Wear Lipstick That is Too Dark

I have a real flair for the dramatics, especially when it comes to dressing and my lipstick choices.  In my new found career though I spend most days in Polyester-Wool Blend uniforms.  I value the occasional brunch that deserves heels and I have come to terms with dressing up for no reason other than to run errands.  I have also learned that sometimes in life you just have to put on the killer "fashion girl" outfit, wear lipstick that is too dark, and blast some Taylor Swift or gangster rap.  This among these next 10 lessons are what I have learned while surviving my pre-quarter life crisis.

Lipstick: Marc Jacobs / Top: Kate Spade (worn backwards) / Pants: JCrew

lesson #1: Everyone fails in their 20's
      I kid you not, everyone.  Just google someone you admire or who aspire to be like and see where they were in their 20's.  This when you get to quit jobs and travel.  This is when you figure out who you are and what you want.  So go out and fail.  Fail hard.  Keep doing it again and again until you find yourself and what you want.

lesson #2: Keep kissing losers
      Kiss all of them! Kissing burns calories (see below).  Kissing releases endorphins and those make you happy.  Kissing losers will make appreciate the winner when you kiss him too.  So keep kissing!

lesson #3: Eat the cupcakes (and popeye's and pizza and all the other "bad" food)
      There is nothing wrong with indulging in the delicious things in life.  Enjoy them because one day they will make you really fat and it won't be fun anymore.  So for now indulge and if you feel like you must, go to the gym or a hot yoga class.

lesson #4: Leave your comfort zone
      For me, it was leaving all the sure and practical options behind and taking up life at 35000 feet.  If it terrifies you, you should do it.  Someone famous once said that but I can't remember who.  The farther you get from your comfort zone the more you learn about yourself.  (one more way to discover who you are!)

lesson #5: Wear ballgowns to lunch and heels to the grocery store
      You have to get it where you can!  Dress up for no reason at all.  Or do the opposite and don't dress up, wear sweats all day and be really effing comfortable!  You can never be overdressed, because if you are people will just think you are coming from somewhere better or going somewhere better.  Also, if you are in leggings with a giant shirt on people think you just came from a spin class with Victoria's Secret models but,  jokes on them because you might have just rolled out of bed, they'll never know!

lesson #6: Find your red
      Of the 10 red lipsticks I own, there are 2 I love.  I have yet to find the exact shade of red I truly want to become my signature red, though.  Red lipstick fixes everything and it makes you look like a badass so find your shade.

lesson #7: Find your moisturizer
      Mine is Clinique Superdefense.  It is a daily moisturizer with SPF and prevents aging.  It also combats free radicals and radiation which I am exposed to at higher than normal levels being a flight attendant.  You want to be a hot 30-year-old and an even hotter 40/50/60-year-old so start treating your skin right now.  Give it the best chance it has against what life will throw at it.

lesson #8: You don't have to party like you did in college to be a cool kid
      Don't get me wrong, I can still party, but it is no longer something I find myself obligated to do.  While I can no longer drink frat boys under the table, you'll almost never find me dancing on a table, and I spend more nights enjoying a glass of wine instead of handles of flammable vodka, that doesn't mean a good time isn't necessary sometimes.  There are a million other ways to be a cool kid too, though.  Go out and have a good time if you want to but this is not recruitment, you are no longer required to be blackout.

lesson #9: Drink the wine, the whiskey, the vodka and the Pina Coladas
       Stock you bar cart for the rainy day drink, the roommate had a shit day drink, you had a shit day drink, the celebratory drink, and the well we have the alcohol so we should drink it, drink.  We always have at least one bottle of wine in the house.  Currently, we have 4 bottles of wine and vodka, we are clearly ready to party!  Champagne Thursday is also a holiday everyone should celebrate (it is ok if Thursday comes every day too)

lesson #10: Find your Band of Bitches:  Mine are scattered all over the world.  I have a few fabulous queens who give me life and who are the most fabulous bitches I know.  I have two roommates who are the Destiny to my Child (G is Beyonce).  Then there is Miss Arkansas who I swear is my soulmate.  And of course, there is my little hippie dream aka training roomie!  Then there are the original bitches who are mentioned in the orginal band of bitches post.  Everyone needs a band, and coming from the girl who is really good at being alone, if I think you need one, you do.

Bag: Target customized by Me / Sandals: Target

 xxx
B

All Things Blyss

Lara Stone by Gilles Marie Zimmermann for The Sunday Times Style, August 3, 2014

Blyss: meaning joy, cheer, intense happiness.

Amara: beloved, eternal beauty, imperishable.

I guess you can say my parents had high hopes for me from the beginning because they gave me a loaded name, and you know people expect you to live up to your names.  I think thus far I have, I mean I have a boss whose response to a person asking about any flaws I might have she said I am too happy.  Beloved yes, Eternal beauty well not to be vain but I don’t think I look like a troll or anything so there’s that, and imperishable well let’s say I’m pretty sure given a cape and some latex leggings I could save the world.  I figured the best way to kick off this event of 12 days of Blyss I should begin with a bit of a biography. 

Basically I can be summed up into my Tumblr Bio which is: Recent college graduate setting out to be the real Elle Woods.  A world filled with my adventures and mistakes all courtesy to my pre-quarter life crisis.   Heading to Law School, maybe even The Peace Corps, a few broken hearts and some serious big city explorations.  Just your girl next door with higher heels, better hair.  Nothing is ever as it seems and no dreams are ever too big.  My life can be summed up into Taylor Swift’s 1989 the deluxe edition, 80’s movies minus the grand gestures, Hemingway and Fitzgerald novels without the romances, and a hint of Fight Club.  Welcome to the Big Top.

Eloise at the Plaza

Now that we got that out of the way you should also know I have an intense desire to change the world and I am crazy enough to think I can!  I am fairly certain one day I will make a groundbreaking discovery and be able to create lasting world peace.  I mean honestly I think if I was put in a room with all the leaders of the world we could come to an agreement on how to get things done within a year or less.

Also, I am a giant paradox, a series of contradictions.  I am the girl who constantly loves more but swears she is a stone cold bitch.  I love to be alone but am worried everyone is hanging out without me.  I am well aware that I am totally strange, people have been telling me my whole life but I learned it is my best quality.  I am very calculated and at the same time the girl who goes with her gut not her head. 

I am a writer, obviously.  I think it is the one thing I can clearly label myself because it is something I have always done.  Make me mad, I write.  Fall in love, I write.  Broken heart, oh yea definitely writing.  Just figuring out life means pages of writing.  I write about everything.  My notebooks are the musings of my mind every second of everyday. 

I am one of a kind.  You’ll never meet anyone like me. 

I like to think that all these things that make me who I am will one day be sprawled out in a book and people all over will read it and be utterly and completely inspired.  I hope you are.

Welcome to 12 days of Blyss!

Cheers
XXX
B

Carrie Bradshaw Moment

I like to play dress up and from day to day act as if I am Carrie Bradshaw living the fabulous life drinking champagne and wearing Manolos.  However most days you will find me in ripped jeans and a giant sweater that is more like a blanket with sleeves but anyways I like to play dress up.  Well last night was date night and because I lost a bet and finally got a reservation we were going to be dining at best steak house in Chicago on me.  This meant I had every intention of dressing up and making a thing of it, which is exactly what I did.  Not to mention this restaurant makes the best champagne cocktail, it is straight out of The Great Gatsby so believe me this was going to be an affair to remember.  No one who knows me will find this surprising and those of you who have no idea who the hell I am well you should have a decent idea by now.

I decided an appropriate outfit would be a nearly floor length tutu, cashmere sweater and silver italian leather pumps.  I love wearing a statement skirt, specifically tutus so when I happened upon this gem in Anthropologie I knew it was love at first sight and one day I would find myself wandering down streets walking home with a gentleman and know that I was having a real Carrie Bradshaw moment.  And low and behold that night was last night.  I found myself at 11pm wrapped up in a fairytale and realizing that I am becoming exactly who I want to be.

xxx
B

ps.  I highly recommend Champagne Cocktails!

 Outfit Details: Skirt from Anthropologie, Heels from Jcrew, Sweather Jcrew, Necklace Vintage Pearls.

Let's Have a Drink

I love a glass of champagne, I could drink champagne daily if I society didn't call people that drink daily and sometimes alone alcoholics and if alcohol wasn't so expensive in Chicago.  For me champagne fixes everything, it makes an ordinary day feel like a celebration and a crappy day seem like a minor hiccup in the grand scheme of things.  Champagne makes one feel rich and glamorous even when its being drank in sweats watching Sex and the City.   It is safe to say champagne is one of the best inventions besides high heels.   I am truly the kind of girl who would be happy with flowers in her hair and champagne in her hand rather than diamonds around her neck and wrists.  Because of this I have mastered the art of Champagne Cocktails so here is one of my favorites:

Cheers!

Photo Credit

Some Say it Takes a Village...

I prefer to call it a Band of Bitches...

In this world you need to have people to stand by you and believe me if I didn't know that before I moved I know it now.  Girlfriends/Bitches are your soul mates, they are who stand by you and pour you that last shot you shouldn't have and in the morning they do not judge they go to lunch with you and plan the next adventure.  The world is lonely and I live alone now so I have learned that while I love living alone I really miss my old roommate coming home and watching Dance Moms with me or making me a grilled cheese after a long day.  When I am sitting on the bus and there are two girls chatting and drinking Starbucks I get a little misty and remember all the coffees and conversations I have had with my bitches back home.  You don't realize that in friendships it is really the little things that will make you cry after you leave them behind and embark on a new adventure.  Also making friends is going to be the death of me, one because I suck at it and two because I am not kidding when I say I HATE EVERYONE...ok maybe I am kidding a little bit but seriously I do not know how to make friends.

How does a slightly single girl in the city find bitches...

I have a couple friends who I knew before I moved here and luckily one had a great girlfriend whom I like so we can add one to Team Bitches and I know a couple others whom I just need to get in touch with but I am learning that adult relationships require time and work and I can barely handle myself attempting to date a boy much less add girls into the mix.  So, back to why having bitches is so important...well first off being able to be like "hey wanna go kill a couple hours at Starbucks" and have someone agree would change my life! If I asked the boy I'm dating if he was cool with chillin' and eating at Starbucks he would act like I was crazy.  As I am writing this I am in Starbucks and was really contemplating asking him to meet me here for dinner.  Which leads me to the other thing, who am I supposed to call to drink wine and eat takeout and bitch about the boy I am dating....my communication with my band of bitches back home is solely through text except when I cried on my birthday to Alex because well I was having a meltdown over feeling alone in the big city, which lets be honest I am not completely alone but my first birthday where everyone wasn't making plans to hang out with me was weird.   But when you move things change and people kinda forget about you and forget that you are in a huge city practically alone so they also forget you might need them to call and check in.  I forget this quite often seeing as I have not called anyone back home who is not immediate family since I moved.  I guess ultimately I need to find some bitches because I really miss the bitches back home and while they can most definitely not ever be replaced but I could use some girl on girl!

xxx
B