Haley in Old Town

My beautiful friend Haley is in town every Mondays (now that she lives out of town, I look forward to these days when I get to see her.) I wanted to photograph her because she's just so lovely. I just found out her boyfriend and one of my good friends as well accepted a position in Houston so they will be moving there sometime in the winter I think. I must hang out with her as much as I can until then! This outfit is totally her style. She brought over an assortment of clothing and I eyed this top out first for the shoot. She has a weakness for cutesy things from Anthropologie, but this special power of resisting temptation unless there's a huge sale involved. She got this fabulous top half off. That's so Haley! Good girl! 

[top from anthropologie, jeggings by express, shoes by bobbi blu]

Details

Hair by Brooke Schrauben

Brooke who is Haley's sis and her friend came out with us for the shoot and then we all headed out to the Green Door for a local favorite band's cd release party.

Pssstt my fabulous fellow blogger bestie, Kim of Eat.Sleep.Wear is hosting a $100 giveaway to Beso on her blog--check it out!

play day

On Friday, I went to Festival of the Moon in Old Town, the creative district in Lansing. The festival boasted an assortment of Bells beers and a variety of bands. I wanted something cute and playful to wear and instantly thought back to Jessica of What I Wore when she tied up her blouse like this. With inspiration from her and the need to bust out my old high waist shorts, I put this look together.

[top by lux, shorts by kensie, shoes by lucky, sunglasses from urban outfitters, bag by marc jacobs]

Since I didn't have time to shoot the photos on Friday, I had my mom take them the following day when I went to my hometown to visit friends and fam. My mom SWEARS the dog is actually smiling in this photo and she's obsessed with it telling me, "send your brother a cropped version of the one with Jasmine smiling!" The older of my two brothers has a special bond with the white dog named Jasmine and my mom was convinced he'd love a cropped photo of her with this goofy face below.

This is what happens when baby brothers attempt to sabotage outfit photos:

Take that Dylan! That should teach you to hop into my shots! 

And thank you to everyone for your kind comments about my local magazine cover/feature. I love you guys. <3

Featured in Capital Area Women's Lifestyle Magazine

Last month I was contacted to see if I was interested in being the cover story of the July issue of the Capital Area Women's Lifestyle Magazine and of course, I was excited and said yes! The mag is a monthly magazine in the greater Lansing area for women and they highlight women leaders I look up to and am inspired by such as my past boss who used to be the CEO of Girl Scouts and my most favorite news anchor!

It was such a fun experience, but odd that they'd select me as being someone interesting enough to feature. I've said this before, but I'm so happy that the community here is so accepting and encouraging of anything and everything I do. I graduated college here and wanted to get the hell out and I've slowly realized how amazing the people are here and just how many opportunities I've had to pursue creative and fun things I'm interested in.

If you want to read the story, click here!

The Want List: OMG shoes!

I've been pining over so many great shoes. Check a few of the shoes I've been obsessed with below! I think I'd sell my right kidney on the black market to get all of these.

1. The Lady Gaga in me says "go for it!"

2. 

3.

4. Oo the sister shoe to Edelman's popular Zoe wedge!

5. Last but not least..This is definitely my next shoe purchase.

1. Gee Wa Wa Fatale, $219.95
2. Industry Double Take wedge, $199.95
3. Jeffrey Campbell Mary-Roks wedge, $139.95
4. Sam Edelman Zoyla wedge, $224.95
5. Jeffrey Campbell Boot Camp, $159.95

One Dress Two Ways

Lulu Letty also styled this dress and it looks so so cute on her! Click here to see the blog post by Spotted Moth.

abstract

I was so excited to style this dress when I got it from Spotted Moth! I'm so in love with it. I added the belt to cinch in the waist more and the blue wedges for a pop of color. It's cutesy and frilly, but the color and the print adds some edge, which I love. This will be my go to dress to wear if I have to attend any weddings or similar functions this summer.

[dress c/o spotted moth, wedges by jeffrey campbell, belt by gap, sunglasses by marc by marc jacobs]

Since I'm lazy and don't like photoshopping, I decided to just show off my bruises and my Hello Kitty band aid. On Friday I participated in my first kickball game for our team, MBC Ballers, which consists of my supervisor, other colleagues and a variety of super awesome cool people. I tripped and fell while practicing kicking the ball and running to first place and messed up my knees pretty badly. When I fell, a dust cloud arose and I laid face down, too embarrassed to emerge from the ground. It was at that moment an unknown person shouted, "THIS ISN'T ROLLER DERBY!" Haha! My legs are so attractive right now with the bruises, scrapes and 3,012 bug bites.

I bring the sass.

This is the alley area behind my fab loft apartment. I come back here if I'm too lazy to venture off any farther, plus I like to look at everyone's cute patio out of jealousy. Since I'm on the third floor, I don't get one! On the bright side, my apartment faces downtown Lansing so I have cute view of a park and in the distance I see our capitol building.

Photos by Becky Johns

Lights

[romper by lucca couture, belt by ecote, wedges by aldo, sunglasses by marc by marc jacobs]

Back in May, the photographer I work for, Jason Aten, asked if I could fill in as a model for a photography workshop presented by Nashville based studio, Gray Photography. I was hesitant since I'm especially awkward if there is an actual group of photographers taking my picture, but I thought I can at least listen in and learn some lighting tips! 

Gray Photography consists of Zach and Jody Gray, a super good looking and talented couple. It's almost not fair how awesome they are. With their cool, edgy style, I wanted to photograph them for my blog! It was such a privilege to meet them and the photographers who came from all over the state and even the country to participate in this workshop in Michigan! 

A wedding they photographed was recently featured in People Magazine. They're such gorgeous photos, click here to take a look. And then scroll through the rest of their blog and their site because everything is amazing.

I thought the romper would be something simple and fun to wear for the shoot!

Photos by Gray Photography

visiting the fam

This isn't so much of an outfit post, but just an assortment of photos taken over the course of my visit back to my mom's place in Muskegon, Michigan. This is me after driving a couple hours west to my hometown wearing the same jacket I wore the day before.

First let me say this: my family drives me absolutely insane. If they're not sending STD singalong songs to my phone via text, they might be cage fighting (I keep yelling at my brother to stop doing that!), one-upping each other with tales of poop stories and odd shenanigans, screaming at one another or constantly trying to convince me to audition for reality shows. They're a hoot, but they were especially embarrassing when I was growing up. Today, they found entertainment in stealing my hat and impersonating Michael Jackson via my cousin Nick below.

My mom took my photos. I wasn't planning on an outfit post or anything, but my mom has fun with my camera so I just hand it over to her.

Nick

Chad, my brother who's a year younger than me

My little brother Dylan, who despite my constant pleading, refuses to cut his hair and wear a t-shirt.

A few of my favorite pups

gonna take a trip to laredo

My friend AJ was in Michigan visiting from Nashville and he had time to come visit me in Lansing! He's training under producer, Lynn Nichols so I occasionally hear cool stories of people he's been able to meet and the cool songwriting projects he gets to work on. He gets to live a pretty exciting life right now, chasing after his dreams! My friends do such cool stuff!

I took yesterday off since I photographed a couple for their engagement session that morning and AJ came to visit later on that day. It was casual day for me so I paired this striped top with this military inspired jacket I got on sale last week. We walked a lot around downtown East Lansing and on MSU's campus, shopping, eating and ending our day drinking strawberry daquiris. I must have been somehow exhausted because as soon I got home I fell asleep on my couch around 9 p.m. and around 10, migrated to my own bed and immediately fell back to sleep.

[cutoffs by levi, striped top by bdg, jacket by ecote, oxfords by aldo]

I kept my accessories pretty simple with the two leather wristbands and tiffany interconnecting rings. It's the one ring I wear almost everyday and it's my favorite I've ever given myself.I wanted more color with this outfit so I decided to paint my nails red!

AJ has such a cute style!

This one cracks me up. "I'm a model!"