Five on Friday - Favorites + I Need Your Help

This week has been incredibly productive and I’m feeling extremely accomplished today, so I’m thankful for that!  I was finally able to bag up all of the trash, recycling, and items to sell in my office so all of the junk is off of the floor and I can finally see the carpet again!  Woo hoo!  With that said, I still have a loooong way to go in there, but at least from this point forward I won’t be tripping over junk as I’m rearranging things. 

Anyhoo, here are a few favorites for you today! 

O N E – These New Bins

If you follow me on Instagram Stories, you may have seen that I have already switched out the Amazon bins that I posted about last week for some new Target ones.  I absolutely loved every single thing about those Amazon bins, but I couldn’t get past the fact that they were grey and white.  I love grey, but it just doesn’t go with my office décor.  I really thought it would since my colors are white, gold, pink, and black, but the grey just ended up looking dirty against the white and gold, and it was driving me crazy so I set out once again to find something different.

I ended up going with these bins that I found at Target… it was pretty much love at first sight.  They are white with gold foil polka dots and they are perfect for my office décor.  My local store only had three, but I was able to get a fourth from target.com.  It arrived in two days and my shelves are officially complete!  I love these bins… they are the same size as the Amazon bins, but they are slightly trapezoid shaped instead of rectangular which I love.  Having that slightly wider opening at the top allows me to use the vertical storage method for all of my scrapbooks and diaries and that beats stacking any day!  In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, vertical storage is where you line up all items on their ends so you can see everything that you have.  When you stack items you can only see the one item that’s on the top of the pile. 

Anyway, if you’re looking for storage, I highly recommend these, and they are slightly on sale this week, too.  They are sturdy enough to hold stacks of heavy books so they would definitely be sturdy enough to hold toys in a play room, clothes, or whatever else you could possibly need them for.  They also come in other colors and patterns, and they also come in cube form for those of you who have the cube storage systems, so if you’re in need of some storage bins, look no further than the mother ship.  ;o)

T W O – Sweet Memories

As I said before, my office is really coming along, but on Wednesday I opened Pandora’s box… AKA my office closet.  I am a self-proclaimed keepsake hoarder, and three quarters of my office closet is filled with my old memories... notes from high school, old stuffed animals, mementos from my first job and other periods of my life, sketchpads, awards, school work, and the list goes on and on and on. 

The closet is literally filled from the floor to the ceiling with boxes and I have vowed to clean out every single one of them.  Y’all, it is bad. 

I opened the first few boxes Wednesday afternoon and what did I find?  Every single bouquet from every single wedding that I have ever been in during my entire adult life.  That would be six.  I have six old bouquets, three made from real flowers, and three made from artificial flowers.  I know a lot of you probably think I’m absolutely crazy for keeping these, but I’m just such a sentimental person and all of these ladies are still my best friends to this day.  HOW DO I THROW THESE OUT?! 

One of my sweet Instagram followers DMed me and said that she has also saved every wedding bouquet, every corsage, and every flower her husband has ever given her and she said that she pulled the petals off of them and put them in apothecary jars and glass vases to use as décor.  Y’all, I LOVE this idea, and I’m thinking of doing something similar, so stay tuned.

Along with the old wedding mementos, I also started going through the first of three shoeboxes of old notes that my best friends and I used to pass in high school, and y’all, I sat on the couch reading each one and cracking up all Wednesday evening.  We were hilarious.  I’m proud to report that the majority of those are getting tossed and I’m only saving a select special few. 

Pulling out and seeing all of these old things has made me so nostalgic and just so happy, though, and this has been a really enjoyable journey so far.  I’m really struggling to get rid of a lot of it, but I’m proud of myself for the progress I’ve made so far. 

And if you're working on decluttering and simplifying like I am, be sure to check out my two posts about how I organized all of our digital and non-digital media (photos, videos, music, paperwork) from earlier this week!  Post 1 here and post 2 here.  It's extremely thorough and it gives step by step instructions on how to get it organized and backed up once and for all!

T H R E E – Concerts

If you’re a long time reader you know that Brian and I love live music and we are avid concert goers.  Last year we attended six different concerts – Dierks Bentley, The Lumineers, Chris Stapleton, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, Paul Thorn, and Ed Sheeran and I thought that we could never possibly top 2017 for concerts.  Well, 2018 is already looking amazing, and we may even surpass last year!! 

So far we already have tickets to see Ed Sheeran again and I just got our Justin Timberlake tickets yesterday and the seats are SO GOOD.  We also just found out that Phillip Phillips is coming to Atlanta next month so we’re working on lining up a sitter so we can go see him (he just released his third album and it is fantastic just like his first two).  Dave Matthews Band just announced their summer tour so I’m sure we’ll attend that concert since we see them every year AND Paul Thorn (another favorite) just announced he’s going to be in Atlanta this summer, too.  Whew.  In addition to all of these gems, I still have my eyes set on some Taylor Swift tickets.  It’s a long shot because they are ridiculously expensive, but goodness gracious do I love her new album and want to see her!

So six concerts in 2017 and potentially six more in 2018… GIMME ALL THE LIVE MUSIC!

F O U R – Dinner with Old Coworkers

As you know, I left my job of 13 years back in November after my supervisor was laid off.  A couple of other people had already left in recent months as well, and now it turns out that our big boss (who also became my direct supervisor after my other supervisor was laid off) has jumped ship as well.  And he was there several years longer than I was.  It was quite a shock to our whole work family. 

I had not been happy there for a couple of years before I left, but I am told that the morale now is just completely in the toilet.  While I feel so bad for my coworkers who are still there, I cannot even tell you how good it makes me feel to know that I made the right decision to leave… not that I really had much of a choice anyway, of course!  I was missing it terribly for a while after I left and I was worried that I had made the wrong decision (again, not that I had much of a choice), but at two months gone, I can officially say that I made the right decision and I have no desire to go back.

I do have the desire to continue to contribute to our family financially, though, but that’s another topic for another day.  ;o)

Anyhoo, now that I’m way off track, let me get to what I actually wanted to discuss!  I was able to get together with some of my old coworkes for a little farewell party last night for our old boss and it was such a fun time.  We all met for Mex and margs and we did a lot of laughing and reminiscing.  I sure don’t miss the job, but goodness gracious, do I miss the people! 

F I V E – Dress for the Ball

I love all of you ladies whom I have met in this blogging community and I value your opinions so much!  With that said, I need your help!  We have our annual benefit ball this weekend and I’m still not sure which dress to wear.  I bought four (crazy, I know) and I will return the three that I don’t use.  The reason I’m having trouble narrowing it down is because each of the dresses all has something weird about it that prevents it from being perfect.

Dress #1

This is my personal favorite overall.  I ADORE the neckline, the overall style, and the color.  However, it is about two miles too long and it also doesn’t flatter my body shape because it’s slightly too large. 

Dress #2

This dress comes in a close second and it fits like a DREAM from the bust down.  However, I was not blessed up top (thanks, Momma – haha) so the bust is too big.  I think I can get away with wearing it without having a wardrobe malfunction, but I’m going to have to be VERY conscious about holding my shoulders back and being careful to not lean forward all night.  One other thing to note is that the back dips down very low (but it has straps that criss-cross in the back so it’s not completely backless) so I’m not sure if that’s slightly too risqué for this event?  The event benefits our kids’ school but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen ladies wear stuff similar to this there in the past. 

Dress # 3

I love the lace and the color and most everything about this dress, not to mention the length is perfect.  However, the top area is a little bit too baggy so it’s not quite as flattering as it should be.  And I don’t love it as much as I love the first black dress.

Dress #4

I love the color, I love the style, I love the neckline, and this dress fits perfectly but… it’s too short.  Sheesh!!!!  Also, I’m not sure how I feel about wearing a color like this during the winter.  I know blush is all the rage for winter, but usually people are wearing blush in the form of sweaters and outerwear.  This sleeveless, lightweight fabric dress just screams spring.  Plus it makes my super-pale arms look even paler. 

So, you can see my predicament, right?  Although, after looking at myself in the pictures above, I'm thinking BIG FAT NO to the pink one!

Now for the big question – which one should I keep?!

Happy Friday, all!  I have lunch lined up with my girlfriends today and we have a jam packed weekend, so it’s going to be a good one!

*Linking up with A Liz Adventures and Carolina Charm for Five on Friday, A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites,  September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for Oh Hey, Friday, Meet @ the Barre for Friday Favorites, and Cup of Tea for High Five for Friday.