Too Much Good (Expensive) Stuff!

Lately I am seeing SO MANY wonderful things that I absolutely have to have. My next paycheck can't come soon enough! I'll share with you guys all the things I'm loving this month.

UNIF Harness Dress
This dress has been out of stock forever and it's finally been restocked... in my size! Hopefully I get the chance to grab one before they're out again. Isn't it pretty? I'd love to pair this with some dangerously spiked platform heels...

Like these!
The Kempton Spike Heel by Privileged Shoes
Fly Jane is one of my absolute favorite (albeit on the splurgy side) online retailers. I never visit the site without seeing heels that I love. So, I have been looking at the Kempton boot for the past few months and have been in conflict with myself over whether to buy them. Do I need them? No. Are they limited edition? Yes. Can I afford them? No. Will I eat Top Ramen in lieu of real food for two weeks just so I can buy them anyway? Absolutely. Fly Jane announced that they were almost out of stock, and me and a thousand other girls had a panic attack and ordered them all. In the next 24 hours they were all gone! So these babies are in the mail for me right now! I'm really really happy that I ordered them, but I'm hoping that they fit. I had to go down half a size because my size was already sold out by the time I got home from work that night and tried ordering them! We shall see... fingers crossed!

Lip Service Shrug Jacket
I feel like this is the ultimate piece for when it's a little chilly, but you still want to showcase your killer dress. I get cold so easily and I hate having to put big bulky jackets on over my cute little dresses. So this jacket was basically made for me! It would look awesome with a Black Milk dress and some Jeffrey Campbell spiked damsels. Or just about anything!

Black Milk Clothing Halloween Collection
Every sharkie alive is counting down the days til the Halloween release "All Killer No Filler" on October 1st! So many different pieces - there's something for everyone. They've never had such a big release before. I'm so impressed with all the unique designer pieces in this release as well as the prints. I've got my eye on the Wednesday dress, Mechanical Mermaid leggings, Haunted House 2.0 leggings (so much better than last year's version!), and the Muscle and Bone 2.0 catsuit! It's not on the website yet, but I think their Pinterest board has just about everything from the collection on it now. Take a look!

Click to see the photos in all their full sized glory.

Let me know what you think of my top picks this month. And I'll be sure to post some pics as soon as I get my lovely Privileged shoes in the mail!

XXO
 Sugar

Little Update!

Oh my goodness. We just got through all the back to school insanity at work, and now it's weird to be able to go to work and sit back and breathe for a second. Although I know it won't last long... our mall had the annual holiday meeting this morning to gear up for the Christmas season. SO. FUN. I know it's going to be crazy; I've never been a manager during the holidays before so it's nerve-wracking to think about. But it is a few months off so I won't stress about it until I need to.

My summer has been pretty crazy with lots of work to keep me busy. I've been learning so much and growing with the company, climbing one ladder rung at a time. Now I'm in line to take my own store and be a manager! It's very exciting. I've been working retail for my entire work history and never felt very driven about it, but I am happy with the company I'm with and where I'm at, and how there's been so much opportunity for growth and essentially making my own paycheck. Plus I get to wear all my crazy outfits to work, and I can't say that for any other companies I've been with... e.g. Sears, where I could only wear black and white dress attire, or See's, which is a job I loved but I had to wear a uniform that closely resembled a flour sack. So all in all, work is going well. It consumes most of my life but I know it's worth the sacrifice in order to get where I want to be.

Plus all those hours of work feed my shopping addiction. I've been so obsessed with Black Milk Clothing ever since I got the unicorn leggings for my birthday. They are pretty pricey - on average $70 a pair - but so, so worth it. You will never wear other leggings after you've worn these! My co-worker likes Bench leggings which retail about $50, but I'm trying to convert her. ;)

Burned Velvet Leggings paired with my 1460 Dr. Martens

My collection so far:
Unicorn Black Leggings
Mermaid Leggings
Cheshire Cat Leggings
Matte Black Catsuit
Burned Velvet Leggings
Dollar Leggings
Mountain Pink Leggings
Aurora Skye Orange Leggings
Nairobi Leggings
Matte Black Skirt
Foxy Leggings
Smilies Hosiery

And the obsession continues... I've never tried their dresses, but rumour has it that a cat dress is in the works right now. If so, I'm already in line!

I actually adopted a cat in July. Her name is Minnie. She's a little shorthaired black cat that got picked up by the Kitsap Humane Society, and as soon as I met her she reminded me so much of my old cat that I knew she'd be a perfect pet. I haven't had a pet since my kitty Punk went missing over a year ago. Sounds silly, but there's been a big hole in my heart since then. She was just a very interactive and friendly cat, and I'd never made much of a connection with an animal like that before. She was an outdoor cat though, and one day she went outside and never came back. I traipsed into the woods looking everywhere for her and went to the humane society every day, but she was never found. My heart was broken over her for a long time. I was reluctant about adopting another pet because I felt like it wouldn't be the same... I visit the humane society frequently, and as much as I love cats in general I never found one that I clicked with until I met Minnie. She had kitty bronchitis, worms, fleas and was very skinny but I loved her and knew I could give her a home, and she could help my heart heal a little bit. And she did. After lots of medicine, food, flea treatment and love, she is perfectly happy and healthy and starting to gain a bit of weight. And she is an indoor cat!

I haven't been shooting all that much lately, partly for a lack of interest and mostly for a lack of time. I did three shoots in July and haven't gotten sets back from any of the photographers, which kind of sucks because I took the time to do makeup, purchase wardrobe, and travel there and didn't get any photos out of it. Hopefully I see some of them soon. Two of them were paid shoots but one was TF and I bought a dress for it and had to go to Seattle so that was a lot of gas and ferry money as well. It's a hard-knock life being a wannabe model! Haha. I did have a shoot yesterday though. I am modeling the Black Milk Clothing matte black catsuit and heels by Shi. I'm not going to pretend to be one of those girls who acts like they know all about cars; all I can say is it's a Ford and it looks to be 1930s - 1940s? But I could be very wrong about that! I actually enjoyed the set... It was a giant garage full of authentic vintage mementos all the way back to 1930s. All sorts of cool stuff in there. Here are a few photos. All copyrights belong to Mike Bay.

And here is a better photo of the purple lipstick I was wearing! It's shade number 15 by Make Up For Ever - one of my favorites. I never thought purple could be a wearable lip colour for daytime, but this is truly the perfect pearly violet shade. Get it here! I am also wearing a hint of Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes eyeliner in Forest Green along my lower lash line. I like it because it makes my eyes greener and it stays on all day.

I hope you guys liked this blog post! Leave me comments if you have any feedback for me!
XOXO,
Sugar

Summer

We've had an abnormally warm springtime season for my area, so it's got me SUPER stoked for summer! I'm already shopping for shorts, sandals, and tank tops... that usually doesn't happen around here til June. But hey, any excuse to shop is a good excuse to me! I've never been much of a fan of Vans or of snapback hats, but two finds last week changed my mind. First I spotted (hehe, get it) this leopard print trucker at Pacsun. It was so girly I had to have it. And it has actually served a good purpose - it keeps my poor little pale face safe from getting sunburned! I wore it to the beach last week and I kind of fell in love with it.

Secondly, these pretty mint green Vans were too pretty to pass up. These are my very first Vans! My seconds ones will be the leopard print to match my new hat.

Anyway, speaking of shoes... I got promoted on Saturday to the assistant manager of my store. Although that means a huge time sacrifice, I am so excited for the opportunity to move up while working in a fashion-based job that I love! Not everybody dreams of a career in retail but I love it and I'm excited to see how I grow in the company I work for. As a little added perk, I'll be making more money too... so I'll be doing a lot of shopping in my free time. :P And of course blogging. I really want to get back into DIY projects when I get the chance too... I was given a sewing machine and I wanna see what I can crank out. In my opinion, the best looks are the ones you come up with yourself! And there's a certain pride in being able to say "I made this" instead of "oh, I got it at..." So expect to see some crafty creations coming up in the near future as well!

Thrifty fashion shoot!

I had another photo shoot the other day with Jim Nicholson of the Pose Factory. I think we make a pretty awesome team! The cool thing about these outfits is that they were all thrifted, or purchased at super-discounted prices... Always a plus in my book. I posted the one below on Lookbook so please hype it if you have an account. :) This Gap sweater was found at a thrift store for $5! It is so big and comfy and I wear it all the time. I have a thing for ugly sweaters... The liquid leggings I got at Ross on clearance for six dollars. The shoes are clearance Forever 21 (just eight bucks!). The necklaces in both photos were borrowed from the photographer.

The colourful outfit was really fun to shoot. My friend Bre and I found matching sweaters at Goodwill with this crazy neon Aztec print. It's pretty awesome. And what are the odds of finding two of the same thing at a thrift store? The gold foil skirt is fun, I wore it a lot during the holidays. The skirt and shoes were cheap finds at Forever 21. The pink glasses were a dollar on clearance at Hot Topic and really cute, although impractical. But I figured I could use them for a shoot at some point... so I'm glad I got them!

Galaxy Glam

Well, I finally jumped on the galaxy bandwagon... here is my first attempt at playing with the print. I liked how it turned out, actually. I wore the skirt work yesterday morning and got compliments on it all day.

What are your thoughts on galaxy print? I know everybody is wearing it now. I think it can definitely be a cute look, and I'm sorry I waited so long to get my hands on a galaxy piece. If you want to go back to the original makers of galaxy print, that would be the wonderful minds behind the Australian company known as Black Milk. Find the blue galaxy skirt here. However, at $63 they are a bit expensive (although high quality, no doubt.) If you're looking for something easier on your wallet, though, my skirt is from Hot Topic. It is made in the U.S. and it's only $14.50. It can be found here; however, the skirt has been very popular and last I checked they were sold out. They didn't even have a small in the my local store so I had to go up a size. But the skirt is very cute and definitely worth fifteen bucks if you can find one.