Hello Katie Girl: Gardens

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Cherry Blossoms and Descanso Gardens

This week I am off on spring break, so of course I've planned some fun excursions around Los Angeles and adjacent areas like Palm Springs. Hopefully I will have some fun posts detailing those adventures soon! I've actually been checking a lot of things off of my "to do/see" list lately. For example, a couple of weeks ago I went to Descanso Gardens to check out the cherry blossom trees that were just at their peak. As I wrote about in my earlier post entitled Super Bloom!, the heavy rains of winter made for a spectacular show of flowers in the Los Angeles region and nearby desert areas like Anzo Borrego. Descanso Gardens is a great place to see not only cherry blossom trees but also a host of other gorgeous, colorful flowers.

If you want to see more of what I wore to Descanso Gardens, you can check out my earlier post A Stroll Through the Gardens, which features this gorgeous Kate Spade dress, but in this post I am just featuring some of my favorite photos of the gardens. Since I don't have much of a green thumb, I always marvel at the beauty of gardens. I wish I could recreate something similar in my yard, but I don't really have a magic touch when it comes to plants. My husband does say our yard doesn't have the best soil, so I'll blame the death of my plants on that!

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

A Stroll Through the Garden

Last weekend, my husband and I did several things that involved flowers. I thought this was appropriate because it is the first week of spring after all! The first flower-themed excursion of the weekend involved visiting the cherry blossoms at Descanso Gardens. While I will be posting more photos of the gorgeous cherry blossom trees and some of the flowers blooming in the garden at a later date on my blog, today I am sharing what I wore to take a leisurely stroll through these verdant gardens. (Actually, the stroll through the gardens ended up not being so leisurely due to heavy road traffic, scarce parking and long lines to get into the gardens, so we only had about an hour before the gates closed!)

First, this Kate Spade "Multi Cape" striped shirtdress was a piece I lusted after last spring, however I waited too long to purchase it and it eventually sold old. A couple months ago, however, I got a second shot at purchasing the dress when it popped up during a Kate Spade "Surprise Sale". If you also missed out on these opportunities, the good news is that it's back! You can find the dress here on the most recent Kate Spade surprise sale for only $129, which is a steal compared to the retail price of $400.

I paired the dress with a denim jacket for a more casual look. Even though I am definitely not in need of another denim jacket, I justified this purchase with the rationale that this is my first embroidered denim jacket, so technically it's not something I already have hanging up in my closet. Plus, it was on sale at Old Navy for under $30, so why not? If you are considering this jacket, be forewarned that it does run a little small, however I actually purchased an extra small for a fitted feel. Below are some other embroidered denim options for those of you who also need an excuse to add another denim jacket to your closet!

Below you will see the rest of my photos featuring my picture perfect outfit for the beginning of spring. I had trouble choosing the images I wanted to use for this post because there were so many lovely backdrops for photos at Descanso Gardens and I am pretty much head over heels in love with this dress! It's almost like the dress was made for me, not to mention a stroll through a gorgeous garden, which I am sure is what Kate Spade had in mind when she designed it!