Ashley's Bio

Hey guys!

I realize that I do have a short about me tab right on the top of my page, but here I have decided to get a little more in depth about who I am and what I love, that being fashion.

I was born in Miami, Florida and lived there until I was in 6th grade. From there, my family and I moved to Fort Lauderdale so that we could be closer to my sister's university. Much of my ideas about fashion and style come from my mom and sister. When I was younger, my mom did not allow  me to just sit in my pajamas all day, she would make sure that no more than an hour after I got up that I was fresh, clean, and dressed for company, as we usually had family or friends come to visit randomly and she wanted us to have our best foot forward. Now, it doesn't take me hours to get ready, I am pretty low maintenance as it only takes me (after showering and teeth brushing) about 5-20 minutes to put on make-up (if you read one of my prior blogs, you know that I don't even know how to use a lot of make up), but even if it's just something as little as going to the store to pick up some milk, I take a few minutes to put together a sundress and cardigan or cute shorts and an awesome pair of sandals because you never know who you are going to see.

My style sense came from my sister. I own a few pieces that are really bright and loud, but for the most part, my clothes are earthy, darker colors, with calm patterns. That way it is easier to create a variety of different looks with limited amounts of clothes. If you can't afford to have the world's biggest closet, you biggest friend is to stick to earthy color, solids, and calm patterns because when you re-wear them and style them in different way, it is easier to make it look like an entirely different piece of clothes. Like on one blog I wrote, I could easily re-wear all of those pieces of clothes in different ways because they easily go with a ton of other things. Nothing there is too busy and too crazy to wear multiple times a month. Having a closet like this, is also a huuuge budget saver!

As you know, I am all about the deals. I love finding cute clothes for low prices and some of my favorite places to shop are Sandy's, Plato's, and thrift stores in general. Not much feels better than to put together an amazing outfit from head to toe, and it costs you no more than $15.

On top of clothes, I love accessories and playing around with nail polish. Little do some people know, that sometimes it is the smallest things like a cute belt, earrings, or purse that can put an outfit together. I hope one day to be a on-air correspondent on E! where I get to talk about fashion, style and people's fashion all day. It literally would be a dream come true, so if you know Giuliana Rancic, let her know I say "Hey!"

Thrift haul: Finding great deals while staying stylish

Hello my fellow thrifters!

When it comes to fashion, style, and shopping, we all want to look our best, express ourselves, and wear clothes that we love without breaking the bank. This my friends, is what thrifting is all about. Thrifting allows you the thrill of getting a bunch of clothes and adding to your clothes, without the mall or department store prices.

To get ready for a great cruise to the Bahamas and to just get a some new clothes for our fashion forward lives, my best friend and I went to two of our favorite thrift/consignment stores yesterday: Plato's Closet and my ultimate guilty shopping pleasure, Sandy's, as seen in a previous blog posting.

Clothes-wise, here I have:

An orange chiffon dress with gold beading along the neckline that I will be wearing to one of the dinners on the cruise

A nude high low skirt that goes really well with...

A Forever21 daisy crop top

A mustard yellow high-waisted pair of shorts with a tribal printing and bow-tie belt

A black and white stripped body con dress

A sheer floral print top that will be great to wear on a beach day in the Bahamas

And my favorite piece, a Forever21 chiffon maxi dress that has a slit that comes up to my mid thigh

As for the accessories I have:

Dangling gold earrings with pink beads

A pair of nude suede wedges from Charlotte Russe

And my news favorite shoes, strappy black heels with gold beading from Carlos Santana

Looking up the shoes alone, Carlos Santana heels run from about $60 to $110 a pair. However, this entire shopping spree was under $90. Had I bought all of these pieces for their original prices, I would have spent well over $200. Can you say, deals?

Injuries Black Friday gave me

Here is a funny little story I wrote about Black Friday:

You are lying in your hospital bed. It is a struggle to move. You look down at your battered body and you know that you are lucky to even be alive. A nurse opens the door to let you know that your parents are here to see you and they come running into your hospital room, clamoring over you and showering you with hugs and kisses.

They all have the same questions, “Are you OK?! Were you in an accident?! What happened to you?!”

All you can manage to mutter is, “Black Friday happened.”

Your sprained ankle happened right away. As you were waiting outside of the mall, the crowd of super saving mall goers seemed to multiply by the second. Right when you looked down just to make sure that your sneakers were tied and you were ready to get this rat race started, the doors opened and a petite mom stomped on your ankle trying to make her way through. Not so bad, you can still make your way through the mall, even if you have a tiny gimp.

You barely even count your ankle as your first real injury; your swollen lip won that title. While in the Best Buy, trying to get the iPhone 5s in your favorite color — a woman tried to reach for it right as you did. Thinking you could just grab it from her and run, you reached out your arm and in doing so she must have thought you were about to hit her, because boy did she sucker punch you right in the mouth.

While at the DSW, you were too busy carrying two boxes of boots, three pairs of sandals, five stilettos and two pairs of wedges to see a rack of shoes in front of you. You trip…shoes go flying everywhere and unfortunately landing right on the poorly designed rack was a horrible accident. The metal bars combusted, leaving you with a broken rib. But alas, the shopping must continue.

At Sephora, you grab the last bottle of your boyfriend’s favorite cologne. Christmas is not too far away so you figure you might as well get his gift now. Right as you grab it, a man comes running up to you, claiming that he saw the bottle first and it was his. He actually reaches into your cart and tried to grab it from you and you hold the bottle with all your might. In the feisty fiasco, he yanks at your arm so hard that he breaks your wrist, but your adrenaline is running so fast that instead of screaming in pain, you judo chop him and make a dash for the cash register.

Finally at the Macy’s you are purchasing your very last items… you are in pain, you may have some internal bleeding, but it’s OK, you will be out of here in just a few minutes. As the clerk hands back your credit card and you think you are safe, a herd of pre-teens come running in as they were alerted that Justin Bieber’s new line of whatever is now extra double half off.

“Was it worth it?” your mother asks.

“The deals, mom…the deals are always worth it.”

http://www.alligator.org/blogs/wednesday/article_d39f9758-5d64-11e3-a01d-001a4bcf887a.html#user-comment-area

Black Friday just passed, today is Cyber Monday. Finding deals is on my mind...