Three Years

    What a crazy but wonderful weekend! Tony and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary of dating so we took a little trip to Galena. We had a wonderful meal, tasty wine, sweet dessert, some shopping, and SNOW! The romantic night became even better when it started to snow while we were shopping downtown. It was a short but great trip to reflect upon the last three years of being together.

   Not to get all mushy gushy, but I am very thankful to have Tony in my life. He has always been at my side and he's the best friend a girl could ask for. He's sweet, funny, motivated, and kind. If you are reading this, know that I love you very much.

    Okay thank you for still reading. Now, back to clothes! Knowing it was going to be cold, I wore my MK dress coat, AE jeggings, Gap gray sweater, and my self made buffalo checked scarf!

Embrace the cold and break out those winter sweaters everyone. Stay warm my friends!

Falling for Fall: Stripes & Ponchos

Happy Saturday! This weekend is off to a good start with a fabulous Friday night out.  I got to meet some of my boyfriend Tony's friends so we went into town to have a few drinks. After an exciting time last night and today being so chilly, a warm sweater was necessary for today.

Forever 21 pretty much was pretty much the entirety of this outfit. Poncho and turtleneck were from Forever with leggings from Old Navy. What can I say? I love good fashion but on a budget!

Heres a peak at my look from today :)

Falling for Fall: Full Skirts

Hello all! So my recent obsession has been about full circle skirts lately. I have been searching for one online for forever but can't get myself to spend that much money on a skirt ($80 and up!) After my boyfriend's niece wore hers from Express, I knew I just HAD to have one. She was very gracious to let me look at it and after that, I decided to just make one myself!

So I pulled out my sewing machine, got the closest fabric that I could and started sewing! It turned out great and I am very proud of myself. Needless to say, its something that is a MUST this season. 

My not so secret secret is that I LOVE wearing tights. I know many people don't but I think a black opaque tight is great because it can extend dresses and skirts into the winter months, it makes your legs appear smaller, and they keep you warm! Pair them with a black pair of heels and your legs will seem miles long.

I paired mine with a delicate lace top and sparkly details. Enjoy!

Falling in Love - Dressing for FALL Weddings

                                         Graphic Design cred to Lauren Verplaetse. Check her out at laurenverplaetse.com :)

This is such an exciting point in my life. I am finally old enough that the word "wedding" is now frequently used in my vocabulary. Not only am I going to weddings, but they are my best friends who are MY age! Weddings are no longer a time in the far future but a present time. 

Because of my little wedding experience, I have only experienced summer weddings. This year, I had the joy of attending my beautiful cousin's fall wedding. I was so excited to see her and her wonderful fiance since I grew up alongside her & I look up to her so much.

Although in the back of my mind, I have always thought... What am I going to wear?! So I did some brainstroming and this is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy and find that this is something you can use this fall.

When picking out a dress, color is the biggest thing. For me, I wanted a color that would match all the deep rich colors of fall that would be displayed at the wedding. I found this dress at my favorite store, Francescas Collections. I loved the rich emerald green color with the knitted texture. This dress was a perfect fit because its something I can easily dress up or down. Its something I can wear and teach in comfortably!

I decided to dress appropriately for the weather and wore black tights to keep my legs warm. I then dressed up my look by adding clear/gold jewelry& my black Michael Kors heels. I also got to use my new favorite bag from target that I also doubled as a camera bag that day!

When thinking about buying a dress for a fall wedding, get something that you can wear again. Depending on how casual or formal the wedding is, you may be able to get away with using the dress to create many different styles! 

Look for COLOR. Jewel tones look are great for fall because they compliment so many of the colors of the season. Make a statement with a green, purple, or red dress that will make you dance the night away in confidence. And as always, get a dress you feel great in! 

Model cred to my little brother: Aaron Bruck

Jazz up your look by having fun with sweaters, jackets, and coats that can add layers of warmth and beauty to the look! REMEMBER: Fall is ALL about layers. This counts for weddings too!

Thanks for reading and we'll talk soon! 

Falling for Fall: Homecoming Syle

Welcome to my new fall series: Falling for Fall! I have decided that because of my deep love for fall, I am going to post on my various favorites of this wonderful season such as homecoming, weddings, baking, cooking, decorating, and OF COURSE... Fashion! :)

Welcome to "Falling for Fall"

On a rainy & cold day like today, its hard to think of fall as the wonderful season that we all know and love. Although today, despite the rain, I am still living in the sunny warm weekend that I had the last few days (not having school because of Columbus day may help as well...)

This last weekend was Augustana's homecoming. It was a weekend full of tradition, friends, and cute fall fashion of course.

Friday Night I got to experience one of my FAVORITE homecoming traditions, SING. This is a competition in which different greek groups create 6-7 minute short musicals in which they change the words to be about Augustana. The performance includes 50+ girls per group, choreography, props, dancing, and costumes. A music teacher's dream right?!

Well while in college, I had the opportunity to be the co-chair for this competition for three wonderful years and even had the chance to win first place my junior year!

ANYWAYS... Friday night I wore a drop waist, open back chiffon shirt from CC. It had black and brown big horizontal stripes (my favorite - neutrals). As usual, I fell in love with something from Charming Charlie's. Shocker. I know I have an addiction but at least its a pretty one.

(Picture took during my classroom remodel - due to donations for instruments for my classroom, I've decided to move things around to accommodate for them better! Yay)

Saturday was a day full of singing with the Augustana Choir, a football game, a great dinner, and a small photo shoot. Don't I have beautiful friends? I sure love them a lot :)

 (The trusty three best friends are back together again!!)

Saturday, I wore my american eagle jeggings, a CC polka-dot top, my jcrew vest, and my trusty brown, over-the-knee boots. AND YES thats an Augie "A" :)

Sunday was finally a day to relax and take in the whole weekend. Tony & I went to the pumpkin patch to find some pumpkins and experience fall :) It was here where I learned how to balance an umbrella and many mini pumpkins. Tony and I even got a mini pumpkin for our kitten, Pepper.

 Sunday, I wore a off white chiffon top from target, my burgundy jeggings, brown boots, a jean jacket (hidden by my peacoat) and my new Old Navy peacoat! I wear so much black in the winter that I figured it would be nice to add a festive pop of color! Needless to say, we had a great weekend :)

Classroom Reveal

After many MANY hours of work and help from my wonderful boyfriend Tony and best friend Chelsea, my classroom is finally complete! I have the before and after pictures so you can get the full effect for how things changed. If you have any questions about my room, let me know!

 Here it is! :)

Before:

After:

 The instrument area (its going to grow throughout the year!)
    Before:

After:

 Before:

 After:

Although we don't need to write class expectations or goals, I decided to put key music words on magnetic paper that I made myself that I can easily remove and put back up. This way, students can look up at the board when they come in and know what to expect for the day.

 Before:

After:

 Seating arrangements: I got velcro and made little squares for the younger students to sit on. For the older grades, they have chairs that are numbered and correspond with the matching velcro color on the floor so the chairs stay in place and don't move around too much!

In the hallway leading up to the music room! The students love it & love touching the yellow brick road as they walk into music class.

My personalized and colorful teacher desk area! Behind me are the new music education core standards  so they we can easily refer to them and I can always reference them while lesson planing. I also have a "Ms. Bruck" section where I'm going to put pictures and info up about me as students get to know me. And behind my computer is a calendar as well as a spot for important papers and information.

I also made the desk skirt myself by sewing velcro on and taping some to the desk as well. 

Here's a look at my behavior chart (TPT) and classroom rules- they are working well so far!

Unpack your backpack night was this last Wednesday! I got to meet some of my future students and they got to meet me and see the new and improved music classroom!! Here a a few photos from the night!

There is still SO much to do and get but its a good start! A lot of students have already started to comment about the "pretty" room & that they want to come to music more now!

Thanks to those who helped! :)