Top Posts of 2012

It's crazy to think that I've been rocking this blog for six months now.  I was looking through some of my early posts and if feels like they were so long ago.  As 2012 winds down, I wanted to share my top 5 posts of the year:

1. Easy Costume: Wendy from Peter Pan
How to turn a nightgown from Sears and some ribbon into a quick Wendy costume

2. Giving Cash as a Gift

An amusing way to gussy up cash monies 

3. 5 Tips for Curling Stubbornly Straight Hair
How I get my crazy straight hair to stay curled, as well as a gift for my almost sister-in-law

4. Mini Meatloaf Bites

The recipe for my favorite appetizer, Mini Meatloaf Bites

5. Sisterface Wedding Extravaganza

A look back at my little sister's wedding as well as a double-denim outfit

Thank you to everyone who has read and supported my little blog over the past few months!  For 2013 expect a lot more how-to posts as well as a (hopeful) improvement on my photography skills.  Can't wait to see you then! 

Their Way / My Way: Wall Art

Sources: 1 / 2 / 3

My sister and her husband (augh!) just moved in together and wanted some artwork for their walls, so I thought making something for them would be the perfect gift.  I had been toying with something using the phrase "home is wherever I'm with you," and my friend mentioned she had found some map art on Pinterest so I swiped her idea ;)

First I went to a used book store around the corner from my apartment and found a map of Lake County, where we grew up and my sister currently lives.  I decoupaged the map to a canvas and let it dry completely.  While it was drying, I laid out the words the way I wanted in InDesign and printed them out.  Then I lightly taped the words to the map and traced over them with a mechanical pencil, pressing down hard so that the pencil made an indentation on the map.  Using good lighting, I traced and filled in the letters using a marker.

Next, I watered down some paints (if I had watercolors in stock, I would have used those instead) and painted over everything to age the map up a bit.  Now, I used a washable marker, which led to a bit more of a distressed look than I was going for, so I used some paper towels to pick up the extra color.  Then I finished it off by tracing around the letters with opaque white paint and the tiniest paint brush you can imagine.  

Voila!  Present!

Sisterface Wedding Extravaganza

This weekend was my sister's wedding.  She went super untraditional, and got married on a beach in Door County, WI.  Just immediate family (and my boyfriend, lucky man) were present.  It was about 39 degrees and windy, but a very beautiful and intimate ceremony.  Didn't get any pictures at the beach since I was technically the maid of honor, but did snap this in the driveway:

How do I do a trip to the woods?  With chambray and denim, of course!  Silly iPhone makes blurry photos: 

 Shirt and Sweater - Old Navy, Jeans - Gap, Boots - Bandolino, Earrings - Loft

Now I'm decompressing, tomorrow the construction in my office will be complete so pajama week is officially over.

You had me at "Meat Tornado"

Not to go Ron Swanson crazy or anything, but I found this on Pinterest yesterday and just had to share.

Also, I'm about to leave for Door County, WI for the weekend for my little sister's wedding!  She's having her wedding on a beach and it's supposed to snow.  That's what sweater dresses and tights are for, right?!  Perhaps I'll post some pictures along the way.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Their Way / My Way: Easy Updo

This past weekend I had another wedding to attend, so I thought I would try out the Twisted Updo from Kate at The Small Things Blog.  Kate was one of the first bloggers I ever followed, and I've been wanting to try out this style for a couple of months now.  As Kate pointed out in her post, this actually is a super easy style as long as you break it down into steps.

Step one is to lightly curl your hair.  Don't worry about locking in the curls like I did here, since you mostly just want volume and curled ends that won't stick straight out of the style.  Then section out your hair so that there are two front sections, from the top of your head to your ears, the crown, and the back of your hair.

Step two is to lightly tease hair at the crown, and then pin that hair into a small poof on the back of your head. Use two bobby pins crossed over one another to lock it in.

Step three is to lightly tease the bottom section of your hair and then pin up random sections.  Kate just pinned each piece once, leaving the ends out and loose.  I've always had some struggles with leaving my hair "undone" - my braids are always tight, my ponytails slicked back - so  I wanted a little more structure (and hold, for all of the kicking up my heels and whatnot).  I did the original lifting and pinning that she did, but then pinned most of the ends into the style as well.

The final step is to take the two front pieces and lightly twist them, and then pin them over the style.  Finish with a lot of hair spray.

Let me tell you, I got a lot of compliments on this hair (mostly from elderly attendees, who thought I looked "like Adele, but prettier").  People were surprised to hear that I had done it myself.  It took less than 10 minutes (minus the curling part) and held all night!

Funny story, this wedding was actually in the same location as the one I went to two weeks ago, so I thought I'd take the same picture in the same mirror in the bathroom.

It was a little chilly on Saturday, had to break out a coat!  And yes, I decided to go with the white patterned dress.  

Oh and a final sidebar: they used frames with childhood photos of the bride and groom for the table numbers.  So cute!

Wedding Weekend Day 4: The Big Day

Sunday was finally the big day.  We stayed at The James in downtown Chicago, and let me tell you, we had a very odd room.  For example, instead of a door to the bathroom, there was a sliding panel with a circular, frosted glass window in the center.  Also, this reading nook in a dark corner of the room:

I knew it would be a pretty fancy wedding, so I went super fancy:

Dress - Ralph Lauren, Shoes - Calvin Klein, Bag - Michael Kors, Jewelry - gifts

People kept asking me if I had gotten my hair done, but it was actually a really simple updo I did myself.  I curled my hair, teased the crown a little, and then pulled it into a low pony, leaving small sections out on either side of my face.  I then wrapped each piece I left out around the ponytail, crossing one over the other, and secured with bobby pins.  This was a less than 5-min hairstyle (once my hair was already curled).

Was it obnoxious that I matched my lip color to my nails?  Probably.  Did I care?  Absolutely not.

Me with the best man ;)

Overall it was a great but exhausting weekend!  Let me tell you, I had a looooot of laundry to do last week ;) Now I'm starting to get excited for my trip to California next week, and mentally planning all of my outfits.  How early is too early to start packing?

Wedding Weekend Day 3: Sailing & Rehearsing

So day three meant sailing on Lake Michigan while Hurricane Issac blew through.  Someone (ahem) got a little seasick and had to spend the whole trip laying down, so I didn't manage to get any outfit pics.  I think everyone else had fun, except for the groom who got knocked down along with me.  Perhaps I should invest in some Dramamine next time...

After that I got a little recovery time while everyone else rehearsed, and then went to the rehearsal dinner.  I couldn't tell how dressy the dinner was going to be so I went with flats, but all of the other girls wore heels.  I was the one laughing later that night while the groom led us all over downtown trying to find a bar.

Dress - Bar III, shoes - Payless, bracelet - Tiffany's

I'm loving the peplum trend, super flattering, and allow you to eat a lot without any food babies ;)

On a sidebar, I like how my room gets progressively messier in each picture from the weekend.  My mom would be so proud.  The bag with the pink is for my sister's bachelorette party tonight!! 

Wedding Weekend Day 2: Cubs & Cocktails

Day 2 of the weekend was a Cubs game (they actually won!) and then a party later that night.  A bunch of my boyfriend's friends were staying with him for the weekend and I ended up staying there too despite not packing anything.  All weekend I was carrying around my outfits in my purse, and then running home periodically to grab new clothes.  Packing extremely light = a lot of repeated accessories.  You can't see it in this picture since the boyfriend didn't manage to get my shoes (silly boyfriend) but I'm wearing the same sandals as the day before as well as some other things.  

Dress and belt - H&M, Earrings - Francesca's (another purchase while I was supposed to be shopping for wedding jewelry, dun dun duunnnn)

It was Labor Day weekend, I wanted to get my white lacy dress in one more time!  Although I don't care about rules, so as long as it stays hot, this little baby will probably make another appearance.  

Dress - LC by Lauren Conrad, shoes and belt - New York and Company, necklace - Tiffany's

One of my college roommates was also in town that night, so I abandoned the group for a bit to meet up with her for dinner before heading out to the party.  I think she was really confused sitting in the other room while I snapped outfit pics ;)

No outfit links in this post!  See, my clothing addiction isn't that bad.  Maybe I should go shopping...

Wedding Weekend Day 1: Frontier

I now realize I didn't actually manage to get pictures of all of my outfits from this weekend.  Whoops!  Day one was just dinner with some people who came into town early.  But when I say "just dinner," I mean it involved eating a llama meatball.

We went to this place called Frontier, which is a dude haven.  Like, seriously, 90 percent of the patrons were guys.  This is probably because you can order an entire boar for dinner if you give them enough notice.  I made it on time despite my boyfriend forgetting to tell me the location for dinner had changed.  He was probably distracted by the boar.

I wanted to go cash, but still cute since I was meeting a bunch of the boyfriend's friends for the first time.  I ordered this dress from Ideeli, only open it up and realize it was from a boutique that is literally a block from my apartment.  I had been walking past their windows all summer lusting after it, yet still didn't manage to realize it was the same dress when I bought it.  Nice work, me.

It was hot and sweaty that day so I decided to rock the bang braid.  I really want to use the word "boomskies" right here, but that will only prove to my friends once more that I've been hanging out with the boy too much.

I'm also super loving this necklace I picked up from Francesca's last week while I was supposed to be shopping for wedding jewelry (whoops!).  It makes me feel like such a badass ;)

Dress - Vfish, Tank - Kohls, Necklace - Francesca's, Belt - Urban Outfitters, Sandals - Nine West

Bridezilla

This weekend I went out to my parents' house in the suburbs. The intent of the visit was to help my sister nail down some details for her wedding, which is coming up in October. She is literally the least bridezilla-ish out of anyone I've ever seen. Which, frankly, as the hairstylist for her wedding, makes my life a whole lot easier. Her hair is really short right now, so we decided to just curl it loosely and leave it down. She's having a beach wedding, so something loose and undone will work well.

We also got to do some sisterly bonding activities while I was home, like going to Target, eating at the little restaurant we love down by Lake Michigan, and going running together (we decided to sign up for the Hot Chocolate 5K. Yes, I voluntarily signed up for a race. The chocolate thing is what really convinced me.)

Now it's time to head back to the city for dinner with the boo and his family. Perfect Sunday!

Wedding

So the wedding we went to last weekend was fantastic, partially because it was a beautiful ceremony (the bride, groom, and several members of the bridal party cried), partially because all weddings are good, and mostly because it was at a hotel on the McDonald's campus in Oak Brook, which is really beautiful but also odd.

 The hotel itself was very prairie style and had amazing views - unfortunately it was raining on and off throughout the day so the ceremony itself was moved inside. Everything was also subtly-themed McDonald's which I found amusing - M's on the door handles, all of the artwork had a McDonald's sign in it somewhere.

Me and the boyfriend :) 

Who doesn't love a good dressed-up strawberry?

Best part of the night?  At 11pm they came out with a late-night snack...

Yes, please!