• Fashion,  Outfits

    Maternity Photos in Red

    It’s been a long 9 months, and I can’t believe I’ve finally come out the other side. There were times when I thought pregnancy would last forever, times when I hoped it would, and times when I found myself praying to God that I’d just go into labor already. There’s something so precious and magical about waiting…but when waiting is so darn uncomfortable, it becomes anguish. And yet, there’s something strangely precious about that anguish as well. Brian and I had maternity photos done by our photographer friend Manny Avila (check out his photography website here) when I was well into my ninth and final month. To be honest, I…

  • Books,  Elevenses

    September Reading List

    I’ve been struggling a bit to keep up with my goal of reading a book a week, in part because I finish one book and don’t have anything lined up next. Then it occurred to me. Why not put together and share a reading list each month? Hopefully, doing so will inspire you to pick up a few more books, and maybe even write a list of your own! September Reading List The Great Hunt: The Great Hunt is book two of one of my favorite series of all time. I’m doing an “Elevenses” post about book one soon, and ever since I finished Eye of the World, I’ve been chomping…

  • Fashion,  Outfits

    A Yellow Sundress and Summer Tomatoes

    We’ve finally moved into a house and started unpacking all of our boxes. It’s a long process (who knew we had so much stuff?), but it’s been really nice to have a place to call our own. The house is a little far away from Brian’s work, but aside from that, it has everything we need — three bedrooms, a garage, and a nice big backyard for Flash to play in. I can’t even begin to describe how lovely it is to finally live in a house with a dishwasher — I’ve been doing all our dishes by hand for the last few years — and to not have to…

  • Fashion,  Outfits

    A Walk in the Park

    About a month ago, I got a new lens for my camera, and boy has it been a game changer. I’ve been able to control the lighting in my pictures a lot better, and it also lets me get that nice, dreamy background blur. That being said, there is definitely a learning curve with using this thing and some of my pictures are out of focus in all the wrong places! I kept a few of the blurry ones because in some cases the blur added a nice effect — even when I was the thing that got blurry. Let’s just agree to pretend I did it on purpose! Most…

  • Fashion,  Outfits

    Sweater Weather and a Lace Kimono

    Sweater weather? I wish. It is most definitely not sweater weather right now, but I can still keep up with the cozy wearing this brown, knitted t-shirt! Though this shirt looks like a sweater, it’s wonderfully breezy and cool. People are always looking at me askance when I wear it on 100+ degree days, but I like how it reminds me that fall is just around the corner — or a few months away at the very least. Something about this shirt makes me think of summer nights spent around a campfire in the woods and makes me yearn for plaid blankets and cozy hats. Today, I paired the shirt with a pale pink…

  • Books + Tea,  Elevenses

    Inheritance + Sun Tea

    There’s nothing quite like sitting down with a cup of tea and a good book. To me, books and tea just belong together. There’s something so romantic about the pairing — something so cozy, so quietly peaceful, so perfect and right. In ode to this couplet, I’ve decided to start a new weekly series that will be part tea review and part book review/discussion. I thought it would be kind of fun and unique to structure the posts this way, as well as a great chance for fun themed photos — almost like a mini tea party every week! I’m not usually the biggest fan of black teas when I’m…

  • Fashion,  Outfits

    Cranberry and Stripes

    Now that school is over and I have more free time on my hands, I’ve been doing a lot of planning for an eventual reworking of this blog. To start with, I’m hoping to implement three weekly series that will be posted on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The first of these, posted at on Mondays, will be my outfit posts (the name of which I am changing to “Worn:”) — nothing too different there. The second will be a series I’m calling “Elevenses” (posted on Wednesdays at 11 a.m.), and the third will be a series I’m calling “Catholicism Unwrapped” (posted on Fridays). I’ve been dressing a little simpler recently…