a delightful giveaway with juicydealz

Today's giveaway comes to y'all from JuicyDealz!  One lucky winner will win everything in the photo, which is $150 worth of pretty jewels!  I've started to become a statement necklace type of girl, and I'm absolutely in love with the necklace on the top right.  Of course, what I would wear it to, I have no clue.  Erryday bling, I suppose.  Enough about me, though, what is JuicyDealz, you ask?

JuicyDealz is a brand new, up-and-coming daily boutique and handmade deals site. Founded by husband and wife team Cat and Andy, JuicyDealz stemmed from a simple idea: create a dynamic, online marketplace featuring an eclectic mix of American-based artisans and small businesses offering fabulous items at great prices.

Every day, a new crop of deals pops up. Be it designer-inspired jewelry, personalized note cards, infinity scarves, trendy women’s clothing, accessories, home goods, or stuff for the kiddos, each and every day brings a new treasure trove of unique finds. You’ll need to purchase quickly as most of the deals only last 3-4 days and can sell out fast!

You’ll feel good every time you make a purchase because you are getting not only a super unique, fun, and often one-of-a-kind product (at an incredible price!), but you are also helping to support a small business owner who is striving to support their family while doing what they love. It is the passion, creativity, and hospitality of these amazing entrepreneurs that make up the heart of JuicyDealz.

Follow JuicyDealz to keep up with all the amazing steals and get some sneak peeks of new deals!

Facebook // Twitter // Pinterest

a Rafflecopter giveaway

leafscape

Somehow over the past couple weeks I've forgotten how to get dressed.  I spend most of my time in yoga leggings, tank tops, and sports bras, simply throwing on fancy looking coat and boots when I leave the house so I don't look like a total scrub.  I haven't felt inspired by my closet, and I think my brain has been preoccupied with taking care of all the chores and errands that piled up the past few weeks.  Hopefully I get my groove back soon because while leggings and sports bras work well for comfort, they don't make me feel particularly inspired.  Although, I have been wearing these boots pretty much nonstop because even if the rest of my outfit is lame, they make me feel pretty great.
Despite feeling overwhelmed by everything that has happened the last month, it does feel good to knock out some big things that have been looming over my head.  Some things have been looming for many months, so taking care of them and finishing big projects has been simultaneously stressful and relieving.  I have a bottle of wine that I bought on my Winne trip at Benziger Winery in Sonoma (back in 2010!) and I've been saving it for a special occasion.  I think once our last really big project gets done (hopefully in the next few weeks!) we'll finally crack it open to celebrate.  

 


 

dress/courtesy of marshalls :: pashmina scarf/gift :: tights/target :: coat(similar)/lulu e. bebe hat/courtesy of tittle millinery :: boots/vogue footwear 

diy instagram magnets

Happy hump day, y'all!  Here is a super easy DIY that only takes about 10 minutes to complete, and leaves you with some really fun, personalized magnets to use on your fridge, or wherever else you may need magnets.  I made my magnets out of some of my favorite instagram photos, printed out using the Printic App.  You can send them to print straight from your phone and then they come in the mail a few days later, printed on photo paper with a fun polaroid frame.  You could use almost anything for your magnets, though, as long as the adhesive on the magnet sheets can stick on!



For this project you'll need:
Photos, or whatever you want to make into a magnet Scissors A pen Magnet adhesive paper (I found mine on Amazon)

 

1. Take one of your photos and lay it on the magnet adhesive paper. Hold it still and trace around the edges so that you know how big to cut your piece of magnet.  
2. Cut along the line you drew and then lay the photo over the piece you just cut to make sure the piece isn't larger than the photo.  You don't want to see the magnet, so you'll want to cut it slightly smaller than the photo.  If you can see the magnet, go in and trim the edges of the magnet a bit until you can't see it when you lay the photo on top.
3. Remove the backing on the magnet to reveal the adhesive surface.  Carefully line up your photo over the adhesive and then stick it down.  You only have one shot to get this right because the adhesive is pretty sticky and it'd be difficult to pull it off and try again.  If you didn't get it quite right, you can take your scissors and trim any excess magnet that is showing.
Done!  The magnet is pretty decent, so you can even use the little magnets you made to hold up papers and such.  I think it'd be fun to have a whole fridge covered in photos of friends and family and pretty little details.  In a digital age where most of our photos are online or on our phones, it's nice to have tangible, physical photographs.  One of my favorite things to do when I'm at other people's houses is look at the photos they have on their fridge.
I have a bunch of magnet paper left over so I'm brainstorming more fun magnet projects now!

life lately

It's been getting so cold lately, it seems like fall is almost already slipping away!  Lots of trees are nearly naked, which is sad because this is my favorite time of year to take outfit photos!  I've already brought out all my winter coats, scarves, and mittens and have been using them quite frequently.  Taking Dusty on walks means bundling up these days.  I went through my cookbooks last night looking for a dessert to make and found a bunch of really great pumpkin treats, so I might try to make some and share them here on the blog.  It's not fall until you binge on pumpkin things.

Excited about: The climbing competition this weekend!  I've never done a climbing competition before, but it seems like they're pretty fun, and the one that I'll be competing in is a black light competition!  They turn off the lights and turn on black lights so all the holds turn neon, like so.  I'm resting up this week so hopefully my muscles will be all healed up and ready to climb at the comp.

Annoyed with: Dealing with bureaucracies.  We've been in a sea of signatures, forms, taxes, and inspectors these past couple weeks between all the different things going on in life, so it just feels like we're getting hit from every direction with more red tape.  Thankfully the end is in sight, so we just have to hang out for a couple more weeks.  I'm hoping the holiday season will be a time of renewal and relaxation.  Thanksgiving is so close and I'm really excited to spend the weekend with my family!

Thankful for:  Good news in the sea of stress.  It's kind of felt like every email I get is just asking for more from me or piles on more stress, so getting an email with good news was so relieving and a bit rejuvenating.  It's been one of those moments in life where you know that if you encounter someone just slightly mean or something little goes wrong you're just going to cry on the spot.  I had to swiftly leave the DMV the other day to avoid crumbling into tears in front of the lady helping me.

Playing: a ton of Magic the Gathering!  It's our guilty pleasure now.  We'll play a couple games here and there.  During breakfast, over dinner, in between errands... it's been a nice (and free!) way to hang out.

Getting into: Yoga a lot more lately.  With all the stressful situations happening, yoga has been a wonderful respite.  My climbing gym has a few yoga classes per week, and I've been trying to go to those consistently and I tried out a class at Samdhana Karana Yoga last night and enjoyed it quite a bit.  I love that yoga simultaneously pushes my body and also lets it rest.  It forces me to let go of whatever is happening in life outside the studio and only focus on strengthening and stretching myself.

Happy with: How well our home is coming along.  I pretty much have our bedroom done now, which is a room I've been excited about working on, but needed to work on the more public areas of the house first.  It's feeling pretty cozy and homey these days.  I'm proud of the work we've done on the house in under a year!



 

 
  been working on pincha mayurasana every day lately // flying lizard and firefly poses pollack at the SLAM // a favorite collection from STLFW: bluebird apparel fall boots and porch plants // dead dusty + alive dusty big pumpkins // little pumpkins  Such an amazing artist. The control and finesse is just mindblowing.
 So thrilled to partner with Wallsneedlove.com to create a wallpaper version of my handpainted herringbone wall!
 RUN, IT'S A STAMPEDE!
 Wise words from Bill Waterson. (and cute comic too)
 Bring on the penises, HBO
 I watched this documentary recently and it was wonderful and awful.  Wonderful that people are working to dismantle the sexism that occurs in our culture and media outlets, but awful that we have to work to dismantle in the first place.  It's on Netflix instant if you want to watch it!
 For the next time you get a text inviting you out for drinks while you're at the gym.  No need to head home to change!
 A beautiful project.  Touch is powerful, even if that's hard for someone like me to admit, as a non-touchy person.

i put a spell on you

One of my favorite events that was planned for us during St. Louis Fashion week was the thrifting adventures with Savers.  Savers is one of my favorite thrift stores, but I've always known it as Value Village here in the PNW.  We were treated to a treat table, a $25 gift certificate to Savers, and then let loose upon the store!  Some of the ladies in the group weren't the thrifting sort, but I was like a kid in a candy store!  I didn't really have an outfit planned for the next day's activities at Saks 5th Avenue and Neiman Marcus, so I decided to challenge myself to find my entire outfit that night at Savers... and I did!  Everything I'm wearing in this outfit is from Savers except for a couple accessories.  I was pretty proud of my thrifting skills, though I certainly got lucky.  My shoes are Jessica Simpson and the dress is Express, so that worked out pretty well!  I felt like a bit of a rogue going to places like Saks and Neiman wearing and outfit that only cost me 25 bucks.  A lady even came up to Julie and I and told us that we had the best outfits out of the whole fashion crowd, and both of us were wearing thrifted and vintage!  Take that high fashion!  Thrifting FTW!  It was pretty fun to get to thrift alongside ladies like Julie, Tieka, and Keiko.  I always admire ladies who can seamlessly mix thrifted or vintage items right alongside investment pieces or designer items.


 
dress + belt + shoes + necklaces / thrifted at savers :: bracelet/courtesy of musana jewelry quartz necklace/courtesy of adorn by sarah lewis :: photos taken by Julie This outfit is a little bit Free People witchy, which seems appropriate for Halloween.  My default halloween costume is a witch, probably just because I own a witch hat and have a lot of black clothes and dark hair.  I usually like to source halloween costumes from my own closet, and it's not too difficult since a lot of my clothes lend themselves to a more costume-y use.  One year I was out of town for halloween and threw together a cat costume by using the leg of some black tights as a tail and made little ears out of my hair and then I think I just wore black.  I'm not into the elaborate or "slutty XYZ" costumes.  I find it much more fun to see what I can come up with out of things I already have.  Of course, I also never have been to a huge halloween costume where there's a lot of pressure to have an awesome costume.  All of the halloween parties I've ever been too have been super laid back, though I think it'd be really fun to go to a big halloween party where everyone goes all out!  I love dressing up in costumes, so halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  I mean, I enjoy putting together fun outfits for daily life, so halloween is just a crazy version of that!