Things Are Lookin' Up

Today started off rough - a early morning wake up call to get to the DMV, only to find I was missing some of the paperwork I needed - but is turning out to be pretty perfect. The weather here is gorgeous. I had Bogart's for lunch. It's massage day at my office. And tonight, I'm celebrating Social Media Day with some of the coolest folks I know.

top by Theme (via Swirl). jeans, flats from Target. necklace from LinleyShea. assorted bracelets. 

Photobooth Fun

A wedding without a photobooth is barely a wedding at all.

Am I Doing This Right?

The Double Belt. I've seen other bloggers with these kinds of belts and it always looks so cute, so when I saw my new striped Target dress came with one I was pumped (two items in one!). But I'm not really sure I did it right... it sort of just looks like a normal belt, no?

The Stacked Bracelets. I know I'm not doing this right well. I just don't have a lot of bracelets that work well to be stacked (I have a lot of big cuffs or bangles) and I can't handle the clanking. This afternoon, I switched the red/silver bracelet to the other wrist because it was driving me nuts.

The Style Blogging. Seriously. Am I doing this right?

(Oh, and that last picture was an attempt to show off the neckline of this dress. And prove to you I actually have hair. When I wear it back in a bun, it's hard to tell...)

dress from Forever 21. cardigan, flats and belt from Target. assorted bracelets. 

The Great Flood

I thought I already had a lot on my plate this week - what with work, meetings, the holiday weekend coming up, having to get my car licensed - and then on Sunday night, I came home to a flooded basement. Cool.

Apparently, this is normal for city basements. I'm lucky that it is just storm water (and mud) and not sewage or anything and nothing too valuable was damaged. I'll have to throw out some magazines and my area rug. I'll have to do a bunch of laundry (now that my once 'clean' clothes are sopping wet). Worst of all, I have to clean up the mud. Yuck. I hate cleaning.

It's hard to tell how wet/dirty it is in pictures... but I promise it is.

My rug now makes a nice squish squish sound when you walk. Wonderful.

My most valuable ruined item... the magazines I was going to finish reading are now ruined.

This is what surrounds my washer and dryer. Exactly what you want next to your clean clothes...

And (miraculously) my ancient television still works, despite spending the weekend sitting on a water soaked rug.

Maverick is actually happy about the situation because I'm making him sit on the couch instead of the wet rug (like he was ever not allowed on the couch anyway...)

African, Take 2.

Reasons not to post an outfit today:

• I told you I was going on hiatus
• this outfit isn't particularly exciting
• I was running late today
• my hair is a mess
• all I can think about is my flooded basement (and the fact that I haven't watched True Blood yet)

Reasons to post an outfit:

• Maverick looks cute in the picture
• this necklace is from Africa

Yep, another African outfit. Cara brought me this necklace home in May. It is handmade by a group of women near her village. (I know there is more to this story, but the tag it came with isn't in English. Oops.)

jeans, sandals from Target. striped tee from H&M. necklace from Africa.

I Just Died.

Breaking radio silence to share this..... but Rob & Paul in full retro glory? Playing ping pong? Shirtless? O.M.G. I'm in heaven.

via

Radio Silence

Just a quick post to show you what I wore to my friend Rachel's wedding this past weekend in Kansas City Independence, Missouri and then it's a blogging hiatus for me. I'm swamped at work, have to go get my car licensed, and oh yeah, my basement is flooded.

dress, clutch from Target. heels by Guess. assorted bracelets and silver hoop earrings. 

Honeymoon

Love.

#weddingwednesday

No Brainer

This dress is proof that I can't resist navy stripes. I went to Target last week to get dog food and nail polish and came out with this dress (among other things). And even though I have a bunch of striped combos pinned on my 'getting dressed' board, this morning I couldn't resist pairing it with the classic mustard cardigan. 

Wait- did I just call my mustard cardigan a 'classic'? It's official. This 'style blogging' thing has got to me. 

dress, flats from Target. cardigan from H&M. necklace from Mom. 

Nutella Cupcakes

If you know my baking history.... you know I suck. Most recently (as in, September) I made a funfetti cake that was so salty I couldn't even eat it. Oh, and the butter cream icing? Basically just butter.

I'm not sure why I decided I could make these nutella cupcakes. I'm delusional? It looked easy? Nutella tastes good no matter what? I'm pretty sure it was this picture...

Mine didn't look quite like that..... but Here's the recipe. 

1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup canola or mild vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4-1/2 cup Nutella, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 325F.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter, oil and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt; add to the butter mixture and beat on low speed just until combined. The batter will be thick. It needs to be in order to swirl in the Nutella!

Divide the batter between 12 paper-lined muffin cups. Drop a spoonful of Nutella on top of each, and swirl through the batter with the tip of a bamboo skewer, knife or other pointy object. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until springy to the touch. Tilt them in the pan to help them cool. Makes a dozen cupcakes.

These were great to cart over to a friends' house because I didn't have to worry about the icing smearing all over the place. And I feel like it was easy enough that you could try it with other combinations. Chocolate with peanut butter swirled in, perhaps?

Summer Lovin'

Happy First Day of Summer! It certainly doesn't feel like summer in St. Louis. Right now, it is dark and overcast and about to pour down rain. I'm currently pining anything and everything that feels like a warm June afternoon...

fruit bowls

twinkle lights

beaches

braids

Gaga

I've been listening to the new Gaga CD nonstop for a few weeks now and every week I think, 'I'm going to do a #musicmonday post on this' and then always forget. Sorry, kids.

I'm a wee bit peeved about the whole thing because I preordered it months ago, only to be able to download it for free a few days before it came in the mail. It's not that I'm against paying for things, I would just rather go buy the CD of an up and coming artist to help them out than just give a gazillion dollars to Gaga for her to buy crazy outfits. Just sayin.

Anyway, I can't pick a favorite song.... because every time I listen back through them again I find a new one that I like better. I guess it just depends on my mood. But if I had to pick a top five (in no particular order) I think they would be...

You & I

Edge of Glory

Americano

Bloody Mary

Schibe

I'm too lazy to link to them or provide you with videos.... just YouTube them. Or just buy the CD. It's worth it.

My one (big) complaint about the album is this: There's no disco stick. 


I'm serious. The album is great. The songs are all awesome and catchy and I'm humming along constantly. But it seems like every single one is some commentary on religion or being yourself or something. That's great. But sometimes I want to 'just dance'. I want to 'take a ride on your disco stick.' What happened to all of Gaga's party songs?

wonderful image found via pinterest

From Africa With Love

How's this for an amazing friend? My BFF Cara is in Morocco serving as a Peace Corps volunteer. One day, I commented on a photo she posted that I liked her shirt. You know what she did? Brought it home from Africa and gave it to me. Seriously? She's the best.

Anyway, I'm wearing the shirt today in honor of her. (And I think it brought with it some African-like heat. It was so hot and sticky out this morning that my camera fogged up! Apologies for the weird-colored photo. Even Maverick is confused.)

tunic gifted from Cara. jeans, sandals from Target. assorted bracelets. 

Oh, and here she is sportin' the top in good ole Africa... Isn't she lovely?

FYI Friday

a few FYI's 

• I'm leaning forward to try to get the gingham print on my shirt to show up in the picture. It still is barely visible. Don't judge me. 
• my hair looked good today. I say that in past tense because it does not look like that anymore. In fact, I'm about to throw it up in a ponytail. 
• this looks like a 'casual Friday' outfit, but it's not. Yesterday, I literally wore a Hanes white tee to work. Now that's casual. 
• it looks like a pretty day in those pictures, eh? Well it's not. It's gross and gloomy and rainy and needs to stop because I'm going to a slip n' slide BBQ tomorrow. 

gingham shirt from Tommy Hilfiger. jeans and sandals from Target. assorted bracelets same as yesterday. 

Wednesdays at the Garden

The Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Gardens is seriously one of my favorite things about St. Louis in the summer. If you haven't gone yet... what are you waiting for? It's awesome.

My Wednesday evenings from now on will be spent at The Muny (thanks for the season tickets again, Mom!), but you best be bettin' that I'll be back at the Garden on August 3rd for Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three!

Stacked

I'm no bracelet stacking pro like Tall Girl Tales, but it's a start.

Little Photo(s)

Just a little sampling of my lunchtime walk to Culinaria, thanks to my new app Little Photo.

A Pop of Neon

Today I'm participating in the 'Bloggers Do It Better' Neon/Neutral Challenge.... heavy on the neutral. I love this trend (especially pining over those hot pink lips everyone is sporting), but I'm not sure if the clothes I have are 'neon' or just 'brights'. Are those the same thing? Am I over analyzing this too much?

Anyway, I went with a neutral outfit and then added pops of colors with accessories- turquoise necklace, pink braided belt, bright orangish nail polish & blue sunglasses (that I happened to find in my yellow car. BAM).

jeans, top, blazer, sandals, belt from Target. necklace from LinleyShea on Etsy. sunglasses from Claires. 

Rough Road

Loving the National Park Foundation's Facebook page for sharing little gems like this.

Lace It Up

Can everyday be an Everybody Everywear day? I like someone telling me what I have to wear. It is so much easier (You can blame that on my Catholic school background....). Today is lace day and it made me realize I own a lot of lace things... too bad most are 'night time' shirts and are barely work appropriate. Thank goodness for this dress (yes, dress). 

Lace always seems so dainty and delicate and girly. I was hoping pairing it with black would toughen it up (plus I'm a sucker for a black/navy combo), but I think the silver heart necklace and fluttery sleeves just injected a healthy dose of estrogen right back in. Ah well. Good effort, Danielle. 

black skinny jeans, dress and black flats from Target. silver heart necklace via Mom. 

Whatever Lola Wants

Went to Lola last night for dinner (thanks Groupon!) and am still having mixed feelings about it. My food was great. My service was fine. But I've read so many terrible things about their service; had less than stellar experiences there in the past when we were just going for drinks; and witnessed a group come in that had made reservations via Open Table, called the day before to confirm, had someone from Lola call them to confirm that morning, yet their reserved table was no where in sight when they showed up. Fail.

I guess I'll just say go at your own risk (during off hours, with a small party, try to sit at the bar, and don't be in a rush to get in or out of there....). 

 The Gravois Champagne Cocktail (it was okay... pretty much just tasted like plain ole champagne. You should see the glass of wine he poured me after this though.... HUGE)

 Lamb chops with carrot puree and mashed potatoes (I wasn't crazy about the sides, but man, those lamb chops. Delicious.)

Lobster 'corn dog' with mac and cheese (It must have been good because he practically ate it all, but said it was really rich. Only get it if you really like cheese.)