can't stop missing you

Last night while enlightening my roommate in the culture of classic teen-romance flicks, I happened to look outside and see an orange sky. Now in my experience, when it's overcast and the sky is orange, it only means one thing. I leapt from my chair in joy and ran to my window to see the only thing in the world that could have lightened the load of the past two weeks. Snow.

It's like Lorelai from Gilmore Girls. Snow is magical to me. It's like the spring of winter; it's fresh and new and gorgeous. I've been a snow-girl since I was a baby and as soon as my sister could walk, I was dragging her outside to build snowmen, forts, snowangels, and sled. A five and three year old sledding? Yes! I remember coming home from school every single day in the winter and playing in the snow after dark until it was bedtime. And when the running around got too tiring, laying in the snow and catching snowflakes in my mouth and looking up at the sprinkling sky beneath the orange sky. Snow makes the world quiet again.

The only thing getting me through these weeks is the sole fact that thanksgiving is around the corner and after that, winter break is just mere days away. I definitely feel like I understand people older than me here in college that explain the cycle of college to me: start the year fresh and energized and get good grades for the first half of the semester, and then it's just downhill from there until you can see the end. Quick and dirty, ha.

I took these pictures ages ago with Niklaas (yes, you get a Niklaas shoot today!!) and just got around to posting them. Thank goodness for these pictures because there was no way I was going to dress blog-worthy today with the snow. Snow calls for cashmere cardigans and the always getting more uncool Uggs. Comfy! Remember how I said I wear this necklace constantly since Alex sent it to me? Case in point. I've worn it three posts in a row! But I really do wear it constantly. Look at it! The bicycle is just the cutest.

I bought this dress at the Goodwill here in Missoula and it was fate. Remember that other grandma-floral dress with the sleeves that I posted way too many times and was way too in love with? That also...wasn't mine? I found my alternative dress! This one! The print is perfection and it was only ninety nine cents. I wear it all the time. My outfits these days seem to be following this exact pattern: cardigan + tights + dress + boots. I bought this red cardigan in the summer on sale and it's so, so cozy even if it's enormous on me. It's funny how those articles of clothing you buy on a whim not expecting to get much out of turn into things you wear all the time. My tights are another one of those sale purchases from the summer and they are funky-licious, just like I love em!

I'm posting so, so early in the morning but I desperately need to get my behind into gear like my dad says and study. My motivation to do chemistry anymore is slim. I can't wait till next year, I just know it's going to be better than this year already. The week after thanksgiving, I have my last midterms before finals which includes chemistry, biology, media, and lab. Ewwww.

Alright. I'm off. Toodless!!!

Love,
Maggie

Giveaway Winner #2!

Hello lovelies!!! I am here to announce my CSN $35 giveaway winner!

The winner is Becca from Adorable Optimism!!!!! I know you're all thinking that this must be a rigged giveaway like my last one because girls that I email and talk to beyond just blog comments seem to win these...but it's not. I promise! I seriously love Becca- she is an amazing person and such a great person to talk to about virtually anything. If you haven't been to her blog, you are missing out. It's the cutest, most uplifting blog around.

Congrats Becca :)

cataldo mission

Warning: this is going to be one heck of a picture and "Maggie's Life Beyond Clothes" kind of post. Niklaas and I adventured last weekend I finally have all my pictures gathered from last weekend! But more importantly, I finally have the time to edit&post them! I never realized how long and how much time blogging truly takes...but it requires getting dressed in the morning with inspiration to make an outfit you're proud of, setting aside time to go take pictures, downloading them to your computer, choosing the good ones, editing the good ones, writing a post, uploading the pictures to blogger, and situating them just so. It's crazy! But worth it:)

So, last Friday, after staying up for the first time in my life doing homework past 2am (3:30!) and waking up four hours later to take my Biology Lab Practical Exam, Niklaas picked me up in the morning IN Missoula! Can you believe that?!?!? I still can't. He drove all the way from home to get me which is a 4-4.5 hour drive. We walked around campus a bit and I took him to the cafeteria for lunch courtesy of my meal plan (hehe) and giggled at my friends as they met the boy they've heard mentioned a few times ;). It was so nice for him to get to see my new life for a change! We only had an hour and a half in Missoula before we had to turn around and drive to Spokane for the Josh Ritter concert. Along the way...we stopped at Cataldo Mission :)

I've been absolutely dreaming of going to Cataldo Mission since I saw a picture of it in my fourth grade Idaho History textbook. To be perfectly honest, going there and taking pictures with Niklaas and walking around made me totally feel like Teika! Seriously, if we happened to be married and five years older, I'm convinced Niklaas and I would be exactly like them. Haha! We've been adventuring since last year and when we became a couple, it just became all the more fun. Cataldo Mission was beautiful and while everyone I know has always told me it "wasn't exciting" or even "stupid", I loved it! I think there is something so amazing about being able to see history right before your eyes- Cataldo is the oldest standing building in Idaho. I can't imagine going to Europe and visiting old castles and structures. I'm drooling at my computer just thinking about it. I'm a history buff.

The two-three hours alone we got driving was so lovely. Just us and the road and Taylor :). Hehee. We got to Spokane and after a good solid hour of trying to maneuver through traffic (thank the Lord I wasn't driving), went to dinner with Niklaas' family. The concert was directly afterwards and I was reunited with my family! Eeee! The best part about the concert besides the fact that it was Josh Ritter was the fact that a lot of my friends from High School who go to the local university went and we were all in the front row. I am pretty sure I am the most susceptible star-struck girl ever. I squealed constantly. If you haven't heard of Josh Ritter...go listen now!!! He's so insanely talented and Rainn Wilson is one of his biggest fans. He's from my hometown and graduated about ten-fifteen years before me and comes home every now and then. It's so, so amazing.

We love Josh.

I got these argyle tights from Target last month and I loveee them. I'm not really an argyle person...but I am a pattern person, and these are wonderful. I love these denim dress so much. I'm a short dress person. On short people, long dresses look awful, and I love showing off my tights! You heard about these boots in my last post but I love wearing them with dresses too :). OH! I got this cardigan for my birthday. It's the first thing from Urban Outfitters I've ever bought for full price- it was a complete $48. Eeeep! I honestly hate spending over $25 for anything...but this cardigan is so so soft and I've worn it constantly. I love my beanie hat so much! I've been really working on buying specific items and buying burnt orange fall colored items was on the list- and this was too perfect! And lastly, I got this AMAZING necklace from the lovely Alex! I wear this necklace almost everyday and I'm realizing that I really, really need to buy more jewelry. I spend all my money on clothes and rarely buy jewelry but this necklace is the cutest thing ever! I need more!

 dress-forever21 cardigan- Urban Outfitters Tights- target necklace- ALEX! Hat-forever21 boots-charolette russe

I'm lying on my butterfly chair curled up in Niklaas' sweatshirt blogging while...watching....television...on...my...new...TV!! I was looking forward to this allll week and when I got the package slip in the mail yesterday I squealed. It's my early Christmas present and contribution to the dormroom. Jenny brought a fridge and microwave...and I brought nothing. So now I have a tv and our room is complete!

Well, I think I've said enough! Tomorrow I'll be picking a winner from my giveaway, so if you still want to enter, go for it! I'm ordering my CSN store slippers as we speak hehe :)

Also, it just started snowing. Thank goodness it's a new day.

Love,
Maggie

bury me in satin

I officially love Montana. No classes on Voting Day and Veteran's Day?? I'm sold. Seriously, having a day off in the middle of the week is so wonderful. Plus, it screws up all of the professors' class syllabus' so I don't have a single lab this week, either. Which means nine straight days of sleeping in. EEEEEP. I'm. So. Glad.

I took these pictures the other day- my first experience with the tri-pod. It went rougher than I expected. There were people everywhere and putting myself perfectly in the frame was so tricky! Plus, it's been getting so so so cold and my fingers were freezing. This was probably the best picture of the day....and it's still pretty sillly. Ha!! I bought these maroon tights at f21 this weekend and I love them all except for how they fit. One size fits all?? Bah! Personally, I always buy them in big sizes because I hate when they slip and fall all day long and these did just that. I like when they go to my belly button!

I grabbed this sweater when I went home last weekend and I've already worn it three times already. I really didn't think anything of it, but who knew I would be incorporating my light brown sweater into so many outfits for the fall?? This dress is old, but the last time I posted it was in the summer so turning it to fall was lots of fun! I love how the maroon tights worked with the reds in the dress. I hope you aren't going to get sick of these boots anytime soon. I've posted them countless times already...and I'm certain they will be around through all the winter months ahead. Hehe:)

This is my roommate!! Meet Jenny. I think you might have already...but...she's fantastic! We're very different as you can tell right off the bat from our "casual" attire day-to-day looks, but we get alone super well. The tv I ordered in the mail last week is finally getting here today and we're going to go set it up! I'm so excited! We're also going to be living together next year too with two of our friends in an apartment on campus. EEEP. I can already feel that sophomore year is going to be so much better than freshmen year....

dress: forever21 sweater: old navy tights: f21 boots: thrifted by my boy.

Anyways, my creativity is kind of off the rocker today. I'm tired. This week has been kind of a major dud so far. You know those days where you are just completely and utterly moody and the mere fact that you are unhappy even if you have no reason to be makes you even more unhappy? It's a vicious circle, too. I thought it was just the woes of womanhood knocking at my door, but, no. That would have been too easy ;). But I'm A-Okay now and I'm going to enjoy the last homestretch of the semester!! Eeeep. I can't wait for Thanksgiving!

Love,

Maggie

rather be with you

I have returned from my heavenly weekend home and I'm back in college land. In my diary I literally wrote, "The next two days are a living hell, but the next two will be heaven." Ha! From now until Thanksgiving, I get to just relax. No tests, no stress as I like to say! My chemistry test went miserably but I'm not as phased as last time. It's just a test and what more can you do than what you can do?

You've all heard me mention my best friend Jenni at home. My neighbor, almost sister, soul-mate, ect. Well, she's a photographer for the school yearbook and needed to go take pictures downtown on Sunday and I joined her. It was a rainy day and didn't dress for pictures, but we took some of me anyways. This is another one of those posts I wasn't sure I wanted to post. Which ironically, you all seem to enjoy. Haha! 

I took some pictures, too, just for the fun of it. We probably trespassed the whole time we took pictures, but such is the life of a blogger, right? I have this obsession with grain mills. Niklaas and I drove back from Spokane together on Sunday and we saw about a thousand surrounded by wheat fields and orange leaved trees and it just killed me that I wasn't dressed in a blog outfit. It would have been gorgeous!

This sweater is not mine. I'm sure I had you all fooled. Ha! We went to forever21 this weekend and Niklaas got this. He left it at my house Saturday and...well..it was a rainy day...so I stole it for the morning. It's soo cozy. I think I need a smaller girl version of it! My rule for shopping on Saturday was this: FALL colored items. I got mustard tights, maroon tights, this mustard scarf with gloves, and a military green dress. I really wanted this orange open knit cardigan and a brown one...but I didn't. If you all see either at your forever21, I would seriously send you money to buy it for me...hahaha. They don't have them online! Ah!

I don't know if you all have seen these boots (I forget) but I've been wearing them non-stop. They're my only knee high ones and they were super super cheap in the summer and got them. Tip: buy boots, tights, and sweaters in the summer! They're super cheap and I'm stocked up for the winter. Yay! Oh! And here I am wearing jeans...again! Crazy, I know.

boots: Charolette Russe Jeans: f21 sweater: f21 (boyfriends!) scarf: f21

(my favorite)

I'm not in the most writing-driven mood. Ooops. I made a resolution two weeks ago to write one page of non-fiction per day and it was going marvelously until last week! I had 27 pages. I was kind of excited about it. Instead of mulling over how much I wish I were in writing classes right now, I figured I should just do it on my own since I have two years until those classes start for my minor. Yay!

Well, I'm headed out to go try my luck at using a tripod for the first time. Wish me luck!

Love,

Maggie