Instagram Roundup, August Color Crush, & Updates

:: Similar Hat/Shoes/Earrings/Ring/Polish {Mint Candy Apple/Aruba Blue} ::

Happy Monday darlings!

Today, I’m sharing – albeit a week later than planned – some life updates, a July Instagram roundup, and the August color crush you may have noticed brewing.

Life Updates

For those of you who don’t know, I tackled one of my biggest fears last month and came out alive! Praise God! I started a graduate program in Teacher Leadership to earn my Master’s in Education this July, but I’ll be honest with you – I was terrified.

I love school and sincerely enjoy learning. One reason I wanted to be an educator was because I admired how my teachers were able to create an environment that made me want to be there. But in college, I found myself far from home and the people whose prayers, advice, and guidance were instrumental in my prior successes. Much of college passed before I sought out the help I needed to navigate the environment and create a new support system. Although, I could have done worse, I regret not excelling the way I could have and should have given the amount my parents sacrificed to get me there.

Massachusetts state law mandates that educator’s must earn a Master’s degree within their first five years of teaching (I just finished my fourth year). Yet, despite numerous gentle nudges from family, friends, and co-workers, the memories of my less than impressive undergraduate performance paralyzed me. In April, an annual trip to see a former professor at my Alma Mater, turned into one of the first productive conversations I had had about graduate school since I graduated six years ago.

Y’all I can’t tell you enough about how rewarding this program is – the content, the professors, the cohort. As I type I’m a little teary eyed but it’s hard not to be! My family is proud, my friends are proud, and I can say for the first time in along time, I’m proud of me too. I’m incredibly thankful to God for continuing to place fantastic folks in my life regardless of how short-sighted I may be. If you’re like me and are nervous about going back to school, getting your culinary license, moving to a new city, whatever – just do it! The tugging on your heart is there for a reason, and the result will be greater than all the fears holding you back.

August Color Crush

Alright, now enough of the mushy stuff and on to business. ICYMI, the blogosphere (is that even a word?) is super saturated these days. If you have an iPhone, social media, and a dream, you have all the tools you need to be a blogger. While in theory it seems accessible, the practice of defining yourself, clarifying your content and drawing others in can be daunting. Lately, I’ve been thinking hard about what it is that I love about style and fashion, and I think I finally have an idea of how to translate that into a niche other people will interested in sharing with me.

Color play has always been a big part of my style (I remember in high school how my mom and I would match shirts to jeans based on the color of the stitching) and the hues I gravitate to are often reflective of both the vibes I’m taking in and those I want to project. This spring, I concentrated on pastels because they reminded me of Easter and the overall feeling of newness that spring evokes. The colors I wore had a legitimate impact of lifting my and others’ moods, and I loved that.

After a full school year and three intense weeks of grad school, I need some time to refresh. I feel a sense of urgency to indulge in vacation before it ends; sunny days, late evening walks, aggressive amounts of ice cream, and a trip home to southern California. All of those feelings have been increasingly present in my fashion choices, and this August, I’ll be curating and strutting a wardrobe full of rich summer tones. It seems only fitting this month’s birth flower (did you know that was a thing?) is the poppy and National Peach Pie Day is the 24th.

{ Color Scoop } image via: @alajamie | featured in the Seasonal Atlas | Design Seeds X Archroma

YUM.

Even though school is starting soon, I’m living for the season while it’s still here, and this scrumptious image by Jamie Jamison sums up all my feels. Below you can find a quick roundup of the details from my July Instagram posts and some pieces you can add to your wardrobe if you, too, are lovin’ my color crush. Also, let me know, would y’all be interested in making monthly color reports a thang? Let me know in the comments. Thanks so much for reading! This post was a doozy!