Round-up | Picnic Pretties Mood Board

Picnic Pretties round-up time! Here it is. My entire summer in one post. Basically, this is the cliff notes version of each retro picnic inspired look. I never quite know how it's going to look once it's completed, but this series was dominated by punchy colors, fruit prints, gingham, and a nostalgia for the past that took me by surprise. Obviously, I'm inclined to love vintage, yet I wasn't expecting how personal it would become for me. I stopped seeing the lovely vintage inspired pins that brought me to this place and started seeing my family in everything I did. I felt like I was living in my grandmother's footprints from when her children were young. Everything reminded me of photos and stories and for that this series will always be very special to me.

You can visit the Pinterest Board that started it all here.

Let me know in the comments which one is your favorite and if you had any special experiences this summer! I'll see you on Thursday for my book review of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.

Look One

Look Two

Look Three

Look Four

Look Five

Look Six

Picnic at the Park | Picnic Pretties Mood Board

Thank you, dear reader, for being here for the final installment of the Picnic Pretties Mood Board series. See the entire mood board that inspired this series here. I saved this outfit for last for two reasons. The first being that it is my favorite picnic themed outfit and it's always the right way to go to save the best for last. The second is because both of these items were purchased last winter to be holiday outfits. Versatility of clothing is so important to me and the second I had these in my hand I knew I was going to be doing a picnic themed blog post with them to illustrate how context can transform your clothing.

In one season plaid evokes thoughts of warmth and comfort. It makes one think of cuddling up to ward off the cold. But in the summer it creates an image of kicking back on a picnic blanket with the sun shining down and the smell of grass filling up the senses. Plaid becomes lazy days, snacking on sandwiches, and reading in the shade. And similarly, the way the print on this Hell Bunny skirt is designed, it can either remind one of winter critters and the iconic green and red of Christmas or it can draw out feelings of floral blooms and birds in the blue sky. The print walks the line between the polar ends of winter and summer by touching on both and combining them seamlessly.

All it takes is a few details to shift the context of these pieces completely. In this post you can see how a cardigan, tights, and boots takes this dress all the way to the height of the holiday season. But, by adding the strawberry jam brooch, baring my arms, and switching to sandals, this dress becomes perfect for summer.

And as summer is winding down and the excitement for fall is starting to creep in, it is time for me to close this chapter of the season. There are a few more weeks to enjoy the sun and warmth, but, truthfully, my heart is never in it when October is right around the corner. I just want to stuff summer under the bed and forget about it until next year.

Tell me how you feel at the end of summer. Pumped for fall? Terribly sad and rushed to cram as much summer fun in as possible? Let me know in the comments!

Shirt (dress worn as a top): Aricity (similar top) | Skirt: Modcloth (exact) | Shoes: Modcloth | Brooch: Erstwilder

Lemon Zest | Picnic Pretties Mood Board

Hello there, stranger! July was not a blogging month for me. July was a wrangle three kids while packing in as much summer fun as possible month. It did not leave a lot of time for extras and at the end of the day this blog is the product of my extra time. Being mom is always my number one job. But, I am back and ready to commit to two blog posts a week!

This week will be the final installments to the Picnic Pretties series. As always, you can see the whole mood board that inspired these outfits here.

This dress. Holy moly, this dress. I searched for it for a while on BST groups and finally snagged one right before it exploded and became, what felt like, almost everyone's DISO (desperately in search of). I'm so lucky I squeaked in before the surge of popularity because I am not lucky in scoring highly sought after pieces. This dress is a great example of how budget department stores, that are almost looked down upon, can totally nail it. I am telling you, JCPenney and Kohl's is the place to find great pieces at great prices. You will have to sift through some weird stuff, but the treasures are there. I promise.

My mom was in Nashville, shopping at a boutique, and the owner asked her where she was from. When she heard my mom was from Wisconsin, she actually sneered and said, "oh, you must shop at Kohl's." Uh, heck yes we shop at Kohl's and we look dang good because of it!

I have to find a pattern or draft something up similar because this dress highlights my shape perfectly. Every time I put it on, I feel like the perfect flouncy, curvy pinup and I strut my stuff like I am a freaking goddess. That is the power of a reasonably priced dress from Kohl's!

And please, always remember, it is not about where you shop it's about how you put it together.

Dress: Kohls (similar) | Shoes: DWS (similar) | Lips: Stila Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Patina

Retro Teal and Red | Picnic Pretties Mood Board

So, I had a weird weekend! We took an impromptu trip up to the island our family has rented land on for a couple of generations now. The whole island is strictly used for camping and the only things on it are ramshackle cabins and campers. Nobody is allowed to build there anymore so what's there is there and that's it. On our plot, we inherited a camper from the sixties or seventies, it's hard to tell because it is so weathered, and a kitchenette made of plywood and roofing materials. It even came with an old refrigerator from the fifties! I'm sure when it was new it was quite a cozy place but now it's more like the set of a Rob Zombie movie. I mean everything on this island is worn, battered, and patched up to see another day. Frankly, that's part of its charm though. At least for us.

The island seemed like a perfect place for my next Picnic Pretties Mood Board inspired outfit. You can see the whole mood board here on Pinterest. I didn't expect this series to be so reminiscent of my grandmother, but here I am again thinking about how my grandma spent so many of her summers camping on this island. This is her washing dishes 45 years ago on the same shore that I took these photos.

But here's where things get interesting. The second day, my grandpa wants to take the kids for a ride on the trailer. They love hanging out in the back while he putters around on his tractor and he loves it because he isn't very mobile anymore, but still loves playing with the kids. 

Well, on this particular day my mom and I are walking along behind so that nobody tries to jump ship and my kids began to beg us to ride with them. It's not the first time adults had been on it so we oblige. We start down a bumpy path and I shout to my mom that I feel like I'm falling and she chuckles back. 

Then all of a sudden the feeling heightens.  Now I really feel like I'm falling, I think. Then I'm upside down in the air. No, I'm actually falling. For a moment I think I have just been bounced out until I see my mom flying through the air above me. Oh, and I'm taking everyone else with me.

I hit the ground and blink my eyes open to see the trailer on it's side slowly driving away from us. Sawyer is sitting up next to me. Ok, he's fine.  Amelie is laying on the ground next to him screaming. Oh, god. My mom is on her back in the bushes. Where's Hudson? I get up and frantically start searching and discover him farther back into the bramble. Both him and my mom are laying there with their arms and legs sticking up into the air with the most startled expressions on their faces. I grab at Amelie and check her over. She appears to be all in one piece. My mom rolls over and starts pulling Hudson out of the woods. He appears to be fine, too. With shell-shocked expressions, we stand up and look towards my grandpa on the trailer, still obliviously driving away from us. He reaches the end of path and the trailer rights itself as he drives out of view. I turn toward my mom and all that comes out of my mouth is, "He's going to be so confused when he gets back to camp."

He does eventually come back for us and the look on his face is one of pure bewilderment. 

He stops the tractor and throws his hands up in air to ask us what's going on. My mom yells to him that we got thrown from the trailer and he says, in the most incredulous tone, "oh, come on!" And that was it. We lost it. Peals of laughter come pouring out of us and we can't stop. We laugh the entire walk back to the camp (because we are not getting back in that thing) and we laughed for hours after.

We laughed as we were still shaking from the shock and the fear. We laughed as our adrenaline came down and we started to feel every bump and bruise. We laughed as we discovered that none of the children had more than scratches and were only interested in playing minutes later.

We took turns telling our version of the story and laughed at the reenactments of our faces and how the only way to describe the position that I found my mom and Hudson in was "turtling."

Never in my life has an incident of such pure fear turned into something so hilarious. We are so lucky to have come out of that event relatively unscathed. Both my mom and I are incredibly sore this week but I'll take that over a broken neck or a bashed in head any day! I am so awfully glad that we got a good story and not a trip to hospital out of this!

Skirt: Handmade by me (similar) | Shirt: Torrid (similar in straight sizes, similar in plus) | Shoes: Modcloth | Scarf: Thrifted (similar) | Lips: MAC Viva Glam II 

Red Gingham | Picnic Pretties Mood Board

I'm going to be honest...These photos are heavily inspired by this blog post from Noelle's Favorite Things. It just so happens that her photos were exactly what I envisioned when I bought the Sprecher's Cherry-Cran soda for an old-fashioned soda-pop theme. Summer days are made for grabbing a cold, bubbly drink, a stack of books, and heading out to kick back in the grass for a while. You can also see my entire Picnic Pretties Mood Board here on Pinterest.

 

And yes, my daughter and I do having matching red gingham rompers because I'm obsessed with her and I'm also ridiculous. But, c'mon! Look at the cuteness! If anyone else is as ridiculous as me and happens to have an adorable daughter that you enjoy twinning with, definitely check out Old Navy because they often use the same prints across all their clothing sizes, which makes twinning with a toddler easy peasy lemon squeezey.

The styling was pretty easy, as well. Matching red lip, straw hat, complementary yellow shoes, and you've got the perfect outfit to chill out in on a hot, summer day. 

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Romper: Old Navy (similar in straight sizes, similar in plus) | Hat: Thrifted (similar) | Shoes: Modcloth (similar) | Lips: M.A.C. lipstick in So Chaud