Category: lifestyle

Fashion Friday: Jean Jacket Dressed Up and Down

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Happy Friday! I don’t know about you but I am SO ready for the weekend.

Colorado is in that awkward stage of weather where its not warm enough yet to go out in short sleeves but you start sweating in a jacket. Because of this weird in-between weather, the perfect layering piece for spring is a jean jacket. It doesn’t add a lot of warmth but you still get something between you and the chilly air.

Today I’m showing two ways to wear a jean jacket for spring. One dressed down that I think is a perfect brunch look, or if you want to look extra cute for class, and another look that I think would be perfect for a girls night out.

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For a more casual look I paired the jacket with distressed denim, a white lace-up tshirt and birkenstock sandals.

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For a dressier look, I started with this faux-wrap skirt and a black and white striped mock neck top. I added some cute booties, and threw the jacket over my shoulders.

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My jacket is thrifted but I have been absolutely in love with this jacket from FashionAble.

 

What’s your go-to layering piece for spring? Tell me in the comments!

~Maizy

Unless I let you know otherwise, my posts aren’t sponsored by any of the companies whose products I mention. I won’t accept sponsorships from companies whose products I don’t truly think are really great. However, links marked with an * are affiliate links. Should you click on the links and make a purchase, at no extra cost to you, I’ll go add to my growing stash of tea, or yarn, or pay the fines on that library book that I couldn’t put down for a month.

 

4 of my Favorite Day Hikes in Colorado

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The trees are starting to leaf out, crocuses and daffodils are blooming, and the weather is alternating between freezing temperatures and 65 and sunny which can only mean that spring has arrived in Colorado. With the changing seasons comes a desire to get into the mountains and go hiking. To help me stay patient and focused on class, I’ve compiled a list of 4 awesome day hikes in Colorado that I love to do and will definitely be on my docket this summer. These hikes are spread out over Colorado and are a great way to spend a few hours.

1 Finch Lake

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Located in the Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National park, this is a gorgeous hike through pine forest and the occasional grove of aspens ending with beautiful views of finch lake. The trail is 4.2 miles one way and another 2 miles takes you pear lake. This hike is moderate to difficult with the hardest section being a steep hill close to the trailhead.

2 Wild Basin

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Wild Basin is a 6.3-mile one-way out and back trail punctuated by beautiful waterfalls and ending at a lake. Wild Basin is my all-time favorite area to hike. The area is interlaced with dozens of rivers and all of the moisture causes it to explode with lush greenery and wildflowers. This trail is moderate to difficult but the waterfalls are spaced out really well for hikers to take breaks

3 Pancake Rocks and Horsethief Falls

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Pancake rocks is an approximately 6 mile out and back trail that starts between Divide and Cripple Creek on Highway 67. Horsethief falls is approximately two miles. Both trails are gorgeous hikes through Pike National Forest but pancake rocks is a much more difficult trail that ends with beautiful views of Cripple Creek surrounded by the most incredible rock formations that look exactly like stacked pancakes! Horsethief falls is a gentler hike that ends at a waterfall.

4 Wheeler National Recreation Trail

 

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Quandary Peak from the Wheeler trailhead

 

The wheeler trail is a through hiking trail that starts near the Quandary Peak trailhead. The first two miles you climb to the top of a bluff, hike along it, and then climb back down. The top of the bluff burned in a wildfire at some point and has recovered enough that it has beautiful grass and wildflowers and young spruce and pine trees. The wheeler trial is also an alternate route to get to the Mohawk Lakes trail if you don’t have a vehicle that can handle the road to Mohawk Lakes.

Planning a hiking trip this summer? You might want to check out my post Five Things to Know Before You Go Hiking it’s full of useful tips to make your hiking trip safer and more enjoyable!

Have you hiked any of these trails? Tell me about it in the comments!

~Maizy

Unless I let you know otherwise, my posts aren’t sponsored by any of the companies whose products I mention. I won’t accept sponsorships from companies whose products I don’t truly think are really great. However, links marked with an * are affiliate links. Should you click on the links and make a purchase, at no extra cost to you, I’ll go add to my growing stash of tea, or yarn, or pay the fines on that library book that I couldn’t put down for a month.

 

 

Colorado Travel Guide: Steamboat Springs

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Hello and welcome back to the Colorado Travel Guide. This is a series I’ve done fairly frequently in the past but it hasn’t appeared in a while. There is no particular order to these posts, it’s just a place for me to walk you through all of the shops, restaurants, hikes, and sights that I love in my favorite state.

For spring break this year my family decided that we were finally going to make the drive up to the northwest corner of the state and visit Steamboat Springs and Dinosaur National Monument. I’m a pretty big national park fan and I realized on this trip that Dinosaur was the last major national park/monument for me to visit in Colorado. There are a couple of smaller sites left but I was pretty excited when I realized that.

The main visitor center of Dinosaur National Monument is two hours west of Steamboat Springs in Jensen, Utah. There is also an entrance in Dinosaur, Colorado. If it’s your first time visiting I recommend going to the Jensen entrance but I would like to eventually go back and get more hiking in on the Colorado side of the park. Hands down the coolest part of the park was the Dinosaur Quarry Exhibit Hall. You get to touch real fossils that are still embedded in the actual rock. My niece adores dinosaurs and wants to be a paleontologist when she grows up and I kept wishing that she was there the whole time because she would have loved it.

The most common reason for people to visit Steamboat is the skiing, the second most common reason is the hot springs. Old Town Hot Springs is right on the edge of downtown. It was so cool sitting in the warm water and watching the snow fall. The only problem was that I forgot to pack my contacts on the trip and the steam made it so I couldn’t see through my glasses.

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Steamboat Springs had a really cool art culture. There were galleries everywhere. The art museum is free to the public and had beautiful oil paintings and sculptures by artists from Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The Eleanor Bliss Center for the Arts looked really cool but when we got there they were packing up the most recent display. There was a really cute dog running around though.

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I didn’t get any pictures but the first night we were there we ate dinner at Vaqueros, a Mexican restaurant. The food wasn’t exceptional but the atmosphere reminded me of a Robert Louis Stevenson book. Kind of dark with lots of wood and brick, like the characters of Treasure Island were probably somewhere in the back. Aaaand that’s how you know I was homeschooled. LOL.

The food I DID really enjoy was from Steamboat Smokehouse. I love barbeque and the ice cream shop on the other side of the building had amazing pomegranate sorbet.

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I always have to visit the bookstore in any new town and Off the Beaten Path Bookstore was amazing. I love bookstores in old houses; it’s so fun to find little corners and just get lost in a book. I found a practically brand-new autographed copy of Everyone Brave is Forgiven in the used books section for half-off and I’m still a little giddy.
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The bookstore was also a coffee shop and the latte names were are either book titles or literary characters and it was super adorable.

Some of the other cute shops we visited were All That, which had a cool vintage vinyl selection, and Ohana which had a surprisingly surfer vibe for a Colorado town.

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Have you visited Steamboat Springs? What were your favorite places? Tell me in the comments!

Maizy

Unless I let you know otherwise, my posts aren’t sponsored by any of the companies whose products I mention. I won’t accept sponsorships from companies whose products I don’t truly think are really great. However, links marked with an * are affiliate links. Should you click on the links and make a purchase, at no extra cost to you, I’ll go add to my growing stash of tea, or yarn, or pay the fines on that library book that I couldn’t put down for a month.

Photography Fun and My Obsession with ThredUP

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Happy Friday Y’all!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Moriah and I went on a bit of a photography adventure. We started in Manitou Springs and just took photos of whatever caught our fancy and then moved to Michael’s and Whole Food’s to test our creativity and see how many cool photos we could take in unconventional settings. It was so much fun and inspired me to see art in unexpected places

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smelling the fake flowers
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When you go grocery shopping at the end of a long day.
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I was very distracted by the espresso grinder at Whole Foods.
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That is still the fanciest bottle of lemonade I’ve ever seen.
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I’m kind of in love with little free libraries, they’re just so fun.

I realized while going through these photos that almost my entire outfit is from *ThredUP. I’ve been kind of obsessed with them lately because they make it way to easy to buy cute clothes in sweatpants from my bed plus its all pre-loved (second-hand) so it’s super ethical and sustainable. If you use the link, up above, you’ll get $10 to spend with them, which is like more than it costs to get either of the pieces in my outfit. No, this isn’t sponsored, they just have a super awesome referral program and I thought I’d share my most recent shopping addiction.

I hope you have a good weekend! I’ll be working a lot and hopefully getting some reading in as well. Do you have anything fun planned? Tell me in the comments!

~Maizy

Unless I let you know otherwise, my posts aren’t sponsored by any of the companies whose products I mention. I won’t accept sponsorships from companies whose products I don’t truly think are really great. However, links marked with an * are affiliate links. Should you click on the links and make a purchase, at no extra cost to you, I’ll go add to my growing stash of tea, or yarn, or pay the fines on that library book that I couldn’t put down for a month.

 

The Podcasts I Can’t Get Enough Of

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Happy Monday!

I’ve recently gotten super into podcasts, and honestly, it’s a problem. Every time I get in my car I have to choose between listening to music or audiobooks and now I’m adding podcasts to my options which just makes my commute even more high-pressure.  I have found some podcasts I really love listening to though, so today I’m sharing my top four podcasts that I’ve been listening to lately

That Sounds Fun

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Annie Downs’ podcast is, well, fun. I have loved her books for several years and her podcasts are just as good. I can guarantee that you each one will make you laugh and leave you with something to think about.

What Should I Read Next

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Thanks to this podcast my to-read list is miles longer that it was before I started. So many books, so little time. Anne Bogel also has a blog called Modern Mrs. Darcy if you want even more book recommendations.

The Goal Digger Podcast

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If you’ve ever wanted to start your own business you need to listen to this podcast. Jenna has awesome stories and advice on how to shine as a female entrepreneur.

Speaking with Joy

 

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Art, music, books, and great ideas are all discussed in this podcast. I especially love the series on women, Joy has an amazing take on femininity and strong womanhood.

Which podcasts do y’all like to listen to? Tell me in the comments!

~Maizy

Custom Invitations by Basic Invite

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Happy Monday!

Recently Basic Invite reached out to me asking if I was interested in collaborating on a post. After researching their brand a bit and looking around on their website, I decided I definitely wanted to work with them on a post, as well as ordering some adorable custom stationary.

Some of my favorite things about them are:

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There is an almost unlimited variety of colors. And there are almost 40 different colors of envelopes. I was able to match the stationary I ordered exactly to the color palette of my blog. I decided on white envelopes but I loved the colored options.

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You can order samples before you place your final order. I initially ordered samples so that I could see how they would look printed out before placing a full order which is especially nice if you are ordering wedding invitations or graduation announcements or anything you really want to look nice.

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Basic Invite makes all kinds of printed products, from graduation announcements to Christmas cards. But right now they are doing a big promotion for their invitations. They have tons of options to customize party invitations or to make picture invitations that would be great for events like graduation parties or a baby shower.

Right now Basic Invite is offering 15% off your order with the code 15FF51

~Maizy

I received compensation and free samples in exchange for this post. All of the opinions are my 100% my own. Unless I let you know otherwise, my posts aren’t sponsored by any of the companies whose products I mention. I won’t accept sponsorships from companies whose products I don’t truly think are really great. However, links marked with an * are affiliate links. Should you click on the links and make a purchase, at no extra cost to you, I’ll go add to my growing stash of tea, or yarn, or pay the fines on that library book that I couldn’t put down for a month.

2017 in Photos

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2017 was a blast! I graduated high school, started college, went backpacking for the first time and made a ton of amazing friendships. I’m a little behind on getting this post up but I still wanted to share it so here is a month-by-month photo journey through 2017!

January

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January I saw the movie Hidden Figures with my mom, which was probably one of my favorite movies of the year, along with Wonder Woman. The number of movies about women and by women and celebrating women in 2017 was seriously awesome.

February

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In February, among other things, I celebrated galentines day with some of my friends, we got dressed up, treated ourselves to brunch and went shopping downtown.

March

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In March my family visited my oldest sister in Portland, OR. We explored the city for a couple of days and then roadtripped down to see the redwoods in California. You can read my blog post about it here.

April

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In April I went to my senior prom. I actually wasn’t planning on going to prom this year but I ended up deciding to go five days before. Finding a dress and getting everything ready was a bit rushed by my date was really cool and some of the people we went with where actually old friends from the beginning of high school so it ended up being a lot of fun.

May

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In May I graduated from high school which was quite possibly the highlight of my entire year. My high school experience was a huge blessing in many ways but it was also really hard in some ways so I was excited to move on from that stage of my life and start going to college full time. The best part of graduation though, was that my best friend came to visit and actually got to hand me my diploma. She graduated a year before me and it had been a year since I had seen her so that made graduation that much more special.

June

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In June, I went backpacking for the first time. The packs were so heavy, and I was really scared the first night but it was such an incredible experience and I can’t wait to keep backpacking.

July

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I turned 18 in July and filled the month with as many hiking and backpacking trips as I could.

August

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In August, my older sister got married, I don’t have any photos from the actual wedding so this one is a selfie I took before the rehearsal. The wedding was really beautiful and it’s been awesome to gain a brother.

September

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In September I saw Needtobreathe at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Needtobreathe is one of my favorite bands and I understand why Red Rocks is such a popular venue. There really isn’t a bad seat when it comes to acoustics and the rocks are just beautiful.

October

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October began with a retreat with Cru in Estes Park. Estes Park is one of my absolute favorite towns in Colorado and the weekend was an amazing time of making friends, enjoying the mountains, and growing in my relationship with God.

November

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In November, I started going to a new church. The young adults group at the church is amazing, everyone was so welcoming and I’ve made wonderful friendships with the people there.

December

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In December I finished my first semester of full-time college. Finals week almost killed my through lack of sleep but the rest of the month was filled with relaxing, reading, sewing, and celebrating the holidays and ended with a New Years party that my friend and I threw. Everyone dressed up in the style of their favorite 20th century decade and it was a blast.

What were your highlights of 2017? Tell me about them in the comments!

~Maizy

Unless I let you know otherwise, my posts aren’t sponsored by any of the companies whose products I mention. I won’t accept sponsorships from companies whose products I don’t truly think are really great. However, links marked with an * are affiliate links. Should you click on the links and make a purchase, at no extra cost to you, I’ll go add to my growing stash of tea, or yarn, or pay the fines on that library book that I couldn’t put down for a month.

 

Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day with your loved ones!

Unless I let you know otherwise, my posts aren’t sponsored by any of the companies whose products I mention. I won’t accept sponsorships from companies whose products I don’t use all the time and think are really great. However, links marked with an * are affiliate links. Should you click on the links and make a purchase, at no extra cost to you, I’ll go add to my growing stash of tea, or yarn, or pay the fines on that library book that I couldn’t put down for a month.

Semester Reflection: Fall 2017

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Finals ended about a week ago and I decided that now is a good time to share a bit of a reflection and my impressions from the past semester. This is going to be a different from what I usually post but I wanted to share something a bit more personal today.

When I started the semester I was really disappointed about my choice of school. At the end of my Junior year I had pretty much decided to attend John Brown University in Arkansas; I loved the campus and the culture and it had a fantastic business program. By December of 2016, however I looked at the numbers and decided to stay close to home and go to the University of Colorado so that I wouldn’t have to take out student loans to pay for school. I decided to jump in and give it my all at my choice of school and after a semester I can honestly say that I am really really happy with UCCS and I’m excited for the next three years there!

Academically, this was a pretty easy semester. I took community college classes my junior and senior years of high school so I entered this year as a sophomore and just needed to finish a few freshman requirements. I took a literature class that reignited my passion for reading which had faded a bit during high school and I took an administrative writing class which, although it was a bit dry, got me interested in a professional and technical writing minor which I’ll be looking into more in the coming semester.

At the beginning of the semester I connected with some girls from my city who also are at UCCS. We met up out before school started and while out different majors made it difficult to see each other much during the semester we’ve managed to meet up off and on.

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I joined an on-campus ministry called Cru (formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ) and it has become the most wonderful community and really why I have enjoyed my time at UCCS so much. In October I went on a retreat with Cru to Estes Park, where we hung out and worshiped God with Cru groups from other schools and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning swing dancing. It was a fantastic time of community in the mountains.

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This semester it really was the people who made all the difference and I am so so thankful for the friendships that I made this semester and I can’t wait to continue at UCCS and see what the future holds. What were your experiences at school this semester? Tell me in the comments!

~Maizy

Unless I let you know otherwise, my posts aren’t sponsored by any of the companies whose products I mention. I won’t accept sponsorships from companies whose products I don’t use all the time and think are really great. However, links marked with an * are affiliate links. Should you click on the links and make a purchase, at no extra cost to you, I’ll go add to my growing stash of tea, or yarn, or pay the fines on that library book that I couldn’t put down for a month.

Fashion Friday: How to Look Cute for Those 8ams (Even when you woke up at 7:40)

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Happy Friday!

I always tell myself that I’m not going to sign up for another 8am and then every semester it seems like I end up in one. I live off campus so it can be hard to put any effort in when I have to be up and out the door that early in the morning. I’m usually guilty of just throwing a new tshirt or a hoodie on over the leggings I slept in and calling it good. Just because you’re putting in minimal effort doesn’t mean you can’t look cute or make a statement though. Instead of a shirt that you got from school or a club try a shirt with a cute floral detail like this one or fun sleeves. They are just as comfy and look way more put together.

I also love tshirts that support a cause I care about this one from Everlane donates to Equality Now and is made super ethically. Girl Set Free and My Sister are working to fight human trafficking and make adorable tees like this one and this one.

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tee Mercy House Global shoes REI

The tee I’m wearing is from Mercy House Global and I love that it is supporting maternity houses to young mothers in Kenya.

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Also I’m ridiculously happy that this shirt matches my chacos so there’s that.

What’s your default 8am outfit? Tell me in the comments!

~Maizy

photography by By Quiet Waters

Unless I let you know otherwise, my posts aren’t sponsored by any of the companies whose products I mention. I won’t accept sponsorships from companies whose products I don’t use all the time and think are really great. However, links marked with an * are affiliate links. Should you click on the links and make a purchase, at no extra cost to you, I’ll go add to my growing stash of tea, or yarn, or pay the fines on that library book that I couldn’t put down for a month.