busygirl

fashion friday: my night of mayhem.

...is rapidly approaching.  June 5th is the date of my BACHELORETTE PARTY!  That's right Cleveland, these fine ladies will be invading your bars and stealing your gentlemen.

Not to mention looking fabulous while doing so.

And as the bride-to-be, I can hardly avoid the fact that I will be in many photos...many of which I will not want to see again.  So I've been on the hunt for the dress that will inevitably be up on a bar dancing at some point.

I don't think I'm going to rock white, although I love this dress!  I'm just too clumsy to not spill on myself when in a crowded bar.  White is better left for quiet evenings and dinners out when it comes to me.

I've been scouting out some brightly-colored options, like this yellow origami dress from Nords.  I'm a little wary of strapless though, seeing as we'll be dancing the night away.  So maybe something like this dress would be great!  I love the one-shoulder look with the rosettes...and the price!  Love the color of this one too with the contrasting lace, swoon.

Sigh, if I had an unlimited budget, I would so spring for this Adrianna Papell dress.  I am in LOVE.

I'm not sure if I want to wear black, since I always wear black, but I like the fun, flirtiness of this dress from F21.  Of course, I could spice it up with some brightly-colored pumps.  I love this ruffled black dress from TopShop too!

I'm obsessed with Arden B's dress collection right now, especially since they have a ton of non-strapless options.  Like this sequin bandage dress.  Or this white, one-shoulder ruffle dress.  This grey, white and black bandage dress's neckline is so cool, I love it!  I don't normally wear halters because I have very square shoulders, but I love the eye-popping blue color of this dress!  And of course, I love that it has a little ruffle.  I might never get over my ruffle obsession.

What did you wear or are wearing to your bachelorette party?  Did you rock the white?  Sport a bright color?  Or stick with traditional black?

wordless wednesday: i would like to be here.

last year as a single-digit doggie.

Happy 9th Birthday to my little pup, you're such a cutie and a trouble-maker all at the same time.  Mama loves you!

rock the dress.

This might quite possibly be the most awesome wedding photo I have ever seen.

via 1313 Photography

miscellany monday: 39 to go.

Did you read that?  39 days to go.  I'm slightly hyperventilating. 

Typepad is frustrating me because I can't change the size of my font.  I have to copy font from another website and paste it in order for the font to be bigger.  This limits my ability to overuse font size to express myself.  I feel cheated.

Did you watch Grey's??  I had to watch it twice it was so good.  Even Adam (an avid protester of McDreamy watching) was glued to it.  Pretty bummed about McBaby.  Still impressed though.  One of the best episodes yet.

Spellcheck does not recognize McDreamy as a word.  Boy are they mistaken.

I'm a lobster.  A red, red lobster.  Adam and I started our tanning regiment for the wedding (please, no snarky comments about skin cancer, I know it's bad for you, but I need a little color for the wedding, I'm very careful otherwise!).  I went for 10 minutes yesterday morning and am now a nice shade of blotchy red.  And as much as I would love to share a photo of this with ya'll, I'll leave it to your imagination.  I can still hear my volleyball team from last night snickering.

Speaking of volleyball, another great 'Nicole' moment last night.  When the ball came over the net, instead of bumping it back up, I just caught it.  Yup, just stood there holding the ball while everyone, including the ref had to take a two minute break to in order to regain their composure.  Spacey doesn't even begin to describe me yesterday.

We watched three Star Wars movies this weekend.  Which ultimately results in the strangest dreams.  Did you know that Darth Vader is secretly an underground rapper?  Me either.

Tomorrow is our pup's 9th Birthday.  He's old.  And to celebrate I think I'll eat ice cream.  Another wedding diet fail. 

csn stores GIVEAWAY WINNER!

Drum roll please...the winner of the ever-so-coveted $40 gift card to spend as you please at CSN Stores is:

Miss Katy Mary from Tangerine Hearts!  SO excited, LOVE HER!

Thank you to EVERYONE who participated!  I'm feeling the love and I'm sure CSN Stores is too! 

Didn't win?  Shed no tears, I have some more awesome giveaways coming up in the next couple weeks!

fashion friday: bring on the boat!

Even though it's raining and 58 degrees outside, I'm still daydreaming of the long days of boating that are ahead of us.  Adam's family has a boat out on Lake Erie and it's by far one of my favorite places to be when the sun is shining.  There's nothing like some good boat drinks while floating around in the water.

And so, to prepare, I need to get my summer boating gear in order.

While most of my time is spent floating...with a drink in my hand...I do go tubing occasionally.  Due to, eh, personal experience, I have determined that the bikini is not the most optimal attire when trying to hold onto a tube while you fly over the waves.  If anyone finds some cute purple polka-dot bottoms floating in Lake Erie, well, please return them :)

One-piece bathing suits have always seemed so blah to me though, maybe because they are too reminiscent of my lifeguarding days.  That's why I've been eyeing this retro one-piece from Modcloth.  Not only is it uber-cute, but I could go tubing without the fear of flashing my audience.

And to go with it - a straw fedora.  I don't look particularly great in hats, but I think I might be able to pull one of these off, completely with some messy lake hair.

I'm all about wearing a pair of my cut-off denim shorts (made from a pair of my old jeans) with an oversized light pocket tee (I LOVE THESE, live in them!).  And some colorful flower thong sandals.  And of a boyfriend cardigan in case the wind gets a bit chilly.  Stylish enough if we stop off at the islands but still comfy for lounging around on the boat.

If I know we're going to be going somewhere a bit nicer when we dock at the islands, I throw  a comfy maxi dressin my bag to slip on for when we are heading off to get some dinner.  I love that this one has a racerback for something different.

And of course, a huge, brightly colored bag to tote my boating necessities in: a hairbrush, a good book, my favorite sunglasses and of course, sunscreen!

What's your favorite summer activity?  Is anyone else a boater?

dear sweden. thank you.

OMG.  I just died.  Of happiness.

project white walls.

Welcome to the insane asylum that we call home.  What's that?  It looks more like an apartment?  Lies.  No one who is sane can live in a house of white walls.

Or at least I can't.

But I must.  And I have been wallowing in sadness over the loss of our beautiful sage walls, our relaxing gray-blue bedroom and even the punchy lime green bathroom that brought a freshness to the downstairs.  But along with the yard, we also gave up our painting rights when moving from our house in Columbus to our 2-bedroom ranch apartment in Cleveland.

WHITE WALLS.

eeeeyuck.

But alas, I have wallowed long enough and decided that I need to do something about it.

And so begins, Project White Walls.  A 2 week excursion with one goal: to make this apartment modern, fun and creative, WITHOUT painting ANY walls.  I love to decorate rooms, ask my mother, I just redid her family room and bathroom for her.  And in my experience have found that the right paint color can totally transform a room.  So what's a girl to do when you have to work with white walls?

Get to the drawing board.  I've had this on my mind for the last few days (read: very little sleep), I've drawn up a few plans and brainstormed.  Luckily Tuesday struck me with a creative overload resulting in a decent plan of attack and a firm budget.  A mere $250 to purchase EVERYTHING I need, including a new desk, curtains, bench and lamps.  I'm going to have to get creative here...

And to keep myself all on track, I'm inviting you along for the ride.  Because let's face it, there's a lot of bad reality tv I could be watching instead of moving furniture.  But if I know that someone is going to hold me accountable for the fact that our second bedroom looks like a scene from hoarders, I'll be much more motivated to get things done!

Not to mention, we've all been there, stuck in a white-walled apartment facing a decorating block.

So please, do share.  PWW could use all the help we can get!  Adam and I do have a few DIY ideas up my sleeve, but more are always welcome!

*******

AND just a quick note, don't forget that the CSN Stores giveaway ends TOMORROW at NOON EST!!!  I'll be drawing one lucky winner for a $40 gift card!!! Totally jealous by the way... ;)

you capture: depth of field.

Between moving, job switching and wedding planning, I've been slacking in participating in Beth's weekly 'you capture'.  Having a weekly assignment forces me to pick up my camera and experiment with finding new creative, and I've missed it dearly.  But, I'm back!  And ready to shoot to my heart's desire.

This week's assignment was fun to experiment with, and although my trusty costar (the dog) was more than willing to model for photos, I found that my 5-month old nephew proved to be the real camera star.

But before I show my final product, I need to you meet someone.  This...is Robster.

Loving, loyal companion of my darling nephew Tommy.  Everywhere baby Tommy goes, Robster goes too.  He's there during naptimes, playtimes and even trips to Uncle Adam and Aunt Nicole's house!  Although we must play too hard for Tommy, because he fell fast asleep with Robster by his side.

Providing the perfect setting for my field of depth assignment capturing two best friends, sound asleep.

 

For more you captures, head over to Beth's!