Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2011

Each year, SisterT and I watch the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. We discuss our favorite outfits, angels, musical guests, and crowd favorites. We also comment on how we'll be eating yogurt for breakfast everyday and doing lunges for the rest of our lives, which usually lasts two weeks max after the fashion show.

Here are my pics for this year's show: (Pictures below.)
Outfit: Aquatic Angel Sheer Mermaid Outif... gorgeous!
Angel: The New Angel, Karlie Kloss. She is a Saint Louis native, but also a very successful high-fashion model that really gave off a happy and bubbly personality at this year's show. Great Job!
Musical Guest: Jay Z. There is just something about him that makes everything he does seem extra special.
Crowd Favorite: Definitely Joe Manganiello from True Blood. He looked awesome. Orlando Bloom looked sweet too, and it was darling seeing him stand and clap every time Miranda Kerr walked the runway.

While this show did not disappoint whatsoever, the 2005 show will always remain my favorite with Tyra Banks; I remember being mesmerized by it while I was in high school.

Photos of 2011 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show...

Sheer Mermaid Outfit on Right. 

Gorgeous Karlie Kloss

Maroon 5 sang "Moves Like Jagger" 

Here's to yogurt and lunges! Anything that inspires working out is worth sharing.
To our health!

Organizing the Laundry Room

My father and I love to be organized, and lately he's been coming up with great ideas, especially in our laundry room. When I do the wash, I like to be in a mess-free zone with containers and cabinets for all the necessities. 

Last week I could not find any laundry baskets, in my search for a basket I found my Extra-Large Boat tote, and an idea struck. The extra-large boat tote is a wonderful laundry carry-all. The long straps easily fit my shoulders while busting with towels and clothes. It's now my favorite go-to laundry tool. 

My dad loves his Swiffers, and we'd been keeping them in the corner of the laundry room. It did not look clean and they were always falling on us while emptying the dryer. So, he decided to attach pony-tail holders to all the dusters and Swiffers and hang them on a plate rack. It serves us perfectly. All the cleaning tools are off the floor, de-tangled, and in easily accessible. 

Lastly, I am known to put certain things in the dryer that should have been air-dried. Well now, I don't have an excuse. Dad's idea #2, using a shower curtain rod between cabinets to place hangers and hang blouses etc. for air-drying. It's in the perfect spot, and there's always an empty hanger ready to be used. 

How do you organize your laundry room? Do you have any tips?

I hope you have a lovely and organized Tuesday!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope you all had a nice break! It was great to have a few computer-free days spent holiday shopping, home decorating, and pie baking!

Thanksgiving went by quickly with a hot house (oven on and nearly 70 degrees outside in November!) and lots of projects going on. I did do some late night shopping, purchasing myself and SisterT new Sonicare toothbrushes that were priced fabulously at that Kohls sale, which started at midnight Thursday. My break was extra special with my family friends in town... les BFFS!

We had a very delicious and casual Thanksgiving dinner at my dad's with his girlfriend Cathy, SisterT, and her boyfriendD. 

You can see my cranberry sauce in this picture, definitely was my favorite part of the meal!

Here's how the Buttermilk pies turned out. 

The Apple Pie. (Caramel and Pecan Topping)

I took this picture of my cranberry sauce pre-boiling, and thought it turned out neat. This recipe is extremely simple with: fresh cranberries, orange juice, and pure maple syrup. 

The BFFs momma took us all out out to dinner over the break. BFFTay and I loved the pizza. 

Caramelized onions, mushrooms, and a white sauce. Delicious!

While BFFTay was home for the break I gave her her birthday present. We both love Eric from "True Blood" so I put together some favorite pictures and one of his quotes, inserting her name for Sookie's name in a clock for her room! 

 I also spent much time with these two. 

Beauty!

Here's SisterT with Raquel. We can't get enough of our lil' girl!

Mrs. Darcy shortened her hair a bit and added more prominent bangs. I love the look, and find the shorter length suits her face.

I also must admit that I did do some online shopping in celebration of Cyber Monday. I was in desperate need of some brush heads for my Clarisonic, so I ordered some of the newer deep pore cleansing brush heads, and used the coupon code "Mystery" for a bag of free samples. I am excited to see what they are. I always love ordering from Sephora, the samples they throw in with each order are usually great and feel like a special gift from them to me. Have you ordered anything special today?

Shopping season is in full force; I love the excitement I feel right when I walk into any store, especially the malls this time of year.
Happy Cyber Monday!

My Thanksgiving Menu

Last year my family and I went to a restaurant for our Thanksgiving meal, Maggiano's. Of course, I still made Pioneer Woman's delicious Apple Pie recipe (link below) for when we all got home. For those of you who are not in the mood to cook, Maggiano's is a great option for a Thanksgiving meal. Everything was delicious and we left stuffed to the brim. But while the restaurant has a warm and inviting interior vibe, I missed the comforts of home... most notably the couch waiting for me after the meal.

This year we are cooking, and I am very excited. I've already whipped up six pie crusts, two of which I am saving for Christmas Peppermint pies. I've been a follower of Pioneer Woman's blog for the last two years, and her recipes, although fattening, are the most scrumptious I've found.

Here's this year's meal: 

Broccoli & Spinach Salad - Dad's Concoctions/Duties

Chocolate Pie & Stuffing - Courtesy Dad's GF 

Turkey Recipe is from Southern Living with Smoked Paprika, Thyme, and Chicken Stock (anxious to try this out) 

Homemade Cranberry Sauce 

Holiday Corn Bake

Mashed Potatoes 

Nana's Buttermilk Pie

The Perfect Pie Crust

Scrumptious Apple Pie

I'll be making the pies in advance, as two will be couriered over to Mrs. Darcy for the Darcy's family Thanksgiving meal. I can't wait to post pics on Thursday. What are you all cooking? If you are lost for ideas, any of the linked recipes above are fantastic options with a bounty of reviews on their Tasty Kitchen home-site.

Here's this year's outfit:

(elements as of Monday night)

With gold jewelry, black suede boots, and still looking for a sweater in a color just-right! 

Cheers with Diet Ginger Ale to the holiday season! 

Peel Pizza Review & Raquel

Friday night, Mrs. Darcy took SisterT and I to a great new pizza place a few minutes away from her farm. The place was packed! The hostess walked us into a quaint dining area that was warm and cozy. Our waiter was extremely kind and informative while he had to deal with three starving ladies. 

We shared two pizzas. Above is the "Hot Brown Pizza" white Parmesan cream sauce, broccoli, prosciutto, smoked turkey, and shredded Parmesan. Fantastic! The crust was reminiscent of NY style pizzerias. 

SisterT picked out the classic Margarita pizza. Extremely fresh sauce, and the cheese was out of this world. The basil, you could tell, must have been purchased that day. 

For dessert, we totally calorie splurged on a vanilla custard, fresh fruit, and white chocolate pizza dusted with powdered sugar. Oh-my-deliciousness! The white chocolate paired so nicely with the fruit, and the custard seeped into the crust... then all four element together in your mouth... taste bud party! 

I give Peel Pizza a grade of A+ for it's wonderfully fresh pizza and fantastic customer service! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Raquel was quite jealous of our girl's night out. I spent hours this weekend with her. She has not been feeling well lately, so I'm watching very closely what she eats. Poor lil' girl. All she wanted to do was cuddle. 

This was 4 in the morning. She was restless in bed, so we slept on the cooler (temperature) couch. 

I hope you feel better soon lil' girl. 

Bad picture quality... but she loves the new Holiday Themed flannel sheets on my bed! 

Did you watch the American Music Awards last night? I only watched the first few minutes on DVR before falling asleep. What was your favorite performance? 

Have a wonderful Monday! 

Style Inspiration

I hope you are enjoying a pristine Saturday. As I battle the procrastination hours on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, etc., I have come to find my absolute perfect picture of style inspiration in the following photo. 

Country Chic

I could see someone wearing this to get married. I love the boots, the denim shirt with folded sleeves, that Skirt!, the belt, the hair, everything. I feel that I invoke many of these elements into my everyday wear. I like to mix rugged elements (Cowboy Boots) with glamorous/feminine pieces (jewelry, gold watch, a fun ring), and a touch of edge (leather coat). 

Example: 

Leather Jacket from Aritzia, Cowboy Boots, MK Watch & gold bangles, with a Cream Scarf. 

(pardon the face cut, I was making a ridiculously obnoxious face) 

 I also found this photo that I find inspirational as well. Laid back, fun, great boots: this look seems so effortless, yet if I saw her walking down the street I'd be impressed. I'd like to recreate this next summer with hopefully thoroughly toned legs!

I just adore this outfit. Arm party adds some jingle, great shape to the sunglasses, very Ivy-girl's day out. Also, fantastic haircut. 

This photo really makes me want to my hair darker again. I currently have subtle ombre highlights in medium/dark brown hair, in the winter I often go much darker. On the fence if I'll do it this year. 

I want to get dolled-up when I see this picture! 

Have a wonderful Saturday! What looks are your "style inspirations"? Pinterest is full of them! 

Breaking Dawn Part 1 Review and Thoughts

What did you all think? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below.

SisterT and I just got home from seeing the movie, and we laughed, cried, giggled like little girls, blushed, and smiled throughout the movie. It follows fairly closely to the book, something I think that was possible due to splitting the movie in two parts. To some, there may seem like there was too little action, but much is set-up for the second part of the movie.

FAIR WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOKS OR HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE, PLEASE DO NOT SCROLL DOWN. 

Things I Liked:

• Edward's Hair was sultrier than previous movies. 
• Kristen Stewart looked more vibrant than usual as well. 
• HER WEDDING DRESS!!! GORGEOUS. Long sleeve, fit her body like a glove, and had a lace open back. Stunning. 
• The wedding in itself was extraordinary. The decor, color scheme, natural elements. We'll be seeing it on Pinterest soon. 
• Jacob's scene where he tells Sam (pack leader) that he is the true alpha. Steamy in that peculiar Hollywood wolf way. 
• Edward Speaking the native language on the island. 
• The trip to the island at night! 
• Bella's dress on her way to the honeymoon. 
• Bella "testing" Edward on the honeymoon. 
• The honeymoon was the best part! 
• Clips of future Renesmee during the "Imprint" scene. 
• Seth (wolf) added some comic relief, as well as the very funny speeches at the wedding. 

Silly Parts / Not Favorites :

• The very obvious showing of Stephanie Meyer at the wedding. Could have been done more subtly. 
• Some scenes with the wolves, but that is expected by now. Especially, the "group think" in red scene. 
• I've already heard this from a few fellow bloggers, and I am in agreement: they showed a bit much during the birthing scene. 
• I really wanted to see the "New Vampire Bella" but they leave that as a cliffhanger. 
• You can tell they tried to fix Alice's wig, still not the best, but her hair looked cute at the wedding. 

Overall Grade: B+

For me, nothing is better than the actual book, but the movie producers did a good job producing the plot accurately. The honeymoon scene will totally knock your socks off, as many have been looking forward to it. SisterT and I felt it met our expectations for a PG-13 rating. I am anticipating the second movie now, which is set to come out November 16, 2012 (bummer, wish it was this summer) as of right now.

We all know this movie will be criticized and laughed at, but for the romantics at heart, we all enjoy and appreciate the old-fashion romantic, crazy-about-you, can't-live-without-you kind of love between Edward and Bella.

On our way home, SisterT and I both wished that we could find an Edward for ourselves. To be loved like that, but doesn't everybody want that in their life?

Sweet Dreams Twihards!

Midnight Showing of Breaking Dawn Part 1

At this moment, I am seeing the midnight premier of Breaking Dawn Part 1. Not many of my English major cohorts know that I am a huge fan of the Twilight series. I feel that I make up for it with also being a fan of a multitude of other enriching series: Harry Potter, Hunger Games, etc.

I am beyond thrilled for the movie to start. Comment below if you saw it this morning/last night; I'd love to know what you thought of the movie.

I'll post my review in a few hours! 

Kim Kardashian's Fitness Wardrobe needs Color!

SisterT and I often look to the Kardashian sisters for fashion inspiration. SisterT is built more like Kourtney, where I am built more like Khloe. We observe the way they style their body types, and try to recreate it at home.

(Side note: we checked out the Kardashian Kollection at Sears the other day while shopping for appliances. We really liked a few of the dresses, but it is overpriced for the quality, obviously charging more for the name. We felt that you could find similar dresses with similar quality at stores such as H&M at a much lower price point.)

I also often look to them for workout attire advice. While putting together this post I noticed that Kim Kardashian barely wears any color in her workouts. While I ALWAYS stick to black on bottom, you'll often find me in bright-patterned workout tanks. I also, like Kim, often wear capri or cropped fitness pants as I find them the most flattering and easiest to wear for a multitude of workouts. (Have you ever had flared workout pants wrap around the pedals during a spin class, and scream when your legs get all scratched up and stuck? I have. Not fun.) But, Kim... you need some color! You are too naturally pretty to stick to boring black and white tops all the time. Colorful tops add more energy to your workout, and splashes of confidence and zest!

(Best type of workout!)

Here's what I would like to add to Kim Kardashian's fitness wardrobe. The darker plums and deep reds would look best on her skin tone, but it seems those at Polyvore are all Springs/Summers (fair skin tone,  light eyes, usually blond or light red hair).

Adding Color to Your Workout 

What are your favorite styles to wear while working out? I'm in a workout-attire rut; this girl needs to go fitness shopping when exams are over!

Wishing you a very healthy and fitness-filled Thursday!