Fresh Start.

So if you weren't able to tell (by the lack of posts going up on a weekly basis this month), March was not a good month for me on this blog. 16 entries in 31 days means I basically only posted for half the month. Which is fine, right? But I really aim to post 4-5 days a week, which I definitely did not do this past month. And I've hardly been able to keep up with my favorite blogs. March was just an unbelievably busy and difficult month for me on a number of levels and kind of threw me from my normal schedule. Including today, which was supposed to be the day I linked up with Jenna from Demure in Diamonds and Emily from A Devine Life for the Once Upon A Date Night link up. Totally forgot about it, and totally didn't really go on any dates worth mentioning this month, so here I am, without anything to link up with. Ten points from Gryffindor.

Maybe it has something to do with my dashed hopes of thinking maybe spring would be upon us this month. A girl can only take so much of winter, right? And 35 degrees daily is not what I'd consider "spring weather". And to all of you mothers and college students and full-time workers who manage to also keep up with their blog, I tip my hat to you. Give this girl a little extra work to do and suddenly I can't put on [cute] clothes anymore or come up with anything to talk about except my clothes.

But fear not! April is here, and I'm leaving March in the dust and entering April with new goals, a new mindset, and a new motivation to give this blog the energy I hoped to always give it. I've got a lot going on this month with my job, but I've got a lot of ideas that I think will be fun to execute on the blog. One thing I'm going to try to focus on a lot more this month is fitness & healthy eating, because I've recently re-evaluated my fitness goals (and by that I mean stopped eating Reese's eggs by the bag) and plan to possibly post a few recipes (and by recipe I mean basically a picture of a few simple things thrown together that I like to call a "cooked meal", but am really showing it more for the fact that it's healthy). So yeah! Stick around, hey?

PS: I'm thinking about doing a post soon about how I edit my photos. I actually do a decent amount of editing with regard to color and lighting and minor touch-ups, but it makes a lovely difference in the photos so that all the details are clear and the colors are correct. For example, the picture below was actually very dark and my face was kind of red from the poor lighting, but with some easy corrections, looks natural! Let me know if you think it'd be something you're interested in seeing!

Casual & Blue

Top: H&M, $12

Pants: Macys, Old

Scarf: Forever 21, old

Shoes: Guess via TJ Maxx, $28

Purse: H&M, $28

Necklace: Forever 21, $2

Big thanks to everyone who helped me reason over the wanna-be high-low dress debacle. I'm about 98% sure I'm going to return it now. Which was what my original thought was, but sometimes you just need a girlfriend in the dressing room with you to justify what you're already thinking. Or in my case, 23 girlfriends. All in one dressing room. Yep. 

One purchase I made recently that I certainly don't regret though are these teal (turquoise? I'm terrible at color shades) heels I found at TJ Maxx. I've been wanting a pair of heels in some shade of blue for a couple months now (every little thing she does is magic!), and I saw the one's I'm wearing at TJ Maxx a couple months ago, but were $40. Which really isn't a ton for shoes, but blue heels is kind of a scary clothing item to me, and one that I didn't want to majorly invest in right away. When I visited TJ Maxx this past Sunday, however, these little babies were marked down to $27.99, and I couldn't resist. They're so much pointier than anything I've ever had, but I kind of like it! It's kinda fancy, yeah? If I wasn't sure about the color, I'm sure now. We are going to be friends, sweet little blue shoes. Good friends.

Also, my plan this month was to find boyfriend jeans. Who would think that a curvier girl would look bad in loose-fitting jeans, right? I mean, I'm not even ridiculously curvy. Or heavy. Or thin. I'm not like, anything. Right? I'm average. So why do boyfriend jeans look so weird on me? But they are loose in the waist, tight in the butt and thighs, baggy in the knee, and slightly tight in the calves. And sizing up just means there's like two inches of extra fabric at the waist and it looks bulky in all my tops. So what have I started doing? Pulled out the two-sizes-too-big skinny jeans that twenty-pounds-heavier Lynette used to try to squeeze into, and rolled them up, and decided that they will work for now. They may like tighter-fitting in these photos, but they're actually quite loose. And by quite loose I mean not painted on like my normal skinny jeans. Does that work? It's cool with me if it's cool with you.

Help!

Dress: Aeropostale, $25

Jean jacket: Forever 21, $30

Shoe: $10, Fergalicious via Famous Footwear

Purse: H&M, $28

Bracelet: Don't remember!

Belt: Also don't remember!

Necklace: Forever 21, $2

I would say it's high time I call on you guys for your advice again. You do always seem to steer me right. 

What do you think of this dress? I found it while perusing a store I literally never walk into (Aeropostale? I practically had to fight a swarm of elementary school girls to find this dress). I wasn't sold on it right away, but Matt kept gushing about it, so I bought it because I like looking good for my husband, duh. But it's been sitting in my closet for a month now, and I still haven't worn it. I mean, yeah, it's super summery and it's been atrociously cold and & bitter in Michigan for the last month, but I just didn't even find myself missing this dress. I don't dislike it at all. I just wonder if I'd rather spend the $25 on a dress I feel I'd reach for more. But I did want to get a few more maxi dresses for this spring/summer. And $25 is such a cheap price to pay for a dress in a color and print and hemline that I love. But I don't love this dress by itself, and to have to wear some sort of jacket or sweater with it every time I wear it feels limiting.

So I think I'm leaning toward returning it. Unless you sway me otherwise. Is it cute? Not worth the hassle of returning it for just $25? Hideous & awful and God when can we burn it? Let me know! 

What a day off looks like.

Blazer: H&M, $50

Sweater: Forever 21, $12

Jeans: Kohls, $30

Boots: Old Navy, $30

Hat: Love Culture, $8

Sunglasses: Clothes Mentor, $6

Earrings: Forever 21, $2

This is what sleeping in until 9:30am and an utter refusal to put makeup on or wash my hair (for the fourth day in a row) looks like. It looks like covering my face with giant sunglasses so people still think there might be a pretty face under those glasses (instead of naked eyes and mascara stains on my cheeks). I actually really love wearing this outfit. It's not the fanciest, but it's warm, and it's easy to run errands in these flat-soled boots. And hats are the best way to conceal unwashed hair that you'd rather not destroy another day with a curling iron. Also conceals awful roots well. See? What's not to love about this outfit? Also also, a very rough-looking man in Wal-Mart today loudly gruffed "YEAH, YOU"RE HOT" at me as he passed. So this outfit also serves to garner the best type of attention you can find. At Wal-Mart, anyway.

Why do I talk about food so much?!

Blazer: H&M, $50

Jeans: Charlotte Russe, $35

Top: Macys, $12

Boots: Rue 21, $12

Purse: H&M, $28

For the most part, I'm pretty annoyed with our friend Punxsutawney Phil. He promised an Early Spring this year, but methinks we should fire him and hire someone with a degree because this is ridiculous. I'm back taking photos inside my apartment because it's still freezing.

But there's still a small part of me that's not that upset at Mr. Phil's wrong predicition, because I tried on my bathing suit recently, and shuddered. And I was glad that no one had to see me in it too soon because I don't want my body to be seen in it until my body looks like another body. One that doesn't occasionally consider Doritos dinner. I don't know why it's so easy to get myself to the gym 5 times a week (or run four miles outside like I did tonight), but then I can't always manage to eat healthily (such as tonight, when dinner was Cool Ranch Doritos with a side of Reeses Eggs).

But I felt a little better after watching Jenna Marbles tonight, and hearing her talk about the same thing. And the good news is, there's always tomorrow to start eating well again! And there's always a husband willing to dump out the rest of the Doritos in the garbage so I can't eat anymore. It's for the best, he says...

Black & Blue

Jacket: Old Navy, $17

Top: H&M, $17

Skirt: Charlotte Russe, $16

Shoes: Shoedazzle, gifted

Sunglasses: Clothes Mentor, $6

I've had these shoes since December but this past Sunday was the first time I'd worn them out of the house. A woman at church gave them to me because they were "too high for her". I chuckled to myself at the time and thought, no shoe is too high for me! But I may have met my match with this nearly-six-inch heel. I got through about 3-4 hours of the day (which mostly consisted of sitting at church) before they started to hurt, but when they did, I basically had to have Matt carry me through the rest of our day (which consisted of couch-shopping... you know it's bad when your feet hurt too much to shop!).

At least they're cute! Up close they're kind of cheap-looking (sorry, Shoedazzle, you just don't impress me quality-wise), but I must've gotten stopped by over a dozen woman throughout the course of the day, commenting on my shoes. One of which practically ran out of a kitchen at a restaurant to oogle at my shoes. We shared a special moment over our shared love for heels. It was a beautiful moment.

Anyway, sorry I've been slightly M.I.A. lately and unable to comment on most of your posts. I'm working on a little something lately (which I will reveal in time; it's not really blog-related but it is life related, and I can get so over-share-y sometimes, yeah?), so it's been tough keeping up with all of my blog pals, but I'm tryna to find some time this week! 'Cause I like you guys. And I hope you like me too. :)

PS: If I've not convinced that high heels are the bomb, please compare my legs in this post to my legs in this post. Kate gets it.

Flats.

Until I was about 19, I didn't have a single pair of high heels. Well, I take that back. I had one pair. An old black pair that were reserved for times when flats were just not dressy enough or boots weren't appropriate. And then sometime in college, I started singing onstage with the music department at my church, and all the girls on the team always wore heels. So I started wearing heels. And when I'd see myself on the big screen during service, I'd think, WHO IS THAT TALL SKINNY GLASS OF WATER ON THE SCREEN?! And I was not particularly skinny at that point in my life (or really at any point in my life!). I had just discovered the wonder of heels. And I have not stopped "discovering" them since.

So why, you might ask, am I wearing flats? To challenge myself, I suppose. And to maybe learn to be okay with flats again so that I don't try to run around in 5-inch heels once I have kids (who are we kidding, I'll probably give birth in 5-inch heels). So, surprise! My legs are not super long like you may have thought (I assume you all have thought so much about my legs, no...?). I am not a slender 5'11. I am an average 5'6" (on a good day). And I have really muscular calves. And not by choice.

Hope you had a pair of sunglasses handy at the sight of my legs. I'm pretty sure that if your legs match the white background of your blog, it's been too long since they've have seen a little sun, period.

March 2013: Birchbox & Ipsy

I decided to combine two posts into one this month by showcasing both my Birchbox and my Ipsy bag in the same post. I kind of already judge them based off of each other anyway, so now you can judge them together with me. Isn't being judge-y so fun? 

MAKE Matte Finish Eyeshadow in Purple Sage, full size is $18

MAKE Face Primer SPF 30, full size is $30

Madewell for Birchbox Nail Emery Board, full size is $5

Nick Chavez Bevery Hills Color Saver Shampoo, full size is $22

Whish Shave Crave Shaving Cream, full size is $20

I've yet to use the face primer, but I'm still excited about it. I hate cheap primer, and hate paying for expensive primer, but I have one full size primer I got through my Birchbox points and two deluxe-sized primer samples that will probably last me through the summer, in addition to the one I am getting through Birchbox. So this is sample is highly welcomed.

Not entirely thrilled about the shampoo and shaving cream sample, but at least they're good sample sizes. I'd much rather receive conditioner than shampoo, though! Shampoo is only on my hair for like 5 seconds, so whatever is in it doesn't get soaked into my hair for long. I leave my conditioner on for 5-10 minutes, so that's the stuff worth paying money for in my opinion. And shaving cream? I knick myself with cheap shaving cream and I knick myself with expensive shaving cream. All the same to me. Lastly, the emery board is less than impressive. After using the Tweezerman file I got a few boxes back, I've turned into a file snob and only want the best of the best.

It's been a while since Birchbox has really wowed me, but this month wasn't too bad! Here is the eyeshadow, swatched. It's a deep, rusty purple color that I actually really love. It's quite blendable and I think it'd look pretty nice with my brown eyes. The only problem with single shadows like this is that I forget about them and continually reach for my full palettes. Going to try to keep this on my vanity as a reminder to use it!

That's it this month for Birchbox. Moving onto my Ipsy bag!

LA Fresh Travel Lite Makeup Remover Wipes, this set is $1.49

Juice Beauty Hydrating Mist, full size is $22

yaby Eyeshadow pan, $3.99 a shadow

GlamRX Mini Freestyle Palette, regular one is $16.50

I'm sad to say this is the first time Ipsy really disappointed me. They usually send pretty impressive samples in great sizes, and while the sizes of this month's were great, I just wasn't all that impressed. Makeup wipes are always useful, but I don't have any desire to try new ones. I just always buy the biggest pack for the least amount of money, ha.

The hydrating mist might have been more helpful during the dryer part of this past winter, but I tried this stuff and really didn't like it. I just hate misting my face with a spray, it just feels so wrong to me for some reason! And the smell is a very unappealing floral scent. Not a fan. But I never would've tried a hydrating spray if not for sample subscriptions like this! That's why I keep subscribing. My love for makeup and my cheapness that stops me from buying anything full price or unless I know I'm in love with it. Moving along.

The little palette is an empty palette with a magnetic bottom, used to place single eye shadows in that have a magnetic pan. I've photographed it below with the two shadows they sent me. I've wanted to get a palette like this to start de-panning some of my favorite drugstore shadows so I could keep all my favorite shades in one place (and actually start using them again instead of having them sitting around with all the rest of my tons and tons of makeup!), so it was nice to be able to try this out. The only thing I didn't like is that the magnet didn't seem very strong, because it barely seemed to hang onto the shadows. I would want to know my shadows were stuck pretty firmly in place and weren't going to be sliding around or falling out. Either way, it's pretty neat, just small. Probably only about the size of a credit card. And the shadows are about the size of a dime, and were pretty mediocre quality in my opinion. But with makeup, you generally get what you pay for! And at $3.99 a shade, I didn't expect much.

The redeemer of this bag is the actual bag itself. Too cute! And it's big enough to actually be useful for me, so I like it!

So there you have it! My two monthly, competing beauty subscription services, getting along enough to share a post. Enjoy! :) Let me know if you subscribe to either of these services, or a different one, and what you got this month!

six.

Be ready to be annoyed and possibly even gag. Because it's my husband and I's six month wedding anniversary, and I am feelin' a little lovey dovey today. Maybe it's silly to celebrate six months when I know most couples only celebrate yearly anniversaries, but being freshly married makes this girl a little silly.

I've been head over heels for this man almost since the moment I met him, and the last six months of my life have been an even greater awakening of that. He gives me more reasons to love him every single day, and more reasons to respect him & adore him.

The last six months have been filled with waking up to hot coffee sitting on my nightstand and a husband entering the bedroom with a tray of waffles; rolling around under a fortress of blankets and staring into each others eyes and wondering if this feeling of love could possibly be any stronger; long walks in the evening and conversations about our future together, walking hand in hand. Not to mention this blog, and how every new follower, every new comment and every e-mail is a reason for Matt to scoop me up in his arms and rejoice and tell me how proud of me he is. Surprise gifts, day dates, hunting trips, and a million laughs, hugs and kisses. I am one blessed little lady.

We spent such a large portion of our relationship being 1400 miles away from each other. To be able to have him and hold him at all times still makes me feel like I'm in a dream, and it's been over a year and a half since we were long distance.  I love that I'm the girl he kisses goodbye in the morning. I love that I'm the girl who gets to cook (and by cook I mean microwave) his meals, the girl that gets to be his cheerleader, and the girl who gets his heart.

Our "first look", and Matt hugging me while he cried. <3

You swept me off my feet this day six months ago, and you continue to do it every single day. You are my rock, my teammate, and my best friend. Team Hoyle for life. <3

A few things.

Top: H&M, $10

Jeans: Kohls, $30

Shoes: Fergalicious via Famous Footwear, $10

Purse: Steve Madden via Marshalls, $40

Earrings: Forever 21

Things you may be able to tell by looking at these photos:

1. I'm outside again. Which means it's not I-wanna-die-cold right now. Which I am loving, and am hoping stays forever. It could happen, right? Everyone keeps talking about global warming... has it kicked in yet? Oh, wait.. no.. that's not right, is it....

2. I need to pay a visit to my hair stylist to get my roots touched up. So I guess that cat's out of the bag, for those of you who are newer to my blog. I'm a chemical blonde!

3. For those of you who are viewing my actual blog and not seeing this post through Bloglovin or by mobile, you'll see that I re-did my blog design. I'm pretty proud of the three hours I spent in the middle of the night, making minor adjustments and forcing my husband to Google different coding while I edited. It was fun for everyone.

4. I was exceptionally impressed with my husband's photos of me this time around and couldn't help but posting more of them than most of you would care to see. You mad?

5. I am in dire need of a good tan. Only, too bad I've promised myself no more tanning beds. And even more too bad that I made this declaration on Facebook for all 700+ of my friends to keep me accountable. I guess it's time for tanning lotions. Fingers crossed that I turn out tan and not orange. You'd tell me if I was orange, right?

Greenery

Blazer: H&M, $30

Top: Charlotte Russe, $10

Jeans: Love Culture, $20

Shoes: Fergalicious via Famous Footwear, $10

Necklace: Gift from husband

If you're thinking, "Hey, that doesn't look like the sad, depressing inside of Lynette's apartment building", you're right! I'M OUTSIDE! If you've been following me all winter, you might be as excited as me. My clothes are very excited as well. They look much better against dead grass and dirty snow than the brown walls inside my building.

I'm pretty obsessed with these $10 Fergalicious shoes. I've been wanting wedge, close-toed heels for a while now but never really liked the look of the ones I've seen around. But I like the straw-like material of the wedge contrasted with the tan suede of the shoe. And there's nothing more comfortable than a wedge heel. Well, other than flats, obviously. But we all know I never wear those. ;)

It got pretty warm around here today! Which explains, obviously, why I'm not hiding within the warm threshold of my apartment building. Here's to hoping the weather never goes below 40 degrees for the rest of the season. 

Five things

 I was tagged by both Emily  and Elissa to do this 'five things' post, where you state five facts about yourself. I was excited, until I realized that I'm not very interesting, and have basically disclosed any and all interesting facts about myself when I was nominated for the Liebster award. But I dug deep, and here are a few little factoids about myself that most of you may not know (unless you're a stalker, or an exceptionally good Google-r).

A photo of me & my awesome husband because... why not?

1. I used to really dabble in photography. And by dabble I mean from ages 14-19, I spent every waking moment taking photos and learning how to edit them. I'd even been hired to photograph a few weddings, and I'd planned on making photography my career, until I realized that I didn't want my hobby to become my job. I almost dropped photography completely once I started college, and didn't really pick it up much until I started this blog. I still don't take photos of much, and only edit photos that I put on the blog, but I miss it. If you're interested (and brave), you can go here to see my Flickr gallery from when I was in the later years of high school, and if you're even more brave, my deviantArt account from my earlier high school years. You've been warned. It's teenage-y and angsty.

A photo from the vault that is my Flickr account

2. I don't keep up with any TV series except a few shows on HGTV (something I never thought I'd be interested in, ever) and Pretty Little Liars. Is that lame? It's like my guilty pleasure show. I do watch other tv series, I just always track them down on Netflix years after they ended (such as my favey faves: Smallville and Lost, and now 24). I'm sure in another 5 years I'll finally stumble onto the Walking Dead or Scandal.

3. I went to college for two years and studed Business Admin, and then dropped out for ministry school. I then dropped out of that when I was half done because my husband (fiance at the time) had just been ordained and was being moved from where we were (Texas) back to Michigan, so I left school temporarily and went with him. So basically, I'm a dropout. It's fine. I always figured I'd go to school forever and leave with a ton of degrees. I really like school. Well, I liked school. I honestly would struggle so much if I had to go back! But I plan to finish ministry school one day. And when I do, you can start calling me Minister Lynette Marie. Or just Lynette is fine... :)

4. Thought I don't talk about it a lot, I really love my job. As some of you may know, I'm a receptionist for a real estate agency. I never thought I would end up in real estate, but I really love it, even as just a receptionist. I could easily see myself in this field for a long time. Real estate, that is. Not receptionism (receptionistism?).

5. If I could eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be Qdoba's three cheese nachos. Except for the fact that they're like 1500 calories (not joking), so I rarely indulge, but I could, for my whole life. That and a Thai noodle dish called Pad Si Ew. Do yourself a favor and order that the next time you're in a Thai restaurant. You're welcome.

Casual Friday

Due to the negativity in my last post, I promise to be happy today! Thanks for letting me complain, though. What's the point of blogging if you can't occasionally whine without a ton of internet friends to justify you? Right? 

So today, there are two looks:

Denim jacket: Forever 21, $30

White blazer: H&M, $30

Top: Marshalls, $15

Skirt: Old Navy,$20

Shoes: Fergalicious via Famous Footwear, $10

Basically the same, but the first one (with the denim jacket) is what I wanted to wear to work, and the second look (white blazer) is what I ended up wearing to work. Why? Because, unlike the title of this post suggests, I did not wear this to work on a Casual Friday. I wore it on a You-Better-Not-Wear-Jeans-Tuesday. And I couldn't decide if a denim jacket was too casual for Casual Friday. I say I should be allowed to wear it. Don't you? I am, after all, probably the only person in the office ridiculous enough to wear heels to work every day. That merits some sort of reward, I would think.

Happy Friday, from me and my manly-musclar calves.