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...