LAST First Day of School

It's a bittersweet day... what might likely be my very last first day of school in my almost 22 years of living. Though there's always the possibility I'll come back and do grad school some time in the future, it's strange that after this semester I will more or less be done with the whole thing. HOW AM I ALREADY A MERE FOUR MONTHS AWAY FROM GRADUATING COLLEGE!? Wow.

I did manage to get some outfit pictures today, but they're a far cry from the "First Day of School" pictures mom always used to take at the bus stop of me, my brother, and all the neighbor kids in our favorite new outfits purchased specially for the occasion. I think that might be what I miss most about being in grade school... no one insists on buying you a whole new wardrobe, office, and art supplies just for the start of school. My mom did buy me this purse over the weekend though, and I might actually be more excited about that anyways.

(Forgive my wrinkled dress, worn off makeup, and gray fuzzies from the vest... given that my first class was at 9 this morning, I didn't actually make time for the photo shoot until after two classes and a bunch of errands. I assure you I looked a little more lively this morning!)

Outfit
Dress, Leggings: Old Navy
Scarf: from India
Boots: Charlotte Russe
Necklace: Chewlry
Vest: Forever 21
Purse: Carlos Santana

Thank god for natural lighting and my new favorite camera spot, even if it doesn't get my shoes in the picture. I love when it's snowy and all the light is reflected! More to come on the purse. I think I might be excited enough to do an entire blog post dedicated to it.

Oh Baby!

This weekend was the baby shower for my cousin Andrea. It started out with me throwing the shower but then mostly turned into me just doing the games and picking out the plates while my aunt took over the rest. Either way, it went really well and Andrea got a ton of really awesome stuff that she and Brad will need when the baby gets here!

The giraffe from the cake and the cake table balloon weight ended up matching perfectly, but were bought by two different people unknowingly!

The main setup of the Fellowship room of their church

Lavender and Lime color scheme to avoid the typical yellow/green for not knowing the gender of the baby... I DID get to pick that out :-)

Mmmmm fresh fruit!

Little toys used as balloon weights on each table

Another cute and practical balloon weight idea

Sherbert, Hawaiian Punch, and Sprite punch recipe

The mommy-to-be!

Annie with her little helpers- Ali and Eva

AWESOME onesie my other cousin Megan got in Vegas

I'm already throwing myself back into full on party planning mode with a small Cocktail Slumber Party themed birthday party for my friend Betsy this Thursday. I absolutely love everything about planning parties, even small ones, and can't wait for Thursday!

Now, however, it's off to bed as tomorrow is the start of my LAST SEMESTER (!!!!) of college and much to my dismay it starts at 9am. Yeah, I know, that's a normal time for any other human being, but I haven't had a class that early since first semester freshman year... not a morning person.

Hand Made Christmas

I think maybe next year I'll start earlier and try to do MORE handmade things for Christmas, but this year I managed to get at least a few things done! I did two little paintings for my cousin (Ok actually I'm technically still working on one, and she took the other so no pictures of that. I'm infamously bad at being on time with presents), an IU blanket for my brother, and these wooden decoupaged letters for my friends Katelyn and Sarah for their new apartment. Actually, they haven't actually found an apartment yet but they'll get one eventually so I'm just starting their housewarming gifting now.

Sewing something it on by hand and making it come out completely straight is more difficult than it looks... I eventually decided it just made it look more "home made." Haha

Katelyn's favorite color is green and Sarah's are red/orange. Thank goodness they compliment each other so well!

I was also lucky enough to be the receiver of one of Kelly's HAND KNITTED HATS! Yay! I had asked her a while back if she could knit me a charcoal hat when she got the chance, and that was part of my Christmas hat! I love it, because unlike a lot of hats sometimes are when you buy in the store it is not too tight and it's so soft! I can't wait to get an outfit picture with it :-)

Now I'm off to visit family for the weekend to throw my cousin her baby shower, so you can be sure I'll have a picture recap with that along with some of the funny games we're doing. Hopefully inspiration for anyone else throwing a baby shower in the future! Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Not-So-Classy Side of NYE 2011

I think the easiest way to do this is to just do a picture post with captions highlighting the crazier parts of the night. Luckily these pictures don't get too embarrassing because I kept setting my camera down and forgetting where I put it all night.... I'll thank the gods of drunken holidays for that one.

Ok, just one classy picture first to hopefully persuade you that we're not really terrible people, or at least that we CAN be classy, sometimes.

The $1.50 WREATH that Ashlee found at WalMart and decided to wear as a sombrero all night. Steven must have borrowed it for the photo shoot.

Ashlee also found cheap ornaments at WalMart and thought it would be a "fun" idea to break them in the street to get out aggression. I don't think anyone else had aggression, but it sounded like fun and we obliged.

Breaking ornaments in the street somehow turned into breaking ornaments on the front porch. Steven wasn't too happy about this, but he did take part in it so he can't really blame us. Luckily for me, someone had the mind to immediately sweep it up, but you'll understand that more fully in later pictures.

Meet Riley: the happiest drunk guy in the entire world. This picture may also capture the approximate time when Kelly and I started to go downhill. Or maybe uphill, depending on how you look at it.

Here's the result of previously shown "happiest drunk guy ever" getting shoved into a wall for maybe or maybe not kissing a nameless someone's ex girlfriend. As far as we could tell, he recovered quickly and went on *not quite as happy way.

Ashlee's wreath-sombrero has progressed to being a bizarre collar of sorts. Unaware of who the author was with the fridge letter phrase.

The drink Kelly is holding in her hand? Chances are it's probably 90% vodka and 10% green beverage of some sort. And then you have Katelyn, who is serious about getting down to business with her two red bulls and two bud lights. Sarah and Lauryn are both sporting their mustache flasks.

This face of mine clearly has sobriety written all over it, and Max would appear to be pouring some sort of drink down Annissa's dress? Kelly is probably blacked out at this point, not that anyone can ever tell.

Woo! Made it to midnight. In the background you can see Lauryn still celebrating with enthusiasm several minutes after the clock has actually struck the new year.

And to cap it all off with the highlight of the night: Here I am walking to the car SHOELESS in the rain because after taking my heels off and setting them safely under a chair to give my feet a break, BLACKED OUT KELLY (Which believe me, is a WHOLE 'nother personality from the other Kelly) for some reason took the shoes and put them in our friend Max's car before he left. She had NO recollection of this, even as I kept asking her if she had seen them while we frantically searched the apartment for them. Shoes have since been safely recovered with the aid of Katelyn.

Now, hopefully you don't think TOO much less of me, as I assure you I am a fully functioning and responsible member of society on the majority of other nights of the year. Last college New Year's Eve was a success. Also a big ol' thank you to my darling little brother for driving halfway across town to pick us up at 2am as our sober ride... Love ya bub!

HELP!

I received a $30 Charlotte Russe giftcard from my cousin for Christmas and I am having the worst time trying to decide which shoes I want! I've narrowed it down to about five, and I think I'll probably end up getting two pairs because they all fall under the "Buy 1 Get 1 for $15" deal, and that's way too great of a deal to pass up when the first pair will basically be free.

I like them all for various reasons, but what do you guys think?

Favorite Uber Platform Pump: I like these so much because they're such a simple shoe that could be done up in so many ways! I'm not sure which color I prefer- the nude could be more flexible, but most of my outfits incorporate a lot of black and sometimes red.

Glitterati Platform Pumps: I like these because they're slightly shorter, so more practical for actually wearing out, and I cannot resist sparkle.

Leopard Ruffle Front Peeptoe Bootie: Clearly it's difficult for me to say no to animal print. I love having little accessory pieces in animal print that aren't overbearing but add spice to the outfit.

Glitzy Bandage Heel: For this I really see it being a great shoe for going out when it starts getting warm out. I can only imagine how comfy the stretchy parts must be and how well that would keep them on my feet.

It does concern me that a lot of them are pretty tall, as my "eyes are bigger than my ability to handle tall shoes", but I think it helps that they all have platforms and aren't just heel. Hopefully my practical side kicks in and at least one of the pairs I get are the reasonably tall Glitterati's, but it may come down to which ones (and sizes) they have in the store. Sometimes that helps in making decisions anyways when you're like me and the OPTIMAL choice would be to just get them all.

New Years Eve Outfit Post

Let's do this in two parts: First, keeping it classy with the outfit post. Second, we'll break it down with the crazy pictures and stories from New Years Eve.

I didn't make much of an effort to find a new dress for New Years Eve this year. Any shopping attempts more or less boiled down to a five minute browse through Target resulting in nothing of interest. I did, however, realize that I have a few good black dresses that tend to be a little "fancier" than the events I usually attend, so I decided to make use of one of those. I refer to this dress as my "Kardashian Dress" because it tends to accentuate my curves and make my rear end look even bigger than it actually is.

Paired with a clearance sequined belt from Target that matched the bow headband from last year and my new We Love Colors tights, it did the trick.

Ashlee's paparazzi shooot and camera with it's super wash-out flash.

Outfit
Dress: TJ Maxx (I think)
Tights: We Love Colors, Red
Booties: Payless
Belt, Headband: Target
Necklace: American Eagle Clearance
Ring, Bracelets: Charlotte Russe

Also noteworthy as far as outfits go are my friend Dana's shoes. I could not help but take a picture to share with everyone, because they were AMAZING:

This Outfit Brought to You by Mary Kate Olsen

This sweater and hat were both on sale (Clearance in the hat's case) at Old Navy last week, and I didn't actually realize they were the exact same color until I got home. I couldn't wait to wear them: I'm not generally much of a hat person but was looking forward to trying something new. I wore it out to dinner and drinks with my dad and some of his friends who were in town and then to Max's Place to see his friend's daughters play at open mic night. I was so glad to finally get to see them play because I had missed Grace's shows several times before. The highlight of the night was their (much better and completely hilarious) accoustic version of "Girls Don't Like Boys" by Good Charlotte.

Outfit
Dress, Purse: Target
Boots: Charlotte Russe
Sweater, Hat, Leggings: Old Navy

Grace, Jess, and Me. Unintentional outfit matching. They were dressed like this for a "red" themed graduation party and well, I was just dressed like this. When Grace took her red sweatshirt off to reveal her white shirt we kind of looked like a jumbled up French flag.

It was unintentional, but the outfit completely reminded me of Mary Kate Olsen. More specifically, the series of internet videos by comedienne Elaine Carroll called "Very Mary Kate." They're ridiculously silly, and they really grow on you. Check them out, but I recommend trying to start from the beginning (They're in order newest to oldest) so it will make more sense.


OH, and HAPPY NEW YEAR! Post on that to come soon. Actually got some good outfit shots, and some COMPLETELY ridiculous stories that I will hopefully be able to share. Hope you all had a great one :-)