The Mall Can Make You Crazy...

I've been a bad blogger again! I'm sorry. I just need to get in a routine and then I'll finally have this blogging thing down. Don't hate me though, I have had quite a crazy schedule ever since the holiday season hit. Working retail really isn't my cup of tea, but hey, it's a job. I'm convinced that the mall can make a person go crazy. As much as I love shopping and clothes I kind of hate the mall... is that weird? And it's not because I work there because I've never been a huge fan of the mall. Well outdoor malls are pretty cool. I don't hate outdoor malls. I am pretty lucky to work on the outside promenade, I can still see the sky and trees from the window. Oh! And right now on the promenade it snows* 3 times a night while they play Christmas music! Just like Disneyland. (If you didn't know, it snows every night at Disneyland during Christmastime.)
*When I say snow I really mean they shoot soap bubbles from the roof and make it look like snow. 

Speaking of Disneyland, I've been a few times in the past month or two. Here's a picture of me in front of their GIANT Christmas tree. It was also a lovely 90 degrees that day so the scarf was mostly to let everyone know that it's December and not July. (In case the Christmas tree didn't give that away.)

I hope everyone has a very happy holiday season filled with Christmas cheer (I swear I'll have some more of that once I'm away from the mall) ♥

Halloween Time

I have a friend who has an epic Halloween party every year which is really exciting because I can't imagine Halloween without costumes and fun. I went as a flapper because a few months ago I found this awesome dress at H&M for $7, how could I pass that up? Lucky for me I had everything else I needed already. I tried putting my hair in a faux bob, it worked for a little while, but it was definitely falling out by the end of the night. 

Apparently wearing gloves makes chugging a Smirnoff Ice seem lady-like.

I brought along my friends Lauren and Lisa. Lauren was a kitty cat and Lisa was the Queen of Hearts

This is what happens during prohibition.

The party was on Saturday night so the actual day of Halloween I spent relaxing. Esteban invited me over to his house for breakfast (which was great because I needed food to help recover from the party.) I went home pretty early so he could get some homework done and I watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show marathon while eating candy the rest of the night. I must say, I had some strange dreams and I woke up with Sweet Transvestite stuck in my head.
I hope you all had a great Halloween too!

You've Got What it Takes

I've been wanting to post something for the past few days, but I'm still recovering from the wedding. Everything went so well! It was the most amazing wedding ever. Seriously. It was beautiful. We were all really afraid it was going to rain (the ceremony was outside) but it stayed misty without raindrops until we were all done with the ceremony and the pictures, then it poured. I can't wait to see the pictures. Speaking of which, I know I've been talking about the wedding a ton and now that it's over I'll start to have more posts about regular everyday (but still fun) things.
I am so proud of the video I made for the wedding. Everyone seemed to love it too. It served as my speech because I'm not a good speech maker. I really think it was the right choice to go with the video instead. I know you are all dying to see it right?

Wedding Day Video from Nicole Schall on Vimeo.

Now that the wedding is over I need to find other things to look forward to. Right now I'm trying to figure out what to do for Halloween. What are your Halloween plans? Something fun I hope!

Just a few hours to go..

Ok I just got home from my little sister's rehearsal dinner and I just wanted to take a minute to quickly say how excited I am for her. Tonight was so perfect and I know tomorrow is going to be even better. All the stress and effort from planning this wedding will all be worth it once the wedding day is actually here. I can't believe she's really getting married. It feels so surreal. It's always been just the two of us in our own little sisterly bubble, but after tomorrow she will have a husband and, maybe in the not too distant future, kids of her own. It feels like the beginning of a new frontier. An exciting new frontier. Even though I am a big hater of change, I know that Erin and I will always be sisters and we will always be friends so I'm excited in sharing this big step with her. It feels like we really are growing up now. This time tomorrow my baby sister will be a wife and I will have a brother in law. It gives me hope for my own future and, as much as I resist growing up, I know that getting married and having kids is one big step towards growing up that I'd be happy to take. Erin always did want to grow up faster than me, but that's ok, she can show me how to do it right ♥ I love you Erin.

Fall Fashion Daydreaming

Now that the 100 degree weather has been traded for thunderstorms I've realized that my closet is not prepared. I went browsing through the Anthropologie website and now I'm drooling over clothes I can't possibly afford. Here are a few things I'm not sure I can live without.

Pilcro Stretch Cord Leggings: Anthropologie

I haven't worn cords since middle school when we were forced to wear uniforms. I had a pair in navy and a pair in tan, both from The Limited Too, and I loved them. I really like that these are leggings which makes them really easy to wear with boots. And speaking of boots I really need a pair in camel.

Upwards Boots

Once I find a pair of skinny cords and camel boots a little closer to my price range I can't wait to wear them on a chilly day to my favorite place in the world, Disneyland. (I have an annual pass). While I'm there I'm going to make sure I've saved enough money after my shopping spree for one of these delicious looking treats.

Jack Skellington Apple

Now it's time for me to pick up the last minute things I need for Erin's wedding before I head off to what's sure to be a very slow day at work.
* Thank you to everyone who has stopped by and left comments, it's so encouraging to know that I have actual readers! It's so exciting. ♥♥♥

Lazy Sunday

I got to hang out with the boy today which was exciting because I haven't seen much of him in the past 2 weeks. He had to rush off to rehearsal this evening though so I took it upon myself to have a Jane Austin marathon. I finally settled down and watched the 4 part BBC miniseries version of Emma. It's amazing. Go watch it. Right now. Or when you have 4 free hours. Either way, it's one to watch if you like Jane Austin at all. Now I'm watching my favorite, the Kiera Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice. It's just so pretty, I love looking at it. I'm a sucker for the romantic period dramas.

A few days ago I was super excited to find out that the Get Shaved Van (a shaved ice themed food truck) would be down the street from my house. I have the worst luck with the food trucks. They are either too far away or, when they are nearby, I'm at work or I didn't know they were in town. I'm desperately wanting to try The Grilled Cheese Truck. One day...one day...
The Get Shaved Van was amazing though. Completely worth it. Luckily for me we got there before the truck and the line was short. The shaved ice comes with a choice of 3 flavors, ice cream, and special toppings. I tried one of their pre-designed shaved ice they titled "Let them eat cake." It had macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom and then topped with shaved ice with coconut, pineapple, and blue vanilla flavoring topped with some sweetened condensed milk. AMAZING. If you're in the L.A. area try it. Here is the website, they also have a store in Northridge.

The menu

The truck.

The shaved ice. (Can you believe this was a small?)

I can't wait for the truck to come around again. Now if I could only catch that darn Grilled Cheese Truck.

Darn you eBay

I tried buying something from eBay for the first time ever a few weeks ago. I've always been an eBay lurker, but I had never bid before. After getting hooked on fashion blogs I wanted to try out eBay to find cute clothes at  prices I wouldn't mind paying. Well eBay failed me. I tried to buy these:

The lovely gray Toms I shall not be receiving.

I wasn't sure how I felt about Toms when I first saw them. They don't look like much when you just see them sitting in a shoe store, but they seem to look pretty cute once you put your feet into them. I'm terrible with shoes. I would live in flip flops if I could (and I do for the most part) but every now and then it gets a little chilly and possibly rainy here in LA and my feet don't like being left out in the open so these seemed like the next best thing to flip flops. I thought that $44 seemed pretty steep so I checked out eBay and I came across a pair for $18.99 (score!) with 5 minutes left. I went for it. I figured I could put a bid in and then someone else would probably outbid me so it wouldn't matter much if I just wanted to test the waters. Well I was the only bidder. So I paid the $18.99 plus $10 for shipping. Then eBay sent me an email saying that the seller was suspicious and the listing had been removed for security reasons. I had to make a claim to get my money back and now it's been close to 3 weeks and I'm still waiting for either my money or my Toms. According to eBay I should get a refund in a day or two. I'm very happy that I can get my money back, but I may have lost all faith in eBay. Once I get my money back I hope to be making a trip to Nordstrom to try on a pair of Toms and at least I'll know if I like them before I pay the $44 and I'll also know that once I pay I'll be handed a shoebox with my purchase immediately after.

Does anyone have any tips for eBay shopping? 

Bachelorettes!

So, Saturday was Erin's bachelorette party. It was so much fun!! I'm so glad everything went so well. The wine and jeep tour was even better than I imagined it would be. I can't wait to have another reason to take the tour again.

These girls are so much fun!

When we first arrived we all hopped in the jeep and made our way over to South Coast Winery where we posed for a ton of pictures for our photographer Allie from Allie Lindsey Photography. I can't wait to get those pictures! She said she would send us each a disk full of all the pictures in about 3 weeks. After taking the posed shots we went inside and got started with the tasting. This winery was by far my favorite and they were definitely generous with the wine. I think they poured more than twice what we were supposed to have. In fact I was already tipsy after just the first winery.

It was harvest season. We picked some grapes from the vine and tried them.

The whole day was so much fun. We went to another winery and I think I passed the stage of tipsy, but luckily lunch was next. We had a picnic with some incredibly delicious Italian sandwiches and some much needed water. After lunch everyone felt like taking a nap, but it was time for our little off roading adventure. We went up a little canyon where we were overlooking the whole Temecula Valley.

Traipsing through the grapevines.

We went to one more winery after lunch, but luckily it was our least favorite because everyone needed a bit of a wine break and we didn't feel bad about not drinking it all. We just kind of relaxed and took our time at this winery. After we all grabbed some giant sodas we headed back to Erin's house for phase 2 of the party.

I have very creative friends.

My besties, Lauren and Lisa, were my magic decorating elves who did an amazing job of decorating and setting up everything while we were out and in exchange they got to stay for the party. When we got back we all snacked for a bit and opened up some champagne and Erin's soon to be sister-in-law, Amanda, brought her hookah for us to try. I heated up a lasagna for us to have for dinner and Lauren made some delicious chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate frosting for dessert. It turned out to be a perfect day. I think I did a pretty good job.

Sitting around the hookah.

This was my first time trying hookah. I failed miserably.

 I can't wait to throw another party now. It was so great! Our tour guide's husband does hot air balloon tours, maybe that will be the next tour to take. I think I'd probably freak out in a hot air balloon. We had so much wine and champagne that we never made it to the wedding cake shots, I think I need an excuse to drink the extra alcohol. Who wants to come to a party? ♥

Bridal Shower

I finally uploaded the pictures from my sister's bridal shower. It was such a fun day! Up until about a year ago I didn't even know what a bridal shower was until Facebook friends started getting married by the bunches and pictures were popping up everywhere. My mom's close friend hosted the event at the South Hills Country Club.

Here I am with the beautiful bride to be.

 Everyone really seemed to enjoy the party, the food was pretty good and the mimosas were flowing. I'm not a huge fan of games, but we found some that didn't seem too silly. We had one game where you have to match the famous couples and then the other game was the "purse game" where there is a list of items that could be found in a purse and the girl with the most items wins....sadly I wasn't partaking in that game since I was the moderator, but I would have been a shoe in to win.

Playing games.

 Family pic: Bride, Mother of Bride, Maid of Honor.

Esteban (my boyfriend, you'll get to know him, but he tends to be camera shy.) has a sister who makes amazing cupcakes. They look more like works of art rather than something edible. I had her make the cupcakes for the shower. They were gorgeous and delicious. We had three different flavors; red velvet (for my mom), Kahlua (for Erin), and Vanilla Bean (for me).  

The amazing cupcakes.

                                                                

While we were eating lunch there was a squirrel outside who kept running back and forth right outside the window. I'm pretty sure the party looked so fun that he wanted to join us.

I think he wants a cupcake too.

I'm really glad that the whole day went without a hitch because my mom was super stressed out for weeks hoping that everything would go alright. Now she's on to stressing about the wedding, but I know everything is going to be fabulous.

The bride to be and her bridesmaids.

 I can't wait until the bachelorette party, just 2 more days! I have to get all of the last minute details done today and tomorrow. It's going to be so much fun! I really love the group of girls that Erin chose for her bridal party. Everyone is so sweet and they are making my life so easy. There are no bridesmaidzillas in the group. ♥

Learning to be a better blogger..

OK, I know I am horrible at this whole blogging thing. I love all of the bloggers who post daily because it gives me something to read, yet I go months between posts when it comes to my own blog. This needs to change. I'm going to work on it.
Nothing too exciting has happened to me during the past two months. Everything exciting happens to the people around me. The boy started a new school. He's going to Cal State Long Beach now and has left me behind wasting away at community college. I'm really happy for him though. I'll admit, I was jealous at first and a little scared that he was going to be done with me now that we don't have a relationship of convenience, but that was the irrational girl inside my head freaking me out for no reason. Things are still great between us and I hope I can join him at Long Beach next year. He really seems to love it and their music school seems amazing. I went to his first orchestra concert last week and I can only dream of being good enough to get in (although it might help if I practiced.) I just need to get over my fear of math so I can get the stupid class over with and then I'll be able to transfer. It's ridiculous, I'm sabotaging myself, I've been done with all of my other GE's for over a year now. I could have transferred long ago. Darn you math, you will be the death of me.
The other exciting thing happening to someone close to me is that my little sister, Erin, is getting married. In 3 weeks! I'm very excited to be the Maid of Honor. Two weeks ago was the bridal shower,  it was so much fun and I want to post a few pictures once I upload them. It was actually the first bridal shower I've ever been to. Being a MOH is a little tough when I've only ever been to 3 weddings in my adult life. I'm flying blind when it comes to knowing exactly what my job entails, but I've been scouring bridal magazines and I think I'm doing a pretty good job. Last night I finished making a video to show at the wedding because I'm a chicken and the idea of making a speech frightens me so it will be serving as my speech. After the wedding I'll post it on here, I think it's pretty darn cute if I say so myself. I also have the bachelorette party all planned for this weekend. We're going on a wine tasting jeep tour in Temecula. It looks so fun, I can't wait. You can check it out here, they even have a bachelorette package (which is of course what we got). Then afterward we're continuing the party at Erin's house for some slumber party action. I have a bunch of fun stuff planned for the after party. I can't wait. Today my goal is to put together the perfect outfit to wear on Saturday for the jeep tour and to email all of the girls with the final details. I can't wait to post pictures (we get our own professional photographer to take pictures during the tour with the bachelorette package!!).
I did take a very exciting trip to the LA County Fair this month. I absolutely love the fair. I wish I had gone more than once like I had planned to, but there is always next year. Here's a picture of me stuffing my face with delicious barbecue. (I literally have a mouth full of cornbread here haha).

Inspiration

I have been a very bad music student. I guess I've just been uninspired lately. All I really have to do is search through youtube though and bam! inspiration jumps out at me.

This piece has been a favorite of mine for many years now. My boyfriend first introduced it to me and so for our first Christmas together he bought me the cd. It has a special spot in my heart. I think it's time to buy the sheet music, it's not very hard and it might be just the trick to get me out of my flute playing rut. Isn't it pretty? ♥

A best friend for my feet

I would just like to tell the world about my wonderful slippers. They are the best shoe investment i've ever made (well, that my dad has ever made.) I was away at school and my dad and my sister came to visit for parent's weekend. We decided to blow off the school activities and take a day trip. We just started driving north and ended up in Montecito, which is a delightful little town in northern California. It was in this town where my slippers were waiting for me in a small little boutique. I put my feet inside these masterpieces and I knew fate brought me to them. They were incredibly expensive for slippers in my opinion, like $90, but my dad was willing to buy me pretty much whatever I wanted since I had been so depressed at school and he was so happy to see me. We had a great day full of driving on back roads and eating at little restaurants we found along the way. Now, 8 (yikes, has it been that long!) years later, I still love them to death. I wish I could wear them everywhere. Not only are they the most comfortable slippers in the world, but even more that that, I love that I have such a great memory attached to them. ♥

And it starts

Hooray for the beginning of a new blog. I think it's time I have something to write for other than facebook status updates. Lately I've become obsessed with scouring fashion blogs so I think this blog with be dedicated mostly to style and fashion. I might throw in a few other things like cooking, makeup, music, and day to day thoughts here and there. I will try to post a proper post later on today. This was really just a trial run.