Monarch Magic Metamorphosis

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First, I know this pattern resembles a Tiger Butterfly more than a Monarch. I must have been a little loopy when I first typed this up, because here I am now editing it before it goes up in a few hours and I am wondering what I was thinking with the title. Who can really say?

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I have found in the last year that a swing style dress is my favorite.

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The Sarita Swing Dress is beautiful. I do wish it was one inch longer but otherwise it is perfect. It is made from silk which is a rare thing to find nowadays. My grandma used to keep silk worms in her house so we could watch how they worked. She also would occasionally raise a butterfly through the stages. Green and yellow were her favorite colors. She would have loved this dress.

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I paired the dress with my Simply Livly Turquoise Necklace and a wooden turquoise ring. I also wore my favorite Chie Mihara booties with it. They were one of my favorite sale scores last year. Her shoes are amazing.

I think that every girl dreams of a fantasy world. It is kind of what is thrown on us as children. Castles, princesses, animals, pink and flowers. Butterflies fall right into this.

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Now, I do not know for certain that this dress is based on a butterfly. It seems obvious to me that it is. But I also frequently mix up the words, “prescription and subscription” so I am absolutely no good mental evaluator.

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I looked up the name of the dress, “Sarita.” It means “flowing” in Sanskrit according to the website, behind the name. It is subtle. But, oh, the missed name opportunities this dress had.

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It has the most lovely crochet lace edged lining. The dress is short, but in all of my pictures (including spinning), I did not encounter one wardrobe snafu.

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It is perfect for a windy day. The sleeves flutter magnificently. I honestly felt like a butterfly in this dress. Groan. I can imagine someone quoting that and I realize how lame that sounds, but it is true.

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This dress might not have the right name, but it does not matter.

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It simply made me happy. When I wore it I smiled. It felt like a metamorphosis was taking place. And that is all that matters to me.

Overheard in January 2014

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January is over. It is now time to post all of the conversations I have heard this month that are interesting. This month was also unique in that I saw quite a few facial expressions that could have spoken a thousand words. Such as this one:

The man behind me at Trader Joe’s. I honestly did not notice he only had two items. If I had, I would have let him go in front of me. Always.

But I did not notice until the cashier was halfway through ringing up my items. I apologized, twice, but only got a tight lipped smile. Then, and this is the best part, as I was loading up my car, I saw him jump onto a motorbike and slip onto his head a Star Wars X-Wing Fighter helmet. I guess I was making him late for fighting The Empire.

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I was at Trader Joe’s and I was listening to the cashier behind me exclaim over the food that was in the woman in her lane’s cart.

“Oh I love this!”

“This is so good.”

“I’m eating this for lunch. Today.”

“This brand is the best!”

Then she laughed and said sweetly to the woman whose food she had been admiring, “Your palate and my palate are friends.”

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My sister banged her elbow on a table. Her son (my sweet almost three years old nephew) came over to give it a kiss to make her feel better.

When she told him thank you and that he indeed had made her feel better, he replied, “It’s all part of the job, Mom.”

So cute.

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My husband and I were at Costco. We were browsing the books. You might not know this, but, um, we don’t have enough of them.

There was an elderly couple leafing through a hardcover book next to me.

The husband said to his wife, “Let’s check. Nope. No pictures. I all ready have this book on my Kindle. There’s no point in buying the paper copy if it ain’t got no pictures.”

I never thought of it that way before. I thought it was amusing. But now I wonder, has there really ever been such a thing? A paperback copy different from the Kindle version?

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This story was told to my husband this week. Thankfully he doesn’t make it a point to hang out in men’s restrooms. The story is so good. I just have to share it:

My husband’s coworker was in the restroom at a pizza parlor with his buddy. They had finished their business and were washing their hands.

My husband’s coworker started drying his hands with one of those new Dyson hand dryers.

He commented to his buddy, “I have got to get one of these for my house!”

Just then another man also finished his business.

He walked by them towards the door, without stopping to wash his hands.

So the coworker said to his buddy, “Or I guess I could just not wash my hands.” And you can probably imagine the tone and conjecture that was used there.

The man left, but came back one minute later. I guess it took him that long to figure it out. Let’s also take a moment to notice that they are still standing there admiring the hand dryer.

The man approached my husband’s coworker and said, “Do you have a problem with me not washing my hands?”

This is where we must also pause to visualize this actually happening in a men’s restroom. And this conversation actually taking place. And we must chuckle.

Okay. Moving on.

My husband’s coworker responded, “Well, actually, yes I do have a problem with it. You just went to the bathroom and then you touched that door on your way out. Then you touched that door again on your way back in. Now I am going to have to touch that door when I leave. It’s disgusting.”

The man said, “Well, what do you want to do about it? Take this outside?”

My husband’s coworker responded, “Sure. But you’ve got to wash your hands first.”

The man got flustered and left.

I will now never not wonder if a hand washing fight is breaking out in a men’s restroom whenever I walk by one.

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I watch the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I know. I know. I have cut all of the rest of them out. Although, I might watch the New York version. The drama and just extreme petty nonsense gets to be much too much. But I love the New York setting.

Anyway, this week, my husband took me to a nice relaxing romantic lunch. While we were sitting, an extremely loud woman decided to take it upon herself to recount the previous episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I heard all of this from five tables away.

This will probably only amuse you if you watch the show. I condensed the conversation quite a bit.

“Oh my gosh! Did you like see the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills last night?”

Without waiting for a reply. In fact, there was not another person who dared to speak at that eight party table during her entire monologue.

“It was like the best episode of my whole entire life.

There is like a whole new cast this season.

Taylor is gone. She like left with a lawyer. But, like Lisa is still on and she is like fighting with Brandy.

There is a new girl, Carlton. She’s like English, too. But like she is not classy like Lisa. All she says is, ‘Bloody Hell.’ Oh, and she is like totally a witch. I know, right.

So, her and Joyce, this other like new girl. She has like really long hair and anyway she like told Carlton she didn’t believe in witchcraft.

And then Carlton went off on her.

And Brandy like held up her hand and was like, ‘Oh my gosh. Carlton just cast a spell on Joyce.’

But then like Joyce told Carlton she just like wanted to live her life in peace. And she didn’t believe in like that stuff.

So Joyce went home. And they like cut to next week’s episode and Joyce’s husband got totally sick that night! And not like real sick. But like sick sick. And like she is totally going to confront Carlton about casting a spell on her.”

This is where she like totally paused for breath and I like totally started listening to my like husband.

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At a winery, I watched a mother who had brought her two year old to the winery (and yes, there were long moments of screaming throughout the tasting room) make her two year old stand outside the doors and wave good bye to the winery.

“Say good bye to the winery.”

“NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“We’re not leaving until you say, ‘good bye’ to the winery.”

“Grbe. Enery.” Big wave while holding a giant Mickey Mouse doll.

Don’t judge.

That’s how I say good bye to wineries, too.

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Did you overhear anything good this month? Are you ready for February?

Target In January

I recently went to Target. As I do. When I want to buy a mindless variety of unnecessary items.

The reason I had gone there was because in my rummaging cleaning, I found 4 gift cards totaling $100 to Target in my drawer. They were given to me over the last few months as my kids would get them as gifts and then order something off of Amazon and pay me with their Target gift cards. I didn’t mind. I knew I would use them. Or lose them. Whichever came first. I decided to get on using them before I forgot.

With the holidays just recently being over and it being the beginning of the year, a lot of us are not spending money. I wanted to show some inexpensive options Target is offering right now, in case you wanted something new, but did not want a high price tag to struggle with.

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I didn’t mean to go to the clothing section. Cross my heart. But that is where I ended up. And I saw the best shirt. Seriously. Run. Don’t walk. And go get yourself this shirt. The only sizes left in black at our Target were XS and Large. I bought a Large for myself (fits perfectly) and an XS for my daughter (now you see why they don’t mind paying me with their gift cards).

The shirt is $16.99 and so similar to the more expensive shirts in my wishlist. See here. And here. Plus, you get 5% off if you use their Target Red Debit Card. It also came in the prettiest seafoam green color. But I needed a black shirt. The back has the pretty key-hole.

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Does this remind you of anything? How about my Ruffled Hem Pullover? This was less than 1/4 of that price?! I do like my Anthropologie sweater better. The back is more detailed. But this Target sweater was a great price. At $20, this was a nobrainer and my daughter got one, too. I bought the medium in this although I think I could have even gotten a large. It matches my AG Stevies Cords perfectly.

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And this awesome poncho pullover is so cool! At $20, it is simple to throw on. It is the easiest black and white stripes. Goes with so much. It covers the bum. Another steal. Another win for Target. By the way, I have no idea what is on my thigh. I had put those pants on for the very first time five minutes prior to this pic.

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I did not buy either of these sweaters. Not at Anthropologie. Not at Target. I do not own a French Bulldog, so it wasn’t for me. There was a popback of this sweater at Anthropologie last week and I would have ended up paying the same amount as the Target price. But I didn’t need it. So I didn’t buy it.

I just have to say… Umm. I’m not sayin’ this is a blatant copy of Anthropologie’s sweater. What do you think? Wink. If you missed it at Anthropologie, Target’s copy is $20.

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Gnomes!!! Look at these little darlings. I love ’em. I want to marry them. I want to rub their cold little hard bodies all over my cheeks. I want to… Okay. Let’s quit there. $4 a piece (just the 4 crackled versions in the pot). Adorable.

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And a big one to greet folks at the door. I only wish they had two more of him.

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And a sad, sad little fellow. He looked so forlorn, I had to take him home to cheer him up. He still isn’t happy. I have a feeling he never will be. But he is a pretty color. Blue. Just like his heart.

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This awesome crockpot was marked down from $35 to $17.48. How cool is it? I cannot wait to use it!

Have you been to Target lately? Do you always walk away with more than you came for? The buyers there are doing it right!

* Some pictures shown here were taken from Target and Anthropologie’s websites.

NOW CLOSED: Tenth Blog Giveaway: $25 Anthropologie e-Gift Card

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This giveaway is now closed. Thank you to all who entered!

No, this is not dejavu. Or I guess it kind of is. With me being sick, the thought of putting together a giveaway and then mailing the giveaway prize was daunting. So, this month I am doing a repeat of last month’s giveaway. Yup. I am doing a $25 Anthropologie e-gift card giveaway again.

Cause I love that store.

And you guys love that store.

And I am being lazy.

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As some of you know, doing the giveaway each month is my favorite part of my blog. I appreciate all of the warm fuzzies you guys give me throughout the month. This is my little way of giving back. Because you guys are so incredibly awesome!

The winner of this giveaway will win a $25 e-gift card to Anthropologie. As soon as I hear back from the winner, I will email them their gift card so they can get shopping. Easy peasy.

I saw something fantastic on The Pleated Poppy’s Blog this week. She speaks of having a word of the year that you strive for instead of creating individual resolutions. I would love my year to be “peaceful.” I do not want any conflict or big ups (okay, I will admit that would be nice) or downs. A nice mellow year would be wonderful.

To enter to win the $25 e-gift card to Anthropologie, simply leave a comment stating what you would like your word for 2014 to be. You can leave an explanation or simply leave the word if you want to remain mysterious.

You can also earn a second entry by following this blog. You can do so any old way on the right hand side of the page. Just make sure to leave a second comment stating you are following.

Limit two entries per person.

This giveaway runs from Friday, January 10, 2014 12:00 a.m. PST to Tuesday January 14, 2014 at 9:00 p.m. PST.

I will be using random.org to pick one winner from the comments received. I will contact the winner on January 15th using the email address provided by the winner in their comment/comments. I will post the winner’s name on this blog on January 16th.

Okay. I think that is it for technicalities.

* This giveaway is not sponsored or affiliated with Anthropologie.

* I will attempt to contact the winner three times. If I receive no response within two weeks, the winner will have forfeit the prize. A new winner will be drawn.

* Past winners are welcome to enter. : )

Thank you to everyone who enters! I appreciate you all so very much!