One of my favorite bogs, Automatism, posted these pictures last week of the Berlin based clothing company Mayer's Fall 2010/11 Peace Collection. As a former history major, I absolutely love the vintage feel to these photos and clothing. Also, the embroidery on that last sleeve! Be still my heart.

Modern American Girl - Happy Birthday Josefina

You know how I keep saying how much I love all the Josefina outfits? Well, yeah I love this one too. It's a little bold with all the bright colors, but that's what makes it awesome. So Josefina's turning 10 (um, let's age her up to about 20 for this post ok?) and wants to be a healer like her aunt. But then she breaks a vase and causes everyone to be mad at her, so she goes off and fights a rattlesnake and saves her best friend so all is forgiven. Let's be honest, this outfit would not help you in a battle against a rattlesnake, you'd probably be bitten. But at least you'd be wearing some awesome orange shoes and blue shorts! Besides, the dreary weather outside makes me long for bright colors and spring time.

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Got the Moves

Break ton Neck from Alex Yde on Vimeo.

This has been around for a while, but I still like watching it. This guy is amazing. It's like he's doing some sort of yoga/breakdancing combo. It's true his flexibility creeps me out a bit at times, but mostly I'm just jealous because I wish I could move like that. 

Monday Miscellany

{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

I feel my posts haven't been incredibly interesting lately because I haven't been doing anything. All my free time has been going towards wedding planning. Less than 5 months to go, I just want my life back. I'm so ready to be married.

Antioxidant Power Smoothie

Technically this should be a Wedding Wednesday post, but honestly I'm burnt out on wedding stuff. So instead here's a super easy recipe for a delicious smoothie full of antioxidants to keep you healthy in the winter. Only three ingredients! Ready, go! 

One cup of POM pomegranate juice. Yup, the stuff old people drink. 

One cup of frozen fruit. I used whatever was in my freezer which happened to be blueberries and blackberries. Add a few ice cubes and blend. (Not pictured, make sure you put the cover on first. This is a very dark and staining drink) 

Pour into glass and drink delicious smoothie, soaking in those antioxidants and feeling their super powers. 

Note: smoothie will not give actual super powers such as flying, invisibility, or telepathy. This only involves fruit super powers, giving you the ability of being fruitful...fruity? On second thought, never mind, no super powers are transferable to you, only the power of being awesome for making it. 

Loving Tartan

Now that the holidays are over (and it finally snowed!) all I'm thinking about is how to stay warm. There's just something about tartan that just makes me want to curl up next to a fire.

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Modern American Girl - Josefina's Surprise

This outfit was harder than normal but I like how it turned out. The dress is perfect and literally the only thing I could find in a tan and black with stripes that weren't completely horizontal. I went a little more conservative with this outfit since it's a Christmas outfit and church is involved. I really wanted to do a fabulous headpiece but a black veil just looked weird. Like some sort of bridal ninja. I suppose this outfit isn't very true to the story since there's no way you could go riding around on a donkey acting out the part of Mary in this dress, but we'll just say today Josefina would have had a speaking part in the church pageant instead so she can wear a dress and shoes that are a bit more restrictive.


See all Josefina looks
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Wedding Wednesday - Inspiration Board

Row 1: unknown, Style Me Pretty,  unknown, Row 2: unknown, Amy Carroll Photography 

Row 3:Style Me Pretty , White on Rice Couple , wedding concierge, Ballard Designs

Row 4: Hopelessly Vintage, unknown, Project Wedding,  unknown

I know I just said I was in wedding overload, but I did manage to put together something I'm rather proud of. Apparently vendors and I were just not connecting on what I wanted (like the time someone asked me how blue mason jars were vintage) so I made an inspiration board for the feel of my wedding. I had made one this past fall for color inspiration but I guess that wasn't clear enough. I feel this one really captures the mood of what I want my wedding to look and feel like, so we'll see if this helps people get my vision any better.

Monday Miscellany

I'm a bit weddinged out after this weekend. We met with a florist who was definitely not on the same page as me (no thank you sir, we will not be going with you), picked out a few bridesmaid dresses with 2 of the girls (yay!), and then went to a bridal show. It's all kind of made me brain dead so here are some random pictures from the past 2 weeks.

Also, since it's 160 days until my wedding (holy crap!) and to go along with my new years resolutions I've been keeping my eye open for anything health and wellness related that I could muster up enough excitement about. I found two things that I'm actually looking forward to starting!

Bon Appetit's 2012 Food Lovers Cleanse  - I'm not a fan of cleanses or diets since I don't have the willpower to sustain them for more than a few days (who are we kidding, more like hours). I might actually give this one a try. Not to lose weight, but because I've been eating so poorly all through the holiday season. I might do a few substitutions, since I don't like everything that's listed there, but we'll see how it goes.

Nike Training Club App  - I never know what to do when working out so I'm really excited to give this a go and see if it works for me.

Shoot 'Em Up

As I mentioned last year, or last week depending how you look at it, I went sporting clay shooting for the first time in December. It was so much fun!!! We drove out to the foothills in San Jose to a range that had 18 stations set up, similar to a golf course. 

Kacey and one of his best friends, Marc, taught me how to load various shotguns, basic hunters safety rules and protective gear, and how to aim. 

The thing about shooting sporting clays is that disks are actually catapulted into the air so you are shooting at a moving targets as opposed to a fixed target at say a rifle or pistol range. I was hoping to get 1 hit so I could at least leave without feeling like a total noob, but I ended up hitting 4! Now that I sort of know what I'm doing, I want to try it again! 

Modern American Girl - Josefina Learns A Lesson

I think this title or at least the cover artwork is a bit misleading. Josefina doesn't go to school in this book. In fact, it's not until the very last chapter when she even starts learning to read. So with that in mind, I went for a more after school relaxed look, although I've never been to school in the Southwest so I guess you might wear this to class as well. My classrooms were always freezing so you never really wanted to wear a short skirt anyway. And again, I want this outfit. I want to move to the Southwest and dress like this all the time.

See all Josefina looks
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Wedding Wednesday - Our Engagement Photos

I realized that I never posted any of the engagement photos that we had taken this past fall. One of Kacey's friends, John, took the photos but I can't seem to locate a website for his photography so I can't link it. We went to a few places around Milwaukee such as the lake, the city, and a park, but these are my favorite. I love the soft romantic look of these photos - almost like a secret garden. 

New Years Resolutions

I'm usually not one for resolutions, I tend to completely forget about them after a few weeks. However, I think these are general enough that I can actually stick to them. I broke my resolutions down into 4 categories to make it simpler.

Make one new project a month: I used to make things all the time and it made me feel so creative and happy. I really want to get back into flexing my artistic muscles and I have a feeling that once I move into my new apartment this summer I'll have decorating projects like crazy!

Eat well, exercise more: Self explanatory. I was really good about this most of the year but I fell off the cart in November and never got back on. The worst part is that I can tell it's taking a toll on my body and health. So come January I'm going to hitch up the oxen and ford that river to better health, stopping in Independence to pick up some bullets so I can go shoot 542 pounds of meat but only carry 165 pounds of it back to my wagon. (What, you never played Oregon Trail?) I have a wedding in about 5 months! I need to get on this stat. (I also need to go track down that game. Do they still make it?)

Start a prayer journal, stop worrying: I read somewhere that to really see how God has been guiding and taking care of you in life to start a prayer journal and record how He has answered your prayers. When I start thinking of big moments in my life over the last years (graduating from school, finding a job, etc) it's obvious that things have worked out way better than I could have ever planned and I think this is a way to remind me of that. As for stop worrying, it goes along with the journal, I need to trust more and worry less.

Take a dance class: I'm out of excuses. I've been telling myself this for 2 years and I won't do it. Which is ridiculous because I've been wanting to take ballet or Irish dance and dancing makes me happy. So I need to stop stopping myself and just do it. And then join a Nike campaign.