Random roundup + Custom Pawtraits

Hey hey! Happy Friday! It's been a good week!! Baseball is officially upon us! We've made it through the first week of April (the year is almost a third over, holy cow!) And, well, it's Friday, which is always something to be happy about! I have a handful of outfits I wore last week to share with you along with the scoop about that "paint your pup" event I went to last Friday! Let's get started!

I looooove wearing white on white! And it's about that time of year, isn't it? This jacket was an anniversary sale purchase from last year, and I was tickled when I put these heels on and saw how wonderfully they finished off the outfit. All old favorites in this outfit, but it still felt new and fresh for the season to pair them together!

over the knee boots and moto jacket outfit

Jacket: Express (option) | Tank: Bailey 44 | Leggings: Zella | Boots: Vince Camuto "Hollie"

Speaking of old favorites, I think everything in this outfit is at least 3 years old. Although it kind of sucks for you guys as readers when I dust off oldies like this (since you can't really buy them anymore), it does feel good to wear foolproof pieces that you know will always work when you put them on AND make you feel good. As much of a shopaholic as I am, it's great to have reliable pieces that act as your comfort food!

Jacket: William Rast | Dress: Bailey 44 "Autumn Lace Sheath dress" | Shoes: Valentino "Rockstud"

The last time you saw this dress was in this post here. When I woke up this morning, I not only felt like wearing a dress, I felt like wearing *this* particular dress. I threw on the denim jacket over it, but then I was feeling like maybe it looked too too casual with the dress? I put on an ivory moto jacket instead, but then it felt almost TOO formal. The husband side-eyed me pretty hard when I walked out of my closet room wearing the ivory jacket. I took photos of the dress with both jackets, took both jackets with me on my commute to the office, and then posted a poll on Instagram to see which jacket would get the most votes. I had to laugh because by the time I got to the office 45 minutes later, the results showed about 175 views to the poll with an exact 50% split between both jackets. #superhelpful Ha! So, I ended up going with the denim jacket, which was my first choice for the dress anyway! You know I like pairing casual and dressy pieces! I realize the dress may *look* super dressy, but if you were to feel it in person, it really feels more like a daytime dress in terms of material than it does a formal cocktail dress.

Jacket: Express "Minus the leather double peplum" | Necklace: Kendra Scott "Rayne" (similar) | Dress: Evereve (option) | Booties: Joe's

And last but not least is the outfit I wore last Friday. I was meeting Jenna straight from work to go to a cute little painting event at Puppingham Palace. It was too good not to share the details, so I figured I would tag details about that night onto this post! For my outfit, I wanted something I would be comfy in from day to night and this outfit definitely met that criteria!

Puppingham Palace, Wildwood, MO - lobby area

The actual event was through Custom Pawtraits. It's very similar to the wine and painting places whose popularity seems to be growing over the last few years. Though this is more of a "traveling" painting business because they don't actually have their own brick and mortar location from what I understand. They host events at Purina (who is headquartered here in St. Louis) once a month and also at local doggy daycares and vets. Puppingham Palace is a doggy daycare that one of my coworkers uses, and when I saw on Facebook that she was going to this event, my interest was piqued! You get to paint a portrait of your own pet! I immediately thought it would be a great event for Jenna and I to attend!

Artist 'trace' of my photo on the canvas

You had to send in a portrait of your pet ahead of time, and at first I thought the artist recreated the photo in a freehand sketch! Apparently, she uses a projector to 'trace' the photo onto a canvas for you. That makes a lot of sense - otherwise it could be super time-consuming for the artist, and I was hearing that some people signed up as soon as 48 hours before the event! There were at least 50 people that attended. I wanted to paint a pic of Petie with his mouth open because it looked like he was smiling that way, and that always made my heart happy.

They started giving step by step instructions which made me feel really good. Ish. We had to start with the background paint, which was a difficult decision in and of itself to pick! Then we tackled the nose, and then the eyes. From there, they told us to start around the nose and eyes and work our way out from there. That way we were always blending from wet paint. The guide lines definitely helped, but this was way harder than I imagined it to be!

Me with Petie and Jenna with Sherlock

We had from 7pm to 10pm to finish, and well, we didn't quite meet that deadline! Luckily, they let those of us who needed to finish do our thang while they cleaned up around us. We weren't too too late - just needed another few minutes. I spent a lot of time on his head alone, I had to rush to finish the rest of his body! And how awesome is Jenna???! Clearly she has missed her calling as a painter!

I think I told you guys before, but my 8th grade art teacher made me fall in love with art. I took art throughout high school and it was the mix of my love for art and math that ultimately made me decide to get an architecture degree. It was really fun to tap into that artist side of me again! I feel more comfortable with a pencil than I do with a paintbrush, but this was still a very fun exercise for me! Thanks for letting me share!