Love & Lust List

Hope you all have had an amazing week!

So, despite my hopes and dreams, this month has not been miraculously better than the last in terms of world affairs but, here in DC, the weather on Tuesday and Wednesday was just amazing! 

Temperatures in the high 60s and 70s had me dreaming of bright spring days and the flirty fashion that comes with it. So with that, here are some of my favorite things from the past week:

Love: Bubble baths

After an especially rough day last week, I took a night away from the outside world and it was just the most amazing feeling. Once I got past the water being too hot (apparently this is a thing), I just zoned out and watched Grey's Anatomy with my glass of wine and amazing candles. I highly suggest this if you're ever in the same boat. It's the next best thing to erasing the terrible things from your memory!

Lust: Stuart Weitzman Ballet Flats

These flats are just absolutely to die for. I'm not sure why, maybe it's all the childhood ballet classes I took, but the straps on the front just complete this shoe. Plus it even has the cutest little bow on the back! It's available in lots of colors but this nude/pink combination is my favorite.

Love: Pajama Sets

I'm such an old woman at heart. I love spending time in with a good book (or reruns on TV) and a candle burning. There's no better way to spend time winding down than in a matching pajama set! These ones from J.Crew are my favorites because they are just so classic but totally not ashamed to say that my (maybe less cool) silk flower printed set gets worn just as much!

Lust: Burberry Small Buckle Satchel

In case y'all can't tell, I'm obsessed with this dusty rose color for accessories. It's such a perfect neutral without being ordinary! This bag not only has the color but, with the two ways to carry it and the stunning buckle element, I have all the heart eyes over here. Plus who can resist that touch of the Burberry check pattern? Sigh...

Here's to a weekend of adventures and fun memories for the week that follows!

Something Fun: Sisters' Gourmet

Image source

Let's face it: at the end of a long day, all we really want is something sweet to eat. After a week of traveling and such, I decided to pull out a jar of Sisters' Gourmet! 

If you don't know about this company, you're definitely missing out. It's a pre-portioned mixture of all dry ingredients necessary to make cookies! The only thing you need to add are things like butter, eggs, and vanilla.

Saying No (Even When It Hurts)

Richie Norton, you speak the truth.

I'll preface this all by saying that I am a people pleaser to the extreme.  I like everyone to be happy with me and I hate disappointing people.  You can ask my elementary school teachers, it's just my personality.

However, with the changes that have truly shook my world, I've been forced to learn to say no.  To the opportunities that are not right for me at this moment as well as the path I was on. 

Driving with Dogs: Holiday Edition

Hey y'all!

November was a lot of change, some expected but most was not. I've held off writing during this time as a way to kind of get back into a routine of my own. But I'm back now!

With the holidays coming up quickly and all the traveling that goes along with that, why not bring your dogs along for the fun?

What's in my Bag: Work Life Edition

I don't know about y'all but I can truly say there are days when I don't know how my work bag hasn't given up on me yet! I just stuff it with so much stuff that I swear I need on a daily basis.

CFDA x ShopStyle: Rock Pink for a Cause

Happy October, y'all!

This month, ShopStyle and the Council for Fashion Designers of America are teaming up to raise awareness of the foundation Fashion Targets Breast Cancer (FTBC). Being a member of ShopStyle, I was invited to participate in this great opportunity to both explain why this cause is near and dear to my heart and give 10% of my earnings from this week to the worthy organization.

To so many, October means breast cancer awareness month. It's a time where pink ribbons are sold, NFL players wear pink gloves or socks, and many women (and men!) encourage those around them to get screened and to continue with self-examination there after. 

However, to far too many people across the globe, breast cancer means a lot more. It means the struggle they witnessed a loved one go through and the pain they themselves felt during such a time. For me and my family, it represents the loss of a bright light in our lives, our Aunt Joanne.

Carolyn Takes On: POPSUGAR Must Have Box!

First off, let me say this: I have been a subscriber to basically every "box" subscription from the early Birchbox days to, more recently, some great dog subscription boxes I've been recommended. However, POPSUGAR, as usual, has taken the subscription service to a whole different level. 

Behind the scenes: Tucker gets in on the Swan floaty fun!

POPSUGAR sent me this #MustHaveBox to try and I have nothing but amazing things to say about everything from the contents to the packaging. Everything comes in a bright pink box and wrapped in tissue paper, something I've come to look for in subscriptions. 

Now for just some of the amazing products inside! 

July Favorites and Meet Tucker!

Hello there! This is my (maybe 6th?) and real attempt to make this blog great again.

Sorry y'all, I just couldn't help myself with the Trump joke...I feel like I've been saying and hearing his name more than I've been breathing lately.  But actually, between working and living life, I got a dog! His name is Tucker, he's a beagle mix, and he's totally turned me into a dog mom. There's something infectious about his excitement, especially when I get home from work!

Tucker exploring the dog park

Here are a few of my current favorites (excluding my sweet Tucker, of course):

Coffee Catch-Up: Who Says You Can't Go Home

I know I love reading blog posts about real life and all the fun (and not so great) moments so I thought I'd fill you all in on my chaos that has been the last month!

Pure Barre for Newbies!

I am officially approaching my 1 year anniversary of Pure Barre! It's amazing how much I love this exercise class because I am not an exercise fanatic in a way. Cardio is my worst nightmare, no matter if it's on a treadmill or out around D.C., I really hate feeling out of breathe.

So I jumped on the bandwagon and tried Pure Barre one lovely day last year. Luckily for me, I caught on quick and was hooked by the pure fact that the 55 minutes went by incredibly fast. When I moved back to Savannah for the summer, I got myself a month of classes and committed to going at least twice a week. That swiftly moved to four times a week (the recommended amount) and I became a regular!

Going in to class for the first time is incredibly strange: tuck what, bend and straighten, and WHY would anyone want to shake while they work out?? Well here's a quick rundown!

Plated: A Total Personal Fail

This week I learned I am not cut out to be a master chef...at all. I may be able to make darn good chicken piccata and the best chocolate chip cookies you will ever have but I've officially found my line in the sand.

For this revelation, all future guests of mine can thank Plated. Don't get me wrong, a totally ingenious idea but completely not in my wheel house! 

I did a two meal, two person trial after hearing great things and, while everything I made was edible and turned out (somewhat) as expected, I honestly think it was just too healthy for me. 

Meal Prep & More

A moment of calm after a run in the dog park!

This week has been...a lot. It all started with a lovely gift of a snow day on Monday, which allowed me to work from home and watch the snow cover the city streets instead of trudging to work. 

But my biggest savior this week was meal prep! I've {very recently} gotten in to a routine of cutting up and separating my meats right when I get home from the grocery store. It sounds silly but it makes such a difference in the time it takes for me to get dinner ready and that makes the whole rest of the night more relaxing. If you haven't done this, try it next time you go food shopping!

Winter is HERE

How cute is he?!

Oh dear, y'all. Unlike this adorable panda, I am not a winter person AT ALL. So this crazy amount of snow that has taken over DC is most certainly not my favorite thing to happen this month. 

It's also always during a big snow storm that I realize my true shortage of winter gear. I wear Hunter boots as "snow boots" because I have a long established battle with snow boots that make my feet look crazy oversized for my tiny body. I have gloves but I hate to wear them because I can't text.

But, the worst of all, has been my coat. It's six years old and still functioning but the buttons are all holding on by {a few} threads and it's definitely a bit lint-y. When one of the buttons fell off the other day, I knew it was about time. 

Long Time No Blog!

Pictures from the last two months!

Hey y'all!

I'll start off by saying that things have changed A LOT since my last blog post. I'm currently employed full-time in the DC Metro area and loving it. Getting there, however, was a completely different story!

I struggled quite a bit with finding a job in my field that I would love and that wouldn't require me to move halfway across the country over the holidays. No matter how much everyone kept saying it would work out, I was a mess of emotions. I squeezed in interviews between classes and interning, giving me even less free time than normal and making any sort of social media the last thing on my mind. 

After about a month of interviewing and searching high and low, I forced myself to take a break and focus on school. In my mind I came to the conclusion that, if it was God's will, He would ensure I got a job for January. 

At the end of that very week, I got a call from our head of HR saying I would hear back in the next week and that I was a superb candidate for the job. A few hours later, they called me back and offered me the job! I ended up accepting the offer and started the first week of January.

With all that, I've seen myself change for the better. Biggest change: I go to bed by 11 every night! I also enjoy the weekends a lot more because it's my time. I don't have to be working on school work on Sundays or blocking out chunks of my time for sorority events. 

Anyway, I'm hoping to work blogging in to my routine, which might mean writing everything out on my beloved weekends. Either way, there is sure to be lots of fun content coming soon!

Enjoy the rest of your chilly winter weekend!

Gift Guide: Hosting Gifts!

It's officially that time of the year! Holiday decorations have taken up residence in every store, holiday music has been playing in CVS since the day after Halloween, and Starbucks even switched over to its red cups!

I was raised to never go to someone's house empty handed. That could mean bringing a pan of brownies to a super bowl party, a bottle of wine in a cute canvas tote to a Halloween party, or small gifts picked out especially for the host (or hostess)
for Holiday parties!  Something I firmly believe is that, as long as it's something that show a little extra thought in, the cost doesn't really matter.

So, in the spirit of getting ready for Friendsgiving and Holiday gatherings, here's a quick run down of ideas that would be a little more than a bottle of wine but sure not to break the bank!

So Much Hustle, So Little Time

I've truly been the girl on the go for as long as I've been at college. 

My freshman year, I walked on to crew and joined a sorority in addition to school work and my attempt at a social life. It went really well...for a semester. The spring semester, I absolutely fell apart. There were a lot of tears, calls home, and asking for extensions on work to accommodate for the breakdowns. To save my sanity, I left crew at the end of the year. 

Spending the next fall semester getting back in the swing of things, I did my first internship during my sophomore spring and was hooked. Did I run out of time to have a consistent social life? Yep. But I devoted my heart to doing something that would provide me with an amazing future. From there, the internships never ended. Proof: I'm currently in my last semester of college and took an internship I simply could not pass up instead of spreading out my classes and enjoying myself.

Running from one thing to another has actually become my life this semester, with classes, my internship, sorority events, and trying to work fun things in to all that when possible. 

But it didn't hit me how bad I had become until I was speed-walking from the metro station to my office in the rain at 7 p.m. that I really thought about it: is the "hustle" helping or hurting?

To be fair, I'm not sure I have the answer to my own question. I've spent so much of my life thinking this was the dream: to be spread thin and juggling things I love with the more monotonous activities (school work, I'm looking at you). 

Doesn't that sound ridiculous? This was my goal, to be overworked and exhausted every night, to the point where I regularly fall asleep having half done my reading for the next day. 

I've long lived the motto of holding myself to a standard of "grace, not perfection" but I never paid attention to the fact that what I was doing was completely unsustainable. 

While this may be my last semester of this particular balancing act, I'm certain there will be more balancing to come in the future. So, my goal for November is simple:

Enjoy the things I get to do more, instead of constantly worrying about the next thing on my list. More time spent doing life and less time spent planning it. 

Don't get me wrong, I'll never lose my type-A personality but I'm aiming to be more focused on the puzzle and less so on what to do after the puzzle is all pieced together.

So y'all ever notice too much hustle and not enough heart in your life? How do you work to get yourself back on track? Let me know in the comments!

Columbus Day Sales Galore!

Since it's Columbus Day weekend, there are tons of sales going on, both online and in stores. To make sure y'all don't miss out on any great ones, I've compiled a quick list of them for you all to browse through!

Kendra Scott is doing an additional 15% off marked down jewelry

Neiman Marcus' Last Call has 30% off everything on their website

Tibi is having a sample sale of up to 80% off select items

Urban Outfitters is doing 30% off all sale items

Bloomingdale's has 20-50% off all permanently reduced items

Lord and Taylor is doing free shipping in addition to a variety of sales within each department

Madewell has 30% off their Fall essentials

Use the code "WEEKEND" at J.Crew for 30% off full-price items and 40% off sale items

J.Crew Factory has 40% off most men's and women's clothing items

LOFT is doing 50% Fall items as well as their sale selection

Ann Taylor has 40% all full priced items

Are there any great sales I happened to miss? Let me (and everyone else) know in the comments!!

RocksBox Loving

Hey y'all, happy fall!

This last month has been INSANE so blogging and social media in general have both been on the back burner. But I've (kind of) settled in to a routine and finally have time to sit down and write!

Now I'm sure you've heard plenty of bloggers talk about RocksBox and, to be honest, I was a bit skeptical to try it out. I was a Birchbox lover for a few years until I started to realize I was getting a lot of the same samples and I wasn't getting the same quality I used to get.

Anyway, I was sent my first box free and, let me tell you, it almost pained me to send back the gorgeous Kendra Scott Rayne Necklace in black. The only reason I decided to send it back was because of the color; I think I would have preferred one of the actual colored stones to the black.

I loved the idea so much that I subscribed myself and got my second box last Friday! I've definitely fallen in love with the square pave earrings I was sent. Perfect for a touch of shine when I need a little bit more than my simple diamond or pearl studs.

All in all, I definitely recommend it. The price was a little bit of a deterrent for me at first ($19 a month) but it honestly keeps me from spending way more than that on jewelry or other accessories, so it ends up being worth it in my eyes.

Additionally, if you click here and use the code "carolynbff100" when you make your account, you'll get your first month free! That way you can test it out for yourself and see if you love it as well!

Lessons of My Savannah Summer

Last Georgia sunset of (my) summer

So, as of writing this post, I'm sitting on my bed at home with my clothes (and all that stuff) in suitcases and I honestly cannot believe the summer I've had.

Rewind to late April, all I wanted was to be home. I was overwhelmed, unsure, and needed to run away. The best way I can sum up how I felt is from something a quote I found on Tumblr (of course haha) but was originally in an old letter written by Tennessee Williams:

Ask anyone; I'm type-A and have been for as long as I can remember.  So, while it was definitely a planned "retreat" in some sense (I knew in January I wanted to spend summer at home), I was completely running away from my life in DC. I needed a change, especially since my plan was to stay in DC after I graduate.

So I got my life figured out, finished the school year, and flew home (with 5 suitcases of clothes and accessories, obviously). I didn't have friends here, a definite job, or even really know my way around without Google maps. 

So, long story short, in the last three months, I: worked three distinctly different jobs, took online courses (Go Dawgs), made new friends, went on a family vacation to the Florida Keys, spent more time with my mom than I have in years, and fell in love with the state of Georgia. 

I'm 100% still that type-A kind of lady but I have a much better idea of who I want to be, even when I can't be in my newfound comfort zone. That's the main reason I'm okay with going back to DC; I get to be exactly the way I've been but in a crazy exciting city and figure out the next chapter in life!

Life's not about the plans and goals all the time. Sometimes detours are the most amazing gifts we can give ourselves. But you'll never know until you try :)

Coming soon...decorating my first (shared) apartment and adjusting to people looking at me funny when I ask for sweet tea!

5 Things I Learned in College

George Washington Campus
C/O: GW Media Relations

As my chapter of time in college comes to a close (this semester will be my last!) and I get a little overwhelmed with questions about what to pack for college/what to expect during recruitment, there's no better time to give y'all a quick run down of the top 5 things I learned in my three years.

So, here we go:

1. Bring half of what you think you absolutely need. You'll definitely end up buying new things that fit your college lifestyle a little better than your high school clothes would and your closet space is probably going to be very small.

2. Don't expect to be best friends with your roommate. Even if you are already best friends with them, keep hanging out with your other groups of friends so you don't get on each other's nerves!

3. Pick up after yourself as you see things that need to be cleaned but devote one set time a week to do a deeper cleaning (bathroom cleaning, vacuuming, dusting, etc.). Even better if you blast music while you do it :)

4. Go to class. If you are in class as often as possible and participate, your professor is more likely to understand when you have a family emergency and need an extension (yep, that happened to me) or a similar situation. 

4 (and a half). Take classes with less students in them when you can. It'll make you feel a bit more obligated to get out of bed when you know the professor will notice if you're not there :) 

5. Get in a little bit of trouble! This was something my dad always told me growing up (I have always been a rule follower) and it's stuck with me. Some of my favorite memories of my freshman and sophomore year were the ones where my best friends and I were a little wild and I'd hate for anyone to look back at this unique time with regret.

Leave a comment with something you learned (or want to learn) in college!