Month: June 2016

27 Jun 2016

Wedding Mondays

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/159235106]

As we all know, summer is the season of love. More people look at Kimberfire: Engagement Rings, plan proposals, carry out weddings, renew their vows, etc. in summer than any other month. Couples want beautiful weather and long nights to make the most of these huge displays of affection and this year is no different.

We have a lot of love in our hearts after being in Seattle for the last week. While I was home, I learned that one of my best friends from college just got engaged! Naturally, you all know that that always makes me a little bit emotional and that getting to share a wedding video for the following Monday makes this so much better. The video we’re sharing today is right up our alley because it’s totally non-traditional and we love it. Lately, I’ve been reading about a lot of weddings through blogs that are tossing out those old-aged and stale traditions. I have such a greater sense of appreciation for couples that can do things that aren’t always by the books and are most true to themselves.

Unrelated, but sort of related – I watched an episode of “Say Yes to the Dress” while I was home and this bride-to-be with electric blue hair just had to have color in her wedding dress, but her very traditional mother wanted her in a white dress. When she tried on a white dress at the request of her mother, she broke down in tears because she just didn’t feel like herself and of course, the mom (seeing her daughter sobbing) still couldn’t see it. SO (this was the best part!) the salespeople at Kleinfeld stepped in and were all “Mom, we’re not going to see a crying bride on our floor so you need to just take a step back and let your daughter do what she wants to do.” Those aren’t the exact words, but I’m pretty close! So whether you have a rainbow-colored dress or you opt out of the cake cutting or don’t have a bridal party at all, you should just do what feels right for you and your partner.


Side note / Fun fact – while I was home, I caught up with Veronica who is also newly engaged and she had the chance to show me her amazing and stunning pearl earrings which she and her fiance had chosen instead of just your standard engagement ring. She said they got the idea after spending hours searching for engagement rings and not finding anything she liked that was in their budget. She said she stumbled across some earrings on Haruni (HTTPS://WWW.HARUNI.COM/ABOUT-US/) whilst looking for rings, and the idea popped into her head. I had actually never heard of anyone swapping out the engagement ring for another piece instead, but it was SO them to do it this way and it clearly held a lot of sentiment for the both of them. Of course, weddings are changing these days. People aren’t sticking to traditional trends, such as a diamond ring. A lot of people are looking into other rings, such as moissanite rings that are eco-friendly and conflict-free. They look just like diamond rings, yet they are so much better for the environment. Additionally, couples tend to look for engagement rings that are durable and can be passed to the next generation as heirloom. I mean, if you want to establish a point using the piece of jewelry that “love is an ever-fixed mark” then why not go for custom-designed rings. Since people are starting to change weddings to make sure they’re perfect for them, they can begin by designing their rings from scratch at Durham Rose and similar bespoke jewelry sites.

In a nutshell, it would be safe to say that love is something that can be expressed in every season. However, those who want an extravagant display of their affection can always choose the summer season. I mean, summer always gives you the chance to be vibrant and multi-hued. Doesn’t it?

To view the entire feature on Green Wedding Shoes, click here.

26 Jun 2016

Candle Container DIY

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After developing a love for candles earlier this year, I didn’t want these pretty containers to go to waste every time a candle completely burned out. I figured I probably wasn’t the only person that ever had this thought though. Luckily for me, Anthropologie had already written a post for this on how you could re-use your candle containers for other things you might need to store. Now many of you already know that I’m not much of a DIY girl, but I was very serious about my candles so I made it work. You can also do the same by following this very handy dandy tutorial that I did too. Basically, to reuse your container all you have to do is pour boiling water into it and let it sit for 5 minutes. Continue cleaning it out until all the wax is gone and here’s the most important tip though – when you rinse it out in the sink, there will be leftover residue so just make sure you clean the wax left in your sink too because it’s the worst.

There are so many uses for a candle container; you can use it for your bathroom, office space, garden, accessories, etc, but I took the bathroom route and now it is a very cute holder for all of my qtips and cotton balls! The possibilities are sort of endless.

26 Jun 2016

All Black + Shadow Puppets

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Blouse – Madewell / Pants – H&M / Cardigan – Aritzia / Hat – Nordstrom

Remember how we said in our last post that we were getting a little experimental with our outfits back in the winter? This is definitely one of them. I considered not even sharing these horrid outfits, but then I thought you know what – we all make fashion mistakes sometimes, there are tonnes of common style mistakes for fashion and it’s okay. It’s all about learning about what works, what could be changed and how you can improve on your outfit next time.

Much of my closet these days is full of blacks, whites, and neutrals and on this day I was wanting to have an all black moment. Instead, I came off looking like a child star on Star Search with this get up. Also, why am I wearing all black when it’s a perfectly sunny day? It’s all just pretty bad. These pants also look similar to the ones I wear by Uniqlo, but these are actually a very old pair from H&M that aren’t as fitted. After this wear, we decided we had to get rid of these too 🙁 Also, can you see the shadow puppets? My friends think they are pretty funny.

26 Jun 2016

Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance

photo cred | Garance Dore

You guys, I finally did IT! It may have taken me 6 months, but this was the first book that I have finished in years. I constantly get made fun of by my coworkers because in the past couple of years, I have acquired several books, (Lean In and Blog Inc) that I have always wanted to finish, but never quite got there, unfortunately. After being adapted to blogs for so long, it was hard for me to continue to keep my attention span on an entire book so the only way we could get this done was through airplane rides.

I bought this for myself over Christmas time after Sam had told me she had just gotten it and found myself hooked quickly. Dating in 2016? Sounds exactly like what all my friends and I are talking about any chance we get. Besides loving Aziz, I loved his take on dating culture around the world, but also by different generations. This is something that my parents and I don’t always see eye to eye on, but it’s nice to know that there’s lots of people that don’t quite agree with their parents on it as well. I would recommend this to you because it’s a good and quick read (if you’re enjoying it) but who am I to give a recommendation – it took me 6 months after all. Here’s hoping that you finish this quicker than I do!

Also – this is a big deal because this satisfies one of my New Year’s resolutions – finishing something that we start! We hope that we can continue this with everything that we start, but we’re just fine checking the box off one for now.

26 Jun 2016

Song of the Day

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Miguel – Come Through and Chill

We call this the baby maker game changer because Miguel is one of our all-time favorite singers and his lyrics are so smooth and so very steamy. This track, in particular, is just everything you’ve ever wanted in a hook-up track. We got you. It’s a little different to be picking this song on a Sunday at 8AM, but we’ve been saving this one for ya!

24 Jun 2016

How Ice Cream Sandwiches Are Made

These are always some of my favorite videos mostly just because I find them to be fascinating. There’s always a box of ice cream sandwiches in my freezer so this was very relatable to me.

24 Jun 2016

Sometimes You Just Want To Be A Girly Girl

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Chambray Shirt – Madewell / Tulle Dress – H&M / Booties – Munro @Nordstrom

The next few outfits after this one are what I call my experimental period. You’ll start to notice soon that I was really testing the waters and pushing the boundaries on some of the outfit combinations I was putting together. Not all of them always worked, but at least we now have the photographic evidence on why they didn’t and we won’t try them again 🙂

On this particular day, I just really wanted to incorporate this tulle into my outfit. Every day, I saw it hung up on my closet and thought well, if I’m not going to wear it, I should get rid of it. I was determined to find a place for it though so I put on the dress (which I only wore once for Halloween for a princess costume) and put my chambray shirt over it tying it in the front. This was my most girliest outfit yet. It’s not that it was a terrible ensemble – it wasn’t – but it also didn’t feel like me. Because the top half of the dress is done up with sequins, I was itchy and uncomfortable all day. The tulle is also VERY sheer, but luckily for us – we avoided what could have been a massive wardrobe malfunction. All in all… lesson learned and now that we’ve made an outfit work with the dress, I think we can safely say that it is time to retire it.