Happy New Year!!

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       Can you believe it's already 2014? time sure does fly when you're having fun. 2013 was a really good year for me and I'm hoping 2014 will be just as lovely. I had to work late NYE so I spent the first hours of the new year at home in my jammies with some celebratory champagne, classy. This year I hope to focus more on my career and really get that going, that's my number one resolution. I am also resolving to blog more! Things sort of fell off here in 2013, while I did post a bit it wasn't nearly as much as I would have liked. My personal life got busier and I made little time for blogging, so this year I promise to balance that more and come back with more content then ever before!

Dress: ASOS Booties: Target Earrings: Ecuador Bracelet: Marshall Fields (old)

       Since I didn't go out for New Years Eve the first outfit post of 2014 is actually from 2013, go figure.  Anyway, I wore this dress twice recently so I figured I'd show you the various ways I styled it.  I wore the first look to one of my good friends from Elementary/ Middle School's wedding. The wedding was lovely and she looked goregeous, I had to hold myself back from crying while she walked down the aisle. It's odd when your friends start getting married, but I'm very happy for her. I had a dress all planned out to wear, then I got the invitation and found out it would be a shorter wedding in the afternoon and decided to go a bit more casual.  I thought this dress fit the bill perfectly. I'm in love with the wrap look and the cute little birds on it,  the neckline is a bit too low for most occasions but that's an easy fix. I decided to dress it up a bit with a cute bracelet I wore to my prom forever ago, some peacock earrings I got in Ecuador, and black booties.

Dress: ASOS Boots: Payless 

       I also wore the dress on Christmas. I had a very busy Christmas in 2013, I went to my boyfriends mom's house for Christmas brunch and then we both headed to my grandparent's house for Christmas dinner. There were a lot of families, I'm pretty sure we were both exhausted by the end of the day. But it all went well and we got the meet the families part over with for the most part.  Anyway since I was meeting some of his family for the first time and wasn't sure what everyone would be wearing I decided to go with this dress as it's casual but still kinda dressed up. I also wore my new favorite boots from Payless. I seriously need more boots in my life. I really like this look and have recently fallen head over heels for wrap dresses, so look for more of those in the coming months. 

Mississippi Roadtrip: Memphis pt. 3 The Lorraine

      Although we literally only spent one day in Memphis we knew we had to make a trip to the civil rights museum as well. The Civil Right museum is built in and around the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Unfortunately most of the museum was under construction (another reason to come back to Memphis in the future!), but the Martin Luther King Jr. part was open. The museum starts across the street in a building that was a boarding house and was the place where James Earl Ray stayed and later shot Dr. King from. The tour is long and has a step by step account of the two men up and around the time before and after the assassination, It's fascinating stuff. You can even see what the room James Earl Ray stayed in looked like and the window he shot Dr. King from. You can also see into the room that Dr. King was staying in. There is a lot more to the museum that, unfortunately, we didn't get to see (as it was under construction) but I definitely want to go back and see the whole museum, the construction should be done in the beginning of 2014. If you're in or around Memphis this is definitely an important stop you should add to your itinerary.

Parts preserved of the boarding house James Earl Ray stayed in and assassinated Dr. King from:

The room (i think) where Jamel Earl Ray stayed

The Bathroom window where he took aim and killed Dr. King

View of the Lorraine Motel from the boardinghouse bathroom window

Another view of the Lorraine from inside the museum

a snip of the inside of the museum

The Lorraine Motel:

view of the boarding house from the balcony of Dr. Kings hotel room

The Room Dr. King was staying in before his death

As you can see they were also doing construction on the facade of the motel. You could see inside room 306 but I was not able to get a good picture of it. The museum was moving and I definitely learned a lot about Dr. King's assassination.  Hopefully I'll be able to make it back to Memphis soon and see the whole museum.

Mississippi Road Trip Memphis pt. 2 Graceland: All the rest

Graceland is way more than just a house. After you tour the actual home there are several building on the property filled with memorabilia and then even more exhibits with cars, jumpsuits (oh the jumpsuits!), planes and more. It's truly an experience. Anyway here's a peek of all the stuff outside of the main house.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Baby, It's cold outside by cleopatrajonez featuring a pom beanie

     

            Well it's December and it seems here in Minnesota as soon as the first came around mother nature took notice and it's been serious winter weather ever since. It snowed round these parts last Wednesday and then again Sunday. In between snow storms we've been having frigid temps (Saturday's high was -2). Yeah it's been one of those "Why do we live here again?" kind of weeks. Anyway frigid temps and snow mean unpacking all your winter accessories and quick! Unfortunately when I unpacked mine I was less than thrilled. Seems my winter wardrobe is in need of a winter accessory overhaul. The top things on my list are a cute winter hat, preferably with a pom pom, and a circle/infinity scarf. Above are some of my favorites from around the interwebs.

Birthday Outfit #1

 Top: H&M  Skirt: ASOS Tights & Shoes: Target

            First of all I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, a good black Friday (if you're into that), and a Happy Hanukkah. Anyway my birthday was the 16th and due to a work meeting early in the morning the day after (boo hiss), my birthday kind of got extended into a birthday week. I figured since I've had a severe lack of posts lately that I'd extend all the outfits I wore on various birthday outings into a couple posts. But fret not dear readers! I do have other non-b-day related outfits to share as well. Anyway here's the first outfit I wore out to dinner the day before my birthday. I wore this skirt last year on my birthday and having worn it a few times since, I think this is the best i've styled it so far. Even though it's black on black the different textures save it from being boring. That said I don't nearly ware this skirt enough and am dedicated to putting it in heavier rotation in my wardrobe.  I got the coat free from a clothing swap years ago and it's my favorite dressed up coat. Although I have yet to watch a single episode of Scandal (it's on my Netflix to do list) I am aware that thanks to Ms. Olivia Pope statement coats are having a serious moment right now. I think my coat kind of fits in that category, It makes my outfit look so put together and professional I kinda love it.

Wedding Reception Style

Top & Skirt: Thrift  Tights: Target  Shoes: Urban Outfitters

          A former supervisor of mine got married a couple weeks ago  and a bunch of my co-workers and I were invited to the wedding/reception.  Even though I have a ton of clothes whenever I have some special event to go to I feel like I have nothing to wear and should buy something new. I felt like that for the wedding and almost bought a new dress, but decided last minute that I could probably put together a great outfit with pieces already in my wardrobe. And What do you know I did! I thrifted this skirt  a million years ago but have never worn it, mostly because it's a little dressy and I don't really go to many "dressy" events. So when I was going through my closet to find something I decided to dust it off and give it a fine debut. I had no idea what to wear with the skirt top wise, as many of the tops either didn't go with it or just didn't give off the vibe I was going for. So what's a girl to do? go to pinterest of course! after searching "tulle skirt outfit" in pinterest I came upon a bunch of outfits and saw one with a lace top and thought aww a lace top would be perfect I wish I ... Oh wait I totally have one! Thankfully the top and skirt turned out to be a match made in closet heaven. I got a few compliments on my "dress", so I think it was a success. And I was proud that I stuck to my guns and used things I already owned instead of buying something new.