ModCloth Pinning Party!

"It's made out of kittens, clouds & literally awesomeness." Rachel S, ModCloth

School’s back in session and football season is here! You know what that means – Homecoming’s next!
To celebrate this time-honored scholastic holiday, ModCloth is hosting a Party Dress Pinning Party on Pinterest! 

Enter by 9/12 to win one of two $250 ModCloth gift certificates. 

How do you enter??? Find out all the details on the ModCloth blog: blog.modcloth.com/2013/09/05/party-dress-pinning-party/

Most importantly, spend some quality time perusing the ModCloth homecoming dress section to find the dress of your dreams! 

Check them all out here: ModCloth Homecoming Dresses 

Other than Homecoming, Modcloth has dresses for literally EVERY occasion. Most of you are familiar with ModCloth, but if not, you are definitely missing out!

I spend a little time of the site myself, and wanted to show you a few of my current favorites!!

Enchanting Encore Dress

Fireworkin It Dress

Glimmer and Dancing Dress

Celebrate Your Soul Top, because it just might be the most beautiful blouse I have ever seen.

What dress would YOU buy with your $250 gift card?

START PINNING!

*This is an affiliate sponsored post, although my opinions stated are entirely my own!

take five

Just a little brain break today: five faves!

take one

pup in a cup! source: pinterest

take two

sweet summer sandals, source: mnzstore.com

take three

source: french press mornings

take four

celtic knot hair, source: pinterest

take five

DIY diamonds, source: sugar and cloth

enjoy! leave me a comment with some of your current faves :)

I'm back with a little inspiration!

I had to start this sentence at least four different times because its hard to know where to even begin.

A few hours ago we finished a week long seminar with four of the leading flutists/teacher in the country (and even the world!!). My mind, body, and spirit are absolutely full to the brim and overflowing with new thoughts, ideas, and overwhelming inspiration! At the moment I can only tell you that this week has been an incredible experience, but I need to take some time to step back and process.

For now, I just want you to know that I'm back! Hi!!! I've missed you!

Since my brain is going a little bit nuts trying to engrain what I've learned this week, I'd like to take a little chill break and explore a more materialistic side of inspiration. 

Things that make me happy or motivate me to give my best self to the creation of beauty:

source: Aunt Peaches

source: H. Finn Jewelry

*this necklace has been on my neck DAILY since it arrived as a gift from Drew (after he left for BCT)(dawwww)

source: Sweet Savory Life

source: Pinterest

source: Gardenista

source: Pinterest

Have an inspiring weekend!

Can I just have all the things?!

Sometimes pinterest gets boring and laborious, but sometimes I just love everything.

Do you ever feel that way?

So this lovely Monday (AH), I thought I would share with you several of my current pinterest favorites!

Creamy Salsa Verde

Its been awhile since I've had green salsa, but I swear I used to go to Ninfa's for the green salsa alone!!

Ombre hair

Really wanting to try this. Really really. Anyone tried out Feria from Loreal yet?? Let me know!!

Cacti Garden

Isn't it beautiful?? Perfectly colorful, perfectly vintage.

I love this shot! I wish I could locate the source, but I just love everything about it!

These freaking fabulous shorts that I can't find the source for either. Anyone know where they're from?

Photo wall

Enjoying the clean white room with the full photo wall!

White and shiny. Yep.

Still not over the neon accents. So fun!

Also- blazer and plain T? How easy is that...

Now I just want to go shopping again..... :)

Follow me on pinterest and have a happy happy Monday!

Celebrating 100

We (the Baylor Wind Ensemble) are officially on the road headed home after an extremely fruitful 7 day tour.

Today is not the day for all the details about the rest of the tour, but I can say that is was fantastic and a HUGE success for both our ensemble and the university!

Hugs to all my new GFC and Bloglovin friends! I'm very excited you are here. 

Be sure to say hello so I can stop by your blog in return!

Now-I still feel like a total newb to the blogging world, but today I'd like to do a little recap of where I've been so far so we can get to know each other!!

1) Once upon a time, I wanted to be a fashion blogger, but "ain't nobody got time for that!!!"

     I did have SO much fun on my photoshoot with Sarah though, and you can see more of her photos 

 here and here!

2) I shared my guacamole recipe with you. I promise its bomb.

    I also tried my hand at experimental made up recipies and came up with a delicious "tortilla soup!" 

3) I bragged about my super talented awesome boyfriend.

4) I shared my Pinterest decorating idea.

5) I've talked about my dog, Winston. A lot. 

6) I shared with you, my blogging family, my exciting story about how I decided to move to England.

I hope you've enjoyed getting to know me a little better! 

Happy Friday everyone, Welcome, and leave a note with your blog address so I can find you in return!

Pinspiration: Wall Deco

Musicians, especially those of the student variety, spend an ungodly amount of time in soul sucking holes known as practice rooms. 

As woodwind (flute/clarinet/oboe/saxophone/bassoon) graduate assistants, a handful of us get to share an extra large soul sucking hole that we affectionately call our "office". 

*This is the room where I take the majority of my full length mirror/fashionista-wanna-be outfit shots.

What you have NOT seen of the the "office" is the Pinterest inspired DIY wall that Darbi and I spent a long an awesome Sunday night on!

Longing to feel more inspired and happy to spend hours upon hours our practice room soul sucking hole, we decided to do a little refurb. 

We used:

* coffee filters

* cupcake liners

* mini cupcake liners

* push pins

This project is as easy as it looks! For bigger flowers, layer your liners- biggest on the bottom!

I scrunched my liners just a bit so the flowers didn't come out as perfect circles.

We also wanted to incorperate an inspirational quote since we had a large empty wall.

*See my quote "pinspiration" HERE!

For the floating letters effect, we simply used black push pins on black cardstock!

I just love how it turned out!! Can't even imagine a yucky plain wall there anymore...

What pinspiration projects have you been working on lately?

Food Creations

Now that I'm in grad school and have a little more time on my hands (but not really...) I am super enjoying learning to cook and/or experimenting in the kitchen.

As far as cooking is concerned, Pinterest has been my best friend and worst enemy. Whyyyy recipe, do you look so good but in reality you suck?!

You might remember a few weeks back when I wrote about my super exciting crock pot recipies that I found via Pinterest. Not so good. Super bummer- I was really excited about them!

*Sidenote- the Italian chicken was GREAT because I realized that these work much better when baked in the oven instead of in a crock pot with added water. In the crock pot all the flavor seems to cook out! Weird- maybe this would be different if you add broth instead of just water. Food for thought.

Today I thought I would introduce my own recipe. Well.....Can you call it a recipe when you made it up as you went? Anywho- this is what rescued my not-so-great chicken fajita crock pot recipe:

I didn't think of taking those fancy step-by-step photos until I tasted this soup and thought "Oh my goodness this is so easy/I'm a genius/I should blog about this!" So, a final product photo is all you get!

I call it: Tortilla Soup. (Original, right?)

But really, thats all it is! I had the leftover chicken that had some onions/tomatoes/peppers and I needed some way to not waste them.

Steps:
1) Chicken broth- I used the (sodium rich, not so good for you) Knorr bouillon cube boiled in two cups of water.
2) Dump in leftover chicken- So eloquent, I'm aware.
3) Dump in leftover rice- Mine just so happened to be of the "spanish" variety.
4) Added several large spoonfuls of rinsed (canned) blackbeans- My measurements are SO spot on, like I said, made this up as I went!
5) Added several drained spoonfuls of corn.
6) Done!

Product- Deliciousness!

I served it up with a light sprinkle of mozzarella, crunched up tortilla chips, and cubed avocado!

Now- get to screwing up some homemade chicken fajitas so you can make this delicious soup!

-PB

 *Sidenote again: My Pinterest YUM board (other than having way to many pins) contains my comments on the recipies I have actually tried, generally with the date, and what I would do to modify the recipe. 

H54F part 1

Linking up for High Five For Friday!

1.

I love Pinterest, y'all. But how often do we (I) actually accomplish the DYI or meal projects that we pin?

Yesterday, Thanks to a post by Looks Like Homemade, my freezer is now stocked with 7 pre-made yummy meals (for 2 with leftovers)! After two hours of prep time, all of these meals are completely ready to go- crock pot, go to school, done! It makes me giddy just thinking about it. 

I did make some modifications to the recipies presented (and left out the soy chicken since my main man is not a fan of soy sauce, sad day right?!) so if you are interested I can post a follow up on how the recipies turned out!

2.

This happened. Coolest dad ever, right? :)

3.

Learned that I CAN trim my own bangs without just ruining my whole life.

Also, I love my Cover Girl NatureLuxe balm.

4.

Date night at one of our local favorites- Sams on the Square, or affectionately "Tacos and Tequila"

But seriously, white queso and black bean dip with a delicious margarita?! YUM.

Hope you all had a lovely week! Its about to be back to the grind- are you ready?