visit me at Ruche

Happy Friday everyone!

I've been featured this fine day over at Ruche's blog, for a feature entitled "Playing with Prints"!
Go check it out!

I'm happy to say one of my favorite outfits of this month was featured, of the leopard cardigan, as well as a fun floral chambray/coral pants combo. Both outfits are featuring one of Ruche's many delectable necklaces, and I would highly recommend snatching a gem up for yourself (especially since mine came with a bonus pair of earrings to go with each necklace...but maybe they just like me a whole lot!)

The Leopard Cardigan

 Targét and the chambray way

Have a fabulous weekend!

the leopard cardigan

I think I've mentioned before that I've been consigning a lot of clothes this year.
Slowly cleaning out the excess, trying to be proactive and not lend power to my natural pack-rat tendencies.
For the most part it has been a really positive experience. My closet is lighter, I get a few extra bucks, I feel freer. The possibility of me being an old lady hoarder was slowly ebbing away.

But then something terrible happened. 

It was a few weeks ago.
I saw this Instagram post by another blogger I love, and thought, cute outfit! (See her full outfit post here). Love the green, love the leopard. Fun play on patterns.
Then I realized, bingo! I have a similar ensemble sitting in my closet, waiting to be worn.

You see, leopard is my love. It was a romance that struck early on in life, and that kind of nostalgia seems to last for a lifetime.
Naturally, when my bachelorette party came along, my best friend/maid of honor chose leopard and sequins as the main dress code. It was a fabulous event!
While we were out shopping for the perfect leopard dress, we found a white leopard cardigan and grabbed it as a possible backup in case I wanted a glittery dress with a leopard accent.
I ended up finding a fun leopard dress and one of my other friends wore the white leopard cardigan, and it's been sitting in my closet ever since. I've never actually worn it before, but it has been sitting there, happily reminding me of that fun-filled night surrounded by my best girl friends.
Because I am a pack rat and I'm way too sentimental about everything. That's just the way it is.

I went to my closet to grab the necessary ingredients for this fantastic outfit, and the cardigan was gone. 
I blinked in confusion, knowing exactly where it should be. I knew it by heart. Third in from the right side, right next to that brown cardigan with the rhinestones all over it that I've had since before junior high.
Maybe...could it be in the laundry?
I checked, even though I knew I hadn't worn it ever, so the chances of it being in the laundry were highly doubtful.
The panic was rising in my chest, because I knew what I had done.
I had thrown it into the black hole of consignment. 
I sprinted out to the car, hoping that it would somehow be tucked in the trunk somewhere. That it had magically avoided being in the big bag of giveaways I had taken there days before.
No such luck. I had no one to blame but myself.

Despite this, I went back to the consignment shop, probably looking like a crazed person as I stared shrewdly and expertly thumbed through every rack like a private investigator out to catch a thief. I even imagined some weird lie I could tell, that would persuade the owner to help me find it and take it back.
I found every other sweater and cardigan I had donated, except for the white leopard one.

For some reason this moment made me want to run out into the rain and scream,
"I KNEW IT! I told you all it would be this way! THIS IS WHY I KEEP EVERYTHING!"

Instead, I took a slow walk in the rain, basking in the tragic irony of it all.
I got in my car and told myself to keep it all together, despite my shattered hopes.
It's kind of hard to be that upset when I'm the one who made the mistake.
Or maybe...the fact that I'm to blame made it that much harder!

To put things back in perspective, we are talking about a cardigan here. Not a loved one (well, not a human loved one). And despite the fact that I gave away my back-up bachelorette cardigan, I was able to successfully find a leopard cardigan this weekend at Ross. Faith in humanity was restored. My inner child rejoiced. And my dear husband simply shook his head.

***UPDATE***
When I arrived at work the next day, the girl at the front desk was wearing my cardigan. 
I couldn't even speak.
I went up to her later as I was walking out and said, "Hm. Nice cardigan."
She said, barely even looking at me, "Oh, you too! Have a great day."
I don't know how, but I interpreted this as the most sinister of insults.

I posted my discovery on Facebook and people who don't read my blog just thought this girl had stolen my cardigan -- while that wasn't the case, the non-theft was still quite bitter.
Good thing I love my new cardigan.

Dress/Necklace (shop!)/Shoes (shop!): Ruche, Cardigan: Ross, Bangles: Kate Spade

Targét and the chambray way

I pulled into the Target parking lot last night, and right as I did, a deluge poured down upon me.
It lasted for approximately 1 minute - aka, the time it took for me to gather the courage to leave my car and sprint the length of the parking lot to get to the front door. I was unceremoniously drenched, and people in the store looked at me like I was nuts, since it had already stopped raining by then.

I love Target. It was the common shopping spot for my roommates and I throughout my time in college, since the Wal-Mart was sketchy and the mall was too much temptation.
Granted, we somehow managed to escape Target with empty pockets and loads of clothes, toiletries and furniture we didn't even need, but it still seemed the sensible option when we just needed "a few things".
That fond feeling of camaraderie with Target has remained, even though I live with a boy now and don't often make whimsical Target trips to try on sunglasses and stroll along the home decor aisle pretending like a fancy (ish, this is Target after all) woman who can totally afford to decorate with an ottoman in each room and giant wall art and lamps with crystals and dozens of ornate picture frames.
We liked to give Target the pseudo-French name of "Targét" (Tar-ZHAY) and waltz around like we owned the place.

I just now found out that people have been jokingly saying "Targét" since 1962, the year the very first Target was opened. I am shocked and appalled we didn't invent this ourselves.
You win again, Wikipedia. 

Top (shop!): Old Navy, Bottoms/Jewelry (shop!): Ruche, Shoes: Zulily

Chambray is the new way.
Most bloggers and basically all-around clothes-wearers own at least one chambray shirt nowadays.
I finally gave in, albeit cheatingly, with this thin $6 Old Navy top that boasts a sweet floral print and the spirit of the chambray trend.
I've really enjoyed wearing it (remixed here), and have also been told by at least four other people "I have that same shirt!"
The curse of living in an anti-shopping town with an Old Navy.
It could also just be the curse of Old Navy, no matter where you live.
But I'm not sure I mind having a few twinsies out there. I kind of enjoy an occasional matchy matchy moment.
So, hey! This top is $6. Go buy it!

flutter on by

I love Monday and Tuesday nights.
For the last few months, we've had two of our favorite friends come over almost every single Mon/Tues for The Bachelorette and SYTYCD (So You Think You Can Dance).
We order pizza, or make crepes, or grab ice cream, and/or make coffee and enjoy some quality television together.
The result is hours of fun conversation revolved around the dramatic happenings of a woman trying to find love and a group of dancers that just want to try and make their dreams come true.
We've had a blast. With the finale of The Bachelorette this past Monday, there was gasping, crying, screaming, laughing, throwing things. It was the best darn 2 hours of television I've ever experienced.
(And by the by, I was #teamChris from the very beginning!)

Dress: J. Crew, Necklace (shop!) (similar!)/Earrings/Shoes (shop!): Ruche
Bangles: Kate Spade

Yesterday's outfit was very minty fresh.
This dress was one of my favorite buys from our local J. Crew Outlet two years ago, our first year living in Virginia.
It has served as one of my favorite go-tos, and has encouraged my love for anything and everything mint in my life.

During Ruche's jewelry sale last week I snatched up one of the very last listings for this layered necklace!
It's absolutely perfect for this monochromatic look, and I can already see it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
(Especially since Ruche included a surprise pair of matching earrings for every necklace I purchased! They're the best! I would highly recommend scanning their jewelry section.)

After my husband kindly took these pictures for me out on the damp rainy asphalt, we wandered back towards our front door when we noticed all of our friendly butterflies happily grazing away at our front bushes.
There are literally hundreds throughout the summer, and I try never to take advantage of how beautiful they are to watch.
We spent the next 15 minutes or so just taking a few shots of our dear friends, watching them live their lives, just fluttering on by.

Our front door :)

august stampede

Remember that time when summer never came?

Today is August 1st and I'm caught completely off guard. 

It's another cloudy day, and my mind is still in May. I feel as if we've skipped the summer months, arriving straight into Fall. 

I can count the number of times I've said "it's hot!" on one hand. And a few of them were just because I was checking on the biscuits in the oven. 

I don't know what to do with this kind of summer. It's been a great few months, don't get me wrong - but it feels like it all just went by in a blur! We didn't have any days at the beach, we didn't grill hardly at all because it rained so often, we never took a weekend for the lake, and we didn't have any grand summertime vacations with pina colada smoothies and sunburns.

Overall, it just feels like summer never came.

Top: Modcloth, Skirt: LOFT, Necklace: Francesca's (similar)

That being said, August has its own kind of magic spark.
With summer coming to an end, every single day is full of desperate possibility.

The countdown begins - 18 days until the beginning of school!
For us, that's 18 days until the last first day of school. The beginning of the end of our law school days.

I can't begin to express my feelings about this coming year, now that we've officially crossed over into less than a year until we wrap up our time in Lynchburg and prepare to move back to Arizona. Back to our blessed summer heat and our families.
Arizona, where the summers are real and gritty and bright and endless.

So cheers...to the first and very last of our summers that never came.

self-portraits: outfit 6

I haven't done a whole lot of self-portrait photo shoots. I'm always self conscious, and definitely have no idea how to work the settings for a self-timer, or how to position myself, etc. The second outfit during this challenge was the first time I've taken photos of myself not on my back porch or in my own apartment complex. It was extremely nerve-racking, but luckily there weren't any people around and I was able to get a few usable shots!
I knew I was going to have to challenge myself to put myself behind the camera and give my husband a break from daily photo shoots. I need to push myself to be adventurous with my pictures and my locations, and try and get better at understanding my camera and how to best use it for different situations.
The more you practice, the easier it gets!

Outfit 6 featured my classic orange gingham top, and the purple lace skirt, along with a few accessories.

Top: J. Crew, Skirt: LOFT, Necklace: Francesca's, Shoes: Zulily

I got off work early on Friday, so I was running around doing some errands before having to go back to get Dusty. While I was driving around, I found this odd little lake behind several businesses and grocery stores. I spotted a flock of geese as well, so I was somewhat drawn to it. I decided to bite the bullet and take a quick photoshoot, even though it was still a bit too sunny and hot out!

I feel like this town has a lot of secrets, and with only a year left to explore them before we move back home after law school, I'm more motivated than ever to explore and try new things.
I look forward to finding more nooks and crannies to discover and capture.