Weekend Recap

Friday kicked off the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale so after a stressful week at work, I met Brittan at the flagship store downtown Seattle and we shopped. I felt like it was necessary since, 1. I still have a job (and therefore I will have more paychecks to replenish my bank account), and 2. I worked hard and endured a lot of stress for that money, so I figured why not blow a little on some things I needed anyway? I don't normally feel guilty for spending money (within my means on things I need or experiences that make me happy) but this felt extra justified.

 

 

After shopping we met Natalie, Justin and Boyd at El Borracho in Ballard for some Mexican food and margaritas. Mexican food and margaritas with good friends is one of my very favorite things. It satisfies my soul. I could do that for dinner every day and be the happiest.

 

 

After dinner I texted with an old friend for a while from the comfort of my couch while watching Friends reruns and drinking a Sofia (because having a drink while talking to someone isn't the same as drinking alone! and even if it was, it was also warranted after this week ha). Have you guys tried Sofias? They're tasty, individual serving size cans of champagne and they're sort of genius!  

 

^^Fuzzy Sofia selfie^^

 

Saturday Dustin and I headed to Brinnon (on the Hood Canal) for a night of camping, round 2 with Josh, Katie, Art and Amy. We grilled fresh seafood (oysters, crab, and clams), made Bop-It into a drinking game, managed not to burn off any of our hair in the camp fire and planned a trip to Vegas! It rained during the night (of course it did! isn't that the way it always works?) but we all managed to stay pretty dry. Overall it was a really successful night of camping.

 

 ^^The view from Josh's (and Katie's) family's property in Brinnon^^

 

I'm already looking forward to next weekend. Isn't that the way it always works?


P.S. my weekend jam (because it's summer and this song is catchy, even if the video isn't):

HELLO ZARA!

Last night I was invited to attend the Zara VIP pre-opening event at Seattle's (and the Northwest's) first Zara in Westlake Center. I love Zara and visited their stores while I was in both San Francisco and Las Vegas recently. I have been looking forward to Zara's Seattle opening since I first heard the news about a year ago, so of course I was thrilled to be invited to shop and drink champagne with all of the most fashionable people in Seattle (I swear, ALL of them were there last night, I have not felt so frumpy in I don't know how long - note to self: next time you get invited to any sort of pre-opening VIP thing, don't come straight from work, wear something cute too) the night before it opened its doors to the public.

^^Natalie's tights were a casualty of a not-true-to-size dress^^

After waiting in line, Danielle, Brittan, Natalie and I got in, got sweet friendship bracelets tied on our wrists, grabbed a glass of champagne and started shopping. The store is HUGE (one of the biggest in America) and beautiful. They did such a nice job at the event too, there were people everywhere to help you with anything you needed and to give you a fresh glass of champagne as soon as yours ran out. At one point I looked at Natalie, asked her a question and a staff member, without skipping a beat, answered it for us. There was a downside though, because as we asked a random man to take a picture for us, someone stepped in and told us that there were no pictures allowed as there were professionals doing that job for us. Womp womp. So, consider all of these sneaky iPhone pictures contraband.

^^Natalie and Danielle^^

Along with endless champagne they also had people walking around serving the tiniest ever appetizers (they were almost funny they were so small), they had a DJ and a live musician, and of course there were a ton of really cute clothes (and shoes, and bags too). I wanted it all. Budgets are such a bummer, aren't they? And as a bonus, there was someone with a Shoshanna front bun! The only downside, and I'm sure this is true of Zara everywhere, was that all of the clothes seemed to run a size small so I was constantly having to try things on in a bigger size than I normally wear. That being said I left with a few really cute things.

^^SPY: the Shoshanna bun in this sneaky selfie^^

After the event we grabbed a bite to eat nearby at a restaurant where they print the calories on the menu and where nothing on the menu had less than about 1,000 calories. Why do that? #rude And then called it a night. I can't wait to go back soon. Welcome to Seattle, Zara!

NYE dresses

Every December, even though it’s approximately 2 degrees in the northwest, I feel the need to seek out a short sparkly dress for new year’s eve.

So, since I am in wonderful White Salmon today, with not much to do, I was browsing the Free People website, thinking about NYE, and found these dresses which I love and which would be perfect for the most sparkly holiday of the year:

 

I really really love the dress on the bottom, right. Too bad it’s a little lot out of my price range!

This year, my new year’s eve will involve Seattle, Dustin and some champagne. I’m not sure what else. Also, probably a little bar hopping, a cute dress and some heels (Dustin got me a gift card for Christmas so I can buy some sparkly date clothes, so hopefully I’ll buy something NYE worthy with part of it). Last year our NYE was low key and fun and perfect, so I’m hoping this year will be similar. Cheers to new year’s! What are your plans?

The Morning Before No More Real Estate

I really should be studying. I have my real estate final at 1:30 today. But yesterday I learned ALL of real estate with Lisa. No jokes, all of it. It took us like 12 hours straight of studying, but WE DID IT! And as for the studying now (which I already did some of this morning, and also I made a table of contents for my 30 page outline because I’m THAT GIRL), that quote from bring it on comes to mind: “if you don’t have it by now, you don’t have it!” – anyone else love that movie? We used to watch it at cheerleading sleepovers and things in high school. Seriously.

So instead of studying I blog. And I read blogs. And listen to Pandora. Because it’s calming. And not anxiety inducing (like real estate – which I will never have to think about again after this test (except for maybe on the bar…)).

And while I was blog reading, I saw this sweater on Ascott Friday and I want (so like, if you want to get it for me for Christmas that’d be cool, I’ll give you my address if you promise not to kill me in my sleep, there are only 4 left so hurry) ha. I also might be being impulsive because it’s finals… WHO KNOWS?BUT it’s all native american-y and awesome, right? Right.

Oh and you can find it HERE. Because sourcing things is nice/the RIGHT thing to do (IP final Saturday).

Also, while I haven’t been blogging these last few days (I’ve mostly been studying.. but also) I’ve been cat sitting making cat best friendz, and things like this below have happened. I’m not really proud of it. Also my eye rabies still aren’t gone and I STILL can’t wear contacts and it’s basically social suicide. Mean Girls? No? Ok. Don’t judge (on so many levels):

Ok I’m going to go eat, and study, and drink coffee, and get PUMPED UP for my final! Like: pump pump pump it up, p-u-m-p pump it up!! Anyone? No. OK. Fair enough. Bye friends!

Pointlessness & Clothes

Do any of you have an article (or a few) of clothing that you really really love but rarely wear? I definitely do. Maybe I like them all because I spent too much money on them? I don’t know. But one of those pieces of clothing for me is a dress (it’s a little fancy for one and  for two, well, it’s a dress and I live in Seattle), one is a silk shirt (I don’t wear that one often b/c it’s so hard to clean and I’m bad about going to the dry cleaner) and the other is this little cover up thing:

I don’t know why I have such a hard time wearing it. Maybe because it’s a short sleeve wrap thing and that’s just a little awkward. Maybe because it’s gray-ish so I feel like I can only wear it with black/white tanks and I don’t have many that I use for anything other than layering. Also it’s too long (in the front, the back is normal) to wear with shorts. So, I don’t end up wearing it often. But when I do I get REALLY excited. And today was the perfect day to wear it. It was warm-ish here in Seattle and I re-discovered this long white tank in my closet. Score.

I’ve been really good at pointless posts lately. I’m sorry friends. Forgive me?

Maybe I’m having such a hard time because my mind is on the wedding I’m in this weekend. I leave SeaTac at 9:55am tomorrow. I still need to finish packing. My attention span is like that of a 2 year old who just drank some coffee. I don’t know what’s going on. But I can tell you this, it’s probably partially because I’ve had a really hard time re-adjusting to school these past two weeks. Blah.

Ok off to finish packing.

You can look forward to real, exciting posts after the wedding. Pinky promise!

XXOO