Happy Presidents Day, babes! Hope you gals are able to enjoy a (long!) weekend and hopefully have the day off today! As for me, you may have noticed I was fairly quiet last week and didn’t post… if you’re following along on Instagram, I addressed this on Friday in this post and so many of you were so lovely and supportive… it really meant so much to me!
Last week I was facing a few stressful back-to-back deadlines on freelance projects I was working on, as well as a few blog projects I had coming down the pipeline. Work was a bit crazy and I sort of just hit a wall. Does that ever happen to you? You’re juggling so many things and basically clawing your way through. You feel completely behind, overwhelmed, uninspired. I had fallen behind on shooting blog content and faced an empty editorial calendar with zero inspiration. To be honest, I even questioned if this was for me. If blogging was what I was meant to do. I spent a lot of time praying and asking God… “is this what You want for me? Is this what you’re calling me to?” I was honestly so afraid of the answer. What if God asked me to quit blogging? Could I do it? I love blogging, what would I do next?
I know a lot of you babes are bloggers yourselves, so you feel me. Even if you’re not, I know you totally get what it’s like to be overwhelmed at work. Blogging can be hard. It’s very draining and time intensive. We spend hours and hours brainstorming and creating, trying to capture a moment or a feeling. Trying to get the perfect shot of the perfect shoe at the perfect time. People think blogging is so easy. Snap a quick pic, jot down a few sentences about your pretty dress and you’re good to go! Wanna look through my camera roll? I’m pretty sure I have 300 pics of my feet in my new Marc Fisher wedges, trying to catch the angle where I DON’T look like I have cankles. Instagram is deceiving. We curate our feeds and our lives to show only the best angles and the most beautiful light. Mirror selfie? Hang on, let me throw away the 5 plastic cups I’ve been collecting on my nightstand. Oh wait, you can see the 10 boxes I have shoved under my bed. Oh, also my curtains are too long for my window and they’re dragging on the floor and it looks weird. You get the idea.
Here’s the there, though: there is nothing wrong with curating a beautiful, inspring feed and producing pretty content. I’m all for it! We should do everything with excellence. I don’t want to scroll through my feed and see horribly lit selfies and blurry pictures of your dog. That’s just not what I want to see. As long as we all know the truth behind the perfect shot… how much time it takes to, how much effort goes into it, and that all is not always what it seems. I think as long as we’re truthful about that, that’s all that matters. And so, I wanted to be truthful about my mini-break last week and encourage you as well.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, unispired, burned out… I feel you girl. It happens to us all. Just take a step back and don’t be afraid to take a little break. Disconnect, de-stress, take the pressure off. If you give yourself some grace, you’ll find your inspiration again and be ready to go in no time. If you’re questioning if you’ve taken the right path, if you’re doing the right thing… don’t be afraid to ask. Spend time in the Word of God and prayer and just ask. Seriously, spend, like, a lot of time reading the Bible. Let is saturate your heart and your mind. He’ll let you know, trust.
As for me, I got my answer. I spent a few days searching and praying and READING and READING and READING SOME MORE and then I felt it– God’s peace. And I also really felt God tell me that I needed to get on the ball and on my game. Be consistent. Be here for you. Let you know that I’m all in and that you can depend on me. I’ve struggled a lot with planning ahead… or not planning ahead. Then I fall behind. Post late. How can my blog grow… if I’m not being consistent now? So I’m turning over a new leaf. I’m planning ahead more, trying to be more organized. (Clearly will be needing help on this one! No way can I do it through my own power… Claiming Phillipians 4:13 right now… “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”)
Another thing I’ve felt lately, is that I really want to be more personal and more honest. I love pretty pictures of pretty dresses, but ultimately, I want to do more than that. I want to create a dialogue with you about our lives, our truths, our struggles. I am so, so excited to share the pretty dresses with you. I love talking about the pretty dresses and will continue to do so. But while we’re chatting about the pretty dresses like the girlfriends we are, I want you to read my blog and feel like you know me and I want to feel like I know you. You’re my best friends. I love you all so much. Thank you for coming here and for reading every day and for leaving your sweet comments.
Anyway. THAT is what happened last week. I am back today and SO inspired. I’ve got content lined up for this whole week and I’m working ahead on NEXT week. (WHO AM I?!)
After my existential crisis, this was the first look I shot. Getting back into things, shooting again, felt really great and right.
Thank you, Lord for your guidance and peace. And… thank you for calling me to talk about the pretty dresses and for bringing amazing girls into my life who want to talk about the pretty dresses and also want to talk about the real things. Thank you for bringing them here and for entrusting us to each other.
OK, so… now… let’s talk about the pretty dresses. Namely, this pretty dress. It’s only $28, so lightweight and breezy, perfect for spring. I love a good floral print, that’s for sure. I was worried the shape would be unflattering or that it would end up being too long, but it is PERFECT! Like, your girl is 5’2. A dress like this very often ends up being unflatteringly long and tentlike on me, but NOT SO in this case.
It’s obviously big so size down. I’m wearing a small. Check out the measurements to see where you think you belong, definitely. You’ll probably be ordering for your height. Short babes will probably be ordering smalls, taller girls mediums and larges. BTW– I like that the back is slightly longer and the skirt just flutters so beautifully when you walk. I can tell I’ll be pulling this baby out a lot this spring.
I paired it with these great lace ups, but think I’ll style with my favorite ankle booties next, or maybe these wedges.
Check out the look below:
I seriously love this look so much. Thank you so much for stopping by today. I hope you’ll leave a comment and let me know what you think about this look but also… I want to know what you think about burnout, my break, my breakTHROUGH, and ultimately… talking about the pretty dresses but also the struggles. Hit the comments, let me know. And as always, thank you. LOVE YOU.
