home sweet home

Well, I am home with my kitties again.

Not for good though, I didn't give up on the road trip! We just need to regroup and plan better before we head back out again. My original plan was that we just drive wherever we want to, sleep in the car some nights, and then find cheap local hotels other nights. But the first attempt at sleeping in the car was a nightmare (I forgot that it's summer and you can't leave the a/c on all night while you're sleeping. SOOOO hot!!) And finding a "cheap hotel" isn't so easy. In Burlington, VT we couldn't even find a vacancy, let alone a cheap one.

Rather than drive around for hours looking for hotels in the rain after midnight on Thursday we realized it would only be about seven hours to drive home... so we did. Once we have everything planned better we'll definitely go back out again. I still want to see all the states and get to use the traveling office that I was so excited about, lol! I'm tempted to drive down to the beach this weekend just so I can work out of my car ;)

You live and learn though, right? We had SO much fun seeing Niagara Falls and getting to meet Sarah... I don't want to just give up on all of the other fun experiences I could have if I continued. But we definitely need to be more organized before we continue. Honestly I wish that "winging it" was a viable option because it seemed so fun and spontaneous! But I'd rather feel safe and know that I definitely have a (reasonably affordable) bed to sleep in each night.

I have some more pictures from the trip to post though! We went to Utica, NY on Thursday and I had one of the best veggie burgers of my entire life. Details later.

worth it.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I got to stay with one of my best friends, Sarah. We've actually known each other for almost five years but didn't get to meet in person until this week! I had SO much fun with her and her family, it definitely made my bout of homesickness worth it. I think getting to meet the three other friends in our little BFF group (Casey, Millie and Nicola) is my incentive for following through on my road trip :) Next year we're all going to meet up together for the TCM Film Festival in California and I can't wait!! :D

Sarah and her family showed me and Kyle around Buffalo and we had a blast! I was so sad when it was time to leave! I wish Buffalo wasn't so far away from where I live or I'd visit like every weekend if they'd have me! Really though, they were so welcoming (and awesome!!) and helped me feel a lot less homesick :)

Today we're back in Syracuse again, and then I think we're going to head for either Vermont or New Hampshire. We're definitely winging it lol

ps. On Tuesday morning we did the Maid of the Mist! Kyle has the photos on his phone still but when I finally get them on my computer I'll post some. I'm going to be very stingy with my use of the word "epic" now that I've been on that boat. Seriously, nothing else comes even close to that amount of epicness.

dress- c/o tulle | shoes - asos | bag - c/o wet seal

what's old is new again

Last week I found a really pretty suitcase at a vintage shop in New Hope, but one side of the bag was completely faded. It was only $20 though (and these tend to be so much more online, especially with shipping!) so I snatched it up anyway.

I got some fabric markers in the same colors of the suitcase, and just touched up all of the colors! It was like paint-by-number.. a little bit time consuming but really easy! I think re-doing the black outline is what made the most difference but even the vibrancy of the green and blue is incredibly noticeable.



This was such an easy project and it gave the bag a major facelift! :) I've been using the suitcase on my trip and so far the colors are holding up great. It even came into contact with some rain and the colors didn't run! I'm definitely going to keep this in mind from now on when I see really faded items, now that I know it's such an easy fix!

niagara falls

Yesterday started out pretty terrible. Just a bunch of things went wrong and it was an awful start to the trip. Things improved immensely though, when we finally ended up in Canada at Niagara Falls and got to see one of the prettiest locations on earth in beautiful weather with rainbows all over the place! It was really breathtaking.

Today we're heading over to Buffalo (shuffling off, if you will) and I get to see one of my best friends so I'm pretty excited about that!! :) After New York we're supposed to go to Vermont but honestly I'm having second thoughts about continuing on the trip. I always want to be really adventurous and do fun spontaneous things, but when it gets down to it I'm really just a terrible homebody and get so homesick SO fast. I hate that this is such an ingrained character trait -- that I make life changing plans and then always end up backing out of them. This trip should be SO awesome. I really, really want to see all 50 states and the idea of working on the road seemed so thrilling to me when I was planning it! But now that I'm living my plans, I just want to be home.

I'll give it another couple of days before I decide if I want to head back to NJ. Who knows, maybe the travel bug will finally hit me and I'll have to be dragged back home kicking and screaming...

dress- forever 21 | shoes - asos | shirt - target | bag - c/o wet seal

road trip, day one!

Right now I'm sitting at a rest stop in Syracuse, NY, on my way to Niagara Falls! So far everything is going smoothly and I'm really enjoying the scenery while we drive. Me and my brother have spent most of the trip building a playlist on my ipod, a difficult task since we have wildly different taste in music. But we seem to find common ground when Frank Sinatra songs come on, so he'll probably be crooning through the speakers through most of our vacation!

Tomorrow will be the first time I try packing orders and doing business on the road, so I really hope it goes over well! I can't wait to show you guys the pictures of the mobile workstation I made in my car trunk. I spent most of Saturday just sitting outside starting at it because I was so proud lol ;D

Also YES I am wearing jeans in this picture. I KNOW. I ordered and returned about five pair online before finding these... I really wanted a pair for the trip that I could wear on days that would mostly be spent in the car. These have proved to be super comfortable so far and they aren't riding down like all the jeans I've owned in the past. I always have a hard time finding denim that fits my small-waist-huge-hips ratio but these are working great! I got them from modcloth, here. The shoes are from Payless and the bag is vintage :)

I'll try to blog as often as the wi-fi gods will allow, but I'll definitely be posting on instagram a lot if you want to follow along with my road trip adventures!

shop my closet update!

I just added over 40 items (including LOTS of dresses, pastels and pretty collars!!) to my shop my closet page. It's connected to Sweet and Lovely so if you have your eye on any of those items you can combine shipping ;) Also that means my 10% off code in the sidebar is applicable as well! Just saying..

I'm actually leaving on my road trip TODAY! eep! I'm going to bring along anything that doesn't sell immediately so that I can still mail it from the road. However.. if you're thinking of getting something from the closet update, buying it before 11AM EST would ensure I can ship it before I leave. It just means you get it quicker and I don't have to stuff more clothes into my car than I'd like to, lol ;) I already have waaaaay too many dresses in my own suitcase haha!

Well, my next post will be written from the road!! ahh!

my first tattoo

On what would have been Hypatia's 6th adoption anniversary, May 19th, me and my brother went to a tattoo parlor to inquire about getting tattoos. We really didn't expect to get them on the spot, but when the guy offered I immediately accepted, since I thought it would be so perfect to have her tattoo done on the same day I had first brought her home. I had my own drawing with me (it's at the end of this post) It's a rough drawing that I did in pencil and then darkened in photoshop. I wanted something a little sketchy & loose, not as perfect as a traditional tattoo.



Overall I'm very happy with it. It looks like Hypatia, so I'm content and I love looking at it and remembering what a sweet pretty cat she was. I really didn't like our tattoo artist, and I think his skill as an artist & technician left a lot to be desired (see my previous post about him misspelling my brother's tattoo... yikes!) but I think that the parts of my tattoo I'm unhappy with (like leaving out her ear tufts) can easily be fixed by another (better) tattoo artist later.

I definitely learned my lesson about researching beforehand though. My brother's best friend was tattooed at this place & his piece is amazing... we figured we'd be safe going to that shop, forgetting to ask for the same specific artist. We definitely had somebody else lol :) But you live and learn! And I think both of our tattoos will be perfect once we've found a reputable talented person to touch them up for us.

Also, just in case anyone is un-tattooed and wondering about the pain... It was a lot less terrible than I imagined it would be. I was prepared to be crying and screaming (especially since I heard the wrist is one of the worst areas to get a tattoo) but it wasn't that bad. When the needle was towards the middle of my wrist it hurt a lot more, but for the most part it was just uncomfortable, not unbearable. And I am a HUGE baby when it comes to pain! It probably helps to have someone there to take your mind off of it, too. Kyle kept quizzing me about Office trivia and it definitely helped a lot!

Also, I think that whole "once you get one you want to get more" thing is definitely true. I would never want to cover myself in tattoos but I'm thinking a little tiny one dedicated to The Office is definitely in my future.

bookworm

For Father's Day this year we spent the afternoon perusing the dusty shelves at a local used bookstore. I love having a geeky dad who likes the same things I do.. it makes his birthday and Father's Day even more fun because he plans activities that I love too! lol! It just wouldn't be the same if he was a golf and power tools kinda dad ;)

I ended up getting a couple books I had been looking for while we were there, including one on marriage & family in the middle ages. I'm so fascinated by that time period but it seems like most books about that era tend to concentrate on the wars or the royals, but I really wanted something about normal people and their day to day lives. This book seems to be exactly what I was looking for! I'm going to read it on the road trip. I'm intent on getting a lot of reading done while we're away, so I'm planning on bringing a hefty amount of books with me. Once I've sorted out exactly which ones I'm bringing I'll do a post!

I'm pretty sure that we're going to be hitting the road on Sunday morning and heading up to northern NY first. I am so excited that it's actually happening! I still haven't decided what I'm packing yet but my business-related stuff is all set to go and we already have the first part of the route mapped out! yay!! :)

dress & cardigan - forever 21 | belt - vintage | shoes - ebay | bag - modcloth

i have no idea

Sometimes my tripod is crooked and I don't feel like doing regular outfit poses. 

Oh also, I got a tattoo on my wrist! I think this is my first outfit photo where you can see it. I got it on Hypatia's 6th adoption anniversary (May 19th) but I didn't want to show off pictures until it was healed (they always look so much nicer once they're not puffy and red, why does everyone seem to post photos immediately?!) and then I kind of forgot to share it! I'll take better pictures soon so you can see it up close.

I need to get it touched up since the guy left out some of the line work from my original drawing, but I'll probably share pictures before that. Me and my brother both went and got tattoos kind of on a whim, and we were both disappointed with the artist. He actually misspelled the name on my brother's tattoo! I mean, I double-triple-quadruple check before using permanent marker on paper let alone permanent ink on somebody's skin! Yikes! It's kind of fixed now though, so it's turned into a funny family joke. The guy misspelled my mom's maiden name "Buckley" as "Buckeey" so that's my brother's new nickname ;)

dress - asos | sweater - forever 21 | shoes - bait footwear

easy peasy folding tray makeover

Since I'm going to be working out of my car trunk during the road trip, I decided to get a folding tray to expand my workspace a little. I figured this would be perfect since it folds up flat and will store easily in the car! I got mine on amazon here. They come in sets of 2, so I gave the second one to my mom to use as a tv tray. (sidenote -- can we talk about the awesome Mod Podge label design?!)



It's not terrible looking to begin with, but definitely not my style at all. So I took it outside and gave the whole thing a couple coats of peach spray paint (I used Valspar brushed rose) and then let it dry. Then I cut a piece of fabric to fit the top (a fat quarter was more than enough) and adhered it with Mod Podge hard coat and a foam brush.

Despite trying really hard to make sure there weren't any air pockets when I attached the fabric, they still started showing up when the first coat of Mod Podge dried. I poked the bubbles with a push pin, and then rubbed on the area to release the air, then did a couple more coats of Mod Podge and you can't even see the bubbles anymore!

I can't wait to take this on the road with me now! :)

follow the fleet

Yesterday Sammi from The Soubrette Brunette (aka the queen of finding cute clothes!) pinned the most adorable dress on pinterest, and when I clicked through I found Fleet -- a shop with an overwhelming amount of pastel goodness! Look at these! I think the powder blue and lilac ones are my favorites but honestly I want every single dress they sell. I just had to share, these are too pretty not to! :D

posh frock friday!

In 2010 I started a series of outfit posts called Posh Frock Friday, where I'd get all dolled up every Friday for no particular reason except to be wearing something snazzy. I kept it up for I think about a year and then lost steam... I used to be a lot more regimented with my blogging series. Anyway! When I got this dress in the mail, it just SCREAMED Posh Frock Friday!! It's most certainly a posh frock if ever there was one!

It came at a perfect time too.. I've been feeling kind of blah about my appearance lately (if I wasn't sick of the regular maintenance it requires, this would be where I impulsively dye my hair pink) and putting this on just made me feel so much lovelier. I'll tell you, there is nothing like a pretty dress to cure a bad case of low self esteem. That, and food. And cat cuddles.

dress- c/o oasap | shoes - vintage

june wishlist

1. strawberry scalloped dress from tulle
2. round orange sunglasses from asos
3. warmhearted welcome cardigan from modcloth
4. draw a cloud dress from modcloth
5. teal sash belt from modcloth
6. blue bag with top handle from asos
7. flower hair garland from asos
8. denim pinafore dress from topshop
9. mint scalloped heels from urban outfitters

peaches and cream

I've been busy this week getting ready for the first leg of my road trip! We're hoping to leave after Father's Day if everything goes according to plan. I'm currently fashioning the trunk of my (new! pictures soon :D) car into a little mobile etsy workstation and checking off a long, long, long list of things to do and buy before we leave. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all of my obsessive planning will pay off and make for a relaxing trip!

Of course the most daunting task of all is going to be deciding what clothes to bring. ahh! I'm trying to pick things that will be easy to mix-and-match but still unique and fun so I don't feel like a frump ;) I'm still planning on taking outfit pictures while I'm on vacation (and blogging daily -- assuming I can find wifi) so you'll be a witness to whether or not I succeed in that department lol..

dress- c/o modcloth | sweater - forever 21 | shoes - c/o bait footwear

the vintage bedding sequel

Earlier this year I made a vintage bedding inspired digital paper pack and I've been itching to do a follow-up ever since! This one is a lot bolder than the last, but I love all the colors! I'm currently using the pink and yellow pattern in the top row as my desktop background, and I think once I'm caught up on some other projects I'll put together a pack of computer background files as well! The kit is available here The patterns are also available as Project Life cards too, here!



While I was at it, I also uploaded all of the patterns to society6 so they're available as iphone covers, laptop skins, pillows, note cards, what have you. I'm not sure why but I absolutely love uploading things there and then looking at the preview images. They just look so cool to me!! If any of the society6 stuff strikes your fancy, you can get free shipping through 6/16 via this link!

sea green and periwinkle

I think I might have finally found a solution to the neverending "what do I title this post?!" issue -- crayola crayon colors! At least it will work some of the time ;)

Wet Seal contacted me last month to ask if I'd be a judge in their 2013 model search! The top 100 finalists are up now and if you'd like to you can vote on facebook until June 14th. All of the girls have photos and video uploaded and some of them seem so sweet! It was so hard to choose! No matter who wins though, I think it's so awesome that they pick regular girls to model their clothes. It sends such a positive message!

dress, belt, shoes, bag - c/o wet seal | necklace - forever 21