A Staple for Summer

For summer, (which is coming soon, it better!) I think every girl should have a long dress in her wardrobe. The maxi dress is perfect for cool summer nights and lazy weekend afternoons. They are chic, comfortable, and make for an extremely effortless outfit.

Just the other day I had a friend ask me for advice on what to wear to an early spring wedding. The reception was held outside. She didn't want to wear wool or another "winter" fabric, but she wanted to stay warm. Maxi dress! You can easily dress it up with heels and pretty jewelry. Pair it with with a cute little cardigan or light jacket, and viola, you're hip AND warm!

And there's a real benefit to the maxi dress--many of them are cotton so they're machine washable! So let's say you're at a wedding, you and your friend from college get a little wild dancing to Britney and Gaga, and your dress ends up absorbing as much chardonnay as you do--no worries!

The dress pictured is from J. Crew. It also comes in heather gray and dark pewter. The detail in the back is really pretty too. And for $78, I think it's a steal!

The Coolest Engagement Ring, EVER!

It's not often that I get to tag a post with both "Twilight xoxo" and "fashion". So this is a pretty special entry.

I love diamond rings and Twilight, probably diamonds more than Twilight, but they are both right up there. I don't know what could possibly be cooler than the engagement ring Edward gave Bella. Edward is a true romantic. So you know the ring he chose to give Bella, the woman he waited DECADES for, would be absolutely perfect. Here's the description from Eclipse:

The face was a long oval, set with slanting rows of glittering round stones. The band was gold-- delicate and narrow. The gold made a fragile web around the diamonds.

For those of you not in-the-know, the ring belonged to Edward's mother. So that would date the ring back 150 years or so.

Now, for the low, low price of $1,979 you can get your love Bella's engagement ring! The ring was designed by Infinite Jewelry Co. in collaboration with Stephanie Meyers. I think they did an alright job creating a ring that reflected the description in the book. I am not sure about the "fragile web of gold", but it would be pretty difficult to create something both intricate and marketable/affordable.

The ring is also available at lower price points for $35 and $479. They switch out the diamonds for CZ's, and instead of solid gold, you will get gold plating. Boys, please don't get your lady CZ. If you are actually getting this as an engagement ring, buy the diamonds.

I have to admit, I actually like the ring. It has a very cool look to it. And you can never go wrong with diamonds!

Would you buy the replica ring?

AI - I'm Back

I took last week off. I was really pissed about Katie Stevens. I think I'm finally starting to get over it though.

This week was more fun than I anticipated. I didn't think there would be enough material for the contestants to work with, but I had forgotten how great Shania Twain is. She was really country's darling before Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift came along. Carrie is still my absolute favorite, but without Shania, there might have never been a Carrie. Shania really was one of the first country artist to crossover to pop music. I can still remember watching her "You're the Still One" music video on VH1. And for the longest time every couple I knew getting married played "From This Moment" for their first dance. She is certainly an accomplished artist.

Now let's get down to business. Who's going home? I say Michael Lynch is out. I hated his version of "It Only Hurts When I'm Breathing". Craig had never heard the song, which is a shame because it is really good. And you can only appreciate how crappy his version was when you know Shania's.

So here is Shania's "It Only Hurts When I'm Breathing"

Swim Suit Time!

I own a few swim suits. At one point I was obsessed with buying them. Pac Sun and Victoria Secret littered my credit card bills.

I love to be by the water and in the sun. I definitely miss being so close to the lakes and ocean. When I lived in New Hampshire, I was no more than an hour drive from some body of water. So having a few suits was practical. Unfortunately, I can count on one hand the number of times I've been by a pool or on a beach in the two years I've lived in DC.

My absolute favorite bathing suits are from a company in Hawaii called Maui Wear. They make suits for surfers so they are super durable. I can't stand a flimsy suit that can't be worn in the water or pills after one wear. The suits have a great cut, and the prints and styles are really cute.

Check them out. They ship free in the US, and the prices are reasonable!

Update to My Update

We placed another offer today. This one was really upsetting, and put us in a whole new league of rejection.

Our offer was never even considered! The listing agent thought our realtor was talking about a different property when he told her she would be getting an offer in this afternoon. So she never waited to get our offer before she went to talk to the owner at noon today! The owner went ahead and accepted another offer. Meanwhile, our offer was sitting in her inbox.

Too bad for the owner because we offered the full asking price and were willing to go up! And I don't believe the accepted offer was as much as ours because the listing agent wouldn't tell our realtor how much the offer the owner accepted was for. She could have saved face if the offer was more than ours by saying, sorry, but your client wouldn't have gotten the house anyway.

That is one crappy realtor.

This one we were 99% sure we were going to get!

CRISIS!!!!

Dear God,

Please let us find a house soon.

Thank you,
Melissa and Craig

Update

I haven't been updating the blog as much lately, and I am so sorry about that. I have been pretty busy and little preoccupied lately. We have been very focused on buying a house. And in the last few weeks the priority to buy a house has gone up like a billion percent. I will get into the reasons for recent push later, but first I'll brief you on our real estate search thus far.

January - We placed our first offer. There was another offer on the table, and the buyers were willing to waive the home inspection. We were not. Looking back on it I am happy we didn't get the house. It needed a lot of work.

February - This was a slow month. I think the snow storms deterred many interested sellers from placing their home on the market.

March - March Madness!! We put in offers on two houses! The first house we weren't willing to go up on our offer amount. The house was on the market for a month and there was no way we were going to offer asking. (If a house on the hill remains on the market for over a week, it isn't priced well.)

We lost the second house to an all cash offer. Someone paid cash for their house! Amazing. The house was on the market a few months ago and went off the market. The seller apparently moved and sold the house to a relocation company. The relocation company must have got a sweet deal on the house cause it was priced very reasonably.

We actually offered more than the all cash offer. The things you can do with cold hard cash.

April - The "bad news" showers continue... Two more offers, two more rejections! The first offer we placed was for well over asking, like over 10% over. We still don't know what the winning offer was. We were told there were multiple offers on the property, and the owners went with the offer they did because they were putting down a large chunk of change.

The last offer we made was sort of funny. Craig and I walked away from the house thinking, that house is fine. The space inside was nice. The back patio was on the small side though. And we thought the house was overpriced. It was on the high end of what we were willing to pay. We went to an open house and the listing agent even agreed and said he had a difficult time talking the owner down to the price it was listed though.

So we were not going to pay asking for a house that we, our realtor, and the listing agent agreed was overpriced. The comps for the area verified the house was on the very high end. We wanted to just be done with the whole process though and offered slightly less than asking. We didn't get the house, but we weren't all that disappointed to lose it either.

We just saw three houses yesterday and two looked promising. I think after five losses, we are due a winner.

And we need a house RIGHT now, for two reasons. First, our niece will be staying with us this summer. She will be interning at a PR firm in Washington during her summer break. So each time we look at a house we decide which bedroom would be hers. I can already see her clothes scattered about the room and smell her Vera Wang Princess perfume. It will be so much fun to have her around.

We are also looking to adopt! We are so excited to add a little one to our family. We have tried on our own, but have been unable. So we met with an adoption attorney last week. In order to adopt we will need to complete a home study, and this can't be done until we are in our permanent residence. So we want to buy NOW!

Please keep your fingers crossed for us. Maybe even say a little prayer and wear your lucky socks! We are ready!!!