New Years Eve Outfit

New Years Eve

Fresh off of the Christmas goodies is the holiday where you wear the sparkliest thing you own and go to parties where you could possibly make some bad decisions. For me though, its the complete opposite.

I always see everyone make all these grand plans for what they are actually going to wear to a party, and I'm the same way. But I'm going to be honest and share with you the outfit I will actually probably wear.

I made another Polyvore for this outfit, because I haven't actually worn the clothes I plan on wearing yet (just got them for x-mas). Be sure to stalk my twitter for my New Years OOTD & FOTN. I'm sure it'll be glittery and I'll be partially inebriated as I take pictures and write the post. So enjoy it. ;)

Realistic New Years Eve Outfit by xwenchqueen

Stalk me?

Twitter & Bloglovin & Facebook & Instagram & Tumblr

Holiday Decorating & Cookie Baking

Holiday Decorating & Cookie Baking

Lets be honest, the Holidays are expensive enough with all the gifts your buying and whatnot. I want my house to look festive and expensive without actually being expensive!

Since I just moved into my apartment this past year, I had NO holiday decorations. So of course the first thing I did once December rolled around was figure out what I was going to do for Christmas decorations! The first thing that needed to be picked up was a Christmas tree. I've never had a real tree before, and honestly my apartment is wayyy too small for a 6ft Christmas tree. So I opted for the fake 4ft tall kind that you can buy from Target on sale for $75. Next: Baubles. I opted for the classic red and gold theme for the tree, although I really wanted to do an all white theme. $1 store, here we come. I bought all of our tree baubles AND the star for the tree at our local Dollar store. And honestly, I think it turned out pretty nice.

 

I have to admit though, some of the ornaments were not from the dollar store. My Grandma loves the Christmas store, and when she went there she bought a ton of absolutely adorable ornaments. And she even got one to commemorate our first Christmas actually living together.

Get Ready With Me - Drugstore Edition

This post is picture heavy - so the full post is hidden under this break.

Comfy Winter Look & Holiday Music!

Comfy Winter Look & Holiday Music!

Today I thought I'd give you a look into my version of a comfy "winter" outfit. 

This outfit is actually something I made at the start of Fall, but it was so hot here I completely forgot all about it because it didn't feel like Fall to me. But finally the weather has given up and has decided to get a bit colder. So I pulled this outfit back from the depths of polyvore and decided to share it with you guys.

I love myself a cute, fuzzy, warm, white sweater (I own two). And I love to pair them with either A) Dark wash skinny jeans or B) Distressed boyfriend jeans with a cute cuff. I decided on the boyfriend jeans for this look with some pretty neutral accessories. I've been loving beige/nudes for the Fall/Winter so I kept with that. A simple nude colored scarf and some nude ballet flats. I love the idea of a cute standout purse with such a neutral outfit to give it a little flair, and then adding some cute heart earrings, a gold bangle, and a cute little ring. I kept the makeup seriously basic with a nude lip and mascara for a simple but polished look.

I feel like this outfit would be perfect for visiting a friend and lounging on their couch while you drink delicious hot chocolate and listen to some holiday music.

Speaking of music This Holiday...

FL Winter OOTD - FOTD

Okay so it was like 59 degrees outside, but whatever!

Okay so lets be real, I'm a born and raised Floridian so I barely ever get to wear the winter clothes that I've collected throughout my life. And my boots, well, I have a massive collection of boots and I wear them all Fall/Winter no matter what the weather is like. If they go with my outfit, I wear them.

No shame in my boot wearin' game.

The dress is seriously just a simple black v-neck long sleeve wrap dress. Wrap dresses are seriously so forgiving and lord knows I need to be forgiven for all that food I've been eating this holiday season! I picked the dress up a couple years ago in NYC at an H&M.

The red wool scarf is even older than the dress I believe. I got it quite a few years ago when I was heading to NYC to visit Chris one of the first times. I wore grey tights under it all, because they were warm (and clean, I seriously need to do laundry). And I paired the whole outfit with these suede boots with cute little buttons on the side that make my gams look amazing and the heel is suitable for all day wear.

To be fair, the FOTD is so simple. I've been so lazy with my makeup since the holidays. You can pull off anything with a good application of eyeliner (when it doubt, wing it out) and a fabulous lip. I just used the Almay liquid liner in Black, the elf eyebrow kit in Medium, and the NYX soft matte lip cream in Prague. 3 things to make a simple but fabulous face!

Stalk me?

Twitter & Bloglovin & Facebook & Instagram & Tumblr

I was in a wedding!

Remember that wedding I went to back on Nov 1st?

Well here are the pictures and the post you guys have been waiting for.

So back on October 31st I had to skip classes and fly out to Maryland for my amazing cousins wedding. She was getting married November 1st and I was so happy to be asked to be in her bridal party. Originally Chris was going to join me on this adventure, but he ended up not being able to take off work and I spent Halloween running through airports.

One thing you guys probably don't know is that I get miserably motion sick. Like miserably, so I knew that the flight from Florida to Georgia and then from Georgia to Maryland were going to feel like the longest plane rides in the history of my life. They weren't actually the longest I've ever had, but my motion sickness didn't set in until I was about 19-20.

Nevertheless, if you've ever landed in the Atlanta, GA airport it is absolutely HUGE. And of course I only had an hour long layover so if my first flight didn't go right on time it was practically guaranteed that I wouldn't make my second flight.

But no worries, my flight out of Ft. Lauderdale went off without a hitch and the only problem in Atlanta is that my next terminal was literally across the entire airport. Even the stewardess on the airplane wished me good luck as I ran through the airport. Atlanta has a tram though, and I still only made it with 5 minutes to spare!

EITHER WAY: The moral of my story is not about airports or travelling, its about these lovely ladies right here and LOVE. Plain and simple.

Rehearsal time!

When I landed my Grandparents scooped me up from the airport and we went straight to the hotel and the wedding rehearsal. And thank goodness its a tiny airport because I don't know if I could have handled another large airport that day. I got to meet most of the bridesmaids that were going to be there and I finally got to see my cousin! It feels like forever since I've seen her, its so funny because we can spend years apart and then we get together and we always click and its like its been no time at all.

Mood Board: Modani Furniture*

Mood Board: Modani Furniture*

As I posted on Tuesday, I've been hunting through some furniture websites. It literally all started innocently enough when I was in my living room with the boys and I realized that we /seriously/ needed a bookshelf. But not for books, no no no. For all of our board games and "collectibles".

It was seriously like fate was watching me herself, because as I was lurking the bookshelf section of some website I got an email from the lovely Modani Furniture! They asked me if I'd like to do a mood board/post about some pieces and of course I said yes. Their style is everything  modern I'd like to have in a home but I'm wayyy too messy for white furniture and clumsy so I'd probably have more shin bruises from their furniture than a soccer player. (yeah, I'm American, its Soccer here)

They also gave me some amazing pieces to work with, and above is the mood board that I came up with!
Oh yeah, and that amazing black sofa is their 'Monaco black leather sofa'. It looks so seriously comfortable and those Love Pillows would look amazing on it. I'd probably actually take off the generic black pillows and put some silver accent pillows in the corner of the couch. The accessories make the outfit, right?

November Favorites

November Monthly Favorites

I only have a few items that are my favorites this month. But I've really been using a lot of the same stuff as last month because I've been trying to be more budget conscious, and not spend so much money on makeup and beauty supplies that aren't deemed necessary.

One thing I haven't been able to pick up this past month but am drooling over is berry colored lipsticks. I've been seeing them all over and they are absolutely gorgeous. I haven't been able to find a shade when I'm out and about that I'm in love with, so if you have any recommendations for berry lipsticks, leave them in the comments! I'd love to see them and maybe I'll go pick them up.

Onto my favorites:

So, this past month I got my first subscription box. And it has been one of my favorite things I've received all month. Chris has already worn his shirt, and we have all the things we received on display in our apartment.

For a more in depth review click here

This past month I've also been obsessed with doing my hair and trying to find the perfect way to curl my hair easily with minimal heat. My solution: BUNS.

Variation one:

I do a simple twisty bun on the top of my head like Zoella Does! (I didn't actually get this one from her, but this was the closest example I could find) This creases my hair but it usually looks so cute and it leaves my hair is loose curls so I like it quite a bit.

Variation two:

I don't know if any of you have ever used Spin Pins, but they are amazing! I usually throw my hair up in the pins when my hair is almost dry and then I sleep in then all night. The best part is that they don't crease the hair so when I let it out my hair just looks like spun golden perfection! A little hairspray afterwards and I'm done!

My First Subscription Box!

On Saturday I got my first Subscription box...

Loot Crate!

Truthfully, I never understood what all the hype was about subscription boxes/bags every month. I've been eyeing an ipsy subscription for awhile, but I never got around to buying it. Especially with money about to be tight in my household with Black Friday around the corner and our bills seeming to get larger and larger.

I finally caved though on this month's Loot Crate though - it was Battle themed and Chris and I were watering at the mouth to see what was in it. If you don't know what Loot Crate is: It's a monthly subscription box for under $20 filled to the brim with stuff for geeks and gamers.

We caved and ordered this months, and it finally arrived on Saturday 11/22.
The box itself is awesome looking, sleek black and pretty sturdy. Protecting all the geeky goodness inside. The box is actually a diorama and you can play with/display it if you want!

We opened the box and the first thing we noticed was the street fighter headband. And of course Megaman.
Ya know, because Megaman.

Tabletop Tuesday!

Smash Up

I don't know how many of my readers are actually into board/card games, but tabletop gaming has most recently become a fairly central role in my life. My fiance, roommate, and I find ourselves playing tabletop games fairly often (at least once a week) and it can get pretty heated. (mainly because my fiance likes to play games by bending rules as he sees fit, and doesn't care how "fair" they are, as long as he gets the win)

Oh and if your reading this Chris, yeah I am tired of your gaming shenanigans. 

What did you do on your Monday night?

Overall though, we have a great time playing these games and we've found some pretty cool games since we've started on this tabletop adventure.

One of them is this game called Smash Up.

Basically: There are a bunch of different card decks with different "classes" as I would call them. What you do is choose two class decks that you like and Smash the cards together! In my hand you'll see that I had Time Travellers and Dinosaurs. (Or Time Travelling Dinosaurs) Chris was Ninja Spies (Ninjas & Spies), and Will was Magic Bears (Magicians & Bears).

The goal is to make it to 15VP (Victory Points) by breaking bases. Aka causing enough damage to equal or exceed the breakpoint value of the base (which varies from base to base). And then award points accordingly!

It is a fun game to play and you can play with just one other person and there are PLENTY of different smashes that you can do and plenty of different ways to play. We'll definitely be playing this game many more times.

Stalk me?

Twitter & Bloglovin & Facebook & Instagram & Tumblr

Transformation Tuesday

Transformation Tuesday

This isn't a post about my weight or where I started and where I'm at now, its a post about how makeup transforms me into a fabulous sorority girl.

Plus I really liked how my eyemakeup came out the other day.

To the right is a image of me, one half of my face has makeup on, the other half has none. My bare face isn't something that I'm always confident in because of my trichotillomania, but there are days where my skin needs to breathe and I have to face the world.

Tonight was not one of those nights.

I had a important sorority event in where I needed to dress and look business professional.

This post has gone to the dogs

So... I drew eyebrows on my roommates dog

and then subjected her to about a billion pictures and laughed so hard I cried.

There are more pictures under this cut.

October 2014 Favorites!

October Favorites

This month I haven't really been trying anything that new makeup wise, but I did pick up a few things for my Halloween costume. These are the things I picked up for Halloween plus a few other things I've been really liking this month.

Please excuse the terrible lighting, time change is killing me.

Nyx Cosmetics Simply Vamp Lip Cream in Aphrodisiac.

P.S. The name of this lip cream is spelled wrong on their website, they call it Ahrodisiac.

I picked this up to wear with my Halloween costume, and honestly I find it transitioning nicely into my Fall wardrobe as well. I went away this past weekend for my cousins wedding (which you will get a full post about so don't fret) and took this along with me for the more informal nights. I find it to almost be a shade of brown on me, but I honestly like it. I don't know, transitioning to Fall is hard when you live in sunny south FL. Its a seriously creamy lip color, has lots of pigmentation, and has an average staying power. Like every lipstick it comes off on everything, but at some point you come to expect it so just tote it around with you like I do.

Ulta Color Pure Eyeshadow in 3 different Shades: Mesa, Olive, and Riveria.
This was, once again originally purchased as a piece of my Halloween costume (and they were on sale like 3 for $9 when they are usually $10 each!). These are loose powder eyeshadows, and can get messy. But the pigmentation they give is totally worth it! Olive is (you guessed it) an olive green, Riveria can best be described as a bronzey rust color, and Mesa is a light peachy-gold. For Halloween I used the Olive color all over my lid, worked Riveria into my crease, and then used Mesa to top it all off and highlight/etc. This was a dramatic and definitely not and everyday look, but I find myself reaching for just the Mesa color for a fresh daytime look. Thats not too heavy but makes me look awake and like I might actually be able to function for the day.

Sorority girl crafting?!

Its Time for Big/Littles in the Sorority world, so you know what that means...

CRAFTING!

I have been gifted a little previously, and she made the sorority amazing for me! It was so awesome to have a little of my own.

This is us, we're awesome.

Her name was Cynthia, and she graduated before me! I'm set to graduate with my Computer Engineering degree in the Fall, and I was hoping for a new little to spend the rest of my time as an active with. Alas, that didn't happen for me. ):

For Cynthia, crafting for her was easy (sorry boo!) she was a typical sorority girl who loved pink and rhinestones and I loved how all her clues for clue week turned out. (I'll have to dig up some pictures somewhere, will edit if I find some)

This time though, although they are not my own, I am still helping with all the crafting! I'm so excited to have my family in my sorority expanding! I'll take about a billion pictures and post them once everything is revealed! Sorta like a sorority DIY. 

Also, over the weekend the Fiance and I will be doing the Whisper challenge. I'll put it on youtube so you guys can see how silly we are!

Stalk me?

Twitter & Bloglovin & Facebook & Instagram & Tumblr

Bonobos Fall Style Challenge!*

Bonobos Fall Style Challenge!*

Happy Halloween everyone! Today I bring you my Bonobos Fall Style Challenge outfits. They contacted me a bit ago and I've been dying to post this for you guys. You should definitely check out their new Fall mens suits collection that inspired each of these looks! The first one is definitely a more casual daytime outfit and the second is a LBD outfit that I absolutely love.

This post contains links that may be followed, and also links you to all the products used in every outfit.

Outfit 1:

 

This outfit was inspired from the image below

Top: Blue Top from TheOutnet.com

Jacket: Jacket from Farfetch.com

Skirt: Karl Lagerfeld Tweed Mini Skirt

Shoes: Crixia Shoes from Aldo

Purse: Annabelle Scallop Tote from Forever New

Earrings: Sparkin in the Sunlight Earrings from ModCloth

Bracelet: Set of Two Arrow & Leaf Cuff Bracelets from Neiman Marcus

Necklace: Double Heart T Collar from Lipsy

Lipstick: L'Oreal Paris Colour Caresse Lipstick

Outfit 2:

This outfit was inspired by the image below:

Dress: Peplum Tube Dress from Nelly.com

Coat: Bat Shape Long Dust Coat from Chicnova

Shoes: Fab Factor Heel from ModCloth

Purse: Cedar Street Maise from Kate Spade

Necklace: Bejewelled Necklace from The Iconic

Earrings: 18k Yellow Gold Diamond Stud Earrings from Overstock

No seriously: Check out the awesome men's suits from Bonobos.com and their Ladies clothes at Ayr.com.

Also: Stalk me on social media~

Twitter & Bloglovin & Facebook & Instagram & Tumblr

(*) This post was sponsored by Bonobos.

My Halloween Party!

Halloween Party!

So this past weekend I threw an amazing Halloween party. I spend the entire week before the party panicking and freaking out about food and who was coming and all the small details.

I freaked out for absolutely no reason, only 2 people cancelled, and some people brought +1's.

It started at 7pm, and the plan was to have everyone eat dinner at 8. And while that didn't go to plan, everything else did. I tried channeling my Grandma (who may be my hosting/party spirit animal) and had lots and lots of chips and salsa and horderves to eat before dinner. I ended up having a lot more than I even expected after people showed up and brought stuff.

For dinner I made lots and lots of taco stuff. Chris made his Mom's delicious shredded chicken recipe and I made regular beef taco meat. Then we had every single topping you could really ever want to put on a taco. We had both hard shells and soft shells and everyone stuffed their faces until they literally were like "Jenn I ate too much you had soooo much food."

And that was even before dessert.

My best friend made Owl cupcakes that were decadent chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting topped with oreo cookies and M&Ms.

And then someone else brought even more vanilla cupcakes with giant candy corns on the top!

Then the plethora of sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies were abound. 

And candy. So. Much. Candy.

After dinner we had the Murder Mystery part of the night, where they had to figure out who done-did it. I found the template for the party online and I promise as soon as I find it I will link you to it. It was a great ice breaker for some of my friend who had never met before or were a little shy. We gave away the board game 'Clue' to the person who figured it out, and the game 'Sorry!' to the person who got second. (haha, get it?)

Overall it was a great time and I'm thinking of hosting another party/game night/friends night sometime again because even though it was a lot of work, it was also a lot of fun!

Stalk me?

Twitter & Bloglovin & Facebook & Instagram & Tumblr

50th blog post

I can't believe this is already my 50th blog post!

When I started this blog I never thought in a million years that anyone besides a few friends would ever even be interested in anything I had to say.

To those of you who regularly read my blog:

I know I may not have the highest quality content all the time, but I post about things that make me smile. Thing that make me happy, because even through it all thats all that matters. And I want YOU to have a little moment in your day where you just smile and forget about the laundry, or homework, or how the hell you're going to get that waterproof mascara off because you are WAYY too tired for that fight today.

And to those of you who don't regularly read my blog:

No seriously. Lets be friends. I mean at the end of every post I invite you to stalk me.

Haha, but not in the creepy way though please. ;)

Overall: Thanks for stickin around ya'll. I seriously appreciate it.

Stalk me?

Twitter & Bloglovin & Facebook & Instagram & Tumblr

What happens when a Bblogger gets an eye infection

Okay so originally I was going to show you guys a preview of my Halloween makeup...

But this weekend I decided it would be an AWESOME time to get an eye infection. So, what do I do instead of showing you my absolutely amazing Halloween makeup?

I show you a look that involves barely any makeup and also lets you look like a human being!

Please excuse the terrible quality.

Halloween costume ideas

Costume Ideas for Halloween

So, as Halloween approaches I've done enough googling for Halloween costumes for about 3 people. So I'm going to show you some of the costumes that I seriously considered!

I like costumes that are a little more conservative, and usually had a male pairing because Chris and I are finally able to do a couples costume this year!

Costume #1: Broken Doll

I came across an amazing makeup tutorial on how to do a broken doll makeup. I spent a very long time looking for the proper costume to compliment the makeup I was planning on doing, and eventually settled on this dress shown on the left. My favorite color is purple and I had amazing ideas on how to style this.

I hate ordering costumes and clothing online sometimes, because I can't touch the fabric. But the reviews online for the dress were amazing.

If you like this costume I found it on Spirit Halloweens website.

I didn't end up picking this one though because Chris didn't want to be a doll or a puppeteer. Plus I had to think about its wearability throughout the night while I was hosting a party, so I eventually decided against this.

Throwback Thursday!

Throwback Thursday

I know how silly this is about to sound, but I seriously love Thursdays. Not only is it a day away from Friday and literally so close to the weekend I could taste it, but also I /love/ Throwback Thursday.

I love seeing everyones old photos, old memories, and what I love most is the radio when they decide to put a good mix on.

Now here's one thing you may not know about me, but I seriously resonate with early 90's Miami booty bass music all the way up until the early 00's hip-hop and r&b. There is nothing a good mix couldn't fix.

Speaking of: the radio stations down here usually do a pretty good job creating some bomb remixes. For me a good mix has equal parts sirens, amazing bass, fast tempo, and lyrics. I don't particularly care what they are talking about, but if its about shaking my butt, you can bet I for sure am. Singing the lyrics and wiggling in my car getting as crunk as I can without crashing my car.

Uncle Luke? Trick Daddy? Trina? DJ Laz? 69 Boyz? Quad City DJs? TLC? 2 Live Crew? Yes, please.

Basically, perfect throwback thursday mixes should make me want to twerk.

Everywhere.

Judge me tomorrow. Because today I'm enjoying myself too much.

Stalk me?

Twitter & Bloglovin & Facebook & Instagram & Tumblr

I found a Spooky Story that I just had to share

So I'm a sucker for creepy stories

And I read them as much as I possibly can. And I ran across this one, and it stuck with me because I feel like your family members stay with you after they've passed.

My great-grandmother was very close to my mom and was apparently an incredible woman. She died before I was born, but my mom tells us a lot of stories about her. From the time my little sister was born, she's had a very strong resemblance to old pictures of my great-grandma and her whole side of the family. Once, when my sister was a baby just beginning to learn to speak, my mom was holding my sister on her lap, talking and playing with her. My sister reached up and took my mother's face in her hands (like my great-grandmother used to do to my mom when she was alive), looked her in the eye, and very clearly said, "You always were such a beautiful baby." My mother was shocked, but my sister, who was not yet speaking in full sentences, had gone back to making her typical baby sounds.

My mom told this story at dinner when my sister was about six or seven. This was the first time my sister ever heard the story, and she was a little freaked out. As soon as my mom finished telling the story though, my sister's eye twitched, as if she were winking.

source 

After a week long break

I'm baaaaaack!

And I pretty pretty promise it was for a good reason!

Over this past week Chris and I have been talking about expanding our family. So, after doing a lot of talking and number crunching we've decided its time to expand our little family. This comes as a bit of a shock to some because I'm definitely not one to move fast on serious decisions like this, but after talking it out with the boo I realized it was something I definitely wanted.

So, I'd like to introduce the new member of our little family:

Please Welcome Buster!

On the second day of October....

my true love gave to meeeeeee....

another creepy two sentence story for your amusement.

I woke up to hear knocking on glass. At first, I thought it was the window until I heard it come from the mirror again.

I love these kind of stories. Send me your creepy stories to xwenchqueen@gmail.com & if I like it I'll post it here on the blog!

Have a Haunted October!

Follow me? Twitter & Bloglovin & Facebook & Instagram & Tumblr