21st Birthday, Pandemic Style

Hello hello! Long time no see. I wasn’t planning on taking last week off of blogging, but… here we are. It was a busy week spent celebrating my birthday, packing, driving home, and unpacking. Thankfully, since school was so hectic last week, I hardly had any assignments to complete this week. So for today’s post, I wanted to catch you up on my birthday extravaganza and share these adorable photos!

Freshman year, my roommate started the tradition of going all-out for my birthday. She put together an incredible scavenger hunt (one of the clues required me to awkwardly knock on the dorm room door of this cute guy I knew) which ultimately revealed we were going to a concert together. Last year for my birthday, she threw the most amazing surprise Clue-themed (the game) birthday party, with all my friends dressed as the characters. This year, she surprised me with a birthday photoshoot and the CUTEST 21-themed tiara and sash (the tiara actually says 21, if you didn’t notice—you can purchase the set here). I mean, who doesn’t want to be queen for a day?? This was a Covid-safe and extremely thoughtful gift idea, as it allowed me to wear the party outfit I wanted to wear out to the bars for the first time (you know, if the pandemic weren’t a thing).

I don’t have hardly any “party” clothes—if you’ve been reading my Capsule Wardrobe Outfit posts then you probably know I’m not a wild college student—so I was so excited to finally get the chance to wear this gorgeous green one-shoulder top, even if only for photos. This top is the reason I bought this sticky bra from Target last week, which I’m super impressed by! I’ve never worn this blouse or this sparkly purse aside from photos, and I think they make the cutest combination for a night out (although, the gold of the sash also looks really nice with the green—would be the perfect combo for the holiday season!). I’m also rocking some green eyeliner, which is so pretty and matched my outfit perfectly.

And how fun is this yellow wall?? I’ll definitely have to come take more photos here, with an appropriate outfit to match the color scheme.

I’ll be honest—I was worried my 21^st birthday would be lame because of Covid. But with all the love of my friends and family, it turned out to be the best day!! Celebrating birthdays always reminds me how grateful I am for the incredible people in my life. Gosh, this is making me tear up just writing it!

Anyway, I feel like the birthday surprises I’ve put together for my roommate have been totally lame in comparison to what she does for me… which is why I’m going to go all-out for her this year (her birthday is in March). I already have such big plans! I would share them, but I don’t want her to read this blog post… Hopefully Covid won’t ruin my idea this year (last year’s birthday surprise did not go as planned), but I need to make sure to have a contingency plan just in case.

If you recall, my parents’ birthday present to me last year was tickets to Denver Fashion Week, where I had the chance to strut my stuff down the catwalk. This year was no different—I shamelessly wore my tiara and sash all day, showing everyone that it was MY birthday! As my friend said, I was a total “birthday bitch”—not sorry about it. As we were taking these photos, several people gave us funny stares since it was only 30 degrees out and I was wearing a one-shoulder top. But hey, I wasn’t even cold!

My parents visited for my birthday, so after the photoshoot, I spent some time with my boyfriend before being picked up by my parents. We drank canned mimosas with my adult cousin on his apartment’s front porch as it snowed! It’s never snowed on my birthday before living in Colorado, but I think this might be the third year in a row I’ve had a wintery birthday. We then spent the afternoon celebrating with my aunt, cousin, and grandma—my grandma stood on the balcony of her apartment, which was perfect because then we didn’t have to worry about Covid. I popped my first bottle of champagne, and we sipped away in the cold! My parents and I spent the night in their hotel room, eating takeout from my favorite restaurant and watching the best musical of all time—Les Mis (recently added to Netflix). Like I said, it was a great day!

On Wednesday, my parents and I spent the entire day driving home. It’s usually a 12ish hour drive from Denver to Boise, but there was an unexpected snowstorm that made for a stressful and slow commute. Thankfully, after 14 hours, we made it home safely! Ever since being home, I have been so painfully unmotivated to finish schoolwork (or do anything, really). It feels like Christmas time now that I’m back in Boise, so it’s unfortunate that I still have to finish the quarter before being able to relax. Hopefully I find some motivation soon!

Usually on Saturdays I would post my Capsule Wardrobe Outfits/weekly recap post. But since I’m back home earlier than expected, my capsule wardrobe has come to an end. I plan on doing a full post about the capsule experience in the coming weeks, but I’m wondering what to do on Saturdays now. I really enjoy posting weekly recaps, so I might continue doing those with a different title. The only other problem I have is taking OOTD photos when I’m home since I don’t have a good mirror setup… If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably heard me complain about lighting several times before! So that’s something I need to figure out soon—and do let me know if you want to keep seeing weekly recap blog posts on Saturdays.

This blog post was all over the place, but I just wanted to share how full my heart feels after celebrating my 21^st birthday this week. Thanks for stopping by today, and thank you to all of you who already granted me birthday wishes! I hope you have a great rest of your weekend.

Miles of smiles,

Grace

Green One-Shoulder Top: BB Dakota via local boutique, $20 | Skinny Jeans: JCPenney, $25, last worn here | Silver Heels: CL by Laundry via DSW, $40, last worn here | Silver Purse: DSW, $40, last worn here | 21 Tiara and Sash: Buy here