Since I temporarily fell off the face of the blogging earth...

This stinks. I haven't blogged in ages, but hey- its just like riding a bike, right? What a bummer, I feel like I've totally let everyone down. Well here's my attempt at redemption (again).

Since I last blogged, SO much has happened. WOW. First and foremost: prom. What a fun night! It happened to be the last day of school for seniors which was totally an added bonus! The theme was "Vegas" and there were mocktails (I had a mock cosmo!!) and mock gambling, but that was a bit over my head. Here are a few photos from prom:

This was how my date (Brad) asked me:HOW ADORABLE IS THAT? I know. My dad was like, "Am I allowed to eat one?". We loved them in my house!
This is my "group" and our dates, and it happens to be one of my mom's favorite photos from the night. I'm in the pink:
This was decidedly one of our favorite pictures, me, Brad (minus his crooked tie), and Grace my sister:

It ended up as a very fun night that I think most everyone enjoyed. Thank you to all the members of the class of 2010 who put it on!

Next, I came back from my Habitat for Humanity trip. (Click the link for the location we went to.) I LOVED IT. It was so much fun and I encourage everyone to do something like this, especially with a group of people you know. We all got very close to one another and it was really a great bonding trip for everyone who went.This is the entire group that went except one girl because she was at her sister's college graduation (Boston College!) and had to fly down to meet us later. We all had such a good time!

I've been working a ton and Lilly Summer 2009 rocks. Swimsuits, dresses, ahh its fabulous! The store is really picking up especially with the Navy graduation week and everything. What a good few weeks for the store!

Also, believe it or not, I'm gearing up for school. Its CRAZY. Taking placement tests, buying stuff here and there (I have positively the cutest bedding that my mom picked up for me. Photos will obviously follow.) I can't believe I head out August 14th! I guess first I technically have to graduate, which is June 6th. Woo-hoo! The night before my graduation is Baccalaureate, which is a big event (dressy) put on by students for students. There's a big reflection, and tons of people perform guitar or sing or make candid power points of us across the years, its generally a tear-jerker. This is the dress I'm wearing that I love from j.crew and now its on sale:Very cute! Unfortunately I had to take the hem down a little but it was totally worth it. Plus I can take it with me to SC!

I feel like so much is going on these days that I can't think of everything. Thankfully, I will be blogging regularly fairly soon so that will be good, I'll be able to keep up with stuff again. Miss you all and its really good to be back!

xxKatie

Still Here...

Hey everyone! I can't believe how iffy I've been writing these days. It's finally starting to get nice around here!! Woo hoo! Prom is just about a month and a half away and spring is getting in gear. The boys are 6-2 and have a game tomorrow! They're still playing a little unstable-ly, but they're working on it. This is my prom dress: I am so excited to finally have it! I got it at a local Off 5th and it was $730 down to $217 and that's including tax! Seriously, though, this is THE LAST prom post until like a few days beforehand.

I'm trying to think about what I've been doing recently. Over the weekend I worked! Yay! Twice, I was scheduled to work Sunday and then was emergency scheduled for Saturday to have adequate cover for a sidewalk sale! Later Saturday night, my friend had her 18th birthday at Nano where I wore my own 18th birthday necklace. That color should remind you where it was from! I loved it and paired it with a simple black strapless dress from Old Navy of all places.

More on the college trail. (I accidentally typo-ed that as "trial" and really that's a more apt word) I've narrowed it down to Villanova University and University of South Carolina. I know, I know, they're very different and as my dad says, "you have only good choices". I'm getting a lot of pressure (not from my parents) but from other people, to go to both actually- like some people tell me Villanova and some people tell me USC. It has only been made more difficult with the good news from Villanova because I had really prepared myself to not get in, it was a stretch, you know the shotty college deal though. I got a huge scholarship to USC, to make it even harder. I can actually see myself at both colleges. I certainly have the wardrobe to match both! I'm getting pretty worn down by having to make this decision and as I learned in my A&P class, the teenage prefrontal cortex is totally not ready to handle a decision this large at its current state of maturity. (The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that deals with intuition, decision making, and personality, and is not fully mature until age 25. Look, you learn something new everyday!)

Also, I've taken a short break from my LP "Wink" perfume to go back to my Calvin Klein "One Summer". I've decided that if you don't own it, you must. It is fruity and summery and just makes you feel tan. Buy it!

To also kick into spring/summer, I'm not carrying my VV tote bag anymore. I way downsized to an orange (I know...orange...yikes) Herve Chapelier C701. Cute, functional, and I want to get it monogrammed.

I'm looking for another cute "game-ish" post to do, like the 25 list I did a few posts ago, so if you see anything shoot me a link or post it yourself and I'll have to copy!

I'm going to end this post with a quote for all my classmates who read my blog. It's from The Wonder Years, a show I've decided needs to start reairing episodes asap:

"That first week of high school, as I watched our class band together. I realized something about these strangers I'd just met. Strangers I hardly knew. Strangers who were just like me. We were all sharing the same feelings. The same fears, the same loneliness. We were just starting out, and there was only one direction to go. So we went - together."

So to all the Winnies, Kevins, Jacks, Waynes, and everyone else, here's to our last quarter as high school students. Let's make it the best one ever.

xxKatie

Shall We Go Dancing?

So prom 2008 is rounding the corner, and only a select few are currently feeling that crunch: PROM COMMITTEE (so thank them at your school, they're putting a lot of work into it...sometimes). I personally, am on my school's PC to plan, organize, conceptualize, and throw Prom 2008. We've decided on a theme, a date, and a location (2 of which are secret but people probably know...) and all we need are gifts, decorations, food, money, tickets, aka EVERYTHING else. But what's a preppy girl to do in this season of shoes and hairdo's and dresses and tresses?! Well, my solution happens to lie in the preppy queen herself, Lilly Pulitzer (as usual!) and I am most excited!

My dress is actually part of the Resort 2007 line, but I've been looking at the dress (of my dreams) (secretly) since about August. Its pink and green and the title of the print is something about being Loopy. I love love love it! It supposed to be floor length, but because of my excessive height and needing a smaller size, it actually isn't. It has a babydoll neck with a gold ring with pink and green rhinestones inlaid in it! It is called the "Jillie Dress" and it is going to be perfect for me and my prom. Here it is:

I am planning on wearing flat sandals that happen to be the same color as the ring on the dress(Platinum Jacks) so that I don't tower over everyone else (and I already own them, which means I can focus those dollars on another area of my prom budget). I can't wait to wear this dress and hopefully no one else is wearing it either (actually, to prevent this, I started a school dress registry, copying some other area schools after seeing how popular and how well it was working, online!)

"But are there any other options??" you ask. Well, of course. There are multi-millions of options out there. Some may not be as preppy, but if you rock the same pink and green color scheme, you will most definitely get the point across. The "Chellis Chiffon Dress" by Lilly is a floor length dress (that my boss wanted me to get) that can most definitely be dressed up or rocked the way it is. It comes in Fishalicious (in Chiffon) or Ok Coral (in Cotton Lurex). It is very cute, but has a very deep V-neck which made me feel a little uncomfortable. (Additionally, I would advise all girls not to go strapless. I heard a horror story from the girl who sits next to me in my math class that last year, she stepped on the front of her dress, tugging it a little, and ended up FLASHING our principal. OUCH! Don't let that wardrobe malfunction happen to you, don't go strapless!) Anywho, there are other (non strapless) Lilly options that shouldn't be too difficult to locate.

**Here's a tip: to check if an item is still on the market/available/in your size, always check inthepinkonline.com they have a huge selection of Lilly clothing and are a signature store which means upwards of 80% of their stuff is solely Lilly.

Continuing, options for those who want to stay in the Lilly genre include the Amber Dress (Chiffon), the Angelette Dress (Cotton Lurex, Chiffon) and the Jackie Dress (Silk Oxford). Their respective lengths are long, short, long, and the come in great colors (really you have your pinks, greens, blues, and yellows covered in these babies!).

But what if I want to be preppy, but not Lilly, per se? Well, there are still options. A big trend in this year's prom is "Ombre". Ombre is a type of coloring where a solid color flows into another color. At Bloomingdale's there is a specific dress that I am thinking of: it has the Ombre style and fades from green to pink, it is pretty extreme, but if you like it, I'd say totally go for it! Its a cool, different dress that many people won't have the guts to wear. http://www1.bloomingdales.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=107632&CategoryID=8493&PageID=8490*1*24*-1*-1*Y*38 it does have a pricey tag, but it is prom! (And I know, for any moms out there it is so not worth is and "we always buld it up to be so great and then it stinks"). That's a cool option, either way. Another emerging trend for '08 is short dresses. They are really making it to the forefront advertising comfort, ease of movement, and a canvas to accessorize! Now, with a less-traditional short dress, you can go in a gazillion directions! The dresses range from plain green, to wow-za! zebra, and you can take your dress in a multitude of directions, which is cool for you really creative types (I've always been totally jealous!)

Prom should be a fun experience, but the dress shouldn't mean everything. Ok, so you may not find that perfect dress, so go in a cotton dress that you like, and hey, you're the most comfortable girl there, not to mention, you're breating easily, and your SWEETSWEET hairstyle is now the focus of your night! After prom find some fun, comfy (+preppy) clothes to crash in at your school's after prom party. I can't wait for all of this to really start coming together, stay in tune!

xxKatie

Katie's Worrying About Prom (again...)

Shallow, yes, I know and I'm sorry, but all of a sudden, people are all talking about prom! A lot of you bloggers have real stories that are adorable, heartwarming, some are about kids, but I'm only in high school. Yeah, very trivial, but I am a planner and I would much rather have m dress in advance than down to the wire. Last year I had my Lilly picked out in August when the style book came to the store. May 15th is the big day, and just dress drama is beginning to circulate. No dates yet, but I will keep you updated for sure! Anyway, I decided that most of the dresses that I posted the other day were generally wrong (except I'm going to post one of them again, it made the most recent cut). This time, I like a lot more of the ones I'm posting as in there's much less wrong with them than the the last time I posted it. Also, this is the first time that my mom is realizing that I'm thinking about prom and that I even have dress ideas, hi mom! I NEED HONEST FEEDBACK (aka tell me if they're ugly please!!!!!!!)
Option one: black, chic, very long (yay!), gorgeous. A girl had this dress last year and looked SO pretty, but hers was in coral. Anyway I like this a lot.
Option two: black (I swear they're not all black!!!!), skinny, sleek, potentially hard to walk in, again very long, and the back is cool, its like an X I like it too! *Cool fact: she's an ex-Lilly model, recognize her from the Resort 2008 shoot?!
Option three: green, Milly (on sale!!), potentially too casual (I need feedback on appropriate-ness guys!), very pretty at least online, I like it, maybe not long enough?
Option four: probably my favorite so far!!!!! pink, conservative, paisley, very long, lightly sequined at the top, keyhole neckline, and I can wear my platinum Jacks underneath.Option five: the sole survivor from last time (see "Older Posts").

Option six: not pictured, Lilly Chellis Dress in "OK Coral" if I can find it. Ebay, Craig's List, in some store, IF YOU CAN FIND IT TELL ME! I LOVE THIS DRESS and I would love to wear it to prom, but it is SO unbelievably hard to find so its wishful thinking on my part.

Anyway, I hope that you guys post please because I can't choose and there's a good chance that I may not even be wearing any of these. That makes me think of another idea, if you have any other cute, affordable, classy ideas for my dress, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me!!!! I would love some input everyone!! Have a good week everyone!

xxKatie

Boy Lesson 1: The Art of the Bow Tie

Two days ago I was called by a friend of mine (who will be living 2 houses down from us next year) about a clothing crisis: "Can you wear black pants with a pinstripe blazer?" So it got me thinking about a "segment" I can do for all the boy readers that I might have (max = 3) and what they need to know about looking nice and preppy (dare I say it about them) well dressed.

I have to admit it. I have an affinity for a boy in a bow tie. I think boys have this weird stigma that they associate with bow ties and none of them ever want to wear one! I absolutely love them (with the exception of a few boys--really just one who's running against a friend of mine in the college elections, but I digress.) I have a few friends who detest a bow tie, but coming from Annapolis, it's just part of the culture. My junior year a guy friend of mine asked me if I would help him figure out what to wear to prom (he was taking a girlfriend of mine, Lizzie) and I was so excited to help him. He explained his choices on a bus ride to a lacrosse game and we settled on a great red Vineyard Vines print that had crabs and some polka dots with the matching cummerbund. He looked great and I think guys really underestimate bow ties! Now that it's spring, I'm hoping to catch a few more guys in a good bow tie. Here are a few of my favorites:

King Crab (I LOVE the crowns) from Vineyard Vines

                                  

Stars & Stripes from Vineyard Vines

                                              

Regimental Guard Stripe from Joseph A. Bank Clothiers (My dad shops here periodically and I love to go! They have tons of ties and bow ties that I love browsing!!)

                              

Lilly Pulitzer Printed Bow Tie (how can you not love pink and green seahorses!? If I had a prom date my junior year, this would have been perfect with my LP Jillie Dress circa Resort 2007)

                                     

These bow ties are made by a local designer in Columbia, SC called LaRoque. She makes all kinds of great custom dress--so custom that no one else will ever have the same combination of prints and dress style as someone else. Getting a dress from there is on my list of things to do before I graduate. This photo is from her facebook. I'm sure I could get a perfect length dress for my 6'1'' body! 

I think the moral of my story is that a bow tie is just SO hard to resist! This makes me feel SO spring-y! If any of my readers are boys remember this!! Girls do love the bow tie! (Now madras anything and a bow tie is downright dangerous for this girl...)

xxKatie

Prom Ideas

I'm sitting here in my bed at 10:14 pm, very sick. All of my friends are out tonight at this party, but I have zero voice and am coughing my lungs up, so it leads me to thinking about the rest of the year. All that my mind seems to zero in on is PROM. All the craziness, drama, and whatnot that comes with it too. Thinking about prom on a Saturday night, niiiiiiice. Anyway, I am looking up all kinds of dresses that I might be interested in. I haven't seemed to find the perfect one yet. Last year, I wore the Lilly long one (I've talked about it like 80 times on here) that I adore. I will wear that dress to as many functions as I can, for however long it lasts me. I knew that I had wanted to get that dress in August of my Junior year (yes, like before the school year had even begun). This year, however, I am not as prepared. I have no ideas as to what I want, and I don't really know where to begin. I found a few dresses that have caught my eye, but somehow, they all seem to have one "tragic flaw" as my wise AP English teacher would say.

I really have no idea what I want, and all of these happen to fall within the "pink" category, but it's not a requirement. I know that I can't be spending like thanks-a-million, and I know that I don't want to wear Lilly again. I just didn't fall in love with any of the Jubilee dresses, and I don't want to spend a ton. I know I do want a long dress, and I'm not like really comfortable with strapless, but I'd be willing to try. So far, these are my four ideas. They all strike me as wearable, but I'm not DYING to have any specific one.

This is Nicole Miller. I like her a lot. Purple is NOT my thing at all. This is labeled as "fuchsia", but I still question the integrity of the colors online. I love lurex though. I am a HUGE fan of this type of fabric. It is so luxurious and fabulous that I cannot pass up anything with some sparkle. This is a rather conservative dress in it's shape, but I hesitate before spending $465 on a strapless dress that I'm sure I'd be semi-uncomfortable in.
This I love. It is bright, long, and very cute! My problem with this is that I have a small chest, so a dress like this with rather open cleavage makes me weary. I must wear um, helpful undergarments if you catch my drift, and the plunge-y-ness of this neckline, would make said undergarments very difficult to wear. I have, however, seen this dress in person, and it is SO nice. I have seen it in a coral-y color and a robin's egg blue shade and both were stunning. Right above the shoulders is some gold detailing and the website advises to wear this with gold jewelry.
This dress is very NOT typical me at all. Let me stress that first of all. It is very striking, and I wonder how self-conscious I'd be in it. I mean seriously, that's one of the prettiest models ever, and I don't know if I could really "pull this one off". I even wonder if this dress could almost qualify as "trashy". Please tell me if you think it does. I hardly see myself in this dress, but part of me likes it. I do love the detailing on the back beading too. This dress, though, too, would be tough to wear undergarments under, because look at a) how tight it is and b) how could you ever get a brassiere strap with a dress-back like that?!
I find this dress amazing. Bright pink, fabulous, and again, full of lurex. It is strapless, though, but a few girls wore similar dresses to our prom last year, and they were beautiful. One dress was blue with silver lurex in it, and another was white with gold lurex in it. I envied those girls so much, and now I have finally found who made their dresses!

So, as you consider my pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-preliminary ideas, tell me which one you like the best. My mom is going to be reading this thinking that I'm nuts for writing about prom so early and that I'm blogging at now 10:35, while I'm sick. Regardless, it's all I can occupy myself with while all of my friends are out! I hope everyone has a nice weekend!

By the way, the download for the day: "Lucky" by Jason Mraz featuring Colbie Calliat. SO CUTE! I LOVE THIS!

xxKatie