Breezy Days: 2012

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December 31, 2012

After-Christmas Sales

{Our Christmas tradition, hitting up the movie theater! We took pictures beforehand & Jesse photo bombed. Dork.}

I haven't been around the blog world for the obvious reasons:

A. The family came up from So-Cal to visit Ryan & I for Christmas
B. My work schedule has been crrrrrazy at Francesca's
and
C. Now I'm about ready to face plant and just sleep for a straight week.

With all of this craziness behind me, and a new year just around the corner...
I'm figuring out what to wear & do for NYE and 
what to snag with all the awesome after-Christmas sales going on! 

Some great sales to check out:
Francesca's is doing an additional 30% off sale items.
Victoria Secret is doing a BOGO on their bras in store until Tuesday.
Dollar shipping on these sick hoodies at Garage.com.
Loft is doing 50% off of everything.

If you guys find any good deals, let me know because I always love a good sale :)
Can't wait to tell you all about my awesome Christmas & the crazy Frannie customers!!

December 21, 2012

Sugar Coma

Those cookies pictured above are the perfect 'lil thing to put you in a sugar coma.
Vanilla.
 Chocolate dipped.
 Oreos.
 With peppermint candy cane crushed on top.
Yummmmm!

Without realizing it, Ryan and I made around 85 cookies 
and so now I'm trying to ditch them any way I can before I pass out from too much sugar intake.
Birthday parties with cookies and hot chocolate.
Gifts for friends, family, and co-workers.
I even started leaving them in the back room at work leaving a note that says:
"For anyone who needs a sugar boost during these long holiday hours, take one!"

I sense that they love & hate me for it simultaneously.
All their stomachs grumble when they see the deliciously delectable cookies,
 but then they curse the fact that I'm not helping any of them try this whole
"let's eat healthy and go to the gym during the holidays thing".
Tis the season ;)
{Insert evil laughter...bwahahaha}

December 18, 2012

Silence

"Newtown Youth and Family Services, Inc. is a licensed, non-profit, mental health clinic 
and youth services bureau dedicated to helping children and families achieve their
highest potential. NYFS provides programs, services, activities, counseling, support
groups and education throughout the Greater Newtown area.

ANY DONATIONS MADE TO NEWTOWN YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES WILL BE DONATED DIRECTLY TO THOSE EFFECTED BY THE SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING."

Please visit THIS PAGE to make your donation.



December 17, 2012

Confessions of a Shop Girl

First off, welcome to all my new friends following along! 
Second off, holy cow is it already Christmas next week?!

You know what my favorite part has been of working in the mall during this holiday season?
{For all you newbies, I work at Francesca's Collections, if you haven't been...you definitely need to go!}
Seeing all these poor husbands/boyfriends/brothers/sons walk in the store and just stand there.
Yup, they just stand there at the front of the store 
and, I'm sure, practically go cross-eyed from all the overwhelming sparkle and array of colors.
They are one of the first customers I walk over to help because these poor guys come into the store having no clue what the heck they are even looking for.

I usually start with the line of questioning:
Jewelry or clothes?
Chunky or simple necklaces?
Studs or chandelier earrings?
Gold or silver?
Small or Medium?
Teal or burgundy?

After a truckload of questions and options, we can usually narrow it down to about 2 or 3 options.
Then these guys breathe a huge sigh of relief because they aren't 
completely lost in an abyss of glitter & bright colors anymore.
There is FINALLY some direction!
I told my dad to head into a totally girly store in California to get something specific for my mom,
he then texted me:
"I got the present, and I checked my manhood at the door to get it."

I told him, and you would be smart to remind your husbands/dads/brothers of this...
Us shop girls think it is THE most adorable thing to see these boys/men shop for the girls in their lives.
Yup, we even talk about it after they leave and "oooo" and "ahhh" over how cute it is.
Plus we don't mind picking out presents for you girls that we wouldn't mind getting ourselves :)

December 13, 2012

End of Finals Celebration

Yesterday morning, my last final of the Fall semester was at 7 IN THE MORNING.
GAG.
When I woke up it was still dark outside.
I probably will never be a morning person, it's so heinous.

After I rocked my architecture final, I went back home and roused Ryan from his slumber to run some errands and scarf down some celebratory Kneaders french toast.
Yummmmm.

We were busy all day: gym, errands, gift shopping, family, etc.
Then Ryan asked me on a date :)

Let me first rewind before I continue on with last nights antics...
a few nights ago Ryan went up to Salt Lake with his friend to drop off his friend's sis-in-law at one of her finals, the boys had obviously hit up the mall because when they got back I saw a bag with my favorite logo on it....
Anthropologie.

"Christmas presents??"
"Yes...but I can't wait till then, can you please open it now so I know that you like it?"

I ripped it open and laying inside was this beautiful dress.
"When I saw it in the store I just knew my wife had to wear it, and I got some matching earrings so you can wear the whole outfit on a date."

Fast forward back to last night and here is the outfit!
It is soooo adorable, the perfect size, and I just love that he picked it out by himself.
Makes my heart melt!
We grabbed a smoothie, walked around the Riverwoods, and then saw Lincoln.
Wow, what an amazing movie.
Overall, it was a great day to end my Fall semester :)

December 10, 2012

Oh Christmas Tree

I had our Christmas tree date planned for honestly two weeks.
I was so excited and dreamt of a beautiful night of picking out the tree, setting it up, and decorating it while drinking hot chocolate and watching claymations all the while laughing at each others jokes.
Pretty much what a Christmas tree commercial would look like.

FAIL.
We picked the most awesome tree.
I had to drive over to Wells Fargo to pull out the cash for it.
Couldn't find the cash, thought I left it at the ATM, had a minor heart attack at the tree lot, ripped apart the car for it, then found it in my bra.
Placed the massive tree on top of my tiny Jetta.
Dragged it into the house.
While setting it up on our plastic tree stand, Ryan and his big ace muscles broke a part of the tree stand.
Which is why our tree looks a little wonky and possibly lopsided.
Tried to put lights on it, only to find we were 3 strands short to cover the whole tree.

Went to vacuum up the pine needles.
Vacuum was indeed clogged with all my long blonde hair and pine needles.
Took Ryan over an hour to clean the whole thing out.
By that time I was ready to fall over and cry because not only was I completely exhausted, but this was definitely not what I had imagined.
After that first frenzied night of mayhem, we took a break and got at it again another night, which is all the hard work you are seeing above :) It's a candy-land themed Christmas tree and I can't wait to start wrapping presents to put under there!
By the way, that poinsettia above?
Pretty much died last night in the snow.
Can you tell I'm a little on edge? 
*twitch* 

At least I only have 2 finals to go,
 then it'll be time for more Christmas catastrophes! 
If my peppermint treats turn out horribly I will have a snit fit.
Just sayin'

December 9, 2012

Finals Week

For all you students out there, I totally feel your pain of horrendous finals week.
BLEHHHHHH.
I have a research paper due tomorrow night & 3 tests to take by Wednesday!
I'm trying to not be a complete procrastinator and I'm going to knock out that dumb paper tonight.
It's so hard to focus when all I want to do is go snowboarding, make my jewelry holder, drink hot chocolate, go to a Christmas party, wear tons of glitter and sequins, make gingerbread houses, go gift shopping, wrap presents, and make tasty treats to deliver to my friends!
Welp, as soon as these tests are over & done with....
Christmas overload here I come :)

December 7, 2012

Friday's Letters

Dear Christmas Tree,
I had this ridiculous idea in my head that Ryan & I would simply grab a tree, set it up, 
and spend the night putting up decorations and watching claymations.
In reality...
The tree looked massive on my little jetta, I almost lost the cash for the tree then miraculously found it in my bra, then the plastic stand broke so now the you are being tied up with twine, 
we are about 3 strands short for lights annddd ya.
Well, now you're up and I'm about to finish off the lights.
Nothing goes quite as planned as I suppose.

Dear Yellow Brick House, 
I'm sorry that you look like Christmas Candyland barfed on you.
That's just what happens when I decide to decorate before finals week.

Dear Vampire Diaries,
I'm pretty much a whole season behind...but I sure am glad that you're on Netflix.

Dear BYU,
This time next year I will be GRADUATED.
IN YO FACE.
For now, it's research paper and finals time.
Bleh.

Dear Golds Gym,
I suppose the 10 bucks a month is worth it to work out in the movie theater room.
I like how no one can see me when I run and sweat like a monster.
Now I can run a mile and a half and not feel like dying, woot woot!

Dear Readers,
Thank you so much for your love & support!
I totally appreciate you & promise some fun Christmas posts comin' up :)

Photobucket

December 6, 2012

Currently Drooling...

1 // 2 // 3 

Loving all these festive holiday skirts!!!
Now I just need to find an awesome Christmas party to go to...or I might just throw one :)

Today is my last day of classes for the semester,
it's funny how I'm almost graduated from college and my teachers still throw pizza parties.

Excited to be done with school?
Any holiday trends that you are excited to wear?

December 5, 2012

Blogging Mistakes

Welp.
I had my first negative comment.

I guess that comes with the territory of having a public blog, on the internet no less.
I wrote about some frustrations I've had concerning some neighbors of mine.
As insignificant & lame as it may sound to anyone else, it was a frustrating situation for me.
And then I get a negative comment from someone I've never even heard of before.

We all just share these little tid-bits of our life on our own corner of the internet.
Happy, sad, frustrating, and confusing tid-bits.
Seeing as how it's my dang blog I figure I can write most anything I want on it.

But after reading the post I had the negative comment on, I caved in & deleted the post.
{Deleted the post because I felt kind of embarrassed reading it! and deleted the comment cause it ticked me off which could be because of my lack of sleep??}
I made a blogger mistake, writing when I'm upset/emotional, then posting it.
Rookie mistake!!

I'll own up to it.
It totally sounded like a dumb girl ranting on her blog...probably because it was.
Psh, but don't I get that chance every once in a while?
To accidentally fall off the "cool/one of the guys kind of girls" train??

December 2, 2012

Romantic Gestures

The past two nights I have worked 6 hour closing shifts until 10:30 at night.
It's been pretty brutal with the new holiday hours.

After the evening being pretty tame, my co-worker and I figured it would be so until closing.
Ohhh we were wrong!
The last hour of the mall being open we had at least 15 people stuffed into our little store and the adults and little kids were just touching everything we had strategically put back in place.
Which meant that we were also scurrying around the store putting things back together 
so we wouldn't be there all night!

I came home to see my cute husband standing at the door to greet me with a hug.
He then told me to put my stuff down, grabbed my hand and took me over to the dining room where I saw a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
I totally started tearing up & had tears strolling down my face uncontrollably.

My husband is a very straightforward manly man.
Grand romantic gestures are just something that doesn't come to him naturally.
He shows love by cleaning my car, making me dinner, or fixing the faucet I've been complaining about.

But he knows I love those romantic gestures and even though it is not particularly in his nature,
 he went out of his way to do something sweet that is more my love language than his. 
Which is why I started tearing up when I saw the flowers.
They have so much more meaning than just a sweet gesture.

He then led me into the kitchen and proudly showed off the lasagna he had made.
He served up my share and we sat down and talked about our night with each other.
My heart still hasn't come down from floating around with the clouds :)

December 1, 2012

Casual Winter Style

{On my Pinterest "My Closet" board}

Holy moly is it already December!?
If you girls didn't already know, I work at Francesca's Collections, and it's just crazy how much we have still been seeing bright colors come into the store for Fall/Winter.
Even more so than the burgandy, mustards, and jades!

I am getting a fur & suede vest and colorful blanket sweater for Christmas, {at least I know what I'm getting for Christmas is the bomb!} so these two looks definitely inspired me!
You know what I loooove about the Winter and the holidays?

You can wear as much glitter and sequins as you want and
NO ONE CAN SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

November 29, 2012

How To Meet A Blogger In Real Life {Without it Being Awkward}

{Awkward Girls Blogger Meet-up in March 2012}

You read this girl's blog.
You think she is just stellar. 
Awesome. Sweet. Stylish. Legit.
{This elusive "girl/her/she" is your favorite blogger}

You are out on the town or at a blogger meet-up...when you see her.
You know what she wore to Thanksgiving dinner last week, you know she ate sushi yesterday...
You feel like you just know her.
But not really.
Cause you have never talked to her in person.

You approach her and say:
"Hi my name is ____, and I just LOVE your blog! So nice to meet you."

And this is where the fork in the road happens.
You must have your wits about you.
Pay attention.
{Gentri Lee's Blogger Meet-up in November 2012}

The girl can either be way fun and sweet, just like you imagined her to be.
OR.
She can be the snotty "I have a bazillion followers and who the heck are you" type.

Now...how do you make it not awkward?

If she is nice, then go ahead and mention something from her blog 
that you enjoy, then base a conversation off of that.
A real life conversation where you go back and forth and actually get to know the girl.
This way, you can start to form a friendship that doesn't revolve completely around blogging.
Please do not ramble on about every little thing you've ever read on her blog.
It's really creepy, and even though we choose to publicly write about our lives on the internet... 
it is still weird when someone recites your whole life back to you.
{I met Kyla through blogging and now we are good friends!!!}

If she is snotty, keep it short and simple.
If you start with the opening line and she is being uber weird/snotty/rude
then just say something to this effect:
"Well, I just wanted to let you know that I enjoy reading your blog, I hope you have a nice day!"
Just leave it at that.

Another niche that is not the extreme of being nice or snotty...
 is the awkward blogger who is sweet, but doesn't know how to be social without being
....well, awkward.
Those girls you should definitely put your social self out for.
They need to know that the blogging community is a supportive & loving one :)

What do you think are some good pointers to meeting bloggers in real life?

November 27, 2012

Busy Bee

Tomorrow is going to be insane!
+ Class @ 9:30am {don't scoff, that is early for me!}
+ Choir Performance @ 11:00am
+ Lunch Date @11:30am
+ Class @1:30-3pm
+ Hopefully going to the gym or cleaning the house
+ Work from 6-10:30pm
+ Then finally a Francesca's Girl's Night Out at the movies & Yogurtland
{Btw, I felt so creative pairing the chartreuse top with the navy sweater! Wahooo!}

It's a busy day ahead, but definitely a productive & fun one!
Been off of the goods for 3 months, 
but I might have to break my Diet Coke fast to stay awake all day tomorrow...

November 26, 2012

Adorable Christmas DIY Decorations


Here is a short list of the DIY Christmas decorations that I am dying to try!
{Of course they were all found on Pinterest, but I linked up the original sources}
These burlap stockings are adorable and it's an excuse to whip out my sewing machine :)


I have a couple of vases that need filling with some Christmas cuteness.
I am planning on picking up some paper flowers from Hobby Lobby and then filling in the arrangement  with these glitter twigs!

3. Christmas Yard Lollipops
Put a PVC pipe in the bottom, wrap with cellophane, and line your walkway or driveway with these.

This is something I've been wanting to do for forever!
The theme I go for with my Christmas decorations is a Candyland feel.
Lots of candy, bright reds, pinks, and blues all throughout the house!


Such a simple & adorable countdown to Christmas!
I would put some candies and mini presents in those 'lil packages :)


Finally, these trees are to die for.
The base is made from a cereal box!
I guess I need to start buying and eating more cereal to make these...
If you have a link to any cute & cheap Christmas DIYs, leave it in the comments!

November 25, 2012

Thanksgiving Bits

Ryan & I were down in St. George for Thanksgiving and had a blast!
My aunt April seriously makes the most BOMB food ever.
And my dad makes a mean deep-fried turkey and stuffing.
Yummmmmm.




































One of my favoritest cousins ever! So glad I got to see Zannie before she jetted off back home to Vegas.




































My youngest brother Jesse had surgery about a week and a half ago on his knee.
He tore his ACL and meniscus while playing basketball a couple months ago.
He has been so dang optimistic and such a trooper!
I totally admire him :)
And he was so stoked to ride the Wal-Mart carts!
{And yes, that is my other brother, Evan, in the back being a creepster on my pic}




































The line for Target on Black Friday in St. George.
Totally nuts!!
I would have to say that Target did a really good job at organizing the lines on Black Friday.
I picked up a Christmas table cloth, two sweaters, seasons 1-4 of Mad Men, and two candles.
So stoked to start on my Christmas decorating!!! :)
Aren't you?!

P.S. Thanks so much for the feedback on yesterday's post! 
If you have questions for my "Ask Bri" installments, email me or comment on the "Ask Bri" post.
Thanks!