Life Update: Settling in to Suburbia

Life updates are my favorite blog posts to write, I don’t know why I don’t do them more often! I sat down at my computer today wanting to write a blog post but I wasn’t feeling any particular spark of creativity, so I decided it would be best to just pour out some of the details on what we’ve been up to since we moved into our new house. Plus, I can tell by my analytics that you all love these posts best too!

It’s been about 3 months of living in suburbia in our new home. There are lots of things that I love about this place, we have a yard, more indoor space, a garage, no loud upstairs neighbors. There are also lots of things I miss about living in the city. We moved this direction for many reasons, a big one was that we wanted to be closer to family for Stella, we wanted a big yard, and we could get much more house for our money the further we moved from Portland. Although we do hope to own a home or condo downtown again in the future, it all weighs out in favor of our family living in this current setting during this season of our life.

If you’re following along on Instagram, you’ll have seen the home decor and updates we’ve been making on our new space! I’ve been having fun with paint, furniture and decor in pretty much every room of our home save for the kitchen. When we moved in we had the intention of tearing out the 80’s style kitchen and fully updating the space to our liking, check out my empty home tour to see what it looks like currently. Of course we have yet to touch the space besides removing a couple cabinets. BUT - we do have a structural engineer scheduled to come out next week to help us gauge where and how we can take down this massive wall dividing up our downstairs. Progress, am I right?! I feel excited to finally get the ball rolling on this huge project so we can start gaining momentum on the heart of our home. I need that wall out ASAP so I can see what my naughty toddler is up to while I’m cooking her meals. Who ever decided that a walled off room was a good idea for a kitchen?!

Other than the home stuff, my life has been pretty boring as of late. I feel like work has been picking up a ton and I’ve kept busy with the blog/Instagram. I even started working with an amazing local photographer lately to up my content game, and it has been a total game changer! Below is an outfit she shot for me last week, I can’t seem to stop wearing this lace cami from my friend’s boutique. I love this cardigan too, it’s a great Amazon find that could totally pass as Free People! The quality is amazing, and it’s under $30!

Hat // Tank Top // Cardigan // Jeans // Shoes //

I can’t get enough of this HAT! It is seriously so gorgeous and I have gotten countless compliments on it! It’s super affordable too, definitely a must have for fall!

These Target shoes look designer and I think everyone needs them! I have my eye on the cognac color since I wear them so much in the fall.

Thank you all for reading and following along with my life. I wish I had more to share today in this post, but for now my life has been pretty boring! Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss any new home updates since there will be a lot happening in the near future (ie: kitchen remodel).

xo

Life Update: My Self-Tan and Breakfast at Tiffany's!

It’s Friday afternoon and almost 90 degree outside here in Portland! I think we full on skipped over Spring and went straight to Summer. I just went for a long walk and phew! It’s HOT!

This week in particular has been fun, and full and busy. I hate when people make excuses for not sticking to timelines or goals, but truly I have been SO busy, I missed my Wednesday post this week and barely got this post up here in time for the weekend! Honestly, I wasn’t even going to write a Friday post, but I’ve been getting lots of messages and questions on Instagram and I thought it would be best to answer them all on here as a permanent reference!

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

I went to a couple amazing events this week, the first being a Tiffany and Co. event for customer appreciation, there was champs a flowin’ and I got to meet up with all of my friends and try on some amazing jewelry, we even convinced a security guard to go outside with us to do an impromptu photoshoot with the jewels! Here are some photos from the event, I also added videos from the day onto my “Event's” highlight on my Instagram! Dress and other outfit details linked in the carousel below! This dress was a last minute find under $50! It comes in a ton of other cute prints too, TTS.

The Best Self-Tan Routine

I’m going to be doing a full post on my self tan, but after the Tiffany’s event I got more messages than EVER about what kind of self-tan products I use! I have been using Tanceuticals for YEARS, but I recently upgraded to using the “Dark” color because, girl, I am PALE. So first I use their exfoliator, (it also works really well to remove your tan when it starts to fade), it’s not available to link but you can really use anything to exfoliate! After exfoliating, I’ll use the Tanceuticals lotion all over, I get the special face one, also in the color “Dark.” I like to let the tan develop overnight and then rinse off in the morning and here is where my secret weapon comes in! Right before I leave for an event I will really amplify the tan on my legs and arms by using a “leg makeup.” My current (and super affordable) favorite is the Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs, I use the color “Medium Glow.” This stuff is amazing because it is water resistant, meaning you won’t sweat it off, and it has a teeny little but of shimmer so it looks great in photographs, on top of amplifying your tan and covering up imperfections!

Lancome Absolue Event

This was hands down one of the most well thought out and beautiful blogger events I have ever been to! Lancome really pulled out all of the stops for us, and it was such an honor to be included as they hand picked only a select few Portland bloggers to attend, no plus ones allowed! My good friend Gia was also invited so we went together and we barely made it into the event on time since the second we walked in the hotel it was phones up to insta story the whole beautiful venue! I had never been to the Hi-Lo hotel in downtown Portland before but I am already planning to go back to shoot some photos and explore. It was beautiful! Marble floors, mid-century light fixtures, blush pink accents and dark green velvet. It was BEAUTIFUL.

Inside the event space we got to learn all about Lancome as a company as well as their color matching technology and a new Monsieur Big Mascara. They had heart shaped macarons and blueberry mimosas, not to mention all of the beautiful wall decorations that were just begging for us to stop at take a picture at every step.

They have an amazing offer for you all too! If you take a screenshot of this blog post or any of the photos I share from the event on social media, you’ll get an amazing gift with purchase at any Macy’s Lancome counter!

It was hard to narrow down the photos but here are some of my favs, all outfit details are in the carousel below! I wore my favorite under $100 espadrilles that you’ll see on repeat all Spring and Summer, I could LIVE in them they’re so comfortable. They run TTS!

If you made it this far, thank you SO much for reading my ramblings, hopefully this wasn’t the most boring post in the world! I’m planning a lot of fun moving related posts and home decor content coming up soon since we move in just TWO. WEEKS. I can’t believe it.

xo

Life Update: House Hunting, My Miscarriage & New Fitness Routine

It has been far too long since I’ve sat down to write a “feelings” post, or even just share whats going on in my life. It’s hard to really get across every little detail in Instagram stories, and if you’re new around here (hi, welcome), I like to share these posts every once and a while so I can really dig into and share with you all what’s currently going on in my life!

The House Hunt

First of all, we’ve been on the hunt for the perfect house for our family for a few months now and it has been no easy process. Dustin and I have been renting various apartments in the decade that we’ve been together (we’ve moved a total of 14 times. Yes, 14) and now that Stella’s been added into the mix, we want a more permanent place to call home with a great yard and space for our little family to thrive and grow!

The areas we initially started looking in were highly competitive and we learned after four solid (some even over-asking) offers, accompanied with personalized letters and a photo of our family, that we most likely weren’t going to be able to get the perfect house for us with all of the items on our wish list. These include: 3+ bedrooms, yard, and open living space/kitchen area. We’re SOOOO picky *sarcasm.*

We’ve since expanded our search and I’m excited to say we just put an offer in on an amazing home only a few miles away from where we initially wanted to live, but in a much less competitive area. It has a huge yard, massive living space with a beautiful brick fireplace and 3 huge rooms with ample closet space for yours truly! It is everything we dreamed of and more in a house and it is so much below what we budgeted for a house that I’ll get to customize the entire kitchen if we get the home! Yes, I’ll be documenting the whole process on the blog if we get the home. Cross your fingers for us, and subscribe so you don’t miss out on updates!

The Miscarriage

I realized I never really closed the door on my pregnancy loss with you all and I wanted to finalize it here in this post. I got my blood tested one last time and had a small amount of HcG left, by the next week I took a pregnancy test and it came up negative which means I am clear of any of the chemical signs that I was pregnant.

Read About my Miscarriage Story here

I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m not going to have another baby for a while. I have been putting my energy into my business and growing my blog. When I first found out I was pregnant for a second time, the couple weeks following I became hopeless, sendentary and had feelings that my “life was over” since I’d be a mom of two little ones who’d be toddlers at the same time. How would I be able to blog? How would I have time for myself? How could I ever love another baby as much as my current baby, Stella?! I felt a little depressed because the whole thing was such a surprise and we didn’t plan to have another baby for at least a few years, if at all. That pregnancy also made me realize how little effort I had been putting into my blog. I love this platform, I love writing, photography, brainstorming ideas for content, and I love the endless to-do list of things that make me feel so productive (yet is never completed)! It also made me realize that I need to enjoy this time with my little girl. I am so fortunate that I get to be home with her every day and I don’t want to miss out on a thing. If I were to have another baby at this stage, I’d have to sacrifice half of my time, or more, for a needy newborn and I’m not ready to give up these precious moments with Stella yet!

I’m sure a lot of you noticed a visible change in my content during the time I was pregnant. My photos and content suffered, I hadn’t put up a blog post in MONTHS, and everything was just backsliding. Soon after recovering from my miscarriage, I kicked it into high gear. I decided to get into physical shape (we’ll get into that in a minute), I put myself on a blogging schedule and I made attainable goals for myself. Writing everything down really helped me. I wrote down my top 3 stretch goals for myself and my blog. I then broke those goals down into small parts that I could work on individually to help me chip away at my larger goals so I could see the progress and actually feel like I’m accomplishing things. This has worked so well for me, and I highly suggest this method if you are working to achieve some large goals too! I’ve been able to stick to my blogging schedule, I released my new Spring preset and I’ve been dedicating more of my time to Stella. I’ve gotten super efficient with my time!

Shop All of my Presets Here

My Health Journey

Early on this year I did a juice cleanse and I told myself I would stick to a healthy diet and workout routine following the cleanse. Of course a week after I finished I found out I was pregnant and my midwife urged me not to start any new fitness routine during my pregnancy (cue the feelings I wrote about above). I really got into some bad habits when I found out I was pregnant. I was eating whatever I wanted and felt so tired so I was doing a lot of sitting around. I did the same thing when I was pregnant with Stella but I was also very active and working full time in retail so I was on my feet all day getting good exercise! I tried to will myself to workout but I kept going back to “what’s the point?”

I have been really off and on with working out but Dustin and I are making a conscious effort to make all of our meals at home and creating opportunities for success by only buying food that is (mostly) good for our bodies. It has really helped that we both work from home so we can keep each other accountable easier. I recently found the Love Sweat Fitness workout app and I am hooked! I love their videos and the pace of the workouts. I’m hoping that sharing my fitness journey with you all that I’ll be able to make it stick this time! I have a feeling this Spring and Summer will be my healthiest yet!

Read About How I Only Drank Juice - No Food For One Whole Week!

The Blog

I am so thankful for making relationships and growing my network this year. I have been able to up my photography quality and amount of content I create by connecting with fellow local bloggers to trade taking pictures, and have also garnered some fantastic opportunities from those same contacts. I have always been pretty introverted so this is huge for me, I’ve made it a goal of mine to try to grow my network even more and create more relationships within my blogging niche this year!

I’m proud of where my blog is at currently and I see my blog growing into something really fantastic this year with the momentum I’ve gained in only a couple short months so far. I’ve re-done my blog theme, and customized it to make it my own. My newsletter goes out bi-monthly and will be full of fun exclusives for my loyal readers. My Spring preset is having even more success than my Winter one and I am so proud of my accomplishment of being able to figure out how to create, package and launch it all on my own. I’ve put myself on a schedule and have been a better mom because of it. My time is spent more wisely and I’ve been able to dedicate more time to Stella and still work toward achieving my goals faster than ever before

I look forward to pulling this post up at the end of the year to see how far I’ve come and what I’ve accomplished. I was looking back at the content I was putting out this time last year, when I was only really putting in half (or less) of the effort than I am now and the improvement and change is astronomical. I still can’t believe how far I’ve come since last year and with the momentum of the past few months this year will be full of many more accomplishments than ever before! I’m so excited that you chose to follow along my journey and I’m humbled by the support I receive on a daily basis. It truly means the world to me that you read my blog and allow me to share my life as a part of my job. I could not be more thankful for YOU!

Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to subscribe below!

xo

New beginnings

This is the first post on the third blog I've made. I've struggled to get the courage to actually publish an actual blog that I'm prepared for people to view and read. Although it took me some time to realize that I don't care what people think anyway, I'm finally pursuing this adventure just for the pure fact of my interest in writing, photography, and fashion (among many other hobbies). You might find it strange that I even cared to do this for anyone but myself initially, but that's just who I am. No apologies.

...So here it is, first post, and to many future posts!