recent purchase: Ann Taylor Loft

Ann Taylor Loft Sailcloth Trench

on me:

it's super soft and lightweight, perfect for the transitioning weather!

on the model... with better lighting.

my favorite part, the little ruffle that stands up on the inside of the collar. 

:-)

seriously, the best thing about Ann Taylor Loft is that they are always having some sort of special and always send coupons. you should rarely be buying anything full-price.

get in my closet! (anthropologie edition)

oh dear god, someone at anthro better send me some dresses to blog about. (size 6, thanks!)

why on Earth is this almost $400?

i get it, it's gorgeous. DUH.

but please please please

i could totally wear this to the July wedding i'm going to!

and i'd wear it with these:

and this!

and i'd get these too for good measure!

um sidenote: if you want to torture yourself. go here.

I'm baaaack!

Wow guys. Sorry for being MIA. I have a good excuse though. Life. there. that's it.

Just kidding! Lots of exciting things have been going on. And now... photos to depict how very busy and important I am. Long post. Keep up!

Two weekends ago I went back to JMU for my sorority's Red Dress Gala, in support of the American Heart Association and the Red Dress campaign. They raised $10,000 in one night! AMAZING! I'm so proud of my chapter and all that they have accomplished.

This is my Alpha Phi family. 

We're pretty awesome. There are a few missing. 

(I'm the awkward one in the back)

This was our bar tab after the Gala.

WHAT?

DC bars, take notes.

Now onto last week. Last week was very hectic for me at work. On Monday I had to finish editing 4 manuals. Then we had our huge department offsite in Bethesda. Yay team bonding!

That's my team's tower of:

construction paper

tongue depressors

& 

playing cards

Another addition to my office. This amazing poster I bought from Etsy.

dang IKEA frame, I can't figure out to hang it on the wall.

To top it all off, right after the offsite ended I headed out to Virginia Beach for my friend's Bachelorette Party!

We stayed at an amazing house on the beach. We arrived so late that I didn't even really notice.

And then I woke up and saw this:

And then we played this:

And then we had a shower and dressed up like this:

And then we opened presents and they looked like this:

And then I came home, watched the Oscars (yay Sandra Bullock!), passed out, and went back to work. 

Sigh... I wish I were still at the beach.

My sugar daddy better prepare himself to purchase a water-front house some day 

;-)

Ming's

head on over to the DC Ladies today to check out my post on the newest addition to Chinatown!

foursquare

you know. like the game you played in elementary school?

...but this is BETTER! also known as "i-need-to-keep-tabs-on-my-friends-everywhere-they-go-app"

basically it's an app that let's you "check-in" at bars, restaurants, gyms etc and you get "badges" for certain levels of activities. for example, if you're hollering at dudes every day at the gym and check-in lots of times, you'll get a gym rat badge. OR if you go to bars that participate in drunken sing-a-longs, you'll get a karaoke badge. capice?

rachel, why are you telling me this nerd-ness?

oh, i'm so glad you asked, because there's a kickass video that goes with it!



have a good weekend peeps!

merchandising at its best

modeling the new Alice in Wonderland OPI collection (& my new JCrew jeans)

on my toes: Absolutely Alice

[electric blue and gold sparkles, reminiscent of 5th grade]

there are four new colors out by OPI. Two reds, blue glitter, and a multi-color/ grayish glitter

what what! I got the combo pack of mini polishes because I just couldn't make up my mind

:-)

my new best friend

that would be me sitting on the floor of the Canadian Embassy watching the USA v. Canada hockey game on Sunday night. [Canadian friends from work got us the hook up, free food and beer during the game]

my feet hurt so I sat down. Then this cute kid came over and sat next to me.

Too much cuteness for one photo. I know

Did you know I love food?

I did some foodgawking yesterday and found some new food bloggers that are blogging some very delicious things.

like this:

i know all you salmon haters are gagging right now, but just look at how pretty it is!

this recipe (& photo), Smoked Salmon and Mango-Jalepeno cream on Cornmeal Blinis is from The Dog's Breakfast.

YUM. get in my belly!

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos. What? you had me at Taquitos. You'd think I'd be creative enough and handy enough in the kitchen to make these bad boys, but no, I buy the El Monterey frozen ones. No more!

Recipe & Photo from: Pennies on a Platter

So what are you all cooking lately? Anything fast and easy, and dare I say healthy? 

I've been good since my mom brought me to the grocery store last weekend and sent me home with veggie soup and other homemade yumminess. Let's hope I can keep it going!

shout outs!

Happy Monday, or not. I can't tell yet.

a few things of note (hooray for the bulleted list!):

• I feel the need to share my baller status with you. I won an STC (society for technical communicators - yay nerds!) award for some papers I wrote for my real big-girl job. This is very exciting news, it means I'm a dang good writer.

• I had an awesome time at #DCHH on Friday. There was groping and nipple rings, religious discussions and pizza, there was also lots of Foursquaring and Bumping (hooray for smartphones!). 

New Bloggers!

• I want to give some shoutouts to a few friends of mine who just started blogging. Send them some bloggy love :-)  You should feel smarter just reading their blogs. I know I do. Lame? You tell me:
• Just Your Every Day History [also known as making me smarter one post at a time] 
• Robert's Random Science Facts... because everyone should feel smart sometimes [that's his tagline, not mine, I'm not that witty]

I live for Happy Hour...

....especially this one. 

I've been a bad blogger happy hour attender recently and I apologize. 

I will be there, and so should you, if you live in DC, which you should.

kthanks.