I really hate inclement weather because it mostly makes everyone all excited and irrational. I've always been the person who ignores weather. I drove to Louisville and around the strangely amazing and dead city while it was covered in ice in 2009 and like all the street lights and power were out (see here). So I still find it weird that my work was closed for two days and that I made the decision to leave for a day so that in the high chance all hell broke loose I was in Ohio and not trapped in Harrisburg. It was worth it just to get good pizza and bagels and some of the awesome apple cider spice blend that was sitting in my in laws home when I got there.

So when I end up at Target and there is no water left, I buy nail polish, because obviously, that's gonna help me. To my defense, Essie's winter collection is totally adorable.

hat :: handmade remixed

scarf :: handmade remixed

sweater :: gap outlet remixed

dress :: tucker for target

belt :: target remixed

tights :: target

flats :: asos remixed

bag :: ebay remixed

cuff :: target remixed

earrings :: kate spade remixed

Jason got to fly in for basically a day this weekend, and we went to New York City for a wondrous few hours of events. Our first stop was 'Say Cheese' in the Upper West Side to kick off our little grilled cheese tour (<- info) in style. I thought it would be fun to visit grilled cheese places within the area and already am building a list of places to visit! Say Cheese was pretty darn good, although a tiny little place. It was a good start to our little journey to find the best grilled cheese. You can read my review of it here.

But the main reason we visited was even bigger! One of my best friends got engaged over the weekend, and I got to be there to experience it! It was all I could do not to allude to my visit to New York for this long, let alone keep all my excitement about the event bottled up. Becki has been my friend forever, since the first time we met when I ran up to her exclaiming to be her Myspace friend to when we stripped down to our underwear to swim across the Little Miami River because we thought we saw a cat but it was really a beaver to chat roulette-ing in Mickey ears. Becki's my wild child, the free-spirit, the real life manic pixie dream girl, and this had to be totally picture perfect (you know, since I was photographing it!). Her fiancee Jeremiah is a gem who treats her well and is organized - a perfect complement to her.

It was perfect weather and fairly warm - about 10 degrees above average for this time of year! This was right before the hurricane and it's crazy to think what New York is like now. It was nice not wearing tights at all - much more comfortable for the 3 hour drive there and back anyway. I was thankful to have Jason there with me as well to eat with me and make this a lot less stressful. And take my photos.

cardigan :: j crew factory diy-ed

dress :: trashy diva remixed

flats :: old navy

watch :: relic remixed

bag :: ebay remixed

headband :: forever 21 remixed

necklace :: via noto remixed

Happy Halloween from me and my little family!

Raynor as a banana split in 2010

Poko (RIP Little Buddy) in a candy bowl in 2008 and Teemo as a devil in 2011.

It has been warm enough to not wear tights, and really, not even wear a jacket. It's been two months since I have had heat or air on in my apartment. My energy bills are so low I celebrate it every month. I just wish it would stay like this forever.

blazer :: j crew (similar) remixed

dress :: asos remixed

belt :: forever 21 remixed

flats :: target remixed

scarf :: brat & suzie via modcloth remixed

watch :: marc by marc jacobs remixed

headband :: free people remixed

bag :: emma fox via nordstrom rack remixed

Every now and then I remember that I can do a lot more with my camera than stand in front of it and stare at. I got the bright idea to play with my bokeh kit and actually get all manual with my outfit photos - which means these were a challenge to take because they are manually exposed and manually focused. Lots of me standing in one spot, taking the photo, marking that spot with a leaf, and zooming in to see if I was in focus or not. I find this kind of thing relaxing, honestly  trying to get the shot right and all the little bokeh birds swimming around me. These are minorly edited for contrast and brightening, but I uploaded a few straight out of camera shots for you curious ones over here. Immediately after this I had to go grocery shopping which is the stressful part of Sundays because I can never remember what side of the road the store by me is on.

sweater :: loft 

dress :: modcloth harvest season dress remixed 

flats :: seychelles remixed 

belt :: from a dress remixed 

bag :: valhalla brooklyn remixed 

necklace :: modcloth remixed 

headband :: target

rings :: modcloth remixed

I'm not a big fan of Halloween, but when my friend Shauna told me she was having a Halloween party, I was so incredibly excited. Not only was it being held by one of my favorite people, it wasn't on Halloween, didn't start at something crazy like 11pm, and wasn't a bunch of college kids in skimpy outfits getting all up on each other - perfect! I'm not big on elaborate costumes - I respect them greatly, but I tend to have a problem purchasing items simply for one day (eg. Halloween costumes and my wedding dress). So I decided to be....a not so cat. A crazy cat lady? What am I? You tell me.

sweater :: ann taylor remixed

dress :: anthropologie feline karma dress remixed

tights :: ebay remixed

flats :: marc by marc jacobs remixed

necklace :: gift remixed

hat :: michelle mignon
bag :: valhalla brooklyn via etsy remixed

Have I mentioned the fun times Teemo and I have been having lately? Oh, I haven't? Yeah, well, back in August Teemo got the dog flu! There was an outbreak here in Pennsylvania in the area where I kennel Teemo. This basically is a lot like human flu, only a strain that effects dogs. He was reverse sneezing and hacking a lot, but after some antibiotics and a week of my dad feeding him hot dogs, he was mostly better (and fatter).

Except the feet licking. I don't know what started this, I still don't, but Teemo started basically eating his feet, and little buddy has been on steroids lately. We joke a lot about 'roid rages (doggy steroids are not the same thing as body building anabolic steroids by the way so this doens't happen) and getting buff, but really, they just make him need to go to the bathroom a lot more. I come home for lunch every day to take him out because of this.

Sick dogs are up there in the level of pathetic. Teemo is hilarious in his cone of shame, which I have stopped putting him in now that he's mostly stopped licking.

Let this serve as another one of my many reminders that owning a pet isn't usually cheap and random things will happen. If you haven't seen this before, I have a little animation about adopting and what all it takes to get a pet besides love - which is money, time, and a lot of dedication. Because love is great, but it don't pay my 400 plus dollars in vet bills over the past two months. Click here to watch it.