As I mentioned earlier this week, I’m delighted to introduce a fresh series to my site! While I certainly share many outfits, wish lists and must-haves in THE EDIT and AT ANY AGE (and in THE SHOP!!), I don’t really have a series to showcase new beauty discoveries, home improvements and investments, current favorite recipes + fitness updates, my latest purchases and the like. While I could break these various categories out into individual posts, I thought it might be fun to feature them collectively in an ongoing series so you can keep up with what I’m enjoying at that particular moment. And thus, we have New and Now.
Unlike my Tried and True videos where I feature reviews and gush about tried and true favorites of mine (whether they’re 2 months old or four years old), New and Now will feature 4-5 new purchases, product discoveries and launches, recipes I’m whipping up that week, etc. This won’t be a weekly series, but more off the cuff when I have new stuff to share! It will definitely be more of a personal series with more things going at home and in my day-to-day life. In this first edition of New and Now, I am highlighting beauty, food, fashion, art and fitness. Scroll down to check out the first post in this series and comment below to let me know what you think! You can easily locate the posts in this series going forward by clicking “MORE” in my blog’s menu and selecting New and Now.
If you’re a blonde like I am, you may not have had trouble finding a dry shampoo that would blend with your hair color. On the other hand, if you’re a brunette or a redhead, I imagine you’ve struggled with the powdery look dry shampoo leaves on your scalp? Not ideal. Thankfully, Stranded, has the answer. Dallas native, fellow blogger and friend Lauren Scruggs Kennedy launched the genius product just a few weeks ago! In addition to featuring three options for different hair shades, the formula is completely free of dyes, sulfates, parabens and gluten too! Since I wash my hair after working out nearly every day, I don’t always have a need for dry shampoo, but will definitely be testing this out on my day off! Congrats, Lauren!
Remember these sandals from last year? They totally inspired a pearl-embellishment addiction within me and now I just can’t get enough. I loved and used them so much last year, I bought the exact same pair in nude for this year! Much to my surprise and delight, I found them on major sale (over half off!!) on FarFetch over the holidays and swooped them up immediately. Even more to my amazement, NET-A-PORTER just featured the exact same pair in their New Arrivals section at full price for spring/summer – I’m so glad I snagged them on sale when I had the chance! In addition to this new nude pair I picked up, I received these Gucci sandals for Christmas. My mom said she also found them on major sale – what a score! Looks like I’ll have some fancy feet this season!
If you’ve followed this blog for awhile, you’ve definitely heard me talk about Rebecca Atwood. I honestly have no idea how I first discovered her years ago, but I absolutely fell head over heels for her pillows. Every print is hand drawn or painted by Rebecca – check out her work here… she’s truly an artist! Over the years she’s done a number of really cool collaborations (even one with Method, sold at Target!!), but this latest one might be my favorite. She recently partnered with Chasing Paper, a removable wallpaper company to produce her fabulous drawings and prints for your walls! Each print is exquisite and would be beautiful in any bathroom, office or nursery (really any room, but that’s how I would use it!). They sent me a few samples (above), but the collection will be launching this spring, so keep an eye out! PS – Rebecca’s sister Grace is one of my favorite blogger friends, so creativity definitely runs in the family!
At the start of Whole30, it is recommended you clean out your fridge and your pantry of all the stuff you’re not allowed to eat or would be tempted by. As I was doing this, I discovered a bunch of things in my pantry that were way past their due date. I wasn’t eating any of them obviously, they were just hidden behind other things taking up valuable space! This inspired me to get organized and try to make the best use of space possible. This also got me thinking about my new house, where I actually won’t have a proper pantry. It’s going to take some serious streamlining and organizational prowess to make it work for me, especially with the amount I cook. In addition to having a china cabinet and bar cart where I can store plates, serving platters, glasses, etc, I need to get creative with storage within my limited cabinets.
When I was at Target a few days after cleaning out my pantry, I found these OXO airtight containers for storing just about anything. I use them to store everything from macadamia nuts for this recipe, to coconut flour and chia seeds. It keeps everything fresh much longer than a Ziploc or even the bag it comes in! Plus, they’re stackable, freeing up a bunch of front space and utilizing more vertical space than I could before. SO useful! I just ordered a bunch more for other dry ingredients I’ve purchased over the last few weeks. My pantry looks so much more clean and pretty now!
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Do you have that friend who is always SO difficult to buy gifts for? Or you just don’t know where to start with the gift for that baby or wedding shower? You’d think with all the time I spend online searching for new arrivals and curating wish lists I’d be good at this stuff! Not so much. Or perhaps you want a welcome package put together for your bachelorette party, wedding or a corporate event but have no idea how to make it look fabulous? Read on…
If you’re a new reader you may not know this, but a few years back I worked at rewardStyle. I had started my blog about six months before rewardStyle even launched, and about six months after they started, rewardStyle reached out about me doing some freelance work for them (which after three months turned full time). I should mention that I went to school with Amber, which is how she knew about me in the first place! I worked at rS for two full years and loved every second! With that said, it was incredibly difficult to keep doing both my job at rewardStyle and my blog at 100%. I worked 8am-6pm at rewardStyle, and every other waking moment was spent on my blog – I never saw my friends or got anything else done! Something had to give, and I was ready to give my blog a shot at the big time.
Anyway, back to the main topic at hand: gifts. Meg Jones and Allison Hollins are two great gals that I worked with at rewardStyle back then, who both left the company last year to pursue another dream of theirs: To & From Gifts! Meg’s strategy and business brain paired with Allison’s love and talent for branding and design make the perfect match in gifting heaven. From holiday gifts to corporate, wedding welcome baskets, baby showers and everywhere in between, they will help you find the ideal gifts for every special moment! Click here to learn a little more about their gift services, and contact them to help with your next gift search! Also, aren’t their boxes and wrapping are cutest?! Way better than I could ever make my gifts look! PS: they just launched some adorable Valentine’s Day gifts on the site, so don’t miss ’em!
