This Weekend...

This weekend I...

...went out for a fantastic pre-Valentine's dinner at Mercat a la Planxa, which included a few of my favorite things - jamon iberico and padron peppers.
...discovered that our grocery store is now selling Crumbs cupcakes - we are so gaining 500 pounds.
...realized that The Last Five Years isn't playing in any theaters anywhere near us, and so watched it on ondemand instead, and oh my gee did I cry at the end. According to the internets, it should be opening in more cities next weekend.
...got some pretty pretty flowers delivered to my work from home desk from my valentine ;)
...worked on some more wedding crafting - June 20th is looking a whole lot closer these days!
...had a romantic home-cooked steak dinner thanks to Jeffrey, complete with spinach and gruyere scalloped potatoes.
...discovered that Titanic was playing on repeat all day on Saturday and got a whole lot of Rose and Jack quality time in. 

I hope you had a good one!

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(Almost) Valentine's

Happy (almost) Valentine's Day! What are your plans to celebrate? Jeff and I waited too long to make reservations (when I say too long, I mean still a month ahead of time, stupid Chicago) so we're going out to one of our favorite celebration restaurants tonight instead.

Valentine's Day dressing is always a little tricky in Chicago, I always have grand plans and then it snows or the temperatures are below zero and I'm stuck making a decision at the last minute. Here are a couple of Valentine's Day outfit ideas for inspiration, no matter what your plans may be (click the pictures to go back to the original posts):

  

  

  

 

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Winter Blues

Shirt (similar) - Loft / Jeans - Madewell / Booties (similar) - Kelly & Katie / Watch - Kate Spade / Glasses - c/o Firmoo

I feel like my style has gotten simpler and simpler lately. What I'm really craving is no longer colors or patterns or trends, but really just basics with a little flair, like the jeweled collar on this oxford. I wore this over the weekend for running errands and grabbing lunch with my sister and mom, and felt perfectly casual but still put together.

Oh, and don't worry your pretty little head about me being too cold - these pictures were taken about  a week after our big blizzard, so while snow was still everywhere it was actually a balmy 40 degrees.  I still did put on my giant puffer coat though, because I decided I prefer being comfortable without a hat or gloves in my giant coat to having to wear all of my winter accessories with my fancier wool coats. Ugh, winter, what are you doing to me?

Linking up with Trend Spin Linkup, Friday Fab Favorites, Random Wednesday, Style Me Weekly, Style Me Wednesday.

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This Weekend...

This weekend I...

...Spent a whole lot of time relaxing and laying in bed and doing a little pampering. I did some traveling for work this week and am busy every weekend for the foreseeable future so it was nice to get in some me time.
...Went up to my parent's house with my sister to help my mom pick a dress for my wedding, which meant we also got to hit our favorite local Mexican restaurant for lunch and do a little wedding crafting.
...Tried to go out for a casual dinner date with Jeff, only to discover that everywhere had an hour wait thanks to some hockey thing going on at Soldier Field. The one place that had openings was Gioco, which was a whole lot fancier than we were planning, but it ended up being the perfect evening.
...Went to Target and managed to only spend six dollars, which I didn't think was possible, and then ended up going back the next day and dropping a benjamin. All is right with the world.
...Went back to Burger Bar, and decided it's my new favorite neighborhood spot.  
...Finally managed to catch our first Best Picture nominated movie and watched Grand Budapest Hotel (which, if you have HBO, is available free on demand right now). I actually really liked it, more than other Wes Anderson films I've seen. Hopefully we can catch a few more of the Oscar nominated films before the big day.

I hope you had a good one!

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How to Fake a Blowout with a Hot Air Brush

I don't know about you, but I can never quite get the results I want with a blow drier. I've read a bunch of "how to get a blowout at home" articles and always study my hairdresser but I've still never quite gotten it. It's hard to hold the dryer in one hand and a brush in the other while getting the right angle, my arm always gets tired and I end up hot and sweaty, and some of my ends end up curling while others stay straight. God only knows what's going on in the back. 

I ordered a hot air brush (I'm using a 1.5" brush by John Frieda) before Christmas because I thought it would curl my hair (wrong-o) but I'm loving the results I get with it for straight hair. It's funny, hot air brushes and hot combs sound like something my mom would have used back in the '70s, so I was a little hesitant to try it, but it works surprisingly well. It gets me the volume I crave while also keeping my hair looking polished and shiny.

To use the hot air brush, you're going to want to start with hair that's mostly dry, either because it's dried naturally or through a rough dry with your blow drier. In a lot of tutorials people say "80% dry" which is a little confusing to me, so I thought I'd show you what my hair looks like when I go at it, starting to actually look dry but still feels damp. I added a volumizing spray throughout my hair (I like Ojon volume advance) and volumizing foam to my roots (I like Aquage Uplifting Spray).

First, start by sectioning off all of your hair off below your ears, and clipping the rest on top of your head with duckbill clips. Grab about a fourth of the hair you left down (or less if you have really thick hair), lift it up, and put the brush underneath it, pushing up hair at the root, and hold with the brush on hot for 5-10 seconds.

Then I slowly pull the brush through to the ends, and roll it up to the root. I keep the brush on hot for about 5 seconds, and then switch it to cool to set the hair and leave it for about 10 seconds before pulling it out. The cool switch on this brush works so much better than any hair dryer I've ever used, and actually does set my hair. You can see how curled that first piece got: 

I repeat this process all over my head, letting down small sections from the hair I have clipped up at a time.

Once I get to the top of my head, I overlap the sections I'm drying with previously dried sections to avoid having any weird separation and help the style blend together. 

And voila, an at home blowout! The beauty of this is it really only takes one hand and not a lot of concentration, so I can watch Netflix, text, or even put on makeup at the same time.

Have you ever tried using a hot air brush?

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This Weekend...

This weekend I...

...Celebrated the end of our fiscal year at work with a big party in the office that involved a lot more Malort and solo cups than one would expect during work hours.
...Went to a surprise birthday party for one of our friends at Schoolyard, where we amused the other patrons by hiding under the tables while we waited for him.
...Went up to Milwaukee on Saturday to celebrate another friend's birthday, and got to hang with all of my high school friends. This picture is the group at Catch 22, which I definitely would not recommend (it took almost an hour for all of our food to come out!), and afterwards we went to 42 Lounge where there was not only butterbeer on the menu but also lots of video games for playing.
...Before the party, Jeff and I went on brewery tours at Lakefront Brewery and Milwaukee Brewing Co. We had heard that they were the two best brewery tours in the city, and it was kind of funny to see how different they both were. Lakefront gave you samples throughout, but the focus seemed to be more on learning, as opposed to Milwaukee Brewing Co where they gave you unlimited beer plus a break every 15 minutes to get a refill. #dangerous. Our tour guide at Milwaukee Brewing Co also admitted it was only his second tour ever and seemed pretty nervous, so my definite preference was Lakefront.
...We had decided to spend the night in Milwaukee ahead of time (at a slightly haunted hotel) which we thought was a good idea when it started snowing Saturday night, but ended up being a less great idea when it was still snowing Sunday morning. We started driving home and decided the roads were too bad, and ended up diverting to my parent's house where we spent the night and ended up going to a Superbowl party with their friends.

I hope you had a good one!

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Snow day!

Hey guys! I got snowed in to my parent's house sans laptop this weekend, so no there's no weekend recap post for you today. I also was silly on Friday and left my work laptop at work, which means that while I could have had a nice work from home day today, instead I'm in the office with the one guy who lives within walking distance. Enjoy the snow if you're in the storm's path, and stay safe out there!

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