So this may or may not have accidentally happened. I swear, I didn’t intend to go shopping.

But the other day I was on my way to Newton to get a new dress altered. Well, while I was out in that direction I thought: What do you know? The Apple store is just a few minutes away, I could go check out those iPad cases I’ve been eying! So I bought an iPad cover from the Apple Store that just happens to be in a mall that just happens to have a BCBG store which just happened to be advertising a 60% off sale in the window.

I went in. Obviously.

Sometimes the fashion gods are just on my side, and I kind of love it. Take today for example. This past weekend I spent a few hours shopping with my mum. We stopped into Loft and within minutes I was drooling. Specifically over the fall and winter dresses at Loft. Sweater dresses, cowl neck dresses, draped blouse with tweed skirt dresses, lace dresses.

I mean, literally drooling. Unfortunately almost all of the dresses were $98, and I couldn’t stomach dishing out that kind of mula for a dress right now. Especially since I have an entire closet filled with dresses that still have the tags on. Dresses are one of those things that I love to look at, love to buy, and seldom wear. So the $98 dresses were out of the question.

That was Saturday. Fast forward to yesterday. I wake up, roll over, check my email.  Sitting in my inbox, this morning was a pleasant little surprise from my friends at Loft. 50% off all full priced dresses. In stores and online.

Purchase Loft dresses here, here, here and here.

You’ve got to be kidding me. Thank you fashion gods! Thank you Loft! Now this is something I can justify. Two amazing fall and winter dresses from Loft for under $100. Now I just have choose two.

I’ve always been slightly enamored with cowlneck sweaters, and this fall is no exception. Anthropologie, though generally out of my budget, has the best to offer and I’m dying to buy a few. I wear mostly neutral colors, and they have an endless selection. I love stripes, color blocking and thinly woven, slightly sheer tops. Now if only I can save up a couple hundred dollars!

Anthropologie sweaters

If you were to describe a broke-girl-who-just-moved-into-a-new-apartment’s dream, it may be something like, oh… I don’t know.  Driving by a yard sale on a Saturday morning and deciding to stop, only to find out it is actually being held by a professional staging company trying to empty our their warehouse.  After our lazy, cozy Saturday coffee and breakfast, the boyfriend and I left to run a few errands. On our way home from the dry cleaners, we drove by a yard sale.  I spotted two matching black leather chairs, so we pulled an immediate u-turn to go check it out.

Well, what we found was not your normal yard sale.  This yard sale was stacked. Not with random knick knacks and used crap, but with barely used, tags still attached pieces… by the dozens.  An entire drive way of wall art.  An entire backyard of pillows.  Lamps and lamp shades, tables filled with candle sticks, decorative bowls and baskets. Area rugs, smaller rugs, runners, door mats.

I’m not lying. Take a look:

Unfortunately, although we still have a long list of things to purchase for the new apartment, a huge shopping spree isn’t in our budgets this week.  So we picked strategically, and found a few things that we really, really needed.

Like a large framed, thick white matted print for above the living room. In case you forgot, this was the 3rd and final step to brightening the living room. We both wanted the print the second we laid eyes on it. It’s a great size (40 1/2″), the light greens mixed into the print match our couch perfectly. And did you know, that I’m kind of obsessed with birch trees?  The print reminds us both of our childhood, of being in Maine, the woods, the nature, the beauty. Score.

In addition to the large print, we picked up two matching chairs, two matching gold framed prints and two small striped pillows.

The framed bicycle pictures are perfect for our kitchen wall, but the chairs aren’t perfect. They’re pretty tacky with their black metal legs, but we thought for such a low price, we could try to work with them.  Maybe they’ll live as reading chairs next to our couch with a small table and lamp in between.  Maybe they’ll serve as two extra dining room chairs.  Maybe they’ll even be the matching chairs for our new work desk.  We’ll see.

And now for how these new pieces are settling into their new homes.  We still think the birch tree print is perfect. And how nice do those damn white throw pillows look? Sorry, sorry. I’ll stop. They just make me so happy.

And now for an up close look at the two darling bicycle prints in the kitchen! Don’t worry. I hate the butter yellow paint color just as much as you do. But repainting the kitchen will have to wait awhile. Probably a long while. Back to the bikes. Aren’t these prints awesome? I love the old wooden fence and the field of yellow flowers on the left. So bright, whimsical, and aah sweet. If only I owned a bike.

And there you have it. Once we find a more permanent home for the two chairs, I’ll snap some pics. Until then, just let out a squeal and do a little happy dance with me. Considering we left the house with absolutely no intention of buying things (that’s a lie, I was going to pick up some cork coasters), this random yard sale was a miracle. Crazy, humungo success.

This is what my meals have looked like lately.

Until we do a full fledged grocery shopping trip, we’ve been making little trips to the next door market for things like yogurt, fruit and veggies.  Cheese and milk too.  Oh, and of course enough pb&j and tuna (eaten separately, obviously) for lunches.

Sounds like lots of good, healthy and adult food. Right?

Fridge is also stocked with some of our favorite good fall beer and wine.  Can’t go without beer during the first month of the NFL, can you?

Thank you Kate Spade New York, for creating a necklace so perfectly fitting for, well, me.  A friend of my sent me a link to this gold plated $75 beauty a few months ago, and I gushed over the necklace. I ooh-ed and aah-ed the piece, but ultimately decided that I didn’t need a necklace.  Incidentally, the link sharing came just after I decided that it was time to stop frivolously buying clothes, shoes and accessories for myself.  Bad timing, I suppose.

I tried to be coy, and not blatantly throw this idea in the face of the boyfriend as a suggestion for Valentine’s day.  That didn’t work. Valentine’s Day came and went and I received no such necklace from the boyfriend, my mom, or dad.  In fact my mom and dad apparently have stopped buying me gifts in general.  I hadn’t lost hope.  My birthday is in May, and who wouldn’t want to purchase this beaut of a necklace for my birthday?  Well, maybe I have lost hope.

So, this morning, I purchased.  Kate Spade even thanked me with free shipping and a 10% discount on the purchase.  So the gold plated namesake piece with a crystal embellishment is mine all mine for just $67 buckeroos.
Tuesday morning score.

In other news, I thoroughly enjoy receiving compliments on my brand new boots. It makes the exorbitant amount of money that I spent on these boots, well… well worth it.

I apologize for being ridiculously tacky with my alliterations. Oh well, I can’t help myself. This weekend I plan to indulge in the following

1) Fall in the Village Art Festival Freeport is a tiny, adorable little village 15 minutes north of Portland and it is an outlet village. JCrew, Gap, Banana, Burberry, Polo. It’s incredible(y dangerous for my wallet). So I’ve been planning on shopping one of these weekends when I go home, and then I came across a tweet that referenced the Festival! So now I have a good excuse to go up. Enjoy some art. Walk the streets. Shop. Uh oh…

2) Boating, boating, boating. Summer in Maine is clinging on for dear life. This weekend’s weather forecast calls for 70 degrees and sunny, but anyone from New England knows what that means. It’s September. In Maine. 70 degrees in sunny is crisp and cool with a chilly breeze. The sun is really just there for good looks. So Mum and Dad and I (and likely BF) are going out on the boat for the day Saturday. Plan is to head towards one of the islands for lunch or to anchor somewhere for some afternoon wine. It will be glorious. Expect pictures!

3) Seussical The Musical. Okay, not Fall at all, but it will be fun. Boyfriend’s best friend’s girlfriend (stick with me) is an actress in the local theater scene (good for her) so we’re doing our part to support the gal by going to see her play! I’m excited. Word is that she’s fantastic, and we’re taking boyfriend’s little sis along for the ride.

4) Portland Trails 10K Trail to Ale Road Race I was supposed to run. I am lazy and therefore did not train, at all. As a result, boyfriend will run. boyfriend’s best friend will get my bib. I will wait at the end in the beer tent for runners to finish. Cheers, yay, glad you ran! The race takes place on a Sunday morning but did you read the headed? The 10k is called Trail to Ale! The race is sponsored by Maine’s finest (http://www.shipyard.com/, duh) so awaiting the runners will be some nice cold Pumpkinhead. Glorious.

Two photos to prove my weekend was just as glorious as I had imagined. Cheers.

I can admit that my style is typically cute but almost always in a super plain and simple way.  I like my designer jeans paired with a vneck and my pencils skirts don’t tend to include any wild and crazy prints.  I like my blacks, whites, tans, grays. One glimpse into my sweater closet validates my wardrobe’s lack of color:

In my opinion cardigans, jewelry and flats were invented to take care of the color.  Anyways, Krystal recently posted about eyeing a gold sequin skirt and I died.  I want one.  I still need one.  But I have to say, I’m not sure I’d actually dare to go sequins.  Again.  Me.  Plain, simple.  So when I saw this skirt, I double dog died.  Metallic enough to make me shine, tweed like enough to keep me categorized under plain and simple.

The end.

You won’t buy 6 of these bad boys, but I just did.  Actually, I bought 6 of these last week, and they have since arrived and my itty bitty eyelashes are in heaven.  Maybelline’s XXL Curl Power mascara is by and large the best damn product that I’ve ever let myself get attached to.

I kid not. Being blonde and blue eyed, a day sans mascara is a pretty scary one.  I am kind of a mascara freak, and I’ve bought, tested, tried and hated close to two dozen other mascaras.  This one for a day, and I was hooked.  Obsessed.  And then devastated when they took it off the shelves.  Most drugstores now just carry another purple / black packaged kind.. but seriously, if it’s not the XXL Curl Power, it’s not the same.  This combines curl, length, volume and hold.  Four incredible parts to the whole look that no other mascara dares to take on.  Most of Maybelline’s take on two: length and volume, curl and length.  No, no, no silly folks.  We need it all, and I encourage you to go out and buy enough of this product to last you a life time!

But like I said, it’s off the shelves, so after about 2 months of being so bummed and just hating every other kind that I tried, I just bought a crap ton off of amazon.  Shipping costs stink, but it was well worth it.  I promise.