"It's Just A Bad Day, Not A Bad Life"

From Pinterest

Hello Lovelies!!

So as you can see by the title of this post, I've had a bad day.  But if we're being 100% honest, I've had a series of bad days.  Truthfully this week has just not been one of my weeks.  As I write this I'm listening to All Time Low's song Weightless.  If you haven't heard the song or of All Time Low, I highly recommend them!! Weightless is pretty much my bad day anthem.  The song starts off a little off tempo then builds up to the chorus that becomes my bad day motto "maybe it's not my weekend, but it's gonna be my year!" 

For me, positive thinking is not my strong point because I'm kind of a glass half empty kinda girl.  I'm not proud of that, and believe me I'm trying to re-evaluate my bad days and approach them differently.  Ever since I've been little I've stressed about the little things in life.  I was a perfectionist and hated anything that prevented me from accomplishing things exactly how I imagined.  As a mental reminder I've been wearing an Alex and Ani bracelet that says "It is what it is!" Those 5 words have honestly helped me realize that there are some things that I can't control and I can't make myself sick over worrying about every little detail.

With that being said I will outline how my bad week started:

On Sunday I was blamed for a mistake that wasn't actually my fault.  It all started when I made the mistake of assuming that my one boss had finished a task the day before and didn't double check that he did in fact do it. At the time, this little mistake didn't really bother me until I heard from another employee that my "boss" was talking poorly about me in front of other employees.  I've recently been promoted to a new position so I am still in the process of learning everything and unfortunately my one boss doesn't seem to understand that.  I had no problem with my boss pointing out that maybe I should of double checked that fact but I'm a firm believer that if you have a problem with something I've done, then you need to tell me, not talk about me behind my back.  I'm not in high school anymore and I can assure you it's been a LONG time since my boss has been in high school.  Let's be adults and actually talk through situations, not gossip about each other.  

Although Sunday wasn't a completely terrible day it didn't start my week on the good note I was expecting.  Monday was completely uneventful which was nice.  However, Tuesday was a complete NIGHTMARE.  I woke up and started my day like I normally do.  I was eating breakfast and checking my emails when I realized I had an email from my bank.  I randomly receive emails from my bank so I wasn't completely alarmed until I read the first sentence of the email.  I don't remember the exact wording but I believe the words went something like this "Dear Victoria, we've noticed some unusual activity on your credit card.  As a precaution, we've placed a hold on your account.  If you haven't made any purchases please contact us at xxx-xxx-xxxx right away!" I immediately panicked because I hadn't used the credit card recently so I had no idea what purchases they were talking about.  After calling the bank, I was told that someone had purchased $253 worth of products on Sears.com and had attempted to make a $650 purchase there when my account was flagged.  Now, not to be a brat but when she told me this I immediately told her I have never shopped at Sears, nor would I randomly buy nearly $1000 worth of stuff in one shopping trip.  At this point during the phone call I was shaking.  I had my credit card in my possession so I have no clue how someone had accessed my account information.  Luckily, because I had a Bank of America credit card I was protected from fraud and they quickly deleted my account information and will be reissuing my a new credit card.  (On a side note, I've been looking for something to curve my shopping addiction.  Although I would of liked something less severe, I think credit card fraud has scared me enough to stop shopping for awhile!).

I needed to calm down from this horrific event, so I began searching Pinterest for some quotes that will help me get through the bad day.  I found these three quotes that helped me realize that we all have bad days, but we can't let those bad days define us or destroy us.  I need to learn to let things go and not constantly stress over little things that I can't control.

 I hope everyone else is having a better week than I am.  I'm determined to have an absolutely amazing week next week and hopefully I can update you on the great things that happen to me then!

Until Next Time....

"A Book A Day, Keeps Reality Away!"

Hello Lovelies!

In all reality, I am not able to read a book a day, but I have read some pretty incredible books in my 6 month hiatus from blogging that I'd love to share with you. As a child, I hated to read, which I'd attribute to my difficulty in grasping how to read when I was a child.  I hated, hated, hated to read aloud in class because I had such a hard time.  However, it wasn't until middle school that I learned to love to read, when my 6th grade teacher encouraged us to take a few minutes out of everyday a read a book of our choice.  With that being said, as I grew up I discovered so much from reading books of all different genres.  Recently, some of my favorite books have been discovered on Amazons Top 100 Free books, which is an amazing place to read books that you wouldn't normally read.  Another reason why I've been reading so much lately is because me and my friends decided to form a book club.  The guidelines for the book club were pretty simple, each month one member of the club would select a book to read and once the book was complete we all would meet up and discuss the book.  Originally, we set out to not pick books that were in a series, were not sci-fi, shouldn't cost more than $10, and each member HAD to complete the book and not complain about reading it.  As the months have gone on some of the members have had a hard time agreeing to all these terms but we've managed to read some amazing books along the way.  What I've also loved about our book club rules was after each member picked their book the following book needed to be a classic or a NY Times Bestseller (this months is Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez).

So without further ado, here are some of my favorite books that I've read recently:

Gabriel's Inferno/Gabriel's Rapture by Sylvain Reynard
What's interesting about this book is it mixes in parts of Dante's Inferno in with heated love story (similar to Fifty Shades of Grey).  If you've liked Christian Grey, you'll love Gabriel Emerson.

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
My friend picked this book but I was interested in reading it because I had seen a preview for the Starz show that stared Max Irons.  The book was great, the series follows 3 of Gregory's books so its interesting to see how they mashed up and made me want to read a few more books by her.  I will give you one warning: her books are not for the faint of heart because they are pretty long.

Hello King Edward

The Edge of Never by J.A Redmerski
This book was a random purchase, but I loved every second of it.  This book follows two young strangers who become fast friends on a Greyhound bus.  This book shows that sometimes you are destined to meet certain people.  The sequel is coming out November 5, and I've been anxiously awaiting it to download on my kindle for months now.

Easy by Tammara Webber
If you loved Beautiful Disaster, you'll love this.  It's very similar but I'm biased and if you had to choose between the two I'd read Beautiful Disaster first!

The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden/ The redemption of callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen
Jessica Sorensen has quickly become one of my favorite authors.  I stumbled across one of her books that was free on Amazon and have read nearly everything she's written since that day.  Callie and Kayden grew up in the same town but were never friends, until Callie stepped in and saved Kayden's life.  After a few months a chance meeting has Kayden wanting to know more about the girl that saved his life.  This book is good and the sequel is even better.  Totally worth the read.


I hope some of you will check out these suggestions and I'd love to hear any suggestions some of you may have!

Until Next Time.....

Things I've bought over the last couple of months

Hello lovelies,

So in my absence from this blog I've done some shopping.  Ok, some shopping is an understatement... I've done tons of shopping.  I'm pretty good at knowing when I've bought something but honestly this post would go on and on if I included everything I've bought in the last six months.  So to keep this post relatively short I'm including the stuff I've bought most recently.  I've been going crazy for shoes, I need shoes that are comfortable standing in for 8+ hours so I've been on the hunt for cute yet comfortable shoes!

So without further ado let's get on to the good stuff:

The Shoes:

 I've been obsessing over these J.Crew glitter loafers that go for over $250.  They are these gorgeous midnight blue color but I truthfully can't justify paying that much money for something I'm going to wear once in awhile.  After realizing that those shoes aren't in my immediate future, I began looking for a cheaper alternative.  While flipping through the Lands End catalogue I stumbled across these beauties.  They are the Vivian Venetian Flat in Slate Frost Sparkle.

 So I'll admit that I'm slightly obsessed with the smoking slipper/ loafer trend.  I may have bought a few styles and have loved all of them.  Next are these adorable cheetah Uggs that my mom scored at Marshalls.  Unfortunately for her they were too small and I quickly swooped in and stole them!  Her loss is my gain!!!! Now I've worn these shoes several times and I will say they were slightly uncomfortable to break in.  I have very sensitive skin on the heels of my feet and often get blisters when I break shoes in.  To hopefully clear up this problem I bought a little Dr. Scholl's foam tape dispenser to help pad the back of the shoes.

 My last pair of loafers is these adorable yet edgy Dolce Vita black suede smoking slippers.  What's amazing about these shoes is all the little details.  The leopard tassels and the little gold plated studs help make a classic male style shoes become a little more girlie! They look a little worse for wear because I've been wearing these with absolutely everything because they are just too cute for words!

Now, here in Jersey it's been unseasonably warm which makes it kind of difficult to wear boots.  But when the weather finally does decide to catch up with the season I can't wait to wear these little boots.  Both of these shoes as well as the Dolce Vita loafers were purchased at Nordstroms, my favorite place to buy shoes!  The boots below are the Steve Madden Tennassee Boot.  What I love about these shoes are they a like my other Steve Madden Troopa combat boot but they are slightly cropped.  Again, I'm a sucker for details so the gold hardware made these pretty hard to avoid.  I can't wait to wear these with a chunky sweater and some skinny jeans.

 These next shoes were a bit of a splurge.  These are the Sam Edelman Lucca boots.  I've worn these a few times and have received so many compliments on them.

 Accessories

 Now I'm sure I've mentioned previously that I am obsessed with owls.  While decorating my room I've struggled with the fact that not everything can be chevron or an owl (although truthfully that would make everything better!).  With Halloween right around the corner, I've found some great little accents for my room.  This adorable owl is on my nightstand and is currently resting on my next book (which is Love in the Time of Cholera).

 Another splurge item, the Rebecca Minkoff Mini M.A.C bag.  I was hesitant to purchase this bag at first but I've used this as an everyday bag when I was convinced that I could downsize from my normal suitcase of a purse and as a dressier night bag.  I love this bag and think this may be the first but not my last rebecca minkoff bag!

Clothes
I've bought a few pieces that I'm not sure if I'm keeping (which are the first two items here).  Just to clarify, I'm in the process of switching out my summer wardrobe with my fall/winter one, hence why the little bit you see of my closet looks like it exploded.  

 This first shirt was recently purchased at The Loft, and it's a burgundy blouse with little butterfly/birds. It photographed a little redder than it actually is.

 I've been obsessed with puffer vest for awhile but I've always been hesitant to purchase one for myself for awhile.  The reason for that is simple, I have a very large chest and I'm afraid a puffer vest will make my chest look bigger than it actually is.  I found this adorable wool puffer vest from Gap that is heather gray with little black polka dots all over.  I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to keep this vest because I really don't know if I can get past my hesitations about puffer vests.

 Moving on from one polka dot piece to another, I recently scored these adorable toothpick polka dot jeans from J.Crew.  I've been eyeing these pants for awhile but couldn't justify buying them at full price.  When I discovered that these were on clearance I happily picked these up and can't wait to wear them.

 I'm pretty certain in a previous post I wrote about my obsession with Gap's Broken-in khakis.  Well they recently launched the broken-in skinny mini which is a feminine version of the boyfriend chino.  These have a skinnier leg and look adorable with boots.  I've bought these in this adorable burgundy color and have them in a Forrest green that you can kinda see in the background of the picture.

Until the next shopping trip! I promise to keep you posted on what I've bought, because in some weird way this is kind of therapeutic for me because it shows me that sometimes my shopping is out of hand.

Until Next Time!!!

A long vacation and short mini one!

I've been very fortunate that over the years my family has been going to Florida for 2 weeks in the late spring/ early summer months to escape the Jersey cold.  Now, for those of you who don't know me you need to understand that I love all things Disney.  As I've grown up I've learned to appreciate all aspects of what the mastermind, Walt Disney created.  Now, with that being said our family trips to Disney aren't for the faint of heart because often times we are there from early morning til late at night!

This trip to Disney was wonderful because we were able to enjoy the parks, which are usually not super crowded at this time, and enjoy the warm Florida weather without the Florida humidity.  Now for some highlights of the trip: We got stuck on the Harry Potter ride for about 10 minutes and got to see most of the ride with the lights on, I caught a lizard at the hotels pool, only to have it run up my arm and cause me to scream like a little girl.  Oh and lets not forget while we were there, there was an infestation of lovebugs, which are pointless bugs that are attached at the butt and resemble lightning bugs.  Here are some photos to document the trip!

Best part of arriving in Disney!!

Every year we try to make it to Disney for the Flower and Garden Festival bc they do such an amazing job with the topiaries.

My brother and I in front of my favorite ride in Disney: Expedition Everest! Excuse the terrible hair, this was right after a rain storm.

At Sea World

I've recently found a quote on pinterest that really spoke to me from the Dalai Lama:

Now, who can argue with the Dalai Lama.... not me.  This year my friend and I decided that we should visit places we've never been to before.  Last year I was able to go to Boston, which remained my favorite city up until recently.  This years trip was to the lovely city known as Chi-town or CHICAGO!!!! What can I say about Chicago: it's beautiful, clean, friendly, expensive, and possibly a place I want to live in the future.

Now to illustrate Chicago in pictures.

 Here I am right outside of navy pier overlooking the beautifully clear Lake Michigan.

 The picture above is from the Skydeck at the Willis Tower (which was previously known as the Sears Tower).    These views were absolutely gorgeous but the amount of time we had to wait to get through security made me feel like I was waiting in line at Disney. The picture below is taking in one of the four clear observation boxes that extend outside the building.  Not going to lie that first step onto the clear Plexiglass is absolutely terrifying.  However once you're out there it's not all that bad, but it's still a little scary.

 One thing everyone told us to do while in Chicago was to go on an architecture tour around the city.  It was absolutely beautiful and it was a great way to get a different perspective of the building from the river down below.  The building below is the famous trump tower that Bill Rancic helped manage after winning the first season of the apprentice!

 Chicago is home to some beautiful modern architecture and home to some interesting buildings.  These buildings below have petal shaped balconies.

 And you can't visit Chicago without visiting Cloudgate, or the Bean as many of you may refer to it as. We were lucky and arrived here around 9am and were able to actually capture the beauty of this monument without having too many people ruin the picture.

 Now, for those of you who have visited Chicago, you know that it is an expensive city.  With ridiculous sales tax, most people are always looking for a way to save some money.  Well, my friend had the brilliant idea of renting these divvy bikes.  For those of you who have been to NY it's the same premise of the Citi Bikes.  Here you pay 7 dollars for 24 hr access to these bikes.  The only negative aspect of this bike share program is you need to drop the bikes off every 30 minutes to avoid the $1 late charge.  Despite that little annoyance I really enjoyed seeing different parts of the city while biking everywhere.  We were able to eat and drink whatever we liked and we hardly felt guilty about it because we had biked so much before that!

 Now here's a little tid bit that I didn't believe and had to actually figure it out for myself.  Now for all my 21+ readers, if you'd like to go to visit the John Hancock building but don't want to go to the observation deck, I have an alternative option for you.  A great way to see the gorgeous Chicago sunset is to visit the Signature Room, which is on the 95th floor of the building.  The Signature Room is home to a swanky restaurant and bar.  Now, the drinks on the menu are pretty pricey, but each one looked absolutely delicious.  I would whole heartedly recommend the Lakeshore Lemonade, it's not too strong but it is definitely delicious! Now, for the interesting fact: all ladies should venture into the women's bathroom with their camera.  Now I'm sure you're thinking why am I bringing my camera into the bathroom? Well, you need to do this because when you walk into the bathroom the first thing you see is absolutely gorgeous floor to ceiling views of the city.  The photo below is from the bathroom.  Now don't be embarrassed to take a bathroom selfie, most of the women in there are doing the same thing!

Now it wouldn't be a vacation if I didn't find a way to Segway.  If you'd like a great way to see the city in a different way please go check out City Segway Tours of Chicago! I've toured with this company in DC and absolutely loved it there and Chicago was just as fabulous!

 I think this post has gone on long enough!  Next time I hope to update you on the copious amounts of clothing I've bought during my 6 month hiatus.

Until Next Time!!!

Where have I been???? Updates and an apology.

Hello Lovelies,

I'm going to apologize for not posting anything for the last 6 months.  I have no idea why I haven't posted because I've done some great things in that time that I would of loved to share with you.  I'm going to try my best to blog once a week about what's been going on in my life (keyword try).  

Update on my life: Currently, I'm a supervisor at a lovely retail store and am looking to move up within the company.  I'm in the process of redesigning/redecorating my room, which is taking me way longer than I expected.  

So since my last post I talked about getting a haircut.  I've mentioned before I have a weird phobia of getting my haircut.  As a little kid I've had some horrific haircuts (thanks mom!) and that has translated to my adult life.  However, I've found an amazing salon and an amazing stylist who truly understands the texture of my hair and is willing to talk me off the ledge when I go in a say "I want short hair and I want to dye it darker, or maybe lighter?"

So after a brief panic attack and countless pictures later, we decided a lob was definitely the cut for me and in terms of color she told me I should embrace my natural highlights but maybe help speed them up a bit by adding some dimension.

 While at the salon I got a little bored because I didn't realize the process getting "a few" subtle highlights would still take an hour so I decided to whip out the Ipad and take some photo Booth pictures.

The finished product, subtle highlights in the front to add some dimension and shorter hair. I've gotten my haircut a few times after this and I don't think it's even looked as good as this cut has been.  Now, this isn't because my hair stylist isn't talented, I believe I'm to blame for this because I made the mistake of telling her having so few layers has made my hair heavy and less curly (which truthfully is a gift from god because my natural hair isn't pretty).  The color has turned out better than I could of expected, as the summer progressed the color got more natural and looked ahhh-mazing.

Currently my hair looks like this... but as I look at old pictures I'm thinking the winter is calling for longer hair which I can curl and just love and style.

I love my hair this length but the problem with it is I feel like I'm limited in how I can style it.  I straighten it nearly everyday, and that's damaging to my hair.  When it's longer I can curl it and get maybe 2-3 days out of that style or I can put it in a top knot and go about my day.

Here are some old pictures of my long hair that I kind of miss...

I definitely think the shorter style makes me look more my age, since people always seem to think I'm like 12 (I know I should appreciate this now, but it gets annoying after awhile).  I'm slowly growing out my lob but I know once spring rolls around I'll want shorter hair again.  Ugh, the struggles of being a girl.

Moving on from haircuts, I was fortunate enough to go to Florida for 12 days in May and have just gotten back from a weekend trip to Chicago.  I'll write some posts about those trips at a later date (probably right after I finish this one!) because there is just too much to share.

I've mentioned earlier that I've been SLOWLY redecorating my room.  The keyword in that sentence is slowly.  Truthfully I had an image of what I wanted in my head and it's difficult to find those pieces, in my price range, which is basically as close to free as possible.  The room is almost complete but I just need a few more accent pieces to add some color into my room.  I'm going to hold off on pictures until I can do a full post on everything that I've done.

So to wrap up, I'm hoping to update this blog once a week on the progress of my room, what I've been up to, and basically what I've bought because let's face it, once a shopaholic always a shopaholic!!!!
I've bought some great pieces recently and I can't wait to share 6 months worth of shopping!!!!!

Until next time!