lifestyle Archives - Page 15 of 25

Rediscover your Wardrobe

organized closet — Image via Rubbermaid Products

As part of this month’s commercial detox, I have made it one of my goals not to purchase any unnecessary clothing. After all, I do have a wardrobe filled to the brim with clothes that I already own, most of them sitting unused at the backs of drawers or hidden between garments hanging in the closet. Since it’s now the end of summer as we head into fall, it’s about time to do a wardrobe change over anyhow, and in the process I plan to use the following tips to help me rediscover old pieces that have been hiding out of sight out of mind! The purpose of this exercise is not only to help me find existing items in my wardrobe that I haven’t been wearing, but to also help me create a “new” fall wardrobe by mixing and matching items I may not have normally thought to put together during that morning rush preparing for my work day! I suggest giving yourself a good amount of time dedicated to finishing this project, like two to four hours depending on the number of garments you own, so make sure to clear your schedule and your mind before you begin. I promise though, this will totally be worth it in the end and will almost be like a shopping experience except you’re using your own clothes and don’t even have to leave the house! Your credit card will thank you!

1. Prepare your space.

Before you begin this wardrobe transition, you will first need to have a good deal of space set out for yourself in your bedroom or living room where you can spread out your clothing and give good thought to how you want to style them for the fall season. Once you know the space you would like to use, I suggest cleaning it up a bit by sweeping or vacuuming the floor, making sure there are no other clothes or items that could get covered or lost during the process and generally make the space clear of any objects that might get in your way. This is an important step because your clothes are going to be everywhere during this process and getting them dirty or being too cramped will hinder your creative juices!

2. Grab your camera.

It doesn’t have to be a fancy DSLR, unless that’s what you want to use! Your cell phone’s camera , webcam or even a Polaroid will work fine! The point of the matter is that you need something to visually capture the outfits you are about to create. This is a very important step because you will need the visual reminder later on when you forget about your clothes and get back into your clothing rut!

3. Sort your clothing by color and type.

Now comes one of the hardest parts of this whole exercise. You will need to begin removing all the clothing from your closet, drawers, etc and start sorting them into piles laid out on your bed, the floor, etc. I suggest sorting clothing by the type of garment (blouse, long sleeve shirt, pants, etc) and then group them by color family the way you might do while washing them. I suggest the following color groupings, but yours may vary by the items in your closet: Darks (Black, Grey, Navy, Dark Greens, etc), Lights (White, cream, beige), and Brights (Colors of the rainbow). Once you have completed this step, all your clothing should be in piles around you. Don’t get overwhelmed! The next part can be super fun if you let it!

4. Start “shopping” your closet until you come up with at least 5 “new” outfits.

Go through your piles and take a good look at your clothes. Start putting together new outfits based on different combinations of clothing that you haven’t tried before. Try different techniques like layering blouses and sweaters, mix a few prints, imagine a dress or tunic as a top tucked in and belted! If you’re really lacking inspiration, pull our your laptop or iPad and start searching Pinterest for outfit inspiration. I bet you if you look hard enough at the clothing you have in front of you, you probably have items right in front of you that would create that ideal outfit you pinned last year! Don’t be afraid to swap garments out for one another. So, the look you want includes a henley, use a chambray instead. No short-sleeved blouse to go under your cardigan? Try a well fitted t-shirt instead! You don’t have to own every item you see on a model in order to capture her style. You just need an open mind to find the pieces in your own wardrobe that could act the same way to evoke the style!

5. Snap a quick pic of your “new” outfit.

Once you have an outfit put together, lay it out in front of you and photograph it. It would also help if you gave the outfit a name, like “Edgy Office Look” or “Casual Friday Polka Dots”. The image and name association are going to help you remember the outfit and what your thoughts were for wearing it later on when all your clothes have been put away. Another way to help you remember the outfit would be for you to hang it up as an outfit in your closet instead of separating the outfit into its pieces when you put it away.

6. Clean up and organization.

At this point, once you have all your new outfits photographed and planned out, you will need to start your clean up. If you change your clothing out for the season, proceed with putting last seasons clothing away and replacing the dominant spaces in your wardrobe with the current seasons clothing. Now is also a great time (since your clothing is in color coordinated piles) for you to look and see if you have any unnecessary duplicates, old, worn out or damaged pieces that need to be mended, discarded or donated to your local thrift shop! Slimming down your wardrobe is a great way to keep yourself motivated to wear all the pieces in your closet. Too often we get caught up wearing the same outfits repeatedly and when we get sick of them, the answer is shopping for new. Fight the urge to shop for new and shop your closet first!

Did this exercise inspire you to begin rediscovering your own wardrobe? Do you have more clothes than you actually wear on a regular basis but also find yourself constantly shopping for new? Think about your triggers for buying new clothing and let me know your plans to pare down your wardrobe or start wearing pieces that you had forgotten about! We’d love to hear your stories in the comments below!

lifestyle

Starbucks @ Home: Salted Caramel Mocha

Coffee house visits can be a major source of unnecessary, and usually avoidable, expense in the average professionals life. Don’t get me wrong, I love Starbucks and although spending $3-6 dollars on a gourmet beverage may seem like a minor thing if you are making these trips occasionally, daily visits can certainly become very costly. Think about it, visiting a Starbucks every work day can cost you $20 a week and $1,040 a year! That is rather much for a single beverage a day habit and that’s not even including weekends! So, what’s a girl to do if she wants to avoid this expense? Well, make it at home, of course! Most people do own a coffee machine, even if they get their coffee fix elsewhere, so put yours to good use with this simple recipe I have created at home using Starbucks coffee products! Hopefully, this will help you see that a delicious barista style drink doesn’t have to cost you much time or money, and you can still say your drinking Starbucks, because, well, you are! I will be using a Keurig to brew my coffee, but you can easily translate this to a standard coffee machine!

What You’ll Need

A Reusable Starbucks Cup: I bought this simple reusable Starbucks cup earlier this year when Starbucks was running a reusable cup promotion. I believe the cup only cost me $1 and it looks exactly like a regular Starbucks cup!

Starbucks Cafe Verona K-Cup: This coffee is also available in regular ground form, but I use this blend because it is actually made with chocolate in the brew so it is already a little sweet and mocha flavored.

Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa: I only use half of a packet in order to get that salted caramel flavor without my coffee tasting like hot chocolate.

Creamer: I use a lite non-dairy creamer, but milk, soy/almond/rice milk, or cream will do fine as well!

Whipped Cream: You don’t need this per se, but if you want to give yourself that extra special Starbucks feeling, its easy to add a but of whipped cream to the top of your drink before you lid it.

Sweetener: Although the coffee and the cocoa itself are sweet, you may want a bit of something extra. I use stevia to sweeten my coffee, but feel free to use whatever you’d like. Just make sure to go a little easier on the sweetener than you normally would because your drink is already slightly sweetened.

Garnish: I garnish this drink with just a pinch of the cocoa mix, some natural sea salt and some colorful pink sugar crystals, but you can top it or not top it however you would like!

Let’s start brewing!

The first thing you will need to do is brew your coffee. K-Cups are super simple, but they do cost a bit more than regular coffee grounds. Obviously, you will just use whatever method of brewing your coffee you have available to you! Once I have my coffee brewed, I transfer it to the reusable Starbucks cup and spoon in half a packet of the cocoa mix. I then add my creamer and sweetener to taste. If you plan to add whipped topping, make sure you leave a little room at the top of your cup for that. Next, add your desired amount of whipped topping and your garnish. I use a small wire sieve to distribute that pinch of cocoa mix evenly. I then add another pinch of sea salt and the pink sugar crystals for added color and general delightfulness!

Voila! Top your cup with its lid and take a sip! Delish right? Depending on the size you made, this recipe costs at least half of what you would pay at Starbucks, is significantly fewer calories, and is quicker than the Starbucks drive thru!

Has this recipe inspired you to start making your own coffee-house drinks at home? Would you be interested in more easy, at-home coffee recipes like this? Do you visit Starbucks or your local coffee-house as part of your daily commute to work? Or, perhaps you already brew your coffee at home? Let us know in the comments!

lifestyle

Commercial Detox

I had a great time this summer. I went on mini vacations, I visited other cities, I went out to dinner (a lot!) and in general, spoiled myself. But, now that fall is right around the corner, I have taken a look at my life and my wallet and decided I really need to take it easy on the spending. I have some big financial goals I want to hit this year and picking up a $35 YSL lipstick every week is really not a necessary expense. So, for the month of September I am going to partake in what I am calling a commercial detox! This means that during the month of September I am not going to spend any unnecessary money on clothing, food, makeup, whatever! This doesn’t mean I don’t spend any money at all on the extras, but it means that if I want a new tube of foundation, I have to use up my old one first. Or if I want a yummy gourmet diner, I am going to have to make one myself! I am going to write-up a list of rules for myself to follow with the specific parameters I have for myself and my expectations, but the point is to reduce my commercial wants!

Now, I am not just doing this for myself, but I hope that some of you may want to partake in this with me as well! So, to go along with this personal spending freeze, I am also going to spend the month of September writing articles for this site that will also hopefully encourage you to stop your excess spending as well and use the things you already have instead of buying new! That concept of using what you already have is going to be a major theme for my posts in September! I am going to show you how to make the most of the things you already have and show you that you don’t really need those shiny new objects you have been lusting over!

So, what do you say? Will you join me for a month-long commercial detox? Do you have financial goals that you are hoping to hit this year? Saving for a home or perhaps a vacation? Let me know in the comments, tweet or email me to let me know I am not going it alone this September in my attempt to detox myself from my bad spending habits!

Career lifestyle

5 Things a Woman Can’t Live Without

With a fresh season about to start, I thought this was the perfect time to discuss my top 5 things that I believe a woman cannot live without. In this day and age it’s no surprise that a woman in her twenties or beyond should really have a few things settled in her life in order to start developing her career, life and future plans. Some of these things are tangible, others not, but they are all equally important for any woman to have in her life!

1. A College Degree

A college degree in this day and age is pretty much a must have for a woman to succeed in any traditional career path. I realize that there are exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, if you don’t have a college degree you can’t expect to develop a dynamic career in most industries. Even if you expect to start and run your own business, a formal education will help you develop those base skills and critical thinking techniques that will help you to build your business and your brand. And of course, in unstable economic circumstances where you may need to find employment the traditional route, a degree will help set you apart from other, less qualified candidates.

2. A Trusted Confidant

Everyone woman needs a friend that she can trust 100%! From sharing secrets, to having a shoulder to cry on or an ear to vent to, a trusted confidant is a necessity for a woman. It is very important, of course, that this confidant be someone you know personally and not just some anonymous friend on the internet. It’s important that your confidant really know you, nearly as well as you know yourself so that you can trust her opinions and value her advice.

3. A Signature Makeup Look

By the time you hit the workforce, it’s very important to have a signature makeup look established for yourself. I don’t necessarily mean that this look has to be incredibly unique, you just need to know how to apply a face of makeup that looks great on you. Nothing to heavy, just an everyday look that can carry you from day to-night with only the change of a lipstick or an extra bit of pizzaz to your eyes! If you are a working woman and you don’t feel like you have your makeup look established or struggle with application techniques, I highly suggest making an appointment at Sephora, Ulta, or your local department store to have your makeup done and to learn the basic techniques you need to know.

4. A Place to Call Your Own

Whether this is your own home or apartment, or just a room in your parents house while you get your life and plans in order, every woman should have a place to call their own, a retreat if you will! It’s no secret, as a woman you need your own private space to just be alone with your thoughts and feelings. It’s cathartic in a way to just be by yourself on a couch or on a bed, able to feel at ease and completely comfortable. This can be especially useful if you live with a significant other or roommates, because you need your own space to just chill out and be yourself. A woman without the ability to unwind in her own privacy will quickly buckle under the stressors of daily life.

5. A Can-Do Spirit

A can-do spirit is very necessary as a woman. Too often I see ladies who refuse to help themselves, get stuck in ruts and rely too often on others. A can-do spirit can benefit you at home and in your professional career. This can include things like a willingness to do home repairs, taking the initiative at work, and changing your own flat tires. It’s the twenty-first century after all, and there is really no excuse why you should be relying on others, particularly men, for anything you could do for yourself!

So, do you agree with my must have list? Is there something you would add or do you have your own list? More importantly, do you have all these things in the list or in your own must have list?

Career lifestyle

Why I haven’t Changed My Last Name

I know I rarely discuss personal topics here on Strange & Charmed, but I have really been wanting to talk to you, the internet and my readers, about a subject that has given me a little bit of grief over the past year. You probably don’t know many specifics of my life unless you are a friend of mine in real life or follow me on a few different social media feeds, but last November I got married and since then I have yet to change my last name to match my husbands. It wasn’t something I intended not to do, but the whole situation started out of necessity for me and has now turned into something else entirely. Let me tell you the story.

So, after I returned from my honeymoon at the end of November 2012, I was immediately informed that I had been given a promotion to a job I had applied and interviewed for a few months earlier. Initially, I was worried that if I changed my name right when I accepted my new position, that people within my company and clients that I had developed relationships with may not know who I was if they suddenly saw a new name and a different title on my email signature. So, I decided that it was best for my professional life if I kept my last name until everyone I worked with on a day-to-day basis and all my customers knew who I was and all about my new role.

Then of course, once I returned to work for a few weeks, I began to get questions from co workers and of course family members as to what my new last name was. “I don’t have a new last name,” I would respond, but their questions really bothered me. Why did people expect that a woman would just go ahead and change her name just because she got married. This is 2013 for heaven’s sake (or 2012 as the case may be!), a woman can be a single mother, have a professional career, go to space, why does she immediately have to change her name just because she got married. I was even accused by a co-worker of not being committed to my marriage because I wasn’t interested in changing my name. Seriously? I am pretty sure couples with the same last name get divorced all the time! What is with all this unnecessary pressure?

So, I started thinking about whether or not I was going to change my last name and when I would do it. I had a few friends who were also married around the same time as me and by the time they returned from their honeymoons they were already using a new surname. Why did these bright professional women want to give up their name so easily? Hadn’t they worked hard to give that name a good reputation? Wasn’t it the name that defined them for two to three decades? Once I started asking myself those questions, I found that I didn’t want to part with my last name, it was mine and I wanted to keep it!

I still get questions all the time as to when I am going to change my name as though I have been lazy and forgotten to do something very important. The truth is, I don’t know when I am going to change my name, and I still don’t know if I am going to change my name. I like my husband’s last name, it’s a nice name and I wouldn’t be opposed to taking it in theory, but I just feel like my name is me and I’m not ready to give it up. Oh, and you may be wondering what my husbands thinks about all this. At first, I think he wanted me to change my name so that we would feel more like a family, but after discussing it with him and being married for the last nine months without a name change, he says my last name doesn’t bother him. He says I can keep it or change it, whatever I want to do is okay with him.

So, what do you think? Should I change my name or should I stick with it for a while? Did you change your name when you got married or did you keep your own? Perhaps you changed your name because of a life event like the birth of a child or the purchase of a home with your spouse? Let me know what you think in the comments!

lifestyle Solutions

5 Ways to Style a Settee

On a recent trip to T.J. Maxx I picked up this beautiful high backed winged settee in a gorgeous heather grey fabric. Although I didn’t have a space for the settee in mind when I bought it (it was one of those, I have to own this no matter what moments) by the time I had gotten it home I had thought of a handful of different uses for it. In case you are not familiar with the term settee, it is an upholstered chair with a back and arms that seats more than one. A traditional settee is something of a love seat sofa, but not as deep as a traditional sofa, they are more of a double wide arm chair! Now, because a settee is relatively small there is really no room in a house that couldn’t fit one! I, however, have boiled it down to five simple and elegant ways to style a settee with a few images courtesy of Pinterest to help me make my point!

1. Style a settee as luxe piece of office furniture.

2. Style a settee as an entranceway statement piece.

3. Style a settee as a dining room table bench or booth seat.

4. Style a settee as an elegant addition to the foot of a bed.

5. Style a settee as an upscale powder room seat.

So, you may be wondering, how then did I end up styling my settee? Well, after careful consideration I decided to do this!

Yep! My beautiful settee is now a bench seat for my dining table! I cannot be more thrilled about it! I have always been a fan of upholstered booth seating in the dining area and this was such a perfect fit for my apartment. I really like the way that the high back of the settee breaks up my great room into a clear living room and dining room area. Of course, the settee is all mine at the dining table and I have taken to bringing out my laptop and sitting at the dining table to write and surf the internet because I enjoy the piece so much!

I hope you enjoyed this post! As I said before the images I found came from Pinterest and you can find the exact links I used by heading over to my Pinterest page and taking a peak at my board called “Spaces.” There are even a few more examples that I pinned but did not use for this post in case you need some more ideas for how to style your settee!

Quirky Uses

5 Quirky Uses for Empty Wine Bottles

5 Quirky Uses is a new periodic feature for Strange & Charmed. For each post, I will select an everyday item and suggest five alternate uses or ways to upcycle the item in a fun or unusual way. Keep up with these posts with the Quirky Uses category!

For my second installment of 5 Quirky Uses I decided to focus on an object that fills many a recycling can, wine bottles! There are many arts and crafts projects that involve empty wine bottles that are easily accessible through Pinterest, but to stray away from those more complicated upcycling projects, I decided to focus on uses for the bottle whole! So, without further ado, here are 5 ways to use an empty wine bottle(s).

Stuff them into tall boots to help them keep their shape.
Fill them with a string of lights for an interesting lighting option.
Fill them with water and use them as a vase for long flowers.
Stick a taper candle into the neck and use them as a candle stick.
Fill them with sand, cork them and use them as book ends.

lifestyle

Ipsy My Glam Bag July 2013

It’s that time of the month again! Yep! You guessed it! My Ipsy Glam Bag has arrived. This month I almost forgot I was getting the Glam Bag and it was such a welcomed treat. I have been doing this whole low buy exercise where I have been trying not to buy unnecessary things like makeup and beauty products, so I haven’t been purchasing as much as I had been in the last few months. So, when I saw that I was getting my monthly subscription service, it was thrilling!

This months bag was themed Beach Beauty, and we received a fluorescent pink see through tube shaped bag which I really like! It made it hard to be surprised as I was opening it on camera for my YouTube channel, but it was still terribly exciting!

So, lets run down what goodies I got!

The first item I pulled out of my Ipsy bag was this Pop Beauty Pouty Pop Crayon in Flirty Fuchsia! I was absolutely thrilled to see this first and even though its not a particularly expensive product ($4 value) I love chubby sticks and the fact that I got one in pink made me very happy! You know how much I love my pink lipsticks!

The only thing about this color that is a little deceiving is that they are calling it fuchsia, but its really more of a bubblegum pink, which I do not mind, because I really don’t have any lip products in that shade, so I am glad I got something that is unique for me!

The next item in my bag is a travel sized can of Big Sexy Hair, Weather Proof! Now, I have always wanted to try a Big Sexy Hair product so I was glad they sent me this, and especially glad they sent a Weather Proof formula for the summer. I don’t go through much hair spray on average, so even though this isn’t a full sized item per se, I will still get a good amount of use out of it. I bet you it lasts the summer! Another inexpensive product, but one I was glad to receive ($3-4 value).

This next item was pretty unique! I received the Demeter Roll On Perfume Oil in the scent Salt Air. I really like this product because it is a full sized purse sized sample that retails for $10 on the Demeter site. It also has a very pleasant summery smell that I could not for the life of me figure out until I finally realized that the smell was very similar to the way a Hollister store smells. So, if you like the way Hollister smells, you should like this!

The next item in my bag that was more of a deluxe sample size was this Coola Mineral Sunscreen tinted moisturizer. Although I wish they had sent a larger sized sample, I was very pleased to receive this because I have heard very good things about Coola. At first I wasn’t sure if it was a tinted moisturizer or a tinted sunscreen, but after testing it out I can say its more of a tinted sunscreen, This doesn’t have much coverage to it even for tinted moisturizer standards and it blends into your still without really leaving any noticeable color change. But in a facial sunscreen thats a good thing! Normally, if you use a facial sunscreen you get a ghostly white glow to your skin, but this keeps your face looking normal, which I think is awesome. Only thing I was worried about with this is whether or not it is waterproof. It doesn’t say so on the packaging but I did look up the product facts online and it is indeed water resistant for 40 minutes! Full size is $36, but I would value this sample at $3.

The final item in my bag came in very cute packaging! It is a BH Cosmetics California Collection eyeshadow trio. Now, I have seen BH Cosmetics before at Target and I know its not a very expensive brand, so this set couldn’t cost more than about $5, but when I do see their products at Target I am always curious about them.

The trio was a little unexpected to me because the colors were a bit bright, but its the summer I guess so it goes with the theme! The purple grape colored shadow is very pretty, but I am not sure if its something I would use. I may get some use out of the middle color because although it seems like a dark tan or nude color, its actually a nice bronze. The final color is a very bright gold, which again isn’t necessarily something I would wear, but I can give it a shot. I usually prefer taupes to golds or bronzes, but since I have been going for a neutral eye for the summer, I may be able to create a simple sun kissed eye with these shades. And if they don’t work out for me, I know a friend who would look great in these shades!

Overall, I was very happy with this months Glam Bag, despite the fact that it had the least value of any bag I have received before. I am not sure if this value range is something that I should expect from now on, or if perhaps this month the products were just not as valuable as previous months. I know I have seen other glam bags from prior months that had a different mix of products in it that were of lesser value than what I received so I think its just luck of the draw! Either way I am happy with this bag because I am sure I am going to use up most of these products! If you would like to see my unboxing video for this month’s Ipsy My Glam Bag, click here to be directed to the video on my YouTube channel!

Until next time!

xoxo

Quirky Uses

5 Quirky Uses for a Mint Tin

5 Quirky Uses is a new periodic feature for Strange & Charmed. For each post, I will select an everyday item and suggest five alternate uses or ways to upcycle the item in a fun or unusual way. Keep up with these posts with the Quirky Uses category!

I love breath mints and especially the cute tins they are frequently stored in. But what do you do with those tins once your mint supply runs out? It seems such a pity to just toss the empty tin, so put yours to good use with these 5 Quirky Uses!

Wrap up your earbuds and store them inside the tin.
Use your tin as a travel pill box.
Store quarters for parking meters in the tin and leave it in your car.
Use the tin to make a mini first aid or on the go sewing kit.
Keep hair ties and bobby pins in the tin for quick, organized access.

lifestyle

My Fave Five June 2013

Hello Everyone and Happy 4th of July to those of you in the U.S! Since today is a holiday for me, I didn’t have a post planned, so I wanted to share a video I uploaded on my YouTube channel today! It’s my monthly favorites for June 2013, aka my Fave Five! Hope you enjoy this video and the holiday!

xoxo Alexis