Whether it's an early morning, busy day and you're crunched for time or you're just feeling plain lazy (we all have those days, let's be honest!), dealing with your hair can be a struggle. My hair is naturally wavy/curly, thick and long, so I tend to keep it natural most of the time. Now though that I've found the TYME Iron, I don't mind straightening/curling my hair nearly as much! It isn't even that I hate styling my hair; it's just SO time consuming! This iron is a two-in-one and it's been a life (and TYME ;) saver!
This summer I went to my favorite place in the entire world - Italy. I put together a travel guide to Sorrento, a guide for the Amalfi Coast and some international travel packing tips that definitely saved me a few hundred dollars at TSA! I've said it before and I'll say it again and again; Italy is THE most breathtaking country and there's *so* much to see which is why it's completely necessary to take multiple trips. ;) That, and because the food alone will bring you back time and time again!
Out of all of my trips to Italy, this summer was the first time I went to Sicily. It was incredibly beautiful and to my surprise, much different than I had ever pictured it to be.
Each year it's so fun to see and try all of the seasonal trends, and it's usually the winter trends that tend to surprise me the most and that I end up LOVING the most! Here are my favorite winter must haves this season:
For a long time before I even started my blog, Instagram was always my favorite social media platform. Once I began my blog and my blogs Instagram, I started working hard to 1. grow my audience 2. take/post quality images and 3. engage with others. In the past year and a half, I've gotten a pretty good idea of what my followers like to see and have toyed with different posting themes and ways to grow and make my feed as pretty as I possibly could! I'll admit it, Instagram has become my baby and one of my top priorities when it comes to my blog and biz. I spend a *lot* of time styling pictures, planning my feed, etc. and seeing results in turn is so rewarding!
It's so fun to plan your feed - I look forward to every Sunday/Monday because I spend time taking and editing pictures and then moving them around in my feed to see what looks best where (more on how I do that later!). It's actually sort of funny, because my personal Instagram is so unorganized and has no real brand or theme to it, which just goes to show that I had no idea what I was doing before I started my blogs account - and didn't care either, ha!
My feed is most definitely a work in progress and I think it always will be as I continue to post, but since the start of the new year I started being even more mindful and working to create a more defined theme.
Over the summer I shared a summer edition of save vs. splurge and it was SO much fun to make! It seriously never, ever fails to amaze me just how many dupes are out there for super high-end products. I love upscale shopping just as much as the next girl, but I also love a good sale and since my student loan payments officially have started, I love these save vs. splurge round ups even more! ;) I found 9 awesome dupes for much more expensive designer versions and I'm loving them for winter:
With a new semester about to start, there's always the hope of having a straight-A semester, staying organized and not getting completely overwhelmed. But welcome to the college life because I'm pretty sure that'll never happen as easily as we all wish it would! College is stressful as hell, and throughout my four years of undergrad, I figured out some things that really helped me to stay organized and make things easier. I only wish they came to me you know, when I was a struggling freshman! ;) Here's 8 ways you can help make your semester go smoothly and help you conquer each and every day:
It's Fri-YAY! And as you may have noticed, there's some new things going around over here! ;) I've had this new design in the works for so long, and now it's a reality and I could not be happier with it. I've been working with an absolutely incredible designer for about a month to bring a vision I had for my site to reality, and Stephanie did just that! I find myself coming to my blog just to look at the design, for reals. ;)
As one of my business-related resolutions for the New Year, I've been working extra hard at doing something I know a lot of us struggle with: pre-writing content and getting things done ahead of time. I'm the first to admit that I'm extremely guilty of finishing and perfecting content the night before it goes live, and sometimes even the morning of! It's stressful, and blogging shouldn't be stressful. Not in my eyes, anyway. Now, creating content is much easier said than done. If you're a blogger yourself, you know just how much goes into a blog post. Drafting it, writing and editing, taking photos, proof reading, promoting it, etc. It's a long process, but when it's something you're proud of it's super rewarding! Sometimes brainstorming doesn't come easy (I know I have days where I draw blank after blank!) so I've come up with a game plan to help never run out of content, and here's how:
This post has been sponsored by the PRIMP Network. All opinions as always are my own.
New technology and electronic gadgets are fun and all, but if you're a beauty lover then you haven't really experienced a fun gadget until you try the Hi Mirror! I had never heard of this brand before, but now it's one of my favorite gadgets and it's ridiculously fun to use. I like to think of it as my very own Sephora beauty consultant - it tells you what your skin is lacking in and tips to help your daily skincare routine. Yeah, THAT futuristic! ;) I've been using it for a few weeks now and I'm still learning things about it. If you like to stay on top of your beauty game, you *need* this in your life!
A lot of people use the saying, "new year, new me" as their motto during the first few weeks of each year, but how about "new year, new room"? It's no secret that I love to re-decorate whenever I get the chance to, but it's actually a really good idea for a new year! Whether you just freshen things up or make some big changes (like me... it's becoming a problem, ha!) there's no better time than a new year to change things up and create a quick and easy mini room makeover. Here's my favorite ways that I've used to freshen up my bedroom in the past few days:
Throughout December I shared so many gift guides and fun gift ideas so I put December's Currently Cravings on hold. At the end of each month this year I'll be sharing one of these posts as I did last year, but I wanted to do a special version in place of December's of things I'm loving right now all under $100! Some of these things are post-holiday sale buys and some are things I got for Christmas. Everything is under $100 both regular priced and as the sale prices and things you'll be saying "okay, I need this!" to. Since it's all under $100, grab your coffee and shop happy! ;)
Happy New Year!! I cannot believe it's finally here, but we're in 2017! Am I the only one who found it *so* incredibly satisfying that the new year started on a Sunday?! It made the OCD in me so happy, ha! The holidays went so fast but it was such a magical few weeks and so relaxing, so now I'm so excited and ready to get back to work and doing some goal crushing. ;) There's something about the fresh start of a brand new year that gets everyone motivated, but usually that motivation fades and we give up on a lot of our goals. I'm guilty as charged - it's no secret that I've set goals for myself that I never completed but now, being a blogger and in the world where goals truly matter for your business, I realize that it was because the goals I was setting for myself were completely unrealistic. The timing didn't add up and nothing made any "real" sense. Now I have a better sense of goal setting and I definitely feel less overwhelmed and much more excited about reaching and achieving my goals.
