a Gossip Girl extra and a politician's wife

 We needed a new picture for this year's Christmas card so I bribed Mike with some sushi and letting him pick the movie for our date night. If you knew how much Mike hates our little photo shoots, you'd know I got off easy!! So we got ready for date night and got dressed for our Christmas card pic...

What I wanted to wear:

What Mike wanted to wear:

But since we needed to look "presentable" for our Christmas cards, we wore this:

 and looked like a Gossip Girl extra and a politician's wife. 

As a side note-- the bag in the first group of pictures is really similar to my anniversary gift this year from Mike: 

It's a Betsey Johnson bag from her Betseyville line and I am in love with it!! I realize it's not everyone's style but it is sooo me. I had been lusting after this bag for 4 months. Mike outdid himself this year!

Makeup Inspiration

 I've had a few pictures saved on my computer for a few weeks now-- both are of Kristen Stewart (aka Bella Swan) :) and I think both are gorgeous. When Mike & I decided to celebrate our anniversary on Saturday night instead of the Thursday that it actually fell on, I decided to go all out and have my makeup done for the occasion. I took the two pics with me to MAC-- and Ann, my favorite MAC artist helped me pick one for the night. The inspiration pictures: 

  

 We went with the first two pics and here's how it looked:

 

crappy cell phone pics, but you get the idea!

Anyway, I loved it (and so did Mike) ;-)

4 Years!

Happy Anniversary to my favorite person in the whole world-- I can't believe it's been 4 years!

 

 

It's HAPPENING.

For 99.9% of you that read this little blog, feel free to ignore this post. ;-) This one is just for me. So that I have a place to come back and drool over these pics in the months to come... Breaking Dawn filming started today in Brazil and I am DYING over these pics. I have to send a shout-out to my fellow fangirl Emily-- thanks for not making me feel like the only completely insane 31 year old who's in love with fictional characters. <3 you.

 and just because:

swoon.

I promise to return to more respectable blog topics like decorating and reality tv and makeup soon. ;-)

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97

This is a really random post-- but might make more sense if I tell you how it came about. Last night Mike & I were watching a show called Survivors (not the reality show!) on Netlfix. It's a BBC show, but that's not important. What is important is that it has a really fantastic soundtrack. And one of the songs they used was a song I was completely obsessed with in high school. It's a Radiohead song and I instantly remembered it was from William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet which I was also completely obsessed with in high school. So I ran to iTunes, bought the soundtrack and here we are. Do you remember the weird spoken word song at the end of the cd? "Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen)". I listened to it again last night and remembered how much I loved it. So here it is:

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen 

Cheesy? Probably... but I still love it.(and I really was in the class of '97!)

Halloween Decor 2010

iPhone pics

Just some randoms from the past couple of days. Jack & Ellie all dolled up for Halloween-- Ellie has orange bows in her hair and Jack is actually tolerating his bandanna! Me & sweet Marty McFly and JB sleeping in the weirdest positions.

I heart plaid

 MAC just released some of their holiday collection and I got some stuff today:

 I am such a sucker for cute packaging!

Here I am after playing with the makeup with Ann, my MAC girl. 

rebelling

 taken in my car right after the piercing 

taken at home the next day

I love it and I'm really glad I did it!! Mike thinks it's "so hot" to use his words. ;-) 

iPhone Picture Randoms

I haven't blogged in a while and thought cleaning out my iPhone pics would be the perfect excuse to actually blog!

I'm thinking of getting a nose ring-a teeny tiny little diamond-here is my hilariously bad photoshopped idea of what it might look like. In reality it would be smaller and cuter. Much smaller & much cuter! haha!

  My Halloween porch decorations: ghost lights:

 our leaves are changing! love it.

 Venus-- she lives with my parents and is a total sweetheart:

 Mom & I went to the Tulsa State Fair-- it's been a tradition since I was 4.