Quick Pics

I know I keep saying that each month is chock full of crazy, but June has really been the craziest month by far. I signed my very first lease, making it official that I will be moving out next month (2 weeks! ahhh!). So I've been trying to pack up my life and move it to the apartment, which is a very annoying process. I have a lot of clothing I'd like to sell, so I will be doing some sort of shop announcement in the near future!

Other than that huge step and the stress that trying to focus on too many things brings, June has been pretty nice. I try to relax and do things I enjoy in the downtime I get. I got to lay and read in the sun and go swimming the other day, which is always relaxing. I wore my new bathing suit that I got from Figleaves for the first time. I love it! I also went to the beach for the first time this season as well.

I went to a renaissance faire this month, which I haven't gotten around to posting about yet. I'm so behind with posts, gahhh! But I got to drink out of a pineapple, which was sort of a life goal of mine. I once drank fresh coconut milk out of a coconut (it was disgusting), but I wanted to drink out of a pineapple. They had strawberry or pina colada smoothies to pick from, so I picked the pina colada. It just seemed to fit more with the pineapple. I wore my flower crown too since it was a springtime faire.

I went strawberry picking this month at the beginning of the season. I think the season isn't really that long because I think it's almost over now after only a couple of weeks. I thought about baking something with them, but I ended up just snacking on them instead. I also went to my favorite used book store a week or so ago and got a bunch of books, including an awesome Harry Potter one.

In cleaning out my things to get ready to move, I finally got all my gaming consoles down from the attic. Chris and I ended up taking them to his place to play there. We started off with Rock Band because I was dying to play it since it's been forever. I only play the drums, though, because I just don't like the guitar on it. Now we are on a Super Mario 64 kick, though. We take turns getting the stars. I think we have 50-something now.

Chris's birthday was the other day, so we had a party on Saturday night and I made a cake. It was a chocolate and peanut butter Reese's cake and everyone loved it! It took a while to decorate, but it was worth it. I got him a few things, but one of the things I gave him was this canvas print that I made by transferring a photo to it. I followed a simple DIY tutorial online and it was really easy to do! The tutorial said the print would come out imperfect, which mine sort of did in some spots, but I don't mind it. It gives it some personality. I'll be posting some tutorials here at a later date for both the canvas art and the cake.

Yesterday I had the most relaxing day just laying in the sun by Chris's pool. A few of our friends came to hang out for his birthday since his mom wanted to have cake with the family. We pretty much just swam and laid out all afternoon, and ate burgers, hot dogs, and chips. It felt good to de-stress for a bit. Sometimes you need days like that to keep yourself in balance.

Down By The Lake with eShakti!

I am so excited to be partnering with eShakti for this post! They are a wonderful online shop that specializes in custom fittings. They have many adorable designs and prints to choose from and you get to customize how it fits and what shape and style you'd like! They also have any sizes you need from 0-36W if you prefer the fit of a standard size. I know that with my body type, sometimes a dress might fit perfectly in the waist, but snug in the bust or it may be that the small is too small, but the medium is too big. eShakti is the perfect solution to this because you can pick your measurements and the dress is literally made for your body! Pretty awesome, right?











eShakti was kind enough to send me this beautiful red skirt. I actually needed skirts, so I went with a skirt over a dress or a top and I chose this piece because it is solid and versatile. I love red, and this skirt is the perfect shade. I was very impressed with the quality of this piece too. It's extremely well made and thicker than most skirts. I really like the layering detail towards the bottom of it. It gives it a sort of nautical feel, at least to me. That's why I decided to wear it in a classic red, white, and blue color scheme with my anchor necklace! :)











The skirt is comfortable, and I like that it's a longer length than a lot of the skirts that I own. Whenever I find skirts in the store, they are usually too short so it's nice to have a length like this. It's definitely good for work, too. Very simple and classy! Oh, and it has pockets. I love when dresses and skirts have pockets!











I went swimming for the first time this season the other day! It's always hard for me to just jump in because the water always seems to be too cold. I'm usually a cold person in general. But it's just funny how when you're a kid, temperature doesn't matter to you as long as you're having fun. Kids don't care about going out in the snow as long as they are having snowball fights or building snowmen or sledding. They don't care how cold the water in the pool or ocean is. If it's hot out and they have a bathing suit, they're cannonballing in. When you're a kid, you don't care and then you grow up and become a grumpy adult...haha.









Although I love the ocean and the shoreline and I love admiring its beauty, I really don't like swimming in the ocean. I'm a pool person, all the way. It's probably because the ocean where I am is all murky and brown and you can't see the bottom. That freaks me out. I would definitely feel more comfortable swimming in a clear ocean where you can see right through to the bottom. I don't know about you, but I want to know if I'm about to step on a creature of some sort or a sharp rock. I also really don't want my limbs possibly bitten off by sharks. I know it's not too common to happen, but the thought of it is just terrifying. I don't mind swimming in lakes like this one here (which I don't think you can actually swim in), though it's sort of the same deal as the ocean.









I can't wait to remix this skirt. Because it is a solid piece, it'll be easy to mix with various other pieces. I'd like to try a classic red, white and black look at some point. I think it might also be interesting in the fall to mix with some deeper colors such as burnt orange and brown. I love doing lots of color mixing in the fall because of all the layering and the abundance of color in the trees.

Skirt: c/o eShakti//Top: Kirra//Shoes: Payless//Necklace: Gift from Katie//Ring: Urban Outfitters//Lipstick: Flirt!

Be sure to follow eShakti on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram! And just for my readers, eShakti has created a special coupon code for 10% off your order! Use code 'swindaywayes' at checkout to get your discount. It can be used as many times as you want until July 18th! Enjoy! :)

Guest Posting at Small Town, Big Smile!

Today I'm guest posting over at Small Town, Big Smile! Jana is such a sweet and wonderful girl, and the reason she needed guest posts is because she is getting ready to get married!! So exciting! I wish her the best of luck and I can't wait to see all of her wedding photos. :)

Check out my post about my strawberry picking adventure here.

Memorial Day

I love Memorial Day. I love that it involves picnics and cookouts and lots of good food, not to mention it's the unofficial start of summer. Woo! It goes without saying that summer and pretty much every other season is better than winter because you can do almost everything outdoors and not freeze to death. Sure it get's super hot, but that's what water is for! Pools, the ocean, sprinklers, splash-pads, hoses...it's easier to cool off outside than to warm up.







I went to a picnic with Ashley's other side of the family. I ate burgers and mac and cheese and relished in the fact that it was warm enough for a halter top. It's gotten really hot really fast since Memorial Day. It was in the 80s yesterday. I was moving things into my apartment and since we don't have anything turned on yet, there's no way to use the A/C so I always come out drenched in sweat. I can already tell that moving sucks. It's a pain. You don't realize how much stuff you have until you have to pack and move it all.







I put a lot of stuff aside for the tag sale I want to have and I still have a lot of stuff. I guess that's what happens when 24 years of stuff accumulates. Not that I've never purged my wardrobe or thrown anything away, but I'm one of those sentimental people who will keep something for nostalgic reasons. I think it's gotten to the point where I am letting go of that with most things to make it easier on myself to move.

Dress: ModCloth//Shoes: Dana Buchman//Necklace: Gift from Katie

Here I am posting about Memorial Day and now the 4th of July is two weeks away. Time is going by crazy fast. That's what keeping busy does, I suppose. Chris and I are going camping with some friends at a camp that one of our friend's works at during the summers. I'm excited for it! I just hope we don't have another heat wave like we did when we went camping last year. It was so humid and disgusting out and it was just impossible to be comfortable. We didn't even really sleep. We slept maybe an hour or so in his car because that was where the air was most comfortable. I'm hoping this time around will be more tolerable and better! :)

Free Stuff

No, I'm not giving away free stuff. I actually got some free stuff just walking around my cousin's neighborhood a couple of weeks ago! There was this used bookstore that gives books away and you can also leave some if you wanted to too as a payment in a way. The store was closed, but they had a shelf under their overhang by the door with some books that people could take. I took a few that looked interesting.









Around the corner, this woman was having a mini tag sale. She said she was about to pack up and that the stuff she had was the last of it. I told her I liked one bag, but I didn't have cash on me. She let me just take it, which was very nice of her. The only thing that I really didn't like about her was that she was describing everything as "hipster" to me, as if that would sell me on it. She said things like, "Oh, how about this hat? It's pretty hipster". It really irked me because I think that's a stupid description of an item, and I don't like that she assumed I was a "hipster" because I was wearing a dress and holding a camera. Ok, end rant. She was still very nice and I got a free H&M bag out of it, which was convenient for carrying the books I picked up.











I got this dress at Goodwill for probably about $7. It could've been cheaper if it had the right color tag to get 50% off. It seems like it's vintage, but there's no way to tell since there are no tags and no zippers. It definitely seems handmade. I like how comfortable and breezy it is, and I love the classic red and white stripes. I also love the button and cutout details!









On the apartment front, Ashley and I have officially signed our lease! We will be moving next month, so I have a lot of packing to do. At the same time, I feel like a lot of what I'll be packing and moving I can't really move until it gets to be close to when I'm going to be moving in. Most of what I have is clothing and books. I guess that's a proper representation of myself...lol. For my new room, I think I'm going to go with a literary theme. I found this awesome headboard that I want to make for my bed and I took out this book from the library called The Repurposed Library that has crafts for reusing old books. It'll be fun to get crafty. I always wish I was craftier, but I don't really have the time to do a lot of it. Also, I always think something is going to be cheap and then I end up spending $50+ at the craft store for supplies, so I have to be careful about which ones I choose to do. They seem pretty cheap, though, especially since I have access to some old books already.

Dress: Thrifted//Jacket: H&M//Shoes: Payless//Belt: Thrifted//Ring: Urban Outfitters

I'm going to be having a tag sale, so if anyone has any suggestions for that kind of stuff, let me know! My street isn't very high in traffic, so I might consider having it somewhere else. I just don't want to have to cart all my stuff somewhere else when I already have to do that next month...lol. I have so many ideas for decor that I think I want so I'll be visiting lots of thrift stores and flea markets and tag sales in the near future. I'm excited for that part. I love discovering unique things at those kinds of places. You never know what you might find, and that's the fun of it! :)