December 09, 2016

My First Ever Blog Giveaway!

Hey guys,

So I have been wanting to do a giveaway for a while now so I have decided that since it's December and all (which means Christmas!) that it was time for me to do a giveaway! My blog will be two years old at the end of January which means I have waited long enough haha. I will be doing a giveaway every Friday for the rest of the month of December. I will be doing two giveaways here on the blog and two giveaways on my Instagram account so make sure you are following along so you can enter for your chance to win something! Most of the items are not very expensive but they were all paid for with my money. I'm not going to tell you what they are until I announce them mostly just because I want them to be a surprise!

So for today's giveaway, I will be giving away a this Sephora Favorites Lip Kit.
Blog Giveaway
 These Sephora Favorites gift sets that they come out with every year are my absolute favorite. They make the best gifts because it allows the person to be able to try multiple items without having to spend a lot of money on each full size item. For example, with this lip kit, you can try out 6 different brands of lip products, find out which one(s) you like the best and then go buy the full size option. Plus they are perfect for travel because they are usually all below the TSA required size.

The lip kit comes with 6 different shades (I know there are only 5 in the picture, I didn't realize there were 6 until I had already taken and edited photos and didn't feel like retaking them haha) to try out from 6 different brands. They are all brands that I highly recommend. I personally already own and love a few shades of both the Kat Von D Liquid Lipstick and the Tarte tareist lip paint.

I purchased a set for myself as well and have already tested out the Laura Mercier Lip Colour and the Bite Lip Crayon and both are very bold and beautiful colors. I will definitely be buying more shades of the Bite Lip Crayon.

The giveaway will be open today and will close on Tuesday! I will announce the winner in next Friday's blog post!

This blog post is not sponsored and all items were purchased with my own money.

Thanks for stopping by!
Feel free to leave a comment or share this with your friends!
XO, Steph

December 08, 2016

Office/Guest Bedroom/Workout/Craft Room Inspiration

Hey guys,

So I wanted to give you an update on how the house is going so far. I haven't talked about it in a while and so I thought I would talk about our miscellaneous room!

So honestly this room is probably going to be the messiest room in the house but whatever, we have a lot of stuff and only one room left in the house for the stuff to go in haha. So this room is going to be our office mainly.and then our workout room. 

I just want to start off by showing you guys what the colors of the room are. We selected to do (and by we, I mean my mom mostly and then the rest of us) a navy blue feature wall with light pink walls. We have a lot of blue going on in the house and my mom thought it would be a good idea to do something a little different. And the reason I say my mom is because we kind of gave her this room to design since she helped us pay for the house. We let her have one room to design and I said she could pick any colors except red (that's her favorite color haha). I am not the biggest fan of the color red unless it's Christmas time. 

She selected to do pink and then came up with the idea of doing a navy blue feature wall. We already had the navy blue paint because we are going to be painting another feature wall navy blue in the house. I'm not going to tell you where incase I decide to do an inspiration post on that too. 

So technically this is supposed to be an inspiration but we didn't really come up with the colors until later. But now that we have the colors selected and the walls painted, it has definitely helped with finding inspiration for the rest of the room. 
Since my sister and I each have a desk, we both went on to Pinterest to try and find a design that we liked that included both desks being on the same wall. At our last house they were on opposite walls which was fine because we also didn't use this room as a workout room but now we are trying to combine all four types of rooms into one room so that way we can refrain from having a messy house. I hate clutter and I would rather have one room filled with a bunch of stuff versus a couple rooms throughout the house. 

Currently both desks are on the same wall right next to each other. They have an Ikea Alex drawer unit in the middle of them. We haven't even really started working the office. We got our internet hooked up in there and put a bunch of stuff in there and all of the workout equipment and that's basically it. I think it should come together nicely once we are actually able to get in there and work on making it look nice. We eventually want to find small file cabinets to stick on the end of the our desks just so we can have more storage and put away important documents. We currently uses file boxes and I don't think they look very pretty haha.
I love this creative idea to put your wifi password (and I would probably include the name too unless it's really obvious) in a picture frame for your guests, especially considering how everyone has to pay so much for their data nowadays. I definitely wouldn't hang this one the wall or anything. I would probably place it on a nightstand or on a bookshelf.

I want to get a small nightstand like the one below. I believe it's from Ikea and I think it is perfect because it has room for an outlet strip so inside so we can leave chargers for our guests incase they forget them. Or there will be plenty of room for them to charger their phone.
We have a chair that looks very similar to this except it is navy blue. It's a pull-out couch (technically chair) but it pulls out to be a twin size bed. A twin size bed isn't really ideal for a guest room but so far we haven't really needed anything larger. We don't really get a lot of guests because most of the people we know already live here or were originally from here and they just stay with their parent's when they come to visit. 
Eventually we would like to be able to get a murphy bed that pulls down from the wall just because then we might be able to get a larger bed that can hold more guests.
I also found these pillows and love the colors. I would love to find these pillows or something similar to place on the sleeper chair as decorations. I think that they would go perfectly with the colors of the room.

So my goal for the closet is to turn it into a craft closet. Both my sister and I scrapbook and we also can sew. We also enjoy photography and so it would be nice to be able to store some of our equipment in there. I would like to be able to have a little table set up with the sewing machine on it inside the closet (like the 3rd image) so we don't really have to pull out the sewing machine anytime we need to sew something. My goal is to also have all of our scrapbook stuff very organized so we can scrapbook quicker and we don't waste time looking for something specific that we need.
The workout equipment that we have so far include, a rowing machine and a mini stepper. My mom has already talked about giving us her treadmill because she never uses it anymore and she recently found a new exercise bike that she likes a lot more than the one she has so she has considered giving us her old one if she decides to buy a new one. 

Both my sister and I also have yoga mats that we sometimes prefer to workout on and we also have some hand weights. I want to get an exercise ball and some more dumbbells just so we each have set incase we want to workout together which we sometimes we do a YouTube exercise video together.

If we actually consistently use the workout room then we might add more stuff as time goes on!
We plan on mounting a TV on the wall so we can watch a YouTube workout video or watch TV while working out. We also plan to hang our degrees on the wall in front of our desks on each side of the window. We also have some other artwork that we plan to hang that should hopefully match the theme of the room.  I also want to hang a mirror in the room because I feel like gyms/workout rooms always have mirrors in them. It might also be nice to hang a goal chart somewhere in the room so we can keep track of any goals that we may have such as personal and/or weight goals.

I will keep you guys updated on what actually happens with the room and closet. Also, don't forget to check back to see what other room inspiration post I do next!

Disclaimer: none of the images are mine. I found all of them on Pinterest.

Thanks for stopping by!
Feel free to leave a comment or share this with your friends!
XO, Steph
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December 05, 2016

December 2016 Q&A

December 2016 Q&A
Hey guys,

Here is December's Q&A! It's all Christmas and holiday related questions! I hope you enjoy and have a very merry holiday season!

1) Do you believe in Santa Claus?
No, I have never really believed in Santa. I have two older siblings and so they kind of spoiled it for me when I was younger haha.

2) When do you put up your Christmas tree and/or other decorations?
After Thanksgiving! We usually start setting it up on Black Friday.

3) When do you take them down?
Usually like a week or two after the New Year. Sometimes it takes us a little longer to take them all down because we don’t want the holiday to be over with haha.

4) What goes on top of your tree?
An Angel!

5) Do you have any Christmas traditions?
Yes, every year we open up one present on Christmas Eve. We also have Christmas Eve dinner with my mom’s family and we have Christmas Day lunch with my dad’s family.

6) Real or fake Christmas tree?
Real! Living in Florida, it makes it kind of hard to make it feel like Christmas and in my opinion having a real Christmas tree helps to make it feel like Christmas.

7) Do you use advent calendars?
Growing up, no we never used an advent calendar but a couple years ago my sister and I bought one for our house and so we set it up and started using it.

8) What is your favorite ornament?
I don’t really have one specific ornament but more of collection. A few years ago my mom, my sister and I started this tradition where each pick out two new ornaments that go along with our theme. My two themes are cities and shoes so of course my favorite ornaments are all of my Eiffel Tower ornaments which I have collected quite a few over the last few years.

9) Have you ever had a miserable Christmas?
Thankfully I have never had a miserable Christmas. I would say that there is no such thing but if you were to lose someone on or before Christmas then it might make the holiday not seem as cheerful.

10) Do you leave anything out for Santa? If so what?
No, we don’t and I don’t think we have ever really done this. Since I have never really believed, I don’t think we ever left anything out for him haha.


Thanks for stopping by!
Feel to leave comment or share this with your friends!
XO, Steph 

December 01, 2016

Black Friday 2016

Hey guys,

Happy First day of December! I know this post is going up late but it's been a semi-rough week for me. And the reason I say semi is because I've had worse and I know other people have had much worse as well. I definitely don't want to over-react haha. But I first wanted to say that I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got to spend time with their family. I spent some time with both my moms family and my dads family. We had lunch with my moms family as usual and then we drove to Lakeland where my grandparents live (on my dads side) and spent some time with them.

So the reason I had a rough week and why I haven't posted anything in a while is because I was super busy with going out of town on Thanksgiving and then I closed on Black Friday and then the weekend flew by, I honestly can't even remember what we did haha but then on Monday night after I got home from work, my family and I decided to go pick out my parents Christmas Tree and grab Olive Garden To Go and then a couple of hours later I ended up getting sick with either food poisoning or a stomach bug. We're not entirely sure, I've had a stomach bug before and this wasn't as bad so I'm guessing it was only food poisoning. However, my sister has had food poisoning before and her's was just as bad as my stomach bug. So what the person goes through may just depend on how bad the food is and the person.

Basically, I was stuck in the bathroom all night long (I won't go into detail, mostly because I don't want to relive it haha) and then I was so exhausted the next day and half that my phone pretty much stayed above 90% the whole day which says a lot because it normally dies by like 7 pm. Thankfully it was the night before my day off so I was able to stay home and sleep most of the day and then I went to work for a few hours the following day and was able to come home and rest again. I am feeling so much better today and I am so grateful to my mom and sister and who are always there to help me whenever I get sick (which happens a lot, unfortunately)!
A picture of me and my cousin!
So now on to what today's post is really about! It's more of a life update type of thing. I meant to do a post featuring some of my favorite sales that were going to be happening on Black Friday and maybe some items that I had my eye on but I unfortunately didn't get this much this year because I didn't really have time to shop. 

So, normally my mom, my sister and I go out Black Friday shopping sometime after midnight (we're not fans of starting on Thanksgiving, even though we totally did it this year) and we head to our local outlet mall which is Miramar Outlets. The reason we go there is because we love outlet mall shopping and they also host a $100 gift card giveaway! Every hour, I believe starting at midnight, they give away 10, $100 gift cards that can be redeemed at any of the stores in the outlet mall. I believe that they usually go until around 6 a.m. or maybe later. Last year when we went, my sister won $100 and I won $300! Granted that has never happened before expect for the first year we did it, my sister won $100.

However, since we bought a house this year, I wasn't really planning on doing a lot of Black Friday or Cyber Monday shopping unless it was for items for the house or for the blog. There were a few items that I wanted to buy online on Monday but I worked in the morning and then we went Christmas Tree shopping and then I got sick so I didn't really have any time to actually get on the computer and purchase some stuff, sadly. However, I did buy myself a new handbag but that's to be expected for me haha, I am obsessed with handbags!

This year for Thanksgiving we ended up having lunch with my mom's family like we normally do and then we hopped in the cars and drove up to Lakeland to spend the rest of the holiday with my dad's family. Nothing was really planned out and so we spent some time visiting with the newest member of our family which is my cousin's son! Then my mom, my sister, and I decided to head to Target because we had very little time to actually Black Friday shop and we needed to hit up Target because it's where we always buy DVDs for my dad for Christmas haha. 

The day before Thanksgiving and on Thanksgiving day we had talked about possibly driving to Orlando while we were in Lakeland to do some shopping at an outlet mall there but I wasn't too keen on the idea because I had to work the next evening. I'm a kind of a spoiled Princess incase anyone hasn't figured that out yet haha! But I didn't want to have to be too tired for work and I thought that staying up late and driving an extra hour on top of the two we had already driven would make me super tired but thankfully I wasn't tired at all! 
(I totally didn't even realize that I had posted that photo to Snapchat with the bar across my face. This is what happens when it's late and you're tired! haha)
So after leaving Target (at around 10 at night),  I was like "So do we just want to drive to the outlet mall?" and my mom and sister both said yes! So we headed to the outlet mall! Haha (It took almost 20 minutes to find parking which we ended up parking across the street at an Outback haha.)

The stores we checked out were the usual ones we look at such as Kate Spade, Michael Kors, and Coach. We also sometimes check out J. Crew which we did but we didn't buy anything which is normally what happens haha. Some new stores that we checked out include Nike, Adidas, and 7 For All Mankind. We also normally hit up Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic but we all agreed that no one in the family needed clothes unless it was for blogging purposes only. Which even I said I didn't need any clothes for the blog at the moment. I still have a couple outfits left to photograph and a couple other outfit ideas that I can put together using clothes I already own so I didn't really need anything new. We go to other stores as well normally but since we were on a time crunch and none of use were buying clothes, it left us very limited. 

The store we wanted to check out the most was the Tory Burch outlet but unfortunately the line was almost as bad as a ride at Disney (not joking!). My sister asked some people in line how long they had been waiting and they said about an hour a half and the line wasn't as long as it was when they started and they still had about another loop to go through before they could even go in. So we stood in line for about 10-15 minutes, didn't move at all and so we decided that we had to leave because we didn't really have time to be wasting waiting in line. 

I didn't end up buying that much but I am still very happy that I went and was able to enjoy the Black Friday shopping tradition that my mom and sister and I have created over the last few years. Even though it wasn't our normal tradition, it was still fun getting to go shopping with them!

It was definitely a Black Friday I will remember because of how crazy the trip was haha. I hope everyone's Black Friday/Weekend and Cyber Monday shopping trips went well and that they got what they wanted/needed! 

Sorry for such a long post! I hope you guys enjoy it and I hope everyone has a fabulous December! 
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 

Thanks for stopping by!
Feel free to leave a comment or share this with your friends!
 XO, Steph

November 24, 2016

Black & White Polka Dot Blouse


Black & White Polka Dot Blouse
Black & White Polka Dot Blouse
Black & White Polka Dot Blouse
Black & White Polka Dot Blouse
Black & White Polka Dot Blouse
Black & White Polka Dot Blouse
Black & White Polka Dot Blouse
Black & White Polka Dot Blouse
Blouse: Maison Jules | Pants: Maison Jules (couldn't find exact online) exact pants different color here and similar here | Shoes: Marc Fisher | Sunglasses: Tory Burch (old) similar here and here | Handbag: Michael Kors (mine is the small but I couldn't find it online)

Hey guys,

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has a wonderful day and enjoys spending time with their family and loved ones! 

These pants are seriously so comfortable! I also bought them in another color which will be featured on the blog a little later. I'm always looking for comfortable, casual pants because I seriously hate wearing pants. I prefer to wear dresses, rompers, or shorts. 

And yes there is lint/dog fur all over my black pants haha! I had already worn them once before doing this shoot and I didn't have time to wash them before wearing them again. 

Thanks for stopping by!
Feel free to leave a comment or share this with your friends!
XO, Steph
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November 23, 2016

Blu Notte Fit & Flare Dress


Blu Notte Fit & Flare Dress
Blu Notte Fit & Flare Dress
Blu Notte Fit & Flare Dress
Blu Notte Fit & Flare Dress
Blu Notte Fit & Flare Dress
Blu Notte Fit & Flare Dress
Blu Notte Fit & Flare Dress
Blu Notte Fit & Flare Dress
Dress: Maison Jules | Shoes: Marc Fisher | Handbag: Michael Kors (mine is the small but I couldn't find it online) | Sunglasses: Burberry (old) similar here and here

Hey guys,

Happy hump day! So unfortunately there won't be another "What to Wear Wednesday" this month. I didn't have time to plan anything. I have quite a few ideas but I wasn't able to get the outfits together in time or find a time where my sister and I weren't working. However, I do hope to have one up next month! 

Also, I promise I own other shoes and handbags but I am just currently obsessing over these two items and how much they go with everything at the moment! I also really love this dress! It's perfect for fall in Florida (or elsewhere) because of all the dark colors. You can just put on a leather jacket or another type of coat if it happens to be chilly out and you're all set to go. Also, if you live up north where it's currently cold all the time, you can put some tights or leggings on and your coat and be ready for the day! This dress is very flowy and a lot of fun to spin around in (although I'm not sure how often people spin around in their dresses during the day unless they're doing a photoshoot haha).

Thanks for stopping by!
 Feel free to leave a comment or share this with your friends!
XO, Steph
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November 22, 2016

Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review

Hey guys,

So today's blog post is going to be another purse review and it's going to be on the Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac. To be honest, I love writing purse reviews because I love being able to sit down and write everything that I love and dislike about a certain purse. I want to make sure that I am giving you guys a thorough review so you can finally decide whether or not you actually want to purchase the purse! I have a couple more purse reviews that I am on the fence about writing because I am not entirely sure if they are handbags that people still purchase frequently. But I'll think about it and we'll see if I write them! Haha
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
As you guys know this bag has been featured on my blog several times (it's in almost every single outfit post)! I love this bag a lot and I have owned it for about 4 years now. It is my go-to bag that I grab it whenever I need to just get out the door. I would recommend this bag to anyone and everyone!

Side note: This bag comes with two leather strings that are attached to the zipper pulls but I took mine off. I wasn't the biggest fan of having really long strings hanging down the of my purse. I have put them back on like once or twice but I will typically leave them off just because feel like they are kind of annoying and may potentially get in the way.

This bag can be worn three different ways, either with the long strap (cross body or just hanging on your shoulder), without the strap (it can be worn as a clutch), and with the strap doubled over to make it shorter. I pretty much only wear it with the long strap because I love being able to wear it as a cross body. However, I have gone out of town and only taken this bag with me using it as my daytime bag and my nighttime/evening bag.
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
I love this bag mostly because it is black! I love a good black handbag because it will pretty much go with anything. I also love the gold detailing. I tend to favor gold over silver because I tend to take after my mom and that is her favorite choice! I also the size of this bag. It is smaller but not too small. I am still able to fit pretty much everything I need inside of it including my card holder (or two), my cell phone, a small sunglasses case, some lip products, and a few other items. Sometimes I also carry gum, hand sanitizer, and hair items (ponytail holders and bobby pins).
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
This bag had two compartments, the main one where all of your stuff goes and a smaller one hidden underneath the flap where the buckle is. I typically don't keep anything in there except for small items that I will forget that I put in there and then end up finding them months later when I got to clean out the handbag haha.

The only damage the bag has is some beat up hardware which is to be expected with any bag and where the buckle is, the leather has been rubbed smooth in that particular area. Other than that, the bag still looks brand new after using this bag the most often during the last four years.
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Review
The classic black mini mac comes with gold hardware (that's what I have), silver hardwarerose gold hardwareblack hardwareoil slick hardware, and gunmetal hardware.

I tried to take a couple artistic shots of the bag, as you can see! I love this bag and if there is a bag that I would recommend to everyone, it would be this bag. It's low maintenance and it goes with literally everything!

Honestly, if I could own it in every single color I probably would. This is my go-to bag and it's just such an easy low maintenance bag.

Thanks for stopping by!
Feel free to leave a comment and share this with your friends!
XO, Steph