Thankful Thursday

Hey y'all! I hope everyone is having a great week so far. Count down until the weekend. This week I am thankful for:

 

Sunny days and the first pool day of the season. I did not get in. It was 66°.

 

 

This little thing. Seriously. So cute. Chipmunks are everywhere.

Random fact: I was named after Brittany the Chipmunk...from the Chipettes.

 

 

This boy.

 



I am also thankful for our church and the friends and opportunity that is has provided us in the short five months that we have been here. I have learned so much.

 

Be back soon.

B

New Products

Hey y'all! I bought these products last weekend and wanted to try them out before I actually gave my opinion on them. Summer is so close to being here which means I need a tan and my hair needs some extra lovin'. I refuse to get skin cancer so I'm going to start faking it. Period. I need all the extra moisture I can find for my hair.

 

I purchased:

•  FakeBake Flawless (Travel size)
• Macadamia Nourishing Leave-In Cream
• Macadamia Nourishing Oil Spray
• EOS Lip Balm (Mint)

I have heard great things about all of these products. LSilverStyle brought my attention the FakeBake when she raved about it in this post. I could not agree more! I have used it for about a week and I love the color and lasting power. It smells wonderful and that is pretty important to me. I would definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone I know. The Macadamia brand has been everywhere. I have not heard a single bad thing about it on any of the blogs that I read or YouTube videos that I have watched so I went for it. I am impressed with the Leave-In Cream and the way it leaves my hair feeling. My one complaint is that I do not enjoy the smell, but it's worth the results. I'm not loving the Oil Spray. My hair does not need any help looking oily...let me tell you about it. I am going to keep trying different ways to use it. It stinks too. Just putting that out there. EOS - wonderful and can do no wrong. Nothing else needs to be said about that. Am I right? Check these out and let me know what you think!

Be back soon.
B

Twenties Tuesday: MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New BestFriend by Rachel Bertsche

Hey y'all! I finished MWF Seeking BFF on Sunday afternoon and really want to tell y'all about it.

Check it out.

This book is a national bestseller and is a real life tale of a married white female (MWF) searching for a new best friend forever (BFF) after moving to Chicago from New York for love. Her best friends are still in New York and while she loves her husband, she desperately needs a pedicure buddy and girl time. The novel documents her process of going on 52 "girl-dates" over the course of a year in hopes of finding her new BFF.
 
I am not going to lie. This was a little bit difficult to read for a few different reasons. First of all, do you know how hard it is to keep up with 52 different women’s names?! They would show up later in the book and I would think “who was that again?!” At the end of the book, there is a guide to help clarify, but it gets confusing pretty quickly. Secondly, I did not agree with some of the beliefs the author held about friendship and it was hard not to feel that she was acting desperate for love at some points.
 
Here are some reasons I thought it was weird:

1.      It is based out of Chicago – I’m in Chicago.

2.      She just moved here – I just moved here.

3.      She needs some new friends cause she doesn’t know anyone – I need some new friends cause I don’t know anyone

4.      She wants local friends, but she already has BFFs at home – I want local friends, but I have BFFs at home.

 

Are you catching my drift?
 
I enjoyed it overall because it was humorous, educational and made me realize I need to come out of my shell. She included statistics that continually proved that J and I need friends in order to be healthier and happier. I know she is right. I like that she recognized that a married lady is looking for a different friendship than a single lady. She also recognized that grown up friends look different than the friendships made in high school. The books feel sincere and I can always appreciate sincerity.

Be back soon.
B

Tart Decco vs Flip Flop Fantasy

Hey y'all! Hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was filled with good food, great company and a few 'firsts.' We had dinner at Lou Malnati's with a group of guys from J's work. One of the guys brought his girlfriend so thankfully I was not the only girl. I really hate that. On Saturday, I went wedding dress shopping with a friend from church who recently got engaged. She has about a month to plan her wedding so we were on a time crunch, but we found the dress she will walk down the aisle in! I've never gotten the pleasure of helping shop for another girl's wedding dress. Pretty great 'first.' It brought back so many memories about our wedding. Great weekend overall. 

 

So can we talk for a second? I cannot get into this orange/coral nail polish trend. I'm trying, but my skin tone is just not working with it. My sister got me on this search with Essie's Van D'Go which is absolutely GORGEOUS. I am at Ulta looking through the what feels like millions of finger nail polishes and find these two: Essie's Tart Deco and China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantasy. They looked identical in the container.

Tart Deco/ Flip Flop Fantasy

Price point at Ulta: $8.00/$7.99

 

 

 

Here's the deal. I chose not to purchase either of them for a few reasons:

1. As previously mentioned, I'm going to have to be IN LOVE to buy an orange polish. I was not.

2. Tart Deco was not complimentary to my skin tone, but the color pay off and sheen was good.

3. Flip Flop Fantasy was NEON with no shine. Not impressed.

 

Moral of the story: Looks can be deceiving. They looked the same in the bottle, but they were completely opposite.

 

I'm still in the market for an orange nail polish. Just sayin'.

 

Be back soon.

B

Favorite Blogger Friday

Hey y'all! The week is finally over and I could not be happier that it is the weekend. I'm planning a pedicure, naps and time in the sun. Apparently the sun hides ALL YEAR here in the north so I feel like I need to be in it every second of the day when it does decide to shine.

I decided that this week I would tell you about one of my favorite bloggers: Veronika's Blushing. I'm pretty sure she was the first blog I read and it had been all downhill from there. I started following the girls she had on her blog roll and then it was a continuous adding of 'must-read' blogs...all thanks to Veronika. She also lives in Houston which again, makes me like her even more. She just had her baby girl, Harper and it has been wonderful watching her document her pregnancy. I first saw her on theknot.com when she was planning her wedding near the time I was starting to plan mine. Her wedding hair is all over Pinterest. Check her out and tell her I sent you!

 

http://veronabrit.blogspot.com/

 

Be back soon.

B

New Decorations

Hey y'all! So I have lived in my Chicago apartment for about five months now...and I am still decorating. I found this canvas at Marshalls a few weeks ago with our wedding vows on it and I had to have it. (It was on clearance for $13...I mean, come on.) I thought it would be a perfect addition to our bedroom. Once I got it home, I realized it would have looked a little lonely up there all alone, so I found some square frames at Hobby Lobby for $5 each and put some black and white wedding photos on either side. I think it really makes the two red 'love' words POP!

 

 

 

It is a nice reminder of how to love one another. Sweet memories.

Makes me sleepy just looking at my comfy bed.

 

Be back soon.

B

Last days of Spring

Hey y'all! There are only a few more days of spring left this year and although summer feels as though it has already begun (in some places), I want to relish in the last few moments of spring. Our first spring in the north has been beautiful. More than likely we were just so thankful to see the sun again and feel warmth on our skin, but the trees blooming and seeing our little town with actual grass on the ground for the first time since we have moved here has been nice too. Our nights and weekends have been filled with family vistors, admiring all the new blooms on the trees and noticing the "wildlife" outside our door.

 

 

Rabbits and geese are everywhere. Seriously, it's kinda weird.

 

My favorite part of spring so far has been the momma robin making a nest outside our bedroom window. Three eggs. Only two baby birds though. They actually look like baby robins now! Love.

 

Spending the days outside playing golf and taking Ellie for long evening walks have been pretty great.

 

Rain brings rainbows. Makes me remember the power of God. Every time.

 

Bring on summer.

 

Be back soon.

B