coffee dates.

my weekend was filled with lots of these.  and i loved it.  saturday morning maddie and i had a coffee date at starbucks and it was SO good to catch up and hang out with her.  (she lives in washington and i haven’t seen her since like 2007.)  then later in the afternoon i met my friend ashley at chadlou’s, an adorable coffeeshop in kailua that one of my very good friends opened last year!  if you live on the island, you should go there.  now.  reasons you should go?  it is so dang cute, they have good coffee AND good food (and cookie/ice cream sandwiches!), and its the perfect place to chat with friends or to study or do work.  (and since i practically lived in coffeeshops when i was in college, i’m a pretty good source for coffeeshop ratings.  trust me.)  plus, its next door to some really cute boutiques if you need a study break and want to shop :)

i love coffeeshop dates with friends.  they are kinda my fave.

INSPIRED BY.

INSPIRED BY: kristin cavallari

okay.  so i know this whole get-up is nothing to write home about because let’s be real, it’s a bit on the grungy “im-too-lazy-to-put-a-real-outfit-together” side.  but to be completely honest, this is pretty much the extent of what i wear like 96.7% of my weekends.  and in hawaii, it’s perfectly acceptable to wear cutoffs and t-shirts anywhere.  and i mean anywhere.  i wore this to church on sunday, people.  gotta love going to church across the street from the beach cause i think at some churches on the mainland i might have been kicked to the curb if i showed up like this.

tee and cutoffs: $10 and $16 from forever 21

urban expressions bag: $45 from tj maxx

sunglasses: raybans (last year’s birthday present from reis)



a picnic.

saturday night reis and i had a picnic on the bay in hawaii kai, my old hood.  somehow the whole 2 years i lived there, we never did this even though every time i drove by it (which was every single day) or ran past it, i would think in my head “we should eat there one night.”  well we finally did and it was quite lovely.  we got sandwiches from the safeway deli (which by the way are not too shabby) andddd there was a beautiful sunset to top it off.  and what picnic isn’t complete without licorice?  actually, i don’t even think that’s a picnic food at all, but the box was calling my name at the grocery store.

INSPIRED BY.

can we talk about how fashion blogging is really an awkward concept??  it’s like “hey! look at me trying to be a model!”  i’m not trying to show you how stylish i am.  because clearly that is not the case since i just copy other people’s style.  and then show you pics.  however, i am trying to show you how you can copy looks for dirt cheap because i know most people don’t have an endless budget for shopping and most of us don’t get stuff given to us by clothing companies (although that certainly would be very nice!).  i found this picture on pinterest this weekend and just really love the black and white.

kitson jeans – $11 via hautelook  (christmas day special!)

white t-shirt – $10 from express

fedora hat – $15 from a street fair in my hometown SV

labor day weekend.

this weekend was pretty mellow and productive.  just the way i like it.  i took a lot of turbo kick boxing classes at the gym, hung out with good friends, ate lots of yummy food, and got runner’s envy with all of the races that went on this weekend.  the kauai marathon was on sunday and last year i ran it as my first one (and the fact that my mom and one of her best friends flew out to watch me cross the finish line made it extra special!)  i’m currently contemplating if 2 weeks is long enough to train for the maui half marathon on september 18.  we will see about that.  we will also see if my credit card wants to endure the pain of a flight, race entry, hotel, etc.

yesterday reis and i went to diamond head health bar and got acai bowls.  so. dang. good.  and then for dinner i decided to get crafty in the kitchen and “cook.”  aka make one of the only things i know how to: caprese (pathetic? yes).  i could eat basil with every meal and could easily live off of bread and tomatoes so this meal is one of my favorites because its tasty, looks pretty, and takes about .25 seconds to put together.  hope everyone had a great weekend!  hooray for a 4 day work week!

first friday.

friday night we met our friends in chinatown for first friday.  i normally can’t wait to hightail it out of downtown on friday nights after work, but i actually think first friday is kinda fun.  you walk around, eat, look at some art, people watch, repeat.  (plus i wanted to show off my new boots since fall is finally upon us.  yes, hawaii doesn’t really ever see “fall” but i’m from CA and i will break out my boots any chance i get!)  our friend (and amazingly talented photographer) brooke had her own gallery so it was cool to see her show of hipstamatic prints.  fun night with great friends and good food.  pretty awesome alternative to my usual i’m-a-grandma-and-a-homebody friday nights.  oh yeah, happy labor day!