Friday, October 29, 2010

Lilly Pulitzer resort

A little while ago, TLS and I went out for dinner with one of our friends here. NSB is special because he is one of maybe 5 guys (if even that many) that actually reads my blog. I had made a comment about Lilly Pulitzer to TLS (I forget in what context) and he said "what's Lilly Pulitzer?" Since you cannot read my blog and not know Lilly Pulitzer, I promised him that I would do a Lilly post for him soon. With the Resort collection freshly arriving, I thought this would be the perfect time to do said post. (As a side note, to all of my Jewish readers, he's single.)

I have said many times before, and I will keep saying it, but the Jonah dress is one of my favorite styles of Lilly dresses. It is my go-to dress when I have nothing else to wear. So naturally, both of the Jonahs are on my wishlist.
I am seriously thinking about getting this one and wearing it for our engagement photos.


I love the cut and color of this Kiki dress. The $328 price tag? Not so much. However if I could get it, this would be the perfect dress to wear to holiday parties.

Loving this Connie dress. Perfect for just about anything, including Friday night services, which, coincidentally, is how we know NSB.

You can never go wrong with a classic boatneck top. Much like last year's Casey V-neck, I anticipate buying this in just about every single color it comes in.

What items are you most looking forward to from the Resort collection?

Monday, October 25, 2010

New York, New York, it's a wonderful town

In just 8 short days, I will be on a flight from Frankfurt heading to JFK. (I have flown into Frankfurt twice before, but this will be my first time flying out of it at the beginning of a trip and getting to call it my home airport. Weird.) While my schedule is jam-packed and I have something going on pretty much every single day/night this week which means that I don't even know when I can pack, I could not be more excited for this trip. I know my mother is going crazy. I am an only child and this is the longest that she has ever gone without seeing me by far. Here are some things I cannot wait to do in New York.

*Get my hair straightened. I have been told by people that I have naturally gorgeous hair and I take it as a huge compliment for my hair dresser. Not a single strand of hair on my head is natural. I have super curly hair (I tell people that I resemble a black sheep that's been left out in the rain for too long) and get Japanese straightening done on it every 6-8 months or so.
*Day of fun with my MOH. Tea at Alice's Tea Cup (you have not lived until you have eaten one of their pumpkin scones), picking out bridesmaid dresses, and dinner and drinks.
*Shake Shack
*Crumbs cupcakes
*Getting a winter coat. I need a new one badly and my mommy said she wants to buy me one. (My mother is not an overly sentimental person. When she starts to miss me, she tends to show her affection through her wallet.)
*Lilly Pulitzer. Duh.
*Seeing my Nana. Even if she doesn't remember who I am any more.
*All you can eat sushi and J. Crew sample sale with my other BFF and bridesmaid.
*Dinner at my favorite restaurant, Gyu Kaku.
*Possible hair and makeup trial for my wedding.
*Getting our holiday cards. Surprisingly, there just isn't a market for Hannukah cards in Germany.
*Same goes for Hannukah candles.
*Seeing a lot of my old friends.
*Getting a bra made for our wedding. Not fun or cheap but very necessary.
*Brunch with my mommy and cousin.
*Gray's Papaya Hot Dogs
*getting a real pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks


Ok, so I realize that a lot of these involve food, but it just would not be me if it was any other way!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Wedding Wednesday- Business in the Front, Party in the Back

First of all, I must apologize for my severe lack of posting this week. TLS got switched to the night shift for the week and my sleep cycle has been seriously affected by it. Combined with my recent flu shot, I have just been a total zombie. Every time I have tried to start a blog post, I have not had the energy to finish it.

This week's Wedding Wednesday is dedicated to what TLS will be wearing to our wedding. I love, love, love uniforms at weddings (there really is something about a man in uniform- swoon) so there was no question that he would be wearing his dress uniform to our wedding. (Thankfully for me, he wanted to get married in uniform!) TLS will be wearing his Mess Dress uniform, which is the Air Force equivalent of a tuxedo. (For those of you who watched the Today Show wedding- the uniform that Jeremy wore was his Mess Dress.)


Last weekend, TLS and I went to the Air Force ball. After all of the formalities had been done, and dancing had started, I noticed that a lot of people had the craziest shirts on that clearly weren't GI (government issued). Two of my friends' husbands explained to me that these shirts are called "party shirts." Once the formal part of a military event is over with and you can remove your jacket, you are considered to be out of uniform, and can technically wear what you want. Since bringing a set of clothing to change into isn't feasible, people started getting these shirts made to express their personalities. As long as the collar, front part, and cuffs are all white, the rest of your shirt that is not visible when you have a jacket on can be whatever color you want it to be.

Business in the front, party in the back. Hence the title of today's post.

We saw some crazy ones, including one that I called the preppy shirt- white fabric with nautical flags and sailboats all over it.

As some of you may know, TLS is a die-hard Cubs fan. Yes, this has led to much disappointment in his young life. After hanging out with my friends and their husbands, TLS has informed me that he will be getting a Chicago Cubs party shirt to wear to our wedding. Le Sigh. While it might not be my first choice of attire for him, it will make him happy and you gotta admit that the contrast of the uniform with his Cubs shirt will look really good in pictures. What's a girl to do? I am now on the hunt for Cubs print fabric to make into the sleeves of his shirt. JoAnn Fabrics only sells Cubs print fleece fabrics. Nothing is more appropriate for a late May wedding than fleece. Nothing.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Candy Corn Bark!

Like many of you, candy corn is one of my favorite items of the season! I adore it and look forward to it every year. I do wish that they would have it for other seasons as well.

Several of you have asked about my candy corn bark. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of it for you, but the recipe is pretty simple. The hardest part is getting the white chocolate liquidy enough to pour.

Candy corn
Oreos
Pretzels
White chocolate for melting
Halloween colored sprinkles


Break up the Oreo cookies and pretzels into small bits. Arrange them on a cookie sheet with the candy corn. Melt the white chocolate and pour it over all of the items on the cookie sheet. Top with sprinkles. Allow it to cool and harden. When it hardens, break it apart into small pieces and enjoy!

Friday, October 15, 2010

two things I just don't understand

1) Deutsche Post

For some reason, every single piece of mail that our friends have sent to us at our German address (whether it be addressed to just me or to the both of us), has gotten returned to sender saying that there is insufficient address information provided. Yet somehow, Deutsche Post has no problem delivering our bills or an incessant pile of junk mail to us.

2) New York Magazine

For the past month or so, I have been receiving a weekly subscription to New York Magazine. This on its own is not odd. What is odd about it is that I have never bought a subscription to New York Magazine. I also never received a card in the mail telling me that someone had purchased a subscription for me. Apparently my subscription just kind of materialized out of thin air? If anyone reading this did buy the subscription for me, please let me know so that I can thank you properly.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

giveaway winners

Thank you to ~miller ribbons~ once again for generously sponsoring this giveaway.

Courtesy of Random.org, the winners are:

Ribbon Keyfob:
SouthernBelleJM


and

Desperately Seeking Seersucker


Luggage Tag:
Prissy and Preppy Flamingo

Grabber Keyfob:
Little Miss Can't be Wrong

~miller ribbons~'s generosity does not end there, however, as they have decided to also give keyfobs to the first and last entries: so congratulations to DC Gop Girl and ATLYankeeBelle!

Congratulations to all of the winners. Please email me at whaleflipflops {@} gmail {.} com and I will tell you what to do next!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Wedding Wednesday- And the best part is, you can shorten it and wear it again

As you may have guessed, this post deals with one of the not so fun aspects of weddings, bridesmaid dresses. (And yes, it is a reference to one of my favorite feel-good movies, 27 dresses.)

When I first got engaged, I went out and bought every single British wedding magazine in WH Smith. And then every wedding magazine I could find in Barnes & Noble. After flipping through pages of the same exact advertisements, I noticed that a lot of the bridesmaid dresses just plain sucked. Tulle and rhinestones? No thank you.

To be perfectly honest, I spent more time online looking for the right bridesmaid dresses than I did looking for my dress. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted in my head but everything I saw was just not it. Something extra was always there or something was missing. (I wanted knee-length, navy blue, sleeveless, v neck dresses that were not shiny, and didn't have tulle. My plan was to get the same dress for all three women in my bridal party and have a lime green sash for the Maid of Honor, and hot pink ones for my two bridesmaids.) You'd be surprised at how difficult it is to find a simple, shorter dress.


I finally decided on two dresses that both my bridesmaids and I liked. When I come back to New York in November, I am making appointments to look at both and try them on in person. (It is my personal belief that if you would not wear a dress yourself, then it is unfair of you to make your friends wear it to your wedding.)

The Marni by Jenny Yoo in Eastern Shantung:

and the Alex from Lulakate in Dupioni:

I want to see both dresses in person to make sure that the sashes will work with them. From what it looks like on the Jenny Yoo site, none of the pinks that they have are exactly what I have in mind, so I need to see those in person. Lulakate does have a lot more color options and have the exact pink I want, which is a huge plus.

Friday, October 8, 2010

going away for the long weekend

Tomorrow morning TLS will be waking me up at such an ungodly hour that I don't even want to post it here. We will be spending the long weekend here.

Zurich, Switzerland!

Switzerland is a country that I have always wanted to go to but never thought that I would actually make it there, so this is a dream come true for me. I am so excited and cannot wait!

I apologize for being a bit  blog MIA this week. I got a bit caught up in some things on base and have not had time to blog. I promise to resume my normal blogging schedule next week and to post lots of pictures from Zurich along with pictures from Oktoberfest last weekend!

Wishing all of my readers a safe, fun, and wonderful weekend. Be sure to enter my ~miller ribbons~ giveaway if you haven't done so already.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

~miller ribbons~ giveaway

As I have posted on here before, I am a HUGE fan of ~miller ribbons~ products. They are fun, well made, colorful. And not to mention that a little personalization is a great thing in my book. I used to have two of their keyfobs- an Alpha Sigma Alpha one and an MRM one. Both of them did not survive a trip to a sorority conference in St. Louis when my keys got lost, and an international move when one box of stuff never made it over here. Sniff.

Those of you who were lucky enough to attend Oxfords and Oysters, received a plain ~miller ribbons~ keyfob in your VIP gift bags. If you were unable to attend O&O because of Yom Kippur, scheduling conflicts, distance, or for any other reason, do not fret. You too, can have a piece of adorable personalized Grosgrain cuteness in your life.

This year, ~miller ribbons~ has once again generously agreed to sponsor a giveaway. There will be four winners for this giveaway. Two winners will each receive a personalized keyfob:
1 winner will receive a personalized luggage tag:
and 1 winner will receive a mini grabber keyfob:




Keyfobs can be personalized with up to 8 letters or greek characters, luggage tags can be personalized with up to 3 characters, and grabbers can be personalized with one initial.

~miller ribbons~ will work with winners to create products based on their favorite colors. They are one of the best companies that I have had the pleasure of working with and these products make great gifts!

To enter:
1) You MUST "like" ~miller ribbons~ on facebook. Please like them on facebook and write Preppy Girl Meets World on their wall so that we can track entries. You must do this or your entry will not count. After that, please leave a comment on this blog with your favorite color combination. This will give you one entry. Please remember to comment both on this entry and on the ~miller ribbons~ facebook page.
2) Follow me through Google Friend Connect for a second entry.
3) Post about this giveaway for a third entry.
4) Put my button on your blog for a fourth entry.
5) Follow me on twitter  and tweet the link to this giveaway (@whaleflipflops) for a fifth entry. (You have to do both to get credit.)
6) You will also receive one entry for each person who enters that was referred by you.

This giveaway will run until Wednesday, October 13th at Midnight EST. I will announce the four winners after we have verified all of the entries.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Sperry and True Prep

There is no doubt that Sperry is one of the preppiest, if not THE preppiest shoe brands out there. I adore Sperrys so much.

It would only be fitting for Sperry to do a contest to celebrate the release of True Prep.

What would you win, you may ask?
Grand Prize: A True Prep trip for 2. Enjoy a 3 night stay in classic Nantucket, MA, a $2,500 gift card to cover travel and meal expenses, as well as a special SeaBag gift bag packed full of island essentials!
First Prize: 3 winners will be awarded a True Prep fashion consulation with a stylist and a $200 AMEX gift card to purchase this season’s hottest styles. Also included, a pair of Sperry Top-Sider Authentic Originals, valued up to $80.
Second Prize: 25 winners will walk away in True Prep style with a new pair of Sperry Top-Sider Authentic Originals, valued up to $80.
Third Prize: 100 winners will receive a copy of the newly released True Prep by Lisa Birnbach, the 2010 update of her classic read, The Official Preppy Handbook.

I hope I win!

Enter here

My First Menu Monday

I love cooking. The only thing  I love more than cooking is eating. Usually, if I'm not talking about food, that's only because I'm currently eating at the time. (Just how much I love to talk about food became apparent in the Spring when my future mother-in-law called to assure me that even if Volcanogate prevented TLS from going to his brother's wedding in Nebraska, they would still make sure that I got some Sonic Cherry Limeade.)

I have always had issues with my weight (including a brief bout of anorexia in the 8th grade). Lately, I have been getting frustrated with myself. I seem to have gotten in a funk and get frustrated with myself and my appearance easily.  I lose 2 pounds, then I gain 3. (I was told by TLS's father and several women here in Germany that when you first move here, you usually gain 25 pounds. I can see why. The food here is amazing.) I have congenital heart disease and had open heart surgery when I was 4. I'm fine now heart-wise thankfully but this is the most that I have ever weighed. For me to put on any more weight would be a huge detriment to my health and I risk getting more problems down the road. Also, TLS has to pass a PT test every 6 months if he wants to keep his job (yay military) so I always try to cook as healthy as possible for the two of us. I feel like we are not eating as much veggies as we should, so this week I am trying to throw as many vegetables as possible into the mix.

Our other challenge has been actually sticking to the menu plans that I create. I am hoping that this will be our first week of not straying from the menu plans.

Without further ado, here is this week's menu.
Monday- Vegetarian French Onion Soup, Angel Cake with 7 Minute Frosting
Tuesday- Chicken wings (my special recipe), sesame string bean salad
Wednesday- Turkey Taco Night- I will be at a friend's house until late and won't have time to cook dinner beforehand. Whenever I make anything that calls for ground meat, I always use ground turkey instead of beef. You can't really tell the difference tastewise, but you cut out so many calories that way.
Thursday- Vegetarian Burgers, salad, oven roasted lime and black pepper fries
Friday- Herbed spaghetti squash, salad, baked apples a la mode- I have never had spaghetti squash before but I've heard that it's delicious. I saw it at the commissary the other day and decided to try it and throw a new vegetable into our routine. 


We are thinking about driving down to Austria or Switzerland for the weekend, so any weekend meals will be eaten out.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Rabbit Rabbit

Rabbit Rabbit.

Happy October.

I have been having a lot of blah/icky/low self esteem days and am determined to put all that negativity behind me tand start off fresh.

Things that I am looking forward to this month:
1) Going to Oktoberfest tomorrow.
2) The Air Force Birthday Ball. (So the fact that I have nothing to wear is just a minor setback.)
3) The Snoopy Longchamp bag.

I have decided that I am getting this bag. And once I decide on something and set my mind to it,. I do what it takes to get what I want.  Even if it involves another trip to London or Paris. Oh. Darn.
4) A few fun giveaways that I have planned.
5) Trick or treaters.
I grew up in an area where it was not common to go Trick or Treating. I always wanted trick or treaters but never got any. When I moved to Brooklyn, I thought "this is my year" and bought some candy. And then proceeded to eat it all because no one showed up at my door. The one good thing about living at an Air Force base is that it is teeming with kids. I have plans to hang out at my friend's house passing out candy.
6) Pink products for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
7) Funfetti!

Thanks to some wonderful blog friends, I now finally have some funfetti cake mixes and frosting! I also got my first ever Bundt pan from Rue La La in the mail yesterday. I am pondering making a funfetti bundt cake to celebrate. We'll see.
8) Reading all of Denise Swanson's books.

She is an Alpha Sigma Alpha like me as well as an author who writes a series of detective books. I have heard amazing things about them but have never read them. Thankfully, KMH sent me all of her books so I can read them for myself.