Scenes from the Season, Part 4

And now for the final installment of my "Scenes from the Season" series: New Year's Eve!

I will admit that prior to this year, I never cared much for New Year's Eve - at least not as a celebratory holiday. As far back as I can remember, I've always stayed home (usually in my pajamas) and just watched the ball drop on TV with my parents. While there is certainly nothing wrong with staying at home, I've always wanted to actually go out and celebrate and ring in the new year with friends. Read: attend an amazing party. So when Faustina asked if I wanted to attend a masquerade ball themed party on New Year's Eve, I said "YES!" with pretty much no questions asked.

Let's talk about our dresses, shall we? Just like the dress from Faustina's company holiday party, my dress was a last minute purchase. In fact, so was Faustina's. When I say "last minute," I literally mean last minute. As in, we went shopping for our dresses just a couple of hours before we were supposed to start getting ready. Also, I was the last customer at Windsor before the store closed at 7 pm. (Faustina found her lovely black and blue high-low dress from Wet Seal.) While I definitely do not recommend putting off special occasion dress shopping 'til the last minute, there was something thrilling about this experience.

Now I can't decide if I like this dress the best or if I like my holiday party dress more. While I have become more adventurous when it comes to sheer and formfitting clothing, this dress was a little sexier than anything I thought I could ever wear. The bodice is completely sheer lace save for the padding on the front, which eliminated the need for a bra. Also, the back of this dress is open. I won't even get started on how the tight peplum skirt accentuated my hips. Despite being a bit out of my comfort zone, the moment I tried this dress on, I knew it was the one.

We got dolled up at Faustina's friend Roxanne's house. I've said it before and I will say it again: getting ready for a special occasion/night out is half the fun.

I really hate to sound boastful, but I was having such an amazing hair and face day on New Year's Eve. I did my hair and makeup pretty much the same way as I did for the company holiday party: soft, imperfect waves + subtle smokey eyes and red glossy lips. This might just be my new signature look.

Faustina, Roxanne, and I took quite a bit of time getting ready for this party. Beauty does take time, after all. I'm surprised that Roxanne's husband Daniel and Faustina's friend/my date for the evening Andrew had waited so patiently for us. We ended up arriving late to the party and we missed the buffet and the performances that were scheduled for that night. We still arrived with plenty of time to spare to dance and people watch before the countdown. Afterwards, we had a very late dinner/early breakfast at IHOP.

Oh and by the way, this is Andrew. :)

Scenes from the Season, Part 3

Yup, you guessed it. These are pictures from the Ugly Sweater Party! As much as I enjoyed the more formal Christmas parties with my family, this casual house party at Faustina's house was probably my favorite memory of this past holiday season. (With the possible exception of New Year's Eve!)

I absolutely loved how Faustina and I ended up coordinating our ridiculously tacky sweaters. Plastic ornaments for me; gift bows for her. :) We had so much fun putting together these sweaters and just planning the entire party. By the way, we are epic procrastinators. We bought all of the food and drinks literally about an hour before our first guests showed up. Our party was such a success that we definitely plan on making this a new tradition.

I wish I had remembered to take more pictures with my friends that night. (Too many White Russians and other miscellaneous cocktails - oops!) Here I am with my gorgeous friend Melissa. Notice her festive Christmas earrings. LOVE!

And this is my other best friend Mike. Yes, Faustina and I did give him a hard time for not wearing an ugly sweater. It worked out alright thought because I ended up stuffing some of my shed pink feathers into his shirt pocket. Haha.

Scenes from the Season, Part 2

These are just a few snapshots from my family's Christmas party and Christmas Eve. I already miss getting dressed up for holiday parties.

Scenes from the Season, Part 1

Hello all! I thought I would begin 2013 by sharing pictures from this past December's festivities. Part one of this series includes pictures of what Faustina and I wore for her company's holiday party about three weeks ago.

Let me start by saying that this dress was a last minute purchase. The date of the party (which took place in a nice hotel in Huntington Beach) sneaked up on me pretty quickly and I still didn't have anything to wear the morning of. By some miracle, I managed to find this fabulous dress at Windsor just a couple of hours before Faustina and I were scheduled to check into our hotel room. I love love LOVE this dress. I love the sequins and the dramatic high-low silhouette and how festive it looked even without any jewelry. I'm already trying to think of other occasions in which I could wear this again.

By the way, please excuse the mess in the background (evidence of our pre- and post-gaming)! 

Another highlight of last month was finally finding the perfect shade of brown for my hair. I absolutely adore my medium chocolate brown hair and how it makes my pale winter skin glow. I don't know if I ever want to go back to my natural black hair again. :)

Here's a good photo of Faustina and I wearing our fabulous party dresses. Although I consider getting ready for a special occasion half the fun, the company party itself was also a blast. I met a lot of Faustina's coworkers and definitely enjoyed mingling with different people. We both woke up with terrible hangovers the next morning - the result of too many free drink tickets, I suppose - but overall this party was a great start to the holiday season.