Tied With a Bow

My family isn't really too keen on Black Friday shopping, but this year we happened to be shopping ON Black Friday because it was the only day that my mom, my sister and I all had together before she left and I left to go back to school!

We didn't go to Target or WalMart or anything crazy, but instead just walked around downtown Annapolis. Of course, we had to go into the Pink Crab, and I actually found a top (shhh, I don't know about it!) that had sold out in South Carolina so that ended up making it's way home for Christmas. (AGAIN, SHHH! IT'S A SURPRISE!)

I think that big bow ring that, a gift with purchase from the Pink Crab (and I'm assuming all the Lilly stores), was my favorite part of Black Friday! There's a matching earring set too:

These come in all gold (AMAZING) and navy too!

One of my favorite parts of Christmas time, and especially working during Christmas time, is wrapping gifts! These bow accoutrements are right up my alley--too cute!

xxKatie

Giveaway: Capitol Letters Makeup Bag

What's perfect for the girl who has everything? Something to put it all in!

A great choice for a girly gift is a makeup bag!

Capitol Letters on Etsy is giving away a makeup bag to a lucky winner!

Not only is this a great gift, but a good makeup bag is a holiday essential for anyone traveling. Do you spend Thanksgiving with your maternal grandparents and Christmas with your dad's parents? Do you go from coast to coast? Do you fly or drive? 

SO MUCH TRAVELING around this time of the year! That's certainly one major thing I've learned since traveling a lot to and fro college and home!

I love the fun, whimsical details on the bags too!

In order to qualify for this week's Giveaway Monday giveaway just use this Rafflecopter widget:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Giveaway Monday!

Safe travels to anyone heading home or to their Thanksgiving destination if you're leaving today!

xxKatie

South Carolina Lovin' with Maya Brenner Designs

My doorbell rang yesterday which is very atypical for our house. That never really happens. We always know when to expect visitors and our neighborhood doesn't have a lot of kids, so hearing the doorbell is definitely weird.

A small box arrived addressed to me and absent-mindedly I couldn't think of what I could have POSSIBLY ordered other than more school books!

Inside this box was a teensy black box that I opened up and suddenly remembered what had been shipped to sunny South Carolina!

Maya Brenner Designs so graciously sent me this South Carolina necklace that I cannot wait to wear with one of my outfits! I LOVE that it represents my school, my current state, and where I hope to end up after graduation! All 50 states are represented AND DC too!

You can add a diamond into your necklace anywhere along the border--if you live along your state's border you can add it right where you live!

Silver options are available too! I prefer the gold to match my daily two rings, but the silver is beautiful and goes great with just as many outfits!

MBD even has different countries!

Do you like to personalize with a letter or initial instead? Well you've got plenty of options now!

You better believe that my new necklace is going to be added to the daily rotation and plenty of Outfit of the Day's (OOTD's)!! I can't wait to style it with my Lilly dresses and professional outfits. Imagine the Gameday possibilities!!!

Go check out your state! What's your favorite option? Are you a gold or silver wearer? Which do you prefer?

xxKatie

Lilly Lovin' with Natalie Franke Photography!

It all started with a text from Natalie saying, "Guess who I just got off the phone with?!"

A massive smile ran across my face as I eagerly responded, "WHO?! I like where this is going..."

And that's when she told me she was taking the photographs for the BIG Lilly store opening in Towson, MD! I was so excited for Natalie and was thrilled that she shared it with me! Luckily the ladies from Lilly said that she could share the images with me and naturally I was PUMPED to share them with y'all!!

Look at that impact table up front!

Doesn't the front of the store look AMAZING?

I love the nautical touches in the powder room, they even painted the ceiling! 

This is one of my favorite shots Natalie took! Look at the oars in all the Lilly colors--Shorely Blue, Lilly's Pink, they're all there!

A crabfeast is a Maryland staple. You allllllways eat crabs on newspaper and it would have taken a real Marylander to know that!

Check out those crab mallets on the ceiling! All the crabs and lemons are too much fun too!

I am LOVING this painted quote with the crabs and pink and green--that is LBP to a tee!

A HUGE thank you to Natalie of Natalie Franke Photography for sharing your special images with me!

I am excited to hear how much all my Maryland Lilly Lovers enjoy the new store!

Happy shopping!

xxKatie

Get Nauti with The Cruisey!

Everyone knows I have a thing for koozies! That's no secret. But now a hands-friendly koozie? Um, yes, sign this girl up! See that pink one? YEP, that's MINE! These wonderful creations are brought to us by The Cruisey!

It all started out in Annapolis, so clearly I was going to like it already!

These koozies come equipped with an AWESOME lanyard, and mine is hot pink, see below:

When the creators sent me an email, this pick was their favorite too!

The Cruisey koozies are all over Annapolis!

Ella, a staple of Main Street in Annapolis, even gives her endorsement of The Cruisey! Clearly she's telling us, "Yachta, yachta, yachta!"

What's more Annapolis than a Nauti Crusiey COVERED IN OLD BAY?! Pretty much nothing. #TotalMarylandMove #MarylandProbs #AnnapolitanProblems

Anyway, you can find The Cruisey ALL over:

Facebook

Twitter

Website to place your own orders!

I'm about to place an order for at least one in every color!!

xxKatie (and The Cruisey team!!)

SWISH!

Back at my alma mater, there's a big school-wide basketball tournament that's a huge event called "Hoop Madness"! It started my senior year and has been going very strong ever since. This year, a team of "Prepsters" took the courts in light pink, popped collars, pearl necklaces, side ponys and argyle knee socks! 

On the back of every shirt, the team put their entire names, for instance if I were part of the team, I would have been "Catherine Anne Rudder"! All the team members got into it! 

I LOVED this team idea the minute my Mom told me about it and I couldn't wait to see the photos! I even got to see a few more from facebook. A million years ago when I played in the same tournament, my team name was "The Scrubs" and we got numbers screen-printed on the back of our shirts--I wasn't kidding, people take it seriously!

From one prep to another, I'm so proud of this team! 

xxKatie

Oh the Places You'll Go

I'm not talking about the famous Dr. Seuss book, but rather one of my new favorite Lilly prints!!

Where's your patch?

The Maryland patch features black-eyed Susans, our state flower, and crabs! I'd like to think too, that the blue and yellow is a little homage to Navy too!

The South Carolina patch has the yellow Jessamine, our state flower, a pig for barbeque, a Clemson Tiger paw (eww--but pretty cool for Tigers at the same time!), and the Great Carolina Wren, which I'm going to think of as a Gamecock! ;)

Where's your state on here? Do you love the special symbols and meanings?

xxKatie

Colder Weather

Every week as I either get ready for class or work at the store, I always tune in to watch the Today Show! I like Matt, Money 9-1-1, the Friday concerts and even Hoda and Kathie Lee. Sometimes they can be kinda annoying, but sometimes they're fun!

One time I did like them was the day Hoda introduced us to "Colder Weather" by the Zac Brown Band!

It describes my trek back up North to a tee! I could feel it during my drive get colder and colder and colder until today when I was a PREPSICLE! (I can't take credit for that one though, I wish! A girl I went to high school actually called me that!)

At one of my stops near the exit to Boone, NC, I even saw my breath!!!! I got out of the car in yoga pants, sneaks, and a long sleeve t-shirt to get gas and nearly FROZE! Quite the homecoming for this girl who wore shorts to her Friday final. Craziness!

What's the weather like for you at school vs. at home? Just like me? Totally the opposite?

xxKatie

Weekly Gratitude

I figured it would be IDEAL to post my Weekly Gratitude post in it's scheduled time since it's the 4th of July. We're goin' RED, WHITE, AND BLUE style (with a little bit of humor thrown in...) for the usual WG:

1. I am thankful that we get to celebrate our 235th 4th of July today! Let's party like it's 1776!
2. I am thankful for all our soldiers, reservists, fighters, firefighters, police officers, and other civic workers who keep our country safe. You do a lot for us (and myself included) don't thank everyone in that category enough!

3. I am thankful for Betsy Ross and her AWESOME design skills and sewing abilities. Homegirl got it done for us. Looks like some of our founding fathers were impressed too.
4. I am thankful for Thomas Jefferson who wrote the Declaration of Independence. I am thankful for John Hancock for having the biggest signature (and giving us the idiom of the "John Hancock"). I am thankful for (while we're in the Declaration frame of mind) Charles Carroll for reppin' Maryland and Catholics, and being the longest-living signer of them all!
5. I am thankful for Toby Keith (cue historical change) for giving us "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue"..."Hey Uncle Sam put yo' name at the top of his list...!"

6. I am thankful for Robert Mills. He was the designer of the Washington Monument in DC AS WELL AS the Maxcy Monument built on the Horseshoe of USC to honor our first university president, Jonathan Maxcy!
7. I am thankful for the Han Dynasty (206-220 BC) for inventing fireworks by burning bamboo!
8. I am thankful for Old Navy for annually releasing their American t-shirt and American flag bathing suit every year. In store only, that is.

9. I am thankful for Steven's Hardware in Annapolis for selling "Made in the U.S.A. American flags" and only ones made here.
10. I am thankful that I am an American and am able to safely, excitedly, and patriotically celebrate the 4th of July!

xxKatie

Meet the Team!

Head on over to your favorite bridal vendor guide and mine, Bayside Bride today to meet the team! We're officially official and I couldn't be prouder! We had a photo shoot last week (I've been DYING to show y'all the pictures) with most of the interns and all the pictures were taken by Natalie of Natalie Franke Photography and Krista of Krista A. Jones Photography! We had a blast all afternoon and I couldn't be more excited to be working with everyone!

Here we are! From left, Blakely, Mia, and me!

This one is one of my favorites of the whole shoot! It was fun to see all of our different takes on "Bayside Bride" and the color scheme in our outfits. They were varied but still had a fun cohesiveness that looked good together!

Here we are rocking out Bayside Bride "uniforms"!! Let your love set sail...

Some of you might have seen this one on facebook in B&W!

This is another one of my favorites! 

We had such a great spot--so many different locations to choose from and still in the same neighborhood park! Lucky us!!

I am SO proud to call myself and intern for Bayside Bride! I cannot wait to see what it turns into and work with everyone else! June certainly seems to be heading in the right direction!

xxKatie

Weekly Gratitude

This week has BLOWN by! I have a lot of thanking to do!

1. Thanks to Maryland for being my home. You've welcomed me with open arms despite all my trash talking and MD-hatin' I did last summer. For that I am sorry and thanks for taking me back. I look forward to repairing our relashe as soon as possible.

2. Thanks to the man in Barnes and Noble for judging me in the business section. While yes I may not look like your traditional business student, nor am I typically in the Economics section of any bookstore, but putting you in your place when I told you I was looking for "Nudge" made me extremely happy. As a worker in a bookstore, "You should never judge a book by its cover." #owned #sins

3. Thanks to Lilly Pulitzer for making clothes that do not fit me. If it weren't for your too tight pants, my bank account would be drained. For the first time, I love that you fit models are not my dimensions. This is the best problem to have as a broke college student.

4. Thank you to some rando country song I heard on the radio (now I know it's called 1,000 Faces by Randy Montana) for mentioning us wedding obsessed girls, "There’s debutantes, drama queens, glued-to bride magazines..."

5. Actually thank you to country music in general. It's like you're reading my mind. Props.

6. Thanks to my planner for being 18 months. We have been on a roller coaster together for this whole year. Let's make the last 7 months the best ever! BRING IT 2011.

7. Thanks to everyone in SC who has put up with me at home. My name is Katie and I miss y'all like CRAZY. Hit a sista up!

8. For anyone that knows me personally, they know I sleep with a frog. I've had him since 3rd grade. He is the best travel companion a girl could ask for. He's lumpy, and used to be covered in fleece, and smells like us. Thanks frog. (He, it's a boy, but he doesn't have a name. Nothing has stuck all these years.)

9. Thanks to my BlackBerry for finally updating. There must be something (besides rain) in the air here. And I love it! It's seriously like having a new phone! Anyone with a Curve 9330 has most likely had this for 4 months and it's old new but I am one happy girl!

10. Thanks to my iPod (hmm electronics trend much?) for almost being full. You come so close to capacity and yet I can still squeeze that perfect country song (or 5 or 6) on to you!

xxKatie

Cooler Painting

Back home at last! We returned home from the beach around noon yesterday after a very successful weekend! A big custom with these fraternity weekends is to paint coolers themed around the weekend or event (formals, initiation, for your littles if you're in a sorority) so that you can bring your drinks, snacks and food easily with you! They are EXTREMELY difficult to paint. Whoever made this custom of painting acrylic paint on plastic was insane. Thanks to modern technology and the aid of several girlfriends who have done this in the past, my process was relatively easy. It started out looking like this:

Standard Igloo $18.88 cooler from WalMart

Then progressed:

And again:

And again:

And again: (it's like a butterfly)

This was the finalized top!! I was SO PROUD! Shane and I often call ourselves "Team Maryland" so when I started painting my cooler I knew I was gonna take the Maryland to an extreme! What's more Maryland-y than Old Bay Seasoning??

This was my madras front. I was most proud of this side. I'd never seen anything like this cooler so I was really excited to be very different from the norms!

This was one of my small sides! For this side, paint pens were key!

This was the back, it was a MapQuest inspired map to where we were heading! 

So now that I have one cooler under my belt, I'm tempted to make a list of things I wish I knew. Anyone have any tips to add? What you painted coolers for?

xxKatie

State Bowties

Any local in Columbia has seen a Palmetto bowtie. It's navy (or garnet and black) with the palmetto/crescent all over it:

Ben Silver of Charleston

Just on Sunday though, I saw another flag bowtie for the OTHER state that has a special place in my heart. Good ole' Mary-land. Our flag is far more geometric than SC's, and if you aren't familiar with it, it looks like this:

I was lucky enough to stumble upon a friend's photo and her dad was wearing a Maryland flag bowtie. Naturally I popped onto google to do some investigating and found that a local herbadashery in Annapolis sells them!

Johnson's is a famous menswear store in Annapolis and has the best sign out front chronicling the change of military uniforms over the years. It is so cute and has little painted wooden figures in the different styles. They've been in Annapolis since 1926 and began as the Naval Academy's uniform suppliers. They still provide uniforms however specialize in civilian attire now. 

I love the idea of state bowties and all the pride that goes along with them!! So cute!

xxKatie 

Southern Wedding Week: The Photographs (+a Giveaway!)

Photographs are an important reminder of any special day! The fun of reliving any event the next day, week, month or even year makes the event itself that much better! You know you're lucky when you find a good photographer who really can capture the special moments! A few years ago my aunt had a beach wedding and didn't like ANY of the "photographer" photos, but liked my mom's much better instead. She wasn't as lucky as some local brides are with a close friend of mine!

Natalie Franke of Natalie Franke Photography (she's done photos for me personally!) is teaming up to host a FABulous giveaway! Natalie Franke is a wedding photojournalist and lifestyle photographer from the Maryland area. She is totally passport ready and loves to travel! Whether you're getting married at the Naval Academy in her hometown of Annapolis or on an island off the coast of Georgia, Natalie would love to capture the moments from your special day. She is so sweet! Natalie so graciously offered a free Engagement Session to the winner of today's giveaway!! HOW awesome is she? There are a few rules though, Engagement session includes up to two hours of photography & an online viewing + ordering gallery. Session must take place within a 50 mile radius of Annapolis, MD and must be scheduled before January 1st 2012. Farther travel negotiable with Natalie! This engagement session can be added to a wedding package and is transferable to friends, again all negotiable! 

In order to enter this giveaway, leave a comment here and follow @nataliefranke on Twitter! You can see all her other photos there and get little adorable blog updates too!! Confession: Natalie was one of my very first followers!!

Natalie also wants to extend a discount for LBP readers as part of this giveaway! For all the lovely readers who aren't lucky enough to win the shoot, Natalie wants to offer 10% off  2011 & 2012 wedding packages! As long as you enter the giveaway by Friday, this discount will be given to you (so basically your overall entry counts toward the discount automatically too!) The same rules apply to this giveaway too! I'll announce a winner Friday January 7, 2011 at 9:00am so enter by Thursday at Midnight! Good luck!!

xxKatie (and Natalie!!)

Top 10: Did You Make the Cut?

from LP online (since people are asking)

According to my Google Analytics, these are my top 10 reader states (in order):
1. Virginia
2. Maryland
3. New York
4. North Carolina
5. Florida
6. California
7. Ohio
8. South Carolina
9. Michigan
10. Massachusetts

Here are my top 10 cities:
1. Annapolis, MD
2. New York, NY
3. Alameda, CA
4. Washington D.C.
5. Athens, OH
6. Grosse Pointe, MI
7. Baton Rouge, LA
8. Ashland, VA
9. Raleigh, NC
10. Columbia, SC

Did your city or state make the cut?! Please let me know, I'd love to know where my readers are from!!

xxKatie

The Maryland in Me

I was just reading Kate's post today, and it was all about nautical Coach accessories. Well the Maryland girl in me just gravitated toward this naturally:

They are adorable! How cute is a patent leather red heart-shaped crab?! My own keychain doesn't need any more additions though, as it is large enough already with some fabulous accessories. I'll make another post about that another day.

But our own house is very (VERY) nautical. Living so close to Navy, it is a very big part of our life, not to mention Annapolis is the sailing capital of the world! Our main house colors are yellow, red, sand, and lots of blues thrown in there. Our coffee table is even a rowboat:

It doesn't look this cheesy with all the goofy shells around it. Instead, ours has some meaningful stuff on the inside like a fish that my grandfather hand carved as well as some other shells from special vacations too.

I will be heading back to MD in a few days...I can't believe it! Summer starts after I finish up my exams and then I'm sure it will travel by too! Plain craziness!

xxKatie