Yet Another Pencil Skirt

Top: Kohl's; Skirt: NY&Co; Necklace: Maurices; Shoes: Poetic License via (shoo); Sunglasses and Bag: Target

For someone who didn't like pencil skirts until this year, I sure do have a lot of them now. This is the fourth one I've acquired this year, I believe. It's probably time to stop. Speaking of things I have too many of, I counted 11 blazers in my closet. I'll have to make sure to put those on heavy rotation this fall to justify all that silliness, or else get rid of some of them.

Country Music

Since I was going to see a country band, I decided to dress the part and wear plaid. Ingram Hill didn't used to be country, but they released their new album as such. Luckily, since I'm not a fan of that genre, they don't sound country at all live. Plus, in general, their music sounds even better live, so it's always fun to catch one of their shows. They're also nice guys. They're still on tour; I highly recommend checking them out if they're in your area.

These are the tight jeans I was talking about. When I showed my husband after I bought them, he asked if they were Neoprene. My friends approved, though.

Shirt: Willam Rast for Target; Jeans; Kut (Hot Mama); Boots: Kohl's; Watch: La Mer via RueLaLa; Bracelet: Pandora

If you were wondering, that is a banana peel behind me. It's not mine, and I probably should've moved, but I didn't.

America's Next Top Model: College Edition Episode 4 Recap

The episode began with some drama between Kristin and the rest of the girls in the house, especially Destiny. First, Kristin complained about always getting the "too pretty" critique and not wanting to rely on the fan votes each week. Then, she angered Destiny by taking a lighter out of Destiny's bag without permission. It escalated to Kristin yelling "hit me!" and then stating she was going to piss off all the girls in the house in order to get them to hit her and be kicked off. Well, that's one strategy, I guess.

Next was the acting challenge with Tyler Perry. Tyra and Tyler assigned each girl a persona (diva, tourist, rapper, and street performer) that they had to act out in public on the street. Most of the girls did pretty well since they had Tyra and Tyler in their ear the whole time.

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The only one they really showed struggling was Leila. Although Yvonne boasted about her acting experience, the winner of the challenge was Kiara with her portrayal of a diva.

For the photo shoot, the girls headed to Universal Studios to the War of the Worlds set, where the girls would be transformed into zombies.

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Along with Jonny Wujek, Bryan Boy also joined them on set to give them some social media feedback to incorporate into their photo. Some of the standouts were Brittany, Laura, and Leila, who have all been doing consistently well so far. Johnny told Allyssa she was being too sexy, and he said once again how he didn't enjoy working with Kristin because she relied too much on being pretty. Destiny gave her standard dead eyes, which you think would've worked with taxidermy and zombie shoots, but they didn't.

It's a pretty short recap today since not a whole lot happened. Plus, I was distracted by Bridget while I was watching, so I may have missed stuff. Anyway, in panel, the callout order was:

1. Laura
2. Leila
3. Brittany
4. Allyssa
5. Kiara
6. Nastasia
7. Victoria
8. Kristin
9. Yvonne

Eliminated for now: Destiny

On the next episode, Alicia Keys visits, and the girls do a cheerleading photo shoot and a charity fashion show. We also see Laura crying about Leila saying she's obsessed with herself. Oh no, hopefully that doesn't mean one of them is going home! They're probably the two strongest in the house right now.

Predictions:
For the win: Leila
Eliminated next week: Kristin...wishful thinking

Tumble

Dress: Kohl's; Cardigan: Target; Belt: Forever 21; Leggings: Old Navy; Shoes: Mr. Shoe

I took probably the most embarrassing tumble of my life while wearing this outfit. Let's just say, thank goodness I had leggings on. I was trying to cross a busy street in the rain before cars came, and of course there was someone also from work right behind me. I forgot how slippery my shoes were, and I started to trip. I tried to recover, but instead I lost my balance and fell to my knees, and then my side, and then my chin. On the wet ground in the middle of the street. Except I didn't scrape or hurt anything because it all happened in slow motion. Seriously, I was falling in slow motion, which was the most embarrassing part. It almost would've been better had I been thrown to the ground and came up bloody. The guy behind me asked if I was OK, and I was like, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Apparently my shoes are slippery," trying to make light of the situation. I then hurried away as we both walked into the parking structure. You can kind of see my wet leggings in the pictures above.

This is how I felt about that.

On top of that, there was so much traffic, and I was so frustrated trying to get to the mall to meet my friends. As some retail therapy, I ended up buying $90 jeans. The cost doesn't bother me too much because I've been wanting to buy good jeans for awhile. As long as they were under $100, I figured it wasn't too bad. We checked out Hot Mama for the first time, and the crazy saleslady there convinced me to buy a size 12 pair of black skinny jeans. I'm normally a size 16 in pants. I probably should've gone with a 14...buuuuut, I'm supposed to be losing weight anyway, so it works. If in a future outfit post it looks like I'm wearing too tight black skinny jeans, I probably am.

Gryffindor Colors

Cardigan: Rodarte for Target; Skirt and Watch: NY&Co; Shoes: MICHAEL Michael Kors

At first I thought I was probably wearing some sort of sports team colors, but I don't really have any knowledge of sports team colors outside of Wisconsin teams and rivals. It took me until I got home from work and Googled maroon and gold for it hit me that they're Gryffindor colors. Duh.

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American Idol Tour 2012

The girls

My parents

Opening number

Phillip and Elise laughing about something

Oh hey, Colton (my favorite. He had a ton of fans there actually.)

This is probably my favorite picture from the night.
I enjoyed all the silliness even though I wasn't in on the joke most of the time.

You can see the rest of my pics in my Facebook album, including the picture I got with Jessica before the show.

Highlights:

• While I was trying to take my friend's picture with Deandre, a bee kept chasing me because I had spilled soda on my shirt, so I was freaking out and running away, and Deandre kept telling me the bee was still there.
• We originally had 20th row seats but upgraded to 10th row the day of. Then, when we spotted open  2nd row seats (in what later appeared to be the VIP/family section), we took advantage of those once the show started.
• Another benefit to our really close seats was being right by the side stage area and watching some of the idols hang out there while they weren't on stage. That was fun to see. At one point, they were scanning the crowd, looking right as us, presumably looking for their families. That's when we really knew we were more than likely in an area intended for the VIPs.
• I know Colton singing a Switchfoot song was a highlight for my dad, so I'll include that in here, too.
• Phillip wasn't scheduled to perform until the second half of the show, but he made a brief booty-shaking appearance during "Party Rock Anthem."
• Some of the production crew came up on stage during one of the songs and danced.
• No one yelled at us when we stood up during the show! That's an improvement from last year.
• During the last song, when they kicked their feet up at one point, Erika's (and maybe Deandre's too?) shoe came flying off. Luckily, it just flew right back at her and not at someone in the crowd, but it was hilarious.

The only thing I can really complain about, and only because I'm spoiled, is that only Deandre and Jessica came out to sign autographs. We figured since it was their last show, everyone would make a point to come out, but that wasn't the case. Apparently they were busy filming something. Who knows.

Here's what I wore:

Black cords for work and red jeans for the show.
Top: Rock & Republic (Kohl's); Bracelets: Kohl's and gift; Shoes: Kohl's; Cords: Gap; Jeans: Old Navy; Bag: Target

While the chest area fits true to size, the bottom of this top is rather tent-like and huge. It's probably intentional, but it doesn't look good on me. I remedied the problem with a strategically placed brooch.

Ankle Socks and Mary Janes

Blouse: Fred Boutique; Skirt: NY&Co; Bracelet: Kohl's; Shoes: Famous Footwear

I liked the idea of this outfit. I was going for a teacher/student kind of look for Everybody, Everywear Back to School fashion. Something seems a bit off, though. Every time I see ankle socks on other people, I think it's really cute, but maybe it's not me. Or maybe I'll have to try it in a different context. The open back of this blouse is cute, though.

Bridget, on the other hand, pulls off the ankle sock look effortlessly.

Dress and T-shirt: H&M; Shoes: Kohl's

Unfortunately, after Bridget got sick in the car as I mentioned yesterday, we both had to change our clothes. Fortunately, I liked my second outfit of the day better, but that one will be in another post.