So Long, Farewell

Tonight was our very last night of apartment living.  After 7 years and just as many apartments, it's pretty awesome to stop paying rent.  But it's a little weird to say goodbye to my home of the past 3 years.  Fella and I had only been dating a year when we moved in, and we had only lived in our apartment - described on craigslist at the time as a sunny, charming vintage apartment on a quiet, tree-lined street - for a month when we adopted Jude.  We've had a lot of good times here, had Rad and other fun visitors, hosted several parties and gone through all kinds of interesting life experiences.  But as they say, onward and upward.


Don't let the pretty dress and fresh face fool you - I spent the day cleaning up the condo, after spending the better part of 12 hours on Thursday painting.  I couldn't have gotten it all done without the tireless efforts of Fella's parents.  We had dinner with them and Fella's godparents tonight, and it was nice to get out of my painting clothes and just relax for a while.  But still, I'm exhausted from all the hard work!  And yet so excited about the move tomorrow that I can't sleep.  Am I rambling?  I think I'm rambling.  What are you up to this weekend?

Dress: eShakti
Sandals: Birkenstocks
Jade necklace: Randolph Street Market (purchased during this blogger outing)
Watch: Fossil
Bag: Coach, gift from Fella's parents

Closed!

Today was our long-awaited closing. Fella and I are now homeowners! We're busy buying paint and getting the place ready to move in on Saturday.  Here we are in front of our new front door, and that envelope I'm holding is full of the massive amount of paperwork we had to sign.



In addition to a lovely yard, there's all kinds of self-photo potential in the new place.  Here's our attempt at a family portrait.  If you couldn't tell, Jude's pretty stoked about the new place.  Obviously we're re-painting these walls, since they totally wash me out.  Blogging is an important consideration for decor, isn't it?

Tee: Gap
Skirt: target
Sandals: Birkenstock

To Market, To Market

Happy Saturday, all!  This is what I've been wearing today, on what has become a pretty busy Saturday.  Technically Fella and I were supposed to spend the weekend packing, but I made plans to go to the Randolph Street Market this morning with fellow Chicago-area bloggers Randi from Not Just MOM and Julia from Polka Dot Biker Shorts.  They are both lovely ladies, and we had a great time perusing the market today.  Randi got a picture of the 3 of us, so that may appear on her blog sometime soon.  Meanwhile, my brother was passing through town on his way to visit our parents in Ohio, so Fella and I went downtown for brunch with him this morning.  The rare location shot above was taken (courtesy of Fella) while we waited for the train.  And before I could salvage any hopes of getting some packing done today, our friend C. texted to see if we would be up for dinner and a movie tonight.  Duh, of course.  So thank goodness there's 2 more days left this weekend!  What are you up to?

Jacket: Old Navy (remixed)
Dress: New York & Company
Sandals: Unisa (remixed)
Scarf: Target
Earrings: New York & Company (remixed)

Speaking of Floaty Skirts

The other day, E-Jo posted about floaty skirts.  And although I'm not a fan of mid-length skirts on me, I am a huge fan of floaty skirts!  Sure, pencil skirts are pretty flattering for curvy, hourglass-ish figured ladies like myself, but floaty skirts are just so comfortable, and they always signal summer to me.  Although my instinct is to pair a skirt like this with a t-shirt and flip flops, I dressed it up a bit for the office with flats and a cardigan.


Cardigan: Target (remixed)
Tank: Ann Taylor Factory Store (remixed)
Skirt: Gap Outlet
Flats: Loft (remixed)
Watch: Fossil (remixed)
Earrings & Necklace: Alixandra Collections (gifted)

On a random note of self-promotion, I decided to undertake my own Project 365 to celebrate turning 30 this year. The project involves taking and posting a picture each day for an entire year, and in addition to documenting your daily life for a year, it's also supposed to help build photography skills.  It's a little weird toting my camera around with me all the time, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.  In any event, this picture of Jude was one of my many leftovers yesterday.  He hasn't been on the blog much lately, so I thought I'd share.  And if you want to check out the rest of my pictures so far, you can visit my photoblog.  That's all.

Fun with Accent Colors

Happy Monday!  How was your weekend?  Thank you for all the birthday wishes on Friday's post.  I had a great weekend, but it was of course way too short.  I'm running a little late for work this morning, so this post will be brief.  It's finally warm enough here to wear dresses and skirts pretty regularly, which is nice, but can also get kind of boring after a while.  Today, to punch things up, I added bright blue and yellow accents to a black and white dress.

Dress: Target (remixed)
Flower pin & earrings: New York & Company
Shoes: Aerosoles (remixed)
Watch: Fossil
Bag: Coach, gifted

Personal Day

Happy Friday, Style Nation!  This is what I wore to work yesterday, since I'm taking a personal day today.  I didn't have time to snap pictures in the morning, so the lighting is kind of wonky because I took pictures as the sun was starting to set.  I haven't taken any outfit photos with the new camera in that kind of light, so it looks a bit... off.  But since I'm sharing less than perfect pictures, here's one of me and Fella (in the background, on the couch) trying to get Jude to join in the photo shoot fun.  Fella was getting ready to take him on a run, so Jude was less than enthused.



I'm taking a personal day today because tomorrow is my birthday!  My 30th, to be exact.  My 20's, although really fun, were pretty crazy.  I graduated college, bought my first car and logged nearly 100,000 miles on it, moved to Detroit, got engaged, broke off said engagement, moved to Chicago, started working at my company, lived in 7 different apartments, met Fella, adopted Jude and started graduate school (hopefully I'll get back to that someday).  Whew!  I always take a day off work to celebrate my birthday, though usually I just take myself shopping.  That's not really in the budget this year, so instead I'm going for a massage this morning (I'm cashing in a gift card, so not spending money!) and then heading downtown for a lunch and movie date with one of my girlfriends.  We'll be seeing Bridesmaids.  I'm pretty stoked, since there's not a lot of movies out there featuring funny women.  After all of that, Fella and I have dinner reservations at one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants.



I wish you could see just how cute this ruffled floral tank is.  It was an early birthday gift from Fella's parents.  Does his mom know me or what?

I hope you all have a great weekend!  I'll leave you with this gem, me celebrating my 5th birthday.  At a boy scout meeting.  In a romper!



Cardigan: Loft
Tank: Tommy Hilfiger from Macy's, gifted
Jeans: Gap
Necklace: Hazel (remixed)
Watch: Fossil
Sandals: Birkenstock via PiperLime (inspired by E-Jo's matching pair)

Lost and Found

This weekend while combing through my many boxes of old clothes hanging out in my basement, I stumbled upon a few pieces that I can't for the life of me figure out why I would have packed away.  This dress was one of them.  I came upstairs with an armful of clothes that I was eager to try on and reacquaint myself with, and each time I would ask out loud why on earth I had made these clothes stay in the basement (Fella, amused with this, said he didn't even try to understand my thinking on stuff like this).  But of course, I was asking Past Anne.  Seriously, what was she thinking?  This dress fits, is super comfy, pretty cute and even in line with my current color pallet.  Yet it's been in the basement since we moved into this apartment in 2008, and I'm fairly certain I haven't worn it since at least 2007.  I can't believe it, but I think this was purchased at a time that I wanted to wear dresses, but since they weren't in fashion quite as much, I didn't.


Things that I could easily work into my current clothing rotation were few and far between, and a majority of the clothes I had are being donated to various charities around town.  However, there were a few special items that I want to find good homes for.  Are you in the market for some cute stuff that is way too small for me now?  If so, take a look at my closet and drop me a line.  I'm really bad at shipping things in any sort of timely fashion, but I guarantee they'll be mailed before June 1st, because if I don't give them away here, they're being donated before we move.

Dress: New York & Company (c. 2006 or 2007)
Cami: New York & Company
Leggings and Necklace: Target
Shoes: Born