Fall Lookbook

Hello everyone! Hope you all are doing well!

So, I wanted to post a Fall Lookbook 1) because I haven't posted anything on here in so long and 2) because it's Fall and I wanted to try to inspire some with these simple outfits I've been wearing lately!

I have posted a video on my Youtube channel of all the same outfits if you would like to check that out here. I'm super proud of this video so I would appreciate it if you took a look and make sure to watch in HD!

Well, let's go ahead and get started!

Outfit #1

This first outfit is a pretty simple one. Well, they are all simple, but this is probably the simplest of them all.



I thought this top was really cute so I made it the main piece of the outfit and just paired it with some jeans, a tan purse and oxfords, and silver jewelry.



I got this top from Ross and the brand is EM. It can be long sleeve or quarter sleeve since it has buttons on the sleeves so that you can roll them up and keep them in place. It has a nice ruffle all around the bottom and as you saw in the first photo, a split in the back topped with a cute little bow.

I believe the jeans came from TJ Maxx, the brand is Jessica Simpson. Just a regular medium wash skinny jean that fit me really well! And I think I may have found the purse at Tuesday Morning, the brand is Nine West. It has three compartments with zippers getting smaller as they reach the front of the bag. I prefer small cross-body bags because I don't carry a lot in my purse, so I really liked this one! And of course, it matches the shoes perfectly!



These shoes were ordered online from Delia's, the brand is Wanted. I've had these for at least 3 years probably, and they have lasted really well. In my opinion, it's always good to have a pair of oxfords in your shoe collection. They go with just about anything.



And like I said before, I put on some silver jewelry for this outfit! So, I wore this nice little silver locket that has an 'M' engraved on it because my name is Madison. My parents got this for me from Ned Cash Jewelers, and it's probably the nicest jewelry I have ever received! I have yet to figure out how to put a picture in it, but I will one day.



And then I put some burgundy heart earrings in along with these little silver balls to match the necklace! I thought the hearts would go nicely with the color of the shirt and add some more of that color towards the face. I've had the heart earrings for a while so I can't really remember where they are from but it is probably safe to say they came in a pack from Maurice's and I know I got the silver balls in a pack from TJ Maxx, but you can find those anywhere pretty much.

Outfit #2

So, the rundown of this outfit is this pretty floral shirt with a light jacket, paired with jeans, booties, and another cross-body purse! And some gold jewelry to accessorize.

This top is from Maurice's and it is a beige suede material shirt with this pretty floral pattern on it. It is actually a short sleeve shirt and it has this pretty crochet/lace trim along the bottom. This jacket is also from Maurice's in this kind of army green color. I like these together because it brings out the green in the top and makes the color of the flowers stand out. This is a really light jacket with gold hardware, the sleeves can be worn up or down, and it has a string in the waist that can be tightened for a more cinched in look.

Along with this, I am wearing the same Jessica Simpson jeans I wore in the first outfit, and this cross-body dark brown leather Fossil purse. I received this purse for Christmas one year, and I believe my mom got this from Belk. It has two zipper compartments with gold hardware. This is probably the nicest purse I've ever had, so 2 points for my parents.

And then I figured these little booties would fit in perfectly! I got these from Rack Room Shoes, the brand is X-APPEAL. They are a sort of suede material as well, like the top. And they also have the gold hardware and the dark brown heel. I just love these and they are so comfortable!

Then, I wore some gold jewelry with this. I got this cute little necklace from a place called Civvie's in Savannah, GA. It's like a little thrift shop, so I don't know if they have them anywhere else. But it has this nice gold chain with quite a bit of detail and a golden glass bottle with some little flowers in it. This necklace was a little pricey compared to what I would normally spend on one, but I just had to have it.

And then we have the earrings. I put in these gold and brown studs along with these little golden heart earrings. I believe these were both in a pack from Maurice's. That's just where I get most of my earrings from.

Outfit #3

This is a pretty comfy, casual outfit. I based it around this long gray cardigan, so I paired it with a shorter, almost cropped, top and high-wasted jeans. Then I just slipped on some comfortable shoes and wore some silver jewelry. No need for a purse with this one since this cardigan has some pretty big pockets!

 

This top is a thin, long sleeve crop top in this burgundy color. I bought it at Ross, the brand is ambiance. This amazing cardigan is from Maurice's. It's just a mixture of dark and light grays along with a little bit of white, and it has a few different patterns on it. It comes right above the knee and has some nice big pockets! Oh, and a hood!

  

Since I'm wearing a shorter top to balance out the length of the cardigan, I wanted to wear some high-wasted jeans. They aren't super dramatically high-wasted but enough to be called that. Anyways, I got them from TJ Maxx and the brand is Blue Spice. They're a bit of a darker wash compared to the Jessica Simpson jeans.



And like I said, I slipped on these comfortable shoes that my mom got from TJ Maxx, the brand is ESPRIT. They're this taupe kind of color and they have a tiny little heel on them. Haven't had them very long, but they're very comfortable like I said!



Then, I put on some silver jewelry! I wanted to do this layering of necklaces, so I used this teapot necklace that I sort of made. I got the charm from Micheal's and just put it on a silver chain I already had. And then I added this shorter necklace that came in a pack from Maurice's.



Then I put these earrings in, I believe the round ones also came in a Maurice's pack, and I thought the detail looked very similar to the detail on the little teapot charm. And I believe I got the silver diamond shaped earrings in a little pack from Belk, not sure what brand exactly, but how hard could it be to find some similar to it? Hopefully not too hard.

Outfit #4

I really like this outfit! This one is kind of girly and edgy at the same time I would say. I based this look on this amazing duster cardigan and paired it with this cute pink top to bring out the pink in the cardigan. Since this cardigan is so long, I thought it would look better to wear the high wasted pants from the third outfit to put some shape underneath, so I just tucked in the top. Then, I finished it off with some black combat boots which gives the outfit an edgier vibe.



This hot pink polka dotted top was thrifted. The brand is Papaya. It's a sheer, flowing tank top with this peter pan collar and some fabric-made stripes. I wore this tucked into my jeans, like I said a second ago.



These jeans are the same jeans I wore in the third outfit which are Blue Spice.



And the star of the show, this cardigan! This cardigan was thrifted as well and the brand is California Gypsy. It's a pretty thick cardigan that hits right in the middle of the calves (on me). It's beautifully striped with black, gray, white, dark purple, and hot pink. It has a hood and some nice big pockets!



Then I put on these black combat boots. I got these from Journey's a while ago, the brand is Shi. Like I said, this adds an edgy element to the outfit and keeps your feet warm which is a plus!



This time, I skipped putting on a necklace and just wore these earrings! These are just some simple black studs that I believe also came in pack from Maurice's (bet you're tired of hearing that). And then these gold diamond shaped earrings came in the same pack from Belk as the silver ones in the outfit before this.

Outfit #5

This outfit is slightly dressed up. It takes some really casual elements and makes them a little nicer. I started out with this fitted denim button up and paired it with a black flowing skirt. Since it's Fall, I wore it with some black tights and then to dress it up a bit I put on these black mary jane style wedges. I wore my hair up with this one so that it looks a bit like I did something with it and I thought it looked better with the collard shirt buttoned all the way to the top! And instead of a purse, I'm carrying this large detailed wallet.

These wedges are from TJ Maxx and the brand is Blowfish.

I believe I found this nice denim button up at Kohl's, the brand is girl krazy. I liked this one because it's a medium wash and it's pretty fitted which I thought made it look a little nicer. I decided to roll the sleeves up a couple times and button it all the way to the top to make it look a little nicer.



I paired that with this kind of silky black skirt that I got from Target, the brand is xhilaration. I wore some black tights underneath and carried this pretty black wallet. I got the wallet from TJ Maxx and as it says, the brand is LODIS. I just thought the detailing was so beautiful and it's large enough to fit everything I need, including my phone!



I wore these black gem looking earrings to match all the black in the outfit. They are from Earthbound Trading Co. I paired them with these diamond and gold earrings that I thought were similar to the buttons on the shirt. I assume they came from a pack from Maurice's as usual. 



And that is everything! So, I hope this gives you some inspiration whatever it may be! I really just want to show people that you can dress very cute at an affordable price! I like to shop cheap, and the few items I have that are really nice have all been gifts. And I figured these are all pretty simple, everyday outfits that I think anyone could pull off.

So, thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed!

Anubis The Sphynx

Hi all! Sorry it has been such a long time since I have posted anything! I am finally going back to school after taking a semester off, so I've been a little busy keeping up with classes. Anyway, I thought now would be a good time to introduce all of you to my cat! Her name is Anubis and she is a sphynx. She is my baby and I think of her as an actual daughter. Haha. But I thought hopefully some of you would fall in love with her the way I did!

These are some pictures from a while ago that I've been wanting to post. We let her explore the backyard on her leash!

That's her! I just think she is so beautiful and I really hope others can see her beauty as well. I definitely have more pictures of her coming! In the meantime, if you are interested in seeing more photos, you can follow her on instagram! @anubisthesweetbaby

Thanks for reading and viewing! :)

Craft: Earring Holder

Hello! Hope you all are doing well! Recently I have made an earring holder that I saw examples of on Pinterest and just thought I would share the steps with you all in case you were interested in making one yourself! So, here we go:

You will need any picture frame you prefer, material to hold your earrings: I've used burlap but I've also seen others use lace and doilies, super glue or your preferred glue, and anything you'd like to use to decorate your frame more.

On a side note, I used this foldable frame because I travel back and forth a lot and it's easier to pack up. But any frame that seems most accessible when it comes to taking your earrings off and putting them back on is best!

The first thing you're gonna do is remove the back of the frame, the glass, anything in the frame. 

The next thing I did was unscrew these things I do not know the name of that hold the back of the frame in. You don't have to do this, but you also won't be needing them!

For my source of burlap, I bought this little burlap envelope to use.

I cut this in half so that I could cut squares out to attach to the frame. 

Cut it to fit into the frame the best you can!

Now, here's where the super glue comes in! I bought this gel control super glue which lets you control how much glue is coming out by squeezing the sides harder.

And now you glue your piece of burlap or whatever material you chose into the frame like this!

I bought these little burlap flowers to decorate the frame a bit. I glued them onto the burlap on the inside itself and also on the actual frame as you can see. So, anything you'd like to use to add a little something to your earring holder, you can most likely glue on.

And this is the finished product! As you can see, I have a lot of earrings and I was having to carry them loosely in a box back and forth which became aggravating. If you've been having a similar situation, I highly recommend doing this! It's very easy and fun to do, and I don't see why this wouldn't last you a while! I'm really excited about it and hope this influences some of you to make your own! I would love to see your outcomes! Thank you so much for reading! :)

The Eggplant Experiment

So, last week, my boyfriend and I tried to cook eggplant and I'm just now getting around to telling you about it. We love getting dishes with eggplant at a couple of restaurants and they are always so good that my boyfriend started to wonder how you go about cooking eggplant. The dishes we like include fried eggplant, but we wanted to try baking it. He has been really interested in trying new stuff when it comes to cooking and he wanted to try baking something with crushed up Nilla Wafers as the breading, so that's what we did. If it sounds a little weird to you, it sounded odd to me at first too, but it really wasn't that noticeable, just a tad bit sweet. Anyways, here are the steps we took for making this. 

The first thing you do is cut your eggplant up into slices. They can be large slices because you will be draining the eggplant after this which will make the slices a lot thinner.

Now, onto the most time consuming part of making eggplant: draining! We covered each piece with salt, stacked them like this in between two plates, and put something heavy on top (we ended up placing a hammer on top because this was unstable after awhile). We let them drain for about 30 minutes, but the eggplant turned out very very strong. Some people online recommend anywhere from an hour to over night, so it's really up to you, but if we do this again, I would probably let it drain for about 2 hours. Also, if we do this again, we would probably drain them more evenly. Instead of stacking them like this, maybe laying them flat on a sheet.

And now we have nice thin slices of drained eggplant! To get some of the excess juice out, I squeezed them in between the palms of my hands over the sink. If you think you may need to do this, it helps!

Now, take those Nilla Wafers and crush them up!

It helps to crush them in between two plates if mashing them up with your hands isn't doing the trick.

For mine, I mixed in some of these regular Italian style bread crumbs. We bought them just in case the Nilla Wafers didn't work out, but I used both just to get a little more coverage on the eggplant patties.

The next thing you want to do is put some flour on a plate like this.

And then pour some milk into a container like this. We used almond milk, so if you also want to use almond milk, it works!

Now we start to bread the eggplant! First, place a patty in the flour and cover.

Then dip it into the milk. 

And stick the bread crumbs on trying to get as much coverage as you would like!

Just continue to do this with all of your eggplant patties.

Once that is done, bake them at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes on each side and that's it!

Now, you can do whatever you would like to do with your eggplant patties. We decided to make an eggplant sandwich, so we bought some hamburger buns to put them between. 

We also got this delicious feta cheese to put on our sandwiches!

And here it is! It really wasn't too bad, I just wish the eggplant wouldn't have been as strong as it was. It was a little overpowering. But I still wanted to share what we did so that anyone can tweak it the way they want. Feel free to give feedback if you try it! I would love to know how others are cooking their eggplant!

Overall, this was a fun experience and I would really like to try this again and see how it turns out. Thanks for reading! :)