The Most Fashioniable City in America

Being that I wear scrubs a good 25% of my week, and yoga pants for another 20% or so, I don't consider myself a fashion expert.  I also don't like to spend more than Forever 21 prices, so I'm no Best Friend Fashionista.

Great with accessories, though.

However,

I love to do some bragging about my home town, or my home county rather.

(Seriously my love for Orange County, California is a little over the top, you'd think I was the damn mayor.)

So, when I saw this little article, and saw where was considered the most fashionable city in the world?

I was proud!

Source

You see that little city listed right there in the #1 spot?

Irvine, California!

Just 15 minutes north of where I call home, and a place I frequented quite a lot when Bestie Fashionista was in college. 

(Is it a coincidence she is named BF Fashionista and spent four years in Irvine going to college?  I don't think so.)

And wouldn't you know it?

California is home to 4 of the top 15 most fashioniable cities in the country!

Not everyone in the state dresses like me, I guess?

If you want to see some of my better fashion choices,

check out some of my

What I Wore Wednesday posts!

One Tree Hill Inspired Predictions

I know I'm a little behind being that OTH (real fans use acronyms....hello HIMYM fans!) ended weeks ago, but I've been thinking of the predictions that Haley and Lucas used to do that they touched on during the series finale ever since watching it.

Need a refresher?

Seriously, so much fun!  So, I as Handsome Husband is getting ready to gear up for law school (beginning of the school year just four months away!), I thought I'd made my own predictions...

In four years...

HH will be graduating in the top 10% of his law school class, and will have already secured an amazeballs job as a first-year associate, thanks to a lot of hard work!

 

 

I will be working as an RN for the company I currently do, in their beautiful new tower - heck maybe I'll even be the NICU charge nurse!

 

 

We won't be thinking about thinking about starting our family...we will have actually done it!

 

 

We will still be laughing the days away together, and loving the life we've created with together.

 

 

What are your predictions for four years from now?

Lots of Link Love

 

Like Tara, I think it's important to emphasize the importance of community in the blog world and not only focusing on ourselves and our own blogs, but to spread lots of blog love to those who deserve it.  Every other Thursday, I will highlight the posts over the last two weeks that touched me, made me laugh, pulled at my heartstrings, and inspired me. 

There is not a ton of links here today, not because I don't love everything I read, just because I am so behind on reading, I didn't have a chance to get too many posts read the past few weeks!  Forgive me! 

• Morgan shared some staples that every woman should have in her closet by age 30.
  
  
• Jenna shared a teaser of her family photos, one of which made me completely melt looking at her sweet little family!

• Erin wrote a wonderful post about blogging, and shared some of her day-to-day with us!

• Meg touched on a topic that many women deal with: Body After Baby.

• Kate showed off some gorgeous black and white photos she found on Pinterest.

A Place in the Sky

Months and months ago I stumbled upon this website for a company called Blue Forest.  Blue Forest makes luxury tree houses.

Say what?

Yes, luxury tree houses.  And these things are amazing.  They really reminded me of something I used to do with Gardening Mom when I was younger, actually. 

One of the local malls here in beautiful Orange County, Fashion Island, has this annual display of these gorgeous luxury playhouses every year around the mall.  Each year they have a few days where you can actually purchase tickets and get to go inside the playhouses, and they are always immaculately decorated and cute as can be!  They have different themes, and I used to love to go with my Mom and talk about which ones were our favorites!

Here are some of my favorites from Blue Forest:

All images from Blue Forest's website.

A Fairytale Castle

Cliffside Lodge

Hideaway

Treehouse Office

Seriously, how much would you have loved having one of these as a kid? 

(And by "as a kid" I mean, I would gladly take one right now, too!)



Quotable Tuesdays

Skin So Soft and Babysoft Perfume

Earlier this month, I talked about tunes that take you right back to a certain moment or time in your life.  Today, I'm kind of talking about the same thing.  (Amazing creativity going on here.)

Scents.

They are just as strong as sounds (maybe more so?), right?  You catch a whiff of a certain cologne and smack! you're back in the moment getting your first kiss from your husband.  Smell a specific brand of sunscreen, and boom! you're immediately transported to that summer you spent 80% of your life at the beach. 

I have two smells that immediately take me back to the summers I spent weeks in Delware visiting family.

Skin So Soft Bath Oil

&

Babysoft Perfume

Skin So Soft was my preferred method  of insect repellant, because I never could stand a. misquitoes and b. the smell of regular insect repellant.  I always used it right at the end of a shower, and the smell really stays on your body.  I recently bought a new bottle to use just because and it is so overwhelming the way I can remember exactly how I was feeling at the age of twleve, thirteen, fourteen during those summers the moment I unscrew the lid on the oil.

The Babysoft perfume was a gift that I received while on the East Coast one summer, and I adored it.  I got it when I was a big too young to be wearing regular perfume, but this was it for me for a few years.  Loved the sweet soft smell of baby powder.  I would seriously considering wearing this as an adult if I wasn't afraid everyone would just think I smell like babies because I work with them.

What smells immediately bring you back?



The Nail Files

Linking up with Tara and Vicki again today for The Nail Files!

My color of the week:

I love this color - I think it is a little more fall than summery, but I still adore it!

What's on your fingernails this week?

Things Thursday: Things You Should Do Today

1. Read this blog.  Der.

2. Color!  Serious, go buy a coloring book and crayons.  More fun than you'd think!

3. Specifically, read these fabulous ladies' blogs:

 

4. Follow me on twitter, and tweet me funny things!
5. Write a letter to someone and send it in the mail!  Everyone likes getting snail mail!

6. 'Like' Stress Case's page on FB, and get current updates when there's fun stuff going on here!

7. Call your mom.

8. Get a post ready to link up with Best Cousin over at All in a Row{e} for Sunday Funnies!

9. Check out my archives here on the blog - you can read some embarassing moments, some wedding recaps (promise I'll finish those one day), and even recipes!

10. Leave a comment here on this post telling me what I should do today - I promise I'll give it a shot!  (Barring illegal suggestions, of course.)

The One Where I Drive a Cop Car

Sometimes, I really feel like the craziest stuff happens to me.  Like earlier this month when Sister Swimmer's Boyfriend (BF YOLO is totally his nickname - you know, the motto) hit my car while trying to park in front of it.  Freak accident, for sure.  And then, in an odd turn of events, I drove a cop car through my work parking structure.

How did this come to happen?  Take a little looksie into my life.

Saturday, April 7

3:20pm

BF YOLO's back bumper of his pickup truck is not a fan of my sassy Jeep Liberty and rips her driver's side fender right off.  BF YOLO looks like he might possibly cry out of remorse, so I save my usual overacting for another time.  We call his insurance, and everthing is hunky dory.

Saturday, April 8

Easter

I made these awesome cupackes.

Unrelated, but seriously, go check them out.

Monday, April 9

12:20pm

Sister Swimmer and Hat Dad do me a solid and take my car in for an estimate.  A whopping $800+ price tag for a little old fender, of course covered by insurance. 

5:30pm

Handsome Husband and I get into a debate on whether or not a fender is necessary.  I win, as per usual.

Wednesday, April 11

8:15am

Here's what is starts to get juicy.

I drop my car off at the body shop, and the rental car is delivered to me there.  After a suprise $300 deposit (that I managed to get lowered to $50 due to subsequent arguing - I'm telling you I should be the one heading the law school), I park my booty in my new home for a few days, a fancy little Chrysler 200:

I feel pretty cool for about 4 miles, when...

8:40am

As I pull of the freeway at my exit for work, I start hearing a really loud noise that sounds like it is coming from the bottom of the car.  Being the vehicle expert I am, I assume for about a light that this car is just very loud and I had not yet noticed in the past 4 miles of driving it.  But then, as I roll down my window to flash my badge (I'm so important) to get into my parking structure, the noise sounds not normal, and I stop the car.  A quick lap around the car, and nothing looks off.  Tires are full of air, there's nothing falling off the vehicle.  Until I notice a piece of black plastic peaking out from under the front bumper.  I lean down and check it out where I discover the problem, a huge piece of plastic is coming off the bottom of the car, and had been scraping along the pavement as I drove. 

"Are you shitting me??"

'Scuse my French, but I'm just keepin' it real.

8:45am

After a frantic call to HH, I call the rental car company.  They tell me to go ahead into work and they will have somone deliver me a car as soon as possible.

9:00am

After heading into work, I get a call from the rental car company again.  Here is where my big mistake lies.  It goes down like this:

Rental Car Dude: Hello Casey, we are trying to get a car out to you ASAP.  All we've got on the lot right now are Ford Crown Victorias...is that going to be alright?

Me: Yeah, why wouldn't that be alright?  I don't care as long as the bottom is not falling off of it!

Now, do you know what a Ford Crown Victoria is?

Let me enlighten you.

Yup.

Imagine this bad boy sans blue stripe and sirens and you've got what was delivered to me.

10:00am

My cop car arrives.  I am in a state of shock I think and agree to take this vehicle.  That is, until I drive into the parking structure and feel as though I am driving a limo.  This bitch is huge!  Way too much anxiety for a stress case like me.

1:45pm

I make a call to the rental car company (who, by now, must think I am certifiable; but you know what, you're renting our Ford Crown Victorias - who is the crazy one here?), and request, ever so kindly (read: threatening to call corporate) that I get another car, anything but a cop car to drive while my car is getting fixed.  The manage obliges, thank goodness.

3:45pm

My whip for the week arrives.  It is not a cop car, and all is well with the world again.

Moral of the story?

Never never say yes to a Ford Crown Victoria.

{Why We Blog} Week: Stress Relief Package GIVEAWAY WINNER!

A big huge thank you to everyone who reads this blog, participated in {Why We Blog} Week, and entered the giveaway!

The winner of this awesome blossom package:

is...

Check your email, Ashley!

:)

Quotable Tuesdays

Easter Rainbow Cupcakes

It has been way too long since I've shared a recipe with, y'all, hasn't it?!  I have a good one for you today!

I made these sweet cupcakes for Easter Sunday, and they were quite a hit!

Rainbow Cupcakes

So cool looking, right?!

I got the recipe and instructions from Kevin and Amanda, so I am going to direct you right on over to their page for the deets!  But here are some photos of my process!

Note: I did use the frosting recipe they recommended, but did not make the cake from scratch.  I actually prefer cake box cake...I'm weird!

I used these Wilton icing colors: Christmas Red, Cornflower Blue, and Lemon; mixing them to make the green and orange shades.

I split the batter into 5 bowls, tried to make it as evenly divided as possible, and used the 3 colors to make the 5 colors I wanted.

 Spooned the batter into the cupcake liners, about 2 teaspoons of each color in each liner.  Popped those suckers in the over, whipped up some amazing vanilla buttercream, and voila!

Looking for Summer

So lately, I keep seeing blog posts, tweets, and facebook statuses about people longing for the joys of summer - beach days, flip flops, and barbeques.

You know what I'm looking forward to?

The Orange County Fair!

Anyone who knows me knows I have a lot (maybe a little too much) love for where I'm from, and the fair is no different.  I love the fair - everything about it.  I have gone almost every year for as long as I can remember.

Summer, come soon - I'm ready for the Fair!

Lots of Link Love

 

Like Tara, I think it's important to emphasize the importance of community in the blog world and not only focusing on ourselves and our own blogs, but to spread lots of blog love to those who deserve it.  Every other Saturday, I will highlight the posts over the last two weeks that touched me, made me laugh, pulled at my heartstrings, and inspired me. 

• Christin wrote an inspirational post about being in charge of your own life.

• Kristen shared a hysterical failure in Pinterest.

• Kori showcased some of the stunning and so fun to look at Mad Men fashions in honor of the season premier!

• Courtney admitted her little addiction to "toga clothes," as her husband called them.

• C Mae wrote a great post talking about finances and how they "should" or "shouldn't" change when getting married.

• Becky shared some things she's learned about motherhood, in a post she hilariously called "Motherhood Word Vomit."

• Joelle gave us some fantastic wedding invitiation etiquette that everyone who is or has ever been invited to a wedding should read!

• Jeannett had me busting up laughing as she mocked some odd-ball things commonly pinned on Pinterest.

Music That Moves You

Is there a song that the moment you hear it, you are immediately in another moment in your past?  It's like the song transports you to prior moments in your life just by hearing the first few lines?

I totally do.

Drive Away

The All-American Rejects

Really their entire debut album, The All-American Rejects, brings me back to the summer before high school when I spent about six weeks in Delaware visiting Aunt Delaware and other family out there.  I distinctly remember being midly obsessed with this song, but really, the whole album had me hooked.  I had the CD, and a portable CD player that I had sitting next to me about 98% percent of the time I was lounging by the pool.  I am pretty sure this was the last summer of my life I actually got a tan, and it was probably only because I was simply content lying out and listening to this album all day.

Get Low
Lil Jon

If you are around my age, you remember this song at high school dances.  If you're much younger, you don't because they stopped encouraging dry humping on the dance floor (wow am I in for some interesting Google search results after that one).  This song completely transports me to prom sophomore year (yeah, I went to prom as a sophomore, what can I say - I was cool) surrounded by sweaty teens on the overly crowded dance floor pointing to opposite directions of the room.  "To the window...to the wall!"

All The Above
Maino

This song was really popular during one of my Handsome Husband's college soccer seasons.  It was on their warm-up playlist that blasted through the stadium before games and played at every single house party we went (hosted is more accurate) to that season.  I hear it, and immediately remember the butterflies I was feeling at the beginning of this new life I was creating in San Diego with someone who would end up being my Husband just a few years later.  Not the most romantic song in the world (and by not the most, I mean not at all), but it makes me remember the giddy beginnings of my life with HH.

Ready To Run
Dixie Chicks

   

My 6th grade teacher had a really bizarre obsession with this song.  (As a sidenote: My 6th grade teacher was actually just a little bizarre in general.  She was a retired Circus Clown and we spent a good two weeks of our school year learning how to juggle and do clown makeup.)  For about half the school year, she would play this song at the beginning of class.  When I hear the first notes of the this song, I'm immediately back in 6th grade, awkward as all hell, and am already at the tender age of eleven one of the only ones in the room digging the country music (it's still the same at 24).

Sunday Morning

Maroon 5

Like the All-American Rejects album, this song is really just a representation of the entire album to me.  Maroon 5's album, Songs About Jane, pretty much nursed me through the first breakup I ever went through.  The summer after my sophomore year of high school, my first ever boyfriend and I broke up and this CD was the only thing that I listened to for the entirety of the season.  I listened to it driving to and from work, and can distinctly remember pulling into the mall parking structure (I was working at the Pottery Barn Kids at the mall at the time) with tears streaming down my face as this song played, still reeling in the fact that my first love didn't end up like a fairytale. 

What songs immediately transport you to a moment from your past?

Quotable Tuesdays

Trailblazer

I like to think of myself as a little bit of the trailblazer in my group of friends.  (God knows if any of them do, or if this is something I've titled myself all on my own.)

Not quite what I meant, but the first image that came up when I Googled "Trailblazer".

I was the first of my friends to move in with a boyfriend,

the first to get engaged,

the first to get married.

I'm the first of us to be house hunting.

Who knows if I'll be the first to get knocked up have a baby,

they could start passing me up one of these days!

Anyway, back to what I was saying.  It can be a little lonely out here on the limb that none of your friends have stepped out on yet.  (Good thing I've got my Handsome Husband to keep me company!)  But what I mean is, it takes a little extra effort (on both ends, I'm not making it work on my own!) to make a friendship work when you have less in common.  It's difficult for me to relate my single girlfriends dating stories, just as it's difficult for them to relate to my home buying woes.  I can't remember what it felt like to go on a first date, and they don't know what it feels like to go to bed with your husband every night.  Neither type of lifestyle is better than the other, just different and difference is an added obstacle in friendship.

There are some things I can't wait for my friends to go through, should they go down the same path as I have. 

I can't wait for a friend to realize she's dating the man she's going to marry.

It's a good feeling.

I can't wait to get a phone call from one of the longtime girlfriends telling me they're engaged.

It sure was exciting to make those phone calls.

I can't wait to throw bridal showers and subsequent baby showers.

I've already got them all planned out on Pinterest.

I can't wait to stand next to my girlfriends as they marry the men of their dreams,

like they did for me.

I can't wait to warm the hell out of some new homes that my friends buy.

Just like I know we will be doing when we find our perfect place.

But until then, I will enjoy and find the fun in the differences - hearing about first dates, getting to go to a new housewarming party as people move from apartment to apartment, visiting friends as they city-hop, and watching my friends follow the path that they make for themselves.



The Nail Files

I have some very fun polish to show off today for The Nail Files with Tara and Vicki!

Scented Nail Polish.

Are you kidding me?

So freakin' cool!

The color (and scent) of this polish (from Forever 21, by the way!) is Rose, and it smells just like roses.  It is a very strong smell in the liquid form, but stays really strong once you put it on your nails as well!  For the first few days after painting my nails, I could totally smell the roses anytime my hand was anywhere near my face!  It was definitely fun, and the color was gorg, too!

There is a super cute nail polish up for grabs as a part of my Stress Relief giveaway going on NOW!  Come check it out HERE!

{Why We Blog} Week: Stress Relief GIVEAWAY!

 Wow, what a great week!
It has been so wonderful to read why some of my all time favorite bloggers started blogging, and then to read all of your reasons for blogging?  Amazing! And now, as a little token of my gratitude for reading this blog, and especially for those of you who linked up yesterday? A GIVEAWAY! I'm doing a little play on my blog name, and have put together a little stress relief package for my fellow Stress Case ladies. Check out the goods:

 

What all is included in this Stress Relief package?  Family Circle Magazine, April 2012 (some seriously yummy looking recipes in here!)Two Wax Tarts in Salted Caramel Cheesecake and Wildberry Scones from The Bathing GardenRelax Aromatherapy Kit in Vanilla and Cinnamon scent including Foaming Bath Oil, Body Butter, and loofaYankee Candle votive in Home Again scentSally Hansen Hard as Nails Nailpolish in Love RocksLove Actually DVDIt's a Wonderful Life DVDLindt Lindor milk chocolate trufflesLove & Beauty Coconut Ultra Hydrating Shea Butter Face MaskTwenty Grand and Other Tales of Love and Money by Rebecca Curtis
With a total value of over $50!
Please enter using the widget below, winner will be announced Tuesday, April 17th!

{Why We Blog} Week: Why YOU Blog Linkup!

<center><a href=" www.stresscasey.blogspot.com " target="_blank"><img alt=" Why We Blog Week" src=" http://i1182.photobucket.com/albums/x449/stresscasey/whyweblog2.jpg " /></a></center>

It's your turn ladies.

All week, you've heard why I blog, why she blogs, why someone else blogs.

Now I want to know:

Why do you blog?

Link up with me today,

and share what made you start blogging,

why you stick with it,

what you love about it!
You can even share why you read blogs,
or your favorite blogs to read!

 

 

If you've already written a post about it - link up that post!

 

 

Then do me a solid,

and check out your fellow bloggers!

Go see why we all blog,

cause chances are - someone blogs for the very same reason as you do.

And you never know who might be your new bloggy bestie!

Please link back to Stress Case, or use the button above in your post!

{Why We Blog} Week: Why Neely Blogs

Hey Y'all I'm Neely! I blog over at A Complete Waste of Makeup. 

It's a pretty neat blog if I do say so myself. What do I blog about you ask? Oh everything! Starbucks, wine, shopping, my love of Tory Burch and Kate Spade, reality TV, reading, my search for a teaching job, travel, my boyfriend C, my friends and makeup duh! Oh this is me....

I also co-host 2 awesome-sauce linkups! ITS OK Thursdays and Boob Tube Babble Fridays! You should prob come check it out :)

 

 

When Sweet Casey asked me to be a part of her "Why We Blog" week I was sooooo excited! Not only do I adore Casey and her blog but I felt so honored she wanted me to be a part of it! 

 

 

Why do I blog?

 

 

1. This group of women I have found through blogging are as crazy, quirky, silly and random as I am and I love that kind of bonding between like minded awesome women :)

Source: itsaprettycity.tumblr.com via Neely on Pinterest

 

 

2. I love being able to share whats happening in my life. The good, the bad and the ugly. When Chad and I have had problems I blog about it.  When we have seen a counselor I blog about it. When I buy a new pair of shoes I blog about it. When my dad got diagnosed with cancer, I blog about it. When I fell out of a cab on my 27th birthday I blogged about :)

Source: etsy.com via Neely on Pinterest

3. Blogging has brought me some truly amazing opportunities. I have a group of close friends I would have never had, if it hadn't been for blogging. I have gotten to connect with companies and people that I would have never heard about or known. I would probably have not spent so much money on etsy and I would never know about half the makeup products in my caboodle...yes caboodle.

Source: weheartit.com via Neely on Pinterest

 

 

 

But mostly...daily....every time I doubt why I blog I remember that I blog for me. This is my place, this is my voice, this is my little corner of the inter-webs. If people don't like it, that's OK....they can find a different blog to read. But I blog for me and me only. 

 

 

I think when blogging, thats the best way to go about it.....but you know that's just my opinion :)

Source: Uploaded by user via Neely on Pinterest

I hope you enjoyed my guest post and feel free to come find me on all of the social media platforms!!

Twitter     Pinterest    Facebook   Blog

 Don't forget to come back tomorrow to link up and tell us all {Why YOU Blog}, and Friday for a Stress Relief GIVEAWAY!