Sometimes you just need a good laugh- {Pinterest Wednesday Edition}

As this month comes to a close, I've had time to reflect on how much has changed since April 1st.  This month has felt like 2 months put together.  For starters, I moved from Greenville, Sc. to Atlanta, Ga the first week, dove right into work the second week, went to Los Angeles and D.C. the third week, and finished out the last week knee deep into work and helping with our VIP event that took place this last Sunday.  Its been a lot.  I'm not complaining, by no means, but its been an emotional roller coaster.  Nothing has been really wrong, but as a woman, hormones can be crazy and I think that could be the culprit of my up and down feelings.  

*Come on women, you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.*  

As funny or weird as this may sound, the only thing that got me through was prayer and pinterest.  Praying does sound normal, but pinterest?  

Yep, pinterest.  

I did and do feel some relief after praying, but I still tend to feel the pressure of trying not to have those negative thoughts.  Desperate to change my thoughts to something positive, I looked to Pinterest to lift my spirits and make me... laugh.

You know, they say laughter is the best medicine.  It brings people together, it makes you smile, and it instantly lifts your mood no matter what. 

 Its like natural magic.  

The humor section on Pinterest is amazing.  It will have you laughing till you cry.  Tears from laughter is way better than tears from sorrow.  And it was exactly what I needed.

Here are some of my favorites.

This reminds me of the first time I stepped foot in Hollister. After 2 seconds I was done and was desperately searching for the exit. I got lost in the dressing room area, thinking it was the way out, and the bouncer looking guy gave me directions, yes, directions to get out of Hollister.



How cute is this little kitten?



The grumpy cat memes are HILARIOUS.



This reminds me so much of my boss. I call her a ninja cause she is literally everywhere you don't expect her to be. She knows this about herself and everybody at Fiore thinks she's basically a super human.



I can't explain how funny this is to me. I laughed till I cried. This little girl is very serious about her birthday party.



Again, in stitches.... I think we can all relate.



I'm laughing right now. Y'all can probably tell that my sense of humor is all over the board.



Dog shaming at its finest.



Poor cookie monster. Maybe she was trying to get him to try something new? Wives/girlfriends can be guilty of that sometimes.



Is it sad that my brain does a victory dance when this happens?



God bless Miss Rhode Island. But you have to admit, she does make a good point.

There are many more pins on my humor board, these were just a few. I'm really thankful that God created us to laugh at funny things and really enjoy it with such movement within our souls. I think its His way of helping us to lighten up and release tension in our body-that way we can clear out all of the gunk that blocks the pathway to positive thinking. Just remember, sometimes you just need a good laugh (or two).

 *wink*

 xoxo,

 April

OOTD: Lovin' the high-low

So, the other day I was on my way to buy some gift cards at Starbucks for the store, and I was literally drawn to the fashionable magnet that is Forever 21.  And good God... before I knew it, I had 5 items in my hand and was standing in the line for the dressing room.  They can be that good sometimes.  Anyhow, I escaped (barely) with 2 fabulous dresses, both of which, are styles that I've been wanting to try for a while.

I couldn't wait to wear this one today. I think this is my new favorite dress.

The cardi is from Dots, accessories are a combination of Torrid, Fiore Boutique and Kate Spade.

I felt like spring when I wore this today.  The colors were vibrant and I loved the movement of the dress.  I felt so feminine and pretty.  And it was definitely a head turner kind of dress, got compliments all over the board.  I'd say it was a good day for my self esteem and confidence.  Go get you one.  No seriously, go.

The other goodie I walked out with was a dress I've dubbed the "Magic Dress".  No matter what, this dress looks good on ev-ver-y-body, period.  We had the exact same dress at Fiore this past fall in a different color combination, and we couldn't keep it in the store. But I was really happy to find one in my size!  Winning!

This dress is, um, a lot more form fitting on me.  Really, the dress shouldn't be this loose, but you get the gist of it all.  The position of the stripes play a huge part in cinching the waist and whittling down the curve of your hips into svelte, smooth look.  Its almost like the best optical illusion, its magic!  What girl wouldn't want to look smaller?  I have so many plans for this dress.  I'm thinking casual nights spent with friends, Sunday Funday at Piedmont Park, Memorial day bbq, fireworks for July 4th... the possibilities are endless :).  I'll be sure to share a picture of me wearing the dress.

So yeah, I wasn't supposed to spend any money, but I just succumed to the lure of the thought of a new dress and successfully made it a reality.  Working in a mall can be very dangerous to your wallet.

Have you guys made any impulse purchases lately?

xoxo,

AM

I heart Fiore.

As some of you already know, I LOVE my job.  Like one of the best places on Earth to be is at Fiore.  We are a lovely bunch, full of passion and heart, and I love everyone. I would have to give all the credit to my lovely boss for all this wonderfulness at my workplace. She is great leader, pleasant to work for, and amazing in every single way possible.  Just love her to pieces.

She recently hosted a get together/housewarming/bomb ass dinner at her new fantastic home for all of the leaders at Fiore. We had a FABULOUS time chatting it up about life, cute stuff, and of course work, lol.  It was wonderful to have everyone in the same room and it not be a serious meeting.  You know, just pretty hard-working ladies hangin' out.

Here are a couple of highlights.

If you're a blog lover like me, you might notice some familiar faces in this picture.  Check out Taylor at Newest Girl In Town, and Ashley at Southern State of Mind.

My boss is the super cute one in the middle.... I mean, Ashley and I are cute too, but if you knew my boss's personality, you would think the same thing.  And did you check out the cute teal chevron chair, I mean, THRONE??? She snagged the last one in probably all of Atlanta at HomeGoods.  Gotta shop there more often!

Also, Audrey from What Pretty Face

We had to take two different pictures of the South Carolina team (bottom) and the Georgia team (top).  Not on purpose, but it just happened that way.  These ladies are amazing.

Since it was a housewarming, I brought a cute gift from Anthro....

She just about died when she opened the box.

If you have a chance, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.  All those ladies above are working hard to help us become the conglomerate we are destined to become!

xoxo,

April Marie

P.s. did I mentioned that I moved back to Atlanta? :)

Wait, I have a blog?

Hey y'all! Um, can we say its been a HOT minute since I've last blogged? Oh my gosh, let me tell ya, I've been very very busy. But none the less, I've really missed connecting with my bloggy friends.

Work has really picked up since October. I'm also really excited to announce that we are opening up another location in Kennesaw, Ga at Town Center Mall! I'm über excited about this because this will be our very first flagship store and very much customized to how we've always envisioned our dream store to look like. So it's really been a dream come true for me and my boss. We've hoped and prayed so long for an opportunity like this to come through and we are over the moon ecstatic to open the store and have everyone oohing and ahhhing over everything. We're hoping to take that area by storm!

Oh, and another fun announcement, I'm moving back to Atlanta just in time for spring! Yes, I will be moving back to the city I first fell in love with some 17 years ago when a country girl from Arkansas visited HOTlanta for the first time. I'm really excited and happy about the move. However, I'm really going to miss living in Greenville a lot. It's a very charming, southern hospitality lovin', very friendly kind of place. It's easy to love and I have definitely enjoyed it.

Well peeps, that's about all for now. I will go ahead and let you know that I will be doing a fabulous giveaway in the upcoming week to celebrate 1 year of indieprepgirl!! So be on the lookout and be excited, be very very excited.

Happy to be back!!

April

Ps. I wanted to upload some cute pictures of the new store but I was having maaaajor technical difficulties. Coming soon but in the meanwhile, head on over to my Instagram (indieprepgirl) to see the new space!

Serenity now!

It's been a while since I've posted. The cough I told you guys about in my last post ended up getting the better of me. It turned into a full blown sinus infection and an allergic pink eye. Needless to say, I was walking around like a hot mess all of last week. But I'm feeling much better now and I'm so glad I'm feeling normal again. Yay!

Work has been unbelievably crazy this week. I've been giving it my all and so have my girls to get the store displays settled and the new clothing out of the boxes and on the hangers so our customers can drooool over them. The stuff is seriously that cute. 40+ boxes later... I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank goodness! Monday started off with an awesome Fiore leadership meeting to prepare for the holidays. We got a lot done, but it left me feeling very overwhelmed about what's to come. I thought Tuesday would have been the perfect time to take a mental health day before I dove in head first at my extremely long to do list.

So how did hubs and I enjoy the off day?  We took a joy ride.

Have y'all ever done that before? We like to just get in the car and drive aimlessly and take random turns to see where we end up and then use the GPS to find our way back home. So that's what we did.  After several random right and left turns, here is where we ended up.

Caesars head, South Carolina.

This is just what I needed to see to have my serenity now moment.

I damn near had to scale the rock to get through!  But isn't my sweater cute?  Haha.  It was really cold because there was a 15 degree temperature difference between there and Greenville.  Luckily, I had a scarf in my purse!

We call this his glory to God picture.  This is his favorite because he can't stop talking about it, lol.

This is how high up we were.  My ears popped the entire time.

Hubs and I decided that we would take all of our out of state visitors here.  It was so much fun and on top of all that, the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.  I definitely got the peace of mind I was needing.

Y'all have an awesome Sunday!

April

Insert *cough* {here}

Y'all, I'd have to say that last week was one of the more grueling work weeks that I've had in a long (I'm talking SUPER long) time.  Because of that, my immune system slipped up and I got a bad cough.  Like an "I can't sleep through the night" bad cough.  My week started off with my birthday on Monday (woo!  Happy birthday to me, again!) and then off to L.A. on Tuesday.  Contracted some kind of sore throat on Thursday, flew back to ATL on Friday, finally made it to Greenville around 5 p.m. Saturday.... reinstated sore throat, again, on Sunday, and felt like crap alllll day today on this wonderful Monday.  Lovely, don't you think?  Don't you just loathe sickness of any kind?  I really hate not feeling like myself.  On top of that I have a lot going on at work because we are gearing up for the upcoming gift buying season (yay!).  Annnndddd I just realized that its going to be NON-STOP till after Dec. 25, 2012....  Y'all pray for me.

Whew!  So was that an update/complaint/I want my mommy or what?  Didn't mean to just throw you out to sea without a life vest, but its been so long since I've been able to connect with you guys, it almost feels like word vomit (btw- I HATE the word vomit.  It's sickening).  To have at least something to show, I've been on Instagram like its my job and taking tons of pictures to eventually share with my readers.  Here is a good compilation of everything.

top left corner: my birthday card from my boss//morning shot of downtown LA from my hotel window//cutting up with the girls from Ellison//face painting from an LA Clippers event//the garment districts colorful buildings//heart in a latte//the start of my trip in ATL//cool jewelry vendor

And there's more....

top left: venti caramel macchiato//a day of jewelry//classy blouse from Potters Pot//packing everything to go home

And then....

Me on my 31st year of being alive!  The girls at Fiore got me my very own birthday cake, with candles.  So sweet!

This about wraps it up.  I have a ton of work to get to tomorrow and my hubs is making me a hotty toddy to kind of "help" with my sore throat issue.  And by the way, please follow me on Instagram!  I would love to connect with you!

Have a good one and happy election night eve!

April Marie

{OOTD } Boots, Dots & Birthday Necklace

I love my cowboy boots.  Like really really love them.  And I love my polka dot scarf from J.Crew.  You know how I feel about polka dots.  So I thought, why not put them together?

 You see the pretty little necklace in the top right corner?  Yes, that is my birthday gift to myself.  A girl has to treat herself for her birthday right?  Y'all, I have been OB-SESSING over that necklace for over a year and finally, I decided to get it and just treat myself.  I figured, what the hell, just get it and I'm so glad I did.  

Isn't it just pretty?  I just love it.

New birthday necklace from J.Crew :)

I wanted to show y'all my new workhorse cardigan.  Burgundy, wine, garnet, whatever word you wish to use to describe that color, is really in right now.  I see it going with lots of outfits.  I've already worn it 4 times since I bought it.

Me liiiikkkeeee :).

Question for my readers:  Do you buy yourself a birthday gift?

xoxo,

April Marie