OOTD & First Thoughts on Bumble and Bumble "Texture"

Happy Friday everyone!  BIG THANKS to all of the ladies who gave their advice on home staging in my previous post---I appreciate the input and I'm gearing up for a long weekend of cleaning and organizing!

For casual Friday today, I wore my Gap skinnies and my white peasant top that many of you loved when I first posted an outfit with it.  I'm starting to love this top more and more each time I wear it.

Speaking of skinny jeans, I am loving Kate Middleton's J. Brand navy blue skinnies she's been wearing on her and Will's Canadian tour. I think I may need to get myself a pair (or something similar). All I have are my black ones and navy is so versatile! They are the
J Brand 811 (as reported by www.whatkatewore.com)

(source: WhatKateWore/Getty Images)

and here's today's outfit:

Top- A'Gaci
Jeans- Gap "Always Skinny"
Sandals- Steve Madden

I also wanted to share in this post my first thoughts on Bumble and Bumble's "texture" product that I blogged about the other day:

As I mentioned, the product is meant to be used on wet hair and then either air-dried or dried with a diffuser. Because I'm such a beauty rebel (haha) I decided to use it just from the nape of my neck down to my ends and do a full blowout with Velcro rollers.

I had read online that the product has a lot of "grip" and "style memory" so I wanted to test it out and I must say, I was impressed with the shape my layers had and it seemed to me as though my hair was more "flippy" than usual.

Let's see if you agree:

My next test will be to attempt to use it and air-dry my hair.  The very thought of it traumatizes me because I don't have a hair type that I can air dry and it will still look good---but I want to try out the product as it's intended to be used. My plan is to wash my hair at night and apply the product in my hair and then sleep on it and blow-dry out any existing moisture in the morning---then I'll maybe add some curls with a curling iron and see how the product makes my hair take on shape.  More on that to come...

Hope everyone has a great weekend---if I'm not posting, it's because I'm cleaning...like crazy.

xoxo,

Veronika.

OOTD: The Girl in the Green Dress

Happy Tuesday everyone!  It feels weird saying that because it still feels like Monday to me, but I'm thrilled this work week will be over sooner!

I'm anxious for the weekend to get here because we've totally been dilly-dallying on selling our home and we finally contacted our Realtor to list...so this weekend I'm once again cleaning/organizing/staging the house. We've made a few cosmetic touch-ups that needed to be done already and I'm excited at the possibility of selling our home, but I'm also being realistic about the housing market right now. My best friend sold her home in less than a week, which is amazing! We hope to share the same luck!

Today I wore my green dress from Target. I still have some of my spray tan left over so I always try to wear my brighter colors when I have a bit of color. 

Dress- Target
Belt- J. Crew
Shoes- Max Studio @ Zappos.com
Cardigan- Zara
Bag- Tory Burch Reva Clutch

xoxo,

Veronika.

4th of July Trip: Lake Austin!

Happy 4th of July to all of my American readers and of course happy Canada day to all of my Canadian friends!

We had a lovely 4th of July weekend relaxing on Lake Austin.  It was so nice to just lay out (in the shade, with sunscreen and a hat on!) and to go boating and eat yummy food (I was definitely NOT thinking about calories this weekend!)

Warning: this is a picture-heavy post. I was going to do an entire packing post, but I was so exhausted by the time we got home that I just unpacked everything and threw stuff in the laundry. I also WAY over-packed on this weekend trip because when we drive, I have unlimited space (not a good thing, as I ended up wearing maybe 30% of what I brought.)

Here are some photos from our weekend:

The scenery...

 

Where we laid out...

Some of H, Candice and I...

 

Me with Lucy, the sweetest dog! She swims all day long!

Me with my Glamour magazine! Love it!

I did take 2 outfit photos---but most of the time, I really just wore a bikini and cover-up. It was SO hot out and since I had a spray tan, I kept my cover-up on most of the time so I wouldn't get too much sun.

Sunday night, we took the boat to this place called "Hula Hut" which is owned by Chuy's (for all of you in Houston who enjoy Chuy's as much as I do!) and we had a great, casual dinner. The boat ride home was so pretty, seeing all of the houses with their lights on at night.  There are a few celebrity homes on the lake and it was cool to see them pointed out. I was hoping I could wave to Sandra Bullock if she was out on her dock, but if she was there, you wouldn't have known it!

This is what I wore today---very casual as we were driving home and stopping at the 290 outlets (which, by the way, were not good this weekend):

Top- PacSun
Shorts- Buckle

(I haven't washed my hair in 5 days, but I seriously think the
sunscreen and dry shampoo in my hair was a winning combo)

And here is one of my cover-ups I wore (this is the room we stayed in---perfect view of the pool and lake from our window!)

Bikini- Victoria's Secret
Cover-up- Marshall's
Sandals- Steve Madden

I hope everyone had a safe and happy weekend and had the chance to relax and have fun with family and friends!

xoxo,

Veronika.

OOTD: Lace On Top

You may have seen that I picked up this lacy top last weekend at Zara on sale for $29.99 from $59.90 (I had my eye on it for awhile but didn't take the plunge, hoping for a sale!)

I wore it on Monday and I absolutely loved it.  Someone even asked me "why I was so dressed up on a Monday?"  I think this top has a dressier vibe and I love that it's a bit cropped because it looks great paired with a high-waisted pencil skirt.

Top- Zara
Tank (underneath)- Target
Skirt- Banana Republic
Shoes- Kate Spade
Necklace- NY Light Metals on Etsy.com

xoxo,

Veronika.

OOTD & Night: The LBD

Happy Friday everyone!  This week felt like it dragged on forever, didn't it? (or is it just me?)

On Thursday, I had an awards dinner to attend (our firm won 4 awards--- 3 on projects I worked on!) I wore a black cotton dress during the day and changed into a lace dress for the awards dinner in the evening. I also wore BOTH pairs of my new Kate Spade heels that day!

Day Dress:

Dress- Charlotte Russe
Camisole- Marshalls
Shoes- Kate Spade

Evening Dress:

(just a silly hairdo I tried...I wore it all down
because I thought this looked kind of...random)

Dress-  White House Black Market (outlet)
Belt- Express
Shoes- Kate Spade

Thanks for reading!  I will be blogging this weekend for sure :) I will also be announcing the Stiletto Hardware contest winner---sorry I'm so late on that!

xoxo,

Veronika.

OOTD & Fitness Updates

I have an outfit of the day to post today, but I also wanted to share some exciting fitness updates!  My H and I have been working really hard at the gym lately, going 5 days a week on average.  We are doing a fitness challenge with our trainer where we are part of a team so we are getting measurements done ever two weeks or so to track our progress.  I'm really proud of myself because I learned that I am currently at 17.5% body fat and I've also lose a few pounds (bringing me closer to my goal weight)! 

When I started to work out, I was at about 24% body fat so getting down to the teens is a big accomplishment for me. My next goal is 15% and I'll probably stop there.

As far as eating, I have been doing pretty okay. I am reading "Naturally Thin" right now, and it's helping me understand the thought process behind eating and choosing foods, which is good for me since I tend to sometimes overeat certain things (like sweets!)  I've been doing well though with eating whole grains, protein in meats, veggies and fruit.  I still have my indulgences, but I practice more strict portion control now.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that. It took me a LONG time to get the results I have, but it was all worth it because now I'm really seeing the numbers move!

I also want to note, because I know people will probably comment about this. I have said in the past that I do not weigh myself on a regular basis. That was true until I started this challenge, as I'm required to weigh in every few weeks. I am actually glad I started to weigh-in, because it helps me stay motivated to see that the numbers are moving! My weight can fluctuate throughout the day (2-4 lbs), so I always go with the lowest number I weigh in at (you know, when you weigh yourself after you pee and before you eat!)

Here's an outfit that I wore last week that I hadn't posted:

Top- Target
Skirt- Heritage Collection, Banana Republic
Shoes- Steve Madden "Fantasik"
Watch- Michael Kors
Bracelet- Pandora

Hope everyone's week is off to a good start!  I have some product reviews coming up because I feel like I've been slacking on that and I have a few great ones I want to share with you all!

xoxo,

Veronika.

OOTD: Think (Hot) Pink!

When I put together this outfit, I had intended to wear heels, but I'm glad I didn't because the hot pink flats I wore ended up being super-cute with this look! 

Blouse- Zara
Skirt- Heritage Collection @ Banana Republic
Shoes- J. Crew

If you work outside the home, how many days per week do you wear flats versus heels?

xoxo,

Veronika.

OOTD: Dress Shirts Make the Oufit

Lately I'm loving the look of dress shirts and I want to buy more and more of them!  I've had this light pink and white striped one from Forever 21 for a few years now and I always seem to find new things to pair it with.  In this outfit, it was my Ann Taylor lace skirt:

 Shirt- Forever21
Necklace- Forever 21
Skirt- Ann Taylor
Shoes- Jessica Simpson

Do you own a lot of dress shirts? Right now I have my eye on this adorable hot pink one from J. Crew. Whar do you like to pair dress shirts with?

xoxo,

Veronika.

PS- thanks to all of the awesome ladies who commented in my last post---it really means a lot and it's nice to know i'm not alone!