Category Archives: Life

Spring Break Pt. 2: Downtown diva

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During our mini vacation, Robert and I decided to dress up and go out for a fancier dinner date. We chose Zelo, a nice Italian restaurant a few blocks from the hotel. I’d would recommend it for a special occasion dinner, as the food was good and service was excellent but prices were a little high.

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My mom had bought me this little black dress from Forever 21 for my 21st birthday, and it still had the tag on it, so I figured it was time to break it in. I paired the dress with my heart pattern tights, black suede booties and my white jacket.

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I brought along my new blue studded cross body bag from Camy Couture, so I had to show it off a bit. (Remember you could win three items from Camy Couture by entering this giveaway!)

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Jasmine
Photos by Robert Swansen

Spring Break Pt. 1: Sky High

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Last week, I took a few days off of work and went to the cities. Robert and I got a sweet deal through Hotwire.com, so we stayed at The W hotel in downtown Minneapolis for a night.

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We stayed on the 11th floor and the hotel was amazing! It was very chic and hip! I’d definitely recommend it to any young couple or bachelorette party looking for a hotel downtown. It was in the perfect location, in walking distance from several nice restaurants and shops.

IMG_6223One of the first things we did was went up to little museum on the 32nd floor of the hotel. They were videos and photographs that documented the history of the Foshay Tower. Then, we went up to the observation deck, which was great! Although it was freezing, it was cool to see the city from a different perspective.

IMG954284Check back tomorrow to hear about our other adventures downtown….

Jasmine
Photos by Robert Swansen

I’ve caught a bad case of Spring fever

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It’s that time of winter when the temperature gets higher for a day or two and the snow starts to melt, forming scattered puddles in the streets. I retire my winter gear for the year and pull out my light spring jacket, even though in a few days the temperatures will drop again and my hands will be freezing without my mittens. I blast the stereo and sing at the top of my lungs with a huge smile on my face.

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I guess you could say that I’ve caught a bad case of spring fever. With two blizzards and cold, cold temperatures all winter, I am so ready to see the green grass and beautiful flowers again. I’m ready to walk outside in just my sweatshirt and be completely content. I’m ready to go to the park to sit and watch the squirrels and hear the kids’ laughter again.

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Today marks the first day of my spring break, so I decided to pull out some spring clothes. I paired my chiffon floral dress with my dark jeggings, cognac boots and one of my denim jackets. I was actually able to stand outside in just my denim jacket for about 10 minutes while pumping gas without completely freezing. That’s a good sign, but I can’t wait until the other coat won’t be needed at all!

Have you caught a case of spring fever? If so, how are you coping?

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Jasmine

Have you entered the Celebration Giveaway? If not, click the image below and enter now!Celebration Giveaway

It’s time to celebrate!

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I have some wonderful news! This week I was offered a full-time job writing for the variety section Accent at Grand Fork Herald. It’s the absolute perfect position for me, so, naturally, I accepted. I’ll be starting my new job immediately after graduation, around May 20th.

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Can you tell how excited I am?

It’s such a relief to have a job offer before I even finish school. Now, I can simply focus on school and finding an apartment, instead of worrying about job interviews and all that.

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In celebration of my new job, I’ve decided to hold a little giveaway to thank my readers for being so supportive and patient with me!

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On another note, Cute ‘N’ Comfy has just reached 200 posts! Even more reason to celebrate!

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Jasmine

Romp[er]ing through the snow

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Although I strongly dislike the blizzard-y conditions, I’m loving my snow day! The bank didn’t open until after noon today, so I was able to stay home this morning; and campus is still closed, so I’ll be staying home all night as well. Perfect time to catch up on some blogging and clear my head – maybe some yoga will help!

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Before the blizzard came this weekend, Robert and I were able to go out and get some photographs out in the snow. I wore my lovely little floral romper with a cream cardigan, tights and my cognac boots.

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It was nice to get out and enjoy the snow even if it was only for a few short minutes. Romping through the snow and jumping around made me feel like a kid again. If it wasn’t for the cold temps, I’d be out building a fort in the massive snow pile outside our apartment building.

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Sometimes I wish I could go back to the time when it didn’t matter how cold it was, how runny my nose was, how wet my feet were or how frozen my little fingers were – all that mattered was that my brother had made more snowballs than me and I desperately needed to catch up – even though I had no aim and only 1 percent of my snowballs would actually hit their target: my brother. I don’t know how we did it back then, freeze our butts off for the sake of making memories.

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Nowadays, I do everything I can to avoid the outdoors during the winter months. I would have stayed in my apartment all day yesterday if it weren’t for The Advocate. My lovely staff braved the blizzard-y conditions to come into the office and put together the paper. Thankfully, we were able to get done quick and all made it home safely, so we could fully enjoy our snow day today.

How are you spending your snow day today?

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Jasmine
Photos by Robert Swansen

Date Night: three in one

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Although I was super busy when Robert came home last week, we did find time to go out for a much needed date night. We decided to make the most of the night and went to three different restaurants.

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We started at Spitfire in south Fargo, where we got a smoking hot appetizer called little spitfires. Boy, were they spicy! Chicken-filled jalepenos with bacon wrapped around them – good but too spicy for this one!

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After cooling down with a few glasses of water and an order of french fries, we made our way over to Olive Garden. We were feeling really hungry, so we order a lasagna fritta appetizer, along with salads and of course their delicious breadsticks. We ended up taking some of the appetizer home. We overestimated our hunger and ended up taking the rest of our appetizer home, so we could save some room for our last stop: Applebee’s.

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Robert had received a gift card for Christmas and we hadn’t quite used it up yet, so we decided to hit up Applebee’s for a little dessert to finish a wonderful night. After letting all of our other food settle over a drink and good conversation, we decided on the hot fudge sundae dessert shooter and the brownie bite – the perfect, sweet treat to finish our night.

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Although we just went out to dinner, I loved that our date was “non-traditional.” Going to three different restaurants allowed us to not only get a wide variety of food but also have three completely different experiences and conversations.

What’s the most non-traditional date you’ve been on?

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Dressing for the job

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If you read my blog regularly, you know that at the beginning of January I started a new job at Camy Couture. Although I love the job, it just wasn’t enough hours by itself (I’m trying to save money to pay off student loans when I graduate in 4 months). So, about a week and a half ago, I started applying for other part-time jobs. And a few days later, I had an interview and was offered the part-time teller position at Union State Bank.

I’d never worked (or even applied) at a bank before, so I guess I didn’t really know what to expect. But, I figured it would be fun and help me save money. For my first few days, I was a bit overwhelmed with the wealth of information being throw at me, but I also really enjoyed it. It’s going to take a while to learn everything, but I’ll get the hang of it.

My favorite part of the job so far is the dress code. I can actually wear my business clothes without feeling out of place. For my first day on the job, I wore black pants, a black and white chiffon top and a cropped black blazer. I finished the look with my JellyPop black heels.

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For my second day, I decided to wear my new pencil skirt from Express that I got for Christmas. I paired it with my pale pink blouse also from Express and the same black cropped cardigan and Jellypop heels.

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I’ve decided that I need to go shopping for some new blazers and dress pants, possibly a pencil skirt and new shoes too! But now that I have the bank, the Advo, the blog, school and Camy, it might be hard to fit in time for shopping.

What have you all been up to?

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Jasmine
Photos by Robert Swansen 

A slight case of insomnia

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For the last few nights, I’ve been battling a slight case of insomnia. I’ve been going to bed around 11:30, 12 p.m. each night. And although I’ve been exhausted, I unfortunately haven’t been able to fall asleep.

Last night was the worse. I literally didn’t fall asleep until after my first alarm went off at 7:15  this morning. Fortunately, my internal alarm clock woke me up again at 8:46 a.m, just 14 minutes before my scheduled interview across town.

People keep asking me if I’m stressed out, and I keep denying it. Although, I think any type of editor is always stressed out. It’s just part of the job; sources fall through, entire stories fall through, a photographer doesn’t get the shot you wanted/needed, you spread yourself too thin with interviews, appointments and meetings, someone misses a deadline… you get the point.

Not to mention any of the problems in his/her personal life…financial issues, a long distance relationship, a crappy phone that makes that long distance relationship ten times more difficult, an old friend that’s slowly slipping away, trying to adjust to a completely new schedule, the quickly approaching deadline to figure out what I’m going to do with my life… and we’re back to the no sleep.

So, if there are bags under my eyes or my hair is a little messier than usual, it’s due to the lack of sleep that I’ve been getting.

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For any first time visitors or new followers, I apologize for the “rant.” This isn’t my typical post. I’m usually bright, happy and occasionally funny. But, today, well… today you see me as the ordinary human I am with issues like everyone else.

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Jasmine

Playing dress-up to pass the time

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It’s funny how when you’re in school you can’t wait for a break, but after just a few days you can’t wait to go back. I’ve been back in Fargo for the last few days and have had absolutely nothing to do. I don’t watch much TV, and I haven’t been able to keep myself occupied with the computer. All my friends are either still home for the holidays or working all the time and here I am all by myself with nothing to do. I’ve been going absolutely nuts.

christmas cheer_1The other day I went to Kohls to find something cute because I had received a gift card for Christmas. I didn’t find any clothes, but I did find two gorgeous pairs of boots.

The first pair were over-the-knee gray Jennifer Lopez boots with a small platform and lace-up detail.

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I’d never tried on over-the-knee boots before, so I had to check them out. I couldn’t find a mirror right away and didn’t know if I liked them. But a lady came up and said my legs looked great in them, so I went and found a mirror and fell in love! I was wearing dark skinny jeans at the time, so I knew they looked good with jeans, but I didn’t know about dresses.

I decided to bring them with me and look at more boots. I found some tall cognac Mudd® boots with a woven trim and tassle accent.

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Although they are Mudd, they reminded me of Lauren Conrad. Perhaps because of these cognac fringe boots here & here. Once again I fell in love. I didn’t really have any nice brown boots and thought they’d make a great addition to my wardrobe. I could pair them with jeans and a frilly top or my floral dresses and jean jackets.

I couldn’t decide which ones to get, so I asked a stylish random shopper. She said to get both and try them on with different outfits and return the one I didn’t want later.

So, I spent the rest of my day playing dress-up. I Skyped with my mom and did a little “fashion show” so we could decide which boots to keep. I felt like a little girl again playing Barbies. I would always dress all my Barbies up for different occasions and show my mom.

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…anyway, my mom and I decided that I should keep them BOTH. After all, they were on sale!

Which boots would you have chosen and how would you style them? And do you ever play dress-up with all your clothes and shoes, or is it just me?

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Jasmine

Closet receives a refresher with old and new

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One thing I love about going home is looking through all the “junk” piled up in my room that has accumulated from my many moves to and from college each year. Most of the junk is from my freshman year of college when I bought everything in the world that could possibly fit into my dorm room. Among the boxes of “junk” I always seem to find something useful that I’d forgotten about. Sometimes it’s more craft stuff for making cards or more check books. Other times it’s clothes or shoes that have been abandoned for a few years.

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This past week went I went home I found this lovely red sweater tucked away in my closet. I don’t remember when I bought it; I believe from Delia’s several years back but I do remember that it never quite fit right. It always seemed a bit big, so when I tried it on I wasn’t expecting much. But to my surprise it fit perfectly, and it was more cute and comfy than I remembered.

I also rediscovered several other sweaters that finally fit after about four years of sitting in my closet. And as you may have read in Rediscovering Uggs: a [love/hate] relationship, I also rediscovered those lovely little black boots on my feet. It kind of feels like I had a mini shopping spree finding all these old items in my closet back home and getting some great new items for Christmas.

After wearing the same 30 items for 30 days, it was definitely time for a little refresher.

Here are a few of my new items:

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A lovely Heritage 81 denim jacket

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Bow tights that I’ve been searching for forever from Forever 21

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A pencil skirt from Express that I’ve been desperately longing for quite some time

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An adorable floral print peplum top also from Express to pair with the skirt

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And two beautiful new pairs of boots to add to the collection.

Did you rediscover anything this holiday season or get any new items for your closet?

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Jasmine