Lavender and Lace

These photos were shot down the street from Chris and Susannah's house. They live just off of a lake and this pier was a nice spot for photos at dusk. We were swarmed with mosquitos though! Also everyone in the neighborhood was watching us! I'm slowly but surely getting more accustomed to strangers staring as I pose for outfit photos. No big deal. I just need to whip up some bloggy business cards so it's not in vain, right?! Right!

I picked up this dress on our way up to Chicago on Thursday. We stopped at our little "halfway" point which was Indianapolis. I had never been so we made our way to Circle Centre Mall and popped around some stores. We were in H&M where I snagged some pretty things on super super super clearance and this dress in purple (and ivory!). While there I was greeted by a sweet gal named Emily! Emily works at H&M and I think the run-in was so awkward on both ends for us, but it ended up being a great laugh and we conversed with her for a little while before departing. (She recently got engaged, too, so congrats to Emily!). We tried meeting up with her on our way back through on Monday but no such luck! 

It was strange to wear tights in almost-July! It was a welcome change from the 98 degree heat of Nashville however. I find myself wishing for winter when I spent the whole season dying for summer! Seems we're never really content! Maybe if it was Autumn year round? Pretty leaves please!

The fine folks over at MTV blogged my lil' Navajo Native outfit yesterday so mega thanks for their super sweet words! It was such a pleasant surprise to be told about it! 

Happy July, everyone! Please take a moment to check out the newest sponsors over on the sidebar! They're kinda fabulous! (It's not too late to get in on the action! I accept sponsors through the entire month and they'll run for 30 days so just email me!)

H&M dress

Forever 21 cardigan

Target tights

Blowfish flats

Michael Kors Gansevoort bag gifted from Mike

A Picture An Hour (Chicago Saturday)

I tweeted publicly, told Susannah to remind me, and set my alarm Saturday morning as "A picture an hour!"... I had every intention on really pulling through this time! Last time we were on vacation with Chris & Susannah I really meant to do one, but alas I forgot. This time though, I stuck it out! Until the last 2 or so hours, that is. We didn't wake up until 11am but that was because we had a long and very eventful Friday night. It may or may not have included darts, new old ladies at a little dive bar, awkward run-ins with a drunk lady, 3am bike rides (and subsequent 3am bike wrecks...). I still have a doozy of a bruise on my knee to prove it. (Thank goodness the people whose front yard I face-planted in weren't awake! Yikes!) I'm not the most graceful person and the bike I was on didn't have any hand-brakes so I was at a loss for how to stop the darn thing. Alas, I just went (down) with it.

Anyway, here you go!

11am - coffee and lounge time. trying to wake our bodies up for the day ahead.

12pm - finishing the "getting ready" portion. makeup, nails, etc.

1pm - saying "so long" to mr. little jeans and making our way out the door. mine & susannah's cars. & sweet susannah!

2pm - in the car. on our way to nom on some sushi station. being silly in the backseat.

3pm - finally! we have arrived. sushi time. the veggie rolls were delicious! mine and susannah's iphones. aren't they cuteeee?!

4pm - leaving sushi station. heading to target to pick up things for the cookout.

6pm - the boys play a handful of games on the wii while we kill time.

7pm - bottles are open and the chit chat begins.

8pm - burgers are ready and corn on the cob is awkward to eat. 

10pm - the conversation moves indoors as a result of the overwhelming amount of mosquitos.

11pm - mike is already pooped, but we start to get our second wind.

12am - chris plays his guitar and topher entertains us with his antics. twitter tweets, too! 

Not pictured: the many breaks taken outside on the front porch, run-ins with strange people, disappearing guests down the road, being entirely too loud for a small neighborhood, walking to the bonner road inn bar at 1am, subsequent new old ladies and fantastic conversation, walking back home at 2am and proceeding to grill out (again) and the intensely epic business convo that i got into with susannah and mike... then feeling inspired and heading to bed around 3:30am. All in all: a very good/needed vacation!