Testing Out the Fashion...

Good morning girls! So, today I have decided to do a test run of what I think the "fashion" portion of my new site is going to look like. Tell me what you think and if you think it is something that you guys would like to see more of.

I am going to talk a little about some current trends that I am loving this week and then show you a day to night "what I wore".

Here we go!

Em's Top Five Trends of the Week:

1. Cotton Stretch Pencil Skirts:

Not only are these thing SUPER comfy (I wear them to work almost everyday) they look really really professional, are figure flattering, AND are SUPER CHEAP! You can find them for $9.50, in a variety of colors here.

2. Plaids:

Ok, OK...so I used to HATE plaids. But the more they pop up and the more I see of them, the more I like them. I especially love them when they are made into something a little "girlier" like this dress:

Or this cute little ruffle plaid bra:

Both Items from Forever21. You can find these and other plaid looks if you click here.

3. Boyfriend Cardigans:

So its getting a little bit cooler (summer is offically over girls) but your still not ready to give up wearing those summer-y dresses you love so much? I am loving boyfriend cardigans as a cute comfy way to transition your wardrobe into fall.

Check out this one from Seat On Surf with a cute detail on the back:

Or if you want something a little more "economical", I am loving my Target Boyfriend Cardigans in a variety of styles and colors for $19.99, that you can purchase right here!

4. Solid Color V-Neck Tees:

The possibilities are ENDLESS with these things. Tuck them into a pencil skirt to dress them up, throw a boyfriend cardigan over top of it, wear it underneath those summer dresses, or just wear them with your favorite pair jeans. For $4.50 each you can afford to buy one in every color, to go with ANYTHING! I did, and I practically live in these things.

5. Leather Boots:

Another way to "winterize" your summer dresses are to pair them with some tights and a cute pair of boots. My favorites are these leather boots by Steve Madden for day wear:

Or for a night out I would go with something with a heel like these sexy boots, from Forever21:

I also like the boots that they have at Alloy.com, they are reasonably priced and they have a lot of variety to choose from. Also, if you catch them at the right time, you may just get them on super sale. My friend just purchased two pairs of boots there on sale for $15!

So there you have it, my top trends for the week! Tell me what you think, I love hearing opinions/suggestions from all of you!

To show you how myself and my friends incorporate these trends into our daily outfits, I will show you "what I wore" yesterday. Two outfits, one for work, and one for a night out with the girls.

Day Outfit for Work:

I love this outfit because it looks very professional and pulled together. Another thing I love about this outfit is that the entire thing cost under $30. As you can see, I have on one of the top five trends for this week, a boyfriend cardigan. This is from Target, comes in five different colors (3 of which I purchased), and only costs $19.99. I paired the cardigan over a plain navy blue tank dress, from the Heritage line of Forever21, on sale for $6.99. To pull the look all together I threw on an elastic belt with a fun detailed buckle, that I scored at a thrift store for 50 cents!!

Also, not pictured are the shoes I wore with this outfit, that goes along with the plaid trend and were purchased at Target.

Night Outfit for Night Out with the Girls:

Here I am sporting the cotton pencil skirt paired with a layering of the V-Neck tank tops. SUPER comfy, yet looks really dressy. My friend Niki, is reppin the boots trend, paired with a sexy summer dress and tied together with a chunky belt.

Both outfits are from Forever21.

So there is my attempt at writing about fashion. Tell me what you think, and if you would like to see more on my new site!

Hope everyone has a great weekend, T.G.I.F!

Lots of Love <3 Ems.

Fashion News and Updates

Hey girlies! How is everyone?! Sorry I have been gone for so long...I have been busy busy busy. And I'm pretty sure my life is about to get a tab bit busier. (surprise update later in the post) ;).

I have also been working on moving my site to wordpress. Since I will be adding other "pages" to this site...such as a fashion section, I thought that wordpress would be better suited for all the new things I want to add! I have been having some difficulty however and can't quite get it to look how I want just yet. If you know anything about wordpress please HELP!

Anyway, I was going to wait until I got the new site up and running to start posting again. But, I had some very exciting things happen at work and I wanted to share before it was old news.

On Friday we launched a new line of clothing at Forever21 called Twist of Punk. It is a spin-off on the line they launched last month that was just called "Twist". You may remember that I did a post about it here.

Its a pretty crazy new line, with hints of punk elements mixed with higher-end fashion. All of the managers and the visual got to shop the line after hours on Thursday night before the line even came out to the public! And we, of course, were all decked out in the clothing on Friday for the launch. Here are some pics!

A mix of the visual team and some of the other managers.

 

Kelli and I posing with the crazy bald mannequins. Check out that bow on the one behind Kelli!

My boss, Rebekah, on the right and the visual manager, Kristen, on the left posing in the new line.

If your interested in any of the new clothes from the Twist of Punk line you can shop the look online! Just click away.

And in other life news....I have applied to Grad school! (Which is why I said my life is about to get a little more difficult). But I really miss school and I LOVE being busy and going, going, going. So, I thought that I would give it a try next semester. Its not definite yet...but I say bring on 40 hours of Forever21 and full time grad school!!! Im ready for ya!

Hope you guys are having a great week so far. Its Monday!

Lots of Love <3 Ems.

POM Delivery

Yesterday afternoon when leaving for work I was so excited to find a package on my doorstep...mostly, because I was pretty sure I knew what it was and I had been waiting weeks to receive this! It was the POM Wonderful Tea that the wonderful Molly had sent to me to review. Even though I was out the door on my way to work, I turned right around and stuck them in the fridge...

Oh yeah, and I may have taken a swig of the Pomegranate Wildberry White Tea flavor, just because it sounded that delish.

I was mostly excited about these because of the "light" versions that they came out with. I am not really big on drinking my calories (I like to use those for yummy foods ;) ). So I knew I would be all about the light teas at just 35 calories a serving. Also, the regular versions are not bad either at only 80 calories a serving. (Note: there are 2 serving in each bottle).

This tea contains PomX which seems to be something like an amazing super ingredient. According to the letter it has more antioxidant potency than red wine, green tea, grape, and acai extracts. Sounds perfect to fuel me through my 40 hour work weeks!

Molly sent me four different types of the PomX tea that include Pomegranate Lychee Green PomX Tea, Pomegranate Blackberry PomX Tea, Light Pomegranate Hibiscus Green PomX Tea, and Light Pomegranate Wildberry White PomX Tea.

Since I have only tried out the Light Pomegranate Wildberry White flavor, I will review that one today and then as I try the other ones I will review them as well. So here it goes.

LIGHT POMEGRANATE WILDBERRY WHITE POMX TEA

What the website says: "Gently brewed from the finest white tea buds, it's enhanced with the antioxidant power of pomegranates and infused with delicious berry undertones. Each serving has just 35 calories and less than 1mg of caffeine."

Nutritional Info

My Review:

I really enjoyed the flavor of this tea because it was not too strong. It tasted a little like flavored water, it was that light. I also like the fact that it does not contain much caffeine, so it makes a perfect drink for night time. I liked this tea a lot and would probably buy it again and recommend it to others.

I'm a Big Kid Now...

Hey hey girlies! Sorry I have been gone for large amounts of time AGAIN, I'm telling you this big girl job thing is seriously cutting into ALL of my extracurricular activities. But I'm still loving the new job, and I am even getting to be better friends with a lot of the people that I work with now. Sure, I still take my lunch breaks down stairs with the Rave girls, but I'm warming up to the new friends for F21.

Along with the "Big Girl Job" comes the "Big Girl Pay", so today I made my first "Big Girl Purchase". What is it you ask?!?!........

A KING SIZE BED!!!

Oh yes! I was so excited when I shook the sales man's hand and he told me "Congratulations". I just couldn't get the smile off my face! I felt like such a grown up. And girls, it was time for a new bed FOR SURE! My old one was borderline embarrassing, it was only a full size, with nothing but a mattress and sheets that I had had since I lived with my parents! I needed something a little more grown up! And of course along with the purchase of the new bed, I had to get new pillows, sheets, comforters, and pillow cases. The bed is going to be delivered Thursday morning and I CAN NOT WAIT!

Do you remember your first "BIG KID" purchase? What was it?!

Today was my day off, so I took FULL advantage and slept a good 12 HOURS! When I finally awoke I fixed myself up a nice warm, yummy breakfast of oats and coffee in my San Fran mug!

After breakfast I shopped around for my bedding items with the mom and then came home to a wonderful lunch!

Turkey, spinach, and Laughing Cow Swiss Cheese in a Spinach Flat Out Wrap.

This is the first time that I have tried the Spinach flavor of these wraps, and I was kinda scared considering the total let down of the Sundried Tomato flavor. But I actually really like it! The Italian Herb is still my favorite, but this came pretty darn close!

After lunch I met up with Tanya for her birthday. She wanted to go to a local Mexican restaurant. Since I had already eaten lunch I just joined in for the company and to celebrate her birthday.

The dress that I am wearing is from Forever21. I liked it so much that I bought it in two different colors! I am currently toying with the idea of making adding on a "fashion" feature to this blog (since that is the majority of my life now). What do you guys think? What are some of the things that you would like me to talk about (if I did add a fashion section)?

I really want some input because I'm thinking that my blog needs MAJOR revamping! PLEASE HELP!

Well, I'm off to cook up some dinner and settle into a movie before hitting the hay...its a 7 AM work day at the ol' F21 tomorrow!

Hope everyone is having a great night!

Lots of Love <3 Ems.

Small Break

Hey hey blog world...remember me?! I feel like I have been gone for forever! I had to take a little break due to the fact that I have been crrrazzzyyy busy with the new job! I just had to give myself a little time to get into the flow of the new job, before I started back at this. Its been almost a month now, and I think I'm getting the hang of it! I absolutely am lovin every minute of working at Forever 21. The only bad thing about it is that I spend all my money on the awesome clothes!

I have big changes planned for the blog now that I'm back too and will be working on trying to get it all fixed up over the next week. Any suggestions or things that you would like to see on here...PLEASE LET ME KNOW! You can comment me or e-mail me with anything at all. I would LOVE to hear your suggestions, it would really be a big help!

I also noticed that I have a few new readers, so thanks for continuing to support the blog, even though I have been gone! I can't wait to settle in and catch up on all of my blog reading! I have missed you girls TONS!

I have the whole rest of the weekend off, because I racked up so many hours during the week. So it feels so nice to just be relaxing on a Saturday morning! I may even stop by the farmers market with the momma later on today!

Even though I am relaxing and off work, I am still working over breakfast....

A breakfast "MESS" which includes:

• Cinnamon Chex
• Peanut Butter Puffins
• Vanilla Yogurt
• 1/2 Banana
• Blueberries
• Raisins
• Heaping pile of paperwork on the side! :)

Ok gals, I'm off to enjoy my day off! Hope everyone else is having an awesome weekend!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

Miss Independent

IM BACK!!! I hope you guys missed me as much as I missed you!

For those of you who didn't know, I was in Nashville all last week training for my new job as assistant manager at Forever 21. It was such a crazy week, tons of work, but also TONS of fun!There was so much that happened last week and so much that I want to tell you girls,  so get ready this may be a long post. Grab a coffee, maybe some snackage, and settle in.

Ready?!

OK!

Monday

Kelli and I went to orientation in Johnson City to meet all the sales associates. Nothing too interesting there...except for one girl who stood up and introduced herself and then proceeded to tell us all that she was the hardest worker that anyone had ever seen and she was taking all our jobs, because she was the best. Yeah, I kid you not.

So after orientation Kelli and I met at the airport to pick up our rental car. That is probably the coolest and most important that I have ever felt. All I did was walk up to the counter, say my name, and they handed over the keys to a brand new 09 Accord. Just for me and Kelli for the whole week!

Her mom took pictures and kept saying that we were "Women of the World", which was a saying that we kept repeating to eachother all week.

We got there a little after 8, changed, and headed downtown for dinner. We ended up going to the Hardrock Cafe, because it was the first place we saw and we were STARVING!

After dinner, we stopped for a little desert.

And hung out a little with our Bestie Elvis, you may have heard of him...

After a little carousing around downtown, we decided to head back to the hotel and call it a night.

TUESDAY

Kelli and I woke up and took full advantage of the free breakfast at the hotel. Am I the only one who thinks this is the BEST part about staying in a hotel?! I always get sooo pumped about the breakfast. This hotel had such a good one too! They even had a "healthy" section where they had yogurt, fruit, oatmeal, and things like that. It was something like amazing!

After breakfast we got ready, and just like true girls went to the mall! Hey we had to check out the store...right?!

After shopping we went home to rest up a little because our first night working was going to be an over nighter! We arrived at 8 p.m. and didn't leave until 5 a.m. It was weird, but totally fun because we got to see all the new clothes coming in and shop before anyone else even SAW the stuff. We even brought a coffee pot to make our own coffee and the manager brought snacks and candy to keep everyone pumped up all night! Im pretty sure that NO ONE in Nashville sleeps.

After finishing up the floorset at 5 a.m. Kelli and I hit the bed and were OUT!

WEDNESDAY

Nothing too exciting...pretty much slept all day because of our late night and then went into work at 4. It ended up being another late night and we didn't get off work until 3 a.m.!!

THURSDAY

The other managers and I worked a mid shift at Forever21 and then decided to go out for a nice dinner. Hey, Forever21 was picking up the tab, so we went all out and decided on a really nice sushi restaurant.

The menu was INSANE, with millions of different kinds of sushi. Im usually not too big on the crazy rolls with all kinds of different stuff crammed in, so I got one that sounded a little like a spicy tuna roll...and I can't even remember the name of the rolls the other girls got...but I did get pics, of course!

No one else was very enthusiastic about picture taking.

FRIDAY

Friday was out last day of work and we had to be there at 7 a.m. to launch a new line called "TWIST" which is a circus inspired line that Forever21 JUST put out in limited stores. It was so exciting to be able to shop all those clothes before they were even available to anyone else! Everything was so cute and very crrazzy with tutus and head pieces. Here are some samples:

You can see the whole line HERE. Of course we all had to snatch up some of the stuff and rep it out on the town that night.

We ate at Cheesecake factory that night...and since it was free ordered just about everything on the menu...and took most of it home.

And of course got a couple of drinks. Cheesecake factory had the BEST martinis!

Oh yeah, and don't think we didn't get CHEESECAKE!

SATURDAY

Woke up, checked out, finally got home. It feels so good to be home and sleeping in my own bed! It was such a crazy week but sooo much fun!

Today is a rest day with lots of unpacking and laundry on the schedule. I start work tomorrow night, which is "truck night". We pretty much stay overnight and unload all the new clothes into the store while everyone else is snoozzzzing. Its kinda like CHRISTMAS! haha.

Hope everyone else had a great week! I have missed you girls TONS! I have ALOT of catching up to do in the blog world. Hope you didn't forget about me!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

Starting a New Chapter

"There is no such thing as chance; and what seem to us merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny." -Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

Last night I said Goodbye to not only THE BEST job that I have ever had, but also to some of the best people that I have ever known. It was my last night working at Rave. I have always believed that everything in life happens for a reason. Bad times come so that we can get stronger, and people and things are put into your life to help you grow into the person that you are supposed to become. I truly believe that getting the job at Rave was an answer of prayers and one of the biggest blessings in my life.

Before I go on a little disclaimer: I debated on whether or not I wanted to go into detail about this one here, but I feel like it is good to get it out and talk about it. If anyone feels like they may be triggered by numbers or pictures, please do not read. I am only talking about past events so that everyone can see how far I have come and how possible recovery really is if you have the right people in your life.

When I started working at Rave, 2 years ago, I was at my lowest weight at 75 pounds. I still can not believe that I thought that was OK. I have this picture of me when I first started working there, and it literally makes me tear up every time I see it. I can't believe how bad I looked, and how much better I look now that I am healthy.

Everyone that I worked with became such a huge support for me during my recovery. I was open and honest with everyone that I was going to therapy and that I was in recovery. All of the girls were HUGE cheerleaders and always provided so much support. Another thing that helped was that I finally felt like I had found a place were I fit in. Everyone there immediately became my best friends and I was happier than I had been in a long time.

I do believe that that job was given to me for a reason. I KNOW that it is one of the main reasons that I recovered so fully and I really don't think that I could have done it without my Rave girls.

I have literally loved every single second of working there. How many people can say that about their jobs? Working there, with the people that have become my second family has made me into the person that I am now. Healthy, happy, and strong and with the best friends that anyone could ask for.

We have all been through so much together, and I know no matter where my crazy life takes me, these are the girls that will remain in my heart as my best friends.

"I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you can appreciate them when they are right, you believe lies so that you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so that better things can fall together."

- Marilyn Monroe

Now I start a new chapter in my life, by leaving Rave and starting work at Forever 21. I really do believe that Rave was put into my life to help me recover, and now that I have done that it is time for something else to add to my growing as a person. There is a reason that this awesome opportunity has presented its self. I have NO IDEA was that reason is, but I really can't wait to find out.

I just hope my life doesn't resemble this everyday at Forever 21.

I leave for Nashville tomorrow and I don't even know how to begin to explain the millions of emotions that I am feeling right now. Today is gonna be a busy day of packing and preparing, then we leave tomorrow at Noon! Wish me luck guys, and please keep me in your thoughts and prayers that everything goes well while I am in training!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.