Fancy Pants

Dress: Target $22.00

Shoes: Wal Mart $15.00

Belt: Hudsons $4.00 my owly belt from this post

This is my fancy dress I bought with my friend Sandy. I got some new shoes on sale at Wal Mart (yay wedges!) so I decided to wear them with it along with my owly belt.

Confession: I hate almost all of my body. Like, really. But I love my legs. I'm not sure why, but I think that they're the only part of me that I actually like. I'm only 5'3", so I wear heels and wedges a lot. Clayton is 6'4", so I always joke that if I'm not in heels people are going to think he's abducting me.

Today is a slow, unexciting day. It didn't rain like I was hoping it would. Rain is my favourite weather, especially when it's grey and calm. I could sit and listen to it fall on my roof all day. Yesterday was sunny as well, I spent it swimming with my friend Heather at her boyfriends apartment complex. Open water terrifies me, but I love pools. We had a blast and Matt (Heathers beau) made us grilled cheese sandwiches!

I'm on a mission to lose weight with my husband gone. I'm trying to cut down on the junk I eat. I dislike sweets, but I love anything smothered in cheese or fried (I am Southern after all). I'm also trying to cut back on soda's and drink more water instead. At night, I make myself exercise with some sit ups. Hopefully by next Summer I'll be strutting around in a bikini. If anything else, it'll keep me from blowing up while my husband is gone. I've got the worst habit of replacing feelings with food.

Anyway, another short post today. I'm going back to wishing for rain now, thanks for reading <3

-Tasha

My Heart is in Knots.

Shirt: Hudsons $5.00

Skirt: Kohls $8.00

Shoes: Burkes Outlet $11.00

Earrings & Bangles: Hudsons $0.25 & $1.00

Wallet Purse: Gift from a friend, she paid $10.00 for it

Last night I went with my best friend Heather and my mom to see "Magic Mike", and this is what I wore. It was so much fun! I won't lie, watching Channing Tatum wiggle around was great, and I always love seeing lots of sexy hip bones and abs, but the movie itself was actually really good! It had a good story and the characters really suck you in. I recommend going to see it, not only for the beefcake (although, hot damn, there was a lot of it!).

Anyway, this shirt is a SMALL! I originally got the large, which is what I typically wear, but it was HUGE. Heather told me to try a smaller size since they seem to run very large and a small fit. I was proud, despite the fact that this small is probably a large in other clothing standards.

We had a blast last night though and I got so many nice compliments on my outfit. The night before last, I went out with my friend Sandy and her boyfriend Brandon (who is my husbands best friend) and we had so much fun. Sandy and I went shopping and that's where I found my skirt. 

Sandy is adorable, but thinks she's too heavy to wear anything. I'm trying to change her perception of this. I believe as long as you wear your true size and dress for your body type, it doesn't matter how big you are. I've seen gorgeous women who were bigger than I am! Anyway, I forced her to buy a tea dress that looked darling on her, and I got one too and we're going to wear them somewhere fancy. Not sure where yet, but it's going to be fun!

I'm so lucky to have such amazing friends and family while Clayton is gone. It just makes me feel so happy to know that there are people who care so much about whether or not I'm sitting home all alone that they invite me to go do things with them. It's just so nice knowing that people are thinking about you and hoping you're alright.

Oh! My tattoos! I was going to talk about them since you can see one of them clearly in the picture of my bangles. I've been afraid of water since I was little. Growing up around the river, you hear stories of kids being sucked under by whirlpools or dragged off by gators and just the sight of open water makes me start feeling ill. When we go to the beach, I never get near the ocean. I'll stick to my safe, warm, dry sandbar, thank you.

Anyway, my uncle was in the Navy and he would tease me about being scared of the water. One day he suggested getting a pig and a chicken tattooed on my feet as part of a naval superstition. Back in the old days, when the ships sank, the livestock were in hollow crates so the pigs and the chickens floated to the top of the water, unharmed. Many people in the Navy get pigs and chickens tattooed on their feet so that if something should happen, their bodies would float up.

I got them on my wrists (chicken on my left, pig on my right) because if something happens to me I want to come up arms first so I won't drown! I love these two tattoo's, their my favourites out of all the ones I have.

Even though I get asked if I'm in a barnyard gang A LOT.

This post was long and kind of scatterbrained, sorry! But, thanks for reading <3

- Tasha

Evergreen.

Dress: My mom bought it for me a million years ago. I don't know where she got it.

Love Necklace: Made by me

Shoes: Burkes Outlet $11.00

I probably should've ironed this dress before I took pictures in it, the ruffles are all messed up. Oh well, sorry you guys.

Every once in a while, you come across a dress that makes you feel like a million bucks, even if you're chubby like me. This is my million buck dress. I've worn it to pretty much every big event I can think of because to me, it makes me look good. Except in pictures for some reason. I really need to spring for a better camera.

This was taken in my yard, because I didn't have time to scout out a location this morning. My mother-in-law has such a green thumb, I'm jealous sometimes. I can't make anything grow, I've tried. I've even gone so far as to sing this song to everything I've tried to plant, but to no avail.

 

Yesterday I drove up to Picayune for Clayton's "Family Day/Send Off", which was fun. I was so happy to see him again.

Isn't he so handsome? Hopefully these months fly by fast.

I didn't make it home last night until about ten, and I was woken up by Murphy at about six. I spent the morning trying to teach him not to jump up and be crazy, but he's only a year and a half old. He's still in that crazy "OH-MY-GOD-YOU-WERE-OUTSIDE-FOR-TEN-SECONDS-I'M-SO-GLAD-YOU'RE-BACK-LOOK-AT-ME-I'M-SO-CUTE" stage.

Isn't he creepy? I love him to death. This post was really picture heavy, sorry about that. Hopefully I can get a better camera and take some better outfit pictures. I'm slowly figuring out how to not look so stiff and posed, but it's so hard. You can probably tell, I'm just not sure what to do with my hands in these, but with practice, maybe I'll get better.

Sorry this was so long, and of course, thanks for reading <3

-Tasha

Things I Love: Old Cars and Lipstick

 

I've decided to do a thing here on the blog entitled: "Things I Love", in which I'll showcase some things I'm in love with in the hopes that you guys might love them too!

(I made the necklace above btw. My first time wire-writing! The letters are spaced too far and different sizes, so I obviously need practice. But still, not bad for a first attempt.)

 

This is mine and my husbands Javelin. It's a 1973 model but my dad bought it sometime in the 80's. When Clayton and I were dating, I realized how much like my dad he actually is (little girls marry their fathers, amirite?) when he fell in love with the car the first time he saw it and proceeded to tell me all sorts of things about it. My dad instantly liked him after that. When we were married, my dad gave the car to Clayton so it would stay in the family, on the condition that if we ever got divorced it would come back to me (an awesome reason for him to never leave me). When he gets back from his deployment we're going to fix it up and drive around to car shows to show it off. I can't wait.

 

Speaking of car shows.

I stumbled upon one this morning on my way to work! I didn't have my camera, so please excuse the phone pictures. I'm not going to upload every one that I took (this post would be huge) but here's a few of my favourites!

I missed getting pictures of a few of the cars, since they were leaving when I got there. Including two, crank-to-start vehicles from the 1920's. It was amazing and everyone was so nice!

I'm going to end this post on a completely different topic by telling you guys about a cosmetic product I've fallen in love with.

Mabelline Baby Lips

Okay, so the title is misleading, it's not a lipstick it's a lip balm, but either way it's so awesome! I use the Pink Punch one the most, and it makes my lips so soft! Be careful though, when they say pink they mean pink. I just sort of dot it on my lips then rub it in. I've got the Quenched (clear) and Cherry Me (redish) colours too and I love them equally as much. It moisturizes your lips for a full 8 hours and even has SPF 20 in it to protect them. Also, since it's a balm and not a lipstick or gloss, you can literally just put it on and forget that it's even there! It's not sticky or smothering, it's just...well, perfect! You guys should definitely give it a try!

 

That's all I've got for today. Hopefully I'll have more outfit pictures up, maybe Sunday. As always, thanks for reading <3

 

-Tasha

Dogs

Today's post is about family.

But really, it's just an excuse to show off my dogs. 

I went to Hudsons yesterday and got some really awesome stuff for a really awesome price, but I haven't been able to get my camera to stop being a jerk long enough to take pictures of it. I'll post those once I can, but for now, I hope these pictures of my puppies will suffice.

When I was little, I used to bring home every dog I found on the streets. My mom and dad weren't too happy, but at an early age I found that I enjoyed animals a lot more than people.When my husband, Clayton, and I started dating, I had recently rescued Maggie from my local pound.

 I'm not 100% sure what she is. I'm thinking some kind of terrier mix. Either way, she's adorable. When I went into the pound, I had just broken up with my ex of five years and moved back home. I was planning on getting a medium-to-large sized dog to take up the space in the bed that no longer housed my last boyfriend. But then, I saw Maggie huddled down in a corner, shivering and looking around like she was terrified. I tried to walk past, but I only made it a few inches away from her cage before turning around on my heel and going back to her. I couldn't leave her there. Unlike the other dogs that were jumping and barking, she was quiet and anxious. So, I picked her up, paid my adoption fee, and took her home.

I'm happy to say, once she got used to me she slept curled up against me during her first night home and I totally forgot that my loser ex was supposed to be there. It's been that way every night now, for the last three years.

This is Marty. I didn't have a better picture, since he's usually lounging around or laying on something. He's my husbands dog, a Pekingese (sp?). He's incredibly lazy and when you pick him up he basically turns into a limp noodle and just kind of flops there. 

When I first met him, my husband (my boyfriend back then) brought him over to my house to meet Maggie and see how they interacted, since we were thinking about moving in together. I was a little startled by him at first, since he seemed to be missing a nose and his eyes were the size of quarters, but after a little while he grew on me and I thought he was so cute. My husbands love for Marty was originally one of the things that made me fall in love with him. All my exes had been cat-people, or no-animals-at-all people and I'm very much a dog-person. It was nice to know that I wasn't the only person who sang to my dog, and even nicer that I now had someone to sing with.

Murphy is so hard to take pictures of, he's so black that his eyes and nose just kind of disappear. He's our newest edition, a Shih Tzu, and he's absolutely adorable. I was wanting to expand our little "pack" for the longest time, but Clayton was pretty against it, saying that two dogs was plenty. Then he came home from work one day and asked if I wanted a Shih Tzu. Of course I said yes (who would say no?) and Clayton proceeded to tell me about a breeder he had met. Apparently, Murphy was the last of a litter and for some reason no one had bought him. She didn't want him because she had no interest in breeding him due to his colour. She was going to drop him off at the pound unless we wanted him, so of course Clayton and I said yes. He was a little over a year old when we got him, and after about a week, he had nestled right in to our little family. He's the funniest thing and loves to be cuddled, I don't see how anyone could say no to that little face. The woman had originally named him Sambo, but we changed it because Maggie, Marty and Sambo just sounded weird.

This post was so long, sorry. I'll have an actual clothing post up sometime in the near future, when my camera decides to work. My friend Sandy and I are going to the new Goodwill that just opened in town on Monday, so I might have a few things to show from that trip as well. As always, thanks for reading!

-Tasha

Introduction

Hi, my name is Tasha.

I'm terribly socially awkward (even on the internet; how pathetic) so I'm not really sure how to begin a blog.
The blog is called Late Bloomer because that's what I am. I wanted to make a fashion/DIY/beauty/whateverthehell blog, but I didn't develop a sense of fashion until I turned twenty. I'm twenty-three now. Three years isn't that long. I've learned a lot since I started wearing makeup, toying with my hair, and figuring out what works for my body though. Also:

I've learned that all this shit is really expensive.

IF you don't bargain shop, which I do. Usually. Every once in a while I'll come across something that I just WANT so badly and I just buy it without even thinking about how much I'm spending (this usually happens with shoes). But mostly, I like to sift through bargain bins, thrift stores, Goodwill/Salvation Army's and Hudsons.

I figured with this blog, I would showcase the items I've bought, deals I've gotten, things about my life, pictures, projects and tips I've learned over the years. Just a...Jack-of-all-Blogs..I guess.

So yeah...thanks for reading, actual posts instead of my pointless rambling to come soon.

-Tasha