Hurrication

So I’m going to be honest, this trying to blog several times a week is a lot more challenging than I thought it would be.  I am just full of ideas, but between working all day and a small munchkin, finding the time to write everything out and take pictures of all my outfits is incredibly challenging. My hats are off to all you blogger mamas who manage to get everything done in the 24 hours we are allotted in each day!

Back in September Hurricane Irma was barreling toward the East Coast. My mother always panics when hurricanes come, even though she’s lived in Charleston for almost forty years. So, this news qued the hurried removal of pictures from the walls and draping the furniture and tarps. My mother and I were already planning on going to Atlanta for a haircut (I’ll explain that in a different post) so we decided to leave early and take the baby and two of our three dogs. One of my dogs doesn’t get along with my mom’s dog, so my dad was going to take the other dog and go a different direction. I was definitely not looking forward to driving in the car for six hours with two dogs and a baby and then wrestling that zoo in a hotel room and not looking like the Beverly Hillbillies.

Well then Irma decided to change her mind and go West, so Charleston was no longer a direct hit. My dad decided to stay in the house, so we left him with the two big dogs and my mom and I set off with my little dog and the baby. It was still a small zoo.

Our first night in Atlanta we spent in one hotel, and the next three nights we spent in another hotel. Sunday we got our hair cut and ate a yummy lunch and then headed back to the hotel. Monday we were completely hotel bound due to the high winds from the storm. Tuesday we headed over to Phipps Plaza for some shopping and lunch. It was a nice relaxing day, and then we headed home.

So what started out as an evacuation turned into a mini-vacation. We were incredibly thankful that all that happened was our backyard flooded, but no water in the house and no damage to the house. It could’ve been so much worse, and it was so much worse for so many people. Here are some of the highlights of the trip. 

My little furbaby travel companion

Munchkin greatly enjoyed the hotel experience

Absolutely in love with my new cut and color! Finally feeling more like the old Audra Claire.

Top: Chelsea28

Pumpkin spice is always in style!

 Some pictures from our hotel pool. It looked like New Orleans.

The Ted Baker dressing room warrants a selfie!

Jacket: Stein Mart

T-Shirt: Old Navy

Jeans: Loft

Purse: Michael Kors

Shopping break for lunch at Cheesecake Factory!

We had two wonderful meals at Mary Mac’s Tea Room, Atlanta’s Dining Room

Top: Halogen

Jeans: Loft

Sandals: Michael Kors

Sunglasses: Ralph Lauren

August Outfit Roundup

Top: Gibson Fleece Bell Sleeve

Pants: White House Black Market (shop similar pants)

Shoes: Sam Edelman 

Sweater: TopShop

Jeans: Brunette Boutique (shop similar jeans)

Heels: Guess (shop similar shoes)

Dress: WAYF

Belt: Francesca's 

Shoes: Michael Kors  

Top: Gibson Fleece Bell Sleeve

Skirt: Loft (shop similar skirt)

Shoes: Sam Edelman 

Blouse: Loft (shop similar blouse)

Skirt: the hospital gift shop (shop similar skirt)

Shoes: Sam Edelman 

Dress: Donna Morgan (shop similar dress)

Heels: BCBG Max Azria 

Purse: Nanette Lepore (shop similar bag)

\

Dress: Karl Lagerfeld

Shoes: Mischka Badgley

Watch: Michael Kors (shop similar watch)

Dress: Calvin Klein

Belt: White House Black Market

Shoes: Michael Kors

Sunglasses: Betsy Johnson 

 Dress: Love . . . ady 

Sandals: Sam Edelman

Belt: Vintage Cippiani

Checking out Columbia

So a couple Saturdays ago my fur baby and I went to Columbia for the day to spend a few hours with my best friend who I haven't seen in two years! She's living in Orlando now and I live in Charleston and we are both so busy with work: it's not quite like the wonderful days when we both lived in Greenville and our biggest worry was our test tomorrow. So this day was a rare treat! However, neither of us know very much about Columbia so it was also sort of an adventure. I posted on Facebook looking for recommendations from friends on places to go and places to eat. One of my friends who lives in Columbia recommended the Vista. That is a super cute little shopping district that definitely wasn't there last time I had spent any time in Columbia! So we parked and started looking around for a restaurant that was open for lunch at 2:30 and had a deck for my fluffy. We ended up eating at the Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom. I had the best calzone that I've ever eaten! However, our servers kept forgetting about us so they gave us our meal free and gave us a free brownie bite dessert. They were out of this world!!! Even though the meal took entirely too long, the food was amazing and totally worth it. After that we walked around the Vista and the State House grounds and took tons of pictures. Overall it was a beautiful and fun day!

Top: Feratelli (no longer available)

Jeans: Loft 

Shoes: Michael Kors 

Excerpts from Paris Bath and Beauty Book

Ever since I spent a couple weeks in France, I've been obsessed with the French women and their fashion. They're always been at the height of the fashion industry, but they do it so effortlessly! Not that I'm planning to ditch my highly artistic makeup when I feel like doing that, but it's nice to know that it's also super chic to go out with just glowing skin and a bold lip. 

I'm always on the lookout for books about Parisian fashion and beauty routines, and whenever I see one I grab it! I found this little beauty on a quick run into Whole Foods. I was passing by and the giant "Paris" grabbed my attention. I spent about 3 seconds flipping through it and decided it was something I needed in my life. Here are some excerpts from the book for your enjoyment. 

Need some help forming a capsule wardrobe for fall? No worries. The Parisian stylists are here to help! 

Girl's Day Out

So last Friday I got to spend the whole day with some of my great girl friends. It was our last hoorah of the summer, and the last time for us all to hang out together before one of my friends runs off to Paris with her hubby for the year (yes, I'm way beyond jealous!). We had a great day that started out with a yummy lunch, followed by tons of shopping, and finishing up with a night out on the town. I definitely needed this break as well as the getting to spend time with these awesome ladies!

 Dress: Love . . . ady 

Sandals: Sam Edelman

Belt: Vintage Cippiani

So the day was supposed to start with brunch, but let's get real; with five women and a baby there was no way we were going to get there on time. So we ended up getting to the 1Kept Charleston in time for lunch. And it was just as yummy! And we got to spend the rainy part of the day inside! 

Burger with super yummy fries 

Special milkshake and cookie dessert 

The beautiful dining room 

The gang 

So I was entirely remiss of taking pictures of our evening adventures! We started out at Eleve for appetizers (their cheese board is fabulous), went to Le Farfalle for dinner (the Ceci In Umido is out of this world), and Carmella's for dessert (all of their cakes are amazing)! If you're looking for a good place to eat, any of those options will set your mouth awhirl! 

Eyebrow Emergency

My eyebrows have always been a huge mystery to me. Being Scottish, my eyebrows do exactly what they want to regardless of what I tell them to do. So finding someone to shape them for me has always been a challenge. I started out getting my eyebrows waxed when I was about fourteen at a salon down the street. I loved the lady there who did them, and we ended up becoming friends. However she soon stopped working at the salon because she had a cute little munchkin. That seems to be the way those things always go. After that I went to her house for a while, and then I just resorted to trying to pluck them on my own. That kinda sorta worked throughout college and for a little while afterward until I couldn't take it anymore. Not only did they not match each other, but they looked like two wooly-bear caterpillars decided to take up residence on my face. Not really the look I was going for. About the time I was about to give up in frustration, I discovered that my nail salon had ladies who waxed eyebrows. I thought, "This is perfect! I can do everything in one place!" So for a while I went and had them do my brows for me. I was impressed that it actually looked pretty good. And then I moved. So along with all the other self-care things that got neglected, my eyebrows were at the top of the list. And I went back to trying to pluck them. Such a bad idea. Well when I finally moved back I was so excited that I could go back to my nail salon and get my favorite girl to do my eyebrows again. However, she wasn't doing it anymore and another girl was. And she, bless her heart, couldn't get them right to save her life! They never matched each other in shape, they never started in the same place on either side of my nose, and they were too far apart.

As you can see, it wasn't terrible but it wasn't good. And being the beauty perfectionist that I am it looked terrible to me. So I decided I needed a new option. I really didn't want to just pick a random salon without knowing what I was getting into, and most salons that did eyebrows were just way too expensive for me. And then I discovered the Benefit Brow Bar at Ulta and all my problems went away. Man! Those girls know what they are doing! I told her all of my woes about my eyebrows and how poorly they had been treated and she just whipped them right up. Actually it was a slightly longer process than that. They do this really cool thing called brow mapping where they measure your brows and mark where they are supposed to start and end and where the arch is supposed to be. It was really cool to see they way they were supposed to look. And she sympathized with my woe over the fact that they were too far apart and not the same distance from my nose, and so she explained how she was going to camouflage that so they could grow back. Anyway, all that to say she did a fabulous job! They were shaped a little bit differently from what I was used to, so I'm still getting used to filling them in correctly, but they look immensely better! I'm super excited to see what they will look like after a few more visits to the brow bar. And the best part, it's only about $20! It was slightly more than the nail salon, but totally worth every penny. 

Haha so maybe not the most flattering pictures of me ever, but look at those brows! Such an improvement. There still are a couple areas I want to work on, but it really is like night and day. 

They definitely look even better with my makeup completely done. So the moral of the story? If you're frustrated with your brows, look up the Benefit Brow Bar! They hang in the middle of Ulta, and maybe some other stores, I'm not entirely sure. But look it up and don't stay frustrated with your face fur! 

White teeth without the misery

Yellow teeth. So who doesn't want to vanquish that demon? I've had an arch expander, braces four times, and a jaw surgery to fix my teeth and my bite. And yet somehow I am never happy with my smile because I can't ever seem to get my teeth to be white enough. And the biggest culprit in this frustration is the fact that because of all the work that I've had done in my mouth my teeth are extremely sensitive. I tried whitening gel, and I've tried all different combinations of the Crest whitening system and I've never been able to do it more than a couple times because my teeth becomes unbearably sensitive. Frankly I don't have enough vanity to stick with a whitening regime that makes it hard to eat ice cream and drink hot coffee and eat chocolate. But on the flip side, I drink coffee. And I love coffee. And I also love cranberry juice. And other things that stain teeth. So we've come back around the vicious circle to square one.

I thought I had finally found the holy grail when Crest came out with the sensitive whitening line. And then just as quickly they cancelled it. So I was left to languish in my frustration. Until my friend starting selling this incredible toothpaste called AP24 by NuSkin. She had just started selling it, so when I saw her post on Facebook I decided to try it. I couldn't dislike it any more than I disliked what I was already using, and I like supporting my friends when I can. So I bought it. And I loved it!!!!!! I could tell a huge difference in my teeth after just one week of using it twice a day.

Before 

After 1 week 

So as you can see from my slightly less than lovely pictures, this stuff works! And it just keeps on working. It removes stains from the gum lines and whitens the entire tooth. The longer you use it the better it just keeps on looking. And the best part is that I have absolutely no pain! My teeth haven't gotten more sensitive, but actually have in fact gotten less sensitive. I can now eat and drink all my favorite things without worry of what it's going to look like or feel like. I feel like I've finally conquered the beast! So if you're interested in trying this magic product leave a comment on the blog my Facebook page or message Ashley Greiwe on Facebook! You definitely have to try it and give your selfie that extra boost!