Celebrations! Celebrations!

Tonight we're celebrating my Mom's 50th birthday with a party at the Naval Academy! We are so excited! All us girls will be in Navy/Blue Lilly dresses and my dad will probably be in "boy uniform"of a polo and khakis. We are so excited and have been looking forward to this night for awhile! My sister designed the invites which are too cute! This is the outside of the FABULOUS facility:

Just so you can picture where we'll be celebrating!

This is the outside from the ribbon-cutting ceremony! We won't have those ugly chairs outside since it's tonight!

We will be listening to this:

Momma's wearing this:

And she'll obviously be the belle of the ball!

I am SO excited for tonight!! We ordered a fabulous cake that I cannot wait to see and I would describe it more BUT Momma's an avid reader so I don't want to spoil the surprise :) Check my Twitter for some pictures as soon as I see it after work!!

Woo hoo party time!!!

xxKatie

Summer Braids (Formerly Titled: "Long Hair Don't Care")

Let's get one thing straight: I have never ever ever liked having my hair in my face. It drives me nuts. When I take tests, I automatically put it back in a ponytail despite any straightening or styling I've done. I get so distracted by having my hair in my face that it is almost always tucked up or pinned or half pulled back in some way (excuse all the awkward self shots...I raided my profile pictures album):

Tucked back take 1...from Bayside Bride (if I wear my hair down, it typically means just like this)

Half up...from Christmas

Pulled back...at a party

Restrained with a headband...at a football game (I KNOW for a fact this day I put it in a pony because it was SO STINKIN' HOT, but we beat Alabama so naturally my hair-do/overall looks were NOT my priority that day)

Case in point, this summer I've been rocking the braid. Whether it's french braided or a regular fat braid in the back, it has been the perfect way to wear my hair without looking like I just got back from the gym.

I want to master this side/french braid because it's so put together! If only LC wasn't in every "good hair" picture everywhere. Whenever I look for good haircuts she ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS pops up!

I may or may not have googled how to french braid your own hair or something along those lines so I'm not a seven-year-old asking my Momma to help me with my hair...

Anyone else out there rock the Summer braid? Any tips for french braiding your own hair? This girl could use some tips!!

xxKatie

Nothing Says Party Like...

GARLAND!

Shimmery, sparkly, and dangling from the ceiling, nothing quite sets the mood like decorations, but specifically garland! I stumbled across this website after seeing it in the issue of Martha Stewart Weddings that I got for spring break. Look at the Garland made by ConfettiSystem:

This whimsical one is my favorite!

This palette is so reminiscent of J. Crew in my opinion. This could easily be decor in any Madewell store with its clean lines and simplicity.

This neutral one could be used over and over again for a multitude of occasions. Think of the possibilities!!

They even make swanky pinatas AND you can call them to make custom combinations...a light pink and green one might just be calling my name eventually...

How festive and fun are these seriously?!

xxKatie

Tacky Christmas...Yikes!

So for a winter banquet for one my my organizations, we had a tacky christmas theme. It. Was. Gross. We all had VERY tacky clothes. Most girls borrowed sweaters from their moms and boys tended to match clothes together that did not match. We weren't the best looking group, but we had an awesome vibe going for the whole night!

I wore a denim shirt with all kinds of yucky embroidery that was a size 4x from WalMart and I tried to make it a little bit cute with a belt, but it's tough to make it look cute. My rookies still managed to look adorbs (love y'all) even in their tacky clothes!

Here are all the wonderful (tacky) rookies who were graduating--we are SO proud of all of you!

I had never been to a tacky sweater party or event, but this was too much fun! I made 2 boxes of cupcakes and decorated them with fabulous Wilton cupcake topper/wrapper sets from WalMart too! Everyone seemed like they enjoyed them (which always makes me SUPER happy) and they looked cute too! Some of my sets looked similar to these but had little trees and snowflakes instead, but keep an eye out for the sets, they are so much fun and look great on cupcakes:

I had a great time kicking off the holiday season this early on! It makes me look forward to finishing up exams and heading home!

xxKatie

Pink and Green Party Supplies!

How sweet is this set? My birthday isn't for nearly 6 months, but I LOVE this spread! How fun would this be for the big 2-0?

This chip bowl comes in both pink and green, how festive!? I think I might have to get one of these just for fun...and it's only $5.99! I can't get over what a good deal that is!

I love this pink and orange set, but I'm definitely and P&G girl at heart! 

I would love to pop these guys into cupcakes!! Imagine a Funfetti cupcake, white icing and one of these big sparklers on top!!

These great Target cup sets would be so much fun to have at a party! Everyone would have cute drinks!

But what's a fun drink without a drink umbrella:

Pink sugar-rimmed glasses would make any drink yummy! This is one that would take some extra prep, but would be so cute as part of a big party display! I remember during rush last year, one of the sororities made a pink lemonade drink that was pretty sour (on purpose) and had delish green coarse sugar that rimmed their martini glasses. I would so LOVE to copy that sometime!

Party Hats!!!!...or an alternative:

Crowns! At Lifeguard Press, we actually ran out of birthday crows at one point during the year! (hopefully it won't happen again when my birthday comes around!) I make crowns for my friends when it's their birthdays. They're pink with glitter from Michael's and I use white puffy paint to put their names on them! They really tend to be a hit!

All this party planning makes me want to have one! I'd love to see some pictures from P&G parties that you've hosted or been to! Shoot me an email if you've got any at letsbepreppy@gmail.com!!

xxKatie

Senior Sendoff Banquet

Last night was the Senior Sendoff for my favorite student organizations. It is a night to honor the seniors and was so sweet. For all the graduating seniors, one underclassmen will give a speech about the person and all the wonderful things that they have done for both the university and the organization. I cried during four of the speeches and they were unbelievable. All of the toasts were so personalized and the seniors all appreciated all of the kind words. A few of my friends are graduating so it was a bittersweet night.

I cannot wait until I can toast someone! A lot of my best friends are sophomores, so I'm sure I'll have a good amount of toasting to (want to) do. And even more unbelievable is when I'll be toasted. Today is one of my very last days as a freshman. This year went by in the blink of an eye, and I'm sure the next three will go even faster! So much has happened this year and I don't want to go home yet, I could be happy with another two weeks or more here! I'll be moving back down in August into my apartment so I'll have about three months back home.

Here are a few photos from the banquet:

This is two of my favorite people at school: Aly and Megan. I'm living with Megan next year and I'm sure Aly will be at our house often (or you better be, Aly). I decided to wear the J. Crew dress after all and it was very appropriate for the location and compared to what everyone else was wearing!

Here are all the boys of the organization! This photo took about six tries to get and all my versions are totally different!

This is me and Amanda, another one of the Lilly lovers here at school. We call ourselves "Team Preppy"   sometimes thanks to one of our friends! How adorable does she look in her Franco Dress?

Among the seniors, Patrick and I were the only two non-seniors who were recognized at the banquet. Patrick was awarded Ambassador of the Year and I don't think I could think of anyone better fit for the position! I got an award for Best New Ambassador of the Year, since I was just a rookie this year. I learned a lot and I had no idea I was getting the award. Amanda even came up to me and was like, "It was SO hard to keep it a secret from you!" because she's part of our Exec board who voted on both awards. It meant a lot to be given this award and I was very excited for the rest of the night!

This banquet was so nice and I can't believe I get to go to three more over the years. I'm sure that the speeches will continue to get better and better through all of them. A lot of tears will be shed, and many memories shared!

xxKatie

Happy 91st Birthday to Me!

Today I had a birthday party for my 19th birthday! My official DOB is on Friday but I can't wait! Tonight just seemed to work better for people than on my real birthday, and I enjoy celebrating the real day with my little family, it's cozier and fun! We had such a fun day celebrating and chose a great local restaurant that seems to be extremely popular for birthdays. I owe a huge thank you to my parents since this dinner was a birthday present from them. I had such a great time and couldn't be more thankful for a great way to wrap up my Christmas break!!

I really ended up making my outfit decision at the last minute--and by last minute I mean I bought the shoes this morning, yikes! I got the dress yesterday also from Black Market White House (or whichever comes first in that title) for 50% off! Yes!! And the shoes I got are very NOT me, but they were super fun for a party and surprisingly comfy. Here's what I wore:

January 6 by letsbepreppy on Polyvore.com

We all had a fabulous night catching up and eating wonderful Thai food. It was a great dinner before we all go back to school. I head back on Sunday from the North Pole, although I hear its just as cold in SC...oh no! I swear it was 75 degrees the day that I left and I got funny looks going through the airport in my wintery clothes. I'm thinking about hosting some kind of giveaway (maybe a set of my painted letters since they got such great reviews from everyone...?) for some event soon, I've never hosted a giveaway and I think it's just about time for me to do so! Just a thought for now...maybe a Valentine's giveaway? Or just a wintery-slump giveaway? Who knows, more details to come obviously.

Back to my birthday though. You're all probably wondering why my title is happy 91st, right? Well friends, it is not a typo. When the waiter brought out my cake (a fabbbbb 7 layer caramel cake, which coincidentally is very southern) they waitstaff put the number on wrong. The numbers were not only in reverse, but the 1 was also facing the wrong direction! My friend Caroline was snapping photos of that moment because I was almost crying I was laughing so hard, I'll have to post a few once she sends them to me, or post a link to her blog if she posts them. She got a fancy new camera for Christmas and had a great time being our photog!

I'll be sure to post soon with birthday greetings!!

xxKatie

Invictus

So I have been snowed inside my house for almost two days!! It is so unexpected because snow like this never ever ever happens in Maryland!! My family decided that we needed to get out of the house today, so we did some family Christmas shopping--I got the best present for my little sister, she's gonna love it (hopefully), but I can't say what it is until Christmas--and then we all went to go see Invictus tonight. It was so good, I'd give it a great review! If you haven't seen it yet, definitely put it on your to-do list (as you should The Blind Side, especially my Southern College bloggers-you'll love Leann Tuohy (she happens to be a KD also!). Anyway, Invictus was so so so good. I didn't know much about the setting of the movie, what it was about, etc, but I would recommend it to everyone!

Both Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon (whom my mom and I love) were great actors in this flick!

Check out this photo of my street from my window:

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is covered in about 2 feet of white powdery snow. It will probably freeze over tonight, and make everything unsafe, but it sure does look pretty!

Tomorrow I have this HUGE GIGANTIC alumni dinner that I'm hosting for the class of 2009 from my high school. I absolutely cannot wait since I've been planning for like a month. It is going to be so much fun to see everyone (or the people who can make it) and hear all about the different college stories. My fabulous mom designed the coolest cake for everyone to see also. I'll take photos for you all to see. I'm going to wear my pink tweed forever21 skirt that I just got the other day with black tights, a black turtleneck, and some type of black shoes. The shoes have changed because now they have to be ice/snow/precip safe for sure!!

I'll be sure to tell you all about the party tomorrow! I'm SO excited!!

xxKatie

Busy Bee

Hi all! Today I went power shopping. I had 2 goals in mind and I went shopping knowing what they were. I said in my last post that I like to browse online before I go into the store. I was headed to forever21 in my mall and so I checked the website to see what they might have in store for me. I came across two things on the website that I wanted to look for in the store. Fortunately or unfortunately, I found one of them! Check out this skirt that I snagged:

How cute?! I need an outfit for an alumni function for my high school class that I'm organizing for next Monday the 21st. Imagine this with black tights, a black turtle neck and black boots! I'm so excited that it only set me back $20.99-tax included, it's very me too! I managed to snatch up the very last one in the store, or at least the last one I could find, you know how forever21 stores can be! Here's a photo of the "real life" version that I actually own:

                         

It really is pink, but there isn't really good lighting in my room!!

I also needed a Christmas cocktail dress for a work party that a close co-worker of mine is hosting! She sent out fabulous evites a few days ago, specifying cocktail attire and I don't have any decent dresses for the winter. I grabbed this dress from H&M for ~$35!

How fun is that bow at the top? Click on the photo if you need so you can see the details. It looks nicer as a larger picture! I'm super excited to pair this with black tights and some kind of festive black shoes. My sister is going to wear a similar champagne colored dress with a scoop neckline from Madewell (J. Crew's "cousin" store) with black tights as well!

I am so excited about my week coming up! It should be a lot of fun. And hopefully my hair will be all set to go right around Wednesday because that's my appointment day with my REAL hair woman. I'm crossing my fingers that she can salvage the current color (yucky orange-auburn, not me at ALL) and get it to something respectable-oh college adventures!

I'll keep ya posted for sure!

xxKatie