Lilly Pulitzer + Where Else to Buy Lilly

The Lilly sale is officially less than a week away. I love the Lilly sale and I think it is so exciting when it comes around. I have bought from this sale which is usually in August (This year it's later) and again in January for about four years or more now. I usually find a few items that I can't live without, I'll show those on the blog later. But if you don't feel like waiting for the only two times a year that the sale comes around there are a few other places you may be able to get a deal.

Poshmark: 

It is a little frustrating that the Lilly sale is only two times a year. If you're like me then you love a bargain. There are a few other places to get Lilly on sale. One place is Poshmark, most of the stuff on Poshmark is pre-used but sometimes you can find an item that is new with the tags. I found this Lilly for Target shift pictured above on major sale from Poshmark. There are constantly new and used Lilly items being put up on Poshmark. I had a great experience receiving my Lilly item but I do know that you have to take precautions when shopping on Poshmark. For example:

• Make sure that the pictures are taken of the actual item and not just photos taken from the internet. This way you can see if the item has any stains or rips. 
• Ask for more pictures. If you are really interested in an item don't be afraid to ask for more pictures of the item. One time I asked for pictures with a tape measure to see how big the item was. You can ask for closer pictures of the stains or anything else you may wanna see closer. 
• Never email someone or do a transaction outside of Poshmark through an email. If someone comments on one of the items you are selling and wants to email you about purchasing it, they are most likely a scammer. Another way that you can see if someone is a scammer is on their profile other poshers will comment scam on their photos sometimes. 

6pm.com:

This actual site I have never purchased from but I do know of people who have. Right now they have a few Lilly items that are on sale. This is one of those websites that I would watch to see if the prices go down even further every now and then. This site has a lot of stuff on sale that is usually included on the Lilly sale. So if you missed an item that you wanted I would check this website to see if they have it. 

In Store:

The Lilly store has a pre-sale before the items go on sale online on Sept. 8th - Sept. 9th but if you don't live by an actual retail Lilly store like me than your out of luck on the pre-sale. But you should do some research because I do live by a store named the pink paddock which is actually a Lilly Pulitzer store that is privately owned. Because they are privately owned they don't do a sale at the same time corporate Lilly does it. So if you have a privately owned Lilly store by you watch out for their sales.

Healthy Eating and Good Pants

If there are two things that I love in life it is healthy food that actually tastes good and a piece of clothing that you feel great in. I am happy to bring to you today both of those things, Acai bowls and linen Jcrew pants may be my two favorites of August.

Shirt: Express (similar) | Pants: JCrew | Bag: Amazon (similar) | Shoes: Jack Rogers | Necklace: Dogeared | Sunglasses: Ray Bans | Bracelet: Kendra Scott (Similar) 

Have you ever bought something and thought: "I am going to be brave but I really don't know about this". That's exactly how I felt when buying these linen pants. But it turned out to be the best decision that I have made and I am now completely obsessed with these pants. I literally wear these pants in so many different situations, I wore them recently to the movies because they are so comfortable. I like to roll them up and wear them with sandals but they could easily be rolled down and transitioned into the fall. I keep checking every Jcrew Factory store trying to find more but they are all sold out because of how amazing these pants are.

So I have finally tried an Acai bowl and I can not believe it has taken me this long to actually try one. I feel like I am always craving one lately and where I live the place to get them is like 30 minutes away (first world struggles). The mix of peanut butter with granola and the acai is just so refreshing but delicious at the same time. If you haven't had one before I highly recommend them!

Amazon Fashion... My Thoughts

Okay so maybe this is something that everybody already knows about but I just realized how amazing this actually is. I love Amazon and buy so many things from that website already, I have been a prime member for a while now and relied heavily on Amazon when I was in college. But this past week I was looking for a black and white striped t-shirt dress, one that wasn't too expensive but still fit well. So I was all out of luck at my usual spots so I decided to check out Amazon, well I am so glad I did because it was life-changing.

T-shirt dress | Jack Rodgers | RayBans Clubmasters | Micheal Kors Wristlet 

I bought this dress on Amazon for only 14$ and free shipping because it was an amazon prime item. What I didn't realize was that Amazon offered their prime deals through different companies. So this dress that I bought is through Shein. I have shopped a few items from shein but always found that their shipping looks longer than I would like so I stopped purchasing from there. But now that I found them on Amazon I will be a frequent shopper.

Amazon has a section called Amazon fashion where you can search many different categories from dresses to shoes and jewelry. all of these items are broken down and then you can search through items such as bathing suits from all different companies. I love this because you get such a wide variety of pieces and you aren't just looking at one store.

Amazon also has a feature called Prime Wardrobe which allows you to have clothing items sent to your home for you to try on. Then if you don't like those items you can send them back to Amazon with the shipping labels that were sent to you. I love this idea because being so short can make it hard to shop online and send the stuff back makes it hassle but not with Prime Wardrobe.

Ruffle Dress

The ruffle trend on dresses is big this year and I am completely on board with it. This Ruffle dress from JCrew is going to be my staple for the summer. I love a dress that fits well and can be worn to so many different events and places.

Jcrew: Ruffle dress | Jack Rogers: sandals  | Kate Spade: (SIMILAR) | Raybans: Clubmaster

 I actually just wore this dress to my preschool's graduation ceremony and then immediately jumped in the car for a four-hour road trip to Maine (You can read all about our trip in this post here). It was a long day and I was comfortable in this dress the entire time.

The ties on the sleeves are adjustable when I first tried this on the sleeves were a little tight but after I readjusted them they were perfect. This dress also comes in a variety of other patterns and colors which are also so cute! Being under 40$ it is the perfect summer dress. At the preschool graduation, one of the mom's commented on this dress saying how summery it looked.

Maine Trip Recap

Last weekend my family, Kyle and I took a very special trip to Ogunquit Maine. This trip was really special because we surprised my grandparents by showing up at the end of their vacation they were on for their 50th wedding anniversary. My grandma was so surprised she just kept saying "I can't believe it, I just can't believe it". I didn't take many photos because I really took this time to enjoy it with family but I will talk about the amazing places we went to.

We stayed at the Juniper Hill Inn which was beautiful, and one of the best parts was that they had heated pools so even though it was a little chilly it still felt like a vacation because swam in the pool every night that we were there. There was also lilac bushes all over the hotel so the whole place smelled like lilacs.

Where we ate:

• Ogunquit Lobster Pound Restaurant: This was the first restaurant we ate at, we loved this place because even though I don't eat lobster my family does. At the lobster pound they got the go out and hand pick the lobster they would eat for dinner. 
• Barnicle Billy's: This restaurant is right on the water with a beautiful view that looked fake. The food and drinks were delicious.
• Beach Lobster House: This was my favorite restaurant we ate at, the view was absolutely stunning and the decor and setting was very modern and beautiful. We sat on little-cushioned stools I loved it. 

What we did:

• The first day we walked around the little shops in Kennebunkport which is one of my favorite things to do. I love to shop little boutiques and window shop.
• The second day we took a lobster boat which was really fun and so interesting. The tour guide looked to be about college aged and the whole time I kept thinking about how much fun that would be to do as a summer job. 
• The last day we drove over to the Bush family compound which can be seen from land as it is a small peninsula on the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful. And I'm pretty sure Jenna Bush was there due to her Instagram posts.  

This is the Bush family compound.

We had an amazing time in Maine and it was so special to be able to surprise my grandparents and celebrate this amazing milestone with them.

yellow Striped T-Shirt Dress

Old Navy: Dress | Target: Grey sneakers | Jack Rogers: Sandals | Gap: Jean Jacket | Amazon: leather watch band | Kendra Scott: Necklace

My go-to outfits these days are definitely t-shirt dresses, they are so easy and can be worn in so many different ways. I love to throw a jean jacket over them on the cooler spring days with a pair of sneakers, or a pair of Jacks on summer days. I love this particular t-shirt dress because I love the pop of blue at the top, I love blue and yellow together. 

Old Navy is my favorite place to find these dresses and they are at such an affordable price. This one is on sale for only 18$ right now! If you are on a budget like me, Old Navy is a great place to get good deals on cute items. 

I Graduated College!!

This past weekend was my college graduation. I received a bachelors degree in Psychology from The College of Saint Rose. It was a bittersweet moment because it is an amazing feeling to be done with school but I also can't believe my college years are over. There are so many things that I learned not only academically but about myself as well. For one caramel macchiatos from Starbucks make studying a lot more interesting and drawing picture examples in my notes help me to really learn the material. But I also learned that my body does not handle stress very well and that a good cry is sometimes what you need the most. Through the ups and downs, it was all worth it. I can't believe the next chapter of my life has just begun.

Lilly Pulitzer: dress | Jack Rogers: Shoes

Thank you, mom and dad and everyone else who has helped me through my college years.

Last Days of Summer

Top: Hollister | Shorts: JCrew Factory | Sandals: Jack Rogers | Choker: Rockbox 

Happy Monday! This weekend was spent mostly on the couch because I did not feel good at all. This weather going from cold to hot cold to hot is killing my sinuses and I contracted an awful cold from my brother. So if I look a little puffy in these photos it's because I literally forced myself to take these pictures and then went right back to the couch when I was done.

This week is going to be so long, school is already so stressful and I had to drop 80$ on a new charger yesterday because mine broke in the middle of a quiz. But thankfully everything seems to be falling back into place and hopefully, this week won't be as stressful as this weekend.

So as I said this past week and this upcoming week in New York is going to be hotter than the entire month of August, but it is still that weird time when it is freezing in the morning and then you're sweating bullets by the afternoon. That's when I love outfits like this for the perfect combination. This top is super lightweight and makes it perfect for those transitional days. Also how cute is this choker?!? I love how simple it is but still really makes a statement, I'm tellin ya this rocksbox subscription is killing the game!

BOYFRIEND BUYS MY OUTFIT CHALLENGE!!

I am so excited to share with you guys today's post. This is a very popular challenge on youtube I first saw it on Alex Garza's youtube video you can see here. So the challenge is that your boyfriend or husband goes shopping and picks out an entire outfit for their wife or girlfriend. But I put a little more of a twist on it for Kyle and only gave him a 50$ budget that he had to stay within.

Now I am going to put even more of a challenging touch on this and make Kyle write out the post about how his experience was doing this challenge (All of his writing will be in blue). He even took the pictures, so I'm going to link the outfit details here and then he will do the rest!

Gap: off the shoulder top | Jcrew: Shorts | Earrings: Sugarfix | Shoes: Jack Rogers

Hello to all of Kelsey's lovely followers! When Kelsey told me about this challenge I was very excited to take it on. She has fantastic style and I really wanted to impress her. The first place I knew I had to go was the nearest mall because it had the J Crew Factory outlet in it. I didn't really have a clue about what I was going to get her, but I knew I either wanted a sundress outfit, a short shorts outfit, or something that uses a button down shirt because I personally really like the look. The first place I looked was J Crew, I knew that she loves basically anything in there and I knew you could find some cheap clothes there. Fortunately for me, the first thing I saw was the shelf with all the khaki short shorts things on it. They had a bunch of cool designed shorts, like pineapple green and yellow shorts, crane shorts that were light blue. These were 20 bucks though and that made me nervous. So the shorts next to them were the one color shorts, and I decided impulsively that I wanted to get the Navy blue ones because they were cute and her size. They cost about 15 bucks. I found a bunch of shirts at J Crew that appeared to match well, but they were a little out of my price range like the shirts were mostly 30 bucks and I really want to add a third piece to the outfit. I decided to go to the other end of the mall and look at Gap. I truly didn't have any luck in Gap, I couldn't find anything I liked, the button down shirts were so expensive and so was the fleecy looking shirts that I see a lot, and everything in my price range was pretty unattractive. I literally almost left when I saw in the corner of my eye a shelf of these white shirts that said 60 percent off, so I went to go check. It was like it was meant to be because there was nothing good until the absolute last shirt that was her size and appeared to be a really pretty white shirt. That turned out to be an over-the-shoulder shirt that apparently is really popular right now. The shirt happened to be 21 dollars so that left me with about 36 bucks. I decided to finish the puzzle I wanted to either get some sort of jewelry or shoes. I went to Target because she likes it there and would probably shop there for clothes, and I know she likes their jewelry. I really wanted to get those flats shoes that she wears a lot, but didn't know they cost as much as they did, Target's selection of flats were all around that 30 dollar mark. I also know she had the Jack Rodger sandals that she would probably wear anyways. I decided to pick up the earrings because they put me right at that 50 dollar maximum and I knew she liked that brand, and I thought they were extremely different looking which I enjoyed.

I really enjoyed this competition, I love Kelsey's blog and think she is doing an amazing job with it and anything I can do to help her and make her amazing followers happy I am down for! Plus I actually really liked picking outfits for her! I will say I thought it was going to be a cake walk just going around the mall trying to find the clothes, but at the end of all the shopping, I was extremely wiped out, and actually pretty frustrated with how stressful it was to find something I thought she would like. I would 100 percent do another one of these challenges for her though!! Thank you guys for listening to me ramble, and please, brainstorm some ideas down below in the comment section about some other really cool, and fun challenges Kelsey can try and do on this Blog!