Sunday Best: Light and Airy

top: Maurices, skirt: F21, boots: Kmart, jacket: Gap

One of my favorite summer outfits is a fun t-shirt paired with a light skirt. I live in skirts during the summer. You see, I'm just not a big fan of Mormon-length shorts. Many people can pull them off but I don't believe I'm one of those people. So I can either choose to sweat it out in pants, or wear a skirt and just be careful to keep my knees together while sitting down. I usually choose the latter. 

Also, may I just add that I love this whole arrow trend? Arrows are cute. Unless they are being used for their true purpose and being immersed in the flesh of a living thing, then they suddenly become less cute. 

I wore this outfit on Thursday. After work, I went with my mom and sisters to "The Fault In Our Stars" and then we did a little shopping after. As expected, I sobbed violently through numerous scenes in the movie. 

Walking out of the theater, I had to question why we as people do this to ourselves, subject ourselves to totally depressing literature and movies. Yet I do it all the time. The very best pieces of work (in my opinion) are the ones where everything doesn't end perfectly, where all the messes aren't completely cleaned up. I mean, take a look at Les Mis. It's pure genius, but really, why do we love it? Every single character seems to be wallowing in misery but we still eat it up. It's perfectly imperfect. Perfectly imperfect pieces of work are my favorite. I think because creating something that is so perfectly imperfect is the very most challenging thing. It's easy to create something where the hero wins and everyone rides off into the sunset living happily ever after. It's also easy to create something that is so depressing and awful that no one wants to touch it. The true difficulty lies in creating something that makes a person sad and happy all at the same time, it needs to have the right amount of tragedy in it to make it beautiful. 

And with that being said, I'm still upset that Harry Potter didn't die in the end. 

Well, I think I'll end before I go off on any other random interjections that make little to no sense. But I loved this outfit. I loved last Thursday. I loved spending time with my mom and sisters. They really are some of my favorite people.   

These Summer Days

Isn't it kind of sad that so many times life seems to evolve around the weekends?

It's Monday. Such a loooong time until the weekend.

Wednesday! Hump Day!

It's finally Friday!! All is right in the world!!!

I love me my weekends, don't get me wrong. However, I also love me my weekdays. That might partially have to do with the fact that I try to treat my weekdays a lot like I treat my weekends. Work hard, play hard.

Every day I'm always asking BWell, "What do you want to do after work today?"

I'm sure there are plenty of times where he just wishes I'd stop being a psycho and sit still on the couch for a minute, but he's a good sport and always finds adventures to go on with me.

The adventures feel like they've doubled this week, and I think it's because of the official arrival of summer this past Saturday.

I'm thoroughly convinced that small towns do summers right. Everything is so beautiful in our little valley right now. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

In the past five days, we've really tried living it up when we are not at the office. I might not get a summer vacation anymore, but I make do with what I have. There have been hikes, countless motorcycle rides (one of those landed us in Bear Lake with friends), trail runs, and long reads in the hammock until the sun sets and I can no longer see the pages of my book.

I've been going to bed exhausted every night and waking up grateful to live another exciting day. I hope and pray I can always live like that.

Sometimes life can be really hard, but sometimes it's really good. Right now is one of those really good moments. I'm trying not to question it or worry about when the hard times will hit next, I'm just trying to be grateful for it. I'm basking in it like sun rays. It feels so sweet right now.

A New Endeavor

I think it's pretty evident by this point that I've lost interest in blogging. I've always felt a little weird doing it anyway. Whenever someone brings up my blog, I just don't even know how to talk about it. The conversation typically goes like this:

"I like your blog."

"Oh, you're nice . . ."

Then I change the subject.

I don't know. I've just never felt like a blogger. At one point, I remember thinking, "There are tons of girls who make their blog a business. I could do that."

But then that moment quickly went away because I know I don't want that. I love sharing bits and pieces of my life and thoughts with you, but some bits and pieces are only meant for me. I'm a big, selfish meanie. Also, I have this very deep rooted fear of being unauthentic. Now I'll be the first to tell you that I'm a lot of terrible things. I'm a slob. I get jealous. Sometimes I watch R-rated movies. I love to use the word "bastard", although I'd never say it in front of my mother.

But one thing I feel I'm very good at is being authentic. I don't want to lose that by trying to be something I'm not so I can gain more "followers".

This isn't me saying that I'm ending the life of "A Little Bird Told Me". But this is me saying that I probably won't post so often. You see, I don't have much free time. Especially since I'm pouring my extra time and energy into a NEW WEBSITE!

I would absolutely love your support for this new endeavor of mine. I've started up a website called Sharing Shine. Sharing Shine is dedicated to connecting, inspiring, and celebrating women of ALL ages. We will share incredible stories of women who live right in our communities. There are also sections dedicated to women's health, DIY projects, food, and much more. It's kind of like an online women's magazine, only that it's for all of us regardless of age, background, or beliefs. Too often I think we see women tearing other women down. Sharing Shine is all about women helping other women.

We just launched the site this week . . . and the work has already been quite overwhelming. I feel like I've just started another full-time job on top of my real full-time job. I've been living in my office at my computer. My TMJ is getting so serious that I'm wearing my mouth guard right now as to stop myself from turning my teeth into tooth fairy dust. But despite the stress . . . it's also been SO rewarding. The support we've already received is humbling and sometimes I sporadically feel like I'm going to cry and laugh all at once. So as weird and corny as it is, I love you. If you're reading this and you've supported us in any way, whether you've followed us on social media, shared an article, whatever . . . I love you. Thank you for supporting this dream of mine. It feels good to use my journalism degree to write things I'm passionate about. I've always wanted to do something for women and I think this might be my little golden nugget.

We have a lot of great things planned for Sharing Shine. This is my invitation to you to follow along ;).  

Sharing Shine Facebook

Sharing Shine Twitter

Sharing Shine Pinterest

Sharing Shine Instagram

Sunday Best: Headbands to the Rescue!

top: H&M, jeans: Kohl's, meow loafers: Delias, earrings: F21, headband: Claire's

I have a feeling my headband collection will see new growth over the summer. I turn into a gross human being during the warmer months. My inner child comes out. I get extremely dirty and cry at the thought of having a bath. Okay, so I'm not that bad. I bathe on a regular basis. But I do avoid washing my hair at all costs. 

My hair is extremely dry and course. I've found that one of the best things I can do for my locks is minimize the washing. While shampoo might make my hair smell good, it strips it of all its precious natural oils. I know it sounds kind of gross, especially since I workout every morning and put in a good sweat, but I tend to only wash my hair maybe twice a week. Since I dyed my hair red in the past month, I've been holding off on washing even more so (why must red fade so quickly?). 

Luckily, my hair doesn't get noticeably greasy until maybe the third or forth day without washing (I'm disgusting). However, there are those moments when my hair starts looking questionable and it is much too short to pull back in a ponytail. That's where cute headbands step in and save me from tragic bad hair days. I bought the above polka dot one a week ago and I've already worn it three or four times. Yes, headbands might just be my new favorite accessory. 

I don't know though, Munch the Pooch made a pretty cute accessory in that last photo. We matched with our black and white outfits ;).    

Trespassers

Our long weekend was a good one. Brian and I spent the entirety of our Saturday out in our yard. It was an exhausting day of planting, digging, mowing, and running into plenty of tree roots with our shovels (I'm convinced that our whole yard is just an entanglement of tree roots). We went to bed that night tired but happy. I love yard work. I would do yard work over house work any day of the week. We also put in a fire pit, which I was very excited about. So excited that I posted about it on Facebook.

On Sunday after church, we packed a bag and went to my in-laws. We would spend Memorial Day with them, visiting graves and getting our first rays of sun out on the boat. On Sunday night, I got an Instagram notification. I had been tagged in a photo. Apparently a couple of my high school buddies decided to drop by the bungalow, wanting to burn stuff with me in my new fire pit. This is the photo they tagged me in . . .

Captioned: Visiting our pal Kelsey! #probablyshouldacalledahead #watchdog #didntevenbark #cantfigureoutthethreehousedoor #wecametoburnstuff #stillchillinontheporch #munchthepooch

I was pretty distraught I missed my dear friends, more distraught that my dog makes friends with complete strangers who sneak in our yard, but very amused by the photos.

Then on Monday morning, I found this lovely on Facebook . . .

Not only do they sit on my porch and befriend my dog, but the next day they meet up with MY family for breakfast (this was completely accidental, they did not plan it).

Finally on Monday evening, we made things right with a weenie roast in my yard. Good friends are the best. I hope I can always stay in touch with these hooligans from my high school years.

Now . . . who else wants to come over and burn stuff?!