The Working Woman's Summer Wardrobe

Have you ever woken up bright and early and stared blankly into your closet wondering, "What the heck am I going to wear today?"  We know we did almost every morning until we found Pinterest. Well, now you can "inspire" and brighten up often dull work clothes by seeking different ways to pair work classics together for a new look.

We have both started new jobs in the past month or so, and having a true "working wardrobe" has been something that has been both fun, new and also, challenging. These looks can be found in almost any closet...no we did not go out shopping searching for these stylish looks...all we did was check our style pins and found outfits that were already in our closets.

Below, you will first see the Pin that originally inspired us to create our outfit, and then a picture of one of us in a similar style that we found in our closet.

Monday

We love the sleek lines and texture added by the lace skirt in this look!

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This is the reverse color combination of the inspired look above. We liked using

the white lace on the top, with the mossy green color in the skirt. This is probably a little

more relaxed than the polished look above... but we love them both!

 Kelsey's top and skirt are both from Anthropologie.

Tuesday
We like how simple and easy this look is. The balance
of light blue and black is a way to make a casual shirt
more office friendly!

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Lindsey almost laughed out loud when she realized she had pinned an
outfit that was already in her closet that she had not thought to wear together.
Sometimes blue and black don't go together, but in this case, they surely do!
Topfrom J. Crew and skirt from Banana Republic.

Wednesday

This look is simple and sweet. We think there are so many

dynamite summer dresses out there that would look

great with a colorful belt.

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For this look all you need is a classic looking print and a belt for your waist! For an easy
change up for overly air-conditioned offices, belt a cardigan on top of the dress.
Kelsey found this adorable Banana Republic printed dress from a resale store.

Thursday
We really like the undone sophistication of this look,
including the haphazardly placed belt.

Lindsey wore this exact outfit on her first day of work after being inspired
by the neutral skirt and blue color combination above.
Entire outfit, including necklace from J. Crew

Friday

We love this "put-together" casual Friday look.

The belted cardigan look could be reused with so

many other work outfits.

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An updated take on casual Friday. We know the colors and styling

are slightly different than above, but it is still a classy casual look.

Pair a bright colored comfy tee with a more sophisticated sweater,

 like this one, from Forever 21.

So, next time you waltz toward your closet in a half coma state at 6 a.m., try heading into your closet the night before and pairing something together like we have shown above, or also from the fashion section of Pinterest.

What are some of your favorite "Working Woman Wardrobe" styling tips? Do you pick all of your outfits the night before, lay them all out on Sunday night, or search the morning of? We are newbies to this working stuff so we would love to hear what you do to be stylish at the office!

Enjoy!

These Are A Few Of Our Favorite Things: Sopapilla Cheesecake

No healthy recipes here my friends! Today we want you to enjoy a to die for recipe for Sopapilla Cheesecake! What was great about this recipe was the sweet cream cheese filling mixed with a crunchy cinnamon sugar crust. Another great concept to this recipe is its simplicity…all the recipe called for is two 8oz cream cheese packages, 2 cans of Pillsbury crescent rolls, butter, sugar and cinnamon!

Kelsey had some family in town for her cousin's birthday, and with the heavenly cinnamon smell billowing out of the oven, we had quite a crowd waiting for it to be ready to chow down!

Here's our inspiration from Pinterest:

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And here's how ours turned out:

**Yummmmm**

A view of the finished product fresh out of the oven!

It is such an easy recipe! It only took about ten minutes to prepare, and 25 minutes to bake!

Though the cheesecake was pretty much perfect the way it is, we had a couple of easy changes:

• Our critics (Kelsey’s family) concluded that the cream cheese filling was a bit too sugary and recommended we use less sugar next time we prepared it. But the over sweeten cream cheese filling did not stop them from eating the whole pan, so it must not have been "too" sugary.
• We cooked the cheesecake for 5 less minutes than the recipe suggested, and we think it probably would have been a little overcooked if it had been cooked the full 30 minutes

Enjoy!

10 Furry Friends To Brighten Your Day

Well, the title of this one says it all. When you are having a bad day, it is often the furry friends in your life that seem to make you smile no matter what.  Here are ten animals that we found on Pinterest that are bound to make you smile, and maybe even laugh, too.

Furry Friend Photo One: The Kitty Missile

We have been obsessed with this flying fluff for at least five days!

Every time we need a good laugh, this will do it in two seconds.

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Furry Friend Photo Two: Cut Em' Loose

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Furry Friend Photo Three: The Heart Melters 

So, Lindsey is a little biased because she has a Westie named Zippy

But seriously, how could these guys not make you say awwww?

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Furry Friend Photo Four: Our Version of Sonic the Hedgehog

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Furry Friend Photo Five: The Twin

Kelsey's turn to be biased! Her Maltese Teddie looked just like this pup when she first got her...she used to bounce through the backyard in a similar fashion! 

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Furry Friend Photo Six: Wrinkles can be cute!

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Furry Friend Photo Seven: Classically Cute

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Furry Friend Photo Eight: An unlikely pair!

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Furry Friend Photo Nine: Dun duh duhhh!

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Furry Friend Photo Ten: Meowzer

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Hope y'all got a few good laughs, we sure did...Enjoy!

This Week's Quote: Inside Us All Patiently Waiting, Sits An Adventure Bird

In our experience, the best things always happen when you are outside of your element and comfort zone, living life a little bit on the edge. We have had some pretty amazing experiences on some of our adventures, and know we see the world through slightly different lenses after these experiences. It is true, we all have an adventure bird inside of us, ready to be let out of its cage whenever you allow it to.

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This is a picture of Lindsey in Lagunillas, Chile. I went on a mini-study abroad trip and visited Santiago, Lagunillas, Valparaiso, and Vina del Mar while there. It was the first time I had been so far from home without my family, and that, in itself, made it a big adventure already for me. It was also the first time I had taken a flight over 5 hours (this one was 12), so that was a big step for me as well. By far, the most amazing experience is what is taking place in this picture above. I had never repelled before, and had heard stories of my dad's mountaineering adventures my whole life. It was so cool to be doing something so out of my element in such a beautiful place, and to be doing something that was so close to my dad's heart, as well. It was definitely a moment where my adventure bird was singing.

These are pictures of Kelsey in the Arenal Volcano area of Costa Rica. I went on a study abroad trip for an environmental science credit...I honestly believe I learned more on this trip than in any of my classes in my educational career! It's amazing how first hand experiences (like study abroad) give you a completely different perception on the world and what you're learning about in that country! Anywho, this picture of me on the left was right before I did one of the scariest, most amazing activities of my life...zip lining almost 500 feet in the air through the rain forest. I’m not terrified of heights, but I’m also not somebody who would jump out of an airplane just for the fun of it! I almost backed out after watching the bravest of my classmates dare the 2,000 foot long zip line first! When I finally mustered enough courage to zip through the jungle I literally screamed the entire line…but after that I was hooked. Going 40mph through the rain forest with the view of the Arenal Volcano at my side was pretty breath taking. The picture on the right is a shot of the Arenal Volcano from our hotel! This electrifying moment in my life definitely brought me out of my comfort zone and let my adventure bird scream her lungs out!

TGIF...Seriously

Happy Friday everyone! We will be spending Saturday cooking up and styling up some fun "Inspired by Pinterest" treats for next week's posts. We will also be working on the format of the site to make it a little more "inspiring" looking itself.

We are off to a wine bar here in a minute to celebrate a successful first week of work for Lindsey and several work related accomplishments for Kelsey as well!

Being the newly "working women" that we are, we are having our first official post-work drinks tonight! Wahoo!

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These Are A Few of My Favorite Things: Heidelberg, Germany

There has been serious Mavs fever in Dallas over the past few weeks... and with Mavs fever, comes Dirk fever... and Dirk fever makes us think of the beautiful country of Germany.

The summer after our sophomore year, the two of us and two of our other friends ventured to Europe for a thirty day trip to eight different countries...obviously one of the greatest times of our lives! At one of our many stops we experienced the beautiful city of Heidelberg, Germany. Unfortunately, we only stayed in Heidelberg for one night but it is definitely an area we would love to visit again! Now, y'all can expect many more posts about our glorious trip to Europe but today we wanted to focus on Germany.

Here's our inspiration from Pinterest:

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Below are a few of our own pictures from Heidelberg:

View from the castle

I'll have a drink please... World's Largest Wine Barrel

The main attraction in the tiny town of Heidelberg is the castle. Since we were really only going to have about half of a day to actually explore, we headed right for it, not thinking of the physically demanding consequences we would be embarking upon along the way. When you walk out of the main square to the base of the path to the castle you look up an extremely long and impossibly steep hill. We thought we were in shape after tackling London, Paris, and Amsterdam, but we were oh so wrong. I think we all took about 20 breaks ... it was so steep you felt like your body was slightly sideways.

Enjoy!

I Like Your Braid: 10 Ways With Braids

For our "10 ways" post this week we chose a trend that has absolutely been blowing up all over Pinterest: braids. Our post today is inspired by these fun dos that can have every look from hippie-summery to office professional.

Every time someone mentions the word "braid" we both can't help but laugh, because we strangely have a funny story that is centered around this week's favorite hair style. This past spring break we went on a cruise with four of our other good friends aboard the Celebrity Eclipse that cruised the Eastern Caribbean. While we were spending the day in St. Maarten, we went to a beach near the local market and walked to the end of the beach so we could get away from all of the other people.

Almost immediately after beaching ourselves whale-style on our towels, a local woman named Beverly approached us and offered us massages and hair braiding. Of course, our friend Jillian, (and true massage addict) could not pass down a waterside rub down, so Beverly hung out with us a while. She and our other friend, Katelyn decided that a few native braids would add to our island experience.

Anyway... the real story goes like this. Jillian and Katelyn have the best set of voices and impersonations EVER and decided to creepily whisper in a very deep man's voice "I like your braid" in the rest of our ears for the remainder of the cruise. Just imagine... your sitting in an elegant dining room eating a four course meal... and then the deepest voice whispers "I like your braid" two inches from your ear. It was scary stuff people and became an instant inside joke the rest of the trip.

So, we hope you "like our braids" we found on Pinterest posted below! Here are our ten favorites:

Way One: The Fan Favorite (This one has been all over Pinterest for weeks!)

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Way Two: Hippie Gone Chic

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Way Three: Step-by-step
We love her nail color!

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Way Four: The Fairy Tail Braid

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Way Five: Sweetly Simple

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Way Six: Because Hermes Says So

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Way Seven: The Sidewinder

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Way Eight: Gettin' Twiggy With It

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Way Nine: Rocker Girl

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Way Ten: The Working Woman Braid

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Enjoy! 

This Week's Quote: The Less You Reveal the More People Can Wonder

The beauty of this quote is the age old saying that less is more! What we love about the quote below by Emma Watson is it gives girls an opportunity to see a celebrity who isn't willing to take it all off for the camera. It is more than refreshing in a world full of headlines of celebrities making a scene to see a young woman who values family, education, and confidence that isn't backed by being a sex symbol.
Her quote depicts that celebrities don't have to loose their morals to become famous...perhaps they just need to fight evil witches and wizards in movies and cast super cool spells. Maybe if more famous young ladies acted like young ladies, teens and pre-teens would think it was cool to be themselves and have the confidence to chase their dreams.

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Role Model: "I find the whole concept of being ‘sexy’ embarrassing and confusing. If I do an interview with photographs people desperately want to change me - dye my hair blonder, pluck my eyebrows, give me a fringe. Then there’s the choice of clothes. I know everyone wants a picture of me in a mini-skirt. But that’s not me. I feel uncomfortable. I’d never go out in a mini-skirt. It’s nothing to do with protecting the Hermione image. I wouldn’t do that. Personally, I don’t actually think it’s even that sexy. What’s sexy about saying, ‘I’m here with my boobs out and a short skirt, have a look at everything I’ve got?’ My idea of sexy is that less is more. The less you reveal the more people can wonder. - Emma Watson"

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Cheers, To The Best Men We Know

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! We have both had a lot of fun spending time with our families today and saying thank you to our dads. We are both so grateful to have fathers who are and have always been so active in our lives and wanted to publically say thank you to them!

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Below are some flashback, as well as current pictures of us with our dads... we hope you enjoy!

Kelsey:

 Father's Day 1990...check out the frog dress!

Father's Day 2011

Lindsey:

Tearing up the dance floor at my cousin's wedding

Before my leadership banquet, as a part of TCU graduation