Cole Han White Sneakers (my favorite summer shoes on sale under $60!) // Jean Skirt (this ones sold out, but love this one and this one) // Ruffle Sleeve White Sweater (an oldie from Ann Taylor, but love this one by Ted Baker and this new Ann Taylor one)

Oh hello there, friends! Long time no talk…the last few weeks have been crazy busy, so life got away from me for a little bit.

But thankfully the last few weeks were also relatively productive: I made a little more progress on getting my condo together (furniture is taking FOREVER these days, and most of it’s finally here!), went back to NYC and visited friends after missing spending time in the city, wrangled a lot of fun projects at work, and have been catching up with friends now that most everyone I know is vaccinated! For the first time in a long time, I’m feeling more optimistic about the world re-opening, traveling again, getting to enjoy things like weddings again (!!!), and feeling lucky that a Chicago summer is right around the corner. Of course as I type this it’s gross and grey and raining – but I’m hoping it just means that sunshiny days are right around the corner. It usually takes us until about mid-June for it to be consistently nice out – but once it is, you know I’ll be outside with a cocktail as much as humanely possible. Plus I’m excited for Milo to experience his first summer, and Chicago summer too!

After a year of feeling like everything and everyday was a little heavy and dark, it’s so nice to feel like we have things to look forward to again. I’m completely amazed that we were able to get vaccines in a year (OK SCIENCE, I see you!), and it’s been pretty amazing to see the world slowly opening back up, and reconnecting with friends I hadn’t seen in over a year. I had Lauren over this weekend for brunch, and we were both shocked it had been so long since we last saw each other, and it felt so good to reconnect and both feel optimistic about the next few months after so many ups and downs in the last year.

I’m looking forward to so many things in the next few months: Seeing dear friends get married, traveling to Denver, Minnesota and Napa in August (yay!!!), enjoying long walks outside on a warm day, reconnecting with even more friends and throwing a few outdoor parties on our new patio this summer. It’s nice to feel a little lighter, and go into the next few months with so much more optimism and excitement than what many of us felt before. I hope that optimism continues to stick around, and we all come out of COVID a little kinder to one another. And I also hope we all still wear masks on the train and at airports, because I am acutely more aware of germs than ever before. Thanks for making all of us germaphobes, COVID… Also, how amazing and low key hilarious are these photos by Ashlee? We shot at a studio a few weeks ago for some projects for both of us, and we couldn’t stop cracking up on me rolling around on the couch. She is one of my favorite people and photographers in Chicago, and she’s like a human ray of sunshine that always makes me happy. I’m hoping we have lots more adventures this summer with our pups and taking more ridiculous photos together 🙂