Adoption Q&A

Today is Sansa's gotcha day!! She officially became our daughter three years ago! Three years ago we flew to Hungary and met this beauty and our lives changed forever. I will never forget when we first met her. She even let me hold her and we walked hand in hand too. This girl had our hearts from day one. I am so thankful for the joy that she brings to our lives. No matter what she does or how crappy the circumstances are, she is constantly laughing and smiling. Sansa is having to spend her gotcha day in the hospital, but we still got her a cake and Chipotle. :) She is here to get her T-cells harvested so they can go to a fancy lab and become CAR T-cells and then they will go right back in her to fight the leukemia. Spending the day in the PICU is not optimal, but she makes the best of it. She is our fighter and amazes us everyday.

Gingham + A Capsule Wardrobe Update

This is probably one of the most bloggeriest (can I make that a word?) outfits I have ever worn and I reallyyyyy like it. Gingham is super trendy at the moment and I am a fan. Pants, skirts, shirts, dresses. I love that gingham comes in almost any form. This top is from StyleWe and I fell in love when I saw it. You all know I am a sucker for some cute dramatic sleeves. This may not be the first time you have seen this top, as it is super popular in the bloggersphere (yep, just making up words here), and I love it nonetheless. I have been trying to stay away from the super trendy items that will probably fade in the next year or two, gingham being a rare exception of course. ;) Hence why I started a capsule wardrobe (if you do not know what a capsule wardrobe is go back to this blog post) at the beginning of the year. I was tired of clutter and not being intentional with my wardrobe choices, so I tried out a capsule wardrobe for a couple of months and am finally doing a recap of the process.  

Cancer Sucks

Last week Sansa had a bone marrow sample taken from her spine because it had been 6 months since her bone marrow transplant in January. It was a routine test to check and make sure everything was still looking good. Last Friday Sansa's doctor called me to let us know that there was leukemia present in her bone marrow. 7% to be exact. All I could think was "f*ck." I didn't say much or ask many questions on the phone because I was trying not to cry. As soon as I got off the phone the flood of tears came. Fear, frustration, anger, and sadness came rushing to the surface. We are beyond devastated because we did not expect anything like this to happen. Sansa has been her crazy happy normal self (just like you see in these photos), so we were very unprepared for this news. I mean, you can never really be prepared for things like this, but we just felt completely blindsided since everything with Sansa has been super great after her bone marrow transplant.

Why I Started Blogging

I started this blog for many reasons, but a major one was that I wanted a way to keep track of my life in a journal of sorts. I originally started a private blog three years ago, and I figured why not make it public, so I started Caturday Style. This blog started out mainly as a fashion blog, but has turned into a fashion and lifestyle blog. I made a goal this year to be more intentional and vulnerable with my posts and I am loving it so far.

Cat Purse

When I saw this adorable cat purse and realized that it came in pink, I knew it was meant to be. I styled my whole outfit around this adorable bag. My birthday is coming up next week, and I might just wear this outfit again for my birthday because I love it that much. haha. I recently bought these shoes as my birthday shoes. I like to dress up a little for my birthday, and wear something that I love either new or old (but honestly probably something new *insert sassy emoji here*). When I look good, I feel good, so I always try to do it up extra for my birthday. I had been wanting a pair of sparkly/metallic boots and when I walked by Forever 21 last weekend I saw these cuties on display. I was lucky enough to get them in my size. I wear a size 10, so finding shoes at any store in my size is a victory. I definitely did a happy dance right in the middle of the store.

LA Travel Diary Part 2

The second part of our trip to LA we stayed in Korea Town at The Line Hotel. We got a good deal from Expedia when booking our stay, which was the main reason why we stayed here (also because it was recommended and did have good reviews).  I really liked everything about the hotel and the location. I can't recommend it enough. Plus it was pretty affordable for LA. There was so much good food around and in the hotel too. The Line Hotel has a great restaurant ( The Commissary - pictured below), pool, and cafe. The pool was packed on Saturday, so if you want to get a good spot I definitely recommend heading down early on the weekend (around 9 or 10 AM), and I also recommend making a reservation for brunch or dinner at the restaurant as well.

LA Travel Diary Part 1

I was going to do one long blog post for the travel diary, but then I decided to break them up because man, I have too many photos and stories that it would be the longest post ever. haha. We stayed in Santa Monica at Casa Del Mar for the first 3 nights because of work. Santa Monica has the cutest beach with a nice boardwalk and had great shops and food. We had a blast! This was our first trip to LA and our second trip to California (we stayed in San Diego for our honeymoon). LA was a lot colder than I thought it would be and can go from hot to cold in 5 minutes. I can be extra temperature sensitive so I'm probably exaggerating but layers were key for me. When the sun finally came out, I took advantage of the beach and was able to soak up a bit of sun. I was definitely not brave enough to get into the water, but my feet did when we took those pictures. Got quite a few outtakes because of the freezing cold water. My face was priceless. haha.

Lost City Diner + May Favorites

This photo shoot with Danny (Seven Hare Productions) was so much fun. Lost City Diner was super great and let us shoot wherever. I ordered a milkshake because how can you not. haha. I had all the nostalgic and summer feels. I was kind of nervous at first because there were definitely people eating at the diner while we were taking these photos, but after I started sipping on the milkshake I felt fine. :) I love this location because of the retro aspects. I think it is really cool to look back to the past and get fashion inspiration. I looooove retro/vintage style.

Matching Dresses

Today is Sansa's 5th birthday. I can't believe how time flies.  Just about three years ago we met this cutie in Hungary for the very first time. I remember that day like it was yesterday. Wow guys, I am already tearing up typing this as the memories come flooding back. Since being a parent I cry so much more. haha. The first time we met Sansa was at her foster family's house in Újfehértó, Hungary. She was running around outside pushing a cart (she still loves to push about anything...strollers, carts, anything on wheels basically). Her hair was just starting to grow back from her initial chemo treatments and she was just the cutest thing I had ever seen. We were sent a couple of videos before we met Sansa, but seeing my gorgeous daughter's smile in person just made me melt. 

April Favorites

I took these pictures with Gordon (@lordgeezuz) at The Sound Garden, and I thought I would share a few for this post. I'm sporting my Bieber bomber jacket, and Bieber was featured in a new song that just came out. It's on my favorites list for this month of course. Also, I just really wanted to share these because I loved this location and the outfit, so here they are. :)

I have been wanting to do a recap of my favorites every month, so I thought it would be fun to share what I've been really loving during the month of April. These may seem pretty random, but I hope you enjoy them!

5 Ways to Combat Burnout

I don't know about you, but I have been feeling really burned out lately. I took this weekend off and did not make commitments to do A N Y T H I N G. I can't remember the last time I had a free weekend, because I always have a fear of missing out on fun things. I’m also an extrovert (most of the time, anyway) and I just really love hanging out with people and making connections. This weekend was nice though. I didn't have to get dressed up. I could wear PJs all day and just hang with my fam. It was great, but I am still not exactly feeling recharged starting out my week. Even though I didn't really have any places to be, I still had my everyday commitments to my family, which I absolutely love, but can also be just as exhausting in its own right. Raising a toddler is tiring sometimes. ;)

Bubble Gum

I had way too much fun with the amazing Jess Mason during this photo shoot. If you think blowing a decent sized bubble for photos is easy, like I did, you are wrong! haha.  It took probably at least 5-10 minutes to get this shot in the picture above. It was a struggle. This whole photo shoot is inspired by this bubble gum cat pin (you can spy it in a few photos below). I got it from BubbleGum Pink, and it's purrrrfect. :) Are guys super into pins too? I'm still loving this trend, and enjoy putting new fun pins on my denim jacket that let me show my personality more. 

Fave Backpack + Thankful Ramblings

So I planned on doing this appreciation/being thankful type post yesterday, but of course that morning I got a flat tire, so I really did't feel like being thankful at all that day (which is why this post is finally getting done today. haha). I was rushing around trying to get to work and was already behind so when I saw that the car had a flat tire I was just D O N E with Monday before I was really able to start my day. My Monday sucked, for other reasons on top of this one, but I still had all those things that I am really thankful for existing in my life. On hard days and the best days, I have positive things going on. It just depends on what I focus on that makes me see the good or bad. Even though yesterday sucked and tomorrow may too, who knows, I still had a really great weekend, (and month for the most part) and I let my Monday blues take that away from me.

Capsule Wardrobe: Finding My Style Challenge

While cleaning out my closet and picking pieces for my spring capsule wardrobe (what is a capsule wardrobe? see my post here), I started to struggle with narrowing down my closet and choosing a "style." I have lots of different pieces in my closet that are so different from each other. Is my wardrobe bohemian, urban, monochromatic, classic, chic, glam, romantic, retro, etc.? I don't know guys. haha.

Capsule Wardrobe Part 1

I have been suuuuuuper slow with this capsule wardrobe process. Mostly because we had been living in the hospital for forever  (we just got home this weekend though! and hopefully will be able to stay home for a while), so I haven't been able to sort through my closet like I want to. I did do the first step though, thanks to one of my blogger friends, Liv at Simply Liv & Co. She has an awesome course on minimalism and sent me the closet guide to help me with creating a capsule wardrobe. She is also one of my inspirations for wanting to do a capsule wardrobe. She is awesome, so you should definitely go check out her blog. :) The first step to any capsule wardrobe is to detox your closet. I got rid of A LOT of clothes that I know that I wont wear very often because they just aren't practical, that I haven't worn in a year(s), and clothes that don't fit anymore. I also threw away some super worn down clothes that I have had since high school. It was hard to let some items go, but I knew that I just wouldn't wear them very often or they didn't fit my everyday style.

Starting a Capsule Wardrobe

With it still being the beginning of 2017, I am starting to focus on what my goals will be for this year and for my blog. One word that I keep coming back to is simplify. With all the craziness (see my last blog post. haha) going on in my life, I feel like simple is what I need right now. One of the first steps I am making to simplifying my life is to make a capsule wardrobe. I have done a little research about it, but what really was the deciding factor is that lots of my blogger friends rave about their capsule wardrobes. So, I am going to give it a try this year and see how it goes. :)

Transitions of Life

I've typed this blog post over and over again because there is so much I want to share right now, but all the words I'm typing just don't feel like they give justice to everything. So, without trying to accomplish too much ,I'm just going to share what is on my heart about what has been going on in my life lately. I have also inserted some family pictures we took before Sansa was admitted to the hospital in August. I hope you enjoy the cheesy/goofiness as much as I do. :)