Flutter Sleeves from Rosegal

Dress - c/o RoseGal / Bag (extremely similar version) - Kate Spade / Sandals - Dolce Vita / Necklace  (similar) - Amrita Singh / Bracelet - Baublebar (gift)

I love all of the fun sleeves that are floating around right now, between bell sleeves and flutter sleeves like these. I'm all about the trend right now, but whenever I love a trend and want to buy a million pieces with it, I think back to my sophomore year of high school. Peasant tops were huge that year and I had a ton that I rotated through constantly for a solid six months. Then all the sudden the trend disappeared, and I was left with this closet full of clothes that I never wore again.

To avoid that happening again, whenever a new trend comes along that I'd like to try, I first try an inexpensive version, like this fun dress from RoseGal that was less than twenty dollars! It's the perfect way to try out the flutter sleeve, and the dress is so easy to dress up or down. Win, win, win.

Just a tip on sizing - whenever I order from stores based in Asia I make sure to check out the size guide, and then still size up. This dress is a size 2X, and I probably could have gone with a 3X! I know it sounds crazy to buy something that sounds so big, but sizing is different here in the US. Just pay attention to fit and not to what the tag says and you'll be good to go.

Do you like to try out new trends for less?

Linking up with Style Me Wednesday, Confident Twosday.

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This Weekend...

This weekend I...

...Flew back from San Fran late on Friday afternoon (which, by the way, ended up being super fun! On Thursday after work I rented a car to drive around and see some of the sights, including the Golden Gate Bridge which I have somehow never seen before! After sightseeing I drove across the bridge to Sausalito to meet up with a friend for dinner on the water at Barrel House Tavern. We were sitting outside above the water and a sea lion came over to say hello!! I've never seen one before so I was a bit overly excited haha. Okay, long enough parenthesis?) and basically ran straight into the shower and then hopped on the el to meet up with a bunch of friends for a White Sox game. Every year Jeff's friend celebrates his birthday by inviting everyone he knows (seriously everyone, there were 80 people in our group) for tailgating and a game, and it was so fun. I still never have any idea what's happening in baseball, but I love going to games - the food, the beer, the sitting outside, the fireworks... I love it all! Then when we left we ended up getting stuck underground on the red line going home for about 45 minutes!! It was hilarious for about the first 20 minutes and then slowly got less and less funny - I think it took me over two hours to get home.
...Felt an urge to drop a little cash, so under the guise of returning things I ran to Loft and ended up coming home with this adorable lace-up dress - definitely wearing this for the rest of summer and into the fall!
...Met up with a bunch of friends at Gene's Sausage Shop in Lincoln Square, and holy crap, how did I not know this rooftop was in my neighborhood?! The downstairs is a grocery store, but on the roof they had a ton of picnic tables and umbrellas, plus a bar with a bunch of different kinds of sausage and other German food. The food was so good, plus it was so nice to be outside on a beautiful Chicago summer day!
...Had a movie night at home with Jeff because he's been sick all week, the poor guy somehow got pneumonia in 90 degree weather!! Don't worry guys, he's not dying - the doctor said it's "just a little bit" of pneumonia whatever that means. Unfortunately movie night did nothing to make him better because we decided to watch Sisters which was terrible. Seriously, so bad. I didn't know that Amy Poehler and Tina Fey could touch anything and not have it turn to gold.

I hope you had a good one!

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Friday Finds

Happy Friday!! I'm currently headed home from San Francisco! Tonight we're headed to a White Sox game for a friend's birthday, but besides that I'm hoping to do a whole lot of nothing ;) Hope you have a good one!

one / two / three / four / five

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Carry On Makeup

You guys, I don't know what happened to me. I used to be able to carry just the bare minimal number of beauty items onto a plane with me, and now whenever I travel I bring a giant overflowing bag of makeup with me, plus a giant Naked eyeshadow palette or two taped closed floating around inside of my suitcase.

This weekend, after heaving my 45 pound suitcase up the three and a half flights of stairs to my bedroom (oh, who am I kidding, Jeff and I traded bags because I couldn't handle mine), I decided enough was enough. For my trip to San Francisco this week, I decided to go with the bare minimum - or, at least, my version of the bare minimum. One extra top besides my work shirts, two pairs of pants, gym clothes, three pairs of shoes including my running shoes, and just a couple of makeup items. Oh, and both my work and personal laptops, which probably defeated the whole purpose of packing light. Le sigh.

I posted a couple of months ago about my bare minimum makeup routine, but for a work trip where I'm meeting a lot of new people I didn't want to go super light. So here it is, what's in my travel makeup bag:

Naked Basics Palette - everything I need for day and night looks. With an angled brush the darkest color also works as eyeliner, and the second darkest is perfect for filling in my brows.
CARGO Blush in Los Cabos - the perfect coral peachy pink
Smashbox Camera Ready BB Cream Eyes - perfect for covering my dark circles (and any other problems that hopefully won't arise!)
Maybelline Fit Me Powder in Porcelain - my go-to powder for years
Benefit Roller Lash Mascara - a new favorite ever since Ulta tricked me into going their store to pick up my "free birthday sample" and ended up walking out with $100 of items I didn't need. It's great because it's super layerable so you can go from day to night, plus the brush combs through lashes so well that you don't need a separate brush
Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler - the holy grail eyelash curler for a reason, perfect for making me look awake even though I've been up since 4am thanks to jetlag.

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Wedges in the Woods

Shirt and Shorts - J. Crew Factory / Shoes (currently less than $100!) - Dolce Vita / Bag (similar) - Coach Factory / Bracelet - BaubleBar / Necklace - Stella & Dot

Like I mentioned in last week's budget post, these wedges are my new favorite thing. They're super comfy, they go with everything, and they're perfect for dressing up when you also may spend some time wandering through the woods. What, you don't put on heels and then go for a nature walk? Okay, neither do I ;) But these pictures were taken last week in Incline Village at Lake Tahoe, where just going out to dinner meant wandering over rocky hills and up and down steep inclines. Most of our dinners were cooked at home, but we did manage to go out one night to Bite, where we had some freaking incredible homemade gnocchi. I basically wanted to lick the plate. 

I always hear that there are two types of vacationers - mountain people and beach people. I tend to think of myself, however, as a woods person. I don't care if we're near a mountain or a beach as long as I get quiet, peaceful nights away from civilization. Lake Tahoe was beautiful with all of the mountains, but really it wasn't all that different from vacations I've spent in northern Minnesota and Michigan. Well, basically the same except with decidedly less mosquitos ;) I know that we just got back from vacation, but we're actually heading up to northern Wisconsin with my family in less than two weeks for another week in the woods, and I can't wait! Bring on more sun, boats, and campfires. 

Shop the post:

Previously on KDTI - white shorts:

 

Linking up with Flashback Friday, Summer Style, Style Sessions, Confident Twosday, Style Me Wednesday.

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Last Week...

Oh hey guys, I'm back in action! Last week Jeff and I flew to Vegas for two nights to celebrate our anniversary, and then met up with Jeff's family in Lake Tahoe for some R&R.

This was our third trip to Vegas together, and at this point we know exactly how we want to spend our time - a lot of drinks at the pool, a walk through the Bellagio, good food, and trying not to lose too much money at the craps table ;) I always hear from people that they're too scared to play craps because there are so many rules, but really all you have to do is put a little money on the table for an opening bet and celebrate whenever everyone else does! Now I get a little more crazy on the tables but I literally just did the opening bet when I first started playing and still had a lot of fun - I love interacting with other people at the table and seeing everyone's crazy superstitions up close.

We also decided that as part of this trip we should add in a show, and decided to go see Britney Spears! A lot of people assumed I dragged Jeff to it, but he was just as excited as I was. Some of that excitement on his part may have been getting to meet one of the bartenders for the show - because Jeff and I are still 14 years old we love The Challenge on MTV, and Leroy works at the bar for the show. We super creeped on him and managed to get him to serve us and got in a little chat ;) Britney was hilarious and awesome and so bad it was good, and I would definitely recommend checking it out if you're in Vegas.

Our week in Tahoe was so much fun. We did a little bit of hiking, a little bit of pool and beach time (where you may have seen on Snapchat that we met Melissa Joan Hart haha), and a lot of bit of relaxing and enjoying family time. We actually had planned on doing a lot of hiking, but after one "Easy" level hike we determined that hiking might not quite be in our wheelhouse hahaha ;) I actually was worried about hiking because the last time I took a trip to the mountains I was fourteen and just remember complaining non-stop and begging to go home. It turns out that maybe I was just an annoying teenager because I liked those "Easy" hikes!

So anyway, I would say that I'm home now and getting back into my routine, but that would be wrong. I'm actually flying off to San Francisco again this morning for work for a few days. I remember I used to be jealous of people who got to travel for work, but between all of the trips I've taken lately it's making me feel exhausted! This time I'm refusing to unplug though, so I'll be right here all week.

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Friday Finds

one / two / three / four / five

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