Kristina does the Internets: Striped Shirtdress

Dress - LOFT / Sandals - Target / Earrings (similar here, here, and here) - Vineyard Vines / Bag - Clare V

Oh heyyyyyy! We've been so busy lately, it's been hard to pop into this little space!! I'm not even sure where to start.

My brother's family is in town for just a couple more days (they currently live in Asia so they typically do marathon summer visits) so we've been trying to squeeze in as much family time as possible. We had everyone over dinner at our house on Monday and I ended up grilling everything by myself since Jeff was at work! Grill master over here haha. Really, what happened was it was so windy that the flame went out without me noticing so I just had meat sitting on a cold grill for ten minutes - whoops! I did manage to relight it and get everything going again without blowing myself up so I'm considering it a win. Did you ever read the comic Foxtrot? Well the dad was always singeing off his hair and eyebrows, and that's what I was picturing for myself while I was lighting it ;) I also whipped up some watermelon frosé (from my favorite food blog!) which was so good and surprisingly easy to make. Such a fun night! Mia and I also drove up to the suburbs yesterday and last week to hang out with everyone, and we're heading up again tonight for one last dinner.

We've also been going a little crazy over here because Mia is starting daycare next week. I swear I cried a little bit typing that. The daycare situation in Chicago is a little crazy - you put down (non-refundable) deposits at a bunch of places just hoping that one of them will have a spot open up around when you need it and that there aren't 10 other babies in line in front of you. I was starting to get worried Mia wouldn't actually get into any of the daycares and we'd have to scramble to figure something else out. But, two weeks ago we ended up getting a call that there was a spot opening and she needed to start right away to hold the spot! I ended up negotiating that back a little, so she will be going part-time for the next month until I go back to work. I'm super sad about it - partially because she's starting so much earlier than she needs to, and partially because I don't really want her in daycare at all. I just can't quite imagine that someone else will be with her all day, and I'll just see her for an hour before bedtime. Seriously going to cry just writing about it. I know it's what makes sense for our family right now though, so we are at least going to try it and see how we do. I'm sure Mia is going to happily fly right into her teachers arms every day and I'll be the only one freaking out ;)

The Outfit

So, anyway, should we talk about this outfit a little bit?

How freaking cute is this little dress? I added it to my cart on a whim, thinking it was most likely going back, but the second I tried it on I knew I had to keep it. The stripes and the cut are just so flattering! And it's not often that I find a button down dress that works on my figure without pulling. I also love that it's nursing friendly. Oh, and this is a weird one, but a lot of dresses have too large of arm holes for me so my bra ends up showing out the side - not here! I apologize for how long it took me to show this one to you because there are just a few sizes left, so snag it while you can! The only bad on this one is that the fabric wrinkles pretty easily. It doesn't really bother me (I'm just excited to be dressed at all these days!) but it's something to keep in mind.

And I'm still freaking loving these sandals. They are from Target (yes!) and were only $20 and are surprisingly comfortable! I actually only brought one pair of sandals with for our 10-day trip to Minneapolis / Wisconsin and these went with everything - my rehearsal dinner dress, my shorts and tee shirts, and my swimsuit. Win win win.

These earrings have been my favorite this summer - I love the natural rattan + white combo! But Mia just got really good at grabbing this week (she ripped my glasses right off my face!) so I think it's time to retire the big earrings for a while. My aunt showed me her ripped earlobe when I was a kid and the thought of it still freaks me out to this day. Bye earrings, I'll miss you!