Make (over) me girly

I need a make over. 

For most of my college career, and after, I wore mostly black clothing. It is still a default color when I find an article of clothing that I like that comes in a variety of hues. In the last year, I've been forcing myself to buy items in different colors.  But I'm still wary of patterns.

Today, for example, I am wearing a grey no-button cardigan, a hunter green cami, and mocha brown dress pants. With black shoes.  It's dull.  The best part about my outfit are my silver rose-shaped earrings that I bought from Forever 21 (I love their cheap accessories). 

While scouring the internets for wedding inspiration, I've also stumbled across a few (or more) amazing new blogs to read while work is slow (which is often). My Google Reader is bursting! And I've noticed a trend; the blogs I add to my reader all contain pretty pictures and DIY projects for clothes and home decor.

I've collected lots of wonderfully lovely ideas for bedroom decor (which I probably won't be able to use since a boy will be moving in with me fairly soon). And I've been introduced to the wonderful world of bold patterns on fabric.

I'm finding myself suddenly inspired to pull out the old crochet hook and get to work, and also to teach myself how to knit, sew, and play piano!  My creativity has been set ablaze!

I want to add color and design to my home; with curtains and rugs, patterned pillows and quirky wall art. When Brad and I were registering for wedding gifts, he tended to lean toward safer colors and art (minus the Jack Daniels holographic framed poster...weird...), while I wanted bright colored rugs and towels.  He won.  (Though I did secretly tell my aunt in an email that if she bought me yellow towels, I wouldn't be upset.)

As for clothing, I've been trying to go more toward things I wouldn't usually try on, but until recently when I'd buy clothes I was trying to hide certain squishy parts of myself that I thought would be accentuated by wearing bright colors and patterns.  But I've been working out for about a month now (...with a small lull in the frequency that will be remedied tomorrow morning), and I've been  keeping up with the eating healthy. Those once squishy bits aren't so squishy anymore.

I want to wear cute clothes! But i'm on a pretty tight budget from now until Wedding Day, so if anyone has any ideas of where I can find cute clothes for cheap, pass the info along this way.

I did come across an amazing site today that added a little sunshine to my life.  Check out The Bright Side Project for daily giveaways!