where's the chai?

Whenever I hear someone say "Chi City" or "Chi Town", I think that it's a city filled with the finest chai tea. When in reality Chicago (not pronounced in any way like its herbal counterpart) is a lovely city, but does not have an abundance of chai lattes, to my slight disappointment. I've been there twice now, and have yet to enjoy the tea during my stay. I did have a blast, and consume large amounts of iced coffee, which is an ample substitute for chai lattes.

I flew up this Monday and arrived around 8:30 in the morning to visit one of my closest friend who moved there about three years ago. This was my second trip, so it was more relaxed, since I have already seen all the touristy sights. We headed to the "beach" for the afternoon. I put beach in quotation marks, because in order to have a beach you must have salt water and waves.

The gorgeous waters of Lake Michigan 

We accidentally wandered on to private property, and went in a part of the lake we weren't allowed to. However, we had a blast and died laughing when the poor life guard kept having to tell us what we couldn't do. We clearly weren't natives. 

This swimsuit is my attempt at the one piece trend.
It's sold out but this is a similar one from J.Crew Factory currently on sale

The next day we headed to downtown Chicago. Last time I went I took an absurd amount of pictures, but this time I didn't. I did take a couple, however. We rode the train from Arlington Heights, the suburb where my friend lives, to downtown.  We headed to Michigan Ave. for some serious shopping.

I wore overalls of course. 

We hit Nordstrom and browsed their anniversary sale. Soon, we realized we needed a pick me up. We paused our Nordstrom adventures and headed to Starbucks. I have never waited in that long of line at a Starbucks, but we finally got our caffeine. Rejuvenated, we went back to Nordstrom and shopped our hearts out. 

Next we went to Charming Charlie's where I found the cutest whale earrings. Then we headed to Forever 21, where I found a couple things I like, but ended up not buying any of them. We finally arrived at H&M which is basically the shopping promised land. I bought a skirt and declared my shopping day done. We did go to topshop, but at that point I was too tired to seriously study the racks. We took a cab back to the train station, and headed back to Arlington Heights. A long day downtown can really wear you out. That being said, I do love going to downtown Chicago, because I love how different it is from downtown Houston. It's so interesting to compare them.

The next day we visited a cute little diner in the morning, and baked (surprise, surprise) in the afternoon. I'll be sharing the recipes with you soon. Then we went to dinner at Francesca's Tavola, which was amazing. It was such a nice little restaurant and the food was delicious. 

All dressed up
My outfit: Shirt-Anthropologie, Jeans-Paige,
Sandals-Target

Thursday we headed to downtown Arlington Heights before I left. I bought these two darling necklaces and the cutest headband for my niece at this little shop called Vignettes.

After that we headed to a unique pet store with a clever name. The Corner Barkery had all sorts of fascinating treats, some of which disgusted me, but I found some souvenirs for my four legged friends back here in Texas. Then we stumbled upon the CUTEST bakery, Sweet T's. I could have moved in their. I had to be dragged out. I honestly would have sat there for hours just soaking it all in. They also make killer cinnamon rolls.

Even with two people splitting it, we couldn't
finish it.

My flight Thursday evening ended up being a little delayed, but I got home in time to sleep in my own bed. As much fun as I had in Chicago, I'm so glad to be home.

Theresa

It's time for a vacation

Well after a laid back time on vacation, or shall I say a somewhat stressful time on a trip, and now I need a vacation (that's a whole other story)...let's just say I'm finally back home and ready to get to work again. 

The vacation that I went on was quite an adventure with many new eye-opening experiences that I will be talking about in my next few posts.

One stop on my vacation was Washington D.C. Of course you know it's our country's capital where amazing history has been made and such an important place to learn about our Founding Fathers. Washington D.C is packed with many things to see and do. Of course there's the White House, Capitol Building, Library of Congress, famous presidential memorials, and the AWESOME Smithsonian museums. I especially enjoyed the Smithsonian American Art Museum. After a day of walking and sightseeing, hunger becomes big issue. Sure you can go to a McDonalds or Chipolte but why not try something different? So I definitely took a chance on a new restaurant that I've never been to called Shake Shack. You might find this restaurant in your state but if you don't I would recommend trying it if you're down for a good burger and fries (keep in mind that vacation is a time for a little calorie splurging).

Shake Shack burger and cheese fries. Let's just say it was worth it.

After a long and packed day you'll definitely be craving dessert too. And when in Washington D.C there's no place better to go than to head to Georgetown (in the Washington D.C area) and try the famous Georgetown Cupcakes! Let me give you a little background information on this dessert shop. Georgetown Cupcakes is owned by two sisters who have their own TV show called D.C Cupcakes (if you're interested it's on TLC). It's an entertaining show to watch about the two sisters having to take on some difficult orders for special events. Sometimes they have to create designs out of cupcakes and sometimes they run into a problem with the baking. They always figure out a way to succeed in their orders and all their customers are extremely happy with the cupcakes. I have enjoyed watching the show so much and it was so amazing to actually get to taste their creations! They have many different cupcake flavors and they are always iced and decorated so nicely. The cupcakes are almost too good to eat (of course I couldn't hold back though). Anyways, the point is if you're in D.C, take a trip to Georgetown Cupcakes! They have the usual flavors: red velvet, vanilla, chocolate. They also make other amazing flavors like key lime, cookies and cream, mocha fudge, chocolate ganache and much more!!

Georgetown Cupcakes

They disappeared quickly!
I'd say the trip was pretty successful.

Sara

three things I'm wearing this summer.....

....besides big t-shirts and comfy shorts.

I don't claim to be a fashion expert, especially since I wore flare jeans with uggs in eighth grade. In general eighth grade wasn't a great year. I took mirror selfies, I rolled my school skirt so it looked like I was from the cast of Mean Girls, I was the member of a "club" who all wore lacrosse socks, and I cried at our eighth grade dance when "Wild Ones" came on, because it made me think of a guy I liked ( I'm pretty sure I had no idea what that song was about at the time). It was rough.

Anyways enough of Theresa: The Middle School Fiasco, let's talk about summer clothes.

1. Overalls. If you know me, this wont surprise you at all. I think that a majority of my tweets are about overalls. I wear them ALL the time. It's an unhealthy obsession. I know lots of people think they aren't cute, but they totally can be. I'll write a whole post on it later, because I think everyone should be educated on how to properly wear overalls.

Clearly modeling isn't my thing

You get the idea though. Overalls are the bomb.

Here are a few options I've found: Target overalls, Wet Seal Aztec Overalls, Etsy.  Thrift Shops are really the way to go for these, because you can cut them to the length you want and make them your own.

2. J.Crew Chino Shorts. My oldest sister is about the same size as me, and I would say more than half my closet is hand me downs from her. She's the one who got me started on these shorts. I now own five pairs and continue to haunt the J.Crew sale section, waiting for more colors to go on sale. They can easily be dressed up which means I get away with wearing them to a lot of places where I couldn't get away with denim shorts.

My collection

Here are the two different inseam lengths that I love: 3 inch, 4 inch

3. Brown Sandals. They are just so versatile and brown pretty much goes with everything, so they are such an easy go to.

Specifically this pair from Target.
They are actually INCREDIBLY comfortable.
(please excuse my ratchet toes)

I also bought this pair from Target for $5.06.
(My feet look so white. Maybe I'm a vampire?)

   I don't know why they were marked down that low in the store, but I snatched them up, because who doesn't need some (tasteful) glitter in their lives. 

Here are three other options under $35 that I'm loving from Nordstrom 'Sofia' by Sam Edelman, 'Daffodil' DV by Dolce Vita, 'Andra' DV8 by Dolce Vita

Theresa