What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'll tell you this - I'm loving a lot! Such as:

1. Pretty Little Liars is back on TV (or, in my case, Hulu). Hella good.

It's addictive.

2. Kale chips. If you haven't had or made them yet, change that. They're delish.

I would show you a personal picture, but I kind of ate them all before I had a chance to.

3. Express ReRock jeans. Screw 7 for All Mankind. These jeans are a godsend (and cheaper). They make me look and feel skinny, and give me a booty to make even J.Lo jealous. It's true.

No, that's not me. I wish. I die for those shoes.

4. The fact that we're going on vacation to upstate NY (aka Scot's parents and friends) for a week again this summer. 11 more days until I can be lazy, have time on the lake and boat, enjoy a (non)pig roast, and stuff myself silly with  Dinosaur BBQ. Oh, and totally rock it at tubing.

5. Only one more month until I'm eligible for a phone upgrade. In other words, HELLO iPHONE. Finally.

Want you. Need you. Loooove you.

Anything you're particularly loving today or this week/month/year?

Take THAT, airline industry.

This is no fun little tutorial.. well maybe it is.. but I'm really just incredibly proud of myself that I was able to accomplish this.

I'm not a terrible packer - I take pride in my packing skills passed down to me from my mom (she's got it DOWN, yo). However, I tend to overpack, and end up with a big pile of clothes that I never even touch while on vacation. Every. Time.

Hey.. a girl needs options.

But I can't do that for my upcoming trip to Mexico for two reasons:
1. I have layovers in both directions, and I don't trust the airlines to not lose my bag.
2. It costs like $75789 just to check one bag. I don't exaggerate.

So, I needed to figure out how to consolidate, be decisive, and pack for a 6 day trip in a bag that I would normally just put tons of shoes and flip flops in.

Sad but true.

SO I turned to my trusty friend Google, literally searched "how to pack a carry on to Mexico", and came across this little gem called 10 days in a Carry-On, written by a flight attendant. Next five pictures are from that article.

You guys, it's dumb how revolutionary this was to me. She was able to pack all of this..

..into that tiny little suitcase! Nuts I tell you, nuts.

Basically, instead of folding everything, you roll it up.

 You pack the shoes on the bottom, then the bulkier, heavy fabric clothes, then the lighter fabric clothes.

 You top it off with the extras, like toiletries, a brush, a bag, etc. And it closes without having to sit on it for an hour! (Not like I've done that before.) (Ok I have.)

 The coolest part is that the woman then packed all her stuff in the "traditional" manner.

As you can see.. not fitting. At all.

I decided to test out this roll up method of packing, and I can totally vouch that it works like a charm. I was able to (over)pack:

1 pair of heels, 2 pairs of flip flops
a snorkel
4 pairs of shorts
a pair of gaucho pants
8 shirts of the tank/tee/tube/halter varieties
2 cardigans
3 dresses
6 bathing suits
a big floppy sunhat
several undergarments

..and still have enough room to put my toiletries and straightener on top!

Or, you know, a cat.

Anyone have any other fun packing tricks?? I could use 'em!

Go away, 70's style

Ok, that's not true. I actually really like most of the 70's style thing, and have been rocking a lot of 70's inspired looks in the past year or so. I know they said that the 80's were making a comeback, but I didn't (and will never) have anything to do with that.

Oh geez I'm lying again. I actually really love leggings now. Never thought I'd say that after the 5th grade.

The one thing 70's style related that I'm annoyed about is the supposed comeback of these high waisted, flare bottomed, trouser jeans.

                           7 For All Mankind                                    Gap

Now, in defense of the fashion world, when I saw how popular skinny jeans were becoming a while back, I also balked. I was pretty there sure there was no way in hell that I could pull them off. My mom thought I could manage it, and lo and behold, a pair of Express jeans proved her right and me wrong. Now skinny's are my favorite type of jeans to wear.

Sporting my black skinny's back in May

I still get a bit self-conscious in them, because I have larger thighs. They truly are mostly muscle, but I will have you know right now that even at my skinniest, my thighs stayed pretty much the same. No amount of pilates, yoga, or working out will do much to change them. I like to think of my lower half as pretty similar to Kim Kardashian's, with a bit less badonk-a-donk and a bit more tummy. (How does she keep hers so flat?? I'm jealous.)

Anyway, back to the trouser jeans: no. I will not wear them, even if I am the only person in the world left wearing my skinny jeans. Myself and Jessica Simpson cannot pull that look off.

Meh.

Don't get me wrong, I think Jessica is gorgeous, and not "fat/large/heavy" in the least bit. I just think she made a really, really bad fashion choice.

One that I refuse to make. Miss Kim K can seemingly pull it off (according to the fashion gurus, but I personally don't think it's the most flattering fit on her either).

I just.. greatly dislike this trouser jean resurrection. So please don't go thinking I'm all ugly and have no fashion because you never see me in these jeans.

Rant over.

How I waste my time and life.

In my perpetual boredom/down time at work, instead of studying for my National Certification exam for massage therapy that I have on Saturday, I decided to fiddle around with the Dress your Wedding feature on David's Bridal. This gem of a program lets you create wedding avatars of you and your bridal party (with all of DB's dresses, etc) so you can see how it will look when put together. While there are of course some limitations (like how all the faces and rigid body positions make the avatars look like creepy Stepford wives...) , it was actually kind of cool to put together an ensemble for me and my girls.. oh, Scot too ;) Although I wasn't so much a fan of their man-clothes options. Here's what I came up with (minus one BM bc they wouldn't let me have 5, boo):

Another fantastic time killer/waster that is absolutely fabulous? Couturious. Please go there. Or don't because it's addicting. You can pick your model and background, and then design outfits for them with all of this season's clothes.. like, stuff you can actually go out and buy (should the need to spend $1,000 on a bag arise). Regardless, it's like playing dress up; you can make the model look like you and pretend you have a fab wardrobe (I may be guilty of this), or just use the avatar as a Barbie and see what fun/interesting/ugly/pretty combos you can come up with. Once you're done, your outfit goes to a general board where people can view everyone else's creations, comment on it, or "Love It" (like "Like it" on FB). Here's one I created that got some good reviews!

Aaaand one that didn't but I still think it's sassy :)

Happy procrastinating!