Random Thoughts on Working Full Time

October 30, 2015


As some of you may have seen or heard I have recently joined the full-time working world! I started a one year contract doing marketing at Google in September, and wanted to share some thoughts/experiences both so that I can look back on this time in my life (and probably laugh) and also because I'm sure a lot of you can relate.

So here are some random thoughts about working full-time from someone who had never worked 40 hours a week up until six weeks ago! 


1. Sitting still is hard! You would think that after 17 years of school I would be used to sitting all day, but that was nothing like a desk job. I miss how walking from class to class would break up the day nicely. Thankfully my desk height can be electronically adjusted so I usually try to stand for at least two hours a day. And there are the Google bikes of course ;)

2. I know I'd heard it before from friends and family, but it's so true that time really does fly and one week just blends into the next. I know all of you who have been in the working world for a while are probably thinking, "LOL Catherine, welcome to the rest of your life!" It really has been an adjustment though not to have midterms and finals and projects to measure time with. 


3. Casual work environments are the best work environments! For the longest time in high school and early on in college I thought I wanted to work somewhere where I would get to wear "business clothes." How weird is that? I definitely romanticized it. I love being able to wear outfits like the one above every day. I do feel a little over dressed if I wear heels or a nice dress though, but it makes me happy so I don't really care :)


4. Waking up early every single day is actually the worst. I think we all already knew that though. It's week seven of working and I'm still struggling with this. I don't drink coffee and I'm not really into tea either, so I don't have the powers of caffeine on my side. Hopefully it'll just get better with time? Would love to hear your experiences with this!

5. I feel like I need to maximize every minute that I'm not working. I'm not used to only having a few hours of free time every night, so every night I feel a kind of panic that I need to get everything done and still take time to relax and unwind. Hello #TypeA. 


6. Being employed is awesome. I talked about it a bit here on the blog, but I had a hard time with job hunting. It was exhausting, time-consuming, and wreaked emotional havoc. I am so lucky to have a job that I genuinely enjoy at an awesome company. When I finally accepted my offer after four months of job hunting I literally wanted to run around yelling "I'm employed!" It really is the best feeling. 

Transitioning from full-time student, to full-time job seeker, to full-time employee in the span of four months was kind of insane, but I'm so happy with where I'm at now. Can't wait to see where the working world leads me!

Have a great weekend!

xo Catherine

Layered

October 28, 2015








Sweater: The Limited. Booties: Sole Society. Jeans: Gap. Purse: Tory Burch. Necklace: BaubleBar

This sleeveless turtleneck has turned out to be a lot more versatile than one might think. It's great for layering because it doesn't add bulk! Also, these booties are everything. I'd been searching for the perfect pair of dressier everyday booties (re: heeled) and really wanted this pair but they were sold out. I was determined and kept checking back on Nordstrom's website and eventually they were back in my size for a day and I ordered them right away! This outfit is the perfect example of one I might wear to work: pulled together but casual.

Phew how is it Wednesday already? I missed my Monday post because Mark wasn't here over the weekend to take pictures! He was home seeing his new nephew :) so I spent the weekend watching all the shows and movies he doesn't like. Does anyone else do this?? 

Hope your week is going well!

xo Catherine

Burgundy + Blush

October 23, 2015









Jeans: J. Crew Factory (similar). Sweater: J. Crew (similar). Shoes: BC Footwear. Purse: Topshop (similar). Scarf: Zara. Top: Loft (similar). 

I wouldn't consider myself to be a "trendy" person. I know that's a bit taboo to say as a style blogger, but it's true. It usually takes me a while to warm up to trends or decide whether I like them and want to implement them into my closet or not. However, one trend that didn't take any warming up to was burgundy mixed with blush. I love it - can't get enough. I've been pairing all of my burgundy and blush pieces together all season! It's a fun and fresh way to do fall. It works because blush is such a subtle shade of pink that it's basically a neutral. It wouldn't go with burgundy if it were say bubblegum pink or fuchsia. 

So far I don't have much planned for the weekend. I'm having lunch with a girlfriend, and I haven't been to Krispy Kreme in a while, so I may need to remedy that ;) any fun plans?

xo Catherine 

*Keeping it real: and yes, I did tuck my hair into my scarf because it was the end of the day and I didn't want to redo my hair :)



Whimsical Pretties

October 21, 2015


Here's a little roundup of some whimsical, fun, and maybe not so practical items. But that's okay because sometimes you just need to buy something that makes you happy, even if it's not the most practical! My favorites are the wine colored pom pom shoes and the chocolate milk purse :)

xo Catherine 




Again and Again

October 19, 2015









Sweater: Nordstrom. Top: Loft. Pants: Club Monaco (similar). Purse: Tory Burch. Necklace: BaubleBar. Shoes: BC Footwear

Are you sick of this top or this sweater yet? Haha I've been wearing them nonstop lately! I love trying to reimagine outfits and find new ways of wearing things, it genuinely excites me. I wore this outfit to The Martian yesterday. Have you seen it? It's so good. I went through a phase in elementary school where I obsessed over space and while I wouldn't say that I'm still obsessed, it definitely still interests me. Going to see the movie was the highlight of our weekend. We mostly just hung out and watched Empire, and burned fall candles, and ate pumpkin pancakes. It is October after all :)

xo Catherine 

Fall Uniform

October 16, 2015








Jacket: Kut from the Kloth (similar). Scarf: from Italy (similar). Jeans: Gap. Shoes: Banana Republic. Sweater: J. Crew. Purse: Tory Burch

A scarf + sweater + jacket is my fall uniform of sorts. Well it will be once it cools off here anyway! I was actually not hot while shooting these pictures, so we're getting there ;) 

Any fun plans this weekend? I think we're going to go see The Martian at some point, but that's pretty much it! I'm looking forward to catching up on some reading.

xo Catherine 



Travel Diary: Sonoma

October 14, 2015

As you may have seen on my various social media sites I spent the weekend in Sonoma with my mom and sister. My heart is so full when we're all together, so it was obviously an amazing trip! I know that Sonoma is a popular place to go, so I wanted to share our experiences in the hopes that it's helpful if you or anyone you know has a trip planned there in the future. 

We stayed at MacArthur Place (which I didn't get any pictures of) and had a great experience. The rooms were very nice, there's a free wine (and cheese!!) pour every evening, and breakfast was delicious. Other than that, we didn't spend a whole lot of time at the hotel. 
We knew that we wanted a detailed tour at some point to learn about the wine-making process, so we started the day off with a tour at Benziger Winery. There was no one else that signed up for the tour at the same time as us so it ended up being a private tour and was so so good! It was fun to learn a lot about how wine is made and it was especially interesting at Benziger because it's a biodynamic farm. So that means they don't use any pesticides, and they use goats and cows to cut the grass and fertilize it, etc. This was by far our favorite winery and I think we'd all agree it was our favorite part of the trip. The picture below is the view from Benziger - stunning!
We ended up sampling about nine wines at Benziger at various places along the tour, like up at the highest point, and in the caves. I don't think I'd ever had truly good wine before, so it felt like such a luxury to try all these fancy wines. 
After Benziger we needed libations, so we headed over to VJB Cellars to grab a sandwich (I should mention that we had a driver/tour guide and were not driving ourselves around after drinking nine different wines). It was pretty, but nothing special. Very crowded too - I would say skip this.  
Next we headed to Deerfield Ranch to do some sampling in their caves. It was a fun setup, but it really wasn't anything special, although our waitress was friendly and entertaining. That's what I was most impressed with in Sonoma: the amazing people working at the wineries/restaurants/hotels. Everyone we interacted with was nice, friendly, and easy to talk to! They all love wine and are genuinely excited to talk to you about it. I never felt like I had a stupid question or that I wasn't experienced enough. I also was worried about feeling very young, but that wasn't an issue either!
After Deerfield we headed next door to Loxton which was pretty small and had an intimate tasting room. I really liked how personal it felt; the owner was even there serving people. I chose to sit out the tasting at Loxton because I was starting to get pretty wined out at this point (who knew?!) and I knew that we still were going to have the evening wine at the hotel and then wine with dinner. 
For dinner on Saturday we went to Cafe La Haye in downtown Sonoma. We kept hearing amazing things about it, but none of us were blown away. It was cute and the food was decent, but I wouldn't rush back. 
On Sunday we hadn't originally planned to go do any tastings, but we were feeling refreshed and wanted to see more of the area so we headed to Imagery winery, which is owned by one of the Benziger brothers, so it was fun to see another one of their wineries and compare.
Again, I cannot stress how nice everyone was! We had some great conversations with the people working in tasting rooms, etc. 
I tried port wine for the first time at Imagery and really enjoyed it. I wasn't expecting to, but they had us try it with chocolate, so it definitely won me over! What's also really great about Imagery is that they commission artists to design unique labels for all of their wines. 
After our last tasting on Sunday we went for lunch at the Fremont Diner because I had seen it all over Instagram. It was definitely picturesque!
And that wraps up our 48 hours in Sonoma! It was so so beautiful and I can't wait to go back and try more places! We went back and forth between whether we should go to Sonoma or Napa and I'm really happy we went to Sonoma first. I think that it's definitely a great place for novice or relaxed wine-drinkers. 

xo Catherine 

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