Here’s a little secret: I haven’t always wanted kids. Even in high school when I was busy scribbling hearts around my boyfriend’s name and dreaming of his last name behind my first name, I don’t recall wanting to have children. My daydream then consisted solely of marriage and a good career, and that dream remained steadfast for many years. In college, I started to scoff at the idea of procreating and when I was in my mid-and-late-twenties, I had pretty much decided kids weren’t for me. And Nick was on the same page. We were going to focus on degrees and careers and our house and our dogs and all the other goals we had stashed up our sleeves. Besides, who has time for kids? They’re dream killers, and they’re so. needy, and you have to wipe their butts for them. Gross! 

And then I turned 30.

I think I’m going to start a new series called “A Short Girl Wears… ” because there are a lot of fashion styles and trends that sometimes only work for us shorties when we put in some effort.

Take maxi dresses, for example. When you stand just over 5 feet tall, it’s hard to find a cute maxi dress that doesn’t drag the floor and trip you up every five steps, so they often have to be hemmed. I was delighted to find that the length of this maxi dress was pretty much perfect sans alteration! Well, I did have to have the shoulders hemmed because they were too long, but that’s a common problem I have as someone who has a high waist.

Happy Friday, everyone! How’s this for a cute, summer-y office outfit? I’m declaring this summer the summer for dresses because they’re the first thing I reach for in the morning.  I previously wrote about how I have a closet full of dresses that I never wear (which is a lyric from a Shakira song, btw!) and even devoted a whole week on my blog to dresses in an attempt to motivate me to wear them more often. Nowadays, I can’t get enough dresses. Funny how the pendulum swings.

I love the colors in this dress. They’re so bright and happy! I think that’s why I wore this outfit to the office specifically on a day when we took our new intern out to lunch.  Do y’all do that, too? Plan to wear a specific outfit on a certain day because you’re going to be engaging in a particular activity? I do it all the time! I think “Oh, I have this new dress. I’ll save it to wear on X day because we’re doing Y thing.”

I love the flats with this dress but next time I’m going to dress it up with heels. I can’t wait!

Dress: Target | Necklace & Shoes: Old Navy | Blazer: Gap Outlet | Sunnies: Target

And when I’m not dressing it up with a blazer and flats for the office, I’m dressing it down with sandals for family time!

My little family

I bought these pants at Zara last July on my trip to Los Angeles to visit my best friend so I call them my “LA pants.” On the day I got them, we had planned to go hiking in Griffith Park while Nick played golf but when K told me there was a Zara in the mall, I begged her to take me there instead. I wanted to be able to say I went shopping at Zara. Why this was a big deal to me, I still have no idea, but I went and ended up with these awesome pants. I only got to wear them a few times because I knew that I was pregnant and pretty soon they wouldn’t fit. So now I’m making up for lost time. I wore this outfit to work last week and received a few compliments. Not bad.

I like that the floral pattern has a lot of different colors; they’re pretty easy to match with different tops. I chose red for this outfit but I’ll probably go with pink next time and mustard after that. The possibilities are pretty much endless. I also really like the straight leg. While I think skinny jeans/pants look nice and are comfortable, I’m also a fan of the larger leg opening of straight and boot cut jeans because I think they can be just as flattering. And they make me look a little taller than I am!

Cardigan: ModCloth | Blouse: Le Tote | Trousers: Zara | Shoes: Banana Republic | Sunnies: Target

Participating in: Trend Spin Linkup

For my baby shower, I made these simple, rustic centerpieces for the food and beverage tables. The Mason jars, vases, and burlap table runners are all leftovers from our wedding, and were perfect for decorating our BBQ-themed shower. I love that after 5 years, I could pull this stuff out and use it again. I picked up the wooden rounds at Target and the flowers were grocery store specials.

I think simple flower arrangements are the most elegant, so I stuck with one main type of flower and one to two complementing types. For these, the main attraction is the baby’s breath with the complementing daisy and the small pop of color from the yellow carnation.

I also think having a few smaller vases with only one or two flower stems added some visual interest and gave off a more casual vibe, which was perfect for our casual shower.

I love putting together flower arrangements like these, especially when we entertain, because they make the house feel so cheery and fresh. I feel like you can never go wrong with beautiful flowers in a vase on your table or shelf. What do you think?