Having been born and raised in Southern California my entire life (and went a mere 88 miles down south to San Diego for college), Santa Ana winds have always been the most dreaded condition. Despite what the movie “The Holiday” makes them out to be, they are anything less than magical. And while the “red flag warnings” bring varying scales of destruction, what has transpired over the last week in LA county is at the most destructive end of the scale. It’s hard to fathom that an area TJ and I just drove through a week ago (when the fires started) was completely gone.

My heart goes out to all the families that lost not only the physical roof over their head, but their communities and memories, in mere minutes. We’ve worked within our family to give where we can (altadena girls, a school stuffed animal donation drive in partnership with a LA school that was burned down, gofundme donations (this one is particularly gut wrenching), and now insatcart makes it easy to have groceries sent to local community responders in need) as well as maintain a sense of normalcy for our girls. In moments when the world feels overwhelming I always return to the words spoken at my college graduation “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

And as a former therapist, I do know the importance of being able to balance and maintain two emotions at the same time. So while we held grief and sadness for our fellow neighbors up in the LA area, we also experienced joy as we celebrated our sweet Harper’s 9th birthday with family, both in a small get together during the week and then a bigger family gathering at Disneyland over the weekend.

With that, I hope everyone has a good week ahead. I’ll be sharing styled outfits from January’s capsule, as well as a roundup of my favorite books from 2024 later this week.
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(We had a small, Wicked themed, family celebration to celebrate Harper turning 9… my mom made the beautiful cake.)

(And then a very special day celebrating her birthday with family at Disneyland… it has been over 30 years since my mom, sister, dad, and I have been to Disneyland and it was special to create memories with our families all joined together (my BIL and niece came too). My sweatshirt, tee, same style jeans different wash, sneakers)

(Sunday morning was spent shopping for items to drop off at the Altadena Girls donation center (new items only) to help female teenage victims of the recent LA wildfires. Amazing that this was started by a 14 year old high school student.)

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My black and white new balance 327 sneakers were recently restocked. These are so comfortable!

I did a bit of an experiment to see if drinking out of a hydroflask would help me drink more water… and it definitely assisted in the process. I’ve had this one for about a month now and highly recommend.

I am still very much loving brown… this brown pullover would be so comfortable (I have it in the ivory), basic crewneck t-shirt is great for layering, this oversized v-neck cashmere sweater has been sitting in my cart for several weeks now, and this ribbed mockneck top could be worn casually or dressed up for night.

I saw this open knit cardigan in store and thought it was so cute. It’s currently on my wishlist in the ivory color.

A few cute Valentine’s Day items for the kiddos include these heart flare leggings + matching top, this heart short sleeve sweater, and these red heart pajamas. This heart claw clip , choker necklace set, bracelets, embellished headband, and embellished hair bow are such cute accessories.