I Heart Turtlenecks

About two weeks ago I decided it was finally time to give in to the cold weather and put away my sandals and capris.  Out came the sweaters and boots and scarves.  Every time I do a closet switcheroo, I like to also do a little purging.  This go-round, I did a LOT of purging.  And a couple of my friends benefitted from it. But all that's not the point of this post.  The point?  I have a lot of turtlenecks.  So many so  that Doc called me out on it when I was going through my winter wardrobe.  I don't have THAT many, I thought.  But after looking at all my piles of clothes lying around, I started thinking that maybe he's right.  So what if I have a lot of shirts that require me to fold down the collar in order to see.  There's nothing wrong with that, right?

It didn't take long for the conversation to shift to how many days I could probably go with only wearing turtlenecks.  "I bet you could go months!" said Doc.  Surely not months, that seems like a lot.

The other day I was scanning through the pictures on my computer looking for something and what did I notice?  I really do wear turtlenecks a lot.  See for yourself...

Senior year of college, hanging out at my friend Emily's apartment:

With Doc in Cleveland for a wedding:

Trip to Vegas with the Kinsers:

Same turtleneck a couple weeks later for homecoming 2007:

Tacky Christmas Party...this turtleneck helped me win the Queen of Tacky trophy (thanks for letting me borrow it, Mom):

New Year's Eve party at our house:

In front of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Montreal:

More sight seeing in Montreal:

At the wedding that brought us to Montreal (apparently I only packed t-necks that weekend):

At Doc's birthday brunch in 2008, holding newborn Wesley:

Christmas in Indiana, after completing our 1000 piece puzzle:

Girls' weekend, 2009 (gotta love a timer shot):

Lambuth homecoming, 2009:

Christmas party at our house:

At dinner in Blowing Rock, NC:

After looking through all of these, I thought maybe I only wore turtlenecks when I travel.  But then I realized it's probably just that I only take pictures when I travel.  It's probably safe to assume that I wear them when I'm not traveling, too.  Can you blame me, though?  Turtlenecks rock - they're easy to accessorize, they hide my winter paleness, and they keep me warm.  Turtlenecks are so awesome that when Minnie was little, I even made her wear them.

I mentioned a few blog posts ago that I was working on another chance for you readers to win something fun, and now that time has come.  Doc and I have decided to put the question to the test.  Just how long can I go with only wearing turtlenecks?  You know I love a challenge.

To compete for the totally awesome prize (not sure what it is yet, but it will be totally awesome), all you have to do is enter your guess in the comments section for how many days you think I can go before running out of turtlenecks.

Of course, I have some rules I'm going to follow.

1 - Credit for one turtleneck per day, and it must be worn for at least 3 hours.  (This means that if I wear a turtleneck to work one day but then change clothes for dinner that night, I don't have to put on another turtleneck because I won't get credit for it.)

2 - All turtlenecks count - regular, mock, floppy, sweaters, dresses, cotton, ribbed, cute, ugly.  If there's any question of whether or not a shirt is actually a turtleneck, I'll leave it to Doc to make the call.

3 - Challenge starts this Monday, November 22.  No new turtlenecks can be purchased during the challenge.

A couple other things to note - I'll be documenting my progress in pictures.  Be looking for the turtleneck challenge tab at the top of the home screen to keep up with it.  No, I have not already counted how many there are.  I honestly have no idea how long I'll make it, but if I had to guess I'd say two weeks will be easy.  Yes, I do realize this is completely stupid and ridiculous.  Anything to keep you entertained though, right?

Think Happy Thoughts

It's cold and grey outside.  I really hate being cold.  Like really, really hate it.  It makes getting out of bed harder.  It makes leaving the house for work harder.  It gets dark early at night so all I want to do is curl up on the couch and be warm and lazy.  Today, since it's waaaaaaaay to early in the season to start having the winter blues (SAD), I'm focusing on the things that come with winter that I do enjoy.

  • Cute scarves, mittens, hats
  • Fires in fireplaces
  • Hot chocolate
  • Thanksgiving
  • Getting to see family
  • Christmas
  • Christmas decorations
  • Christmas programs
  • Driving tours to look at Christmas lights
  • Christmas Eve at my parents' house
  • Birthday cake (four family birthdays)
  • Boots with leggings
  • Presents (getting and giving)
  • Chili and soup
  • Turtlenecks
  • Movie nights
  • New Year's Eve parties
  • Dirty Santa with friends
  • Trips to IN
  • Peanut brittle
  • Quiet work days
  • Snow days (a girl can dream)

What am I missing?  I know there is so much more.  What do you look forward to most about the winter season?

Back to Reality

I guess I forgot to mention last week that we were heading to the beach!  Actually, we went to Florida.  It was too cold to spend much time at the beach.  My parents, Doc and I took a long-weekend vacation to the Rosemary/Seacrest/Seaside area.  We spent three nights there and guess how many pictures I have to show you? Zero.  I spent three nights at a farm and had enough pictures for eight blog posts.  That's not so much the case here...I took a weekend off from lugging the camera around. Well, ok, I do have one picture.  I took this one with my phone.  See?  Proof: we were near the beach.

 

We had a jam-packed weekend.  My parents had never seen this area of Florida so we tried to cram in every little part of it that we could.  We toured everywhere from Panama City Beach to Rosemary to Seacrest to the San Destin outlet malls.  And while our bank accounts may be hurting just a little bit, we did make progress on all of our Christmas shopping.  The guys managed to squeeze in rounds of golf at two different golf courses. 

And that was the extent of our vacation.  We ate and shopped and golfed.  And then we drove and drove and drove home.  Why is it the trip home always feels longer?

Now we're back to reality and I do not like it.  Because of the time change I have to turn my headlights on when driving home from work.  There should be a rule where it can't be that dark that early.  It's also getting colder and I hate the cold.  If you know me at all,  you know I'm always freezing, even if it's not cold outside.  It's safe to say we're heading into my not-so-favorite season, but I'll try to be pleasant.

Doc has started training hard for the half-marathon he's running in a few weeks.  He's been upping the length of his runs, which means he's gone for longer.  I don't really like that either.  I've been trying to spend all my spare time in the woodshop trying to get ready for the shop sale.  It's the same weekend as his half-marathon and it's quickly approaching!  I still have LOTS to do.  Otherwise we'll only have a handful of things to sell.

So that's our short and sweet update.  It's dark and cold and we're busy.  On a more positive note, I'm working on plans for another giveaway.  There will be a chance for you to win something fun (not sure what yet, but it will awesome) so check back soon!

Shellac Review

I've been meaning to write a final review of my Shellac manicure for a few days now.  Sorry for the delay. So, if you'll remember, I had the Shellac polish put on my nails on a Friday, right before Jenny's wedding.  After the weekend's activities, they were still chip-free and shiny.

Eight days after the manicure, I spent the whole day painting furniture.  Here's how my nails looked right before I hopped in the shower - keep in mind that they had already been washed while I was rinsing out paint brushes.

Please excuse my horrible cuticles.  The picture above is just to show how much brown paint I had on and under my fingernails. Grody.

After some good scrubbing in the shower, they came clean! And were still chip-free!

The polish stayed shiny and chip-free the whole time.  The only bad thing was my nails grew out so much and you could tell at the base.  I finally decided to take the polish off on day 18.  You can see here how the base of the polish had just begun to loosen up (bubble up?).

Now, I will say taking the polish off was a tad harder than I thought it would be.  In my head, I thought I could just soak my nails in the acetone polish remover for ten minutes, pull them out and voila! It'd all be gone.  That's not exactly how it worked.  I did soak them for ten plus minutes and it did become soft, but I had to use a cotton ball and work to get the polish off.  Not a terrible amount of trouble, but still more work than I had imagined it being in my head. 

I'm pleased to say it did all come off and my nails were totally fine.

Don't worry, I have since cut and shaped my fingernails.  Long nails = ew.

So, final verdict? I loved it. Worth the extra money? Totally. Would I do it again? I'm going to next week. :)

Phantom

This morning, when Doc took Minnie out bright and early to go potty, he found something on our front porch.  Sometime during the night, a Phantom visited our house.

(Cell phone pics. Sorry.)

With the Phantom was a note.

And a bag of goodies, too!

I love the bobble-head witch that came in the bag-o-goodies.

Back to the note. On it was this poem, entitled "Good Evening."

Since this is the time for goblins and bats, Halloween spirits and ghosts and cats, Weird happenings and witches brew, These are the things I wish for you:

May the only spirit you chance to meet, Be the spirit of love and warm friends sweet. May the only goblin that comes your way, Be the Neighborhood Phantom, whom you'll want to give away.

So by tomorrow, pick three friends sweet And give them all a Halloween treat. You only have one day so hurry!!!

The note also gave instructions for us to make three copies of the Phantom and note and leave them, along with treats, on three more neighbors' front door steps.  We're also supposed to hang our Phantom in a front window so it doesn't come back to visit us again.

Looks like a quick trip to Walgreens for some Halloween treats is on my to-do list now. And luckily I remembered to grab the Phantom and the note as I ran out the door this morning so I can make copies.  The hard part is deciding who should get a visit from the Phantom!