Hey guys, Happy Thursday!
It appears I’m a bit overdue with this as my birthday was almost a month ago(!!), but things are full + busy. It’s still kind of blowing my mind that I’m 26 now. It sounds old (to me), but I know in the grand scheme that it’s not.
After having a big party for my 25th last year, I had zero plans for 26 this year. Coincidentally, my parents and brother already had plans to be in Grand Rapids two days before my birthday for dinner and a Jerry Seinfeld stand up show, so my mom ended up staying for part of the weekend.
I will admit that the weather was quite dismal – gray, semi-rainy, muggy as all get out. But hey, it didn’t downpour, so we made it work. It was a weekend full of eating, exploring, trying new (to me) GR spots and overall just some quality time with some of my people. I also was excited to wear my new sequin minidress (c/o Shopbop) for the celebrations. And yes, I wore the exact same outfit both Thursday night + Saturday night.
I love this WAYF sequin dress (because I really can’t get enough rainbow items right now…I know, so mature).
PS. its currently on sale at both Belk + Shopbop! [I’m wearing the size Small for reference]
Along with my birthday celebrations, I also celebrated my mom’s birthday, Natalie’s birthday and my sister’s birthday. (July is a big month around here haha).
Aside from all of this, some big (non-birthday related) things happened as well…
Well, more like ONE big thing…aka buying a HOUSE.
We closed on a fixer upper on July 3rd here in Grand Rapids. On paper the house is mine, but Brendan and I (with the help of professionals and friends) will be fixing it up together.
Surprisingly, even with this new house, this is the least chaotic my life has felt since probably 2016. Don’t worry – it’s still chaotic, but I’ve reached a point of manageable chaos (thank goodness).
And a quick synopsis of everything else that’s been happening:
- I’m currently working in an accounting based role with a marketing degree (never would’ve expected that). Overall I’m handling the whole “working inside during the summer” situation WAY better than I originally expected, but I have a feeling flex time on Friday is a huge contributor to that.
- I’m physically the strongest I’ve ever been thanks to Annie, and after a body fat test last week I realized I’ve put on between 6-7 lbs of muscle since starting training. whoop.
- I’ve been lucky to go to Splash House in Palm Springs, CA (not once but twice) this summer, and now will probably be there next summer since we won FREE tickets for life.
- I’m working on getting back into the groove of blogging + trying to find my new normal with it. Ideally I’ll be working toward consistently posting 2 posts/week with more lifestyle content and less only fashion content.
- I’ve been able to spend a good amount of time with my family + friends this summer, which makes my heart happy.
I’m going to cut myself off here, mainly because I have a lot of non-related other thoughts I want to share soon, but this isn’t the post.
Thank you thank you thank you to anyone still following along. I’ll be back with more next week.
xo, Maddy
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Happy birthday to you and all the best for the coming year!!!
Please stay as autentic, nice and erotic like you have been in the last years (from my point of view, 2015 was the best!!). Lots of luck to you. Your german admirer 😉
B.P.
Happy birthday & congrats on the house Madeline! My first house was a fixer upper too – 🙂 and so is my current one. House rehab is a bit addictive, have fun with it and whenever it gets frustrating just order a pizza and eat on the floor!
Thanks so much! and I’m sure i’ll find myself on the floor with pizza sometime soon haha
Happy belated birthday and congrats on the house!! We bought a fixer upper about 2 years ago and have been working on it ever since. Prepare yourself – it is a LOT of work (obviously it depends on the shape it is in). It can be really stressful, but also so rewarding. It is actually nice to get it the way you want it, because I would feel a little bad about redoing things just because I didn’t like it if it wasn’t in terrible shape, you know? I wrote a whole enormously long post about what it is really like it have a fixer upper a while back. Let me know if you want to talk about things or vent when you get into it. Good luck!
Nikki
thefashionablewife.com
For sure – thanks so much Nikki. Luckily we’re living at our friends house for VERY cheap rent so we don’t have to live in a construction zone, which helps a lot! I’ll definitely refer to your post 🙂