Goodbye 2011

Skirt: Wet Seal, Shirt: Wet Seal, Sweater: Lauren Conrad, Tights: Target, Shoes: Target, Earrings: JewelMint

 Well, this is the end of 2011. I can't believe it's already New Year's Eve. There is officially 20 minutes left of 2011. 

 Although I didn't go out for New Year's (Garrett and I had a nice dinner at his place, but then he had to work at 11pm), I still pulled out my sparkly skirt for the occasion. I've been waiting for a reason to wear this since I bought it a couple years ago for New Years plans that fell through. 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful night! 

Happy New Year!!

Meet Lola

Pants: Forever 21, Boots: Modcloth, Coat: Candie's, Sweater: Wet Seal, Tank: Decree, Glasses: Ray-Ban, Purse: Epiphanie

 Hello lovely readers of mine. I would like to introduce you to my newest favorite thing in the world: Lola from Epiphanie Bags. I received this "purse" for Christmas from my parents. 

  Now, this might look like an ordinary purse, but it's not. It's a camera bag!! Inside is lined with soft dividers so I can separate my camera from the rest of my stuff, like my wallet and cell phone, etc.  And I don't have to carry my camera bag separate from my purse either. I can store extra batteries, lens cleaners, my camera cord, and it doesn't get mixed in with my keys and chap-stick and other purse necessities. Plus, it doesn't get heavy either! 

You will be seeing a lot of Lola from now on!

Ruched Boutique Review

A while back I saw on an IFB board a posting of an online boutique, Ruched Boutique, looking for bloggers to purchase their clothes at a discounted price and review the products. I looked at the clothing and found a lot of items I really liked! So I decided on these two and this is my review.

Chiffon Dot Dress

Dress: Ruched Boutique, Sweater: Thrifted, Tights: Target, Boots: Vera Wang, Watch and Charm Bracelet: Betsey Johnson, Glasses: Ray-Ban

I love this dress! The waistline is a little high on me, but I have a long torso (and I'm 5'6 for reference). There were two pieces of the chiffon on the sides to tie in the back, like a belt, but I cut them off because of the higher waistline. The dress is a touch on the short side (probably because my legs are 4399484573 miles long), so I have to wear leggings/opaque tights under it, but that's no problem to me. It's a issue I run into a lot. Overall, I have no complaints. It's a flowy dress, without being too crazy. My only recommendation would be to purchase a size up if you're curvy. There's not a whole lot of stretch.

Paisley Dress

Dress: Ruched Boutique, Sweater: Urban Behavior, Jacket: Rue 21, Tights: Hue, Boots: Wet Seal,  Scarf: Wal-Mart

I'm actually wearing this dress backwards! As you can see in the second picture, the back is longer than the front. But because it's on backwards, the real front is actually longer than the back. When I put it on, I thought it looked weird with this hemline. Truthfully, I'm not a fan. I prefer the hemline to be longer in the back or just even throughout. Aside from that, it's a great dress. I love the paisley print and the colors work perfectly together! It's a stretchy dress and really comfortable.

Overall Shopping Experience

Jen, the owner, is great! I emailed her asking about purchasing the items and she got back to me right away the next day. The items were shipped next day and arrived in less than a week (I'm sure that had partially to do with her being in Illinois and me being in Wisconsin). They were individually wrapped in tissue paper and arrived in perfect condition. Jen is a great communicator, businesswoman, and buyer. I highly recommend Ruched Boutique to all!

Casual Christmas-Day 2

Sweater: Wet Seal, Jeans: Wet Seal, Shoes: Payless, Earrings: Betsey Johnson, Glasses: Ray-Ban

 Today was my last Christmas celebration of this season. Since I have 8 nieces and nephews all under the age of 9, comfy is was again. 

 I still have a lot of left over clothes from high school/early college days. Like this sweater and these jeans. But, if they work, they work. No sense in getting rid of perfectly good clothes (minus the rips at the bottom of these jeans). Wet Seal isn't a store I would normally shop at as much now, but I do like to look through the store when I'm at the mall. They have some pieces that are a little more "age-less" and it's certainly cheaper than buying women's clothes.

 I love to wear more neutral or dull clothes and then add a pop of color with the shoes. I actually don't have many bright shoes, and when I got these flats, I didn't really wear them a bunch at first. But now I've been wearing them all the time. Maybe it has something to do with the holidays.

Tomorrow, I am meeting with some old friends and shopping with my gift cards I received for Christmas! I can't wait!

P.S. Can you believe this weather?! It was almost 40 degrees today! I didn't even wear my coat!

Casual Christmas

Tank: Target, Sweater: Lauren Conrad, Scarf: Wal-Mart, Jacket: Banana Republic, Pants: Old Navy, Shoes: Kmart, Hat: From Cassie, Glasses: Ray-Ban

Today was Christmas with my Great-Aunt Char, my Uncle Jon, and my mom and step-dad. Holidays at my great-aunt's are usually a casual affair so I stuck with my comfy black skinnies and a long, cozy sweater. While I'm not into all things Christmas (I really don't dig Christmas music), I do have a habit of going all out on Christmas day. This is by far my most non-Christmasy outfit in a few years, but I still managed the red and green.

 Another thing that's different about this year is the lack of snow. These pictures were taken in Waupan, where there is a little bit of snow, but Madison has none! It's been years since we've had a non-White Christmas!

Tomorrow is the last family get together. It all goes by so quickly!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Dress: Thrifted, Tights: Target, Boots: Kmart, Sweater: Wet Seal, Jacket: Rue 21, Scarf: Wal-Mart, Gloves: Serve, Belt: Thrifted

 The holidays by me are always a bit hectic. I have a lot of family to see, and a lot of places to go. It always takes place right after finals, so all the left over stress doesn't help. (It takes a bit for it to wear off for me.)

However, tomorrow is Christmas! I am looking forward to spending time with family and finally catching up with friends (and my breath!). What do you have planned for Christmas?

P.S. I promise to be a bit more on track with my blog posts from now on!

Graduation

My graduation ceremony was on Saturday! Hence why I have been absent. In a nutshell, here is how my last few days have gone...

Thursday

-Pulled my first all-nighter in a very long time to finish all my homework and studying for my first exam, which was Friday morning at 8am.

-Learned that my school's library is the place to be during finals week. They gave out free coffee and cookies, along with inspirational messages and offer wii breaks!

-Caught up with an old friend that I haven't seen in years, which is what led to the all-nighter.

Friday

-Rocked my exam!

-Breakfast with Garrett. 

-Slept until 2pm.

-Cleaned my apartment.

-Dinner with half my family, Garrett and Cassie.

-Bed pretty early.

Saturday

-Woke up pretty early. (Ceremony started at 10am!)

-Got dressed/curled my hair (which takes a while).

-Arrived at the location of my ceremony and stood around for an hour alone because I knew no one there. (Cassie's ceremony was at 1pm so we didn't see each other all day!)

-Finally found my friend, Kelley, which didn't matter too much because we were in different sections.

-Ceremony started.

-Listened to long, boring speeches.

-Finally lined up to walk across the stage.

-Walked across the stage as the name caller completely butchered my name!! (How is that even possible?! My name is spelled exactly how is sounds! Katelyn Weber. Is that so hard to say?! He said Kath-lyn Weber. And I stood there for an extra minute yelling "Katelyn!" at him, but he never corrected it. By the way, I have the neatest handwriting out of anyone I know. Seriously, ask them. There is nothing anywhere near an "h" in my name. Egh.)

-More long, boring speeches.

-Finally got to leave.

-Found my family. Bitched about my name. Took pictures in the freezing cold.

-Changed my shoes and went out to lunch with the other half of my family.

-Went to Applebee's and ordered my long-awaited mojitio.

-Spent the rest of the night being very lazy.

Sunday

-Another lazy day.

And here we are on Monday. I still have 3 exams so it's hard to really enjoy "graduation", especially since the day did not go as smoothly as I would have liked. But, only three more days and I am free from college forever! Wish me luck on my finals! And good luck to those of you who are taking yours as well!

Spots and Dots

Dress: Ruched, Sweater: Thrifted, Tights: Target, Boots: Vera Wang, Glasses: Ray-Ban, Watch, Charm Bracelet: Betsey Johnson

 Tomorrow is my last day of classes! And then Friday is my first final, Saturday is the commencement ceremony and then I still have a week of finals after that. Then, I am officially free from school forever!

 I will be doing a product review on this dress next week sometime after I have pictures of the other dress I have from Ruched.

I decided to pair it with my green leopard print sweater as a minor attempt at the monochromatic trend. I know I'm a little late in game for this trend (it was so 4 months ago!), but I've never been a big fan of wearing all one color at once. I love all colors! So, it just took me a while to give it a shot.

Only seven more days until freedom!

Hot Pink

Sweater: Forever 21, Tank: Wet Seal, Pants: Arizona, Shoes: Kmart, Charm Bracelet: Betsey Johnson, Watch: Betsey Johnson, Bow: Made By Me, Glasses: Ray-Ban

 I feel like my glasses make every one of my outfits ten times cooler. And everyone around me is probably sick of me saying that! 

This is my Kristine pose!

 I bought these pants over the summer and wore them a few times. Then fall came and they moved to the back of my closet because when I think of fall, hot pink does not come to mind. But now that it's basically winter (minus the snow, which is abnormal for Wisconsin), I think it's time to pull them back out. I also have a pair in bright blue.

 I received the Betsey Johnson charm bracelet for Christmas from my aunt. I'm excited to add another BJ item to my collection. She's my favorite designer!

This post is taking me forever to write. NCIS is on!

Christmas Gift Idea - For Family

This year for a Christmas gift to my grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, etc., my cousins and I got together (back in November, you may remember the epic cousin get-together?) and got pictures done of all of us. We haven't had a family portrait since before our youngest cousin was born. She's 9 years old!

The Whole Fam

Cheesy Family Photo

The Older Kids

The Young-ins

My Sister, Emma, and Me

Brothers

Siblings

Husband, Brother, Sister/Wife

Family portraits are a great gift for family members. Especially when they are fun pictures like these. They were such a blast to take! We were lucky to have a friend, Miss Michelle Miresse, to take our pictures, but even if you don't have a professional photographer on speed dial or it's not in the budget, you can still do something like this!
Just pin a large bed sheet to a wall, set up your camera on a tripod and use the self timer! Picture frames are always on sale at Kohl's and sometimes there are good one's at the Dollar Store even! If you've got some free time, you could always decorate the frame too.

P.S. I apologize for the picture overload. There were just too many favorites!

Early Christmas

I apologize for being absent for a few days. This last weekend was Christmas for one side of my family.  My step-mom got me these glasses for Christmas! How awesome are they?! :)

Menswear: Stylish Made Easy

In honor of Garrett's birthday, I am doing another menswear post!

Shirt: Izod, Sweater Vest: Izod, Jeans: American Eagle, Shoes: Converse

Dressing your man (or men, dressing yourself!) like this is so much easier than you think it is! Usually, men are turned off by the amount of effort you have to put into an outfit, not the actual style. (Of course there are exceptions!)

Tips For Easy Styling

1. Make sure the sweater vests are in colors that he likes to wear/make him look good. (This would be done during the shopping trip.) Garrett has beautiful dark, green eyes so wearing a deep purple like this really compliments his eyes. Men may not think this technical, but if it makes him look good, he'll wear it.

2. Have a couple plain white button-down shirts to wear under the sweater vests. While mixing and matching colors and patterns may be fun for us, most guys aren't into spending the time. White button-down shirts look great under any colored sweater vest. That way, he can just grab one without thinking too much.

3. Keep it casual/comfy with jeans. Once he puts on khakis or slacks, it starts getting too dressy. Pairing the button-down and sweater vest with jeans will keep the "everyday" wear look, and he'll be happier being comfy.

4. Finish off the look with fashionable tennis shoes. I'm a very big fan of converse. On men and women. They are timeless and make any outfit look instantly casual cool. I own three pairs myself. It took me a while to convince Garrett to wear them, but once he did, it completed all his outfits perfectly.

Now ladies, go into the world and start dressing your men! Or just ask them to try this out. Questions? Comments? Concern? I'd love to hear from you!