On this day when you were born...

26 years ago, on this VERY day. I was born.

I love celebrating my birthday. (in case you hadn't noticed that... :o) )

I have no idea what is in store for tonight, but Solider Boy and Sister B have been communicating and have something up their sleeves. I just love surprises, so I'm excited to see what's going to happen...


ANYWHO. Today's Photo-A-Day prompt is : Something you wore. So here you go...my birthday outfit:

 I feel pretty! :o)

Anywho...I hope you all have a great day, I know I will....because it's my BIRTHDAY!!!! :o)

craziness

Hi guys. So....I started a post on Friday, but then I didn't ever get around to finishing it and posting it. Then I stayed away from the internets (for the most part) this weekend. See...it was show weekend. That meant I spent all afternoon/evening Friday and Saturday at the Covey Center for the Arts. It was fun and exhausting all in one. Also - I realize I didn't finish the 10-day challenge. My life blew up with the show (some crazy stuff hit the fan late Thursday) and I really couldn't think of something to do PLUS the one thing I did think of possibly doing, I couldn't do because I wasn't allowed to wear jeans to work on Friday due to the board of directors meeting that happened. Oh well. C'est la vie.

The silver lining though to this weekend was that Solider Boy stuck around on Friday. We went to lunch together and then he came and suppported me and my ballet company at the performance that night. It was SO NICE to have him with me. We followed up the show with dinner w/a good friend of mine and then went back to my place to talk and just chill. He ended up staying another (unplanned, but still good) night in UT county and we got to spend a bit of time together Saturday morning before he left on his week long trip to California. sigh. I miss him.

Also, I've realized that I haven't really blogged about a lot of what happened last weekend (the 28/29 of January) or what not...and I'm pretty sure I don't want to go into all of the details about it all. It's a VERY long story and pretty personal, but the jist of it is this: we're not really dating right now and we're going to be that way for a little while. It's a complicated mess, but Solider Boy is my future boyfriend. One of my friends described it as us being "engaged to be in a relationship." We don't have a timeline for when we will be officially dating, but in the meantime we are good friends strengthening our friendship. We hang out and talk to each other because we both need that support. I honestly really like where we are in our relationship and I'm so grateful for this time to learn more about him and grow closer together without all the other emotional/physical aspects of a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship getting in the way. We both really like each other and we're excited to see where things go, when they can go. So...Soldier Boy isn't disappearing completely, I just don't get to kiss him or hold his hand right now. :'(

Anywho...there's the reader's digest version of where things are for us right now. :o) Have a great Monday y'all!

Day 9: Group OTI

I'll admit, the Group OTI prompt scared the living daylights out of me. I really wasn't sure what I was going to do or how I was going to interpret the outfit. Without further ado, here's what I wore:

So, neutrals with a pop of color. I tried to layer...but I don't own that many sweaters/cardigans and not one really flowed with the outfit. I chose to ignore that part of the outfit. :o) Pants and shirt: JC Penney's - sash: made by a friend to match my graduation dress. :o)

And now my plea for help, tomorrow challenge is to do something that scares you. I'm not sure what scares me when it comes to clothes (well, leggings scare me, but I'm not going to go out and buy some for the challenge when I REALLY don't like them.) I need to figure out what I'm scared of...maybe I'll have to go perusing the blogosphere......suggestions?

Day 8: Dress up a Coat

Well...here we are, Day 8 of the lovely 10 day challenge. I'll admit that it is going MUCH faster than the last challenge, although a part of me is going to miss it. I really enjoy someone else telling me how to dress. (Sometimes. Not all the time.)

Anywho, I didn't really feel like dressing up my every day coat - because most people really wouldn't get to see it and that thought made me sad. :( But then I had the brilliant idea to dress up my suit coat! I love, love, love my suit coat.

Before I dressed it up:

This suit coat was purchased by my mom, for me, a bazillion years ago from Walmart. (I think.) It was also long-sleeved. Well....I didn't ever really wear it - the sleeves were a little on the short side and I just didn't love it. THEN one day I got all crazy sauce, whacked off the sleeves and then hemmed them. NOW I LOVE this jacket and wear it way more often. It's fun. :o)

The whole she-bang outfit:

I added this AWESOME flower to the lapel of my jacket (safety pin to be able to clip this flower onto. :o) ) Pencil skirt from JC Penney, tights (see below) from Forever 21 and my favorite bright pink heels.

the details:

These are some awesome paisely/fishnet tights that I paired OVER a pair of bright pink tights. LOVE this look. I'm a huge fan.

Overall...I loved adding the flower to my jacket! It totally made the outfit pop just a little bit more than it normally does. WOO HOO!

Day 7: Winter Brights

If you know me in real life then you know that the challenge of wearing something brightly colored - even in the dead of winter- really isn't much of a challenge. I wear bright colors ALL THE TIME. (I'm a fan of bright colors. ;) )

ANYWAYS. In order to push myself a bit, I decided to try to wear a bright color in a way that I wouldn't normally. So...here ya go:

you can't tell, but the slacks are pin-striped (Kohl's), as is the shirt (Old Navy) and the t-shirt is from threadless and yes...I'm wearing matching green socks. :o)

I THINK I like this look, but I'm not sure yet. What I wish is that my button up shirt was a tad longer so that it hung out of my t-shirt more...but oh well. Can't win them all I suppose.

p.s. stay tuned for my tender mercy posts. I have a great one!!

Day 6: Decade or Region

Good Monday morning my dear friends.

I just want you to know that life is amazing. That's all.

Anyways, moving on. ;) Today's challenge was to use decades and/or region in our outfits today. I wondered how I was going to do it...but then I had this brilliant idea. I was going to use the 80s as my inspiration. (crazy, I know) But...I really think it worked. So...first, a picture to show you what I was trying to channel today:

I really liked the cut off/bright color look of this outfit - as well as the side ponytail.

So, without further ado, my outfit today:

this picture TOTALLY distorts the colors. :P BUT I'm wearing a darker pink cut off sweater (although it was made that way - I totally think it goes 80s-ish) (also, I have NO idea where I got it...) and a light pink downeast under it with skinny jeans (Target).

THEN I did my hair like so:

a cute side pony tail with a matching ribbon! :o) go me!

This was really fun to put together an outfit inspired by a decade...but that is still modern. I'm awesome. :o)

Day 5: pattern mixing

I have fallen in love with pattern mixing. I really enjoy the challenge of finding two patterns that I can wear together. As I type this, I can't help but think of a few other outfits that I could do....regardless this is what I went with:

I got this infinity scarf from my sister for Christmas and the shirt I got at Papaya ages ago. I loved this look. Like I said...I'm a fan of pattern mixing. :o)

p.s. I had the best weekend full of adventures and I'll give you a post about it someday when I get some time. This next week is going to be insane....but I will do my best to make time for it. Eventually. :o)

Day 4: Channeling

Today's challenge was to Channel Someone. Oh dear. I had the hardest time coming up with someone to channel. I kept thinking of what was in my closet and wondering HOW in the world I was going to channel some sort of famous character or person and make said outfit work.

Enter Soldier Boy. (he's the new boy remember?)

He and I were talking on the phone last night and I was trying to explain this challenge to him and then I asked him to give me someone to challenge. His answer? Brittany Spears. I know, right? You're all thinking, what the heck Alishka, really?!

Well.....here's the deal. I thought it could work. So today I'm channeling Brittany Spears a la her "Baby One More Time" video. Specifically:

So here's my outfit (again, 2 parts!)

As you can see I tried to channel the prep school girl kind of look. So I'm wearing jean-washed slacks (JC Penney's), a gray button up cargo shirt (Target) and one of my dad's ties that I  borrowed ages ago and never gave back.... (LOVE that tie.)

THEN I decided to do just a little more Brittany channeling:

I saw this hair-do on Pinterest the other day and new I wanted to try it. My hair is NOT quite long enough to take this braid as far over as I would like, but I still like it.

So there you have it. A channel success? Perhaps. I do like my hair today....

Day 3: Embrace a Trend

I'll admit that I struggled trying to put together my outfit for today's challenge. Who's to decide what is "in" right now anyways? Also - I always seem to be behind on the times when it comes to trends. Woefully behind.

Anywho, I went with three (sort of 4) trends in one outfit (call me crazy) and I think I like it. Most of it.

Here is my main outfit of a polka dotted shirt (roommate's), heathered-gray/black pencil skirt (JC Penney's) and my green tights (Forever 21). (I promise those tights are green AND that they look really cool with my outfit. It's just the lighting in my room/stupid iPod camera. :P)

then we have my hair:

a high, ballerina bun. Now here's the dealio as to why this isn't my favorite trend. I am a ballerina. I grew up dancing and had to have my hair in a bun, EVERY day. So...I don't normally want to put my hair up in a bun. However, I thought Id give it a go as a fashion statement and I actually think it worked out fairly well for me. I'm a fan.

So just to review here are the trends I decided to try out today: 1) polka-dots (LOVE. I'm a huge fan) 2) pattern mixing ( this is one that I made up. I feel like everywhere I turn there is HUGE amounts of pattern mixing. I realize this will be a challenge another day...and I'll do something cool that day. but bam. pattern mixing) 3) colored tights. (I LOVE colored tights. I'm just always SO nervous to wear them. But like I said earlier, I think they work with this outfit. and my purple or pink ones would probably look just as cool. something to remember) and 4) the ballerina bun.

Overall, today was a win. Go me! :o)

[ps don't miss the dating battle story below - an introduction/quick run down of all of our adventures in the past week. :o)]

Day 1

So...some of you might remember the 21-Day Fashion challenge that I participated in back in late August.

Well, the wonderful April is hosting a Winter Edition that is only 10-days long! I'm really excited about this because I have been getting bored of my closet, but I have a hard time doing something like this challenge on my own. (I know, I should be better and try to do it....but it's just HARD!)

So, today is Day 1: Layers.

So, I went with my white sheer blouse (Kohl's) from the last challenge (it was my mix-in item) with a white DownEast shirt underneath, my brown jean jacket (shopko? who knows, I got it in high school) with my skinny jeans (target) and my awesome brown boots (shoe carnival).  I really like this outfit. I hardly ever wear this jacket. It is a tad on the small side - I don't think I could button it up if I wanted to, and it's very, very stiff which makes it hard to wear.

Hope you all have a fantastic Monday!

p.s. I had a wonderful weekend and time spent with this new boy toy of mine...I'm working on his 'nym and then he'll probably get a Dating Battles post. ;) Have a lovely Monday!