Thankful

I made a Thanksgiving feast without burning anything down or poisoning anyone.

That's an accomplishment.

I love to cook, and I'm getting better and better at it, I think. But a Thanksgiving meal has a lot of components, some tricky, and to have everything come together as well as it did was quite a shock to me.

Now, to be fair, it was a very low-key feast. In fact, feast is probably misleading. It just had the staples: turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, and dinner rolls. In hindsight, a vegetable would have been wise. Maybe next year.

With work and crazy weather, heading home for the holidays -- including Thanksgiving, my birthday (yes, that IS a holiday), Christmas, New Years, and maybe even Easter -- just isn't a realistic option. I'm hoarding all of my time off to take a long trip home in the spring, but until then, I've got to make the best of what I have here in North Dakota.

Rather than sulk about working on my favorite holiday or being away from my family, my boyfriend and I decided to have a little Thanksgiving of our own. And ya know what? I liked it. It was missing some key components (including my aunt's broccoli and cheese casserole -- it's heaven in a crockpot), but it was special in its own way.

And after yesterday, I'm confident we can make all the holidays between now and May -- or whenever it stops blizzarding here -- just as special. 

Lace and bows

I work nights and weekends. It's the nature of my job, and I can't do anything about it, but I like my work enough to the point that my less-than-ideal schedule is tolerable (usually).

On rare occasions, though, I end up having a Saturday night off, and that calls for a celebration. And also a celebratory outfit.

The all-lace black top is a secondhand store find for $7. The basic skinny jeans ($10) and the gold bow necklace ($5?) are both from Forever 21, and the riding boots are my go-to winter boots I talked about in my last post ($40 from Payless).

Because the outfit was pretty simple, I sassed it up by curling my hair and doing a bold smokey eye with shades of blue eyeshadow. 

And just like that, this "Holy cow, I'm actually available to do something fun on a Saturday night!" look was born.

Fashion in freezing temps

When I moved to North Dakota to start a new job in July, the business casual rule at work was easy to abide by -- it was skirts and sundresses every day. These days, however, the temperatures don't get out of the teens, and all I want to wear are oversized sweaters and skinny jeans tucked into warm boots.

Seeing as that's not allowed, I've been working on outfits that are weather appropriate, work appropriate, budget appropriate, and personal style appropriate. This is one of my more successful attempts.

I got that polka dot button-up from a thrift store on a day that all women's tops were on sale for a dollar -- score. 

The maroon vest (it looks red here, but it's darker in person) was also a thrift store find for $2. I had been seeing so many puffy vest looks on Pinterest that I had to find a vest and create my own outfit. Plus, living in such a cold place, I figured it would be a versatile piece.

The slacks were on sale for about $8 at Target. They're a slim fit ankle crop, but I transitioned them to winter by tucking them into warm socks and boots.

And the boots! The boots were a tricky find. My last black boots I got at Gordman's on Black Friday for $12. They obviously weren't high quality, but they were cute and comfy and lasted through a winter. This year, I couldn't find boots anywhere near as a cute or affordable. I finally stumbled upon these at Payless -- they were originally $70, but I got them on sale for $40. Seemed like a good deal for something I'd be wearing all season (and winter is a long season in North Dakota).

I accessorized with a chunky necklace and a skinny black belt, and voila! An outfit that fit all my requirements -- warm, business casual, reasonably priced, and cute.  

The best invention in the history of the world is Skype

If this blog is about beauty, it's only fitting I write about the most beautiful person I know.

Tashia and I met on a social media site for incoming Mizzou freshmen "way back" in 2009. She recognized me on move-in day as I was walking to the bathroom, which was right across from her dorm room, and the rest really is history. 

I don't want to say we've been inseparable ever since, because the world has cruelly kept us apart for more than two years, and I guess, technically, we've survived, but it's the sort of survival I imagine when I think of being stranded on a deserted island -- sad and pathetic and maniacal at times.

Don't tell me I'm exaggerating. I'm not.

Thankfully, I met my best friend in the 21st century, and that means that even though we live about 700 miles apart (I Mapquested it), we can almost interact as if we still live down the hall from each other.

We Skyped for two and a half hours yesterday. It felt like 10 minutes, even though we blew through dozens of topics -- absurdly high rent, a former weird (read: creepy) boss, Kiera Knightley's boobs, boys with questionable fashion sense, clearance Halloween goodies.

It was like nothing had changed. That's always surprised me with Tashia: No matter how long it's been since we've seen each other or had a good talk -- whether it was a week over Thanksgiving Break or months on end when neither of us could afford the money/time off work for a plane ticket -- it still feels like she lives a few doors down in Johnson Hall, or on the other side of the room in Hudson, or a flight of stairs above me in the Ash Hole, or four steps away in the Olive Jar. 

And that's how I know she's my best friend.

In fact, I think we're going to be those kinds of best friends who do everything together for the rest of forever. Have a joint wedding, be pregnant at the same time, have our kids grow up to be best friends, retire to the same tropical location... 

Don't tell me I'm exaggerating. I'm not.

 That time we went to an 80s party together.

 That time we were each others' Valentines.

 That time we went to a Jersey Shore party.

 That time we won a trip to San Francisco.

 That time went to a barbecue looking freakishly similar.

 That time we had "Labor Day in the Sticks."

 That time we went to a primary colors party.

 That time she proved she could give me a piggy back ride.

 That time this happened.

 That time we were walruses (and, again, each others' Valentines).

 That time we spent a whole evening taking selfies.

 That time I helped her transform into Ke$ha (Ta$hia) for Halloween.

 That time I went with her to her American Idol audition.

 That time we got baptized together.

 That time we went to South Padre Island for spring break.

 That time she helped me move to New Mexico.

That time she visited me in Santa Fe.

To those times and many more to come.

Still talking about Halloween

It's 72 hours old, but I don't even care. The best part about Halloween was spending a month perfecting my costume, and I was so stoked with the way it turned out.

As I mentioned in the post before this, I was Princess Peach, and I spent less than $30 on it.

Thrift stores are always my friend, and that's especially true for certain events that require special attire: ugly sweater parties, costume parties, and of course, Halloween.

I bought that little pink, napkin-sized dress for $7.99 at the Salvation Army. Before finding it, I knew I wanted to be Princess Peach, but I didn't plan on going for such an, um, "updated" version of her, if you will. I talked myself into it though, since Halloween is all about dressing as something you're not, and I built the rest of the costume from there.

The blue accessories are earrings -- one pierced pair that I used as actual earrings and one clip-on pair, which I used as the little "jewel" at the neckline of the dress. They were $1 a pair at a thrift store, and I painted them with a 50 cent tube of paint.

The crown I found on clearance at Claire's for $2. It was originally pink and purple and silver, but I painted it with another 50 cent tube of paint.

The gloves, while not quite as feminine as I would have liked, pulled the outfit together, and I spent $3.50 on them in the Halloween section of Walmart. I also bought some white fishnet stockings (not pictured) there for $4 because Halloween night was below freezing and I thought bare legs was a bad idea.

I used a pair of shoes I already had in my closet and some pink makeup I already had in my collection. So my grand total of things I bought specifically for this costume comes to just over $20 -- even less than my estimate of $30 from my last post.

I'm already anxious for next Halloween. Maybe I'll have to throw a costume party between now and then to hold me over.