Happy Birthday D!

Hey guys! I wanted to do a quick post today saying happy birthday to the happiest baby I've ever met in my life. I am so proud to have him call me his aunt and he is seriously the cutest nugget I've ever seen. I fell in love with him as soon as I saw his very first picture and the first time meeting him at 3 months was treasured by me. I can't believe he is 1 today and can't wait to celebrate so many more birthdays with him. You would think this is my kid. Looking through his monthly pictures, you can see his personality shining through and I can't wait to see the little man he becomes right before my eyes! Warning: Cuteness overload!

From Florida, With Love

Hey friends! I have a special treat for you all today on the blog. One of my bloggy friends is here to take over for the day. I've had Kate on the blog before and love when she guest posts for me. I'll let her take over.

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Hi there, I'm Kate and I blog over at my little corner of the internet at Green Fashionista. I recently started getting back to the basics of why I started my blog as I've been concentrating more on outfit posts and beauty reviews, however I am still going to post my weekend shenanigans and travel reviews as I believe those are the most fun posts. If you're looking to read about affordable fashion along with beauty product reviews, weekend fun, recipes, and travel tips and reviews then hop on over and join me.

Nikki and I have been bloggy friends for a while now, and one of my favorite moments this past Christmas was unpacking the decor and finding my ornament I received from Nikki the year before. So sweet!

We have so much in common, and a few of my favs are:

Champs is always a good idea

Fashion

Sephora

Shopping at Target *my biggest weakness*

Our lust love of Mr. Tatum

Traveling... there's no better investment or experience

Vegas Baby!

I'm sure Nikki is having a fabulous time while she's on vacay in Denver, and I can't wait to see her re-cap when she returns :).

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Thanks so much Kate for guest posting for me and you guys should go and check out her blog if you haven't already!

Grammy Hits & Misses

Happy Monday y'all (I can say this with pride because I am still on vaca today, but after watching the fashion and concerts from yesterday's Grammy awards, I had to get a post up of my faves and not so faves as far as fashion is concerned. 

I'm also linking up with Bella & Lisa for Weekend Recap (however I won't be posting about my weekend, just the Grammy's. I will do a full recap of my Colorado trip next week hopefully).

So here are my picks for the best dressed (I wish more people were on this list, but there were just some bad dressers last night).

Best Dressed:

+ Taylor Swift: Love her or hate her, she looked amazeballs last night. Her accessories and makeup also pulled the whole look together effortlessly.
+ Queen Bey: Obviously she can do no wrong. She looked hawt on the red carpet and flawless during her performance. The love between her and Jay z is just unreal and romantic!
+ Chrissy Teigen: I have to say this is probably my favorite look from last night. Everything from her hair to her dress looked like perfection on her.
+ Ciara: So I had absolutely no clue homegirl was preggers and boy does she look great with that bump. She was glowing and that dress hugged her body perfectly.
+ Colbie Caillat: I love this dress because it's not something I would expect to see Colbie in. She wore that dress with so much confidence and flair.
+ Anna Kendrick: Not entirely sure why she was there (besides to present an award), but she looked hot in that dress.
+ Macklemore: I was going to crop out Ryan Lewis, but was far too lazy. Macklemore looked pretty good in my opinion. I think the Grammys is the perfect platform to dress outside the norm and he did it in the best way with a velvet suit.
+ Alicia Keys: I don't always love all of Alicia Keys' looks on the red carpet, but this one was a great look on her.
+ Miranda Lambert & Blake Shelton: I like the both of them together in these outfits. Her formal gown and look paired with his definite country suave was a great pairing.
+ Tamar Braxton: I will admit I only know one thing about Tamar, that she is Toni Braxton's sister. Homegirl did look great tho, so props to her.

Worst Dressed:

+ P!nk: As much as I like her, this just wasn't a good look for her. The dress wasn't horrible, but the slit right up front was the big off put for me.
+ Zendaya: This girl is fashionable as hell, but this was a bad look. It looked disheveled and too conservative for such a young and up and coming singer.
+ Bonnie Mckee: I still don't know who this is, but I don't like her look. She needs to decide on one color for her hair and stick to it. Matching your clutch to the top half of your hair is not a good look.
+ Miguel: As much as I love his music, this was just a confusing look to take in. After looking at different angles of the outfit, I realized he is wearing thigh high leather boots, I didn't know they made men's thigh high boots.
+ KaceyMusgraves: I was shocked at her winning best country album, but this girl is too pretty to have worn this look. I didn't like that the color of the dress matched her skin tone. Plus the length was awkward.
+ Sara Bareilles: For a girl nominated for a lot this year, she did not look the part. She looked like a ruffle cake and the hair looks like she rolled out of bed and threw on the dress. Not cute...
+ Katy Perry: A lot of people liked this look on her, but I was not a fan. Her hair is really what killed it for me. Too many ruffles in weird spots too.
+ Pharrell: As much as I love him, this was just a strange look. The memes that his hat produced were hilarious. I thought he looked like the man with the yellow hat in Curious George. He looks good in a suit, he shoulda worn one.
+ Ariana Grande: Um...I just don't have much to say about her dress. I don't like the length or the print. Plus it was annoying to see how many times she played with her hair while being interviewed.
+ Madonna: Ya she looked strange last night. Plus she matched with her son. Also, she has a grill. Just all sorts of wrong, ditch the cane and pant suit and wear something a normal singer would wear.

What did you guys think about the fashion from last nights Grammys? Hope you guys have a great rest of your week, I have a special guest for tomorrows post so come back and tune in! 

Sunday Social {Week 86}

Happy Sunday Social friends! I'm linking up with Ashley & Neely for some Sunday Social fun! Join in on the fun, this week the topic is all about makeup/beauty products, my personal fave!!

1. How old were you when you started wearing makeup?
I'm pretty sure I was born wearing makeup. My mom made me look like a doll as a small kid.

The picture above is when I was the ripe old age of 4 party people. That is from my preschool picture day. Big crazy hair, check. Matching dress and hair pin, check. Blush and lipstick, check and check. I loved this pink dress and wish I still had it!

This picture is just so embarrassing for me to share. When my sister saw the pic pop up on my computer screen she is like you aren't sharing that anywhere are you, and I said yup on my blog. The things I do for you guys! This is probably the actual age I started and continued wearing makeup, tender age of 14! Clearly I hadn't met my friends contacts, tweezers, and a flat iron at this age...

2. What are your top 3 favorite beauty products?

{} hourglass veil mineral primer
{} nars orgasm blush
{} cover fx total cover cream foundation N60

3. What is one makeup product you don't leave home without?

My birthday gift from Sephora was awesome this year. I don't go anywhere without my Benefit mascara!

4. What is your daily beauty routine?
I have been meaning to do a beauty routine post, but this is close enough! This is my everyday, going to work or running errands routine.
(Sorry for the super grainy and crappy iPhone pix)

1st: Prep my skin with a moisturizer. I use this Clean & Clear one, it works nice on my skin and it's cheap!

2nd: My favorite primer is this hourglass veil mineral primer. It makes your skin feel smooth and the perfect canvas for makeup.

3rd: I have a birthmark on my face that is such a pain to cover up (main reason why I wear makeup daily). I use this cover fx total cover cream foundation to mask the mark and it works like a gem. 

4th: For the rest of my face I use Benefits hello flawless foundation. I love the moisture it gives my skin and leaves my skin looking great. Perfect medium coverage foundation!

5th: Next I use this under eye concealer by Benefit which is perfect because it doesn't create creases or weird tiger stripes under your eyes. Plus there is a ring of moisture around the concealer so that's awesome for under eye.

6th: My final step is applying my nars orgasm blush to my cheeks. It gives me a perfect flushed look without looking like clown face. Love my angled brush which applies it evenly.

5. What is your favorite hair/makeup product you've discovered in the last year?
I have to say, even though I have beaten this dead horse many times I cannot get enough of the Urban Decay Naked3 palette. I'm obsessed.

What are your favorite makeup/beauty products? Any holy grail items I need to check out? 

Cuz I'm Happy...

TGIF lovers! This'll be a short and sweet post. Linking up with Whit for some back that azz up.

This song is in a commercial for beats by Dre pill and it is just such a feel good song. So here's to an amazing start to the weekend!

Wow that was shorter than I thought it would :)!

Off on a Jet Plane

It's time to fly for this girl. I wanted to do a quick post about what I think are travel essentials.

Travel Essentials by npatel62 featuring J Brand

These are definitely only a few things that I think are essential for any flight. I need to be comfortable on the plane no matter if it's a 1 hr flight or 15 hr flight, comfort beats all. Also since getting my Longchamp bag, I know traveling is going to be easy because it's large enough to fit all of my necessary purse essentials. Definitely have to have my iPhone and headphones (wish I had beats by Dre, wah) to keep myself busy for any possible delays or in case I zip through the security lines. Water is so essential for me on a flight because I get dehydrated so easily. Of course, this is an after check-in purchase, but got to stay hydrated 30,000 feet up in the air.

What are some of your essentials when you travel?!

Follow along on all my shenanigans on my Instagram!

Confessions

Happy hump day everyone! Yesterdays post I got pretty real about how I felt about coffeeboy and how he blew me off so I thought this was a good time to do a little confess sesh with you guys. 

Linking up with Bella

So I confess that I am a hopeless romantic. Who care right?!

I guess I should also confess that along with being a crazy hopeless romantic, I watch proposal videos on Youtube for like hours. I'm not talking a few videos here and there, I'm talking 3 hours straight of just proposal videos, popcorn, and tons of tears. I happy cry for these couples that I don't even know. Does that make me crazy? Please tell me that you guys watch endless hours of proposal videos on Youtube to make me feel better.

I feel like being a hopeless romantic is probably the reason why I'm still single, I'm holding out for the perfect guy. Who the hell knows if he even exists, but hey a guy could sure as hell try right?! I want that fairytale romance that only exist in the pages of a classic love story. I want a love like Buttercup and Westley (watch Princess Bride if you don't know who these people are, you will love love after watching it. I have a copy if you want to borrow it from me!)

Well if I still have readers after this confess sesh, I thank you! I'm off on a jet plane to Colorado bright and early tomorrow. Follow along on my trip shenanigans through pictures on my Instagram.

Also, I know this is SUPER last minute, but if any of you want to guest post for me from now until Jan 30th, just send an email, tweet, carrier pigeon my way and we can set that up!

What the What

What's up lovelies?! So yesterday I posted a tiny bit about my first date with this guy who was seemingly perfect in my eyes. Complete sweetheart, funny, liked country music, witty, the list can honestly go on. From my post on Friday here you can tell I was clearly really nervous about this first date. I really can't remember the last date I've been on with someone I'm genuinely interested in getting to know. So Friday came and I met him up at a chocolate lounge located close by both of our houses. We ordered our lattes and cookies n' creme cupcake and headed to a table to get to know each other. Thank god for the table because literally the entire time I was fidgeting with my ring and hairband. 

Conversation was flowing the whole time and we talked about our favorite travel spots, dream spots, hobbies, hot spots downtown (and the burbs), favorite movies & TV shows, etc. We practically closed the place down without realizing we were the only 2 customers left in the shop. It was then that we decided to head out and call it a night. Sure, I was kinda hoping for a continuation of the date, but I think for a first date it was ended on a good note. We let our cars start for a few mins and hugged goodbye.

I met up with some of my friends afterwards at a bar and they all were so excited to hear all about my date and I was glad to report to them that it went great (or at least I thought so). They were so excited to hear that and could tell from the smile on my face the rest of the night I had a good time.

The rest of my weekend was pretty busy so I didn't really think too much of it when I never got a text or anything from him (he mentioned that lately he has had to work from home on weekends). After consulting with some girlfriends, I decided to just text him Sunday evening after both games ended to just say hi and ask how the rest of his weekend went. Nothing. Not even a hi back. To be honest, that stung more than I thought it was going to. I decided to not let it affect me too much, maybe he was just too busy to respond. Well then Monday came and went and still nothing. 

I'm sorry to say that kind of pissed me off. This guy who seemed and acted really sweet and genuine in our emails and texts and in person doesn't give me the decency to at least respond back to my flippin' text?! The hell is up with that?? Even if he thought I was scum on the bottom on his shoe after the date, give me the decency to TELL ME THAT. I honestly cannot speak for him because I haven't a clue what his thoughts were and maybe he thought my nervousness on the date was off-putting and wanted a more confident woman. Or maybe he didn't like the fact that I was only 25 (he is 29, which isn't a huge age gap in my eyes). It would be lovely to know what he thought of me and why he decided to blow me off so easily. I'm a person. I have feelings. More than that, I'm a girl and I am a crazy hopeless romantic who completely romanticized this whole thing. Maybe that was my fault, am I sorry, hell no, that's who I am.

Well at this point, he's over and done with me so I'm moving on. I guess it's a perfect time to fly away to Colorado to visit my amazing cousin and her family. Who knows who I may run into there (I told you I am a hopeless romantic). I could be sitting next to the love of my life on the plane. 

T-minus 2 days til I go to Colorado, and I seriously cannot wait.

Look at this adorable specimen I have waiting for me there...

Who needs men when you have this little guy still rockin' his Xmas pj's a month later!

Well hope you liked reading my ridiculous rant on coffeeboy (what I will now refer to him as).

Peace out girl scouts!

Weekend Update

Hey y'all! I know this post is going up super late, but better late than never right?! Linking up with Bella and Lisa for some Weekend Recap.

Friday
I mentioned on Friday how I had my first date with a guy who I am pretty interested in. We went to a chocolate lounge for some coffee and cupcakes (my 2 favorite things) and in my opinion, everything went well. I won't go into too much now because I am posting about this all tomorrow, but let's just say I haven't heard from him since then (insert super sad face here).

Saturday
My family friend from out of town was here visiting so we all went out to a local bar for some delicious food and drinks. I only got a picture of my food (sorry bad blogger).

I'm classy I have my fries with pink moscato.

Sunday

This day was all about football for me. I woke up just in time to catch the Broncos vs. Patriots game (Go Peyton!!) following that with the most intense game I've seen this season, the 49ers vs. Seahawks. I'm upset that the 49ers lost, they had some good chances at winning, but alas the Seahawks won. I cannot wait for Super Bowl Sunday!!! For dinner my entire family went out for some delicious deep dish pizza. I was so hungry that I couldn't be bothered for a picture of my food!

Afterwards I got to play with this adorable pup, snuggles.

How were your weekends??

Nervous Nellie

Thank god it's Friday party people!! I'm super sorry I forgot to get the winner picked yesterday because I fell asleep at 9pm but I'm happy to announce the winner for my $10 Starbucks gift card giveaway is....

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats to Steph!! I love her and am so glad she won. Thank you to everyone who entered and played along!! Steph, I'll be sending an email your way soon!

So onto my post. I'm gonna be super short and sweet today. I had mentioned from Wednesday's post Dating No No what not to do if a guy is trying to court a girl. Well turns out after this dud, I got ballsy and sent a "wink" to a guy who I thought was cute (call me shallow) and expected nothing from it. From reading the guys profile, he seemed like a normal, down to earth kind of guy, just what I needed. Well a few days later, not only did he "wink" back, but he sent me an email too! My giddy little heart went nuts that day. So after a few email exchanges back and forth, we are going on a date TONIGHT!!! I'm so excited, but superrrrrrr nervous at the same time. I have honestly not been on a first date in years, especially not with a guy I was pretty interested in. When we exchanged numbers, he sent me a text saying how he was really looking forward to meeting me and that was just the sweetest thing.

He is also attentive to detail because for our date he is taking me to a local chocolate lounge for some coffee and cupcakes (2 of my absolute favorite things in the world). I feel like because I'm super nervous, it's a good thing we aren't meeting up where alcoholic drinks are being served because I may overdrink and look like a hot mess. I still have absolutely no idea what I'm going to wear, but with the cold temps, I may opt for cozy casual (sweater, leggings, boots).

I really hope this guy is as good in person as he is on paper (or a webpage) and I will of course let you guys know how everything goes and if we plan on a second date!! Hopefully I don't meet him with sweaty palms, but I'm counting on my nerves taking over completely (thank god for the cold weather in that sense).


I'll be hoping for some fireworks between us (cheesy as hell I know)

Dating No-No

It's no secret that I am an online dater. I've have a love-hate relationship with dating sites because so far for me, I have more bad stories than successful or good ones. I guess those stories make for good blog content! Currently I'm only on match.com and haven't been on it too long to really figure out if I like it or not. Within the first week of signing up a guy who seemed pretty normal emailed me and I took a chance on it and emailed him back. He started out simple, just asking how my weekend was and yada yada. I emailed back and a few back and forth messages later, he asked if we could exchange numbers, I decided that it wouldn't be too bad and why not. He texted me and we were chit chatting back and forth. The same day that we started texting, he decided to get me to talk about sports, which is perfectly fine because I love talking sports. Here are some snaps of our texting convo...

So basically, thanks for pissing me off on our first texting encounter with all your haterade talk, super turn off. I chose to not associate myself with this dude any further, but I have a feeling he didn't really get the hint. Howdy? seriously, no thanks! Not only was that bad, but never should you say "someone's little pissed off" yes I was, and I don't think that is the best way to talk to someone you want to get to know.

Ugh, guys are so dumb (sorry if there are any male readers, please fix your kind). There is another guy I am talking to from match and I'm hoping he isn't a dud like this one was. This new guy is actually someone a friend knows and she told me he is a very sweet guy, plus he likes cupcakes so win! I'll update you guys with anything further.

I know I saw some dating disaster link ups floating around, but can't seem to find them now. If you guys know and want to point me in that direction, that would be awesome! In the meantime, I'll link up with Bella & Kat for Humpday Confessions.

Don't forget, only a few more hours left to enter my giveaway for a $10 Starbucks gift card!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway