Lace + White

I'll be honest with y'all: I'm in love with this top! You are probably like: Okay Katie, we get it. Why would you buy a top if you didn't love it? Well when I first saw this top on the Lilly Pulitzer website back in November, I knew I had to buy it. I immediately put it in my Wish List and hoped to get it for Christmas. I didn't get it for Christmas but I bought it during a trip to Southpark in January. About that, I was hoping that it would be on sale because you know, it's been in stores for 3 months now. Well it wasn't and I tried it on anyways, and I loved it even more than I did online. It was definitely a bit of a splurge but it has paid off. I have worn this top countless times since buying it. With jeans, a navy cardigan, and flats during the winter (it would look cute paired with riding boots too). With white pants and sandals during the spring. And now during the summer, I love wearing it with chinos (I'm wearing white chinos in this post but have also worn it with different colors as well!). Okay so moral of the story is: buy an Lilly Pulitzer Iona shell top! You will definitely not regret it!

Top- Lilly Pulitzer (similar) Shorts- J. Crew Sandals- Tory Burch Bracelets- David Yurman (similar) Watch- Kate Spade

What has been a favorite summer outfit?

My Chic Week July 10-16 + Preppy Girl Tag

Wow! What a crazy and fun week! I'm looking forward to a nice weekend up in New York but first let's step back and see what I have been up to lately!

Last Friday, I woke up and ran with my dog. It was very hot outside but it was definitely a good idea. I got my hair cut (which was much needed and I absolutely love getting my hair cut) before heading home for some lunch. That afternoon, my family went to the pool of the country club my neighbors belong to with our neighbors, which was a lot of fun! For dinner, I took my siblings to Panera and we hit up Sweet Frog for some dessert.

Saturday, I went out on the lake all afternoon and just relaxed (and got a small sunburn, lol!).

Sunday morning, I went to Church and after lunch, I had one of my best friends over to hang out by the pool. We had a hilarious mini photo-shoot on my sister's swan, which ultimately would up with us falling off the swan into the water.

Monday through Thursday, I volunteered in the morning at an Art Camp at my neighbor's church. I volunteered there last year as well and it is a fun time hanging out with little kids and helping them make some art!

After Art Camp on Monday, I came home for lunch and then ran errands with my mom during the afternoon. Tuesday afternoon, I had some Chick-fil-a for lunch (My brother and sister dressed up like cows so my whole family's food was free!) and spent the afternoon chilling out.

After Art Camp on Wednesday, my mom and I headed down to South Charlotte to go to Southpark Mall for some shopping. I went to Lilly (which shouldn't be a big shocker) to check out the new fall line and see what was on sale. I wound up getting the Iona top, a cardigan (not pictured), and a sweater from the fall line (not pictured)! My mom and I checked out a few different stores (including checking out the new line at Kendra Scott- oh my! so gorgeous, I see a bunch of Kendra going on my Christmas list) before heading back home. I ventured out to Target and then made some cookies for my Art Camp girls!

Thursday was pretty calm as I had my last day of Art Camp and packed up for my trip to New York!

Also, Grace of Miss Graciela tagged me for a Preppy Girl Tag!

What's your definition of preppy?

I think of preppy as classy and timeless full of fun colors but will always be in style!

What's your all time favorite brand? 

For anyone who regularly reads by blog it will be obvious: Lilly Pulitzer! I am huge Lilly fan and love how bright and colorful all of the clothes are!

What is your favorite Lilly print? 

This is a tough one because I love all of them! Probably Southern Charm (which is one of my biggest regrets not buying anything in), Lets Cha Cha, Sky Blue Heaven, and Seeing White Elephants!

Favorite preppy YouTuber? 

I don't really watch a whole lot of YouTube but I love Dorothy (Prep in Your Step) and Meredith's (Southernbelle606) videos!

Jack Rogers or Sperrys?

Jack Rogers!

Jeans or Khakis?

Jeans!

Duck Boots, Riding Boots or Hunters? 

Riding Boots, I wear mine all the time in the fall and winter! I want to buy duck boots though for the wintertime!

Navy or Black? 

Navy! I joke that my closet is 50 shades of navy!

On a scale of 1-10 how much do you love J.Crew? 

100000! J. Crew is another one of my favorite places to shop!

Favorite Ralph Lauren clothing item? 

My riding boots are Ralph Lauren and I love them! The next RL piece I hope to own is a classic, white button-up!

Pearls or bows? 

I can't choose! I definitely wear pearls more often as I don't really wear hair bows all that often (trust me though, I was that little girl with a bow in her hair all the time!) but I love a good bow accent on clothes and accessories!

I tag the bloggers below to play along and answer the questions!
Faith The Petite Pearl
Riley Northern Prepster
Sydney Sincerely, Syd
Tori Prep for a Day

On another note, while y'all are reading this, I am traveling up to my lake house in Upstate New York. I have limited wifi so I plan on being active on social media (follow me on Instagram and Twitter) and I have posts pre-planned for y'all but I will not have any My Chic Week! Don't worry though because I will do a trip recap once I'm back!

What have y'all been up to lately? Are you doing anything fun this weekend? Let me know in the comments!

Pinterest Tips

A few weeks back, I shared my tips for Instagram (read the post here) and I decided that it would be fun to do the same for Pinterest. Pinterest is definitely one of my favorite forms of social media and I probably on Pinterest the most out of my group of friends (follow me here). Pinterest can definitely be helpful as a blogger (I know because I have been introduced to many new blogs through Pinterest).

Organize your Boards

Every few months, I go through my boards and basically get rid of anything I don't like anymore. Just like my real closet, I get rid of older stuff I don't really like to make space (even though there isn't a limit on boards) for new pins. This helps to ensure that everything you pin is a reflection of your current style.

Clean your Captions

We all know the pins. Random captions of 800 hashtags or with random people tagged. I clean up all of my captions so if it is a picture of a Master Bedroom it simply says Master Bedroom.

Divide Boards

As y'all can see in the image above I have 5 separate boards for Clothes. I have it separated into: Spring/Summer, Fall/Winter, Workout Wear, Accessories and Shoes, and Swimwear. This helps to keep the number of pins in a given board down. Also, if someone wants just to see fall clothes they don't have to see you pin bikinis.

Post Often

The more you pin, the more people will re-pin you (and more followers you will gain).

Follow Other Similar Pinners

I typically follow other blogs I love and then go through who they follow to find more people to follow. This means more pins will be in my home feed (that I can re-pin from) that are more of what I really want to see!

Hopefully this was helpful for y'all! What are your favorite tips for Pinterest? Let me know in the comments!

Ruffles + Cha Cha

As y'all probably already know, I love, love, love Lilly Pulitzer (like, if I could only shop at Lilly the rest of my life I would be perfectly content with that). Let's Cha Cha was the print that really introduced me to Lilly. I remember saving up all of my birthday money to buy a bikini in Let's Cha Cha (which was my first Lilly ever) that I still wear to this day. During one of my first trips to Southpark Mall, one of my friends and I ventured into the Lilly store where I tried on the Let's Cha Cha Delia dress, which I absolutely loved. And it was on sale for like $75, in my size! Ugh, I still don't know why I didn't buy it then (now I would have to buy the dress on Ebay for an absurd amount of money)!

Last summer, Lilly re-released Let's Cha Cha in a blue color-way which I bought a pair of Callahan shorts in just in case I would get buyer's regret later on! And this summer, Lilly re-released the original print in short form! Originally I didn't really plan on buying them but after seeing 8 million Instagrams of them and seeing them in person during my trip to Kiawah, I decided to buy them!

Anyways, I love these shorts and they are quite comfy and cute! I paired them with a simple tank with a ruffle at the bottom from J Crew and white Jacks. I wore this in Alabama on our drive to Auburn and out to dinner and it was perfect.

Remember that braid I wore in this post? Well, when I took it out the next morning, I had perfect curls. Sadly they didn't last due to the humidity but they lasted long enough for this picture!

Tank- J Crew Shorts- Lilly Pulitzer Sandals- Jack Rogers Watch- Kate Spade Bracelets- David Yurman (similar)

Sorry for my long-winded rant of my love of Let's Cha Cha!

Packing for Long Trips

I'm so excited to share today's post because it is kind of an intro to my next few weeks. On Friday, I leave for a two week vacation up to Upstate New York. I'm super exciting but packing for such a long time is a little bit daunting. I have pulled together my tips for packing for long trips because I am sure that I am not the only over-packer who feels she needs to bring everything she owns on the trip with her.

image via

Pick a Color Scheme

I did this last year for my trip to New York and it worked out amazing! I packed mainly blues and whites and added some pops of color. It helped because more of my stuff matched each of other so I got more outfits out of the same number of clothes!

Bring the Jewelry You Will Actually Wear

I can't be the only one who does this. I bring a giant bag of jewelry on trips only to just wear what I wear the jewelry I do on an everyday basis. So to save space, bring the everyday jewelry (and maybe a few others)!

Bring a Practical Number of Shoes

Another thing that I am often guilty of. Like for a 3 day trip, I may bring 5 pairs of shoes. If you are like me, think of where you are going and what you need. I always bring sneakers, add flip-flops if it is warm, add sandals if it is warm, add boots if it is cold, add heels/wedges if you have a fancy event to attend, etc.

Plan Ahead

If you are traveling with friends or family, try to work out the who brings what beforehand. Tell a friend, I'll bring my flat iron if you'll bring your hair dryer. It works out so much better because you'll save space in both your bags!

Think of Where You're Headed

Think of the weather and what you will be doing there. If it is going to be super-warm, you may not need jeans. If you are going to a wedding, you may not need super casual clothes. Or on the flip side, if you are going to the mountains, you may not need a fancy dress.

Pack the Just-in-Case

Aka bring a rain jacket or rain-friendly clothes. Just in case!

Make a List

Lately while packing, I have made a list of what I exactly need to pack. I'll write every day that I'll need to pack for. Under the day, I'll write the different events I'll need clothes for and what items. For example: Sunday: Brunch- dress, wedges; Pool- bikini, coverup, flip-flops; Dinner- top, skirt, sandals. Doing this helps me stay organized and know exactly what to pack! 

What are your tips for packing for long trips? Let me know in the comments!

Skort the Rules

I'll be honest with y'all, if you asked me at the beginning of this year what I thought about skorts, I would say eww. My elementary school uniform consisted of a navy skort with a green polo so I think the last time I wore I skort before this year was probably the 5th grade.

Then while in the Lilly store back in May (read about it in this post), I found the most adorable skort ever in Red Right Return, which I was determined to buy something in.

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I have decided that skorts are great because they have built in shorts! I hate wearing spandex under my skirts and dresses so skorts are great since they offer the shorts without the uncomfortableness of spandex!

I found a couple, super cute, perfect for girls older than elementary school skorts that I am sure will convince you to buy (and love?) skorts! I found Lilly has a wide variety but other places have less of a selection so please share your favorite places to find them!

Do you wear skorts? Let me know in the comments!

My Chic Week July 3-9

It's Friday and y'all know that means that it is time for another My Chic Week. This week has been pretty busy but a lot of fun since it's been full of travel and a lot of pool time (definitely not complaining about that!).

I spent the weekend last weekend (Fourth of July weekend) at my grandparents's house in Southern Alabama. Last Friday started off with a long walk with my dog and a trip to the gym. After lunch, my mom, aunt, and I headed to the downtown area of my grandparents's town to do a little shopping (and I was hoping to find a Lilly store so I could get the towel GWP, we found a store with Lilly but no towels so I'm hoping to score a towel in the sale in August). That night, we had dinner at the yacht club, which had amazing views followed by a relaxed night at my grandparents.

Matching Tory Burch sandals (my nude pair are available here, my mom's are a few years old) with my mom after dinner at the Club. We tend to be shoe twins a lot 

Saturday (the Fourth of July) morning, we had another long walk with my dog. We went over to my aunt's house for lunch and we went to their neighborhood pool for a few hours. My grandparents had the whole family over for a Fourth of July barbecue that night. Sadly, it started to rain a few hours before the fireworks were supposed to start so I didn't see any fireworks on the Fourth this year!

Sunday, my family and I packed up and got ready for the 3 and a half hour drive north (which actually turned into 5 hours because of traffic) to Auburn. We spent the night in Auburn before a campus tour the next morning!

I love this picture that my mom snapped after we arrived at the hotel. Clearly, she is pretty exhausted after a few days of thunder and fireworks (which she hates)

I got up bright and early Monday morning to get ready for our tour. The campus was so pretty and I am so glad that we were able to tour it! (PS- If your planning a tour to Auburn it is pretty pet-friendly, we stayed at the Hotel at Auburn which allows dog and we even brought our dog along for the tour!) After our tour, we drove back home to North Carolina (with a stop to Chick-fil-a for lunch). Our family friends were in town while they toured southern colleges so my family spent the evening hanging out with them!

Tuesday morning, I woke up bright and early to run (for the first time in a super long time). Tuesday was pretty relaxed as I pretty much unpacked and hung by my pool. Also, I kind of forgot PLL wasn't on so that was pretty disappointing!

Wednesday I slept in and ran errands before having lunch with my neighbors and our family friends. My siblings and I got some fro-yo from TCBY before an afternoon by the pool (before it rained!). We had a quick dinner at home before heading over to our next door neighbors's to watch Big Brother (and have some Nothing Bundt Cake!).

Thursday morning I ran some errands to Target and the Gap before having lunch at Whole Foods (oh my goodness y'all, their burgers are amazing!). I spent the afternoon by my pool (see a theme here? haha) and my neighbors and family friends came over for a dinner of barbecue (my favorite) and to watch Big Brother (can't you tell this is one of my summer guilty pleasures?).

a few pool day essentials

tumbler cup (similar) sunglasses (similar)

What have you been up to this week? Let me know in the comments!