Walking In Sunshine!

My favorite tree/outdoor meditation spot

Those of you who live in Chicago know how rare sunny days are in Autumn/Winter, even more rare are mild weather days. It just so happens that for this "photo shoot" in the Sculpture Park, I got very lucky!

Many thanks to my BFF and the greatest love of my life (besides my children and Alexander Wang) for shooting these awesome photos. 

Now on to the OOTD...

This recycled blazer and scarf may look familiar because I love them and wore them together here, lol. 

Notice the mixed patterns and colors? Yeeeeah, I'm experimenting y'all, lol!

Scarf from F21

I love wrapping this scarf around my neck/shoulders. Look at my crooked smile, so endearing :-)

Gold earrings were a gift from my Grandmother.

Full length of the entire outfit.

From the back.

Me next to one of my fave sculptures in the entire park.

Another of my fave sculptures.

Sunnies from Target ($5)

 My skin was all kinds of yuck in these pictures. It's clearing up little by little though. I'll blog about my skin care regimen sometime in the near future.

Don't the booties look 3D, lol? Want a closer look?

You like? I've worn these once and I'm pretty sure I'll never wear them again. My feet are way to big and wide for these babies :-(


I'm creating a shop to sell some of the items I can't/don't wear or use. My Pink Clarisonic Classic will be another one of the items in the shop. I paid $195 for that brush and can't use it, my skin is just way too sensitive :-(

Blazerless and enjoying the weather and scenery.

Now let's look at the accessories...

Closer?

The Deets:


Leopard Satchel = Alloy.com
Necklace = F21
Leopard Print Faux Pony Hair Belt = ASOS
"Gold" Flake Ring = Charlotte Russe
Faux Stone Ring = F21
"Gold" Three Row Spike Bracelet = Gift from my bestie Shan
"Gold" Pyramid Stud Bracelet = F21
BDG Shirt = Crossroads Trading Company
Kate Hill Blazer = Crossroads Trading Company
Super Skinny Twill Pants = Delias.com 
Brown Booties = Alloy.com
Sunnies = Target
Tribal Print Scarf = F21
Gold Earrings = Gift from my Grandmother

And that's that. What do you think of this outfit? I love what I did here as far as the mixing and matching goes, uber proud of my self :-D


Though I'm sure you've seen enough of my pictures, here are some bonus shots!

Don't they look all Secret Garden-ish, lol? My BFF did a totally FAWESOME job with the camera, I was honored and impressed. He made editing the pictures for this blog super hard (as evidenced by the amount of pictures in this blog, lol). In honor of him and his work, I'm posting his picture...

Well not him exactly, lol. Those are his custom Nikes that he designed and received shortly before the shoot. He's so in love with those shoes it's kind of ridiculous, lol. He even has his name on the back of them (you can just barely see it).


Okey dokey, that's enough. Do you like the outfit I put together? Dislike it? Let a sistah know!

The Rundown: New Year's Eve (the movie) & Other Things

How you dewin'?





Don't you just love Wendy? I do, lol. Anyway, I'm better than good and working on GREAT and I hope all you loyal readers are doing the same :-)


Last week and the weekend were sooo fun and busy for me! I went to the Refinery29 and TopShop Chicago holiday shopping party last Tuesday, a People Magazine premiere for New year's Eve on Thursday and out thrifting/craft supply gathering/partying/clubbing with my girls on Saturday. By the time Sunday rolled around, I was exhausted, lol.


Let's start with what I wore to the People Magazine premiere party for the new film New Year's Eve...

FOTN (face of the night) = Make Up For Ever Water Proof Eyebrow Corrector in "No 4 Dark Brown Black" (LOVE this stuff, full review to come soon), Mabelline Bronze Glitz Eyeshadow Trio, Mabelline EyeStudio Master Drama Cream Pencil in "Midnight Master" (last blogged about here, full review to come soon), L'Oreal Paris Voluminous False Fiber Lashes in "Blackest Black" (tweeted about the fawesomeness of this mascara, full review to come soon) and Lancome Paris Color Design Cream Lipstick in "Front Page" (fave lippy, soon to be blogged about).

Outfit Deets:


Earrings = F21
Bracelets = F21 & Old Navy
Rings = eBay (seen here) & Charlotte Russe
Necklace = Unique Thrift Store
Scarf = Dollar Tree
Orange Cardi = Alloy
Leopard print blouse = Unique Thrift Store (seen here)
Black Leather Belt = Gap
Dark Brown Super Skinny Twill Pants = Delia's
Brown Booties = Kohl's (seen here)
Leopard Print Satchel = Alloy (seen here)
Black Leather Jacket = Wilson's


I really liked this outfit for a casual night out. I wound up wearing a different coat though because it was freezing that night. Now on to the movie...


NYE is a feel good family oriented film (rated PG-13) directed by Gary Marshall. The ensemble cast features the likes of Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Michelle Pfeiffer, Halle Berry, Ashton Kutcher, Common, Zac Effron, Sarah Jessica Parker and many many more of Hollywood's elite. Now, you would think that with a cast like that the movie would be a hit right? Wrong! This movie was snore city! Both me and my girl Kristena fell asleep during the movie. What's more, when leaving the theater and talking to other movie patrons, we discovered many of them fell asleep too. Not a good sign. I just have to say that the acting was bad, the script was worse and the overall flow of the movie was like a clogged drain. I'm so glad we saw this movie for free. The People Magazine swagg bag provided very little icing on the cake. Here's what it contained...

In the bag: An issue of People Mag, sample of Halle Berry's perfume "Halle", a bar of Dove soap, a sample of Taster's Choice instant coffee and various coupons (not pictured). Very underwhelming.

Not much to be excited about right? I didn't think so either. The perfume smelled good though. Here's a pic of me and the girls...

L-R: Liesbeth, Ericka, Kristena and Moi. Naimah couldn't make it.

We were happy to be out of that theater, lol.


The movie was Thursday. On Saturday I went with my homegirl Naimah to the fabric store for some crafting supplies. I picked up some buttons...

I saw some earrings just like this in the thrift store today (blog to come on Thursday) for $10. These buttons were marked for $1.75 but after 50% off and 9.5% sales tax, they were a whopping 95 cents. I'm planning a sweet DIY earring project for these babies. My one regret from Saturday's thrifting adventure was not buying this beautiful piece of awesomeness right here...

It physically hurt me not to buy this vintage sequined blouse, my goodness it was beautiful! It cost $40 and I just wasn't prepared to spend that kind of money on one item. I'm now stalking it until the price is reduced. I hope no one steals it from me.


After the adventures in thrifting, my homegirl and I grabbed some pre-party food at nasty ass Taco Hell. I don't usually eat garbage, but I was STARVING. Good thing we went there too because I found something in the restroom...

Yep, it was my lucky day, lol. I wish it had been a $50 instead. After Taco Hell, we both had to rush home and prepare for the night's festivities: a holiday party and a night of house music at Output Lounge. I only have one picture from the fray...

This was me in a cab on the way to the club from the wack holiday party. No offense to my homegirl or her people who threw the party, lol. It wasn't my type of party though. At the club I had a Long Island Iced Tea (after the Bailey's spiked hot cocoa I'd had at the party) and proceeded to get it in on the dance floor until my knees ached and my legs quaked. It was a great night.


And that was my end of the week/weekend rundown. How  was your weekend? Have you started your rotation on the holiday party circuit yet? Let a sistah know!

New In: Attitude, Clothes, Booties, Bits & Pieces

There's just something about Friday that makes everything feel okay...am I right? I'm learning that no matter what happened yesterday, a new day deserves a new attitude. On that note, today I took some time to reflect on my many blessings and I realized that I'm very rich (said loud and obnoxiously like ATL housewife Nene Leakes, lol)!


Now, I'm no millionaire, but I am nevertheless very rich. I have food, shelter, good health, I'm whole in body/spirit/mind, I have an ever expanding circle of good girlfriends (finally!), my children are whole and healthy and doing well and every now and again, I can indulge in a little (discount) retail therapy :-)


Speaking of which, let's get on to the other newness...

Because one can always use a little help, I picked up the InStyle Secrets of Style handbook. Originally priced at $29.99, I picked this baby up at Half-Price Books for less than $8. Score right? It's filled with invaluable advice and great pictures for every style novice. Get you one!

Remember this dress? It was on my "Wish List Wednesday" post from a week or two ago. She's mine now! I bought her during a 30% off site-wide sale. I love making wishes come true :-)

Because I anticipate the acquisition of a new job in my near future, I picked up two pairs of these Super Skinny Twill Pants from Delia's.com. I had a $15 store credit and all pants and jeans were buy one get one 50% off. As a bonus, I received 15% off my order and 4% cash back when I shopped through Ebates.com. Do I know how to shop or what?

I scored these two striped bodycon skirts from F21 for $7.50 each. I also used a code for free shipping *pats self on back*

As you can plainly see, I got these three double sets of lightning bolt earrings from F21 for $1.50 each (free shipping included). The two love rings were $5 each on eBay.

These tan, faux shearling booties were on my wish list for less than two days before I scooped them up for 15% off their original price from Famous Footwear.

These two pairs of sensible but cute booties were 30% off at Kohl's. Oh, shopping through Ebates.com got me 4% cash back and free shipping :-)

All three of these faux suede booties were had for 20% off and free shipping at Alloy.com. Once again, 4% (daily double) cash back when bought through Ebates.com.




Did I do well or did I do well? Have you got anything new in? did you count your blessings today? Let a sistah know!