This Weekend...

This weekend I...

...had dinner with Jeff's family at Barcocina, which has a freaking amazing patio space!! There were nine of us, which really is the best way to do Barcocina because it's small plates, but they only recommend one small plate per person - with nine we got to try a ton!! I especially loved the steak and the yucca tots - so weird and so good!
...after dinner we went to Headquarters to play a few arcade games, where I killed at skeeball - I hit the 100 on my first try! And let me tell you, that was basically all luck because I am terrible at anything sports related. After Headquarters we walked over to Kingston Mines for a little live music - I've somehow never been before but it was so fun!! Not bad for a little family time.
...went out with a bunch of bloggers for the first Tour de Frosé, where we went to five different Chicago spots to try out their samplings. You may have seen the frosé all over my Instastories ;) Such a fun way to spend a Saturday! I'll have a full recap of everywhere we went (and everything we drank!) later this week.
...met Jeff's cousin out for brunch, who was in town for a quick break from an eleven month world tour missionary trip. It was so crazy to hear everything she's seen and everything she's gone through (including an appendectomy in Albania!), if you want to learn more about her trip check out her blog here. For brunch we went to Parlor, and you guys, breakfast pizza is an amazing, amazing thing.

A busy weekend but a good one for sure! The rest of my week is going to be crazy too because I'm headed to San Francisco again tomorrow for work!! I'm staying in a different part of the city than usual, and I'm excited to check out more of the city - follow along on Instagram to see what I get up to!

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Friday Finds

Hands up if you're definitely ready for the weekend! This has been a weird week for me, I've had multiple nights with very little sleep, I've been confused every day about what day of the week it was, and I've eaten pizza for way too many meals so I'm feeling pretty blah. To balance out the pizza I also have been doing lots of barre (partially because of the pizza, partially because the class pack I purchased is about to expire and I can't let anything go to waste!) so I've also been sore every day. Bring it on, weekend. Bring. It. On. 

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More Ruffles, More Polka Dots

Top - J. Crew / Shorts - J. Crew Factory / Bag - Target / Shoes (now available in a bunch of new colors!!) - BP / Earrings - BaubleBar

Let me tell you, when I bought this top, I really seriously considered sending it back. Not because it wasn't cute, but because I probably didn't need another off the shoulder top I couldn't wear a regular bra with! I mean, like I said on Tuesday, this one really is the best, but a girl can't go strapless every day! It's really a miracle that I'm wearing strapless bras at all these days, considering that after wearing one with my wedding dress for twelve hours straight it somehow managed to fuse to my body and I had big 3D welts for a week from peeling it off. TMI? Welp. 

Anyway, I eventually realized that, obviously, this particular top has straps, so more obviously, I could wear a regular bra. Huzzah. I don't know why that took me so long to figure out. The straps do tend to slide around a little, so I usually put some fashion tape on them and run out the door. 

What's this matter to you? Well I discovered this top is still available in a lot of sizes, and is currently on sale for less than $35 with code SHOPSALE. Yaaaasssss. And, even better, since it's in navy, it'll work into the fall too. Which is a sad thing to be thinking about at the moment, but I'm over shopping for bright colors right now and am only looking for pieces that I'll be able to wear for the next couple of months. I mean, we're in the second half of August now, so I guess I have to accept the fact that fall is coming. At least the cold weather will kill the bees that are currently hanging out on our balcony.

The one benefit of fall closing in though, is that Labor Day weekend is coming up! We took last year off because of a friend's wedding, but this year a bunch of us decided to rent a lake house for the weekend again! I'm super excited for boats and beers and burgers and bonfires and probably other things that start with a "b" but aren't "bees." Stupid bees. 

Top - J. Crew / Shorts - J. Crew Factory / Bag - Target / Shoes (now available in a bunch of new colors!!) - BP / Earrings - BaubleBar

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Stripes & Ruffles

Dress and Jacket (similar) - J. Crew Factory / Bag - Target / Earrings (similar, I also love this pair!) - J. Crew / Bracelet (similar) - Michael Kors

As much as I'm excited for my new fall arrivals (this jacket though!), we've now hit that point in the summer where I realize it's going to be gone soon and I need to get as much wear out of my favorite summer dresses as possible before it's time for sweaters! So when I had a date with the Backstreet Boys this weekend, I had to pull out this ruffled, striped number. I mean, this is everything summer is supposed to be, right? Besides the fact that I have to wear a strapless bra with it (this one is my favorite - almost makes strapless bras bearable ;) it's basically the easiest thing you can wear when the weather is hot. It barely touches my body, it's really breathable, and, you know, it's cute. Toss on some statement earrings and you're good to go until at least September 22nd (the first day of fall)! 

Speaking of fall, how flipping cute is this bag?! I bought it a couple of weeks ago and then teased you repeatedly on Instagram because I couldn't find a link for it. Well, no more teasing because here it is! I was so excited to find this bag because it'll be fun to carry for the rest of summer, but also will work for fall. Plus I usually can't decide whether I'm a pink girl or a red girl (I've had barbie pink nails for the last month but keep trying to wear my red statement earrings anyway - yikes!) and the flowers on this bag are both pink and red - perfect! 

Dress and Jacket (similar) - J. Crew Factory / Bag - Target / Earrings (similar, I also love this pair!) - J. Crew / Bracelet (similar) - Michael Kors

Linking up with Flashback Friday, Style Me Wednesday.

Previously on KDTI - ruffled striped dress:

 

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This Weekend...

This weekend I...

...had a little date night with Jeff at Duck Duck Goat. It's been on my wishlist for a while so I was psyched to snag a res, and it didn't disappoint - we really loved the scallion pancakes and the chongquing chicken - so spicy and good! Oh, and Jeff made me eat duck hearts!! So freaky but they were actually really good.
...went to Pure Empower, the new Pure Barre class, and then I basically died. It was hard but in a really good way, and then I had to drink about 43 gallons of water to stop my impending dehydration headache. And then I put my name on the waitlist for next Saturday's class - bring on the pain!
...omg omg omg went to see Backstreet Boys!!! And Nelly! Oh, and okay, Florida Georgia Line played too. It was like all of my childhood dreams coming true, and I didn't even like Backstreet Boys back in the day! Embarrassingly enough, my boy band of choice was 98 Degrees, because those guys were the hottest ;) But really though, BSB played all of their hits, did full choreography for a few of them, and threw in a couple of chair dances too. It was so amazingly nostalgic. I'm in talks with a couple of friends to do a Vegas trip this fall, and I'm definitely going to propose adding their Vegas show to our itinerary!
...ended up ordering these jeans after seeing how cute they looked on someone else, and am now kicking myself for not ordering them during the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. I still have a feeling they'll be too short on me, but might as well give them a try - the distressing is so cute!
...dragged Jeff out to a super late lunch (or perhaps a very early dinner) at Summer House, and man does that place never disappoint!! My new fav is the shaved vegetable salad, which I accidentally ordered with what turned out to be a boatload of fries. At least I got those veggies in ;)

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Friday Finds

Happy Friday!! We don't have a ton going on this weekend, but tomorrow we have tickets for the most random concert ever at Wrigley Field. Backstreet Boys, Nelly, and Florida Georgia Line. I know they're paired together because they've done collaborations, but still, this should be interesting. We're going with my sister and her husband. My sister is excited for BSB, I want to see BSB and Nelly, and Jeff loves Florida Georgia Line (and honestly, probably BSB too), so at least we're all in on something. Except, of course, for my poor brother-in-law, who I'm pretty sure is just being dragged along ;)

On to my finds for the week. We're in that weird place where I know it's going to be hot for another month or two so I'm still looking for summer clothes, but fall clothes are so cute so I'm trying to scoop them up too. Also, I have some huge presentations coming up for work, so I still have work pants on the brain. Do you have any favorites? Let me know!

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What Helps You Concentrate?

Top (on sale for less than $8!) - Loft / Shorts - Gap / Sandals - Target / Bag - Sole Society / Earrings - BaubleBar

I've been working basically non-stop lately, so I've been thinking a lot about what helps me concentrate and get more work done, faster. And I feel like it's probably different from what you need to concentrate. 

I hear a lot of people say that they have to have it silent when they work, or they need music without words to really get stuff done. While that helps if I'm really concentrating hard on writing (and I mean, like, writing a white paper, not writing a blog post or an email), I actually usually need noise. I actually love to have the tv on while I work - probably because my easily-distracted mind needs lots of stimulus! The funny thing is, if I'm working I won't watch it at all. I'll often turn on a show, and then not notice that four hours have passed and I'm now watching something terrible like My 600 Pound Life. Jeff comes home to me watching the most random things, and I literally won't have noticed. 

The weirdest thing is, I can't actually listen to podcasts. I've tried it several times, and it's too distracting to me. Something about a person talking directly into my ear really catches my attention, which is funny because Jeff basically only listens to podcasts at work, and he can't handle talking to me and looking at his phone at the same time.

Watching my favorite old shows and movies over and over is usually my go-to - I could watch Parks and Rec or 10 Things I Hate About You or Cool Runnings (and lately the first season of Bug Juice on YouTube - did you hear they're making a new season?!) over and over and over while I work, and it's okay because I only look up now and then to catch a funny line and then go back to work and forget that it's on until the credits start rolling. 

Weirdly, this is also the trick I use to fall asleep - I swear I've been watching Gilmore Girls on repeat at bedtime for 10 years now - something my college roommate can definitely attest to! I'd like to take this time to publicly apologize to you for all the times you had to wake up to the DVD menu on repeat ;)

So tell me - what do you need to help you concentrate? 

Top (on sale for less than $8!) - Loft / Shorts - Gap / Sandals - Target / Bag - Sole Society / Earrings - BaubleBar

Linking up with Trend Spin Linkup, Friday Fab Favorites.

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