Let's take it down a notch.

To be perfectly honest, my favorite part of any awards show is the red carpet. Most of the actresses looked absolutely amazing, but a few ladies missed the mark. Funny enough, these two both had the same disastrous issues.

Mindy Kaling from The Office

She's absolutely hilarious, but this getup is not the funny that she's after I'm sure. 

Too much hair + too much dress = hot mess

Naya Rivera from Glee

Such a pretty girl, but again...

Too much hair + too much dress = hot mess

And not to be a Debbie Downer, here are my two favorite looks from the Emmys:

Lea Michele 

Claire Danes

Remember when?

Remember when I used to update my blog regularly? Yeah, so do I.

Here are the two culprits for my lack of blogging:

Hopefully I'll post about something interesting or worthwhile soon... until then I am glued to my tv watching the past seasons of Friday Night Lights. And you know that I've already finished Mockingjay- loved it!

Found myself a bargain.

Ever since we've moved into our house, I've had a pretty good idea about what I wanted to do as far as decorating the bedroom. So far the only thing that I've done is paint the walls, but I've been very excited about the decor. I've been wanting to do something with birds and needed to have some yellow, since I wanted to tie it in with the yellow of my throw pillows.

For the past few months I have been wanting to buy these two pictures from Z Gallerie for my bedroom wall:

The only thing that has held me back has been the price tag.... at $60 each, that was quite a bit more then I wanted to spend.

Imagine my excitement when I went to Tai Pan yesterday and found these beauties for just $12.97 each!

Birds- check, yellow- check! Love it!

This is a really good one.

Today's Groupon for Indianapolis is a $50 Gap gift card for only $25!

Head over to Groupon  to get your awesome deal with Gap! One day only!

And of course, there's some lovely fine print for the deal...

Offer valid from August 19, 2010 through November 19, 2010 in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico) and Canada only at Gap stores. Not valid online or at Gap Outlet, Gap Factory Store or The Gap Generation stores. Not valid on Keds® and Robeez®, or diaper bags and strollers at babyGap. Offer is good for one time use only and Groupon must be surrendered at time of in-store purchase. Discount applies to Gap merchandise only, not to GiftCards or applicable taxes. No adjustments on previous purchases. The value of the merchandise purchased must be at least $50. Not valid for cash or cash equivalent. Offer cannot be combined with any other offers or discounts, including Reward Cards and the Gap Inc. employee discount. If Groupon is not redeemed by the expiration date above, it may be redeemed for a $25 Gap GiftCard in U.S. and Canada Gap stores only. Not responsible for lost or stolen Groupons. Offer is not transferable. Cashiers: enter the code in the bottom-right corner of the Groupon.

2nd day hair fix.

Ever since I made the switch from washing my hair every day to washing every other day, I have loathed 2nd day hair. My hair was flat, lifeless, and had the grease thing going on. I'm sure that my horrendous hair was probably in my head and that others didn't really notice, but it's something that I've always been conscious of. 

If you're super obervant of my hair styling each day (and I do hope that you're not), you would have noticed that on 1st day hair days my hair is typically down and styled normally. On 2nd day hair days, you would see headbands, braids, ponytails, etc. All in efforts to mask the lifeless hair. 

I have talked to a few friends about this and they have all suggested the same thing: dry shampoo. I don't know that it was about dry shampoo, it just seemed so weird to me. Spray some stuff on your hair and then it's back to pretty? Naaah. Also, it conjured images of Heidi Montag when she was on I'm a Celebrity,  Get Me Out of Here! She was always talking about her dang dry shampoo.

Not really the look that I was going for.

After complaining about this to my sister Sarah, she ever so wisely suggested Tresemme dry shampoo. "Black bottle, green top, and it really works," she said. I decided to give it a go, thinking that if I don't like it then I was only out about $4.

 

After just one use, I can say that I am conferted to the dry shampoo movement. It was amazing- take flat, greasy hair, give it a few sprays of this stuff and voila! Pretty hair! Thank you dry shampoo for making me no longer dread 2nd day hair!

Overheard in the nursery...

Last night before we put Dylan to bed I heard Ben reading to Dylan. It was absolutely adorable... they were reading an animal book where Ben would point to a picture of an animal, would say the name, and then would make the sound that the animal makes.

He went through some basic animals like cow, horse, cat, chicken... then I heard him say:

"That's a chinchilla. What the hell does a chinchilla say? No one knows."

Cracked me up.

Say it ain't so!

When I got the email about Shade closing I was so bummed! Shade is my go-to for all my layering basics, and while there are many other stores where I could get nearly the same product I have found that Shade has the best quality.

Boo for good places going out of business.

On the upside of things, you better believe that I'll be waiting in line to stock up on my Shade basics at a major discount. This is me being an optomist.

Monday night couch potato.

Can you guess what I was watching on tv tonight? You guessed it...

In the words of my dear hub, this show combines people who are good looking, promiscuous, and slightly crazy grasping for their 15 minutes of fame. Cast criteria aside, this show seems to be Bachelor meets Survivor with all of them competing for $250,000.

The first episode (minus the first 15 minutes which I managed to miss) was already full of drama... the ladies on this show did not dissapoint!

The top two crazies?

Elizabeth, who looked much,  much better with dark hair...

And....

Michelle, who was also the big-time crazy on Jake's season. Michelle dear, if you're the crazy on two separate shows, what does that tell you? That you may be a little imbalanced? Maybe.

I think that this show is going to be super entertaining, because it's combines crazies + drama. Count me in!

10 months.

{you can see Dylan's nubby little front teeth in this picture}

Dylan's 10 month stats 

Length: 29 3/4 in (78th percentile)

Weight: 19 lbs 14 oz (25th percentile)

Head: 17 1/2 in (11th percentile)

My baby is already 10 months old and is quickly exiting baby land and is about to enter little boy land. Crazy! This also means that he has been out of my tummy longer than he was in, which is mind boggling to me, as pregnancy seemed to drag on and on, and Dylan's life has just flown by.

Dylan doesn't seem to have hit many new milestones in the past month, although he has gotten much better at the things that he has recently mastered. He is a lightening fast crawler and can stand alone for a few seconds before dropping to the ground. He is making more noises and babbles to himself on a regular basis. Also, he babbles to me and expects me to know what he's talking about.

Dylan has finally gotten to the point where he is interested in books and will sometimes just sit on my lap and let me read to him or show him pictures. 

Dylan is sweet and charming as ever and has such a fun personality. He is 100% boy and is already facinated with trucks and motorcycles. He has also shown attachment to his teddy bear that is in his crib, which is really cute.

I can't believe that he turns one in less than two months! Crazy! You better believe that party plans are already underway and it's going to be great!

Excuse me... you have something on your face.

That something would be soap bubbles... Dylan did this one himself with no assistance from mom.

House project: Taking away the cords.

Ever since we changed our basement tv/entertainment center situation, I have been irritated with the 300 cords that I could see dangling behind the entertainment center. They were so distracting in my eyes... white walls, white entertainment center, big black cords. Yuck.

To remedy this situation, I bought materials to create a functional and cute backing to the entertainment center. This way, I wouldn't have to look at the over abundance of cordage, but if anything just notice the cute backing to the entertainment center.

Ugh, I forgot to take a before shot to illustrate the obnoxiousness that were the cords. Please imagine the less than attractive situation through.

And here is the much better looking after:

And a closer look...

Mind you, I just finished this project last night, so I haven't really figured out my accessorizing for the space. Just give me time. Sidenote: The little gold pear and the gold cat are swiped from my parent's house. I have sticky fingers whenever I go visit their house, especially with all their snazzy redecorating.

How did I do this super easy project? Easy!

First, I bought a bunch of scrapbook paper that I thought would look nice lining the back of the entertainment center. I also bought a few pieces of poster board so that the scrapbook paper could have a more sturdy backing.

This is the scrap paper that I chose. Pretty, right?

I taped 4 pieces of poster board together to make the a same size space as the entertainment center. I then used scrapbook adhesive to stick the scrapbook papers to the poster board. I then cut a few holes in the finished backing to run cords through, and went about detaching every single cord back there and snaking them through the pre-cut holes in the backing. Staple gun the whole thing to the back of the entertainment center and you're done!

The finished result- fabulous!

The project was super cheap too-
Poster board- 4 pieces at 99 cents each
Scrap paper- 16 pieces at 89 cents each
Adhesive- $4.99
Staple gun- already owned

Grand total- $23.24

Current fantasy wishlist.

Every once in a while I get a case of the "I wants." It is when I see things left and right that I would love to have and waste time thinking about when I know that there is no way that I will be buying any of these things anytime soon. It's fine to daydream about them though, right? Here is a list of a few things that I'm lusting over right now.

  Louis Vuitton Boétie GM Handbag

So lovely, so insanely out of my price range. I saw a girl carrying this bag at the Nashville airport and I immediately fell in love. While looking for this bag online, I came aross the site Barbie Handbags and they have this some bag in stock for just (haha just... yeah, still really expensive) $299. Seems a little too good to be true, but I'm definitely interested.

Le Creuset Cookware

Again, insanely expensive, but insanely beautiful at the same time. As you all know, I'm not the best of cooks but I know that if I had these in my kitchen I would put a lot more effort into my dinners! Maybe I can convince Ben to buy me one piece each year as a Christmas present... eventually I'd have a full set. I'll have to file that idea away for a few months.

Tory Burch Reva Flats

I have been lusting after these shoes for at least six months. While they are insanely expensive they are reportedly ridiculously comfortable. I actually bought a pair off ebay for a fraction of the price in April, but I ended up cancelling the sale since I thought that they were fake. Now I've gotten the itch to buy another pair. Ben, are you reading this?

I know that my mom is reading this post and shaking her head thinking, "I did not teach my daughter to be this materialistic" which is entirely true. I guess the good part is that this is merely a wishlist and I'm not about to whip out my credit card to make any of these things mine any time soon. Sigh.

He's ready to go.

Where did my baby go? He's too little to be riding on his car!

Cupcake time.

As most of you know, I have a slight, tiny love for cupcakes. When my pal Stacey informed me of a Cupcake Conference in Salt Lake a few weeks ago, I was super excited. It turned out to be kind of an exclusive event- there were only 50 tickets given and Stacey, Erna, and I were able to get three of them!

The conference was held in the Presidental Suite at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake. It was a great time full of cupcakes, socializing, prizes, and of course a swag bag!

The group met with the pastry chef for the Grand America and she told us all about her sugar coated job.

Also, there was a cameraman from channel 2 news. I did my best at dodging him, as I have proven to be incompetent on camera. Remember when I was on tv for the Scrapbook Expo and apparently my mouth was hanging open the entire time?

Here we are with our finished cupcakes... they tasted delish.

After spending some time in the kitchen we went back up to the Pres. Suite for some much needed socializing and the raffle prizes. Erna was the big winner out of the three of us.... she ended up winning two shirts and a fabulous gift basket from Dipidee.

I won a 12 pack of Pepsi Max (the new zero calorie version of Pepsi) and poor Stacey didn't win anything. Not to be dissapointed though... we all walked away with a neat swag bag which included coupons to some of my favorite cupcake spots!

It was a super fun night and I'm hoping that the Cupcake Conference becomes an annual event. Thanks Stacey for discovering the event!