hollie takes notes: September 2011

A Special Guest is Posting Today!

Last night (weird because I am scheduling this post...) I took off for a long weekend trip with my manfriend! I'll give you a few hints as to where we've gone to.

1. We had to fly there.

2. It's within 1500 miles of San Diego any which way.

3. It's a city that ends in -er.

I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Anyways, wonderful Alex at Mutual Weirdness has graciously taken over my blog while I'm away. AND she's combined two of my favorite things!! And you thought maybe I wouldn't talk about football this week ;)

Enjoy!!

Hey y’al!!

Alex here, visiting from the land of Mutual Weirdness.

I’m so excited to be here on the lovely Hollie Ann’s blog.

She’s such a doll!!

And since she loves both fashion and football, I present to you an everyday girl’s inside look at college football attire!

I went to a ginormous, tradition-heavy school in Texas.
Texas A&M University, to be exact.

Students stand throughout the entire football game.
Four hours. In the heat. Seemingly never-ending.

So naturally, my outfit of choice was something as comfortable and cool as possible.

Think Nike athletic shorts and a t-shirt. Or, if I was feeling daring, denim shorts and a t-shirt.

You get the picture.

Then I graduated. And no longer had to sit in the student section. Or, in my case, never had to attend the games again [I’m a bad Texas native, so sue me].
Thus began my illustrious career in tailgating.

No longer having to worry about comfort and constant murder from the heat did wonders for my outfit choices come game day.

(Nothing says class like a giant mimosa)

I did the previously unthinkable and purchased a game day dress or two. I wore cute tank tops instead of t-shirts. I PUT ON MAKE UP! This was a big deal. I was clearly growing up.

Now A&M has joined the SEC, a conference notorious for girls wearing heels and pearls to football games.

Credit

I may have evolved from athletic shorts and t-shirts, but I don’t think I’m quite ready for football meets debutante ball.

Sun+beer+BBQ does not bode well for a classy outfit. Am I right?

Since I’ve proved to myself that I am capable of fashion change ups, maybe I’ll just take this new transition one step at a time.

But, I swear to y’all, you will never find me in heels at a football game or tailgate.
I’m just not that talented.

Thanks for having me, Hollie Ann!!

Confession

I never went to a high school dance. Not a homecoming. Not a fall ball. Not my senior prom.

I don't exactly regret it because at the time I didn't have a huge desire to go. I didn't cry when dance night came, I was out with my friends. And I had fun. However, I do remember thinking maybe I should just go because it's one of those "milestones" that everyone goes through. It's what you're supposed to do, right? Sometimes, I still wonder if I should have made it important to go.

I know, you're asking yourself but why?

Let's back up. Everyone has an awkward stage. Mine lasted from 8th to 10th grade. My freshman year I hung out with the "bad girls" who most of the time weren't that "bad" to begin with. Most of those girls ended up moving at the end of my freshman year and I didn't really have a new friend group at the start of the following school year. Awkward girls feel awkward at dances.

Needless to say, my sophomore year of school I met a few girls that I really liked. Funny thing is, we're still all friends ten years later! I met my first boyfriend the summer before my junior year. Then, he moved to prep school on the East Coast. TRAGEDY when you're 15. I never went my junior year because I didn't want to go with anyone else. And, my close circle of friends didn't go either. I never felt like I was missing something my best friends were doing.

My senior year I dated a guy that had already graduated high school. Plus, I thought I was too cool for school. I felt like most of the kids who were going to "peak" in high school were worried about prom and I wasn't going to "peak" back then. So I didn't go. Neither did my group of close friends. Our weekends were filled with our friends from a rivalry school.

When I worked in the kids department at Nordstrom I LOVED helping teenagers find their dance outfits. I loved the sparkle in their eye when they found that perfect dress. The confidence they got to let go of being a teenager and just have fun. It's moments like that made me wonder if I missed out.

(Mom, if you're reading this...I don't want to hear "I told you so" or any form of it!)

If I were a high school student going to homecoming this is how I'd do it:

Did you go to homecoming? What was your favorite dance outfit in high school?

How To: SCARVES!

Happy Wednesday, friends!!

It's another pinteresting Wednesday over at the Vintage Apple and here on my blog!

Check out the link up below at The Vintage Apple...

Today's theme:

Scarves and different ways to tie them!

Source: the-parisienne.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: weardrobe.com via Jillian on Pinterest

Source: mommy-chic.blogspot.com via Kate on Pinterest

Source: 100layercake.com via Hannah on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: simplesong.typepad.com via Maren on Pinterest

Source: sewmanyways.blogspot.com via Pam on Pinterest

Source: thecraftpatch.blogspot.com via Jackie*Embracing My Blessings on Pinterest

Source: madebylex.com via Holly on Pinterest

What's your favorite?

What you're about to see may or may not inflict extreme pain.

I'm about to show you some things that are haunting me.

No, not the sixth sense kinda stuff.

No, not a secret zombie village.

WARNING:

Keep reading and you may start spending.

I'm absolutely truly, madly, deeply (yes, I went there) in love with the Anthropologie fall collection.

Somebody give me a winning lottery ticket NOW!

My fantasy closet has these:

I had a dream about this yellow jacket two nights ago. HELP!

*all images and items from Anthro*

What items are haunting you right now?

It was a weekend.

This weekend ruined me.

And by ruined I mean it was amazingly fun but not relaxing in the least!

Friday we celebrated my boyfriend's last day at his job (and opportunity at the new job!) at a micro brewery called Green Flash with his former coworkers. I was the DD so I just had a pint of my favorite beer and called it quits. Plus the anticipation of the rest of the weekend kept Friday low key as I don't binge drink that often anymore ;)

(KIDDING!)

Saturday was my best friend in the whole world's birthday! I went to F21 and got her this little outfit as a gift.

We went to the yard house that night as a surprise! The restaurant sells HALF YARDS of beer...

This is the birthday girl! Isn't she cute?!

Here's myself and the man waiting for our delicious dinner to arrive.

Unfortunately I didn't take any foodie pics of our BBQ chicken pizza or Spicy Thai chicken pizza! We waited an hour for a table of 8 (they don't take reservations on the weekend) and another thirty minutes or so for dinner. I was starving! I'm the grumpiest person when I'm hungry but somehow with such great company and a wonderful occasion I held it together this time ;)

Sunday consisted of trying out the new (to me) Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat beer and watching football with another girlfriend of mine!

Eventful and exciting NFL highlights:

The Bills beat the Pats!!!

The Lions won in OT vs the Vikings!!

The Chargers played horribly and somehow snuck past the Chiefs for a win. (No exclamation point for you guys this week.)

Best. Beer. Ever.

What did you do this weekend?

A second post means an award, duh.

Lauren of OK Lauren gave this lovely liebster blog award to me!

Lauren is crazy. I'm crazy. We're in love. (Don't get it twisted...I have a boyfriend and she is married with a child okay!)

Anyhow...

Rules of accepting the Liebster Blog Award are as follows:
1. Accept the award and thank the blogger who gave it to you
2. Pass it to 3-5 blogs with less than 200 followers and tell them that they've received it
3. Link back to the person who gave it to you.

Award #1:

Anna of And Everything Nice. Anna posts really fun goodies...the only problem with her is that she really has a thing for Burberry. And now so do I. Check her out, she has great style.

Award #2:

Brandi at Home Team Dreams. You may have read the guest post Brandi did for me while I was in Hawaii. If you haven't, read it here! Brandi is utterly hilarious. I talk about her in "real" life to people who will listen to me ramble about the blog world. She's a gem.

Award #3:

Hillary at Happily Ever Healthy and I are new friends but I've already stalked her blog too much. She got red hunter rain boots from her birthday and I am so so jealous. Reading her blog is like texting your best friend. It's so normal to read her posts...it's like you already know her. Go now.

Anyone know what liebster means? I know liebe is love in German. So hey, congrats love-sters?

It Means This.

This week I've been thinking a lot about the meaning of...

Courage

photo credit

I wouldn't consider myself a cowardly lion (pun intended....) as I often find myself taking a stand for charities and other social issues that I find needing a voice. I take stands for the underdog, and I take stands when people try to mess with my friends or family. Sometimes I'll pull a premature Mufasa if you're bothering my brothers. Don't mess!

However, when it comes to standing up for myself I occasionally feel myself bound to these straps of control. At work, I can be taken advantage of and I won't say anything. I don't want to be on bad terms with my job, right? Sometimes I over think whether or not I'm right before I say something to someone who hurt my feelings. Why? Because I don't want to be that whining person who is going on about nothing. Let's face it. I'm a girl and I'm emotional at times. I recognize that and in my stretch to be a better, more logical person, I decide not to say anything at all. Fear of drama is not speaking up. What does not speaking up for yourself do? Not a whole lot. Most of those situations arise again.

Sometimes, I second guess my ideas in class. I find myself hesistating to raise my hand in college incase I'm wrong. I'm shy with public speaking. In fact I cried in front of the whole school in my 4th grade speech campaign for school secretary. But, a lot of the times I'm happily surprised that I'm onto the teacher's next point. Where is my voice? Courage is having a voice that is heard. Sometimes I second guess my own voice in a political setting. I tell myself "Hey wait a second, what kind of knowledge do you have about politics?" In a political debate I find my excuse for excluding myself from the conversation is that I don't know enough about it. Dear self, SO LEARN ENOUGH.

Courage is speaking your mind even if it's not what others want to hear. Courage is recognizing you're wrong if need be.

There are times that I slow down on my goals. I get in ruts and decide temporarily that it'd be easier if I didn't try as hard. It'd be easier if I accepted a comfortable job and a comfortable life. My goals may change but I still need to work towards my new goal.

Courage is telling yourself, "Get the hell up! You're doing this."

It's not worrying about where your decisions are going to take you. Yes, they are going to separate you from your bubble life with your friends. Yes, you and your friends may grow apart (that doesn't mean you can't still be friends!) Yes, you may find that you don't know who you are anymore. It's courage that let's us change ourselves into a better person. Courage is discipling YOURSELF. No one else is going to make you do it except yourself. The only person who HAS to like you, is yourself.

Courage is being fearless.

What does courage mean to you?

PS-Interested in a button swap sponsorship?
A few of my faves like MRS T!, Sweet Ashley, and Miss Ashlyn have done this on their blogs and I think it's a great idea! I may have some of you already over there on the side just for sh*ts and giggles (okay I played it cool, I REALLY enjoy the ones I already have over there!) but I'd love to add some more.

Email me at hollietakesnotes@gmail.com so we can swap links!

We can also chat about guest posts and other fun creative link ups.

Let's be friends already, okay?

<3

It's Blog Swapping Day!

A special treat today, friends! It's a blog swap with the wonderful Meg of Henning Love!

Take it away, Meg!

Hi everyone, I'm Meg from henning love and so happy to be blog swapping with Hollie today. She and I have become friends through another blogger friend and you know those girls you know you were just meant to be friends with and you click right away, yup that is how Hollie and I are! Hope you enjoy our swap today :-)

Since we both live in Southern California, we decided to talk about what it is like to live here.

I came to Southern California to attend college and haven't left since so that is coming up on 10 years. Wow, already, man the time flies!I always knew that I wanted to go to school in California somewhere, but wasn't set on living in the Southern California area, it just happened to be where the school is so there I went!

Living in Southern California is definitely a lot of fun, I love the weather here, it can be pretty hot in the summer especially where I live, which is right next to the foothills so we don't get a good breeze and the heat kinda settles into our area. But the winters are wonderful because we don't get snow, a little bit of cold weather, overall very enjoyable.

I don't live in downtown LA or a cool, funky part of LA, sorry if anyone of you were hoping for that. I live in the suburbs in the eastern most part of the county, near the Raging Waters water park in San Dimas if any of you remember that from the movie, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

However, that doesn't stop me from getting out there and exploring all that southern California has to offer! I love being able to go hiking in the hills near my home, or going down to the beach to ride bikes.

One thing about Southern California that brings me down is the traffic. I don't like having to plan my daily schedule around the traffic, say for example if I took a day off from work and wanted to go out somewhere like down to the beach. It is a pain in the neck, the traffic in southern California but I refuse to let it run my life

so I avoid it! Fortunately, my morning commute is only 15 minutes and I never get stuck in traffic :-)

Living in Southern California, there is always something going on and you can never find yourself bored. Because all the cities are stacked right next to each other, you can drive and continue driving through a new town without realizing it. One of my favorite summer activities as I posted about is going to an outdoor concert sponsored by a local city. All the surrounding cities do this each summer and I knew what night of the week each city holds their summer concert so if I can looking for something free to do, all I have to know is what city the free concert is at and we go!

One of my favorite things about living in Southern California is the ease is taking a weekend trip up to the mountains to Big Bear or down to lovely San Diego, which is definitely one of my favorite cities. Whether you are a beach or mountain person, southern California will definitely allow you either of those choices and it doesn't take you very long to get there!

I like southern California for the variety of activities available, whether you are a sports fan and want to see a baseball, hockey, basketball, soccer or football(only in San Diego) game, or you want to hang out at the beach. You will never grow tired of things to do in the southern California area.
Living in Southern California has definitely been a great experience, with plenty to do! Of course the food is great too, like Mexican food. I love my Mexican food either it is just chips and salsa