But then there’s days like today where I’m texting everyone because unless I’m in the process of swallowing something warm, it feels like there’s a torture device from a horror movie rotating in my throat. I feel feverish and cranky and my first thought on waking up was how much dayquil can you drink before you o’d?

So I pulled on my favorite Victoria’s Secret Leggings, grabbed my favorite Gilly Hicks hoodie and scraped my hair into a ponytail with an Emi-Jay Hair tie. Skipped the makeup because my face is a bit swollen and I don’t even want to touch it (those of you with sinus issues totally get this one) and when I got a bit cold threw on my navy blue Bearpaw boots.

I adore my Jack Skellington mug that my husband got me a few days ago when I was massively stressed out over our son’s Halloween costume. It was the perfect way to remind me that Halloween is my favorite Holiday.

Detail shot on the hoodie. I bought this last year during a Gilly Hicks sale along with another one, and I definitely have plans to get more. Victoria’s secret may do the best leggings, but Gilly Hicks has them beat on cozy hoodies.

My boots are Navy blue Bearpaw boots that my husband gave me for Christmas a couple years ago. I got these instead of Uggs because I hadn’t decided yet if I wanted to spend that much on a pair of boots that I probably won’t wear out of the house all that often. However I’m full on in love with the ones that have bows on them so I’ll probably be asking for a pair in the Classic Chestnut color for Valentines day.

1,2,3,4,5

If you’re a fan of this look for laying around your house sick then then I made a wishboard of the same or similar items that are available now. Just being this cozy and surrounding myself with all of my favorite things has made me feel so much better.

I wore a sweater from Hollister, a tank from The Limited, Victoria’s Secret Most Loved Yoga Pants, and my Pink and Pepper riding boots. Not Pictured Alex & Ani October Birthstone Bracelet. I did say I’d do an outfit where I made these pants acceptable for public. This is one of them. The only issue was my sweater kept riding up and that was irritating because even though it was long enough, it didn’t look long enough.

On My Face: Nars Sheer Glow in Siberia, Nars blush in Deep Throat, Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla, Benefit Watts up, Benefit They’re Real Mascara, Various Lancome Shadows. Hair pulled back in a very messy bun using an Emi-Jay hair tie.

Howl was a bit apprehensive about a carnival in the fall. He’s in good company though.

Howl wore his Worthy Dog Harness. I think he was just happy to be out and about.

A big reason why I like going to this festival is because it reminds of one of my favorite Ray Bradbury books Something Wicked This Way Comes. I know book reviews usually go up on Wednesdays, I really do recommend either this book or the movie for fall. It’s about a carnival that comes to Green Town in mid-October called Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show. Mr. Dark being the true owner of the carnival is also the Carnival’s illustrated man bearing a tattoo for each person bound to the Carnival. The Novel focuses on 14 year old boys (12 in the movie) Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade and Will’s Father Charles. The boys are excited for the Carnival that comes so late in the year but Charles Halloway is apprehensive about what it could mean.

I adore this book, and have for years. As I mentioned before it’s a bit hard for me to be unbiased when it comes to Ray Bradbury’s writing because I’ve loved his books since I was a child, and The Halloween Tree is one of the very first books I remember reading. It’s also the first movie I remember watching. I do recommend it though. Ray Bradbury is a famous Author for a very good reason and if you’ve never read his work before then this is a good place to start.

Sarah and Jennifer are really careful, trusting their never list to keep them safe. A list they created after a horrible accident, one that made them more like sisters than friends. But one night they accidently break the worst possible rule they could on the never list and it costs them their freedom. Ten years later, Sarah is still trying to cope with the fact that Jennifer didn’t make it out of the cellar with her, and that the man who kidnapped them might be getting out for parole. Sarah decides she needs to find more evidence to keep that horrible man locked away.

The Never List by Koethi Zan was released early this year and I grabbed it while I was in a hurry at the library solely based on it’s title and the cover. I had absolutely no clue what it was about when I checked it out. I enjoyed this book. It’s dark and twisted, with plenty of things that you absolutely do not expect to happen. I think what made this book a bit darker for me, is that I have my own Never List of sorts. I grew up being very aware of the terrible horrible things that could happen to me. I still follow some of those rules I made up for myself, while others have proved to be unnecessary. However, reading this book, where these girls did everything they possibly could to keep themselves safe and they still ended up in this situation, absolutely horrified me. They were so careful, and they didn’t even mean to break the rule, it just happened.

Final Verdict: I fully recommend this book, I adored it and it’s going on my books I’ve read but want to buy and read again list.

Today’s outfit is actually a variation of one that I made a wishboard for last year.

I’m wearing a sweater from Gap, and the Victoria’s Secret Most Loved Leggings, my socks are from Target’s $1 section last Valentines Day.

On My Face: Nars Sheer Glow Foundation in Siberia, Nars Blush in Deep Throat, Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla and YSL Babydoll Mascara. Hair tie: Emi-jay. Glasses: Kate Spade

This is definitely an outfit that is cozy and comfortable, which was necessary because I sat down with this book and finished it all in one go. I like to be really cozy and comfortable when I read thrillers or horror novels, because it’s much easier to deal with the horrors of the world if you’re safe and cozy at home. I mean that’s so obvious that even Tool has a song about it.

I know I’ve mentioned Emi-Jay hair ties a lot. I kinda can’t help it, I’m absolutely obsessed with them. I’ve tried the ones from Sephora, Twistbands and even ones that my dollar store was selling that looked similar.

None of them have come close. None. I don’t know why these are better, they just are. I’m certain the other companies making them use similar, if not the exact same materials, but Emi-Jay just seems to do it better. They’re about the same price as Twistbands and the Sephora ones too.

Of course it could be the Hippie in me, that’s mostly hidden by all my consumerism. Because Emi-Jay give money to Operations Smile, Be The Match, Step Up Women’s Network, and Project Knapsack. Any one of these charities would have been an admirable choice, but these girls chose to donate 20% of their procedes to split between them all.

Oh yeah, I said girls. Emi-Jay was started by two 8th graders in the Jay part of Emi-Jay, Julianne’s Kitchen. The Emi part of course stands for Emily. They got tired of no damage hair ties that still damaged their hair, and decided there was a better solution, so they found it. And they managed to make a successful business out of it, one that has Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Jessica Parker, Katie Holmes and Kim Kardashian as loyal clientele.

Another thing that I adore is the variety that they come in, printed, beaded and now bows. Bonus they totally have headbands. I haven’t tried them yet, but I am absolutely desperate to. I adore that they’re made with the same size band as the hair ties. Twistband uses a thinner band for their headbands, I have some that I got from Birchbox and I hate them. The thinner twistband actually causes dents.

Everytime I get my hair done, my hairdresser always comments on the fact that I don’t have split ends or breakage, despite the fact that I constantly am throwing my hair up in a messy bun. I don’t use heat on my hair often so that will cover the split ends, but I completely attribute the lack of breakage to the fact that I only use Emi-Jay hair ties.

I had a couple requests for a Tutorial on how I did my hair in this post, so here it is!

First you’ll need: A Hair Tie (I’m using one from Emi-Jay), 2 bobby pins, and not pictured Hair Spray. Personally I use Aveda’s Air Control:

Starting with your hair down:

Seperate out a section at the front which will have your bangs if you have any:

Then brush up into a ponytail:

And tie it off with your hair tie:

then start twisting up your bangs:

You’ll be placing the bobby pins in two places right before you get to the end of your bangs:

And then again at the end of the length of hair you’ve twisted:

And this is how it should look:

This really is super simple, after it’s all done just spray with a light hold hairspray and smooth any flyaways you may have. You might have to do the twist a few times to get it just how you want it, but it’s so quick and easy that after awhile you’ll have it perfect on the first (or second) try.

My top is from H&M and if you’re wondering what’s on my face, I’m wearing: Nars Sheer Glow in Siberia, Nars Concealer in Vanilla, Benetint, Lancome Taupe Eyeshadow, Makeup Forever Setting Powder (just where I used the concealer) and Nyx Soft Matte Lip Cream in Amsterdam

If you try out this hairstyle tweet me a picture, I’d love to see it!

I recently watched some videos that Taylor Swift made in collaboration with Keds talking about her style and I remembered how much fun I had last fall with all my stripes and oxfords, so I decided that I wanted to wear exactly that.

I’m wearing a red and cream striped sweater from Francesca’s and  Black Shorts from H&M.

My shoes are Not Rated Oxfords that I ordered from Journey’s last year.

My Necklace is a beaded 3 strand necklace that I got from H&M ages ago. I once wore it as a bracelet here.

My makeup was Nars Sheer Glow in Siberia, Nars Deep Throat Blush, Nars Concealer in Vanilla, Bite VIB Rouge lip color, and YSL Babydoll Mascara

I wasn’t having the greatest Hair day so I left my bangs down and pulled it back into a ponytail with an Emi-Jay Hair Tie.

Howl loved being at the park, especially the part where he got to eat the grass.

Can I just say I’ve never been a big fan of Keds, until I realized they’d come out with all these cute collaborations. Now I really really want a pair from both the Taylor Swift collab and the Kate Spade Collab. So much that I’m seriously thinking about getting myself a pair instead of Toms from my birthday. Maybe? What do you think, Toms or Keds?

I’m running out of my Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish, and I don’t know if my skin has changed or if their formula has changed, but it didn’t work for my skin this time around. So I picked up the Kiehl’s Rare Earth Cleanser. I bought this cleanser because it seems that my skin has been absolutely out of control oily lately. I’ve only used it for 2 days now but it seems to be helping.

Then because I actually am completely out of my Liz Earle Toner I also picked up the Rare Earth Toner, which I kinda really love because it separates and has powder or something in the bottom, and then you shake it up to use it.

I also ran out of my Fresh mask and wanted to pick up the Kiehls Rare Earth Pore Cleansing Mask but they were out of stock so I ended up with a bunch of samples. Only one of those is Kiehls, the others are Kate Sommerville, Clarins and Dr. Dennis Gross.

Then after I checked out I noticed that they had some new Emi-Jay hairties so I grabbed a couple packs for myself, and I grabbed the same ones to give to Sarahbelle. These seriously are my all time favorite hairties, and even though I keep loosing them, and they’re kinda expensive I will always repurchase these. I can pretty much guarantee that I will include a pack of these in my future 100 followers giveaway (hey, I can dream right?)

I know I said I was going to stick with Liz Earle, but I really do think they reformulated or something because my face actually seemed to get a bit worse. I had some left from the last time I bought it, and my skin started to clear up. When I started the new bottle I didn’t change anything or add in any new skincare that I hadn’t been using before and my face started getting worse. I’m actually really heartbroken about it, because I had such good results the first time around and I honestly thought it was going to be my holy grail. But I guess it’s back to the drawing board. Everytime I say ” OMG I love this forever” it either gets reformulated or my skin begins to hate it.

This outfit was really fun for me. I was trying to walk the line between summer and fall. It was a bit chilly yesterday, because of recent storms, so I wanted to be comfortable but still bright and colorful.

I wore a stripey Top from Loft, Jeans that I don’t know where I got and I don’t know where my shoes are from either, but I they totally don’t get worn enough.

See aren’t they adorable? They’re wedges with gold embroidery and sequines on them. Plus they lace up. Normally you’re meant to cross the lace in the front to back but I turned it around and wrapped them to shorten it so I wouldn’t be walking on the bow.

I also really love this pen necklace and have been wearing it to death lately. My favorite thing about it is that it actually works.

This was a Gift from Miss Cannady, and frankly she always gives the best gifts, because seriously sometimes it’s like we’re the same person with some extra added in to make us different.

Okay so this is a better picture of my hair than my makeup, but seriously my makeup was just the usual: Lancome Tient Vissionaire, Nars concealer, Nars Blush, Benefit Badgal Lash, Benefit Sunbeam and Rosebud Salve on my lips. My bangs were being weird yesterday so I twisted them back in that style I was obsessed with when I was growing them out. I kinda still love it.

And OMG I knit Howl a sweater, how cute is he in it? He didn’t wear it long, because it’s still a bit to warm for it, but still I made that. It’s a bit short on him but that’s cool I have extra yarn I can lengthen it some. I’ve already started him another one in red. It seriously knit up so quick.

So cute.

Okay so those photos are not from today. They’re from yesterday. However they’re going up late because I had something I really wanted to do today, that I actually thought was next week. Thank goodness for Twitter.  Today was Sarahbelle93′s Rush Into Lily Event at the Kenwood Towne Center. So when I saw her tweet about it, I kinda just rushed out of the house, since I had the wrong day.

Here we are at her meetup:

She was so sweet, and super easy to talk to. I’m so glad I met her. Then after, I as I was shopping around I noticed Nordstrom had Emi-Jay hairties in some super cute patterns and since I was buying them for myself I picked her up some too, and then super awkwardly went back to the meetup to give them to her. I did some other shopping, so there will be a haul up from that very soon.

I have a favorite quote “When it comes to desire, when it comes to attraction, things are never black and white. Things are very much Shades Of Gray.” It was said by Brian Molko, the lead singer of Placebo. I try and focus on this quote as much as I can. What does that quote have to do with this weeks outfit? When I was getting dressed and decided my Feed Chambray would look good with my H&M Skater skirt, this quote popped into my head and I decided to go with shades of Blue instead of shades of gray.

I’m wearing a Feed for Target Chambray, H&M Skater Skirt

Accessories: White and Silver H&M bangle Light Blue Emi-Jay hairtie, Blue Gap Ballet Flats, Blue Twistband Headband and Silver H&M Leaves Necklace.

I adored wearing this outfit. It was easy and comfortable and still really dressy. It’s the perfect outfit and with different shoes and tights it’ll be perfect for fall.

A quick note about the Twistband Headband and a bit of and Ode to Emi-Jay: I bought these ages ago with Birchbox points, and I hate them. They’re really thin and they hurt my head and I just don’t love them. I do plan on picking up some Emi-Jay headbands the next time I’m near the local shop that sells them. Everytime I’ve tried any of the Emi-Jay knockoffs, I’ve regretted it. I really adore the Emi-Jay hairties and personally I’m going to stay with the brand.

Howl was dressed in blue as well!

I’ve decided that I’m going to try to make weekly book reviews a thing here. I’ve read a lot of books  in my life, and many of them were really good. Since I’ll continue to read for as long as I can, there will always be  books to talk about. I also plan to try to pair an outfit with each book. Either what I was wearing when I read it, or what it inspired me to wear after I read it. This outfit is a little of both.

I’m wearing Gilly Hicks Sweatpants, Enough Is Enough Tee from Sevenly, White Converse, Kate Spade Glasses.

On My Face: Kate Spade Glasses, Lancome Teint Visionnaire in 100n, Nars Concealer in Vanilla, YSL Babydoll Mascara and Benefit Girl Meets Pearl. I’m actually only wearing makeup because I’m testing this Foundation and Mascara to see if I want to buy the full sizes. You’ll find out in a future haul if I do or not.
My Hair: Pulled into a Messy Bun with an Emi-Jay Hair Tie, I love these hair ties.

And a very beat up and loved copy of PS. I Love You.

If you’re wondering why I chose this for the example of what I wore when I read this book, when it’s such a long book, well that’s because I’ve read this book so many times and I read fast even when I don’t know the material that I finished rereading it in 4 hours. I actually took these pictures before I started reading, which is why my makeup isn’t destroyed.

If you’re wondering why I was inspired to wear this well that brings us to the review, and that box of Puffs also pictured. The start of this book is sad. It’s heartbreaking. It’s about the first year or so of a widow’s life after her husband dies and how she recovers from the loss. She’s relatively close to my age, and I’m married so her loss really effects me. This is one of the few books and movies that make me cry. Like actual tears and everything (lets see how that mascara really holds up! BTW it’s not waterproof.) So I tend to wear something cozy and relaxed whenever I decide it’s time to reread this book.

It’s sort of really hard to review this book with out giving too much away, but I’ll try.  The book focuses on Holly, who is left a widow just a bit before turning 30, when it’s discovered her husband Gerry has a brain tumor. She’s an absolute mess until she receives the List from Gerry. Something they had only joked about before and here he’d actually gone and done it. One envelope a month with a task to help her get through the rest of the year. As the year goes on you see Holly begin to heal. To learn that there is a life for her without Gerry.

I think the subject of this book could have made it all too heartbreaking, and while that still would have made for a good book, I think the way that the author, Cecelia Ahern, tackles it with humor makes it easier to swallow. The whole book is both funny and sad at the same time. There were parts that made me both laugh and cry and I couldn’t tell you if it was because I was so sad for Holly or if it was because it was all just so funny.

I honestly love this book. I’ve read it so many times now, it’s more like a comfortable old friend, rather than just a story. Even though I know what’s coming as I turn the pages, I still laugh in all the same places and cry at all the saddest bits. I usually pick this up to read when I’m feeling a bit low, and by the next morning I’m already feeling much better.

Bonus: The movie version has what is by far my all time favorite movie quote: Ciara “Are you drunk?” Holly “No.” “Ciara “Well do ya wanna be?”