Suit Up

Today is a short one! I just finished the 9th season of How I met your Mother. Damn, I love that show. Barney is my favorite character and in honor of him, I decided to suit up for my Monday in the office. One of my favorite pieces to bring back during fall is this black and white blazer I got for $3 at H&M a couple years ago. I bought it on a whim and did not realize that it would become a staple in my closet. I love how it adds intense structure and can make any outfit instantly interesting. It's my "it" factor! Y'all know that I love color, but I also adore the sophistication of black and white. I had fun pulling this ensemble together by mixing and matching new and old things from the closet. I'm trying to be better at using articles of clothing that spend more time hanging on a hanger than on my body.

Thanks for reading, friends! Love, Kim

Blazer H&M | Skirt, Sunnies Forever 21 | Tank Ted Baker| Shoes Report

Seattle Sunday

Yes. A Mitch Monday post about our Sunday afternoon. And to start things off, a picture of the most glorious Homegrown sandwich- portobello and goat cheese. I love this sandwich shop and I'm so glad there's one within walking distance from Mitch's apartment. To be clear- we drove. Because that's how we roll :D As much as I love travelling, I LOVE exploring Seattle. I try to fit in as many Seattle Saturdays and Seattle Sundays that my schedule will allow. This weekend included catching up with friends, yummy food and shopping with bae! We also visited Pike's Place together for the first time. Of course, we needed to get the obligatory Pike Place sign photos! How does Mitch make basics look so good? Ugh! He's also sporting his new spectacles. Super swoon worthy.

Super happy for the quality time with Mitch this weekend. Exactly what I needed before I get ready to hit the road again. Also! All of these photos were taken with my Nokia Lumia 1020. It's basically a camera with a phone attached to it. I've been using it for a month now and the quality of the images still impress me!

Remember the Alamo

After recruiting at Rice, Kasey, Nick and I spent a Saturday driving to San Antonio to visit the Alamo and the surrounding missions. I'm not much of a history buff, but I do love visiting places of historic interest and learning about them on the spot. I feel like I understand the fierce Texas spirit so much better after visiting the Alamo. Texans have a lot of pride in their state and so much of that is rooted in their history. Not gonna lie, I was a little weirded out and slightly annoyed by all of the "Ripley's" branded tourist traps across the street from the Alamo, but I guess that's just a lesson in the importance of preserving historic landmarks and their surrounding lands. None the less, our visit to the Alamo was special and I felt connected to it's story.

We spent an hour at the Alamo and had lunch at the super cool riverwalk. Afterwards, we headed a little outside San Antonio to visit the other four missions. I am so glad we did! It was totally worth the drive. San Jose and San Juan were my favorite. You can read about the missions here and find directions and service information for each here.

The Alamo was AWESOME. Extra awesome because I got to adventure around with Nick and Kasey. I'm starting to really like Texas. Glad that I have two schools there! Until next time, y'all! Thanks for reading :)

KIMono

It feels SO GOOD to be back in the PNW! Even if it's just for a week, I am so grateful to be home! Mitch picked me up from the airport and we had an awesome afternoon together on Wednesday eating at my favorite vegetarian restaurant and catching an IMAX at the Pacific Science Center. I spent all day yesterday and most of today up to my eyeballs in phone interviews and laundry. I can't complain though, it's been wonderful to be back.

Today, I snuck away from the phone to be with the beautiful Katrina for lunch. Being away from your good friends is one of the tough parts of extended work travel so I'm trying to maximize friend time while I can! Katrina and I started hanging out this summer and bonded over blogging. It's been incredible connecting with someone else over photography and fashion. Our friendship has evolved into much more than pretty clothes and pictures but I love that our blogs give us an excuse to see each other on a weekly basis (when we're both home!) We were chatting about this the other day... making friends in your adult life is a lot harder than when we were in school. In college you're surrounded by other people your age with similar interests via your classes, clubs, sports teams, etc. As a young adult, we're so busy with our own careers and our other relationships that it doesn't leave a whole lot of room for new experiences and new people. So I am extra grateful to have met Kat and a lot of the amazing people that I did over this summer. I'm looking forward to carrying these relationships into the new season and beyond!

Speaking of which, Fall is officially here! Summer is my favorite but I do appreciate the coolness of Fall. One of the pieces that I have become obsessed with for this season is the Kimono. You don't see me wearing pants very often, but honestly, with all the running around you do as a recruiter, pants are very practical. In recent years, I never felt truly satisfied with my silhouette in pants, and more specifically, jeans. It had nothing to do with my body. I just didn't feel fierce enough in jeans, you know what I mean? Enter, THE KIMONO. I feel fancy as fuck with all this fabric swirling around me as I move. Especially this one because it's floor length. It's rare that you come across a completely new, unique article of clothing. The kimono has opened up opportunities for so many different looks and styles. I am looking forward to finding cool ways to style this piece!

Kimono, Boots, Bag, Tank Forever 21 | Jeans Gap | Scarf from Thailand

PS. I love you, Katrina! Thank you for being my friend :)

Guns and Planes

You guys! It's the last Mitch Monday before I'm actually reunited with Mitch! The end is in sight :) I really can't contain my excitement on this one. We've also reached the end of my blogging for our summer road trip! You thought I was going to post about it forever, huh? Anyways, one of the best things about being on a road trip is doing things on your own time. As bae and I were making our way back to Vancouver, we noticed a GIANT airplane on top of a building from the side of the freeway. You could also see a ton of different super cool looking planes on display. We made a last minute split decision to turn the car around and check it out. Totally worth it! Turns out, we were passing the Evergreen Air and Aviation Museum! We were too cheap to pay for tickets to go in, but it probably would have been worth it! We enjoyed taking a few minutes to check out the planes on display outside (for free!)

Fun fact about Mitch: His dream as a small child was to be a fighter pilot! In a lot of ways, I'm glad this dream didn't come true, but I'm always on the lookout for anything involving cool planes since I enjoy observing him enjoy them so much :) Also, I hope it's clear. But the guns I'm talking about are the ones on Mitch.

WOOT! See you soon, Seattle! There are a lot of things I look forward to during my one week at home before heading out for more travel and at the top of the list is getting back to taking outfit shots at my favorite spot, Mitch Monday posts NOT from our roadtrip and doing a photog collab with my favorite girlies :)

South Congress Austin

Howdy y'all! I'm so excited to finally be blogging about the recruiting trip I'm currently on! Although, I'm starting right as it's almost over, haha. I've been on the road for a solid two weeks now and have made it to all four of my schools. Texas A&M, Duke, Rice and Penn State (in that order!). I'm spending the weekend in DC and then heading to Duke one more time before returning home. I'll get a week with bae before I head out AGAIN. September and October are the busiest months for college recruiting. During the weekdays, my alumni and I are busy all day with events like career fairs, office hours, presentations, student meetings and running back and forth to prepare for each event. At the end of the day, we'll reconvene at an ice cream shop/bar/restaurant/coffee spot to sort resumes and discuss the candidates we met that day. It's usually about 10 PM by the time I get back to the hotel and then I stay up until I can't keep my eyes open entering candidates into our system for first round interviews. I wake up 6 hours later and do it again! This schedule is insane and it's definitely testing the limits of my seemingly endless supply of energy. Thankfully, the people I'm working with keep me inspired and motivated! It's been a dream to meet and mentor students at my schools and represent my favorite company alongside some badass alumni. The season is far from over but it's nice to take a minute in the middle of all the crazy to reflect a little.

I do find myself doing work every day, even on the weekends (just a couple hours a day to catch up on email, I swear!). However, I make a point to use the weekends to refresh and recharge! That means a little extra sleep and a couple new adventures that do not include talking to eager students about Microsoft or eating my meals surrounded by stacks of resumes :D As I've mentioned before, I am ever so grateful for amazing alumni and coworkers that have attended these trips with me. And of course, I couldn't leave home for my first recruiting trip without my one and only, Kasey Champion. I honestly could go on and on about how she saved my ass a million times over during our trip to Texas, but instead, let's talk about our weekend jaunt to Austin!

Kasey and I have gotten REALLY good at impromptu adventures. We drove from College Station to Austin without any plans. All we really knew about Austin was that Seattle peeps tend to love it! Thirty minutes out from the city limits, Kasey asks, "Where should we go?" Considering our common interests, I randomly yelled, "Vintage shopping!" We're obsessed with The Haight in San Francisco. I figured with Austin's reputation, there was bound to be some quality vintage shopping. OMG WE WERE IN FOR A DELIGHTFUL SURPRISE. We found ourselves in South Congress, Austin's equivalent of cap hill... but... better! There were more than 10 quality vintage shops all within walking distance along and around main drag of South Congress. Kasey and I were in heaven. For future reference, we picked up the Austin Vintage Around Town guide to help us navigate to some pretty fabulous finds. We were surrounded by incredible eats, unique shopping and good vibes.

Our first stop wasn't a vintage shop though, we happened to find parking right outside little tienda called The Turquoise Door. We were drawn in by their beautiful window display of dia de los muertos skeleton dolls. Through the shop doors we entered a magical world of Mexican folk art and southwest inspired jewelry. It was INCREDIBLE. I love creeping on Kasey as she looks at art. She always notices the little details and being an artist herself, appreciates the craftsmanship that goes into creating the beautiful figurines. She picked up a little Alebrije, a traditional figurine that wards off bad dreams.

We proceeded to walk up and down South Congress, stopping wherever our hearts desired. We eventually drove to North Loop to check out the vintage shopping there. At the end of the day, I scored a beautiful 50's plaid house dress that I plan on purchasing a full skirt for. Can't wait to share that on the blog this Fall! Kasey got away with a HUGE haul! She loves 50's as much as I do and took home 4 beautiful dresses. I see a photoshoot in our future.

I loved Austin so much, Mitch and I are planning to go back during one of my recruiting trips at the end of the month! He's looking at grad schools and UT Austin is on the list! I'm looking forward to visiting again and getting a different look at a very cool city!

I can Fly!

Our last big adventure before heading to Vancouver to veg out for a few days was hang gliding lessons. Sounds intense, right?! As we made our way up the rest of the Oregon coast, I kept mentally preparing myself to be soaring over mountains! But actually, we ended up just running down a small sand hill on the beach with a hang glider harnessed to our backs. Although, the hill didn't seem so small after we had to haul ourselves and the glider back up several times. Most of you guys know about my aversion to stairs. This was brutal! We found these hang gliding lessons on accident. We picked out a simple airbnb to crash at for the night and John, our host, happened to be a hang gliding instructor! He offered discounted lessons to his airbnb guests. Mitch and I just couldn't say no.

We started off the day with a presentation learning the physics and history behind hang gliding. John was clearly passionate about building and supporting the hang gliding community. There was of course, a huge emphasis on safety. It takes on average 14 hang gliding lessons to really solidify your skills as a hang glider. I naively didn't understand that this not something you can just pick up and do right away. And after the initial lessons, I totally get that this is something that requires commitment and dedication. You don't just casually hang glide :) I have even more respect for the folks that do it now. Also, mad props to Mitch for catching these awesome action shots on his point and shoot!

Setting up the glider was half the fun. It was quite similar to pitching a tent. I couldn't help but think of how serious one should take setting up their hang glider. If you were preparing to take this thing off a cliff with you, you absolutely need to be careful and mindful while putting it together. Not gonna lie, I don't do safety checks before getting on a motorcycle or getting into my car like I probably should, but you can bet all of your bananas I'd be safety checking the shit out of my hang glider before I jump off a mountain with it.

Mitch and I were absolutely exhausted at the end of our lesson. And to be honest, I don't think either of us will be pursuing a career in hang gliding. However, it was a pretty unique experience and I'm glad I can add it to the list of crazy things I've tried. If you'd like to try yourself, John was pretty awesome and runs the Oregon Hang Gliding School out of his own home. Phew! Mitch and I have agreed that our next vacation should include more lazy activities :)

Grocery Store Flowers

Hi, Friends! Sharing something a little different on the blog today. Before heading out for travel, there were quite a few folks at work that I wanted to thank for being insanely clutch during the last days of summer. I think it's important to thank the folks that do things to make your life better. It doesn't have to be lavish. A simple, heartfelt verbal acknowledgement goes a long way. I enjoy making more extravagant gestures, though :) And who doesn't love fresh flowers and chocolates?

I wanted to give away 8 sets of flowers. For one of them, I just straight up purchased a bouquet from Trader Joe's. It was for Kasey's first day of school and I knew she'd be tickled by the purple poms. For the remaining seven, there wasn't a large enough selection from the ready made bouquets so I decided to just make it up! I grabbed the healthiest looking flowers available. 2 bunches of mini sunflowers, a bunch of lime green flowers and a bunch of pretty pink flowers. I'll get better with flower names, I promise! They cost me about $15. I then grabbed a set of mason jars from Target that were a complete steal at less than $1 a piece. I had no idea they were so cheap! So basically, I was able to make seven mini bouquets for about $3 a set!

I started out by laying out all the flowers in groups on the table. I alternated between grabbing 1 - 2 stems of each type of flower and arranging them while holding them in my hands. Once I had an arrangement that I was happy with, I cut the stems down to a height that I thought looked pretty with the jars and plopped them in. Easy as 1-2-3!

I also found these SUPER CUTE thank you cards at Target. Gold foiled whales on a deep blue background, I die! I had a lot of fun surprising my amazing coworkers with the flowers. I think I'm hooked on the high I get when I'm able to make people feel appreciated. I also just love all things pretty, especially beautiful blooms. I might make this a regular thing.

Thank you for reading and in turn, making my little blog a happier place!