one / two / three / four / five / six

Like I recently mentioned, I've been whittling down my summer wardrobe options. I'm only a week or so into this experiment, but so far I find it much easier to decide what to wear each morning! Here are a few things I have recently added, hope to add, or just generally love!

one / as much as I love to live in sandals all summer, I'm realizing that just isn't possible here in Cleveland. The time to get these was probably a few months ago, but I'm still dying for a casual summer tennis shoe.
two / I recently got the Supergoop CC cream, and I'm in love. I used the Josie Maran SPF 40 all last year, and really liked it. However, as a very sweaty person, it made my face very shiny. I ran out this winter, and found this. All natural with sunscreen, light coverage, and a matte finish (hallelujah).
three / These sandals will be a replacement for a well worn pair I got a few years back. I'm hoping they have a little bit more support than the older pair, and thing they will go with everything.
four / Not actually something I plan to buy, but a really fun shirt for summer!
five / This might be the shirt that started it all... I spent an absurdly long time looking for a chambray shirt that was both inexpensive and that I love. After exhausting all my usual inexpensive stores, I finally caved and bought this J.Crew classic a month or two ago. It is not an exaggeration to say that I wear it all the time, with everything. I'm doing much more laundry in an effort to always have this clean and ready to go - always a good thing!
six / And a bright lip, of course.

On contentment

Sunset over Lake Erie

I've always loved those magic moments, the very brief, not frequent enough moments where every part of me knows that this very moment is exactly where I should be. A few weeks ago, I was in the backyard with my husband. He had just strung twinkle lights up all around the yard, and had been working hard to revive our backyard after this long winter. It was still a little too cold to eat outside, but after a winter inside, we were going to make it happen. After dinner, a great conversation, and a few glasses of wine there was a comfortable silence. In that silence, I was overwhelmed with the feeling that everything was just as it should be. 

For a few months before this night, I was in a rough spot. It was very far from my first rough spot, yet unfortunately they never seem to get any easier. The overwhelming feeling that I had was that there was not enough, that there was some part of me that needed to be filled. Yet, whatever I tried to fill the whole with only left me feeling more lacking. All I could focus on what what I did not have. 

Thrilled to be able to wear my moccasins again

That night a few weeks ago was a bit of a turning point for me. Instead of needing more, maybe I needed less. So I did what I always do when I want to find something out, and googled something along the lines of, "how to be happy with what I have." An hour or so later, I started to feel like I was on to something. Maybe with less clutter, less distractions, I would actually see the beauty in my life as it currently is, and not how I want it to be. Perhaps if I stopped trying to fill this feeling of "not enough" up with dinners and drinks and friends and movies, maybe if I just acknowledged that this hole in me existed, then that would take away its power. 

Little baby tomatoes

And surprisingly, it seems to have worked. Since then, I've been trying to be much more intentional about things. I packed up most of my clothes and put them away, just leaving myself with the options I pick almost every day no matter how full my closet is. We decided to start saving more money for travel, and to spend less on things, and even came up with a plan to do that. I whittled down my summer wish list to three quality items, instead of lots of cheaper things. We've been making dinners at home, and I've really enjoyed cooking them. We planted vegetables in our backyard. 

Getting some sun

So for now, I'm focusing on being more intentional. And I'm going to hope it keeps working!