Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Missoni for Target purchases

I was one of the many who went over to Target bright and early this morning after 5 months of the much anticipated Missoni for Target launch. I planned to go to a Target that I didn't think anyone would be lining up at, as I saw on twitter that other stores in California had lines winding around the parking lot. Luckily I was able to wait in my car and only saw about 5 people line up a few minutes before the store opened.
Within seconds of the store opening, people came flooding in, dashing for carts and swiping items right off the racks. I saw one woman take an entire rack of sweaters, then made a mad dash to the home goods items and took everything there. Never have I seen women act so batshit crazy! In my experience, people went way more overboard than black Friday craziness.
After 20 minutes or so, all of the accessories were wiped out. 
Here are my purchases:
The quality of all the items was great in my opinion, including the housewares and cosmetic bags. 
I would love to see what all of you think of the collection, so I'm adding a link up to this post.  Please link your Missoni blog post below!

Friday, September 2, 2011

Wedding: The Dress

Here I am, a little more than three months after my wedding, finally getting around to doing a series of wedding posts. I'm going to be very honest by sharing my ups and downs with all of you. I do not want to sugar coat the wedding planning process, because I would be lying to say that it was easy and perfect. I hope that I can inspire and help other brides by telling my stories and sharing tips and suggestions that I learned, many times the hard way!

I'll start by saying that I planned my own wedding; I did have a venue wedding coordinator to guide me and help with logistics but in all other respects I was on my own. I absolutely loved planning my wedding, even though sometimes I wanted to rip my hair out it was stressful at times. Google docs, Inside Weddings, Martha Stewart Weddings, Bride and Bloom magazines were my best friends during the planning process. My wonderful, talented, and beautiful bridesmaids were also always there for me and I really couldn't have done it without them!

I fell in love with the Maggie Sottero Sabelle wedding gown right after I got engaged. It sounds cliche, but as a little girl (and into adulthood) I wanted to look like a princess on my wedding day, and the Sabelle dress is exactly that, a princess dress. 
I went to try it on, and absolutely loved it. I decided not to buy it that first time because I had 20 months until my big day and wanted to browse and try on others before making my decision. I cannot even tell you how many wedding dresses I tried on in the span of 16 months. Among my top picks was the Kenneth Pool Degas gown, a very different dress than the Sabelle. After trying on the Degas gown, I flirted with the idea of a more modern, clean, mermaid or drop waist gown which is a stark contrast to the Sabelle- a dress complete with every imaginable detail: crystals, lace, silk, rosettes, asymmetrical shape, a cathedral length train, and some pickups (which I usually abhor). 

I purchased a Barbra Allin gown that was majorly discounted at a sample sale, with the hopes of altering it to fit the princessy style I'd always envisioned. I liked the dress, but I had hopes of reincarnating the blank canvas of a dress into something completely different. MAJOR mistake, ladies! 
DO NOT buy a wedding dress under these circumstances, no matter how much the price is reduced. 
In the end, to "fix" this dress would have cost me more than the dress itself. 

12 weeks before my wedding, I bought the Maggie Sottero gown I had fallen in love with first. 


{wiping my lipstick off my husband's face after our first kiss}

After my dress saga, the most important things I learned were:

-Buy the dress that you can't say no to and can't keep your mind off of.

-Only take one or two people dress shopping, those who know and understand your style.

-For women of all shapes and sizes: make sure there is support BUILT IN to your gown! As you can probably see, I am big busted. I did not wear a bra on my wedding day because 1. When the bra is not attached to the dress, you'll naturally have the urge to pull up one or the other. 2. I had lots of support built in to my dress, and did not need to wear a bra. 


Thursday, September 1, 2011

Fall Purchases and Wants

Being that it is September first, I thought it would be appropriate to do a Fall post-despite the fact that it has been 90+ degrees here in California. I'm ready for fall already!

Fall Buys
People's Liberation for Charlotte Russe Tanya Red Skinny Jeans

Colored Jeans have been a hit this summer, and are huge for fall as well.
These were marked down to $29.99 from $94.99 which I thought was quite a steal. When the tag was scanned, the price came up as $0.99!!! With tax, I payed $1.08. major SCORE! Never in my life have I payed so little for clothes, not even for socks. Unfortunately these are sold out on Charlotte Russe's website.



Heart print blouse from H&M


Bath and Body Works Salty Caramel Wallflower
This is a new fall scent of Bath and Body Works'. I love it, however Creamy Nutmeg is my favorite but it won't be available until later in the fall.

Fall Wants


Snakeskin is all over the place for fall-check out Kim and Kourtney Kardashian both wearing Christian Louboutin snakeskin shoes.


Missoni for Target Scarves

I will be ordering these online as soon as the Missoni merchandise goes live on Target.com.




What's on your wish list for fall?