photo by Gina Zeidler

2017 was easily my best year personally. Not so much when it came to the state of the world but despite the constant barrage of bad news I had a pretty fantastic year. Let's dive into some of the highlights, shall we? Here they are in no particular order:

I'm a bit late posting today as I totally spaced and forgot to pull this post together last night amidst all the craziness of packing and getting ready to go home for ten days. So let's keep it short and sweet today since I'm sure I'm not the only one trying to get a ton of last minute things done this week.

As you may have gathered, I love Christmas. Not putting-up-the-tree-in-October level love but it just gives me all of the feels. I wanted to do something a little different today and share a bunch of my Christmas favorites from songs to food to gifts!

Oddly enough our streak of having plans has continued this week and will keep on going into the weekend. That's the holidays I guess! We have drinks with a friend who's in town tonight, I have a wreath-making party tomorrow night and then we have our second annual CalTrain pub crawl on Saturday. We leave to go home a week from tomorrow so we're trying to pack in seeing all of our friends and do all of the holiday things here before we go. It all makes me so happy though :)

Over the past couple of years I've upped my skincare game but really wanted to take excellent care of my skin leading up to our wedding. I got several compliments on my skin on our wedding day which made me feel like my hard work had paid off 😂 because my skincare is something I take pretty seriously. So today I'm sharing what I did to keep my skin in tip-top shape leading up to the big day. 

All photos by Gina Zeidler and my hair and makeup was by Hayley Sachs Artistry. Adore both of them!

Happy Wednesday! I've been feeling kind of blah lately...not sure what the reason is. I think I'm just itching to go home for Christmas! I've never really gotten used to winter here in California. I know most people would be thrilled with the "winter" that we have but it's just never felt right to me. #picky I was so excited to hear that it snowed in Minnesota yesterday so I'm hoping it's a white Christmas! These things are helping to cheer me as well, so let's check 'em out!

Damn, it's been exactly three months since my last Recent Reads post. That's not to say I wasn't reading, but I guess I'm just behind on blogging. I've got some good stuff to share with you today so follow me!

Are you getting through the week okay? I'm sure as hell struggling after those wonderful four days off. We're halfway-ish through though! Now that we're in the full swing of the Christmas season that's helping to cheer me :) these fabulous things from around the web are doing that as well! Let's check em out, shall we?

Casual glam sounds a bit like an oxymoron but I think it perfectly describes this outfit! The flat mules are casual and the vest lends itself to a more casual vibe minus the fur. Then you've got the sparkle and the rich burgundy color so it's a little bit glam too! It's kind of perfect if you have a more casual holiday party. I don't know about you but I'm invited to pretty much no fancy holiday parties (much to my dismay) so more casual looks are usually up my alley. And I always need to remind myself that holiday looks don't necessarily require any red or green. I usually prefer some red or green in there but gold will always suffice at creating a holiday-worthy outfit!

Happy Wednesday/Friday! I am so ready for this holiday weekend. I think I've already mentioned it but Mark and I decided to stay in California for Thanksgiving and we're going to try making the whole meal ourselves for the first time. It should be interesting! I'm excited for a relaxing weekend filled with lots of (hopefully) delicious foods and an excess of online shopping. Now let's get to the Things I Like below because we all know you're not working the day before a four day weekend ;)

I had a lot of ups and downs with my wedding dress and wanted to share the story (because I couldn't for so long!) in case anyone else can relate. I did end up loving my dress on the day of my wedding but there were moments of doubt and frustration that led up to that beautiful day. 

We're told that our wedding dresses need to be perfect and that it's the most important item of clothing you'll ever wear. That's a lot of pressure for one dress! I'm here to tell you that it's not the end of the world if your dress isn't *perfect*. So here is my wedding dress saga...and yes, that may sound dramatic but it certainly was a journey😜

Does it feel like a Thursday to anyone else? All week I've been thinking it was another day. I wonder if it's the mounting anticipation of the short holiday week next week? Maybe it's the time change too...I can't adjust at night to when I should be going to bed. I always feel ready around 8pm 😳 Anywho, that's about all that's going on with me lol just can't keep my days straight over here.  On to the links!

It's Wednesday and I have a new Things I Like up on the right day, all is right in the world. In all honesty I'm still all messed up on my days. I've enjoyed being home and back in routines but getting back into the work mentality is a struggle. Anyway, here we go!

Happy Monday and welcome to our honeymoon recap! For those of you that don't know we spent a week in Puerto Vallarta the week after our wedding. You may remember that we had some trouble trying to decide where to go. Ultimately we decided on Mexico because it's relatively inexpensive (compared to the places we originally looked at like Fiji and Hawaii) and it's close. After talking it through we realized we wanted a super relaxing honeymoon where we basically just lounged around, ate and drank. So it didn't make much sense to spend a lot and travel somewhere far away just to not leave the hotel. We'll save that for another time! We had also toyed around with the idea of delaying the honeymoon but we're both really happy we had that week to recharge after the wedding and delay going back to reality. So, now that you've read the longwinded backstory, here are some snaps and thoughts about our week in Mexico!

Dress is here and it's $30 and so good!

Hi! Long time no talk. We are back from our honeymoon and already back to work and reality. It's been rough. I was so good at honeymooning, I think I might just do it full time ;) In all honesty we had such a great time and I'll share more on Monday! As far as our wedding goes, it was just the best. You can get a sneak peek at a few photos on my Instagram if you'd like. I plan to share a ton of photos and do several posts about wedding things. I hope that's okay with you guys! My wedding content always performs well so I get the feeling you're interested :) Now, I know it's not Wednesday but I have some links I've been collecting and didn't want to wait until next week to share. So here were are mixing it up with Thing I Like on a Friday.

Photo by Kayla Fletcher

Mark doesn't love being featured on the blog or social media but I'm going to make an exception today to get sappy because I'm feeling all of the feels on the eve of OUR WEDDING!! We're so excited and I think all of our ducks are in a row. The weather doesn't look great but we can't control that and it will be wonderful no matter what. Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and say hi and share 10 things you may not have known about my future husband and I!

I've just got to make it to Friday but it feels so far away! Last week was particularly rough and stressful but thankfully it seems like the worst is over. We had to get the seating chart and all of the stationary finalized. Now it's mostly just running some errands when I'm home next week. I fly into MN on Saturday to get in one more dress fitting and then Mark will meet me there on Wednesday. We're both getting very anxious and excited for the big day (that's just 10 days away)! I think we're both really pumped for the honeymoon too because we plan to just sit and lounge at the beach and man does that sound good right now. This girl needs a break! Anyway, hope these links can provide a little break for you today!

Happy Wednesday you guys! I feel like I'm going to be a broken record from here until the wedding whenever I'm giving a little life update: time is flying, we're stressed but very excited. Now, let's get to the good stuff!

Woof. This has been a week so far. I've been starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by wedding stuff and there was some frustrating things at work and volleyball this week. I'm so ready for the weekend. Just gotta get through it. I'm cheering myself up (and hopefully you too) with this week's Thing I Like!

Hey guys, as you've probably noticed I've been feeling pretty uninspired when it comes to the blog. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say that here since this is supposed to be a source of inspiration, but it's probably apparent to long-time readers. I don't know if it's because all of my energy is going into the wedding right now or because it's 90 degrees out when all I desperately want is crisp weather but I just haven't been feeling it.

Wednesday! You know the saying "The days are long but the years are short"? For me it's feeling like the days are long but the weeks are short. Time is somehow flying by but the days go so slow. All that to say that it's absolutely nuts that we'll be getting married a month from tomorrow! I only have three more weeks of work before I head home for the wedding. Counting down the days! Well, let's get to it, shall we?

We're back with a new round up of the things I like and I have extras to share since I missed last week! Keep reading to see what caught my eye on the internets :)

Happy Monday! I was feeling in a chatty mood and it's been over a month since I checked in so I thought I'd whip up a little life updates post for today. Also, it was way too hot to shoot outfits this weekend so here there's that too😜. These posts don't feel the most exciting but it seems like you guys really like them and the whole point of the blog is to document my life, so here we go!

image via

I feel like I've been on a reading rampage, you guys. It's the best kind of rampage if you ask me. I've read five books in the last month and a half that I want to share with you today! This post is kind of perfectly timed with the long weekend. Hopefully you have something planned where you've got lots of time to relax with a good book! I'm headed to Napa today for my bachelorette as previously mentioned. You can follow along on Insta if you'd like. Now, to the books!

Happy Wednesday! I'm all mixed up on my days because I normally play volleyball on Tuesdays but we didn't have a game last night so now I think today should be Friday. Ugh. At least we're halfway there! 

If you haven't already noticed, I'm basic AF when it comes to fall. No shame. Give me all of the cozy sweaters, pumpkin flavored everything and "leaves" scented candles. I wanted to share my personal fall staples and round up some fun options you should have in your closet for the upcoming seasons.

Here we go!

I had such a nice weekend in Minnesota and it's safe to say it wasn't enough time! I flew into MN late Friday night and left Sunday night. I had my dress fitting and then ran a bunch of errands with my mom and sister. It was fun to talk wedding stuff and even do some wedding DIYs with them! I'm happy that this week is already halfway over because I still feel like I'm catching up on life after only two days away. Let's hop to it, shall we?

It's been kind of a rough week at work so I'm keeping it short and sweet today guys, let's just jump right in!

Hi friend :) today I wanted to catch up with you! My goal here is to always be personable and make it feel like we're catching up over a coffee (or chai latte in my case). So because I can't have a coffee date with everyone here's what I'd tell you if I was sitting across from you at Caribou. I'm from MN after all ;)

It's the last week of July and that's madness. I'm not complaining because I have so many exciting things coming up (a trip home, my bachelorette, fall, our wedding, just to name a few!) so I'm kind of loving how fast time is flying. This week has been a productive one at work so I'm feeling good. Obviously happy we're halfway through though :) I'm here with my weekly pick-me-up (or pick-you-up in this case) of Things I Like!

I felt like I should title this post "The Sale that Shall not be Named." The Nordstrom Anniversary sale has become so divisive! You either love it or hate it. I totally get that it's overdone but my try on post from last year was one of my best performing posts so I figured you guys like it and that I should do it again. I will only mention it today and promise not to shove it down your throat afterwards. So if you're not interested, we'll see you next week!

Sorry for the blog post-less Monday but I just didn't really have anything to share and I never want to force it. So there you go. Thankfully I have lots to share today to make up for it!