Paying taxes in a building like this...sucks less. My Love affair with St. Louis continues.

I moved to St. Louis, MO in June 2012. 

Zach and I found a beautiful 4 family style apartment right across from Tower Grove Park in South City. 

I immediately fell in love with the 1900's architecture and charm. Being right off the park was incredible. We took long walks, bike rides, played in a softball league and even took our engagement photos in Tower Grove Park. We loved it. 

In 2014, we got married and in 2015 Zach and I found a gorgeous home, just 3 miles south of Tower Grove Park. We were able to stay in South City and now live in the home of our dreams!

Amid living our happily ever after, well life happened. I thought I was adulting super hard but missed the fact that not only had my license plates expired, I never transferred over my personal property tax from St. Charles County.

I now introduce you to my week of crashing back down to feeling naive, helpless and, well, dumb. Super dumb.

I am a by-the-books, rule follower. The idea of being insubordinate on not only my plates, but my taxes?! Ugh. 

Phone call after phone call of dead ends, just trying to figure out what I had to do to get settled up with my personal property tax and vehicle plates. 

Everyone forwarded me to another person who always told me I needed to go to the Collectors office in person. 

In person? What century are we in?! 

Well, apparently we are in a past one because the place I was sent to was like an enchanted castle.

I took off work early and headed to my Collector of Revenue's office at the St. Louis City Hall in downtown. I have driven by this place so many times, just never really thought further than how creepy awesome it looked!

Today, I had the absolute pleasure of getting to go inside.

Visiting City Hall to pay expensive personal property taxes and a renewal on my license plates in any other setting would have made me absolutely miserable. I would have been so upset upon leaving and just annoyed with the whole process. 

I am a sucker for old architecture and nothing else mattered so long as my curiosity could wander, photos could be snapped and a few questions to the security guard could be answered. I was blissful with my random and unexpected Thursday adventure.  

Although I still feel immature for not knowing the proper protocol for updating my life and license, its almost like I got my happily ever after anyway :)

xo, indubitably me.

All black everything(almost.)

Sunday vibes are all black everything(almost). 

Its crisp and sunny out today, my favorite combo to layer on my look, one detail at a time.

My Spinelli from Recess look was inspired by my new boots. They were begging to be worn with my leather jacket, both of which were designer steals. Right place at the right time kind of deal ;)

My look would be incomplete entirely without awesome hair color from my sister stylist. She is a hair magician as far as I am concerned. I love how she's been doing my pops of warm carmel while still keeping my natural color popping through. I keep the color looking great, no matter how grown out it becomes, my using a Bio Ionic Style Winder to wrap/curl my hair. Makes for some super loose waves. 

Any time I want to feel extra fancy, I pop on my Mainland Revival magna ring. It's so pretty and the perfect amount of finger flair. (did I just say finger flair....)

My outfit staple items:

- Gold necklace combos(intermix depending on the day)

- Cotton long sleeve dress from BOOHOO(online)

- Opaque tights from Express(by far the best EVER and last foreverrrr)

Sunny days are made for smiles and sunnies. Love! Hope you enjoy your day!

>>xo, indubitably me.

My long term love affair with all the flowers

I can't tell you when it began but I could try. My grandma, aunts and even an uncle have always had their hands in the soil. I always thought weeding was a big bummer but only after owning a home and garden of my own, truly appreciated what they were doing(or rather growing). 

It was always my favorite growing up, aside from collecting shiny rocks, to walk their property and collect pretty things to make arrangements with. It's my dream to have the same around my own home. Here are some of the beauties I found and arranged from my parents house.

In honor of my love for all florals and upcoming Valentine's Day, I wanted to take a trip down memory lane and introduce you to some of my favorite floral memories.

Caught up in love with some flowers. This was during a college trip to New York. I haven't met too many flowers I didn't like. Or maybe I was just so excited to see something green in the city for once. I will call it a tie between the two.

In college, I was able to study abroad in London. During a walk home with my flat mates, we came across the most beautiful, flowering tree. It was just snowing petals so whimsically. I collected some of the blooms and made an arrangement for my room.

Of course, so many things about my time in London were magical...

Portabella Market in London was one of my favorite places ever. So eclectic, colorful and free. I took one of my favorite photos while there of a Wild at Heart florist shop. I got to take home a little floral treasure with me that day.

I went to school to study fashion, so you bet we had "fashion shoots". This one was actually for Sseko Designs. My friend Jen took the photos and I think always just gravitate my body to the greenery. Climb that tree and lay on it? No problem! Lay on the cold wet grass, absolutely! Pretend to pick flowers, oh was I supposed to pretend? Can I keep these...?

One of the few photos I have seen from my actual college graduation ceremony. I felt so lucky to have found it on the school's website shortly after and it happens to be one I am most fond of. Stephens (my college) gave each of us girls(yes it was an all girls school) a Gerber daisy. It was so special and sweet. I do have to admit, think I mostly like like this photo because it showed off my favorite ring I got while in London and my manicure with the best nail polish color ever: Essy Lucky Lucky Lavendar!

After college, I moved to New York. I was overwhelmed by the amount of gorgeous, fresh flowers everywhere. Why are they EVERYWHERE in New York. Yes, everywhere.
I would buy myself a $10 bouquet almost every week to keep in my room. It was the most wonderful thing. I still can't believe how you could get a $10 bouquet of a dozen roses and a great mani/pedi for $19 in New York. Those were about the only cheap things in that city.

I was so fortunate to have had such amazing friends and neighbors in Astoria, New York. Me, Farzie and Michelle would drive out to Mattituck, Long Island to spend time on the beach, visit the wineries and shops around town. It was possibly the most relaxing weekends I've ever had. I day dream of our time there often. 

More from our walking trip of Long Island. Just breathtaking...and this doesn't even touch on the ocean views beyond the amber fields. It's like nature exploded out of a national geographic magazine here.

My friend Farzie introduced me to the floral shop of my dreams. It was by her work, at the time, in Long Island City, NY. It was called {fLo rE sta}. She always came home with the prettiest and most unique arrangements. I had to visit and I had to have one. The shop was full of vintage silver and mercury glass containers. It was a place I wanted to be in forever. It was stunning and a huge inspiration for me that I still draw back on today as I embark on my floral dreams (or rather reality).

 This was my favorite arrangement while in New York. Farzie gave it to me as a parting gift as I was moving from New York back to Missouri. It was from {fLo rE sta} and was so little but so complex. Ever since, I have wanted to make an arrangement with a baby cabbage flower. One day, little baby. One. day...

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As for my love of flowers in recent years, you all are catching it in real time. My love for flowers and planting just keeps on growing. Stay tuned..

>>xo, indubitably laura