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Reconnecting with Nature with Lake Effect Co.

I know we don’t have to say it because everyone is feeling the effects. But man 2020 has been a hard year. It feels like the world continues to divide more sharply and it hurts our hearts. Probably has a lot to do with it being an election year but it has gotten to a point where I don’t want to hear another word of “truth” from anyone. Honestly the saving grace this year has been the amount of time we’ve been up north at the lake. 

We haven’t written about Lake Effect Co. in months now, but don’t worry they are still our favorite. If you’re on Instagram you’ve seen them continue to pop up on our feed. Unfortunately, they too have felt the negative aspects of 2020 and will be closing their shop in Pewaukee at the end of this month. I’m sure it’s next to impossible to maintain a brick and mortar shop, let alone when you’re more of a niche business. 

Our values haven’t changed this year, regardless of what is going on. We still rest in knowing God will bring us through all of this when the anxiety and fear threaten to get the best of us. But it sure is easier when you’re disconnected from social media and connected to nature instead. 

That’s why we think the Lake Effect Co. is still so important. Katherine has been a champion of lake life and Blue Mind, which is that people need to be around water to survive. Now more than ever, when everyone is limited in what they can do this year should we all be prioritizing outdoor time. Whether it means getting to a lake or even just finding a local green space or a park to attune to nature. 

Take off your shoes and stand in the grass if it’s an option. Go for a dip in a body of water. There is nothing like the refreshing and maybe even startling temperature of fresh or saltwater to awaken your spirit and keep you in the moment instead of fretting about the future. 

Many people think back to school and the start of September or Labor Day as the unofficial end to summer. Our slightly cooler temperatures certainly haven’t helped with the mindset shift. We will always hold out on shifting to Fall until we truly have to, and want to encourage you to do the same. 

There are weeks, if not longer to enjoy some seriously gorgeous days outside. As of right now, we’re staring a dark socially distanced fall and winter in the face, where it might not be as easy to bundle up and spend time in nature. This isn’t to scare you, it’s to make sure you make the most of the days you do have!

I went camping last weekend, which is another perfect way to socially distance while communing with nature. I wore my Chase More Sunsets tank top from Lake Effect Co and enjoyed two spectacular sunsets on the bluffs overlooking the delta of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers. 

We can all use this weird time how we want to. I’m choosing to reconnect with things that prior to COVID I might not have made as much time for. It’s an opportunity to slow down and reflect on your priorities and values.

Lastly, small businesses still need our help. If you’ve been eyeing up any of the Lake Effect Co. merchandise, now is a great time to support! You can still use our code THEREALTALL15 for 15% off your purchase!

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New Small Business Share: A Fierce Beauty Boutique

One of the best parts of starting our blog is all the incredible small businesses we’ve been introduced to and have loved! Even better is when we can create friendships with said business owners and mutually support one another. We’re happy to introduce you to Mandy who runs A Fierce Beauty Boutique! Luckily we attended an event and introductions were made. It’s always a relief to meet like-minded creatives. 

From there, our bond was forged and we’ve been able to meet up and take some blog pictures together. We had known about her Etsy boutique, but once we took the time to peruse A Fierce Beauty Boutique, our love was solidified. This girl’s got taste!

One thing you can’t have too many of in your closet are graphic t-shirts. The unfortunate thing about that for us is how picky we are about which graphics we’ll invite into our closet. They either need to be like one color family (like this coffee t-shirt) or it needs to have multiple colors that will pair well with various other pieces in my closet. A good example of that is my Queen bodysuit from H&M. I don’t think I quite realize how much use I was going to get out of it, but it has really helped set a standard for future selections!

Another thing fun about adding graphic/slogan t-shirts is how current and relevant they can be! I know you’ve seen my YAASSS shirt floating around on the blog/insta several times over the years. Mandy has a ton of quarantine specific options, as well as encouraging sayings. The versatility is everything to us, as sometimes we want to bring a little sass with our shirts and sometimes we like to drop a bible verse or some USA pride. Just saying, she does it all!

So when we ordered our t-shirts I feel like you never know what to expect for sizing. That’s obviously no knock on A Fierce Beauty Boutique. More the experiences of most tall women when dealing with women or unisex shirts. We both went with a large size to be safe and were totally thrilled when they arrived and there was ample space. There is great length in the body and as you can tell it made it easy to knot it up for a super cute look! The shoulder space is super great as well. 

The shirt fabric itself is also super soft. None of the scratchy material that needs to be washed 100 times before it finally wears well. Depending on how we’ll wear any of the shirts in the future I will consider sizing down to a medium, which normally isn’t an option so that’s exciting! We both were all about the coffee graphic, and we loved that you can choose different shirt colors to customize it a bit more but still a fun way to all choose one shirt with your girlfriends next time you get together.

A Fierce Beauty Boutique also has several sweatshirt options as the temperatures start to drop that we are super interested in, as well as some coffee mugs. Can one have too many cute coffee mugs (me talking to myself as I add to the cart)? Totally rhetorical but the answer is no. 

So go check out A Fierce Beauty Boutique. We always love to find new Etsy shops. It can get overwhelming sometimes just browsing on there, and we wanted to share our stamp of approval to make your shopping a bit easier! Shipping is free over $35, so snag a couple of t-shirts. Let us know what you grab in the comments below.


P.S. a little birdy may have told us to be on the lookout for some cute fall inspired tees coming soon! And as a special treat to our followers, you can use code THEREALTALL25 for 25% off your purchase (SO GENEROUS!!)

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Real Tall Talks: Your Body Has No Explanation Required

Recently I’ve begun to notice this narrative of “realness” being called out. As someone who named their blog after being real, it’s begun to rub me the wrong way. Our blog presence is built upon the premise of keeping it real with our audience. What does that mean to us? It means not misleading you by overediting our pictures, taking out blemishes, cellulite, anything that women might find unsavory about themselves. If there is stray hair blowing in the wind, you’ll probably see it on here. If you catch us at the right angle you might find that extra 5 or 10 pounds we as tall women can hide easier than most!

What I’m struggling to understand is, when the narrative has changed in social media with the calling out of moments of realness about our natural bodies. It has become so out of the norm that we have to call attention to how brave we are or maybe it’s masked in discomfort of showing our authentic selves.

You probably won’t see Caitlin or I make apologies or explanations for our bodies being the way they are. We understand that many people struggle with body image issues and respect their journeys towards acceptance. On our blog, we want to normalize being in our skin and not having to explain why we posted something despite our perceived flaws. 

It’s been said often but something you complain about on yourself is something that someone else is envious of about you.

All of this to say, stop photoshopping your pictures to beyond recognition. Our society has become obsessed with a version of celebrity/public figure that doesn’t exist. Fast fashion has evolved into fast fixes for anything you don’t like about your face/body. We’re not saying if you have something that causes you pain or embarrassment that you can’t/shouldn’t fix it, but it feels like days of embracing yourself flaws and all are past us.

Please don’t mistake this as either Caitlin and I getting on a soapbox of being holier than thou. It has just been weighing on my heart recently and a teammate from college posted a picture/stories talking about the same thing. Know that if you have imperfections, like acne or bags under your eyes or cellulite or whatever it may be; you don’t have to call it out preemptively or make any apologies for it. If you had a baby and your stomach isn’t as tight as it used to be, you can still wear a bikini and not have any explanation.

The beauty standard is impossible and you have no obligation to live up to it. As women we feel beholden to explain our existence, and we’re here to encourage you to drop that habit. Wash your hands of it and live free. Obviously it’s easier said than done but just start testing the waters of not coming up with an answer if someone says you look tired and you just happen to not be wearing makeup. Let them be a little uncomfortable for asking questions they have no business asking. 

It ties in closely with all of the height/body comments we get regularly, so we’ve had more practice than normal. Just because I’m in relatively good shape, doesn’t mean I “had to” have played basketball or volleyball at my height or it’s a waste. Same as short women being referred to as “cute” automatically because of their size. 

Let’s do away with the assumptions and societal pressures for all women. We’re here to celebrate you being you, beautiful flaws and all, no explanation required. If you liked this Real Tall Talks, check out our last post, here.

Lastly, all of the swimsuits pictured are from Figleaves! The one piece swimsuits are obviously not “tall,” but the rise on them is great for our longer butts to still keep everything covered. The one piece swimsuits are tall sizing and they are super comfortable and well-fitting. If you haven’t tried them yet they have some really great timeless options!

Link to two piece suits, top here and bottom here.

Link to Caitlin’s one piece black suit, here.

Link to my (Jenilee’s) polka dot suit, here.

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