Can We Just Start Today Over?

Happy Friday morning to y'all! Do you ever have mornings that you'd like to totally do over? Or avoid all together? Yeah, today was one of those. Cara over at City Girl Chicago posted her morning routine today, so I'm going to share mine. This is more or less how my morning goes on a typical office day.

5:30am: Alarm goes off. Fella pops out of bed, hits snooze.  Jude snuggles up with us.
5:37am: Alarm goes off yet again. I very slowly get out of bed and grumble about the downstairs neighbor's dog keeping us up all night with his barking. Totally don't understand how my neighbor sleeps through this, or thinks that we don't hear it and doesn't think that it's just a bit rude to let your dog bark for 10 minutes at a time ALL NIGHT LONG (Can you tell I'm really annoyed?). Anyway.
5:40am: Start a pot of coffee. Both dogs run into the kitchen, thinking it might be time to go outside or eat something. It's not. Check email while waiting for coffee to finish. Pour a cup loaded with Bailey's toffee almond creamer, knowing it'll be just the temperature I like once I get out of the shower.
5:49am: Shower, moisturize, blow-dry bangs, suck down coffee.
6:10am: Get dressed in the dark since the sun is nowhere close to coming up this early anymore.
6:20am: Hair & make-up.
6:40am: Wake Fella up, get dogs ready to go on their walks. They don't generally walk very well together, so Fella and I take them on separate walks every morning. We're pretty dedicated dog owners.
7:00am: Feed dogs, make breakfast-to-go, pack lunch, computer, coffee travel mug in work bag. Take OOTD photos even though it's STILL dark out.
7:15am: Fly out the door to walk a mile to the train station.
7:37am: Catch Metra train up to the Northern 'burbs for the first 20 miles of my commute.
8:22am: Arrive at my stop. Proceed to wait for company-chartered shuttle bus to drive the last 9 miles to my office. Keep waiting...
8:45am: Bus finally arrives. It's cool, I didn't want to get to work on time today anyway. Think that maybe I should've driven to work, though that would be bad for the environment and the traffic coming home would make me regret that. Probably should've just worked from home.
9:10am: Finally sit down at my desk, nearly 2 hours after leaving the house and 3.5 hours after waking up. Ugh!

So yeah, I'm a big ball of sunshine today. I am, however, really looking forward to the weekend. We were so busy with house stuff last weekend that I didn't get much time for r&r. I don't have much planned, though we're heading to see Moneyball with a friend on Sunday, and having dinner with Fella's family. What are you guys up to? And what does your morning routine look like?

Tee: Loft
Scarf: Target
Jeans: Old Navy
Sneakers: Converse

Golden Autumn Day

When I bought this dress back in August, I wondered about other ways to style it than just with some sandals.  The weather has, indeed, cooled off, making way for a scarf and some boots.  I think the dress works pretty well in a fall iteration.  We had gorgeous 70 degree weather yesterday (though with some intermittent rain), but it's cooled back down today and sort of looking like rain.  I kind of miss the warmer weather of August and I'm not looking forward to winter, but it's nice to have more options with my clothes than wearing as little as possible because it's really hot out.  How about you?  Do you prefer warm weather or cooler weather dressing?

Dress: New York & Company
Scarf and tights: Target
Boots: Eddie Bauer
Sunglasses: Loft

Leftovers

Happy Monday, Stylenation!  I'm working from home today, but here's an unblogged outfit I wore last week.  Nothing too exciting to say about it - I was just keeping warm and cozy on a chilly fall day.

Cardigan: Old Navy (remixed)
Tank: Ann Taylor Factory Store (remixed)
Pants: New York & Company
Scarf: Embellish
Flats: born

How was your weekend?  Mine was incredibly busy.  Fella and I went out to celebrate friends' birthdays on Friday and Saturday night, and the rest of the weekend was spent being super domestic.

We finally painted our dining room.  Here's what it looked like when we moved in.  The room's makeover isn't quite finished yet, but here's what the new colors look like.  The trim was a chocolate brown before, which was okay, but I wanted to go a little more bold.  The top part of the walls are Dapper Tan by Glidden, and the bottom is Behr's Ruby Ring.



While not painting, I did a ton of cooking.  Cooler fall weather always makes me want to be in the kitchen.  I made chili and cornbread for dinner last night, and pumpkin pie cookies for dessert.

Giving In To... Oxfords

Has there ever been a trend party that you've been super late to?  My most notable one thus far has been leggings.  I remember them being kind of big while I was growing up in the 80's, but it took me until just this year to finally snag a pair.  And now I'm finally embracing oxfords.  Rad has had a pretty sweet pair for a while now (so great, she even wore them to her wedding reception), but they never felt like my style.  I even remember girls at my high school wearing heeled oxfords with their uniforms and again, I liked them, but didn't think they were for me.  I've been seeing them all over the blogosphere this fall, and what finally did me in was Kristen of Low Fat Dressing's post devoted to her 3 awesome pairs of Franco Sarto oxford booties.  I had to have a pair of oxfords, and I finally decided to treat myself.  So after 15 years of admiring the style, I'm finally on board with a pair of my own.  What trend have you spent half a lifetime warming up to?



Sweater & Necklace: The Limited
Skirt: Old Navy
Tights: Target
Shoes: Born

A Not-So-Summer Skirt

The last time I wore this skirt, in a pretty similar color scheme in March, I noted that I was breaking the rules by wearing a warm weather skirt while it was still really cold out.  I was such a rebel back then, wasn't I?  The funny thing is, the skirt didn't get worn during the summer at all.  It's one of the many skirts and dresses I have that are too short for summer's bare legs, but I'm totally fine with wearing when it's cool enough to sport some tights underneath.

Cardigan & Skirt: The Limited
Tank: Gap (it's got some cute detailing that you can kind of sort of see here)
Necklace: New York & Company
Headband: Loft
Tights and Sunnies: Target
Boots: Eddie Bauer

A Little Fancy for a Monday

This outfit feels like it's way too nice for a Monday, like I'm totally wasting it by wearing it to work.  Do you ever feel that way about what you're wearing?  Nonetheless, I couldn't keep passing over this dress in my closet, hoping for something more fun than work to wear it for.  I'm sure I'll get a chance soon, perhaps around the holidays, but in the meantime, it was just wrong to let this dress hang in my closet, unworn.  It's a comfy wrap dress that isn't a neckline offender, though I've covered up the modest neckline with Meko's leopard print circle scarf.  You can see the full dress here, since I didn't capture the detail too well.  The hat didn't make it to work - I'm just sparing you all a bad hair day.  Though sometimes I do wish hats were office-appropriate.  That'd save me SO much time in the morning.

Dress: The Limited
Belt, hat and tights: Target
Scarf: The Limited
Boots: Eddie Bauer

Autumn Leaves are Brown, and the Sky is Gray

I knew our awesome unseasonably warm and sunny fall weather had to come to an end soon, and it did yesterday. It rained pretty much all day, and this morning, although the sun is shining again, it's dropped below 50. But it's not snowing or freezing, so it could be worse.

 I've been kind of bad about mentioning what item(s) is being rescued for No Repeats, but I have been digging through the depths of my closet and/or unpacked moving boxes. This sweater hasn't seen the blog since February 25th.  I like the space-dyed pattern of it, but the color totally washes me out, so it needs to be paired with bright, bold colors to prevent that.  Similar to how Kristen broke up her all-cream-on-top ensemble with a bold teal scarf.  I bought this sweater before I had a good handle on which colors I should probably avoid, but tricks like this help me dress around that.

Cardigan: Gap Outlet
Tank: Target
Jeans: Old Navy
Necklace: New York & Company
Shoes: Born