I have been falling in love with the sprinkling of photos or realistic illustrations I have been seeing on clothing lately. I want to see more and more and I think it would be pretty darn awesome to have my own photo or two printed on dresses! Seriously, could this picture perfect trend be any better?! Photo and dress nerds everywhere, unite!
Here are three of my favorites!
Eva Franco's Change of Greenery Dress from ModCloth. Lust!
The Crepe Myrtle Shirtdress from Anthropologie. I die. My favorite of the three.
The Pretty Pan-sy Dress from ModCloth. Love that collar!
Have you spied any other sharp shootin' printed duds from other stores? I'd love to see them!
Just wanted to take a minute to say I'm a red head again! I can never stay away for too long. I'm always hopping back and forth between various blondes and various reds. Lucky for me my hairdresser is a master highlight artist and easily turns red into blonde whenever I want! For now though, I think this red will be here for a while. Its a "coppery mahogany" now, and I might experiment with berry reds and bright reds later.
Also, I got this cute dress!
That's all for now! Check out some cute pictures from the other day from a photo date with Andrea (with my new lens) HERE and HERE!
Growing up, did you have that one celebrity that influenced your "look" up until this very moment? Maybe it was two celebs. Or three. I sure do, and it's kind of funny. Enter first inspiration: Shakira. When I first saw her "Whenever, Wherever" video, black eyeliner became a staple in my life. I also decided that a perm was a good idea because of her (even though my hair is naturally curly already). And boy am I glad I already had blonde hair. Hahah, ohhh being a young impressionable 13 year old.
The love of black eyeliner has evolved over the years from a sloppy thick line, to a now perfected and delicate wing. Here are some of my latest experiments with adding some color to my black liner.
black with teal liner - e.l.f. liner pens
black with hunter green - e.l.f. liner pens
Mary Kate and Ashley also played a part in my "look" inspiration with their layered shabby chic baggy and fitted style. You will find me in layers and oversize clothing 90% of the time. But you better believe that my style mirrored theirs as we "grew up together". I totally had some of their wal-mart line clothing for preteens and loved their magazine back in the day.
Do you ever take a step back and look at your life and think "Wow, I am thankful for every last miniscule detail that has happened and I wouldn't change anything no matter how terrible it was"?
I did that today. Its crazy to think that its been 10 years since "the worst thing" of my life happened. There were 2 months left of my freshman year of highschool and my mother packed all of my belongings into trash bags, dropped them off at my aunt's house, and said "You're going to live with your father". It was so surreal to see the ocean of trash bags in my aunts living room. I'm still not really sure why exactly she did this. Yes, we argued all the time, but isn't that was teenagers do with their parents? I have seen her less than a handful of times since she did that. If she had never decided to write off her first life like it never happened and start over with a new husband and new children in a place four hours away, I would never have gotten to where I am today. If I was never forced to start a new life I fear for what might have been.
I never would have been in Pittsburgh, never made the friends that I cherish, I doubt that I would have graduated high school early so I could start college early, I would have never experienced love.. and heartbreak, never would have been able to go the Art Institute, I never would have worked years of terrible retail jobs while attending the Art Institute (haha), I wouldn't currently have several dream jobs at the same time, or have the best boyfriend ever, or even have the cutest little birdy babies, or be house hunting with the best boyfriend with the best beard, or anything!
If I never came to Pittsburgh I would never have been brought up the way I have been by the best dad ever (who would do ANYTHING I could ever ask for). I also got the best bonus ever out of the situation. I got a Gretchen. She is my dad's fiance (and has been for many years, they need to get married already!) and she is more to me than I could even begin to explain. She is one of my best friends, the first place I go to for advice, and she's my favorite shopping buddy. She has been there for so many important moments of my life. I will never forget their faces when I graduated college and they were so happy and crying when I won Best of Show. I love them both so much and owe them everything for turning me into the strong, independent, determined, passionate, camera-nerd person I am proud to be today.
So to bring this full circle, I am thankful and I could not be happier. It is important to see the good in every situation and appreciate it. Sometimes things suck, like REALLY suck, and people suck, and sometimes EVERYTHING sucks and you hate it all and you never get an apology, but you learn so much from these experiences and they help shape you into the person you are. They make you stronger and prepare you for the future. There is nothing that I would ever want to go back and change and I will say it over and over. So please, take a step back, look at life and take it in. Think about how every detail has led you to where you are today and stand in awe. You made it.
Now before I get into my window shopping, I wanna talk about something exciting! I love using blogger very much, so turning a blog that I have long ago emptied, into something that looks like a website for my photography is great! I was using tumblr as a "website" but found that embedding videos or issuu documents just wasn't gonna happen how I wanted. It was customizable, but not as much as I could figure out or want. So without further adieu, check out www.mindisue.com!
Now onto the window shopping!
With the approaching date of iPhone ownership fast approaching, I have been checking out some really awesome cases! There are really endless options on society6.com, and not just for cases! I got lost for well over an hour just checking out the artwork. Anyways, here are some of my favorite cases! Its difficult not to want a ton of them!
The photos make this post very long, so click on through to see the rest of it!
Something about baking makes me so happy. Probably because sharing is one of my all time favorite things and what better thing to share than baked treats? (Some far away friends should be expecting a package soon!) I saved two for The Beard and I, and of course I ate the ugly cracked one as soon as I was finished.
Hot Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Melted Marshmallow Middles! adapted from here!
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups of flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 k-cup of hot chocolate (or a regular packet of hot chocolate mix)
a bunch of mini marshmallows
a splash of 2% milk
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
I lined a cookie sheet with wax paper then sprayed it with pan spray; set aside.
In a big bowl, beat butter with an electric
mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking soda,
and salt. Beat until combined, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat in egg
and vanilla until combined. Alternately add flour and buttermilk,
beating on low speed after each addition just until mixture is combined. I used my medium sized cookie scoop to get perfectly measured balls of batter onto the sheet about an inch and a half apart.
Bake for about 10 minutes or
until you see the edge getting golden and you can touch the tops. Cool completely on the paper on a wire rack. I peeled most of the cooled cookies off the paper, but used a cake server to free the stubborn ones.
Microwave your mini mallows about 15-20 seconds until they are a fluffy melty liquid substance, add a splash of milk, and stir!
Spread the flat side of
half of the cookies with enough of the melted mixture to make you happy. I just poured it on straight from my bowl. I will warn you - this part is super messy! I got drips of melty marshmallows all over everything!
Enjoy! You can freeze these for up to a month or keep them in the fridge for a couple days. they are best served slightly chilled!
I also made some that were pink! Same ingredients, just swap the hot chocolate mix for a couple drops of red food coloring. The filling for the pink pies was made by mixing marscapone and seedless raspberry preserves. YUM! Heavenly.
