Stylish Sunday: More Work Outfits

Hi friends and happy Sunday! :-)

I have been super slack in my posting lately, but life happens.  What can I say?!  Here's another work outfit post....I will just post the pictures of some of my outfits I have been wearing lately in case anyone out there needs a little inspiration that you can throw together things from your closet without having to spend a ton of money or be a fierce fashionista.

This outfit is actually not one of my favorites.  It's better for a day when I'm sitting at my desk and not moving around as much.  But I have worn it a couple of times.  I really like the dress but my blazer is a little tight under the arms and I haven't ventured to spend the money to purchase another yet, so if I end up having to do any kind of actual work, I usually take my blazer off.  The dress has a wide shoulder so it's fine to wear at work by itself, which is a bonus.

Blue Old Navy ruffle dress-probably $30
Black blazer from previous post-had for forever from Belk
Black flats with flower on toe-Rack Room Shoes-probably $20

 This outfit is fun--I've seen a lot of the tan and black lately, which is something I have always steered clear of.  I really like this outfit though and is surprisingly comfortable to work in.

Black Express pencil skirt from previous post (same as tan skirt)
Aqua Old Navy tshirt from forever ago
Khaki Old Navy 3/4 cardigan-$1 at a yard sale
Tan flats from DSW-around $30

 I like this outfit because I can be comfortable and actually move around and do things but it looks really classy and simple.  The black necklace adds a little extra pop too.  When it gets cooler here, I would probably add a cardigan over the top as well.

Black pants from NY&C-had for forever, probably around $30
Aqua button-up from Express-same as previous post
Black flats with flower on toe-same as above

Ok so that's all I've got for this post, but I will keep adding things as I wear them.  I am hoping in the next couple of months to be able to buy a few new pieces to add AND once we buy a new house, I have a ton of my clothes still in storage because our closet in the apartment wasn't large enough to hold everything.  So I will basically feel like I have gotten a new wardrobe then.  House-hunting is another post in itself so I will probably do that one day this week.

Until next time...have a great start to the week!  :-)

Travelin' Tuesday: Chicago!

Hi friends!

Happy Tuesday!  I wanted to make a post about our trip to Chicago this past summer.  Some of our college friends were getting married back at their home in Springfield, IL so we decided to make the trip and then vacation in Chicago for a few days since it was so close.  It also happened that Nicole and David were going as well and we decided to make the Chicago trek together!  We looked up flight and hotel information and got our flights much earlier than we did hotels and then we Priceline-ed a hotel for $109/night just a few days before.  I actually had a credit card with extra points and I used those to pay for about half of our flight and then we paid for the other half.  So I think we only spent about $300 on our flights out of pocket.

Saturday:

FLIGHT:
We booked our flights from GSP(Greenville-Spartanburg)-->ORD(O'Hare) on Saturday, May 11 at approx. 6am.  We had Clemson Graduations all day the day before, there are 3 in May, so we worked all day--I think I left around 10pm and Kevin left at like 1 or 2am--where we then woke up at 3:30am drove to GSP, about an hour away.  The flight wasn't long, maybe like an hour and a half.

SUBWAY:
Then we had to take the subway to get to the AMTRAK station, which was actually in the city.  It was about an hour subway ride in so it was fun to see the sights and be on the streets for a few minutes.  Did I mention it was CHILLY in Chicago in May?!

TRAIN:
We purchased AMTRAK tickets online--they were $20 each way for each of us, so $80 total.  It was about a 3 hour train ride from the city to Springfield where our friend, Nicole, picked us up from the train station.  We got in a little after noon on Saturday and the wedding was at 6pm.

Sunday:

TRAIN:
Our train then left again about 8:30am so we got back into the city around 12:30pm on Sunday.  We had a short walk to our hotel, the Palmer House Hilton, which was AWESOME!  *Cue passing out because we were exhausted!*

We napped for a little bit, then got up and wandered our way around to a sandwich place for a late lunch.  We met up with David and Nicole and walked over to the lake and decided to walk over to the Navy Pier.  It was just right over there, we could see it.  HA!  It took FOREVER to walk over there but  it was fun, FREEZING, but fun.  We went up on the ferris wheel and got to see the sights.  Then we made our way to the Northwestern Campus to what was called the best Chicago pizza.  It was super deep dish--I prefer New York style--but good nonetheless!  We called it a night and made our way back to our hotel.

Monday:
We got breakfast and decided to go to the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium.  Kevin and I purchased the CityPass booklets, which was $89, and we were able to go to the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, the SkyDeck at the Willis Tower, the Planetarium OR the Art Institute, and the John Hancock Observatory OR the Museum of Science and Industry.  The Aquarium was fun, we got access to go to the Sea Lion/Beluga Whale show included, so we did that too!  The Field Museum was SUPER cool, they had like every animal that ever existed stuffed on display.  And a huge TRex fossil!  Ok here are some pictures of the trip below....

This was the sign that welcomed us to Springfield on the train!  

Giant fountain in the park

Brontosaurus outside of the Field Museum 

Ok so David and Nicole were leaving on Tuesday so we had already planned to go to the Cubs game on Monday night.  It was really fun to visit a new baseball stadium, it was a pretty quick subway ride up to Wrigley.  We got hot dogs and beer and froze to death!  It was a great night!  However, this trip was the last time we would see Nicole and David until.....well, we still haven't seen them since, so the subway ride back was sad and we hugged and then got off the subway and I got really sad!  I'm going to keep moving on with the Chicago stuff so I don't get sad again.

Tuesday:
Kevin and I got up and decided to go to the SkyDeck and the Art Institute (and the bean!!).  We also had seen that The Book of Mormon was at one of the Chicago theaters near our hotel so we walked down to get the scoop and ended up deciding to get tickets!  So that night we had drinks at our hotel, went out to dinner and then saw the show--hilarious by the way!  We had a pretty long day and were flying back the next day so we went to bed pretty early.  See some more pics below....

Wrigley Field for Cubs game

Sky Deck at the top of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower)
101 floors in the air!

Art Institute of Chicago

Burger and hot dog hats! 

Wednesday:
We had to check out by 11am so we got up and checked out and had the hotel hold our luggage for us. We went out and wandered around a little more and then picked up our luggage mid-afternoon.  Back to transportation...

SUBWAY:
The subway back to the airport was pretty miserable.  I guess because it was mid-day and not early in the morning, there were SO many more people on it and we had to stand with our luggage for at least half of the trip.  Then we were able to sit but pretty far away from each other.  Not the best experience, but better than paying for a cab I guess.

FLIGHT:
Our flight took off at like 6pm and was about an hour and a half flight again, so we ate at Chili's in the airport and had a drink before we took off.

All-in-all, it was a wonderful trip and I am SO glad to have visited such a fun city!  I would highly recommend visiting if you get the chance.

Until next time....

Labor Day Catch-Up

Happy Labor Day!  It's nice working for a University that takes the day off on Labor Day so I am just sitting here drinking coffee and watching Netflix in my pajamas at 10:00am.  I had my first big events this past weekend and worked until about 2am on Friday night and then back at 7am to work until about 2:30pm on Saturday so my boss told myself and my coworker to take Tuesday off as well!  Yay for great new jobs!

We are still in the midst of house hunting, which I am learning is a way to teach you patience.  We have found 2 homes so far that we absolutely loved and one turned out to be on a cracked foundation so the realtor said she wouldn't recommend looking at it because most lenders wouldn't even let you borrow for that and the second we were still trying to decide about the neighborhood and the area and then we asked to look at it again and she said that someone had made an offer and the seller was accepting.  This one was hard because we had actually seen it and driven back by about 10 times and discussed how we would use the space with what furniture we have, etc.  I guess I'm learning the old saying, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch."

Now, going off of the house hunting and the push from my friend Nicole over at the Lieutenant and the Lady, I started getting a budget together and, if you don't know me well yet, you will learn that I love spreadsheets!  Literally, my husband asks me about everything, "are you going to make a spreadsheet for that?"  It's basically my own version of our Bank of America online account but I am able to input every charge into my spreadsheet, so I literally type out when we go to eat and how much it was.  I have separate columns for groceries, eating out, other debits (gas, random drug store purchases, clothing, etc.), bills, and income.  I also have at the bottom our debt--we each have a car loan, as well as 1 credit card each.  I started it back in mid-August and went back and pulled all of our charges in July so right now I have 2 full months to compare--we decreased our groceries, eating out, and bills in August!  We were paying our last month's utilities from Clemson in July as well so that added to our total, but we had accounted for that so it was not an issue.  We also were getting paid from Clemson still in July and Kevin got his last paycheck in August (since he was not full-time at Clemson and couldn't get paid out for his leave he had accumulated, our old boss told him to list his last-day at Clemson on July 31 so he could get paid back for some of his time he had accumulated, so that was great!)  I will get my first full paycheck from UF on Friday so I'm really excited to finally get a big picture of how much income we will be taking in each month.  Back to Nicole's blog, I did a couple of scenarios based on our total monthly income with percentages broken down to Savings/House Fund, Debt, and Living Expenses.  I went with 15% Savings, 30% Debt, and 55% Living Expenses (bills, groceries, eating out).  In order to make it work, we definitely have to decrease our groceries and eating out each month so that's something we will be working on.  I'll try to keep you posted how we are doing from month-to-month.

OK so I think my blog is going a little long today but thanks for reading (if anyone is reading this) but it's nice to be able to get some thoughts out!  Also, in case you didn't hear....Clemson beat Georgia on Saturday night!!  It was so much fun to watch and cheer on our alma mater but it was a little emotional not being there, it's my first football season not being there since freshman year in 2005!  Hope to be able to get back to a game this season.  Anyway, I'll leave you with this lone picture for today!  Until next time....

Tasty Thursday: Pot Roast

Happy Thursday!!!!

OK So as promised, it's recipe day.  Awhile back I decided to make a pot roast.  The recipe I based mine off of is from this blog.  I chose not to put onions in mine or celery.  You can see my ingredients listed below.  I used a rub that was a garlic and onion medley, salt, pepper, and flour and put it in a ziploc.  Then I browned it in a pan with olive oil first to get some of the fat off.   

 Clean CrockPot ready for cooking!

 Then I put everything in the crock pot on low for 9 hours (potatoes, carrots, and roast.)  I covered with beef broth and red wine and let it go.

 This is what the finished product looked like.  It was super moist and tender and just fell apart.  One thing that I really liked was that the potatoes didn't get too mushy.  The flavor was good and filling and it was enough to make 2 full meals for both of us so that was good.  I would highly recommend making this if you like good, Southern meals that don't take a lot of prep time!

Until next time....

Travelin' Tuesday...on Wednesday

Side note: I set this to post yesterday and it didn't. Boo! Nonetheless....

Hi friends!

Something that I'm super passionate about is traveling!  I absolutely love going to new places and seeing new things.  When I was younger, we went to the beach on vacation every summer and I went on field trips to Atlanta or Columbia to the zoo and I think I went to Charleston, SC once or twice on school trips.  I went to Washington, DC and San Antonio on choir tours in high school but I don't really remember much about them (or maybe I just didn't appreciate it at the time!!)  When I graduated from high school, I went on my first trip out of the country to Mexico.  This was absolutely the beginning of my newfound love for traveling and seeing the world.  

I mean how can you not fall in love with new places when you are in a place like this?!  So after that, I decided that I wanted to see all kinds of places.  In college, I would visit my college roommate in Charleston every Christmas break and got into going to concerts in Atlanta a lot.  

A little later on in college, I went to New York on a trip with a Maymester class I took.  I fell in love. 

View from the Top of the Rock

Old Yankee Stadium before they tore it down.

I went to Cancun on a trip with some family friends.  How beautiful is this?!

Isla Mujeres day trip

View from the hotel we stayed at

 I was really close with my freshman roommate, Brittany.  Her dad moved to Seattle to work for Boeing and she decided to go visit him the summer right before senior year of college.  She invited me to go.  I said YES!  It was an amazing experience!

Above: Mt. Rainier from the plane
Below: View from the top of the Space Needle and a view looking up at the Space Needle

Senior Year: Fall Break, I went with two close friends to New York again.  It was so amazing in the fall and made me think about the possibility of living in the big city someday....

Brooklyn Bridge

Central Park ice skating!

Last, but not least, Senior Year: Spring Break, 7 of my friends and I decided to go to Cocoa Beach, Florida for our last hurrah before we graduated!  It was an amazingly fun week and we even got to see one of the last Space Shuttle launches!  See the pics below.

I have been so lucky in my life to be able to see so much and have fallen in love with cities and different places I've been.  Since I graduated from college about 4 1/2 years ago now, I have traveled to visit college friends where they live now and gone to weddings of friends in new towns, and each trip is just as special and unique.  I will post some more in-depth looks at some of the cities I've been to (I recently went on a trip to Chicago with my husband and two of our close friends after a wedding we went to in Illinois!) which was amazing!  So keep an eye out if you're interested and love traveling as much as I do!  

Until next time....

Stylish Sunday: Work Attire

Hi friends!

I apologize for the lack of posts this week...I started my new job this past Monday so it's been a pretty crazy week--my new hours are (generally) 8-5 and then if we have late events, I have to stay late until the clients are gone and catering is cleaned up.  I had to come in early one day this week to meet a caterer so it was in general a crazy week to be a first week of work.  To be fair, I'd rather just jump right in and get involved rather than sit at my desk and "learn" so with that, so far so good!

Anyway, the point of this Stylish Sunday piece of my blog is to address the fact that I am having to adjust my work outfits because when I worked in Clemson, I wore khakis and cardigans and jeans a good bit!  Working at the Foundation office, everyone dresses up--as in guys in ties and girls in dresses and heels.  Well, if you know anything about working in events, you know heels are not a great thing to wear to run around and check on events.  So basically I've been wearing my flats with dresses/blazers/cardigans, etc.  I wanted to post some pictures of outfits that I have been wearing for work so I can maybe help some of those other newly employed women out there that are having some issues, like I was.  I did have to buy a few new pieces of clothing so I'll list where I got them and approx. how much they were.  (Side note: Today's post will be strictly about my interview outfits.)

Ok, so this outfit is what I wore on my first interview for my job.  I had recently bought this navy blazer at Gap ($88.00--one of the cheaper versions of the blazer so I finally gave in and bought this before we moved from Clemson.)  I knew that I wanted to wear it because it fits really well and looks super professional.  I went to Express here in Gainesville at the mall and wanted to get a pencil skirt so I ended up finding this brown-shade.  I knew I had a pair of brown crocodile pumps that I would wear.  I tend to like color (this is the understatement of the century!) so I told Kevin I wanted to get some kind of undershirt that had some color so I wasn't so blah.  I found this mint green button-up that happened to be on sale buy 1, get 1 for a lower price so I bought a cream colored one too.  

The top was $49.90 and I got the second one for $29.90.  The skirt was $59.90.  BUT I had a coupon that if you spent $150, you got $50 off so I ended up spending just over $100 for 2 new blouses, a new skirt, and a camisole to wear underneath.

Ta-Da!  This is the finished product.  I thought it looked very professional but also let me show my personality as well.  I left my sleeves rolled up on the blazer too.  

They called and asked me to come in for another meeting with my potential boss so I opted for an Old Navy dress that I LOVE--I mean, it's green, what's NOT to love!  It has cap sleeves so could be worn by itself as well.  I chose a simple black blazer but went a little more casual and wore my new black, peep-toe wedges from DSW.  I've had the dress for a while, but I think it was probably around $30 and I couldn't even begin to tell you how long ago I got that black blazer--it's from Belk.  I just bought the new shoes and I think they were around $30 on sale plus an additional percent off. 

Something I am learning is investing in blazers is never a bad thing!

1. You can wear them multiple times in a week and nobody is going to say anything to you

2. They can be worn with SO many different outfits--seriously, most versatile piece of clothing.

3. Hardly ever have to launder them--cardigans are a completely different story!

4.  Always look professional when sporting a blazer...you seriously can't go wrong!

Alright, I think that's all I've got for today's post.  I promise to TRY and do better this week and post another couple of recipes/cooking adventures as well as devote an entire post (or maybe two!) to our move from Clemson.  Until next time...

Tasty Thursday: CrockPot Pulled Pork

Hello friends!  This is my first Tasty Thursday post and I hope it won't disappoint.  When we lived in Clemson (which, if you haven't ever heard of or visited, you need to do this ASAP as Clemson is one of the greatest places in the world!), we frequented a barbecue restaurant called The Smokin' Pig almost weekly.  It's one of the places we would lunch at when we were still in the flirting stage of our relationship and so it's a place we remember fondly.  We haven't found a great BBQ place yet here in Gainesville so a couple of weeks ago on Thursday (because Smokin' Pig was only open Thursday-Saturday), I decided to recreate one of our favorite meals.  I went to the store and bought a Boston Butt that was the smallest they had (I'm only cooking for 2!) so if I remember correctly it was about 2.5 pounds.  The recipe I decided to use for the first one was found at this site!  It was super simple, not a lot to do but put it in the CrockPot and turn it on.  So that's what I did (except I put some BBQ sauce on top of it.)  I set the timer for 6 hours on high.

This is what it looked like when I first put it in.

About halfway through...

After shredding the meat.

Bon appetit!

I decided to make Velveeta mac'n cheese, corn on the cob, and Sister Schubert yeast rolls, as this is very close to what we normally would get at The Smokin' Pig.  We sprinkled some Old Bay seasoning on the corn and sipped on some sweet tea and it was pretty darn delicious if I do say so myself!  Now, there is always room for improvement....

Notes for next time:

-Brown the meat in a skillet before putting in the CrockPot--it helps drain some of the fat off first.

-Season the meat a little more, maybe overnight?  

-Drain the excess juices off before shredding--this cuts down on fat as well.

-Invest in some nicer BBQ sauces rather than the cheapest Kraft one--definitely has the fake smoky flavor in it--maybe experiment with making your own sauce if you feel so inclined!

Wordy Wednesday: Lately...

Well, I am sad to say that it has been a whole week since I first posted on the blog and thought about it multiple times, but never sat down to write a post.  Either way, here I am with lots of exciting news to share.  Since I wrote last week, I have accepted a job offer--I am the new facilities events coordinator for the University of Florida Foundation in the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs!  I got my first phone call for an interview on July 26, had my first interview on July 29, got a call on July 30 that they wanted to call my references, got a call on August 2 that they wanted me to come in and talk with the person that would be my boss again on August 5, and offered the job that day!  I, of course, accepted as it is a great job and I think I will really enjoy it!  It seems like a lot less crazy long/late days and nights and I will also be working closely with another coordinator so that will be a huge plus to not be working by myself all the time!  My official start date is August 16 but I will be starting earlier than that next week as long as my paperwork gets through a little faster.  These are the mascot statues outside of my new building--Emerson Alumni Hall!

Meet Albert and Alberta...

Kevin and I have been house hunting for the 'Burgess Bungalow', which has been a crazy experience so far.  We met with a realtor and now that I have a job, we have been pre-approved for a loan so we are going to start viewing houses next week!  I'm really excited about this part, but also really nervous and scared about making this kind of decision--it's a HUGE commitment financially and also something we will have to live with for many years to come so I don't want to jump into a decision just so we can get out of the apartment.  Either way, I will keep you posted on the progress and maybe do a "House Hunters" style post when we get to the point where we are down to a top 3.

Now that we know we are going to be buying a home, we have definitely gotten more frugal!  We discussed our weekly meal plan on Sunday and decided we would go out to dinner one night and eat in all of the rest, including lunches.  However, after I got my job offer we of course had to go out to celebrate so we went to Outback (one of our faves!) and splurged a little.  Also, since Ryan Newman came in the Top 10 of the Nascar race on Sunday, it was Free Bloomin' Onion Monday!  Who could say no to that?! 

Also, for those of you who just love to read blogs--check out my dear friend Nicole's blog over at the Lieutenant and the Lady! She and her husband moved to Arizona in June for his training for National Guard and will be there until October!  We discussed starting out blogs quite some time ago so we could keep up with each other while we were so far away, but since we have both been stay-at-home-wives for the past month or so, we didn't have much trouble in that area since we have texted each other pretty much all day, everyday!  When her husband is finished with his training, they will be moving back to Virginia in the D.C. area, so we are very excited about getting to visit them and be tourists for a few days!  Anyway, she is just getting started with her blog as well so I'm sure she would appreciate the support!

Alright, I think that's all for today.  I have been thinking of some clever titles for each day and I think I am going for 'Tasty Thursday', which will be where I share one of my cooking adventures along with the recipe I used and pictures along the way.  Tomorrow I will start with the Boston Butt pulled pork that I made in the CrockPot a couple of weeks ago.  I will leave you with this for today....don't ever say I didn't make you laugh!

Wordy Wednesday--First Blog Post!

Well, I have finally given in and started blogging.  I've started cooking a lot more and trying to shop thriftier so I decided I needed a place to record all of my accomplishments (or what seem like accomplishments to me!) as well as create a place my family and friends who aren't nearby can see what I'm up to.  

For those of you who don't know me, I was born and raised in good ole Seneca, SC and then lived in Clemson for the past 7 1/2 years as I went to college and started my professional career.  I also happened to meet my husband where I most recently worked--we met, fell in love, and got married this past March!  He got offered a job at the University of Florida at the end of May and we moved to Gainesville on July 1.  We found an apartment, moved in, and he started his job on July 8.  Cue me sitting home alone all day, every day for 5 whole days.  Do you KNOW how long that is?!  So I went to the pool, read a book, watched TV, took naps, ATE SNACKS....repeat.  Cue me going crazy and needing to feel productive.  I flew back to Clemson the next weekend and got my car so I was able to start grocery shopping and doing things.

I started applying for jobs as soon as we found out that we were moving and this week I got not one, but TWO phone calls for interviews.  The first was for an Events Coordinator position at the UF Foundation and the second is for an Events Assistant position at the Reitz Union on campus.  Both would be great positions so keeping my fingers crossed!

We are talking to a realtor and mortgage company, so feeling super grown up.  But excited about how great life is going and feeling thankful for everything I have.  I think that's all I can manage for now without being too overwhelmed and posting a novel.

Posts to look forward to:
Moving from Clemson to Gainesville
My first Crockpot experience--Boston Butt
My second Crockpot experience--Pot Roast with potatoes and carrots
Getting back in shape...AKA No more SNACKING!
The hunt for the perfect house (to be referred to from now on as the Burgess Bungalow)

Until next time....