Sci Fi Rockets

I'm super excited about this post for two reasons: I'm wearing my absolute favorite dress and my BFF Sammi from The Soubrette Brunette is wearing it with me!  Okay, well not literally, but we arranged this post to show you how we styled our very special dresses.  And to nobody's surprise, we styled it almost exactly the same.  I started laughing when I saw her pictures!  As Sammi says, even when we're thousands of miles apart we are still on the same wavelength.









Dress- Trashy Diva (from 2012)
Shoes- Swedish Hasbeens
Hat- c/o Collectif Clothing (sold out but here's something similar)
Lipstick- Sephora Collection Cream Lip Stain in Always Red

The Annette dress from Trashy Diva is one of my favorite styles.  It's super easy to wear, it's figure flattering and it has pockets!  This particular print, Sci Fi Rockets, is from 2012 and is quite elusive.  I had been searching for this dress for years before I found one in my size a few years ago.  The fabric is a stretch cotton and it's seriously so perfect for summer.  I haven't picked out my 4th of July outfit yet but I have a feeling this dress is going to make another appearance this week for the big celebration.  You can check out how Sammi styled hers below!  She also blogged about her outfit in depth, which you can read about right HERE.





I'm hoping we get to do some more BFF style posts in the near future.  Now that I've gotten into a groove in my work schedule, I feel like I'm better equipped to plan these things with Sammi.  But let's be real, I'm more hopeful that we'll get to take outfit photos together again soon.  It's been way too long since we've spent some time together and I need another girl's trip!

xoxo

Ashley

Changing Tides

It's been so tough getting out to take outfit pictures lately.  Bianca and I were sick over the holidays (she unfortunately still is) and now I'm weaning her off breastfeeding so she has been a beast.  It's obviously much easier for me to get out in my backyard for a few minutes to snap a couple of pictures, but I'm staying true to my word by refusing to be lazy about these posts.  Once I start to feel pressure about posting, blogging stops being fun.  So I'm just getting out when I can and posting the next day.

Baby Came Back

This dress is both old and new.  I bought it about two years ago, excited because I had wanted it for such a long time.  It was a bit snug but I made it work.  It collected dust in my closet until after Bianca was born.  In a postpartum depressive state, I hastily sold it because it wasn't even close to zipping up at the time.  I regretted that decision ever since.  I scoured the internet for months until I found a used one in a size up.  It was a miracle!  This one is a little loose but I'm just happy to have it back in my closet.  I'll never take this dress for granted again!

Caged Bird

I've had this dress for years and it's easily one of my favorites.  It's super stretchy so I wore it all throughout my pregnancy.  The fabric is surprisingly thick so it works great in cooler weather.  I even own it in pink!  I had almost forgotten about it until yesterday, when the temperatures actually dropped a bit.  I couldn't resist the opportunity to finally layer up!

Back Again

This is absolutely one of my favorite skirts.  I've had it for a few years and I could never see myself parting with it.  Since I was pregnant much of last year, many of my favorite skirts went into hiding.  I can happily say that they're back and fit comfortably again so you'll see a lot more of them in the future.  It's like I have a whole new wardrobe... At least I need to convince myself that!

City and Sea

I happened to look back on some really old posts of mine and I noticed something: I never photograph my bags anymore!  I think the main reason is that I usually carry around a Hello Kitty diaper bag these days.  But on the rare occasion that I'm Bianca free, I love to dust off a cute bag and carry lipstick instead of diaper rash cream.  While I love this particular one, lipstick is about the only thing you can put into it.  It's cute though and we all know that cute trumps functionality!

Full of Joy

Am I the only one obsessed with the crop top/high waist bottom this summer?  I rarely wear anything but a great dress, but this combo has me exploring other options.  Thanks to Kristian, I got to wear her gorgeous circle skirt during one of our triple digit days.  It goes quite perfectly with a petticoat but it was much too hot for that many layers.  I like to keep it simple when it comes to sweltering heat!

One More Time

I don't normally dress for specific holidays, but I guess my subconscious took over when I put this together for Memorial Day.  I love to mix polka dots and stripes so it wasn't surprising that this came together for a very special outing: Kevin, Bianca, and I went out to breakfast!  While this would seem mundane for other families, this was the first time Kevin and I had gone out to breakfast.  Ever.  He's not a morning or breakfast person so it never really came up.  I eventually broke him down and we went to a local popular breakfast spot.  Unfortunately, we waited an hour and twenty minutes just to get seated so I think the future of family breakfasts will be held at home.  At least I can stay in my pajamas!

Feeling It Ride Now

It's crazy that the last time I wore this dress I was a week away from having Bianca.  I think it fit much better then, but it's still really functional while breastfeeding (sorry if you think that's TMI).  I love the print so I think this one will be hard to give up in the future.  Until then I'll enjoy it as much as I can!

Pretty in Pink

I promised myself I'd try to do a lot more layering this year.  For one, you can extend your wardrobe.  And two, I just don't wear my skirts too often.  I realize I have more skirts than I could ever wear but they pretty much collect dust in the closet.  Throwing on a dress takes much less thought (after you pick the perfect one).  Putting an outfit together with more than one article of clothing takes some planning and I'm determined to challenge myself more often.  

Coming My Way

I don't know if you can tell but I'm still learning how to dress my much more curvier frame.  Unfortunately, until I get into a solid workout routine and stop breastfeeding I'm going to have to embrace what I have for now.  Finding time to unwind and get a yoga session in is nearly impossible in my day to day life.  Bianca is wonderful when it comes to sleeping through the night, but she keeps me busy all day.  I guess it's a fair trade off but that leaves only an hour or so in the evening to myself.  My husband and I decided that he would take Bianca for a walk when he gets home from work while I get some yoga done.  We started this just yesterday and I already feel better.  I never realized how much I needed yoga back in my life until I started up again.  I feel like it keeps me centered.... And little more sane!

My Heart Is Full

Happy Valentine's Day!  I'm not really one to celebrate this holiday but having a baby made me reconsider that decision.  I think it's wonderful that my husband will have two valentines from now on and I made sure he got a card from the both of us :).  This was also the first time I've taken outfit pictures with Bianca.  She did so well and I was really excited to get her dressed up for this special day.  Check out her debut!

Remix: Polka dot cardigan

1/2/3 4/5/6

Happy Monday!  It's been awhile since I've posted a remix so I decided to feature one of my favorite pieces: my Forever 21 polka dot cardigan.  I probably wear this cardigan about once a week, I truly love to pair it with pretty much anything.  I also have it in two other colors but the white/navy is extremely versatile.  In my opinion, adding a cardigan is a great way to dress down an otherwise "fancy" outfit.  To see any of these outfits in detail, click on the numbers above.

I hope you all had a wonderful Superbowl Sunday!  The plan was to go to a friend's party... But then Bianca was being pretty fussy and we didn't feel like bringing a screaming baby to a party.  So we stayed in our pajamas and watched it at home.  The exciting life as a woman with a newborn :)

xoxo

Ashley

Remix: Striped Dress

If you've been following my blog for awhile, you've probably seen this dress more than a few times.  I first saw it on Jessica of Midwest Muse last fall and I knew I had to have one of my own.  The blue and white stripes were exactly what I wanted in a nautical themed dress.  I ended up getting a Modcloth gift card for my birthday (thanks bro!) and snagging one for myself... Except when it arrived, it was in black and white!  Not going to lie, I was totally disappointed.  Of course I had to tell Jessica what happened and she kindly reminded me that I could borrow hers whenever I wanted.

A couple of months ago Ruche had a pink version on their site.  I was lucky enough to get the very last one!  It might sound a little weird to have one dress in multiple colors, but for the price, the quality of the fabric is wonderful.  This dress can be worn in any season and you can see how we did so below:

You can click any of the pictures to see the entire post.  If you're interested in this dress for yourself, I found that the black one is still available on Modcloth HERE.  And of course, I had to add a photo of us together :).  I've gotta say, blogger friends are the best kind!

Happy Sunday!

xo

Ashley

Because I Want You

There's only about eight days left of summer and I plan on enjoying every single one of them.  While I'm sure everyone can't wait to wear tights, scarves, and boots, I'm sure they'll be missing the days of bare legs in a few weeks.  I won't be sporting any of the above items until at least late October but I'm pretty sure the flower crown will be retired sooner than that.

Remix: Red Zara shoes

I love a good remix post!  Unfortunately, I live in a closet of dresses and rarely remix them (on the blog at least).  So today I'm going to show you the different ways I wear my favorite red Zara wedges.  These were definitely an impulse buy, but they've been great for pretty much any outfit.  It's a great way to dress up a less "fancy" outfit or dress down an outfit that would normally would call for fancy platform heels.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy my first true remix post!

Goodbyes

I'm not really excited about it, but I'll be getting rid of my colored hair on Friday.  As you can see in these pictures, I have been waiting until the second trimester to dye my hair again.  Since pink/purple hair requires me to bleach it first, I have to pick an alternative color.  The safety of my baby does come first, but that's not to say I'm not bummed about it!

The Sweetest Escape

Well, it's back to real life today.  While most people enjoyed a four day weekend, I had to work on both the 4th and the 5th.  I was initially pretty bitter about it, but I actually had a really good weekend... even if it was the standard Saturday and Sunday.

On Friday night Erica and I had the chance to meet up with Katrina and her road trip buddy, Ines.  They had been trekking down the California coast and we were lucky enough to have dinner with them at Umami Burger.  I love meeting up with other bloggers, especially ones who I follow and I'm constantly inspired by.  Katrina was super sweet and even bought my baby a cute little gift.  How sweet is that?

In With the New

So I wanted to wait until all my older photos were used up before I showed you my new photo location (the backyard of my new house), but I was just couldn't wait!  This is the current state of my backyard which is quite dusty and rocky.  We're planning on overhauling the whole thing but we will probably wait until after summer.  It's way too hot to be doing yard work right now!

Last Chance

 Well, this is the last weekend I'll be spending at my apartment.  Like I've mentioned before, it's kind of a bittersweet goodbye but I'm excited for the next step in my life.  Owning a home is something Kevin and I have been talking about for years and it's kind of crazy that it's actually happened!  So to honor the place I've called home for the last three years, I've made sure my last few outfit photos were taken in my favorite location: the alley on the side of my building :)