2016 Reflections - The Year of Travel and Self Love

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year and Holiday Season!

I just got back from my trip to Jordan, and I had an amazing time! If you wanted to see my travel photos, take a look at my instagram (instagram.com/phd_fashionista). I will hopefully be doing a travel post soon featuring my highlights and also a video of some things :) 

I'm a Dr - PhD (Almost!) Graduation

Hey loves!
Sorry for the lack of posts this month but I am back! I've been so crazy busy with the end of TAing (finally finished grading and entered in my grades!), graduation, family visiting, doing research, and getting ready for an international conference that I'm leaving for tomorrow!
I'm so excited for the conference, I get to finally meet the experts in my field that I read their research papers all the time, and I get to be in an amazing location (secret right now, check my instagram for the reveal!!) , and I am traveling also afterwards (again, check my instagram to figure out where I'm going!).
My parents came for graduation, and I found out I won a dissertation research award at graduation, and I also won the dissertation year fellowship, which will give me funding for the next year if I choose to stay longer.... so I am "graduated" but not done completely yet!
Graduation was a great day, it was cloudy so I was worried it would rain, but it ended up being perfect weather and great lighting for photos. I expected to be more emotional about graduation but I think because I'm not technically 100% done, I was just plain happy to be celebrated. Such a wonderful and happy milestone, so much hard work and tears.

Graduation Fashion Styles - Motel Rocks!

It's been a stressful last couple of weeks, with finals and research deadlines....so sorry I've been MIA -- but I am back and I have a lot of posts planned for the next couple of days/weeks!

First of all, I recently purchased some really cute clothes from MotelRocks.com, I used to be obsessed with their clothes but I found that on my grad student salary and higher rent I couldn't afford the cute things they had, but there was a sale and I used a code for 20% off (use my code "andreah227"for 20% off your order!!) and how happy am I that I bought these!! I had to go to the post office to pick up my parcel and it was great timing because I was having a hard time trying to decide what to wear to UCLA's graduation ceremony!

A lot of my friends just graduated with their PhDs!!! SO proud of them! And my boyfriend also graduated! Can't wait for my turn in 2-3 years! :)

I was also meeting my boyfriend's parents for the first time so I wanted to make a good impression. The Motel dress was PERFECT! and I estimated my size perfectly, I was worried it wouldn't fit. Last time I ordered from Motel the dress was too small, so I ordered a medium this time. This is the Motel Girly Skater Dress in Nude Lace (Cream).
What do you think of this dress?