The past year has been one of amazing change and growth for me. I graduated college, left my first real-ish job as editor of the university newspaper, jumped into a career as a social media consultant, learned to let go of people who didn't bring me joy, watched two of my closest friends get married, lost someone who I loved, and began to find myself--...

I'll be honest. This was the year I fell out of love with makeup. Makeup just wasn't bringing anything new to the table and skincare was lookin' all fine and clean and pretty... I just had to switch it up. Same with my hair care; it was like my side chick or something. I'd forget about her for a while but when I...

I want to start of this week's Life Lately by saying that I hope you had a wonderful holiday season, no matter what you celebrate. But now that Christmas is over, the start of a new year is right around the corner and that means that a lot of us will be trying to come up with resolutions to make 2016 the best...

Christmas is almost here! I'm more excited for the holiday than I usually am thanks to the amazing weather we've been experiencing here in West Virginia. It's feeling more like early or late summer than the beginning of winter, so obviously Santa Claus is real and has gotten my multiple letters asking for no snow. But I do admit that the lack of...

Every few months, I take some time to consider the nature of my blog. In the past this has caused me to change the layout, change the name, or change the type of content I post. But, months later, I will still feel like my blog isn’t quite what— or where— I want it to be. Sometimes it is like my blog and...

We've come to the end of my gift giving series and I'm sure there are a few of you out there that still haven't even begun your holiday shopping. I started mine at the beginning of the week and I'm almost finished, but there have been years where I didn't even start my shopping until Christmas Eve. In fact, I don't think that I...

Last week we talked about your usual, run-of-the-mill beauty gifts. Giving someone the new Gwen Stefani + Urban Decay eyeshadow palette is great, but what if they already have it? Plus, let's be real, your giftee may not even like makeup. Which is cool... They're wrong, but it's cool. (Just kidding.) And maybe clothes aren't their thing either-- if they are, there are...

The holiday season is here and, if you're like me, you've only just started your shopping. Maybe you love the thrill of shopping last minute or maybe you're just a procrastinator... But if the reason you're leaving the shopping 'til last is because you're not sure what to get the people in your life, I'm here to help. And, of course, we're starting...

The latest Target Beauty Box went on sale the weekend after Thanksgiving in the early morning hours. I happened to snatch one up thanks to the lovely Nouveau Cheap posting about the deal on her Instagram-- usually I'm uninterested or they sell out before I have a chance to buy.  I really like the idea of Target's beauty box. You get to see...

My November favorites are more than just favorites— they are things that have literally helped me survive the past month. Two week-long trips to Southern Illinois, starting some exciting new projects and just generally being busy meant that my makeup and hair were not my number one priority. I wanted to simplify everything. I’m talking five-minute makeup and only washing my hair when absolutely necessary....

This month, most of the music I have been listening to was inspired by a Southern Illinois radio station, 89.1 The Bash. I was in Illinois for Thanksgiving and I didn't want to use up all my data streaming from Spotify, so I went old school. I listened to the actual radio. And, to my surprise, there was a station run by college...

Just when you think you're getting back on top of things... Life happens. Or, at least, that is what happened to me a few weeks ago. After taking a short break from my blog, I was ready to get back to a set schedule of creating and publishing content. On the side, I was working on my hand lettering-- something I'm thinking about...

This is, like, my fifth time writing this post. Fingers crossed, it will save and be published and not disappear like the last four times. Y'all know I love fall. I like the pretty leaves and the crisp weather and the hella cute outfits... But what I really love about fall are the boots. I have loved boots for as long as I can remember....

Working from home sounds like a dream... And, let's be real, it pretty much is. I don't have to worry about whether I can make it to work in the winter, I can schedule projects on my own time and, if I'm organized enough, I can sometimes take an unplanned day off. But that doesn't mean that working from home is all sunshine...

Because I don't have nearly enough books, right? Sometimes I just get the urge to go into a bookstore. Sometimes it is because I'm looking for something specific, but sometimes it is just because I like to be surrounded by books. Maybe it's a writer thing, or a reader thing... Maybe it's an introvert thing? I don't know. All I know is that...

You don't hear about mental illness much in the blogging community, though I'm sure a fair few of us deal with it on a daily basis. Part of that might be because, as bloggers, we strive to share the good parts of our lives: our interests, our adventures, and things that make us happy. It's hard enough to talk about mental illness in...

Wondering why Friday's blog post was conspicuously absent from your feed? Me too. I had a great post written up; it was witty and funny but, most of all, about boots. Trust me, you would have loved it. But every time I would hit that final 'save' before I published, all of my text would disappear. This happened three times before I decided eff...

I have struggled with my body image for much of my life. I was always a little chubby growing up-- not unhealthy so, but my body was just a little softer than those of the other girls. I didn't notice it a whole lot until the fourth grade, when the cliques really started to form in my mostly white, suburban elementary school. A...

It's so hard to say goodbye. But, unfortunately, that is what we will have to do when a pretty huge number of movies and television shows expire from Netflix on October 1st. If you're like me, you save a whole lot of maybes to your queue thinking they will be around forever. But yesterday I realized that a whopping sixteen of them-- yes, I...

Another month, another roundup of my monthly beauty favorites. Saying goodbye to September is a little bittersweet for me. I'm almost sad to leave it behind because it's been such a good month for me, but October is full of my favorite things: pumpkins, horror movies and plaid shirts. And, let's be real, autumn makeup is pretty much the best. This month I...

I know I keep talking about autumn, but wow. I just can't believe it's already here. The hills here are already spotted with reds, yellows and oranges, and leaves are already piling up in my yard. This weekend has been chilly and rainy, but sometimes those are the days when I sit back and relax the most. I finished Mindy Kaling's new book,...

Can you tell I'm really excited for fall? I feel like that is all I've been posting about lately... because, really, it's pretty much all I've been posting about lately. And one of the things I love most about autumn is the makeup. Yeah, sure, you can wear any bit of makeup year-round, but there are some colors that just scream autumn. That's...

Autumn is officially here, and I don't really know how to feel about that. I love fall, but that means winter is right around the corner and I am not a fan of the December, January and February months. It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that the trees had finally filled out with leaves! But I am looking forward...

A couple of months ago I went to visit family in Southern Illinois. I always enjoy my trips back there, and not just because I get to see family I haven't seen in ages. It's because it's so different than the surroundings I'm used to. Things are slower there, like everything you do has a purpose. You'd think West Virginia would be that...

Whether you do it as a hobby or to make a living, blogging can be hard work. We get burnt out or our lives just get so busy, the idea of sitting down to write a post is exhausting. An editorial calendar or a featured guest post can alleviate some of that exhaustion, but sometimes what you really need is inspiration. If you're...

The temperature has slowly been dropping in these West Virginia hills (how majestic and how grand... only true West Virginia kids will get that!) which has me looking forward to the official start of fall. No, not the autumnal equinox or whatever, though autumnal equinox is such an awesome combination of words... I'm talking about the real start of fall, with falling leaves, crisp...

For this Thoughtful Thursday, I'm sharing with you a picture of a member from the deer family that kept visiting this summer. The two fawns are growing up now, spots faded but playfulness fully intact. Gosh... couldn't that be used as a metaphor for growing older? For some of us, anyway. But what I really want to talk about this week-- Thoughtful Thursday...

Every so often I think about canceling my ipsy bag subscription... and every time they send me a bag like this that makes me want to stay. While I'm not a huge fan of the bag, I was pretty excited about everything inside of it. This month was all about facing fashion. I have no idea what that actually means, but if this...

The drugstore is stepping up it's brow game. Maybelline released the Brow Drama Sculpting Brow Mascara a while back, and I was immediately a fan. The brush is similar to some high-end brow mascaras I have seen, and it works wonders at making every brow hair noticeable. It also has enough color payoff to make them look a little fuller and more polished....