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!
(scroll to the bottom of the post for the list of recs without the fluff)
Happy Friday! Before I dive into this post I want to share that earlier this morning I shared an entire post dedicated to ways to support gun violence in light of the shooting in Uvalde, Texas this week. If you have not yet read that post, you can find it here.
This past weekend was SO much fun. I flew out to Chicago to celebrate my best friend Elizabeth's birthday. In college, Elizabeth, myself, and two of our other best friends Celia and Coco all lived together. The four of us are so close but have not all been together since before I moved, so the weekend was extra special and exciting. We had such a great time, and I want to do a full recap of what we did, where we stayed, what we wore, and all of the things to answer any questions you might have, as well as for my own memory!
image via pinterest
1. I landed in Chicago last night and I am beyond excited for this weekend. I am working from my brother's apartment today and then meeting up with my three best friends/roommates from college to celebrate Elizabeth's birthday tonight & tomorrow here in Chicago! The four of us are so close but haven't all been together since before I moved to NYC, so I seriously could cry from excitement.
Before we dive into everything, in case you missed it, I shared two gift guides on the blog this week: a Mother's Day gift guide and a gift guide for the College Graduate!
2. This weekend, because all of the girls are so stylish, I really had to plan my outfits. I ended up doing RTR last minute because a lot of things weren't working, and I am SO glad I did. I am beyond obsessed with this plunging leather top which I'm going to wear tomorrow night - might end up buying it to keep. I also love this open-back crop top for maybe tomorrow afternoon, and then I also got this retro paisley dress that I plan to wear to a rehearsal dinner in a couple of weeks; it looks so much better on than you'd think!
3. Speaking of going out, how about an update on my drinks of choice?! My go-to drink drink is usually a dirty Hendrick's martini (I don't drink vodka) or white wine, and sometimes a negroni if I'm at the right spot.
1. This week has flown by! I hung out with a few friends and enjoyed the warmer, sunny weather, and all of a sudden it's Friday! On Thursday I am flying to Chicago to celebrate my best friend Elizabeth's birthday, and from there it will be five back-to-back busy travel weekends for me (Mother's Day, a wedding, and more...), so I'm looking forward to a lowkey weekend this weekend.
2. Tonight I am going to pilates and then making dinner / having a virtual date with Joe (enchiladas!) and reading my new book, and then tomorrow all I have planned are a few errands and tennis with a friend. I am looking forward to relaxing since this is my only "free" weekend until mid-June (OMG) and the past two weekends were busy too (with Joe visiting and then Easter)
3. Before we jump into the details of my shopping spree this week, I need to share that I finally upgraded from my Revlon blowdry brush to the T3 Airebrush duo (on sale for 25% here) this week. I was beyond blown away (pun intended ;) by the results...
This past week I had the HARDEST time finding a wedding guest dress and a rehearsal dinner dress for a semi-formal wedding I'm attending in three weeks. Whenever I do roundups of shopping picks I just pick cute pieces that look pretty, but I'll admit I don't always consider
1. "would I actually pay this price for this item?"
2. "would I wear this more than once?"
3. "is this available in most sizes?"
1. Hello and happy Easter Monday if you celebrate! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. This weekend was quite a busy one for me so I wasn't able to get this up on Friday when I usually post This Week's Top 10. Thursday I had dinner with one of my aunts and my bestie Caroline, Friday was my cousin's birthday, so our family when to Tavern on the Green for dinner, and yesterday was Easter so I went to church and hosted a little brunch!
2. I took my first ennegram test yesterday (I did this one and it is free if you want to try it too!) and found it so fascinating. Afterward I read this article about how best to recharge according to your enneagram and definitely took some notes. I am a 7 (wing 3)!
3. I do want to take a moment to acknowledge the shooting that took place on the subway in Brooklyn last week. Absolutely terrible, so scary, and really sad. Fortunately, the shooter was caught, and no one died!!!, but still thinking of everyone impacted by this.
My boyfriend Joe visited me here in NYC this weekend and we had such a lovely time. It was a casual little weekend, which was a nice change of pace considering we usually have extravagant plans whenever he is in town. We only made a couple of reservations ahead of time and then mostly just hung out, walked around, and explored. Here's a recap of what we did!
image via @matildadjerf - queen
1. Happy weekend! I am really looking forward to this weekend because Joe is visiting! He was supposed to fly in last night but his flight was canceled due to the storms here in NYC. All is well now though- he just landed and it's a sunny day in the city as you are reading this!
3. I also shared a roundup of spring finds under $200. Soo many cute things, especially fun accessories. I am particularly in love with this oversized button-down and this comfy midi dress, both under $100 and accidentally left out of the post.
Whenever I get asked about my favorite spots in New York, or for recommendations around the city in a general sense, I feel like I never know what to say or don't have the time to go into enough detail via DM or text. While I have a couple of blog posts on different restaurants I've tried and enjoyed (find them here!), if you're visiting the city for a weekend or aren't super familiar with NYC, you might just want something with exclusively the highlights... so, welcome to this blog post!
This post was inspired by recent DM's, but also that I realized I have never shared a weekend recap of my weekends with Joe when he comes to visit me in NYC!! This needs to change *immediately,* because we truly have the best weekends together and have discovered some of my favorite, favorite spots in the city during the times when he is here. He is coming next weekend and I hope to recap the whole thing in detail, along with all of his visits going forward! I used to always do a vacation recap whenever I went anywhere, and I even did a girls' weekend recap post when my college roomies/best friends Coco and EJ visited me in December, so I have no idea how I've let this happen...
All of the breakfast, lunch, dinner & drinks spots can be found on this google map here!
Hello! I am back today with another fun round-up of spring finds. After posting 15+ spring dresses for any occasion last week, I found so many more pretty pieces I wanted to share with all of you to spruce up our wardrobes this season.
1. HAPPY FRIDAY!!!! I am *so* excited for this weekend. I am flying to Chicago tonight and doing a St. Patrick's Day bar crawl with my college friends (and joe!) tomorrow. I couldn't be more excited to finally do a true Chicago St. Patty's day celebration, and of course, to see my bestiessss. Will be staying in Madison with Joe next week too!
2. Found a million cute things online this week. First things first, we all need this pink and green rugby striped shirt.
3. I discovered the chicest online boutique this week and I want everything!!! Especially this blouse, these shorts, and this!! perfect!! top!!
Whether you have a wedding, graduation, bachelorette party, or any other event coming up in the next few months, you're bound to find a spring dress in this round-up perfect for the occasion! I did a Q&A recently over on Instagram and I received so many questions about where to find dresses for special occasions this season. I actually found it so much harder than usual to put this particular assortment together, so I totally understand the difficulty! Everything was either $600+ or a little off... but the dresses I've included here are exceptions to that, and each one is as fabulous as the next in my opinion! I tried to keep the majority of the dresses around $200, which is usually a fair price point, at least for me.
The Blonde Prep, April 2014
Today in lieu of This Week's Top 10, we are celebrating my 10-year blog anniversary! I can NOT believe it's been 10 years. I remember coming home from school on this day in eighth grade and starting "the blonde prep" on Blogspot. My first post, of course, was a "welcome to the blonde prep," and I think my second post was either about j.crew or Vineyard Vines. I had no idea what I was doing, but every day I would come home with this newfound excitement to jump on the computer, create Polyvore collages (who remembers that?!), and online shop to share all of my new favorite things with maybe the five people that read my pink and orange, chevron stripe blog.
1. Happy Friday! It feels almost wrong to write that given everything going on in our world as of yesterday morning... for the latest updates on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I've found CNN's updates to be easy to understand and very up-to-date. As we all pray for peace and safety for Ukranians, my friend Sasha (whose parents emmigrated from Ukraine) share this non-profit that we can donnate to.
2. In brighter news, I feel like I have so many updates to share! First off, a huge thank you to all of you who are following along here on the blog and on Instagram! I was so excited to wake up to 10,000 of you yesterday morning <3
3. If you've been following on IG, you've probably seen that I have been on a bit of an interior design inspiration kick lately. It all started with this Brooklyn apartment tour! (pictured above)
1. Helloooo! Ok, I have so many updates for you... this week just flew by for me! Of course, Valentine's Day was on Monday, but after that, I had a few fun things planned, like a dinner for a new brand on Tuesday, book club on Wednesday, and pilates yesterday (which I'd missed since I hadn't been in so long!). Joe visisted me last weekend for Valetine's Day and left on Monday morning, so we celebrated Valentine's Day Saturday night! I am planning to write a full recap of our weekend because it was just so fun.
2. The brand dinner I went to was for Den XYZ, a new home brand with a highly curated selection of home decor, art, and more. The dinner was very small (just 6-7 of us) and I really enjoyed it! I don't get invited to that man influencer events, so I was so grateful and excited to be included. The dinner was at the founder's gorgeous apartment, she cooked for us, and it was such a cozy, unique way to be introduced to a new brand. It definitely had me inspired to finish up decorating my apartment after living here for almost a year!
Can you believe I've lived in NYC for almost a full year?! The time has truly flown by. I am SO excited to share that a couple of months ago I was able to renew my lease and I'll be staying in my apartment for another year. I am absolutely thrilled because I love my apartment, and it's truly an amazing deal for what it is (wonderful location, natural light, dishwasher, decent size for an NYC apartment, molding on the walls lol). Rent prices are crazy in the city right now, and I feel grateful that my rent, which was already a great deal because I moved during Covid, was raised only 10%. I was honestly so worried it would be raised up to the pre-pandemic price, which was like $1200 more than my current monthly rent. Thankfully, that did not happen, and I am thrilled to be staying in my apartment for another year.
1. This week was a pretty standard workweek for me. Not much to report, but the highlight, of course, was the February mood board going up! If you're looking for a new desktop or iPhone wallpaper, download the mood board here.
2. This week I went to two Mile High Run Club classes, which has quickly become my favorite workout in the city. While I still love pilates at Bodyrok, there's something that feels so "my truth" about being on a treadmill just running for 45 minutes and being pushed to improve. It might have to do with the fact that I just haven't run consistently in so long, but nonetheless, the workout and the vibes are fabulous. I sign up through ClassPass! If you want to try ClassPass, here's my link. I think it's just the best thing ever.
3. Yesterday on the blog I shared so many cute pink pieces, perfect for Valentine's Day! Check out the blog post here.
I got a targeted IG ad yesterday for the cutest matching set I've ever seen (for just $40!) and immediately ordered it. I don't think I've ever done that before, but this was too cute to pass up! It inspired this whole round-up of pretty pink pieces for Valentine's Day... whether these items end up as little gifts for yourself, your best friend, your girlfriend, your sister, or whomever else, I hope you find something you love!
It's a mood board miracle! LOL, truly, I don't think I've ever gotten the mood board up successfully on the first day of the month, but maybe things are looking up for me in 2022. I find the February mood board to be one of the easiest to make because, in my mind, my vision of February is clear... everything pink, flowers, and love!
2. In two weeks I'm heading to St. Barths for my aunt's wedding and couldn't be more excited. When I get back to the city I plan to pretty much quarantine up until I leave just so I don't risk anything; in order to get onto the island you have to present a negative covid test, and it's really just not something I want to take any chances with.
3. Speaking of- I did get my booster shot on Wednesday and I have to admit that yesterday was pretty rough. I went to a hard workout class on Wednesday night about an hour after my shot, which is supposed to help, but all day yesterday I had major body aches, a headache, and on-and-off chills. Fortunately, I was able to work from bed, and this morning I woke up totally fine again, so it's all good! If you haven't received your booster shot yet, I made my appointment through Walgreens.
This year I wasn't quite as good about my book update blog posts, so I wanted to share a big round-up of my reads since 2021 was a pretty good year of reading for me! (I tihnk my best year of reading yet!) Although I didn't really read (except for one book) until April of 2021, I read 23 (and a half) books throughout the rest of the year which I am proud of! I am also now a part of two book clubs in New York, which I love because I get to read books I might not hear about oor choose myself, all while meeting new people.
