Can you believe this?

One of my students is going to THE GRAMMY'S this weekend! As a seat-filler. As in, a person who fills a seat when people vacate those seats to accept awards or perform. Who even knew they had such a thing?

Crazy.

Any guesses on who she'll rub elbows with? I'm thinking Lady GaGa.

Tornado Memories

It's yet another February 5th, meaning yet another year to be exceedingly grateful for God's protection over us when the tornado ripped through Union's campus and the Jackson community. I've written about it just about every year (like here and here), so I've aired my thoughts several times.

This year, I thought I'd leave you with a little funny moment from the night of the tornado:

A dear friend of mine (who shall remain unnamed, but I bet you could figure it out) and I were sitting in a packed hallway, waiting to hear what would be our next move that evening and trying not to relive every second of the tornado. After sitting in silence for a few minutes, she turned to me and said, "The GOOD news about today," (I was a little confused, trying to see what could have been considered good...you know, other than being alive), "is that I'm wearing my new underwear."

Way to look on the bright side, buddy. I'm glad we made it through the tornado together.

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful." Hebrews 10:23

The Muggle-born Challenge

I realize that this one looks surprisingly like The Pooch Challenge, but in real life, there was much more of a difference. Don't be confused!

Amiee and I decided to do a theme month of characters this month. These characters aren't actually Disney, but they're ones we like a lot. This was my outfit this week:

She's actually one of my very favorite characters in literature and on film, although I probably don't look all that different in my character get-up than I do in real life. This week's character was...

Hermione Granger from Harry Potter! Unfortunately, I've been pretty sick this week, and wasn't up to creating a truly stunning or jaw-dropping Hermione outfit. If I'd been able to channel my inner Hermione, I'd probably have been able to transfigure my outfit into something marvelous, but I had a cold. No magical channeling for me this week. Here's the breakdown:

Character: Hermione from the Harry Potter series

Outfit:

*Gray sweater is from New York & Co.

*White shirt was a $4 or $5 score from Ross last fall

*Black pants have been around since about 2008. They even survived living in Ukraine for 2 years.

*The gold necklace is actually from Harry Potter World in Orlando (thanks, Santa!) and is a time turner, which is a magical object that makes its first appearance in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which is my favorite of the books.

*The book is (I think) one of my copies of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (book 2). It seemed appropriate, as Hermione is always reading. If only I'd had a copy of Hogwarts: A History.

Disneybound inspiration board:

My outfit looks almost nothing like this one...BUT, I did use my red purse, and my lanyard for my keys at work are on a strip of scarlet and gold-striped HP fabric. Points for that?

Be sure to check out Amiee's character outfit here. It was a great one!

Here's hoping you all felt healthier than I did this week...

Images from here and here.

Opinions?

I just finished reading the first book in The Hunger Games trilogy (by Suzanne Collins), which, incidentally, is called The Hunger Games. I put it off for a while, but I was stuck in bed with a nasty virus for the past few days and decided to bite the bullet. So, I'm wondering...have any of you read it and what were your thoughts and opinions? I'm bursting with thoughts, but I thought I'd throw the question out there.

Anybody want to chime in?

I've started working on the second one. It's quite the thought-provoker...

The Conscience Challenge

Good news! Amiee is back in the country! She has quite a story to tell about her adventures...hopefully, she'll be able to start chronicling them soon. Since she's gotten back, she has been jet-lagged, sick, and finishing up projects from the trip to turn in for class credit. And, she's also been doing all this from the comfort of the air mattress in our spare room/office. Bless her. (Qualification: we have a fancy shmancy air mattress. It's sort of like this one.) I don't know when she'll be able to get her character pictures up, but keep checking in here for her updates.

Even though she's been traipsing around Italy, I, as you know, have been firmly committed to our cause. And by "cause," I really just mean project. Here's my outfit from this week:

Note: I pose very awkwardly in pictures by myself. It's going to be a long year, if I don't learn how to pose better. This outfit looked a LOT better in person. Yikes.

This is another old school character that many of the younger generations may not even recognize. Also, I should note that I don't particularly like this movie, as it scared me quite a lot as a child. However, I like this character, and I had the clothing for it. Guesses? No?

Jiminy Cricket! I did not have the top hat, unfortunately, but I did have quite a few of the other pieces, as you can see in this handy-dandy breakdown:

Character: Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio

Outfit:
*Black blazer is circa 2006. I've actually worn it fewer times than a friend of mine from college; she needed one for several projects in college and ended up borrowing and wearing it more than me. I'm fairly certain that she actually had it in her room when the tornado hit, was able to get it back, and had it dry-cleaned before returning it. She's a great girl. Thanks to this project, I'm rediscovering pieces like this.
*Orange shirt is uncannily similar to the Disneybound board. I got it this past fall for about five dolla.
*Green scarf used to be Amiee's, but around Christmas, we went through each other's "I'm-going-to-give-this-away-unless-you-want-it" stuff, and I snagged this.
*Green earrings (that you can't see) are from Steinmart.
*Trouser jeans were a purchase near the very end of December 2011- before the No Buy rule took effect. Whew! (wipes brow dramatically)

Disneybound inspiration board:
I wore boots instead of Oxfords (mostly because that's what I have), but I think the top part of my outfit was pretty similar. Woo hoo!
Out of curiosity, were any of you Pinocchio fans? Or did you perhaps find the whole whale situation a bit frightening?

Also, we've decided that the month of February will be a theme month. It will also be a little bit off-book. Anybody want to take a guess? I dare ya.

Images from here and here.

Thoughts on wardrobe...

Not the Narnian kind, although I'm ALWAYS open to discussing thoughts on wardrobes and Narnia. I have a thing about it.

A professor at Union utilizes his Facebook account well, I think. He is consistently posting links to thought-provoking articles that help keep the ol' thinker sharp. Because he's a political science scholar, many of his posts are political in nature, but he also posts non-political articles. My theory is that he likes to find articles that tend to polarize people, thus sparking the intelligent debate that professors seem to love so dearly. He recently posted this one that invited lots of thought and processing. It's long, but I found it to be very interesting, especially as this year has Amiee and me thinking a little extra about our clothing. I know it's very much an issue in churches these days (and perhaps also out of churches, as it tends to be an issue that non-church goers see as a point of judgment by those within the church...points to whomever can decipher that thought) and found it to be a good read. I'm interested in any thoughts you'd like to share!

He also posted this one that I have no real connection with, really, but thought was entertaining. Happy reading!

The Pooch Challenge

I would like to interject that "the pooch" challenge is in reference to my character inspiration, not a comment on trying to get rid of the effects of too much Christmas eating or anything.

This week's character is ever-so-slightly more obscure than usual, and my outfit isn't quite as similar to the Disneybound moodboard as I usually go for. If you actually guessed my character correctly on the first try and without peeking, I'd be super impressed. I would also perhaps give you a prize.

The gray-black-white color palette was SO easy to pull out of my closet; I love my neutrals. This week, I was going for:

Tramp from Lady and the Tramp. Disclaimer: I was not going for the description of "tramp" or "trampy." I know I wore my tall boots, but come on, y'all. I was going for "classy street dog." How'd I do? Also, no one chimed in last week with any thoughts on what kind of creature Beast actually is...

Anyway, here's the weekly breakdown:
Character: Tramp from Lady and the Tramp
Outfit:
*Gray jacket from Santa this year (he got it from Dressbarn, if anyone was interested. On sale, too).
*White top...is the same as the top for Beast last week. It was clean this week. Promise.
*Black skirt is from (are you ready for this?) Old Navy, 2000. That's right. I've had that skirt for about 12 years. Am I being judged by anyone right now?
*Leggings are from last year, and the boots have been mine since 2008.
Disneybound inspiration board:

See what I mean about my outfit not really being similar to the board at all? In essence, I took the color palette and the color palette only. I did add my own touch to the accessories: the necklace I'm wearing is a necklace I got in Senegal that has my name on it in Arabic. Sort of like an identification collar without actually being a collar. If I get lost, at least whoever finds me will know what to call me. If they read Arabic, of course.
Any other Lady and the Tramp fans out there? I really loved it as a child. Jacques (the Scottie) was my favorite. And, because I was a child, I literally thought the parents' names were "Jim Dear" and "Darling."

Don't forget to stop by Amiee's blog sometime next week for her updates after her Italy trip!
Images from here and here.