Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Summer Fashion: Maxi Dress


Summer is my favorite time of year! While I love shopping for clothes any time of the year, summer clothes are also my favorite to wear. I love racerback tank tops and sun dresses the most. Anything that allows me to get (slowly) tanner and wear my super comfy Rainbow sandals is a big win in my book. This love for summer clothes can be dangerous however. Dangerous for my wallet. Especially if Target has a bajillion cute items at the same time. Oh!
Then it's all over.
Summer Fashion Chevron Maxi Dress homeiswheretheheartis8410.blogspot.com
Excuse the grainy cell phone picture
I try to show restraint. And by "try" I mean avoid going in the stores with the cute clothes and tell myself I have plenty already and still love them so I don't need more. Well it usually works. But then, there's some adorable, must-have, on-sale summer dress that calls screams my name and I give in. This summer was no different. And the cute clothing item in question this time was this beautiful, coral and gray, chevron striped, racerback, maxi dress. All my favorite things combined into ONE garment! How could I NOT buy it?

Summer Fashion Chevron Maxi Dress homeiswheretheheartis8410.blogspot.com

So I did! :) I did use a 15% discount mind you because, well, that helped justify it...even though I honestly needed no justifying since I'm not on shopping probation or anything. Once it came, I loved it even more than seeing the picture online! Don't you love it when that happens? For those of you wondering, the dress is from Kohls and is Lauren Conrad brand. My exact dress is no longer available online but you can find similar ones here and here.



Summer Fashion Chevron Maxi Dress homeiswheretheheartis8410.blogspot.com


One of the things I love about maxi dresses is how versatile they are! With the right shoes and accessories they can be dressed up for a nicer event but with flip flops they are just as good for a casual summer day. Another thing I truly love about them is that it pretty much feels like you are wearing pajamas all day! Soooo comfy. So far I've worn it to my husband's basketball awards banquet, the awards ceremony at school, and my dear friend's bridal shower. I'm planning to wear it to church this Sunday.

Summer Fashion Chevron Maxi Dress homeiswheretheheartis8410.blogspot.com

What's your go-to summer fashion?
Are there certain aspects (color, print, style) of clothing that make it hard for you to resist?
Do you ever feel the need to justify buying cute clothes even when no one else needs the reasoning but you?

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Summer is here! Free Summer Productivity Printable

Ahhhhh :) We're 4 days in and it's starting to feel like summer! Sure the weather has been
all. over. the. place.
It cannot decide what it wants to do out there. But I'm getting my mantel decorations and mindset finally into summer mode! And then...my mom has to go and text me this morning saying "6 months til Christmas!" Gee thanks, mom. She's a kill-joy fall/winter lover. (Love you!) :)

Well I never got around to posting June goals. Here's a quick update on how I did with May goals:

Goals for May:
1. Go to the gym or run 5 times
2. Make 1 new recipe
3. Hang living and dining room curtains
4. Blog 1 time other than this post
5. Choose a paint color for master bedroom
6. Paint master bedroom
 7. Project Life date with my mom
8. Finish "Love Does"

Ya, I'm not doing so great. But hey, half is better than none!

I had a great finish to the school year--can't believe I've successfully taught for 2 years!

At the end of the year, we were reading "Because of Winn-Dixie." So to wrap-up the book and welcome summer, we had our very own party copying the party they have in the book! We had egg salad sandwiches cut into triangles with frilly toothpicks, a jar of pickles, Littmus Lozenges, and Dump Punch!
Becuase of Winn Dixie party homeiswheretheheartis8410.blogspot.com

We also copied the decorations from the book. We made our own luminaries and used battery tea lights.
Becuase of Winn Dixie party homeiswheretheheartis8410.blogspot.com

 Some students brought dog pictures for us to stick around the room.
Becuase of Winn Dixie party homeiswheretheheartis8410.blogspot.com

We hung yellow and pink streamers. After we finished decorating and filled our plates with goodies, we watched the movie! The kids had a great time and it was fun to make the book come to life.
Becuase of Winn Dixie party homeiswheretheheartis8410.blogspot.com

The next week, I attended 5 curriculum meetings, finished report cards, cleaned out my classroom and officially locked the door on the school year! Oh, but I will be spending plenty of time working on curriculum this summer. I got approved to teach Language Arts in a different way, which I'm really excited about but it does mean some extra work for me in the next couple months.

Even though I have many things I want to accomplish this summer, I decided not to do monthly goals for the summer. Instead, I've created a weekly breakdown of tasks by category to help me stay focused and productive yet also enjoy some relaxing and fun. I find that I tend to look at a long to-do list and either pick just the "fun" things or end up doing none because "hey, it's summer and laying outside reading a book all day sounds perfect!". So I scheduled time for the fun things but also made certain days focused on tasks such as cleaning, organizing, and curriculum. I spent some time searching on Pinterest for a printable but wasn't finding something that fit me really well. No problem. I'm pretty good with Word and so 5 minutes later I had my own printable, which I'm sharing with you today!

Free Printable Daily Summer Plan homeiswheretheheartis8410.blogspot.com

While I'm not a graphic designer and didn't make it all cute with different fonts, colors, and images, I did try to be creative with the names for each day! There are many littler tasks in each category that will get accomplished (or not haha) each week but I wanted a place to write down the bigger goals for the summer. We'll see how it goes!

Here is the PDF FREE PRINTABLE of my Summer Daily Plan
And if you aren't a teacher, or want the days in a different order or want to rename them and just my blank template, here's the Editable Summer Daily Plan

For my weekly page that I fill in with specific tasks for each day, I use this fun and cute free fillable PDF from Erin Rippey at InkTreePress.com Be sure to check her website out--she has some super cute stuff!

One of my summer goals (as you may have seen under Wednesday's column) is to do some good ol' blogging! So be sure to come back periodically for some fun tutorials and DIY projects I've been doing around my home.

How do you stay productive during the summer?

Saturday, September 28, 2013

I'm Still Here

Wow. It's been almost 2 months since I last posted. Eesh! Ya probably not the best idea to have a big giveaway, gets lots of new followers and then never blog. It was SO not my plan. Every weekend I kept trying to get to blogging but it seemed like another things to do (or 5) kept popping up. We squeezed all the last bits of fun we could from summer and then reality hit and I had a new classroom to get going. THAT has taken way more work than I anticipated. Teaching two classes is a lot of work. Two sets of lesson plans for every subject, two (or four) different teacher manuals for every subject, two different tests and activity pages to copy, two different spelling lists to keep straight, and on and on. 

  I'm not complaining, I'm just finally coming up for air and realizing why I have not been on here.

So what have I been up to? Well for one, taking a lot more pictures on my phone than with a regular camera. At least I'm still taking pictures though!

 We had a handful of weddings this summer! All very fun times. I was bridesmaid for my dear friend. She played the flag game like I did at my wedding...I got to pick all the questions for her. 

Love my Cannon Beach girls. Guess I missed the memo that we had our shoes on, oh well, I'm tall enough without ;). My mom made my bridesmaid dress! So nice having a mom with that talent because the stores were just not coming through for me.


 My college roommate came to visit for a weekend! Never enough time with her. We talked so much, baked, watched Friends and movies, coffee, shopping, farmer's market, scrapbooking and more talking! I wish she lived down the street!

 Celebrating my mom's birthday. Check back soon to see what I got her and hopefully the idea can provide some inspiration for your next birthday gift.
 I love my mom! We text everyday and the days that we don't just don't feel right. She spent two whole days helping me set up my classroom and is even painting a new desk for me! Plus all the other amazing things she does like talk, laugh, listen, hug, give advice, and pray for me. She's the best!

Another wedding--family friend that I have known his whole life. I got to help set-up the decorations and reception, which was so much fun! I was also the photographer's assistant, aka the bossy person telling people where to stand/look, etc. I got the job done and we stayed on schedule!

Time flies. I can remember when all these kiddos were born, how can the youngest be driving and two of us married now?

My family did the Color Run! My first 5k and a lot of fun! It was my mom's birthday present. I now want to do another 5k...wait who said that?

 We put our new guest room (and YES I am still going to show you pictures of our new house) to good use this summer! Our newlywed (from the wedding pictures at the top) and newly-engaged (wedding next summer and I'm a bridesmaid again) friends came to visit for a weekend. So much laughter and smiling--they are good medicine!

Final wedding of the summer--a previous co-worker of Nate's.

We borrowed my parent's boat for a week and went out almost every night for picnic dinner, swimming, and hanging with friends and family. Can't beat summer time at the lake.

Played and won (for the 2nd year in a row) the volleyball tournament that Nate and I met at.

Been riding my gorgeous new coral Townie bike all over. It takes only 8 minutes to get to work!

First Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season...while riding in the convertible haha.


Living in denial that summer was really ending and fall was on its way. I hate putting my Rainbows away for 9 months.

Flowers from a student.

Weekend trip to SoCal for my Grandma' memorial service.

It's always summer in Cali. (yes, I know Californians will disagree with me and say it gets cold)

Family breakfast at Denny's to celebrate my Grandpa's accomplishments. 
Check it out! It's in all the new menus now :)

My first Coug game at WSU!
 

A weekend getaway thanks to our wonderful friends. They couldn't use their timeshare and didn't want it to go to waste so offered it to us! We found a really cool hot springs nearby.

And Crystal Fields with quarts everywhere.

AND...you know fall is here when the TV shows come back! Wednesday is my night for the TV. I've been waiting all summer to find out what happens in Nashville.

AND....as if my life wasn't jam-packed enough with fun stuff and school and just normal life, I became the assistant coach for the girls varsity volleyball team at my school. I love it! We played against my team from high school and both my coaches were there...we beat them by the way which felt good :). Only bummer thing is it makes me really miss playing. Hubby and I might start hitting the Friday night open gyms to play now.


So now you are all caught up. Those are all good excuses for not blogging right? Just maybe? Okay, well I'm going to try to be better! I'm working on a whole bunch of posts today to get them ready for the week!

Are you sad to say goodbye to summer too? What are some of your favorite things to do as a last summer hurrah or a fall welcoming? And if you are already chomping at the bit for Christmas, you are not allowed to comment your seasonal input for at least another month. ;)

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Currently--What I've Been Up To

While reading education blogs awhile back, I came across a blogger who did something called a "Currently". Maybe these are all over the blogging world and you've seen them before, but it was new to me and I really liked the idea of it. I thought it was a fun way to give a little update on things I am doing besides the cooking, decor, and home posts I do--which by the way I know you are still waiting for a photo tour of my home and I have been working on it little by little but let's just say I am enjoying my summer before it's gone :). Because I have been blogging less than I wanted/planned right now, I thought this would be a good short and sweet post to share.

So today I am bringing you my first Currently. I doubt I will do these monthly (I really don't need another regular to-do item haha) but maybe seasonally.


Are any of my "currently" items true for you?

And now I really am off to pack for another wedding weekend! Enjoy your weekend!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Which season is it?

Well technically it is still summer. But based on my  mood, the brisk mornings, and leaves changing colors it seems like fall. I am so excited that fall officially begins on Friday! I love summer, don't get me wrong. Every February, I start craving summer. But as August wears away and September comes, I am SO ready for pumpkin spice lattes, leather boots, sweaters, fall colors, apple desserts, new school supplies, my birthday and Thanksgiving! This year I add football to the list since I now have a Fantasy team (gasp! I know, but that's what happens when you marry a guy who is into sports). I'm actually enjoying it and doing pretty good. We have a few fun activities on the calendar for this fall that I will blog specifically about once they happen.

Here's a preview of the fun to come this season:
Apple Picking and other farm fall festivities (like the alliteration?) at Green Bluff on September 29
Weekend in Seattle for Carrie Underwood Concert and my parent's anniversary on October 6
Sunrise Hot Air Balloon Ride on October 20
My dad's birthday on November 2
Presidential Elections on November 6
My birthday on November 10
Thanksgiving on November 22

Also, the everyday occurrences will be busy, exciting, and fun as my teaching and housewife adventures continue through this season.

To celebrate this in-between season time, today I went both garage sale-ing AND to a farmer's market. My Kindergarten colleague invited me to go. It was a lot of fun!

Here are my awesome purchases that I am really excited about!
Brand new, still in the packaging Christmas lights for our house and tree: $6 for all 3 sets

Puzzle (will be a Christmas present for my MIL who loves puzzles): $0.50

Wooden Star coat rack: $4 (I have DIY Pinterest plans for this)

Two window-pane mirrors: $7 for both (again, more DIY/Pinterest plans)


I got this cute wood and metal cart for my mom for porch decor: $30

After several garage sales and many great buys, we headed to the farmer's market. So pretty! I took lots of pictures. Enjoy!



Vegetables are so much prettier at a market than at the store.


Aren't these just gorgeous?!!?! Ever since planning my wedding and choosing flowers, I have decided that dahlias are my new favorite flowers. I love every variety and the colors! SIGH :) I wanted to buy this, but it was $10 and that seemed a little pricey to me (plus I only had $7 left in cash)


Carved candles! The leave and rose petals were so cool.


Fun birdhouses!



Fresh-pressed apple cider smelled and tasted so good.



I bought a garlic parmesan roll (huge!) to munch on for $1.

I also bought a pasty from this bakery stand for $6. It has ground beef, onion, and potatoes in. It was frozen, I cooked it and we split if for dinner! So delicious!
Our neighbor has been growing a garden and when I got home she had left a bag of tomatoes, peppers, and corn on our doorstep. The corn was so sweet and juicy!

While the pasty baked, I decided another great way to celebrate the end of summer and beginning of fall was to make apple crisp! I had bought some huge Fuji apples at the store so it was perfect.
My sweet husband helped me!
 
Hubby mixing up the crumble.
 
All ready to go in the oven!

We ate our homegrown/homemade fall dinner while watching Definitely, Maybe

The cinnamony-smelling result!

:) mmmm, feels like fall now!

Any fun garage sale finds this summer? What do you love about fall?