orangebeach.

Went on a much needed vacation last week to the beach. It was everything a beach trip is supposed to be.....seafood, sunshine, shopping. I came back rejuvenated and relaxed. It really was exactly what I needed, no matter how cliche that sounds.

This was the view from our balcony.

lazy river = most brilliant invention ever.

We went out to a fancy dinner one night so I decided to clean myself up a bit.

Dress: Anthropologie (as seen here)

Shoes: Moda via Stein Mart

Scarf: Banana Republic Outlet

Earrings: gift via Etsy

Sunglasses: Chanel

I did work on my tan quite a bit, and by that I mean sit in a beach chair with my face buried in The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, in a giant hat, and plenty of sunscreen. I walked along the beach too...picking up shells and squeamishly running from crabs and sting rays close to the shore. I'm not so good around ocean animals with claws and such who are easily agitated. You can call me a baby, I call it smart. I mean haven't you seen that commercial..."We know more about the moon than the ocean". Enough said.

Dress: Forever 21

Swimsuit: Sand N Sun via my aunt

Flip Flops: Target

Hat: Scala

Sunglasses: RayBan

Bag: I bought this from a street vendor in Venice.

I love this reusable shopping bag and it packs down to the size of a tiny ball. It was an impulse purchase but I've used it a ton. It was quite useful at the end of my 3 week trip to Europe when the wine bottles procured would just no longer fit into my giant overpacked bag. Since then I've used it as a purse, an over night bag, for the groceries...and now a beach bag.

I bet you were wondering what's in it.

Beach Towel

Water Bottle

Burt's Bees Replenishing Lip Balm

Apple

Neutrogena Ultimate Sport Sunscreen SPF 70+

Amazon Kindle w/ case

Shells

Shortly after my beachbumness was captured for all of Meep to see...I was meet with this. I had just gotten settled in the sun when in rushed in and ruined it all. It was the last day and such a bummer.

I still had an awesome time. I'm pretty easy to please though. Any trip that takes me to a town with an outlet mall is okay by me. Here's a sneak peak of some of the finds I scored. Bargain shopping. What a rush.

(Calvin Klein panties are where it's at ladies. Get some.)

uzuri.

so for my senior project i had to create a business plan for a unique business or service. I decided to "start" an upscale eco-friendly women's boutique. i'm not going to spell out the entire one hundred pages of brilliance (come on, it's my blog. i'm allowed to say that) here, but if you really want to read it you can send me a message (ha, right). so to skip to the point i named the store Uzuri, which is the swahili word for beauty (which i realize makes no sense to you, but if you read the plan you'd get it). as a part of the one hundred million things we had to do to complete the senior project process, we were required to make/create an advertising specialty that reflected our business. advertising specialty is a fancy way of saying-- plaster your name on frisbees and t-shirts and coffee mugs, etc. think insurance company. we were required to actually create these and bring them in for submission to the teacher, not just draw a picture or write out a lengthy section detailing the plans.

since i decided to start an eco-friendly business i went with re-useable shopping bags. to jazz it up i added a booklet that had "10 easy tips for going green" and some tea. but the point of this explanation is i was quite proud of what i came up with as the end result. i worked on these with my grandma, we made five of them. i decided to really commit to the whole recycling thing and used fabric that had been originally used as a blanket....and then curtains... and then a table cloth...and now the bags. check it out.

the picture at the top is a visual display we were required to create. it had to reflect the theme and feel of the store but it also had to fit into a super tiny space. i sketched it a million times before i came up with something i was satisfied with. thanks to my boytoy (he will KILL me for that) for painting the name and tagline on that sweet piece of wood i found. it says: uzuri: a fashionable environment. i thought that was pretty cute. i had fun doing this but the worst part of the visual display was carrying all that junk across the university of memphis campus. (take a second look at the table cloth, recognize the fabric??)

all in all i really enjoyed this project (even though i spent my entire spring break finishing it) and i feel like i learned a lot from it. someday i'd love to actually bring this store to life. i worked too hard on this project not to.

(yes i took these pictures with my phone in a bathroom stall. i was about to turn it in so it was very last minute)

(bag with booklet and tea)