Fashion Show!

I have decided that I have lost too much weight to make the dresses I got last year taken in. The amount of time and money would make it not worth it. I am going to get the two that need their zippers redone fixed but the current idea is that I am going to save the dresses for when I am pregnant and after I have had the baby. I figure/hope they will be good transition clothes from regular to maternity.

That means Dressbarn loves me. They were having a great sale so I stocked up! I did have to exchange two dresses and there was *almost* an issue but it was fixed with a smile so I am happy. I do hope these dresses hold up better then some of the other dresses I have gotten. They are also running a promotion and I was able to earn enough coupons so I can go back in a week and get two dress for free!

I wore this on Saturday after work and got MANY compliments on it

This one is hard to tell but it is purple with ruffles around the neckline

What I wore to Nikki and Stacy's wedding

The seams are in odd places but you cant tell unless you look close

No I am not sucking in, I am just on my tippy toes

This one is a stretch with my body type but I thought it looked okay

I like polkadots!!!

This one is a bit big but comfy and will be a good transition dress as well

Brian isnt sure about this one but I think its fun!

This is a nicer dress I would wear to a party

Forgive my quick bow!

This might be my favorite dress and yes polka dots!

I was looking through photos from my last Dressbarn shopping spree and it is very obvious to me how much weight I have lost....especially in my back. It is amazing!

Is it Saturday yet?

And I do not even know if I want it to be Saturday because that isn't any less busy. I will hopefully write a real post this weekend but I wanted to at least put a synopsis up as it has been 8 days since I updated.

1) I turned 27 on the 15th. Brian, my parents and I spent the time in Charleston looking at houses, eating WAY too much and just enjoying each others company. A real post on this later.

2) House is moving along. Bedroom furniture arrived so we are starting to put clothes away. Our bed doesnt require the box spring but Brian had it put in anyway so now the bed is ridiculously high. Brian LOVES it....I hate it. Once I am up I am fine though curious to see how close we would be to the ceiling fan we have yet to buy but I do not like getting up or down. The king size was a good move.

3) My friends from work are throwing me a bachelorette/birthday party on Friday. A real post with pictures from that awesomeness. We are going to eat a sushi place (never had sushi before so we shall see) and then hang out at Anna's house who incidentally lives in the next neighborhood

4) Washer and Dryer are still not here but I gave up waiting on them and am using Caroline's washer/dryer. Because of this I am back at the gym. I started Monday and boy am I sore! Janet, one of my friends at work, somehow convinced me that I should join the running club at work so now we are signed up for a 5k and a 10k. I have two goals: 1) finish and 2) hopefully stay running the whole time...maybe not fast but I do not want to walk at any point if I can help it. Goal number 1 is more important then goal number 2. I will do a separate post on my new regime but let me just say running is not for me.

5) I got some birthday money for work clothes so I went shopping! I never used to understand how people could go nuts with shopping. Whenever I would go I would end up in tears because nothing fit me right so I was lucky to find something to spend my money on let alone somethings to make me spend too much money. Well, with the weight loss and tone I can definitely understand how someone can go overboard. I had a very successful trip and it may have been the first time in 27 years I did not cry shopping for clothes! First time for everything right? I plan to do a photo shoot as well for this.

6) Work is going well. We have another test coming up on the 27th so I am studying very hard. We have had overtime offered to us even though we are still trainees so I have been doing a lot of that. Still having fun but I had my first bawler.....not crying, absolutely bawling. I felt so bad, I could definitely understand her frustration and I tried to make her feel better but I think I ended up just making it worse. Definitely not fun, I was able to resolve the situation by the time the phone call ended but I just felt so bad for the caller. :(

Anyway Saturday is more overtime but after that a bridesmaid and I am going to get our dresses fitted and if there is time Brian and I are buying our wedding bands. Less then 6 weeks.....

My one and only photo shoot ;)

I am really enjoying all of the comments I have been getting! I only wish I could figure out how to reply to them without just making a comment myself. Any tips on that? Also my Mom is still unable to comment....we know the comment section is working as I am getting so many wonderful comments from other readers and we know she knows how as she has commented before and it worked so we are stumped!

Anyway, I promised you pictures of my new dresses so I made Brian take pictures of me. I love these dresses! They are so comfy! Plus they are work appropriate with a shrug but once you take the shrug off (or keep it on...) you have a cute outfit for a party which I never have! I have 4 shrugs (black, white, brown and purple) and each shrug can go on multiple dresses to keep things interesting. Love it!

Forgive the side ways pictures :( If I hold my camera one way vertically it is fine, if I hold it the opposite way it isn't and I can't remember which way is which. Oh, starting Monday I will be back at the gym so I will look even better. (The photo's of the back of the dresses are a bit pathetic). And I had just come out of the shower and put my hair up. Usually it is dry and down :)

I think I am also going to wear this the Friday before my wedding :)

It has a bow :)

This one is a bit big but they are supposed to shrink

The outfit I wore on the 4th :)

The dress I wore to the interview but it shrunk a bit even though I didn't dry it

The last dress is from JC Penney but the rest of the dresses/shrugs are from Dressbarn. I am slightly disappointed in the quality. The zippers are really hard to do even with the dress off let alone with dress on and I keep finding lose strands that I either have to pull out or cut off. However these dresses were cheap and you do get what you pay for. These clothes will last I just may have to pull out the needle and thread. They are so comfy at work! Now I just need a pair of Brown shoes, White shoes and black shoes :)

Fourth of July Weekend: Part 1

I have had the best Fourth of July Weekend I think there ever was. I am so pleased and thankful for how everything turned out. I had so much fun that I can't contain it into one post! The follow up will be posted tomorrow.

Saturday:

Saturday we went out for the day. We had lots of shopping to do! We first drove through Market Commons and ended up walking through a very disappointing Italian festival. It was more of a vender market with pizza. While we were there we decided to eat out at Travinia's. It was as usual delicious.

Brian's Veal Ravioli with Marinara

My Italian sub

After that we went shopping at the mall!

Our first stop was at Men's Warehouse where we got Brian's suits. He had a $100 gift card and needed more work shirts. They had an amazing sale and they let us use the gift card (we got the gift card because we spent X amount so it wasn't a gift card gift card) which was awesome. We ended up getting 4 polo shirts and a t-shirt! They didn't have 2 of the shirts in his size and they let us order them but keep them at the same price as the others! It was awesome! Men's Warehouse is still our go to store for Brian.

Our next stop was Old Navy. My mom had gotten me a dress that didn't work well with my body and I had returned it from a sister company of Old Navy. I chose to get a gift card and that gift card is good at any of the Gap companies and I thought of Old Navy first. I love Old Navy prices but I often don't love their clothes on me. I was very successful on Saturday! I had $90 dollars and I got 3 polo's, 2 button downs and 1 dressy tank top! I even had $15 left over and I used that to order a tank from the Gap online to go with one of my Old Navy shirts.

Our final stop was Dressbarn from me. One of my new friends at work has several cute dresses from there and I was dying to see for myself. I had found 4 online that I loved and wanted to see if they had them in the store. They didn't but they had 4 more that I fell in love with. I got the 4 dresses and 2 shrugs in the store and the 4 dresses and 2 shrugs online! They are so cute! They all fit beautifully and I just love them! I definitely do not have the issue of not having clothes for work! And I finally feel like I have clothes that I like, can afford and is the style that is appropriate for the activities I am doing. Dressbarn is my go to store! I will do a post modelling my new outfits when everything comes in.

Sunday:

This was a typical Sunday. I watched TV (skipped Caroline's as she was busy) and hung out. Brian played his games.

Come back tomorrow to see part 2 :)

Lets have some fun!

We are still waiting on answers to a couple questions before we move forward but I am tired of having to wait for things. So while we do need to wait and are...I have given myself permission to play interior decorator using the current house as an example.

Master Bedroom:

Brian and I both loved the Porter collection from Ashley Home Furniture (coincidentally where we first heard about the Brighton house). All pictures following are from the Ashley Home Furniture website.

Queen sized sleigh bed with storage under neath

The chest that I would probably use as my dresser

The dresser- we wouldn't get the mirror, Brian would use this

Two nightstands

Media Chest...not sure if we actually get this portion

 For bedding:

I like having a comforter/quilt having a basic color that matches well so I can just have different colored sheets/pillow cases, etc and create a new look without having to buy multiple comforters, etc. Each bedroom would have their own set, etc. I am not sure about the wall color yet but it will be a white/pale yellow color so that should match well with a lot of designs. I can't really find any examples but I know what I am looking for is out there :)

Guest Bedroom #1:

Gabriela Poster Bedroom Set

Guest Room #3:

Both these guest rooms will hopefully be, in reality, children's rooms in the relatively near future so I really like this for a child. It is gender neutral...I just either need pink or blue sheets!

Their bed and a bed for their friends

Dresser

Bookcase

But you want to know what I have heard is great for kids?

Cribs that convert into beds!

I have heard amazing things about these beds so they are definitely on my baby shower list!

Costco...you get me in trouble!

Brian and I have this list of things we want and need but don't necessarily want in the current apartment. These things are reserved for when we buy our first home or move somewhere that is meant to be permanent. There are lots of things on this list like place mats, napkins, pasta maker, Kitchen Aid mixer, etc.

Two of the things that we have been looking more closely at are dishes and a dutch oven.

We have dishes. We have the dishes that my mom and dad got as a wedding gift and we have the dishes that I bought pre-Brian. Between those sets we can barely have 8 people over for dinner and have dinnerware for them to eat on. I would like a matching set so we can feed more then 4 people on the same dinnerware. I would love to have a set of 12 but our minimum was 8. Brian and I have been shopping around mainly to figure out what we both like and trying to get our styles to match.

A dutch oven is just something everyone should have. We have several recipes that require one and it would make frying things a whole lot easier. They are just very expensive and heavy. Not something you can just buy on a whim and VERY heavy when you move.

Well what does ANY of this have to do with Costco? We found both these things at Costco today!

I have a love/hate relationship with the store. I LOVE that we can find a lot of things cheaply but that is the same reason why I hate it. It is a RARE trip that we leave only with the things we came in to purchase!

Today we were walking to the meat section and I see these white plates on display. We stop and look since that is what we do when we see dishes. Brian and I both remarked that we liked them. They were white porcelain, sturdy, good for casual or fine dining, microwave and dishwasher safe. The set includes 4 dinner plates, 4 salad plates, 4 mugs, 4 pasta bowls and 4 cereal bowls. Plus we both like them (this is huge). We look at the price and each set is $20. The catch? There is an * by them and in Costco language that means that you better buy it now because they are not reordering them. We got two sets so we can seat up to 8 without having to mix dinnerware.

Here is what they look like:

Not a huge fan of the mugs but they could be ALOT worse

They are sitting in the closet for now until we decide what to do with our current dishes. I think we should keep one set just in case we need to feed more then 8 people. The other set would be given to someone who needs it or to Goodwill.

We put them in the cart and Brian turns around and sees this

This was $50 and also had the *. Oh goodness! Our $40 run to Costco just became a lot more expensive. Brian started to hesitate but I just put it in the cart. We have needed and wanted one for a while. It was in our color (we have decided that our kitchen colors will be red and black so we have been trying to keep everything in those colors). It was cheap (most dutch oven's we find are $100 +). And it may not be there when get back and we only get to Costco every 2 months or so. Now we just need to clean it and cook with it. This will be stored in one of our cabinets in the kitchen :)

That aisle that we were in must have been the clearance aisle as EVERYTHING had the *. There were a couple things we liked but not enough to buy. We ALMOST bought some cutting boards that were PERFECT for us but we put them back because they were not dishwasher safe. We need everything to be dishwasher safe...we don't mind washing them buy hand but we are huge fans of the dishwasher.

It was a good shopping day :)

Men's Warehouse

Back in December Brian and I went to Men's Warehouse so he could, hopefully, get some suits for any interview/future jobs he will get.

You may remember the disaster we encountered at Jos A Banks. We had the absolute opposite experience at Men's Warehouse! Based on my experience at Jos A Banks I had given up on my dream of getting Brian a suit and had relented to the idea of just some nice Dockers and button downs with ties.

We first started the day going into J.C. Penney. They had a nice selection but we had no clue on size for shirts. I made Brian try some on. They were either too big or too small or fine in the body but too big in the neck. We decided to leave as there was no one to help us and going that route was going to take hours. We headed over to Men's Warehouse with the idea that he would get sized, pick a few things because surely our money would not go nearly as far there as it would at J.C. Penney and I could get other shirts, etc later at other stores once we knew the size.

We walk into Men's Warehouse and get greeted by a very friendly sales lady. The first thing we noticed that they were having a buy one, get one sale that we could actually participate in. That made us happy since this hopefully meant we could get a little more then we originally thought. We start talking and end up telling her what happened at Jos A. Banks. She was horrified. She listened to exactly what we were looking for and knew exactly where to start. She started with a Trio where you would get a suit jacket, pants the same color as the suit jacket and a second pair of pants that were a different color but still went with the jacket. 2 outfits in 1 set. When she said Trio I was hesitant due to Jos A. Banks but these were MUCH better!

Since there was a buy one get one sale we picked out two trio's. (She also took us to the area that we could afford which we appreciated).

Black Suit

The "extra" pair of pants that came with the black suit

The navy blue suit

The extra pair of pants that came with the navy suit

Once we got the suits picked out in the approximate size another sales associate took Brian so he could get the suits fitted to him. While he was off doing that, the sales lady and I started picking out shirts and ties.  I insisted he had a white shirt and a light blue shirt. Those, thanks to Daddy, are considered basics in my mind. We at the time picked to yellow/beige shirts. Brian is a lot like Daddy in terms of his suits/ties/shirts. Take the fun out of it! I picked out about 7 or 8 ties expecting him to nix most of them.

When Brian came out he surprised us! He only nixed 2 ties or so and traded with a tie I never expected him to pick. He also traded one of the yellow/beige shirts with a grey shirt! He liked the majority of my ties but not all of them lasted as we were trying to get each tie to go with at least 2 shirts that way we would get the most out of our money.

The white he wore on his first interview, hasn't been re-ironed

What he wore to the second interview, I tied the tie :)

The blue and yellow/beige shirt

The orange tie was the shocker, the tie on top was the tie he wore with the white shirt

I do apologize for all these pictures being sideways, I haven't figured out how to turn them within blogger.

One thing I did not think about was shoes, belts and socks. I, of course, know that you can't wear regular shoes and socks with suits but had forgotten that we did not have them. Fortunately the sales lady asked and I remembered. Suit socks are socks so no pictures of that and he got a very basic brown belt and a plain black belt, nothing picture worthy. He did surprise me with the shoes. Again brown and black so he can get multiple outfits.

He has worn these twice, brown loafers

Black shoes similar to Daddy's

We would not have gotten as much if it were not for the buy one, get one sale. That is why it is all even numbers divisible by 2. I would have probably cut it back even more (2 shirts rather then 4, 4 ties rather then 6, 2 packets of socks rather then 4) but we got a little swept up with it and he is set for a long time. It was just such a great experience. I cannot describe it to you! It was even fun!

Brian definitely left with sticker shock even with the special and Christmas money. I don't think he quite understands why suits/work clothes have to be and are as expensive as they are. I, who am awful about spending money...I freak out spending money on much needed groceries where none of it is wasted...am feeling proud of what we have done. Sure it is a lot of money but he needs this, everything he has is a classic basic so will last a lifetime. Even if he doesn't get a job that needs a suit he can wear the bottoms and the button downs and ties. Or pair them with Dockers. He is set for any type of job he gets. Plus we got a GREAT deal on all of this. We got more then I had even originally dreamed off getting.

All of this was supposed to cost a little over $2500. (Again, the suits are nice but not top of the line, we definitely don't need top of the line) Due to the sale it was $1200. Because of the VERY generous amount of Christmas money we only had to pay $600 out of pocket.

Everyone there was wonderful, the whole process was EASY! I wish we could go back and get more but they did too good of a job as we are completely set for a good long while. Though if we do need more, Men's Warehouse for it and Men's Warehouse will be the first to be recommended. We are very pleased.