Now I would never wear this exact outfit on the beach, but being that it's a rare, genuinely sunny 4th of July (seriously, you have no idea how often we get rained out every year!) and yet the holiday occurred in the middle of the week, I had beaches on my brain. The white ruffled lace on this cozy Karen Kane knit dress always reminds me of the caps of waves, and the bone-colored patent sandals make me think of seashells.

But the dress is black, so I thought I'd add some bold red and blue colors to brighten it up.

Of course, I wanted to wear my new faux-coral necklace. That, plus my freshly dyed hair (brighter than how it appears on my covered porch) and a bold red lip, takes care of red. My cobalt Kate Spade bag covered the blue contingent. Just because there's a chance we may still be outside when it cools down at night, I'm carrying my black and white graphic floral print cardigan that I've fallen in love with all over again this year.

My red shades would have been the perfect finishing touch, but alas they went MIA on my Las Vegas trip in December. They were ridiculously inexpensive, though. Supposedly Seattlites buy the most sunglasses in the nation - we so rarely need to wear them that it's easy to lose them in between our lovely but very short summers!

B. and I have been lounging around at home today, doing laundry and watching Sabrina, but we'll soon be en route to a barbecue with our friends. B. has decided to inaugurate his beer boot that I got him for Christmas, and supposedly there's some karaoke in store, so it should be a fun night.