polka dots + cayenne + more retail therapy =

This is going to be a short post, because I am seriously exhausted, and I have an incredibly long day ahead of me tomorrow. There is also a fat cat in my lap who refuses to move to make room for my laptop. I apologize in advance if this post sounds like gibberish... my brain is pretty much shut down at this point, but I wanted to let you all know that I'm alive (in the dictionary sense of the word, anyway).

This is what my world looked like last Friday (Jan 27th). Is it odd that I find it depressing?

I received my items from Love Charles Vintage in the mail yesterday - yay! I didn't have a chance to play with them last night though, and didn't think I would have the energy to do so today. I spent most of my evening at work and then running errands - I didn't get home till nearly 8:30 tonight. When I finally crawled in the door, I seemed to get my second wind and spent a fairly good chunk of time playing with my new clothes and deciding how to style them for the rest of the week. Now that I know how I'm going to wear them, it's just a matter of deciding which one I feel like wearing when I get up in the morning. Sometimes it's a struggle to kick myself out of my tunic-skinnies-boots uniform, but I am usually happy I did.

BTW - if you haven't already checked out Love Charles, I insist that you do so immediately. Even if you have, do it again. Lily just listed this gorgeous Saks Fifth Avenue 1960s wool coat, and if you don't buy it, I will probably have to. I'm just sayin'.

In addition to my online expeditions, I've been doing a lot of shopping at Maurice's since I moved back to Tooele, seeing as how it's pretty much the only clothing store in town (other than WalMart and Deseret Industries), and I've had a great deal of unexpected good luck. I wasn't too keen on the store when I lived in Salt Lake, because I felt like their clothing was overpriced in comparison to stores like Forever 21. Since I've started shopping there on a regular basis, though, I've found that they have a lot of great deals, sales and coupons always going on that make up for the difference in price - and the quality of their clothes seems to be better than F21 (for the most part). I've even found a lot of my current favorite pieces there, including this purple skirt, this polka dotted one, and a brand new coraly-neon-orange and black one that I just picked up tonight. It's the exact shade of neon orange that I've been obsessing over recently - Maurice's refers to it as cayenne, btw. I also nabbed a blouse in the same gorgeous shade for half off to go with the polka dot skirt. I'm thinking this particular shade of neon coral/orange will be one of my few (and possibly only) concessions to spring fashion... but I'll be damned if I'm giving up my black tights any time soon!

belted color block skirt, $32 via maurices.com

contrast ruffle front tank, $26 via maurices.com

polka dot fever blouse, $34 via threadsence.com

I'm planning on picking up this polka dot blouse from Threadsence with my next paycheck - it will go perfectly with my newest skirt.

Yes, I have a serious problem. I have a therapist... his name is Retail.

The kitty says it's time to go to bed now.

This post has taken significantly longer than expected, and I know I'm going to regret it when I try to get up at 5:30 in the AM for work - I'm aiming to be there at 7, an hour and a half earlier than normal, to finish my filing for January. Wish me luck...