What I Wore | Cool Breeze

WhatIWore: After a long stretch of very hot days, we woke up to the mid sixties this morning so I reached for a pair of jeans I haven’t been able to wear in a month or so! I’ve been really into white eyelet tops this year and I picked this one up a while ago. I couldn’t decide whether or not to keep it because the boxy body plus the peplum seemed a little too wide. But I used an old trick of mine to temporarily tailor it in and I think it looks great now. 

When: June 28, 2016

What:
Shades: Karen Walker ‘Super Duper’
Top: Old Navy
Broach: Vintage
Jeans: Point Sur for J.Crew
Bag: Frye (similar style here)
Sandals: Gift courtesy of Clark’s from last summer

See Also: How I wore these jeans earlier in the season with a self designed/sewn top! 

What I Wore | Repeat

WhatIWore: One of the things that’s important to me on the blog is to share the kinds of things I really wear on any given day. I’ve hinted at some of my frustrations lately and one of them is the unending cycle of buy buy buy that seems to been required to keep up a fashion blog. And I’m not slamming shopping. I like shopping! But I do not like the idea of disposable clothing or only wearing something once. I wear my clothes often, especially if I really like something. I hope you feel like you can repeat (and repeat and repeat) the pieces in your closet that make you feel good, regardless if they’re this season or ten seasons old. 

Take this dress for example! I bought it (with the matching jacket!) last fall and I’ve worn both pieces quite a bit. It layers nicely with a jacket or tights, but is a cute sundress with flat sandals and a hat too! Click below to see the other ways I’ve styled it!

When: June(ish?)

What:
Hat: Self Made:
Shades: Karen Walker
Dress: Banana Republic
Sandals: Birkenstocks

Where: Out and About with Felix

See Also: Worn with a pink jacket and sandals, an olive jacket and boots and layered with tights, all from last fall. 

Jessica Bakes | Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I haven’t been in the kitchen nearly as much as I’d like lately, but for Father’s Day I cook Adam and homemade breakfast (biscuits and sausage gravy) and then we hosted my in laws for lunch. For dessert I made strawberry lemonade cupcakes and the best part - no artificial colors or flavors were used! Here’s how I did it…

For the cupcakes I used a lemon cupcake recipe I found online here. I minimized the batch to a dozen servings, but actually ended up only having enough batter for 10 cupcakes. No problem - we can’t eat that many anyway! The only recommendation I have is to bake slightly less than the 17 minutes suggested. My cake was a little on the dry side - but still delicious! 

For the frosting, I modified a recipe I saw a while back online. It’s a basic buttercream base (stick of butter, tablespoon of vanilla, tablespoon of lemon juice and 2-3 cups of powdered sugar). To get the strawberry flavor (this is nuts), I emptied out two boxes of Special K to get all of the freeze dried berries out. My grocery didn’t carry them separately so at 7am on a Sunday morning I had to be creative. And it worked! It ended up being about .02 oz which doesn’t seem like a lot, but was probably a half to ¾ cup. To make them into a powder, I ran them through my coffee grinder and then a fine mesh sieve. I admit I’m not super perfect with measuring - I like to taste and adjust as I go. This made for a pretty thick frosting - you could add a little milk or more lemon juice to thin it out to your desired piping consistency. 

I love this idea especially because of the lack of food coloring (which I’m not all together opposed to, but the more natural you can make something, the better in my opinion). The flavor is great too! Down the road I will experiment with other fruits too (I know Target carries freeze dried fruit for my own future reference). I think I might try adding powdered fruits to my favorite cream cheese frosting - maybe a swirl of plain and flavored? Mmmmmm. 

I topped my cupcakes with fresh farmer’s market berries. I find the smaller local berries to be much more flavorful than the jumbo kind available year round.  

These make for a perfect June treat! 

What I Wore | Overalls

WhatIWore: Happy Monday morning to everyone! It’s a pretty day here and with a forecast of rain the rest of the week, I’m going to make this quick so I can soak up some sun with my son! 

I wouldn’t say I’m the type of person who buys an outfit off a mannequin, but this tank and overall combo is an exception. I was ducking in and out of the mall a week or so ago and when I saw these hanging together I thought “cute!” and “I’ll take ‘em both!” No shame in my game! I feel like I barely shop anymore so if I see something I like (also a problem… I just don’t like much of what’s out anymore… more on this another day), I just go for it. I think it’s the perfect thing to wear on a sunny summer day with a kiddo. See also: I’m not afraid of grass stains. That’s what laundry detergent is for! 

When: June 20, 2016

What:
Hat: Self Made
Shades: Karen Walker
Overalls: Old Navy
Tank: Old Navy
Sandals: Birkenstocks

Where: Coffee shop so far - who knows what adventures are in store for the rest of the day! 

And a random end note - any other parent’s of young kids who LOVE garbage day? Felix gets very excited any time he hears a truck and he really loves waiting on the front steps of the house and waving to the garbage men, who wave back and honk for him. He can hear the trucks as they go down side streets near us so he’s always pointing to “Truck! Truck!!!”