I have been having the most bizarre craving as of late.  I have always liked sweet things, particularly along the lines of suckers, sweetarts and nerds, but lately in my fog of pregnancy, I have been craving cotton candy.  Hmmm… could there be a reason for this?  Am I destined to birth a sugar-addicted child?  And more importantly, where does one find a stash of cotton candy all year round?  Well, as any addict could tell you with the right amount of determination, any fix can be found.  The mall back in Ohio (we’ve been going back a lot lately for the little man) seems to be the best source of the good, fresh stuff and the Easter season has brought an additional stash to my local CVS and Walgreens. When all else fails, Blockbuster has packaged cotton candy for year round enjoyment.  Delicious!

So in honor of pretty, pink cotton candy, I thought a little taste of some lovely feminine (and pink) dresses would make you think of walking down a boardwalk in summer with a fun summer treat! As usual, click on the images to view or purchase.

It’s 5:30 a.m. was that the correct use of wares?  This whole month has completely wore me down, so the smallest details are becoming a blur.  I did make time to look at some eye candy though. We are making plans for all the weddings, showers, graduations and other warm weather celebrations and it makes me long to be sheathed in something pretty.  I figured since my body is growing into alien-like proportions and I will probably be wearing a chiffon moo-moo, that I will fantasize about a gorgeous teeny-tiny dress.  I mean if we are talking fantasy, do I need to admit that my pre-preggo size was an 8 and not a 0?  Nope, my dream…my tiny make-believe bottom.

I saw this dress in the free H&M magazine that they pass out in really random places.  The most recent edition I got from a girl handing them out when I got off the Red Line a few weeks ago. (Again, very random!)  I just love this dress, it is the perfect shade of red, has lovely texture and it costs $40.  I suppose in fantasy land it could have been $1400, but we really do have to come back to reality sometime and I am probably more likely to have a smaller bottom in the future than to be purchasing a $1400 dress to wear to someone else’s wedding!

My husband and I were watching old episodes of the Dave Chappelle this week and the show had a segment called “keepin it real”.   I would like to follow his lead and do a similar gut check on some new spring fashion items.  Now I really do love the excitement and fan fare that goes along with Fashion Week and high design shows, but I feel that many of those creations are designed for attention and not practicality.  Here in Chicago, I work, run errands and have the occasional night on the town.  I like to dress up for dinner parties and work events, but mostly I am just a girl trying to avoid looking too comfortable out of my house (i.e. no sweatsuits at Target, please) but generally trying to have my attire meet the demands/needs of my daily life.

So when fancy pants designers meet the likes of Target I usually run to see what kind of everyday creations they unveil.  For the most part I love them.  Proenza Schouler for Target….Amazing!  Erin Fetherston for Target….Enchanting!  Jean Paul Gaultier for Target….Confusing.  The colors and prints are really beautiful, but I don’t know if I can totally get behind the cuts and fabrics.  I really liked this red dress on the left with the side swept fabric, but then I saw the other variation on the website I wanted to throw up.  It felt a little 1980′s M.C. Hammer to me.  I mean, let’s keep it real here folks, would you wear a chunk of fabric between your legs like that?  Just think of the maneuvers you would need to take to use a public bathroom.  Eeck!  I am sad to say that I think this equals a missed opportunity for functional, affordable fashion.

Do you remember this post?  The infamous “tights” post where I was fawning over Kate Spade dresses?  Well guess what?  Kate Spade is a little closer to the Budget Retro price range.  Hip-hip hooray!  Currently on the site you can log-in for the sample sale–which is about 75% of regular prices, making it worth the investment to me.

I don’t really want to buy a dress that I can’t wear right now, but I LOVE this sweater and red never goes out of style.  Shipping is also discounted to $5. So hurry, hurry, hurry and go buy beautiful dresses ladies!

p.s. To the two beautiful Jen’s at work who are looking for wedding shoes–I saw some lovely ones on the sale page.

Today is my 100th post!  How fun.  I feel so lame, I didn’t even prepare anything special.  All I can think about these last few days is spring and my longing for warmer weather and sunshine.  I don’t even need it to be hat, I just want a little sunshine!

I saw these shoes in Lucky Magazine this month (that photo was better too…), but I was hard pressed to find them available anywhere.  They are part of the Cynthia Rowley line for Roxy.  I will say, for the most part, I feel a little old to be rockin’ Roxy clothes, but these shoes scream warm weather and happy times.  No matter how round my body gets this summer, I am hoping that my feet can still have fun and look cute!

Sometimes in life I am just so grateful that all things are temporary.  I can only tell you that my entire week, last week was trying and I really was doubtful whether or not I could actually make it through, I mean how much can one hormonal gal take? I was beyond meltdown mode.  Well as it does, it got better.  I had the best weekend I have had in ages.  One of my besties, Jody and her husband were in visiting from NYC.  It felt so good to have someone around who knows me and gets me and our husbands even seemed to like one another (not a simple feat–if you are married you will understand.)

We walked around the city and ate and just had fun.  The rest of the weekend mirrored this lovely bliss, with finding our new favorite breakfast restaurant seeing a movie and getting to spend QT (quality time) with my man with no fighting (again, not a simple feat. ha!) I even got my entire apartment cleaned and all the laundry done.  It was like god made this long weekend just for me.

So in honor of  temporary things I am going to highlight something that my friend Jody brought to my attention over the weekend.  Her and her husband have one of the few amazingly cool Brooklyn apartments that I have seen.  It’s new and modern and void of any unsavory things left from previous tenants.  They have been in the apt for a few years now and they were starting to get a bit bored–they wanted a change, but a change that would not cost them their security deposit.  They found this amazing temporary wallpaper that they used in their kitchen which, from the pictures, really transformed the space.  The paper basically works like a super-powered post-it note–you just press it and it seals, but apparently leaves no weird sticky residue.  How fun?  I am 100% considering this for my next apt (Matt and I have already started to look because this 2 bedroom may not be cutting it for 4 people with lots of stuff.

So here is a shot of the Tempaper in action. And a big cheerful sigh of relief from me that all things are not permanent.

Oh and it seems temporary things really are on my mind–check out my recent post for 24Savvy on FLOR modular flooring.

February, thus far, has been a pretty craptastic month.  My husband got his hours cut at work, our car broke down (which resulted in us renting the stinkiest rental known to man!) and my hormones are making me cry at anything.  I have had 3 food related meltdowns in the past week–I cried on Saturday night because I didn’t know what to eat and when I say cried, I mean like hysterical swollen face cry. (it’s pretty funny in hindsight, but my poor husband just looked scared!)

The future is looking brighter already; I have a long weekend ahead of me, one of my bestie’s and her husband and are going to be in town and we are one day closer to spring!  Can you feel it?

I decided to just post a cute outfit that Iwould like to be wearing today.  (I have wanted the shoes for months, but because my lovely friend and co-worker Renee already owns them–I refuse to be a copy-cat.)

I have a story that is just too good not to tell.  I mean most of you already know that I am prone to ridiculous circumstances, right?  I mean it is like bizarro scenarios just follow me around and wait for me to walk right into them.  So I was back home in Ohio this last weekend visiting with the fam and my step-son, Milo.  I begged my sister to go shopping with me because she has an eagle eye for deals and things that will fit me perfectly.  We did some second-hand shopping and some maternity shopping looking for things to fit my in-between body. ( I found maternity tights for $8!!)

We sauntered over to the shoes because this particular store always has good vintage dead stock and quality stuff.  As we were walking down the isle, I began telling my sister how the last pair of shoes that I got there had actually started to disintegrate while I was at work–it was summer and kind of hot and I had these BEAUTIFUL navy blue and white spectator heels on.  I was just minding my own business sitting on a conference call when I uncrossed my leg to find half the shoe was stuck to my calf. ha!  Totally gross.  It was right about this time that I found a “brand new” pair of black, wedge spectators.  They were in perfect condition and ready to be mine!  So I swooped those little suckers up.

Let’s progress to Tuesday–The morning started with me battling my dress slacks and literally bending the metal clasps to make them fit.  Then snow, so I wore my mountain boots to work.  Finally I got to put on the new shoes and a new blouse and look mildly presentable.  It wasn’t until about noon that thte shoes started to feel a little uncomfortable.  I ignored it because I have a weird (oddly shaped) foot and shoes hurt a lot.  Then I noticed that I kicked my file cabinet shut and it left huge scuffs on the door.  hmmmm….  That’s weird.  I invetigated and sure enough the leather felt uneven and kind of rippled from kicking (it was more like lightly pushing the cabinet shut).  Next I am sitting in a meeting and look down to notice that my heel fell off the one shoe–mind you this is a wedge–how does that happen?  The final straw came an hour later when I looked down under my desk to realize half the sole of the other shoe had completely fallen off.  I looked around and realized there was shoe debris all over my entire cube area.  How embarrassing!

I had actually thrown the shoes in the garbage when my friend Jess mentioned that I should do a post about it.  Sadly I have no before pictures because I didn’t honestly think this would happen to me once let alone twice!!  My sister said I jinxed myself by mentioning it while we were shopping–I think that particular shop may just store mass products in hot storage allowing lovely vintage to dry rot while maintaining it’s adorable exterior.  Any theories?

The pics are from my iPhone, but should give a pretty good indication of  the damage.  I actually cleaned up the floor before this photo, so the remains are just a fraction of the destruction.

That is a really unoriginal title, but come on it’s 8:30 p.m. and I am choosing to post to keep you lovely ladies in the know. I just found a new (to me) site that has beautiful, Budget Retro-friendly, dresses.  The shop is Conversation Pieces.

Were any of you already hip to this?  If so, bring me in the loop next time–I or we collectively–almost missed out on a huge sale.  The little ad is below, but basically you can purchase any 3 items for $80 with free shipping.  Are you kidding me?  That is a steal!  But the sale ends in 29 hours!!!  See, we almost missed it.

My top pick is the Ahoy, Sailor Tee. 

**UPDATE:  I think the site timer was playing tricks on me–you should still have today and tomorrow to shop, but you still need to move fast because all the good stuff is getting snagged!

Lately I have been feeling the urge to accessorize again.  As a young lass I took accessories a little overboard, i.e. I wore like 5 rings at all times, had 4-5 earrings in one ear and one perfectly placed little nose ring–this on top of necklaces and who knows what else.  I started collecting vintage jewelery when I was probably about 11 and I have a pretty decent collection of stuff.  It had all been stored away, safe and sound and just the past couple of weeks (as I have been trying make myself feel prettier) I have wanted to retrieve a few gems.  One of the gems I am speaking off is my beautiful pendant watch given to me by my g-ma.  It’s just nickel silver with a plain chain, but the face of the watch is so gorgeous–it has so much character and the quality would kick the butt of most modern day accessories.

That brings me to Swell Vintage and their amazing re-designed and re-purposed vintage jewelry. The proprietor of this lovely shop, Frankie, is absolutely adorable as well.  I follow her on twitter (@swellvintage) and she is quite the treat.  Below are two versions of her pocket watch necklaces that are a slightly larger version than mine, but just what I have been in the mood to accessorize with.