My Top "Good Vibes" Instagram Accounts

@pieceology

I LOVE Instagram and I follow a lot of different kinds of brands and people, but some of my favorites are ones that have a little more meaning behind them then just pretty photos (although they have those to, of course). These are what I like to call my "good vibes" accounts. These consistently have either encouraging and uplifting words, positive energy, beautiful writing, inspiring quotes (not the cheesy kind), or all of the above. Whether I'm having a good day or bad one they just make me feel happy, hopeful, excited, inspired, emotional, motivated... all the feels. Here they are:

@ohhhchelsea
Chelsea is my sweet friend and takes a lot of my outfit photos you see on the blog. She always has something nice to say and reminds us to be thankful for all the things we have in life.

@liberatedheart
This is a clothing company. They post a lot from music festivals all around the word. It's a very free-spirited, wanderlust-y kind of account. Makes me want to travel the globe hopping from festival to festival.

@hippie_kids
Another clothing company. This account gives me so much wanderlust. Flowers in my hair, let's get in the car and drive to the coast. Then we'll decide to stay and never leave again.

@deercircus
Bridget has some of the most unique writing I've ever read. The way she strings words together is so beautiful. She is in on vaca in Paris right now... Her photos and captions are so gorgeous.

@dylanasuarez
Dylana is a fashion blogger whose style I really relate to. She is a photographer with a great eye and also a really beautiful writer, singer and poet.

@helloamerica_
Kristen and Matt are a young couple who left their lives back home to travel all around North America. Their journey is told through these photos. I first heard of them on the Free People blog. You can read more about their story there.

@saraheiseman
Sarah is a local Austinite. She is the type of person who makes Austin so great. Uber creative, sensitive, emotional. All the feelings shine through in her photos and her words.

I'll probably start featuring some of my favorite Instagram accounts once a month. I hope you enjoyed this and do yourself a favor- go check them out!

Bloglovin, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook

Life lately: Trying new things

 Photo by Chelsea Laine Francis

I've really been trying to focus on becoming a better me this year so I'm taking myself out of my "comfort zone" a lot more these days. Although it can be stressful it's also been pretty fun and made me feel a lot happier with myself... I'm proud of me! So hurray for that! Here are some new things I've been trying out lately.

Embracing my curly hair. 

I've had curly hair all my life and it's always had a mind of its own. The type of curl has changed a lot too. It's been wavy, then riglety, then frizzy, then a combo of all those things, etc, etc, etc. I've just never really liked it much. But in the last year I haven't put any color (or bleach) in my hair and I think it loves that. Shocker... I know. So I've gotten more comfortable with the way it looks and I've just been letting it go. You won't be seeing any outfit posts with it in it's natural state any time soon. I'm still not THAT confident in it. But I've got lots of shots of my curly locks on my Instagram if you're interested.

Prepared meals.

I've only tried this once but I plan on doing it again. I have a friend who started a food delivery service in Austin called Motormouth Foods and in an effort to support it + satisfy the fact that I haven't been to the grocery in probably a month I ordered five meals last week. They were really yummy. I'll let you check out the site yourself if you live in Austin to get the full details. It's definitely great for those days you don't feel like cooking or just want to try something different than your usual noms. 

Drinking tea.

I'm always going to be a coffee drinker. That will never change. But I'm trying to branch out a little bit into the world of tea. I tried this once before a few years ago and it didn't stick so we will see how it goes this time around. Any good tea recs for someone who doesn't really like the taste?

Blog scheduling by month. 

Okay, so I really want to do a full post about this but I'll summarize for now. I started a blog schedule for the month of April and it's helped TREMENDOUSLY. I've tried doing blog schedules in the past and failed pretty much every time. This time I did a few things differently:

1. Planned and scheduled the whole month of April at the end of March in a real planner I'm using as my blog calendar. Writing things down always helps me. 

2. In the schedule I set dates for publishing each post which puts a kind of deadline on them. Now I'm more motivated to set aside time to write my posts because I want to stay on schedule. 

3. Scheduling appointments with my photog friends in advance to shoot outfit photos. 

4. Any time I have an idea for a post I write it down. 

More to come on this subject!! 

Connecting with other local bloggers. 

 I've been wanting to do this since I moved to Austin. I've connected with a few people on Instagram and I even went to TxSC a couple years ago but I never really kept up with any of the relationships. In the past month I've connected with a few local bloggers via email to set up real, in person meet ups. This is far, far out of my comfort zone. I get very nervous meeting new people but I've realized I'm much better with one-on-one's than I am meeting people in a group. Grabbing coffee with just one person is a lot more manageable for me. Plus it's fun to meet people that have similar interests as I do. I don't get to talk to my friends about blogging that much because they don't really get it like my fellow bloggers do!

What have you been up to lately? Anything new you're trying? Happy Thursday!

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My Favorite Albums of 2014

The other day I did a little reflection about my year as a whole. But, another big part of my year was live music. I went to NINE festivals- SXSW, Jazz Fest, Psych Fest, Free Press Summer Fest, X Games, Float Fest, Utopia Fest, ACL, and Fun Fun Fun Fest (all but one were in Texas) and I'm not sure how many regular live shows (at least 15). It was by far my biggest year of music yet. It was fantastic.

These are my favorite albums that came out this year in no particular order. I was fortunate enough to see 7 out of the 10 live. Pretty awesome and I'm so thankful to live in a city that offers so much great live music every single day. Check out my list and I also put a playlist together with my favorite songs from each album. Oh, and Happy New Year's Eve! I'll talk to ya next year.

1. Odesza* - In Return

2. Sylvan Esso* - Sylvan Esso

3. Glass Animals* - Zaba

4. Ages and Ages - Divisionary

5. Caribou - Our Love

6. alt-J* - This Is All Yours

7. First Aid Kit* - Stay Gold

8. Stars - No One Is Lost

9. Spoon* - They Want My Soul

10. Temples* - Sun Structures

*saw live performance

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Life Lately...

Finally went and checked out Mt. Bonnell a couple weeks ago. If you ever visit Austin this is a great spot to stop by for a beautiful sunset overlooking the lake.

Neon jeweled necklace and rings from H&M // Lion medallion chain is vintage (similar)

It's been so hot lately in Austin, like 106 degrees hot, so smoothies from Austin Java are necessary.

Ray-Ban mirrored sunnies are my summer go to shades // Dainty rings from H&M // Heart ring from Fortenal // Strappy heels from Zara // White nail polish is 'Blanc' by Essie

I love ATX. Pretty view of downtown from the top floor at the Hyatt Regency.

We both ordered these glasses from the Bonlook booth at the TxSC Prom night. Can't wait to get mine in the mail. I was in desperate need of new glasses!

Sooo, remember when I asked if I should color my hair white blonde?

Well, I went for it! What do you think??

Love my family! My brother finally graduate from college this past weekend. So proud.

My dress is by The Reformation.

So that's what's been up with me. What's been up with you? I hope you're having a great week so far!

All photos from my Instagram @pieceology

Multiple Hair Color Disorder

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Happy Friday, y'all! Somehow this week flew past me. I thought today was Wednesday...

But, before I start my weekend I have a hair appointment today (and I have to work to, but no one wants to here about that). Lately, as in the last year lately, I've been in the mood to change up my hair A LOT. This is big for me because pretty much all through college I kept the same blonde hair color. I did have Multiple Haircut Disorder but the color stayed pretty consistent.

This past year something came over me. I went from my "college" blonde that I had for over 5 years, to a very light ombre, to a little bit darker ombre (both from light brown down to blonde tips), then to a pretty freakin' dark version. In true blonde-at-heart fashion I got a little freaked out after I saw these photos and decided to go back to the old blonde. And slowly have gone blonder and blonder AND blonder since. Sorry if you've seen me recently and don't recognize me. I have a disease, I can't help it.

I still can't decide what I want to do when I go to my appointment. I really, really want to do something very drastic (of course) like the photos above, somewhat of a white blonde I think is what it's called. But I have a few concerns:

1. Will it be too drastic?
2. Will it be a ton of work to keep up with since my hair is naturally a little on the dirty blonde/light brown side? This is a rhetorical question. Yes, it would be a lot of work to keep up. I know, I know.
3. Will it look terrible on me?

So, I think I'm going to wing it and show my wonderful, amazing, way cooler than me hairstylist, Alice, this very blog post and see what she thinks. She really is one of the coolest people I know so I will basically do whatever she tells me to do. Although she'd never tell me what to do. She's also the nicest person EVER.

What do you think? Should I do it? Go bold for the white blonde? Any advice is more than welcome. And I need it before 5 PM today when my appointment is, mmk. I'm sure you have better things to do than contemplate my hair woes, but come one, help a sista out. I'll give you a present. I don't know what yet, but it'll be something you've always wanted. Thanks!

P.S. I WILL NOT be doing the blunt cut like in some of the photos above, even though it's super adorable. I thought about it briefly and started to have a mini-panic attack, so I took that as a sign.