Cheers to Monday!  I enjoyed a gorgeous weekend filled with 70+ days and could not be happier to have enjoyed sunshine and warmth again, even if I could do without the allergies that inevitably come with the timing of everything coming into bloom.

Some of my favorite things lately:

• The Toronto Raptors mascot dresses up as Justin Bieber | The NBA playoffs started over the weekend and as most people know I live and breathe all things basketball. While Toronto isn’t one of my teams by any means, I love the way their marketing team has been so thorough in making their brand super strong from bringing in Drake as a Global Ambassador and having him announce starting lineups to creating a slogan that other teams have tried to steal to nicknaming their arena Jurassic Park.  This stunt from over the weekend really showed how they bring their A game {even if their team didn’t…}
• I’ve been seriously crushing on this bikini top {still holding out hope that it’ll go on sale}, but ended up snagging this one over the weekend in white. Last year, I stayed away from scrappy, caged suits because I already had some interesting tanlines from vacation in Europe, but I realized life is too short to avoid cute bikini tops because of weird tan lines {that’s how the saying goes right?} I also grabbed this high neck top because I love the trend.
• The Donut Disturb beach hat! I’m super excited to wear this hat at the beach next month and am already trying to figure out when I can make another sequin sun hat — trying to decide between Vitamin Sea and Out of Office still.
• This list of cheesy foods has me drooling…I need those spinach dip mozzarella sticks in my life {and belly} ASAP.

So onto today’s look! While I love shopping, anytime I need a new pair of jeans I feel a serious sense of dread. The whole process of grabbing 7 different pairs of denim and trying them all on just to find that none of them work is incredibly frustrating. And I know it’s not just me: most of my girlfriends mention the same disdain for jean shopping despite having a wide variety of body types: petite, tall, larger calves, bigger thighs, big hips, small hips, etc.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned over the years is to not order jeans online until I’ve had a chance to try them on for size — otherwise I’m going to need to order 2-4 different sizes and be ready to deal with returns.  I’ve been eyeing a few pairs at Nordstrom Rack, but with sizing being so different for every brand, I knew I’d rather go to a store a try a few different brands on first.  I tried on a couple different pairs from Joe’s Jeans, HUDSON jeans and then fell in love with this pair from STS Blue. I ended up sizing down to a 27 in these; I always struggle with finding denim that fits in the thighs, hips and waist so I was thrilled to find a pair that made the cut.  I also love that they’re a mid-rise; they comfortably stay up and there’s no worrying about anything hanging out that I don’t want to hang out.   The distressed style has grown a lot on me over the past couple months, but I was still surprised to find that I actually liked these when I put these on.

This embroidered tank from Old Navy is short in the center and longer on the sides.  I paired it with a navy three quarter sleeve blazer to provide some balance to the super distressed {borderline destroyed} jeans.  I love navy and white together year round but I think it’s really a perfect color combo once the warm weather returns.  I wore a similar version of this outfit last week and swapped the blazer for my long sleeveless duster sweater from this post and love the boho vibe it gave the look.