Lydia Palettes

Hello there! Today I'm not doing too much, just hanging out at home. Yesterday we were at Bob's parent's all day, and got home around 9:30 p.m. Unfortunately, it never got as warm as it was supposed to (it until got up to 57 degrees), and was cloudy the whole time we were there. We hung outside for awhile, but eventually went inside, because it was too chilly. One of Bob's friends showed up, and was there the whole time. It was the first bbq of the season, and there was great food, but I just wish it had been a tad warmer, ha. Hopefully next Sunday will be nicer out, when I'm over my parent's for Mother's Day.
In the pictures below, I'm wearing my paint palettes Bernie Dexter Lydia dress. I got this back in November, and it's one of my staples in my wardrobe. The print is so colorful and cute, and I love the big red buttons, the front zip, and the collar. I wish I had ordered a size smaller, as the waist is really big, but at some point I'll have my mom take it in for me. 

Dress: Ginned Up Gillys (Bernie Dexter)

Cardi: Trashy Diva

Necklace, Brooch: Etsy (Incredinedible, Luxulite)

Heels: BAIT Footwear

~Bye bye for now!

 

Tropical

Hello there! Last night I met my friend at Panera for dinner, and today Bob and his brother are having a joint birthday bbq at their parent's house. We'll be heading over there in the early afternoon. A couple of Bob's friends are coming who he doesn't see too often (they live out of town), so I'm happy he'll get to catch up with them. I think I'll be wearing my Bernie bbq dress, the rather obvious choice, ha. I'm so glad bbq season is officially starting! It's a nice sunny day out, and supposed to be around 65 degrees, so that should be great weather to be outside.
In the pictures below I'm wearing a new Banned Apparel skirt I bought from Viva La Dulce Marina. I recently bought three Banned skirts from them. The brand is very reasonable; VLDM is selling them for $50.00, plus I used a 15% off coupon. I really love the bright coral background color of this skirt and the fun, tropical print.

 

Shirt: Pin Up Girl Clothing
Skirt: Viva La Dulce Marina (Banned Apparel)
Necklace, Brooch, Bracelet: Etsy
Heels: BAIT Footwear

~Bye bye for now!

Fruits & Veggies

Hello there! I'm going to interrupt my Vegas blogs for post a non-Vegas, "regular" blog. Well, this work week is over halfway over, which is nice. Hopefully, the next two days will go quickly. We're celebrating Bob and his brother's birthdays this Saturday at his parent's house. They're going to have a bbq, and invited some friends to come. The weather's supposed to be perfect that day, too. It'll be the first bbq of the season! Bob and I love bbqs, and I know we're not alone in that sentiment, ha. 
Last night I met up with three women I worked with years ago. I was only at that job 2.5 months, ha (the owner is INSANE), but I've kept in touch with them, and more so with one woman in particular. Two of them went to my wedding. The one woman lives in Florida now, she's been there a year. It was nice to catch up. I'm seeing another friend on Friday, so between last night, Friday and the bbq Saturday, I'm definitely doing more this week than a normal week!
In the pictures below I'm wearing my new Modcloth fruits & veggies shirt dress I received last week. I had been thinking of ordering it since it came out, and then when I saw Sara wearing it in Vegas, I knew I had to get it. I received a 20% off coupon for Modcloth in my email, and decided to go for it. Ah, there's nothing better than a good shirt dress, in a wonderful novelty print! This dress doesn't gape at my chest, which is great. I didn't size up in it, since I heard from Sara and the reviews for the dress that there was plenty of room in the bust. In the past year or so, Modcloth hasn't been carrying nearly as many fun, colorful novelty prints as they used to. But, I've bought a few items since January from their new house brand.

Dress: Modcloth
Necklace, brooch: Etsy
Heels: BAIT Footwear

~Bye bye for now!

Viva Las Vegas, Part II

Hello there! We are having a very beautiful, sunny weekend here, which is so nice. On Friday it was so warm and humid that it felt like summer! I can't wait until it atually is summer....it's my favorite season, and so of course that mean it flies by the quickest of all the seasons. It's so nice when it stays light out until 9:00 p.m., and we take weekend day trips and don't need even a light sweater, and to be able to eat and drink outside; ah, there's just countless amazing things about summer! 
In this post I'm going to continue with my Vegas trip details and pictures. So, in the last post I talked about Wednesday night through Thursday night. On Friday, we got over to Viva early in the morning, because I wanted to straight to the vendor selling the Retrospec'd fruit dress I had tried on the night before, and snag it! We got over there, and I spotted that they had the size I needed, and was so relieved! I tried it on one more time, and then promptly bought it. I wore it a lot on the trip, and know I will be wearing it a lot in the future. I got tons of compliments on it when I wore it in Vegas. I had never bought that brand before, but I'm happy to see that as of very recently more American retailers are selling the brand. The dress has quite a high neck, so I won't even need a bandeau to wear it to work. After I got the dress, we walked around the vendor rooms again. Bob actually bought a shirt, hat, and CD (normally he doesn't buy anything when we go on trips)! 
After the shopping (I didn't buy anything else in the rooms), we went to the fashion show. We missed the first fifteen minutes and left before the last few minutes of it, but saw the rest. I hadn't gotten to see it last year, so I wanted to check it out this time. After having a couple drinks at one of the Orleans's bars, we went back to the hotel. We met up with my friend Sara at New York New York for dinner at a burger restaurant there, and ater that, we took a taxi over to Golden Tiki. Golden Tiki was neat inside, and has a lot more room to sit then Frankie's. But, it has a less dive-y atmosphere than Frankie's does. I got a drink called Banana Batida, and it was really good, so I kept ordering the same one. 
This was Sara's first time at a tiki bar, and her first time seeing Viva. Some more of my friends came by Golden Tiki later on, and after awhile a few of us left to go to Frankie's, so Sara and my friend Kristina could see Frankie's, too. Bob and I got a tiki mug to take come from Frankie's; always looking to add to our tiki mug collection! Sara also got the slot machine one, which I love, and already have. It was really nice catching up with Sara. We found out we have more in common then we already knew! Since she was in Vegas for a business trip, she couldn't spend much time at Viva or with us. It was great to spend so much time together Friday though. 
Saturday morning we met her right before 10:00 a.m., to take the bus together to the Orleans. She had to leave by noon at the latest to go set up for her trade show, and wouldn't be able to come back at all to Viva, or to see us again in Vegas. I was glad she got to at least check out the car show, and vendors there! The car show has the best vendors, better than the vendor rooms. A very small amount of vendors who are in the rooms also vend at the car show. I bought four hair flowers/hair fruit pieces, a necklace, a purse and a clutch. I had also ordered a dress and two skirts before Viva from Shop VDM, and picked up my items from the shop owners on Friday afternoon. Sara ended up having to leave around 11:30 a.m., but she found some great items at the vendors, although she didn't get to look at the cars. I was just happy she got to experience the little bit she did!
Bob and I were at the car show for awhile. After Sara left, we did a little more shopping, and then got some lunch, and after that we looked at all the cars there. Ah, so much 50's beauty! When I was young, my dad used to take me to car shows with him, so it's a very familiar feeling to be at a classic car show! He's still very into classic cars, and drove me to my wedding in a 1954 lavendar Cadillac (which he since sold). After we were done with all of that, we hit the vendor rooms once more time, and then took it easy for a bit, at the Orleans. We went back out to the car show area in the early evening, to see Brian Setzer perform there. I had never heard of him before, but evidently he's big in the rockabilly world. Him and his band were great. After seeing most of his set, we headed inside, and saw some of the burlesque show. We had never seen burlesque before, so it was something different to experience. After we left the show, we headed back by our hotel, and had a couple of drinks at New York New York. Saturday was a very fun, full day!

Saturday night, after the long day at the car show/Orleans

You can see here how windy out it was!

Inside Golden Tiki

Inside Golden Tiki

Outfit I wore on Friday night

The Retrospec'd dress I bought at Viva!

Viva Las Vegas, Part I

Hello there! Well, we are back from Vegas, back to the real world. We had a blast! We got to do a lot; we did just about everything I had wanted to do. We spent more time at Viva this year than last year, which was great. It would be even better to actually stay at the Orleans hotel during Viva, because otherwise it's a lot of traveling to and from the Orleans, which obviously takes time and money. 
I got to spend time with three of my lady friends I had met previusly, which was very nice, as I only see them at events like this. Bob and I got to our hotel on Wednesday night, around 9:30 p.m. We changed and got ready to go out for the evening. We had some drinks in our hotel and a hotel next door, New York, New York. I wanted to go to Nine Fine Irishmen; we've been there before, and I really like it there. I love Irish pubs in general. There was a band playing, and a river dancer, and both were great. Bob wanted to gamble for a bit though, so I went into that bar by myself, and he joined me later. I'm not really interested in gambling. We stayed out until around 2:00 a.m. Vegas time, which was 5:00 a.m. NJ time! So, I had been up for 24 hours. I only got five hours of sleep that first night in Vegas too, but surprisingly wasn't tired on Thursday. 
Thursday was the first day of Viva. We had an early dinner at a restaurant at the Tropicana, and got to sit outside, which was nice. The weather was perfect. We headed over to Viva after that, in the late afternoon, picked up our wristbands, listened to some live rockabilly music and then went into the vendor rooms. They opened at 5:00 p.m., and were insanely crowded with shoppers!! It wasn't any fun; you had to constantly bump into people to try and walk anywhere/look at anything, and it was also very hot, which made it even more annoying to try things on. I did meet a lovely, sweet lady who I follow on Instagram though! Her name is Dezzy, and she recognized me, and her boyfriend took a picture of us. I ran into her another day, as well. 
I didn't end up buying anything that night. I tried on a dress I ended up going back for the next morning, and luckily they still had my size! The dress has a fruit print, is made by an Aussie brand called Retrospec'd, and I am in loveeee with it. I wore it a lot during the trip, including to the car show on Saturday (the biggest day at Viva). 
After we checked out the vendor rooms, we went back to our hotel and got ready to go out to Frankie's Tiki Room. We met my friend there, Lisa (who I met at Viva last year), and her friend from home, Hannah, who Bob and I met for the first time. Frankie's was fun, and all three drinks I had there were soooo yummy. I can be quite picky when it comes to food and alcohol, and definitely don't like all rum drinks (the sweeter, the better). We were at Frankie's for a few hours (we got there early in the evening), and then went back to our hotel. I definitely got more sleep Thursday night, which was great. I experiened Golden Tiki for the first time Friday night, and I can now say Frankie's is my very favorite tiki bar I've been to anywhere. It feels like a dive bar inside, which I love, but has amazing drinks and kitschy decor. Perfection!
The pictures below are from Wednesday night - Thursday night. I'll write more about Viva/Vegas in my next blog post!

 

Palette Kelly

Hello there! Ugh, Mondays are rotten, aren't they? At least the temperature warmed up a bit today. I'm not doing much tonight or tomorrow night. I don't think I can express how excited I am to leave in two days for Vegas! This time two days from now, we'll be on the plane! I did a lot of packing this weekend, and have pretty much packed everything that I won't need before we leave.
In the pictures below I'm wearing my newst Bernie, which arrived today. This is my new favorite style of Bernie dresses. It's called the Kelly, and I have one other dress in this style. I've always adored shirt dresses, and have a few from different brands, but the Bernie Kellys are extra special, becuase they have a front zip, as opposed to buttons. I have another paint palette Bernie dress, in a different style, and different color scheme. No such things as too many paint palette prints, right? I have more Bernie dresses than any other brand. She selects such gorgeous novelty prints, and picks great, flattering shapes, with very full skirts. It seems like in the past couple months she's been coming out with new dresses more frequently, which makes me happy!

Dress: Bernie Dexter
Necklace, Brooch, Earrings: Etsy  (Marvin's Corner, Luxulite, IncredInedible)
Heels: BAIT Footwear

~Bye bye for now!