Mrs. International Orientation

I apologize for not getting around to posting sooner about my Mrs. International experience.  The week was extremely busy and I have been using this past week to catch up on work and housekeeping - neither of which are caught up!

Here are some photos from Orientation, which occurred on Tuesday evening.

PA, NY, and NJ - Cessna State Titleholders

I just had to share what Siri said to me when I wanted to tan on Monday!

WHAT I WORE:

Sometimes, there is no need for new clothing.  In this case, I purchased a new dress and it was promptly ruined by bad tailoring (when the dress is so tight that you cannot sit in it, you cannot wear it - so some really thin teen contestant will hopefully buy my $700 dress off of pageant resale for about $150; I am so disgusted with my local seamstress.......).  So, about three days before I left for the pageant, I went to my closet and decided the best thing to do was to repeat what already worked for me.  

I am wearing a Dorothy Perkins dress with LK Bennett heels and black earrings from Cache that are at least a decade old.

I wore the dress HERE and HERE

As much as I love new clothing, I have learned from doing these What I Wore posts that there is truly no reason to be buying more clothes when you have great items already available in your closet.  Wish I would have come to this realization before spending $700 on a single dress that was ruined......

LINK UPS:

Style Elixir

Watch Out For the Woestmans
The Pleated Poppy
Get Your Pretty On

Hello from Mrs International

My mom, Susan, and I were supposed to drive to Chicago together; however, my mom had to back out due to some responsibilities at home (grandchildren by the names of Marissa and Hailee - and they always come first!!).

So, Susan and I loaded up the car and headed out about 8AM on Sunday morning.  

We had a beautiful drive down interstate 80.  We ate lunch at my favorite place on earth: Sheetz!

Continuing on, we hit the Ohio border (you Ohio people build really nice rest stops).

We stopped again for some fun at the Indiana signs:

At our dinner stop, we realized that we were across the street from Notre Dame Stadium parking.  So, we drove to the campus and had a lovely walk after our dinner.  The campus is beautiful!  We especially enjoyed the church.  No interior photos were taken because people were praying inside.

FINALLY, we hit Chicago:

We unpacked:

And the next morning, I took a trip to the Chicago Art Institute!  SO MUCH FUN!!!  Impressionist paintings and mini rooms as well as a great view on the drive of Lake Michigan.

WHAT I WORE:  Flip flops (easy to walk in); Michael Kors white shorts (two years old); Boston Proper Top (recent sale purchase); Sabika Soft Palette Necklace (best piece that I own); Chrysolite rhinestone earrings.

And for dinner, a special treat - my host family from the National Sweetheart Pageant in 1999 drove to eat with Susan and I at the Cheesecake Factory!! 

Thank You Richard Krauss

Thank you to Richard Krauss for this beautiful shot of me!  So happy to be Mrs. Pennsylvania International 2013!

www.richardkrauss.com

Hobby of Following European Royal Fashions

I have developed over the past two years a hobby of following the fashion of European royalty.  I find that many of the princesses and queens wear very tailored and classy items.  Items that are easily copied for less money or (better yet) are items that are reasonably priced on their own.

From Duchess Kate, I learned about Reiss.  Now, I am not one to pay for a regular priced Reiss dress, but those dresses become surprisingly affordable when they hit the sale rack!

In early 2013, Reiss had a great sale and I purchased a red dress.  I was very pleasantly surprised when one of my favorite princess (Princess Marie of Denmark) appeared wearing the exact dress.

After seeing Princess Marie in the dress, I think that I will skip the necklace next time and just wear earrings.  Like Princess Marie, I wore taupe heels with this dress.

 Here is a link to one of my favorite blogs with a photo of Princess Marie:
http://orderofsplendor.blogspot.com/2013/07/weekly-royal-fashion-awards-june-23.html 

More blog posts about Princess Marie (in this dress):
http://princesseslives.blogspot.com/2013/06/visit-from-netherlands-to-denmark.html 
http://www.newmyroyals.com/2013/06/king-willem-alexander-and-queen-maxima_25.html
 I recently updated a few blog posts with scrapbook pages that I created from 2011.  If you look through 2011 posts, you can see my scrapbook creations for that year.