School dance party

Here is another game of "where's Melissa and friends". I really didn't want to post this because I look so awkward but I get a lot of requests from my friends to show them this video! Thank you youtube for making everything public. Oh well, at least now we can all laugh at how awkward we were then, right? Anyway, this installment of "where's Melissa" is a lot easier than the last one. Good luck! (hint: watch part 2 and 3)

Crochet Flower Necklace

I mentioned before that one of my coworkers is an exceptional knitter and crocheter, well she just started her own craft blog! See Deb Craft! Currently, she is working on a free form flower crochet shirt and she offered me some of the flowers! My idea was to connect the flowers together (bib style) and then use some chain to make it a necklace but Debby make something even better! Hopefully tonight I'll be able to take some pictures with the necklace!

The Secretary Look

Blouse: H&M from Danish cousin

Skirt: Zara

Necklace: Pearls from Nordstroms Rack

Shoes: Bebe from Buffalo Exchange

Bows: Vintage shoe clips from my grandma

Photographer: my sister Jessica

Dreaming of the 70's...

Shirt: Forever21

Jeans: Virgo, Nordstroms in Spokane

Clogs: Steve Madden, Nordstroms

Necklace: Betsy Johnson, gift

Bag: Coach, Camarillo Outlet

Belt: Michael Kors

Ring: my little sisters

Nailpolish: OPI Quater of a Cent-Cherry

This weekend was casual and busy at the same time so I settled on a variation of one of my favorite outfits. This outfit was built around the clogs, then the jeans and lastly the shirt. This shirt from Forever21 is one of my favorites because it is so soft, stretchy and has a great design. Unfortunately, there isn't a picture of the back of this shirt because it has an interesting cut out design. If I ever see this shirt again in our colors, I will definitely buy them all! After I picked the shirt I instinctively put this necklace on because the neckline of the shirt perfectly displays the necklace. I added the ring as part of an attempt to get out of my comfort zone of only wearing earrings and necklaces and more into rings and bracelets. And lastly, I had to show off my nailpolish that has (mostly) lasted an entire week (including several trips in the spa/pool)!!! 

Hamburgers...

We made these cupcakes last year for a BBQ and we are thinking about making them again for the 4th of July. They were such a hit - everyone has requested that we bring them again! 

Buns: cake

Cheese, lettuce, mustard, ketchup: food colored frosting

Meat patty: brownie

Real sesame seeds

Gray Yellow

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Shirt: Asos, from Danish cousin

Skirt: yellow with embroidered flower pattern St. Johnson's Bay, 

thirfted in Spokane for a Halloween costume

Shoes: cracked gold gladiators

Earrings: costume pearl flower cluster from my grandma maybe?

Necklace: Forever21

My lovely sister Jessica took these pictures for me because my parents and my little sister went to see the World of Color at California Adventureland. I love the color combination of gray and yellow with subtle gold accents. Yellow has always been a hard color for me to combine with other colors. I can never seem to find a combination I liked until this one. The realization came to me after I saw a wedding with pale yellow and gray as their colors and it looked amazing together. Light gray really makes this pale yellow pop where black would have made me look like a bumble bee and it's not even Halloween. 

I've had these earrings for as long as I can remember playing dress up. There was some school event that I really wanted to wear them at because I was SOO upset when I was little that my ears weren't pierced but one of the pearls had fallen out. I found another pearl the right size in our craft supplies and glued it in but the other pearls were slightly yellowed, instead of just leaving it be I painted both of the earrings with gold glitter nail polish to hide the fact that one of the pearls was bright white! Oh well! I hope that they weren't family heirlooms! I still wearing them occasionally because from far away you can't tell that they are gold and glittery. But at least now I have real pierced ears so I'm not forced to wear clip ons! 

What's in my makeup bag

Last night I posted "What's in my bag" and I thought that I would post a followup of "What's in my makeup bag". This is what I take to work with me so I can do my makeup in the morning at work when I get in early. The contents usually rotates depending on what makeup I am feeling for the day.

Bag: Estee Lauder, I think that my mom got this as a free gift and gave it to me

Claritin: essential to living mostly-allergy free

Assorted brushes: mostly from Target?

Eye Pencil: Wet 'n Wild Black 

Hip Eyeshadow Duo: L'Oreal in Gilded, the gold side is my favorite, I use it in the corner of my eyes when I need a little shimmer

Lipstick: Make Up For Ever #205 (see previous post) from Sephora - best lipstick EVER!

Bobbypins

Blue Eyshadow: Sephora brand in Chrome N o 4

Two pairs of tweezers, not sure why there are two 

Mascara: Maybelline XXL Curl Power

Lipglosses: Stila from gift pack in kitten, clear from N.Y.C. cosmetics from Target

Chapstick: Neutrogena, came with sunscreen

Under eye concealer: Clinique in Light Neutral #1 (I'm pale!)

Loose blush powder: Maybelline Mineral Powder in Gentle Pink from Target, loose powder because I always seem to drop my blush or have it break when I'm traveling and loose powder will never crack like compressed!

Eyeshadow Quads: Maybelline (again) in Stylish Smokes #04 Charcoal Smokes, #6 Amethyst Smokes, Designer Chocolates

What's in my purse

Purse: Coach bag from the Coach Outlet in Camarillo

Reading Glasses: Armani from Lenscrafters

Sunnies: D&G from Sunglass Hut

Book: Letters to Kaia by Michael Riisager, from my sister to read during Jury Duty

Wallet: Coach wristlet, gift

Button: Save Olvera St. from Jury Duty friend

Hand sanitizer: Cucumber Melon, gift

iPod Nano: birthday present

Phone: LG VU, I hate my phone and can't wait to get a new one

Date Book: from H.S. but never wanted to use it because it's so cute, gift

Pen: Uni-Ball fine

Sweat band: Danish flag for world cup, made by my sister

Spoon: from a recent Yogurtland trip, my family/friends are in love with this place

Watch: Kenneth Cole, was a present to my dad, but he never wore it so I claimed it for myself

Keys: car keys, Gonzaga Alum keyring, LAPPL keychain, Melissa keychain, SAFTEY whistle, house keys

GPS: Tom Tom, gift because I ALWAYS get lost driving around

Chapstick Chapstick: I love this stuff but I constantly lose them

Lipgloss: CO Bigelow winter collection, Vanilla Cream Eggnog, gift

Earphones: I HATE these but I lost my SkullCandys

Keycard: for the parking garage at my office

Bored At Work

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Jewel Tones

Shirt: F21 - it's a bit more more purple than the camera picks up

Skirt: DIY by me almost 8 years ago

Shoes: Steve Madden from Emeryville Store; 

got these on sale for $20 because this pair was marked with the wrong price!

Bracelets: left arm - both purplish and beaded

right arm - Christmas gift from co-worker

Nail polish: OPI Quarter of a Cent-Cherry

This is a modified version of the outfit that I wore to work today. I was really sore today from hiking Runyon Canyon yesterday with the family so I decided not to wear the heels or the skirt and opted for some plain black dress pants from Express. Occasionally, comfort is the deciding factor in what I'm going to wear to work that day. I am not a morning person by ANY means so pants are usually easier to throw on in the morning instead of trying to find tights and a skirt. 

The skirt is made out of a men's large t-shirt from my grade school days on LHTV (Laurel Hall Television). I made it sometime in the beginning of high school when I was really into making clothing for myself out of old t-shirts from all my LH class trips. The band of the skirt is made from an old Limited Too sweatshirt that I wore when I was little. You can see the red of the band peaking out in the picture that I am holding Tanner in (it is the same color as the nail polish). 

I love this bracelet that one of my co-workers got me for Christmas. I am not quite sure where she got it but it came in the cutest case with some Italian on it. I don't wear it very often in real life (except picture taking) because it is very chunky and catches on all of my clothing, which drives me crazy. The same goes for rings, they tend to get in the way of typing and other activities, plus I take them off and play with them and subsequently lose them! So I just try and stay away from most rings and bracelets but I want to venture out more and try wearing more rings and bracelets.  

The Family

In honor of both Father and Mother's Day here is a picture of my whole family. This was taken before my cousin's wedding last Labor Day weekend. It was a really fun outdoor wedding at a restaurant over looking the race tracks in Del Mar. I love all my cousins and hanging out with my mom's family! Doesn't my family look pretty?

My dress: I <3 Rhonson from JC Penneys

Jessica's dress: blue/purple flower print dress - H&M

Black Bows + Red Hearts

Shirt: birthday present; it's actually Miley Cyrus for 

Max Azria but they have the exact same shirt at FF21

Skinnies: BDG, Urban Outfitters

Shoes: Steve Madden, SM store in Emeryville

Earrings: gift from friend

I wore this outfit to work today because I wanted something that would be comfortable and match my red lipstick. Waking up early is not my thing, even after months of working at my job, so I am always rushing to get out of the house. My outfits depend on my mood for the day so I can't pick them out the night before, unless I am going to a special event or someplace like Disneyland! Thursdays are my favorite day at work because one of the partners always brings in some sort of breakfast for the whole office!!! So delicious!

Disco Ball Necklace

Shirt: from some 2nd hand store in LA but I can't remember where!

Necklace: from a giveaway on Selective Potential's blog

Where: in the kitchen at my office

One of my co-workers took these pictures for me today while we were on our lunch break. We usually spend our lunch breaks knitting, which is awesome because my co-worker is the best knitter and she always helps me when I make a mistake (which is often). I get teased a lot for knitting but I seriously love to knit. It's really not just for grandmas - there are so many trendy knitting patterns from designers! Knitting was trendy a few years ago among celebrities and other hip people in LA and I wish that was still the case because there were so many more cool knitting stores. One of my friends went to a knitting store to get me a birthday present and the worker kept showing her things that a grandma would be interested in and my friend was like "uhh no, I don't think that she would like any of those things, they are all for older women". The worker was surprised that she had a friend in her 20s that knitted. Ha!

My favorite part about knitting is that I can make something truly amazing from a few balls of yarn and some pointy sticks. Also, unlike sewing if you make a mistake it is sooo much easier to just take out some stitches and fix the mistake. For me that is a BIG plus because I tend to make a lot of mistakes because I am usually multi-tasking at work and forget a few stitches in a pattern. The only downside is that I get really bad pains in my right arm after a long day of knitting at work so I often have to take long breaks in between projects.

I love how sparkly this necklace is, it was distracting me all day! I won the necklace in a blog giveaway from one of my favorite blogs, Selective Potential. You can tell that she spends a lot of time on her blog and she that seems really genuine and friendly. AND she is super pretty!

Lovely Makeup Artist

As I mentioned before my lovely cousin Tanya is a makeup artist in the LA area and she has done my hair and makeup on numerous occasions. I can finally share her portfolio with you because her website just went live today! Check out her amazing portfolio and you can see some of the makeup that she has done on me. The main picture on homepage is of my younger sister Jessica. Isn't she gorgeous?

If you are in the LA area and need your makeup done or want to have makeup lessons email her at tanyaelaine_mau@yahoo.com and find her on twitter @tanya_elaine. 

New Clogs

I didn't end up spending much time shopping on Saturday because I got a last minute call to babysit for some family friends. But my sister an I popped over to Nordstrom's just to quickly peak at the shoes. She saw all the clogs but couldn't find any pair that she wanted in her size, so she convinced me to buy a pair! Every good Scandinavian girl needs a pair of clogs! We both have been in love with clogs our whole lives so the fact that they are trendy now is amazing. I ended up wearing them all day Sunday shopping with my parents and they were pretty comfortable. I can't wait to wear them all summer while I dream about adventuring around in Denmark with my lovely cousins!

Shoes: Steve Madden from Nordstroms

Heart Shaped Strawberry that my mom found

Requisite picture of Tanner for my lil sis

Just Dance

A while back my sisters and I were in a commercial for the Wii game Just Dance. If you look hard enough you can find us! It's like a game of Where's Waldo?!

Future Reflections

Shirt: men's white button down, Nordstrom's via my Dad 

w/ two studs I put on the collar

Belt: Fossil from Macy's

Skirt: H&M

Tights: probably from Target

Shoes: Aldo - I found out that they are an 

exact copy of a pair of Christian Louboutins

I'm excited that it is the weekend! I have a long list of tasks that I want to accomplish. I have a few new vintage shops in Burbank that I am going to check out and then make a quick popover to my favorite store, It's a Wrap. Last time I was there I saw the perfect pair of black and pink Miu Mius that were a half size to big, so this time I'm hoping to find a pair that are my size.

If you have never checked out It's a Wrap and you live in the LA area it is a really fun place to shop. They get a lot of clothing from the studios and usually have the name of the studio and sometimes the show or movie that the garment was from on the tag. The majority of the clothing and shoes that they have are pretty terrible (really warn, completely altered or terrible quality) BUT they always have some gems if you are willing to put in the time to search the racks for them. Just be warned: parking is terrible especially at peak times like Saturday and Sunday afternoons. 

Purple Flowers

Top: from Banana Republic

Skirt: Old Navy via my sister Jessica

Necklace: Forever21

Bracelet: from a co-worker

Shoes: Sechellyes from Overstock.com

My mom aka photographer of the moment suggested this wall of purple flowers as the background for the picture because it matched my shirt so well! I like this outfit but it isn't a favorite because of the white skirt; I can't wear white without getting some kind of stain on it! I only had to run a few errands and hadn't worn this skirt in months so I decided that it needed to see a little bit of sun (so do my legs because they are almost the color of the skirt! That's why you aren't getting a full body picture.) The skirt is also a bubble skirt , which isn't the most flattering hemline but if it hits the right length then it doesn't look so bad.

Red Hearts

Dress: DownEastBasics

Earrings and necklace: Red hearts, a gift from my friend

Shoes: Bebe 

Tights: Betsy Johnson from Nordstrom's Rack

This is one of my favorite work outfits because the dress is stretchy comfy cotton. The dress is from this store that is all modest clothing but this dress is pretty low cut. That might be why it was on sale because I tried on a bunch of other pieces from the store and they were all really frump - except this one.

The second best part of this outfit is the red lipstick. I love any outfit that begs to be worn with red lipstick. Unfortunately, it seems to attracks some negative attention. Oh well, it's definitely worth it.

DIY Studded Bracelet

I was inspired to make this hot pink and studded bracelet after seeing NYDesignStudio's DIY tutorials. It is VERY easy to make and only requires duct tape, studs and velcro. I made mine with the hot pink duct tape and pyramid studs that I already had on hand but any combination of studs and duct tape will work. Tonight I am going to try two rows of studs and see if I like how that looks. 

(Sorry the pictures are so crappy, I only have my MacBook camera with me at work, I need to get my own camera!)

Pink Satin Prada's

My only pair of "designer" shoes.