I wore this outfit to the office yesterday and my friend asked if I was trying wear all my white before Labor Day and I told her I’ll wear white whenever I want! I’ve never understood this rule so I looked it up and, apparently, the origin is pretty snobby: only women from “old money” could wear white so that they could identify and ignore the women from “new money.”  I wouldn’t want to participate in that because everyone should be able to wear whatever they want and not be excluded. So there!

Somehow I ended up with two pairs of white jeans so I’m excited to experiment with wearing white in the fall – I kind of missed out on that last year. I also love wearing sunglasses as headbands so, really, I do what I want!

I’m bringing back the fun one!

 If you’re wondering about the change in scenery, I explain it here.

Top, Pants, & Cardigan: Banana Republic
Shoes: Old Navy
Teal Bracelet: Light Years
Pink Bracelet: Old Navy
Earrings: Wal-Mart
Sunnies: Target

Yesterday I said the next time you saw me I would probably be in my new location and I am!

To recap, I started a Masters program in Public Health (MPH) last fall at ECU, which is a good hour and a half from my house (and not an online program). I spent this past year commuting to school, staying with family and friends while I was there during the week. After a while, all of the driving, not having my own space, missing out on important events in my program, AND being away from Nick and the dogs were really starting to get to me. I was exhausted and stressed all the time, and my health was affected because I wasn’t sleeping well, eating too much fast food,  and not getting enough exercise from being on the road all the time. Luckily, over the summer I was offered a position as a graduate assistant to one of my favorite professors, which provides enough income to pay for a small apartment… so that’s what I did. I moved into a studio apartment last week and the best part is I get to bring my furbabies! Once I’m all settled in, I’ll share some photos.

I wore this outfit yesterday to an event welcoming the new cohort to the program. I had planned to wear my chambray wedges, but I had to do a lot of walking so I changed into these at the last minute. They’re teal and the cargidan is green, so the wedges probably would have looked better but this worked well enough.

At our event, we had food and drinks and along with meeting new students, we reconnected with current students that we hadn’t seen all summer as they were off doing their own internships all over the place. It was a fun time!

I apologize for the quality of these photos; I know they’re not great but I will play around with the lighting. And when Nick is here, we’ll get some good shots of campus, so I’m really excited about that!

Top: miami via Francesca’s
Cardigan and Jeans: Old Navy
Shoes: Gap
Necklaec: bridesmaid gift from my BFF
Bracelets and Earrings: Old Navy

On Saturday, Nick and I hosted a last-minute surprise birthday party for our neighbor, Stephen, as orchestrated by his wife, Hannah. We like our neighbors very much so we were excited to be a part of the celebration and were more than happy to provide a space (our backyard) and our event-planning ‘expertise’.

I threw together a few decorations that I use for my own birthday parties each year and Hannah invited a few of Stephen’s friends, who parked down the street and then hid in the corner of our porch so they could jump out and yell ‘Surprise!’  Hannah ordered some BBQ, bought lots of booze, and Nick made homemade brownies, and a great time was had by all.

Drink up! There were about 10 attendees to our surprise party extravaganza and we weren’t sure if we could drink all of this beer, but we happily accepted the challenge.

Nick made homemade brownies and then kicked it up a notch by making his own stencils and decorating them with powered sugar. It was adorable – and we got a lot of compliments.

Challenge accepted and successfully completed!

The best part of the night was that the furbabies had so much fun that they were tuckered out by the end of the night! And they were just as cute as a button.

I didn’t get a chance to take any outfit photos over the weekend, but the next time you see me, it’ll probably be in my new location. More on that to come!

An earworm is a snippet of a song that gets stuck in your head and repeats over and over.  Over 90 percent of people suffer from this debilitating condition at least once a week.  Studies have shown that one possible cause is our mind’s being in a “low attention state”, which explains why I always get an earworm when I’m walking Mia in the morning.  I’ll be sharing these Morning Earworms with you every morning (that I remember to) because misery loves company.  Enjoy!

Chet Faker (aka Nick Murphy) is an epically-bearded Australian electronica artist. “Gold” is from his debut album Built on Glass. You may know him from his viral cover of Backstreet’s “No Diggity“.  His style is soulful with a lot of jazz influences and heavy on the Wurlitzer.  This is perfect dinner party music.  The video for “Gold” is pretty cool, I mean who doesn’ t like synchronized roller skating down a dark country road?

There was a slight chill in the air earlier this week, which lets me know that Fall is not too far away. Fall is my favorite season, but this year I’m a little sad that it’s arriving so quickly because I barely had a summer due to my internship. But, that’s what I signed up for when I decided to go to grad school!

Thursday morning was beautiful so I made a breakfast of baked eggs in tomato parmesan sauce and ate it on the back porch.  I followed a Martha Stewart recipe so of course it calls for you to make your own tomato sauce, but being the lazy resourceful person that I am, I just used some tomato sauce we already had in the pantry. It was the easiest breakfast ever: throw some tomato sauce in a ramekin, break an egg in it, top with a little more sauce and parmasan cheese and bake at 350 degrees for about 25-24 minutes. And Voila!

When we purchased this little patio table, I had day dreams of us sitting there in the mornings, drinking coffee and relaxing before work, or eating our meals in the shade of the umbrella, or even sitting there with coffee in one hand and a book in the other. The reality is that Nick hates being outside (allergies and insects) and I don’t wake up early enough to leisurely enjoy a cup of coffee before rushing to get ready for work/school/life so we’ve actually only eaten at the table maybe three times in the two years that we’ve had it. So I was determined to have my eggs and coffee out there!

The chill made it perfect; it wasn’t too hot, it wasn’t too cold. I ate my eggs and drank my coffee and had a very pleasant morning!

We’re visiting my family this weekend and celebrating my nephew’s 4th birthday so I’m planning some fun posts for you this coming week. I hope you all are having a great weekend and get to enjoy your coffee in a beautiful, cozy space of your own.