woken up super early every morning, I decided.

Besides all of THAT, I went to a Greek restaurant with some friends Friday night, and spent Saturday scurrying around cleaning up the house before my boyfriend got back from vacation (he was visiting family in Wisconsin for a week), then grabbed lunch with a good friend from college at a deli near my house. After that, I went home for an evening barbecue with my family and some fireworks (one of the benefits of living in the country is that we can shoot off fireworks without fear of getting in trouble!).

Sunday a group of my friends and I had big plans to go downtown for a free Maroon 5 concert and fireworks - one girl even drove in from Chicago for it! It started raining in the afternoon, but we just figured we'd go down and wait it out in a bar then head to the fairgrounds. So we hoped on the MetroLink, and just as we were getting off they announced the concert, fair, and fireworks were all cancelled due to the rain. Boo! We spent some time at some bars, but headed home pretty early.

Monday was just a lot of hanging out at home and watching way too much Seinfeld (I'm watching the entire series on DVD, so now I'm that obnoxious person who says "just like that episode of Seinfeld!" at everything.).

What did you guys do? Do you watch Seinfeld? Or too much of any show?