california waves | state of mind | poolside watermelon | summer berries | reds & blues | pearl tassle earrings 

My family's annual beach trip always happens to fall the week before the official start of summer, and so it's always easy for me to get in a summertime kind of mood coming back from it. My legs are tan, my spirit is light, and my diet consists mainly of fresh fruit and ice cream. In my free time this week, I'm looking forward to becoming even more fully engulfed in summer by spending some time outside in the sun, relaxing a lot by watching a few old movies, and getting back into a real routine at the gym. 

10 things.

10 things I'm thankful for this week:

1. having a tan
2. buying new jersey sheets for summer
3. including plenty of fresh fruit in this week's groceries
4. getting back into art journaling(trying to do this at least once a week this summer)
5. really good ice cream
6. looking through vacation photos post-vacation
7. seeing Jaws for the first time ever in theaters with my dad for Father's Day
8. listening to old tunes that I haven't heard in a while
9. things are starting to really feel like summer around here
10. #lovewins

seaside vacation.

As promised, I'm sharing a few snapshots from my trip to the beach this past week. We visited my grandmother who lives at Holden Beach, and for her 79th birthday we took a day trip to Carolina Beach and Wilmington to go shopping and eat lunch. I've never spent much time at either place, so the day was exciting and fun for me. Carolina Beach is such a classic and colorful beach; I fell absolutely in love with it. We stopped at Britt's Donuts, and now eating fresh donuts on a boardwalk is my new favorite thing to do on vacation. I came back from my trip feeling so inspired by the bright punchy colors and old school vibes of these simple coastal towns. I'm so glad I have these pictures to remember everything by, and I love the feeling that they capture exactly what summer is all about.

moodboard monday.

rosé with a view | neon vacation | romper | palms and pink | marble kitchen | yes way

After spending last week visiting family and my grandmother, who lives at the beach, this week I feel like I'm in vacationland. I always get inspired after spending time in a different place, and last week's beach trip was a welcome change to my usual mountain scenery. Right now, my heart belongs to palm trees, sandy beaches, neon signs, ice cream shops, and pink wine. Looking forward to the week ahead, my heart feels light and my head is inspired, but I'm also taking things easy and moving a little slow. Luckily my work schedule this week is pretty easy, so I'm hoping to spend a decent amount of my time creating and making use of the inspiration I gathered while I was away.

10 things.

10 things I'm thankful for this week:

1. buying a new, cheery, yellow sketchbook to replace my typical composition notebooks for art journaling! I felt limited by the lines on the page, and especially the thinness of the paper, so having a real sketchbook with so much white space encourages me to doodle and paint, which I love.
2. reading this article written by my bestie after having a conversation about the topic with her. Whitney and I make an effort every week to share our goals with one another, and I for one have experienced such an improvement to my daily life since we started. The rules are that the goals have to be written down, so for me, this weekly practice also forces me to crack open that art journal I just mentioned and reflect on the week ahead. I know I'm biased, but Whitney really does have such a way with words, so if goal setting is something you're interested in and passionate about like we are, I highly recommend checking out the article.
3. spotting beautiful dahlias on my way back from the gym
4. Lonnie bringing home wings and beer after I had a bit of a rough day
5. the fact that that beer was Green Man's ESB (this is the tastiest beer I've ever had, it's definitely my fave)
6. finally buying headbands and new socks for the gym (you know when you put off buying socks and for a while and how it's a headache every time you get ready trying to find a matching pair? yeah. that.)
7. currently marathoning Futurama on Netflix (I used to not be a huge fan, but after giving it a chance, the artwork and compositions are actually really phenomenal and it always gets a laugh out of Lonnie, which I love hearing)
8. treating myself to an at-home spa day complete with a mani/pedi and facial
9. Chick-Fil-A nuggets with Polynesian sauce
10. switching my editing process on Instagram by not using the filters and only relying on the tools and adjustments (I still use filters from time to time, but I'm currently loving the crisp, clean look that the images give without any)

Next week, I will be going on vacation with my family, so I'm taking a little break from the blog, but I will return back the following week with (more than likely) a bonus post on Wednesday. :)

moodboard monday.

olive oil & sea salt truffle brownies | the best | messy bed | palette | kettle | hand dishes

I love rainy days. As a true introvert, I am always inspired by the cozy, "let's stay in bed" feeling that rainy days bring. Rainy days are the perfect excuse to stay inside and enjoy simple things like tea and black and white movies, and to me, there's nothing better.

In order to celebrate my love of rainy days, I decided to go ahead and make a Pinterest board dedicated to capturing this feeling.

I'm excited to share it this week after the flood of afternoon thunderstorms we've gotten both today and yesterday. Rainy days are great, but summer thunderstorms are the BEST.

10 things.

10 things I'm thankful for this week:

1. being an adult and therefore being able to buy whatever snacks I want (like honey mustard pretzels)
2. catching up with Lonnie one night until 3am after we both worked completely opposite schedules that day (it feels so good to still do this after so many years of being together, and especially after living together and seeing each other every single day)
3. having a beautiful view outside of a rainbow while on a dinner date at The Moose Cafe
4. The Moose Cafe's fried chicken (and BISCUITS.)
5. feeling sunshine on my skin
6. customers who are actually nice to retail workers
7. taking my workout outside in order to soak up the beautiful weather
8. breaking the pendant of one (cheap) necklace and replacing it with another pendant of mine that needed a chain and consequently loving the necklace SO much more than I originally did
9. national donut day(in case you don't have an instagram feed full of sprinkles today and didn't know.)
10. living (literally) across the street from a Dunkin' Donuts (heyyyooooo ;))

moodboard monday.

book cover | good vibes | elephant planter | palm trees | orange door | grapefruit avocado salad

I had a pretty rough day.

Not rough for any particular reason, just one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.

There's a pretty big part of me that believes that these days happen in a domino effect and that the more the bad day gets to you, the worse the bad day gets. So today when I got off work, I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some snacks for myself, and then I decided to spend the rest of the night treating myself to a major Keeping Up With The Kardashians binge watch session. Sometimes, all I need to feel better is just to give myself the permission to feel bad.

Here's looking to a better week full of bright colors and good vibes only.