waiting for october

Last week Dan and I got to go out sans-Jack for the first time in forever!  We headed into Portland to grab some drinks and food at Church, but when we got there some event was going on and a bunch of kids were in there singing karaoke, so (since we were actively avoiding children that night, haha) we decided to walk over to Hale Pele which came highly recommended by my sister in law.  Oh man, it was bomb.  I'm not a huge tiki-drink aficionado, but every drink I had was so incredible, as was the food.  And I can't say enough about the atmosphere. I'm a fan of when a business or brand commits 100% to their thing, and Hale Pele was an intimate tiki wonderland.  

I'm bracing for another weird month without Dan.  He goes back to work up in Tacoma this week, which means we won't be spending much time together until we can move back in October.  Being in this odd time living in other people's houses has been stressful and if I'm honest, I could go for one of those fast forward buttons so I could skip this next month and just move back to Tacoma already.  In the meantime, it's my busy season for work, so I'm buried in wedding images to edit, which helps keep me occupied.

Eight Months

Eight months old, this little one is.  It's so weird to think of him as a little newborn lump.  I remember being excited when he kinda sorta touched a page of the book I was reading him.  Now he has such a grip I can barely wrench that book out of his little paws.  Everyone who meets him says he's the happiest baby they've ever seen and his smile is the greatest and best thing ever.  I have a feeling he's going to be a funny, opinionated kid who makes friends with everyone he meets.  He's almost never snuggly because he is constantly moving, but lately he's been more clingy than usual when he's tired, so I've been letting him nap and sleep on and next to me.  Today he was curled up next to me on the couch and it was so precious I could hardly stand it.  

I'm trying to figure out the balance of mom-hood and independent-adult-hood.  For some reason, it doesn't seem like men have quite this crisis.  Perhaps it's because our culture tells them from childhood that they are the breadwinners and will work all day to support the family, and then they'll come home and spend time with the family then, and on the weekends.  I don't really feel like 100% stay at home mom life is what I'm designed for, but I also don't want to miss out on Jack's childhood and the moments I can never get back while I'm pursuing a dream outside of motherhood.  I don't know what that balance looks like but I'm pretty sure it's messy as hell.  

5 ways to style jeans

Truth be told, I'm not actually sure I own any of these jeans anymore!  Since they're all high waisted I may have put them in storage last summer, or maybe I got rid of them?  I don't know!  What I do know is that black jeans are an absolute staple.  I'd say they're in my top 3 most needed clothing items at least.  All of the ones in this post are dark blue jeans, but if you look in my closet right now, all the jeans I have are black as can be.  In a way, I feel like it's my version of a uniform in that I know that all my jeans are black and everything goes with black.  It makes it easier to put outfits together, and I like black.  That being said, I do know that I still have those wide legged jeans in storage and I'm looking forward to pulling them out and seeing if I still like styling them up!

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California Gold Rush

It's National Thrift Shop day, so I thought I'd post this outfit with a new piece I just snagged from Salvation Army this week!  It's been a while since I got a new influx of clothes in my wardrobe and my tendency to gravitate towards late 70's, early 80's mom-style is kind of cracking me up.  Every time I see my mom she's like, "that looks just like something I wore in the 80's."  I snagged a few other awesome pieces at the thrift store this past week so I'm excited to style them up and pop em up on the blog!  I got a brand new Lou & Grey maxi dress from the thrift store that I'm super in love with.  I'd never heard of Lou & Grey and after looking them up, I'm kind of obsessed!

Suburban Explorer

In the past 8 months, I haven't felt very inspired, personal style-wise.  With my body slowly becoming less "puffy" post-birth and having to expose my boobs every few hours easily, personal style took a back seat to practicality and laziness.  Back when we moved to Alaska I stored all the clothes that I knew I couldn't fit on my growing pregnant body, so my wardrobe was relatively limited, and when we packed all our stuff to move down here a couple months ago, my wardrobe got whittled down even further to what I could fit in a suitcase or two.  So this past week I did a bit of retail therapy, which helped on three fronts: getting out of the house, hanging out in an air-conditioned space, and adding a couple fresh pieces to my wardrobe.  

I feel like I'm kind of crystallizing a sense of what my style might be now.  I feel a little bit like a Free People meets Madewell type of girl.  With maybe a dash of rock + roll grunge thrown in there now and then.  We'll see how I feel about all the clothes I stored away over a year ago once I get them out upon our move back to Tacoma.  There may or may not be a shop-my-closet happening, depending on how many of the clothes I actually jive with these days!

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