Pockets and a Pendant

It's Friday! YAY! I'm on a killer blog spree this week. I am 100% sure it's the weather. Finally being able to break out all of my sun worshipping worthy clothing has got me real time blogging. I'm also probably extra hyped because 3-day weekend, what what?! My plans this year are loose. It's been awhile since I've had a holiday at home :) I'm definitely hitting up Folklife and Mitch and I are going to try to finally make it to Cars & Coffee at Redmond Town Center. Other than that, enjoying the sun, some quiet time, and a bit of relaxation is exactly what I want for the weekend.

This laid back vibe has followed me to the end of the work week. I was feeling very easy going yesterday in this minimalistic drop waist dress. I tend to always reach for more figure hugging shapes, but I love the relaxed feeling of this dress. It's well cut and still maintains a bit of shape even though it's loose. I kept with the birks and finished this look off with gold wire-framed shades, my favorite coin bracelet and a new piece of jewelry I picked up while catching up with Kara earlier this week. She picked it out when I asked her for help in finding necklaces that were longer. That girl absolutely delivered :)

I hope you guys have wonderful weekends ahead of you! Until next time!

Minimalist Drop Waist Dress exact, but sold out.I also like this one and this one.
Pink Stone Pendant Necklace Forever 21, recently in-store, similar online here and here.
Mayari Crisscross Strap Sandal Birkenstock via Nordstrom Rack, exact style, different color

Large Floral Printed Dress

Hello Friends! This beautiful weather has me feeling the back to back outfit posts :) I shot this during a lunch break with Nini yesterday. Damn, do I love being surrounded by people always in need of, and willing to trade for, outfit shots. I was reviewing my previous outfits from March and April- damn I was so into black. I still am! But as cliche as it is, spring and summer brings out my bright, flowery, colorful side. Katrina can tell you all about it in her most recent post.

I'm still going strong, rocking the birks. In fact, have them on today again! I feel like I go through shoe phases, where I get super focused on one particular pair and let it influence my overall style vibe for that period of time. Remember when I was obsessed with those all-white oxfords? Those had a strong impact on my style at the time (evidence here and here). I'm definitely welcoming the relaxed vibe the Birks have brought into my life. No worries, I'm sure glamazon Kim will be back in full force eventually!

Today I'm sharing one of my summer/spring essentials! The sleeveless button down. I love how light and airy this particular one is. I'm all about the pretty sleeveless dresses for this time of year, but the top half of most of my dresses aren't really the greatest for work. Let's be real, when you have big boobies, this struggle is just a fact of life. So I keep a few button downs in rotation for easy layering. My favorite way to wear them is to tie at them at the waist, to accentuate my A+ figure! This dress is one of my favorites and is one of the few artifacts from my A&F/HoCo days. The floral print is large and lovely! And the cut is perfect.

Before I leave you, I wanted to point you to an amazing article about work attire recently written by my dear friend Hector of Geek-Q. His tips are on point and really resonated with how I think about getting dressed for work in the mornings! Hope you guys are having awesome weeks. Catch you again soon.

Mixed Stripe Flannel Shirt exact
Floral Dress Hollister Co, their current selection
Mayari Crisscross Strap Sandal Birkenstock via Nordstrom Rack, exact style, different color

Watercolor Shorts and a Boxy Top alt title: Shorts for Work

Happy Hump Day, loved ones. Today I am super excited to share an outfit I picked up while traveling with my beloved Jade in Portland. Ain't no shopping like tax free shopping! Can I get a what what?! Haha. Seattle is poised to have one of the hottest summers ever and my beautiful work building has not been the most awesome with air conditioning. So, shorts to work it is! I'm lucky to work in an environment where I get to wear whatever the fuck I want. I'm an advocate for using common sense when it comes to appropriateness of clothing, but I do tend to toe the line a little. You know, test limits, push boundaries, all that jazz.

I love these shorts because although while short, their styling makes them more on the sophisticated dressy side. I know, sophisticated shorts... sounds too good to be true. I made sure to pair these shorts with something that would offset the fact that they are shorts. Enter, this beautifully textured boxy top! I've been wanting to try this shape, especially after hanging out with Nini. She pulls this trend off like none other! I'm looking forward to trying this top out more this summer. And last but not least, finishing this off with my brand new (and first pair of!) Birkenstocks. Not gonna lie, old-style birks are not awesome (really, what I'm trying to say is I think they're super fugly). But new-style birks, I give you an A+! They are super comfy and have been so clutch in my day to day. I've been doing a lot of running back and forth between buildings these days, it's great to have a pair of shoes that will love and support you throughout the entire day :)

Hope you guys are having a good week! See you in a few days!

Textured Crosshatch Dolman Tee exact, I also like this one and this one.
Watercolor Floral Short Forever 21, exact, also matching blazer!
Mayari Crisscross Strap Sandal Birkenstock via Nordstrom Rack, exact style, different color

Pastel Paisley Maxi

Happy Monday, friends and lovers! Kicking off this week on the blog with something to celebrate the sun returning this week. I call this my million dollar maxi. Just kidding, I literally just made that up :D But really, I LOVE this maxi. The print is incredibly intricate and I like that the colors are more subdued. It strikes a good balance. Normally, I wear the maxi on it's own, but the top isn't the most work friendly so enter my go-to white tank for the summer. I am obsessed with this tank. I wasn't sure when I first purchased it a couple years ago, since the length is a little odd- a bit longer than my natural waist but not quite long enough to completely cover my belly button, lol. But it has proven itself again and again as an amazing partner for anything high waisted, and for this maxi dress! The intention behind this tank is to add modesty, but it's so lovely on it's own that it always actively adds to any outfit that I include it in. Keep an eye out for those A+ layering pieces, y'all. Invaluable!

What are y'all up to this week? I just finished laying out my workout schedule and your girl is gettin' ambitious- one workout every day this week. Might as well just plug my nose and jump into the deep end! We'll see if I can hold to it :) Have a good one guys, see you in a couple days!

Make It Happen

Happy Friday, fun time friends! Today on le blog, I want to revisit health and fitness. I've talked about this on occasion around here. As my good friend Margeaux from Just the Regular Type would put it, I'm all about the self-love, self-care and self-acceptance. Well, this past month and a half I've struggled a bit to make myself a priority. Work stuff. Family stuff. Friend stuff. Bae stuff. Mostly good things, some not-as-good things, but all thrown together it's been difficult to find time, energy, and more critically, motivation to get myself to the gym. Thankfully with life slowing down a little, I'm gearing up to make my me-time more of a priority.

I do much better with gym time when I'm on a consistent, regular schedule. Since becoming a recruiter, that's honestly just not possible and I have struggled adjusting over this past year. Summer is especially difficult, with a lot of one-off evening events for interns. So my strategy for now is to plan my workouts at the beginning of each week, trying to weave between all the social events and work events on the cal. Although for reals, I think my main struggle right now is the motivation part. I legitimately feel SO tired at the end of the day. I am wary of pushing myself too hard, so striking that balance has been a bit tricky but I am realizing that I think I'm at that point where I need to push myself a bit more.

So, excellent timing from Momentum, an athletic and inspired jewelry line, when they asked me if I'd like to give one of their pieces a spin. I was immediately taken with their comfy wrap bracelets featuring metal plates that you can customize with a motivational saying of your choice. There were a lot of awesome messages to choose from like, "Beast Mode" and "like a BOSS" but my favorite was "Make it Happen" as I think this applies to my attitude towards more than just working out. Getting shit done at work, at home, at the gym- "Make it Happen" is something I tell myself when I feel myself going into slug mode.

Mitch has also been an outstanding cheerleader and encourager. It's good to have someone to hold me accountable. He knows when I need to push myself and when I'm being too hard on myself. Gotta give him a shoutout for being amazeballs :) Okay friends! Now that I've declared my determination, it's time for a late night run! See you next week!

Return of the Stallions

Hi y'all! Last week I had the opportunity to take portraits for one of my favorite families and I wanted to share them here on le blog. Do you guys remember my session with this gorgeous family last fall? Christina came to me with a special request for Mother's day. She wanted an updated set of family photos to frame for her childrens' grandmothers. I am so happy with how this session turned out. The light is absolutely dreamy and this family is so photogenic it hurts- in the best way possible :) We shot for about 45 minutes, which is basically how long the sour patch kids we were using to bribe the kids lasted, lolz.

It was a bit hard to get perfectly posed shots, especially with the littlest doing his own thing the whole time :P, but honestly- I love the candids more. Everyone's emotions and expressions are so much more relaxed and natural. Here's a selection of a couple of my faves. Hope you enjoy!

Can't wait until the next session with this beautiful family!

Fall for Spring

Happy Monday, super stars! Rolled off the plane from this last weekend's Disney trip and straight into a presentation for work this morning :) I decided on public transportation today and it was actually a lot easier than I thought it'd be. It took twice as long but it only cost me $3! Travelling on the company's dime can spoil you for sure, typically I take a $65 taxi ride back to my house! Anyways, this weekend trip was super fun. It was nice to get 1:1 time with a friend that I only get to see once in a while. I flew down to support her run the Tinker Half and am now inspired to train for it myself next year! Maybe just the 10K though :D I bombarded my instafeed with all of my Disney food snaps from the weekend. I think a post about my favorite Disney spots to hit is in order!

Until then, here's an outfit post! The PNW has been backtracking on its record highs for Spring. I think we're making up for all of those April showers we missed earlier :P I know this color palette doesn't scream Spring or Summer, but when the skies are gray and drizzly, my mood goes more for Fall. I love these cheap little cotton A-line dresses from Forever 21. This one was $12 and is so easy to style and wear. Do they last forever? No. Does it matter to me? This time, no. It's nice to have a selection of clothes that are low maintenance. I have some beautiful, high quality, higher cost pieces in my closet as well, but to be honest, I get a little stressed out when I wear them around sometimes. It's great to have things that I don't have to be super careful with, but still help me look decently put together.

AH ALSO. No travel for the next two weeks. YAYAYAYAYAY! More time for blogging! And cleaning! YAY!

To The Grotto We Go!

Happy Friday, friends! Last week, I could barely contain my excitement for my trip to Portland with Jade last weekend. We had an awesome lady weekend nomming incredible veg food, tax free shopping, exploring a few sites and taking in the laid back, super hip, ultra cool Portland vibe. We were originally planning to visit the Portland Rose Garden, but our adorable airbnb host advised us that it might not be worth the traffic, since their roses aren't quite in bloom yet. Instead, he directed us to The Grotto, a Catholic sanctuary that features a gorgeous garden.

The Grotto was delightful! Jade and I spent an hour there, basically alone, enjoying each other's company and our serene surroundings. Here's a quick set of photos to send you off into a blissful weekend :)

Upper Left USA is the BEST part of the USA. I may be a bit biased though :)

It was completely unplanned, but Jade's adorable floral dress matched our setting quite well. Thanks for being my model, boo. Pretty photos of pretty girls are my favorite.

Get yourselves to Portland, y'all. It will not disappoint. Next time I blog about our Portland trip, I'll share with your my PDX Farmer's Market finds!