wbwhitneybarnes

GEAUX Tigers!!!

2012-01-24T20:21:00.000-06:00

Yes, the season is over, but I wanted to share some of my LSU school spirit! I have been meaning to post these pics for a while now. The Tigers had a great season and all LSU fans around the globe are already counting down the days until next year begins! What can we say, we bleed PURPLE and GOLD. :) GEAUX Tigers!

XOXO,

Whitney

Northpark Mall During Christmas

2011-12-29T09:30:00.001-06:00

Hi!!!
I am sick at home with what I think is the dreaded flu (dr appt at 130), so I decided its a good time to get a blog post in. Altho, I am not going to lie, I would soooooo rather be at work feeling good than stuck at home feeling crappy! uh! Get your flu shots people! :) Anywhoooo... While doing some of my Christmas shopping at my favorite Mall ever, NORTHPARK Mall in Dallas, TX (pretty sure I've mentioned this Mall before), I took some iPhone pictures of the plants in the huge pots that Northpark always has displayed. They put the coolest plants in these pots. Its one of the many things I love about this Mall. Since I am sort of behind the times with my 3G iPhone, the pictures aren't the best, but they work for now. My husband gave me a gift card to Apple for Christmas this year to go get the fancy new iPhone 4Gs! I cant wait to finally have a flash on my camera among other things. I will probably be getting that this weekend, if I'm feeling better. Anyway, Enjoy my Northpark pics! And I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!

XOXO,

Whitney

Red, Green, Chevron, and POM POMS!

2011-12-24T22:33:00.000-06:00

Santa's coming down the chimney tonight! So, as soon as I finish this post I am heading to bed! :)

But first, I wanted to share my red and green chevron printed presents. I probably took on more than I should have this year, but it all got done and I can't wait to bring my lovely hand painted gifts to our family Christmas tomorrow. Pinterest has really been a great tool for inspiration. I really enjoyed painting these gifts and making the pom poms to go on top. I already have ideas for what I am going to do next year. Fun Fun! Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you left santa some cookies!

Joy to the Yarn

2011-12-15T21:04:00.000-06:00

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!
I don't know about you, but I am obsessed with all things YARN this holiday season. I am seeing all kinds of Crafty Christmas decorations made with yarn. It all started for me at the GAP. We had a "yarn bombing" party to decorate our store for the holidays. I thought the visuals this year were so different and just plain hip. I love the colors, the saying "Joy It Up," and of course, I love all the yarn. POM POMs galore! :) Here are a couple pictures from our Yarn Bombing party at the GAP.

This last picture is my present for my other work's Christmas Party. I was totally inspired by all the yarn holiday trends I have been seeing and decided to make some yarn balls of my own for my presents this year. My friend came over and we had a pom pom party. I still have to wrap all of my other gifts. Hopefully I will be able to take pics of them to share with yall. I went with newspaper for my company party, but I have changed my mind since then for the rest of my gifts this year. I am still using yarn, of course, but switching the newpaper out for the classic brown packing paper. That newspaper is just so messy! I dont want my friends and family to have black fingers except for the ones santa is giving coal to. haha.

By the way, there is an As Seen on TV "Perfect Meatloaf" maker in the box! :)

XOXO,

Whitney

Dope Nails

2011-11-07T23:04:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone!
Long time no post, I know. 4 Letters... L-I-F-E!!!! ahhhhh :) But, I just had to stay up late tonight and post this! I think I may just have a new favorite fingernail polish color. Well, its more of a pattern rather than a color! Whatever you want to call it, my nails are DOPE, as my gap coworker said tonight. And I agree with her! I must admit, I feel quite cool with my DOPE nails!!! hehe. I saw this idea on Pinterest and had to try it out myself. Click here to find my Pinterest page. I have a board dedicated to nails that I like. (BTW I absolutely love Pinterest... If you havent joined, its a great place to find inspiration for whatever you are interested in) Anyway, check out my tips and tell me what you think!

So what do you think? DOPE huh? haha Okay gonna quit saying DOPE now! :) Anyway, I just looooove my nails right now. If you like them too and are in the Dallas area, go to Serenity Nails on Lovers between Inwood and the Tollway and ask for Monica. She is the artist behind this awesome nail art. She did a bangin job. I looooove them!

PS- Scarf is from the GAP. You can never ever go wrong with a black and white pattern. :)

Signing off for now! One day I'll post about all my trips I told yall about. One day... one day.... :)

XOXO,

Whitney

GAP Sweatshirts are cool in Europe

2011-10-12T17:20:00.000-05:00

Hello again,
While on Oxford Street in London, I, of course, had to go to the GAP! For those who do not know, I work part time as a wee sales associate at GAP in the West Village in Dallas, TX. My store is a second home to me. I love the people I work with and the company. And I, OBVI (saying stolen from Rachel Zoe), looooove the employee discount! :) Working at the Gap gives me some spending money for clothes and keeps me around fashion. I love it. Anyway, I always go to every Gap I see when traveling juuuuust to see how they set the store up and to see if they have anything my store doesnt have. Aaaaand THIS Gap had a whole section of something my store doesnt have. It had a butt load of GAP logo apparel. I LOVED this. Unfortunately America is too cool for the logo now and we don't sell anything with the word, GAP, on it. It's a shame. Anyway, here are my pictures of all the GAP sweatshirts and tees. It was a lot! So fun! Enjoy!

This is not the greatest picture, but I loved this one. Gold lurex GAP logo! Bling Bling!

Fall into the GAP, people! JUst saying (also stolen from Rachel Zoe) HAHA

XOXO,

Whitney

:::Polka Dotted Oxford Street

2011-10-11T21:18:00.001-05:00

Hi,
Long time no post... I know I know. I said LONDON was coming and here is the beginning of it. This is one of probably 3 LONDON posts. I am so far behind on everything!!! My blog, my life, my tv, ect... :) It's all good just wish I could keep my blog[s] up aaaaand my life for that matter. Too much to do, so little time! Just to give you a list of blog posts I have coming up... this also helps me stay organized :)

1. London 1, 2, and possibly 3 (along with one or two posts on my pattern blog from london)
2. Honeymoon Hawaii - uhhhhh, I still have so many pictures to share from that. (6 months into my marriage and I am not even half way done with sharing my pictures from our lovely honeymoon experience) :(
3. Banff, Canada - A possible 4 or 5 posts!!! My hubby has been working in Calgary, Canada for the past couple months and I was able to go for a visit. Let me just say it is probably THE most BEAUtiful place ever. I cant wait to post about it.
4. I am going to LA this weekend for a quick weekend trip. WHICH means Ill probably have photographs to share.

AHHHHH! Sheesh, I have a lot of editing and posting to do, huh? I better get to posting this one!

These pictures are from my work trip that I took a couple months ago. We traveled to Berlin, first, as you see below. Then LONDON, one of my absolute favorite cities. Some background on me and my connection to London - In 1991, my family and I lived in London for three months. I was in third grade and went to school in the city and all. So, anytime, I have a chance to go back to London, I take it! I have a milllion awesome memories from this wonderful city! Anyway, these photos are from my shopping experience on Oxford Street. So fun.

Me with my pet giraffe in front of our hotel off Oxford. I just so happened to be wearing the colors of LONDON - Blue and Red! Yay British flag! :)

Why did I name this post "Polka Dotted Oxford Street" you ask? Well, I was waiting on my co-worker outside a store where she was buying something for her husband and looked behind me at the window that I was leaning on. I saw the polka dots and the building reflections and thought this combo makes for some interesting photo shots. The dots are on the window of the store and the buildings on Oxford were reflecting on the window from across the street. The polka dots look like they are in the sky! I love it! These pictures just make me smile when i look at them. I hope you like them toooo. :)

Oxford Street Sidewalks

A new building on Oxford that has a cool silvery pattern on the windows. I like!

Told ya, London Loves their Blue and Red British Flag. Love this cabbie!

Me being goofy!

TOP SHOP, I love you! A tiny portion of the many socks we bought on this trip. TOP SHOP socks are THE BEST fo sho!

I have some GAP Sweatshirt pictures that will be up next hopefully tomorrow. Was going to add them to this post, as they are pics from Oxford street, but I am tired. Until tomorrow, hopefully!

XOXO,

Whitney

Berlin, Germany Diary

2011-09-18T20:55:00.001-05:00

Hi,
Taking a break from Hawaii. I, recently, had the opportunity to take a trip to Europe for work. My coworker and I traveled to Berlin, Germany first and then London, England to do some trend research for our Fall 2012 line of socks. Basically we shopped our butts off! That was hard work, but oh so fun! :) Also, we were able to meet with a new client, With It, while in London. The trip was well worth it professionally and I managed to get some pretty cool shots of the two cities during our down time. All of this post is from Berlin. London will be next. If you like what you see here and want to see more, visit my other blog that I dedicate to pattern. www.iseepattern.tumblr.com Enjoy Berlin, Germany!

iPhone shot from the taxi from the airport! We're here!

We went straight to the hotel and dropped off our luggage and then found the nearest outdoor cafe to dine at.

We got onion soup aaaaaaand it was mainly onion! :) But it was delicious.

FALL! Something we Texans were excited about. Before our travels, Dallas had been 110 degrees with no rain for months. This Berlin weather was awesome!

Hop Berlin shops.

I took a picture of this tree bc the pattern reminds me of camouflage. Thought it was cool... :)

We decided to venture out and take the subway to a big shopping center our hotel told us about. I believe it was called Europa Center. Anyway, glad we did, we found a ton of stuff for trend. The subway was a tad bit hard to figure out, but we survived and I got some good stuff for my pattern blog. The subway had pattern all over it. Check out my post about it on my pattern blog here.

Me in the middle of the huge outdoor Shopping Center area with my pet giraffe in hand. We carried these totes around shopping so we wouldnt have a thousands bags to carry around all day.

One of the many department stores we went shopping for trends and socks in. I loved how the store was so minimal and white. Our US department stores have so many visuals. The Germans keep it simple and clean.

This guy played pipes? And Im not talking about bag pipes... I only give money to those street entertainers that deserve it! This guy certainly got my money. very cool!

Another street vendor who sold military hats... ??? not sure why, but i liked it. Altho I did not spend my money bc my paw paw has a ton of this stuff that my mom and I get to enjoy without spending any money.

This is what our hotel floor looked like. And this was only a 15th of what we bought. SOOOOO many socks! Inspiring!

OF COURSE, i had to try a Vienerschnitzel. I mean Wiener schnitzel. :) It looks disgusting, but the whole meal was actually really good!

Bye Bye Berlin. Ending the Berlin portion of the trip with a FRISKY TURKEY sandwich at the tiny Berlin Airport.

Berlin was nice. One day I will have to visit for pleasure. Next stop LONDON baby! Top Shop here we come! haha Auf Weidersehen! :)

XO,

Whitney

Rockstar Fisherman

2011-09-15T21:39:00.000-05:00

My husband is theeeeee luckiest man alive! Mainly because he totally snagged me as his wife, but ALSO bc he caught a 283 lb Blue Marlin in Maui on our honeymoon. Ridiculous. Catch of a lifetime, right? We went deep sea fishing on one of our days while in Maui and he said as we got on the boat in the earliest of am's, that all he wanted to catch that day was a Blue Marlin. Well, he did that aaaaaaaaand managed to catch a big one! Watching him reel this in was such an experience! This fishie fought a hard battle against my husband for an hour! My husband was a little tired afterwards. But only a little bc he is a rOcKsTaR. HEHE What do you do with a 283 lb Blue Marlin? We thought about getting it stuffed but then we realized that it would cover basically an entire wall in our tiny house. There was just no where to hang that bad boy. Instead, the fish was sold for a low price and fed many Local families. So that was a cool alternative. Aaand, well, I dont have a big fish hanging on my wall. HAHA Anyway, it was a great day at sea! Catch a blue marlin... CHECK...

This was our view all day. Not bad!!!!!!!

Okay, so, I KINDA slept most of the day away, BUT it is NOT my fault. I took a Dramamine the night before so I wouldnt get sick. That crap knocked me OUT!!! Obviously, as soon as the fish bit, I was wide awake! :)

YAY for action shots! NOTICE my husband's bulging muscles. hehe This was about 30 minutes in... I was so praying for my husband at this point. Just watching him fight this fish was exhausting! If he lost this fish, it would have been such a disappointment! omgee... Also, notice the pole. You can tell its a big one.

I am so strong! I caught a 283 pound fish! SIKE! I was in the chair right at first before we knew what kind of fish it was. I immediately realized this was not my fish. I almost got pulled into the sea by the little guy (I mean insanely big fish). :)

And the winner is - Joey! My husband and the catch of his life! Aw, they look cute together! hehe

A pic with the captain and deck man that helped us catch this fish. Without their awesome advice and hard work, we would not have met Mr. Marlin. They were rad!!! The company name and website link is below!

Groovy shot, huh? :)

Our fish had an audience! It was the biggest catch of the day.

Eye love this picture!

Finest Kind Sportsfishing in Maui is the company to go with if you are in Maui and want to go fishing while you are there. These guys were great!!! Click here for more information and to see other awesome catches. And our photo with our fish made the cut. Scroll about halfway down and you will see us.

I was inspired by our fish and wanted to make a pattern out of the silhouette of our fish. I imagine this is what the bottom of the sea is like in Maui. Blue Marlins everywhere! :)

XO,

Whitney

Hilton High

2011-09-04T19:29:00.000-05:00

Hello Hello,
I have been in Europe for work this past week. During my down time, I did some photo editing of some Hawaii Honeymoon pics. And, of course, while in Europe (Berlin and London to be specific), I did manage to get some great shots of both cities in between shopping for sock trends and meeting with one of my company's newest clients. I had a great trip professionally and personally. I will be posting Europe pics sometime in between Hawaii posts. Sometime when i can get around to it. Shwoo! :) I swear my life moves so fast, I dont have the time to post on schedule like I would like to. But I do my best. :)

These Honeymoon pictures are all from the Hilton in Maui. My husband and I stay at Marriott's most of the time bc my husband has a lot of points with Marriott bc of his job. We hardly ever have any complaints with Marriott, but unfortunately the Marriott in Maui that we stayed at (I wont say which one) just wasnt the greatest. Well, at least the room wasnt. The room was a bit muggy and it was hard for us to get any sleep at night as we were super duper hot and basically couldnt really breath. Great honeymooning right. These newlyweds didnt want to touch each other. HAHA So, we needed a serious change and some AC! We had booked a deep sea fishing trip that was on the other side of the island. We had to be at the boat at 4am! So, in order to sleep a little longer and BETTER, we decided to take advantage and book a night at the Hilton for a good nights rest and to be closer to the boat. The Hilton was great! We got some good air conditioned sleep and enjoyed the environment filled with cutsie animals and beautiful exotic flowers. And the pool and beach wasnt so bad either. Enjoy!

Yay we are here! And I got laid, too! :) With a lei made out of real flowers that smelt oh so lovely!

I looooved this tropically patterned robe! Thx Hilton!

Carpet Designs! YAY! :)

The flowers at this hotel resort were so gorge!

These penguins were cute. I totally wanted to put one in my luggage and take it home with me. I think this little guy would make for a good pet and best friend. What do you think? :)

WE ARE SO HAAAAAPPY to be at the Hilton! HAHA

Black Swan White Swan... I think I like the white better. hehe

Hibiscus!!!

This is one of my favorite pictures :)

I just couldnt get enough of the palm trees that grow sideways. They are just so lovely. Such a great place to sit and read a book right?

And then you just look up and see this! Well, maybe not exactly this bc I did some fun things with Photoshop to this pic, but you get the point. hehe

I hope you enjoyed this post. I highly recommend the Hilton in Maui if you take a trip soon. Next post will probably be our fishing trip. I wont spoil it yet, but lets just say my husband is a lucky guy. He caught the fish of his life. And I got some really cool pics out of it. :) Altho, on second thought, I may do a Europe post next. Maybe some Berlin photos??? Sorry, I am thinking out loud right now. It is so crazy, but I feel this blog has become a travel blog more than anything. That certainly wasnt really the plan. I have just been soooooo incredibly lucky to have been able to travel this much this year. Obviously the wedding and honeymoon allowed some of it, but all the other trips too? I am a lucky gal. I really love to document all my trips and share my experiences with you. Okay, Signing out for now.

XO,

Whitney

Mermaid Hair

2011-08-26T16:52:00.000-05:00

Hawaii number 4!

Yellow flipflops from GAP! YAY!

I love this picture. I love the fact that thru the rock, this bright green grass still managed to grow. I love the contrast! And bright lime green is an awesome color! :)

This is my "Mermaid Hair" picture that I named this post after. :) This Hairlike looking stuff comes off of the coconuts on the palm trees, I believe. I originally snapped this shot bc I just loved the contrast of the grey rocks and the reddish coconut pealings. Then looking at the picture later, it reminded me of mermaid hair for some reason. :) So, this pic has kinda become one of my favorites. I love Ariel on Little Mermaid!!!!!!!!! hehe

I call this picture "Half n Half." Again, it was taken bc of the extreme contrast in color and the contrast between the two nature pieces. It was crazy how there was so much of this grey rock and then all the sudden there was a huge bed of this electric green plant. If you read my last post on Hawaii, these pics are still from the beach with the black sand.

After all the beaches, we took a break and ate lunch at a local park. When we went shopping for groceries, OF COURSE, we had to get some Hawaiian beers to sample. And this Bikini Blonde Lager caught my eye. I tend to buy things if I like the way the packaging is designed. Go figure, I am a Designer. Hehe

EVERYWHERE in Hawaii had recycling trashcans. I really respect this. I dont know why it is so hard for cities to make recycling available. Hawaii has certainly figured out how to do it. Let's ALL go Greeeeeeen! hehe

We ended the day at yet another beach. I wish I remembered the names of all these beaches so i could share them with you. But we just did so much in one day. It was hard enough to take pictures and enjoy the view not behind the camera. I feel like my poor husband is always waiting on me to take a picture of this and that. LOL

After a very long day, I passed out! All the pictures you've seen so far in my Honeymoon posts are from just one full day and one evening in Hawaii. Just to give you an idea of how much we managed to pack into each day. :) We stayed two weeks - one week in Maui and one week in Kauaii. Sounds like plenty of time, right? But there is just so much to see on each island. And who knows when we will get the chance to go back. :)

I have a ton more Hawaii Honeymoon posts planned to share. So I hope ya'll dont get sick of them. :) But to switch things up a bit every now and then, I will be posting about some other things in between. I leave for Europe for work tomorrow! Even tho I will be working, I am sure I will find some time to snap a few shots of some interesting things to share with yall. So stay tuned! :) Signing out for now!

PS- Everyone should start a blog about their lives. It is so fun to keep record of everything. And I will forever be able to look back at my life without storing away boxes of memorabilia that just take up space. :) Blogging truly is a personal diary that you get to share with friends. :)

XO,

Whitney

Instagramafying Vegas

2011-08-24T23:00:00.000-05:00

Hello out there! :) So, I wanted to take a lil break from Hawaii Honeymoon posts. I do have Hawaii post number 4 coming soon!!! Buuuut wanted to blog about my quick trip to Vegas Baby over this past weekend!! My husband and I traveled to the lovely city of Las Vegas to meet his parents for a slots tournament we participate in just about every year. The slot's tournaments are so fun and they are such a unique experience if you havent done one before. You pay a fee to participate in the tournament and your room at the hotel your tournament is held at puts you up. Aaaaand you have a chance to win your money back in the tournament. :) We won a whopping 50 bux! hehe Anyway, the family gatherings for these tournaments have always been a great excuse for us to take a weekend trip to Sin City!

Soooooo, I have discovered a new app for the iPhone that i loooooove! It's safe to say that I am rather OBSESSED with Instagram. If you are not on Instagram, I highly suggest you download it nowwwww! Its awesome. My camera was dead this weekend and I kept forgetting to charge it, so all these pictures were taken with my iPhone and put into Instagram to add a different filter effect to each one. Follow me on Instagram if you want. My name is WBcatarella. I pretty much take at least a pic a day. :) Instagram kept me busy on the plane! The first 8 pics are from my plane ride with American Airlines all the way to VegasBaby!! I had a window seat! :)

Enjoy!

Something was broken on the plane, so we had to sit on the ground for an hour before we finally took off. Started instagraming then bc i was so bored and the theme continued thru out the trip... hee hee

And finally we are "Up in the Air." Has anyone seen that movie, btw, with George Clooney? Its about people who travel/fly 100% for their jobs. Since my husband travels 100% for work, we went to see that movie and it was dead on. My husband does some of the exact things as the main character did in the movie like how he packs, what type of suitcase he has, and what lines to go in and which ones to avoid. It was pretty funny. Really cute movie. Anywhooooo, on to Vegas pics below!!!!

This is my favorite sculpture in VEGAS. Its in Harrah's Casino and I take a picture of it every time I am in Vegas. This couple just makes me smile! :) And, by the way, Mrs. Money Bags has a perfect BLACK AND GOLD SAINTS outfit on! WHO DAT?!?

Always have to go to the Bellagio to take pictures of the beautiful seasonal displays!

Window Shopping!!!! I am obsessed with great store visuals. It takes true talent to come up with this stuff!

Old Vegas at night is such a sight to see! I love all the old timely looking lights. It makes me feel like i'm living in another decade.

I could have done a whole post on the M&M store. There is so much eye candy in that place - PUN intended!! LOL I also could have blown all my money bc there was a ton of cute merch. OMG! Plus the store smelled so yummy! If I were an M&M, I think I would be the blue one...

Pretty images I saw in the Hilton where we stayed!

If you want to see my other posts on Vegas click here and here. Second link is Vegas Casino carpet patterns. I didnt take any carpet patterns this time for some reason. Well, mainly bc all the casinos are dark and all I had was my iPhone with no flash (bc I have the old one). That is something I would now put on my iseepattern blog anyway. :)

XO,

Whitney

Sands of Many Colors

2011-08-17T22:25:00.001-05:00

Well Hello There!!!!!!!!!

I wanted to start this post off with something random and some what silly before getting into to this group of scenic pictures from my Hawaii honeymoon. I came across this card in a local grocery shop while my husband and i were grabbing some waters and beach towels before heading to the many beaches we visited this day. This card illustration caught my eye bc, well, Im not real sure what the heck this guy is doing?!? Buuuut it makes for a nice card to send home to mom, right? haha Anyway, continuing from my last post, after the trailing was over, we decided to visit as many beaches as we could squeeze in for the rest of that day. All the beaches in hawaii are public, so we were able to see a lot of different types of beaches. Some with red sand, some with black sand, and some big and some small. Each day, my husband and I woke up, looked at a map and tourist magazines/brochures, and said I want to go there! There is so much to see and so much exploring to be done! If you are planning a trip to Hawaii, I recommend renting a convertable jeep with a gps! A fun ride to get you from one side of the island to the other side is a must. Until you get to go on your trip, here are the third batch of pictures from my trip that will hopefully tie you over! :)

Palm Pictures! I cant help myself! :)

We heard there was beach that had red sand! So, of course, I had to see it! But it was so hidden and private that it took us forever to find it. It was the weirdest thing, we basically had to go thru someone's back yard to get to "mars" is what im calling it. And this is the sign we see... I love the fact that the "owner" of the land that this beach is on added NOT in the last sentence. Um, legally that's NOT gonna work. haha Anyway, we passed up the bogus sign and move towards the red beach.

And this was pretty much it! Not so much the beach that we could use our beach towels on, buuuuuut, it was pretty cool to see the red sand and to experience the scavenger hunt the locals took us on to get here.

Lots of twigs and sticks and very little red sanded beach area. Joey and I didnt go down the cliff to walk this beach. It prolly gets better, we just wanted to get to the next beach. Another couple we were with, explored it more than we did. NEXT time, i suppose! :)

Next beach had BLACK sand!

Black sand, a bunny, and a lot of rock! :)

Some "nature" I spotted on the ground near the black sanded beach. coooooool! hehe

Don't swim out too far, I have many more beach shots and Hawaii pics to come! :) *cheese* :D

XO,

Whitney

Waterfalls

2011-08-10T22:23:00.000-05:00

HAWAII HONEYMOON 2!! My husband and I hiked lots of trails while we were in Hawaii. This is a collection of my favorite photos that I took from the very first hike we went on. We did a four mile hike on Pipiwai Trail to the magnificent Waimoku Falls. The beginning pictures were taken on the way to the trail off of the winding Road to Hana. We stopped only for a short time to take pictures bc we were on a tight schedule. The hike took a lil while and we, for sure, did not want to be driving back on the Road to Hana at night time. That road was so narrow and jerked us from left to right so much that it made me a tiny bit nauseous. But none the less, driving and sight seeing, the trail, and the humongous waterfall at the end of the hike made for a great day in Maui!

And we're OFF! As always, my husband is way ahead of me bc I am too busy snapping pictures of EVERYTHING ! :)

I am kinda scurrrred at this point. Not the best sign to read the minute you start your hike! haha

Me, about to enter the bamboo forest! This was beautiful, but for some reason all my pictures were blurry and reflecting the light in the weirdest way. It was super duper hot and humid outside. So that's what happened. This is when I wish I knew more about the technical side of photography. But I do with the skillz I got, YO! Haha... So sad about my pictures, but I did get a couple good ones that are below. But, yea, the Bamboo Forest along the Pipiwai Trail was BUUUUCK! (Sorry I am watching So You Think You Can Dance right now as I blog and Lil C is one of the judges) Lil C is BUCK and so was the Bamboo Forest! HAHA

The Bamboo Forest was the last thing you hike through before the Waimoku Falls, which is well worth the long and hot hike!

Do you see the weird white reflections? Okay in this picture, they actually made the shot better, but in all the others, the blurriness just did not work... tear:(

The majestic waterfall that we sweated and huffed and puffed for. We finally made it! Altho this means we have the same hike back. boo haha But how beautiful is this waterfall????? Totally worth it!

My favorite picture of the post! YAAAAYYYYY! :)

XOXO,

Whitney

Honeymoonin'

2011-08-04T16:36:00.000-05:00

Its finally Hawaii honeymoon posting time!!!!! YAYYY! If you have been following my blog, you have seen my posts on my wedding experience and have heard my love story. So, now it is time for me to document my HUSBAND and I's AMAZING honeymoon! We started our honeymoon out in Maui and then took a tiny plane over to Kauai. Both islands were beyond beautiful and we had so many different experiences each day in each place. We tried to do a lil bit of everything (hence why i have a trillion posts planned for yall). We took advantage of every minute we had in this breath takingly gorgeous environment. This will be the first of maaaaany Hawaii honeymooning posts. I think i took a picture a minute while in Hawaii. :) This first group of pictures is literally from the first evening we were there. We arrived after a very long flight, took a nap in the room and relaxed a bit bc the time difference was a little rough... Then went out to find some grub, ate a cheeseburger with an umbrella in it :)... And with a full belly, we then took an evening stroll along the beaches that were around our resort. I hope yall enjoy bc there is much more to come! :)

Im thinking I should look into postcard design... hehe

iPhone photo that my HUSBAND took of me at our hotel when we first arrived. It kinda did something weird to the perspective for some reason but I liked the "happy accident." Thought it made for a cool pic. SO i added even more "coolness" to it with the habiscuses. :) Welcome to Hawaii! PS that track suit was good for the plane ride, but not so much for posing for a pic outside in Hawaii! I was melting! HAHA

Acaba de Casarse

2011-07-29T18:53:00.000-05:00

Here are my fave pics from our reception! Again, I will note write under each picture who took the photograph. None are taken by me, altho all images are photoshopped by yours truly! :)

If you follow my blog, you know that my husband and I visited Napa Valley over Valentines Day weekend this year. We bought a 12L bottle of red wine from Del Dotto Vineyards to serve to our guests at our wedding reception. It was a huge hit and it was so nice to have that for everyone to enjoy. It was our little way of saying thank you for coming to Mexico and celebrating with us. And no red wine was spilt on my dress! haha Anyway, we had all of our guests sign the bottle and Del Dotto had a lovely lable made with our names and wedding date on it. The huge wine bottle now sits in our dining room and is such a lovely keep sake for us to cherish forever and ever! :) You can view my posts on Del Dotto Vineyards and all the other Wineries we visited in Napa by clicking here, here, and here.
Photo by Chuck Ward, one of our groomsmen.

Mr. and Mrs. Catarella
Photo by Caribe Photography.

When in Rome... I mean MEXICO! You have to have a donkey at your wedding reception right?!?!? Aaaaand the little guy was carrying iced down Coronas on his back. This was definitely one of the only amenities that my husband and I agreed to spending money on. :) The donkey was oh so cute! And everyone had fun taking pictures with him. Picture by Caribe Photography.

Top left - Penelope, a friend of mine in Dallas. I looooove this picture of her!
Bottom right - Ben and his awesome beach wedding suit.
Both of those pictures are from Ben's album from the wedding weekend.
Group shots of the wedding party are from my photography package - Caribe Photography.

Yes that is a wig not my real hair. For my bachelorette party, my girlfriends and I "WIGGED OUT" for the evening. I happened to find a yellow wig that was excactly the color of my wedding. Sooooo, I brought it for the reception and for pictures. I love my Lady Gaga Yellow wig! This is a picture taken by Ben of me and my BRO!

My "Other Bridesmaids." So they happened to be wearing the same Victoria Secret maxi dress to my wedding. No biggie, they were both beautiful. And you cant blame them, it is a PERFECT beach dress. But thank goodness US Weekly wasnt in Mexico or there might just be a "Who Wore It Best" magazine article out. Funny story tho... a person that was also staying at the resort where my wedding was held thought that these were the bridesmaids! How funny! Good times!
This was another one of Ben's photos. Thanks Ben! You always get great shots!

Caribe Photography

Me, Mary and my wig actin a fool. Photo by Ben.

I always always wanted a bride and groom cake topper. I was so pleased that I found a blonde with yellow flowers! How cute are they? :)
Caribe Photography

I think Joey and I might just be looking at the future in this picture! What do yall think? :)
And ps- poor husband has red lips too bc the photographer kept making us kiss for shots. haha
Caribe Photography

The wedding was everything I could have hoped for! I hope every girl planning a wedding right now gets the same thing! We all deserve at least one day to be perfect. Wedding over and Life beginning! Things couldnt be any better!

XOXO,

Whitney B Catarella

Wedding Day Bliss

2011-07-27T21:45:00.003-05:00

HIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!
Dun, dun, duh dun... Dun, dun, duh dun! Here comes the bride! I am finally posting some of my favorite wedding pictures! It was such a blast to relive my wedding day through editing these pictures in Photoshop. Photoshop is so much fun. Altho, I really have no idea what I am doing. :) I managed to find some tutorials on the internet that got me started. Then I explored Photoshop more on my own and learned some tricks. I figured out how to do some cool stuff that I am really excited about. My wedding photos were already beautiful, thanks to Caribe Photography in Riviera Maya, Mexico. But I wanted to put my own stamp on them for this post. Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy my blissful wedding pics! Most of the photograhs are taken by Caribe and edited by meeeee. Altho, some were taken by my mother in law and friends. I will note the ones that are not by Caribe Photography. Wedding was wonderful. Marriage is even better! Glad I have such beautiful images to forever remember my special day. Enjoy! You may kiss the Bride. HAHA

AWWWWWW me and my DAD!

Mr. aaaand Mrs. Catarella! <3<3<3

Me and my beautiful MOMMY! :)

Notice my nephew in this picture. I think he's tired of pictures at this point! LOL!

Me and my YELLOW maids and adorable flower girl

My wedding dress on the mannequinn on left and my SOMETHING BLUUUUE on the right! The snap shot of the shoe is not by Caribe Photography. Unfortunately we didnt take ANY pictures on my wedding day of me wearing my something blue shoe. :( I'm really disappointed that I forgot that, but what ya gonna do??? :) Photo of the shoe was taken by me with my iPhone in DSW. Hehe. I texted it to my mom to see if she liked these Jessica Simpson patterned blue pumps as much as i did. And she did. Too bad I sunk in the sand the whole wedding ceremony. HAHA The things women do for fashion! :)

This awesome photograph of me and Joey and my maids was taken by my mother in law. I looooove this shot she captured!

The next two photos were taken my close friend, Ben. Great photo, huh?!? Thanks Ben! For this capture and the one below! Beautiful!

THE END!
Well, actually, THE BEGINNING if you think about it! ;)

I will be posting a couple of images from our reception next and then onto HAWAII Honeymoon Posts!!!! YAY! :)

XO,

Whitney

Beach Bums

2011-07-11T21:22:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of me and my friends in Mexico before my wedding. I love beach pictures! I even love looking at beach pictures when I dont even know the people. Folks, happy at a beautiful beach, is just entertaining to me. So I thought I would share mine. Also, I wanted to give the pictures a fun look by playing around with the color in Photoshop. I snatched up a great tutorial from one of my favorite blogs - thedaybookblog.com. I always love the pictures on this blog and wondered how Sydney and her husband, the duo behind the blog, got their pictures to look so fab. So I followed her step by step instructions she posted on her tutorials page and vwah-lah! Cool beach pics. Anyway, Enjoy... Wedding pics and honeymoon/Hawaii pics are still on the way. :)

Me and Megan P doing our PROM PIC!

I loooooove taking action shots of my husband! SO hot! HAHA :)

Me and my BRO! Do we look alike? He's a designer too! Check out his portfolio on behance here!

Okay, so my friend, Tracey, may kill for this, but had NO pictures of her except this one + I kinda like the way this photograph took and wanted to share it. hehe. Tracey and her husband, Will, have two little ones and NEVER have time to vacation or sleep or do pretty much anything except be mom and dad. So this is what they did most of the time. Good for them!!!! I get tired just thinking about having two little ones! Tracey and Will, I love yall! :)

Volleyball Tournament!!!!!

Cheerleaders that werent really cheering! hehe

All of my Bridesmaids and Flower Girl

Night Vision! My mom on the left and Mom's Best Friend on the right with Brother in the middle!

We're angels! Do you see our halos? Me and my MOH! Matron Of Honor! :)

Now I just wish I were back at the beach with all my favorite friends! :( Guess Ill have to just look at this post over and over to get a quick fix! HAHA

I hope you enjoyed the pics as much as I enjoyed posting them! What can I say, I am a BEACH BUM, for sure!XOXO,Whitney

Xcaret Xcitement

2011-07-06T19:58:00.000-05:00

Hey Everyone,This is the second time I am blogging this post. Grrrrr... I spent an entire week working on this post and somehow some way, I deleted it right before I was about to hit send. LITERALLY right before! I had one word that I was correcting the spelling on and then I was posting! I was so mad and I totally cried like a baby and then proceeded to google how i could get it back, but failed! Blogger has no archives for when something like this happens. HUGE bummer. But Im over it now... Anywhoooooo, this post is entirely about a place called Xcaret.

My fiance and I went to Mexico before our wedding to checkout the resort and area we had chosen for our big day. In our down time, we went exploring and stumbled across this park. Xcaret is, well imagine your happy place... This place is even better! There were animals to see, beaches and lagoons to swim in, historical myan ruins to explore and a show about it all at the end of the day that was amazing. Xcaret was Xellent! :) Here are some of my fave pictures from the day at Xcaret. And for more details about the Xcaret visit there website here. I totally recommend you go if you are in the area. Make a day out of it for sure! It was fantastic.

The Mexican Cemetery was the most interesting part of Xcaret. I walked all around and took a trillion pictures. For more info on this click here.

This was one of the performers for the show. Click here for info on the show.

Recap, oh snap!

2011-06-22T19:09:00.000-05:00

Hey Hey Hey! I have soooo many posts for y'all!!! But first I just want to play catch up and clue yall in on all the exciting things that have happened to me!

As you may know, I got MARRIED!!!! Twice, actually! Dont worry folks, I married the same man! Nothing crazy happened, okay?! Haha :) Shall I explain? We wanted to get married in Mexico bc both of us wanted a beach wedding and why not Mexico? All of our guests had to travel anyway, so the blue waters of Mexico was the decision. In order for our Mexico dream wedding to be legal in the United States, we had to go to the courthouse for the legal ceremony, first. So, that's what we did, we got hitched at the courthouse in Dallas, TX. It was really nice and honestly I would have been happy with just this wedding. It was very romantic and special! Dont get me wrong, wearing the big white wedding dress with my bridesmaids behind me and all our friends and family watching and celebrating with us was awesome! I wouldn't take it back for anything! I guess what I am trying to say is that the courthouse was just so special bc it was the first time Joey and I said "I do." Neither one of us expected it to mean that much to us bc we were waiting for the real wedding. My, then, fiance definitely did not realize how special it would be considering he wore an old polo shirt with holes in it to the ceremony! HAHA :) We were both surprised by the level of emotion we felt that day. Awwwwww... :) All in all, it was a nice outing. My mom and dad were able to come and one of my dear Dallas friends came along, as well. I DOOOOO!!!!

Once the legal stuff was behind us, we headed to the airport for Mexico for the big wedding ceremony with all of our friends and family (some already there waiting for us to arrive)! We had so much going on the morning we left for Mexico that we totally got to DFW airport WITHOUT our passports! Epic Fail!!!! hehe Forgetting the passports definitely sucked, I will admit. The stress level was already so high and we were both so anxious to be on that plane. So when we realized we werent going anywhere without those passports, it was a bit emotional for me. My husband headed back home to get our passports while I stood in the middle of the American Airlines check-in holding my big poofy wedding dress on my hip crying like a crazy lady! It wasnt pretty! haha Buuuuut it all worked out in the end. The AA staff whiped my tears away and we were on the next flight out! We actually ended up on the flight that both of our parents were on. So that was actually really really nice. Plus flying with our families was quite entertaining. None of them have really flown in quite some time. My grandmother apparently tried to bring an entire carry on suitcase full of liquids. LOL :)

We finally arrived in Mexico. The resort was beautiful (Ill post pictures of the resort and prewedding day fun with our friends later). Azul Beach in Riviera Maya, MX was THE greatest place!!!! omg! If you are thinking of a destination wedding, Destination Weddings is a great company to use. Message me and I will give you my contact info of the wedding specialist that helped us plan our big day. She was awesome and so was Destination Weddings.

Had to share this picture bc the guy on the left kept telling us that the little guy on the right was the Mexican Brad Pitt! What do yall think? hehe :)

After the wedding weekend was over :( and we were officially Mr. and Mrs. Catarella :), we flew to Hawaii for almost two weeks! Much needed vacay! :) First to Maui and then to the quaint island of Kauai. Honeymooning was fantastic! I have 852 pictures to share with y'all... Okay, not thaaaaaat many, but there are A LOT. I will be breaking up my Hawaii posts in several different entries! Editing my pictures is going to be tough! In the meantime, here is a sneak peak of Hawaii- I have soooooo many more pics to come!!!

As you can gather from reading this, I have so much to share with y'all. Soooooooo many great pictures of everything!!! In the next couple days, I will be start all my many posts out with pictures of our trip to Mexico before the wedding. We were able to go to the resort and check out the place and area before the wedding. The trip wasnt all business, we were able to throw in some fun things as well. So I will first share that and then move on the wedding and then Hawaii honeymoon! Shwoo, I have a lot of posting and editing to do. While, I edit and gather the first group of pictures, I hope this recap ties you over. Stay tuned and bare with me. It's all coming. :) xoxo Whitney

Napa Napa Napa

2011-06-07T23:34:00.000-05:00

HoLy NaPa!!! I have been busy! Which is why it has taken me months to get you the third and final batch of my Napa trip pics! This batch may just be my favorites, too. Save the best for last, right! Again, Napa Valley was THE greatest vacation. We WILL be back sooner than later. I hope yall enjoyed my snapas of napa! :) Pretty sure yall AT LEAST enjoyed my corny Carrie Bradshaw like napa jokes! HAHA

"When you're tired, you take a NAPA, you don't move to NAPA!" ~Carrie Bradshaw

Mustards was the greatest place to lunch! Great food, great scenery inside and out, and great bloody mary's! Which was a GRRRREAT break from all the wine we had been drinking! :)

Silver Oaks Whinery

Cakebread Cellars - Very cool atmosphere! I recommend!

This winery is either named Stagg's Leap or Staggs' Leap! It is all about the apostrophe, for real! There are two different wineries down the street from one another with these two names. At one point two wineries wanted the same name but for business and legal purposes, they could not have the same name unless they were owned by the same people. So, in order to fix the problem, they just rearranged the apostrophe and that made the two names different. Kinda lame, but it worked, they both kept the name Staggs Leap. The one we went to was in an old castle like home. We toured the house and the vineyards. It was a hard one to find but it was well worth it. The rest of these pictures are from this property.

There were lemon trees everywhere. It inspired me to plant a lemon tree in our backyard. Altho, I have not yet done so. I have put that on my very long list of things I want. haha

This was the family who lived here. The woman's husband died and left her with this estate. She had to open up a whore house in order to make money to keep up the winery. Scandalous!

View from the bathroom window. I thought this caption was interesting.

Textile on a bedspread in one of the guest rooms.

The backyard! :)

Napa Napa

2011-04-03T12:05:00.000-05:00

Here are the second batch of Napa pics... :)

I thought that the label on this wine bottle was a smart concept... to capture the beginning of the process of wine making. It all starts with the bare vines.

The grass was ridiculously GREEN. I did not saturate this photo or touch the color at all!

Some dried up grapes left over from last season. I thought this was beautiful!

Happy Easter!!! I totally thought this was a real bunny before I took the picture. I got all excited and showed my fiance and he was like, "uh that's fake." None the less, a cool pic and fitting for the season right now! :)

Napa

2011-04-02T14:57:00.001-05:00

My fiance and I took a quick vacay to Napa Valley for valentines day weekend. As promised, I am reporting back on the trip. It was truly one of the best vacations that my fiance and I have ever taken! And we travel a lot, but Napa is like no other. The whole trip was just relaxing and a breath of fresh air! Waking up and going from winery to winery and eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner in between, aint half bad! :) It was a very simple way of life and i loved it! And the scenery was to die for! We went during the off season which is November thru April. I was a little concerned that we were going at a time when there were no grapes on the vines... The trees and vineyards were bare and chopped back. But once we got there, I realized that the empty vineyards was definately a sight to be seen. Plus the wineries werent too crowded which was really nice and romantic for my fiance and I. Although, some day I want to make a trip back to wine country during its prime season. But, until then, the off season treated us just nice enuf! :) All in all, the trip was FAAAAABULOUS! I will be splitting the Napa trip up into 3 entries bc I took sooooooo many great pics and want to share them all with yall. Anyway, enjoy my photographs and I hope all of you get to drink a glass of wine in Napa one day soon. I highly recommend you do! :)

Del Dotto Winery

This was one of the few wineries that we made a wine tasting appointment at. It was georgeous inside and out, plus it was suuuuuch a good time. Two thumbs up to Del Dotto in Napa Valley. They serve you pizza too which soaked up some of that wine that we drank! :)

Heartshaped

2011-02-14T21:01:00.000-06:00

Hey! <3 <3 <3
Happy Vday Everyone! I had a great Valentine's Day weekend with my fiance. I will post pics of our weekend getaway to Napa soon! But first I wanted to post this before this lovers holiday ends. A couple years ago I took a Typography class at Texas A&M at Commerce in downtown Dallas just because I wanted to brush up on my skills and learn a bit more! It was a great class and I got a lot out of it. Anyway, the first image in this post is my favorite piece that I designed - A poster for a made up Romeo and Juliet production. Since then, I have seen this same concept done over and over (not as amazingly as I did it, wink wink) :) Buuuuut, none the less, I love typography and I love the heartshape! Enjoy and I hope you all got the love that you deserved this LOVEly holiday. Happy Vday! <3 <3 <3

The picture below is just for fun... My mom made this out of a McDonald's french fry container. My strong mother takes my Grandmother, who turned 90 today actually, to Mickey D's EVERY single day for lunch. My maw maw has alzhiemer's and a routine McDonalds luncheon is one of the only things she remembers these days. She is always asking to go to McDonald's. SO to keep the rest of the day smooth, my mom just gives in and takes her. So in order for my mom to stay sane, she does things like this. She is great at making lemonade out of lemons or shall i say art out of what some people call trash! She texted me this awesome image she took with her flip phone with a Happy Valentines Day message. A holiday we both adore! I thought it was cool... :) xoxo

Look How Fast the Snow Melted

2011-02-05T18:37:00.000-06:00

So, the snow is all gone! Can you believe it??? Temp rose and the sun came out and worked its magic! Goodbye ice! I had work at the Gap today and was terrified to drive on the iced roads this morning. Since cabs were on a two hour delay, I ended up having to drive myself. It was really bad at nine am! But it's all good now. The bad weather is behind us! Yesterday, bc of that freezing cold weather, I had to bundle up. I like to layer my clothes for sure! But yesterday was a lot! I only have a couple options for cold weather like that since I have lived in the south my whole life! So, today was nice bc it was above 32 degrees! Back to my normal clothes! :) I chose to wear a thin longsleeve black shirt with a 3 quarter length sweater on top. Lately, I have been obsessed with mixing black and browns together. I don't know why we didnt think of this before. HAHA Also, when putting my outfit together today, I wanted to wear these boots because they can handle snow and won't ruin. So, here's what I put together for my day of work at Gap... Enjoy!

Longsleeve - GapBody (I swear by these... they are the best shirts for layering)
Sweater and Skinnies- Gap
Fleur De Lis Scarf - Gift not sure where its from
Boots - BCBGeneration from Dillards
Bag - Louis Vuitton Damier Azur Canvas Collection Neverfull (this is best gift ever given to me for xmas from my fiance) (i mean i basically told him what to get me only bc he asked if i wanted a bag by LV. Um yes! hehe I have had my eye on this one for a while! Great bag. i love it, it matches everything and gives every outfit a soft classic side! + I love a nice checkered pattern)

Snow Whitey

2011-02-04T18:29:00.000-06:00

So, Dallas is COVERED in snow!!!!!! I have been in NYC most of the week. When I left Dallas on Sat, it was 75 degrees! It was so dang hot in Dallas just a week ago that when i left for the airport, I forgot my coat to New York!!! Luckily I borrowed a coat from a friend who lives in the city, which is the coat I am wearing in these pics. Guess I still need it. HAHA THANKS MEGAN!!! I flew back in to Dallas on Wednesday and havent left my house since bc of this crazy weather. First we had ice everywhere and this morning I woke up to 6 inches of snow! Its been great.

Coat- Kenneth Cole (a size too small) (borrowed from a friend)
Sweater - Ross
Jeans, fingerless Gloves, Socks - GAP
Shoes - Target in IOWA
Scarf - xmas gift fr my fiance's grand ma Millie (she made it!)
Hat - i believe its from Target as well. Given to me by my mom
Undershirt - long sleeve Gap Body

Now for Snow pic of my neighborhood! Dallas, TX 75206 M Streets

My lovely house that has kept me company for two days now! :)

My street!

My front door! Luckily the 5 or so inches of snow/ice did not topple over into my house as I open my front door. It stayed nicely stacked! :)

Started my journey out in my lovely burberry rainboots my fiance gave me for xmas this yr but realized that rain boots aren't really the proper boot for walking on ice and snow. I totally fell on my bottom! Hopefully no one saw! Embarrassing! LOL

So there is valet EVERYWHERE in Dallas... I don't get it really bc sometimes the Valet will take your car only five feet away. When that happens, I'm like, "Dude, I could have parked my own car." But hey it creates jobs. But I thought that this was funny. Not so much "valeting" going on now. :)

Our backyard

The palmtrees don't know what to do with themselves right about now! haha

OUCH!!! Careful, this could hurt!

my backyard

This is what we like to call our HOT TUB TIME MACHINE! :)

if you liked these Dallas snow pics, check out my post of last years! I lived in Uptown Dallas then in an apt. I loved those pictures! There was a grave yard by me then. SO there are some great shots of that! Check it out here

Braided

2010-12-02T18:05:00.000-06:00

Blouse, Gray Rider Jeans, Braided Belt, Scarf - GAP
Long Sleeve Tee - GAP Body
Uggs - Gift

And just wanted to add a picture of my fiance and I at Cowboy Stadium yelling WHOOOO DAT on Thanksgiving Day! Geaux Saints!

SOrry for the quick post, but I haaaaave to leave work and go to the GAP and get this sequen skirt! We dont get our employee discount on any of the sequen holiday stuff which is a bummer bc i want it all! But I have a coupon that I am using today to get the skirt! YAY!!!! It's the perfect holiday party skirt. I will prolly wear to multiple events this jolly season. :)

Easy Like Sunday Morning

2010-11-23T08:17:00.000-06:00

What a good Sunday... I woke up, threw on something warm and cute and headed over to a local coffee shop down the street called the Corner Market for some breakfast. Then, walked next door and exchanged some clothes at Buffalo Exchange for, well, some new clothes of course!!!! :) One of my purchases is the leopard jumbo heart-shaped ring that I added to my Sunday Morning outfit! I "heart" my new ring! :)

Sweatshirt, Trench, Leggings - GAP
Uggs - Gift from Boyfriend for Christmas 2 yrs ago
Ring - Buffalo Exchange
Shades - Target

PS- You get a taste of what my new home looks like in the background of these photographs. This is my new awesome backyard! I will post some pics of our new home soon. Life has been a lil hectic lately. We are still trying to buy furniture and other accessories for the house. Oh and we are redoing our master bathroom... Picking out tile, fixtures, paint colors, and even what shade of grout we want has basically taken over my life! :) So stay tuned, pics of our new crib are coming...

It's All About the Shoes

2010-11-18T19:09:00.000-06:00

Because I gotta get home and freaking do some over due laundry (I had to take a beach towel to the gym with me this morning bc i had no clean towels), Im going to make this real real short!Attempting to be a fashion blogger... AGAIN! :) LOL. I like my outfits so I'm sharing them with yall! Hopefully one day I can figure out how to take better pictures of myself. Lots to learn but reporting anyway! hehe

SHOES - Banana
Button Down, Longsleeve Undershirt, Belt, Jeans - GAP

WB Music Monday #20

2010-09-13T11:10:00.000-05:00

Pencil This In

2010-08-30T18:57:00.000-05:00

I got an email fwd the other day that had pictures attached of these wonderfully intriguing sculptures made solely out of pencils. So, I googled, "Pencil Sculptures" and found the artist and her website. Jennifer Maestre is the artist's name and you can click here for her website where you can view more images of her sculptures and get her contact info and story. Really cool stuff! I guess #2 pencils are still needed even though we pretty much use the computer for writing these days! haha

Nails Did #2

2010-08-17T18:15:00.001-05:00

Hello out there. I've been MIA for a lil while. Sorry! :) Here is a Part 2, if you will, to my Nails Did post from a while back. I only have three fab colors for you to gawk at (hehe), but none the less here is the report. :)

"Turquoise and Caicos" by ESSIE

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Fingers - "Do You Lilac It" by OPI
Toes - "Jade Is The New Black" by OPI
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""Who the Shrek are you" by OPI

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Joe and I at an outside Jimmy Buffet concert with my "Who the Shrek Are You" nails! I love the name of this color. So funny.

ps - Fins to the left...

St. Martin

2010-07-27T15:15:00.001-05:00

Okay last island post. :( It's been really great to relive my cruise vacation through these posts. I guess its time for me to go on another vacation!!! What do you think? haha Anyway, St. Martin was very chill for us. It was raining and gloomy all day. Joey and I were pretty much the only two people that got off the ship! But it was our last place and rain or not we were getting off! Aaaand we went to a beach anyway! "Bikini Beach" was a really cool place with lots of restaurants and tiki bars off the beach. We were the only customers, but that made it fun in a different sort of way. I highly recommend "Bikini Beach" if you are ever in St. Martin.

Since it was rainy, we went to some of the tiki bars and hung out... :)

I found some cool things to take pictures of as always... hehe

PS - I took a Sculpture class in college and one of our projects was to find a log and carve a totem face out of it [JUST LIKE THESE]. Let me tell that mine DID NOT look like these lovely faces. It it way hard to carve a face into something rather than building a face out of something. I'd show you mine, but it is embarrassing! LOL Well, and the dern thing is at my mom's house bc you know moms always think whatever their child makes is good... :)

Sooooo we totally got asked if we wanted to buy weed in EVERY island... So I had to take a pic of this guy's pattern on his hat. Gotta love his "Louis Vuittons" too. HAHA

Even tho I thought that guy's cap was rad, we stuck to beer and pina coladas... :)

A Conch!!!!! I found this dude just like this in the sand and took way too many pictures of it. haha

Coolest dog ever! He liked to get his belly rubbed! He was my best friend until he found someone better to hang out with! Dang! :)

Lastly, but certainly not least, i wanted to share a few of the many towel animals that were left in our ship room everynight. These little guys are always a great surprise at the end of the day! :)

WB Music Monday #19

2010-07-26T09:17:00.000-05:00

St. Kitts

2010-07-19T18:41:00.002-05:00

I didnt get a chance to take many pictures here in St. Kitts, which is a shame. We chose to take a sailboat out to do some snorkeling, so most of my time was spent swimming with the fishies. Which, btw, was so awesome!!! It was my first time snorkeling. I know next time to bring a waterproof camera bc I saw so many amazing fish!!! While on the sailboat out to the spot where went snorkeling, I was introduced to a St. Kitts' local's music that I really liked. The tour guides on the boat were playing one of this guy's cd's. The artist's name is Infamus. My favorite song by him is "Just Cryin'". I have attached a youtube video I found of Infamus' youtube page. Its interesting for me to watch the video bc it was filmed on the island. So some of the shots look just like some of my photographs. I wish this guy was on itunes so i could buy and download some of his stuff. :( Visit his Facebook page for more info on his music!

Anywho, another band I ran into here in St. Kitts was this group of cuties all coorinated in Blue T-Shirts. I wish I had recorded them, because their music was so different from all the other island street bands. And I just loved how they had "costumes" planned out, too!

aaaaand we're off to go snorkeling!

aaaaand we're sAiLiNg!

My fiance snorkeling! I wish we could see what he was looking at! :)

Okay the next shots are pretty funny. As we were on our way back to the cruise ship, locals were asking for $10 dollars to have your picture taken with monkeys! I had to do it! And then, I saw one with a little plaid jumpsuit on so I payed them again and got my picture with that monkey! My fiance was kind of annoyed with me. :) But i just haaaaaad to do it! So here is a million shots of me with little monkeys! They were so cute!

St. Lucia

2010-07-13T10:27:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the volcanic island of St. Lucia, home of the twin Piton Mountains, the exquisite Jade Mountain resort, and the stinky, yet interesting Sulfar Springs! We saw all of this and even got to take a swim in the emerald pool underneath a waterfall. We toured the area by boat this time, which is the best way to see the magnificent views of the Piton Mountains! Seeing them in real life was breathtaking and definitely a must see!!! At the end of our boat tour, we were dropped off on the beach of the famous Jade Mountain resort, where the rooms are built into the actual volcanic rock and where infinity pools grow on trees! We didnt actually get to tour the resort, which was a bummer, but the beach, with its black sand, was amazing! (altho quite hot...) :) Btw, for all you Bachelor fans, this is where Jake and Vienna (and the other three girls he was honeymooning with... hehe) stayed and where he made his final decision to propose marriage to Vienna sausage. So sad to hear that that relationship is already broken. TEAM VIENNA! Anyway, St. Lucia was very relaxing and had a different feel than all the other islands we had been to thus far. It was a breath of fresh air.

Sulfur Springs! P-U! :)

Ya know, taking pictures of waterfalls with normal camera settings really doesn't work all that well, but I do it again and again anyway. Figuring out how to make waterfall pictures look better will now be a goal of mine. Has to do with shutter speeds and such, right? No clue. I'm not a professional. :)

Sooooo, we took about 18 pictures in front of the waterfall, trying to get that guy to realize he was in our picture and kindly move, buuuuut it didnt work. So we got a romantic waterfall pic of Joey and I aaaand random guy in the bright orange shorts.

This was the side of a wall in the area that the waterfall was at. I am pretty sure whomever built this, purposely made imprints of the leaves into the concrete, but I still think its way cool. hehe Its the little things in life right?

Here is Jade Mountain Resort. It was really spectacular!

We totally look like we are sucking in our tummies in this pic. Pretty funny, but none the less, a beautiful picture of us on the black sanded beach at the Jade Mountain Resort.

I thought these funky little plants hanging off this tree were cool so I snapped a shot! Weird little things, huh?

And one last shot with the Pitons in the background!

Barbados

2010-07-12T11:52:00.001-05:00

This beach is beautiful! We ended up not doing a tour of the city and instead got dropped off at a secluded resort where there were about 10 people including ourselves. The sand was pink! Well, sort of. :) There were bits and pieces of red coral mixed in with the sand creating a pinkish tone to the beach. I loved that! Anyway, here is my experience in Barbados! Enjoy!

PINK SAND!!!

Toe Shot, of course! :)

Stuff I found on the beach! Notice the red specs in the rocks.

I have no idea what the bug looking fossil things are that are embedded into the rock in the photograghs below, but I thought they were sooooo cool. I was intrigued, yet had the heebie geebies all at the same time!

And the algae on the rocks was beautiful! I love taking close-up shots of nature. God was really a smart dude, wasn't He? Really He is an artist. The green in the algae is just delicious!

This next shot is one of my favorites! My mom said it looks like a piece of the moon, in a way. I agree. Maybe things aren't so different way up in space, eh?

ROCKS!!! I really enjoyed strolling along side the beach where all these rocks were. I am really happy with the shots I took!

Time to head back to the ship. :( Good day at the beach in Barbados!

Okay Okay, real quick, more pictures of rocks! But, I just couldn't help myself. There was a wall of fossil rock as we were leaving that had the coolest patterns randomly placed in the cliff. I had to capture them. :) I wonder how this formed itself?

Joey and I wanted to try the local beer before getting back on the boat. It was pretty dern good! *Notice the fellow sitting at the bar... I think he may have stayed there all day drinking Banks beers bc he knew all the bartenders quite well. I guess he enjoyed Barbados just as much as we did, just in a different sort of way! hehe

Back on the boat, just in time to catch the sunset. Photographs by my fiance.

Dominica

2010-07-08T11:26:00.002-05:00

If you can believe it, there just may be MORE pictures to post from Dominica than St. Thomas! There are just too many beautiful shots. In Dominica, we did a tour of the rainforests. This place had thousands and thousands of different types of plants housed all in the same places. It was such a variety and so interesting to walk thru. I went camera crazy! Altho, I could have spent days and days and daaaays here exploring the land and taking photographs! Of course, I am thankful for the day I got! Enjoy, Dominica!

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

2010-07-06T11:22:00.001-05:00

St. Thomas was sooooo (with 5 o's) beautiful!!!!! I took lots and lots and lots and lots of pictures! :) We took a tour of the island in a taxi. The views were incredible. And then we got dropped off at the most beautiful beach I've ever been too! It was a good day and a great way to start of the cruise. So here are some of my favorite pictures from St. Thomas. Bare with me, this post may be 100 pictures long! hehe...

Time to go to the beach now...

These pictures would have been so much better without all the other people/tourists. But, hey, ya gotta share paradise, right?!?! It was just so beautiful!

Joey's awesome photography of his feet and my head! I actually quite like this picture! Kinda "arty"right? haha

Aaaaaaand me with shells and rocks and stuff I found in the ocean! Good times!

Wasnt St. Thomas so unbelievably gorgeous?????? I hope you are inspired to visit! More pictures of de islands to come, mon!

San Juan, Puerto Rico

2010-06-28T17:42:00.001-05:00

HEY!!Okay, so I am beginning my posts from my cruise vacation. Our cruise ship left out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. We stayed there for a day or two before we left for the Caribbean cruise. So, I will be following my adventure in order starting with San Juan. I took THOUSANDS of photos so I'll have to be careful at picking the best ones. The next week or two will be posts from my trip bc this is going to take me a lil while! hehe

Next is some art from San Juan that I wasn't supposed to be snapping shots of. :) I'm bad, but if I could have afforded any of these pieces u know I would have bought one! They are beautiful! Ill be posting more of these on my pattern blog, too, so check that out periodically at www.iseepattern.tumblr.com .

And the next picture is a closeup shot of the San Juan roads. I couldnt resist taking a pic of BLUE BRICK roads. I thought they were so cool :)

San Juan Architecture. It looks like New Orleans really. I just love blue so I snapped a shot!

Interesting Typography i liked...

Puerto Rico Airport decor...

Me n Joey right before we boarded the ship!

WB Music Monday #19

2010-06-28T09:42:00.000-05:00

2010-06-22T15:05:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,If you have been wondering why there has been a lack of posts, well, I have been on vacation soaking up de sun in de Caribbean for the past week! :) Joey and I took a cruise and got to sample 5 islands! I will be posting some of the beautiful pictures I took in these islands sometime next week. Until then, here is one of the sillier pictures from St. Kitts. The locals made money off of dumb tourists like me by charging $5 dollars for some pictures of yourself with diaper wearing monkeys. And dont worry people, i did not come home with any weird monkey diseases... HAHA

WB Music Monday #18

2010-06-07T09:34:00.001-05:00

Etsy Find! Jewelry by Katey

2010-06-06T13:35:00.000-05:00

I stumbled across Jewelry by Katey on Etsy. What initially caught my eye was the very last green necklace in this post. It's simple and clean yet complicated at the same time. i love it! Then I went to her website only to discover these elegant photographs and soft color palettes of her collections that I equally enjoy! And, of course, the Graphic Designer in me appreciates her logo that I added at the top of this post. If you haven't already noticed, it replicates the design of my favorite necklace of hers. This was a brilliant branding move if you ask me. :) It is so important as an artist who is trying to make a business out of what they do (in Katey's case her jewelry). You have to have the talent and product, but most importantly, you have to keep a nice looking and organized persona. I want to give props to Jewelry by Katey for branding her company so well. She makes it look easy and it is not! Check out her website here. And to purchase some of her simply beautiful pieces, visit her Etsy store here.

Derby

2010-06-03T09:08:00.000-05:00

Hellllloooooo out there
Sorry I have been slacking lately with the posts. I started a NEW PATTERN BLOG on Tumblr called iseepattern that has been keeping me busy! I have already posted this pattern on that blog (since that one is devoted to, well, me seeing pattern!) HEHE. But I also wanted to share here on wbwhitneybarnes blog. "Derby" is my newest pattern design that i printed at Spoonflower where you can actually buy and print it yourself. Just click here to get to my Spoonflower Profile. This pattern was designed for a friend to use in a fashion project she is working on. I just love it! Hope you do too!

Laura Laine Illustrations

2010-05-25T09:57:00.000-05:00

Hey guys,

I was introduced to this artist's work when I stumbled across it on one of my daily blog reads called "Behind the Seams." Great fashion blog to check out, btw! I was inspired to share Laura Laine's work, too! i think these drawings are magnificent and very inspirational! Check out the illustrators website at lauralaine.net. She has soooo many other great illustrations that I did not include in this post...

YAY Rachillin!

2010-05-25T09:07:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to give my good friend, Rachel, a shout out! She is weardrobe's spotlight blogger right now. I'm a proud friend... :)

WB Music Monday #17

2010-05-17T09:24:00.001-05:00

Nails Did

2010-05-11T18:16:00.001-05:00

Hey,This post is loooong overdue! I have been obsessed with getting my nails done lately. So, I've gathered together and edited all my pics of each manicure that I have gotten done in the past couple of months. I am intrigued by photographs of nails for some reason! :) If you follow me on Twitter, you have probably seen some of these shots, but either way I hope you enjoy. And if you like a color, I have listed most of the names of each manicure at the bottom of this post. All colors are by OPI. PS - I recently got engaged! You can see my new bling in the first photo. hehe... :)

Blue - "Ogre-the-Top Blue"
Redish Orange - Oops i dont know this one :(
Light Pink - "Lucky Lucky Lavender"
Lime Green - "Green-wich Village"
Greeeen - ""Jade is the New Black" *This is prolly my fave
Light Purple - Sorry I dont know this one either
Darker Purple - "Louvre Me Louvre Me Not" *Second fave :)
Black & Gold - "Black" and a cheap Gold color I found at CVS - Painting for the Saints Games!!!! WHODAT!!!
Royal Blue - "Marrying a Royal"

"Exciting World of Pattern Design"

2010-05-04T17:51:00.000-05:00

Hello! Some of my patterns were published in another book a couple of months ago. I finally got my hands on a copy. The book is entitled "Exciting World of Pattern Designa and is published by Zeixs. It's teeny-tiny and super cute and, most importantly, filled with many other amazing Pattern Designers other than myself. It was an honor to be included...

Choctaw

2010-05-03T10:44:00.000-05:00

Blouse - Thrifted - Buffalo Exchange
Skinnies - GAP
Boots - Endless.com

WB Music Monday #16

2010-05-03T10:04:00.001-05:00

Gorgeous Cabo

2010-04-29T09:26:00.000-05:00

FINALLY!!!! Here are some pics from my quick Cabo Trip with Joey!

Rock the Runway

2010-04-20T18:49:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone,As I was shopping last week for my trip to Cabo (which btw, I will post pics soon), I had to stop and take some pictures of these gowns I spotted. "Rock the Runway" is a Spring Fashion show that the Junior League of Dallas puts on each year. I am not a member, but I had heard of this event thru some friends. Altho, I had no idea that there was a Project Runway type Designers Competition involved. These local fashion designers were given the challenge to design a gown made from D Magazine clippings. Some of the designs were displayed in Dillards at Northpark Mall in Dallas, TX for a week after the show. I really love the close-up shots I got of the patterns they created with the magazine pages.

Khanh Nguyen www.nhakhanh.com

Patti Flowers

Shemara Jeyarajah www.shemaracouture.com

PLEASE please someone correct me if I did not match up the designers to their design. I was in a rush at the Mall and didnt make note of which dress went with whom. My appologies if I did not remember correctly!!! :)

WB Music Monday #15

2010-04-20T09:18:00.001-05:00

Reptile

2010-04-19T18:28:00.001-05:00

Headband - GAP
TieDye TShirt - Target (7 bucks by the way) :)
Cardigan - GAP
Skinny Jeans - Forever21
Shoes- - Target by Mossimo
Nail Color - "Most Honorable Red" by OPI
Toe Nail Color - "Louvre Me Louvre Me Not" by OPI France Collection

28 & Over The Hill :)

2010-04-14T18:52:00.003-05:00

Guess who's day of birth it is? Yes, that's right, it is my 28th birthday today @ 4:08 pm to be exact. Had a laid back day, nothing too extravagant. But I wanted to celebrate a little by sharing some birthday images with you. First image is one of my designs. I guess you could say, it's a birthday e-card to myself... hehe.

Flowers from my boss. I love the orange!

I have been into orange lately. Bought myself a bday gift yesterday bc you should always buy yourself something for your own birthday! :) I purchased some very uncomfortable yet must have ORANGE sandals from Target that I will be posting about in an outfit post tomorrow. But here is a sneak peek...

And... VOGUE arrived! My mom sent me so much stuff for my bday (apparently I still have another package coming). But this is one of my favorites. A subscription to VOGUE. Can't beat that bday gift! And Gisele looks amazing on this months cover! My mom is the best!

Happy Birthday to me AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY to anyone else out there that shares this day with me!

WB Music Monday #14

2010-04-12T19:12:00.002-05:00

Simply Red, White, & Blue

2010-04-09T16:46:00.001-05:00

Headband - GAP (I love this headband & wear it way too much! It matches EVERYTHING! hehe)
Ruffly Tank - GAP
Cardigan - Target
Boyfriend Jeans - GAP
Sandles - Gianni Bini @ Dillards
Red Lipstick - "Party Red" by Clinique

WB Music Monday #13

2010-04-05T15:15:00.000-05:00

Color Class Collages

2010-03-31T10:35:00.001-05:00

Hey There,I am going back in time with this post. <<< I was going thru old books trying to organize a bit and came across one of my favorite journals, if you will. As a wee little Freshman at Louisiana State University, I took a Color Theory class from a professor named Paul Dean. Because he was also a collage artist at the time, he carried that idea over into one of our projects. Over the semester, we were instructed to keep a collage diary illustrating different color combinations on each page using whatever supplies we could find. At the end of the semester we each passed our books around the classroom for our classmates to view. It was interesting to see what everyone came up with. Anyway, I thought it was a great project and I got some really cool images out of it. To view Paul Dean's collage portfolio and other works, visit www.papershrine.com.

PS- Notice the collage that is mainly Turq and Black & White. Most of this collage was made from the cover of my very first NYLON mag!!! I think, before it was even sold in the US. I <3 NYLON! :)

WB Music Monday #12

2010-03-29T17:53:00.000-05:00

Roses are red, pink, & orange...

2010-03-26T16:02:00.001-05:00

Hey Everyone,
I am very excited to post about this! Back in October of 09, I was contacted by a designer named Jan Schreiner who is studying Interior Design in London. He explained that he stumbled across my work on Behance.net and was wondering if he could use one of my patterns for his Final Restaurant Project in school. Of course, I agreed! Here are the final renderings he sent to me. I think the space looks really chic & trendy. I wish I had one of those chairs with my pattern on it in real life. hehe...
You can find more of Jan Schreiner's work on his website ... www.janschreiner.com
And to view my Behance portfolio visit www.Behance.net/wbarnes/frame

2010-03-22T17:43:00.001-05:00