A PARIS INSPIRED BEDROOM UPDATE

Last December I decided it was time to update my bed room from my little 13 year old green, teal, and zebra room to a grown up room! I made a pinterest board and got to work redesigning my bedroom. You can view my original pinterest board HERE.

This was my room before...

and after...

Ps. if you need any help with interior design ideas for your own room let me know in the comments below I'd love to help!

AIRPORT CHIC - FASHION MEETS COMFORT

I have noticed one of the biggest places people tend to neglect style is the airport. Trust me I have been that girl before in the high school hoodie, dance team sweatpants, hair in a messy bun, no makeup, and if that's not bad enough I topped off that killer style with UGG boots. I totally understand that airplanes can be extremely uncomfortable and all you want to do is dress in your comfiest clothes but as I have gotten older I have discovered there are alternatives that are just as comfortable and you won't look like a hobo trotting through the airport.

Currently in hysterics at the images that came up when I typed "bad airport outfits" it's like the computer read my mind.

Don't lie I think we are all guilty of this one...

Okay so now let me show you the right way to arrive to any airport in style while still being extremely comfortable!

1.) Have a pair of jeans designated for the airport! These will take a while to find because you are going to want something that sits a little higher on your hips and has some stretch to them that will make you feel like you are seriously wearing some jean looking yoga pants! My favorite jeans when it comes to traveling are Express's Stella Regular Fit Barely Boot Cut Jean. These jean's are cotton/Lycra spandex... which for those of you that don't know Lycra is an extremely stretchy material that is used in almost all leotards for dancers and any form of athletic wear sold by Nike or Under Armor. I Can literally sit with my legs criss crossed in these jeans no problem! And they hold that tight jean shape all day where as most jeans begin to stretch out as the day goes on! These jeans are truly a gift from god!

2.) I like to keep it really basic when it comes to picking out a shirt! My typical go to shirt is an American Eagle Cami. A basic fitted tee shirt can also work for this as well.

3.) Planes do have a tendency of getting cold so I like to pack a comfy cardigan in my carry on with me! This is wear you can have fun and really show off your style cardigans come in all different colors and styles and are still extremely warm, comfortable, and stylish. Click HERE for a super cute one from Express that I just found while looking for a link the express jeans I talked about in tip 1. The best part is that when you get off the plane it is extremely easy to shove it into your luggage vs. having a big sweatshirt you have to carry around. 

4.) Last but not least you want to wear something easy to remove on your feet so going through security will be a breeze! Flats are a great way to add some extra color to your outfit and if done right pull the outfit all together. However, I understand that planes can still get a little chilly and flats probably won't provide your feet with that much warmth so I always pack some big comfy warm socks that I can throw on when I get on the plane and take off right before we exit the plane! 

5.) I also just tend to stick with a slicked back pony tail or sock bun for my hair so that its out of my face and I am not constantly messing with it! (that being said I think I tend to play with my hair a lot more than the average person so if having your hair down doesn't bother you than... MORE POWER TO YOU!!!!)

Hope you all enjoy this quick and simple post about how to still be trendy and comfortable while traveling! Check back soon for a post on what I take in my airport carry-on.

PS. I will be inserting a picture HERE of my completed airport outfit on Friday. (I honestly just didn't feel like getting dressed to take just one picture for this post when I knew I would be going to the airport on Thursday... lazy girl problems... does anyone know how to cure lazy girl problems lol... hit a girl up if you find out how.) 

A CITY SO NICE THEY NAMED IT TWICE

Guess what....

I am going to New York for my BIRTHDAY!!!! Ahhhhh I am so excited to spend my birthday in my dream city with one of my best friends! (side note: my best friend Madison actually has been living in New York for the past month and a half doing an internship with Alvin Ailey! Why can't I be her... lol)

So yea... I leave this upcoming Thursday and will there August 1st through the 5th!

Some tentative plans as of now are

     1.) Go see Chicago on Broadway
     2.) Meet with my internship's corporate office (I am an Intern at Rent the Runway)
     3.) Window shop down 5th avenue
     4.) Visit the MET
     5.) Take the stereotypical tourist picture in Times Square

I also have an unhealthy obsession with Gossip Girl and will probably try to visit as many places that they filmed at (side note 2: Blake Lively/Serena's style is perfection and Leighton Meester/Blair's lingerie in the show is just the classiest and sexiest stuff... I'm obsessed)

I can't wait to share all my pictures with you girls when I get back!

If you have visited New York and know some good hole in the wall food places, let me know in the comments below!

COLLEGE DORM ROOM FINDS

This is going to be a totally random post of some recent purchases I have made for my dorm room next year! I am not going to go into too much detail on how I plan on using everything because I will be doing a post later of my dorm room after I finish decorating it showing you how I used everything!

Everything in this post was purchased at the Container Store except the scale which was purchased at Bed Bath and Beyond.

I know I didn't go into any detail regarding the purchases but most are pretty self explanatory!

BARGAIN BREAKDOWN - EXPRESS

I recently went to Express to buy the maxi dress that was on my recent Express wish-list (click HERE to see that post). I got such a killer deal on this dress that it has inspired me to start a series on my style page called Bargain Breakdown that shows what I bought and the deals I used to get the best bang for my buck.

I am a big bargain shopper and will only buy things when I feel I got the best deal possible!

Bargain Breakdown:

Original Price - $88.00
All Dresses on Sale 30% - $61.60
Additional $15 off a purchase of $30 dollars or more - $46.60
Additional $10 express next reward - $36.60

With all discounts + tax = $38.99
Total Savings = $49.01

I hope you enjoyed this bargain break down!!! Feel free to share the best bargain deals you have found in the comments below.

Stay Tuned for next weeks Bargain Breakdown from Cache!

ADMITTING I HAVE A PROBLEM

I don't even know how to begin to introduce this page... Basically I was searching through YouTube one day when I discovered Rebecca Kelsey's channel and I will be honest if it hadn't been for the first video that I watched from her to have been learning to live minimally I probably would have ignored her channel and kept on going. However, after watching just one video on Rebecca's goal to learn how to live more minimally I was hooked.

Now I could sit here and explain to you exactly what she talked about and how it inspired me to undergo this challenge as well but I would rather just let Rebecca do the talking and inspire you as well instead. You can see Rebecca's video about learning to live minimally by clicking HERE.

Basically I found that everything Rebecca said was true ... I too have excessive amounts of products just sitting under my bathroom cabinets/ all over my shower ledge/ stuffed into the medicine cabinet/ etc. I am now to the point where I had to move my body lotion and and body sprays into my bathroom because they no longer fit... Don't believe me just look at the following photos listed below....

WARNING THE PICTURES YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE MIGHT MAKE YOU THINK I AM ADDICTED TO SHOPPING... that would be correct... HOWEVER I AM TRYING TO CHANGE MY WAYS.

On this new page I will update you monthly on the products I have used up and give you a little review about them as well :) oh did I mention I am not allowing my self to by an item until all similar items are used up and gone.... For example I will not let myself purchase any more lotion till the 7 bottles I have are completely gone....

Hahah this is gonna take a while... Oh well... JOIN THE JOURNEY!

JUNE EMPTIES

We are... Used up and headed for the trash

1. ) I really enjoyed this conditioner on the tips of my hair!!! I noticed that when I used it on the scalp and all over it weighed down my hair... Which goes against what it claims... However for the tips of your hair this stuff is awesome.

2.) Okay I know you are only supposed to have mascara for a maximum of three months but I have had this one over 2 years... yes I know... YUCK! However because it was so used up it was literally just perfect for coating my bottom lashes with just enough mascara to make them look black instead of brown. However, I do remember loving this stuff for my upper lashes when I first got it. I will definitely repurchase this sometime in the future. I actually only have two mascara's right now, both of which are due to be thrown out so I am excited to get a new one soon! Even better I won't be breaking the "Learning to Live Minimally" challenge since I am completely out of a product I am allowed to repurchase.

3.) I saw this at Ulta at check out and had heard great things about it and decided the deluxe sample was the best way to test it with out purchasing it full price. I loved this product the first 3 or 4 times then I feel like the quality of the product started to decrease. When I shook the bottle I could hear product but would get no "Fresh out of the shower Hair" results. However, I have had this same problem with the TIGI Rockoholic Dry Shampoo... Loved it the first 4 times then it did nothing. 

I will have to think about repurchasing this one but if I do it will not be any time soon. 

4.) This has to be my all time favorite scent ever! I would repurchase this over and over! I look forward to finishing all my other lotions so I can go buy I new bottle of this.

5.) This was gifted to me when I rented a dress from Rent The Runway. I fell in love with it and am once again wishing I could just use up all my face washes tomorrow so I can go repurchase this one... It was super gentle on the eyes and skin.  My skin never once felt dry or tight after using this product. However my forever favorite is the Murad Acne cleanser but I will do a whole separate post on that!!!

6.) These were also gifted to me as well from Rent the Runway and are probably hands down the best makeup removing towelettes I have ever used! They get all your eye makeup off (you do have to rub a little but not much)

7.) I absolutely hated these and the only reason why I ended up using them is because my mom bought them for herself than ended up not liking them either... So of course being the nice daughter that I am said I would finish them for her. They were no where near wet enough to cleanse your face and I would find that when I would wash my face with a cleanser after using one of these... my wash cloth would have tons of makeup on it.

8.) Last but not least I finished a little sample tooth paste. There isn't really anything I can say besides it was tooth paste and cleaned my teeth lol.

COLLEGE DORM DECOR SERIES - PART 2

Hey girly girls! I am back with part 2 of my college dorm decor tips!!!

Today I want to talk to you all about the power and importance of command hooks and tape. As much of you know or will soon find out that you can't put holes (meaning nails) in the walls of your dorm. This is where command hooks and tape come into save the day! I can not tell you how many of these I used in my dorm room last year (if I had to guess it was at least in the 30's).

I will now try to show you where I used them in my dorm and what kind of command hook/ tape was used for each project.

For the picture Frame above my desk I used these Picture hanging strips! They come in different sizes and strengths depending on how heavy the picture you are hanging is. They have a interlocking velcro that keeps your pictures in place and will make taking them down a breeze when it comes time to move out. My suitemate used double sided tape on all of the things she hung on the wall and when she went to take it off the wall during move out she ended up ripping a huge piece of paint and drywall off the wall. With these it will be super easy for you to put them up and take them down.

I am a huge sucker for beautiful lighting in bedrooms and with my only options in my dorm being either the bright florescent lighting or natural sunlight. I decided these icicle lights would be the perfect solution to give me a more relaxing space. Command sells decorating clips that are perfect for hanging strings of lights! I loved these and even though they look small and you think these little babies wouldn't be able to hold the weight of the lights you are wrong! I didn't have one single problem with my lights the entire year. 

Last but not least are the hooks that most people associate command hooks with. This is the most versatile command hook and can literally be used for anything from hanging your towel to hanging your keys by the door. My favorite use for these however is hanging them on the inside of my closet to hang all my jewelry. This made it super simple to accessorize when getting dressed in the morning.

I hope you find these tips useful and helpful! 

Check back soon for part 3 of my College Dorm Decor Series!

I'M JOINING A SORORITY

Going into college I was uncertain if Greek life was right for me... I really wanted to take the time to get familiar with the college lifestyle before undertaking a huge commitment. At FSU a sorority can take up to 10-15 hours a week of your time and during your first semester the amount of hours can increase to 15-20 hours a week. However, I promised myself that if I maintained good grades my first year at FSU I would rush this upcoming year. So after maintaining a 3.65 my freshman year of college I have decided to take the plunge into Greek life.

Rush week at FSU is a total of 6 days and I plan on doing a post in the upcoming weeks on my outfits for each day of rush. 

The battle I faced today was taking a picture to attach to my recruitment application! My good friend Kaitlyn who is in a sorority at UCF and is on the recruitment board for her sorority gave me some great tips on how to take the best picture possible that will really catch a sororities eye.

1.) you want to take a half body shot 

2.) wear a bright color

3.) and most of all look like yourself!

Kaitlyn said you DON'T want to submit a picture of you where you are too made it up. Your picture should look exactly like you plan to look when you are participating in rush. These pictures in most sororities will be displayed on a projector like screen at the end of each night of rush and will be used as a reference ( meaning so they can recall what you look like ) to decide if they are going to keep you for the next round. 

After hearing all of Kaitlyn's tips this is the picture I ended up submitting with my application.

I look forward to sharing this exciting part of my life with you all!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS - JUST RELEASE ME

So after many months of being too lazy to go to Ulta and purchase a new eye makeup remover I finally did it! I really wanted to get something worth my money and that was going to remove every trace of waterproof mascara on my lashes. I used to use the waterproof makeup remover from Sephora (it's the one that is like half blue/ clear). I really liked that one a lot but I felt like I had to use so much of it to get all the mascara off my lashes. Well today when I was in Ulta I narrowed it down to two removers - The Philosophy Just release me and The Clinique Rinse-Off Eye Makeup Solvent. They were both priced at $18.00 and had 5 star reviews on about every website/blog I looked up. What was the final deciding factor was that with the Philosophy one I got 6 fl. oz. vs. the Clinique which came with 4.2 fl. oz.

Okay so enough about why I chose the remover that I did... Let's get into first impressions!

I am obsessed with this product so far! Removing my eye makeup tonight was the easiest it has been in months. After shaking the product up inside I poured some on a cotton pad and than let it set on my eyes for about 5-10 seconds before rubbing the dissolved mascara and eyeshadow off. This is an oil-free makeup remover with the power of an oil without the greasy feel of an oil remover. This product is truly remarkable and I can tell me and this remover are going to have a long relationship!

Did I mention it looks great sitting on my bathroom counter top as well... I'm a sucker for pretty colored products and packaging.

MY LOVE FOR EXPRESS

As most of you will soon come to find out my favorite store in the entire world is EXPRESS! I'm absolutely obsessed with everything in the store and if there was one store I could chose to be my closet it would be this one. Some of the items on my current wish-list from Express are the following... Tell me what you think or what your favorite store is :) I love hearing other peoples opinions.

Can you tell I am totally into the whole Black and white trend right now... yea it's kinda bad...