Wednesday, April 26, 2017

{tiare hawaii swing dress}


A couple of Shopbop sale's ago I purchased this Tiare Hawaii dress because I fell in love the second I saw it! The big sleeves, the bright colors, the tie detailing, the loose fit... it was just perfect in my mind.

















The weather in DC has been a little back and forth recently. Sunny but with a chill in the air or cloudy but still a little warm (like when I shot these photos). When the weather acts like that I always cover my legs or my arms up - both is too hot but neither is too cold. Does anybody else get like that? This little number is the perfect solution!

Normally when I wear a standout dress I (attempt to) tone my accessories down... however, I knew that these ElyseByNicole tassels would go perfectly with this look! I love the blue druzy paired with the white tassel - it's such a classic and knockout combo! There's a lot more of her earrings coming your way on this blog! She's also giving all you Southern Anchors readers a discount: use code JROG10 for 10% off your purchase :)





Happy hump day - one more day left until the weekend for me! Phew... I can't wait to get out of town and get some celebrating started!


Love Always,

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

{birthday wish list}

Well it's almost May... which means my birthday month! Last year I was convinced that it was gonna be my best year yet but after everything I went through I'm positive this year is going to be the best yet haha ;) I think things are already looking better! I've got lots of trips with friends planned and am excited to explore my new neighborhood more.




I already ordered these shoes for myself for my birthday and my momma got me a new vacuum (old lady status - woo)! Of course I dream about a designer handbag and a David Yurman ring every year haha what girl doesn't?!

This summer I'm all about easy, flowy dresses, nude shoes, and fun accessories for my go to outfit. I've always been an accessory girl so a dress like this one that I can dress up or down and style different ways is begging to be in my closet. Another thing that you can always wear is this Maya Brenner necklace - I wear monograms all the time and this gold one would be so easy to pair with statement earrings or even layered under a big necklace!


Since we're all dreamers - what's on your wish list?!



Psst y'all know I'm OBSESSED with Baublebar... they are having a huge flash sale (50% off!!) through this Thursday! So grab your favorites while they're cheap! Shop them below!




Love Always,

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

{lace blue dress}
















This pretty lace blue number was my Easter dress last weekend but I know I'll be breaking it out for weddings or engagement parties this summer. It's really comfortable, easy to move in, and the color is gorgeous! I was so happy to find that when I tried it on I could still lift my arms up without the dress riding up too high. Ruffles and cold shoulders are all the rage right now and this continuous ruffle across the front and back is an easy way to try out both trends! I always love a lace dress - it makes me feel really feminine and girly. Who doesn't love having a dress in your closet that makes you feel like that?






Love Always,

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

{coffee date no.6}

Well friends, it’s been a long time since I wrote a coffee date post. Truthfully, this one has been sitting in my queue for awhile and I’ve edited it multiple times. I took a nice blog break for a couple of months at the end of 2016 and that's when this blog post started to be written...

So let's do what we used to do - grab a cup of coffee (or tea) and let's have a chat, or in this coffee date post, a heart to heart.



There's been a lot of behind the scenes stuff going on. {Let's get real, there always is.} I hit a breaking point where I felt like I couldn’t be genuine with y’all. I had no motivation to put together new looks or share things that I was loving. I felt trapped by the blogging world and under a lot of pressure. I was fed up. So, I took a step back because it wasn’t what brought me joy every day.

Maybe I need to explain myself a little further… because I know many of you realized that August was when I started posting less frequently. August became a beautiful new beginning but also a heart breaking ending for me. I moved into a studio apartment in the city and then went through some tough personal things. I had no idea the ways it would become a true, start everything over, rewrite your future, fresh start. I’m not even sure how to put into words the emotions that the following Fall season became for me. Imagine living by yourself for the first time and dealing with heartbreak like you've never experienced before.

I took a month for myself - I wrote letters that I never sent and I made lists of things that I wanted for my future. I reached out to my friends and found the people that truly, deeply cared for me. Not the ones that simply reached out because they wanted to get the latest gossip. I worked so hard to find the things and people that made my life happy. I learned to “fly” – a girl friend taught me this saying a while ago, it means, “first love yourself”. I took this to heart. I listened to what I needed to be okay; I took time to grieve, to cry, to feel, and to eventually heal. I found the things that I liked about myself and I worked on the things I didn’t like about myself.  I told myself every morning and night: a person who values you, would never put themselves in a position to lose you. I listened to that – really hard. I felt that phrase in so many aspects of my life. It made my healing process so much more clarifying.

Once August was over I decided that I needed to get back to blogging to help me find my normal routine and happiness again. But this had already changed. My whole life routine was altered so I scrambled a bit figuring it out. I posted here and there but it wasn’t with the same zest for blogging that I normally had… so I simply stopped. I just didn’t hit publish. I didn’t plan shoots. I didn’t browse tirelessly on websites to find the latest and greatest. Instead, I went out and found inspiration and love in the world. This was when life got really wonderful - when I allowed myself to let other people in and I started focusing on this new chapter of my life. I said yes to things I had always wanted to do and I listened to my heart. Then I began not blogging as much because I was learning to love my life again!

I’ve struggled with posting this because I attempt to keep my personal life private while still showing you that I’m a real person (and I know I can be vague at times). That’s why I started these Coffee Date posts, because it’s always fun and interesting to learn more about the girl behind the blog… so I felt that to let my guard down and continue on a good note it was time to hit publish {mainly because I've been getting lots of messages and comments haha}.

This blog isn’t my full time job. It started out as a hobby and grew into a business. The biggest strength behind Southern Anchors was my passion for it and I saw it suffer when that fire behind the blog started to fade a little (that fire in me). I always want to show y’all the best outfits and the most unique finds but that requires me to be at my best and in my happiest state – mainly because this little website takes a heck of a lot of work!! Hours and hours to plan, shoot, write, email, link, edit, craft, and post. You know the drill. I began comparing my life to others and felt that I just wasn't good enough for anyone. I wasn't pretty enough, didn't make enough money, didn't love enough, yada yada... enough!!!

Then something changed. I found the most perfect moment of bliss and I felt inspired again. The world around me influences my thoughts and actions tremendously – and the people in my life bring me so much joy and inspiration. I have people in my life right now that are making me laugh again and feel things I didn’t think I could feel again. I am just simply happy, so incredibly happy. My new routine has become a source of strength for me. I work long, hard hours at work and then get out to see my friends and loved ones. In regards to blogging, I actually want to carve a couple of hours out of my weekend to do a shoot with friends, or to tidy up my apartment, take photos, and teach myself some new things. I found that passion and love again for life.

So I’m back. Still learning, still working on myself, but moving forward! I probably don’t say it enough but thank you for supporting me, coming back to read this blog even without new content, emailing me with your questions, and checking in on me. I love communicating with y’all through snapchat and IG stories and seeing you comment on my photos made me feel like I wasn’t a total blogger failure. Thank you for making this blogging journey continue!!

So if you've read this far you're probably thinking: "okay cool, you're clearly back to blogging and this all started in August so WHY post about this now?" Why? Because last week I was browsing through some of my favorite blogs and realized that everything seemed so damn cookie cutter perfect. That bothered me. Every blogger was already tan, rocking bikinis, taking vacations, buying new things, getting engaged, having perfect babies, etc. and I found myself playing the am I enough? game again. I went down that dark comparison spiral and questioned my job, relationship, and decisions. I had to remind myself of everything that I have going for me right now. Truth be told, EVERYONE needs that reminder. So this is me breaking up the cookie cutter blog post - reminding you that you're enough and you're human and you'll get over whatever difficult thing you're dealing with right now. I'm not an inspirational coach so I'll leave it at that. You do YOU, girl ;)

Okay, now I'm taking a deep breath... I think my queue is happy to get this post out of the cobwebs! Thank you for reading this lengthy coffee date – I know the next one will be a lot more fun ;)

Since I always like to end on a good note... I've linked some of my recent finds below!





I would love to hear what you want to see in the future. More outfits? Home content? Personal posts? Please shoot me an email or leave a comment below!


Love Always,

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

{erin condren life planner}



I've been taken back to my school days and have fallen in love with planners all over again! Well, I've always had a planner, y'all know I love to plan things out so I always have something to look forward to, but, I never have had so much fun filling out it's pages. Erin Condren has made my planning life fun and colorful with her LifePlanner, stickers, and pensAll of their products can be personalized (monogram obsessed here) so that you can get exactly what you need/want visually! I chose the horizontal style but they also offer vertical and hourly. Then you pick neutral or vibrant pages (guess which I chose haha). You can even pick your coil color - can you believe that!? You can get a rose gold coil!

It's become a nice Sunday ritual to fill out the following week with new events and deadlines - it helps me prepare for the week ahead while easing my Sunday scaries. I like knowing what's coming up and developing a game plan for getting things done (it's very tedious balancing work, the blog, and personal life) then being able to add in grocery shopping, workouts, to-do lists, and bills that are due. I'm also a firm believer that it gets my creativity flowing. I've been hitting some serious creative ruts recently and this has pulled me out of my funk. When you design for a living (and as a blogging hobby) it can be hard to jumpstart the creativity at times! 


The Erin Condren LifePlanners make it easy to have everything you need right at hand. There are multiple add-ons that clip right into the spiral. My favorites are the sticky note add-on and the plastic zip pocket! This way I can always write a quick to-do list or grocery list and move it from day to day if my plans change. I keep spare receipts and a pen in my plastic pocket as well. It's an easy way to keep track of receipts that I need to expense or coupons I'm going to be using soon. I also have a ruler that clips in - recently I've been using this as a weekly place holder. It's easy to take in and out!



The back pocket is my favorite... that's where I keep all of the stickers that I use to personalize my weeks! I am a very visual person - so much so that I can recount a week in review better by being able to visualize how everything is laid out in color and with stickers. I can actually memorize a spread and specific details if it's colorful and happy! It's kind of like styling your life... don't ya think?



It's also a lot more visually appealing when it's colorful (duh, I know, haha). With my Outlook calendar on my computer I categorize things by color: blue = meetings, orange = blog, yellow = work, green = personal, etc. For awhile I began organizing my planner notes and appointments the same way. Ultimately, I decided to just use whatever color felt right because I liked an even spread of colors. However, I think I may go back to using certain colors for specific things because if a week is all blue then I will visually be able to say "hmm, I probably need a fun coffee date thrown in to make my work week happier." ;) Balance, y'all!




Of course, what average person doesn't like the excuse to be a kid again and use stickers?? It just makes life so much more FUN. Who doesn't like that?! It can make an upcoming task like grocery shopping a little bit easier to look forward to. Personalizing my planner and week makes me realize what I have to look forward to. Even though I don't want to pay all of those bills, writing it down in ink makes me know I better get it done asap, and putting a sticker next to it gives me more of an incentive to actually write it down haha! Nothing's worse than an unchecked to-do list!

How do you organize your life? As you can see by the photos above I like to plan out a month at a time. Here's the kicker: you're not even seeing my blog posts scheduled out on there ;) haha planner to the extreme here! What style would you go with: colorful? horizontal? gold? The options are endless!


THE BEST PART! Erin Condren is offering y'all 15% off! Use code GETSOCIAL15 to start organizing your life and making it more colorful. (code expires 7/31/17 and cannot be combined with other offers)

*Thank you to Erin Condren for sponsoring this post! While it is sponsored, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
You're looking at a real life planner here, friends!*

Love Always,

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