Fall Trends Part 2

If you missed last week's post, read it here: Fall Trends Part 1

Happy Tuesday, ya'll! I hope you had a great weekend. I was able to celebrate my boyfriend's sweet sister by helping to throw her a baby shower. It was so nice! Sunday I came up to the mountains to visit Bryce at Appalachian. When I arrived Sunday evening there was a perfect chill in the air. It definitely felt like an early fall evening. I can't wait for the temperature to continue to drop.

This week is all about shades of green! I use to not wear much green but I have started to wear it more and more lately. I LOVE it! I sort of think of green as a neutral depending on how you wear it.

I really had a hard time picking which of these pieces were my favorite. But I think I'm leaning towards the cardigan (only $24). You can't go wrong with layering a cardigan, scarf, leggings, and boots in the fall. 

I am also loving the pumps as well. They would look great with some dark wash skinny jeans, a camel colored top and maybe a leopard print scarf. 

The tie waist dress is another great piece! I would wear it with booties!

Comment below to let me know what your favorite piece is!

"Little girls with dreams become women with vision."
Unknown

Gracefully,
Anna

Fall Trends Part 1

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend. I was able to celebrate my grandpa's 80th birthday with my whole family. We planned a surprise party for him! It was great. In a few weeks I'll be posting about the decorations we made.

Every year after Labor Day weekend I get so excited for Fall. I had my first pumpkin spice latte this week. I'm starting to rearrange my closet to move my fall clothes to the front. I am looking online for inspiration for fall style, fall home decor, and even warmer hair colors for the fall. Fall is by far my FAVORITE time of year. I love the colors, the leaves, the chill in the air, football, bonfires, and all things pumpkin.

So this week I decided to start a 3 part series about my favorite trends for the fall. This week will be about all things plaid. Plaid is my go to for the fall. You can do so many things with plaid. You can dress it up or down and mix it with other patterns. Basically, it's the best.

I love all of these pieces. Most of them are under $50! You can click the images above to shop! 

The blue and red draw string dress (only $30) also comes in black and white! I think the blue and green plaid top would look great with leggings and riding boots or booties. My favorite of these items is the blue and orange plaid top! It would be so cute with jeans and boots! The red plaid top (comes in 6 colors) would like great with a fur vest like this one!

Please comment to let me know which of these is your favorite!

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall."

-F Scott Fitzgerald

Gracefully,

Anna

Pound Cakes

So this week my mom and I signed up to make two pound cakes that we would be donating to a fundraiser for a woman in the community who is battling cancer. We wanted to try to make a cake that would keep well and something that people might not always think to make to have a little bit of variety. 

So we dove into our church's re-print of their very first cookbook and found a recipe for a Nestle Quik Pound Cake. The second recipe came from the cook book that my mom made for myself, my brother, and my grandma this past Christmas.

Nestle Quik Pound Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

1½ cups Crisco

3 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups cake flour

¼ teaspoon salt  
1 cup milk
8 tablespoons Nestle Quik (Chocolate or Strawberry)

 Cream together Crisco, sugar, eggs, and vanilla

Add cake flour, salt, milk, and Nestle Quik

Mix until smooth

Pour into a tube pan

Bake at 325° for 1½ hours

 Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325°

Cream together Crisco, sugar, eggs, and vanilla

Add cake flour, salt, milk, and Nestle Quik

Pour into a tube pan

Bake for 1½ hours

*For a plain vanilla cake, leave out any Nestle Quick and add 2 teaspoons vanilla and 1 teaspoon lemon flavoring

Sock it to me Cake (aka Coffee Cake)

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 box Duncan Hines Butter Golden Cake mix

1 cup sour cream

⅓ cup vegetable oil

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup water

4 eggs

Filling:

2 tablespoons reserved cake mix

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup finely chopped pecans

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Combine filling ingredients and set aside

In a large bowl, blend cake mix, sour cream, oil, sugar, and water

Add an egg at a time, beating a little bit after each egg

After adding all 4 eggs, beat on high speed for 2 minutes

Pour 2⁄3 of the batter in a greased and floured Bundt pan

Sprinkle filling over batter in the pan

Pour remaining batter on top of filling

Bake at 375° for 45-55 minutes

Instructions: 
Preheat oven to 375° 
Combine filling ingredients and set aside
In a large bowl, blend cake mix, sour cream, oil, sugar, water
Add an egg at a time, blending a little after each egg
After all 4 eggs have been added, beat on high speed for 2 minutes
Pour 2⁄3 of the batter in a greased and floured Bundt pan
Sprinkle filling over batter in the pan
Pour remaining batter on top of filling
Bake for 45-55 minutes
(You can check to see if the cake is done by lightly touching it, if it springs back, take it out!)
Cool for about 25 minutes then remove from pan
Blend powdered sugar and milk in a small bowl
Drizzle over cake

This recipe is typically made with a glaze. Since we were making this cake a few days in advance of the benefit, we chose to skip the glaze because they would be wrapping individual slices in plastic wrap for the fundraiser.

I hope you enjoy! Please comment or email me with any questions or suggestions! Feel free to share any of your favorite pound cake recipes in the comments!

Gracefully,

Anna

The Future

Hello Everyone! I know it has been almost two whole weeks since I have posted. For that, I am sorry! Since just recently moving all of my stuff back home and settling in I have been trying to be more involved with my church again. 

Last Sunday, August 9, my church celebrated our 100th Anniversary Homecoming. It was great. My mom was on the committee to help plan and prepare for the big day so I helped her with some of that stuff. Also last week we had our annual Vacation Bible School. I ended up also volunteering for that last minute so I was really busy with that and preparing to start school again today.

Since all of those things kept me pretty busy last week I never got around to posting. But I am kind of glad. It gave me a week to reflect on what God is doing in my life at the moment and what He will be doing in the coming year as I am at home again. 

I have been looking forward to moving back home for quite some time so I can get involved in our church again! So far it has been great. I ended up helping with crafts for the kiddos during VBS and I loved it. All of the kids were just so sweet and it's so exciting to be involved in helping to grow their faith. I also really loved getting to work with the other craft teachers. We shared lots of laughs over the week!

I am in this odd transitional part of my life where I have become part of the "boomerang" generation. That is those of us who graduate from college with a 4 year degree and move back home with mom and dad. I'm hoping to be accepted into 1 of 2 Radiology programs I have applied for in Fall 2016. 

I am taking classes at a local community college in order to fulfill some admission requirements for those programs. I have really been questioning what my future will hold. But then I heard the message Dr.Denise Honeycutt delivered on Homecoming Sunday about God's "Wild, Extravagant Hope" for me. 

Her message reminded me that no matter what I've done in the past, no matter my sins, my failures, or my shortcomings, God has wild, extravagant hope for me. And God has that same hope for YOU. In her message she quoted Jeremiah 29:11. I have been reading this verse daily since then. It helps me to remember that though my future may not be clear to me at the moment, God knows what it holds. God has a plan for me. God will use me. And God will show me those plans in His time. 

Gracefully,

Anna

Wedding Style Part 2

If you missed last week's post read it here: Wedding Style Part 1

Happy Tuesday everyone!

 I hope you had an amazing weekend. Mine was less than exciting. I had to finish moving out of my college apartment and get it all cleaned up. I hope you all had a little more fun than I did!

Today I'll be talking about looks you can wear to a couples shower and a wedding!

In my opinion, these are two of the most fun events you can attend if you're involved in a wedding! I love the couples shower because it gives you the opportunity to hang out with the guys and the gals together to celebrate your sweet friends that are getting married! 

The Couples Shower

The couples showers I have been to have been pretty casual so I chose to go with a more casual look for ya'll today! This look could easily be dressed up with some wedges and bold jewelry!

Let's just talk about these shorts for a minute. I know they don't look all that exciting here in these photos, but let me tell you, they are GREAT. These shorts have some stretch to them so that makes them super comfortable. Although you can't tell from this picture, they are a little high wasted, and I love that! They are super cute when you tuck your top in! Also, I got them out of the clearance section in Old Navy a couple weeks back, and when I was there, clearance had an extra 30% off! That made them a little less than $7! And on top of all of that, they come in a palm leaf pattern which I also picked up!

 I love this tank as much as I love these shorts! The back is so cute. The straps are adjustable which is perfect since the back is a little low. This tank comes in 5 patterns. I wish I had gotten the tan pattern as well. I really had a hard time choosing between them but the day I was shopping I was gravitating towards all things blue! 

Shorts | Tank | Watch | Sunglasses | Similar sandals here & here | Similar bag here

The Wedding

So let's get down to business here! When it comes to picking an outfit for a summer wedding I usually consider these 3 things:

1) Location (indoors or outdoors)

2) Weather

3) Occasion (formal or casual)

If I know I am attending a wedding that is indoors with an indoor reception, I usually go for something with a little more volume to it. Meaning, if I am going to be outside for several hours for the wedding and reception, I'll usually pick something a little lighter that flows more. I also think about shoe choice when I'm considering the location!

Weather is a huge factor to consider. If there is even the slightest chance of rain, I go for a maxi dress. I don't know why. I'm not even sure that makes sense because a maxi is more likely to drag the ground just a little. But I always feel more comfortable in a maxi if it is raining. I think I'm the only person that thinks that! Am I weird?!

And finally, I consider the occasion. If I am attending a wedding at a barn or a vineyard, that's a little more of a casual look. If it's a church wedding or a wedding in a hotel ballroom, I'll definitely dress it up a little. These changes can be made easily with accessories! 

This dress is actually a few years old but it has just been another one of those staples in my closet. I love the blue color. You can do so many different things with it. I chose this maxi because it is very comfortable and easy to move in. When I'm at a wedding, I want to be able to dance! 

Similar dress here | Similar denim jacket here | Sunglasses | Watch | Similar necklace here | Similar sandals

* You can't see my shoes, but they were flat sandals that sold out at Target so I'll link similar ones!

** At Old Navy you can get an extra 25% off your order through Wednesday, 8/5! (Use code MATH)

Thank you so much for reading! 

"What is done in love is done well." -Vincent van Gogh

Gracefully,

Anna

Wedding Style Part 1

If you're anything like me, you likely have a few weddings to attend each summer. With all these weddings comes many fun activities. Maybe you'll be attending a bridal shower, a bachelorette party, a couple's shower, and of course the wedding itself this summer. I have written this post to give you some ideas for what to wear for each event!

Stay tuned for next week's post! It will be Part 2! It will have outfits for couples showers and the big wedding!

The Bridal Shower

I love bridal showers! They are such a fun way to celebrate your friends and give them gifts to start their new lives. First and foremost when picking an outfit for any wedding festivity, ALWAYS avoid white. Also try to avoid anything that is mostly white even if it has a print on it. Even if you don't think the bride will always wear white to every event, avoid it just to be safe.

For bridal showers, I tend to go for flirty, feminine looks. I usually wear a dress to bridal showers but sometimes I mix it up and wear a skirt. Look for something that has a nice, light feel to it. You could go for a pretty floral print or a nice solid and pick great accessories!

This dress is one of my favorites. I lucked into it because my cousin purchased it for herself and ended up not wanting it so she gave it to me! She's the sweetest!  It is so comfortable. It can easily be worn for many different things. I wore it to a bridal shower just yesterday and it was great. My favorite part of the dress would definitely have to be the back! I love that ruffle detail. Unfortunately, the dress sold out online so I have linked some similar ones!

Similar dress here & here// Wedges // Watch // Bracelet // Ear rings  

The Bachelorette Party

Bachelorette parties are often one of the most fun wedding events you can go to. There's nothing more fun than getting together with a great group of girls to celebrate one of your very best friends.

What to wear to a bachelorette party will really depend on the plans.  You probably will not want to wear the same thing for a night out on the town as you would for a day at the spa. As far as colors you can wear for the bachelorette party, that will also depend on what your plans are, specifically with the bride. If the bride wants to wear white and have her girls wear all black, then go with black! 
I recently went to a bachelorette party where the bride wore pink and the girls and I wore all black. 

I love this outfit! This skirt is from a couple of years ago from Banana Republic but it has lasted me this long and I love it! It's a great staple for your closet. It is a little on the short side so I typically don't wear it unless I am going out for something special like a bachelorette party. This tank is another closet staple! You can't go wrong with these two pieces that can really be worn so many different ways. I loved adding a bright pop of color with my jewelry and this clutch! These wedges are so comfortable, perfect for a night of dancing with the girls! I also happen to have this clutch in the tote style as well! They're both so fun!

Similar skirts here & here // Tank // Wedges // Clutch // Similar ear rings here // Watch (old) similar here

So before I close out this post, I just have to brag about my AMAZING friend, Kaitlyn Yow! She was sweet enough to do my makeup and take these amazing pictures today. She's the best! Check out her blog at kyowspeaks! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Gracefully,

Anna

Hey Ya'll!

Hey ya'll! 

I have decided to start a blog to express my love for food, fashion, and DIY projects. I'm likely to talk about more than just those eventually because let's be real, if you know me, you know I LOVE to talk ;). This is just my first post, I am definitely a newbie at this so PLEASE bear with me. I will definitely have to get use to it. I hope this blog will be an outlet for me and an inspiration for you! I plan to start out only posting about once a week until I get the hang of things. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

"Great things never came from comfort zones."

Gracefully,

Anna