When I started my blog and trying to name it I was all, hmm… what words do I like? Lovely? Um, sure. That’s my blog name. Cool.

I never expected the audience and the opportunity that it could possibly bring (and really? Saying my blog is called Oh! How Lovely! sounds silly when all I do is talk about nail polish and babes) plus I have slight design ADD so I decided it was time for a little change here at the House of Lovely.

I present Lovely: Version 2.0

If you click on through, you’ll see I have a new blog design. It’s a little cleaner, not as pink and cutesy but still pretty. I’ve also renamed my blog and added a sassy tagline.

So yes, new name but still just as a lovely. And I’m still keeping @JamieLovely as my twitter name. I’m the original Lovely, dudes. Some things just won’t change.

I’m still tweaking a few things on the sidebars and pages but I’m kind of in love. Many, many thanks to Splendid Sparrow for a great experience. I couldn’t be happier with my new look!

What do you think? Love it or hate it?

Spill.

In case you somehow missed it, last night was the 2010 Academy Awards. I’ve seen all of like, one movie nominated (Up in the Air) but really, I totally wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity for some snarky commentary via twitter. Don’t follow me yet? DO IT.

So instead of writing a big long post, I’m just reposting my tweets because I’m awesome (lazy) like that.

• Anna Kendrick is gorgeous. I LOVE HER DRESS.
• DUDE. ZAC EFRON IS SUCH A FREAKING BABE.
• I would do bad, bad things to him, I can’t even lie.  #callmezac
• SJP got some Queen Amidala Star Wars hair going on. Not feeling it.
• I definitely wasn’t planning on live tweeting the #oscars. It’s just that I have Very Important Things to say.
• @elysa Kraft. But I’m really digging Amy’s Kitchen mac and cheese right now! (mac and cheese talk break!)
• Why is Miley Cyrus there? I can’t stand this bitch. And she needs to stop slouching. YOU’RE ON THE OSCARS RED CARPET.
• Not interested in Taylor Lautner when I have to see his face, hear him talk or see him with a shirt on.
• RT @tomandlorenzo MERYL STREEP IN CHRIS MARCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! #PROJECTRUNWAY #OSCARS
• Gabby is so cute with her posing up there.
• NPH OMG
• I would really like a sparkly dress, please.
• Amanda Seyfried is gorgeous. Miley makes me stabby. STOP TALKING.
• RDJ. Another babe.
• I want to go watch Ferris Bueller now.
• The top and bottom of Zoe Saldana’s dress don’t look like they go together.
• I love that Kanye has now been made into a verb. That broad in purple totally Kanyed that dude.
• Rachel McAdams = STUNNING.
• I type with purpose.
• What a fierce bitch. She totally knows it too. (re: costume designer’s win)
• STOP SLOUCHING KSTEW. (Her dress is so pretty though)
• MY BB ZAC OMG.
• Elizabeth Banks dress is ridic. I’m in love.
• More babes. Less boring.
• A suited up Bradley Cooper is the best kind of Bradley Cooper.

The summary for the tl;dr crowd: Babes. Sparkles. Stop slouching. Who invited the Disney kids? Boring. And apparently I have no comments on the actually awards because I just don’t care. Now can someone just let me write for Gawker now or something, please?

Best dressed? Worst dressed? Did you actually watch the movies unlike me and think the awards we’re given out to the right people?

DO TELL.

P.S. I would also like this dress.

P.P.S. And this one:

P.P.P.S. But mainly this one as long as I don’t have to have Cameron Diaz’s face:

It seems so many people around me are making big changes in their life. One of my favorite Chicago friends is leaving tonight and moving Pittsburgh. She’s getting married to an amazing guy this summer and they are getting ready to purchase a home.

My sister is moving across the country tomorrow. Co-habitation with her boyfriend in a brand new city, one she’s never even been to.  Getting ready to take the special effects and make up world by storm.

Friends trying so hard to start a family. And now soon there will be twin babies around for Auntie Lovely to spoil. Etsy, look out. I’m coming for you.

Marriage. Home buying. Living with boyfriends. Cross country moves.  Babies. It’s sometimes kind of hard to believe we are getting to that stage.

And then there is me.

Me with my Peter Pan Syndrome. Trying so hard to stop time in it’s tracks. Fighting the thought of growing up and trying to be 21 eternally.

But it hits.

I want to do amazing things too. I’m ready for it to be my turn to Do Epic Shit.

I’m not saying I’m going to settle down right now. I won’t be eloping to Vegas with the next guy I meet. I mean, unless it’s RPattz or maybe even Zac Efron. But that’s besides the point! Maybe I’ll move to a new city. Or return to school for real this time. Or maybe I’ll go the freelance route. Who knows.

It will come though. I just gotta keep moving. Learning. Working. Trying. Meeting. Writing. Traveling. Loving. Fighting. Doing.

But what I do know is, I won’t ever give up my Neverland ways completely. Every birthday will still be the [insert number] anniversary of my 21st birthday. I’ll still have ice cream for dinner. I’ll always be down for sleepovers with friends. I’ll continue to make forts out of blankets. And Disney World will still always be one of my favorite places on earth.

I welcome change but somethings just have to stay the same.

The other day while cleaning I came across a stack of photos from high school. This is from someone’s Quinceañera but I can’t remember who since I probably went to/stood up in a million of these things. For those of you not familiar with the term, it’s kind of like a Sweet 15 for Hispanic girls. I never had one because my parents didn’t love me enough.

(KIDDING, MOTHER! BECAUSE I KNOW YOU’RE STILL READING THIS. YOU SHOULD PROBABLY STOP.)

(NO, SERIOUSLY. STOP.)

Anyway, let’s talk about how Mexican I look in this photo. Check out that tan. This is back when I played softball like 6 days a week and I was all athletic and kind of a babe.

(We’re working on getting back there. Soon enough.)

(Vegas in 3 months. OMG)

And then even more vintage Lovely with a baby picture. I was a pretty cute baby.

CHUBBY CHEEKS. WHAT UP.

This past Saturday I was able to have an amazing Girls Night Out with friends and all because of Dove Visibly Smooth Deodorant. I LOVE Dove so it’s was pretty exciting to work with a brand I actually use and respect.

We started out our night as Scoozi!, a fantastic Italian place that had the best prosciutto and gnocchi ever. Somehow while eating all this very delicious food, our conversation got shifted to boxed mac and cheese (preferably of the shaped variety) and we talked about it for a good 10 minutes. And it wasn’t even me who brought it up! But I definitely contributed because obviously I have Very Strong Opinions on mac and cheese. I think everyone knows that by now.

Finishing dinner, we walked out the door to find our car. What? OH THAT’S JUST OUR LIMO. We piled inside and rolled up to Trader Joe, obviously. We had to stock up our limo bar with drinks! Two of my lovely guests, Renee and Maggie, headed back home for the night after that but they definitely got a little limo action in there since we drove them to their destinations.

Maggie, Stacey and Renee in our limo

After declaring that I found that Ke$ha broad incredibly annoying and discussing whether pterodactyls are really dinosaurs, we headed to Redhead Piano Bar. We were officially about 20 years too young for this place especially when made our way toward the piano and  tried to request Bad Romance. If you guessed he didn’t play it, you’re the winner! We also found a Marilyn Monroe wannabe looking lady but it kind of came off more like Anna Nicole Smith and she kept following us around the bar. We tried to get a picture of her especially after she put on this hideous long fur coat. It was creepy/hilarious.

lots and lots of print going on

We hopped back in our limo and still had a little bit of time left with the car so we just drove around, tapped out our bar and had a limo dance party. If you were in the River North area Saturday night and caught a glimpse of a car full of slightly obnoxious girls, OH HI NICE TO SEE YOU TOO.

Suz and Leah making calls from our bad ass car phone.

We bid our driver adieu and hopped out at Streeters for a couple more drinks. Leah and Suz told the dj it was my birthday and requested he play Tik Tok. I love that I went from omg I hate this bitch to THIS IS MY SHIT in the time span of three hours. Yes, it was that kind of night.

I’m assuming this is where I was talking pedicures on my toes, toes and trying on all my clothes, clothes

It was an absolutely fantastic night. Thanks so much to my guests who made it out. Those who couldn’t, you were truly missed. And most of all thank you to Dove Visibly Smooth for helping my friends and I have a delightfully epic night on the town!

And since you all couldn’t be there to grab your own to try, if you comment on this post I’ll automatically enter you to win one of five (5) sticks of Dove Visibly Smooth for yourself. I’ll choose winners next Monday. Yay!

P.S. The thing I love and hate about Twitter*, is that I can fill myself in on all the bad decisions I made the previous night. Along with text messages, I realized exactly why I felt so shitty the next morning. I mean, I DRANK MILLER LITE. I can count on both hands all the times I’ve drank beer before let alone Miller Lite.

P.P.S. If you search #DoveGNO you can see most of our tweets from the evening as well as Tara’s party that was going on in LA at the same time.

P.P.P.S. For the record, I definitely did not wake up Sunday morning feeling like PDiddy.

(DISCLOSURE: To participate in the Dove Visibly Smooth VIP program, I was provided with five (5) product samples to giveaway on my blog as well as ten (10) product samples for my guests, car service and compensation for dinner out with my friends. Dove provided me with these items so I could organize the event myself and without any influence from Dove.)

Hi You,

Sometimes I wonder if we already know each other. Are we friends or maybe we just have exchanged the occasional pleasantry? Or maybe you’re someone completely new and I have yet to meet you. Someone who will storm into my life and throw me completely off my game in the best possible way. Whichever it is, I think I’m finally ready for it. I wasn’t for a really long time but I think I could be now.

I just want to let you know now that I’m cold all the time. 1) because I’m usually just cold and 2) because I really just like having an excuse to cuddle up close to you so I hope we fit together well. You know, me in the nook of your arm. Sometimes people just fit like pieces of a puzzle. Also, I kind of suck at the whole sleep thing so I hope you won’t mind a late night phone call every now and then. Hearing your voice might be that little extra push I need to help finally drift off. Just don’t laugh at me when I hit that super dreamy, slightly drunk phase right before falling asleep.

Okay, FINE. You can laugh, just make sure you fill me in on the silly things I say in the morning.

Please don’t get mad when you go to pull out one of your white vneck tees and find a few missing. It’s probably because I’ve been slowly stealing them. There’s nothing better than a men’s vneck shirt especially since it probably smells of you too. And hey, more than likely it makes my boobs look great so it’s a win-win situation here. Don’t complain.

It would be fantastic if you thought lazy days filled with chocolate chip pancakes and books in bed are as sexy as I do because I think that would be perfect. And here’s a tip: one of my favorite things in the world is having my hair played with. Twisting and twirling my long strands between your fingers long enough might even put me to sleep. Just no pulling, save that for those other moments. A little tug can be kind of hot sometimes, you know…

While it’s true that I do have excellent music taste, some of that does include cheesy, pop music so I hope you’re ready. This also includes being down for random dance parties to Lady Gaga and French electro because life just wouldn’t be complete without those. Or rock shows. I definitely need more rock shows in my life.

And I really hope my dog loves you because I think that’s the true test of a good man. If you pass the pup test, we might just be okay.

Chances are likely that one day I’ll just exclaim PENGUINS! out of the blue and hopefully you’ll be down for dropping everything to just go hang out and see some little, fat boys waddling around at the aquarium. Spontaneity? I like it. And I’m crossing my fingers you like to travel. There are too many places I haven’t been, things I haven’t seen and adventures I haven’t had. It would be nice to share some of them with you.

I’m not even going to lie, there will probably be days you walk into the kitchen to find a mess and me pretending to be The Pioneer Woman whipping up something amazing. I’m probably trying to impress you but I hope if it sucks, you just tell me so we can throw it out and order in.

I’ll always keep the fridge stocked with your favorite beer. And I won’t mind when you choose the boys over me because it’s likely I’ll totally choose the girls over you at times too. I’ll try to be interested in your favorite sports and other things and I’ll ask questions in hopes to learn about it but not so much that I’m annoying. I hope you will like baseball too and we’ll go to ball games. But please don’t be a Cubs fan because clearly, that just won’t work.

And sometimes we won’t even have to talk. I’ll be in my own world typing away on my laptop and you will be in yours doing whatever it is that you do. Occasionally they will intersect when one of us steals a kiss in passing while going to grab a cup of tea or pick up a book off the shelf so I really hope we’re okay just being.

But most of all I hope we make each other laugh. From the hushed giggles to the roaring, tear inducing laughs. I hope we’re not afraid to be silly. And sometimes even flat out ridiculous.

I’m going to stop now. I don’t want to give it all away because really, learning all of the little things about each other is going to be the best part.

Until then,

Jamie

I walked into the salon just as they were flipping the sign from closed to open. Was welcomed with an “oh hey girl!” as I put up my coat and sat down to hype myself up for the scissors that were about to give me a heart attack as the girls opened up shop. It’s really no news to anyone who knows me how anxious I get about getting my hair cut. Hell, if you tell me you’re going to chop off your hair, I get nervous for you. It’s actually really silly.

But I really do have complete faith in my current stylist and she barely has to ask me what I want done anymore. She GETS long hair. When girls with long hair say they want a “trim”, she knows it means DON’T YOU DARE TAKE OFF ANYMORE THAN YOU HAVE TO. She takes as little off as possible and doesn’t laugh when I say that it’s just getting long again. She completely understands.

After a little shampoo, conditioner and some small talk, she had cleaned my layers up nice, trimmed my bangs, gave me a killer blowout and smoothed out a few pieces of hair with a flat iron. When she pulled off that little cape thing and turned me to face the mirror, I let out an audible sigh of content. She laughed and said, “feels good doesn’t it?”

I’m absolutely convinced there is no better therapy than a good trip to a salon. There is nothing they can’t solve.

Break up? Haircut. Job stressing you out? Color. Big date? Blowout. World peace? HAIRCUTS FOR EVERYONE WITH BONUS MANI/PEDIS!

(You can give me my Nobel now)

Anyway, now that I got my hair cut finally, I can share photos of my gorgeous new headband. Pretty, right?

My friend Tia, of Icing on the Hair fame, made me a special custom headband because she loves me a lot. It’s called the Jamie Lovely and I do believe she might be making them for her Etsy shop in the future. It has a two purple felt rosettes and two black sheerish chiffon (I think?) ones and a couple of tiny rhinestones on either side. It’s adorable and I’m in love.

(I even changed into my pajamas but I’m still wearing it)

So yeah. I have something named after me now and I’m pretty sure that makes me even more awesome than I already am.

And it gives me another reason to obsess over my hair.

(like I really need one!)

(too long bangs. what. up.)

• plaid shirts (picture!)
• the fantastic books I’ve read lately: Rules for Saying Goodbye, I Am Not Myself These Days and This Is Not Chick Lit to name a few
• cleaning out my closet and rediscovering my love for all my old Nike Dunks and Air Maxes
• Kiehl’s lip balm. I was gifted this when I was flown out to Vegas to attend the Swagg party and it is AMAZING.
• Blow Pops
• my new OPI polish: Metro Chic (picture!)
• Amy’s Kitchen frozen dinners. Pesto tortellini and mac and cheese are my faves when I’m too lazy too cook which needless to say is A LOT.
• my hair finally getting long again (picture!)
• DiorShow Iconic. BEST MASCARA EVER.
• music flashbacks: ska, 90s r&b and pop. Holler.

Your turn.

Go.

On Friday when everyone was watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony and twitter was all like OMG YAY TEAM! LOOK AT THEIR OUTFITS! I was rolling my eyes and wanting to be like LOOK OVER THERE! UNICORNS! TEQUILA! DISTRACTIONS! because I just don’t care about the Olympics and wanted shift the conversation to something awesome instead. I mean, it’s not even the summer games and everyone knows those are the good ones.

Maybe it’s just because everything involves snow and ice and I’m completely over winter. I have enough snow and ice outside of my house, I don’t want to watch people play in it. Like they enjoy it or something. That’s just not right.

But I bet some of the snowboarder dudes are hot. Isn’t it like a rule that if you’re a dude who snowboards, you’re hot?

(Same with skateboarders, boys who play guitar and boys who write well. Type? Hi, I have one.)

(Okay, might as well throw in boys with nice tattoos and great hair while I’m at it.)

Confession number two: Despite all my winter hate, I’ve always wanted to learn how to snowboard. And not just because of hot dudes.

I’m kind of uncoordinated though so I’d probably hurt myself and fall a lot. I mean, I’m not expecting to do crazy tricks and jumps. And I’d probably spend a lot more time on my ass than I would being upright on the board but it could be fun, right? If I don’t break my ankle or die because I tumbled down a hill or something.

Okay so I just made a goal to travel somewhere amazing by my birthday next year. Another goal will be learn/attempt to snowboard. Maybe not this winter but for sure next winter.

For the tl;dr crowd: Not interested in the Winter Olympics. Snowboarders are probably hot. I like creative and sporty boys. I want to learn to snowboard but not just because of hot dudes. Will fall a lot while attempting snowboarding. New goal: learn to snowboard and hope I don’t die.

There are too many places I’ve never been.

Growing up my family vacations consisted of fake camping, “vacations” and one hellish road trip to Utah with my uncle and his family all trapped in one van and it took almost a week driving from here to Salt Lake City because because they had to stop in every state and eat at EVERY SINGLE Cracker Barrel we passed.

As a result, I’m not very well traveled. I’ve seen a few states sprinkled around the country and of course, the surrounding states but that’s about it. I’ve hit Orlando, Las Vegas, a bit of San Francisco and spent less than a day in New York.

I’ve never been out of the country. This is one of the things that haunts me because there is so much out there and I’ve seen absolutely none of it. I’ve always had big dreams of being a seasoned traveler. A passport full of stamps from different countries and stories to go along with each. Always on the cusp of the next trip. That’s what I thought I would be like right now.

But I’m not.

I suppose it’s because I haven’t done things a traditional way. I never took a year off after high school or taken a semester abroad. No spring breaking in Cancun. I haven’t done the 9-5 thing or finished college in one straight shot.

If you haven’t noticed by now, I tend to do things a little backwards.

But now?

Now it’s time to play catch up. To see the places I’ve never been. To start thinking about my first trip outside of the states. Should it be Peru? Maybe Guatemala? Rome or Paris? Spain! Or how about Costa Rica? London! Or maybe Ireland?

I’m making a promise to myself, that either for Christmas this year or my birthday next year, I’ll send myself somewhere amazing and break in a passport finally. I need a little adventure in my life.

Because really, what am I waiting for?