Pink Lady

We're almost in the long stretch for amazing spring!

But since we're in the over 50 degree threshold might as well start busting out the bare legs now. Oh bare-leg season how I miss you.

I've been finding the sleekest spring office dresses from LongTallSally.com - appropriate for work, cocktails, and baring legs obvi. If you're on the tall side of things - definitely recommend you checking it out.

For this particular dress, I wanted to play with spring's pastel trends but keep it professional enough to head into client meetings. Skip the sunnies and I fit right in at my creative office space. Here's another look with the same jacket. Or as my Ma says, "my age."

If you've been following along on the blog, you know I've been prepping pretty hardcore for bare leg season. Every other week I discovered a new brand that gave me moisturized skin to combat winter's harsh elements. All of them amazing and each one served its purpose. 

This week I saw a Body BB Cream from Jergens and had a very "WTF" moment shortly followed by a "I need to try that."

Sound familiar?

It had the words "Body Perfecting" on the packaging, so I had to try it.

It definitely had a strong smell, but then again so does my hairspray. It made my legs silky soft with a luminous glow and gave them some much needed color. The color did get a little deeper with continued used but no orange Jersey Shore streaks here. P.s. Notice how they are not blindingly pale!

Although the BB cream couldn't fix my knees, nothing really can, it's a great cream to use as we transition to sans tights weather. If you're skin is more on the sensitive side tread lightly, this may be not-so-great for your skin.

Jacket: bebe (old similar here)  Graphic Dress: c/o Long Tall Sally  Sunglasses: Asos (old similar style)  Necklace: Capwell+Co  Ring: House of Harlow 1960  Purse: Cambridge Satchel Co. (selling mine here)  Booties: Easy Spirit  Lipgloss: Buxom Full-On Lipgloss in Megan

On that note, any tips on how I can make my knees looks less rough around the edges. Seriously, ALL the sugar scrubs can't save them at this point. HALP.

Photos by Victor Cerejo.

Shop the look:

The Investment

Lately I've been cruising the city streets with blinders on. Avoiding sales and cute spring wear after a long winter is BRUTAL.

The battle is twice as hard once I go online. The internet is such a timesuck and these Piperlime sales are not helping.

Every now and then, I'll add something to my cart and immediately x-out of that page. I admit it, I love to shop but I love traveling more. My Poshmark corner (where clothes wait to get listed) is a constant reminder of my love and how it hasn't previously helped in the travel department. In fact the only thing this pile gets is an exasperated "UGH" from the boyfriend... Like every day.

Does any of this sound familiar? If it does, I feel you.

You're probably wondering why not stop shopping completely. Speaking from experience; cutting myself off would only lead to an insane and unplanned shopping spree. 

So, in an effort to save up for my trips and hopefully build up my closet (wishful thinking) I decided to go the route of investment shopping. Hopefully these tips will help you too.

Investment shopping would:

1 - give me a purpose and a goal to work towards

2 - prevent mindless shopping (very important)

3 - free up space by getting rid of similar (lower quality) items

4 - help establish my lewk by only investing in pieces that I've carefully thought about

I've put this plan into action last month and so far it's been going good. The first two pieces I decided to roll this plan out with were an Equipment shirt and this Acne leather jacket. 

Here's the break down:

1 - goal: an Equipment signature shirt + Acne leather jacket

2 - mindless shopping has stopped. Instead of spending $400+ on things I didn't need, I started saving $160 a month for my investment pieces. Plus, I've been able to save an additional $350 per month for my future trips. All in all - lots of saving!! By December I will have enough for a jacket (got the shirt last month on eBay) and will have enough by summer for my winter trips.

3 - every month, there's a mini purge and lots of things have been Poshmarked or donated. It can be a little hard at times to list everything, but small changes will lead to big progress.

4 - establishing my look is a work in progress, but I'm getting there!

So what do you think, are these helpful or not so much? Are there any investment pieces in your closet and how did your big purchase?

photo credit: one, two, three, four, five

Apartment Life | Blue Apron

Cooking in a NYC apartment usually comes in at a strong second to Seamless. There are moments when I decide to give cooking a go but ultimately those moments are few and far in between.

Then I saw these Blue Apron ads all over the subways and had to give it a try.

No harm, no foul right?

And you guys, there wasn't any foul done at all! Instead it made my life a million times easier (and affordable) when it came to dinner time. Plus, no grocery store visits were needed (hell YES).

From the start, it's pretty much fool-proof. After setting up an account you get to choose your week's recipe and customize it to your needs! I thought that was pretty convenient, especially the delivery options.

I had the box delivered to my office (packages tend to disappear from my apartment) and didn't have to worry about the food spoiling. Each box is refrigerated to make sure the ingredients are fresh #winwin.

Here's a peak at the amazing recipes included in my box. My mouth is basically salivating just thinking about it.

I started the week with the Three-Cheese Cannelloni. It came with fresh pasta sheets and lots of cheese. I LIVE for cheese.

One of the things that deters me from any homestyle cooking is the prep. All that chopping, cutting, and dirty-dish making - no thanks. With Blue Apron, almost none of that happened or were kept to a bare minimum. The majority of their fresh ingredients were already prepped and made me a much happier person. 

Also, how cute is the packaging?

Mmm, butternut squash and kale filling. Prior to this I have never cooked with butternut squash - kind of embarrassing right?

The end result was scrumptious cannelloni that were happily devoured by me and the boyfriend. For once we were so excited pasta, mainly because it wasn't the standard spaghetti and mystery sauce when we're at our wits end.

My overall thoughts, Blue Apron is certainly an option for those who want to save time and has the flexibility for almost any #GirlBoss. If we want to get specific, each meal takes around thirty-five minutes - a lot faster than selecting a meal (off Seamless) + waiting for its delivery.

Blue Apron isn't a New York thing either, it's available Nationwide. To get you started, Blue Apron is offering my readers two free meals on the house! Redeem the promotion by clicking here.

Learn more: www.blueapron.com

Blue Apron provided my first box for free for an honest review. Each box after was paid for. All opinions expressed are my solely my own.