Snow Leopard

Dear blog,

I apologize for having neglected you during my vacation but truthfully, I would neglect you all over again if I had a second chance.

The holidays were awesome. I love being with family. You know how those little snots boys in elementary school pulled your hair and made you cry because they secretly liked you but would never admit it? I was that kid with my family. I teased my little brothers endlessly, made them cry, did all the mean big sister stuff like lock them in the closet for fun. But in all honesty, they mean more than the world to me and I would not trade them for anything. If I tease you endlessly, I'm just showing my love. The older younger brother is going abroad for 2 years soon and that makes me incredibly sad. Everyone is growing up and all I want to do is stay in this moment and keep the family together under one roof (even though I went off to college at the tender age of 17.. which I thought was plenty old back then but now I'm seeing that you're practically still a baby!)
The New Year is something most people welcome and love but it seriously gets me in a funk. The best holidays are over. Which means no abundance of gloriously rich soul-food, no hunting for presents (I LOVE HUNTING FOR PRESENTS!), and being ripped away from family to get back to the grindstone. An empty year compared to the full one before it. And nothing major to look forward to besides maybe Valentine's Day and I never really liked Valentine's Day. Also, are sequins still a thing after New Years? (no really, somebody answer this question..)

Anyhoo, it's been -17 degrees (Farenheit) at times and very bleak here so forgive me for the lack of outfit posts. However, the holidays are a major shopping time for me and the hubs so that means more (motivated) outfit posts! Yaaay!

I'm laughing because I'm secretly dying of cold. And I just realized how crazy I must look.

top: American Eagle | cardigan: J.Crew Factory (on sale! extra 30% with GETMORE) | pants: F21 | booties: sammydress.com | scarf: H&M | watch: Michael Kors | bracelets: YuniKelley Designs | bag: Aldo (on sale!)

I love my new Aldo bag. I was a bit iffy about buying it since I know Aldo's bags aren't great but this one has really nice sturdy leather and even hubs was surprised by the quality. I love the Celine-mini-luggage-tote-ishness of the bag and the practicality of it. And did I mention it was under thirty bucks? Speaking of good deals, the hubs and I were at T.J.Maxx last night (I'm not really sure why..) but I saw these in a little bin and thought they were Butter Londons and just about passed out (I know, I'm a freak) but they're actually Madonna's Material Girl Line. The rectangular lid even comes off and it's a round nail brush top just like Butter London polishes. And since they were $3 each, I grabbed 3!

pink sparkles, a blue toned polish with green sparkles that reminds me of mermaids, and this dark purple-grey.

This is more true to color, it's actually a really dark pastel purple-grey color. I love it!

It went on pretty smooth and was completely opaque in just 2 coats. The formula's a little watery and the brush is not great, but it's actually a pretty decent polish in the end and comes in fabulous colors. And I'm a huge fan of the bottles.. isn't that lace design so adorable?! I'd definitely dish out the $6/ea regular price on these, too bad it seems like they're not doing so well, ending up at T.J.Maxx.