Get Your Plaid On!

I'm doing SO well with keeping up with regular postings, eh?! I guess I do feel like I've been much busier than normal, mostly just getting used to being back in classes... and I've been traveling pretty much every weekend since school started.

I have definitely picked up the Fall Fever, and it kills me that these stubborn temperatures are hovering in the mid to low 80's on most days. Come on mother nature, can I get a mid or even low 70? Pretty please? I don't want the weather to go rushing off into anything too extreme, but I've got a few cardigans and long sleeved dresses just dying to jump out of the closet.

Take, for example, this longer sleeved plaid shirt-dress from Old Navy! I wondered if it was a bit too "Patriotic" when I bought it, but the other colors were mostly black and gray, which I may have a bit too much of already. (Ok, false, I don't think there's such thing as too much black as long as you have some colorful accessories to balance it out!) I ended up wearing it to a Cookout on September 11... so low and behold, patriotic seemed to be the theme of the day and I unintentionally fit right in.

Outfit
Dress, Flip Flops, Leggings: Old Navy
Guitar Necklace, Belt: Forever 21
Purse: Charlotte Russe

The weather was maybe just a BIT warm for the longer sleeves, but as the sun went down it was a pretty comfortable outfit! I absolutely love the button leggings. Old Navy has surprisingly proven pretty trustworthy in long-lasting leggings, and I love when they have the subtle detailing. They run around $15, but you can usually find them on sale, and like I said, they do last for quite a while!

Now I'm off to do some MORE readings... readings that I probably should have done earlier, but neglected in favor of registering for the GMAT and researching Business Schools for my MBA, all of which really needed to be done anyways.

For those of you with a sweet tooth, feel free to stop on by Wonderland Kitchen for this DELICIOUS Nutella Cheesecake Brownie recipe, borrowed from Miss Valerie over at Red Vines for Breakfast! They're amazing!

LIFE IS IN SESSION!

Has anyone seen The Switch with Jennifer Aniston? If not, you probably should. It was an adorable movie... typical chick flick, but my favorite part was the little boy. He's one of those really smart and therefor a little awkward kind of kids, and he was SO adorable. That title quote is stuck in my head. Such a funny conversation in the movie.

Anyways, life is back in session in full swing here in the good old college town of Bloomington, IN. And by that, I mean that Alex/Betsy random bar nights have started up again. If you remember any of the posts from a few months ago I'm sure you know that means all sorts of shenanigans. I'm also pleased to announce that my favorite little Russian bus driver (We think he's Russian, anyways) is back in action on the Night Owl bus route... and that he STILL remembers me and gets excited when I take the bus. "Ohhhh Alllexxxannnnndra! Hello!"

Outfit
Dress: Forever 21
Shiny Leggings: Target
Sandals: GAP
Hair Flower: Compliments of the Pearls, Lace, Ruffles giveaway

My planned outfit took a last minute turn when I realized one of my two main pairs of black leggings are MIA. No clue where they could have gone. Guess it's probably time for some new ones anyways. Once this job starts bringing in a little money I think I also want to order a few pairs of tights from We Love Colors. Hopefully that will put all kinds of new exciting twists on my fall and winter outfits. The flower came as inspiration from my roommate Kelly. I don't know why I always forget about all my hair accessories until I see her wearing hers, but I'm glad I have some kind of reminder!

(Poker Facing)

Say Hello....

To the newest employee of Bath & Body Works!!!! I am SO excited right now. I have needed a part time job forever, and I finally have one! Granted, it is only seasonal, and for the first month I won't have a lot of hours, but something is better than nothing! I start orientation Sunday, so I also have a new little excuse to do some clothes shopping for black pants/tops. Hooray!

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

Summer seems so much hotter when you have to be walking around all day in it on a large, PACKED, college campus. I've also discovered that most of my clothes are more suitable for going out than for going to class everyday... at least the summertime ones. It's safe to say that once fall sets in I'll be good to go, supplementing with the occasional ever so comfy jeans and IU sweatshirt combo. I'm pretty much ready for that!!! Here is today's "Third day of school" outfit.

(I'm hoping that more outfit pictures will happen, but I've got 9am wake up calls every day, which for me is almost unheard of, so it will really be a matter of remembering to make time for them.)

Outfit
Dress: Target
Vest: Forever 21
Sandals: Old Navy
Necklace: For Love 21
Bracelets: No idea...

I look so ridiculously tan because the truth is that I somehow got ridiculously burnt at the race on Sunday. And yes, I do mean "somehow". I understand the concept of the sun and burning, but it's beyond me how I can lay out for hours with tanning oil and not catch a single ray and be out for a few hours slathered in sun screen and burn to a crisp. What you see is the post-burn and pre-peel tan stage (at least on my chest). More to come on MotoGP in the near future.

Also that giveaway I keep talking about, if I can ever get myself around to it... it's been a busy week! But I want to get it completely ready to mail out before I even put it up so I know it will be ready to go immediately!

MotoGP

I just woke up from my last "sleep in" of the summer, and boy did I go overboard. I woke up at 11, only because a picture frame fell off my wall, and then promptly realize that I will from now on be getting up at 9am every day (Still early for me, people, I am after all on a college schedule) and went right back to sleep for another two hours to savor it while it lasts.

For the last three years, my cap off to the summer has been heading up to Indianapolis for MotoGP. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's more or less just REALLY HOT (and quite often foreign) guys racing around on street bikes (My favorite being the Ducati, of course). So here's a little summary of what I'll be up to tonight and tomorrow:

(Nicky Hayden of Owensboro Kentucky, right next door to my own home city of good old Newburgh, IN, if I do say so myself. I'd like to think that this Ducati rider would make a nice future husband.)

Now just throw in plenty of beer and "Hoovers" (Red Bull and Vodka. Or make it Jager for a "Little Hoov"... that's me) in honor of my dad who unfortunately is traveling on business and will not be able to make it, and you've got my weekend!

Picture Post- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Here at The Jungle (our apartment) the end of summer means our Welcome to the Jungle party. Those of you who have been around a while may remember the Axl and Slash costumes from last year. This year we recruited two other friends and outfitted ourselves with homemade Sgt. Pepper Beatles costumes! It was a great time, and I was SO thrilled with all of the costumes people came up with! Today I'm exhausted and about to take what will probably be an epic nap, but it was worth it.

(Ringo Starr!)

(John Lennon)

(Ringo and George!)

(Janis Joplin)

(John Bonham death reenactment)

(Best Dressed Male: Billy Idol. Steven actually DIED HIS HAIR BLONDE for this)

(Best Dressed Female: Joan Jett)

(Ke$Ha and Amy Winehouse)

Finally a Job Interview!

So here we are, less than a week before school starts up again. Oh my goodness, where has the summer gone!? I guess time flies when you're living in three different cities and spending half your time traveling between them! Don't let that fool you though, I wouldn't trade it for the world!

I had a job interview on Monday with Bath & Body Works, and while I'm still going to continue filling out applications for other places, I REALLY hope I get the job. It will be a "seasonal" job, and I won't get many hours for the next month, but I'll be able to work a lot over Thanksgiving and Christmas Break, and I can always hope they would maybe need me to stay after January is over. If not, I'd still have some updated references and job experience! I'm not sure how many they are hiring, but I had a group interview with two other girls. I actually kind of liked the "Group Interview", because it was much more relaxed and conversational. The other girls were both REALLY nice, so it made it easier, but difficult because I have no idea what my chances of being hired are!!

For the interview, I wanted something not too dressy, but still cute and slightly conservative. I ended up wearing one of my go-to Target dresses with a 3/4 length cardigan. Even though the temperature was something like 84 degrees, that still seemed cool for what we had been experiencing!

Outfit
Dress: Target
Cardigan: Old Navy
Sandals: GAP
Bracelets: Charlotte Russe
Necklace: Chewlry
Locket Ring: Part of my GIVEAWAY win from Pearls Lace and Ruffles! I love it!!!

Last night I got back in the swing of things and went out for an "early night" with Claire and Lauryn, that turned into us meeting up with my friend Eddie and then staying out until after midnight. Oops! It's SO weird being a Senior.... I see all these freshmen walking around on Kirkwood while we're walking into the bars, and it just hits me like "Oh my god, where have the last three years gone!??" I'll definitely be sad when I leave this town!!!


Last but certainly not least, here's a little sneak peak of a post to come. Any guesses on what it may entail?

The Week Long Quarry Search

My roommate Kelly and I have gone several times this week to look for various quarries in Bloomington for lay-out purposes. Well, ok, she really wants to jump off of them, but I'm a big scaredy cat who HATES heights and probably wouldn't do it if you paid me. I guess you can see these said quarries in the movie Breaking Away, but of course I'm probably the worst Hoosier ever, and I've never seen it.

Outfit
Kelly's Hat and Flip flops: Charlotte Russe
Kelly's Coverup: Homemade
My Hat, Coverup, Swimsuit: Target
My Flip flops and Bag: Old Navy
My Sunglasses: Anthropologie

We ended up finding a few, but couldn't really GET to them. Next week we're going to try another one that we're pretty sure we know how to get to and where to park. Of course this is all illegal, as some of these are still active quarries and all are private property, but as Kelly's dad says "The worst they will do is tell you to leave!"

(Safari Kelly attempting to find a path to one of the quarries we found)

This week's quarries adventure just ended up at the pool in order to still squeeze in a little sun... and I didn't mind that one little bit! I'll keep you updated if we ever end up actually making it to these famed quarries!

Interior Re-Decorating

Hello Strangers! In lieu of the extreme heat waves we've been having, my resulting unwillingness to put any effort into making decent outfits, and the fact that my camera had been MIA, I've been a bit out of it the last week. My dad finally found my camera in the backseat of his car, so I've got that back now, and thought I'd jump back in with a re-decorating post. The weather is also GORGEOUS now, and hopefully will stay that way all week, so there may be an outfit post or two coming up.

This week I've found myself bitten by the decorating bug. I'm going to assume it's because my body knows that this time of year means going back to school, moving apartments, etc, and because we're actually staying in our apartment for another year, I need to do SOMETHING to fill my urge to decorate/rearrange. This started with a complete closet clean out that needs just a little more work, and has progressed into me wanting to completely redo my bathroom. I'm really just wanting to give it a little more of a "grown up" feel, and I based the whole plan around these votive holders from Crate and Barrel ($1.50), along with these little jars I now have filled with green and blue food colored bath salts (I think they were around $5 for three of them). Yeah, I mean literally came up with this entire plan JUST because those two votives happened to be the closest to the register and caught my eye.


I got around to putting up a floating shelf ($20 at Target) and have most of the linens picked out, I just need to actually buy them and get it all together. I still can't decide whether I'll do a neutral rug with green and blue towels, or green or blue rug with neutral towels and the other color as an accent. That will probably be a last minute decision, but here's how it has progressed so far.




While I was at Target on my little re-decorating binge, I came across these sheer black curtains (I've been wanting these FOREVER!) for only $5 each, and decided it was finally time to put curtains in my room. I have NEVER in my life had curtains, much to my dismay growing up in an east facing bedroom, but now that I do I absolutely love them!!! I feel like it just makes my room seem so much more pulled together. It's extra nice that today's weather is so gorgeous allowing me to have the window open and the curtains flowing in the breeze!




Anyone else out there been struck by any sort of home decorating bug lately? Or is there anyone who WANTS to redo a room and just doesn't have any idea what to do with it? You know I love that kind of thing and would love to throw out some ideas. ;-) I can only hope there's a career in it for me somewhere down the line!