Quick Pics

2015 is off to a pretty good start! I started off the year with most of my favorite people, and we had a good time together. I did my eye makeup the same as Christmas, except I used gold glitter liner instead of silver. You gotta have gold and glitter for New Year's!









The entire series of Friends became available on Netflix on the 1st, so Chris and I have been power watching it. We are already in season 5. I've seen all the episodes multiple times, but Chris hasn't watched too much of it. He isn't really a fan of sitcoms with laugh tracks, though I think that Friends wasn't ALL laugh tracks. I think they had a studio audience sometimes. It's definitely grown on him. It definitely gets better as the series progresses.

Not much else went on this month. I tried out some fun space-inspired eye makeup. I put pearls on my cousin's cat to see how she'd react. I had a sleepover with my friends and we made champagne punch and talked and watched movies, then we had an amazing breakfast the next day. Lots of relaxing, not too crazy things. January is kind of a lull of a month. The holidays are over and it's sort of like a month to just breathe and not do much. Plus it's always cold, so there's not much TO go out and do...











Speaking of cold, Winter Storm Juno made its way up here, but we didn't get hit as bad as I thought we were going to. Nemo definitely hit us way worse a couple of years ago. The snow was up to my waist with that storm. I think we only got about 6 inches around here with Juno. We were still snowed in since there was a travel ban and the roads had to be cleared and whatnot, and I of course ended up getting cabin fever. I was kind of looking forward to a huge blizzard, though. There's something about crazy weather that's so interesting and fascinating to witness. Plus Chris and I wanted to build another igloo. If tornadoes didn't completely terrify me, then I would love to see one in person. If there was a way that I knew I'd survive and be safe, I'd probably go chase one. When we got hit by one of the hurricanes, I wanted to go down to the beach and watch it. Anyway...we were snowed in so Ashley made delicious chocolate chip pancakes and eggs. :)

Although January has been pretty chill (har har har), I did celebrate my five year blogiversary last week! It's nice to have a relaxing month, and although we did get snow, we made it pretty far into the winter season without any major snowfall. We're supposed to get more on Monday, though. I don't mind it so much now that I'm in my own place, as long as I don't have to drive in it!

Five Year Blogiversary!

Five years is a relatively long time to be doing something, in my opinion. If you were dating someone for five years or you were at a job for five years or you've been a mom for five years, it's a fairly significant milestone. It's half a decade. I've gone through a lot of changes both in regards to life and style in these past five years, and I'm grateful to say that I'm happy with where I am today.











I'm also very thankful for all the wonderful things this blog has brought me. It brought me wonderful friends, amazing opportunities to work with different people and brands, and it even got me to visit Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It also keeps my creativity going and fuels my love of writing, travel, and photography. I love doing this. I love running this blog and I love everything about it. Even when I feel so behind and like I'm being neglectful. Even when I don't feel like editing pictures or doing a shoot. I still love this blog at the end of the day, and I'm so glad that I decided to start it 5 years ago today.











It's weird looking back at the person I was five years ago. When you have anniversaries of anything, it's hard not to look back and compare and contrast, to reminisce and sometimes to get nostalgic. I'm really happy with the now, but sometimes I do long for some of the things from the "then". I miss not having to worry as much about figuring things out. I miss when everyone had more free time to just go for drives while blasting music or to all get coffee together. Now everyone has more "career"-esque jobs and not many of my friends are single so while everyone is balancing work and relationships and family and school, it's harder to fit friend time in the mix. I also sometimes miss just the overall feeling of being 20 and on the brink of so many things and choices and opportunities. Not that there aren't still a lot of those, but there's something different about it when you're just out of teenage-hood and still in your undergrad. In a weird way, I miss the angst and also the carefreeness that seemed to emanate from everyone around me. Adolescence and early 20s is a silly thing.











I want to thank everyone who has supported me and this blog over the years. I want to thank Chris for always braving the weather with me, always being down to go to all the different locations with me, and always wanting to get great pictures. I'm so glad I get to share a passion like this with him. We both love photography, and it's so amazing to share this hobby with him. I'd also like to thank him for this lovely dress from Lindy Bop. He got it for me for Christmas. :)











I want to thank all the brands who have given me opportunities for collaboration and exposure. I want to thank all my fellow bloggers who are always so supportive and constantly inspiring me and generating amazing ideas and advice. I want to thank my friends who even though we talk every day, they still visit my blog to see what I've got to say and show. They help me with shoots and collaborate with me. I love them for caring so much and for always being there!

Dress: Lindy Bop//Tights: Simply Vera by Vera Wang//Shoes: LifeStride//Bag: La Regale (I used this for my senior prom!)//Headband: Claire's//Necklace: Gift//Lipstick: NARS

Lastly and most importantly, I want to thank all of you, my readers! Thank you so much for giving my little space of Interwebz a visit and taking a peek into my life and brain. I really appreciate all of you for sticking around and I always appreciate the comments and feedback. It really means a lot to me to be able to connect with so many of you. That's one of the main things I wanted to do with my life and when I wanted to be a writer, what I really wanted to do was to connect with people on an emotional or intellectual level. I wanted to share things with others and this blog has given me that, as it has given me an opportunity to connect with all of you. So thank you all so much for all your support. Here's to another five years with you all, and more! :)

January Wishlist

I didn't mean to make this wishlist so Valentine's-related, but when I was putting it together, I realized that it sort of ended up that way. There's a bunch of pink, red, and some hearts and glitter. I'm rarely a pink person, but I love dusty and deep rosy pinks like the shade of the Unique Vintage dress with the mesh overlay. I also love the colors in the Spring berry flower crown from OrangeYouPeachy. This is the Etsy shop who made my holly crown that I wore for Christmas, and I love the style of the crowns. The back is stretchy and just snug enough to not make your hair all bunchy.

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I have a collection of tights, and I am always on the lookout for more novelty prints. I am dying for a pair of anchor print tights. I could only find navy ones, but I'd really love black ones. But hey, you take what you can get. The dinosaur ones from ASOS are AWESOME. Anything with dinosaurs is awesome. The heart print ones from Unique Vintage are cute and would be perfect for V-Day...or any day, really.

The eyeshadow palette is by Too Faced and it's their Return Of Sexy palette. I saw it in person at Sephora a week or two ago, and I loved it. It's SO pretty, and there are so many colors so you could create so many different looks with it. I particularly love the purple and pink shades in the middle. I've been craving more eye shadow in my life, and I've also been craving more glitter in my life. I was looking for glitter that I could put on my eyes that was pretty big and chunky. I came across Urban Decay's Heavy Metal Loose Glitter, and found that it was exactly what I was looking for. I'd love to get it in the gold and white colors. I recently got Lime Crime's Velvetine lip color in Wicked, but I also really want their Salem shade. It's a matte brown color that looks really cool for a darker look.

I really want some new rompers, but they are always hard to come by. They're either too billowy or they have a drop waist or the shorts are so short that my butt hangs out. I found this black one on Forever 21's website, and I love the sheer polka dot sleeves and it doesn't seem to be too short. I've also been loving the whole black and nude color combo, and this dress from ModCloth is really pretty and classic. :)

Cosmic Dust

I love space stuff. I like to read about space. I like to know watch meteor showers and the like, and I love stargazing. I'd love to be at Kennedy Space Center when there's a launch happening someday! I love going to planetariums and observatories too! So, naturally I love space/galaxy prints. I don't like the patterns to be TOO crazy, but when I saw this Sugarhill Boutique one on ModCloth, I loved it instantly. Purple is my favorite color, and I love that it's the main color in this dress, besides the black, and there aren't too many colors all over the place. It's actually on sale right now, too!









I actually got this dress around Thanksgiving time, but because of all the holiday outfits and whatnot, I didn't get a chance to do a shoot with this dress. I'm kind of glad I waited, though, because I have been wanting bright metallic silver shoes to wear with it and I finally found this pair at H&M for only $12.95 last week.











So I've just started my last semester of my graduate program. I am only taking one class and then I graduate in May! The class is over at the end of April, but I probably won't get my actual degree until May or June. I'm so excited to almost be done. School can be enjoyable, but it's just a pain a lot of the time. I will be so glad to not have that extra obligation on me anymore. It will feel so good to not have to worry about assignments and due dates and discussions ever again! WOO! :D To know that I'll never have to not do something fun because I have a paper due is going to feel amazing.











The makeup I was excited about because I had gotten silver pencil liner to try out for my Christmas makeup, but I ended up liking the super glittery liquid liner better for that. I wanted to do some silvery eye makeup with this dress because silver just reminds me of space in general - the moon, the metal of space shuttles and equipment, space particles, etc. I really like the way the silver liner looked under my eyes. It is a lot more shimmery than I thought! I'm having a lot of fun experimenting more with eye shadows and makeup in general. I'm getting more and more into wanting to play with different colors for both eyes and lips. Limecrime is pretty inspiring for ideas. They are always posting these amazing looks that people create with their products on their social media accounts.











Not much else is new. Winter is sucking. January and February are the worst months, in my opinion. They are the coldest and they're pretty boring. Nothing really goes on since I don't care about football. There's Valentine's Day, which is nice. I just wish it was in a warmer month because it really limits the different kinds of things you can do to celebrate.

Dress: Sugarhill Boutique via ModCloth//Jacket: H&M//Tights: Simply Vera by Vera Wang//Shoes: H&M//Eye Shadow: e.l.f.//Lipstick: Revlon

I have a Frozen program coming up at the library, which I'm excited about. I think I'm looking forward to it just as much as the kids. I'm going to have them decorate their own Elsa crowns and sing a-long to the songs. We are even having someone who dresses up as Elsa to come in and surprise the kids! It's going to be awesome and I can't wait to see their faces when she walks in. I really love doing programs at the library. It's so fun to plan something that the kids enjoy and love and that creates a little magic for them. :)