Coffee Talk // Volume 8

Good morning, friends! How’s your week going? Snag that cup of coffee or tea and grab a seat, it’s coffee talk time.

I for one, cannot believe it’s already May! Rick and I will have been married for four months this month (!!!). Not sure how the time is flying, but before we know it, we’re going to be in the dead of summer! It’s already starting to get pretty hot and humid here in Houston, how about where you are?

Us Houstonians are really good about jumping in and out of our cars and running into A/C as quickly as possible. So when we get a day or two of nice weather (low 80s, low humidity), we run to spend the day outside. The last two Sundays, in a row, we’ve been fortunate to have some amazing, California-like weather. For some reason, finishing the weekend off with great weather, just puts me in a much better mood to start off the week – what about for you?

We went to the King Of Leon concert last night, one of the hubby’s favorite bands and it was a great concert! Although we live in the heart of Houston proper and this concert was out in the suburbs, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, in the Woodlands (about 30-45 minutes north of us, dependent on the traffic), so we left our house around 3pm to get up there before the traffic.

Concerts have played a huge part in Rick and I’s life together. One of our first dates was the Coldplay concert – I always joke that he impressed the heck out of me by snagging 4th row seats. Never in my life have I sat that close to a concert, and I was totally fan-girling over Chris Martin. Since then, we’ve been to a previous Kings of Leon concert, we’ve seen Mumford & Sons, Weezer and others + we’ve also done Austin City Limits a few times.

I know there is a lot of rumblings about ACL vs. Coachella. I say this because Coachella just happened and in case you didn’t know, the lineup for ACL and tickets go on sale this Thursday. I’m definitely awaiting the lineup and love that it’s two weekends now instead of one.

ACL holds a special place in my heart, as it was one of the first music festivals I’d ever been to, and the first major concert I’d experienced in Austin when I moved there for college. It was a rainy and freezing weekend, but worth every penny to be up-close listening to one of my favorites Citizen Cope and then finishing out the evening with Dave Matthews Band.

Since then, I’ve been really fortunate to see others at ACL including Peal Jam, M83, Deadmau5, Stevie Wonder, etc. If you can’t tell that music plays a big part of my life, then now you know.

Some of my most memorable concerts were as a child tagging along with my mom: Eric Clapton, Earth Wind and Fire, Santana, Rod Stewart. Seriously awesome memories, to say the least.

I have to say, I hope to one day make it out to Coachella, but for now I’ll stick with ACL – where I know the city, can get there in under three hours drive and not drop an absolute fortune on the trip. If you’re looking to head to ACL, I highly recommend! Fingers crossed the lineup is worthwhile for this fall!

Now for things I’m loving: 

– I finally scheduled a much needed haircut for next week. I’m thinking about at least cutting off a few inches of hair (thoughts??) and going for a little color to lighten up my locks for summer. I’m blessed with some pretty awesome natural highlights – my mom is blonde and my grandmother was a red head, so whenever I spend time in the sun the natural highlights come out in full force. So in addition to the haircut, I’m planning on doing balayage (read about the coloring style here). You’ve probably seen tons of women with this coloring, but just maybe didn’t know the exact name – I know I didn’t, for a long time I thought it was the same as ombre! I’m leaning towards something more natural ala the ones pinned in my Beauty tips & tricks Pinterest board. Let me know what you think!

– Mother’s Day is right around the corner, are you ready? I’ll have a full gift guide post to come later this week on the blog, but until then shop a few of my favorite go-tos like this set of my favorite fragrance ever, , or this fun (comes in 3 colors!). I also love for adorable and unique gifts – they have the most adorable gift wrapping too, so you don’t need to do it yourself! The is a sure crowd pleaser or this , which I actually gifted to my mom for her birthday two years ago!

– I had a friend ask me the other day to help her search for some budget-friendly swimsuits for an upcoming vacation, and now I’ve got the itch to take a trip too! But since we don’t have any travel plans at the moment, I can at least grab a cute swimsuit to wear by our neighborhood pool, right? Here are a few that I found: a (on sale for $25), a (under $50) and this ($30).

– Quick sale alert for you! is having another surprise sale, save up to 40% off select styles through Thursday. Grab my (last seen here) to put away for fall winter, select colors are 30-40% off. One of my favorite bags, the Meli Melo Thela Halo bag is on sale . And these adorable navy are marked down by 30%, too.