Brooklyn Summer

I took a 5 day trip to New York City in June to visit my friend Ashlee who lives on Staten Island, my roommate Kelly who is interning in the fashion district, and to meet up with a few of the blogger ladies I have heard OH SO MUCH about from Miss Nickie, our "big sister of the blogging world". As you can imagine five days in the city led to quite a bit of material, so we'll start with this outfit post/Sunday recap and go from there.

On one accidental trip to Brooklyn via the subway and a missed stop, my cousin was texting me and upon hearing of our little adventure replied "Oh, Brooklyn... rough place, but very classic." I'm not sure that he's ever actually been to Brooklyn, but we thought the quote was hilarious, and 'rough' was definitely an appropriate term for the subway station we ended up in. The rest of it: not so bad.

We stayed in the Williamsburg neighborhood with Nickie one night after a night out and spent the next day wandering around doing all sorts of things. Brunch (or maybe more like "linner" by the time we got around to leaving the apartment) was at The Lovin' Cup and for $15 you got a delicious brunch entree and ALL YOU CAN DRINK MIMOSAS. Obviously our idea of a great time. As if that wasn't enough we stopped by the Turkey's Nest Tavern to get giant to-go margaritas for the park and spent the next hour or two lounging around in the sun with our margaritas.


We then made our way over to this little place I've only heard so much about: Beacon's Closet. As Nickie put it, we were "a little too tipsy to sift through the clothes" so she and I just checked out the jewelry sections while Kelly tried some things on. I ended up with a few rings and a necklace, which will surely be making appearances sooner or later.

Pictures resulting from various photo shoots along the way to Beacon's:

Note: Nickie did NOT fall down but was merely "taking her photography very seriously as an art" and getting pictures of Kelly from a new angle. Hahaha. This picture alone could pretty adequately sum up our day.

Sifting through a pile of "free" things on the sidewalk. We actually ended up leaving with quite a few books!

The night ended at an Italian restaurant with Maresa and her husband Tom that may have been a bit too classy for the likes of us and our day drinking... but you can thank Taco Chulo for being closed for the Gay Pride parade. I'm still sad I never got to try these nachos that they're always talking about.

Here's the outfit for the day:

I'd like to take a moment to thank the wind for these oh-so-cute bangs.... or not.

Dress: Target
Leggings: Old Navy
Vest (previously jacket): Charlotte Russe
Boots: Durango, R.C.C. Western
Sunglasses: Delia's
Purse: Carlos Santana, TJ Maxx
Bracelets: Charlotte Russe


Stay tuned, more NYC adventures to come.

Happy (VERY) Belated Independence Day!

Finally have my laptop back and have a lot to catch up on, but I figured I'd go with the most time-sensitive topic before the month was out. Here are a few pictures from the 4th of July when we went to visit family in northern Indiana.

My outfit for the day: I think I ended up rocking the "Texas Soccer Mom" theme? Somehow about a million mosquitos managed to get me through the leggings, boots, and socks. Clearly they were determined.

Outfit
Dress: Forever21
Boots: Durango, R.C.C. Western
Leggings: Old Navy

Our "uniforms" (I kept calling it a costume, clearly I'm not a big sports fan) for the corn hole tournament. It's worth noting that I have neither aim nor skill when it comes to throwing things and we lost both the first round and then the first round of the loser's bracket. Alcohol may have also had something to do with it. Also worth noting that we made these visors for approximately a cool $5 thanks to WalMart. Keep it classy, USA.

My brother Dane and my cousin's baby, Luke. Dane's keeping him hip with his hairstyles, haha.

My dad and baby Luke keeping cool while watching the White Sox game inside. Thank goodness little Luke isn't being raised to be a Cubs fan.

My cousin Katherine enjoying some of the "JOTS" (A nickname for jell-o shots that my grandma apparently picked up from an article about 'how many teenagers die from them'... good thing we aren't teenagers.)

The main party with my mom's family was actually on the 3rd, and on the 4th my brother, his girlfriend Chelsea, my dad and I took off for Chicago to see a U2 concert the next day. We had dinner at South Coast Sushi (obviously a really American place) and then managed to catch not only the fireworks off Navy Pier but fireworks along the entire horizon from my dad's roof. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen!

Hopefully everyone else in the country had a good July 4th, you know... at the beginning of the month.

Update!

Yet another computer drought going on in my neck of the woods, this time due to a virus that I have yet to get fixed. I've been functioning thanks to my Blackberry, but one of the things I miss most about having a computer is the ability to not only blog but keep up with what is going on with everyone else! I am able to read blogs from my phone, but different formattings can be kind of goofy when it comes to getting the text to a readable size.

I do hope everyone is having a nice summer so far though, and I'm hoping I'll be back before too long with some real updates or posts. I'm off to New York City thursday morning (WAY too early, might I add) to visit some friends (and hopefully hang out with some other bloggers in the area!) so I'm sure that will lead to some good material. By the time I get around to all of this I'm sure I'll have a practically brand new wardrobe to share differing from previous posts. Ok, maybe not completely new, but hopefully lots several new pieces.

The College Graduate

I guess this is a little outdated, as I graduated a few weeks ago, but I originally wanted to wait until I could provide a little more insight into the whole 'how it feels to have graduated' thing. Almost three weeks later, it still doesn't feel that different. Everyone keeps asking me how it feels, and so far I haven't had that much to say. I do think it started setting in a bit when I opened my first graduation card and realized that I should be putting most of the money into savings for when I have to starting renting and furnishing a new apartment in Chicago.

My degree is in marketing, but the plan for now is to do as many little "assisting" or "shadowing" jobs as possible this summer in the field of corporate event planning, starting with an opportunity in mid June. By the end of July I will be living in Chicago full time and hopefully working full time as well. I met with a family connection in the field the week after graduation to talk to her a little more about what the field entails, and the meeting ultimately made me even more excited about following that career path. I knew I didn't want to do anything "typical" for a marketing degree, and corporate event planning utilizes a lot of the same creative and communication skills tailored more specifically to my interests. I'm not completely sure what the near future holds for me, but I know I am looking forward to it!

My brother, Dane, and I before graduation.

My wonderful parents!

My 'fake' degree. I guess the real one should be coming in the mail sometime now that they have confirmed that I did, in fact, pass all of my classes.

Did anyone else graduate this spring, whether it be from High School, College, or even Grad School? If so, congratulations! What are YOUR plans for the future now that you're done for college or career choice?

Little Bug a Boo

I finally got to meet my cousin's son, Luke, last weekend when family was visiting for my brother's high school graduation. (Oh wait, graduation, about that... I guess I forgot to do a post about MY graduation, so that will be coming soon!) Luke is 12 weeks old now and just the sweetest little baby. He was a real trooper with getting passed around from person to person the whole weekend!

Crazy eyes!

How cute is he!?

Love: Summer Rain

...And playing in it with Kelly.

For My Mother:

"Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible."
~Marion C. Garretty, quoted in A Little Spoonful of Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul

Happy Mothers' Day to the wonderful, beautiful, Jennifer Leigh!!! I love you mommy :-) You have always gone above and beyond to make sure we are happy and taken care of, and you are much appreciated! (Even if Dane doesn't always show it... he'll come to eventually!)

As a matter of fact, Happy Mothers' Day to all the Kramer women! (My Aunt Mary, Aunt Jody, Cousin Andrea, and Grandma! Aunt Susie not pictured, but to her too!)

And last but certainly not lease, a Happy Mothers' Day wish to one of my very best friends who managed to give me one of the best little nieces in the whole wide world:

May Flowers

My last outfit as a college undergraduate! Thursday I had my last final in History of the Blues and then Kelly and I were off to Nick's to meet my dad and his friend Dan for dinner and drinks to celebrate. This floral dress and necklace just arrived from Forever 21 and I am absolutely in love with them both. The little owl necklaces were only $1.50, so Kelly and I both got a gold one and I also grabbed a silver one as well... too cute!

Outfit
Dress, Necklace: Forever 21
Bracelets, Earrings: Charlotte Russe
Shoes: Target

Dad and I at Nick's

Happy Cinco de Mayo: Patron time!

Self Control or Shoes

Remember that time I mentioned Target's awesome spring shoe collection, and the Mossimo knock-offs of the Dolce Vita Pela's that I have been dying to own for a year now? And then remember how I ended up going out and buying them before I even got around to getting the post out to you with birthday money that I technically had not even received yet? Well, here are those wonderful little (or not little at all) shoes put to work.

Outfit
Dress: Forever 21
Bracelets: Charlotte Russe
Clutch: Coach
(Compliments of Kelly's closet for the day)
Belt, Shoes: Target

And I'm not at all ashamed to say that I love them so much that I went out and bought a black pair today to wear for graduation... and every outfit this summer thereafter. It's a good thing they only had the two colors in the store, because chances are I might have come home with a nude pair on top of the other two. Self control and shoes are mutually exclusive in this brain.

(I will address the fact, for sake of full disclosure, that depending on where they hit on the back of your heels, that part can be a little uncomfortable. My solution is simple: leave them just a tiny bit unzipped at the top and this problem is eliminated!)

New York and Co. Dress Sale

While scrummaging through my closet in an attempt to figure out what I'm going to wear for graduation on Friday ("Business Casual"... but if you know me at all you know that means I'll just be trying to find a dress that could wiggle its way into this category), I came across a dress I got a few years ago from New York & Co. We don't have one in Bloomington, so it has been a while since I have been and I hopped on over to the website to look around.

They have SO many dresses on sale right now! There are a couple I may consider if I get any graduation money, just because they are so cheap and so cute! One of them looks like it would fit exactly like the dress I already own and love, so it is really tempting. I think the best part is that their style in some of the dresses is something that could easily translate to business casual whenever I do enter the working world.

Animal Print Wrap Dress: $37.06

Sleeveless Tiered Dress: $34.96

Streetwear Short Goddess Dress: $21.47 (50% off!!!)

Sleeveless Floral Cotten Voile Sundress: $41.96

Click any of the pictures to get to the page for that particular dress. All prices listed reflect the online-only dress sale they have going on.

Also- if anyone has a minute and would care to leave an opinion on my previous post, "Twitter's Role in Consumer Interaction", I would really appreciate it! It is for a group project for my Marketing Strategy class and I am just looking for some blogger input on the subject. Thanks so much!