Insert title here.

I'm running on empty today, friends. This will probably be one of those all over the place, rambly sort of posts. (I'm getting good at those! ... And did I just make up a new word?? Rambly? Why yes, I think I did.)



Apparently I really do love these boots! I keep trying to put outfits together with other shoes in my 30 for 30 and it always comes back to these! lol. Oh well. It will be very hot here soon making boots entirely out of the question so I might as well enjoy them while I can.



dress (worn as a shirt): thrifted
sweater and boots: wal-mart
belt: thrifted
jeans: Macy's (lable is Style&Co)
necklace: Silpada Designs



You guys ever bought a pair of jeans that felt like they fit perfectly while in the dressing room and then you bring them home and they don't fit right anymore? Yeah. Of course, we've all done that. Well these are those jeans for me. I went back and forth between these and a smaller size but decided these were right. They're not. They're too big around the waist which is why they bunch up all weird. Boo. I almost never by anything at department stores too which make these extra disappointing for me. Double boo. ... maybe I can shrink them? We'll see.

I just made a new rule for myself: I'm not wearing these boots at all for the next seven outfits. Yeah. Seven. I do love them, but I'm sort of getting sick of them while looking at these pics! ... ok. That is all.

xoxo :)

So what's the deal with "thrifting" anyway?

I don't pretend to be an expert on thrift store shopping, because I'm not. In fact, there are a lot of girls out there who have a much better eye for this stuff and are not only able to scope out the awesome thrift store items but are able to magically transform the not-so-awesome ones into something entirely fabulous (which I'm not so good at). Even so, most of my clothing is second hand in one way or another. So I thought since so many of my items for this 30 for 30 are listed by me as "thrifted" I'd do a little clarification on what I mean by that, as well as give a few tips and tricks that I use when I go thrifting.



jacket: thrifted (Name Brand Exchange)
skirt: thrifted (Name Brand Exchange)
shirt: thrifted (Name Brand Exchange)
belt: thrifted (Goodwill)
shoes: wal-mart (sale)
(P.S. I wish I were wearing knee socks that peeked just about my boots. Oh well. Next time I wear this I will!)



So let's start with the clarification part (this outfit is a great example): although I list most of my cloths as "thrifted" that's not really an entirely accurate description. The cloths I'm showing here were all bought at a store called Named Brand Exchange, and while it is (mostly) second hand, it's more like consignment than thrifting. The traditional thrift store like Goodwill, D.I., or some small local thrift store run by your community or church, take in cloths as a straight donation and put almost all of what they receive on their shelves to sell to the public. Stores like Name Brand Exchange, on the other hand, take in used clothing in exchange for money or store credit. They are more selective about what they accept meaning that you, the shopper, have a lot less sorting to do to find that really great piece (score!) but it's still much cheaper than buying things brand new. I think Name Brand Exchange is local to Arizona only, but you can check out similar stores in your area. Plato's Closet is another that I'm familiar with. Another fun thing about these stores is they usually have a small selection of new items like accessories, which is where I find a lot of fun and funky tights like the ones I wore yesterday.



So how about the tips part? Here are three simple one's:

#1. If you're overwhelmed by thrifting, start at a store like Plato's Closet first. I can pretty much always walk into that place and find something I like. Sometimes it's name-brand (like today's bebe jacket) sometimes not (like today's skirt). A lot of the stuff I get there is labels like Express and Forever 21. They carry Seven brand jeans a LOT. So there ya go. Start there.

#2. Accessories are extremely easy to find at thrift stores, no matter what type of thrift store you're frequenting. You still have to sort, but all the belts and scarves will be together and the ones you love will really stand out to you making them an easy find. Purses are the same way, although I will admit I don't usually buy second hand purses because it kind of grosses me out. Hey, I won't judge if you do, though. In fact I'll probably be green with envy over your super cute new purse. (anti-bacterial wipes are awesome)

#3 Shop with purpose. Personally, I love walking into a thrift store with absolutely nothing particular in mind and just sifting through racks and racks to see what treasures stand out to me. But, if you're not used to thrifting it can be a little daunting. If that's the case, go thrifting with a particular item in mind. "I'm looking for a plaid jacket or blazer in earth tones" That way you just need to glance for the particular shape and colors you're looking for. You might even find that something different jumps out at you. "Well here's this blazer but it's not the type of pattern I had in mind. I never thought I'd like something like this but it would go great with such and such!" .... You get it.

So there ya go! If you're not into thrifting yet, there's three easy tips to help you break into the thrifting world. (Like I've mentioned before, I do it mostly to save money, but I also think it's a ton of fun. And I love the recycling aspect of it too.) Happy hunting, everyone! ... well, once the 30 for 30 is over, at least ;)

Pattern on Pattern

I gotta say, I sort of love this outfit. I think this is the first time that the 30 for 30 has encouraged me to put an outfit together that I might not normally put together otherwise. I love this shirt but with so much pattern and the unique shape of it I usually just wear it with jeans because I don't know what else to do with it. I'm tired of jeans, though. That's right, I'm breaking out of the denim box, friends. And I like it.



shirt: thrifted $7
skirt: thrifted $7
black under shirt: ross $5
boots: wal-mart $7
tights: Name Brand Exchange (more about this tomorrow) $3
Happily Ever After Outfit Total: $29!





Hannah over at Thought and Musing talked about breaking rules of this kind yesterday. (She was inspired to rebel by Elaine) I guess I'm a day late on the whole thing :)

So how was your Monday, darlings? I was lucky enough to not have school or work (what!?) so Hubby and I went to lunch at out favorite middle eastern restaurant, a place in Tempe called Haji Baba. It's seriously so good. If you're not familiar with middle eastern food you should look up a restaurant in your area. And try the tabouli. And the kabob koobideh. And the dolmades. And kibbi, if they have it. (My favorite!) MMMmmmmmm. Yummy! ... Afterwords we went for a little drive in the mountains that lie just behind our house. We stopped at a little reservoir by the Salt River and watched the sunset. It was a really nice afternoon/evening. (It was an impromptu drive so I didn't have my camera with me :( I promise I'll take outfit photos out that way sometime so you can all see how beautiful Arizona is beyond the block wall in my back yard!)

Hope you are all enjoying the start of your week! xoxo

A New Plan

Well I spent some time over the weekend thinking about the blog and trying to come up with a plan. When I think about it I find I really like fashion blogs best when they seem like they are in real time. As in the outfit photos are taken on a day to day basis and posted within a few days of when they are taken. But.... as we've already covered, I'm finding that's not really realistic for me. At least not right now. So here's my new plan: I'm going to take all of my outfit photos for the upcoming week in one day, on the weekend. That will give me a chance to plan my wardrobe a little and think about what I will be wearing the following week, plus it will be much easier for me. But instead of posting all those outfits that same day, I'll just continue to do one post a day featuring one of the outfits I got pictures of over the weekend. I'll probably prepare my posts in advance and maybe just make minor changes during the week if something comes up that I want to talk about.

So there ya go. The Plan :) I just wanted to put it out there so anyone reading my blog on a regular basis knows what they're getting. One more thing to keep in mind with this plan: doing things this way I may not end up wearing all the outfits I prepare the following week. What I mean is, the only place I go on a regular basis is school, but if I have a cute idea for an outfit that's not really practical for school I may still want to put it on the blog. So I suppose you can think of my outfit posts as more of things I would wear and will wear at some point when it fits with where I'm going and when the mood strikes. Does that make sense? :)

And that's a perfect intro to today's outfit ;) I didn't wear this last week, and don't plan on wearing it to class this week. But I think it's such a cute outfit and I wanted to play around with it yesterday when these photos were taken. My birthday is coming up (this coming weekend) so I think I'll save it for some event we do over the weekend. (I love birthdays)



dress: thrifted
black slip: wal-mart (it makes the bottom layer of the dress, because like many very cute dresses I find while thrifting, this one is too short for me.)
belt: thrifted
socks: wal-mart
shoes: payless
tea time necklace: e-bay



It was a little chilly yesterday when we took these photos because it was rainy, but usually it's warm enough in Arizona this time of year to wear something like this.



So there you have it, friends. We're back on track!.... well, sort of! I'm still really behind on the 30 for 30. This is only outfit number 10. Yikes! I'll get there, though.... eventually.

I still have some more work to do as far as a blog schedule. Like I've mentioned before, I want to include some other things in my blog, but I'm not totally sure what or how to do that. I'm going with this plan for now, but I'll spend some time brainstorming some other things and come up with a posting schedule when I figure it out.

Happy President's Day, everyone! I hope you all have today off work and are enjoying the heck out of it! :)

M.I.A.

Obviously I've been a little M.I.A. lately. From the blog, at least. I had totally planned to play a little catch up and get some outfit photos taken/posted earlier this week, but it didn't happen. So I thought I could do it today, but I just got out of school, I have to leave for work in an hour, and I have to grab myself some sort of lunch/dinner. Plus I need hubby's help for outfit photos and he is currently on a clean-the-house-kick. You know I am not about to interupt that! So here we go friends, a little text heavy post.

I know outfit photos should be just a quick snap-snap sort of a thing, but I feel like it's been harder than just that. I gotta say, I'm feeling a little uninspired towards this blog lately. I was so excited about it a couple of weeks ago when the 30 for 30 started but I'm starting to feel a little blah about the whole thing. Not about the actual cloths so much. I'm still having tons of fun with that. It's just more about the posting and working to build my blog. I think I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed in general. But, that probably isn't saying much because anyone who knows me personally can tell you I have a tendency to become easily overwhelmed... like really easily!

I'm taking on a new challenge right now, as well. I've committed to doing an obstacle race at the end of April called The Warrior Dash. The whole thing is a little over 5K with obstacles as well. I'm really excited about it! I completed a marathon last year and then that 5K that I posted about just a few weeks ago, but I really didn't take a competitive approach to either (more about that some other day, maybe). I did train for the marathon, (rigorously!) but I did nothing to train for that 5K. (As in I had been sitting on my butt for 3 months prior to that event.) Anyway, the point is I really want to hit this warrior dash hard and take a more competitive approach to it, which means I need to start training very soon. I feel like I have very little time in my life, though.

I'm starting to get a little stressed about school too. I got a B on my Bio exam (woot woot!) so I'm feeling less pressure there, but I'm seriously starting to fall behind in my math class. I know the reason is because I haven't been committing as much time out of class to it as I should. Honestly I only get my homework done like maybe one third of the time (Hey, that's math! I just wish it could all be that simple. Sigh) I have class five days a week and work five or six days a week. So that's 35 hours a week at work, 12 hours at school, 10 hours that I should commit to studying outside of class, 5 hours a week to train for the warrior dash, plus I do best with a lot of sleep so schedule in about 9 hours a night there, and I have to make time for hubby and friends and family and my own down time..... How many hours are in a week again??? (I know there are people out there who are a LOT busier than I am, but I just don't know how they do that and stay sane! I don't think they do. I think all those people must have just lost their mind.)

Part of my struggle with the blog is that the only time I can really take outfit photos is in the 2 or 3 hours that I have between school and work, but hubby isn't always here to help me at that time. I can use a tripod and timer but that takes WAY longer. Plus, I really need to be investing that time in studying instead. (Like right now. I should be doing math homework right now) I did pretty good with keeping up on outfit photos at first, but during that time I did not do well at keeping up with math homework! Which is obviously more important.

Anyway, I'm playing with the idea of just doing one post a week, probably on a Sunday, where I post multiple outfits. I'll be doing that this Sunday at the very least, to show all you darlings what I wore this past week. I love blogging and I'm really enjoying getting to know other bloggers. It's a great community that I want to be a part of! I'm just not sure how much energy I have in me to commit to it. I might spend some time brainstorming ideas for other things I could post during the week that would be quick and easy for me but still a fun read. What do you think, friends? Will you all still read if I just post once a week? Any tips or tricks to share on how you keep up with your blog?

Thanks for putting up with my rant! Keep an eye out! I promise I'll be back soon, whatever I decide! xoxo

Busy busy busy!

As some of you may know already, I work as a server at a restaurant while I'm going to school. Which means today is a very very busy day for me! Usually I'm off work on Monday's because I have class all day and into the evening, but since tonight is Valentine's day my work asked me to come in as soon as I could after school. So anyway, the point is that today is a busy busy back-to-back school work day for me. I wasn't even planning on posting today, but I got out of class a tiny bit early so I thought I'd just pop in and say hi. Hi, friends! :) I didn't take outfit photos today and don't have time to now. I also might not get outfit photos in tomorrow either because I have another back-to-back school work day and I need to catch up on some studying. But I promise, I am wearing cloths and they are within my 30 for 30 challenge. I think I might just do a catch up post later this week (like maybe Wed or Thurs) where I post the few outfits I've fallen behind on.... Obviously I'm still working on this picture taking with blogging with life routine. How do all you girls do it!?

Anyway, I must run to work now. So I'll leave you with this picture of iguanas locked in a love embrace. You know, since it's Valentine's day and all :)

I'm not sure where this pic came from originally, but I'll give Karla, my Goodreads buddy, credit for sharing it with me. Thanks Karla! ... Don't know about Goodreads? Check it out. It's a fun site. I'd be your buddy on Goodreads too, if ya want :)

Have a happy Valentines Day everyone!! Give your lova lots of smooches!

One of those days.

I'm not really diggin' this outfit today. I sort of thought it was cute when I put it on this morning, but now that I see it here I feel like it's a little frumpy. Sigh. At least it's Friday. I feel like being frumpy on a Friday is a little more acceptable or something.

I think it's just one of those days where I really didn't feel like getting dressed at all! hehe. Oh well.



dress, worn as a shirt: thrifted (Express)
(By the way, I think it's a dress, but it's really too short on me. Wearing it as a shirt is sort of my only option!)
jeans: Macy's (label is Style&Co)
shoes: wal-mart
sweater: Kohl's



And now I have something weird to share: I'm having this problem lately (like the past week) with my hair having a TON of static cling. (you can sort of see it in the first pic up there) Are you seeing this!?! Seriously, what is this about!?



I've taken to running a dryer sheet over my hair before leaving the house, which is totally bizarre and sort of makes me feel like a crazy person, but it does work! Plus hubby says I smell like a fresh spring breeze. Haha :) Anybody have any other suggestions? Why is my house so staticy. (I feel like this is such a weird problem)



That's pretty much all I've got. It's been an uneventful day. So now I'm going to go hang out with the hubby and try to get over this "one of those days" feeling!

Not sure if I'll be posting this weekend, darlings. I might, I might not. I think I'm already falling behind everyone else on this 30 for 30 but I figure if I want to hang out in PJ's all weekend long, that's what I'm gonna do. So there! :) Have a happy weekend, everyone!

I'm wearing the same thing I wore yesterday.

Well, almost the same thing. I just really love this dress! So much so that I wanted to wear it again today. I figured I'll probably have to re-style it at some point this month anyway, so I might as well make some point today :)



dress: thrifted
black cami: Ross
sweater: thrifted
leggings: Fashion Bug
boots: Material Girl, gift from my momma; bought at Macy's
tea time necklace: e-bay



It's been pretty windy today, which has made me glad I'm wearing leggings. If I were wearing regular tights or bare legs I would have had very many Marilyn Monroe moments today... except a lot less sexy! ;) Even so it's actually a little too warm today to be wearing this many layers. Yes, you can be jealous. I promise you won't be anymore come June!



(By the way, that thing about the Man Cave? That's true. I don't even know what happens in there sometimes!)



As you can see I've been messing with how to post my pictures. What do you guys think? Does bigger = better even though the quality still isn't that great? Anybody have any tips to share? Let me know what you think! I'd love to hear it!

Oh, I have one more thing to share!

You see this sweet doggy?



His name is Turk. He's pretty much awesome. He belongs to my Aunt Becky and Uncle Bob, but hubby and I get to baby-sit him this weekend while mommy and daddy are out of town. How fun is that? Way fun, let me tell ya. We love him :)

Have a lovely day, dears!

Extra Credit.

So I'm sure you noticed my lack of a post yesterday. Wait, what? You didn't notice? You just went through your day thinking about your own life without a thought to what I was doing on my blog? I thought it was all about me. Didn't we cover that already? Um, pretty sure we did (just kidding)

Well, if you didn't notice let me tell ya: there was no post on my blog yesterday. I was too lazy (and too busy studying) to take pictures. I did, however, wear clothing yesterday. I promise I kept it within my 30 for 30. It was an incredibly simple outfit involving jeans, my grey tank top, and my leopard print flats. Which I suppose means that technically my 30 for 30 is turning into a 30 for 31. Or maybe a 30 for 30 and a half. So here we go, outfit number seven and a half. No, this is not the half outfit. This is what I wore today. Yesterday was the half outfit, which you didn't see, but I've decided is worth half credit... come on, stay with me people ;)

dress: thrifted

cardigan: Suzy's Deals (a discount store similar to Ross)

belt: thrifted

tights and shoes: Wal-Mart

Wondering how my Biology test went today? Well I'm not sure. Jury's still out on that one... Good news is my instructor accidentally included a typo which gave the answer to two of the questions, so I definitely go at least two right! Bad news is if the typo wasn't there I would have missed both of them based on what I thought the answer was.... which makes me very nervous has to how I answered the other 48 questions. Sigh... I'm off to get ready for work, friends. Have a lovely evening!

Can we please add 6 more hours to today?

A 30 hour day would be pretty darn nice right now! I'll be keeping this post pretty short because I have very many things to do and very little time to do it in.

shirt: thrifted (Calvin Klein)

sweater: thrifted

jeans: Macy's (Style&Co is the label)

boots: Wal-Mart

Mostly I'm just stressed about studying. I have a Biology test on Wednesday that I don't feel quite ready for. I work tomorrow night which means I'll probably only get a couple hours of studying in during the day tomorrow (after class). So anyway, the second I'm done with this post I will be going to make flash cards that I can hopefully look over while it's slow at work!

I probably should have invested my time in studying yesterday... but... I didn't. I had a super fun and wonderful day of relaxing though! :) My family (aunts, uncle, mom) and I all started our morning yesterday by running a 5K together. We made a whole event of it, driving to the race together and getting coffee afterwards. It was seriously so fun! It was a great workout plus I had a really good time with the family. (I'm feeling it today, though. My legs are a little sore!) And then of course husband and I spent the rest of the day with some good friends watching the Super Bowl... which I barely watched at all :) I mostly spent my time drinking, eating, and visiting with friends. So fun!

Race Day!! Doe, Ruth, Rick, Mom, and Me

And with that I'm off to study (to make up for my lack of studying yesterday!) Have a happy Monday, friends!

Football and Fashion (what, you didn't know these two things go together?)

It's Super Bowl Sunday, people!!! Are you excited? I'm excited!

shirt: Wal-Mart

pants: thrifted

boots: gift (Material Girl, bought at Macy's)

belt: thrifted

Why am I excited, you ask? Well, because after today we don't have to talk about football anymore, of course! (for like 5 or 6 months, that is) No talk of who to start in the fantasy league, or who's going to win this game or that game; no worry about when to schedule a family event as to not interfere with the game, no sentences that end in "but this is a really important game" (every game is a "really important game")... Have you gathered yet that my husband is a huge fan of football? Well, let me just tell ya: my husband is a huge fan of football!... Of course, there's still Madden, which is available all year long at any time of the day. I can handle that though. That's not all that bad... Not that football is really all that bad either. I tease... mostly ;)

I'm getting into the spirit today, though. In honor of football fans everywhere I thought we'd review some highlights (fashion style):

For the Packers, it's all about the fans. They helped solidify the team's place in the super bowl with their fabulous head wear. The yellow can bring a pop of color to any outfit. (Yellow is practically a neutral this season, you know: goes with anything.) Of course, when wearing such a statement piece it's best to keep your make-up subtle.

Almost got it right, just not quite.

Are side pony tails still in? After seeing Atari Bigby rock it, I say yes. Most definitely yes.

For the Steelers, we've got Keisel Mane. You know how fashion always comes back around? 70's, 80's, whatever? He's bringing back the Viking style.


First it's the beards, but you know those boots, hats, and coats aren't far behind. Good job, Kiesel. You're cutting edge. Nicely played, my friend.

And of course I can't possibly talk about football and fashion without mentioning Troy Polamalu's fabulous hair. I can't even joke about that though. People love this guy.

Can you believe husband actually had some input on the subject of football and fashion? Something fashion related that football fans are apparently talking about. Check this one out: Hines Ward dressed as a cowboy. Because apparently that's what you do when you're in Texas. Hines Ward, I'm quite sure that many gorgeous fashionistas from Texas would tell you that a cowboy getup is not (necessarily) the uniform. Nice try, though.

All things considered I'm rooting for the Packers. Why? Because husband tells me that I'm rooting for the Packers :) (We hate the Steelers because they beat the Cardinals in the super bowl a couple of years ago... and they wear silly cowboy outfits.)

WOOT WOOT!!! GO GREENBAY!!!!!!!!!!

Have a fun and safe Super Bowl Sunday, everyone!

I don't know what to talk about today.

As in I really, really don't know what to talk about today. This is going to be hard. Posting everyday and finding things to talk about, that is.

jacket: thrifted (Bebe)

jeans: Ross

boots: Payless

pattern top: Target

black camisole: Ross

I asked husband what I should talk about. He said global warming. I then asked him what I should/could say about global warming and he was a total blank. Yeah. Nice try husband.

Can we just call it good with outfit photos only? Yes. I think we can.

No post tomorrow, darlings. I'm planning on chillin' in PJ's allll day lonnnngggg.... well, until I go to work at least :) Have a lovely weekend everyone!!

Rockin' it 80's style.

I'm channeling the spirit of the 80's today (you know, with the leggings and the socks and all). Although, I suppose if I really wanted to rock it 80's style I would wear a two piece outfit that was white with navy blue polka dots on top and navy blue with white polka dots on the bottom. Ah... the 80's.

dress: thrifted

belt: thrifted

sweater: Wal-Mart

leggings: Fashion Bug

boots: Payless

I gave my poor sick photographer a break today. These were taken with a tri-pod and timer... which is why my head is cut off in some of them. Haha. It's tricky to get that just right!

I'm keeping it short and sweet today, people. Partly because I need to rush to get ready for work, but mostly because I really don't have anything to talk about today. Other than the merits of 80's fashion, that is, but let's just face it: we've pretty much already hit all the high points on that topic!

Outfit number three is in the bag!

P.S. I could have worn this outfit with those favorite boots off mine. See??? Of course, that would take away quite a bit of that 80's style ;)

Well it's a good thing you guys like my boots.

I think probably at least half of the outfits I have in mind for this challenge go with these boots. And I'm sure I easily could wear these boots with the other half, making it all of them. (See my mad math skills there? Pre-calc, baby. Helps with situations like these.) In fact, we should probably just go ahead and rename the 30 for 30. We can call it "How many outfits can Amanda wear her brown boots with?" That title kills two birds with one stone. It's descriptive, plus it turns something that over a thousand people are participating in into something that's all about me. See? You like what I did there huh? I know you do ;)

sweater: thrifted $7

striped shirt: thrifted $2

skirt: thrifted (H&M) $7

circle scarf: Wal-Mart $2.50

boots: Wal-Mart $7

knit tights: Wal-Mart $5

Happily Ever After Outfit Total: $30.50

(P.S. The neckalce is handmade by me, but not included in the total)

My sweet and loving photographer (husband) is sick today. Apparently it's his turn for whatever dreaded gumboo I'm currently recovering from. He must really love me though because he was still willing to leave the comfort of couch and blankies to come take pictures for me. We started outside but promptly moved indoors when we realized it was freezing outside! Mr. weather man said it would be "sunny but cold" here in Arizona. Um, yep. That's exactly what I would call it!

When I left for work this evening hubby was in the office playing video games. I snuck up behind him for a goodbye kiss and when he turned to face me I saw he had a wad of tissue shoved up his nose to control the running. It was a little funny, but mostly sad. When I got home just now and I went to say hello to him, I found him pretty much exactly the same way. Tissue, right in the nose. The second time it was mostly funny. Hehe. Poor boy!

And on that note I'm going to go see if there's anything I can do for Mr. Sicky! Goodnight, darlings!