Outfit of the Day: What A Beautiful Mess

Before too much time passes, I have to do a quick post of the outfit I put together on Sunday!  Or I should say, the outfit that just fell together thanks to my graduation gifts.  I had my party last weekend (which I will elaborate on in a post tomorrow, mimosa bar and all) and didn't expect to receive such wonderful gifts!  

But I'll cut to the chase.  
The ring is something I bought at an antique store in Athens on my trip.  The bag is one of the many presents from my godmother.  The shirt is a gifts from one of my best friends.  The shoes and shorts are both from my own recent shopping excursions.  These are my first pair of high-waisted shorts (which is actually a shocker) and I'm obsessed.  The pumps are from DSW and I love that they aren't super shiny like the pair of nude slingbacks I already own.  Unfortunately I couldn't find the exact pair online so I linked a similar pair that is also BCBG.  I just love how it all went together and the shoes and bag really classed up an otherwise super casual look!

Finally, I've been accessorizing like crazy with Flash Tattoos recently.  I put this one on for my party on Saturday, and it's still going strong on Tuesday night!  I don't really do anything to take care of it either, I'm kind of just letting it do its thing.  I wear Flash Tattoos sparingly, but I really do think they're an awesome way to wear jewelry without actually wearing jewelry!  Some of them are so delicate and pretty.  And so easy to put on.  My cousin and I split the Sheebani pack because it would take me years to wear all the pieces.  If you sign up for the mailing list you get 10% off your first order!





Apartment Livin' - The Bedroom

And for the fourth and final installment of my Apartment Livin' series...my bedroom!  I obviously only occupied one of the two bedrooms in my tiny little apartment, so these are all the pictures I have to provide.  I went for a Moroccan theme, which is sort of evident by the purple/coral/orange flowery zentangle designs.  At least that was what I was trying for.  Over the course of the two years I lived there, the room gathered a lot of other knick knacks and adornments that didn't necessarily coincide with the original theme.  My bad.  

I'm pleased to present you with....El Sanctuary.


Looking back at it now, there's nothing that made it very Moroccan.  But I guess I can find solace in the fact that Morocco was simply the inspiration behind the décor, not really the result.  Nevertheless, I was happy with it.


Thanks to the fact that my aunt saves junk for unknown future crafts, we were able to make these lightweight wall hangings out of foam rectangles used for packaging.  Underneath the fabric, there are two of the rectangles right on top of each other taped together with duct tape.  6 rectangles in all, obviously.  We covered them with fabrics that fit with my theme and matched my comforter.  I found this idea on Pinterest, although the ones on there were a different shape and I think they may have used wood (which would have worked too).  

My mom sewed the orange pillow case for the body pillow, seeing as I have absolutely no patience for sewing.  This I proved during my freshman year of high school in the Intro to Sewing class that I so vehemently despised.  My best friend and I basically gave up on day one and brought all our projects home for my mom to finish.  For someone who loves pretty much every other form of crafting, I simply cannot stand patterns, threads, bobbins, and the like.  

I freehand painted the monogram onto the purple pillowcase with puff paint. And voilà!


Another Pinterest idea:  The ombré dresser drawers.  Using leftover paint from the walls in my bedroom at home (bottom drawer), I just progressively added white paint to four different containers of paint for the other four drawers.  I didn't notice how similar two of the middle drawers looked until I was already done.  Oops.  


I also saw this "Prada Palazzo" painting on Pinterest, but had no idea where I could buy it and also didn't really want to buy it.  I just looked at it and decided to paint it myself.  Worked well for me!


This fabric thing slid into the valence of my blinds was my mom's idea and masterpiece.  One minute she said the blinds were too boring and in the next, this was there.  It really did spice the place up a bit.


Ha, I found the idea for these picture "frames" NOT on Pinterest (for once), but in a 2013 issue of Seventeen magazine.  This happened to be the first issue of the magazine that I had read in years, but I found something that I thought could be of use to me in there!  The hardest part of these is making sure the photos are in straight lines.  I hate measuring so I just kind of eyeballed it.  Then I put tiny rolls of masking tape in the corners because I wanted the photos completely flat against the wall.  I used $1 black electrical tape from the Dollar Tree as the "frame" part.  I think it's a bit more of an elegant way of hanging photos right onto your wall than anything I've seen before.



Any proudly displayed crafts you see on the walls were probably the works of my Big or Little.  


Other than that, I had a giant standing mirror and a decent sized closet.  It was a small room, but it served its purpose!  My parents moved me out on the day I left for my trip to Europe, seeing as my lease was ending.  I would say the saddest part of leaving Oshkosh is not having my apartment anymore :'(  and I'll miss it dearly.  But time to save money so I can move into somewhere more permanent!  Somewhere that I can paint the walls!!!  Yes, it's in the very distant future, but I already know what colors my bathrooms will be.

Until next time!



Speed Reader Extraordinaire

I can't even focus on how lame this season of The Bachelorette is because I'm too p.o.'d at my Starbucks app for not recognizing my password.  It's hard to focus on Shawn's whining (and that one guy not closing his eye when he kisses Kaitlyn) when at the same time I CAN'T LOAD MY GIFT CARD ONTO MY ACCOUNT!  I think I've paid attention for about five minutes out of two hours it's been on.  If the five minutes I did see are any indication of what I've already missed, I don't want to see the rest.

In other news, I also decided that this was a good time to use one of my gift cards from graduation on three books that I've wanted from Amazon for quite some time.  Actually, they're the books written by three of my favorite Instagrammers.  I got I Spy DIY Style by one of Milwaukee's own, Jenni Radosevich.  I followed her on Snapchat before anything, and didn't even know she was from my area until I saw her story....looking at chocolates AT MY WORK.  I love her blog and dream of taking one of her DIY classes!  I also bought another DIY star's book, A Hot Glue Gun Mess by Mr. Kate.  I haven't been following her on Instagram for very long, but I like her sense of humor and I know the book is filled with "quirkily hilarious stories and anecdotes."  Those are two things I can't get enough of.  Finally, I got the recipe book that I've been coveting for months... Meringue Girls: Incredible Sweets Everybody Can Make and let me tell you, I'm very pumped about it.  I think I even talked about wanting this book in a previous post, but as a refresher, I started following the Meringue Girls at the peak of my meringue-making obsession and have been in awe ever since.  Their brightly colored meringue cookies, cakes, and sundaes have been my obsession for many months.  It's too bad that their store is located in England :( 


Super excited for those little buggers to show up in the mail.  I also should mention the last book that I bought from another one of my favorite Instagram stars, Yoga Girl (Rachel Brathen).  As a very, very, very amateur yogi, I started following her and consequently paying attention to her life.  I bought her book after realizing that it was so much more than just a yoga guide.  I saved it for reading material during my flight to Italy, and I'm glad I did!  Her deeply personal stories about how her father's plane crashed into the ocean almost distracted me from the ocean that I was...currently flying over.  Just kidding it made me fear for my life.  But really, I had no idea how many struggles she's faced!  And now she's an Instagram yoga star and role model living her dream in Aruba!  She also talks a lot about the stress of being such a highly sought-after yoga celebrity, which I wouldn't have picked up on just by reading her daily posts.  She just seems so chill.  The book also has recipes for her favorite foods and smoothies and of course, lots about yoga.  She's another person I would love to take a class from.  I would definitely recommend it, especially if you follow her!


Finally, I've read a few novels this summer as well.  If you recall from my New Years resolution list earlier this year, I set my first goal to be to read 25 books this year.  I'll give myself a break because I was in school for the first five months of the year, but I think I'm at book 5 or 6 of the year.  Not so good.  Still more than most of my friends have read this year ;) but not nearly close enough to where I should be if I want to reach my goal by December.  Luckily I've been using the app Overdrive on my iPad to borrow e-books from the library.  It only lets me borrow each book for a week, so it's actually a really good way to force me to read it before it expires!  Some books I have to place a hold on for a long time before I can actually borrow them, so that really encourages me to read them when I do get my hands on them!  And the fact that I'm doing this for free makes me feel very thrifty.

If you haven't realized it by now, I like to know what people are talking about right now in regards to books, movies, crafting, products, etc.  I took this summer as an opportunity to read a bunch of the books that have/will be turning into movies or books that I've heard good things about through other sources:

On the plane ride back from Turkey, I had the seats on both sides of me to myself.  When my boredom really took a turn for the worst, I whipped out The Happiness Project on my iPad.  Unfortunately I had a hard time focusing on really anything during that flight, and didn't finish the book before it expired.  I had to place another hold and am currently reading the rest!  I love how I keep reading things from her research on happiness that overlap from what I've learned as a Comm major.  What a nerd.  So far so good though!

When I returned for my trip and while I was waiting to re-borrow The Happiness Project, I read 50 Shades of Grey, Paper Towns, and The Maze Runner.  I was mad at myself for watching 50 Shades and Maze Runner as movies before I read the books, and wasn't going to make the same mistake for Paper Towns.  I love reading a book before seeing the movie, but I have a really hard time reading the book for the first time after I've already seen it onscreen.  I'm happy I made myself read those two books even though I've already watched them because now I can read the rest of both series.  As for Paper Towns, I'm so happy I have read it because I'll have no remorse when I go see the movie this summer!  I'm also really excited about the casting for it and the fact that the previews seem to fit pretty well with the story in the book (although I have already noticed two very minor differences...haha).  Picky, picky.


And for the question of: How do the books compare to the movies?  I almost always prefer the books.  Same goes in these particular cases.  I didn't hate 50 Shades the movie, but the book was way better.  I actually wanted to read the second, and I can't say I wanted to see the second movie (even though I will, ugh.)  As for Maze Runner, I liked the movie a lot when I saw it in theaters.  After reading the book, I realized how much they changed and preferred the original story a lot more.  I feel like that's the way it usually happens for me.  I'm excited to read the next two books.

Although I have 10 books on hold (eek), I'm always looking for recommendations!  I plan on continuing to read at least one per week through the rest of the summer (and indefinite future as well)!  

but for now, ciao


Apartment Livin' - The Kitchen

For the third installment of my "Apartment Livin" series, I'd like to bring your attention to the kitchen!  Honestly, my kitchen isn't much to see.  It's so small that it's hard for one person to fit in there while cooking much less trying to fit the two that actually live there at the same time.  Needless to say, there wasn't much to decorate.  I still managed to find ways to fill almost every bit of empty space.  It's a gift.

Before I explain too much, I might as well let the photos speak for themselves.



Below are actually placemats from IKEA.  They would have stayed placemats, but the apartment was too small for a kitchen or dining room table.  This appeared to be the next best place.  My landlord even complimented this little kitchen detail.  It's also proven to be a very good photo backdrop...





Obviously, the color scheme is bright greens and blues.  Although, through the duration of our time in the apartment, some other colors managed to sneak in to challenge that theme.  I just couldn't resist the macaron and tea cup scrapbook paper from Papersource used to make the wooden block wall art.  This is made in the same way as the blocks in my bathroom from my previous post.  And how could I not buy the wine cork towel?  I'm certain that these things are put in stores just to tempt me.

Like I said, other than that there's not much to see.  But wait - There's one more room left for my little apartment blog tour, so stay tuned as usual!