Ringing in a new year

Hi darlings! I hope everyone is having an amazing start to 2011! I know I am very excited about what this year will bring. The first few days of a new year are always wonderful, because everything is new and fresh and you know the year ahead is a blank slate for you to decorate. Ok, wow I so did not mean to make that corny rhyme. I guess you just never know what will come out of these fingers!

In honor of the new year I have been thinking a lot about this little blog of mine and where I want to take it this year. It means so much to me and I definitely want to continue building on it and improving it with each post. One of the things I have observed from other bloggers that I really like is the concept of feature posts such as Cafe Fashionista's Tightwad Tuesday or Closet Fashionista's This Week in Fashion. I've decided to give feature posts a whirl starting with Fashion Challenge Friday and Resolution Sunday. Friday posts will now consist of a specific challenge I have been wanting to test out, but just hadn't quite worked up the nerve to try. I think this will really help me diversify my style and expand my fashion horizons. On Sundays I will be joining Mara in posting about my resolution of the week. She has vowed to set a manageable goal each week and blog about it each Sunday and she has invited other bloggers to join. I love this idea of setting smaller, more attainable goals to keep me on track all year, so I am accepting the invitation! I think these feature posts will really help me streamline my goals for this blog and help me to develop my blog voice further. So tune in Friday for the first fashion challenge and I can't wait to see how it goes!

New Years Eve is honestly one of my favorite nights to get dressed! That sounds so silly, but I truly do look forward to it as a kind of last crazy hurrah before the end of the holiday season. Plus, it is a night where everybody gets all glammed up, so it really challenges me to step up my fashion game in order to still stand out in the crowd. I guess I just always like ah challenge :) This year I decided to ring in the new year with one of the greatest guys I know and some of his friends. This guy has been my rock for 19 years and has put up with me even through my pain-in-the-butt teenage years. He loves me unconditionally, makes me laugh harder than anyone I know and most importantly he has always been, and will forever be, my best friend. Who is this fantastic, wonderful man you ask? Well, for those of you who read my blog regularly you might have guessed already that I am speaking about my one and only little brother (not so little anymore)! Yes, I had an amazingly fun evening hanging out with the brother and some of his friends, who over time have become some of my closest friends as well. And they even nicely indulged me in my idea of turning the party into more of a soiree if you will, which included dressing the part of the fancy sounding name! How I convinced the boys that they really did want to don a dress shirt and tie for NYE I will never know! But we all showed up looking quite classy if I do say so and we finished out the year with a bang! I was so glad that we did decide to dress up so that I could debut the gorgeous sapphire cocktail dress and silver sparkle shoes that my amazing mother had given to me for Christmas! My mom said when she was younger, her mother would buy her a NYE dress as a Christmas present every year and she wanted to carry on that tradition now with me. I told her I was a huge fan of that tradition, especially since my mom knows my taste in style perfectly! I loved wearing a brightly colored dress on NYE and I was still able to incorporate my love of sparkle with the shoes! I also got to debut my new haircut that I mentioned last week and I had been a little unsure about it, but everyone was so sweet and complimentary that I felt much better!

The bro and I keeping it classy on NYE!

My brother's best friend since they were 4 (aka my other brother)

The boys looking fly!

These were my favorite outfits of the night! I apologize for cutting off their shoes, but they looked so amazing! I mean who doesn't love some fierce stripes and a total sequin dress for NYE?!

Ok so confession time: I was having such a good time on NYE that I didn't take proper outfit photos, so I had to recreate the look. Except... I don't currently have the shoes because I am staying at my dad's house this week! So if you wouldn't mind ignoring that I am barefoot and instead imagining that these babies are bedazzling my feet, I'd be so grateful! Thanks :) Oh and as I promised, a big THANKS to my sweet dad for playing photographer tonight. You're the best!!

Both the dress and shoes were Christmas gifts from my mom. The shoes literally arrived the morning of NYE and I was SO excited to wear them! For the party, I donned my favorite bow ring, a cocktail flower ring with a fake pearl as the center and a pair of dangly silver earrings. I didn't add a necklace, as the neckline was statement enough. My fingernails were painted a shimmery Orly silver polish and my toes were a perfect OPI blue to match the dress (can't remember either polish name).

This photo kind of makes me look like I have a huge badonk-a-donk, but in real life it was one of the more form flattering dresses I have ever worn!

I was so shocked to see Dad had hung lights on the porch of his apartment, since he never put them on the outside of our house. But they gave it a nice homey feel, which I like. We had to take these photos quickly before I froze my tooshie off!

I love all the folds and ruffles of this dress. Gives it character!

I am still getting used to styling these bangs, so bear with me :)

Dad started getting into the whole photography game and suggested a second location. Secretly, I think he just wanted to show off his newly decorated pad! But it is so nice, that I don't blame him!

I never did a great photo of the round embellished neckline, but I adore the extra oomph the adornments gave to the dress!

Loves, I am so sorry for being quite this late with a NYE post. I hope you subscribe to the better late than never mentality! Don't forget to enter my Elle for a Year Giveaway before midnight on Saturday and tune in Friday for the first installment of Fashion Challenge Friday. 

Bisous!