"Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." -Henry James
Summer is just the best! Next to the holiday season and spring, summer is my favorite time of the year. I love how everyone’s happy, the sun is shining all the time and the days are long. Lately, I’ve been filling my summer afternoons with light jazz and delicate candles while I take it all in and I don’t want it to end - except for the humidity. I can certainly do without that haha. As we ease into July, I’ve been taking some time to reset for the rest of the year and make sure I’m making the most of 2019 while also practicing self-care when necessary.
MOOD
The mood for this month is excitement laced with plenty of relaxation. I’m taking time out of every day to soak in the sunshine, cuddle with Jeffrey, Maddie and Samantha and eat plenty of healthy summer foods (some of my favorites include huge salads, avocado toast with sesame oil and lemon, and salmon burgers). I love the energy of summer, especially down here in Charleston where the air hangs heavy with humidity but the mood is light, and for me July always represents a time of reflection and prep for the rest of the year ahead.
CURRENTLY WEARING, PLANNING & DOING
Even though I love a lot of things about summer, it’s never been my favorite to dress for but this year I’m really taking control of that and I’ve been paying special attention to my summer wardrobe. Now that I’ve lived down south for a few years, I have a pretty good idea of what I love to wear in the warm weather and I finally feel ready to expand my warm weather wardrobe. Things like a classic straw hat, easy dresses and light, airy tops are essentials for looking and feeling my best and I’m having so much fun adding these into my wardrobe!
In addition to taking the time to rework my summer wardrobe, I’ve also been slowly starting to plan my fall wardrobe! It sounds shocking but the first day of fall isn’t too far off so every spare moment I get I’ve been going through my closet in sections and taking inventory of what I have. Unsurprisingly, I’ve realized that I have plenty of cold weather clothes and really don’t need anything. So instead, I’ve been coming up with a plan for the couple of things I hope to add out of want not need and making sure I’m not hanging onto anything that I don’t get enough use or joy out of. To do this, I separate my clothes into 2 main categories for f/w and s/s - keep (which includes anything new) and on hold. Anything that’s “on hold” gets moved to the back of my closet where it stays as I figure out if I actually reach for it. I do this with real-world dressing as I put outfits together in the morning and on days when I feel like experimenting I’ll try and create outfits using these pieces to see how much I still love them. I’ll share more about my process in a future video but it’s a method I’ve been using for a while now and it’s worked really well for me.
INSPIRATION
I’ve also been loving the palette I’m playing with for summer and have realized all over again just how much I love blue. It really is one of my all-time favorite colors and I’m looking forward to wearing it into fall and winter as well so I’ve been doing a ton of outfit planning and Pinterest dreaming to help.
Happy summer! xx
