• Resolve to be more colorful

    When I was in high school, I was at my best friend’s house when her mom mentioned that she had gotten a pink dress that she loved… but she was going to return it, because she’d never wear it. I couldn’t figure out what the deal was. She loved the dress, and it looked great on […]

  • Holiday tea at the Townsend Hotel

    townsend hotel

    I hope you all had a fantastic New Year’s Eve and are having a fabulous 2015 so far! I am going to start a series of resolution-themed posts tomorrow, but first I wanted to share some photos and thoughts from one more holiday tea! The Townsend Hotel is a crazy-beautiful, opulent hotel in Birmingham, Michigan. […]

  • Holiday tea at the Royal Park

    jen and candy tea

    My mom and I typically go to tea during our girls’ shopping weekend, but we couldn’t get a reservation when we were in Phoenix this year, so we decided to go in Michigan instead. We actually really lucked out when someone canceled their reservation at the Royal Park — an absolutely gorgeous hotel in Rochester […]

  • Chambray hearts

    chambray heart

    Do you chambray? In the past two years or so, it seems like every blogger and fashion girl in the world has proclaimed her love for chambray shirts (think denim, but softer), pairing them with dark or distressed jeans for a “fashion” Canadian tuxedo, tucking them into sequined skirts or pants for a sparkly daytime look, or […]

  • A sparkly double take

    usmc ball

    November 10 was the 239th birthday of the Marine Corps, and this year we celebrated it two Fridays in a row. The Marine Corps ball is kind of a big deal to Toby and I, since we were set up 10 years ago (eek!) to go to the 229th birthday ball together. Plus, it is […]

  • Ripped jeans and pixie dust

    fairy good life

    You’ve probably noticed that I put my outfits together based on the event, occasion or location at which I’ll be wearing them. I think I’ve always been like that, actually: I remember going to a Phoenix Suns game when I was in middle school and wondering what the heck the woman sitting courtside in YELLOW […]

  • Hello Kitty Con

    hello kitty con

    Is there anything cuter than Hello Kitty? I think not. This weekend was the first-ever Hello Kitty Conference, a celebration of the supercute cartoon timed to coincide with her 40th birthday. As you can imagine, cuteness abounded. Although I’m not a Hello Kitty superfan or anything, I did have quite a bit of Hello Kitty and […]

  • Grand Canyon colors

    grand canyon at dusk

    One of the main things we wanted to do when we drove from DC to California was stop and visit the Grand Canyon. Toby had never seen it, and I was in fourth grade the last time I saw it. But our moving truck arrived earlier than planned, so while we did get to drive […]

  • Your body isn’t the problem

    I don’t think I realized how disproportionate I am, by clothing standards, until my friends started getting married. I was pretty thin when I tried on my first bridesmaid dress, and I had to gather a fistful of satin in the back of the sample so it wouldn’t fall right off my body. But when […]

  • Carlsbad J. Crew opening

    carlsbad forum j crew

    As much as I like going to actual stores and trying things on before I buy them, I’ve been ordering most of my stuff online since we moved here. The problems is that unlike in DC, when I could just stop at the Pentagon City metro stop on my way home from work, many of my […]