Non-stop

As with most holiday weekends, this one was extra full. I kicked if off bright and early Saturday morning with a 7am trip to Chick-fil-a with Bridget for breakfast. By 7:30 we were at church decorating over 100 lamb cakes with the teens - it's one of our many fundraisers and despite being way too early in the morning, it's a good time.

Post-decorating, Bridget, Manda and I hit up our 3rd Target of the weekend (we went to 2 Friday night) to celebrate Bridget's return to our holy grail after a long 40 days of Lent. I did a decent job of not buying everything I saw, although I did treat myself to an AMAZING coral diecut metal tray that was on clearance for $12 and came down to $8 thanks to a coupon I had for a Target Home item. Following Target, Rachel, Manda and I indulged in some serious girl time with manis, pedis, and eyebrow waxing at our favorite local spot. Manda and I decided to get the same bright color on our nails - Essie's "coral reef".

The hubs and I got bold and made our return to yoga with a free community class. I felt gross and out of shape watching the cute pregnant girl in front of me do better at every chaturanga than I could. Thankfully, things like that also motivate me, and I'm anxious to continue exercising in the months of beautiful weather ahead. 

We threw together some shrimp, pasta, fresh basil and tomatoes for dinner and it was DELICIOUS, and finished off the evening with a couple hours of Easter egg dyeing. Manda's bird egg wins my vote for most creative.

What's Easter without an egg totally covered in glitter?

Dan almost literally dragged me out of bed for church yesterday morning, and I'm glad he did because it's always such a beautiful service. We ran into one of his favorite teens who I've known since she was a toddler, so the 3 of us sat together for church, sold some lamb cakes, and then grabbed brunch at a favorite diner.

Our Easter time with my family later in the afternoon was frustrating thanks to my younger cousins, a slingshot, and a bunch of water balloons, but I got to see my gramma that I haven't seen in way too long, and the water balloons were the perfect excuse to leave for our dinner with some of my favorite in-laws. Playing with our nieces and listening to my brother-in-law's stories from his recent service trip reminded me of how blessed I am to have this amazing second family, and before long I was back to relaxed and enjoying the holiday.

How was everyone else's weekend? Anyone try any creative egg dyeing techniques? This is a short week for me (details to come later), and I couldn't be more excited about it. Happy Monday!

Color Block

I figured if coral and denim work well together, then a different shade of each would naturally work well together, too. I also figured the worst thing that could happen was that the outfit didn't work, and I could change before running out the door this morning. Thankfully, I think it worked, and I'm donning a completely new color-combo (for me) which is an indication that if I try hard enough, my closet is likely already full of all kinds of outfit possibilities by mixing and matching different colors.

gray cardigan + blush pink jeans + royal blue tee

Now if only the weather would warm up to match my springy colors...

Takes the Cake

I had a slight infatuation with my ice cream maker right after our wedding, and then it sat in the freezer untouched for a few months while we were breezing through the easiest Chicago winter I can remember. Last week, my sister pointed out that we hadn't made ice cream in awhile, and I had to agree. Although I planned on making a plain old vanilla bean recipe (we've made it before and it was delicious), she thought we should try something different and came up with the idea of making cake batter ice cream. After a quick Pinterest search we decided to go with directions from my favorite food blogger - Annie's Eats.

Annie does have a cake batter ice cream recipe, but I'm weird about using eggs in ice cream, so we used her standard vanilla recipe that is without eggs and just added in yellow cake mix instead of a vanilla bean. We forced ourselves to follow the directions to let the mixture chill in the fridge for an hour before putting it in the ice cream maker, and I'm glad we did. Eventually, we had delicious cake batter soft serve, which we scooped into glasses and topped with whipped cream and sprinkles for an AMAZING cake batter milkshake dessert with Bridget and Rachel.

I put the leftovers in a tupperware and stirred some extra sprinkles in before popping it in the freezer, and we finished it off in "normal" ice cream form last night. None of us could decide if we liked the milkshakes or ice cream better, but seeing as I still have heavy cream and an open box of cake mix laying around, I'm thinking another batch of this will be in my near future!

What I Wore

I'm not quite willing to do a typical outfit post where I have my guy take pictures of me in different "natural" poses outside while I try not to look at the camera and casually tuck my hair behind my ear... and let's be honest, nobody else wants to see that either! Thankfully, there's Pinterest, and all I have to do is search for a couple of keywords and find a cute photo of someone else with a similar outfit. Done and done.

Today's outfit - my super bright, super fun Old Navy coral skinny jeans; my super comfy, super versatile chambray shirt (also from Old Navy); a lightweight navy jacket that I scored at Loft for literally $4 last year; and brown flats from the Gap outlet. In other words - almost exactly the outfit below, only this girl looks way cuter :) -

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I of course got to thinking about how else I can wear my coral jeans, and Kendi gave me all sorts of ideas -

And then I found these on Pinterest -

My colored jeans are quite literally my favorite clothing items these days. Anyone else also hooked on this trend?

On The Everygirl

The Everygirl feature that I assisted on is today's posted feature!

Several weeks ago, I had the pleasure of tagging along with Danielle to Sam Saifer-Berngard's stunning condo for her feature photoshoot, and it was a blast. I loved seeing Danielle in action with her camera, considering I barely know how to take mine off of auto mode and every photo she takes is incredible. Sam and I hit it off right away when we learned that we shared a wedding date, and it was fun to reminisce about waking up to rain on our big day and being greeted with perfect temperatures and sunshine by the time our ceremonies rolled around. Now that her feature is up, I had the chance to read more about her this morning and I am nothing short of impressed. This girl is IMPRESSIVE. I absolutely cannot believe everything Sam has done in her career so far, and I have no doubts that there is much more to come from her in the future. I love her overall outlook on success - illustrated beautifully here by The Everygirl -

Head on over to The Everygirl and read Sam's full feature. 

It's perfect inspiration for a Monday!

The Little Things

I had big plans to wear my brand new blush pink jeans today for work... and then I woke up to rain and was so exhausted I didn't want to put any effort into looking cute. What is it about rainy days that make it SO much harder to get out of bed? My trusty Hunter boots saved the day.

Dan was home Monday, Tuesday AND Wednesday night this week, which meant dinners at home and lots of hanging out and catching up instead of playing around online. I'm sure I missed some fun things on my favorite sites and blogs, but I would so much rather spend my time with him, and I'm loving his "not as busy" season, which I know only lasts a very short time.

Here's a few little things I did see this week that I loved -

Hipster Branding, spotted by Alaina.

Painted-back bookshelves. Hoping I can tackle this project this weekend!

Minimilist Lego ads. So awesome.

My sister and I laughed for a long time at someecards late last night. I love sleepovers with her.

Anyone have fun plans for the weekend? I'm looking forward to lots of time with friends!

The Holy Grail

People. Do you have any idea how exciting today is? Let me tell you why. Today is the day that the one and only Chick-fil-A is opening mere MINUTES from my house, which essentially means that outside of Sundays when they're closed, I can pretty much have it for dinner whenever I want. There is no better chicken sandwich than one from Chick-fil-A with extra pickles and dipped in their signature sauce. Nobody's waffle fries can beat their's out. And if you even dare and compete with their sweet tea you're bound to be disappointed in your outcome.

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Obviously, I'm planning on dinner there tonight to celebrate the grand opening. I've experienced one other opening night before and it was BANANAS. I can't wait.

I'll be back tomorrow. Please don't mind the fact that I'll likely still be in a food coma after tonight.

My Heaven on Earth

I've mentioned it here enough for everyone to already know that Target is what I consider my heaven on earth. Call me crazy, but the idea of being able to walk into ONE store and walk out with groceries, a new pair of flats, toothpaste, a skirt for an upcoming party, a light for my kindle AND a new throw pillow - all for about $60 total - really just amazes me. Sadly, my favorite Target buddy, Bridget, gave it up for Lent (it was getting bad), so while I have been in a couple of times for actual necessities, there hasn't been a whole lot of fun trolling around the store finding deals on the clearance endcaps in awhile. I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if some junior level data guy has been tasked with finding out why sales have dropped so drastically in the last few weeks thanks to Bridget and I not hitting up our favorite place every 72 hours or so.

I like to think that Target was thinking of Bridget and I when they came up with this FABULOUS commercial, which I have watched no less than 10 times since I saw it yesterday.

So, while both of us need to chill out on the spending overall and not just for 40 days, I'm counting down the days til Easter. I think Target will be happy to have us back.

Roundup: Chevron

While I'm well aware that the chevron trend has been around for awhile, I'm also aware that it doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. As a pattern that's easy to incorporate into almost any style and makes a bold statement whether it's a small accent piece or something larger like a rug or duvet, I'm smitten and it's safe to assume I'm not the only one.

Now anyone that knows me knows that I'm a bit of a cheapskate (and proud of it!), so while some of the chevron collections I've seen include things like a $300 Jonathan Adler throw blanket, that's not what I'm going for with my roundup. These are all low-budget friendly pieces, with the exception of one that's a bit of a splurge -

1. Z Gallerie's Zig Zag Jewelry Box - while this is meant for a dresser, I'm thinking it would look equally classic on a console or coffee table. ($27.95)

2. I've seen a ton of chevron pillows around the web, but this pair from Amazon is by far the best bang for your buck, and available in a few colors. ($32.99)

3. You'll have to search your local Target stores for it, but I couldn't resist posting this gold and white lampshade considering I have it myself and LOVE it. There is no base included with the shade but with Target's prices even if you have to buy both pieces it's still super affordable. I paired mine with an $8 solid white base I found on clearance. ($19.99, in store only)

4. There's a TON of chevron on Etsy, and I love these fabric bins, also available in other colors! ($18.00)

5. The one sorta splurge on here - West Elm's Zigzag Floor Pouf, which I have been wishing would go on sale since the day I saw it. ($249.00)

6. Another Target find, these melamine dishes are unbreakable (perfect), colorful (more perfect), and ridiculously cheap (and on sale - even more perfect). Even if you just grab a couple of the tumbler cups or a tray, these would make a statement. (prices vary - I saw many of these on major clearance in stores last week!)

7. Finally, this rug from Urban Outfitters, available in 7 colors. It looks like several colors/sizes are on back order, but there's still a few available and I loved it too much not to include it. If I had any reason to buy a rug right now, I'd jump on the gray 5x7 in a heartbeat. (5x7 - $74.00)

Do you have any chevron in your home? Are you over this trendy pattern or still on the bandwagon?

Radio Silence

Well geez. I certainly didn't plan for my blog to sit untouched for a week, but it looks like that's where I've ended up. Apologies to all 4 of you that may check in here regularly! :)

The good news is that I have a TON of ideas for stuff I'd love to post on this blog. The bad news is that I have no structure to any of my ideas, and need to get that all figured out. In the meantime, I've realized that there's nothing wrong with just posting the little random things like I was doing for the first few weeks I was writing, so I'll be continuing that - starting with this post about my new love -

Isn't it fun and sunshiny? I grabbed this baby for $35 at H&M yesterday, while on the hunt for "a bright bag for the spring and summer". I think I succeeded. I'll miss my trusty Coach bag, which is the first and only bag I have ever "invested" in, but with neon colors EVERYWHERE this season I felt a little blah carrying black, so it'll be put away for the cooler weather that we hopefully won't see again until September or so. 

Did anyone else go shopping this weekend?