Oh Panera, you give me such joy in visiting you. With your selection of pastries, bagels, breads, and not to mention your delicious soups, salads, and sandwiches I feel that the possibilities are endless. And my most favorite thing…free wifi. I have so many fond memories of spending time sitting in your comfy booths catching up with my girl friends. Before I moved, you were less than 5 minutes away from me and were walking/biking distance. Now, you’re about 20 minutes away and my heart is NOT happy. When Jimmy and I move, one of the first things I shall do is find my nearest Panera Bread for my weekly fix. Thank you for always being there for me.

Always,
Jen

Anyway, things are going great! A few weeks ago Jimmy got his date to leave for basic training…November 29th! We were awaiting a call to let us know he’d be leaving any day now, but it’s nice for us to have a date and make the most of the time we have left together before we are away from each other for 8 weeks. We’re thinking of taking a mini-vacation somewhere, but not sure where yet. It’ll be nice that he will get to be here on Thanksgiving, but the thought of spending Christmas and New Years without him makes me cry a little inside, and I’ll definitely be crying on the outside when he’s gone. All I gotta say is that we better have one heck of an amazing Valentine’s Day when he comes back!!

Coming up: Disneyland pics, Palm Springs, outfits, and so forth

x
Jen

the VERY first picture I ever took of him.

And this is a photo of us on his birthday last year (which reminds me…umm can I have my hair back to that length please?!)

Gosh, I am married to a handsome lad. Happy Birthday my wonderful, nerdy, shy, charming, kind, modest, awkward, quirky, handsome, loving, doting husband. I love you more and more each day.

For some reason, this outfit feels very american-inspired to me. I could have seen myself wearing it to a 4th of July BBQ or maybe just a summer BBQ with friends and family. But nope, this shirt has been sitting in my closet for months now because I am not accustomed to wearing crop tops. I bought it on a whim and have only worn it one other time, with something that was high-waisted so my midriff wasn’t showing. That is probably how I will continue to wear it, so this is a once in a lifetime thing and something that is waaaay out of my comfort zone. It’s been pretty hot this summer so I thought hey, first time for everything…why not try it and see how I feel? I felt okay in it, but much rather prefer to have less skin showing! Gotta go with comfort first. So my dearest crop top, it was fun while it lasted, but from this point on I will not be wearing you the way you were intended, for the sake of my midriff. Hope there’s no hard feelings.

shirt from forever21, hand me down cut off shorts, and gifted hi-top chucks.

Sometimes I like to occasionally buy a little necklace or ring here or there, but no piece of jewelery I have ever owned compares to my grandmothers brooch and earrings she left me before she passed away. While elephants aren’t particularly my favorite animal, they were hers. I remember going to my grandparents house when I was a little girl and spending what seemed like hours staring at all her little elephant figurines on the shelf in their living room. After a while she noticed I had taken an interest in them and started to give me some of my own to collect. Pretty soon I had my own little collection and it was something we bonded over. My grandma was probably one of the most caring and loving people I have ever known and when she passed she left me with some of her most treasured items, but I am reminded of her the most when I put on those earrings or the matching brooch and it gives me such a happy feeling knowing that I still feel a close bond with her. She passed in 2003, and there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about her. I miss her dearly.

xx

i find it sort of ironic that i’ve been blogging about spring, pastels, lace and breezy clothes yet here i am, in mostly black! anyway, this was an outfit i was sort of lazy with and threw together for work. it was one of those “i don’t know what to wear” days. it seems like my on-the-go outfit these days is something with tights+denim shorts. i might be getting too comfortable with it, haha.

details:

glittery mickey mouse tee: f21 (purchased a long time ago) denim shorts: handed down, brogues: thrifted

so just letting you all know that this blog will be going through some changes in the future..i’m not sure how near in the future, but i’d like to change the direction that this blog is going, if that makes sense. i’ll still be posting outfits, however i’m going to begin posting more pictures and words that have more to do with jimmy and i and our life together. things are sort of at a pause for us right now, but as soon as life picks up for us again, i’ll be posting it here first! our one year wedding anniversary is coming up soon and i’m so excited! wow where did the time go? i have no idea what we are doing, but apparently he’s getting things figured out. i cannot wait

have a good week everyone!

yummy brunch:

Jimmy, Jen (me), Jacky, Jim, JoAnn, Jon, Jhen, Josselyn, Great grampa & Great grandma Hammer. So many J’s!

Great grandma and grandpa Hammer with their new Great-grandaughter, Joss.

The happy little family of three.

Beautiful baby girl Joss

Baby, mom, and aunties

Mom and dad! I loved taking these.

And us

I tried to make this entry short but it ended up being long anyway. Hah, oh well. Anyway, these were taken a few weeks ago. It was such a fun day, we went out to celebrate Great grandma Hammer’s birthday. Jimmy and I actually have our one year wedding anniversary coming up and I’ve been thinking lately about how thankful I am for such an amazing husband and best friend but when I look at these photos I realize that I am also thankful for his amazing family that I married into. I have fallen in love with them and feel so blessed to be a part of the clan. God is so good. I just wanted to share the happiness of this day with the e-world

xx

i’ve never been too big a fan of patent leather shoes, but i love how she makes them work here. i’m also loving the contrast of her floral dress, they give the outfit a pop of color to the neutral shades she’s wearing.

that dress alone is all kinds of wonderful but i can’t get enough of the lace peeking out underneath it! also, i believe that patterned tights can be a hard thing to pull off. if not done right, it can make an outfit look too busy. but this girl pulled it off perfectly by keeping everything else simple.

i’ve found that tights + denim shorts are a hit or miss for most people but i fully support it, and now even more so after seeing the way model Frida Gustavsson rocks it. and she threw in over the knee socks too! all the while looking insanely classy. this girl is already stunning, but these outfits definitely inspired me to keep my cut off shorts out all year-round.

photos by altamira and stylesightings