A couple of months ago, I spent 48 hours in my hometown of Las Vegas with one of my closest girlfriends. Back in January, right before my move, she had called me up because she was about to purchase some Backstreet Boys tickets, who are in their last leg of their residency at Planet Hollywood. Now, I may not be a Backstreet boys superfan like she is, but I can appreciate a 90’s boyband and a quick visit back to my hometown. I’m going to break down my super fast and sleepless trip to Sin City.
It has been a whirlwind of the past few weeks. The last post I was able to publish on here was all about Andy’s birthday. I am still reliving that day as it was pretty awesome (you can relive it with me, here). The past few weeks I was busy preparing to have my family in town and take a few days off of work in preparation for my brother’s wedding on October 14th, then Andy’s brother wedding on November 6th. After all the time with family, I decided it is about time to count my blessings and write about all I have been thankful for this fall!
Last month, when I was in Vegas, I had some time to kill so I hit the local Nordstrom rack and found this dress. At just $21, I knew I couldn’t pass it up. Bonus: it has POCKETS!
I feel like much of my summer wardrobe has come from Nordstrom Rack. For instance, last week’s striped dress was purchased on the same trip.
What I like about this dress is that it can go from casual to dressy based on the shoes and accessories. I wore this to my friend’s flower crown making soiree and then to the Chicago Botanical Gardens on Sunday. I decided to feature this necklace, purchased for about $20 at a new favorite boutique I stumbled upon in Evanston, Illinois called Gigi Bottega. The necklace created a nice elegant touch to my outfit. My favorite thing about this necklace is that it has little pearls, my favorite!
I had a great time at the Botanical Garden; every time I go it feels like such a treat. This time, I was blown away by the Rose Garden and the Lily Pads. It was also my boyfriend’s first time there since moving there, and I could tell he was pretty taken away by the captivating gardens. It was a fun place to shoot since there is so much scenery to be seen, and I did not want to pass this opportunity up to shoot for the blog.
It’s no surprise, I’ve got quite a few things on my Bucket List. My list is always changing and growing, but I figured that if I put it down on paper, maybe I’ll stick to them even more. I wanted to take a few moments to share some of those goals and see what kind of things are on yours!
Here are some cool ones:
Then there are the obvious, cheesy ones, like:
I’ve always wanted to learn to ride horses, but it would be even cooler doing it on a beach. How romantic does that sound? And recently, I’ve been seeing more and more beautiful photos from people vacationing in Bora Bora. I would love to do this in the next year (hopefully my boyfriend is reading this). And as much as I love Chicago, settling down somewhere I can call “home” has always been a dream of mine. Even better, having a vacation home we can go to on weekends sounds DE-LIGHTFUL!
Tell me, what’s on your Bucket List??
Steph Shakes
