Get Ready for Prom with Samm + Bri

With prom season coming up, I teamed up with one of my best friends from high school to bring you hair and makeup tutorials! I had a ton of classes with Samm all throughout high school and she became one of my closest friends, and her nickname for me was Princess Buttercup. Mostly cause I was {ahem, still am} in love with Reese's buttercups...I'll take it ;)

Samm is showing us how to create a brown smokey-eye look with a pop of color in using a bright blue eyeliner. I love how she shows how to blend all the different colors together, I definitely needed this because I'm such a makeup novice. This makeup look would go great with a gorgeous shimmering blue dress! It would complement the dress without it taking any attention away from it. Make sure to check out Samm's makeup channel SassySamey!

This is a tutorial I posted a while back, but I talk about how to curl your hair, blow-dry your side bangs, and put in clip-in extensions! It would be a fun and easygoing look that goes with anything from a slinky gown to a sparkly cocktail party dress! 

Hope you enjoyed the tutorials! :) 

Weekend Update: Pasodoble + Thor

{Mock Competition for Samba from Oct.}

I know I'm writing this early for a weekend update, but I've already done all the exciting stuff I'm actually going to do for the entire weekend. Now it's just homework and being lazy around the house! Yesterday I competed in the BYU Dancesport competition with my partner Brandon in the Pasodoble. In the mock competition for Samba a while back we placed 3rd, which we were super stoked about. Even though we only made it to Quarterfinals {competing in a higher level} for Paso, it was a fun time & I'm proud that we made it a couple rounds :)

{Dancesport competition in Pasodoble}

Our latin dance teacher trains some of the best latin dancers in the country, so he is pretty intense when it comes to competition. So he instructed us that all the girls are supposed to have their hair slicked back, shiny, and in a tight bun. Ummm ya, that is really difficult. I used Ryan's hair gel and slathered that stuff on like no one's business then used at least 15 bobby pins to keep my bun in place. I also caked on the make-up & sunless tanner {and I'm still white as ever!} It's taken 2 showers & lots of shampoo to get all that gel out. Yuck!

After I competed we made our way over to the Riverwoods Lighting, where we drove into the parking lot then promptly turned around to leave. The traffic was CRAZY. I didn't think it was such a popular event, so I was surprised to see the place swamped with families in their snow coats. We decided to hit up the other side of Provo {to avoid all those people} and see Thor 2 at the Provo Towne Mall {which was actually really good, a lot better than the first movie.} It was a low-key night where we picked up some amazingly discounted sweaters from American Eagle, Panda Express in the food court, and hit up a 10pm showing of the movie. Just love those spur of the moment date nights :) Plus, I soooo want to start decorating for Christmas, but I can't bring myself to do it until after Thanksgiving! Old habits die hard my friends.

a world i never knew existed

Ok, I just woke up and I have to...just HAVE TO write down my experience from last night before I forget it completely and can never ever tell it correctly again.

Evan is in town for the week and since Ryan is not much of a dancer, Evan is kind enough to take me out dancing whenever we are together.

He was dying to hit up some West Coast Swing at a place off of Center Street in Provo.

After much debate of going at 11 o'clock at night on a Cafe Rio filled stomach, we decided to go.

I left on my leggings from work, put on a glitzy top, grabbed my sparkly latin ballroom shoes 

and was ready to bounce!

Evan double checked:

"Hey Bri, you have your wedding ring on, right? 

Ok good...just don't want some random guys asking you to dance."

I thought it was kind of odd that he was asking...but whatevs, he can be the protective younger brother.

We get to the dance club, pay our dues and head out to the dance floor.

After some hardcore swing and cha cha dancing Evan runs into a girl he knows and sits to talk to her.

Whilst he is conversing, I sit my own buns down cause I haven't freaking worked out in like 2 weeks and dancing for 2 songs in heels is already getting me all out of breath.

I know I know....I'm so bad.

As soon as I sit down to take a breather, a guy asks me to dance and I warn him that I haven't danced in a while and that I'm a bit rusty.

He notices immediately between the dance shoes and my dance grip that I'm not a regular to west coast swing.

I totally stuck out cause of my sparkly heels...everyone knew that I was not one of "them".

And sidenote, how in the world can you tell by my dance grip?!

I run to sit my buns down again, because at this point I'm sweating up a storm and I'm pretty sure I stink between dancing and running around at work all today.

As soon as I sit down, another guy asks me to dance! 

Then another, then another, then another....pretty sure no one looked at my wedding ring.

Or really cared for that matter.

Totally thought that was weird. Nowwwww I understand why Evan was double checking about my ring.

Regardless of the ridiculously forward guys, it was so much fun to dance again!

At the end of the night, I took off my ballroom shoes and put on my sparkly leopard flip flops.

Are you noticing my obsession with sparkly things yet?

A guy leans in to talk to me over the loud music and asks:

"Are you new around here? I haven't seen you before, would you like to dance?"

"Well, I just put on my flip flops...."

"Oh that's fine, come onto the dance floor."

Turns out...

the guy is the owner of the studio and he pretty much gives me a free lesson on how to do the West Coast Swing properly.

Even with my flip flops he could tell I was used to ballroom dancing...because of my dance grip.

What is up with that?!

He gave me a full on lesson and danced with me for 2-3 songs while Evan waited for me at the front door watching me and my new dance partner like a hawk.

 After the songs I thanked my new friend and ran out to the car with Evan.

Did you ever think of how weird the blogging world was when you first started to blog?

It was a community that I never knew existed and when I try to explain it to anyone who isn't a blogger, they just don't understand how I can make random connections with people over the internet.

I definitely felt the same way at the west coast swing club.

Everyone knew each other and knew what the heck was going on.

It was a whole new community of dancing that I never knew existed!

Can't wait to take Ryan there so he can supervise while I'm dancing :)

<3 Bri 

Workout Reverie

Today was the first day I've worked out in TWO WEEKS.

For me that is slightly unheard of.

Ok, it used to be slightly unheard of.

{Today's protein shake & workout gear}

I used the Nike Trainer app on the iphone {which is the bomb.com btw}, worked out hardcore for a half hour, then in the midst of my huffing and puffing I started to think:

"Gosh, what the heck happened?!"

 Moving to a new state, college, boy woes, meeting the right boy, having melanoma surgery, re-cooping, getting married, moving to Portland, regretting Portland, moving back to Utah, moving into a new apartment, finishing school, more stress, and la di da di da.

I guess that's just life happenin', right?

All my life I've been physically active. 

I've played basketball my whole life, I have always gone to the gym, for 2 years of high school I played on the Varsity Tennis team, and ballroom dance classes consumed my life during my freshmen & sophomore year of college.

{After a Samba comp. I made it to quarterfinals, dancing in the division above me! *early 2010*}

You guys didn't know that stuff huh?

I may not have been the absolute best at ballroom dancing, but gosh did I love it.

I picked up a tennis racket sophomore year of high school, tried out for the team, and made Varsity that year. {Granted we weren't that good, but hey, Varsity is still decent!}

Just thinking about dancing or playing tennis makes me happy.

Yup, at one point in my life I wasn't consumed with homework, family, life, work, sickness and chores.

And constantly having an excuse to not work out was not a common thing.

{After the Tango mock competition. *Oct 2010*}

But you know what?

I'm going to change that.

After my workout high today, I just HAVE to.

I'm tired of being achy and tired of saying "Ok, I'm going to Zumba THIS week".

Finally, I'm ready to put my body and health at the top of my priority list.

Anyone up for a tennis match this next week? ;)

<3 Bri

--Reverie definition: A state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts, a daydream, nostalgic of the past