Lunch break in Midtown Atlanta

This lady looked like a picture sitting on the steps reading in Midtown Atlanta.  There's something a little retro about her rose print top and t-strap heels paired with a Hampton's beachy purse.  I'm so excited that people are showing their summer style in Atlanta.

Tomorrow, I'll have more to show you about my time in Midtown.

A gray day (in a good way)

On Saturday, I went shopping in an outfit I made last summer -

I'm kind of stuck on gray as my favorite color right now (is gray a color?), but it often needs to be paired with some punch like this zigzag skirt.  Guess who designed the skirt fabric?  Jay McCarroll, the winner of the very first Project Runway!  I am obsessed with this fabric.  I made my daughters skirts out of it -

...and used it for purse lining -

...and made a scarf.  It's probably a good thing that I'm starting to run out.

So anyway, I set off in my gray shirt and zigzag skirt to search for a summer hat.  I have been looking for a hat, because every time I'm in the sun for an long time, I burn my scalp.  I have a "beachy" looking hat, but I wanted something that looked more "city".  So, I visited Urban Outfitters-

I really liked the cream colored hat -

...but took home the gray (of course) -

By the way, Urban Outfitters has tons of cute stuff right now.  I had to use a lot of self restraint to not try anything on.  However, I did take a few photos of their quirky cool decor -



Cute summer looks

I've seen several cute summer outfits around town lately.  The first is a girl looking pretty in a Madewell dress-

I stopped the next girl because of her shoes.  But then I noticed her cool outfit with the floral bubble skirt and sleeveless vest over the tank.



The shoes are Steve Madden from DSW -



Today, I saw another cute girl with a simple tank top and skirt dressed up with unique jewelry and nice wedges (also from DSW) -

I hope this will inspire you to beat the heat (and humidity) in style! 

Summer dress

Do you remember the dress I wore in Turning a "No" into a "Yes" during the winter? 

Well, I was craving that dress this morning, and I think I figured it out for summer.  It just needed the right shoes and accessories to edge it up a bit -



These shoes work with everything this summer!



Now I've taken a summer dress and turned it into a winter dress and then back into a summer dress.  It's still not the most flattering dress in the world, as it has no waist to it.  You just have to wear stuff like this with a little more attitude.  (The lack of waist restrictions also comes in handy while drinking a cookies and cream milkshake from Chick-fil-A.  Just saying it worked out well for me today.) 

Short and sassy

I love a good short hair cut.  I had really short hair for a brief period about 10 years ago (inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow's cut in "Sliding Doors").   I'm not sure it was the best hair style for me, but it felt so nice and easy.

I saw a few really cute hair cuts in Milan -

Looks cool and fun for the summer. 

Street Style - Marietta Square

Last week, I visited the Marietta Square for the first time and ran into Lauren -

She writes for Georgia City Style, a college based life and style blog.  I love her hat and scarf combo.  It's an easy way to add style to a simple black dress. 

Looking through rose colored glasses

I've been thinking about buying new sunglasses.  I currently have boring brown ones.  While I was Europe, I noticed that a lot of people wore white or brightly colored glasses -

I love her shoes, too.  Can you see the studs around her ankles?

I like the pink -



More Jessica Simpson...

More Topshop...

What do you think?

A rare accessory

I don't see many people wearing hair accessories, so I had to take photos of these two girls.  I found the first girl in Atlantic Station visiting from Aruba.  I like how her polka-dotted feather hair accessory matches her top -

She was also wearing nice wedges with pretty flowers on her toes -

I found the second girl in Milan -

Her outfit is a little more quirky, but the flower is a nice touch in her red hair.

You might be a redneck if...

Yesterday my dad was cracking himself up with redneck jokes about another family closely related to mine.  He assured us that he wasn't trying to be mean, because he comes from a "long line of rednecks" himself.  I have spent my entire life trying to distance myself from that "redneck" image, but evidently I have not done a very good job. 

You might be a redneck if your air conditioning is broken and you tell your kids to go into the back yard to cool off in the hose (which is also broken, so it doesn't even fit onto the sprinkler anymore) -

I guess we are all reflections of our ancestors.  Happy Father's Day!

Day 6

We finally got to enjoy breakfast on the veranda at our hotel (no rain!) -

We said goodbye to our friends at the Villa Aminta -

Mario (second from the right) helped us out one night when there was a party boat docked right in front of our hotel at 2:00 in the morning.  Greg had a few words with him, and Mario got on it. 

So, we took a taxi to board a train to Milan to get on another train to Zurich in order to catch a tram to our hotel.  (With the number of cars, trains, trams, and boats we took, our vacation often felt like the Amazing Race.  But by this point, we were used to it.)

At the Alstadt Hotel, each room features a particular author with excerpts of their work on the wall and copies of their books in the room.  Too bad I can't read Swiss-German.



  Our room had a staircase leading to a private roof top deck -



Our hotel was on a side street in Old Town with a little bar out front -



So, we set out from there to explore and to get my last fashion photos in Europe (for now).  I like this woman's hat and striped top -

...and this woman's striped top and booties -

...and this couple in green jeans -

...and more pants with elastic around the ankles -



With all of the fashion magazines telling us that wide legged trousers are "in", I was fascinated by the fact that I saw ZERO wide legged trousers in Europe.  Skinny jeans rule there (with elasticized ankle pants coming in second).  

I have to throw in a picture of these fabulous shutters -  

We bought a couple of small (but expensive) gifts at this shop -



We ended our evening with a great dinner at Noon, a Lebanese restaurant I had seen on a blog called http://www.spottedbylocals.com/.

We said goodbye to Europe the next morning and flew home.  Thanks for letting me share our trip with you.  Blogging about it has allowed us to re-live it for a second week.