Currently Loving: "Next to Me" by Emeli Sande

I'm always behind the (musical) times - I've just discovered this song this week and I can't stop listening to it.  The lyrics, the melody, and that great beat underneath it all.  It's been added to all my playlists!

Home: Soft Blankets and French Baguettes

We use candles in the main living area of our apartment (kitchen/living room/dining room) and these are the two we're burning right now.  The French Baguette one is by White Barn Candle company.  I'm still on the fence as to whether it smells like a french baguette or not.  The Soft Blanket one is by Yankee Candle (as you can see :)), and has a super cute picture of a teddy bear with a (presumably) soft blanket!  We really like this one.  It's sweet but not grossly so, as so many candles can be.  Just a nice pleasant aroma - but it is not a laundry or "fresh cotton" type of smell either.  They are both hard to describe what exactly they smell like, but I definitely recommend them!  The Yankee Candle ones are a bit pricey, so we waited until there was a sale and picked up a few.

Workout gear: GapFit

I've been shopping at the Gap again a lot lately, and during one online browsing session, I spotted this workout top from GapFit.  I'd been looking for a new tee for running.  I have been wearing Under Armour tees for a long time, but I have recently switched back to wearing capri-length/leggings for running and the Under Armour tees were a little short for my liking, so I started looking around for some other options.

For awhile I tried a men's V-neck undershirt, which was okay, but men's undershirts are definitely not cut for a woman with hips!  So this top seemed to fit the bill - it looked long enough, and it had "drapey" in the name, so I figured it would not be too tight either.

GapFit Drapey Scoop Top

I ordered it in the neon mint green, which is a bit brighter than it is in the picture, but not glaringly so.  It is very soft and very drapey.  It has some seaming on the front/side panels, which I didn't notice in the picture.  I brought it with me on the road this week and I am happy to report that it is a really great workout top.  Very light and it does a great job with the moisture wicking.  I am quite happy with my first GapFit purchase!

The top comes in a couple other colors (neon peach and lilac), which is a nice change from the boring blacks, greys, blues, and pinks that a lot of running gear comes in.  And the top is nice enough looking that you could wear it even when you're not working out.  Remember to keep an eye out for Gap coupons if you're thinking about trying this one out!

Glitter & Gold Eyeliner

I pinned this pretty shimmery eye makeup "tutorial" on Pinterest awhile back, and it called for gold eyeliner.  I bought brown thinking it was basically the same thing (ha!), but it wasn't.  The eye thing didn't really work out anyway, but then a few weeks later I was thinking about the gold eyeliner again, and checked the options on Sephora.  I thought it could be a fun change from boring black, too.

First I found this pencil, which is the Pastel Pop Twinkle Light Eye Pencil.  This is the one I'm currently using.  It's not as thick as I would have liked, but it's still good.  Stays on all day, but I have to go over the same sections to really get the gold to show up.

At the same time, I also purchased this set (the Sephora + Pantone Universe Foiled Waterproof Eyeliner Set) because it had a good mix of colors.  I haven't tried these out in "real life" yet, but they applied much better than the one up above.  I'll be trying a couple of the colors out next week I think.

So I had both of these eyeliners in my possession and then I watched the BBC show Sherlock.  In the episode "A Scandal in Belgravia", the character of Irene Adler wears turquoise glitter eyeshadow with really red lipstick, and I loved the way it looked, so I was immediately back on the Sephora site looking for turquoise eyeliner.

I found this chunkier crayon, the Jumbo Liner 12HR Wear Waterproof eyeliner, that comes in many colors.  I was a little hesitant to buy it online without having seen the colors in person, so last Sunday we had some errands to run (and a gift card to spend!), so we popped into Sephora and I checked it out.  I ended up getting the Peacock Blue Shimmer, Purple Glitter, and the Beige.  These all applied really nicely and were thick and substantial.  Once I've given these a try, I may go back and grab the gold in this one too!

And just to throw one more in the mix - the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in the bright glitter pink is also quite tempting.  Although I still haven't forgiven Urban Decay for exploding liquid foundation all over my suitcase and ruining a new shirt, so we'll see!

Blue & Yellow

I found these shoes while I was poking around Piperlime one day, looking for some good nude pumps.  I found the Nine West Drusilla, which looked promising, and also saw that it came in this cute, colorful pattern.

One of the downsides (or updsides, depending on how you look at it) to travelling for work is that you leave your whole closet behind.  I spend Saturday or Sunday picking out exactly what I'm going to wear for the entire week.  Because I don't like bringing a huge suitcase, I have to be somewhat practical in what I bring.  For example, I wouldn't bring four different pairs of pants/bottoms, as that would just take up too much room in my suitcase.

So this week I decided I wanted to try to incorporate my new shoes into my outfits, which meant lots of blues and yellows.  I have in the past brought two pairs of heels with me, but I don't usually do that (plus, I had left a pair of black heels at the office last week, so needed to leave enough room to bring them back home if I wanted to).

I had a pencil skirt that almost exactly matched the blue in the shoes, and then I was split between a neutral white tee on top or a yellow sweater.  As I was digging through the closet, this yellow sweater caught my eye, and I decided to go with that.

And here's how it looked put together in real life!