How is everyone's bank accounts feeling two weeks into the #NSale?! Mine's screaming at me currently... But the sale is SO good! I've shared my early access favorites, home decor must haves and second round favorites/shopping tips; and now I'm rounding up my beauty favorites from this awesome sale. I had mentioned here that this sale was also a great time to get a head start on birthday/holiday gifts since everything is priced so great, and a lot of that comes from the beauty department! Whether you're in need of a new curling iron or your best friend's birthday is coming up, the beauty sale likely has what you're looking for.
I think it's safe to say that we've all been in the position where we feel like NOTHING has gotten done in a day... It happens to me way more than I would ever like to admit and I'm not sure why I lose my motivation so much but it's always at the worst times! Whether it leads to scrolling through Instagram posts from two days ago, watching three hours worth of Bravo television or playing dozens of games worth of 1010 (my early morning/late night addiction...); realizing it's 9 PM and you've gotten nothing productive done all day is not a good feeling.
During these summer months, it's bound to happen even more with fun trips and events planned. But getting motivated to tackle a never ending to do list is guaranteed to be harder when you have to keep adding to it thanks to an unproductive day. Here's some tips I've found helpful in getting back on track after a day like that:
In the summer, I can hardly be bothered with putting a face full of makeup on unless I'm going somewhere special; a nice dinner, wedding, etc. But at the same time, I hate leaving the house with no makeup on so my go-to summer makeup is almost all eye products, bronzer, a little concealer if I need it and fun lip colors. Plus, trying new products and comparing drugstore to higher end brands is my favorite thing to do! This heat in New York right now (the high is 101 tomorrow) doesn't help the case but I was so excited to try the line of L'Oreal Voluminous products - they really are as great as they're made out to be!
If you haven't had a chance to shop the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale during it's early access days, you're now in luck! The perfect start to a Friday if you ask me! The sale is now opened to the public and everything has been restocked. It's also a great time to try and get your hands on anything you may have missed out on during the early access period! My orders are starting to roll in and I can't wait to share the fun things I've bought for the home, for the rest of the summer and for the fall. The best part is realizing how much you saved on designer items and ones that you may not have let yourself splurge on if they weren't on sale. If you're a card holder or part of the reward system, you can gain 3x the amount of reward points! It's actually a great way to shop because you'll start earning Nordstrom Notes. I've gotten a couple of notes during this sale, and I'm so excited because I have close to $200 in "notes" now to put toward my next purchase!
I also have to share just how amazing the Nordstrom customer service is... A few days ago, I found an area rug I absolutely loved and it strangely didn't have a size with it; I was going to the Nordstrom I shop at that day and they didn't have it in the store, so I used their live chat and long story short, the rep told me she would contact me if she could find out what size the rug was. To my surprise, I got a phone call today from the exact representative I spoke to telling me the size! I've always known how good the customer service was (I wrote a Fund. of Management final paper on it my junior year of undergrad and got an A+ ; ) let me know if you'd like to read it!!), but not this good.
Anyway, back to shopping - it's the start of the weekend and everyone deserves to treat themselves when there's a sale as awesome as this one! Let's dive into the best of the sale:
GoPro's have become so popular and if you've ever tried to use one, you know why! They're so fun and as a blogger, I'm already always trying to document everything and making GoPro videos is one of the funnest things I've done. It definitely comes with a learning curve to create awesome videos, but I think I'm getting there! ; ) I follow a ton of semi-famous Instagrammers who make these insane GoPro videos and they never fail to amaze and give some awesome inspiration. GoPro's are the best because they're little, easy to carry around with you and you never know when you'll want to get something on camera - so the fact that they're easy to use and super portable makes it even more worth while. Whether it be skydiving, surfing, any vacation, a day trip or whatever you may be doing; having the right song(s) for your GoPro videos is what makes it so eye catching. Here are the best songs I've found for GoPro videos:
The NSale is in full swing and while it's still early access, there's just a few more days until you can shop if you don't have a Nordstrom card! Whether you've become a pro at shopping this sale in the past few days, or are stoked to shop it in the next few days - you know there's SO many great things to go around! This is one of the best sales all year and I like to call it the Black Friday of summer! ; ) Last Thursday I stayed up super late to round up my favorite early access favorites for summer and fall and I'll definitely be doing some more posts because the deeper I look into pages online and racks in the store, the more amazing things I find!
It's no secret that I'm obsessed with home decor at this point... And this section has been one of the most-shopped for me in the past few days; there are SO many great things! If you're looking to spruce up your home or need some new wine glasses, look no further...
I have never met a beach house I didn't completely fall in love with and that's mostly because of the beautiful coastal color palette! I love rooms and homes that are bright, airy and inviting and beach homes just make me so happy. Whether it's on a lake, river or the ocean, there's so many possibilities when it comes to a home that does nothing but relax you! Here are 7 of the most swoon worthy beach homes out there to make you want to up and move in a heart beat:
As you probably already know, one of the best sales all year (and definitely for Nordstrom...) starts today! If you're a Nordstrom card holder, you can access the Early Access sale now through July 21st. Then the sale will open to the public so if you aren't a card holder, check out what you'll be able to buy in a week! ; ) There's so many amazing things that this sale has to offer and I feel like every single page has more and more things you'd never expect. Since this sale is so big, I figured I would break it down into different posts and share different categories of items. I was shopping bright and early and I was so excited with all of the things they have this year - there's so many new items marked down for summer and fall! I broke down my favorites that caught my eye at first for these summer months and what I'm loving for the fall that's new:
There's some things in this world that just scream "summer" and I'm pretty sure we can all agree that watermelon is one of those things! The colors are so pretty, the fruit is so yummy and the emoji is constantly in my frequently used section ; ) I'm one of those people who loves to snack all day and every day and as bad as it sounds, I try and be super healthy about it! But sometimes you just need a fun snack and that's exactly where these fun (and super yummy) watermelon rice krispie bars come in to play. We're in the middle of an almost two week long heat wave now in New York and that means if a recipe says "no bake", I'm a happy camper. I can't even imagine turning the oven on when it's this hot - thank god for central AC because as much as I love summer time and fun, outdoor, summery things, I do not handle heat well! Back to this fun summer snack; they're almost too cute to eat!
One of the many trends of the summer (that's been around a while, I know): shirtdresses! I love the way they look - short sleeved, sleeveless, 3/4 sleeves; they're so flattering and there's so many styles that everyone looks good in them. I love the way they look with wedges the most. Shirt dresses paired with wedges is one of the classiest looks for summer and it can easily be a fun day outfit turned classy night look. I love the classic styles just as much as the newest designs with patterns, different sleeve lengths and embellishments. When a shirt dress can look feminine, you know it's an asset to your closet! During the spring and summer shows at NYFW 2016, there were so many shirt dresses and I knew they were going to be a hit again this season. Here are some of my favorites and how I'd style them:
You may or may not know by now that Italy is one of my favorite places in the entire world - my family is from Italy, I have family who still live there and if I can get there for a trip, you better believe I'll be on the first plane available! The lifestyle is incredible and the way that Italians live their lives is ideal. I love everything about the beautiful country that is Italy and with so many tourist attractions to see, history to learn about and amazing locations to share; Italian beaches are what you may not hear as much about. There's the touristy spots of Capri and even near Rome in and near Ostia, but beyond there - there's SO much more. I love tourist spots just as much as the next travel bug, but I love visiting places that aren't so crowded too, or spots that you wouldn't commonly think of visiting or come across. Here are the 7 most stunning beaches to plan on visiting on your Italian trip:
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Is anyone else seriously dragging today?! The long weekend threw me off so much, but it was so much fun! The weather was perfect - sunny and hot and perfect for laying in the sun! I wasn't originally planning on putting another post up about the 4th of July but here I am anyway - it's my favorite holiday and I just so happened to take some seriously amazing fireworks pics, if I do say so myself! ;) I'll admit that being a blogger and always wanting to get that perfect shot is the reason I tried so hard to get the perfect shot(s), and I think I got it down when it comes to action shots! I was so excited looking through the pictures post-fireworks because I wasn't expecting them to come out so good. One of the most important factors in blogging is your camera (in my opinion) and while I have a more fancy Canon DSLR, I find myself gravitating way more toward this camera because it's smaller, easier to use and honestly *almost* just as good. The camera I'm talking about is the Nikon CoolPix p510; it's SO good and how I took all of these pictures:
The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays ever and I get so excited about it every year. Barbecues, watching baseball, splashing around the pool and fireworks - and of course remembering out country's birthday! There's so many fun things about the entire day and best of all, so many fun outfit ideas for every event you could possibly think of. Wearing stars and stripes is the most festive you could be and there are SO many fun pieces to put together this season! Since the 4th of July falls on a Monday this year, the weekend is nice and long and the luckily, the weather's going to be hot and sunny the entire weekend. It also means you have a few extra days to get to the mall and buy a fun and festive outfit! Whether you're relaxing by the pool, going to a party or a laid back BBQ, here's all of the best outfits for the 4th of July:
