snow day

it snowed last week!!! !!!!! as someone who is considering a snowflake tattoo and hasn't seen snow in just about a year, this was the best/ biggest deal. i was at work when the storm started, so i left and it looked like ^ outside. magical. :) of course it didn't last very long.. but it was perfect and i got to build a snowman and i'm not even mad. just a little sad. ;)

the day after the 'storm,' i was off of work and had some outside-of-the-house plans. so i got dressed. and austin took pictures.

scarf: ae
sweater: a million years old uo
shirt: christmas present from becca :) <3
belt: target
shorts: ae
tights: target
socks: uo
rainboots: steve madden, via ebay, via my dad
my new purse: ae

i went with kendall to get her new phone.. i played with/distracted little avery (who is all of a sudden a teenager, idek) while getting really excited to finally be able to text kendall emojis. then we had lunch with kayla, who i haven't seen in a million years because she's busy becoming an officer of the law. it was really cute and then austin & i had a date night and i just really like the snow, you guys!!

now i'm gearing up for my all-time favorite holiday, valentine's day. i want to give every human at my job a little card and some candy. ridiculous.

<3

oversized sweatshirt & tight shiny pants

i can't believe january 2013 is already halfway over. we haven't even started packing and we're moving in two weeks! oh geez. actually, on the day we took these pictures, we went through our closets and got rid of about 4 trash bags of clothes. i'm sure the number of things we get rid of will double when we start packing.. things look a lot less necessary when you start thinking about lugging them to a new house. :)

i gotta be real, i'm not even stressed about moving at all. really, we're going about two blocks down the road, and i get to use my grown up job pto to take time off to pack. ;) also, now that things are calming down from the holidays, i'm feeling so much more comfortable and less anxious all of the time. relaxing has become my #1 activity, i guess.

even though this sweatshirt is a little big (it's austin's.. a christmas present from me, omg), i really loved this outfit. these pants are ridiculous (see below) and i wanted to calm them down as much as possible. i think the combination is perfect.

see?! they're shiny! damask print! pants! !! ridiculous and i love them.

necklace: anthropologie
sweatshirt: kinship press
belt: christmas gift
pants: ae
flats: steve madden

<3

super 70s

since these pictures, i have gotten a haircut.. in case you were wondering.

i found this dress a million years ago at the goodwill, but then it got buried under all of my dirty clothes and i totally forgot about it. actually, i think i found it the same day that i found my boy scouts shirt. ;)

i'm pretty sure i didn't think that my face was in this picture.. but it's kind of hilarious.

then, when we finally washed it and i re-rediscovered it, i realized that it was more of a tunic length than the cute summer dress length i had assumed. which is weird. dresses are neeever too short for me. but this one is. so i just went dramatically 70s with my look, which i liked a lot. i'm not totally sure how else i'll ever be able to style this, but we'll see! i love it. besides the length, it fits perfectly.

this was the first outfit that i wore in 2013. :) on this day, i met up with one of my best friends from college, jeff, and his (new!!!) fiancé (you may remember jeff from my halloween post). i had never met her before, and he's never ever in town anymore, so it was pretty nice to get to have grilled cheese sandwiches and coffee with them. after that, austin and i got to see our new house!! we'll be moving in february and i. can't. wait. i'm already dreaming about moving around furniture and wall art and everything. eep. this year kinda rules already.

necklace: thrifted in high school
cardigan: pacsun
dress: vintage
leggings: ae
socks: ae
boots: frye

how has the first week of 2013 been for you?

velvet

how was your new years eve ? i spent a big chunk of mine at work, which was insanely and unexpectedly busy. but then i came home and cooked dinner with austin. we watched a movie, shared some champagne (and leftover ice cream cake for me), and practically slept through the countdown. geez.

we had the day off together today, and i think we were pretty successful in our errand-running. our plans were to get lunch, get to the bank, and stop at the cell phone store before austin's band practice this afternoon.

i have this ridiculous habit of running every phone i have into the ground. i refuse to get a new one for no reason other than to get a new one, but once my old crappy phone starts dying.. i rush out to replace it as soon as possible. so, my new phone is in my hands. i've already downloaded all of the necessary apps, including instagram (littlegirlkatie) & snapchat. ;)

one of my new years resolutions was to do more than send texts of my cute outfits to becca, and share more on this blog. it's kiiiinda one of the reasons i started it to begin with. this is what i wore to work yesterday.. i felt like a little extra glamour was necessary, haha. originally, i had a sequined cardigan on, but, paired with the velvet leggings, it somehow felt like too much - even for nye.

i tried to pile on the accessories to make up for it, though. ;) you may recognize the dinosaur toes necklace from previous blog posts - austin got it for me for christmas! and the little bunny necklace was last year's gift from him.

i've been wearing a loooot of rings lately, too. this year, almost all of my favorite people gave me rings as gifts.. in my head, i've been thinking of it as the year of the rings (not to be confused with the year of The Ring - har har).

cardigan: ae
top: ae
belt: ae
velvet leggings: aerie
socks: ae
boots: docs
rings: ae, pacsun, catbird

<3

rambling thoughts on 2012 (also iphone cases)

i can't believe 2013 is tomorrow. this past year has been ridiculous and insane, and i can honestly say that i think my life only gets better and better as the years pass, so i can't wait for the next one.

how was your christmas? basically, i was spoiled - austin and i got new pots and pans, a crock pot, and his mom made me a huge, pretty, yellow quilt. is it just me or do quilts immediately make you think of the future? all i could think about when i opened it was that we were going to have it forever, and how exciting that is..

---

i had these grandiose plans of sharing some of my favorite texted-to-becca outfits of the year that i never shared on the blog, because most of them were on days that meant a lot to me, but.. my phone is no longer sending out anything. kind of. sometimes it does, but mostly it doesn't, and pictures are in the ~never sent~ category. bummer.

anyway, one thing that this means is - new year, new phone! so, i spent most of last night eyeing new iphone cases, even though austin is trying to convince me that i need an otter box.. ew. these are my top favorites, share some of yours with me?! i only looked on etsy, because mindless clicking sounded nice yesterday, but i'm sure i'll end up getting obsessed with having a new case every day, so. i think i'm sucking it up and buying a new phone tomorrow..

lady gaga drama

beetlejuice (aka, this is probably the one i'm going with..)

color block

deathly hallows

i don't even really know how this turned into that, but i think i'm going to head into work early anyway.  i need to spend more time with my computer in 2013, i think.. i miss blogging (outfits more than anything) and reading blogs.

happy new year !! xo

reasons i cannot wait for christmas

so i guess it's pretty obvious that this weekend had me giving up on radvent. i liked doing it a lot, but working 3pm-3am kind of messes with a blogging schedule. ;) i'm hoping to get back to it, at least during the weekdays, but we'll see.

i've been really in the christmas spirit lately, which is kind of out of the norm for me. christmas has never been one of my favorite holidays, but i literally can't wait for it this year. i think a lot of it has to do with how excited i am to shower everyone with gifts and love. :)

austin's been really awesome about going along with my really silly whims this year. last week, we went to see the decorated trees at hotel roanoke (i'm going again this week with kendall, avery, and grandma, hopefully). on friday night, we went to the downtown christmas parade. it was overall really silly, but pretty cute, and i'm glad we did it.

this weekend, however, drove home the real reason that i can't wait for christmas: for it to be over. working at the mall has some serious benefits and some off seasons, during which i'm sure to complain of boredom. but, right now.. i just want to kick everyone out. my manager has walking pneumonia, my coworker just came down with what seems like her 5th cold of the season, and i'm crossing my fingers that what i'm battling right now isn't the flu. our bodies are revolting against not only the hours that we're working, but also the stress that comes with people's attitudes during this time of year. for some reason this year seems worse than last year? but i might be wrong. all i know is that i'm glad i finished my shopping, and that people need to grow up. please, if you're out shopping (or out doing anything), remember that people are people - no matter what they're being paid to do for you, they deserve to be treated with respect. i've seen customers yell at 17 year old girls for following store procedures, i've been cussed at for not having any boxes, we've had customers roll their eyes when we tell them that, no, jeans are not part of our 40% off sale BUT EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE STORE IS. i think it all came to a head last night, when, (tmi alert:) i was running back to the bathroom to puke every ten minutes and a customer i rang up said: "you look awful. i bet you're getting sick. i've had a headache all day, so i can totally understand. i have to keep shopping, you have to keep working!! keep it together!" uhhhhhhhhhhh. yeah. it just gets old, being treated like trash day in and day out. i know it isn't going to go away completely after this shopping season, but i also know that it isn't going to be anywhere near as concentrated. kind of unrelated, but, can i also vent about employees not showing up or asking to have their shifts changed 30 minutes before their shifts start? ldjoifjifjf;kr. i'm sorry. i'll stop.

but hey! becca will be home tonight and i get her for like, a month. and she's going to work with me! and i randomly have remicade on austin's birthday so i get the day off to spend with him (post my post-remi nap, obviously). there's cool stuff happening.. i just have to remember that the next time i'm gritting my teeth through a smile at a dramatic person. now, i'm going to go back to sleep. maybe i'll be back later with a radvent. :) <3

radvent, days 12 & 13

well, i dropped the ball. i just wasn't feeling inspired. and then one line from meg's post stood out to me and all of a sudden, i was. idk. but i said from the beginning that it's whatever, i'm not going to lose sleep over making these posts.

radvent, day 12: acceptance

for me, this subject is about accepting that people are going to be themselves, no matter how much i wish i could change them or help them fix their flaws. without sounding like a know-it-all, i guess. at my last job, there was this weird clique of people who were not going to let me in, regardless of how well i treated them. one in particular kind of seemed to make it her goal to make me miserable, either by lying to me, lying about me, or just plain being mean to me. i constantly wanted to point out to each one of them just how back-stabby (to one another, even!) and cliquey they were in every way, but i didn't.. because i'm pretty sure they knew, and it's just how they chose to be. in my life, i'd work forever to get rid of that aspect of my life, but i think they enjoyed it. this is an extreme example, but it's kind of the best and quickest way to get to my point - people are different because they choose to be, and you know what? that's awesome. i shouldn't feel the need to "educate" or change every person i meet. i'm not saying that i don't feel like it's important to share opinions where you may see fit, but i am going to work on my overall acceptance of others. like the one time that my dad and i legitimately screamed over how stupid i thought twilight was. i 100% felt as though i was in the right, but he (and several of our loved ones who may or may not have been in the room...) enjoyed them! so honestly, who was i to get on my high horse? shoulda just ~accepted~ them.

day 13: making

i think i've slacked on my creative side over the past couple of months. in my defense, i started a new job and then all of a sudden i was working holiday in one of the busiest stores in the mall. i'm hoping to find some time this weekend to make a couple of ornaments and maybe even pull out my sewing machine (gasp).

short and sweet and to the point. <3