Meet Ein

So if you follow me on instagram, then you know that two weekends ago i totally died of a cute attack at the amazing Corgi Beach Day event at the doggy beach in Huntington Beach. Over 250 corgis just running around all over the beach! Some were off leash and they would just come by and play with you and leave. It was insane! I had to seriously fight everything within me so that i didnt steal a corgi that day. i want one so bad!

My date to corgi beach day was this handsome pup, Ein. he's seriously so adorable. Everything is exciting to him and he looooves making new friends. Also, Ein is the most passive dog i've ever met. I didnt hear him bark once! AHHHHH I can't wait to hang out with this little doggy soon! His owner, my pal Jenn, and i have lots of adventures planned for this coming summer so hopefully there will be more of Ein around here!

he's very well trained!

On a different note, i loooove this super comfy outfit. Both top and bottoms are from Ruche and while i normally would not have worn these together, i'm so glad i did because i'm totally digging it now. Happy accident! The embroidery detailing on this top is sooooo nice. I'm really glad embroidery detailing is popular again because i love lurking for new clothes that have great little details. But really though, i don't think it ever really went out of style. Maybe, that's just my opinion because i'm always buying stuff with a folksy touch. Love that embroidery!

Also, these lounge pants! I LOVE THEM. i'm turning into a lounge pant crazy lady! ayyyy. These are so freaking awesome. Breezy and comfy and rad color too. I'm pretty sure you're going to see these a lot around here. sorryimnotsorry! haha. Only thing that drives me crazy about these pants is how easily they wrinkle. T___T but everything that wrinkles drives me crazy.

yes, he was named Ein because of Cowboy Bebop!

details:

top: Ruche | bottoms: Ruche | necklace: st. eve via threadsence | bracelets: brooke hill jewelry via prism boutique & anthropologie | shoes: mia | glasses: london retro via myoptique | lip color: MAC see sheer

doggy hugs!

Actual corgi beach day photos to come tomorrow, i promise!

egg business

Easter egg hunts at my sister's house are serious business. 

here are a few photos of this year's craziness. 

we never dyed eggs as kids so i always look forward to watching my sister's kids do this.

i can't believe they're growing up so fast. secondly, i can't believe my sister has three kids. i am the lucky one though, because at the end of the day, i get to go home to peace and quiet. ;) 

the little one. she kills me

Holidaze: Bunny Sunday

So remember in January when Free People released this dress for their January catalog and i fell in love? It finally went on sale!!! Still not the best sale ever but i just needed it. i needed a reward for working so hard and maintaining positivity in my life. hey, i've always been the pessimist so being positive deserves a reward. hehe. also, i knew easter was approaching and i was feeling nostalgic and decided i needed a new dress. when i was a kid my mom would always buy me a new white dress for easter. i no longer adhere to her religious views, but sometimes nostalgia is nice. we just never know how much longer we have with our parents so sometimes its nice to appease them when we can. she did ask me what i was giving up for lent and i said d r i v i n g . lololololololololol. oh man that was a good one. although, i have sort of given up driving but rather for the earth. ;)

bunny circles because why not?

details:

dress: free people new romantics | bracelet: vanessa mooney via threadsence | shoes: sven x loeffler randall via tradesy | sunglasses:  warby parker x leith clark | necklace: threadsence

my favorite part of the dress is the back detailing! just. i can't. so good. also, suuuper obsessed with these shoes right now. i can already tell i'm going to wear them to death this summer. more info on them later when i have time, i promise. 

well, i gotta get ready to be on my way to spend the day with my family. i love watching my sister's kids do the easter egg hunt. always a fun time. also, i'm totally breaking paleo because i know my mom's making my favorite macaroni salad haha. 

i hope ya'll have a happy easter if you're into that. ;)

sick, but at least i've got new glasses

How exciting! Spending my day off sneezing every two minutes and a headache to boot. T____T. So sad that finally i have a day off and i feel awful. i just wanted to get a move on on my spring cleaning! ayyyyy. to top it off i'm feelin really bad about breaking paleo yesterday. i went to olive garden and i ate ALL THE BREADSTICKS. and i got the unhealthiest pasta ever. so i've been in a gluten coma and sneezing all day. so much fun happening over here. okay okay, enough complaining. i'll get up when im done with this and do some cleaning. a little is at least something right? hehe

in non complain-y news, i totally am super stoked i recently got new glasses. it's so nice to be able to see clearly! and it's been really helpful to have more than one pair of glasses because i'm always in a hurry and if i cant find one pair, odds are i know where the other pair is. haha. these glasses are super cool because they were free! haha. i mentioned a while ago that i had won a giveaway on Belphoebe's blog, Rags Of Love, for some London Retro frames courtesy of MyOptique and i must say, they are freakin awesome! i got the Nancy frames and they are so ridiculously pretty in person. when the light hits them you can see the hints of blue in the frames. not going to lie though, i was a little worried that i would never get these babies because they were being shipped from the UK. but they were shipped in a ridiculously fast manner and dealing with the folks at myoptique was a breeze. when i have some money saved up i'll probably see if they have another pair i'd like. i like having options!

caught off guard. something was terribly hilarious

details:

denim jacket: thrifted (ann taylor) | sweater: old (it's from 7th grade you guys! the zipper doesnt even work!) | top: pavement band tee (ily stephen malkmus) | skirt: h&m | boots: urban outfitters | glasses: london retro via myoptique

Brick Walls & Bike Progress

Coachella weekend was awesome! I didn't go but all the bros/douchebags in my city did so getting around town this weekend was so nice! We even got a table right away at my favorite breakfast spot on Sunday. You can totally think I'm making a joke here but seriously that's how it was!

While everyone was at brochella I even took my bike out for a spin! I haven't ridden the bike in probably three weeks (maybe four?) and out of nowhere we decided to ride out in the street. Not entirely the best idea but I was feeling rather courageous and I got my new helmet in the mail. I got the silver glittery one in case you were wondering from last time. (It's awesome makes me look/feel like robocop). We rode out on the sidewalk a little to get to this industrial part of town where no one goes on weekends so I could get some practice. Now this is the craziest thing, riding on the sidewalk freaks me out, makes me really nervous and it throws me off balance, but when I ride on the bike lane (even with a few cars passing me by) I'm totally not nervous! Talk about being backwards. Either way, our next step is to take the basket off my bike because I'm 100% convinced its what's throwing me off balance. It's too bad because its such a nice Linus basket. Maybe we'll put it back on when I feel ready. I can't wait to get better at bike riding so I can bike to work from the train station. :)

Anyway keepin it short today. 

Don't be fooled by this outfit. It's hot out today. Unpredictable California weather, you know. 

Have a nice Monday folks! 

 

(lol my necklace is out of place)

Details:

sweater: urbanog | necklace: 31Bits via Ruche | dress: tulle | boots: urbanog | glasses: London retro via myoptique (giveaway win yay!)

Festival Style: Coachella 2014, A Practical Guide

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(hypothetical outfit & essentials for day 1)

(yeah i forgot 7, whoops)

I think we're all aware by now that unfortunately Coachella has become this parade of "look at my cute outfit" instead of "my favorite band is playing at noon so we have to get there early!" Everyone and their mom knows blogs and big time street style photographers and your favorite clothing companies hang around the grounds to take photos of stylish kids. what you don't know is that most of these people always hang out in VIP during the actual festival so your chances of getting on Refinery29's coachella "best dressed" list is preeeeettty slim. 

I highly suggest that you throw all notions of being photographed out the door and focus on having fun and fine tuning your schedule so you can see as many bands possible. Not to mention think about the p r a c t i c a l i t y  of what you're going to wear. 

so, you're going to Coachella with all your friends and you're so stoked you don't even know what to bring. So here a few tips of what NOT to bring to Coachella:

• expensive jewelry (you'll be crying when you lose your expensive Vanessa Mooney cuff bracelet)
• heeled booties (you'll be walking on grass and DIRT all weekend. heeled booties need not apply)
• rompers (do i need to remind you about the porta potties? put two and two together)
• leggings (you do know you're in the desert right? you don't care? okay. enjoy your tan)
• leave your expensive dslr at home. bring a point and shoot instead
• expensive hats (they will get crushed and you will be sad)
• expensive sunglasses (you're probably going to lose them)
• okay well expensive anything because odds are you WILL lose them or they will get completely wrecked

take the advice from a four year coachella veteran. 

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 

(hypothetical outfit & essentials for day 2)

(obvi the sweater is for night time you guys)

If you're not camping I highly suggest you rent a locker. Bring all the goodies you would want when the sun goes down like a sweater or a blanket, extra water. Plus if you bring a hat or something you can always put your stuff away so you don't have to carry things with you. I rented a locker the last two times I went to coachella and I dont regret it! Super helpful and I only really paid $30 for it for the whole weekend (you get your deposit back when you turn in your key). 

And probably my most important tip: 

If you're going with friends odds are your schedules are going to have conflicts you wanna see band X but your BFF wants to see band Y. Don't compromise! Go see who you wanna see you won't regret it. It would be wise to compare schedules with your friends and find a meeting spot. Have a gameplan! I know I'm a stiff and I like plans but I kid you not having a plan at a festival helps out the most. obviously know that it's just a gameplan because you guys might at the last minute decide to go see band Z. 

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |

(hypothetical outfit & essentials for day 3)

(add a top if it gets chilly and you don't actually want to wear a sweater at night)

On a parting note, if you're not going for the music and you're just going to be seen, just.don't.even.go. 

If you are going for the music, then i hope you have a great time. stay hydrated, don't forget your sunblock and remember to eat. Please have a frozen lemonade and giant slice of pizza for me and go see Neutral Milk Hotel. 

xo, Leeds.

Monday, Monday, Monday

Happy Monday, friends! Hope you all had a rad weekend. Things have been quiet around here and it's all out of pure laziness, I'm not even going to lie. My apt is a mess and I just can't stand to be in there because its such a mess. I don't even know where to begin! Sigggghhh. I didn't want to be home last week so I picked up extra shifts at work just to avoid it. Yikes. I'm going to do better this week I promise. I'm just gonna come up with a plan of attack and hopefully get enough done so I can set up my drafting table this weekend. I need a crafting place. We'll see how that goes.

Now lets talk about this amazing necklace from 31Bits. It's completely handmade! 31bits is an organization that empowers women in Uganda giving them the necessary education to be able to use their skills to provide for their families. 31bits also offers these women healthcare while they're training for their program and everything is funded through product sales. And to make it even cooler part of the necklaces are made out of recycled paper! I didn't even know until I bought the necklace that 31bits organization operates out of the city I live in! I don't know why but knowing they're local to me makes it that more special. I think because I always hear of cool organizations and they're always in another state. I want to feel like contemporaries in my area care about things too. I don't know. Does that even make sense? I like knowing that I could drop by their office any time and ask questions about their products or their mission or whatever. It sets the mind at ease. Either way, check out the 31Bits page for more info about their mission and their products. 

On a parting note: remember when I said I loved jellies? I went out and bought two more pairs. Haha. 

the trademark schlump.

details: 

top: Ruche | necklace: 31bits via Ruche | pants: LA | shoes: urbanog | glasses: derek cardigan via coastal | lip color: tarte lipsurgence matte lip tint in lively

*This post is not sponsored by 31bits, just my opinion here. 

Show Recap: Free Your Mind

Something's happened to me and whatever that is seriously makes me hate people. Not in particular, but in masses. Which is probably the number one reason why I don't go out anymore. I used to be the person who went to shows allllllllllll the time. I was a night owl and I just wanted to experience music with my friends or with total strangers who shared the bond of music with me. But now that I've been going to shows less and less, whenever I DO go I'm never in a good because man, the crowds suck. What happened to the people who didn't give a care in the world and would dance because they loved the music so much? What happened to making friends with strangers who loved your favorite band just as much as you do? Maybe I'm sounding old but I just don't think it's the same anymore. Tickets sell out to people who don't care about the music, they just want to be seen at shows. But I suppose that's probably how it is for everything in LA nowadays.

Last night was interesting and it really showed me how my general disgust for the LA concert crowd doesn't even matter when you're experiencing an amazing show from one of your favorite bands. So many people smoking in the middle of the crowd. Is that really necessary? So many couples making out like its the end of the world. So many annoying chicks who are clearly there just so someone can snap their photo. WHY? WHYYYYY? I just. I can't. All of that put me in the worst mood ever and I honestly thought I was going to ruin D's evening and ask him if we could leave. But he had never seen Cut Copy and last night made it my 4th time; it just wasn't fair. So i was fuming inside and totally dying but then Cut Copy came onstage and I kid you not, all the anger washed away. I remembered why I loved them so much and at that point i just didnt even care. They were amazing and i danced to every song. 

Last night can't even begin to compare to the first time I saw cut copy at the echoplex. They had just released in ghost colours and they had no budget to buy fancy dancy lights so the entire performance was ridiculously dark. I went by myself because it was finals week and no one wanted to risk not making it to class the next day but I didn't care. That's just who I was. I ended up in the front row making friends with a bunch of strangers who for that night were all brought together by our love for cut copy. It was a ridiculously amazing experience. And while last night was nothing like that, it totally reminded me that I didn't go there to see and be mad about the crowd, I went to see cut copy and I went to dance my little heart out. So the lesson learned: Free Your Mind.