Little Things (week 3)

Hey folks -
My little things list this week might seem, well, little. I have been a little on edge and stressed, but hopefully that will all pay off after next week. For now, here are my little things for the week (sans photos, sorry!):

Aisle to Aloha


1- Movie and Dinner w/ friends
Saw the Help - LOOOOOVED it. Then followed it up with a great meal at one of our favorite resturants: Cabana Charleys. It makes me a little nostaligic for college...

2- As always - puppy loves. Cuddles w/ the mutts can always make me happy :)

3-My new starbucks drink: Viente Vanilla Chai Tea. It tastes like fall. Love it!

4 - Finding out that a New York Times Bestselling author is following my blog. Yep - that's awesome.

5- Having the best grandparents in the whole wide world. They are sprucing up my apartment today, rebaking a lemon-raspberry bread that I bombed, and helping me set up for my small group craft night tonight. They ROCK.

Emmy Fashion - hits and misses!

Can you smell it in the air? Its AWARDS SEASON! I love televised awards shows for no other reason than to see what everyone is wearing. Most of the time the shows themselves are rather dull and drawn out, but there is so much to look at! I am also a firm believer in "You put yourself on TV, therefore I can judge you by your appearance". And so, let us begin:
First, you all have to see what was easily the most hilarious part of the night (no thanks to any hosts or presenters!)


Was that not fantastic? LOVE it. Ok, now onto official business.
BEST DRESSED:
Emily Blunt - just beautiful

Evan Rachel Wood - the girl knows how to rock a black dress

Katie Holmes - Critics thought it was too casual, but I think she looked adorable

Kelly Osborne - I am choosing to ignore the gray hair and focus solely on her fabulous dress

Nina Dobrev - one of the most interesting red dresses of the night (and there were ALOT of red ones)

Aubrey Plaza - might be my best of the best for the night

Sofia Vegara - Can she do no wrong????

Kate Winslet - just a true, classy, real beauty
Now for those that I just wasn't sure about. You be the judge if there were fabulous or fashion flops.
Dot Marie Jones. I know she's all being true to who she is, which is why I think it might be fab. But, could she have least gone with a more glam material if she was gonna rock a suit; maybe satin or something sparkly??

Jayma Mays. I want to re-make the top half of this dress and sex it up a little bit- like take off the sleeves! The waist down though, I am really digging

Heidi Klum - I love that she is supporting Christian Siriano (fierce!) BUT I don't think I love this dress... at all.

Julie Bowen - people seemed to have very strong feelings one way or another about this dress. I don't - so what do you think?

Kerry Washington. She vamped it up... maybe too much?

Love Melissa McCarthy. Love that she designed her own dress. Don't love the dress.... something about the waist line and the sleeves.

Diana Aragon. Love the color - but it looks like she has it on backwards.

Lea Michelle - I like her. I hate sculptural shoulders on anyone.
Bonus Category before worst.... the Boob awards:
Biggest Offender: Honey - you HAVE TO WEAR A BRA.

Christina Hendricks - girl crush! And this is how you display the girls - properly supported!
And, drum roll please....... WORST DRESSED:
Amy Poehler - this hurts my heart a little. I love Amy so much... and she took a risk. But it was a bad one.

Eva La Rue - she has a totally banging body and put it in this peach/flesh tone bedazzeled disaster that does her NO justice.

Elizabeth Moss: I think my biggest problem here is with her styling - I mean can we come out of Mad Men for an awards show? And I don't like that her dress kind of blends in with her skin... but that was probably intentional.

Gwyneth Paltrow - Why?

Heather Morris - 1 earring, 1 sky high pouf, and 65978509840967540 ruffles. No.

Julianne Margulies. This dress was called both a lampshade and a Judy Jetson dress while we were watching the Emmys.


Taraji P. Hensen. What makes me SO mad is that I KNOW this woman can dress herself very well. Everything is bad about this; hair, make up, and the unflattering dress.

The Help; Book and Movie Review

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

Every so often a special book comes along. A book that meets all of your wildest expectations. A book you want to spend every waking second with and one that you will sacrifice sleep for. A book that makes you laugh, cry, and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. A book that is deep, thought-provoking, but that still knows how to have a good time. You know that this relationship will be a whirlwind and that it will have to come to an end, but the end will be bittersweet and leave you wanting more.
The Help is that book.
I am going to join in with the rest of the free world and start shouting my praises for this book. I am a little behind on this bandwagon (waited until the movie was out before I read the book – gasp!) but I am so glad I jumped on. The characters are rich, dynamic, believable, some lovable, others love-to-hate-able.  A book of social inequality, irony, love, humor, courage, fear, sweet revenge and life. I loved it. I loved every.single.page. Stop reading this and go get The Help right now! (ok wait, finish the blog first… and maybe comment, THEN go read The Help!)
And sometimes, after that special book has come into your life, a special movie follows. A movie that actually comes close to living up to its printed predecessor. A movie that makes you laugh, cry, and feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but still leaves you with a righteous anger. One that is thought-provoking, but still knows how to have a good time.
The Help is that movie!!


See trailer here!

I saw The Help yesterday and loved it, but not quite as much as the book. There was just too much in that book to jam into a movie and the movie did a very respectable job at almost living up to the book. It was 100% worth seeing. The set, wardrobes, and hair on their own make it worthwhile to see, but then you add in an all-star cast! The actors in this film took on their roles with a sense of responsibility to the book and it showed. It was phenomenal and I would see it again. Ok – now you are free to run off to the bookstore and the movie theater (in that order, you are not allowed to see this movie before reading the book!)
Anyone out there already read it/seen it? What did you think?

Little Things - dos

Here we are again - It's Friday, Friday!! I am linking up again with Aisle to Aloha to celebrate some of the small things that have made my week wonderful.
Aisle to Aloha


1. Can I just get a holla for this fall weather? I mean seriously?? Could this weather be more freaking perfect? Cool crisp days with bright sunshine - love, love, love!


2. I attended a fun baby shower at work. It was just nice to see what a caring work-family I have and I got to make this: (I will tell you how soon!)

3. Last Saturday was a Pups' Day Out with mama. We did a little shopping and got these fun Halloween bows! I can't wait to try them out!

4. I had a TON of free time in the evenings this week - I got to read a book, do some thrift shopping, some crafting, and catch up on lots of trashy TV (Bachelor Pad anyone??). Things will pick up again next week, but it was super nice to have some down time.

5. And looking through my phone today, I found some hilarious outtakes from craft and What I Wore posts to come.... Enjoy
I swear she's friendly!!




Looking forward to the weekend now!

Pinterest + Papa = Art

Now, I have been teasing you all for weeks about my new awesome art in my living room. Well today, I have pictures folks!
This was my inspiration photo:

I found it on pinterest and it was a headboard. I showed it to Papa once and told him the measurements I would want it for my living room. He took this and ran with it. I got this photo about half way into the project:
 This is the frame with the lights - Papa's idea of "messy". It was a "simple" wood frame. Then I got this pic:
Nana had to test it out on her own wall first. haha
It looks like this in my living room:


Purdy huh?? :)

Oops I Did it Again....

Yep - that's right folks. I have re-done the living room again... I know, I didn't even get to show you all of the last re-vamp. I had to change it up for fall though. Everything was so.... pastel. I couldn't keep it with all of the rich smells and tones of fall all around. So, I just Fall-ified everything, which also may have country-fied the whole place. I tried to shy away from country decor for awhile, but it is just so me! You can take the girl out of the country... but the girl will bring the country to her living room:







I love fall, so the whole room feels much cozier to me now. I think that these grapevine wreaths will get me all the way through winter too and then maybe my fabric hoops can come back out next spring.
Like the new fall decor or am I just crazy for not sticking with one thing?

Little Things Link-Up

I am kicking off my renewed relationship with Blogger by linking up with Aisle to Aloha’s “Little Things”. See the cute button?



Aisle to Aloha

Lindsay started these posts to help her to focus on small, positive things that help her get through difficult weeks and decided to take it into good weeks too! This is the first official link-up party for Little Things and I was excited to join, except I was not on-top of taking my own artsy photos for the post. So, please excuse some of my cheater photos from Pinterest! Without further ado, I give you my favorite little moments from this week:
1.    Pinterest. I figure since I am cheating and taking artsy photos off of Pinterest that she should get a nod for being a bright spot in my week. I love being inspired by all of the crafts, beautiful décor, and awesome fashion that I can find on Pinterest. Not to mention ridiculously adorable photos like this: 







2.    Tights, Boots, and Scarves! Hey everybody – it’s FALL! I friggin adore fall. It is my favorite season and one of the few reasons I put up with northern Illinois summers and winters. J My fall wardrobe is definitely my favorite too! Every morning when I woke up and checked the weather and saw that the high was 70 I was giddy! I couldn’t wait to pick out my outfit for the day (that makes me really nerdy doesn’t it?) If I were more tech-savy I would figure out how to make a fun photo collage of all of my favorite things about fall – but alas – Pinterest photo it is: 



3.    My pups and moments like these:

Dog park frolicking and snuggle-time. I woke up one morning this week with Izzie wedged firmly between me and my body pillow – clearly she wanted some snuggles. 

4.    Immature moments with Nana. I was walking through Target the other day and saw this little mushroom wine-stopper. I had to send it to Nana to get her opinion on what it looked like…. She agreed with me. You can infer what you like from the pic (sorry anyone who is easily offended by raunchy humor).


5.    5 dolla clearance shirts from Target – woot! (Sorry no pic - just take my word for it - it was awesome) 

6. Veinte non-fat iced chai tea latte with light ice. Yumrific. 
7.    Feeling like a rock star in my work-out class!

It is awesome to have a super supportive group of women to be silly with and to really let your guard down. I love my pole class – even if its not classy!

What about y’all? Any little moments that made you week?