Copy Cat Weekendi

Did you see that? I  just stole  the word Weekendi (like everything else) to put into my title. That's because I'm copying the look (not as successfully I might add) from Kendi Everyday and she likes to infuse her name into regular words. Since I attempted my very first copy this weekend(i) I figured that was an appropriate title.

On to the look. I was trying to replicate this:

And, okay, go easy on me. Cuz:
1) She's, like, adorable - I'm not so much
2) She looks casually flawless - I look like I'm trying too hard
3) She's tall and thin (better for maxi dresses)- I'm short and slightly chunky.
4) She has an awesome husband who does photography with a stellar camera- I have a fence post in my back yard sturdy enough to hold my crappy camera on a timer (or a shaky hand with no flash in a dirty bathroom mirror)

Anyhow.

I have to admit it's fun trying to recreate her look with only the clothes in my closet. It really makes me assess what I own and look at everything in a new way.
For example, I never would've thought to pair this cardigan with this dress-but it didn't look so bad. (I like her mustard colored one better).Plus, I couldn't wear a scarf (it was 80 degrees in Florida yesterday).Yes Kendi, if you happen to read this, rest assured, I am at least 1100 miles away from Texas- safe from stalking distance. It was enough that I was wearing boots (not that  you can see them) so I added a necklace the same color as the cardi.

Okay, on to the pics:

Okay, for my first attempt -not so bad. I think as I go along I'll do better. And eventually, one day- after many many baby steps, copy catting, and obsessive Kendi stalking- I'll branch out on my own and I'll be able to dress myself (stylishly so).
 *crossing my fingers and waiting impatiently for that day*

Here's the comparison again: WDYT?

Out of the Door--or OOTD

Quick, half-minded post:

1)I got a new dress and I lurve the color of it and the ruffles.
2)I bought this dress from Ross for only 6.50-yea!
3)Of course, it's probably not the best quality for only 6.50. Meh.
4)Question...do you think I should belt it? Belts are so in right now and I'm wondering if it's just a little too formless.

The last pic is a better representation of the color.

Valentines Gift

I figured I'd share a quick post about my daughter's V-day gift. As you already know I'm never one to come up with a creative idea on my own (I steal all my ideas) and this is no different. I got this idea from a post on theletteredcottage blog about kind words (one of the pics she had shows stickers with fruit puns) and thought it was so cute that figured I could easily replicate it for my daughter's V-day gift.

I gathered together a bunch of items to make a  Punny Valentine's gift:

I cut out plain scrapbook paper and put the puns on it using colored markers. This could have been a much cuter/prettier gift had I taken the time to make layers of scrapbook paper tags like below:

But since she only cares about what's in the package-not the presentation of it-I figured simple, simple, simple.The extra effort would be lost on my 11 year old daughter. ;D
 
In her gift box I put:

1)An orange-"Orange you glad you're my Valentine?"
2)A banana-"I go bananas for you"
3)An apple- "you're the apple of my eye"
4)A pear-"We make a great pear"
5)Strawberries-"You are berry sweet"
6)Package of cashews-"I'm nuts about you"
7)Chocolate marshmallow heart-"You melt my heart"
8)Individual cherry pie-"You're a cutie pie"
9)candy hearts-"You're such a sweetheart"

It was quick, cheap and easy. Plus, most of it was fruit so she didn't get piles and piles of candy that I don't want her eating.

Score.

Valentines Day...love it or hate it?

I've never been huge with Valentine's Day. I neither love it nor hate it. I understand the draw for either side; however, I don't get the overly crazy V-day people. You know, the girls who get soooo into it that they expect major romance on that day (and are disappointed and angry when they don't get it). I'm good with a basic acknowledgement-a "hey, I love you on this most puketrid of love days" kinda card. And a lil gift (under 5.00 is good, thank you).

I celebrate and embrace V-day just as much as I hate V-day I suppose. Why all the commercialism? Why the need to overprice flowers? Why so much candy that makes my ass fatter? UGH.

In honor of V-day I made cupcakes for work (hello fat ass, yes, I'm comfortable with you, yes, you will always be in my life). I also made anti-V-day cupcakes for those who don't like to participate in V-Day (but still want a fat ass). And I saw a tutorial for a cute heart headband so I had to make that too. Basically, I went all out for Valentines day (weird).

First, the headband. I found this on the DIYshow-off but it actually came from this blog, Rae Gun Ramblings.

This was an easy and inexpensive craft. I paid about 3.00 for everything. I would have paid less if I'd used a coupon at Michaels. :(

Assemble together:
-headband (already had it)
-felt fabric piece in your color choice (.30 from Michaels)
-sequins of your choice (2.99 for package)
-glue gun (not shown)
-needle/thread (not shown)
-chocolate cupcake should you need a snack in the middle of crafting as I did.

Start by making a heart cut out of the fabric. I tried different sizes to see what worked best on my noggin.

Then, after finding the best choice, I haphazardly sewed the heart to my headband. The worse you do the better you'll make me feel about getting a C in Home Ec in school *sob*.

Then I carefully hot glued on a bajillion tiny sequins till my hands hurt and I got carpel tunnel (just kidding). It wasn't difficult just time consuming. I did it while watching tv (and eating chocolate hostess cakes) so it wasn't bad.Using tweezers helped.

 And here it is all finished:

 Perfect for V-day.

Next I started on the cupcakes. I just used boxed cake mix and frosting (uhhhh....C in Home Ec, remember?)
Since these were for Valentines I made them chocolate, but since they were also for Anti-Valentines I made the chocolate Devil's Food. :D

After letting them cool I frosted and decorated.
Some had pink sprinkles with a purple gummy heart:

And the other's had black sprinkles with pierced hearts by swords:

Perfect for those who don't celebrate V-day.

Hope you enjoy your Valentine's Day whether you celebrate or not!

Thuh The-uh-tuh...

Do you even understand the title of this post? No? Okay, well, I guess it doesn't translate well in writing but that was my best impression of a snooty person saying, "The theatre". And when we're talking this snooty I've gotta write it up as theatre, not theater.

I luuuv the the-uh-tuh dahhhling (can you hear the snooty now?). Musicals are such a decadent pleasure to me (breaking into song and dance to express yourself? Yes please.) So, for a Christmas present, the in-laws were totally awesome and gave my husband and I tickets to see Billy Elliot. SQUEEEALLL! I was so excited. I'm a music nerd, I love musicals, and I love dressing up- nothing is better than this idea. It's like a forced dressy date with the hubs. Have I mentioned I :::heart::: dressing up (especially since, as you've just recently learned, my clothing on a daily basis hardly varies)?

Of course, my daaahhhling husband is nice enough to play along with my special dressy date night. This ain't your standard dinner and a movie night, no siree (is that how it's spelled?Sir-ree?Sirree?Surrey? ::Cue the music:::"...When I take you out in the Surrey with the Friiiiiiinge-On Top!" This is how much of a music geek I am... and an Oklahoma geek...okay, I'm just a geek all around. confession: I was in the musical Oklahoma.)  But I digress. 

Back to the special dressy date night. When I was talking to some women at work about what I was gonna wear (you know, girl stuff) I was asked by some officers (working in a predominantly male environment) what are you doing? And when I responded, "I'm going to the theatre". Their response was, "Huh? The theater? Like, the movies?" This made me giggle. 

I wanted to dress up but I most certainly did not want to spend any money. I decided to plan a look around my favorite heels:

Unfortunately, due to how painful they are to wear the very intricate and glam bead/sequins detailing on them I hardly ever wear them anywhere. 


I paired them with a little black dress (LBD) so nothing would compete with their awesomeness and steal the show (besides the actual show-Billy Elliot). Add in some gold glam earrings that a co-worker was nice enough to loan me and bam! I was ready for the red carpet without spending any money:

I even did smoky sultry eye makeup with nude lips which turned out exactly how I wanted.

and the pretty earrings:

It was a fun night. I wasn't overly impressed with Billy Elliot but that didn't deter my ability to love every minute of the night just for the fact that we were out at the theatre and all dressed to the nines. 


Afterwards, DH and I were feeling snacky so we stopped into Walgreens about midnight. I snapped a shot in the candy aisle for posterity's sake (though we ate dinner at fancy shmancy restaurant we're not too proud to get dessert at Walgreens):

It was a wonderful night out on the town!
 

FASHION...HIT OR MISS

Lately I've been obsessed with fashion. I think it's cuz I've slowly been losing weight (20lbs so far-yea me!!! But I have 15 or so to go). I'm loving that I feel better, thinner, and it makes me want to dress/look cute(r). Because of this, I've been perusing fashion blogs/chat boards a lot lately and so I stumbled across this blog- Kendieveryday. I love her style and she has cute and quirky posts each day.

I wanted to participate in her 30 for 30 challenge (take 30 items in your closet to mix/match for 30 days of outfits) but here's the problem-I wear a uniform to work. Every.Single.Day. This makes it extremely difficult to do that 30 for 30 challenge and let me tell you, it's horrible for a girl's self-esteem. I tell my husband that putting that uniform on makes my cuteness level drop at least 10 points.

Don't get me wrong. Some days it's awesome to not have to think about what you'll wear. You just dress and go. But other days (most days), I want to wear the things in my closet! Not a tan button-up shirt, black pants, black socks, black belt, black shoes. Ugh. The joke at work is that we look like Busch Gardens workers. I should be leading a safari yelling cheesy jokes into a megaphone for tourists as I point out a giraffe on their right. Soooo not attractive. Anyhow.

Back to the 30 for 30 challenge. How exactly can I do this? I'm not sure, I'm still trying to work that one out. But, for now, I figured I'd show you my weekend wear (well, 1 day at least). I bought this dress because I loved the colors and the bohemian feel to it. Perfect with my boots:

Not the best pic but  you get the idea. I should really think about cleaning my bathroom mirror sometime. The pics might look better. And I know all you peeps out there with 3 feet of snow are totally jealous I can rock a short sleeve dress cuz  I live in FL and it's approx 70 degrees here! (So there are some perks of living in Florida, who knew?)

Anyhow...I promise to try and squeeze some posts in that are decorating related (in fact I'll have one soon-a mini-makeover on my bedroom). But right now I'm really into clothes so I'm gonna have my fair share of outfit posts.

In fact, one thing I'm gonna try and do is show some copycat fashion-I totally adore some of Kendi's outfits and I will be trying to shop in my own closet to replicate some of them. I'm sort of stalking her right now cuz I'm just amazed at how she puts outfits together so beautifully, stylishly and easily .(I promise this is healthy imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery stalking not the Every-Breath-You-Take-Police-rendition type of stalking).

Stay tuned!