Ugh

I'm kind of having one of those days. It was a really full 11-hour day which always puts me slightly on edge, so when I got home I semi-yelled at my boyfriend for not cleaning up the mess that I made last night when I baked him cookies. Then my carrot souffle took about 40 minutes longer than expected to cook, which threw off my entire dinner aura. Now I'm sitting on the couch watching one of the few too many house centipedes that have recently decided to call our apartment home also crawl across my wall. We have a deal- they kill spiders and don't go in the bedroom, they live. One of those days.

Let's not even talk about the peanut butter on my cute new shirt.

I'm no fool

Reminds me of Fool's Gold that I used to carry around with me when I was little.

LauraLombardiJewelry

Shoe-in

After enduring a very football-filled-sore-throat-from-yelling weekend, I decided to treat myself with some shoe shopping this afternoon. My secret go-to for shoes is DSW, especially downtown Chicago because it is just filled to the brim with pretty little things for really great prices.

Gray leather? Wooden heels? Ruffles? Perfect? Check, check, check. Check.

Girly black booties with an edge.

Peep-toe boots or heels? Both please.

Happy Friday!

Happy weekend! I will be spending my Saturday doing one of my favorite fall activities- tailgating at the Notre Dame/Purdue game! Here is a Friday roundup of my life:

Can't stop reading

Can't stop watching

Can't stop drinking

Can't stop following

Can't stop wanting

Can't stop using

Can't stop loving

Can't wait to pick

Can't wait to make

Can't wait to bake

Can't wait to snack on

So happy that it's ...!

Nailing down a fall color

My nails have been naked for officially 8 days. This is a big deal for me. Usually I fall in love with a nail polish and my nails are that color for a solid three months before the season changes and along with it, inevitably, my nails. I have no remorse for the colors left behind; they have served me well. Old favorites include Lincoln Park After Dark, You Don't Know Jacques, Juicy Tomato, Moon Over Mumbai, We'll Always Have Paris, and Rainy Day Red. I'm in turmoil about this season's colors right now though, and thus, naked nails. I would love to slip into the blues and greens of this season, but, unfortunately, women lawyers do not have green nails and I'm really trying my best to be one of those right now. This is what my night of research has turned up, however.

Sephora Metro Chic

Dior Poison Blue

Sephora by OPI Dark Room

Chanel Jade Green

Ulta Deep Desire

OPI Bullish

Cover Girl Copper Penny

Essie Ballet Slippers

Seeing red

Aren't these pictures from Sydney's dust storm beautiful in almost a frightening, freakish way? Nature is the best PhotoShop.

{Image from flickr's mezza}

{Image from flickr's emmettanderson}

{Image from flickr's Robert Paternoster}

{Image from flickr's annacatthryn}

{Image from flickr's Stevpas68}

{Image from flickr's Kent Johnson}

Cat's out of the bag

My beloved cat, Friskers, gets me the best birthday gifts. This year I received from him the book "Homer's Odyssey," which on the cover reads "a fearless feline tale, or how I learned about love and life with a blind wonder cat." Friskers is currently at least 17 years old and pretty much blind in one eye, so yes, it's funny, ha ha. But I absolutely gobbled up the story, written by a fantastic writer about her life and adventures raising an eyeless cat. If you love cats, you seriously must read it.

{Image from www.gwencooper.com}

Visit www.gwencooper.com for more pictures of Homer and more Homer info.

To donate to a good animal cause, visit this website. My boyfriend is raising money by running the Chicago marathon for a local no-kill animal shelter.

Painted the town red

Why oh why do my weekends fly past? This weekend was spent visiting roughly 15 of Chicago's beautiful neighborhoods. Count em, 15. A combination of doing a 20 mile run all the way up to Evanston (see previous post explaining my crazy) and having my parent's car to take a spin in made us quite the little social butterflies.

The Saturday morning sun rose to a gorgeous day to run 20 miles on the lake.

What does one do after a 20 mile run you might ask? Absolutely nothing. Or, limp half a block to the Chicago Bagel Authority, order a monster sandwich, and watch college football all day.

The best part about marathon training- marathon eating. My boyfriend and I decided to reward ourselves on Saturday night with a hamburger from a great Chicago institution, Kuma's Corner. Kuma's has been rated best hamburger in Chicago by many magazines lately. Unfortunately, we were hugely disappointed with the long waits (an hour wait after we ordered our burgers), fairly tasteless hamburgers, and screaming heavy rock music.

What to do when disappointed with dinner? Go have dessert at Hot Chocolate. Absolutely the greatest dessert place on earth.

As if we hadn't already eaten our way through Saturday, we had to have brunch at Milk and Honey in Wicker Park.

Then it was on to the Farmer's Market, where I got the most beautiful and delicious heirloom tomatoes. It is definitely the time for these babies, I would recommend to anyone to buy them up!

On the way home we made a stop at one of Jewel's new concept stores- Urban Fresh. I normally wouldn't blog about a grocery store, but I fell in love. If possible, this store was like a combination of Trader Joe's off-brand foods, Whole Food's freshness, and Jewel's low prices. And it has cases of Diet Coke Plus, a staple from my college years that I can rarely find.

Because I couldn't handle any more football, the rest of my afternoon was spent at Bed Bath and Beyond. Though I usually associate this place with college freshmen and moms, filling up their carts with plastic storage bins, I have to admit they do have every staple. Plus a little tip- those 20% coupons you get in the mail never expire. Just take in any big blue advertisement and they will honor it.

I hope everyone had a food-filled weekend!

Have a good weekend

Happy Friday this week is more like, phew, it's Friday. This will be my first weekend since I moved into the new place that I don't have any plans at all and I'm very excited about it. My parents left their car with me for a few days while they vacation in Naples (Florida) so I'm going to try to cram in as much car-only shopping trips as possible. Otherwise it will be me, the boy, and football.

Fun from across the web universe:

Free Ting Tings next weekend in Chicago.

Ride like the wind, with personal style.

Love, love me some paper trees.

Even better than paper, paper towels cutouts.

Learn something new every day.

Where does your garbage go?

I think I'm obsessed.

Anthropologie, my dear, what were you thinking?

Real life Garfield.

{Image from David McEnery}

Feeling Urban

I have a serious love/hate relationship with Urban Outfitters. I go to the store and love the clothes and their hip, slightly bohemian look. They draw me in, promising, look how cute you could be, you would look so cool and casual without even trying. I cave, and buy, and when I get home I can just hear my closet saying, really, again? That does not match us. And then I hate. But since the store is having its fabulous September sale right now and I haven't been there in months, I made a little visit today and feel pretty pleased with my few, incredibly cheap purchases.

I have been in desperate need of an off-white cardigan. This Coincidence and Chance sweater in crystal gray, with pockets nonetheless, was under $20.

I'm a pretty simple girl, and I'd rather accessorize to dress up an outfit. This Silence and Noise tunic with a slight dolman sleeve was, gasp, less than $10.

I am incredibly anti-fake designer bag, so I'm hoping that this quilted chain tote has enough of an edge not to look like it's trying to be a Chanel. It is the perfect size for my laptop and just a couple little things so that I can stop lugging around my huge faux-crocodile bag that throws out my back and requires daily shoulder massages. I'll hang on to the massages I guess.

Under the Tuscan sun

All food is made better with olive oil. Okay, all savory food is at least. Nudo agrees- the company is offering olive trees for adoption. For a small price, you can adopt a tree from the Italian countryside and receive all produce from that tree for a year. What a fun gift idea for an Italian produce lover, way better, and more useful, than adopting a star.

If you're looking for a more intense way to immerse yourself into the Italian farm culture, a new trend I've been looking into is a "volunteer vacation." Many small, organic farms around the world will take in travelers, housing and feeding them in exchange for work on the farm. I've heard of fantastic experiences (think a few hours a day in the vineyard, then drinking an unlimited supply of wine), as well as horrible experiences (think near slave labor and sleeping in tents). Here is an article from the Today Show about the vacations and here is a link to a reputable website.

Here's looking at you kid

I have something really awful to admit. Until last night, I had never seen the movie Casablanca. I know. Does that make me less of a girly girl?

I couldn't help but notice the Morroccan lamps that cast the most magnificent shadows over the screen. In fact, the entire film was a play on light and shadow. Gorgeous, and romantic of course.

Unfortunately this was the only lamp still image I could find.

Inspired by the film, I caught this shadow from the light of another candle flickering at me on my fireplace mantel.

Happy happy

Wow, what a weekend! I had 8 people in town to celebrate with me and celebrate we did.

Friday night turned into a late night Michael Jackson dance party.

Saturday morning started with some much-needed breakfast and an awesome Bloody Mary bar.

Then I spent some time downtown in Millennium Park with my parents. We had lunch at Terzo Piano, the newly acclaimed restaurant at the Art Institute. It was absolutely fantastic. I had the Nichols' farm heirloom tomato salad and a Bellini.

We walked off the delicious lunch through the Lurie Garden, a gorgeous expanse of prairie and wildflowers.

Then it was on to watch the football games with my friends. Unfortunately Notre Dame gave me the same gift it has nearly every year- another loss to Michigan.

After that game I needed a glass of wine while getting dolled up.

Then it was dinner for 16 in a private room at Adobo Grill. Many, many margaritas, tequila shots, and delicious Mexican food made for a ridiculously fun evening.

Sunday came too quickly, and the day was spent watching football and eating Chicago pizza (for the second time that weekend).

What a fantastic birthday and even more fabulous friends! Now it's time to recover with my sweet boyfriend, who got me a collection of classic old movies for my birthday. Life is good.