Been Gone So Long...

But I'm back! It's been months since I've blogged... time for that to change. Why? Because I actually have a bit of time back in my little hands! 

A lot has happened in the last few months- got a "promotion" at work, planned a wedding, interviewed for a new job the week before my wedding, got offered said new job 8 days before my wedding, GOT MARRIED!, honeymooned, had my last few days at old job, and then started new job. BAM. 

Yes that is a lot to cram into a small amount of time. But I did it, I'm on the other side, I'm happily 2+ months married and starting to settle in.

I will be blogging regularly again and I'm so excited to be back! 

So, what is my first, extremely important subject, to blog about?
New hair. Yep. Time to change another thing! 

I've had long hair for many years now, and although I'm not going to actually chop it all off (don't let me do that ever!) I do want to freshen it up both with style and color. Here are my inspiration pictures! Appointment is tomorrow... wish me luck!  

Color Inspiration... this is currently the length of my hair.
I love the honey brown and blonde.

Cut Inspiration- medium length bob, but layered? Is that a "Lob?"

Cut and Color Inspiration- Ah, Julia from Gal Meets Glam, so pretty.

 Another shot of Julia from Gal Meets Glam

Cut inspiration again.
I love the easy look of the style. (We all know it won't be that effortless though right?)

Color inspiration... and maybe cut inspiration if I chicken out! 

No style inspired blog would be complete without Lauren Conrad. Love her.

All Image Source

I'll let you know how it goes and will be blogging about all that is and has been going on for me!

Engagement Photos

I'm thrilled to be able to post pictures that my husband-to-be and I took with our Wedding Photographer, Melinda Bunker Photography, for our "e-session" or engagement session a few weeks ago! I'm so incredibly happy with the pictures and these are just a few of our favorites. (There were a lot of favorites, out of 175 pictures that she gave us, uhm... amazing much!?) We are so lucky to have Melinda as our photographer!- she is so talented and we love these pictures so much. (did I say that already?) Aside from the gorgeous pictures, Melinda is so fun and we had such a great time with her! She made us so comfortable and we are really looking forward to the wedding pictures with her! Visit her site and blog to see how amazing she is! 

www.melindabunker.com

Here is a link to more pictures from our session with Melinda on her blog! 

Kara and Matt are Tying the Knot!

M.I.A.

Yep. That's me in a nutshell, blogging world. Missing in Action. I apologize for my serious lapse in blogging. I have a new job, a side job, a part time job, wedding planning and a tiny tiny tiny bit of time to see friends and family. I'm barely sleeping. I've never been so busy in my entire life! I don't want to complain about any of it, because mostly it's good stuff. But many, I'm tired. 

I will do my best to take even 5 minutes every few days to check in and be a blogger again. I love it so much, and I miss it. 

Must. Find. Time.

In the meantime, please understand that I miss it, and miss my fellow blogging friends!

Have a wonderful Sunday! Hope to talk to you all soon! :)

Sincerely,

A very tired Kara. 

I said "Yes!"... see it in pictures!

My man is amazing. In so many ways. 

One of them, is the fact that he arranged for his sister to be hiding out on the beach, taking pictures of him asking me to marry him. I feel so blessed to have these pictures that I will always be able to look at to remember such an amazing moment in my life. I was completely unaware that this was going to happen, was so shocked and on top of it all, was so happy to see his sister immediately after! It was so great to see a family member and share the moment with her. 

Here are the pics!

Here we are... as far as I know, just walkin on the beach- one of my favorite things in life!

Still walking... right about now, Matt is telling me to check out tide pools in the rocks to our right. I didn't believe him that they were there, but climbed onto the rocks for fun anyway.

He "tricked" me by giving me an anniversary card, which really was a "will you marry me?" card! I was shocked, literally said "No!" in complete confusion...to which I then said, "I MEAN YES! Is this really happening?" Then he got on one knee and asked me to marry him!

This is me saying "Yes" again, and crying (sobbing), and "oh my God!" and "holy sh*t!" 

(classy I know). It was honestly an out of body experience!

 Big hug, lots of tears! (happy tears of course!)

More hugs, more tears!

 The kiss!

Then we saw his sister and she took this picture... we can't stay serious for TOO long! :)

And finally... a celebratory dinner with his sister/our secret photographer!

So amazing! Such a wonderful day that I will never forget!

Living in the Moment

Today starts my quick beach vacation with my man... I'm SO happy to be getting away to this beautiful beach with my favorite person. I mean come on, look how gorgeous!  

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I want to share the lyrics of my new favorite song with all of you. I've decided it's the new theme song to my life and it starts today! :) I've been a HUGE Jason Mraz fan since 2002, thanks to my dear friend Bianca and this song is off his new album. Enjoy, read, and think about it! I'm off to the beach! Check my instagram for fun pics!

Living in the Moment: 

Lyrics by Jason Mraz and Rick Nowels.

If this life is one act

Why do we lay all these traps

We put them right in our path

When we just wanna be free

I will not waste my days

Making up all kinds of ways

To worry about some things

That will not happen to me

So I just let go of what I know I don't know

And I know I'll only do this by

Living in the moment

Living our life

Easy and breezy

With peace in my mind

With peace in my heart

Peace in my soul

Wherever I'm going, I'm already home

Living in the moment

I'm letting myself off the hook for things I've done

I let my past go past

And now I'm having more fun

I'm letting go of the thoughts

That do not make me strong

And I believe this way can be the same for everyone

And if I fall asleep

I know you'll be the one who'll always remind me

To live in the moment

To live my life

Easy and breezy

With peace in my mind

I got peace in my heart

Got peace in my soul

Wherever I'm going, I'm already home

I can't walk through life facing backwards

I have tried

I tried more than once to just make sure

And I was denied the future I'd been searching for

But I spun around and searched no more

By living in the moment

Living my life

Easy and breezy

With peace in my mind

I got peace in my heart

Got peace in my soul

Wherever I'm going, I'm already home

I'm living in the moment

I'm living my life

Just taking it easy

With peace in my mind

I got peace in my heart

I got peace in my soul

Oh, wherever I'm going, I'm already home

I'm living in the moment

I'm living my life

Oh, easy and breezy

With peace in my mind

I got peace in my heart

I got peace in my soul

Oh, wherever I'm going, I'm already home

I'm living in the moment

My weekend...

Not the best weekend. 

I was recovering from minor medical procedures and just wasn't feeling 100%. 

I'm still not. I'm okay, but just not doing great. 

I was well taken care of by my mother, family, and guy. 

I had wonderful friends checking up on me. 

*For all of that I am thankful.*

There was some other stuff that happened, for which I understand I am partially at fault for, 

but that mostly just hurt my feelings. 

I'm glad tomorrow starts a new day and new week that include a party, days off and a wedding!

A special thanks to that amazing man in my life for dealing with me and caring for me. I love you.

Some thoughts about this weekend...

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Oh! How Pinteresting!

Linking up with The Vintage Apple for another Wednesday of pins. This week however, I only have one pin for all of you. ( I know, the horror!) :) But it's a good one, I promise.

:::one:::

Something for me to ask myself more often.

pinned here

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

On This Monday...

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Here's hoping for a good day today.

Over 50...like what!?

I've been crazy busy... well mostly preoccupied, but busy too. I missed a milestone people. I hit my 50 follower mark, AND went over it! YAY! 

Thank you so much to all of my followers. I feel so blessed to have met you and feel lucky to be part of this lovely blogger network. 

So... I've always been the type to set new goals when I reach past goals. What's the new goal? 

100.

Yep, let's double it! When I do (power of positivity!) I promise to do a giveaway!

Here's to 50 (2!) and onward to 100!

Love you all!

My weekend with Lola

As I mentioned on Friday, I had a sort of crummy week. But my weekend was super fun. I'm going to call it my "Weekend with Lola." Who is Lola you ask?

Well, Lola is my dear friends' adorable Boston Terrier Puppy. I got to dog sit for an afternoon, which was originally going to be a walk and potty break, but turned into an all out fun in the sun outing. I picked her up and drove her to my sister's house to meet my (almost) 2 year old nephew. She got to run around like crazy, and even dip her paws into the baby pool.

Lola, meet Evan.( It's safe to say they hit it off immediately.)

Evan even tried to kiss Lola.

 After Lola ran around for a while, Evan tried to teach Lola about the baby pool. 

After 2 hours outside in the nearly 90 degree weather, it was time to take Lola home. I'm sure she slept until her Mama got home.

 I met up with them later for dinner, and after, Lola got all snuggled up with on the couch with her Mama. A big yawn, and she was out for the night!

Then, Sunday morning we had coffee and breakfast where Lola, her Mama and I hung out on the deck. It was already 75 degrees at 10 am. Perfect Sunday morning!

Tough life this gal has, tough life!

That was my weekend with Lola... hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!

Pastels Please!

I hope everyone had an amazing Easter weekend! 

Great way to start the day... mimosa!

(watch: michael kors, fancy bracelet: jcrew, wood bracelet: forever 21, ring: francescas, champagne flute: Crate and Barrel!)

 Favorite new shirt, on sale for $13.99 at jcrew. Jeans, on sale also at jcrew, and sweater is old, from you guessed it, jcrew. I have a problem.

My self timer was being, persnickety... so I gave it a nasty look in order to set it straight! ha! It didn't work.

Tagged!

How fun...I've been tagged! The adorable Beverly from lalalovelearnandlaugh, who happens to be one of my stylish sponsors this month, tagged me in this fun Q&A activity.
Not only do I get share these answers with you, but I really love this chance to ask YOU guys some questions! Here we go!

The rules:

* Post these rules

* Answer the 11 questions that the tagger posted for you

* Create 11 questions of your own to ask the people that you're about to tag

* Tag 11 people and link them with your post (and let them know they've been tagged!)

1.  What high school did you graduate from?Carondelet High School in the Bay Area... it's an all girls Catholic High School, with the boys school, De La Salle across the street. It was an experience!2.  What's the most exciting post you have done to date?The post I had the most fun doing was my "going green" outfit post. Check it out here. Everything was just right for me, the hair, the makeup, the outfit.3.  Who is your blog-bestie?I have to say it's a tie between my girl Beverly who I've gotten to know really well recently, and  Brielle who I've been getting to know since I started blogging! Both fantastic ladies.4.  What would you do for the rest of your life (if money wasn't an issue)?Wow... I would do 2 things, the first is I would give free interior design services because I believe everyone should love where they live. I would also LOVE to work at an Animal Rescue/Shelter. I hold a very special place in my heart for animals.5.  Do you have a hidden talent? What is it?It's not so hidden, but I'm a painter and am pretty good at it! :)

6.  Do you have any dogs? If so, POST a pic!Sadly no, but here are a few of my pet friends! (friend and family dogs!)

7.  What's the first blog you started reading (like daily)?The Small Things, Girl Meets Glam, and Running on Happiness All found through Pinterest a year-ish ago!8. Who's your celebrity crush?Ryan Reynolds!

9.  What show MUST you watch (or else your week falls apart)?Wow, there are too many to list. I get bummed out if I miss HIMYM or Parks and Rec. 10.  Do you have any brothers and/or sisters?Yep, 1 older sister, and 1 family friend who I call "brother" because he basically is.

(oh, my many hairstyles!)11.  What inspires you? 

Usually happiness inspires me... If I'm happy, I'm usually really creative!

Now for the gals I'm tagging...

Lauren @ tippee canoe

Brielle @ Adventures of Law School

Sarah @ crazy beautiful life

Elizabeth @ fearless and frugal

Jillian @ newlywed in nashville

 Jenn @ passenger seat perspectives

Kara @ the snugly duckling

Katie @ for lauren and lauren

 Laura @ flannel & cashmere

Annie @ the other side of gray

 Jessica @ lovely little things

Here are my questions for you! If you wish not to post this on your blog, let me know the answers anyway so I can get to know you all better! Thanks! :)

1. What made you start your blog?

2. Where did you grow up?

3. Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?

4. If you have one, what is your day job?

5. What female celebrity do you idolize most for their style?

6. How would you categorize your personal style?

7. Who is your current Blog Best Friend?

8. Be honest, do you make your bed everyday?

9. What is one thing your blog followers would be surprised to learn about you?

10. Where is your favorite place to shop for clothes?

11. What life event have you learn the most from?

Also, there are still open spots for Sponsor Swapping for the month of April... hit me up if you're interested! :)