Happy Birthday Leap Year Babies

Top/Belt: H&M, Shoes: Payless, Skirt: Thrifted. Necklace: F21.

Now go twirl to your birthday hearts content.

On another non birthday note, let's talk about how awesome this skirt is. Don't think it's that awesome? Well let me tell you the price, a whopping $3! You can't argue with $3. 

Hubs saw it in the window of a thrift store while pursuing Idaho Falls and took me the very next day to try it on. It was love at first sight. The tag was still on from the original store so that means I was the first person to actually wear her out and let me tell you, she was loving it.

I also have a story about these shoes. I had really been wanting a certain pair of Martina Paten Wedges from J.Crew but sadly enough they are $228. So when I saw these wedges at payless I thought they came into a pretty close second and snatched them up for only $20. Saving myself about $208 and proving once again you don't need a lot of cash to look fabulous.

i love....

1. My new cake stand from Target. Can't wait to put some yummy treats on it. 

2. When Husband does my FAFSA for me. That thing is confusing.

3. A perfect hair day. 

4. Chick-Fil-A Lemonade.

5. Taco night.

How To Pack (light)

I'm off to the great state of Texas this week to visit my family, and while I'm away this week I thought I would share some fancy travel trips along with some awesome guest bloggers. So lets start off with how to pack, the worst part of traveling in my eyes.

I've never been very good at packing light, my suitcase is always a jumbled mess. Then add in all the new clothes I bought on my trip and you have a crazy looking lady at the airport desperately stuffing things from her suitcase to her carrying  on so she doesn't have to pay the extra baggage fee. AKA me every time. 

So when I was packing for my trip home to Austin this week I packed early and smarter. Knowing I would need extra room on the return flight I laid out some simple rule's for myself while packing.

1. Pack things that you can roll and cram in tight spaces without getting wrinkled. 

2. Pack outfits that you can mix up while you there. 

3. Pack within the same color scheme so more outfits can go together. 

4. Wear your more bulky item's on the plane. 

I did really well, except packing within the same color scheme that was hard, but everything else followed the rules.

 For Example.

-My H&M heels go with almost every single outfit packed. So less shoes=more room.

-Two skirts I packed I can wear twice by simple swapping out the shirt's. 

-I brought a button up shirt that I can wear by it's self, and then if one day it's a little cold I brought a sweater to put over it.

-That same sweater I can wear with a different skirt. 

-Instead of bringing all my Jewelery I brought only what goes with the outfit's picked out. 

-Every single piece can be rolled, crammed, and smashed without getting wrinkled. 

-I'm wearing my boots on the plane to save extra room.

So there you have it a simple way to pack. 

Hopefully I will look more elegant on this trip than I have the last.  

Fancy Friday

 

Top/Bracelets: F21, Skirt, H&M, Shoes: T.J. Maxx, Necklace: Downeast.

Last night we declared this summer the summer of the bike riding. We are not allowed to drive the car anywhere except to Idaho Falls or Salt Lake, because come on we are no Lance Armstrong. It's going to be awesome, I've missed riding my bike so much and cannot wait for summer to get here.

Hope you and I have a great weekend, it's perfectly sunny this morning an excellent start to the weekend if I do say so myself.

Photos by: Josh Petersen.

 

Lipstick Review

Siren from Revlon. Wal-Mart $5.

 

I've been wearing this beauty all over the place this past week. Taylor over at Sterling Style posted a picture of some of her lipsticks and I noticed that quite a few were from Revlon. 

 

I was so excited to see that she obviously loved their lipstick having so many because A. It's most likely going to be cheap and B. It would be at a local drug store. Living in Rexburg I don't have the luxury of big department stores like Nordstrom.

 

 So that very same day I went to Wal-Mart. Lucky for me they don't ask too many questions in their return department, so I was able to try a few before falling in love with this one.

 I love it for it's easy application and shine, and I don't have to worry about it getting all over my face when I eat. Unfortunately it does come off after eating and I do have to re-apply, a small price to pay for the convenience of not looking like the Joker during dinner. I love that it's different from the usual red, and it's a nice pop of color to any outfit.

Obviously I'm loving Revlon's lipstick and can't wait to try more. If you've tried and have a favorite shade I would love to know what it is to save me the hastle of trying, buying, and returning.

Past Lipstick Reviews: 

Flame.

Are you red-dy.

Lady Danger.

Angel.

Two Dollar Bill.

 David took me on a mini date last night to a Mexican joint in town that we like to visit often. During dinner he explained  the rest of our date and the Rules. 

He handed me a two dollar bill and said this was all I had to buy as many things as I could think of that represented all the date's we had ever been on. And I could only  buy these things in the Wal-Mart shopping mall. So basically Wal-Mart and Albertson's, and the winner would be getting a prize at the place of the award ceremony.

At the award ceremony we pulled out our items. 

Me: Ice Cream Cones. 

On almost every single date we have gotten some kind of treat. 

I know the cleverness is just beyond you.

David: Plastic toys for all the games we've played together. A penny for all the luck we've had together. A necklace for all the shopping trips we go on. A popcorn kernal for all the movies we've watched, and potato for all the meals we've eaten together.  

After he showed me all of his I wanted him to win for how thoughtful it was, but we decided instead that I would most Clever and he would win most Thoughtful. 

and we both ate cake.

Hard Questions.

 

Blouse: Gap, Pants: American Eagle, Shoes: H&M, Belt: Downeast, Necklace: F21.

I know your thinking there is no way I wore this yesterday with the weather looking the way it does around me. Your right I didn't, not outside at least. I spent the whole day inside blogging, reading, eating, running (two miles thank you), and pinning. Tomorrow its back to the real world, good thing I love my job so much that it doesn't feel like the real world. 

What does feel like the real world is getting officially accepted into BYUI for the spring/fall track and now having to choose a major by April. Ahh the hardest question of my life is "what do I want to do with my life?"

I have plenty of answers to that question actually

-Live in New York.

- Create a pet shelter just for cats a cat house I call it. 

- Go shopping a lot. 

- See the world.

-Volunteer in Africa. 

- Learn to speak French. 

-Grow a garden of flowers, veggies, and fruits. 

- Raise some awesome kiddos. 

-  Learn how to cook... eventually. 

-Be able to knit some stuff. 

-Get a Bachelors degree in something and a masters.  

So based off this list I should first move to New York obviously, then study, culinary, humanities, french, horticulture, child development,  and clothing construction. 

How can you pick one thing that is going to decide what you wanna do for the rest of your life when you want to do EVERYTHING.

 I struggle with this. Open to suggestions.

Bun Tutorial

Here are two way's I style my ever so frequent bun. 

The first is a Doughnut bun or sock bun whatever you want to call it. Mara does a fabulous job of showing you how to make your own doughnut, but I'm not one for creating my own things I would much rather buy it. I found my doughnut at Sally's for under $4.

1-2. Brush you hair into a high pony tail. 

3. Place pony through doughnut.

4. Wrap ends of hair around the doughnut. 

5-6. Begin to roll the doughnut down your pony. I rotate between the sides and fronts to make it even.

Pin if needed and spray with a firm hold hairspray.

The Messy Bun is the Bun I wear most often. It's easy to to create and you don't need anything special. I usually wear this bun when my hair is too dirty to wear down but I still want to go one more day without washing it (cause I'm lazy.) So therefore it works best for me when my hair is a little dirty.

1-2. Brush hair into a high pony. 

3. Taking random sections of pony and begin to backcomb. The messier the better. 

4. Spray teased hair with a firm hold hairspray. 

5. Begin to wrap teased pony. This is definitely the hardest part for me. It takes at least 3 tries to get it where I want it. 

6. Pin into place. Sometimes I will pin the bun and then loosing it and make it a little bit messier.

So there you have it, the doughnut bun and the messy bun. Good Luck!

On The Cheap

Sweater: Gap, Skirt: thrifted, Tights: Gap, Shoes; T.J. Maxx, Belt: H&M, Necklace: Downeast. 

O you loved my shoes so much from Fancy Friday you wanted to see them again? Perfect because I totally forgot to talk about them. I saw them at T.J. Maxx for $50 but didn't feel like spending that much. Then a couple of months later we run into each other again but this time on the sale rack,  the only pair left in my size I took it as a sign and then when I saw the price was only $20 I took it as a double sign and called them mine.

I love when you get things on the cheap, like this sweater for example also originally $50. Guess how much I got it for? $4! I was basically stealing it from them. Which makes me wonder how they can even sale it $4 and make a profit? Which also makes me want to never buy anything full price at Gap if I know that it's just going to end up going on sale for nothing, like the shoes I wore here.  (when I sucked at posing, but who's to say I've gotten better)

Over the Weekend

David had his first Snake Bite burger since being off of chemo. (he wasn't allowed to eat red meat.) This was a big deal!

We became the newest member's of Sam's club on Saturday.

It snowed a lot over the weekend and we introduced Coco to the snow. 

Stake Conference in Rexburg is crazy, we had to sit in the hall. 

And last but not least our Hunger Games trilogy came in the mail so David finished the first book in basically a day, like I said he would, and  I'm finally finishing the third.

David had to work today so enjoy your extra day off for us. 

Me and Coco will be staying warm with Katniss and Buttercup.

Sometimes I can be clever

And plan an awesome cheap date that totally surprises David. I wanted to do something fun but last time I decided to make dinner for him it was a total disaster. So this time I saved myself the heartache and left it up to the professionals at Pizza Hut. 

We finished the night off with the Last Star Wars and no fail dessert. We started the Star Wars trilogy in the Fall because I had never seen them and had decided that we should have a big celebration for the last one which we did thanks to my cleverness.

Fancy Friday

Dress:Gift, Tights: Gap, Necklace: F21, Shoes: T.J. Maxx.

As I was driving home from dropping the husband back off at work this afternoon the sun was shining on my face making me feel so warm. There was a happy song on the radio and then all at once I felt completely and utterly happy. 

 Tears began to swell in my eyes as I thought about how incredibly blessed I am, and how grateful I was for the wonderful life that I lead and the direction in which it is going.

Of course I cannot have this outlook on life all the time, I am not perfect, I will break down at one point.  But I do love when those little moments come and I reminded of all the wonderful things in my life.

Hope everyone has a fabulous long weekend!

Giveaway Winner Announced.

Congratulations to Destry and Liz! Please e-mail me with your information so I can get you set up with Josh. 

Thanks to all who entered, please note that the winner was picked totally random via random.org. You guys were really pulling at my heart strings with those stories and  I just wanted to let some of you win based off your story.

Fancy Friday post coming later!

Valentines Day

We had a fabulous Valentines Day, and were able to spend most of the day together. David had to go to Idaho Falls in the afternoon for his first radiation treatment and I brought him some Jimmy Johns to eat on the way down. Then we did some shopping for kitchen ware, we are trying to re build from everything we gave away or sold. (not fun)

That night David built me a fort, and we ate dinner by candle light. He even went out and bought new fancy plates for the occassion. Then he took me to the Cocoa Bean to pick out a cupcake. It was perfectly simple and sweet!

We also found out on Valentines day that we get to move into a bigger apartment in March instead of having to wait until July. This means bigger closet, and a kitchen table! 

Pretty awesome Valentines gift if you ask me.

Also don't forget that the Giveaway closes tonight at midnight. So go enter if you still need to. I will announce the winner tomorrow.