Polka dots!

Ready for Court

     I got these tights late last Spring at a time when I didn't feel like wearing tights anymore.  Nonetheless, I've been dying to wear them and finally was able to a few weeks ago.   

Closeup of Tights

Silhouette

The Details:

Cardigan: 

Blazer:  JCPenney

Blouse: The Limited

Skirt: NY&Co.

Belt: Target

Tights: Target

Heels: Aldo

Ruffles and Stuff

 First the Ruffles:

    This outfit is from a few weeks ago.  In fact, its from before I got my hair cut.  I've had this blouse for a little over a year, but am often hesitant to wear it.  While I love the ruffles on it, I'm often afraid that the ruffles add a bit too much va-va-voom to my figure.  That and the elastic bottom of the top just isn't my favorite.  To me it seems like all the extra fabric above the elastic adds volume to my body in an area where I don't want more volume.  In order to counteract this effect, I added a cardigan that hits at exactly the right spot.  The cardigan "hides" the extra volume and keeps the top part of the outfit close to my body.  That and the blue + purple combination just makes me happy.  Double win.

The Details:
Blouse: Target
Cardigan: Target
Pants: Gap
Heels: Nine West

Now on to the stuff:  

    I hope you all had a great Christmas holiday, if that is what you celebrate that is.  We went to The Fiance's parent's house for part of the weekend.  Of course we took Bella and had a very nice time.  I love going to visit them as they have been the nearest family for most of the past few years.  Luckily my sister moved to within 2 hours from us in August, so that's a plus.  But of course, my parents still live in Puerto Rico, a rather long set of flights away, so closeness of family is important to me.  

     Aside from seeing family, we also had snow!  It doesn't snow here a lot, and it definitely didn't snow as much as it did where I went to law school.  Nonetheless, snow is snow, and snow makes me happy.  Its so fun and makes everything, even sad dead trees look pretty and clean.
    On a not so happy note, I've begun to study for the bar again.  At the moment its just plain boring.  But I'm about 10,000% sure that at some point over the next 2 months I'll get really depressed because I'm going over the same thing I did this summer and even with all that studying I failed.  For some this is going to sound whiney, but I've never failed anything in my life.  I've been nothing but a great student my whole life.  And then I failed the most important test I've ever taken.  I've been trying not to throw myself a pity party since I got my results, but some days its really really hard not to.  On days when I'm reminded by how much my bills are or how hard it is to pay off my car or cable bill or anything else, then I feel really awful.  Essentially it goes like this: 

Bad thing (normally a big bill)--> Can't pay it b/c don't have the $ for it --> It's all my fault b/c I failed the bar --> feel like shit.  

When the cycle of feeling like crap begins, I know exactly how it will end, normally me in tears or pissed off at myself or both, AND its all but impossible to stop.  I feel tremendously guilty that The Fiance and I are in this position.  Everything was depending on my passing the bar and becoming a licensed attorney and since that didn't happen in August, well, life has been hard.  For example, even though I want to give him the world, all I could afford to give the Fiance for Christmas was a Fantasia Blu-ray and a SERIOUSLY down-priced iPhone 3GS.  He got me a pair of shoes that were 50% off.  
     I know I should count my blessings and be happy that I'm not alone in this mess and that we're both healthy and have jobs.  But its really hard to feel that way when there have been times the past couple months when I wasn't sure how I would be paying rent or health insurance or much of anything else.  
    Our situation has improved, luckily.  The Fiance started working at the beginning of November so that put an end to the several months where I was the only one working and paying bills.  But because it took so long for him to find a job, we're even more heavily in debt and really in the hole.  

The Mustang

     And on top of it all, his Mustang has decided it doesn't want to run anymore.  We're figuring out how to get him a clunker so he can get to work, but the past week and into the near future we've been sharing my car.  And let me tell you it sucks.  We've had to get up at 6 am, drive him to work (25 mins) then I turn around and drive to my work (1 hour 20 mins in the other direction).  On my way home at 5pm I have to go get him and then we get to go home and arrive around 6:45, 12 hours after we've left the house.  I'm figuring that I've been spending roughly 3 hours a day in my car instead of the usual 2.  ( I work ~60 miles from home).  
      I guess I'm just frustrated.  There's nothing I can really do until I pass the bar, which I retake in February.  I won't find out my results until the end of March either.  I would *love* for the blog to become profitable, but since I'm just a small slice of the internets, I don't think its going to happen anytime soon.  Anyway, to end on a happier note, here's a picture of Bella and Aslan, my sister's dog who we've been taking care of for the past 2 weeks.          

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  

I also want to announce the winner of my is Misikko.com giveaway!  The winner is Claudia!  I'll be emailing you in the next few days so Misikko can send you your goodies.  Thanks to everyone that entered!

CSN Review--Hobo Purse

     Hey y'all!  Remember when I announced that I would be partnering with CSN stores a while ago?  Well I received a $45 gift certificate about a month ago that I used to buy my sister's Christmas present.  Over Thanksgiving she and I went through several of their sites and came up with the Sydney Love New Spa Front Pocket Hobo Bag in Brown.  She's needed a new purse for a while.  Especially one that makes her feel like an adult and not a kid playing one.  So the above purse fit the bill.  It came within a few days and from my cursory inspection, looked exactly like what we wanted.  In fact, its bigger than I thought it would be AND the lining is brown polka dots on a tan background.  I mean, who wouldn't fall in love with something like that?
    So when my sister visited me at work last week to drop off her dog, Aslan, I went ahead and gave her the purse.  I gave it to her early so that she could take it on her trip home and show it off to my mom.  She also loved it.  In fact, she wrote this review for me to share with all of you:

 

Originally submitted at CSN Stores

Exceeded Expectations!

By A-C from NC on 12/19/2010

5out of 5

This is a great bag. I wasn't sure what to expect when I ordered it, but it exceeded any expectations I did have. Sits comfortably on the shoulder and definitely holds everything I need.

(legalese)

Lastly, don't forget to enter my Giveaway with Misikko.com.  Giveaway ends tomorrow night!  

Help for Claudia

     I was on Facebook Chat Saturday afternoon talking to my friend Claudia and she told me she would love my help in packing for an upcoming trip to Connecticut to visit her boyfriend's family.  She was particularly worried about her boyfriend's sisters. In her words:

His sisters are crazy fashionistas, only they are bitchy and condescending and very judgy.  So basically if I'm not tres chic, it's going to get ugly. 

My heart went out to her.  I know how it feels to feel judged and not feel cute enough, skinny enough, pretty enough or just plain not enough.  So with that in mind, I figured I could help her out by asking her a couple questions, putting together a polyvore and talking her through it.  

Claudia for Xmas by lawschoolfashionista featuring knee high leather boots

belted sateen shirtdress, $70
Jewelled Silk Beading Evening Shrug, $825
L'Agence Belted knitted wrap cardigan, $445
Edun Army tank with sequins, 290 GBP
Friend of Mine Black Silk Sonic Tank, 165 GBP
Black jersey shrug, 26 GBP
Let It Be Me Blazer, 140 AUD
Casey Brown Skinny Jegging, $127
Yakem cotton tights, $37
Tights for Every Occasion in Art Opening, $15
Amazon.com: Wine Red Seamless Short Sleeve Turtleneck Top Diamond..., $11
Sigerson Morrison Fully black leather riding boots, $795
Steve Madden Carlsen, $90
Milly Brooch, $150
Jessica Simpson - Holiday Flower Swag Necklace..., $55
Rhinestone and Faux Pearl Cluster Necklace, $18
New Tobia Scarf, $225
Halston Heritage Skinny Sash Belt, $84

     She has a Christmas mass she has to go to that will be dressy as well as a semi-dressy open house the day after Christmas.  In addition, she's working on losing weight and hasn't had the best history with her boyfriend's sisters with respect to her weight.  She has a really cute black and white shirtdress and below knee length boots that she wanted to take with her.  I put my outfits together based around these pieces and that Claudia doesn't want to have to check a bag.  
    In order to conserve room I suggested she remix her dress by wearing it with a sweater or cardigan to make it look like a skirt + sweater combo once and then with just a necklace a second time.  In addition by switching out tights she'll still be warm and keep each look unique.  She is also planning on taking some skinny jeans that tuck in to her boots, so I put together the rest of the outfits around those jeans.  She can dress them up with a sparkly top and wrap, dress them down with a long flowy cardigan, or dress them conservatively with a turtleneck and blazer.  By adding in accessories in the form of belts, necklaces, brooches and scarves, she'll be conserving space in her luggage and have an arsenal to switch up her looks with that will keep her looking chic and put together.
    After giving her my advice and a closet shopping list of sorts, Claudia went on her way to gather the clothes, try them on and pack.  This is what she had to say:

I'm trying your outfit ideas and I am in love!!

So I think I have it all sorted out.  I feel much better!  You are spot on!

The blazer!  I can't believe I don't wear it every day!  

The coolest thing about this, aside from being able to help a friend, is that we were able to do it all via the internet and text messages.  I've never been inside Claudia's closet, but just from talking a bit and giving her some examples, she has been able to take my ideas, go through her own closet and implement them in ways that work for her.  AND she'll feel confident and put together when she goes and visits her boyfriend's family. All in all, it was a great way to spend my Saturday afternoon.
    Do you have any words of advice for Claudia?  Any great strategies or other ways to deal with less than pleasant relatives? 

And don't forget to enter my Giveaway with Misikko.com, only 3 days left! 

Hair party

     I went to a hair party a week ago and had a really great time.  One of my neighbors stopped the Fiance a few weeks ago while he was walking Bella to invite me to the hair party she was having.  The daughter of a friend of hers does hair and several times a year my neighbor hosts a hair party for her friends.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, lemme explain.  A hair party is where a stylist does hair, cut, color, style, in someone's home and charges WAY less than in a salon.  This is because she's able to pocket everything except for whatever she spends on supplies rather than having to give a cut to the salon.  (lol!)

     Anyway, so I went over to my neighbor's house and met some lovely ladies and had a great time.  We had food and wine and it was great.  Even though I was the youngest one there except for the hair stylist (Hi Bethany!) I really enjoyed the companionship.  I think I've been feeling starved for friendship and company and this really made me feel good.  Since we moved in August, other than work, I haven't had a chance or opportunity to be with people other than family or the Fiance.  I really need to find friends in my area, but with time and monetary constraints, it just hasn't been feasible.  Luckily for me I have a very sweet neighbor and hopefully will be able to go to more hair parties in the future.  I mean, how often do you get your hair washed in someone's kitchen sink and get to drink wine shortly thereafter?  

     I decided not to do anything super different with my hair.  Everything in my life is in limbo right now, so I opted to keep something constant.  I asked Bethany to trim the ends to make everything even and then to give me side swept bangs.  The truth is that she cut almost nothing off the ends so the length has stayed almost the same as before.  The bangs are really the only difference.  That and she added face framing layers to blend the bangs in.  She also blow dried and ironed my hair for me too.  All for $20.  It was quite the deal.  Have you ever been to a hair party?  How was your experience?
     This outfit is also a great example of how I've been dealing with the cold.  Here I layered a tank, a sleeveless top and a cardigan all to keep me warm.  Layering is one of my favorite ways to remix items and keep warm.  It also allows for me to wear a leopard print top to work and not look scandalous. 

The Details:
Tank: Old Navy
Top: Express
Cardigan: Target
Pants: Gap
Heels: Nine West




Don't forget to enter my Giveaway with Misikko.com! 

Giveaway: Misikko.com

As promised, here is my giveaway with Misikko.com.   

In order to enter you have to fill out the form below, please only fill out the form once.  If you would like more than one entry you can earn one entry for each of the following:

1. Follow Misikko on Twitter (@misikko)

2. Blog about the giveaway on a personal website.

3. Join Misikko’s newsletter (www.misikko.com/newsletter-signup.html)

4. “Like” Misikko on Facebook (www.facebook.com/MisikkoBeauty)

5. Interact with Misikko’s Facebook – Comment on a post or picture, or write on our wall (www.facebook.com/MisikkoBeauty)

As per Misikko.com:

For the 5^th extra entry option, please make sure your readers don’t just write “extra entry for ___ blog’s giveaway” or “XYZ Blog sent me!” Our Facebook is one place where our customers can access our beauty experts directly. They can ask questions about products or hair care, or comment on a recent trend or style – anything relevant to beauty!

Rules:

1. Fill out the form once with all of your entries
2. This is only for US or Canadian readers (sorry International readers!) 
3. You're limited to one Misikko.com giveaway winner.  So if you've won a Misikko.com giveaway elsewhere this year, sorry.  But next year is right around the corner!
4. Deadline to enter is Midnight Eastern time December 23, 2010.  Winner will be chosen and posted December 24, 2010.   

To clear up some confusion: if you put your email address with your name that's already one entry.  If you only want one entry, that's all you've got to do.

Christmas Decorating!

     This past week I finished putting up our Christmas Tree and I absolutely love it.  With the stand its a full 11 feet tall.  And of course it makes the house smell like Christmas.  Getting a Christmas tree is probably my favorite part of the holidays.  I get to decorate it and look at it lovingly for a good month or so.  
     Of course, with such a big tree, we had to move our living room furniture around a bunch.  As you can see, we put the tree right up against the wall which puts the tree right in your line of sight when you walk in to the living room from the front door and from the kitchen.  The only problem we had with this is that the TV stand we have makes it tough for us to turn on the cable box from most of the couch.  If it were up to me we would switch our cabinet TV stand to a corner TV stand which I think would give us more places from which to change the channel.  Anyway, here are some pictures of our house all dolled up for the Holidays.  

The link in this post was sponsored by CSN.com 

Product Review: Chi Silk Infusion

    Remember this post where I said I would be back to review another product sent to me via Misikko.com, home of the "Professional Blow Dryer"?  Well here it is.  It's taken me so long to post it because I wasn't 10000% impressed with the product.  Let me explain.

    The product I was asked to review is the Chi Silk Infusion.  Now, I have heard about Chi straighteners for years and wondered if their hair products would live up to that hype.  For me at least, the Silk Infusion did not.  I used the product for a few weeks by doing my normal thing: wash my hair, put product in, go to sleep with it wet, wake up with pretty hair.  And while the Chi Silk Infusion did exactly that, my second day hair was less than impressive.  
     You see, I don't wash my hair every day so I rely on whatever leave-in I use to keep my hair curly and bouncy even after I've worn it down a whole day and slept on it.  Inevitably this means that about a third of the time my hair goes up about halfway through day 2.  The thing is that with some products my hair looks great even on day 2, even on the night of day 2!  The Chi Silk Infusion just didn't do that for me.  This doesn't mean that my first day hair was dreadful, it wasn't.  It was beautiful: nice and soft, curly and bouncy.  It's just that second day hair fell pretty flat from the second I woke up.
     My conclusion is that if you need to wash your hair everyday or you want to keep your hair straight, then this product is probably for you.  It has a nice light smell that is not at all noticeable once hair is dry and its easy to apply.  However, if you rely on your products to keep your hair looking curly and bouncy for more than a day, then I would recommend you try the Hana Shine Shield that I reviewed from Misikko.com that is still working beautifully for me.

Lastly, I will be hosting a giveaway later this week in which Misikko.com will provide one of my lucky readers with BOTH the Hana Shine Shiled and the Chi Silk Infusion.  So keep a look out!  


*This is a requested review.  I did not receive compensation for the review other than the products to be reviewed.  Nonetheless, all opinions are my own and are shaped by my experiences testing the product.*

Serendipity!

     Do you believe in shopping serendipity?  I do.  This coat is one of the reasons I believe in it.  Every once in a while I'll stumble upon something absolutely fabulous that fits perfectly and is placed nicely within my price range.  This coat is one of those things.  Several months ago, just after I graduated from law school, I went to my local consignment store to look around.  Just randomly I pulled this coat out and almost died.  It fit perfectly so I checked the price tag.  It was originally $40, but was on sale for $25 or something.  My sister had $15 worth of store credit and in conjunction with my student discount, all I paid for this coat was $5.  Yup, $5!  

     The price alone is fabulous, but the fit and silhouette is what really makes it.  Thinking on these pictures, I was trying to figure out why I loved this coat so much.  I wouldn't normally think that a coat that was fitted to my waist and flared out would be so flattering.  In theory it should make my hips look HUGE.  But it doesn't.  It makes me look super duper tall.  And the reason is an optical illusion.  By making the waist as high as it is, it makes it look like my legs start at my waist and keep on going until forever.  Add to that illusion that it also nips me in at the waist and presto we've got shopping serendipity!

     Seriously though, this coat made me re-examine a few of the things that I thought were off-limits.  These being different silhouettes, winter white, and long winter coats for my short frame.  And a major reason for my going out of my safe zone is the wonderful fashion bloggers out there that showcase how they go out on limb and even though they may not always look their best, they still try their best.  Thank you to all of you for providing an example for me to follow in trying new things.  

The Details:
Coat: Tahari (Consignment) 
Pants: Gap
Sweater: Forever 21
Scarf: Target
Heels: Aldo