When Did Talbots Get Cute?

Seriously. I was randomly thrown on their site the other day after clicking on the most adorable purse (pictured below) to find out where to buy it. Talbots. Really? Talbots? This is such a 'mom' store. Or so I thought. One look at their lookbooks and catalogues from the past several months has made me do a 180. Chic clothes? Check. Awesome handbags? Check. Freaking cute shoes in my size? Check, check, check!

Has anyone else noticed the turnaround several chains are doing? WHBM was always a little matronly to me and they've gotten much cuter in the last few years. Ann Taylor has been blowing my mind for the last year and now enter Talbots. 'Mom' store no more!

Take a look at this eye candy:

And this:

 



Sidebar: Why is this image tiny, not centered and just overall pissing me off? Before you start: yes I checked the formatting...

See what I mean?

There is a ton of other cute stuff on their website but for some reason, neither Polyvore or ShopStyle is picking it up...

Give Talbots a chance! I will definitely be using them for some styling inspiration!

These Boots Were Made for Walkin'

Sorry readers (really just one, maybe two...umm a little help here; spread the news!) for my vacancy on the ol' blog. I've been out of town on business and while I returned home Tuesday, I just now got to functioning. Yesterday was a little foggy at work but my day was instantly brightened when I received not one, but TWO packages containing one of my favorite things in the whole wide world (www?): shoes! Three pairs of spat boots and two pairs of tennis shoes. Yes, it was a good day.

Now on to the reviews!

First up we have the Diba Trick Key Boot:

Pros:

• Shaft height of 13" hit at a great height.
• Shaft opening was cut nice for my calf size even when worn with bare legs.
• The cheapest of the three coming in at $49.

Cons:

• All man-made materials and looked obviously so.
• I'm not sure if it was the heal or the arch, but something made this shoe a little uncomfortable.
• The zipper is quite large, a standout silver and was on the outside of the leg (I never jumped on the zipper trend).

Verdict in Theory: Return

Next we have the Jones New York Florentina Boot in Taupe:

Pros:

• Really nice color and also comes in black.
• Very comfortable.
• Real leather and suede.
• Suede, spat and ankle buckle details are all on trend.
• Subtle zipper that's on the inside of the leg.

Cons:

• Most expensive of the three at $119.
• Suede shaft caused a slouching effect (ok I guess, but not the look I'm going for).
• Shaft opening a bit too large for my legs
• While the details are on trend, it's a little trend overload for my taste. They seem like they might get 'old' after I've worn them for a season and since I rarely get to wear boots in Florida, I'd rather buy something with a little more staying power.

Verdict in Theory: Return

Last we have the Kelly and Katie Rose Boot in Dark Brown:

Pros:

• Very comfortable.
• Subtle zipper on the inside of the leg.
• More substantial heel than the others; might be easier to walk in/more comfortable when worn for long periods of time.
• Stiff shaft (giggle, ok I'm done) that stayed put.
• Good price point at $59.

Cons:

• Man made materials BUT not obvious (I made this a con only on principle. Boo man made).
• The insoles of this particular pair were not put in correctly; there was some weird bumpiness I could feel when these shoes were on.
• A little taller shaft than I would have liked.

Verdict in Theory: Exchange for pair that has better insoles

All Spats found on DSW's website.

For the tennis shoes, I purchased the same pair in two different colors and two different sizes. To save some time, I put one shoe on of each:


Disclaimer: Yes, I'm very pale despite living in Florida.
What can I say? No one makes wrinkles look sexy.

Also, these pictures are so crappy! I need a new camera...

I ordered these Nike Air Max Trainers in both the dark gray and the pink. The 5.5's were the winner here (because of socks maybe?) and while they weren't uncomfortable to walk around in, I didn't exactly feel like I was walking on air either...I like the style overall and the dark gray is really chic. But still, I'm not sure. I'm beginning to feel burned out searching for new tennies so I'll sleep on it.

Verdict in Theory: Unknown

I'm going to continue thinking this over for another week or so before I take any action so if you'd like to weigh in, please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!

Airing my Dirty Laundry

My first review!

Several months ago I spotted these adorable d'orsay jelly flats from Chinese Laundry:

Chinese Laundry Sweet Caroline Flats

Oh, you had me at hello, you! After doing a routine search on Shopstyle, I discovered that this shoe didn't exist in a size 5. Bummer for me, as usual.

To add insult to injury much later, a girl friend of mine came padding in with these babies on pronouncing how cute they were. Umm hello, yea I know. I saw them 3 months ago, I thought. She scored them at Ross. I won't even go into what I think about Ross. Or her for shopping there (bygones!...).

Moving on to earlier this week. I was looking at shoes the other day when what do I spy with my little eye? These lovelies in a size 5 on Endless. AHHHHHHH (cue the celestial lights)! They were on sale, free 2 day shipping and I threw Ebates in there. I waited all morning for them and they finally arrived a few minutes ago.

BIGGEST. DISAPPOINTMENT. EVER.

While they were definitely as cute if not cuter in person, they had a trifecta of flaws:

1. The smell. Ohh the smell. Imagine if rubber were alive, and then it died and started to rot, yea, this would be the smell. 
2. They made an awful (ie embarrassing) sound when I walked. No, I have not had too many tacos, those are my shoes, thankyouverymuch. I think not.
3. I could have looked past all this (ok, well maybe not number 2. Pun intended. Hahah. I crack myself up) BUT these shoes were HUGE. See below (yes, that's correct, pictures! Of me! Well at least a part of me...):

Look at that toe space! Perhaps I should blame this on the fact that I'm not cursed with long 'fingery' toes. Or not.

If I moved my foot all the way forward, you can see just how big these are. I know I'm not smaller than a 5, so these shoes are just wrong. Wrong. Wrong. WRONG!

That's ok, I have 5 more potential candidates coming next week (3 boots and 2 gym shoes (technically the gym shoes are the same pair, just two diff. sizes in two different colors) which I've mentioned in older posts. MAYBE one of those won't be disappointing.

Is anyone else feeling sorry for me or is it just me?

LBD

Lacey Black Dress that is.

The BF and I love ourselves some TrueBlood. We weren't able to watch the third season as it aired this year (long story) but we recently downloaded the first half of the season and we've snuggled in with a lot of yummy snacks the last few nights playing catch up.

For those of you who don't watch or aren't fans, I'll spare you my opinion of you for not watching, BUT I will give you a sneak peek of the awesome vampire fashion you are missing:



Lorena i.e. evil vampire biatch

Do you see this gloriousness that she is wearing??? Look at that neckline...oooohhh I want. No. NO. I need. I've mentioned my love of lace before, but this brings me to a whole new level of obsession. Doing a little research online gave me this sad conclusion:

"Lorena’s black lace dress was designed by Audrey Fisher and built in house, so it’s a one of a kind item. Well, almost. Audrey says, “We had to make five of them for all that ripping!” Yes, this is the dress Lorena wore during that infamous, head-turning sex scene. Unfortunately, since this is an Audrey Fisher original, you won’t find that exact dress in stores anywhere. However, there are some very similar dresses out there. This one from D&G has similar lines, or there’s this Valentino featuring a similarly demure neckline. Johnny Martin has a more budget friendly version, although it loses some of the sophistication found in Audrey’s original design..."

I'll spare you the links for all the alleged look-a-likes, because trust me, they don't.

Not to be deterred, I quickly jumped over to ShopStyle and did a hard search myself. And trust me, it was hard. I think there might have been 300 pages or something ridiculous and time consuming...

A lot of times when I try and do this, I come up empty-handed. But NOT today! Feast your eyes on this:




Free People Tea for 2 Dress
{here}

 Obviously this is more 'inspired by' than an exact replica but I really like this option. I wasn't too crazy about the entire dress in TrueBlood being covered in lace...a little too much for my taste. What I loved was the delicate, scalloped lace at the neck which this Free People number accomplishes almost dead on. I do loose the sweetheart neckline and the shift cut of the original which I would have preferred but I know beggars can't be choosy. I will say that you do have to be a little daring to pull of this dress because as you can see, no bras allowed and there's potential side boobage. Nothing a small chest (which I just happen to own!) and little fashion tape couldn't fix.

My other option is to DIY something but my search for a bodycon dress with a straight or sweetheart neckline and spaghetti straps turned up nill. I'll keep searching just in case.

Fit Fight

After my first failed attempt at finding new gyms shoes, I'm on the hunt again. Nothing really new has popped up ohhh say in the last 2.5 seconds since I looked the last time but I am trying to broaden the scope of what I deem acceptable as a desperate attempt to nip this shiz in the bud.

Enter in the following candidates:

Reebok TrainTone Slimm
{here}

Sketchers was the first to come out with the 'toning' technology and boy where those some ugly ass shoes. Listen, nothing personal if you own and enjoy a pair because everyone has their own opinion, but mine is that they look like correctional shoes. And not in the good toning way.

Reebok jumped on board coming out with the EasyTones for walking and then the RunTones and now they have the TrainTones. All three use balance ball technology with little air pockets. While these shoes are seriously lacking in the design department, I could look the other way if they are as comfortable and toning (yes really!) as the reviews say. But. And there's a big BUT. There are several reports of the balls actually deflating or popping and going flat in as little as two months with moderate use. Umm Reebok; where's the R&D here? So my opinion of these has officially deflated. Har. Har.

Moving on, we have this promising option:



Nike Air Max Trainer Essential
{here}



The other color ways: Liking the royal blue and hot pink too.

I looked at these one before but they only had three colors (not shown) and of course the color I liked was already sold out in my size at the time. Now Nike has come out with several other colors. There are only 2 reviews and while positive, you never know. I'll continue looking through the week but if nothing else miraculously goes on the market, I'll give these a try.

We Had a Spat

After seeing this post on Spat boots on Chloe's blog forever ago and all the subsequent OOTD's, I've been dying to get my hands on my very own Spat boots.

After searching forever, I finally found these which I mentioned lusting over once before.

Steve Madden Maryn Boots in Cognac

Well, still lusting but the price has me pausing (is it still considered a pause after a month?). These boots originally will set you back $269.99 on Steve Madden's website but other places like Nordies and Piperlime are throwing out a $229 price tag. Really that isn't that much for good boots, but you see people, I live in Florida, so really spending over $1 on boots is kind of absurd. But as a native Texan, old habits die hard and maybe I just like to suffer. Steve Madden is currently running a Fall special where these boots are $199. But wait, there's more. I also received a 20% off promo for updating my email preferences so these boots are only $165ish! Yea, I know, seems like a no brainer but truth be told, I'm not 100% sold on the wedge vs. stiletto boots. It just seems like an awful lot of cognac...but these have been the first Spats I even remotely liked that were in my price range.

Moving to today. Just got an email from DSW about new boots. I always like to peruse so I clicked on over and looky what I found. Spaty stiletto goodness.

Diba Trick Key Boot in Black
{here}

The shaft height is about 13 inches which seems perfect for my stubby legs!

Jones New York Florentina Boot in Taupe
{here}

Loving this color and that little heel detail is super cute!

Kelly & Katie Rose Boot
{here}

These are a nice dark chocolate brown which would shake up my mostly black shoe collection.

The prices are all awesome ($49, $119 and $69 respectively)! So what did I do? I bought all three pairs! It's free shipping and free returns in store so I thought, why not buy all three, see if any work and then return the others! Wow, a lot of exclamation points. Any one of these will be cheaper than the Steve Madden's and I don't have to deal with the wedge. I did really love the cognac so maybe I'll suck it up.

Review coming soon! One of these days I'm going to post pictures (warning: they will be Grade-A craptastic because my Sony cybershot is cybersucky).

Ho Hold It

I received my much anticipated shoes for the gym from Endless a few days ago. My reaction?

Enough Said.

In case you're wondering what the hell a picture of Ho Ho's has to do with anything, read the post before this one. The search (and numb feet) continues.

As a special note, I actually didn't know these were Ho Ho's. I always referred to this particular treat as Swiss Rolls (which is what Little Debbie calls them). The things I was actually referring to are apparently called Ding Dongs. To requote myself from earlier, I'd "be running straight for the Ding Dongs." I like to think this is a (somewhat) G-Rated blog so I don't think I'll be running for anything with the word "Dong" in it anytime soon.

In other news, I want this:

Tucker Classic Cami Dress
{here}

Oh I love a pretty floral on an equally pretty cut dress. What's that you said? It's so summery and we are in Fall? Hellloooo. I live in Florida and every day is summer. Sue me.

Workin' on my Fitness

So as I've mentioned before, I'm really into living a healthy lifestyle and like it or not, getting your sweat on at the gym is part of it. I'm finally getting back into the habit of going regularly (although I haven't managed to get back to my full 6 day routine) with a friend (yay buddy system!) and I'm starting to work towards revamping the old gym wardrobe. Now I know I'm at the gym to workout and really shouldn't be there to impress anyone but hey, it does not hurt my ego in the least if the clothes I have show off my (soon to be) hard work. Isn't that the point anyways?

Now a t-shirt and sweatpants girl I am not; I have a whole plethora of runners' shorts and sport tanks which are okay and get the job done...but I'm not exactly winning any fashion contests either. The shorts fit high on the waist (mom jeans anyone???) and the combo of the loose fit of the shorts and slim fitting tops call attention to the fact that I'm a little on the hippy side. It's not like I'm going to bust out a push up bra at the gym to compensate (I also don't wear makeup when I workout either. Nothing drives me more crazy than girls who look like they're about to head off to prom while they are at the gym. Sadly this happens in Florida a lot) so I'm left with finding a different solution.

I'm starting my revamp from the bottom up. Insert new shoes here. I actually needed new shoes as the two pairs I own (Nike Shox and my running shoes which I can't remember the brand of) just don't cut it anymore. I have zippo support in the ankles and my toes have been going numb on the elliptical with both pairs. Not fun. I am very particular when it comes to tennis shoes. They have to be designed for the appropriate workout, be supportive and cushioning AND appeal to my picky aesthetics. You'd think it would be easy with the array of athletic apparel on the market but alas, after a few months of looking, I've found very little. I've kept my focus on shoes designed for 'cross training' since I do several different kinds of activities (weight training, running, cardio, Zumba, bike riding, you get the idea). Let me just that there are a whole lot of ugly ass shoes out there! Seriously. I want to know what some of these companies are thinking.

Moving on, like I said, I am very picky when it comes to the look of my tennis shoes. I don't like dark solids but I also don't want all/mostly white  I'm a happy medium kinda girl. I'm looking for something that is light colored with a little bit of color accent. I also want something that is easy to keep clean. My Shox have a lot of white mesh on the toe area and they got dirty so fast and wouldn't come out in the wash (tried twice!). The width of the toe is also an issue for me. I have relatively narrow feet and not only do too-wide toes fail to give support, but they look like complete crap (on me? everyone?). I feel like I'm wearing clown shoes. This is also where my Shox failed. Oh and did I mention that 99.9% of stores don't carry 5/5.5's in stock? Yea. Lucky. Me.

So after months of searching online, I finally found a pair that I really like on Endless:

Reebok Pumpin II Training Shoes

Oh for the love of finally! Really like the silver, the slightly darker gun metal stripes and subtle lime green accents; swoon! They didn't have 5.5 but they did have a 5 (literally "a", as in one. The last one on the internet. I checked) plus they were on sale and shipped two-day for free and I hit up Ebates for some cash back action. DESTINY. They are already on their way! If these don't work out, I'm going directly for the HoHos. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Straight. To. The. HoHos.

But let's think positively shall we? Now on to the rest, cause come on, my birthday suit isn't going to cut it. I'm a big fan of having solid black be the foundation for any gym 'outfit'. You can pair anything with it, it's slimming and it doesn't show sweat. It's a triple whammy win. Taking a cue from the cute lime green accents on the soon-to-be-mine shoes, I went on the hunt and found several options:

Sport Tops by Nike
Athletic Shoes by Reebok

Let's break it down. The shorts (I rarely wear pants to the gym. It's just too hot here) are body conscious which would point out to any observers that I have hips and a booty, not saddlebags and cellulite. Well, maybe a little. The tops are all close fitting as well and the black ones are especially nice with the unique details that make them a step above regular old sports tanks. Those watches are super cute too; I'm especially loving the black Adidas one! The other is over $400 and I'm not going to spend $400+ on something I'm going to sweat all over. But hey, inspiration is free!

Now I know this is a little overboard and I of course would not limit myself to this color palate but I love the idea of every now and then going all out with the coordination. Matchy-matchy is cute in isolated occurrences. Other colors I'm thinking to throw in the mix would be fuchsia and lemon. Mmmmm pretty.

Now I just have to wait till I bust out the muscles to pull of this shiz. At least my feet will look good :)

Impulse Buy of the Minute

OMG. OMG. Look at this gorgeousness. It looks like candle wax made out of gold just dripped ever so perfectly. Love the turquoise and gold together; you just don't see that combo too often. This is at eight1six right now and at only $46, this will surely sell out in no time. Too bad cuffs look like shackles on my little wrists or I would so be all over this.

Semi-Precious Turquoise on Gold Cuff

Feel free to buy this for me as a 'welcome to the bloggerhood' prezzie. Thanks.