This chal­lenge went way beyond the ini­tial thirty days but I’m fin­ished! Yay! I started this chal­lenge in hopes of writ­ing for 30 days. While I didn’t com­plete that chal­lenge, I am glad that I fin­ished my photo chal­lenge, even if I didn’t post a pic­ture every­day. Life hap­pens and some­times things fall by the way­side. Here are my last 3 pic­tures for GG’s photo challenge.

How I recharge

There’s no other bet­ter way to recharge than with a nap. While a nap on the couch is nice, the best ones are in my bed. As you can see my bed is still unmade from this morn­ing. I’ve never been a fan of mak­ing beds. To me they seem unwel­com­ing but the tou­sled sheets seem more inviting.

Exer­cise

Since I don’t have to wake up super early for work any­more, I can “enjoy” 30 min­utes on the tread­mill with either an ab or arm work­out from this magazine.

Self-portrait

And I’m out…

Some­thing embar­rass­ing: These are only two of the bags from all the shop­ping I’ve been doing lately. I promised myself I would save money this month but instead I’ve been shop­ping. I already shared the items I picked up from Tar­get but recently I went to H&M, IKEA, and the thrift store. While I enjoy the deals I’ve picked up like the vin­tage Ralph Lau­ren blazer I brought for $30, I really could’ve done without.

Tears: While no real tears were involved, I could’ve cried tears of joy when I saw Sailor Mars. Not only was her cos­tume spot on, but I really loved the series and tried not to miss an episode. She told me that all the scouts were going to gather later but I missed see­ing them all together.

What you wore today: I went to Dragon*Con with my sis­ter today. This is my inter­pre­ta­tion of an aris­to­cratic Lolita. I only had  hours to put together my cos­tume, but I think I did pretty good with my time and money.

Some­thing you’re read­ing: I’m still work­ing on read­ing two books a month. I’ll post an update soon.

Face­less self-portrait : Some­time I think my hair is going to swal­low my face.

Wow. I just real­ized that there’s only 8 days left in this chal­lenge. Where did the time go? This pic­ture isn’t in focus but I love it. I prob­a­bly couldn’t recre­ate it if I tried.

I used to enjoy brush­ing col­or­ful shadow onto my lids but now I stick to a smokey eye when­ever I head out. My favorite eye look only uses eye­liner and mas­cara but I put on some glit­tery shadow just for you.

Play­time for me is def­i­nitely shop­ping. I’m try­ing to buy more col­or­ful items and more bot­toms. Pic­tured above (L to R) a deep berry pen­cil skirt,  turquoise  high-waisted pants with the most beau­ti­ful belt, a pleated  skirt with an awe­some leather band, and bur­gundy skinny jeans.

That red Clear­ance sticker is my favorite friend at Tar­get. My eye is quickly drawn to the color and I rush over to see what mag­i­cal price it holds. This sticker is on my new favorite can­dle which is also red.

I love this pic­ture of me and my mom. I keep this pic­ture by my bed. What I love must about this pic­ture is our big smiles. It’s the first thing I see.

Whether I’m look­ing for a hair­style, finan­cial guid­ance, a recipe, or fash­ion inspi­ra­tion, I always head to my blog feed. By look­ing at the pic­ture, you see that I orga­nized all of my blogs by cat­e­gory. I’ve found plenty of amaz­ing infor­ma­tion on the inter­net. It has helped me do sim­ple things like shop and more impor­tant things like make career choices. I love the wealth of knowl­edge avail­able from peo­ple across the world that I’ve never met and never plan on meet­ing. Their lives, their sto­ries, and their words are all inspiring.

If the appear­ance of bur­gundy and mus­tard sweaters didn’t con­vince me that fall was around the cor­ner, the trees have reminded me that fall is a short cou­ple of months away. I think I’m ready for the cooler weather, the hol­i­days, and the joy of bak­ing. You can bake in the sum­mer but it’s not a joy when the oven starts heat­ing up the entire house. Though that hasn’t stopped me from mak­ing cakes.

I’ve been heavy on the mint band­wagon. You can’t tell from this pic­ture, but my shirt is mint. I decided to keep every­thing sim­ple because I was going to eat lunch with friends. When I say lunch, I really mean we had a small BBQ at their house. This out­fit was per­fect for curl­ing up on the couch after a deli­cious meal.

I decided to tackle the clut­ter from day 5. Who knows how long this cab­i­net will stay this way. I explained the orga­ni­za­tion to Bear but he lives by another set of rules. None of mines. I’m going to cel­e­brate the fact that the lids are finally not falling out of the cab­i­net when I open the door.