Bayside Bash

On Wednesday night, my friend Erin and I attended the Bayside Bash, which is an 80s and 90s-themed party held at Turner Hall Ballroom hosted by Dustin Diamond (Screech from Saved by the Bell). Dustin lives in Wisconsin, and I know he had one of these parties last year, but we didn't make it to that one.

Erin and I went as two beloved characters from the 90s:

Cher from Clueless

Clarissa from Clarissa Explains It All

A lot of the crowd went with 80s attire, but I did see some grunge and some that were inspired by Saved by the Bell, including a really accurate Kelly and Zack. There was also one guy in a Top Gun flight suit, which was a fun idea.

About an hour into the party, the DJ announced that Dustin Diamond was in the house. He and his gorgeous wife retreated to a table, and it took us awhile to get the guts to approach him. After we saw a couple other people ask for pictures, we went for it. He was very nice during our 10-second interaction.

Me: You know, I should've carpooled with you guys today. I'm from Port Washington, too.
Dustin: Haha, I love that.
Me: OK, thanks.

Maybe 10 minutes later, Dustin got up to announce that people could come over and say hi, take pictures, and that he would be selling T-shirts later that said "Dustin Diamond Made Me Screech." And he encouraged us all to keep drinking. When he was on his way back, I approached his wife, still at their table.

Me: Would you and Dustin want to do a shot?
Wife: No, thank you, we're not big drinkers.
Me: I thought we were supposed to get drunk!
Wife: You guys should get drunk!
Me: OK, I just wanted to check.
Wife: Thank you though!

She was very nice about it. Erin and I didn't stay much later than that. We left at about 10:30 because we're old, and we didn't see much action happening. But who knows, maybe all the excitement kicked off after we left.

Milwaukee Public Museum Outing

Yesterday, I visited the Milwaukee Public Museum with my husband and daughter (both of their first times!) and my mom. I can't remember the last time I was there - maybe for a field trip in grade school - but I forgot how cool that place is. My favorite part is still the Streets of Old Milwaukee.

Source: Wikipedia

Bridget's favorite part was either the butterfly exhibit or seeing the lions in the Africa area. We actually had a very helpful security guard show us where the lions were because Bridget was on a mission. We went through the whole museum rather quickly since obviously my almost 3-year-old had no interest in reading all the plaques. My mom compared it to how quickly I got through the Louvre...when I was 22. But what can I say? Art museums aren't really my thing even though I appreciated the experience.

Anyway, I wish I had taken more pictures while I was there because some of the environments they have set up would be great inspiration for my novel. In fact, I wish I could just sit in there all day on my laptop and write in different areas of the museum. I wonder if people ever do that. It was pretty dead on Sunday because we went during the Packer game, so it was really nice. The only part I didn't enjoy was the live butterfly exhibit. I was hiding behind my husband the whole time while my daughter was living it up.

Big creepy bug right outside of the live butterfly exhibit

OMG I just saw while poking around their website that they have sleepovers in the museum. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, anyone? I could live out my blog's namesake, which might be awesome. Maybe when Bridget gets older.

After the museum, we grabbed a late lunch/early dinner at AJ Bombers, and I had my usual - the bacon burger with chunky peanut butter on it. Soooo gooood, but I actually prefer it without the bacon.

Speaking of my NaNoWriMo novel, it took me basically all day except for the 3 hours we were in Milwaukee, but I wrote a little over 3,000 words yesterday and got back on track after hardly writing anything on Saturday. And honestly, I could wrap up the story today, so I either need to come up with more twists or figure out how to write a really, really epic battle scene.

For those of you who are here for the clothes, I promise my next post will be an outfit one. No mention of my novel there!

Fashion Week MKE - Music Icon Night

Milwaukee's first Fashion Week took place last week; and while I would've loved to attend all the events, the only one I made it out for was Music Icon Night, held at Spin Milwaukee. Fans of Project Runway may remember Spin, the ping pong nightclub, from the episode last season where owner Susan Surandon came on and asked the designers to create uniforms for the staff. Uniforms which, by the way, the employees were not wearing.

My friend Sabreen joined me, and we also met up with our friend Katie who was on the Art Bus, which made a stop at the party. After buying some drinks at the bar, we dodged the ping pong tables (I only got hit with a ball once - not too bad, hehe) and shuffled over to the runway area to find a spot since we were not VIP enough to be on the bleachers, haha. We ended up in a pretty prime location behind the press area at the end of the runway.

Guests were encouraged to dress as their favorite iconic musician, but I only saw a handful of people dressed up, including the fashion show emcees dressed as LL Cool J and Beyonce. The main event of the night was a T-shirt fashion show with designs from MILWAUKEEHOME, American Greed, Wiskullsin, Reginald Baylor Studio, I Am Milwaukee, Get the Led Out, Wisco Kid, Newd Clothing, and Love Nail Tree. For some reason, all my pictures of the male models turned out better than the ones of the female models.

Sabreen and I had America's Next Top Model on the brain since we were missing it to go to this event, so we couldn't help taking the role of the judges a little bit. Our favorite walker was definitely her:

Larry Sanders from the Milwaukee Bucks closed the show.

After the show, a little bit of lip sync karoake kicked off, starting with LL Cool J, Prince (seen below, highlight of the night), and then Beyonce. I also saw a Madonna and Katy Perry wandering around.

You can see the rest of my pictures from the show in my Facebook album. Hopefully, we can look forward to Fashion Week Milwaukee for many years to come. It's definitely an exciting time to be a fan of fashion here. Now I have to get some of those awesome T-shirts to flaunt my MKE and Wisco pride.

Here's what I wore:

Blazer: LC Lauren Conrad (Kohl's); Tank Dress: Forever 21; Pants: Rock & Republic (Kohl's);
Shoes: Vince Camuto via Boston Store; Clutch: Melie Bianco via DSW; Cocktail Ring that you can't see: c/o Wantable

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I was originally planning on going as Celine Dion because I thought it would be easy. Then, I ran out of time and couldn't curl my hair, so I had to make do with tons of back combing, bobby pins, and hairspray. Plus, I wanted to wear my new leggings right away. Funnily enough, Corleen and I were both wearing the same leggings except hers were from H&M. Great minds think alike!

Mixed-up Weekend

Needless to say, this weekend didn't start off too well. First and most significantly was of course the tragedy of the Connecticut school shooting. It boggles my mind why someone would kill innocent children, and it made me want to pull Bridget out of school forever and move to some remote location. I can't imagine what the people in that community are going through, but my heart breaks for them.

Despite feeling incredibly solemn and bewildered by that, I was optimistic about the fun weekend I had planned. (No really natural way to segue, is there?) While on my way to Madison to visit a friend from high school, I stopped at Kohl's about halfway there, and my car wouldn't start back up when I went to leave. Instead of continuing on, my husband, daughter, and dog came and got me, and we had my car towed to a dealership. And of course it started fine the next day. Of course it did. Oh well. In the grand scheme of things, not a big deal, but it was a bummer.

The rest of the weekend went off without a hitch, though. Saturday, I met up with Katy, Corleen, and Mary for a Milwaukee blogger meetup at Le Rêve and The Ruby Tap in Tosa. I highly recommend both places. Delicious and fun! After that, I headed to my friends' apartment for our annual Christmas party. That's always a good time.

Here's what I wore Friday:

Inspiration Monday photo:

My interpretation:

Dress: Tucker for Target; Leggings: Old Navy; Scarf and Boots: Target; Coat: MICHAEL Michael Kors

Work version:

Blazer: swap

After-work version:

Cardigan: Old Navy

Saturday: Katy has the group picture from the blogger meetup on her camera, but here are a few of my Instagram shots - terrible quality, I apologize.

Top: Lela Rose for Target; Necklace: Charlotte Russe; Jeans and Cardigan: Old Navy; Shoes: Anne Klein via DSW

Chocolate caramel tart and cappuccino from Le Rêve

Katy and Mary Instagramming at The Ruby Tap

And then from the Christmas party:

This was pretty late in the night...we were quite wined up at this point, hence my rosy cheeks.

T drew my name and got me Converse shoes and nail polish to match!

I'm Looking for a Safe House

Last night, I met up with Katy from Modly Chic and Corleen from Barely Practical at the Safe House for an informal Milwaukee blogger meetup. It was fun seeing Katy again and catching up and getting to know Corleen. After each enjoying a tasty beverage and talking about each of our blogging experiences, we showed Katy around the Safe House a little more. I don't think I've been there for at least 5 years, and I couldn't remember where all the cool stuff was, but it's always fun to get back there once in awhile.

If any Milwaukee bloggers haven't joined the Facebook group yet, you should!

Here's what I wore for work and out and Friday:

Dress: Old Navy; Blazer: Gap; Leggings: Walmart; Boots: Mr. Shoe

Fashion's Night Out at Bayshore Mall

Last night, a friend and I attended the Fashion's Night Out event at Bayshore Mall. In addition to food, music, and discounts, another draw of the evening was the fashion show. The first half of the show featured styles you could purchase from stores in the mall. The second half was the fun part.

As a preview to their September 21 re-purposed runway competition show, fashion designers from RedLine Milwaukee presented looks that were created using recycled materials. It reminded us of the unconventional challenge episodes from Project Runway, and it was really impressive to hear how long the designers spent on some of these looks. A couple of them took over 100 hours to make!

Here are each of the looks from that portion of the show:

Is it wrong that I kind of want that wine cork dress? Haha.

This one with the daisies was my favorite dress of the show,
but it probably doesn't hurt that the model's gorgeous.