My Summer Must Haves!

Now that summer is officially coming to an end, I've been trying super hard to think of my favorite fashion pieces for this season. I've gone through so many different items of clothing and accessories this summer, which makes it almost impossible for me to choose just one but I think I have a solid list together!

#1 summer must-have: day dresses

Charlotte Russe "Belted Chevron Striped Dress" - $24.99

Charlotte Russe "Belted Zip-Back A-Line Dress" - $32.99

Back to School Bags! (On A Budget)

Good morning! It's been raining non-stop in New Jersey but it looks like it may clear up today! I hope it does because I really have to start squeezing in those beach days before school starts again! Although I love the summer and the beach, I really enjoy school, too. I love getting dressed for class, meeting new friends and professors and learning things that broaden your knowledge beyond belief. Think about it, each little thing, or topic, that you learn something about is one more thing that you know. If you pay very close attention in every class, you will be filled with so much knowledge that you won't know what to do with it! Every year before school starts, I go shopping for a "School Bag;" which is a bag I could use for some of the semester and one I can cram all of the stuff I need to use for class in. These days, most people just carry a handbag and call it quits because they think backpacks aren't the most stylish things; however I'm going to show you some greatly priced bags that can accommodate your love for fashion as well as those troublesome textbooks!

 Joyce Leslie "Into the Wild Fringe Tote" - Originally $19.99 ON SALE: $10.00

Fringe is great for the fall! As well as the black color with golden accents.

Joyce Leslie "Day in the City Spiked Mint Tote" - Originally $19.99 ON SALE: $10.00

Mint is the most popular color this season and so are the spiked appliques on this fashionable tote!

Wet Seal "Geek Canvas Tote" - $9.90

Steal Hayley Willams' style with this adorable geek tote bag!

Monday = Manicures!

It's Monday, again, and the beginning of another work week! Some people despise Monday, which I can totally understand, since it means the end of the lovely weekend and the beginning of a very long work week. One way to get over the Monday funk is to do something you enjoy after work on Monday; preferably something relaxing. If you give yourself a chance to relax and enjoy yourself you'll be ready for whatever the work week has to offer to you! One thing I love doing on Mondays is getting a manicure and pedicure! It prepares me for the long week ahead. I haven't gotten a manicure this Monday and, unfortunately, I don't intend to.. But I started looking for some cute nail art and nail colors that I may pursue for next Monday!

I love a good glitter ombré! The bold colors at the top attracts your eye to the nail then slowly fades to a gorgeous natural looking color.

This is definitely one of my top three favorites! I've been obsessing over the black and neon trend lately; especially when it comes to accessories such as your nails. Totally adorable idea for summer! 

 

If you want to keep it simple but add a little "pop" to your nail this is definitely the manicure for you! The vintage looking pink color gives off a classy and chic feel while the gold clump at the base of your nail is the perfect addition to ensure the nails aren't bland and boring.

This reverse French manicure is a new and fresh take on an old idea. I am loving the matte blue color paired with the sparkling gold base. This is a look I'd love to try for fall!

FRI"DIY" - Make Your Own Nail Polish!

The weekend is finally here! I bet everyone is really excited for that.  Not only am I excited about the weekend, I'm excited for today's "DIY" blog post! Let me start by saying that in yesterday's post I accidentally wrote I was 250 views away from 2,000 in stead of 3,000, which I didn't notice until 5 hours after the blog was posted and it bummed me out. However, I reached over 3,000 views last night which definitely improved my mood! Anyway, today we are going to make our own nail polish! The only thing I love more than nail polish is DIYs, so being able to combine my love for the two started my day off on the right foot. It was one of the easiest projects I have done and it was very inexpensive! Let's get started!

What you'll need for this DIY:

In no specific order:

1) 1-2 bottles of clear nail polish - 99 cents each.

2) Eyeshadow pallet of your choice (you could also use an old one of yours) - $4.99

3) Q-Tips - $1.50

4) A piece of paper!

I got all of the items I needed from CVS (besides the piece of paper) and spent around $10.00 in total; however you may have these items laying around your house and you can do this project without spending any money! The brands of nail polish and make up I used are NYC.

Time to start!

Open your eyeshadow and begin scraping at (using a butter knife or some sort of sharp object) the color of your choice. Don't scrape all of the color out at once because it will be harder to pour onto the sheet of paper.

Pour what you've scraped onto the paper.

And this is what your eyeshadow should look like: 

Keep on scraping until you've emptied out the entire eyeshadow section of your choice and pour the excess eyeshadow onto the paper!

Once the eye shadow container is completely empty, make sure you crush the eyeshadow color down into powder because big chunks will not fit into the nail polish bottle.

Next, open up one of your clear nail polish bottles and pour a little of the nail polish into your trash can to make room for the powder. DO NOT pour the nail polish into your sink, it will clog your drain.

 Time to start pouring! With the lid off of the nail polish remover, fold the paper in half (with the eye shadow in it) to make the pour 10x easier.

If you get a little eyeshadow on the table it's perfectly fine because it's easy to wipe up and you could always brush it right back onto the paper to pour back into the bottle!

This is what your nail polish should look like after the pour.

Pretty cool, right? Take your Q-Tips and pull the cotton off one of the ends to use as a mixing tool to mix the eye shadow and clear nail polish.

Once the cotton is ripped off either side, begin mixing!

Mix it for about two minutes and you will see your final product!

To ensure you're happy with the color, grab a piece of paper and test it out!

The color was definitely too light for my liking, so I followed the same steps as above and added some black eye shadow to darken it.

And here was my final product (in comparison to the first shade)! I was very very happy with it.

The most perfect purple color I could've asked for!

I also bought a second bottle of clear nail polish that could be used as a top coat or to make another color! You could always be bold and mix colors or choose very funky greens or blues. Adding darker colors will darken the shade as adding lighter ones will lighten it and possibly make it more transparent looking. This particular DIY only took me about 20 minutes and didn't require any heat or craft tools. Like I mentioned above, you could save yourself $10.00 and use eyeshadows and nail polishes you already have at home!

I really hope you enjoyed this weeks FRI"DIY" blog and I'm already looking forward to next weeks!

Links to the places/products mentioned above:

CVS: http://www.cvs.com

NYC Beauty: http://newyorkcolor.com

What do you think of this DIY? What colors are you planning on trying? If you do try this out, please send pictures!

Budget Boots for Fall!

HAPPY AUGUST FIRST! Before I start writing today’s post I would like to say that I’m 200 views away from 3,000 views on my blog! Thank you to everyone who visited my blog and took the time out of their day to read each post!

I’ve been beyond excited to share this little treasure I found yesterday while browsing the internet for a pair of black ankle boots.  I’ll start from the beginning of my shoe journey. So, I was sitting on my computer at work and hunting for a pair of black ankle boots (which have been predicted to be the new “thing” for the fall season) and I couldn’t find a pair for under $75.00; well, a nice pair that didn’t look cheaply made. After browsing for a solid 30 minutes I came across a website called Make Me Chic. 

Make Me Chic is a website that offers you the newest and latest trends at an affordable price; pretty great for someone who’s on a budget! They have many different categories that you can shop from: dresses, shoes, swimsuits, accessories, etc but my favorites have to be the “Buy 1 Get 1 Free”, the “Sale” section and the “Shoes Under $20" sections. I mean, you don’t even have to browse through those categories for them to look appealing to you! 

After spending around an hour on this website I finally found the boots I’ve been longing for and they were on SALE! Ugh, what could be better than that!? They were originally $25.40 on sale for $15.30.. and if you think that’s the best part you’re wrong! They’re holding a special promotion right now and you can take an additional 30% OFF SALE ITEMS! They’re practically handing the boots to you! I was so thrilled I immediately added them to my cart because, surprisingly, they had my size. The total of the boots after I put in the discount code: 30SALEON (for the additional 30% off) came to $10.71. I couldn’t believe it! The 30% discount on the already marked down shoes knocked the price down $4.59 more; which is a great sale to me! I definitely don't mind saving an extra $4.59! And it gets even better.. they have a $5.99 flat fate for shipping (unless you want it expedited to you). So, all together the boots came to $16.70 including shipping. I was enthralled. 

Here’s a picture of the boots I ordered:

 They are the: Starcy41 Suede Cowboy Ankle Boots in black

They fit perfectly with almost any outfit and for any season! I plan on pairing them with a big winter sweater and high socks. Fall is my favorite fashion season. You could also pair the ankle boots with a pretty summer dress! They're the perfect boots for me!

I figured I'd look through the categories on Make Me Chic and pick out some of my favorite shoes and include the prices. Just in case you're thinking about getting an early start on your fall or back to school shopping!

Heels: 

Anne Michelle Momentum -40 Suede Pumps in black - $25.80

 Flats:

 

Bamboo Waranda-11 Pointy Studded Flats in black - $23.80