Claire's Newborn Pictures

(This one is my favorite)

I took all these pictures by myself, they turned out pretty good! We sure do love her.
XO
Caitlin

PS Quilt is from www.littleunicorn.com

Whats in my Bag!

I love watching these videos on YouTube and reading blog posts about them. I don't know what it is about it, probably because I am nosy and like to know what other people carry with them. 

The reason for this post is because I am switching up my bags right now. I do this about every two months, I just get sick of using a particular bag after a while and I want to change it out. Up until this point I was using the above bag all the time. I love this bag! Its awesome. Its by Mark New York and I got it at Ross for about $45.00, which was a steal because I know this bag usually is about $200.00. Yay for a good find at Ross. I used this bag for about 3 months so it was worth my money. I figure if I spent $1.00 a day using the bag and I used it for 3 months, that means I surpassed my goal of using it at least 45 times to get my money worth. Anyway lets check it out. 

This is the inside of the above bag, everything fit nicely with extra room left over. 

The first thing in there is obviously my planner: 

It's an Erin Condren Life Planner which I have talked about here on my blog a bunch of times. If you are interested in purchasing one click this link HERE and sign up, once you do you receive a $10.00 off code to your email so that you can get your first order a little cheaper. 

The next thing is this pencil case from Staples. 

I got this last year and it holds my feminine products, you know for that time when Aunt Flow comes to visit. 

Next is this glasses case from Target:

This holds my glasses. I recently had to get some for driving at night and watching movies later during the day. I noticed my eyes were getting worse and worse over time and I am so glad I went into the doctor, these help me see great at night. During the day I don't have to wear them which is good. 

Next up is my wallet:

Its a Kate Spade Wellesley wallet, and I love it. It serves as a finance tracker as well/has extra note pages in the rings so that I can jot down notes without having to pull out my planner. 

Here are all the card slots that it comes with, I just love using it for a wallet. 

Next I have some lip products and a library card and a random Harry Potter charm from Etsy that was on my planner. 

This lip gloss is NYX butter gloss in Tiramisu. It's basically a MLBB (My lips but better) shade and it's perfect for days I forget to put lip products on. And the egg shaped thing is an EOS lip balm in sweet mint, my favorite. In fact I'm going to pause for a minute and put some on. It feels so good on my lips and its important to keep them moisturized during these dry months. 

My library card, also did you know that most libraries offer an online system so you can check out books and read them on your iPad/Kindle etc. Make sure and check out your local library so you can take advantage of that awesome feature. 

Everything that is in my bag on a daily basis:

My new bag. This is from www.markkit.com and it's from Belinda Selene's collection. She is a YouTuber and I love her videos and I love this bag, it was totally worth it. 

Here is the inside, and everything fit nicely, I was actually surprised. I was worried that the glasses case wouldn't fit but it does and it doesn't make it look bulky from the side. In the front pocket I have my phone in there. 

INSIDE VIEW:

SIDE VIEW: 

FRONT VIEW:

There you have it. Hope you liked this post and let me know what you carry in your bag. 

XO 

Caitlin

You know you grew up in the 90s when

You know you grew up in the 90s when:

You can finish all the lyrics to this song "In west Philadelphia born and raised..."
You collected every beanie baby you could get your hands on
You had at least one tamagotchi, one gigapet, or one nano baby
Mash was your favorite game to waist time in a boring meeting
You seriously considered naming one of your kids Tapanga
You played pogs in the alleyway at school and everyone was jealous you had the best Slammer in town
You got super excited for Oregon Trail day in computer class
Goosebumps was your favorite series
You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy the green Ranger, were meant to be together
You remember watching The Magic School Bus, Wishbone, and Reading Rainbow on PBS
You remember when Yo-Yos became the most popular thing around
You stayed up playing Mortal Kombat late into the night, learning secret codes that would turn your fighter into a tiger
Internet took forever to connect and the dial up sound was so annoying
You've Got Mail was the best chick flick around
All your school supplies was "Lisa Frank"
You collected all the troll dolls with bright hair, then the troll dolls with jewels came out and you collected those to
Caller ID came out and we had to screen every call
Light up Sneakers and a Walkman were your go to accessories
Crimping your hair every morning was a must
You had a poster of N*SYNC in your locker, in your bedroom, everywhere and Backstreet boys could never compare to them
Windows 95 was the best program
Your mom got the first motorola cell phone and you thought she was so cool
...Furbies
You know what a warhead is
Your bathroom was full of scrunchies and the side pony tail was your favorite hair-do
You remember when your friend cut off your side pony for fun
BRATZ dolls came out
Plaid shirts were in and DJ Tanner was your role model.

It's funny how certain trends keep popping back up, we see 90s style coming in full circle these days and soon enough everyone will be back to crimping their hair.
XO
Caitlin

Many Uses for the Erin Condren Life Planner

I know back in January I blogged about how I use the Erin Condren Life Planner specifically for school. Well now that I have graduated and I am out of school, I use the planner to help manage all other aspects of life, including this blog. So this year they added some new updates and I just had to get a new one, I love it so much and its so pretty.

I love it! I got the gold edition this year and its so pretty, I got the color spearmint and I just added my name on it. I could have put the Holladay family or something but its just Zack and I so I figured I didn't need it. 

This is how thick it is. I got the 18 month planner so it goes from July 2014 to December 2015. I know it will last this long because I hardly take it out with me and its held up really well so far. Eek I just love it!!!!! 

Here's the inside:

Love the inside, I haven't written in the cover yet because its just too cute, I don't want to ruin it with my handwriting (anyone else have this problem). I love that gold polka dot vellum, its very fancy and just adds a nice touch.

You can kind of see how the vellum works, its just clear paper with the polka dots. 

Next you have the first cover page and I actually use that space to write down my color coding system, yes I have a system and yes I generally stick to it.

Also I love that its made and produced in the USA, I love to purchase products that are made here!

Most of the magic in my planner happens on the monthly view, I use that thing up:

As you can see I have been writing my bills down on sticky notes, then gym stuff and a lot of other lovely things I put down in the book. On the list over on the right I put my cleaning chores, like the bathroom, reorganize the dvds etc. On that card in the middle (its a project life card) I just wrote a list of things I wanted to do for the month. 

Here is the back of that card, I used a new Erin Condren Coil Clip which is a new feature on the planners this year. 

Here is a view of the right side of the monthly view:

I love marking my pay days and in August (You'll see in a minute) I started marking my husband's paydays as well. I also mark of the days of the month as we pass them, its just always been a habit of mine. 

Here is the August monthly view:

This month I marked the paydays using the little neon garage sale stickers. I loved that because it used up less space. Then I used the orange flag notes for the bills and in the upper right hand corner I move the bills over as I pay them. Even though church is always at the same time I always mark it off in my planner, then I put doctor appointments using the stickers Erin Condren gives you and I created my own stickers on her site. The brown sticker says Camping Trip and the Blue one says Temple Trip. 

I decorate the monthly view a little bit with Washi Tape. I get my washi tape all over, Etsy, Amazon, Target and Staples are my go to places. I have recently picked up some nice ones at Michaels and they always have coupons so that is a great place to shop for planner supplies. My stickers all come from Michaels as well. 

Here is what a typical weekly view looks like. On the Martha Stewart Dew Drops I write the chores I need to get done that day, on the lines down at the bottom I right my scripture reading (devotional) and my meal plan. In the night section I typically right my blog ideas and any other plans I might have. I transfer bills from the monthly view as well as paydays and write what is due. I mark the weather up at the top using weather stickers found on amazon and my iPhone. Again on the left hand side I write out a To-Do list for the week. 

Here is what a typical page view looks like without the decorations and colorful pens. I love the clear ruler so you can still see what is going on Thursday and not have it block that day. 

I love that it has a year at a glance calendar (I bet you can tell what I keep track of here). The planner also has a 2016 and a 2017 calendar in case you want to know when certain days are in the future. I always look at this to see what day my birthday is on. My birthday is always on a Wednesday or Sunday, kind of cool on leap year its always Friday. Anyway... onto supplies. 

I carry my supplies in this cute little makeup bag I bought from the clearence section at Target. It works great for planning on the go and I keep page flags, pens, washi tape, and sticky notes in this pouch. Here is the inside:

As you can tell I use the papermate flair pens the most in my planner. They are so vibrant and bright and I just love the way they turn out on the page. I love colorful things. I also use the Staedtler pens, which offer a more refined point but are equally as vibrant. I also have the sharpie pens and I generally switch out between the Staedtler pens and the sharpie ones quite often. 

Next the project life cards: 

This book I bought at Target in the scrapbook Isle. As you can see it came with a lot of different patterns and I just think the they provide a great addition with the coil clips to my planner. 

Next I have a sample of the Neon Garage sale dots I bought at Target. They were $3.00 I want to say and come with 300 stickers so I highly recommend those for things you have to jot down every month. 

Here are there weather stickers I talked about, super cute:

Washi Tape I bought at Staples in a set. I just love how all these colors tie in together and it cost $9.00. 

And last but not least how I store my Washi Tape, in this caddy I found at the Dollar Tree. 

Well there you have it folks, I hope that gave you some great ideas for how you can organize your supplies, and your planner. 

Check out the Erin Condren planners and use this link to get $10.00 off your first order. (To get the $10.00 off you must sign up with an email account using the link, the coupon code will then be emailed to you)

XO 

Caitlin

(PS this post was not sponsored, I bought all products and supplies with my own hard earned money)

Plus Size Style

For those of who know me it comes at no surprise that I am plus sized, you know I fall in the line between a size 14-24. I am also 5'11" so almost 6' tall. Its hard finding clothes and pants and a lot of things that are just long enough for me, especially skinny jeans. I am always having a problem with skinny's. They are usually always too short and end up looking a lot like floods on me. Its pretty ridiculous. Online shopping can be scary for this reason, I never know if it is going to be long enough for me or if I will end up regretting the fact that I bought an expensive pair of jeans online. Last week I decided to take the risk and go ahead and buy a pair I had been eyeing for a while. This pair actually, from ASOS:

(Source)

The BEST part about ASOS is you can order multiple lengths! That is exactly what I did, and it was perfect. These jeans are also super soft, I wish I had a picture of them on me it would just make it that much better. These were worth every penny I spent because I of course plan on wearing them at least 50 times. 

The other thing that is hard for curvy girls to find is watches. Why is this so difficult? I bought a watch from Feral a year or so ago and that was a terrible experience. It was so small and was very cheaply made. The watch lasted about a week, which made me sad. I then bought another watch from Lane Bryant. This one was awesome, it had a big face on it, was really cute and fit my wrist. Only problem is that the link was weak and broke. When I took it took get it fixed the jeweler didn't have the right type of link to make it look uniform so I had to go buy a new one. 

When I decided to buy these jeans I went ahead and looked at their accessories as well. And low and behold this beauty showed up: 

(Source)

It was literally the perfect watch for me. I have been wanting one with a gold face in the longest time. I am just so happy that this one is so beautiful and I can wear it with everything. My asos package was on my porch when I got home, it was so fun opening all these items and finally discovering for myself why everyone loved them so much. 

I will take pictures this weekend of me wearing the clothes and will post them on here sometime for you, the jeans are just so flattering on me and I love it so much. 

Well until next time 

XO

Caitlin

May Favorites 2014

I have been loving makeup lately you guys. YouTube has dragged me in and amazon has provided a great way to get all the products I need. I have been noticing a lot of blogs write posts like this and thought I would join in as well. I especially want to share this fun new hobby with my readers and share the links to all the great YouTube channels out there.

Lets start with the palettes shall we?

Coastal Scents Revealed Palette:

This is what the front looks like. Its a cardboard package, with a magnetic strip on the bottom so you don't have to worry about it opening up randomly. 

 These are all the colors. I love them, as you can see I have used several colors lately. They are pigmented and really blend well. I have heard a lot of makeup people talk on YouTube about how this palette has great dupes for the Naked palettes. I couldn't tell you if it does because I don't own any Naked palettes yet. I can tell you that this palette hasn't disappointed me and you can't beat the price at $19.95. 20 great colors at that price? Seriously guys go out and buy it.!

Nyx Natural Eye Palette:

Sorry for the light glare on the darker colors but this palette really rocks. The dark color on the far right is matte, as well as the two colors in the middle. The rest are shimmer except for the white on the left, that one is more of a sheer color and works great for a highlight color. I highly recommend this product if you are just starting out with makeup and like the natural shades. This would also work great for teenagers. I bought mine off Amazon for about $7.00.

Moving onto blush now. 

This is the Elf Studio Blush in Twinkled Pink. I love this color. Its gorgeous. 

You can get this at Target for about $3.00. This is a really great blush and looks good on my skin tone. I am a natural medium/fair skin tone so I think it would work great for any light skin tones. 

For this blush, I forgot to add the picture of the case closed but it is the NARS blush in the color Orgasm. 

Love this color and the formula. This blush stays on my cheeks all day and it makes them look a little sun kissed. I love that look, especially for summer. This is a more expensive blush coming in at $30.00 but well worth the money because of the color payoff. 

Now onto primers:

This is my favorite face primer. I have a couple of them but I love the formula. It hydrates my face as well as primes it before I put makeup on. I got mine at target for about $5.00. Go get it, you wont be disappointed. 

This is a great eyelid primer. You really can never go wrong with ELF. This was $3.00 and you only need a tiny tiny amount for it to work, it helps make the colors brighter and not crease. 

Next is this lovely eye shadow. Its the 24 hour color tattoo from Maybelline. The color is barely branded, I find it works great for a base so the eye shadow lasts all day. This also works as a great highlight color. 

Speaking of eyes you can't go out without a great mascara. 

I highly recommend this voluminous million lashes by Loreal. It is a great mascara and helps make my eyelashes look fuller then ever. 

Foundation:

This is makeup forever HD foundation in the color Ivory. This is a full coverage foundation and I actually really like this foundation, its a little on the thick side so a little bit goes a long way. This is expensive foundation coming in at $50.00. I know, I know but it was really worth it. Especially because I am very prone to redness so this helps even it out. 

Last but not least, some essie nail polish. 

I am loving essie nail polish. Right now on my nails I am wearing the purple color called sittin pretty, its a gorgeous color, just right for this month of June. However this mint green color called fashion playground is awesome. I love it so much. Its a really great color. 

So there you have it. What your May favorites? I have been getting a lot of great stuff for June and so I am excited to do a June favorites post at the end of the month. 

Well until next time. 

XO 

Caitlin