April Ludgate Inspired

Happy we're-losing-one-of-the-greatest-shows-of-all-time day! As you can imagine from the amount of times I've written about Parks and Rec on here (and all of my social media accounts), I am devastated that the show is ending tonight. I started the show during its second or third season, and it's been one of my absolute favorites since. The show means so much to me, as it's been a constant in my life and the my go-to thing to watch when I'm feeling down. It's not only hilarious and smart, but it also has some of the greatest characters on television. I often see Parks and Rec referred to as "friend porn," and I've never seen a description more accurate. It features well-defined characters who genuinely love each other, couples that support each other in everything they do, and strong, healthy friendships. You'd also be hard pressed to find a more feminist show on television (although if you're looking for another one, I like to tell everyone I know to watch Battlestar Galactica for great female characters). I'm honestly glad that it's ending, because seven seasons is enough for any show, but I am not prepared for tonight at all. As I've mentioned, my friends have been doing character theme dinners while we watch, and we've saved the best for last: Ben & Leslie, which will consist of calzones for dinner and waffles with whipped cream for dessert.

To celebrate the end of an era, I'm dubbing this week "Parks and Rec Week" on the blog. Today, I'm wearing an outfit inspired by April Ludgate, who has killer style. April has a love for cardigans, trendy but professional separates, flats, and of course, dogs. I loosely based this outfit on one of hers that you can find below, but I included a couple of accessories that she might not wear. Whitney got me this Cones of Dunshire pin and Ron Swanson tote bag for my birthday last year, and even though April would never admit to liking a Ben Wyatt board game, I couldn't resist. Side note: I cannot do deadpan for pictures to save my life. Instead, I just tried to look annoyed for a few pictures to capture her spirit. I failed. 

Collection of White Dreses

If you're wondering how many white dresses I own, I want you to know that you don't want the answer. It's too many. It's more than most people feel the need to own, which is probably one at most. I have no idea why I'm always drawn to them, and I certainly tell myself that I don't need another one whenever I get a new one, but there's no going back now. It's a collection, or at least that's what I tell myself to justify the amount of money I've spent altogether. This one, though, is probably my favorite. I picked it up at TJ Maxx in the fall, and it's everything I want out of a dress. It's extremely versatile, has an A-line skirt, it's comfortable, and it has pockets. It's perfect in every way, especially with a red statement necklace and thrifted wedges. 

So far this week has been exhausting since I picked up an extra shift at the restaurant, am working on some side projects/freelance gigs, and finally starting to pack before the move. And by that, I mean that I'm staring at the boxes in my room and pretending like I'm filling them. It'll get done one of these days. Of course, everything gets put on hold on Tuesday nights, since my weekly Parks and Rec night with my friends always takes priority. Yesterday's theme dinner was "all the bacon and eggs we had." We technically already a night honoring Ron Swanson (steak and potatoes) and were planning on doing salads for Chris and Ann, but when we had the idea to do a breakfast night, we couldn't resist. It was delicious and the episodes were near perfect, as this entire season has been. It makes me want to cry every time. 

40

All cards on the table: I'm not really paying much attention while I'm writing this. I had planned on using Sunday night to write this post, be productive, and go to sleep early, but that didn't exactly happen. Despite my plan to record the SNL 40th Anniversary show and watch it the next day, I couldn't resist watching it live. So, I'm writing this during commercials and only half paying attention the words that I'm typing. 

With that said, I'll keep this short. This top looks almost exactly like one I drooled over on multiple websites a while back, but I actually found it for $4 at Goodwill a few months ago. I've struggled to figure out how to style it since I got it, but since yesterday felt more like summer than usual, it seemed like a fitting time to try it. I wear this Fleet Collection skirt at least every other week, and I'm convinced that every shirt looks good with it. It's one of my absolute favorite pieces in my wardrobe.

Cutout

Is it Monday already? These weekends (and just weeks in general) have been flying by too fast. But anyway, here's a fairly simple outfit I wore yesterday. I got this top recently, and I love how the cutouts are done in a classy way. It's such a good, versatile piece that will go with everything, but is completely unique. It makes for a perfect "winter" piece right now while I'm living in 70-80 degree weather. I guess tights weather is gone for good, but it was nice while it lasted.

I wore this yesterday to hang out with two of my best friends. I'll be honest, having everything change in my life suddenly isn't getting any easier. In addition to my parents selling the house I grew up in and dealing with potential buyers coming in while I'm home, I also have to deal with one of my closest friends, Jon, moving. He's moving to Washington today, so I pretty much spent my entire weekend with him, putting off saying goodbye for as long as possible. It was tough. I'm not a particularly emotional person, but goodbyes always seem to get me. I can already tell that I'm going to be a wreck when I have to say goodbye to this house this month. Is it too much to ask for everything to just stay the same forever? That's a reasonable request, right?

Fancy Party

Here's another quick post that I'm writing late at night while half asleep. I went to another taping of @Midnight, where I got o see Jermaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords fame (which, if you're a fan of, we're automatically friends). It was only my second time seeing a taping, but I watch the show almost every day, and it was by far one of the funniest episodes I've ever seen. I'm not sure how they're going to edit it into 22 minutes, because we were there for two hours, hence why I got home late.

I'm staying up to write more, though, because I have to tell you about this dress. The kind folks over at Azazie sent it to me, and I'm in love. I wasn't too sure about choosing a dress since Azazie sells bridal and bridesmaids dresses, but the bridesmaid dresses are so cute that I knew I could find one that would work for any sort of dressy occasion. Plus, every dress on the site comes in a giant selection of colors and free custom sizing. Let's get my only two complaints out of the way, as they are minor; I was a little disappointed that this dress ended up looking more red when I ordered burgundy, but it's so vibrant and beautiful that I really can't complain. Even though I did custom sizing, the dress still doesn't fit perfectly, which is probably more on me than Azazie. The biggest issue is that the straps are too large (it's not noticeable in the photos) and would fit someone much taller than me better, but that shouldn't be too difficult to get altered.

Other than those two minor issues, I have nothing but good things to say about this dress and Azazie. The first thing I noticed is that it's incredibly well made. It's the kind of dress that will last me a while, and everything down to the garment bag it came in is amazing quality. Though I won't be wearing this in any weddings, for a $99 bridesmaid dress, it's a great choice. I'm hoping to wear it to a wedding, though, so I'm hoping it still fits relatively well by the time my friend Jeremy's wedding rolls around in July. Did I mention that this dress has pockets? Because it has pockets. I also want to mention how easy to navigate the Azazie website is. It's easy to filter by color, price, hem length, and more, which must be extremely helpful for those planning weddings. All in all, I'm more than impressed. As I inch closer to the middle of my '20s, I'm sure this dress will come in handy for the plethora of weddings I'll be attending.

Go Sports

I don't have much to say because I'm writing this late on Sunday night, and I'm going to crash at any moment. If I haven't made it obvious yet, I did not watch the Super Bowl yesterday and instead went to the movies. When you're not a sports fan, Super Bowl Sunday is the best for going to normally crowded places. A couple of friends and I saw Selma finally, which completely lived up to the hype. I won't get into all of the politics surrounding the film concerning the Oscar nominations, but now that I've seen it I can finally offer my opinion and say that it was fantastic. I was mostly impressed by the cast, and all those reviews about David Oyelowo's performance being incredibly were correct. It was much more satisfying than watching a football game in my opinion, but then again, most things are. 

I got this dress on Wednesday from Urban Outfitters with a gift card I had gotten for Christmas. I don't really have money to buy things right now, but it was nice to have a much-needed shopping trip with my friend Casey. Most of my time is spent surrounded by guys (like being at a party where I'm the only girl the night I wore this on Friday), so it's nice to have a little girl time every once in a while, even if I am bad at making girl friends. I loved how this dress paired with this cardigan, but I'm pretty excited to wear it without a belt and with a lace bandeau underneath during the summer.