Guest Post from Coral and Charm!!!

May 5, 2017May 5, 2017 ~ leightonmichele ~ 1 Comment

Hey everyone!

I have been so excited to share this post with you! When I first started blogging one of the first blogs I started reading and found so inspirational was Coral and Charm by Camryn. It still is one of my most favorite blogs that I read. Camryn’s posts are always so uplifting and she shines Jesus in such a beautiful way. She is an inspiration to me as a fellow blogger and I know that she is an inspiration to so many other women. Last March I asked her if she would be interested in coming over and sharing a post with all of you, and I was so excited when she said yes! I love her idea of Jesus hour, it makes me want to be more motivated to actually get up in the morning and spend more time with Jesus instead of pushing snooze as many times as I do. And honestly, all of her ideas on how to enter a new season are so good and have me ready to go implement all of them right now! Anyways, please hop on over and check out her blog linked both above and below and I promise you’ll quickly find yourself clicking over often to read whatever her latest post is!

-Leighton Michele

Hey friends! My name is Camryn and I am a twenty-something living in the sweet state of Mississippi as newlyweds with my high school sweetheart. Loving JESUS, tacos, and Gilmore Girls. I work in marketing by day so I can blog by night over at coralandcharm.com (come say hello!) and I am so excited to be here guest posting today! So refreshing to get a chance to jump in here to Leighton’s sweet space and talk about SPRING.

I’m a sucker for a new year, new month, new season, etc. There’s something about being able to start fresh that gives me an extra ounce of motivation and inspiration. And so I think it’s important to grab hold of that feeling as the flowers are blooming and the sun is back (praise!), to dig into finding what matters in order to start this new season on purpose. So here are a few things that help me start fresh well:

1. Jesus Hour. I talk about this a lot because it’s been EVERYTHING for me this year. My early morning quiet, coffee, and the Word. We can’t find purpose unless we’ve been in the presence of the purpose maker. And so I will always be a cheerleader for you to do what you need to do to know Him more. He is what matters!!

2. Taking stock. In order to know where you want to go, you have to know where you ARE. And you can’t know where you are unless you know where you’ve been, right?? (Still with me on this?! LOL). I find it helps set me up for success if I take the time to access the goals I’ve accomplished lately, to see what it is I’m doing well and what it is that I might need help on. Taking stock of my past few weeks shows me the map I’ve been creating, to help me decide if I’m moving forward in the right direction.

3. Decide what is your “On Purpose.” Write down 3-5 things you want this season to be about: More time with family, finally finishing that book proposal, drink more water, start taking art lessons, read through the whole New Testament, etc. Post it somewhere where it stays front of mind, and try and do 1 thing a day that is moving towards those “On Purpose” moments or goals.

4. Give yourself grace! Take a breath and enjoy this season. Work hard yes, but don’t forget that there is glorious in the mundane. To start fresh well, you’re going to need decide ahead of time that it’s OK to need more grace or more help or more time.

You’ve got this friends!! Cheers to starting fresh well this Spring.

xoxo

Camryn

Raincoat Weather

May 1, 2017 ~ leightonmichele ~ Leave a comment

Raincoat: Same (and on sale!) Shirt: Similar Shoes: Stuart Weitzeman Corkswoon (Similar) Earrings: Same in Navy

This past weekend it rained like crazy here in the Midwest, which had me pulling one of my favorite rain jackets back out. I love the wide stripes of this jacket, it gives it such a fun, nautical feel. It is the perfect jacket for either dressing up or down. Saturday I mostly just kind of chilled out not doing a whole lot other than running some errands towards the end of the day, but yesterday more than made up for how chill Saturday was! I have a dance recital in two weeks and we had tech rehearsal in the afternoon. I am getting so excited to dance on stage again, but it is also bittersweet since this is my last recital.

What did your weekend look like?

Xoxo,

Leighton Michele

Caught My Eye

April 19, 2017 ~ leightonmichele ~ Leave a comment

This past week and weekend have been so much fun filling it with making memories with my family. As you know from my post on Monday I spent the weekend up in Kansas City with my family finding out that my cousin is going to be having a baby girl this fall and celebrating Easter with them. Then on Monday my cousin from New York stopped by to visit for a couple of days! It was so great getting to catch up with her and spend time making memories, even for just the few hours we had together (I had to work during most of her visit 😦 ).

Also, it felt sooooo good to get home from work today and pull on this dress from last summer. It is just so comfortable and light weight. I also love that it is so easy and you don’t have to think a lot to figure out how to wear it. you just slip it on and put on some earrings in the color pop you’re feeling and boom, you’re ready to go! (Or relax, which I am totally doing right now!

ONE: Toddler Olympics

This adorable video showed up in my newsfeed on facebook this past week and I loved it! I mean, the Olympics are always fun, but when you have darling babies competing? It truly doesn’t get any better. Seriously, stop reading and click the link and go watch it!

TWO: Bead Drop Earrings

Bead drop earrings are everywhere this season and are such an adorable fashion statement. I picked these up from Francesca’s in both navy and red and am already dreaming of all the other color combinations. I wore the red ones to work today and received so many compliments on them. They add the perfect pop of color and make a fun fashion statement without being “too much”.

THREE: Lemon Cardigan

This lemon print cardigan from JCrew is just too adorable for words. It would look darling both for work or a casual night out with friends. I would personally wear it with a white tee shirt, denim shorts and cute wedges for a night out, or pair it with a black pencil skirt and button up for work. The versatility alone would make this cardigan a wonderful addition to your wardrobe…. let’s get real, I’m just talking myself into this one as I write about it…. 😉

Hope you’re having a great hump day, it’s time for me to go get ready for dance class!

Xoxo,

Leighton Michele

Easter Weekend Review

April 17, 2017April 16, 2017 ~ leightonmichele ~ Leave a comment

This past weekend was so much fun! If you follow me on Instagram you know that I was able to go on a road trip with my mom, grandma and sisters to visit my family for my cousin’s babies gender reveal party! It was such a fun way to get to spend Easter weekend with my family and discovering the gender of the newest member of our family! For the gender reveal party everything was decorated sooooo cute in baby pinks and blues. Check out the pictures below to see just how adorable it was!

Boy or girl? Which do you think Baby D will be?

Baby pictures of mommy and daddy were just too cute for words!!! I cannot wait to see my new baby cousin, I am sure baby “d” is going to be the absolute cutest!!!

I loved this custom sign they had made of pregnancy symptoms for everyone to guess whether the baby would be a boy or girl based off of old wives tales. Before you watch the video below of what baby will be, what is your guess? Were you right?

It’s a girl!!!! I am so excited to get to go shopping for baby girl clothes. While baby boys are sweet and special too, everyone I know has been having nothing but boys for over five years now and I am dying to go shopping for dresses and bows!

We all stayed up so late talking and having fun, I seriously did not get to bed until midnight, which if you know me, that is crazy late for me! I normally start winding down around nine or nine thirty and am always in bed by ten or ten thirty at the absolute latest. I seriously LOVE my sleep, lol. I meant to get a picture of all of us before or after church in our Easter dresses, but we all were having so much fun just being together and talking that I totally forgot to even take any pictures on Easter, oops! We all went to church together and then came back to my aunt and uncles house to enjoy leftover barbecue together for lunch, and let me tell you, it was GOOD! By mid afternoon it was all too soon time to start making the trek back home. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone, but thankfully I’ll get to see them again soon and now all of the baby girl shopping can begin! If you have children, what were your favorite things you received at your baby showers? I am all ears for suggestions on things to buy!

What did you do this Easter?

Xoxo,

Leighton Michele

Caught My Eye

April 12, 2017 ~ leightonmichele ~ Leave a comment

ONE: Magnolia Journal

I am so excited, this past week I received a mini version of the Magnolia Journal my Fixer Uppers Chip and Joanna Gaines and I am hooked! They had a special deal going that if you bought one years subscription you got the second years free, and there was no way I could say no to that! I cannot wait to get to read through the full magazine and dream over Joanna’s impeccable decorating.

TWO: Baby Hears Moms Voice For First Time

This video came across my newsfeed on facebook and I could not get over how sweet it was. The baby’s surprised face when he hears his mom for the first time will give you all of the feels.

THREE: Valentino Sandal Dupes

I love the Valentino Rockstud collection, but they are so far out of budget, it isn’t even funny. I was so excited when I found these dups on Targets website though, they are so similar and under $30! I am totally crushing on the tan ones and am thinking that they might be a good addition to my summer shoe wardrobe.

What has caught your eye this week? Share in the comments below! Happy hump day everyone!

Leighton Michele

Finally Switching Out My Wardrobe

April 10, 2017April 9, 2017 ~ leightonmichele ~ Leave a comment

I am loving the Spring Weather that has finally made its way back to Kansas this past weekend. It gave me the final push of motivation to actually pull all of my spring clothes officially out of storage and pack the winter clothes away. It is always a full morning or afternoons job, but I feel so much better once it is done. I didn’t get any pictures of my method, but I thought I’d share a few things I’ve learned over the years to make the packing and unpacking of seasonal clothes easier.

The first thing I always do is I pull the new seasons of clothes out of storage and place them in neat stacks on my bed, I then take all of the old seasons clothes and sort through what I know I’ll want for the next year packing it away and creating a pile of items that didn’t get worn a lot in a bag to donate. I always keep a 3-4 pieces from the previous season out just in case the weather decides to go backwards again, but other than those few pieces, it all gets placed away in either bins or this old dresser in my storage room. Now for all the new clothes, this is the fun part! I choose a stack and start putting things away where I like to keep them, keeping similar things in the same area to make it easier to categorize them. Once again I pull out any pieces that I don’t think that I will wear and place them in the donate bag. Any pieces that I am on the fence about whether they will actually get worn or not I put up in my hanger with the hanger backwards facing me instead of away from me. If I reach the end of the season and the hanger is still backwards I’ll know that the item was never worn and can be donated.

What are some of your tips for organizing your closet and surviving the transition between seasons? Comment below or shoot me an email with them, I always love to get new ideas to make the transition smoother!

Happy Monday!

Leighton Michele

P.S. Isn’t this shirt just darling? It can also be worn as a one shoulder, off the shoulders or strapless!

Raincoat Roundup

April 7, 2017 ~ leightonmichele ~ Leave a comment

They say that April showers bring May flowers, and if there is any truth to that then May is going to have some beautiful flowers this year! Yesterday was the first day of sun in two weeks, so needless to say, cute rain outfits have been on my mind these past few weeks. Even though we are finally experiencing sun now, I know that more rain is going to come, so I have rounded up my top 5 favorite raincoats. The best part? While not only keeping you warm and dry, they are classics that make an adorable statement.

ONE: Yellow Coast Guard

TWO: Navy Floral

THREE: Big Stripes

FOUR: Smaller Stripes

FIVE: Living Pink

Below I’m sharing one of the ways I’ve been styling my Yellow Coast Guard raincoat through these past rainy weeks. I have loved the bright pop of color it adds when the skies are so dreary, like a ray of sunshine.

Xoxo,

Leighton Michele