7 Favorite Things for Transitional Weather

  The early signs of spring brings hope for some resemblance of normalcy, and that has me excited to get out of my sweatpants.  It's been a long year of hibernating, working and schooling (and everything) from home and zero needs to dress up or get ready.  I've kind of forgotten how to even get ready, to be honest.
I am interested in merging the way things used to be and the new more low-key look of what this year has brought. I'm excited to forge a new style that  reduces fast fashion, works together better and adds some fun back in to getting dressed again.
As I start to pop around on the internet for things of this nature again... here are a few things catching my eye:
1. Any simple jewelry that I can wear with anything. I love simple huggie earrings for everyday wear, but also leveling up a bit for a slight drop style earring.  I also love that simple delicate chain necklace, but leveling up for the chunkier chain necklace.
2. I love comfy pants as much as the next person. But I'm adding to my fav go-to black leggings some pants that can be dressed up or down but still in comfy material.
3. I have a drawer full of white tees (I swear they're all slightly different), but I'm leveling up this season with some BRIGHT colored tees, like hot and/or bubble gum pink tees (lighter pink here & long sleeve here).
4. I'm leveling up my morning face routine by moving from foundation to tinted sunscreen the majority of the time. Sunscreen is so important, and even the days I don't plan to be outside, I sit by a window and always find myself on a walk or spending at least a little time outside.
5. I'm not giving up my sweatshirts but leveling up from frumpy to fancy ones, and the options are endless out there! Like this color-block style, sleek white one, fun tie-dye print, and one for summer with short puff sleeves.
6. I have to be honest... I have rarely worn a real bra this entire last year, and I really don't want to go back.  Finding a supportive and comfortable bra that is flattering is my ultimate goal. Right now, for a larger chest, I'm pretty smitten with this sports bra that has shape and is super comfortable from workout to every day wear!
7.  From make up to skincare, this is one habit from a year at home I hope to upkeep! I plan to spend less time and money on changing the way my face looks to taking care of the one I have.  I found my current favorite skincare line at the start of the pandemic and have been using it since.

What habits from the pandemic do you hope to change or keep? What is inspiring you this season of transitions?

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Top 13 posts of 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
There are many things about my blog and the content I put up I hope to improve this year (in 2014).  Definitely continuing to improve the photos I put up (I need to learn how to take better indoor photos with my camera - I usually just use my iPhone unless in natural daylight), vary my content, but keep it consistent and improve my writing (cut out the errors), just to name a few.  But as I reflect back on 2013, I am happy to see how my blog has progressed, but more so, get to relive the trips (lots of travel this past year), progression of my 2nd pregnancy and personal style for future inspiration.  All these things captured throughout the year right here.  I'm grateful to have it in one place and to share it with you all, getting feedback, inspiration and advice from you all along the way.  Thanks for following along this little blog of mine.  
To ring in the New Year, here are the top 13 posts from 2013 (ones that seemed to get good feed back and that I liked the most).  I would love to hear what posts or things from my blog that you liked this year and what you hope to see in 2014.

My favorite mobile apps for editing photos. (I plan to do a follow up post about this soon)

Two prints I'm still loving: camo + buffalo check. I kind of want to re-wear this outfit, with a few updates.

So much change in just 9 months!  My little man tottering along just last March.

Brights for winter. I still love these boots and color combo. This outfit resinated well with you all, too (and my husband)!

Tips from our own experience on flying with a toddler (when we went to San Francisco, CA!)

Finding out what the gender of our baby #2!  

Girls trip to NYC!  Must get back there soon….

One very cool wedding on top of a mountain (and the rest of our Colorado trip while 7 mod preggo with Nora).

One heck of a beach vacation in Cabo (along with my 6 month old baby bump).

Taking Liam to Denver (our first Colorado trip of the summer).

Pretty, pretty wedding of my pretty, pretty friend, Bre.

My small taste of life as a stay at home mom.

And of course, the best of 2013… bringing baby Nora into our world and the way Liam just loved her from the very start.
Cheers to a fabulous 2014!
 

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My Favorite Mobile Photo Editing Apps

 You might follow me on Instagram or see the photos I take with my phone on my
Facebook page or through Twitter from time to time. And lately, I've been
experimenting (and having way too much fun) with photography apps available for
download. I've received a few questions lately on what apps I'm using, so decided
to round them up for you and provide you a rundown of my favorites and why!

Probably my favorite overall photo editing and do-almost-everything app:  

Afterglow (one time fee of $0.99)

  

The Afterglow app has filters (tons more than Instagram; my favorite is Frest and Glacier)
and editing tools, that for both, have a sliding scale to allow you to apply the amount
you want (vs. on or off).  But maybe what I get asked about the most, the frames...this is
where the cool frames live. Within this app you can put a triangle, circle, oval (etc.) over
your photo to really make it different.

This app has also replaced my need for Whitagram (which is free). You can add your full
size image into a white background that fits a square - filling in the sides or top/bottom
with white, showing your entire image without having to crop!

My favorite app for adding text to a photo: 

Over (one time fee of $0.99) or for a free app, try Phonto

 

The Over app is just a cool app in general. From the way your photos are loaded to
select from to the spinning wheel of editing options (adding text and minimal photo edits
including tint and cropping), this app is different, in a fun way.  The fonts are really
unique, beautiful and/or fun. I find them better than my Photoshop fonts!

For making a photo collage or a photo using several different images, my go-to app: 

InstaCollage (free)

The InstaCollage app has your basic frames for combining two to six photos in basic ways
(like the one above on the left) as well as unique frames (like the above photo on the right)
and one photo framing options.  Besides just having cool frames, you can also customize
those frames - changing the space between photos, shadowing, rounding corners, etc.

Furthermore, this app contains filters, text and stickers that can be applied to the overall
photo, as well as many colorful and patterned frames to add to the outside boarder. I
mainly use for the collage aspect, but will probably play around more with the other
options soon! And again, it's free!

To add a quick softness to my photos, I use:  

VSCO app (one time fee of $0.99)

 

VSCO was the first mobile photo editing app, outside of Instagram, that I 

downloaded. I love the way it softly lightens my photos, but instead of picking a
filter, you pick a color wheel to highlight and bring out certain hues in the photo.
I am usually drawn to #5.  You can also crop and use specific editing tools
within this app. I haven't used this app as much since downloading Afterglow
(app review first) mainly because I can do more all within the one app, but do
occasionally comeback to this app for the soft light overlaying look.

The downside of this app is you have to import photos from your camera's
photo roll and export the edited ones out, which is a lot quicker than it sounds,
but just an extra step in the process.

Please share in the comments of this post what YOUR favorite mobile photo 

editing apps are and why!  I'd love to learn about new ones or maybe new 

ways to use ones I might already have/know about!

{first photo adapted from here// all other photos my own} 

Favorite Parts of July

 1. Vacation with my family, all 50 of them! Especially with Liam's first time at the beach, in the ocean, playing the sand and kayaking through the waves to watch for dolphins.

2. Summer braids. A good way to keep the hair off my neck and ease the frizz a bit!

3. My first, yes FIRST, cake I made from scratch. I swapped wheat flour into this Lemonade cake recipe here.

4. Despite it being 100 million degrees outside, I had a blast at the Madewell & J.Crew shopping events with Fall preview snippets that got me dreaming of layers, jackets and boots.

5. The most perfect plank I've ever seen.

Many more happy moments in this PACKED month... Seeing my good friend Katie for a day while she was in town, bear hugs from the little and the first few days of the #Olympics (the swimming is my favorite).

What were YOUR favorite parts of July? And can you hardly believe it is August, already??

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Favorite Parts of June

 

My favorite parts and things of June:

1. Braids. I'm kinda obsessed with them. And will be utilizing them more and more throughout the summer, as they're a great way to get the hair off my neck or out of my face on hot days!

2. Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. As the days get hotter, I'm moving towards iced coffee, but there is nothing better than starting the morning off with a cup of coffee. 

3. The making of a pool loving baby. And his muscles. We broke out the kiddie pools and Liam got his first dip into water, other than his bath. It took him a second to get use to the cooler temps than his warm bath, but then he loved it!

4. Getting to announce a fun event I'm helping to plan. You all are invited to attend the upcoming (July 15th) Madewell shopping event. For more info, go here.  And please RSVP to me via email or on Facebook.

5. New Jewels. Happiness in the form of a ring. This ring. 

6. And how could I forget a beautiful wedding weekend in my beloved college town of Lawrence!?! My brother-n-law and now sister-in-law tied the knot at the beginning of June! :)

Hope June was a happy month for you all!

What were some of your favorite parts/things? 

All photos from Instagram. Follow me to see how I'm viewing life in real-time: @ChasingDavies


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Favorite Parts in May

1. My first Mother's Day.  Just feeling so lucky to be Liam's mom. He puts a permanent smile on my face and feel good flutter in my heart. That baby newsboy hat (similar) kills me, too (in a good way).

2. Anchors.  I'm loving all things Anchors right now and how perfect for spring and summer.  I love this J.Crew necklace (and the entire outfit really).  Other cute anchor necklaces here, cute Friendship one here, and here.  See my new anchor print top here... ;)

3. Colorado Springs.  Whoa is this a pretty part of Colorado (that I'd never been to until now). I got to travel there for work and it was my first substantial time away from my little guy. Being reunited was pretty awesome, too.

4. Summer time grilling.  Flank steak fresh from the grill, even if it is a baby grill.  We are waiting to get a big ol' fancy pants grill until we have a backyard patio (all grass right now).  Until then, this handy tailgating grill will do just fine. As well as front stoop outdoor eating.

What were your favorite parts or things from May?


P.S. Did you see if you won the double ad space giveaway??

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Favorite Parts in April

Last month I started recapping my favorite things (events, feelings, things, etc) from the month, and want to do it again!  Feel free to join in - link up below in the comments or just comment with your favorites from April!

My favorite parts of April...

1. A trip to California.  We packed up the whole fam, and I mean the WHOLE fam!  My sister met us there from Chicago, my parents came along, and of course the hubs and baby came with me!  The trip was far too short, but packed with fun.

2. An easy going baby that traveled well! And a new hat to shield his those bright blue eyes. We found travelling with Mr. L very easy.  I mean, it definitely takes planning and organization - and didn't hurt that we had lots of help (my family), but it was a fun trip!  Also, this new hat kills me (from Baby Gap), in a good way.

3. A pretty new ring I've been wearing a lot.  It's fun to find something that can be worn a lot!  This pretty little ring has been on my finger pretty much since I got it...also made the Mother's Day gift guide and I totally want another myself (they're stackable, after all)!

4. Winning the new iPad!  Yes, winning...as in free! I actually won a work bracket and this was the grand prize. I couldn't believe it.  In case you are considering one...it's amazing. And I love it. I got mine in white, which is a bit fun.  Since I won the iPad, I splurged a bit and got a cute case from Kate Spade.

5. Meeting Tim Gunn.  Now that was cool.  Not only just meeting him, but there was a whole Fashion Show event!  I will have the whole recap (including lots of fashion tips the ever so insightful Mr. Gunn provided throughout the show and Q&A session) up on the blog and full load of pics on my Facebook page soon!

What were your favorite parts of April? And can you believe it's May already?  Summer is almost here!

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