#GlamVacay

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If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go? 

There are so many places I am dying to go too. 

EUROPE being my number one place.

Greece to be exact. 

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One day I will get there...along with all the millions of other places I want to travel too....Italy, Paris, Australia, Fuji, Disney World, Chicago....I could go on & on, as I'm sure you can too. We all have somewhere else we would rather be. 

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BUT that's why today is SO exciting!! 

I'm so excited to share an amazing giveaway with you today! I have been collaborating with a group of fabulous bloggers to give one lucky reader the chance to visit a loved one or travel to a city they have always wanted to explore! 

This fantastic prize package includes:

 $290 for flights (can be used towards any flight within the US), 

 $250 Visa Gift Card (for some extra spending money!) 

&

 $100 KiKi La'Rue Store Credit (everyone needs a fab new outfit to wear on vacation!)

For your chance to win, simply enter using the Rafflecopter below! 

SO tell me.....where would you go?

The Chiffon Diary | Style Elixir | The Pleated Poppy | Living in Yellow | A Little Dash of Darling

Glossy Blonde | Because Shanna Said So | The Life of Bon | Elle Apparel | The Daily Tay

The Freckled Fox | GBO Fashion | In Honor of Design | Ma Nouvelle Mode | Moiology

Kacie's Kloset | Get Your Pretty On | The Stylish Housewife | Messy Dirty Hair | Ava Grace's Closet

Good Luck Loves & Spread the word using #GlamVacay

a Rafflecopter giveaway

CLICK to check Granolaish out! 

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those were the days....

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I am so excited about today because its gonna be a blast from the past! So if you haven't heard I am teaming up with Chelsee from Southern Beauty Guide, Amanda from Rhyme & Ribbons, and Kristyn from Carolina Fireflies to bring you the one-time link-up GREEK is GREEK!!! 

If you haven't guessed yet I was a Gamma Phi Beta. I rushed a few different sororities my freshmen year of college but Gamma Phi was the only one I wanted. When bid day came I was beyond excited when I got accepted into Gamma Phi....I knew I was in the right place. 

SO I know sororities & fraternities don't have the best reputations.....& I REALLY wish I could sit here & say you're wrong about what you've heard - but you're not. At least not my experience with them. Its exactly what you think it is...boys, parties, drinking & drama.

Just a few of my gamma phi shirts - the 'perfection' shirt is my bid day shirt

But it was fun....& if I had to do it all over again.....i would. 

Some of my favorite things about being in sorority were the themed parties, the sisterhood outings and of course my absolute favorite...the FORMALS!!

I don't know about you but I loved school dances. I loved prom so of course I was going to like the formals.

So I thought I would take you down memory lane a little bit with a few shots from my Gamma Phi days....& the pictures aren't that clear because well....when I started college there was no Facebook....gasp! We took photos using disposable cameras & had albums upon albums filled with pictures. 

Big/Little week is such an amazing & fun time while you're a pledge. My BIG spoiled me with goodies. This wasn't even the HALF of it. 

Every fall all the sororities played power puff against each other & the frats would coach us. Our brother fraternity was SAE {good times with those boys...} Of course we were always in pink.

in true Kelly fashion of course I went through many hair styles & colors through my college years

One of my very first sorority themed parties was the Hawaiian one.

I can't remember much after this photo...oops

ah formals. my favorite.....& I was lucky enough to not only go to my own formals but be invited to some fraternity formals as well. Everything you've heard about the craziness of formals....its true. I can't lie....i don't remember them all.

Just a few shots from a few different formals --->>

One of my last formals, which happen to be an SAE formal was my favorite. It was on a huge 3 story ship and we cruised around all night....still a little blurry but I remember we all had a blast. Plus I was obsessed with my dress....

& because I am a little bit of a clothes hoarder I still have that same red dress.....& it still fits 8 years later...what can I say, some things never go outta style.

Towards the end of my college career I got really close with our brother fraternity SAE...those were some of the best times of my life...it may be a blur, but it was fun.

I really wish I could show you the thousands of thousands....& I really mean thousands of photos I have but that's it for today....hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane. It seems like a lifetime ago to me.

Being a Gamma Phi Beta was a blast.....college was fun, i highly suggest it.

An InLinkz Link-up

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sorority girls

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SO i don't know if you girls know this or not but I was once a sorority girl back in the day. I was a Gamma Phi Beta & proud of it! It was a lot of fun...my favorite part being the formals of course.


It feels like it was such a life time ago when I was a GPhi....so it brought back some memories when I signed up for Chelsees Big & Little Program for Bloggers.....so we started chatting...or should I say tweeting ---

SO with that all said & tweeted I am so excited to be teaming up with Chelsee from Southern Beauty Guide, Amanda from Rhyme & Ribbons, and Kristyn from Carolina Fireflies to bring you a one-time link-up!




So "GET EXCITED LADIES" for the Greek is Greek Link-up!

We will all be linking up on Wednesday, August 7th and hope that you all will join us!!



If you were greek, tell us about it!  We want to meet you!  If you weren't greek, tell us about some greek experience you had - a fraternity formal you went on, maintaining a relationship with your best friend that was in a sorority, how happy you were that you didn't join a sorority, whatever you want!


ANYTHING Greek Goes!


So dig up those old sorority photos...can't wait to show you mine...& get your post ready, grab a button, and link-up with us on August 7th!

<center><a href="www.carolinafireflies.com" target="_blank"><img alt="Carolina Fireflies" src="http://i1282.photobucket.com/albums/a534/Carolinafirefly/greekisgreekbutton200x200_zpsf036ba36.jpg"/></a></center>




Will you be joining us for Greek is Greek??! 

& don't forget the last round of #TheMessyProject for July is WEDNESDAY....be ready to be blown away, again!!

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#TheMessyProject ---->>> Tory Burch

SO today starts the celebration of The 1 Year Anniversary of #TheMessyProject!! 

Not sure what #TheMessyProject is? You can check out all the info HERE 

SO unlike past messy projects today's special edition has a little twist too it. 

For the first time, I didn't pick out the item....

Ting, from A Cup of Ting a blogger who loves #TheMessyProject had an idea about doing a special TORY BURCH edition of the project since we both are tory obsessed....& of course I said YES lets do it! But since it was her idea I wanted her to surprise me with something.

I was super excited when I received my package because I knew I was going to love it....who are we kidding, I love anything Tory Burch & Ting has great style. SO Ting decided to send me these fabulous floral pants

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& since it's only the 2 of us we decided we would show you a day time look and a night time look featuring these fabulous pants. A lot of people don't think an item can go from day to night with just a few changes so we're here to show you how easy it can be! 

Check out my day time look ----

pants: tory burch
beatles tee: cichic
sandals: walmart
necklace: ko jewelry
watch: target
headband & sunglasses: lincoln street boutique 

so I decided to have a little fun and paired my Beatles 'Abbey Road' tee with the pants. I really liked the way the colors in the tee mixed with the pants. I tucked it in to get a more sleeker look. Since there is already so much going on with the pants I kept it simple with my accessories. I added some simple gold gladiators and some gold jewelry....because remember less is more.

So what do you think of a graphic tee with the floral pants? How would YOU have styled the pants? NOW go & check out how Ting made these pants into a night time look!

Ting @ Cup of Ting

oh yeah...one more thing....because Ting is aaamazing she is giving away a pair of these Tory Burch 'Walton Pant' { in your size, valued at $250 } to one lucky reader in celebration of #TheMessyProject 1 Year Anniversary!!! 

so what are you waiting for?! go check out Ting & enter to win these pants! 

The 1 Year Anniversary Celebration continues Wednesday July 24 with a special 'Starry-Eyed' edition of the project featuring girls from different rounds of the project over the past year. 

The 'Starry-Eyed' edition of the project will be featuring

Melis of MRD Girl Musings

Janna of Perception is Everything

Jessica of Jessica Who? 

Jenna of Fitness in the City 

GET EXCITED! 

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imperfection

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Society tries to tell us we need to be stick thin, with perfect hair & perfect makeup. Well who the hell died & made society king?! I am so sick & tired of the constant pressures there are to be a girl in today’s world. As if it weren’t already hard enough to be a girl we have society passive aggressively whispering in our ears that we need to be skinner, prettier & better.  Well that needs to stop & that’s why MessyDirtyHair was born. 

I use to be that girl. I would wake up every morning 2 hours before I had to be at school & would shower, dry & straighten my hair stick straight, & then glob on unnecessary makeup. I don’t really know what I was trying to cover up. I did this consistently for years. In college I wasn’t as crazy about it for classes but I’d be damned if I went out to a party or bar that night without being dressed to the nines.

I could not stand the thought of a boy I was dating or even a boyfriend to see me without my makeup on. It was something I never thought I'd ever get over.

And then one day I just stopped.

It started with my hair. I was sick of taking all this extra time to do my hair & for what? It didn’t change me as a person. I was still the same Kelly with or without the straight hair.  So why was I doing it? It just started to seem dumb to me. Who was I trying to impress? If you don't like me for who I am in the inside, the way I look on the outside isn't going to change that.

So I stopped doing it. I started embracing my curly, wavy beast of a hair. At first I didn’t like it. I thought my face looked fatter with my wavy hair. It was a struggle, until one day I didn’t care anymore. I stopped doing my hair. I started washing it a lot less & let it air dry. That was the first step.

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 From there I stopped wearing makeup every day. I just didn’t see the point in wasting all this time in front of the mirror trying to look perfect & for what?  Now don’t get me wrong, there are times I do like to get dressed up & put on makeup, but it isn’t something I feel I am required to do every morning.

Yes, that’s the word required. It was almost like I use to feel required to do all that stuff because if I didn’t someone would think I looked weird or say “Are you tired?” I'm sure you’ve heard that before. It’s the nice way to say you look like shit.

Well I don’t really care what society says. I am sick of conforming to the pressures of being perfect. Because you know what I realized, no matter how hard I try & no matter how much I spend I will never ever be perfect. No one will.

So today, at age 28 I can finally say & say it with pride that I have no problem going out in public without my hair done or any makeup on. It’s become a way of life for me now - embracing the mess. It’s very rewarding to not care about what I look like and still feel 100% comfortable & secure with myself to go out in public.



Which brings me to 'embrace the mess'.


you have heard me say it, write it, hash tag it everywhere. It truly wraps up everything I just wrote above in 3 simple words. So you can imagine how excited I was when I was contacted by WhoopTee to design my own custom T-shirt for MessyDirtyHair. 



I was really excited to try the design tool that WhoopTee to design my custom t-shirt. To my surprise it was so easy to use. You pick the color, font, style, picture, clip art...anything! You can design it anyway you like to make your t-shirt the perfect tee.



SO of course I wanted to make one with my moto - what do you guys think?

ah i love it! It turned out exactly how I designed it. Of course I wanted a black tee...i live in black. Let's just say this tee has already gotten a lot of wear. 


SO I know a lot of you love embracing the mess as much as me....& i lala LOVE you guys for it. Nothing makes me happier than getting a message or tweet from someone embracing the mess --- you girls know who you are....i even have a challenge every so often because I feel that strongly about it. 



SO because WhoopTee is aaamazing they are giving you messy readers the chance to win one of my custom t-shirts....& even better there will be 3 winners!! 

Check out WhoopTee & design your own custom t-shirt ---->>>


FACEBOOK // YOUTUBE // TWITTER // WEBSITE




a Rafflecopter giveaway




With all that said & done, I have hopes of inspiring you & the generations to come that we don’t need to strive to be perfect. That it’s ok if your hair isn't sitting perfectly on your head today or if there's a small stain on your jeans, or a button is out of place. Or you left the house with a bare face. It’s okay. 

Be the REAL version of you. 

Stay true to yourself. 

Join the movement

& 

Embrace the Mess.





PS. This Thursday starts the 1 Year Celebrations for #TheMessyProject so be sure to check back for a special TORY BURCH edition....& coming up in a few weeks is the 1 Year Celebration for #TheMessyProject featuring past messy participants...its going to be fabulous! 

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take me to the circus

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Have you ever been to the circus? I haven't....I've been to the Britney Spears Circus Tour though and that was pretty amazing!



SO for this months CaraBox the theme was Carnival/Circus/Fair chosen by yours truly. I thought it would be a perfect theme since summer is just starting. However, once I went out to start looking for fair themed stuff I realized I was going to have to get creative.

SO for this month I got to send a box to the lovely Mandi over at All My Happy Endings...& I got a box from the fabulous Ashley at Wannabe Green. I couldn't wait to get my box and see what she did since I had such a hard time with mine.



When I opened the box I was so excited! Everything was so freaking cute!!! She really went above and beyond! Take a look --->>

This was my absolute favorite out of the box! I LOVE stickers so I was so excited to see this pack on over 100 circus stickers! The cards and paper were just so adorable.

How cool are those corn holders!? She really found the perfect stuff for this fair themed box. The ranch popcorn seasoning is aaamazing too.....but really, what isn't amazing with ranch?!

that magnetic board is really cool and perfect for my new paper! I thought those ring crayons were so fun! I brought them for the kids I babysit to play with and they had a blast...not gonna lie I loved them too. Who says you can't still color at this age?

and she completed the box with lollipops and tattoos! Plus she wrote such a sweet note. It really was a great CaraBox and I think she did fabulous considering the theme was a little difficult!!

I highly recommend signing up for CaraBox. Its a lot of fun and great way to meet new bloggers! CaraBox is put on every month by one of my favs, Kaitlyn over at Wifessionals and July's theme is SO fun!!! You can check it out HERE 

See you all tomorrow for #TheMessyProject!!!! 

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