HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

I had to say that before I said anything else, because you should always tell the people who you care about the most just how much you care about them ;)

So with that said, let's get to sharing last night's and this mornings adventure with the help of a little PUG style!

My Graceful New Years in the Grace Dress

So like I had mentioned in my Black Friday Haul blog post, the dress I knew that I was going to wear to my New Years Eve party this year was the Grace Dress in flocked red.

It's elegant, it's beautiful, I really think that it suits my personality, it was so much fun to dance in (it twirls so easily without being too light) and I honestly can't count how many times I was told either by a close friend or complete stranger that they LOVED the dress!

Most of all the dress worked SO well with the pincurls looke that Viola and Harlow Napalm recommended back in my Pinup Hair 911 thread, especially when I kept my bangs down in the front for a bit of the "faux bang" look. They're not quite long enough to pin yet, I'll have to grow them out some more perhaps :)

Either way when you put everything together, especially with the pinup makeup that my friend Mz Kitty Demure taught me a little while back (I'll be telling you all about her in my next post) the Grace Dress just really completed the pinup look that I was going for.

I especially had a blast when my friend the DJ played a lot of old rock songs that really worked with the look, songs like "Do You Love Me", "Teenage Wedding" and "Let's Twist Again". My husband, my friends and I danced the whole night until they turned the house lights on to clean up, that's how much I didn't want to go home ;)

Until I found this website and learned so much from PUG and pinup loving ladies like you, I never really thought that I could look so graceful and elegant myself. That's one of the reasons you all mean so much to me!

3... 2... 1... It's Polar Bear Time!

Also back in my Black Friday Haul post I mentioned my annual tradition of taking part in our local Polar Bear Dip on New Years Day, and today I got to do it again. This was my third year taking the plunge and I have to say that it was my favourite so far!

Like I said in my last post my swimsuit of choice was Fables Sophie Top in red, white and blue along with the matching highwaisted bottoms my friend Belinda made for me.

I can't even begin to tell you how much of a dream this bikini was to wear. The Sophie top was very supportive, gave excellent cleavage and still managed to be very covering, the bottoms were just as tummy flattering as I'd hoped they'd be and gave my bum more than enough flattering coverage.

I honestly had so much fun in it I actually picked up my free hot chocolate and french fries inside the nearby diner still wearing the bikini, I mean how could I put my robe and coat on when I was having so much fun in the Sophie? Maybe that could be the slogan for PUG bathing suits, "swimwear for the best memories" :)

As for the plunge itself, our local one just gets bigger and bigger every year. We had 250 plus crazies along with me, and I even got a couple of friends to come out and watch this time along with the few hundred other spectators. I took a breath, thought of everything I want to make happen this year, and took the plunge! Heck I even went back in a second time so my husband and our friends could take more pictures of me wadding through the 1° with the -10° wind chill. The picture of me here is actually from me getting out of the water for the second time ;)

If any of you ladies live in an area that`s a short drive from one of these Polar Bear Dips (they can happen all through the winter, not just New Years Day) I definitely recommend it as a great holistic experience, and an awesome and fun thing to do.

Maybe even one year a group of us can do it together... I'll have to get to work on that. Which brings me to...

What I'm Going to do in 2013

After reading how Leanna Bruce organized her bucket list into time areas, things to do this year, before you reach an age milestone and things to do in general, I realized how great an idea this is for prioritizing your list items and making them more achievable in the process. Thanks for the idea Leanna! I love your blog btw :)

So in no particular order here are the specific things that I'm really hoping to cross off my list this year!

See Lady Gaga in Concert - As it turns out Ms. Gaga will be coming to our area in February and my hubby and I already bought tickets. Expect to see a thread soon on "What PUG clothes to wear to a Lady Gaga concert?" ;)

Be a Movie Extra - This might be tricky since I'll have to find an agent and get some professional pictures taken, but I think I can do this in the next 12 months for sure. I'll keep you all posted!

Learn to Swing Dance - My husband has already told me that he'd love to learn to swing dance with me this year, so I plan on holding him to that pledge. This is a topic I'll definitely be talking about in future posts :)

Go to a PUG Meetup - This is definitely my #1 priority at Viva this year!

Host a Retro/Rockabilly Club Night - I got the idea for this one from a British podcast Aoife had recommended  I have no experience organizing club nights or with promotion, but for this I'm definitely going to learn.

Form a Tahitian Dancing Troupe - This is going to be the hardest, but I have a few friends in mind who've expressed interest and I have actually talked to a promoter who told me that he'd be glad to book our troupe if I could ever put one together. There's even a big Caribbean parade in our city every year that opens itself up to all cultural dance troups from around the world, I'd LOVE to enter the troupe there. I'll keep you posted :)

In Conclusion

That's it for now everyone! I'll save our trip around the blogosphere and forum time for the next post since I have to go get ready to see Django Unchained with my husband.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope to bring you a lot more of these in 2013. Happy New Year again you lovely ladies and have a great rest of your holidays :)