Back At It

So, I took an unintentional blog break last week... My bad! I actually had plans more nights than not, which is super weird for me. I usually have zero plans. I apparently don't know how to deal, so I didn't post anything. Sorry about that!

My great aunt has been in town from England, so I've been pretty busy trying to spend as much time with her as possible (she's sassy and British, what more could you want?). We went to Bite of Seattle Saturday and yesterday we went to a pow wow at Discovery Park. Saturday was around 90, and yesterday was around 95. And I spent the majority of both days outside. While I had a lot of shade and sunscreen Saturday, I spent 5-6 hours outside Sunday without either of those. Needless to say, I'm a little crispy today.

Fortunately for me, I had just bought this shirt on Saturday. It's loose and flowy and exactly what I needed to avoid agitating my sunburn today at work. The worst of it is on my back, so I didn't want anything too close fitting (or anything that showed how much of a lobster I am). Fun fact but this shirt is also like a suede-y material. I love it. I do wish I had added a necklace, though, but I didn't have that thought until I had already left for work.

It's funny, I actually had gone to Old Navy looking for shorts because they were 50% off. But out of the four things I bought, only one was shorts, and not even denim like I had hoped. They were out of all of the ones I liked in my size. But I got two cute shirts and a purse I've liked for awhile now, all for 30% off, so I can't complain. And I picked up two pairs of shorts at Forever 21.

idk what my face was doing.

Top: Old Navy. Jeans: Target. Shoes: Payless. Not Pictured: Killer Sunburn.

As you can see by the lack of furniture, the construction has started again in my apartment. It's handy for picture taking (wasn't a fan of that last set up), but not so handy for the rest of my life. I'm too lazy to keep moving my tv stand, so it means that I'm without tv again until they finish (I hate watching things on my laptop. With a passion). So until then, I'm pretty much listening to Spotify nonstop. I'm awful at figuring out what to listening to, though. I actually took a Buzzfeed quiz with the hopes of it helping. Needless to say, if you have suggestions, send them my way.

The quiz totally did help, though. "War Paint" by FLETCHER is totally my jam now.

Patriotic Railroad Worker

So, when I first tried these shortalls (shorteralls?) on, I texted my friend McKenna a picture for her opinion. Accompanying the picture, I said something along the lines of, "I feel like a patriotic railroad worker." She assured me they were cute. Still undecided, I took it to Twitter and Instagram. I didn't get many comments but I didn't get any nos either, so I bought them. 

I wore them for the first time last Sunday for the drive back from Leavenworth. I also paired them with a crop top that I bought a few months ago, but haven't gotten a chance to wear yet. I love it, but I don't actually own much that goes with it. Gotta love those pesky details. 

Unfortunately, I had to change out of them almost as soon as I got done taking these pictures. I'd only been home for half an hour (I hadn't even really sat down yet) and they were already covered in cat hair. It appears that I need to get better at dehairing my life whenever white denim is involved.

As a sidenote, I did take a few pictures while we were in Leavenworth-- I plan on posting them sometime next week, so stay tuned! The whole town is so photogenic and picturesque, it just looks like one big postcard.

I did also plan on showing you the outfit I wore on Friday for the drive out and our first day there, but unfortunately the photos turned out too dark for editing to salvage. I have no doubt I'll wear the same outfit again (it's so comfy, it's basically like pajamas) so I'll have to be sure to get better pictures next time I wear it.

Shortalls: Target. Crop Top: Target. Sandals: Fred Meyer.

That's about it for now! Now that the weather is cooling down a few degrees and getting closer to normal Washington summer weather, I should start posting more outfits again. We either tied or broke the record for most days over 90 in a row (it was five) which is insane and way too hot. I've pretty much been wearing the same few outfits over and over again, so posting them wouldn't have been too terribly exciting. With cooler weather should hopefully come a bit of variety, though.

Review: Garnier Color Styler in Purple Mania

So, I want to preface this by saying that I am the biggest chicken when it comes to dying my hair. Like, I'm 23 (almost 24 yikes) and I've never actually dyed it, aside from that spray on color you can get at party stores for Halloween. I've talked about it extensively for years, but I've always been too afraid to bite the bullet and do it.

That's where Garnier Color Styler comes in. As I've mentioned, I have been OBSESSED with having colorful ends lately. Particularly, I've wanted purple ends. I was talking to a friend, and she recommended trying out that spray on stuff from party stores to try it out before I committed. I didn't see that when I was at Target, but I did find Garnier Color Styler which seemed like a classier version.

I tried it out the next morning, before the Pride Parade. Putting it in was super easy, even for someone as inexperienced as me. It came with some gloves, and all I had to do was shake the bottle for a few seconds, squeeze out the dye, and apply it where I wanted. Then, once it was dry, I had to brush it out. 

From the instructions, it seemed like I only needed a little bit, but I kept adding more and more to make it brighter (likely because my hair is so dark). But I can't complain, because it actually did show up! My hair is obviously pretty dark, so I didn't really believe that it would. But it did! 

I do want to add a quick note that the dye gives your hair a weird chalky texture, but I was willing to deal with that because my hair was purple and I was obsessed.

Unfortunately, by the end of the day it became hard to see in my hair when I wasn't in natural light. The picture below was taken at the end of the day, after I had spent like twenty minutes trying to figure out if the purple was even still there or not. The next day it was still there, but it was impossible to see except when I was outside under the sun. That night I took a shower, and it was gone for real.

The dye supposedly lasts 2-3 shampoos, but didn't even make it to one with my hair. I imagine it was probably still there, just faded enough you couldn't see it with my dark hair. That's all I can think off, because it was true to promise in that it didn't rub off at all overnight.

I imagine that it would last longer for those with lighter hair, since it won't blend in as quickly when it fades. It does also say it lasts longer on damaged hair, and mine is about as healthy as it can get-- I don't have split ends, I don't dye it, and I don't use heat-- so that probably factored in quite a bit as well.

Overall though, I would absolutely recommend it to someone (and I think I told like three of my friends they should). I have more left, so next time I want to try adding more to see if it shows up brighter or lasts longer.

Either way, my trial run was definitely a success and I want to do it for real. I do still want my hair to be longer first, but I don't know that I want to wait that long. Good thing I've got this to tide me over now.

I was also having an amazing hair day, btw.

Happy Fourth of July!

Just popping in to wish you all a happy Fourth of July! There won't be any fireworks where I'm at due to the wildfire hazard, so I wanted to share some of the pictures I took last year at the big Seattle fireworks show over Lake Union.

I hope everyone has a great holiday!

Stars and Stripes

I felt kiiind of like an American flag today, but we decided celebrate Theme Friday a day early and obviously the theme had to be America. So I put on my best stars and stripes, and called it good. This scene came to mind.

I really like this outfit, but this shirt is super silky and it kept slipping down. Unfortunately the tank top under slipped a lot too, so there was a lot of adjusting and making sure I was fully covered going on today at work. 

I'm still not totally sure what I want to wear on the Fourth, but I figured I'll just pack all my red, white, and blue (and stars and stripes) and I'd figure it out from there. Maybe not the most efficient way to pack.

That being said, I should probably pack. In twelve hours we'll be on our way east, and I haven't even started.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Tank Top: Alley Kat. Skirt: Fred Meyer. Toms: Nordstrom.

Sorry about how dark the pictures are! I tried to lighten them as much as possible without making them looked too washed out, but they're definitely still on the dark side.

Artsy

Interesting lighting makes any picture look artsy, right? That's what I'm going with, anyways. It sounds better than, "The blinds were shut and it didn't occur to me that it would result in the sun coming in like stripes."

Mostly, I was just concerned with keeping the heat out. These pictures were taken Saturday morning. Around 7:30 I opened my blinds, and I shut them within ten minutes because the heat from the sun was already so intense. It ended up being about 92 that day, which is absolutely INSANE. So I needed an easy, lightweight dress to wear while I freaked out and packed.

I suppose it was good preparation for this weekend though, since the highs will around 100 where I'll be. I'll be a melted puddle of red, white, and blue by the end of the weekend.

Dress: JcPenney. Sandals: Fred Meyer.

In other news, I've rearranged my apartment and I really like it! The way it is now has created a little living room area (as opposed to being one open room), and I think the separation of space is helpful in a studio. I might try to post a little tour, but that's still a loooong way off since construction is currently on hold until further notice and I can't fully clean/organize/put my stuff away until it's done. Even where my stuff is now is only temporary, since I'll need it six feet away from exterior walls again once it restarts.

Much Ado About Nothing

Note: This'll be long. Feel free to skip to the rest of the pictures.

Ugh. This weekend was STRESSFUL. Friday night when I came home from work, I saw a notice posted at the building entrance. Someone was right behind me though, so I didn't want to block the entrance and figured I'd read it later. I also noticed it outside some of the apartments on my floor, though I didn't have one, so I figured it was just about construction and I'd get it when they got to my unit again. It wasn't until I was taking my dog out before bed that I saw that it was an emergency order to vacate the building, due to lead exposure. Um. WHAT?

Needless to say, I started freaking out. I called my mom, started crying from stress, and emailed my landlord, the city contact, and an apartment. I had no clue if it was permanent or temporary, and it said we needed to be out by noon Tuesday.

Saturday was mostly spent trying to call people, looking for apartments, freaking out, and attempting to pack. My landlord called in the afternoon and assured me it was only temporary but I was allowed to break the lease if I wanted. But I still didn't know if my furniture needed to be out, and he wouldn't know until his meeting on Monday. 

Yesterday I heard back from the city and my landlord also called back, and let me know I had three options: move, go to a hotel, or sign a waiver and stay. He also asked that I let him know by about 5. Unfortunately, I suck at making decisions (especially big ones!), so I spent most of Monday freaking out. Then, when I called my landlord at 4:15 to let him know I had decided on a hotel, he said the city jumped the gun, they've lifted the vacate order, and our building was actually fine.

Tl;dr: I spent all weekend having a minor panic attack (and losing about 5 years off my life in the process) for absolutely no weekend. Hope your weekend was better than mine!

So, this outfit. Not my best idea. Fitted jeans and flats aren't a very good idea when it's about 86 out. I was a little bit convinced I was going to get heat stroke just walking home from the bus stop, it was so hot. I'm from Washington, guys-- I don't do heat! Once I hits 82-83, I want to do nothing other than sit in front of a fan. 

Tank Top: Target. Jeans: Target. Flats: Payless. Shorts: Forever 21.

Needless to say, the first thing I did when I was done taking pictures was change into shorts. Luckily, I have learned since then and have been wearing dresses and shorts nonstop (with sandals, of course). 

These were the pictures I was originally going to post last Thursday, before my computer decided to hate me.