Looking for an Easter Dress...

My mom makes everyone in our family get a brand new outfit for Easter every year. It's a really big deal. We take about a million pictures after church.

Here are some Easter pictures from the past two years:
Easter 2010

 My family couldn't take a normal group shot last year...

 Myself and my cousin..

Last year's dress is probably my favorite dress I own. It's Anthropologie and it fit me like a dream (shoes were Clockwork Couture). It's definitely going to be hard to top this one.

Easter 2009

 This was another Anthropologie dress..

All the ladies (my aunt Susanne, me, cousin Gracie, mom).

This year I have not been able to find anything! By this point I usually have had a dress for months, just staring at me from the closet, waiting to be worn. I saw that Anthro just released some new dresses.. Here are some I'm looking at..

Anthropologie Parading Hues Dress

Anthropologie Mompos Dress

Anthropologie Approaching Blues Dress

And then there are a few from ModCloth that are lovely..

Across The Pond Dress

Gardens of Versailles Dress

Ballroom Bliss Dress

You can see my dilemma.. I just don't know what to do this year! Help!

Festival of Flowers 2011

Every year there is a Festival of Flowers down in Mobile, AL.. It's kind of a big deal.

This was my second year going to take pictures.. Here are some of my favorites of the day:

And can I just say that we have completely surpassed spring and gone straight to the stifling summer. Seriously, it was about 85 outside today with about 80% humidity. Ugh. Goodbye to good hair days.

St. Patrick's Day!

I am definitely one of those girls who dresses up and goes all out for random holidays.. St. Patrick's day happens to be one of my favorites. First off, I LOVE Ireland, my mom and I visited in 2008. Secondly, I love green. Thirdly, I'm part Irish..

Anyways, this year I decided to cook an Irish meal for the family.

Here is the recipe for the Steak and Guinness Pie I made.

This is what goes inside the pie (steak, bacon, onions, peas...). The Guinness makes an AMAZING gravy. Let me tell you..

Here I am with the finished product..

Here it is on the table.. I must say, this pie was scrumptiously delicious. It was hearty. It was yummy. It was Irish. I highly suggest you try it out. The only downside was that my family gobbled it all up and there were absolutely no left-overs.

I made Whisky cookie balls for dessert. They were also fantastic. (I'll post the recipe at the bottom of this post.) We had Bailey's Irish Cream with dessert as well.. So I guess we had the three most popular Irish drinks at dinner (Guinness in the pie, Jameson whiskey in the cookies, and Bailey's).

Here's my green for the day:

Shirt: Express
Cardigan: Express
Jeans: Miss Me
Shoes: Anthropologie

I just love these shoes. I bought them on sale last year and have only gotten to wear the once, so I decided St. Patrick's day was the perfect day to air them out.

And here's my whole family decked out in their green. We're nerds together, at least. :) And I kind of forced them to wear it....

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!!


Here is the recipe for the cookies:

Recipe: Irish whiskey balls (no-bake cookies)

Ingredients

• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 2 cups vanilla wafer cookies
• 1/2 cup Irish whiskey (preferably Jameson)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon corn syrup
• 1 1/2 cups pistachios
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• Optional: green food coloring

Preparation: Grind together white chocolate chips and vanilla wafers in a food processor. Add powdered sugar and process until combined. Add the whiskey and corn syrup and process until crumbs form a mass. Add pistachios and pulse until nuts are coarsely chopped and throughout mixture. Optional: Add a drop or two of green food coloring to give the balls a St. Patrick's Day holiday color.

Form 1-inch balls. Place sugar in a shallow bowl and roll balls in sugar. Store in wax paper-lined airtight container in a cool dry place. Let balls sit for a few days before eating for best results.

Makes 48 balls

Modern Fairy Tales - Movie Reviews

Last weekend I saw "Beastly" and today I saw "Red Riding Hood".. I decided to put in my two cents about them.

First off, I saw "Beastly" starring Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens, Neil Patrick Harris, and Mary-Kate Olsen. Let me first say, YUM to Alex Pettyfer and I cannot believe that he was born in 1990! Crazy.. Anyways, he was great in the movie. He is a spoiled rich kid who believes that looks are pretty much everything. Mary-Kate Olsen is a witch or something and she curses him so that he becomes covered with cuts and tattoos and some ugly bulges on his face. (If you see it, pay attention to one of the tattoos on his back; it says "UGLY".) Neil Patrick Harris pretty much made the movie for me. He is the blind tutor. Everything he said was hilarious. He was sarcastic and his comedic timing was perfect. As for Vanessa Hudgens, well, she's just not a good actress. She wasn't believable at all in my opinion. She was the worst part of the movie for me.. Otherwise, I really enjoyed it.

This afternoon I saw "Red Riding Hood"starring Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Shiloh Fernandez, and Max Irons. For this movie, I'd say wait for the DVD. It was just a stressful experience. There were two love interests, and the one I liked she didn't like and never liked.. They killed people off unnecessarily, and she was quite scandalous. Definitely not "little" red riding hood.. And I didn't like the ending. I've also decided I don't like Catherine Hardwicke as a director (she also directed "Twilight"). The only redeeming thing was that they kept you guessing on who the werewolf really was.. I'll just say everybody in the movie had brown eyes.

In conclusion, I'd recommend Beastly, and if you really want to see Red Riding Hood go to a matinee or wait for the DVD.

Things To Do Before I'm 30

Okay I am getting reallllly bored without a job. I seriously don't know what to do with myself with all of this free time. I don't like it.. I've been the Energizer bunny since I was 15.. I'm waiting to hear back from several interviews, so fingers crossed! I had a dream about one of them last night.. It was weird.

Anyways, this week I've started a bucket list of things to do before I'm 30.. True it's still pretty far off; I'll be 25 in October.. There are several things I've always wanted to do and I kind of want to get to them before I turn thirty. I only have about 15 items at the moment, but I want to get it up to 30.. Here are a few of the items on it:

- Go skydiving

- Learn to ride a horse really well

- Visit New York

- Own a house

- Live outside of Mobile

- Drive a vespa in Europe

- Own a pair of Jimmy Choos or Louboutins... Haha..

Well, I am on my way to one of the items.. I'm learning to horseback ride!!! I am so incredibly excited about this one. There is a girl that goes to my church named Madeline.. She's a senior in high school but I've known her for years.. Her brother (16) is best friends with my brothers (also 16). Her family owns horses, so I decided to ask her about lessons or where I should go to get lessons. Well, she offered to teach me for FREE! I am so so so so excited, you have no idea.. We start this Saturday. I'm going to learn to saddle a horse and everything. I'll let you know how it goes!!

Italia

So I'm incredibly jealous of my mom because she got to go to Italy for 12 days... But the great thing about my mom going on a trip is she brings me amazing things back! She went to Bologna, Milan, and Venice with my aunt to visit my cousin who is studying in Bologna.

Here are my souvenirs:

Apparently there is a "Carnival" in Italy that has been going on for hundreds of years and it is at the same time as our Mardi Gras.. My mom said it's nothing like ours with crazy drunk people and parades, but there are people walking around with capes and masks on. Very cool. She got me a couple of masks..

I may be going to a parade next week (I'd be looking on from a balcony, not on the street) and I may have to wear this mask. I love it!

 This one reminds me of Drew Barrymore in Ever After:

 I love scarves!

 This one has little charms on it.

 I love the bright colors of this one.

 I am obsessed with these shoes. This past Wednesday I went to Evergreen, AL (you could say it's in the boonies) to visit family wearing these shoes.. I was also wearing the grey scarf, a turquoise, black, and white messenger bag, bejeweled pocket capri jeans and my brother's Aviators.. I walked into KFC to get lunch for everybody and I cannot tell you how many people just stopped and stared at me.. I did NOT look like I was "from around here".  It was pretty funny.

 My mom actually bought these for herself but they were too big for her. I'm a half size larger and they fit perfectly.

 This skirt is soooo me.

 This one too. They look Anthropologie-ish, right?

 Apparently socks with pumps are a big trend in Italy. I'm definitely a fan and can't wait to figure out how to style these babies.

 Gotta love some knee socks.

 You can't go somewhere without bringing back a keychain! Italy has their own version of the French fleur-de-lis.

 This is a Venetian glass ring from Venice. I love the colors.

These are actually children's leather bracelets from Florence but they fit my tiny wrists perfectly! (Firenze is the Italian word for Florence)

Can everyone agree that my mom has excellent taste?! She knows me well. :) Thanks mom!