Bad Purchases Lately!

Apparently I've been making bad decisions with my online purchases lately!  I was checking out the Guess website, for reasons unknown even to myself.  I don't think I ever really shopped at Guess and I can't even remember that last time I stepped into a Guess store.  But for some reason I was on their site looking at the shoe section.  I am on the hunt for some cute shoes for my upcoming wedding.  They actually have lots of interesting looking shoes on sale right now, but most of them are out of stock in my size.  I saw the Riselan boots and thought they were pretty cute, and I could wear them over jeans or with skirts / dresses.

When they arrived, they looked very cute and the the leather is extremely nice and soft.  I thought they'd have a rather wide shaft for a slouchy fit, but they were actually pretty tight!  Especially the top over the knee part kind of cut into the skin right above my knees.  It looked so bad and frankly very "hookerish".  Needless to say, these were going back.

I also ordered these L'erba "Platinum Zen" duvet and sham on Ruelala.  I kind of feel like switching up my bedroom decor, and they looked promising.  I have sheets in the exact shade to match the whole ensemble, and the price was not bad.

I always take screen shots of the descriptions Ruelala puts up for stuff I buy from them, just in case something happens with my order.  And to prove that I'm not crazy, here are the screen shots I took for the "duvet and sham".  Notice how on both the item description (right below), and the detailed description on the 2nd screen shot below both state "Duvet & Sham". 

So when I received the package, I opened it up and only found the duvet!  I called Ruelala thinking that they forgot to send me the shams, but nooooo, apparently this was only for the duvet!  If I wanted the shams, I had to buy them separately.  Their "concierge" I spoke with was very snippy and told me that was how their "boutique" works, you always have to pay attention and buy items separately, even though the title and description of the item both state otherwise.  Ok maybe if I were to really think about it, I would have selected the duvet, then the shams.  But when I saw additional sham selection at the time, I totally thought that was for buying extra shams, like if I wanted 4 instead of 2.  So after a while he finally agreed with me that it was misleading, and said it was ok to refund me.  I asked him to also refund me shipping which he grudgingly agreed, saying this would be a "one time exception".  And next time, I was supposed to "pay more attention".  I told him, how about next time you put the description up in a clear and understandable manner!  Ugh!  I've shopped at Ruelala many times before and I haven't had an issue till now.  But I am less than impressed with the way they handled it.  Even though they did refund me, they basically blamed it on me and acted like they were doing me a favor by refunding me.  Whatever!  I will think twice from now on before making another purchase from them.

Sunday Funday with Some Engagement Pics!

We picked up our finished engagement pictures today.  Hooray!  I think we got some really good ones.  A lot of the ones we picked for the photographer to do final touches on out of hundreds of pictures that we took actually don't even show us up close.  Could have been anybody in the pictures.  Haha.  I guess we just liked the more "artsy" shots that capture more of the architecture.  Here are some of my favorites:

I bought a Livingsocial deal a long time ago from a local photo print shop to make an album of any photos for $10.  It's been like 6 months and I was going to find some great travel pictures or something, but now I think I'm going to use it to print out the engagement photos.  Much cheaper than paying the photographer!  Hehe.

After we picked up the engagement photos today, we stopped by downtown LA's flower market.  Seriously this place is a dream.  The area itself is ghetto downtown style, but there are tons of wholesale flower shops that make beautiful arrangements for any occasion at very very low prices.  You can get really cute baskets of flower arrangements for about $10 a basket.  I think I'm going to get a bunch for my wedding and drive them up to Tahoe.  The bigger, 2-3 feet tall flower arrangements are like $30, which at a regular flower shop would cost hundreds.  I just went there to check out the scene and also pick up some cheap flowers for home.  They are like $10 for 3 bundles of mixed beautiful flowers.  Lol.  So awesome!  Places like this make me kind of wish I was having my wedding in LA.  I could have such beautiful flowers for a few hundred bucks.  But I think up in Tahoe, the location is already so natural and beautiful that it doesn't need that much decorations.  I wouldn't want it to look forced.  Plus, my fiance's mom's best friend is very into making table top decorations and whatnot for weddings, so we are letting her do everything!  She actually thanked us for letting her do it.  She's making a lot of different things based on what we told her we liked, then we will pick out what we like best for her to work on.  Really can't complain about that...

Right by the flower district, there is also a HUGE arts and crafts store, called Michaels - Moskatels & Crafts.  A small part of the store is Michaels, which is why it has the name.  But most of it is just basically anything and everything you can imagine in a Costco sized warehouse that takes up the whole block.  It's like Michaels on steroids.  I went there for some wedding invitation ideas, but actually walked out with a bunch of silk flowers for me to attempt the bouquet.  Hehe.  I sure hope it works out.  I'm going for a rustic natural look.  I *think* it will come out well, but who knows.  If it doesn't, I'll just buy a bouquet from someone on etsy.  There's still time now to mess around with it a bit!  Here are the flowers I bought:

I will attempt to make them work together by cutting and arranging.  I plan to use the more colorful flowers as accent colors that pop here and there.  But mostly it will be neutral colors I think.  I also got tons of floral wire and a glue gun.  It is on!

Alright, now onto my workouts and exercise for the week.  Hmmm... I have been bad with pictures this week, actually forgot to take pictures 2 days.  And one of the days I did remember to take pictures, I already posted it.  Oh well.  I shall be better next week.

Monday 6/6:

What I did:  Ran for 45 minutes, then mat pilates for 30 minutes.

What I wore:  Lululemon white No Limit tank, and groove pants.  Sorry no pics.  Lame I know.

Tuesday 6/7:

What I did:  Yoga 

What I wore:  Lululemon Let It Loose tank, and coal groove pants.  I wore my new Splendid wrap as to/from.

Wednesday 6/8:  Rest day

Thursday 6/9:  Planned to run but went to happy hour with coworkers instead.  Lol.  This is why I miss working out in the mornings - no excuses!!!  Need to stop doing this so I can get to top notch shape by wedding date.

Friday 6/10:  Planned to work out, but had to go try on wedding dresses.  Ended up buying THE dress, so it was worth it!

Saturday 6/11:

What I did:  Trail run through the Hollywood Hills for about 3 miles, with very nice views of multi-million dollar mansions I might add.  I signed up for the Malibu half marathon which will be in November.  I can do the distance, but the first 7 miles is relatively flat and the last 6 miles are a steep climb.  I need to get my butt in shape so I can smoke it.  I have been doing a lot of hill runs on the treadmill for the past year or so, but the trail is a whole different story.  Plus I didn't realize that I needed to actually train for running DOWNhill too!  My butt is actually sore from all the downhill running rather than up.  Omg, what goes up must come down, duh how silly of me.

What I wore:  Lululemon Run:Inspire pullover - it was chilly but not THAT chilly - I was so hot after about 5 minutes but I only wore a bra underneath so taking it off wasn't an option.  I wore the Run: Team Spirit crop.  Again, forgot to take pics.  Oops!

Sunday 6/12:

What I did:  A while ago I bought a Livingsocial deal from Pilates Plus for like $45 for 5 classes.  I have gone to their Malibu location before, and I would love to buy a 10 pack or something.  But these classes cost $35 per class at regular price, which is way too much in my opinion.  $20 is the most I'd pay for a class.  I'm cheap.  Lol.  The class today was great though!  It had been quite a while since I've done reformer pilates.  It seriously kicked my butt!  Literally!  After yesterday's run and today's ordeal, my butt cheeks are so sore, it hurts to walk!  I think my legs and stomach will also be quite sore tomorrow.  Pilates always gets me.

What I wore:  Lululemon electric orange cool racerback with bright blue Flow Y bra under.  Groove pants, and my new Abercrombie Quinn shirt I just got.  The electric orange color once again blew out my iphone camera.  Ugh.  It never comes out right.  It's a solid color but for some reason shows as a pink faded color.  Whatever!  I like how it kind of shows through underneath the Abercrombie top though.  Oh yeah, I also wore my grippy black Method sock.

Alright, it has been a long week!  And much strides towards wedding planning.  Hopefully things will continue to fall in place in that regard.  I also need to get out there and do a lot more trail runs!  Geez.. next time I need to go the opposite direction too, because the hills are slanted to one direction so I ended up using my right side a lot more than my left side.  I'm going to be nursing my sore butt for a couple days.  Lol.

My Wedding Dress At Last - Pronovias Francoli!

I wrote a few months ago that I bought the Tadashi Shoji dress from Bloomingdale's.  I actually bought it twice - first time in a size 6 which was a little loose, so returned that one and bought it in a size 4 which fit a lot better.  Since then I've been so busy studying and whatnot, that I didn't have time to think more about it.  Now that I'm done with studying, I had a change of heart because I just felt like that dress didn't look as good as it should on me for the price.  I wanted a dress that would give me more shape - i.e. more of an hour glass figure.

So this afternoon I went to a wedding salon in Glendale by the Americana called Karoza Design to try on more dresses.  It's a mom and pop shop, and it's not the type of place that one should expect a champagne upon arrival, but they have over 3000 dresses and they let you look through the racks yourself if you wish.  One of the main reasons I went there was because I have been looking online at Pronovias and La Sposa catelogs, and have been really wow'd by some dresses.  I think I just really love the romantic look of these Spanish designs - they are owned by the same people so many dresses are similar looking.  Karoza Design is one of a few bridal shops in LA that actually carries La Sposa as well as Pronovias.

I was really overwhelmed by the sheer amount of dresses they had!  I only went through the Pronovias La Sposa section, and that was about 1/10 of the store!  I picked out about 7-8 dresses to try on.  I must say, these dresses are really made to flatter the figure.  I picked out different styles - mermaid, A line, blah blah, and I could have gone with pretty much any of the dresses I tried on!  I loved all of them.  I guess this is why Pronovias is such a well-recognized brand, it really does you wonders.

One of my top choices when I browsed online was the Pronovias Francoli dress.  They actually had one in the store for me to try on!

Of course this model is gorgeous and any dress would look awesome on her.  The one they had at the store was a size 12, which was too big for me.  But when they clipped in the back, it looked really good!  I would have ordered it in my size, but they said I probably would not be able to get it until a week before my wedding since I'm cutting it so close, even with rush order.  That's a big chance to take!  So after thinking more about it (I actually left the store then went back in 15 minutes later), I decided to just buy the size 12 I tried.  It was a brand new dress that nobody had tried on before me, it looks to be in perfect condition, and they were willing to lower the price to only $1000.  I figured it was a good deal, and I even searched online for this dress and they were all coming back at about $1500!  Also, I think even if I had ordered my size, I would still have to get it altered.  Because 1. it is made for a 6 foot giant lady, not a 5'5 shortie like me, and 2. there's always stuff they can find to make you look better.

So yay!  This dress is it!  I am so happy because I definitely like it better than the Tadashi Shoji dress I have hanging in my closet.  It fits better and the quality is better.  The price is pretty much the same as the Tadashi dress give or take a couple hundred bucks, and I can still return that dress to Bloomingdale's.  I am glad I went with the Francoli dress eventually, since I was deciding between it and some other more dramatic styles that would look silly at a beach wedding.  For example, this La Sposa Lido dress looked amazing, but not really a "beach" look.  

Since the model is way taller than me, the dress proportion looks different / better on her.  On me the ruffle part ended too short and makes me look kind of bottom heavy.  Plus, it was about $1000 more than the Francoli so I decided it was definitely not worth it.  If I were having a church wedding or something, this would be more the type of dress to go for.

So anyway, I can't wait to take my dress to get altered in a couple months and see how much better it will look!  I want to wait till maybe about a month before the wedding so I can attempt to get more toned before then.  But still I feel better to have it here with me and I know I don't have to worry about it anymore.  I still got lots to do!  Next I'm going to attempt to create some DIY wedding invites.  Hehe, we'll see how that goes.  Arts and crafts is fun!

Lululemon Let It Loose Tank

I bought the Lululemon Let It Loose Tank - in Pink Mist of course!  Though it looks very similar to the No Limit tank which I have 3 of, I just couldn't pass up this tank with the sheer luon outer layer material in pink mist.  That's like combining two of my great loves.  I really think that sheer luon is my favorite material from Lululemon.  I love how soft and wicking it is.  I normally only wear my luxtreme tanks for running or a boot camp type of workout.  Otherwise I just really prefer more earthy material.

Oh yeah, this tank came with the bra cups already in, so that's great that I don't have to chase them down.  But why does Lululemon keep sending me bags when I always check "no bag"??  I have so many of those bags that I take back to the store about once a year to recycle.  But I don't want to be reminded of how much money I spend there!

The tank looks white in my photo, so here are the stock photos - I took screen shots with my iPhone so ignore the bar on top and bottom!

So the bra is luon, and it is almost exactly the same as a Flow Y bra, except for the triangular opening at the back.  But it fits identical to a Flow Y.  I find this top to fit similar to the No Limit as well, but a little bit looser in the body.  The bottom band is noticeably looser as well.  And of course there are little details in the front with the key hole and pleats on this top.  Here are some detailed pictures I took:

So I tried out this tank tonight in my yoga class.  I thought that it might slip during inversions because the band on the bottom is on the loose side.  But it actually didn't move at all which was very surprising.  My No Limit tanks usually require some adjusting from time to time.  So maybe the band on this tank is just the right tightness!  This tank was very comfortable and the material is lovely.  Once again I am obsessed with sheer luon.  It's funny that during my downward dogs, I could look down the keyhole opening on the front and see my bra and stomach through it!  

So as much as I loved this tank, I would probably not buy another unless the color is great.  That's just because I already have 3 No Limit tanks and they are very similar looking.  But if I didn't, I probably would feel tempted to pick up another Let it Loose tank.  However, I am still on the lookout for more sheer luon tanks. 

On a side note, after my workout, I went to this restaurant called Veggie Grill that's in the same shopping center as the gym.  I always passed by it but never stopped in before tonight.  It's a vegan restaurant and I'm not a vegan or even a vegetarian, so it never really had much appeal to me before.  But I have heard good things about the restaurant, like the Tone It Up blog I read sometimes, those girls love this place and write about it all the time.  So I gave it a try tonight and I had the most amazing kale salad with tempeh!  I have an unnatural obsession with kale, I just can't get enough of it.  I guess that's not a bad thing since kale is very nutritious.  But it's not usually found at many restaurants here, except it seem to be abundant at vegan restaurants.  I used to pick up a party size tray of kale salad from another vegan restaurant just so I could have some with dinner every night!  I should do that again!  I wonder if Veggie Grill does that.  I took a picture of my kale salad... yuuummmmyyyy!!!

Abercrombie Elaine Sweater

I bought more Abercrombie stuff online around Memorial Day weekend.  I just really love how soft my Josie sweater from there is.  I wear it allllll the time.  It is one of my favorites now.  I wear it to work mostly, and it's just so cute and comfortable.  So I decided to check back and see what else they had, because of course, I could always use another sweater.

Well, they have some pretty good sales going on!  The Elaine sweater is marked down to only 19 bucks!  I also had an additional 20% coupon code or whatever, so it ended up being only $14.  I got it in this burgundy color, which is lovely and I don't have any other sweater in this color family.

I actually thought it was just an ok looking sweater but nothing special.  But for the price, it was well worth it.  However, when I received it today and put it on, it is the cutest thing ever!  And just as soft as my Josey sweater.  It looks really good unbuttoned, with a blouse under it.  It is also a little bit shorter than I thought from looking at the picture.  The sleeves are long like all Abercrombie stuff, which is a plus for me.  I just love that look.  So I'm more than happy with this purchase.

I also picked up another Quinn knit shirt.  I have one in navy blue that I bought at the same time as the Josey sweater.  I love it, it's a great fit and a nice basic to have in the closet.  So I got another one in light heather gray, which looks almost white in person.  

Again, I love the long length of the sleeves.  This one is now on sale for $14, and with my additional discount code, I paid only $11.  So for both items I got from Abercrombie, after shipping and taxes it was still under $40.  Pretty good deals!  I must keep checking back at this store.  I can care less about their Ts and hoodies - I used to be into it back in high school but have definitely outgrown it by now!  But I do really like their sweaters and basic knit layers.  I wonder what it is they do to their stuff to make them sooooo soft??

Sunday Funday!

Ahhh today is the first day that I got my freedom back!  Hehe.  It's so weird now that the test is over and I don't have anything to do anymore.  Except for some real action towards wedding planning.  At least it's more fun than studying!  Errr... I hope.  The test itself was painful yesterday.  I couldn't sleep the night before, as I always get the night before a big exam.  I think I may have gotten 2-3 hours tops.  So by the time I drove out to Pomona, which is about 50 miles away, I was already tired!  The test was tough too and very different from the 7 practice tests I took.  I was pretty annoyed that all the stuff that I was told to spend a lot of time studying for didn't even show up on the test at all.  Makes me feel that I wasted so much time studying for nothing.  But I guess that's how it is sometimes.  Lame!!!  They instead tested a bunch of random crap that you might have easily missed with the amount of stuff you have to read through for the test.  Well at least it seems everyone feels the same way so I'm not the only one.  But I hate that I can't feel confident that I passed it - I think it could easily go either way.  So... we'll see I guess.  The results will come out in August and there's nothing else I can do now except hoping for the best!

Ok so anyway, here are the workouts and outfits from this week!  I was home all week so I was hoping I could make it to the gym everyday.  But not so much - I ended up being pretty busy taking the damn practice tests and all.

Also, since my workouts this week have been pretty much the same idea - circuit training with lots of sprinting, hill running, etc. mixed with weights.  I'm just going to post my outfits here.

Tuesday 5/31

What I wore:  Lululemon Deep Breath tank with Coal Team Spirit Crop.  I also wore my Ambition Pullover as to/from.

Wednesday 6/1

What I wore:  My new Hot Class tank in Coal/Faded Zap, and Groove pants!  Here I am with my change of clothes and books and laptop in my LV Neverfull bag.  It is the best bag to put everything in!  And it really is never full.

Friday 6/3

What I wore:  Lululemon Tri-Y tank in mint, and black Team Spirit Crops.  Though I put my coal Dance Studio pants over them when I took this picture. 

Sunday 6/5

What I wore:  Lululemon Energy SL in potion purple.  And Passion Crop.  I was just reading today about the comeback of the Energy SL.  Awesome!  I got mine for free during a product testing, otherwise I never would have picked it up.  But it is an awesome tank and it is one of the more flattering shapes, IMO.  I think it makes my boobs look bigger.  Lol.  I actually really regretted not picking up the angel blue one as well when it was out.  I loved angel blue, but for some reason the only thing I have in angel blue are my Define Jacket and Jumpstart gym bag.  No tanks!  I distinct remember holding the angel blue Energy SL in my hands at the Beverly Hills store, about to walk to the register, and my fiance asking me why I need another tank.  So I put it down.  Ugh!!! 

Lululemon Hot Class Tank in Coal/Faded Zap!

My recent ebay find finally arrived!  The very first Hot Class tank that Lululemon came out with - in coal/faded zap!  I tried it on in the store when it first came out, but for some reason passed on it.  Then I really really regretted it but it was nowhere to be found by then!  I know I've talked about this tank as "the one that got away" multiple times before, in fact, one of you emailed me to let me know when one of these was on ebay a while back.  That was so nice btw!  But that particular auction went for way more than I wanted to pay for a used tank.  And since I already got the coal/purple crush Hot Class tank, I passed on it.  But alas, another one appeared and this time I was able to get it for a good price! 

Despite the fact that it is pretty much the same as the coal/purple crush tank, I just really like the combo of coal and faded zap together.  I've always been a fan of gray and yellow combinations.  Faded zap is more like a greenish yellow, and I am not a huge fan of it by itself.  But as an accent color on this tank, I just think it looks really sharp.  I still love the coal/purple crush combo as well, so I don't mind have two.  If somebody held a gun to my head and asked me to pick one favorite though, I would pick the coal/faded zap.  Good thing I don't have to make these hard decisions in life.  Lol.  I'm so glad that I was finally able to get this tank after 2 years of dreaming about it! 

I definitely think that the newer batch of Hot Class tanks were updated with slight improvements.  I've noticed it on my lagoon Hot Class tank as well as the new coal/faded zap, that the straps tend to crease and bend in half in certain areas.  It's almost like half of the strap decides to fold on top of the other half.  This happens more as the workout progresses.  But this is not an issue with the new purple crush one.  You can even feel the difference by just touching the straps - the purple crush straps are stiffer, but the look identical.  I know it's not a big deal, but it's just something that I've noticed and then I sort of feel the need to smooth out the straps.

With that said, I still wouldn't hesitate if I had a chance to get the Hot Class tank in bold blue though.  Still dreaming about that one too.  See, I am a hoarder!