Cranberry Red Party Dress

If you follow me along on social media, you’ve probably seen this cranberry red party dress a few times. Can you really blame me for wearing it so often? I just feel so fancy every time I put it on, and I love everything about it from the cranberry appliques to the velvet pink straps. It was love at first sight and I knew that I needed it in my wardrobe as soon as I tried it on.

As a reminder to shop small, I came upon this dress at Simply Vintage while spending the day vintage shopping with my sister. Although I love browsing online, nothing beats being able to touch and observe a piece in person sometimes. If you’ve never heard of Simply Vintage, you should definitely check them out. The shop carries both vintage and vintage-inspired pieces, so this dress is actually a new design. Unfortunately, this red party dress is no longer available there but you can still find it in a few sizes here.

I would say that this piece is pretty true to size. I got it in a size 2 and it’s pretty comfortable, even around the chest area which can sometimes be tricky for me since I’m a bit busty.  The straps are adjustable too which adds a bit more of support around that area.

I’ve been really enjoying playing around with makeup this past year. I wanted my makeup to match the dress, so I stuck to cranberry tones. I’m wearing a mix of peach and cranberry red eyeshadows from Colourpop and the Kat Von D Lolita II lipstick.

Goals for 2018

Before I forget, happy New Year! I’m wishing you all the best in 2018. Since it’s the first day of the year, I thought I’d also post my goals for 2018. I’m hoping that this will be a year of personal growth and adventure. So here we go:

1. Be Kind to Myself: working on this blog has definitely helped me become more confident in myself. However, there are still times that I can be critical of my body and ideas. I want to set an intention to practice being nicer to myself in 2018.
2. Care Less About What Others Think: I want to learn how to be less anxious and just do what I want. 
3. Declutter My Life: even though I managed to pack and move all my belongings up to Portland in my very small Toyota Yaris, I’m still hanging on to many things I no longer need. I want to make 2018 the year that I finally clean out my closet for good! 
4. Save and stick to my budget: overall, I think I’m pretty good with money. After all, I’ve been living off a student budget for almost the past two years. That being said, there are definitely areas where I can improve. I want to become better at saving by doing things like trading in a fancy latte for coffee at home.
5. Put myself out there: this is one goal that I really failed at last year. School and the job search got in the way and I only managed to go on a few dates. I think that was for the best because it’s hard to give your heart to another person when your plate is full. However, I plan to make room to meet more new people in 2018.
6. Travel: other than a few trips to LA, I didn’t do much to get out of Portland last year. Now that I have a big girl job, I really want to commit to visiting a few new places. I already have a trip to Palm Springs scheduled in January for my 29th birthday. I’m looking forward to exploring and hanging out at the pool!
7. Optimize and Grow My Blog: now that I have more free time, I want to fully optimize my blog and focus on growing this space.
8. Be More Present: it’s a hard thing to do when you’re a blogger and work in digital marketing, but I really need to get away from my phone more often. I want to take that time to make room for creativity.

Shop this look

Kate Spade “Spike the Punch” Necklace (from a few seasons ago) | BB Dakota Cranberry Candler Dress (available here and here) | Madewell Block Pumps (Similar here and here) | Kat Von D Lolita II Lipstick