Dresses Are Forever : Closet Braid Lover

Who needs diamonds? I think dresses are a girls best friend!

At least they're my new best friend.

{Don't get the wrong idea, though, I still like diamonds.}

Growing up, my wardrobe never consisted of so many dresses as it does today. Which really isn't saying much since I have about three dresses that I wear regularly, but that's beside the point. You can't regret past mistakes, so that's why I am looking forward and starting a new relationship with the dress. One where we enjoy each other's company. Not one where I dread the day we spend time together. You know the kind.

Remember this blue dress? Sadly, this is the first time I've worn it since receiving it in the mail. Apparently it took a cross-country move to Florida for me to bust this blue dress out of the closet and throw it on with some fun jewelry and sandals. The result was better than I had hoped.

{ dress : Modcloth / jewelry and sandals : forever21 }

I love braids. Whew. Now my secret is out! I really love my Modcloth 'Closet Braid Dress' that I bought with some birthday money this past winter. After taking a few photos, I realized my outfit included multiple braids. I braided my hair just to make it that much more ridiculous. Braided dress. Check. Braided purse straps, check. Braided necklace. Check. Finally, braided hair. Check! A girl can never have enough braids.... or diamonds. 

Unfortunately, my favorite photo of me in this dress turned out a little fuzzy.

I'm sharing it anyway.

See how happy I am in this dress. Why did it take me so long to realize that dresses make me as giddy as a school girl? They especially make me happy when it's 94° and humid. Breezes do more 'cooling magic' when you're wearing a dress, and I like that. Dresses are my new best friend!

{Oh and you too. You're my bff also}

Happy Monday!

Do you love dresses too?

Nautical Inspired Maxi Skirt

{ top : Banana Republic / skirt : TJ Maxx / sandals : Seychelles }

The water has always been a comfort to me, and I can never get enough of it. After growing up on a lake in Michigan, and then living in land-locked Colorado for a while, I'm really happy to be living in Florida near water again! When Kristina, over at Pretty Shiny Sparkly, announced that maxi skirts would be the newest 'Bloggers Do It Better' challenge, I just had to work a nautical theme into my outfit somehow.

When I think of being near the water, navy and white always pop into my mind. Someday my husband and I will have a beach cottage decked out in a navy and white interior. You might even find some blue glass fishing floats on our future beach cottage tables. Until then using clothing and visits to the beach, for my nautical fix, will have to suffice.

{ belt : New York & Co. / bracelets : Charlotte Russe / necklace : old }

Working a knotted belt, shoes and purse with rope details, and a starfish necklace into my outfit added extra nautical inspired layers to my ruffled white top and navy maxi skirt. To dress everything up a bit, I added some pearl stud earrings and fun, sparkly bracelets. All that was missing was my *private yacht. It never showed.

{ I don't really own a yacht, but in my dreams I do. }

{ sunglasses : Juicy couture from nordstrom rack }

{ purse : nordstrom bp / nail polish : essie / ring : my husband }

This nautical inspired photo shoot was photographed in a small waterside town near the Gulf of Mexico. The town of Tarpon Springs is Greek influenced, and we even found a couple of spots that almost made us feel like we were in Mykonos, Greece gazing at whitewashed buildings with bright blue paint. Don't even get me started on the Greek bakeries that we came across. Needless to say, a visit to Tarpon Springs is in the near future.

I look forward to creating other looks with this maxi skirt, but I'm not sure that anything can beat nautical-inspired outfits. Okay I may be a bit biased because of my love for the water, but I promise to try and be open-minded. {sort of}

As you can see from yesterday, I'm also falling for tribal print clothing. Watch out!

Now go and visit Pretty Shiny Sparkly to see what other bloggers
came up with for the 'maxi skirt challenge'.

* please note: only my skirt and bracelets were purchased new for less than $20 for both.
Looking put together on a budget is a high priority!

Tribal Print Thursday

Today I'm posting this blog a little later than usual. I could make up some sob story about how our lives are just super busy and we have no time to relax anymore, but that would be a lie. I've just been plain slacking when it comes to writing blog posts lately.

I don't want you to worry though. Try not to fret over my laissez-faire blogger attitude,

because here are a couple of things I plan on sharing with you in the upcoming days:

One may, or may not, be an outfit post...

The other just might have something to do with a gallery wall.

{ tribal print top : TJ Maxx / purse : Nordstrom bp / high bun : Michaela Noelle }

Oh, and did I mention how much I've been loving tribal print lately?!

Because I do love it.

A lot.

Okay. Now come back tomorrow. I promise I'll have more to offer then!

Blog Updates & Torture by Resumé

Yesterday I was feeling ambitious, {you're lucky since that doesn't happen often} so I updated the tabs under my blog header. "Yeah big deal," you might say, but I did put some genuine thought into what I wrote there. Not that I don't put thought into what I normally share here on my blog, but I wanted to include a little bit more about who I really am. I still feel that I 'hide' some things from you all, and sometimes even from myself, and I don't want to do that.

{ I partly added to the 'creative life' section on this blog because I needed some inspiration for my resume and cover letter. I found that looking back on what makes me, well... me, helped narrow down what went on my resume. Hey, whatever works... right? }

So go check out the 'Creative Life' tab and the updated 'About' tab too!

Also, in case you had not noticed, I added a couple of graphics in my sidebar with links to my Twitter page and Pinterest boards. I'm all over the Internet these days.

Catch me if you can!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In fact, if you follow me on Twitter you might have seen me complaining whining

tweeting kind words about resumes last night. Not!

That one piece of paper caused me so much grief that I wanted to throw in the towel, and start up a business of my own, just so I would never have to write a resume again! That would have been overkill though, so I pulled myself together, solicited some help from my husband, and wrote the resume.

I find it incredibly difficult to narrow down my life achievements into one piece of paper that could mean the difference between landing a job or not. I'm sweating just thinking about it.

Ask me to explain why a friend or co-worker should get hired and I'll rave about them and all of their strengths, but when it comes to talking about myself I go quiet. That quiet does not equate to a lack of knowledge or experience. That lack of words comes from someone who feels that every day is a learning experience and that my actions will speak much louder than words on a paper. If I love something and have a passion for it, you can't stop me. My friends and loved ones will sometimes say nicer things about me than I can say about myself. What is it about resumes that makes me so shy?

Call me crazy, but I feel that a piece of paper cannot show passion and drive like a person can. Words on paper also have the ability to lie. Someone might look really great on paper but lack the things needed in person. Too many people are passed over because they only, as if it is not a feat in itself, possess a high school diploma. {Yes, I have a college degree. It's a piece of paper that represents something too.} Not to mention, sometimes people have never been given enough chances in life to shine. That piece of paper should never get in the way of happiness!

The torture of writing a resume may not come from the resume itself but from the pressures of life instead. I honestly really dislike being judged by what a piece of paper says, or does not say, about me. The really great thing about life, and resumes, is that you can re-write that piece of paper every day if you see necessary. Start over with a blank sheet of paper and re-analyze what is important.

Have you updated your resume recently?

Oh, and writing my resume was not quite as bad as I made it out to be.

Recipe: Meatballs & Cooking with Ease

Do you ever have one of those nights when you don't have anything in the refrigerator, shudder at the thought of going to the grocery store, have zero motivation to cook, and you settle for hot dogs and baked beans for dinner? No?! Me either. {I was only curious because I have a friend who that happens to once in a while.} 

When you don't have the motivation to get all Barefoot Contessa on your husband {and maybe even kids... if you have them}, these meatballs are a surefire way to spice up a boring meal of boxed pasta and canned sauce. They're fairly easy to bake, they require very few ingredients, and you can even freeze a batch and pop them out of the freezer in those rather frequent ever so rare lack-of-grocery situations.

Simple and good are great words to describe a meal when you're hungry and tired,

and these meatballs are just that.

Homemade Meatballs:

1 lb. ground beef

1 egg

2 tbsp water

1/2 cup bread crumbs : {I use Progresso Italian Style}

1/4 cup minced onion

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine all the ingredients except ground beef in a large bowl. Add the ground beef in small chunks while mushing all together with hands. Bake on baking pan for 24 - 30 minutes. (making sure they are cooked through).

{Cooking Tip} : I'm a very big fan of prepping food before cooking. If you ever feel rushed while cooking/baking, or you get disorganized, try prepping your food beforehand. What I mean by 'prepping' is that if a recipe calls for chopped, or minced, foods, do that before anything else. I also mean that you measure out your ingredients into small prep bowls before mixing things together. It really helps the whole process go more smoothly. Plus, having lots of cute little bowls, like these, around the kitchen is fun! Give it a try if you haven't before, you might get hooked on prepping too. (:

After putting the meatballs in the oven to bake, I usually throw together a quick salad. The artist in me likes seeing multiple colors in a salad, so I try adding lots of healthy vegetables. I especially love avocado in salad, but we're having a tough time finding ones that are ripe! Bummer. Either way, you can easily whip up a couple of salads while the meatballs cook in the oven. See. Simple.

Add some baked garlic bread to the equation, and you have a really delicious and well-rounded meal for dinner. {Or lunch. Whatever floats your boat.} Some day I'd like to bake a few batches and freeze them for a quick dinner remedy. Who doesn't love spaghetti and meatballs now and then? {Please don't answer this if you hate them}. Hopefully this meatball recipe works for you. I know we love it!

The one thing I forgot to snap a picture of was the garlic bread. Darn it. See. Prepping before cooking doesn't solve all of the world's problems. A girl can only try!

So there you have it, a simple dinner of

spaghetti and home-cooked meatballs.

I hope you enjoy!

Lift Off: The Atlantis Launch

My husband and I were fortunate enough to see, in person, space shuttle Atlantis lift off this past Friday. Living in Florida has a few perks, and being near Kennedy Space Center just so happens to be one of them! For a while we didn't know we were going to be living in Florida, but I was really hoping that we would be able to see the the launch of Atlantis. We decided late Thursday night that we were definitely going to drive over to the east coast of Florida to see it.

We heard that traffic can get very heavy on the morning of a scheduled launch, so we woke up around 3:30am. I would not call myself a morning person, so waking up that early takes quite the effort. I survived. There was no way that we wanted to miss NASA's last scheduled shuttle launch, so we gave ourselves plenty of time to arrive in Titusville, park the car, and find a seat to watch the launch. Whew.

We left for Titusville, Florida when the sky was still inky black. There was such an air of excitement the morning of the launch. My husband even signed up to receive text message updates from NASA! Space shuttle Endeavor experienced seemingly endless delays in April, so we had some reservations about actually seeing Atlantis launch into outer space. Space shuttle Atlantis was given a 30% chance of launching, and that was good enough for us to drive all the way over to the Space Coast of Florida. Good thing that we made the trip or we would have missed the on time departure of Atlantis!

Traffic flowed fairly easily, but we did run into heavy traffic, due to an accident, once we were a few miles from Titusville. A map printed at home and a tiny detour took us away from the traffic jam and quickly into town. Upon arriving in Titusville, we came across a parking free-for-all! Cars were parked on curbs, miles down both sides of streets, and almost anywhere that did not have a 'no parking' sign. Since it was free, we opted for the curb parking instead of a pay lot. I'm not sure the town could have ticketed every car there. That would have been cold-hearted and not to mention time consuming; I heard there were about 750k people viewing the Atlantis shuttle launch! I find it incredible that we were only two of those nearly one million spectators.

Once we parked our car, we searched for a restroom and possibly a bite to eat. Unfortunately, the other 749,998 people in attendance had the same idea. The local McDonald's had approximately 147.3 people inside waiting for food and a bathroom break. I overheard a man telling a woman near me that the park next door had restrooms with a shorter line, so we hightailed it to the park. Thankfully the park had toilets that flushed, and the line was short in comparison to the line at McDonald's. After finding a bathroom with a line shorter than 30 minutes, I was feeling really good about actually seeing the shuttle launch. It was as if fate was on our side at that point!

Some people had arrived the night before to claim the 'good seats' for the shuttle launch. Since Titusville is about 12 miles from the launch site, everything at that point seems like a pretty good spot to watch. I told my husband that watching a shuttle launch was like attending a "sporting event for outer space geeks". After looking for space on a very crowded pier, we decided that a park down the road looked like a better bet. We found the perfect little spot to set up our chairs, and no one could sit directly in front of us due to a retention pond in front of us. Thankfully my husband found that perfect spot, and it ended up being a great place to watch space shuttle Atlantis rocket towards outer space!

Since we arrived extra early, we sat and waited for hours. You could seriously feel the energy of the crowd. There were so many people of all ages, and it was fun to see the excitement and anxiousness in the behavior of everyone.

Clouds above us threatened a launch delay. Everyone had their cameras, tripods, video recorders, telescopes, and binoculars ready. Sometimes people would loudly announce what they had just heard on their radio. It was beginning to sound like the weather was no longer a threat.

The countdown to launch time continued.

Then suddenly, we started hearing the crowd counting down

"10, 9, 8... 7, 6, 5, 4... 3, 2, 1... and then nothing."

I began to wonder "had something gone wrong?".

Why was the shuttle still on its launch pad?

Apparently nothing was wrong but some people had been given incorrect information.

Finally we heard a fairly confident sounding countdown.

Still nothing happened when the crowd yelled 'lift off!'.

Radio delays had made the timing slightly off.

Before we knew it, there were flames and steam shooting out from below the shuttle!

Lift off!

* these pictures were taken with our Canon Powershot

they may appear slightly grainy

* Unfortunately, I don't have a zoom lens for my my dSLR.

The Powershot takes decent shots though. (:

Here's a video of the launch!

My husband and I both had the chills when Atlantis finally lifted off from the launch pad. It was really amazing seeing how quickly those astronauts were taken from this earth and into the clouds. They were taken to a place that very few of us will ever experience in this life. Incredible.

I still find it amazing that humans created a shuttle that can break through the atmosphere and take us to outer space. It's almost hard to believe that it's real. Things like this only happen in movies, right?!

Have you ever seen a shuttle launch in person?

What did you think?