Fall always seems to be a very popular season for weddings. I have a wedding this Saturday to go to. Another wedding in two weeks and it's Heather and Joey's five year wedding anniversary today! Congratulations you two! So many joyous occasions to celebrate!
With many dressy occasions come many dressy outfits. I'm pretty sure that I have the dress that I want to wear narrowed down to of course a little black dress. What could go wrong with wearing a little black dress? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. While wearing a LBD you can never be too dress up or dressed down. It's the perfect go-to dress.
My problem arises at what shoes to wear! Should I go with my nude pumps or should I go with my black heels. I can't decide. The only thing that is swaying my decision to the nude pumps is that my current black heels are platform. I don't want to people to think that I look like a stripper. I don't think that would be the case though since a TON of shoes are platforms these days. I'm also only 5'2", so with the added four or five inches, I won't stick out like a sore thumb. I'll be average height. As for the nude heels, it's beginning to be fall and I am gradually becoming more and more pale. Good-bye gorgeous Virginia Beach tan! Welp. Anyways, I feel like the nude heels may make my legs look even more pale. Nothing that a little self tanner can't fix but still. I'm stuck. What I really want to do is go out and buy a new pair of heels. I think a fun blue or pink would add a nice color pop to the black ensemble. I doubt that will happen though.
On to jewelry, the neckline of my dress is rounded right at the collarbone. So there's not a whole lot that I can do with a necklace. I would say maybe a nice bib necklace would do the trick but I'm not loving that idea either. My dress has subtle sparkles throughout it with a fine mesh on the sides and back. I think a great pair of earrings could do the trick, actually. Just skip the necklace and wear some bold earrings. Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to do. I don't know. I'll have to try a bunch of jewelry on! What do you think would go best?
Next up, makeup! Do I do a smoky eye with nude lips? Or do I go with a more natural eye and have a bold lip color? Like red! I do love a nice red lip! I don't think that I can do a smoky eye with a red lip being that it might be too much for the wedding ceremony. Although...I could always do a nude lip for the mass and then whip out my red lipstick for the reception! Hmm...so many options!
All I know is that I have to look good...damn good! I'm going solo and my friend (the one who's getting married) told me that a lot of her guy friends are going solo as well. I think she may be seating us at the same table at the reception. What a great friend! :) Hence, my dilemma on what to wear with my LBD!
Hello Everyone! I hope all of you are having a great day today :)
As you may know, if you read my post on fifty facts about me, I. Love. Reading. Plain and simple. Currently, I am reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. There are ten parts to this book and I am on part seven right now. Almost there!
I love it when a good book captures your mind. It allows for you to leave this very moment and drift into the day of another person. A character. It's a perfect way to unwind after a long day at work. Your mind is at ease and nothing else matters other than what will take place on the next page.
Admittedly, I am a bit disappointed with the book thus far. I can put this book down. Now, don't get me wrong, it's a really good read but books that really capture my interest I just can't put down. This book, however, feels like it is taking forever to get to the good part. And I'm on the seventh! It's not like the author's writing quality stinks because it doesn't. It's wonderfully written. Also, the perspective that it's written from (a surprise that I didn't expect) was unique and intriguing. The setting was extremely detailed and convinced me that I'm in the exact city and year that the characters are in. If all of these combined make for a great novel, then why can I put this book down?
I guess I just need a little more action throughout the book to keep my pages flipping. I told myself that I will NOT stop reading this book. I will finish it! I like the book, I really do! Plus, I want to watch the movie after I'm done because I've heard that it's amazing. Although, books are always (in my opinion) better than how Hollywood portrays them. The ending of a novel can definitely make or break the entire book though. Therefore, I will prevail! I'll let you know what I think about the book after I'm completely done. We'll see if the ending changes my mind about The Book Thief.
Does anyone else feel the same way? Do I just need to hang tight and push through to the end? I'd love to hear your opinion as well. No spoilers though please :)
XoXo, Ashley
Hola!
Last weekend was a fun weekend. My sister Heather and brother-in-law Joey asked me if I could dog sit for them. They had one of Joey's best friends wedding to go to and it was in Kalamazoo. Yup, that's really a city here in good ole Michigan. Kalamazoo's about an hour and a half away and after a night of dancing and drinking they weren't going to drive back home. Smart choice. Now, it's up to me to handle the two pooches Daisy and LuLu. They can be a handful sometimes but always a fun handful! Of course, I agreed to watch them. (Plus, they offered to pay for some beer and pizza and gave me the okay to invite some of my close friends over, YAY)
Friday night roles around and here I am with these two. Heather and Joey just planted grass seed a couple of weeks ago so I was told to walk the dogs out to a specific location. It was nice out all weekend so that wasn't a problem at all. The first time I had to take them out though I noticed that Daisy didn't really want to walk much. Shoot. Naturally, I started thinking of what could be the problem. Is she sick? Does she have a sore paw? What's going on with her? This prompts me to call Joey to ask if he had noticed her acting weird before they left. He then fills me in that when he took Daisy and LuLu to get their haircuts they had to get their anal glands cleaned as well. What in the world?! No wonder the poor thing doesn't want to walk. I guess it's common for dogs that are smaller to have to get this done quite often though. However, instead of walking Daisy to her bathroom location, I had to drag her. Every five steps she wanted to sit down and Wouldn't. Budge.
Well, that was an experience! Lucky for me, she was better by the next day and everything was fine. So, I decided to take Heather and Joey up on their offer of inviting my friends over. I asked Ashleigh and Allison to come over Saturday night. I met both of these lovely ladies in college! Both agreed to come and the "girls night in" was officially about to start! We ordered Jets pizza and chit-chatted away while we ate. Then we opted to watch a movie, Horrible Bosses (my all-time FAVORITE comedy) was in the running, Ashleigh had never seen it. After probably ten minutes or so we then decided to go to Family Video. Ashleigh and Allison mentioned the movie The Ringer earlier in the night and I had never seen it. So we picked that one up and agreed on a double feature of first The Ringer and then Horrible Bosses. Awesome!
Allison brought wine and all three of us drank that. It was a type I've never tried before called Fruvi. A fruity wine. It was pretty good! We tried to pinpoint the fruit flavors that we tasted since they weren't listed on the bottle. The consensus was peach and raspberry for this particular type of Fruvi. As for the movies, I ended up really enjoying The Ringer. It was a great representation of people with special needs that are capable of doing just as much as anyone else can. I definitely recommend watching it for any of you that have not seen it. And the beer...oh the beer, it went untouched, surprisingly! Heather told me when she got back that Joey asked if we knew that they bought those for us. Who would pass up beer with their pizza? Now, they have some beer around when they want one or have company over. Anyways, the weekend was a success and overall I would give the puppies an B+ on their report cards. Only because of the whole bathroom situation. Other than that, they were gems!
If ya'll remember...on August 17th I told you that I was getting back into the swing of things with working out. That means it has already been 18 days and I want to give you an update on how it's going. Overall, I did well up until the past week. Here's how my schedule went:
Week 1
Day 1: Level I- 30DS
Day 2: Level I- 30DS
Day 3: Level I- 30DS
Day 4: Level I- 30DS
Day 5: Womp.
Day 6: Womp.
Day 7: Zumba! 60 minutes of straight interval cardio
Week 2
Day 8: Wade Hustle! 90 minutes of cardio
Day 9: Womp.
Day 10: Level II- 30DS
Day 11: Zumba! 60 minutes of straight interval cardio
Day 12: Womp.
Day 13: Hot Yoga- 90 minutes of pure sweat
Day 14-18: Womp.
The "womps" are the days that I didn't do a darn thing. I started out strong! Unfortunately, Labor Day weekend did me in. Too much extra time to fit in some shopping and lunch dates with friends and family! :) That's always a necessity! I'll have to fill you in on what I bought while we were out!
Oh yeah! Remember how I was going to strictly do just the 30 Day Shred? Well, I can never pass up a good Zumba or Hot Yoga session! Plus, you can't expect to lose weight or build muscle without cardio. Strength training + Cardio = The Real Deal! I'm not quite sure how I feel about doing two-a-days either. Say I go to Zumba in the morning, it would be good if I did the Shred in the evening as well. However, that's super ambitious and I'm at a slow and steady pace right now. I should try to achieve my first goal and simply focus on working out once daily. The battle begins...again. I wish I could do nothing and have a stomach like Jillians.
On a side note, my actual gym membership is ending this month. I joined last year and have gone quite a bit but mainly during the Winter months. Technically, just my contract is ending, so I can still go on a month-to-month basis but now I can cancel whenever I'd like. (Yay, not trapped anymore!) The only thing that's swaying my decision to leave the gym is the money. I'm not sure if I'm getting my money's worth. I feel like I am but I would have to track my time spent there to actually see if I was. I feel like I would need to go more often. Also, we have the Total Gym so I would like to give that a legitimate try too. If the Total Gym is really a "total gym" then I should cancel my gym membership, right? Sigh. Decisions. Decisions.
Any help is welcomed! Have any of you tried the Total Gym out? Are you have a rough time like me when it comes to daily workouts?
