It's good to be back! I've survived finals week, moving and traveling home for the holidays! Hopefully things here can go back to normal, at least for a little while!
This weekend my parents and I went on a little road trip to see my sister in Virginia Beach. It was so lovely!
If you read regularly, you've probably noticed that I'm on a little bit of a braiding rampage. This time I experimented with Dutch braiding! This was kind of a fun one, and I got lots of compliments and questions and requests to re-create it!
As usual, I watched the tutorial by Luxy Hair (seriously, the best hair tutorials)...
Mine definitely didn't come out as perfectly as hers, but for a first attempt, I was pretty happy!
This is a great (and pretty easy!) style for holiday events! It's different and has a little personality and you'll have all the girls asking how you did it!
"Everyone had a Day One. A Day One of their first yoga class, a Day One
of their being single again, a Day One at their new job. No matter how
weird or self-conscious you feel, any type of Day One you are having,
other people have also had and gotten through. And after Day One,
usually comes a much easier, less worrisome Day Two."
“There’s no such thing as a creative type. I think people need to
be reminded that creativity is a verb; a very time-consuming verb. It’s
about taking an idea in your head and transforming that idea into
something real. And that’s always going to be a long and difficult
process. If you’re doing it right, it’s going to feel like work.”
Deep, dark lips has been one of the biggest trends on the runways and the red carpet as the weather has gotten cooler. It's definitely a bold statement look. But for all the pictures and posts I've seen about it, I have yet to see a dark lip in person!
I think there are two ways to pull this off. First, embrace the vamp-y side of the look and wear a kitten eye and blush. Second, go au-naturale except the lip. I'm leaning towards trying the second version. Would wear a dark lip?
Now that Thanksgiving has passed, it's officially time to begin holiday shopping! This is, of course, assuming you didn't brave Black Friday shopping this morning and cross everyone off your list!
If you're shopping for sisters, girl friends, aunts or any ladies in your life here are a few ideas!
1. Stationary ($7-$20)
Everyone needs stationary (especially after Christmas for writing thank you notes)! This one's from Anthropologie but you can also find some super cute ones on Etsy or Papyrus!
2. Love Letters of Great Men ($30)
These letters are so sweet and interesting! It's available on Amazon.
3. Striped Boatneck Tee ($10-$90)
This is the perfect shirt! I waited to buy one because I thought they'd be a passing trend, but it appears that it has some staying power. It's chic on its own or layered with a scarf or coat! You can find one at Lands' End, J.Crew or Old Navy.
I have some exciting news! I'm moving in just a few weeks! I'll be moving into a house and I'm so excited to have a kitchen and do a little bit of decorating!
I'm seriously considering making a pallet bed...
Has anyone done it? What do you think? Eeeek! I'm super excited!
The weather has finally turned here and I'm looking forward to wearing tights and ankle boots and lots of layers this weekend!
I have to (frantically) study Spanish this weekend, but I'm hoping to make a really yummy breakfast tomorrow morning! I've been craving breakfast sandwiches and cocoa all week! And if I can manage to squeeze it in, I've been planning a little art project for quite a while. More on that later!
Lately, I've been seeing lots of people (gentleman and ladies!) layering jean jackets. It's a brilliant way to take the chambray look into the colder months! As an added bonus, it's a great way to stay cozy, which is really important if you're anything like me!
So, would you try layering a jean jacket? I'd like to give it a try but I'm going to have to play around with the look before I wear it!
"Nothing is as potentially disastrous or chic as leopard print and I think we all appreciate that delicate balance."
-Rumi Neely
I hope you have lots of fun plans for the weekend! I'll be installing an art exhibit, watching my friends get their Aggie rings and throwing a birthday party for a few friends! Hopefully there will be time to squeeze in a few naps and some studying!
As I mentioned earlier, I'm trying to expand my hair style repertoire. I decided to dip my toes into the fancy braiding styles with the fishtail braid! After watching several tutorials, and taking a deep breath here's how it turned out...
Here's what I did...
1. I have stick straight hair, so the day before I wore it in a braid. Then, that night I just barely dampened my hair, re-braided it as tightly as I could and slept on it.
2. Pull the sides back, like you would for a regular half-up style and smooth the top and sides (that's really important because it will get big, unattractive bumps if you don't). Then start fishtailing!
3. For a fishtail, separate the sides you pulled pack into two pieces. First, take a small piece from the outer edge of the left piece and bring it over to the center of the right piece. Next, take a small piece from the outer edge of the right piece and bring it over to the center of the left piece. Repeat until you have a fishtail! You could do all the way down or even your whole head (see below)!
4. I gave the top of my head a quick spritz of hairspray and ran my fingers though it, partly to fix the little bumps and partly to give the style a more careless feel.
And you're done!
As I mentioned before, I love the Luxy Hair Youtube Channel! This is their wonderful video tutorial for this style!
I've been fighting off a cold for the past week so I apologize for the sporadic posting! While I've been sipping tea and hot chocolate here's are the goodies I've turned up!
After gushing about how brilliant this was, my friends all told me that BBQ chicken nachos are a thing. But if you want to make them at home, here's a recipe.
A few months ago there were articles and blog posts everywhere talking about how the majority of people had been using bobby pins wrong. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was skeptical, but I started using them the "right" way, and to be honest its worked better for me!
So here's the (so-called) correct way to use bobby pins!
Another thing that has made bobby pins more helpful (and less frustrating) is to spritz them with a little hairspray before you stick them in your hair. They stay put better and slip around a lot less!
Here are two other articles about bobbypins that are worth a read!
