Love Me, Love Me, Sayyy That You Love Me.

Valentine's Day Weekend
Picture Post!

(Schlotsky's Sheriff)

(The Girls at the Deerhead)

(Who knows why Sarah had these glasses, but we all took our fair share of pictures wearing them)

(Free Cosmo Courtesy of Max, Though It Tasted Like Pure Cranberry)

(Valentine's Dinner- Coffee Crusted Ribeye with Bourbon Cream Sauce, Shallot Pesto Roasted Potatoes, and Salad!)

(The Best Friend Stevie and His Awesome New Scruff)

(Our Signal for Kemps. How Attractive, Right?)

(Snow in Newburgh, IN!)

(Yummm Mom Made Me Potato Soup for Lunch)

(Penske, My Little Snowbunny)

(Snow in Bloomington!)

Valentine's Day Weekend Outfits!

Nothing crazy here- just an outfit post from over the weekend. Another picture post hopefully coming soon of general events from the weekend!

Friday Night: Out to several bars (Where you can still go in under 21) with a group of friends. Old Navy high waisted black skirt, purple leggings. Target grey tank with pearl/silver necklace detail, black sequin headband bow, purple bomber jacket. Pearl banded bracelet, Forever 21 (I think).

Sunday Night: Over to my friend Chelsea's apartment for a "Formal" Single Guys/Girls Party! SO much fun. Plus I got to wear my ruffle "tiered" dress that I don't wear real often... I think I got it from Macy's, but it's this really soft stretchy smoooth material, and it's so fun and flowy! I wish I had better pictures of the detail on it. I also really like the neckline of it because I don't have to worry about overexposure!!! Purple Steve Madden Taylas, of course. They love it when they get to come out and play ;-) AND red lipstick! (Though it doesn't look red in this first picture)

Monday: Just bundled up and casual to pack the car and head back to Bloomington! AERIE (AE) oversized fleece sweatshirt, Old Navy black knotted scarf, Target black zippered leggings. No doubt this is the more comfortable combination of clothing EVER put together in the history of the world.

LONG Day.

Really REALLY long day, so this is not going to be a long post at all. However, the weather was GORGEOUS today, as in really really sunny, and outrageously bright due to all the snow! Still cold and windy, but that's what coats and gloves are for. Speaking of which, my roommate's mom sent up some little Valentine's presents with Kelly's boyfriend, who's up visiting for the weekend. They included some Mary Kay mascara, some satin lip balm that Kelly says is amazing, and these SUPER SOFT EAR MUFFS! I think she found some fantastic end of winter clearance sales for them, and they are the softest things ever, which clearly is right up my alley.

History of Rock was gooood today, but we only managed to cover Kiss, AC/DC, Aerosmith, and a few others, which means ONE MORE WHOLE DAY dedicated to Motley Crue, Poison, Def Leppard, Guns N Roses, and all those other cheesy 80's Hard Rock bands all my friends make fun of me for liking. Or, ok, a lot of them will dance with me to the fun songs, but still.

One worthy quote I will share with you was from when Andy was talking about going to his first KISS concert with his older brother in Owensboro, KY, at the tender little age of 14. After recapping all the theatrics KISS uses (Which, if you're not familiar, include fireworks, explosions, tons of fire, flying drum sets, spitting of blood and fire, flying Gene Simmons, and more confetti than you could even imagine), he says:

"I don't know about you girls, but it was like the check list for all things a 14 year old boy needs to have a good time. Fire? Check. Explosives? Check. Blood? Check. Rock'N'Roll? CHEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCCCCCCCK!"


Yep. I'd say that's all the stuff we need to have fun too. Except maybe replace the blood with high heels, which KISS technically wears anyways.... so we're good.

I'm heading home for the weekend to do some visiting with friends and family, and of course to see my little Lily niece, since she seems to be growing SO ridiculously fast and is already walking and probably getting her driver's license soon. I believe we're doing a single girls night on Sunday, so you can probably expect some GOOD pictures of one of my new pairs of Steve Maddens, and maybe a semi-fancy dress I haven't broken out in a while!

Also one last tid bit- I of course just ordered some clearance workout pants from American Eagle, but the day AFTER I do so, all clearance is an additional 30% off (Code: 49816637) with free shipping all weekend. If it's not a clearance item, use the code 84176459 for an additional 20% off. So if you're into that at all, now's the time to check it out. I may have to just get myself on over there and order some jeans I was contemplating earlier in the week, since they'd be like... $14 with no shipping. Hm....

If You're Going to San Francisco...

...Be sure to leave your snow boots behind. My dad is in San Francisco this week on business. This was the trip I was supposed to join him on next weekend, but he wasn't able to stay through the weekend soo that didn't quite work out. He has, however, been kind enough to send me these lovely pictures of his hot as hell rental car and the gorgeous California coast.



Of course I love snow, but I'd SO rather be there instead of still having classes in inches upon inches of snow mixed with more wind than any human could prefer. (This picture was taken prior to round 2 of the snow which has officially made all roads hell and prevented tonight's workout from happening, which clearly is the one thing about snow that I DON'T like.)


Today I did the little French Braid trick to get my bangs out of the way, because I had to put it up last night right after showering after the gym to run to a review session, so it was all sorts of crazy. I always get so excited when these braids turn out well, because more often than not my hair doesn't cooperate.



I ended up skipping History of Rock as planned, which actually kind of depresses me, because I always seem to miss the good stuff. I think today was Led Zeppelin day... but I guess that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make to prevent frostbite! (Yes, I'm being dramatic, it's not that bad, just a bit slippery... too slippery for night class!)


I don't care WHAT the weather is on Thursday, I don't even care if we're in the middle of an apocalypse, because guess what? I do believe it is ACDC, AEROSMITH, HEART, KISS, POISON, MOTLEY CRUE, GUNS N ROSES, etc etc etc DAY!!!! Ladies and Gentlemen... let me clarify, I have been waiting THREE SEMESTERS OF THIS CLASS to get to this day!!!! All my guilty music pleasures unite in an educational hour and a half of goodness! I can only imagine I'm going to be on my knees at the end of class begging Andy to keep lecturing. You can probably expect all sorts of excitement and maybe even good quotes from that class.

(I also finally put up the "Better Than Sex Cake" recipe at Wonderland Kitchen!)

Picture Post- Super Bowl Weekend!

(The Girls! Kelly, Lauryn, Me, and Betsy)

Word on the Weather Channel is that we're under a winter storm warning, again, and could get 5 to 8 more inches of snow between tonight and Wednesday. You all know I'M excited about it. Especially if it could possibly get any of my classes canceled. If not, I'm foreseeing myself skipping History of Rock tomorrow night because I'll be damned if I'm going to trek around in the slippery icy snow filled campus in the pitch black night time. I don't EVER remember a time in my life where we've regularly had this much snow... and it's so fun! I wish the ground would always just be covered in at least an inch of snow in the winter, and that ice would only exist in the form of ice-sicles (?) hanging from roof tops!

Anyways- this weekend was a fun one. But rather than a word recap, I think pictures will suffice. Also, I'm not sure if it will be tonight or tomorrow but I'll be putting the recipe posts up soon from the food I made yesterday!!

(Super Bowl food!)

(Betsy and I have been friends for 3 years and only just now have any pictures together?)

(Lauryn and Kelly love the paparazzi'ing)

(Todd and Joe- they'd like to think they're beer pong champs)

(Snow Cooler!)

("Alex! Take a picture of this!")

(Alex and Betsy Love)

("Better Than Sex Cake")

(Chips and Dips!)

We Been Strokin'!

Well, first off, for those of you who are new- I also have another blog with various recipes over at Wonderland Kitchen, and I just posted some new stuff there! Additionally, I've also done some re-vamping (As you can probably see...) on both blogs, so hopefully things seem a little more interesting now ;-)

We got a lot of snow yesterday/last night, which I LOVE!!!! I'm so excited that we've had so many blanketing snows so far this year! I love it, as long as the ice isn't too bad. It makes the dreary winter so much prettier. Roads and everything were pretty bad last night, so Kelly and I stayed in and did a little drinking, a lot of Rock & Rolling, and watched Lady in the Water. I never know what to expect with M. Night Shyamalan, because he did pretty well with The Sixth Sense, but once I saw The Village I really was just so irritated that I kind of despised him. Lady in the Water was decent, not at all really a "horror" movie as it is portrayed, but more fantasy. It had some interesting parts of the plot, but overall seemed a little boring. I did not, however, hate myself for wasting the time to watch it as I did after The Village.

Tonight I think I may be just hanging out at some friends' house and maybe watching a movie and making cookies for the Super Bowl tomorrow (I'll have some good recipes up on Wonderland Kitchen hopefully by Monday). Right now I'm trying to motivate myself to get ready and go to the store to get the ingredients for everything I'm making to take tomorrow. I do love the Super Bowl, not so much for the football because I still don't understand it really at all, but because I get to do all sorts of fun little cooking for it. :-) Well, and the social aspect of it of course!

Now I'll leave you with this lovely music video of Clarence Carter's "Strokin", which might be our new favorite tipsy dancing song here in this apartment. Thank goodness for Kelly and her mom knowing this song. How funny is this?

Boots and Belt Put to Action.

Well, here's the follow up outfit with the boots/belt combo. I paired them with my new 3/4 rolled up sleeved dress from Old Navy, the new purple zip leggings (Though in most of the pictures it's kind of hard to even tell they're purple), and a bright coral cami. I tried something new curling-wise with my hair, and I'm hoping I'll get a chance tomorrow to post the how-to for it. For now, it kind of just looks a little fuzzy in these pictures, but I assure you it was much better in person. I am really just terrible at taking timer pictures, I guess. The last picture is a sneak peak from what I hope will be the how-to post. :-)

Camis and Cardigans.

I really do apologize for going a little post-crazy lately. It occurred to me I hadn't ever shared pictures from "Girl's Poker Night", and Kel and I took plenty so I wanted to get them up!!!


We both went for camis and cardigans, and if I do say so myself I think we had a little bit of a suburban housewife feel going on. Haha. I also wore this necklace (Forever 21) for the first time ever. I bought it, and one of the green beaded strands broke halfway off, and I finally just fixed it by clipping the end of it into the clasp when I put on the necklace. Easy fix!

Outfit

Cardigan- AE
Knit/Tie top Tank- Old Navy
Necklace- For Love 21

"Poker" night was fun. We ended up not having any chips, so we mostly just watched the Grammys and played some Blitz, which I was the first one out of. Hopefully next time the poker part will actually happen, and hopefully I WON'T be the first one out there! I still wish I would have taken more pictures once the rest of the girls got here, but Oops! Forgot!!!

I'm going to leave you this time with some song recommendations from my History of Rock studying. These are some of my favorites from this test:

King's Lead Hat- Brian Eno (British Art Rock)
I'm Waiting for My Man- Velvet Underground (American Art rock)
I Can't Stand It- Lou Reed (Glam Rock)
All I Want- Joni Mitchell

That being said, all of those songs are probably pretty love/hate so if you don't like them, then so be it! I've got a ridiculously wide range of music tastes, often kind of here and there, so there's no guarantee any one person will ever like every single song I recommend... but that's ok!

A Third Black Scarf.

Might have gone too hard at the gym today. GREAT cardio, but I may have done a little bit much on shoulders/arms... because I can't really straighten my arm out all the way without some intense pain. Oh well, you live, you learn. Not so wild on the weight machines next time :-P

Despite all that, it was a pretty fantastic day. Weather has perked up a bit to the point that the temp was at LEAST above freezing! I went and met a friend for lunch, and then snuck on over to Old Navy (always a bad idea for me) to see if anything good was there/on sale/etc. There's usually SOMETHING I can find to throw in to various outfits, and it's all usually super cheap and good for a few wears. Well, I didn't disappoint and of course bought more than I probably should have.

A few of today's purchases- including a new black scarf. I'm entirely forgetful when it comes to these and I've already lost two in the last year or so. Hopefully this one will stick around for a while. Also got a black belted dress that wouldn't photograph well, and in the picture you can see the purple zippered leggings, which I can't wait to pair with a black dress!!! A lot of it stood out in my mind as stuff I could easily pair with other things. Most obviously, this belt will go GREAT with dresses/shirts, especially black ones, when paired with my beloved cowboy boots! Can't go wrong there.

Aside from lunching, shopping, and working out, I spent the rest of the day filling out many many job applications and studying for a few tests/quizzes this week (Actually, still doing that). So everyone, PLEASE cross your fingers for me! I desperately desperately need a job!!!! I'm hoping for Bath & Body Works so I am less likely to spend even more money on clothes, but I'd definitely take AE without complaining at all ;-)

Outfit- well, pretty much all Old Navy. Ironically enough.

Grammy Thoughts.

3 Things to Say About the Grammy's.

1. Green Day, in no universe, deserved to win best rock album over Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood, U2, AC/DC, or even Dave Matthews Band for that matter. They are Pop Punk/Rock at best, and quite frankly don't even deserve to be in a category with the likes of Eric Clapton. Yes, that's my opinion, but go find me some sane person who thinks GREEN DAY is overall more talented from an objective standpoint than any of those people.

2. Best. Collaborations. Ever. Gaga/Elton John, Taylor Swift/Stevie Nicks, Jamie Fox/T Pain/Slash. LOVED IT.

3. And last, but certainly not least- THANK GOD THEY FINALLY STOPPED INVITING KANYE TO THESE THINGS.


(Also, kind of a side note- I really wish Taylor Swift would start mixing it up a little bit. I love sparkles just as much as the next 20 year old but for god's sake, I'd love to see her in a dress that's not covered in glitter for once.)

And I'll leave you with a question: Is there ANYONE out there that can explain to me what on earth Britney was thinking when she left the house? Her hair looks pretty but this... this... ensemble she's got going on is a bit baffling.