sleepy says {frocktober, days 17-20}

I think both my husband and I have come to realize that we're completely at the mercy of fatigue these days. We've spent every weekend working tirelessly on getting our house ready to move in, and as a result, we feel drained at the start of every week. The week days go by in a heavy blur. I've gone back to my coffee addiction, surprise surprise! Starbucks detours have been frequent. Every evening after work, we're torn between our desire to be productive and our even weightier desire to try to catch up on the rest we've been missing out on each weekend. The sleepiness usually wins out. We're pajama-clad before dinner and in bed as soon as we can manage it.

Thus, my lack of daily blogging. Every night I make a mental note to take and edit photos so I can post them the next morning - but this week they've piled up on me once again. I can't believe it's already Friday again. I honestly feel like I didn't even live through this week. It was all a dream. Someone else went to work for me and I stayed back home inside my own head, content to exist in a haze. 

In 1 week we'll be heading to North Carolina for our Fall getaway to see our besties from law school, and having that to look forward is so delightful. I hope you all have had a much mightier week, full of energy and inspiration. Enjoy this past week of Frocktober outfits below (remix info is at the end of the post). 

Remixes:

Outfit 1: Dress | Outfit 2: Green Cardigan

Outfit 3: Purple Cardigan

Outfit 4: Dress 1, 2, 3 // Denim 1, 2

tgif {frocktober, day 8 and 9}

Outfit 1: Dress (remixed): gifted

Outfit 2: Top: zulily, Dress: borrowed, 

Leggings (remixed 1, 2): Pink Blush Maternity

This weekend has already been speeding by. Any time we spend working on the house seems to eat away at our days. A full day seems less effective somehow. So many projects, so many minutes slipping away. It's hard to feel like real progress is being made until you take a peek at those "before" photos and realize how incredible the difference is already!

Yesterday we finished the wood floors (!!!!!) downstairs; the only room that still needs them is the front office, which will remain closed off for a while until after we move in. No rush to get that room finished. I'll confess, I took a little break from working on the house to have a little girls lunch to celebrate the return of Reign. Season 3 premiered this week, so we had a themed lunch with Scottish Potato Leek Soup, French Bread, Madame Macarons, and Nostradamus' Brew. It was a blast.

The last two outfits of this past week were for basic comfy layering. As you can tell, I've been on a stripes kick. I don't think I've ever worn stripes with stripes before, but I really wanted to wear this cozy striped maternity top my mom got me for my birthday. I love the orange sleeves. I didn't want to wait until after Frocktober to wear it, so I needed to dressify it somehow. It's so long that it might almost be considered leggings-appropriate, but not quite. I used one of my borrowed bodycon dresses to add length and continue the stripes all the way down.

Now, I'm getting ready to don a big t shirt and workout shorts to go work on the house some more. I'll be dressing up this evening for a little belated birthday gathering with friends. Have a beautiful Sunday, friends.

the right type society

Sweater (remixed): Francesca's | Denim (remixed): old | Cat Skirt (remixed): Ruche

One of my favorite things about blogging is connecting to other people that I would never have the chance to know otherwise. When I find a blog that resonates with me, that seems to reach me in some intricate, kindred spirit kind of way, it's a joy. I love reading the thoughts of others and am always excited to find ribbons of unique creativity in each person. This blog space is my creative outlet that allows me to write, contemplate, share, inspire, and be inspired. 

Blogging can feel incredibly lonely at times, but it doesn't have to. I think at least a part of anyone's motivation to begin a blog is to find community. There's a desire to be known, to be appreciated, to be found by those who might feel that resonating kinship with your own thoughts and creativities. It's a vulnerable but also empowering quest to develop your skills and connect with others. 

All of these thoughts and more are the inspirations behind creating a brand new Society for bloggers. My fellow blogger and friend, Cassi of Keeping Up With Mrs. Jones, had this brilliant idea to create a safe and encouraging space for bloggers to come together and support one another. We both are relatively new to blogging, and when she invited me to be a part of it I couldn't say "yes!" fast enough.

The Right Type Society is for anyone. Blogs big and small are welcome. It's free and just in its beginning stages. A work in progress. We're so excited to begin! So far there are 8 merry bloggers involved, and we hope to steadily add more. If you're a blogger and want to join, please do! Head over to our Facebook page to request membership and to see all of the details of joining. Also, feel free to check out #TheRightTypeSociety on Instagram and follow our board on Pinterest.

Our main goals for this society are to better our blogs and uplift each other. We aim to lead people to great writing and creative content. Every blog is unique, and we'd love to connect each member to new readers that will be inspired by their work.
It's all very new and very exciting! We'd love to have you. Us Right Typers must stick together.

craving lazy {frocktober, day 24+25}

Day 24 : Dress (remixed): gifted, Top: LOFT outlet, Cardigan: old, Shoes: Blowfish
Day 25 : Dress (remixed 1, 2): J. Crew outlet, Denim Top (remixed): Ruche

These last few weekends I have been having very acute cravings for laziness.

It starts somewhere around Friday morning, after I've had my coffee and I begin to count down the hours and the minutes to pajama time. My Friday night parties include me, my TV (or a good book), my cats, and something to snack on. I am quite the night lifer, I know.

My husband, though, is the opposite. He craves actual parties. He loves people and is energized by events and get-togethers and plans. I want no plans. I want couch. 

Sometimes it's a struggle to find a balance for what we both want and need. 

My husband feels really frustrated and unaccomplished when we spend too much time on the weekends doing nothing. (Which, I would argue, having an all-day sitcom marathon is not nothing). But, I see his point and I think lately I've just been wanting to crawl into my shell and disappear for a while. It's a part of me that shows up every once in a while, the extreme introvert that can occasionally take over. I've been especially susceptible to her lately. 

And also, I kind of just miss marathons. As disgusting as it was, I miss those years where we would literally watch TV for days, binge-watching shows together and being completely free to do so. Sure, we would eat our weight in crap like pizza and cookie dough but it kinda felt like a vacation. 

Right now we're stuck in that awkward stage of really wanting to partake in bouts of all-day indulgences, while also trying to find the strength and resolution to admit that oh my goodness my body hates me I'm too old for this crap. It's a side effect of the mid-twenties. 

Friday night I went to a 10 o'clock showing of Gone Girl with my dad and little brother and I feel like death warmed up. I just can't stay up that late anymore. I desperately want to hold on to my adolescence and take a full weekend to watch TV, but that's pretty irresponsible and is generally a waste of my time and a drain on my energy. It's time that I could be using to actually do something worthwhile. 

I wish I had the answers to feeling more secure, more grown up, more accomplished. I think we're both just feeling like we're in a rut and we're not sure how to get out of it, how to keep moving forward. We're just in the money-saving, planning, hoping in-between stage. Things are happening and we have ideas and goals and "I cant wait for"s, but it's just a lot of patience and waiting. 

Maturity encourages patience, so I'm going to keep putting on my dresses and going out into the world to nourish learning, activity, exercise, and relationships. 

That childish gal within me who wishes to stay in her pajamas for days at a time will just have to be saved for very, very special occasions. Like a real vacation, once we've saved up and earned one. 

the ugly button-up

This week has been rather record-breaking when it comes to skies-that-make-me-love-arizona. 

Big, never-ending, whimsical expanses of blue and puffy white. Several times this week I've had to pull over on my way home from work just to take a second and look at the sky, wide-eyed, without crashing the car. 

I'm sure the sky here has always been this humongous. I think I just treasure it a little more, it catches my attention a lot easier. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that jazz. 

It's definitely a main reason why I love Arizona, and specifically this hometown of mine. I don't think I'm meant for city life. I just love the sky too much. I love the space, the land, the desert wildlife. They're all my peeps. 

In other news, this entire outfit is from another batch of shopaholic gifting. 

We went up to her apartment this week for a night of fun-hopping. We went and saw What If with Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan, which was positively delightful, by the way. It's going on the rotation for sure. We then went out for sushi. But before all that, we were at the apartment, and she dives in to her room for a sec and emerges with a large pile of clothes for me. Including a dress she bought on her birthday weekend in May. I was there. 

I'm not kidding when I say this entire outfit, either. Shoes, skirt, blouse, sweater. 

When I pulled this denim top out of the pile, I wrinkled my nose a tad. The shirt is sleeveless, and it's so long I almost mistook it for a dress. I hopped up and put it on over my shirt, which revealed that the hem hits me right below my bum, and showcases quite an extensive amount of my underarm area. The armholes are excessive. 

My shopaholic friend burst out laughing. "Oh man, I don't know. I'm not sure what I was thinking with that one!"

I don't know what that means to you, but to me it was like, challenge accepted. I knew right then that I had to try and wear it and make it work. It'd an odd little reject of a shirt, but the patterned denim is really cute, and I can already imagine the sweaters I can layer over it in the winter with the collar peeking out. 

I feel like maybe there's a life lesson in here somewhere. People and things can always surprise you, don't throw out the baby with the bathwater, keep your mind open to potential, shoot for the moon, etc. I think it's really a gift to see things for what they could be. Like a rundown shack turned dream home. Live your life like the Property Brothers. 

Besides, no one has to know that if I yanked my skirt down in this outfit I'd be ready for a hoe-down version of a Risky Business dance number. 

Have to save that for a rainy day.

miss tabby

Skirt (shop!), Denim (similar!), Sunnies (shop on sale!): Ruche 

Road trip style!

This past Friday we hopped in the car as soon as I finished work to head to sunny California. 

(Although for this trip, it was kind of a foggy, drizzly California).

I have a love affair with cutesie, ditsy, quirky prints.

It's a part of who I am, some innate desire to love on and wear the most bizarre and wonderful pieces of printed clothing. I love print mixing.

Dresses covered in apples or birds or other fair creatures are so colorful and full of personality, and I love being able to display my love for whimsy through my clothing. 

When I saw this skirt there was an immediate spark of attraction, and the rest was history. We were meant to be. 

When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade,

without further introduction.

- Mark Twain

I'm also a total cat lady, which made this particular skirt even more irresistible.

If the movie Aristocats was a skirt, this would be it. It's jazzy and sweet and and fun, you can practically hear the music. Everybody wants to be a cat. 

It's comfy and the perfect length for work. I love that it has pockets, too!

My first thought when buying this skirt was that I cannot wait to figure out different combinations to wear with it. I think normally with statement pieces like this, people stick with a pretty basic ensemble, like I did. Something neutral. I really like the idea of tucking a thin chambray button-up into the skirt, or maybe even trying a brighter color on top. 

My next challenge for myself when wearing this skirt is to stay away from only wearing white or black -- this skirt is too delightful to only be worn once or twice. 

the end: outfit 15!

This is the end!
15 items to 15 outfits.
Here's a quick review of the past 14 days!

And now, last but not least...outfit 15!
This last outfit features a buttoned-up cardigan underneath a vest, with a floral skirt and wedges.
Sunday ended up bursting into a rainy day in the evening, which was quite fitting since I was holed up in the apartment all day, sick and miserable.
Both my friend and I have a terrible cold/flu virus and have been completely lazy all weekend, which ended up being really great. We watched a lot of TV (I personally slept off and on until 3pm), and even pulled out an old childhood favorite, The Labyrinth. Don't judge.

I threw on the last outfit, what I would have worn if I wasn't dreary and pajama-clad all day long. While it may be cheating a little bit, because I only had it on for 15 minutes, I think it's the thought that counts.
Challenge complete!

My friend was impressed that I was able to un-sickify myself for these photos, but all it really took was a brush through my hair and a lot of blush and some lipstick. I definitely sank right back into my blanket pile on the couch as soon as this shoot was over!

I hope you all had a better weekend than I did, and I definitely can't wait to be back to 100% for the long holiday weekend!!
Thanks for joining me for this fun 15 day challenge. :)

sunset: outfit 13

It was such a beautiful evening on Friday, and we got the chance to shoot some photos right as the sun began to shine through the trees before it set. It has been such a great week, but Friday couldn't come soon enough! I was looking forward to the farmer's market on Saturday, and walking along downtown and showing my friend some of my favorite spots.
Introducing outfit 13:

Top: LOFT, Vest: Kohl's (shop!), Pants: Old Navy, Shoes: Zulily

This spot is one of my favorites around our neighborhood.
We've done a couple photo shoots around here (like this one), and it's beautiful all year round. Probably my favorite is at the peak of Fall, when the largest trees turn a stunning shade of yellow and every time we drive down the street we're stunned by them.
I've always been a huge fan of sunset (being an Arizona girl, and also never being enough of a morning person for sunrises), and we had just met some friends for snow cones when we were heading home and decided to stop for our daily photos while it was still light enough.
It turned out to be the perfect time of day for photos!

It's moments like this that make me realize how much I love being outside. I'd love to take the opportunity to go on some local hikes, and use these cooler mornings for some of the gorgeous trails we have downtown.
We've talked a lot about trying to go out on a lake this summer, and also trying to get some friends together to go camping. Camping used to be an annual event for our family, and I haven't been in years and years.
I've never been camping with Dusty, and I think it'd be a blast! We'd both love to try and introduce camping into our regular summer activities.