This Week's Top 10: Fourth of July Weekend

photo by ethan galley

 1. Hello and happy July!!!!! To be honest, I completely forgot about the mood board this month; I will work on that ASAP and hopefully get it up on Tuesday after the holiday! In the meantime, I have quite a busy weekend ahead as it's Fourth of July weekend and I am heading to Dallas tonight to celebrate. 

My best friends, Coco, Elizabeth, and Caroline are coming down as well and we are staying at my dad's house for the weekend! We are seeing Brother's Osborne tomorrow and I just can't wait for all of the yee-haw vibes. Plus, Joe lives in Dallas now, so that will only add to the fun! I've been fully planning my BBQ menu for our pool days on Sunday/Monday and I just can't wait to enjoy some time by the pool, a weekend with my besties, and warm weather.

2. Last night I stayed up until 1 AM finishing The Love Hypothesis, which was truly the most enjoyable book for me! At first, I thought it was going to be cheesy and dumb, but literally, after 5 pages, I was hooked. Unlike most books that require some ramp-up time, or feel slow in the middle, this romance/beach read was so enjoyable the whole way through; I was laughing out loud (like actually, haha) at so many points. It's about a grad student, Olive, who fake dates one of the faculty in another department... it's just really enjoyable, light, and easy to read. Although it's a bit predictable, there were quite a few twists and turns I didn't see coming. I give it 5 stars!!

3. On a similar note, if you're looking for some book recs to carry you through the rest of the summer/year, I rated and reviewed the 15 books I've read so far this year in this blog post earlier this week!

4. I also published a huge round-up of dresses under $200 in this blog post this week - so many good ones for anything you have coming up this summer or early fall! 

Mid-Year Reading Review

When I really got into reading in the summer of 2018, I would write a blog post recapping my recent reads after every 3 or 4 books I finished. Last year I documented everything I read in 2021 at the end of the year, but given that this year alone I've already read 15 books, I want to share a mid-year recap! I've been mixing it up a lot more than usual this year and I have thoughts.

My reading goal for 2022 is 30 books, 5 of which I'm aiming to be non-fiction, whether it be biography, self-help, or anything else. So far I've read 15 books, 2 of which have been non-fiction, and I'm halfway done with my third in that category!

Categories are as follows, in no particular order: (1) Non-Fiction (biographies), (2) Fiction Novels (ranges from very serious to adorable beach read, but not romance), (3) Fantasy, (4) Thriller, and (5) Romance!

Summer Dresses Under $200

I'm back again today with some light shopping content. After the news of Roe v Wade being overturned last week, I know we have all been inundated with heavy, heartbreaking news. I completely believe in a woman's right to choose, and I find it infuriating to see our country take a million steps backward in woman's and human rights by making this senseless decision. If you're interested in supporting this cause, Planned Parenthood is matching all gifts made by June 30, $1-for-$1, up to a total of $250,000.

This post is completely unrelated, but I wanted to share that statement above before talking about something as silly as dresses during a time like this. I just feel it's still important to stay positive and share lighthearted content. I know many people don't look to me or my platform for political conversations, but I do feel that it is my responsibility as someone with a platform to share resources and contribute to the conversations and issues going on in our country and our world.

With that said- let's get into the post, but I highly encourage making a donation, however small, at the link above.

This weekend I exclusively wore dresses, and it made my life so much easier! Throwing on a dress is the easiest outfit for me, but up until recently, I really didn't have many casual dresses in my closet for weekend/weeknight wear. I wore specifically this dress and this dress, and it got me realizing how many cute, affordable dresses I've seen recently. I've rounded them all up here and hope you find something you love!

Recent Finds

20% off right now; under $100! I just ordered this!

I've found the cutest things while online shopping lately, so I thought I'd round everything up for you below! As usual, almost everything is under $200, with just a few exceptions.

As always, you can find all of my recent shopping finds on the shop page here!

Girls Weekend: Recap & NYC Recs

This post is definitely overdue, but I wanted to share another girls' weekend recap from Memorial Day weekend. Our itinerary ended up being perfect, and I have some great recommendations for you! Two of my best friends, Elizabeth and Coco, visited me in NYC and we had such a great time kicking off summer in the city. Here's what we did: 

(scroll to the bottom of the post for the list of recs without the fluff)