My TV soulmate, Raymond, bought us both tickets to the Price is Right LIVE at the Walton Arts Center here in town. This wasn’t a show that was taped for TV, but it did have lots of cool prizes (including a car!) and was hosted by Emmy Award winning game show host Todd Newton.

Here we are with our shirts that I made! They say “Hogwild for Plinko!” and has a quick drawing I did of a hog playing plinko. The mascot of the university here is the razorback, so everything in the state is pretty much hog themed. There were other people with shirts that had The Price is Right logo with a hog leaning on it on the front (the old university logo used to have that hog) and the back had “Help control the pet population, have your hogs spayed or neutered.” How cute!

We also got name tags just like the show if we signed up to play. So cool!

So this is how the show works (if you haven’t seen it before). You get called up along with 3 other people to bid on how much you think an item costs. The item shown here is a weird hover toy you can control with your phone. The person who gets the closest without going over wins and gets to play a pricing game. In this version, if you get it exactly right, you get a $200 amazon gift card.

Here’s another goofy photo of me before I show you all my pricing game pics. lol

Cliffhangers! This game has you guess the price of several items and the little mountain climber goes up the mountain the number of spaces that you went over in price. So if you guessed an item was $5 and it was only $3, you would go up 2 spaces. If you don’t make the little guy go over the cliff, you win a prize.

The first item to guess the price of was an automatic wine bottle opener. Someone in the front row was calling out prices (it’s expected for everyone in the audience to yell out how much they think it’s worth too, to help the contestant) and Todd Newton said “What do you know about wine? You are drinking $2 Bud Light out of a plastic cup! …..With a hog cup holder!” That’s some shady shade! Hahahaha!

Next is the game Punch-A-Bunch. Raymond already calls this game “the fisting game” so I knew it was already going to be funny. Basically you guess if an item is higher or lower in price than the price they give you, and if you are right you get to punch out one of the paper circles. The paper circles have money amounts that you can win (or $0 as an amount).

This lady playing was very drunk. She immediately went up to the host and started kissing him on the mouth! He played it off very well, but even in the picture you can see he’s having to point out to her where to stand and keep her in line.

He told her she could win up to $1,000 dollars in this game and that it would buy a lot of cough syrup! XD I couldn’t stop laughing!

Plinko and the Big Wheel! The wheel is actually 85% to scale. You could pay to get a picture with it and spin it after the show, but we were both broke at the time. lol Maybe if we had known, we would have budgeted better!

Us with the whole cast at the end (sorry for the blurry, I didn’t take it) they were all SO nice!

1 – Know the Dress Code

In most places there should be a list of the things you can and can’t wear. Memorize this list. If you have to have sleeves, (which is more restricting when picking out clothes than you would think) wear sleeves. The place I work requires my outfits to be 80% black (white being the only other color I can wear). No unusual hair colors, no nail art, no sleeveless stuff. It’s not too bad really, I just own way too much black now.

2 – Think About the Company’s Brand Image

Pretend you are the charisma gal for your company. How would she dress? Casual, sporty, professional? Make it fun! It’s all about living that dream, right? Victoria’s Secret bases their brand image around being sophisticated, sexy, and forever young. Do I really think about that every day when I get dressed? No, not really, but it’s always good for getting back into focus when I’m feeling extra lazy.

3 – Be Really Good at Your Job

One of the great truths about working is, the better you are at your job, the less they care about the small stuff like dress code. Can not obeying the dress code get you fired? Yes, so don’t be crazy about it. (And when your boss’s boss shows up, look reasonable.) But if you are really good at your job and are a nice person to be around, they will probably just chalk it up to you being your quirky self.

4 – Sometimes You Can’t Be Gyaru at Work

If your dress code is really strict, or you are a professional in a more traditional field, don’t dress gyaru. It doesn’t make you less gyaru, it just makes you an adult. Make all sorts of awesome money dressed normally, then pay your bills and buy cool clothes and eyelashes.

Do you dress gyaru at work? What adaptations have you made to your style it order to comply with the dress code?

I’ve read in books that the best way to get the look you’ll be happiest in is to pick a person that can be your style inspiration. As you shop, think “would my style inspiration wear this?” and then go from there. I’ve decided to try and see if this would work for me, and give you a little peek into what I love.

There’s not one particular person here, but the style is similar and gives me an idea of what I should keep a look out for. (There’s plenty more photos saved, but I didn’t want to fill up this post with them!)

So now editing my closet has been a lot easier. I unpack my clothes and look at my pictures and think “do I really want this?” and if it doesn’t match the style I’m moving towards, I donate it or sell it. Same thing with shopping.

I know for some of you guys this is way too structured or you don’t really have a problem mixing in different styles, but for me it’s been a lot of fun. You should totally try it next time you shop and see what cool things you end up with!

If you were going to pick a style inspiration, who would it be? Do you like to focus on one style or try lots of different things?

At A-kon this year, I went to the EKS-D parapara panel and had a blast learning this routine. If you are in the Dallas area, they are having meetups and teaching more routines. If you want to learn parapara, I’ve found that learning from another person is the best way to do it. If you don’t have anyone to teach you, break the routine into parts, practice slowly first, then build up speed.

EKS-D and myself will both be at A-fest this year, but they’ll probably be the ones impressing you with their amazing skill.

It’s no secret that I completely, unashamedly love Snooki. So, as soon as she licensed her name to the amazing company, Supre Tanning, I was very excited to get a hold of her Ultra Dark Black Bronzer.

The bottle is adorable and has been rolling around in my purse for a few weeks now without any damage or missing jewels. It has a sweet smell, since it has coconut and almond oil in it. No one has mentioned the scent to me after tanning, so it doesn’t really stay with you.

But it works amazingly!

Almost immediately after I started using it, I got comments on my tan. The bronzers are very natural, people are constantly asking me now “have you been tanning?” I’ve been tanning for months and no one has noticed as much as now.

I’m in love!

The seller I bought it from also gave me a sample of Party at the Mansion from Playboy, so I’ll be trying that very soon!

Blenda is by far one of my favorite magazines, and this issue did not disappoint. The pages sold me on the gyaru dream of being a beautiful celebrity who walks through SoHo and casually ignores the camera snaps.

But how to break down such a beautiful fashion show of print media?

Color

The bright neon swim soon gave way to a sea of sunwashed neutrals. Whites, punctuated with black or the occasional navy. Color, as you will see, appears only in quick pops, as if the whole photo was black and white and you added this one color in photoshop.

Fabrics

Loose and flowing emphasize the theme of the casual summer celebrity. The a-symmetrical hem line, high waisted denim shorts, and skinny jeans (not shown here) are also notable trends featured in this issue. I also saw in the articles describing how to wear a piece of clothing multiple ways, that you could use a skirt as a flowing top, which was a new idea for me.

Print

Floral is the boldest print in this issue, with polka dot and stripe (black and white only please) being the only variation. Effortless but intentional is the key, and print is almost like putting too much thought into it.

Accessories

The wedge was a surprise for me, but a trend I really am excited about. It’s a very comfortable heel, and definitely something for you to try if you can’t walk in heels very well. Other notable trends included big round sunglasses (great for avoiding paparazzi, or if you were too lazy to do your eye makeup) and the knit beret style hat. The wide brim sun hat also made an appearance, but was not as prevalent as it has been in previous issues.

The pendant necklace and skinny belt are worn occasionally, but this really is an issue where simplicity steals the show.

Beauty

The cat eye has returned to the trendy forefront, in colors like traditional brown/black, red, and green. The lip stays very nude.

Hair is wavy and loose, but it should be noted that some of the girls have their hair completely pulled back, and it still works very very well. This is usually with a more professional looking outfit, such as a pencil skirt with sleeveless collared blouse.

Nails are very tribal, jewels are at a minimum. Nothing is really long anymore. Think southwest, Missoni, or neutral with jewels.

Are you as equally enthralled by this month’s Blenda? Or are you bored with all the bland? Do you see some trends I perhaps missed while going through the pages?

First, let me tell you that almost immediately after my purchase she messaged me apologizing for not realizing how much shipping is to the U.S. and refunded me a portion of my shipping costs. What a sweetheart! She then messaged me after making the nails and told me the exact day they would arrive (which was correct, by the way).

This is the box they came in.

And the note.

This was the gift she mentioned, a really cute fish phone charm.

The long nails, which are even more fantastic in person. My one and only complaint is that the thumb nail is very flat, making it really hard to glue onto your own nail. She only uses temporary nail adhesive tabs (which I would also recommend if you don’t want to damage your nails) and in that case, it would not be an issue at all. I have worn them to do a number of basic activities (I don’t build displays in these) and I haven’t lost any pieces, which is unusual for nails I buy.

The shorter nails, which glue on very well and again, no pieces lost.

She’s added more since I ordered, so I’ll definitely be getting more nails soon.