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.

from the weekend.

Just a few pictures from the mini beach trip I took this weekend. It rained two out of the three days, so we couldn't really enjoy the beach much, but we had plenty of quality family(and shopping) time.

And for the record, I think there's something so incredible about the way the coast looks on a rainy day. Everything seems a bit more dramatic. Clouds are bigger and more impending. Greens are brighter. Grays are cooler and browns, warmer. It's almost like there's nothing in this world as dark and deep as the ocean before a storm. It's very extreme in the best of ways.

Overall, it was nice to get away for a bit before I face the stress of packing and moving back to school. I now feel refreshed and ready to take it all on and transition into a new kind of routine.

pinterest favorites.

lime & sea salt cleaner | call of the sea | healthy beach snacks | day dress | sorbet pineapple boat | watermelon lips

Currently:
Listening to my Third Eye Blind playlist while packing for a mini beach trip that my sister, mom, and I are taking this weekend.
Getting super pumped about the school year coming up. (First year of college, I was freaking out and feeling so not ready to leave home. Fast forward to my third year, and I'm jealous of my bestie/suite-mate who's moving in 2 days before me.)
Wearing super simple jewelry and comfy tees.
Loving a bright pink lip.
Eating my weight in raspberries.
Feeling very intrigued by that lime + sea salt all purpose cleaning spray, but also feeling pretty convinced I'd love it and that my dream house would smell of nothing else.

my Pinterest.

beachin' pt. 2.

Sharing the pictures I took at the beach from my phone as promised in my previous post. Honestly since getting an iPhone, I've been the MOST obsessed with having a decent point-and-shoot with me at all times complete with built-in editing and sharing apps. It's the best, and I'm pretty impressed with these memories I was able to capture on the fly.

Also, shout-out to the super awesome weather we had the whole week. Nothing but Carolina blue skies until the night before we left! We lucked out and I'm seriously so grateful.

beachin' pt. 1.

Sharing the DSLR photos I took from my beach vacation a few weeks ago. We usually go every year to the beach to celebrate my grandmother and brother's birthday, a tradition we've been keeping up since he was born on her birthday 22 years ago. We stayed in a beautiful house super close to the beach, right across from the pier, and it was wonderful. The last time we stayed in a house like this was four years ago. My brother had just graduated high school. I was going into my junior year of high school, and my sister was about to start high school. This time around, my brother just graduated college, I'm going into my junior year of college, and my sister is about to start college. Time is a funny thing.

I have a ton of more photos from the trip besides these which I took on my iPhone and plan on sharing soon.

pinterest favorites: beach bound.

strawberry lime cucumber water | sun hat | aloha hotel | wedges | mantra

old school beach style | toes in the water | sunkissed bracelet | white lace

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Summer. Is. My. JAM.

It's finally starting to feel like summer around here as my sister graduated high school today! She's the youngest out of the three of us, so she's the last person in my immediate family to graduate high school. Tomorrow, I am heading to the beach first thing in the morning to kick off a week long celebratory vacation. Things will be quiet around here as I will also be taking a vacation from the blog. Have a great week, and I hope that you'll be embracing summer along with me now that June is in full swing!

my Pinterest.

bulldogs at myrtle beach.

UNCA's Men's Basketball made it to the Big South Conference Championship at Myrtle Beach, so the committee members of Bulldog Nation went down to support our beloved Bulldogs. Do NOT ask me how the game went, but I will give thanks for a nice weekend spent at the beach over Spring Break. The mini vacay was exactly what I needed to transition from the stress of school to the long week spent relaxing at home and catching up with friends and family.

an ocean wave of calm.

I took another mini vacation to the beach this past weekend. I didn't take many pictures, but the sun kissed my skin and I am coming back grateful for a few days off before I head back to school.

The title of this post is not what I was given while away, but rather what I am currently striving to achieve: calm. The sweltering summer heat has been bringing out my Sagittarius-fueled fiery side, and I have been losing my patience left and right. With the whirlwind of packing and moving ahead of me, I am hoping to remember to maintain a bit of tranquility in order to have a relaxing, stress-free final week of summer vacation.

toes in the sand.

Just dropping in with some quick highlights from my weekend beach trip. The same details never fail to catch my eye when I'm by the sea side. Certain colors and textures are just too good: fresh greens with bright corals, grainy sand, billions of different colored neutrals, soft clouds contrasted against ridged waves.

My grandmother does not have internet access at her house, and as soon as I got back home, I was thrown in to a 3 day long jury duty trial. That was fun. But the point here is, I have been away from my laptop for almost a week. Honestly, it was nice to take a break and not have to worry about catching up on missed blog posts, pins, tweets, and status updates. Definitely the kind of summer relaxation I need after a year spent religiously checking my school email and trying to keep up with friends and family via Facebook.