Say Yes To A Quiet Night In

Yesterday I had a particularly bleak Friday night in and spent it with my dear self sipping chai tea, eating Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream (so delicious), and watching What Not To Wear and Say Yes To The Dress. What Not To Wear is quite a well-known show, featuring Stacy and Clinton who, while their advice may sometimes seem a bit dubious, are always fun to watch and usually produce great-looking people. Say Yes To The Dress is a bit more new, but as one can imagine from the title it's a show about brides looking for their perfect wedding dress in New York's Kleinfeld boutique. It's actually quite entertaining, both for the trainwrecks and for the complete gorgeousness displayed on the show.

Of course, because I am a romantic young adult and had some free time, I was inspired to look at wedding items online. Call me an adolescent dreamer, but I actually had a lot of fun perusing through pictures of beautiful venues, lush flowers, and of course, beautiful dresses. So naturally, I figured I'd share some of the ones that caught my eye.

As has probably been made obvious from my blog, I am absolutely a neutral-coloured girl. When I think of weddings, there may be a couple of accent colours but I just really love pretty and white things. Naturally, this simple yet gorgeous bouquet totally caught my eye. "My flowers reflected the imperfection and airiness that we tried to achieve" is a quote from the bride, which I think is wonderful...I really don't think weddings should be down-to-the-wire precise.


My style in dress is definitely not the typical poufy wedding gown...in fact, I really dislike loads of tulle and I'm not really into stiff fabrics either. This could change come my actual wedding, but as of now I'd see myself in a beautiful, simple, flowing gown with a small detail like this Nicole Miller dress' notch neckline (sans necklace).


The one thing I truly fell in love with was this venue. In Chicago, the "Ivy Room at Tree Studios" is a little ivy courtyard just off of Michigan Ave. that provides a nice little recluse place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. I adore the concept, as I can amuse myself just trying to find little corners and hidden treasures in the city. Not to mention, the place itself is absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, the rental amounts are quite steep (yes, of course I had to glance at the price), but still...a girl can dream, right?

Here We Go A-Thrifting

So I went thrifting today with my darling mother and had a brief scare when I put down my purse to fit a skirt (over my outfit, don't worry...) but the trip was most definitely worth it because I got two lovely things.

This first dress looked a little dubious on the hanger. It looked a little on the tight side, and my mom commented that it reminded her of a prison outfit. But, it was from H&M, looked relatively new, and something about it kind of said "Buy me!" Perhaps it was the $4 price tag. Anyway, it turned out to be quite chic -- the stripes on the sleeves helped to neutralize the whole thing.



This next skirt was a major source of debate for me because I knew that it was more of an evening thing that I wouldn't wear as much and that the bubble shape was going out of fashion, but after finding out that the original $3 price tag was brought down to $1.50 I grabbed it. And I am so glad that I did. The olive green silk is so luxe and pretty!


I'm unfortunately quite awful at making decisions, and here's another one; the skirt comes with this tulle lining that poufs it up quite a bit. When I bought it, I told myself "don't worry, you can always cut off the lining to reduce the pouf." So here it is with the tulle:


...and here it is without. Pardon the picture, I'm holding the tulle lining up to my stomach so it looks a tad odd.


Now I'm conflicted, but I think I'm keeping the tulle for now. I don't have an occasion to wear it to coming up quite yet, and if I did, I might just keep it because it makes the skirt a little bit more...fabulous. As cliche as that sounds.

Randoms

So, just two totally unrelated things that don't exactly constitute posts in and of themselves, but that can be put together to be somewhat meaningful:

1. So the makeup posts that come recently may be a bit of a change from what I've posted about before, and I just wanted to explain myself. I personally own very little makeup. I'll do a post on all the makeup that I own, but honestly...it's barely anything. I have foundation, powder, some eyeshadows, and a couple of other things. But I'm definitely not any sort of makeup collector. Instead, I like to think of myself as a makeup thinker. I feel as though I can speak with some authority about high-end makeup because I spend so much time wandering around makeup counters. It got to the point where I would see the MAC lady at Macy's almost every day. One of my favourite pastimes, especially during the summer, is wandering through shops. I, of course, love shopping with a passion, but instead of going on huge spending binges, I greatly enjoy wandering around and experimenting with things. I've swatched so many things on my hands because I just love playing around with various pieces of makeup. In any case, I've tried out enough brands and products that I can speak about makeup like I own it. So when I say that my favourite makeup brand is NARS, that doesn't mean that I own a lot of NARS, it means that if I had an unlimited bank account, I would own lots of NARS. And since I don't have one, I obsess a lot about NARS. So yeah, I just wanted to clear that up.

2. I have a really special place in my heart for the city of Chicago. I had envisioned myself going to college in or nearby Chicago, and though it's really early to be thinking about this, I definitely see myself living here in the future. I think it's because my parents made me stay at home for a lot of my childhood, so I don't feel a burning desire to leave this city...instead, with all of the outings I've been going on now that I'm a college girl (eek!), I have this newfound urge to explore every nook and cranny of Chicago.

I also saw this post on Musings of a Muse, and it gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

"Chicago is possibly one of my fav cities in the US. It's like a mini Manhattan but with a quiet sophistication and calm that New York lacks. I love my city but I def have a special place in my heart for Chi-town!"

She was talking about the NARS appearance in Chicago: Check out the post here

I <3 NARS

Though I technically do not own any high-end makeup, I am in absolute love with NARS. Therefore, when I heard that he was coming to Chicago's own Barneys, I penned in a visit on that gorgeous sunny Saturday.

The event was a book signing, and being my usual forgetful self I did not have a copy of his book in my hand...nor did I bring a camera when I walked up to the Oak Street area. Stupid, right? I know. I was pretty mad at myself. I also didn't wait in line and meet him, which I totally regret now. I was wandering up on the north end of Michigan Ave., which is a beautiful, albeit expensive area, and found my way to Barneys, where I walked downstairs to the beauty area. Now, the beauty area is a little enclosed space, nothing like the Nordstrom and Macy's beauty sprawlings that I'm accustomed to, where you can wander around and gaze at cosmetics, with a couple of "Can I help you"s and not be seen. At this place, however, various NARS employees were all eyeing me, ready to see if they could do a makeover, and most of the people in line had a book for Francois Nars to sign. So, I wandered around for a bit, got a glimpse of Monsieur Nars himself, stared at the line, and then felt so self-conscious at all of the salesgirls staring at me and asking with their eyes whether I wanted to get my makeup done that I snuck one last glance at Mr. Nars and then promptly left. I was firm with myself about not getting my makeup done because I feel so bad about not buying a product after someone demos it on me solo that I know I would feel terrible about not buying much of anything after a NARS expert did my whole face. But still, it was a lovely walk through the Oak Street area, and my first brush with a genius of makeup was quite a nice one.

Speaking of NARS...I own a NARS eyeshadow! My first one. And yes, I'm treating it like a piece of precious jewelry.

It's a NARS single eyeshadow in Kiki, a smoky matte grey. It's not a particularly intense or unique shade, but I was browsing C. O. Bigelow with one of my friends and was directed to their 75% off counter. By the way...I don't know if the sales are over, but if they aren't -- head over to your nearest C. O. Bigelow immediately! I'm not one to fall for fake good prices, but these were amazing.


Anyway, the reason I'm bringing up this eyeshadow now is that I popped it in my purse with the hopes that I could have Sir NARS sign it instead of a book. But, as you read earlier, I chickened out and now totally wish I had stayed in line and had him sign my eyeshadow. As humiliating as that might have been, it would have been nice to meet him face-to-face.

Ah, well. Maybe next time?