A Promotion, A Celebration, and an OOTD

{we heart it}

This weekend has been absolutely lovely here in Chicago, and even lovelier around our house.  Matt and I have spent a good deal of the weekend celebrating.  The reason?  I got a promotion this week!  Hooray!

The promotion has actually been in the works for most of the summer, but I stayed fairly mum about it in case it didn’t go through.  Though I am currently paying my bills with a position as a freelance writer for a textbook editing company, I’ve been feeding my shopping habit with a part time job at one of my favorite retailers.  (You will often hear me refer to it as “the store” because I haven’t named it on the blog, for fear this blog will seem like a shameless promotional tool.  I never want it to seem like that, so I’m continuing to remain mum and call it “the store.”  Though if you snooped hard enough through my OOTDs, I’m sure you could guess the retailer.)  Anyway, about three weeks after I started working there, my manager mentioned promoting me.  I was excited, said sure, and since then have been interviewing, informally training, and crossing my fingers.  Monday morning, my official offer came through, and after talking it over with Matt (because apparently married people have to “talk over” these kinds of things) I accepted the position of assistant manager!  Eeek, super exciting!

I definitely feel like my juggling act just got a little bit more complicated.  Freelancing, working at the store, and oh yeah…finishing my Ph.D.  Eeesh. But, I’m used to being fairly busy/stressed and find that I’m actually more productive that way.  Go figure.

So with news of a promotion, a celebration was in order.  In our house, that means three things.  Eating, drinking (responsibly Mom, don’t worry), and shopping.  And to make sure I wasn’t alone in that definition, I looked up “celebrate” in the dictionary.  It reads, “eating, drinking, and shopping.”  See, I  don’t make these things up :)  Unfortunately, I didn’t snap too many pictures during our celebrating (unusual for me, I know.)  But here’s what I did get…

Friday night, after Matt got off work, we headed for Italian food.  90% of Matt and I’s date nights are Italian.  I love me some pasta and red wine, what can I say?  Though I’m typically drawn to tiny, dimly lit, family owned spots, Friday we went chain and dined at Maggianos.  The food was yummy, the wine was wonderful, but the dessert sampler was the real winner of the night.  Yum-o.

Saturday, I had a shift at the store.  I wasn’t in the mood for heels, so I went a little more casual.  As I was walking out of the house, Matt said, “Isn’t it a little warm for a leather jacket.”  I laughed and had to agree, but when you’re trying to sell fall clothes, you do a heck of a lot better if you’re actually dressed for fall.  Rules of retail, I guess.  I can only imagine how confused designers must get.  Coats in July, resort wear in the dead of winter…that must be the weirdest thing!

These are three of my all time favorite accessories.  I got the owl necklace at a market in London with my mom.  I fell in love with it the minute and I saw it.  Every time I wear it, Matt makes owl noises at me.  One might think my loving husband is saying “woo” and wouldn’t that be sweet, wooing at how great he thinks I look.  But in reality, he’s saying “hoo.”  Like an owl.  Awesome.

And since it was Saturday, my photog was home for the day.  Those of you who need to see knees and calves get your wish.  I guess I can handle knees in photos once a week :)

Jacket: Nordstrom

Lace tank: Rachel by Rachel Roy for Macy’s

Jeans: Ann Taylor

Shoes: Kenneth Cole

Necklace: London market

Sea shell earrings: my mom’s from the 80s (love them!)

Opal ring: vintage (it was my great Aunt Bunny’s)

And after a morning shift at the store and an afternoon of shopping with Matt, we headed home for the second celebration of the weekend.  Pad thai and champagne lol.  We’d planned to go out to a new, local Asian place, but after being on my feet all day, I just wanted to get into my sweats, order takeout, and relax with my man.  So that we did.  With a “cheers” of course!

And like almost every other weekend this summer, we ended it with smores on the grill.  That grill puts out some bad ass steaks, chops, and corn on the cob, but all I care about are the smores.  And I wonder why my jeans are a  little tighter these days ;)

So that was our weekend.  Simple, celebratory, and wonderful!  Hope yours was fabulous as well!