Halloween Prep: Claire Underwood Costume

Tweet this!

It's never too early to pick your Halloween costume...

I am a major dress up fan, and a huge fan of Halloween in particular. Every year for the past few years, I have decided on my costume in AUGUST and started prepping for a unique outfit.

Last year, I was Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones. Before that, I was Effie Trinkett from Hunger Games, with my husband being Seneca Crane (the beard!). Before that, there was an Avatar character and a disco stick (Lady Gaga reference). Basically, I follow the trends, and I choose a character from my favorite movie/show/some other pop  culture reference.

I must have some kind of "blonde envy." This will be my third blonde wig in three years, so I am growing a collection over here.

Why do I need a blonde wig? This year, I am planning to embody my favorite style icon from the past year or so: Claire Underwood. If you don't understand her fashion icon status, read this Buzzfeed article and weep. She is from House of Cards and she is amazing.

Characteristics of Claire's Style:

• Chic, short blonde hair
• Bold, boxy glasses
• Slim, well-tailored dresses in dark colors
• High neckline on tailored dresses
• Black heels 
• Expensive black bag (she usually rolls with YSL)

How to Nail It With Costume Pieces:

1. Jones New York Sheath Dress ($$) -- if you look better in gray than black
2. Merona Sleeveless Dress ($) -- for the price conscious - this is on sale for $13 right now!
3. Sassy Synthetic Capless Pixie Short Wig
4. Warby Parker Beckett Thick Frames
5. Fiji Sleeveless Dress ($$$) -- for showing off your arms!
6. Michael Kors Leather Sheath Dress ($$) -- a little more edgy, which Claire does occasionally do
7. Tahari Cali Sheath Dress ($$) -- adds some waist action

And for my husband? Time to find a way to turn him into Frank...

A Wedding Filled Weekend

Tweet this!

This weekend was full of two things: Wedding planning and relaxing. I know, you're already skeptical. Those two things don't really go together.

Well, they didn't. I just happened to squeeze them both into one weekend.

My weekend kicked off with one of the best things ever: Facetime with my momma and the weirdest welsh corgi to ever walk the earth. Her name is Fatbooty and, yes, she turned back and looked at the camera/phone when I called her name. Screenshot time. I'm a pinball wizard.

Friday night was extremely low key. I don't really even remember a whole lot of what went down. Basically, it was a lot of couch lounging and TV watching. We finished House of Cards (if you have Netflix, WATHCH IT! It's like Revenge, Boardwalk Empire, and Newsroom had a baby. A beautiful baby boy). Then, we watched The Americans (also awesome... so far, at least) and started Shameless.

We went to bed fairly early, which was perfect, because I had something big on the schedule for the morning...

A 9 mile run. Because I'm super ADD, I decided that if I was about to run over an hour, I needed some entertainment. HBO's mobile app (HBO Go) is currently running "This Means War." It looks kind of dumb, but I've been wanting to see it since I saw the previews. The combination of secret agents, good looking guys, and romantic comedy pretty much takes everything I love about movies and packs it into 90 minutes.

It was awesome. And I got to 9.3 miles before hopping off the treadmill.

I went home and had a quick shower. I was still getting ready (oops!) when our Best Man arrived, so I threw some make up on and we headed out the door. My fiance, our Best Man, and I went over to The Twisted Spoke for bunch.

Oh. My. Gawd. It was so delicious. We weren't hungover at all, but I was in a somewhat similar situation: After running almost 10 miles, I was starving and pretty dehydrated. Two things that tend to accompany a hangover. So, I opted for a Smoky Bloody Mary with a beer back and this delicious gem...

A breakfast sandwich on a pretzel bun. For the record, I kind of have a love affair with pretzel buns. I hardly ever order burgers or sandwiches or pretty much anything on a bun... but, when I do, I always opt for the upgrade. The menu actually had this breakfast sandwich on rye bread, but hey, when you've got prezel bun on the mind, you gotta just go with it. So, I asked them to make an exception. It was mind blowing. I'm not even lying.




After brunch, we hit up our wedding venue to have a little chat with someone there. We needed some catering vendor advice and had a few other random questions, so we just set up a meeting with Kate and got things done. As we were talking to her, I totally busted out my iPad and typed away like I was actually somebody important. What can I say? I needed to get all the details down.

Another thing that was pretty fun was peeking into our venue while they were setting up for another wedding. Ours won't be set up the same way, but it is definitely interesting to get another perspective and see what another couple's vision is.

Post-Bridgeport Art Center, we hit up CostCo. Our bill was just barely over a hundred  and I was insanely proud of that. It's dang hard to walk out of CostCo without spending your life's savings.

Sunday was also a pretty "chill" day. I had some consulting work to get done, so we spent a few hours with Shameless on TV and me glued to my computer. 

Later, my mom came down, and we went to Soul City Church. The message, as usual, was awesome. Then, we went to Branch 27 for some dinner and wedding talk.

I had a glass of bubbly while we looked over a binder - yes, BINDER - that my mom made for the wedding. More to come on that soon (wedding update tomorrow!).

We may have stayed an extra hour to have our bread pudding (free with a check-in on Yelp!) and watch the awards. Loved it.

How was your weekend?

Do you make binders for things you need to get organized? Any other suggestions?