Links + Loves

I met Maskcara! She’s seriously cool and I betcha we could have talked for about 70-546 hours. Her visit in Raleigh was brief but we did something fun and I’ll share soon. That’s her head above. Working on a tutorial for that half halo braid soon!

I stumbled across the instagram account of @4thtribodies and I absolutely love looking at the beautiful photos. I’m struggling a bit with my post-baby body and am always so encouraged when I look through this feed. These women have beautiful bodies, but more than that you can simply tell that they emanate pure joy about motherhood. That’s what it’s all about anyway, isn’t it?

how cute is this coffee mug?

Dinners have gotten SUPER basic around the Bryan household, so I loved these simple tips to boost otherwise boring baked chicken.

These pretty little blotting papers are supposed to add a little blush, bronzer, highlight. I’m skeptical. . . have you tried them?

BevCooks instagram is always funny. Love her sense of humor with her twins.

Let’s have a brief chat about shorts and sizing. I found some denim shorts at Madewell that looked pretty good so I grabbed my size, a 30, and tried them on. And then I slid them off because they were so enormous I couldn’t even keep them up. I looked for a size 29 but there weren’t any available in store, so I just ordered them online. The day they arrived I was so excited to try on my new favorite shorts except I could.not.button.them. They were tiny. I COULD NOT BUTTON THEM. Someone explain to me how there is that large of a range between back to back sizes. Anyway, I resolved to exchange them for a 30 online and just try to shrink them in the dryer. Well, the 30’s arrived and they were SNUG. And I was like NO. THESE MUST WORK. So I wore them around the house to see if they would loosen up, like Madewell denim tends to do, and sure enough after about an hour of wear they were perfection. So, beWARE if you are shopping for shorts at Madewell, and they are great shorts, try on a few different “versions” of your size.