Outfit Blogging at It's Finest

I seriously wonder when this craze of "fashion blogging" began (don't worry, I can make fun of it since I used to be a daily "fashion blogger"--if you could call me that, because many of my outfits were less than fashionable haha). Who was the first person who said, "I'm going to take a picture of my outfit every day and then post it on a website for the world to see."? I suppose at first it sounded like a cool idea, and it was. What a cool way to document your day by taking pictures of your outfits! Yes!

I think the monstrosity began when everybody saw how cool these few fashion bloggers were and thought, "hey, I can do that too!" and then half of the women in the US decided they all should do it too. And now it seems like everyone fashion blogs. And that's cool and all, but I suppose it's a little boring to me now.

"model pose"=please never let my arm do that again. It looks much better on my waist or at my side.

 Now I kind of skip over the outfit posts in my google reader and only click on the ones that have substance--stuff that life is really about. Not that life isn't about mustache jewelry and buns atop our heads, but you know. I would hope it's about a little more than just that.

In truth, fashion blogging kind of messed me up and probably did the same thing to society. We all now seem to follow the same trends because they are so readily accessible to us from any blog out there, with just a click on a link. We can't seem to wear a cute outfit one day and just not take a picture of it (soooo guilty of this one. Every time I'm dressed cute I feel like I have to get a picture of it. And not just a crappy phone picture, but pictures like these).

Don't you be chastising me for writing against fashion blogging when you are fashion blogging. Eh.

 I do it too. I mean, c'mon, what is this post? What are these pictures adorning the walls of my blog? I don't think that it's a bad thing to take pictures of our outfits and post them on the internet for everyone to see. But I do think that we should try to be more aware of what is going on around us and realize that we have more to provide to the world than just a smile and a cute outfit.

Just something to think about. But then again, what do I know? This is after all an outfit post. ;)

Lucky

In the midst of everything that goes on in life--school, work, relationships and heartbreak, events out of our control, and random happenings--I'm so lucky and so grateful to be best friends and roommates with these girls.

I moved in with them at a really hard time in my life...I was still dealing with my eating disorder and I'd just gotten out of a really crappy roommate situation that had kind of thrown me into somewhat of a depression. And while they didn't really know that any of that was going on, at least not to those extremes, I knew they were there for me. I'd come home and they'd ask me how my day was and on weekends whoever of us was there would hang out and have fun together. Every Sunday we took whatever we had in our cupboards and made something delicious together. After we'd all get home from school on weekdays, we'd all be in the kitchen together making our separate dinners and discussing how our days went. Late nights were spent talking about more serious things like boys and other topics that didn't leave our bedrooms. When I spend time with these girls and look back on all of the fun times we've had together, I think of love and I think of happiness.

When I spend time with these girls, my bad days turn good and my scowls turn to smiles. Whether it's celebrating one of our birthdays (today we celebrated Kelsey's), throwing a huge party, or just staying in for a movie, being with my roommates makes me happy.

I'm seriously one of the luckiest people in the world to have friends always there for me whenever I need them. After the end of this summer, we'll all be going our separate ways...two getting married, two moving away for jobs or internships, one still in school, and one not in school but still trying to move forward in her life (me). No matter where life takes all of us, I'll look back on these days as happy ones, mostly because I got to be friends with these awesome girls.

Cutting Fashion Look #2: Yellow and Red Printed Dress

I have very exciting news to share...I'm doing another fashion show in April! Yay! It's with this great organization called RAWartists, where they showcase different artist's work (including fashion design) at their shows throughout the year. The show I'm doing is going to be in Salt Lake on April 25. I'm really excited for it and hopefully I'll have time to make a few more pieces to show. It should be fun! Here's the info for the show and here is the link for my profile. Tickets are $10 so if you want to come, I would love the support and it would be great to see you!

Now, on to more fashion design topics, I'm talking about my next Cutting Fashion look (btw, all of my Cutting Fashion looks will be featured at the show on April 25, so if you want to see them in person, please come!).

This look was actually the first one I sketched in my collection and it was also the first one I made for it. This one was pretty simple, but I liked it because the waist seam sat lower than where your actual waist would be but higher than your hips. I wish that I could have made this dress a little more flattering, but overall, I think it turned out pretty good. A lot of people told me this was their favorite one in the collection. Thanks to my model Ellen! She seriously pulled it off great and the dress looked perfect on her.

Sketch:

In person:

On the runway:

March Madness

March has been a pretty good month so far, there have been a lot of ward activities and there's been a lot of fun with my roommates, so I've really enjoyed it (I apologize for the low quality of some of these photos, as they were taken from my phone).

March 4th we had an Oscars night with our ward where each FHE group made a video and then we watched them all and had a little awards ceremony. I already posted the video we made the other day, but just in case you didn't see it or want to see it again, here it is:


We got all dressed up for it and brought a celebrity guest (who else but Carrie Underwood?!) along, all of which made for a very fun night. We even got swag bags at the end of it!

We had a great time trying to bring Carrie in the car ;)

I have been crazy busy working (from last Tuesday to Monday I worked 7 days in a row, 7 or 8 hours every day, so I was tired) but I've been trying to go to as many fun things as I can go to. I got to face paint with my aunt on Saturday (March 9th) at a fun little fair a preschool put on. This is the only picture I got but you can see more of what we do here. After that it was my roommate Talya's bridal shower, but I unfortunately had to miss it and go to work. Sad day. :(

Sunday I also had to work, which meant missing church and a fireside (once again, sad day) but it was a pretty awesome day because it was March 10th, Carrie Underwood's 30th birthday!! For years I have been wanting to throw a party for Carrie Underwood and this year, since we actually have the cardboard cutout and it was her 30th, I knew a party had to be thrown. I made cakes and my roommates kindly frosted them for me while I was at work and then a few people from our came over to sing, blow out candles, and eat the cake. Yep, Carrie did indeed blow (or flap) out her own candles. It was awesome.

Yes, I'm almost positive Carrie had a pretty swell birthday party. People probably think I'm crazy, but I love doing weird, fun things like that. Haha maybe someday I will actually get to meet Carrie Underwood and celebrate her birthday with her! That's the dream. (Also, I'm realizing now that the majority of the pictures on this post have included Carrie Underwood....but I'm not sorry. She's awesome.)

I have no pictures of this, but on Tuesday (March 12th), I watched the Bachelor finale with my roommates, yay! And (SPOILER) we were sooooooo happy he picked Catherine. Honestly, it didn't really look like he had great chemistry with either of the girls, but Lindsay was dang annoying and immature. Catherine was the clear choice all the way (see here--and if you do watch the Bachelor, this is a great blog for recaps. It's seriously hilarious to read.), though we did worry about Sean's judgment. I'm glad he picked her and they seem way cute together. As cheesy as it may be, I'm excited to see their televised wedding (if they make it that far, which I think they might) haha. And I'm so excited for Desiree to be the next Bachelorette! Let's face it, we all saw that coming, and we are now all waiting in anticipation for summer to come so that it can start. Ha. :)

Pi Day was on March 14th (3.14) so my ward had a pie party on the 13th where everyone brought delicious pies and then we all voted to see which ones were the best. I tried a bunch of them, and I have to say that they were all really good. Yay for pi(e) day!

I've been sick with a cold, which totally stinks. I get colds so often that I know the cycle they go through, sad huh? Day 1: sore throat that no amount of water can take away; day 2: achiness, overall sick feeling and just wanting to be in bed; day 3: runny/stuffy nose, and many of the same side effect from day 2, and going from feeling really hot to kind of cold; day 4: a nasty cough that comes with an aching chest and an itchy back (does your back itch when you cough, because mine does--but it itches from the inside so there's no way to get rid of it); day 5 and on: symptoms eventually get better. But seriously, no matter how much I get used to it, being sick will never be fun. :(

And in case you are wondering, I feel really good after sharing my post last Monday. It was one of the best things I ever could have done. I think with things like that, we build them up to be a lot worse than they actually are, and that was definitely the case with me. It feels so good to have it in the open though, like you'd never believe. Now that it's out in the open, I don't have to worry anymore about anyone finding out or me saying something that would give it away. I feel like I can just live life so much more carefree because of it. I think the best part about it all is that when anything about eating disorders or any trial, really, comes up, I can talk about and I can share my experience. I'm so excited about that. It's still fresh on my mind right now, so I may be discussing my feelings about sharing that or a little bit more of my experience, I hope that's okay! I think I'm still trying to get all my emotions out about it or just figure out what I'm feeling.

One more thing...shoutout to my roommate Kelsey today on her 22nd birthday!! (She's feelin' 22..) I can't wait to celebrate tonight. :)

Cutting Fashion Look #1: Red and Navy Blue Dress

I know you are probably kind of tired of hearing all about this fashion show, but I wanted to write a post about each individual look. And then after that, this might be all done with. Okay, actually fashion design for me will obviously never be done, but soon I'm hoping to start working on a few new looks.

I sketched this look after I found the perfect fabric (shown below on the model) that I also used in another dress. Funny story, when I was trying to decide what color scheme and theme I wanted to do for my collection, I was having a hard time deciding. I was considering doing something with like mint green and mustard yellow and stuff like that, but those colors are super trendy right now, and I wanted to do something of my own accord and not just because they were the popular colors (as cute as they might be). So one night I actually had a dream and the colors red, light yellow, and navy blue came into my head and the perfect pattern with all of them together did too. After that day, I knew what color scheme I wanted to do for my collection. It was perfect. So I went searching in all the fabric stores and found the below fabric. It wasn't an exact match, but it was pretty close.

This garment was supposed to be a little more fitted in the top, and if I'd had more time, it would have been. But for the most part I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I plan on taking it in a little more now that everything's done and I have time to fix it.

Sketch:

In person:

Tell me: what do you think? Like it? Yes or no? I would love feedback :)

Oh and thanks to my model Breanna for modelling this dress!