Absurd things that Halloween tries to pass off as sexy:

Sesame Street Characters.

Actual quote from costume description: "She did it all for the cookie!"

I watched Sesame Street daily from ages three to five and not once since then did I think that either Elmo, Cookie Monster, or Big Bird were saucy. And is it just me, or does it look like these women MURDERED our beloved Sesame Street characters and are wearing their faces and pelts like proud hunters? NOT SEXY.

Speaking of murderers, you know what else is not sexy? Horror movie men:

Actual quote from costume description: "Slay them with your outfit and slash the competition!"

Behold the sexy lady versions of Leatherface (from Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th), and Mike Myers (Halloween). I just want to know why the Leatherface costume doesn't come with... you know... a leather face.

Too much sexy? Probably!

Other random things that Halloween deems sexy: crayons, candy, Sponge Bob, and Finding Nemo.

The "Naughty Nem-oh" costume description is just too hilarious to not post in its entirety:
"They claim that there are plenty of fish in the sea but none as sexy as this. You will be the catch of a lifetime dressed in the Women's Naughty Nem-Oh Sexy Fish Costume."

Oh. My. Word! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and I'm sad that I won't be able to partake this year. I'm not one to try to use it as an excuse to dress sexy or slutty, though. Honestly, I really appreciate a costume that is pieced together thoughtfully from thrift stores and isn't just a cheap polyester thing from the Spirit Halloween store (proof). However, I have to admit that the Skittles dress and the "Naughty Nem-oh" costume CRACK ME UP! I'm not above procuring them for the irony factor for next year.

[photos from Spirit Halloween]

Comment of the Day: A good friend of mine moved to the States from Korea when he was young. On his first Halloween, his mother made him his costume - he wanted to be a crayon. She made the body out of a sheet, and even made him a pointed hat to wear. The only problem? She made him a white crayon.

On the day of his school's Halloween costume parade, he showed up draped in a white sheet with a white pointy hat. His family didn't know about the KKK, and it took a bit of explaining. -Katie

Much love for Mothlove & Project Runway's Gretchen Jones

I am not a Project Runway freak. In fact, last season was the first season that I watched the show. You see, despite my own attempted forays into reality television, I really try to avoid watching shows that make me become a part of what I call "the culture of criticism". I hate watching shows like American Idol because I don't think it's fun to become an armchair naysayer... and when I watch shows like that I find myself becoming a complaining, negative person. I mean, who am I to sit on my couch and say things like, "You're not talented!" when in fact if designers (or singers or -insert whatever for whichever show-) have made it to that level, they are far more talented than I am and probably 99% of the folks watching them on t.v.?

I was scared that Project Runway would make me become an armchair naysayer, but at the insistence of pretty much everyone, I started watching it (yes, I give into peer pressure pretty easily!). Needless to say, I was instantly hooked! I think everyone on the show is immensely talented, and this season my favorite designer right off the bat was Portland's Gretchen Jones. Her pre- Project Runway line Mothlove is the bohemian dream I long for. I crave these two dresses like you wouldn't believe: Reality television is a tricky beast. I'm sure I've mentioned it on here before, but I have auditioned for (an made it to the final rounds) of two reality t.v. shows. My number one fear while auditioning? Nope, not leaving home and Hubs for a long time. My number one fear was editing. It wouldn't matter how nice or funny or charming or smart I am. Nice does not always make for good t.v. and I would have no say in how I was edited.

Thus why I try to give folks on reality t.v. the benefit of the doubt. My dear Gretchen has received a lot of criticism lately for what I perceive is simply drama educing editing. After Thursday's show, I tweeted as much, so imagine my giddy surprise when Miss Jones herself tweeted me back the next day!SQUEE! Okay, I'll admit it. I get starstruck very easily. But instead of going on and on about how much I love Mothlove, I'll let her work on the show speak for itself:Yes. I'll take one of each, please, and maybe two of the tinsel skirt and maxi caftan.

Who else is watching Season 8 of Project Runway? Who are your favorite designers?

[links: Mothlove, Project Runway full episodes]

Comment of the Day: "...I want to squish Mondo into my pocket. He's totally adorable and I really love his work." -Alyson

Off the chain!

I am so excited that Glee and 30 Rock and The Office are back on! Now when I lay on the couch a couple nights of the week, I'll actually have something fun to watch!

Today I actually got off the couch and I *gasp!* went to the gym for the first time since Hubs knocked me up. Per the recommendation of my midwife, I paddled around in the pool for an hour or so with the kick board in hopes of getting some of my water retention to subside.

I don't think it helped with my swelling, but it truly is amazing how much better you feel once you get off the couch and get dressed. I only wish I had come to this realization earlier this week before I missed all of Tribeza Style Week (thanks, Lauren, for all the invites! I love Tribeza and I'll be there next year for sure!).

Tonight was date night and I wore this darling tunic that my friend Carmen gave me when I first started complaining about my changing body. My friends are really awesome.

Look how swollen my hands and feet are!


I really like the embroidery on this top.


I got new sunglasses. They fit just fine, thankyouverymuch!


Look at these two love birds making a nest together. It reminds me of me and Hubs!

date: 24 Sept 2010
occasion: date night to Conan's Pizza
tunic: secondhand Anthropologie (my only Anthro piece... so far!)
shorts: Liz Lange Maternity loaner from my friend Joanie
flip flops: Target circa forever ago!
belt: came free with a water bottle?
bag: courtesy of American Apparel SXSW flea market
necklace: courtesy of A Box For My Treasure
sunglasses: SoLa

I am ALWAYS losing or breaking my sunglasses. Anyone else? I have a really great idea, though: let's make a collective effort to make grandma eyeglass chains cool, okay? This way I can always have my sunglasses around my neck, but I won't feel like a weirdo wearing them on a chain all the time because -hello!- everyone would be doing it! Good idea? Yes? Okay, let's start tomorrow.

Comment of the Day: "woh woh woh... grandma glasses chains aren't cool? Damnit. I hate losing cool points. Oh well. At least I know where my sun glasses are. My keys are another story, but whatever." -Robyn

I have worn this three times in the last seven days.

Literally none of my shoes fit save for one pair of ancient, falling apart flip flops. Get this, people: when my wedding ring stopped fitting, I got a new, fake one. I can't even get that one on my PINKY now! I currently weigh 38 pounds more than I did before pregnancy. I'm not having a 38 pound baby, but it does look like I'm smuggling a beach ball under my dress. Thank goodness for this little leopard number I picked up from the clearance rack at Motherhood Maternity. The ruched top is dandy:

No shoes. Not because I'm a hillbilly, but because seriously... no one single pair of my shoes fit!


Estimated due date: t-minus 27 days. HOLY CUSS WORD!


Rings don't fit, but thankfully, animal necklaces still do!

date: 22 Sept 2010
occasion: lunch date with Amber Snow
dress: Motherhood Maternity
necklace: gift from Amanda Dudley

I hate that I keep apologizing for not updating daily. I have been rather busy with craft projects, but in terms of not updating daily, I have no awesome excuse other than pregnancy has made me extremely lazy and hungry and unfashionable. I am in the process of lining up scheduled content and guest posts. I can promise that Adored Austin won't die in this strange time in my life, but I cannot promise that I will not wear this dress every day for the rest of my pregnancy, though! Hey, now! It fits, it's comfortable, and it's machine washable. Can't fault a pregnant lady for that, can you?

Project Runway challenge on Burda Style

For all you crafty types, this is pretty cool:

I got into Project Runway on an airplane ride a couple seasons ago, and now I'm hooked! I tweeted a few weeks ago that someone needs to start a Project Runway shadow blog where they do all the same challenges with all the same time and material limitations. That'd be a blog I'd obsess over!

In that same vein, Burda Style is doing a pretty sweet contest in which you revamp an item you already own and turn it into something way cuter and way better (similar to the first designer challenge of this current season). I want to do something like this, but I want the transformation to be more than just hemming and sleeve shortening:
The deadline is September 30th. See the Burda Style blog for more details.

Giveaway: Smashion.com

Hey! Remember this skirt?

I paid $20 for it on Smashion.com, and it's one of my favorite things in my closet. After Smashion became an Adored Austin partner, they credited my PayPal account back for the skirt, making it one of my most beloved courtesy items.

The lovely folks at Smashion would like to offer a similar deal for one lucky Adored Austin reader. If you have a PayPal account and a Smashion account (or are willing to sign up for one), you can win up to a $25 PayPal reimbursement for purchases made on Smashion.com.

In case you missed my original blog post about them, Smashion.com is a free, online marketplace that offers a style community and is much easier to wade through than eBay. I have bought and sold there, and when I did my partner spotlight a few weeks ago, Amberly even bought the Bebe shoes I blogged from Smashion!

To win, all you have to do is fill out this form by midnight Texas time this Sunday, September 19th. No need to retweet or repost or jump through a bunch of hoops for extra extries (please, only one entry per person). A PayPal and Smashion.com account will be required from the winner (but you can sign up after you've won if you'd like):

EDIT: Contest entry period ended and form removed. Winner TBA!

*note: After the winner has been announced, I delete all your information from my inbox and server to ensure your privacy. I never share your email address with others without your permission.

Lazy days!

I swear, this is the year of the baby! Four of my favorite bloggers have given birth this year: Melissa from Dear Baby, James from Blue Bird Vintage (three weeks ago!), Sarah from Small Town Chic (last week!) and now Jen from Jen Loves Kev (two days ago!). I cannot believe that in just one month, I'll be joining this group, too!

Which reminds me... I need to start lining up fun guests content so that I don't have a week of NO POSTS or something terrible like that! What have I been up to this week? Oh, you know... the usual. Napping with this thing:
And getting some fancy photos taken:

Photos courtesy of Leah Muse © 2010

dress: Liz Lange maternity
necklace: courtesy of A Box For My Treasure
Hubs' shirt: Old Navy
jeans: Levi's

Somedays I feel like this dress is the only thing in my closet that still fits me, thus the reason why I have zero motivation to do self-style photos! Someone tell me that I just need to suck it up and get creative!

Big thanks to my new friend/ amazing photographer Leah Muse for insisting that I get maternity photos done with Hubs. They turned out so lovely, despite all my belly aching!

I'm starting to get a collection of little black dresses.

Here's a fun fact about me: I didn't wear black in high school. I can remember having one black leather skirt and a pair of black Esprit loafers, but that's it. Brown and white were my neutrals of choice. However, most of my purchases as of late have been black:

This isn't maternity! Hooray!


Unfortunately, I've got to that point in my pregnancy where most of my heels or boots will not fit.


Bun= I didn't wash my hair today or yesterday, and I don't care!


I love the fun detail on this dress.
date:6 September 2010
occasion: errands with Hubs
dress: Nic & Dom (???) via Ross
sandals: Old Navy

I suppose I'm buying a lot of black because black is very slimming. After resting up from yesterday's little scare (and sadly subsequently missing my encore shopping experience at Le Garage Sale), I was ready to get out and about again. I was a little overdressed for errands, but after being pajama clad most of today and all day yesterday, that was okay. I'd always rather be overdressed for an occasion than under dressed. Anyone else?

Haven't done one of these in a while!

Whoa. I haven't done an outfit post in a while. Truth be told, it's been really hard for me to motivate myself to do my regular, self-style daily photos. Hardly any of my pre-pregnancy clothes fit, and I've even outgrown my first batch of carefully selected maternity clothes! When I'm not wearing Hubs' workout shorts and a dirty tank top, I've been rotating between the same three cotton dresses. Trust me. Y'all don't need to see that!

I was kind of lamenting all this to my city group last Tuesday, so my sweet friend Joanie took pity on me and loaned me some maternity clothes. Since today was a gorgeous day and felt like a prelude to fall, I did something I don't usually do: I wore jeans (paired with a friggin' awesome kimono bedroom jacket I found at an estate sale last weekend).

This jacket cost me $2.00 with two milk glass vases and two rolls of craft paper. See why I love estate sales?

The sleeves are so much fun!

date: 3 September 2010
occasion: date night at Phil's Icehouse
jeans: Motherhood, loaner from my friend Joanie
tunic: thrifted Wet Seal via Buffalo Exchange
kimono: vintage via an estate sale
flip flops: Target (forever ago!)
fish necklace: gift from Annie

In other news, I bought a new foundation at Sephora yesterday. I have been loyal to Clinique's Superbalanced Compact Makeup since it first came out, but alas, it has been discontinued. Since I didn't have time to go to the mall to see a Clinique Beauty Consultant, I just went over to Sephora and asked for a full coverage cream foundation. I was immediately steered toward the Cover FX line. I did balk a little at the price, but I'm happy to report that it does a nice job at covering up my dark brown acne scarring, and when you use it with a foundation brush very sparingly, it does finish very natural and almost dewy-like:

My $42.00 face looks just like my $19.50 face.

I tweeted that I was sweating bullets paying $42.00 for a foundation. I could get a pair of shoes for $42.00! Clinique (at $19.50) is as high end as I get (this is, after all, an affordable fashion blog!), so though I really Cover FX, I don't know if I'll stick with it.

What about y'all? What foundation do you use and how much do you pay for it?

Palmer Events Center is the place to be this weekend!

I know this is going to be hard to believe, but when I was younger, I hated garage sales. I was raised by my grandma and she loved them (she owned her own resale shop!), but because I was from a really small town and was sort of a social wallflower, when I'd show up to school wearing what I knew to be someone else's clothing rejects, I was super self-conscious. Ah, awkward adolescents!

Sometime around my senior year of high school, I stopped caring. My family wasn't rolling in the money, but I stopped viewing garage sales as some place I had to shop and started viewing them as places where I get to shop!

This weekend is Garage Sale Weekend in Austin! Two events are happening starting tomorrow at the Palmer Events Center, and I plan to be at both despite the 33 extra pounds I'm lugging around:Le Garage Sale is not a garage sale at all. More than fifty independent, local boutiques come in and set up pop-up shops under one roof. They offer new merchandise at rock bottom prices, and because this only happens twice/ year, the public is always crazy excited about it. There are no changing rooms, though, so it may be a good idea to wear a swimsuit so you can try on new goods! I have never been, but I'm going this weekend for sure. I'll even try to document the wonderfulness in a video blog! Entry fee is $12/ day at the door. I hear it's worth every penny!

The second garage sale event is something that happens more frequently and is something that I have been to before. Also happening at the Palmer Events Center is City Wide Garage Sale. This event is more aligned with the old idea of a "garage sale". Most of the vendors are antique or vintage dealers, and it's a hodge podge of good, quality used stuff. I love to go there for knickknacks for my house and always have a fun time exploring the booths. Entry to this is $5 (or free if you can get your hands on an Alamo Drafthouse book). Here are some of the things I've found at City Wide Garage Sale in the past:

Hope to see you at Palmer this weekend! Check my Twitter to see where I am. I'd love to meet up with you!

I cried today. Twice.

Two ways to make a pregnant lady cry from happiness:
1. Don't charge her for a tire patch. (Thank you, Lambs Tires!), and
2. Give her an award in the newspaper:
A blush-worthy, humble thank you goes out to The Austin Chronicle! That was an incredibly sweet write-up. Fact: I started reading The Chronicle before I even moved to Austin to get a feel for the city, and for me, it is a giant honor to be included in the annual "Best Of" Issue. Chronicle writers, I officially have crushes on all of you now. As if I didn't love this city enough already! Thanks, y'all!

Sneak Peek: Vivian's Muse photoshoot

A while back, my best friend Bee and I did a little maternity shoot with Austin based photographer Vivian's Muse. I was a tiny bit trepidatious at first because Vivian's Muse is known for their saucy, flirty, and gorgeous boudoir photos, and to be quite honest, in these last seven months, I have felt the exact opposite of sexy! I also swore I would never, ever do a bare belly shot, but Julia, the owner/ photographer made me feel so comfortable that I obliged her by doing a couple. This one perfectly describes what I've been up to the last week or so, but in a much more glamorous way:
Yep. All's well. My days lately have consisted of me just relaxing in bed, wearing a tank top and cotton shorts, and not feeling one bit fashionable at all! Yesterday I even wore athletic shorts and flip flops out in public, briefly. You know I'm not feeling too great when I can't even be bothered to put on a cute dress! Haha!

Maybe I should do a post on cute pajamas. I feel like an expert at that lately!

Can you believe I'm having a kid next month?!

Spotlight on Adored Austin Partners

I really love my Adored Austin partners. As I've said before, I only partner with brands and companies that I, myself, use. I think my partners are the bee's knees, and I love sharing my love for them with you:

A Box For My Treasure is "chic and whimsical jewelry". Judith makes all of her designs out of her Ireland home, and because they're so cute, affordable, and original, I just knew these would be a perfect gift for my best friend's birthday. Here's what I got her (plus a gift for myself!):

(L-R) 1. Petite Gold Rose Necklace, 2. Red Trumpet Flower Earrings, 3. Afternoon Tea Teacup Necklace 4. (for me-) Tree of Life and Swallows Necklace (I like to imagine that it's a mama bird and a daddy bird setting up a nest for their new baby!).


Smashion is a free online marketplace that offers a style community and is much smaller and way more navigable than eBay. I have successfully sold and bought items on Smashion this month, and next week we'll be doing an exciting Smashion giveaway here on Adored Austin! You could win things like these (note: these items are currently available for purchase):

(L-R) 1. Anthropologie Chantico Tank, 2. Vintage, Japanese Carry-on Suitcase, 2. Bebe Studded Heel Booties, 4. Strapless 1980's sundress (I would fight you for this if I weren't pregnant!).


TOMS Shoes is my favorite feel-good company. They feel good in two main ways: A)- they are insanely comfortable, and B)- for every pair purchased, a needy, shoeless child personally receives a pair. I had the pleasure of meeting Blake Mycoskie, the TOMS founder, almost four years ago, right after he launched TOMS shoes. I also know Brad, the senior account exec, and I was immediately taken with the company and the huge heart behind the organization. I am constantly impressed by the new styles they keep churning out. Some of my favorites for fall are:

(L-R) 1. Midnight Blue Canvas Wedges, 2. Saffron Cord Classics, 3. Limited Edition Teen Vogue Micro Floral Classics, and 4. the Silver Borges Cordones (last chance on these. They're being discontinued!).

For more information on Adored Austin partners, please go here.