A HUGE happy birthday to my favorite country in the world!

As evident by this layer cake (that you can hardly see since my iPhone pictures aren’t exactly DSLR quality) that my little sister slaved over all yesterday, my family’s a bit crazy about the 4th of July. And, when I asked my mom what her favorite part of the 4th was, she thought for a moment and said, “You!”

In my opinion, Independence Day is the absolute PERFECT holiday. You get off from work, you don’t have to buy presents, there’s grilled foods involved, I look great in red/white/blue, and, most importantly, fireworks!

So yes, maybe I planned every single outfit of my day months in advance to assure maximum patriotic fashion…

I hit up my new gym for a little pre-beach Zumba and, though my headband did scream “AMURRICA!” something was missing…

Of COURSE! A red belly-dancing skirt totally completed the outfit and I sweat my face off shaking those silver discs as loudly as I could.

For the beach, I had something else prepared…

I’m pretty sure Ryan has never loved me more than when I texted him this picture.

Walking on the beach, I definitely wasn’t the only one rocking the stars and stripes in bathing suit form, but I didn’t see anyone else with the matching headband, so I think I won.  What, you don’t think every day is a competition? That probably means you’re not winning.

The grand finale was a little number I’d been plotting for some time, and was happy to finally show off.

The H&M dress that’s almost too short to qualify as a dress (and only cost me $18!) and the bright red patent leather Sperry’s which ran me about 40-50 at Nordstrom Rack. The result?

Americana.

God bless the USA, and all the fun clothes I get to wear in honor of it….

Did you go red, white, and blue yesterday?

What’s your favorite holiday?