Well Happy New Year folks!! It is 2015 already can you believe it? I still remember the year leading up to 2000, Y2k and all that mess. 2000 seemed like a big deal and anything beyond it seemed like a far distant future. When you are young adults always tell you that time moves fast and you're all "yea right! I have been 8 years old forever!" Turns out, they were right. So here we are in a new year and before I can start to make plans for the new year I like to reflect on the past year. It was a really eventful year. I got a new job and a new dog. I traveled to Mexico with my friends, Chicago to see my family and Seattle with my husband. I saw a lot of great concerts and fun local events.Derek and I celebrated 5 years married and 10 years of being together this year. I also got two adorable nieces that were born this year. Lastly, I started this new adventure in blogging. Overall, it was a pretty successful year. I feel incredibly lucky and blessed for my life and the people in it. I am also thankful to all of you who take the time to read my little blog and those who have been supportive along the way. Looking forward to an equally successful 2015!

New Year's Eve was a pretty great night. We were over at our friend's Steve and Jackie (from The Revolving Table) and they had a casino themed party planned. She had quite the spread of food ranging from hummus, to pizza rolls to pizza sandwiches. I am sure she will have an post on her blog soon all about it so go check it out :) Steve has built a nice poker table so we spent the evening playing poker, black jack and roulette. It was really fun and there were prizes! I won second place thank you very much. I took a picture however my friends enjoy photobombing too much. Oh and also I bought some fun items to set up a photobooth type situation and we had plenty 'o fun with that! Here are a few highlights from the evening.

[caption id="attachment_273" align="alignleft" width="351"]IMG_1156b Champagne infused jello that we dipped in pop rocks[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_274" align="alignright" width="200"]IMG_1167b Champagne New Year's[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_278" align="alignnone" width="400"]NYE 2014 070bIMG_1177b Happy New Year![/caption]

NYE 2014 101NYE 2014 062   NYE 2014 083

I think you can see that we had a lot of fun and we did not leave until 4:00 AM, which is pretty late for an old lady like me. It was totally worth it though to have a great night with great friends.

Now for outfit details. If you follow me on instagram (@mymonochromaticlife) you saw a few sneak peaks of my nails and bracelet. Please check out my instagram to see those. I was pretty proud of my nails they were very sparkly, which was basically the theme of the evening. I was orignally going to wear the same romper I wore to the I AM ST PAUL event but after a little bit of searching I was inspired to get something else.

NYE 2014 041b

[caption id="attachment_282" align="aligncenter" width="300"]NYE 2014 045b Derek caught me laughing, so this one is a bit awkward.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_283" align="aligncenter" width="660"]NYE 2014 056 This is my artsy shot[/caption]

1) Dress: Express lace crop top and midi pencil skirt ( it is on major sale right now so I got a good price)

2) Shoes: Calvin Klein Gilda Pump in snakeskin, they are sold out so similar and similar

3) Earrings are from Primp

4) Bracelet is from Target 

I have to say I was really nervous about the crop top, I don't exactly have a model's waistline. Crop tops are all the rage these days and was not sure if I was confident to get on board. However I conferred with some friends and they convinced me to do it. I am glad I did it. I really loved my outfit and overall I felt pretty comfortable in it and how many opportunities does one get in life to wear a lace, sequined crop top? Not many. This blog has encouraged me to go outside my comfort zone in terms of fashion and I have yet to regret any new decisions I have made. So far so good :)

How was your New Year's? What do you think of the crop top trend? Leave me a comment below and tell me about it!