My obsession with bird iterms is a weird one. I owned a bird as a pet as a child, a white one of some sort of the other named Snowball. All I recall is that he died the day before Christmas, and I just totally did not understand why he didn't wake up. Later in life, my best friend through high school was petrified of birds. Once, when our high school was under construction, a bird flew in through a hole in the ceiling and got caught in our creative writing class. I remember how frightened she was, and how terrible I felt. I kind of relate to birds in a way. They travel easily and are one of the most free animals from the way I see it. Yet, they can get stuck so easily in buildings when they manage to soar in at the wrong time. My love of birds is more of the analogy they represent to me rather than the animals themselves.

jacket :: forever 21 remixed
tank :: loomstate for target (similar) remixed

sequined migration mini :: anthropologie remixed

tights :: target remixed

third degree heels :: seychelles remixed
bag :: emma fox remixed
earrings :: target remixed
necklace :: target remixed
scarf :: handmade

Well, I'm off to Florida, yet again. Surprised? Actually, it is kind of weird because this will be the first time Jason and I drive down together in one car! We're packing up the pups and taking the drive in one long plunge - then it's a week of Disney with the family. We even did a little splurge on a hotel for one night! I'm really excited to come home and share all the photos with you - expect February to be full of bright, happy photos from Disney. So to start off the vacation and traveling posts right, here's some tips on packing a tiny car with a lot of things from our ability to stuff 2 humans, 2 dogs, and all the stuff we need into a Fiat or Fiesta. Curious about how we deal with these long drives? Check out some old posts I've done from the archives on how to pack your camera, how to dress for the road and all about how to deal with long drives.

Large, flat items first
Dog crates, boxes, or anything large goes towards the bottom in the trunk. In our smaller cars, we choose not to fold the seats down because we actually lose room due to the fact that our seats do not fold flat.

Use Footwells To Your Advantage
Back when Teemo and I used to travel alone, I stuffed my carry-on sized luggage into the passenger seat footwell, then his bed on top. This served as almost a floor to even out the seat and make more room for him. When together, we use the back seat footwells for backpacks, my purse, and a snack bag for easy accessibility.

Play Tetris
Jason always says that packing is like Tetris. His advice? Find your holes and try to find items that fit in those holes. Can't fit anything there? Try and move things around to create the hole you need.

Strategize
Driving is like a strategy game. If you are the only one driving, you can leave your seat in that position and pack behind it. If you aren't, be sure to pack things that can deal with being crushed or can move. The change in seat position between me and Jason is vastly different, so we put someting like my purse behind the seat that comes out when we do anyway.

Think About What You Are Wearing
In the winter on trips like this, we start out wearing coats, but by the end, we are in Florida and don't need them. I pack a single coat with a hood and I put it on the back of my headrest so that it falls behind my seat. It takes up less room this way. Also, don't wear something you can't use the rest of the trip. Example, I wouldn't wear my boots or mittens on the trip we are going on now because they are larger winter items I can't wear in Florida and take up space.

Plan Ahead and Pack Well
Here's my big advice. Don't pack 8 million things. Girls, I know you want to pack different options for outfits. But you don't need to! Plan what you are wearing ahead of time and put it on a calendar or spreadsheet in something like Google drive - try and do outfits that look good with the same pair of shoes so you don't need to bring 8 pairs of shoes. Notice that in my last Florida posts, my Seychelles clue booties came up a ton? They go with everything, so I didn't have to bring 8 pairs of shoes! I do mine in a calendar so in the morning I can see what I am wearing and grab it. Also saves time getting to where we want to go because I don't have to try and come up with an outfit on the fly from what I have.

coat :: target remixed

sweater :: loft outlet remixed

dress as shirt :: free people remixed

skirt :: modcloth

blue tights :: target remixed

cream heels :: steve madden remixed
ring & necklace :: francesca's collections remixed
earrings :: target remixed
bag :: emma fox remixed

While I am gone, watch out for some guest posts from a few favorite bloggers of mine and follow me on Instagram and Twitter to keep in touch! AND! Guess what? A special giveaway tomorrow!!

A grey day, both dogs trying to chase squirrels, and an outfit that is a bit out of the box for me combines to create a post less full of photos than normal. Surely, there are days where my photos don't turn out or seem to miss the mark, but Teemo in his little tail coat we got on super sale at PetSmart didn't miss any marks. So voila. The most adorable and dapper pup, ever.

teemo's tailcoat :: martha stewart pets
silver top :: c/o sharon boaz
dress :: sparkle & fade via UO remixed
belt :: forever 21 remixed
tights :: off saks
flats :: asos remixed
hat :: nordstrom rack

As promised, here is the follow up to the post about training Teemo. Raynor is the elder sister to dear Teemo, and despite nearly everything I have ever read saying that beagles and basset hounds are difficult to train and never learn, she is definitely the easier of the two to train. Stubborn and smart, she will test anyone she meets surely to see what she can get away with. For instance, she listens to everything my mother says, but barely listens to my father whatsoever. Here are some of her fun little tricks.

Down and Sit :: Of course, just like Teemo, she can lay down and sit. She is the queen of sitting and can sit and stay for ever - until she is told 'come' or 'okay. She also knows watch me, come, stay, go to bed, crate, go get your momma, and a variety of other phrases.

Do A Circle :: So I wanted a dog that would roll over. But kind of like a turtle, Raynor is incapable of rolling on her back and gets stuck and flips out whenever it happens. So, she does the same trick I taught my first guinea pig.

Shake and Other Paw :: Raynor understands shake and to give the opposite paw when told. When there is a treat involved, she just starts randomly pawing the air, often just wapping Teemo in the head.

In comparison to the last two cocktails, this one is a true drink and plays with mixing alcohols to get great taste instead of using mixers. And by that, I mean this is one strong cocktail. It's simple, it's delicious, but it is a drink to sip! So here goes a cocktail insprired by orange blossom.

This weekend was the first time Jason and I were able to go on a little adventure to some where new since moving back in together. We chose to try a restaurant in Hampden, a suburb of Baltimore, that ended up being closed. Fortunately, there is no shortage of independent, yummy sounding restaurants in the area. We ended up at a small restaurant called alchemy, enjoying some delicious sandwiches and French onion soup.

Then, we proceeded to spend the rest of the day buying Jason new clothing since he hadn't been shopping since before our wedding, which was indeed, sometime over 2 years ago. I convinced (and by that I mean coerced) him into a dark red sweatshirt kind of like Nick on New Girl. These shoes are incredibly comfy and will be now coming to our upcoming Disney trip because they were great for a day of walking around stores.

coat :: rachel by rachel roy remixed

cardigan :: j crew factory diy-ed remixed

sing sweetly dress :: anthropologie remixed

cat tights :: ebay remixed

shoes :: born remixed

belt :: target (similar) remixed

bag :: cambridge satchel remixed

necklace :: asos remixed

hat :: handmade

This is a really old image of Sir Tom - but it fits! PS. This is one of my TWO guinea pigs. Yup, I have guinea pigs too guys.

Recently, I was contacted by HTC to participate in program using one of their new cell phones, an HTC One X+. For the past few weeks, a lot of my Instagram snaps have been taken with the new phone. I've been using it for tweets and what not while near wi-fi since I am not an AT&T customer. I wanted to put a post up about our 'geeky' style following a prompt because it isn't something I have addressed much here but always wanted to.

Here it goes. I might be a huge xbox fan. I run home every night to squeeze a few missions of Borderlands 2 in before working on blog stuff. Here are a few 'geeky' items my husband and I use frequently. I thought it would be fun to actually use the camera on my HTC One X+ for this one.

This Portal ring from a designer on Shapeways replaced Jason's wedding ring. It's an interpretation of a turret from Portal - and he's in love with showing it off all the time.

Speaking of Portal, last year I made a Wheatley Labratories blanket for Jason with some stencils and sewing.

I am trying to dye my hair redder so I can look more like Lillith from Borderlands. Yes, my real style icons are often video game characters.

These little cats have been adorning all the cell phones and iPads lately. Who doesnt want an adorable cat hanging off their cell phone? Plus, they fit all phones! So you don't have to have an iPhone to have adorable things.

My star wars dress is my ultimate geeky wardrobe item for sure. I love it to death and have mentioned on this blog more times than anything else I think. Plus, I feel like everyone knows Star Wars, so it's not like I have to explain myself every time I wear it.

So, what do you enjoy that you might not advertise all the time? I mean, I am not embarassed by any means of any of this - games, cats, and Star Wars are things I enjoy freely! But surely I am not the only one who has these seemingly hidden loves?

This post was sponsored by HTC. This indicates I received a product in exchange for review, although the opinions and ideas expressed are my own. For more information - read the disclosure of this blog. #HTCOne & #TroopOneX required tags by the sponsor.

So this is a knock off recipe of the Footprints Flatbread from T-Rex only made with bacon instead of chicken. You see, back when Jason and I had first graduated college, we went to Disney and ate these really delicious meals. We cooked a lot before, but when we came home, we were unemployed job hunters with a bit more time on our hands than we had ever had before. That's when we started diving into recreating every recipe we could from our honeymoon, and this one is a true favorite. You could always replace the bacon with some chicken or leave it off completely - we have tried both and it's still amazing.

Apparently, the big thing every year here in Harrisburg is the Pennsylvania Farm Show. Giant butter sculpture, fried vegetables, live animals, and a lot more all in one place. I missed it last year, but with my friend Shauna's strong recommendation, decided we needed to go this year. When in Rome, am I right? The best part was the potato donut - it was airy, fluffy, and better than any normal donut I have ever had ever.

I was pretty excited to take photos next to a tractor, but it proved difficult to pose in front of sheep as Jason's allergies flared up. We left with him red eyed and sneezing. And you know, I don't look at all awkward next to sheep (*sarcasm*). I'm a city girl, born and raised, and it shows here. It was a strange experience - a lot of fried food, sweat shirts, and people pretty much staring at me left and right. I thought this was the perfect kind of outfit for a farm show - you know, as close as I own to boots, a June Carter-Cash-ish skirt, and animal rings.

coat :: tulle remixed

hat :: handmade

shirt :: banana republic outlet

belt :: target remixed

skirt :: girls from savoy for anthropologie remixed

tights :: target remixed

booties :: fossil (similar) remixed

hair pin :: c/o sugar cookie remixed

rings :: modcloth & asos remixed

necklace :: crave jewelry design remixed

bag :: cambridge satchel remixed