November Beauty Favorites

Hello Loves!

I was going to do a post showing you the inside of my planner but I decided to go ahead and do my November beauty favorites instead. I feel like everyone on YouTube did this post today so it got my mind rolling of what my favorites were this month. On Wednesday check back for my lifestyle/everyday favorites that aren't related to beauty items, things like books, etc. I decided to split them up into two posts so you guys can see a wide variety of my favorites for the month. 

First up: The Sonia Kashuk matte palette. 

I love this palette. I bought it a week or so ago and I have used it everyday since. The white (upper left hand corner) is the perfect brow bone highlight for me and I am about to hit pan on it, already! I use it that much! This palette was 20 dollars at Target and its making me want to go buy its sister palette, the shimmer version. This are great every day shades that make any other palette you own wearable because it can add the matte shades to the look. 

Here are the swatches and after looking at them I am going to have to try that third lightest color as my next brow bone highlight once I am done with the white. These shadows blend easily and make other shadows blend out nicely too. I love it. 

Next: Makeup Geek Vegas Lights Palette

That color Roulette you guys! Its so incredibly pigmented. Its a beautiful rose gold shade and I have used it on many looks. I actually wore it on thanksgiving and received a lot of compliments. I highly recommend this palette, the colors are in the warm family but I like doing warm looks so they fit me well. 

Another makeup geek product! This is the makeup geek pigment in Afterglow. This is the perfect champagne highlight color that adds a fun glow to any look you put together. I wore this on the center of my eyelid when I was wearing Roulette, it really made the whole look pop. The only downside is this pigment is messy, it gets everywhere, so be prepared. 

Next is the eyeliner I have been wearing, its the maybelline eye studio gel liner. It's really good. This is my first time using a gel liner and its a really forgiving product, meaning if I make a mistake the formula of this product makes it easier to clean up. I am a beginner when it comes to winged liner but I feel with this I can accomplish this look easily. 

I finally found a primer I love. The Baby Skin pore eraser primer from Maybelline. I love it! I have a lot of imperfections on my face but this primer really helps to even out my skin tone. Now it doesn't take those imperfections away but it definitely helps it look flawless. If you are looking for a dupe for the benefit porefessional primer, I heard this one works great for that too. 

For brushes this month I have been loving my new makeup geek brushes. I have the foundation stippling brush (first one pictured) and the face buffer brush (second one pictured). The foundation stippling brush blends out my foundation so smoothly, the bristles are soft and the perfect size. I highly recommend either brush.

Last but not least, I loved my ipsy bag for this month! The bag was silver and sparkly with a pink zipper, right up my alley! If you want to sign up for ipsy go HERE. Its a subscription service where you get makeup samples for $10.00 a month, I have only done it for the last three months but so far I love it. 

What are some of your beauty favorites?
XO
Caitlin

Holladay Family Christmas Traditions

Hello everyone-
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and got to spend time with your family. We were blessed to spend time at my aunts house and it was really fun seeing all my cousins, especially Taran who just got home from his mission this week!
For this post I wanted to share mine and Zack's favorite holiday traditions.

This is our Christmas Tree, I just barely finished putting it up 10 minutes ago, I love it so much, makes me happy.
1. Our first tradition is to put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. If Zack works then I just put it up by myself, otherwise he'll help me when he is home. Today I just put it up myself and I enjoy taking the time to do this. After we put up the tree we watch The Santa Clause, which has been a tradition of mine since I was little. I love watching that movie with Zack, cuddled up with hot cocoa and the ambiance of Christmas lights.
2. Thanksgiving point lights. We go see these lights every year and afterward we like to stop in at the cafe and have a peppermint hot cocoa shake, they are so yummy. If you live in Utah County and you are looking for a fun tradition go see the lights, its a great time!
3, For gifts we like to buy one surprise gift for each other, something that is on our list but that the other person has no idea that you are going to buy it. I love picking out the perfect gift for Zack and it usually takes me a while, this year I already know what I am getting him and I can't wait!
4. Lights at temple square. We went last year with Zack's side of the family and we will most likely go again this year, I love seeing the lights and being there with family. Christmas is so magical and I love this time of year!
5. Work Christmas Parties. This year Zack and I will be going to both his work party and to my work party. His is at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City and I am excited to go down into that area and see the people he works with. My work party hasn't been planned yet and I am in charge of picking the venue. I have a few ideas of where we could go but we'll have to see what the team wants to do.
6. Family time, we love spending time with family for dinner and other events and this month is already getting booked up with parties. I can't wait!

Some traditions I want to add:
Riverwood Shops
Carriage ride in Salt Lake
Sledding
Make a Ginger Bread House
Ornament Exchange
City lights
Christmas Classic movies (watch all the classics I loved as a kid)

What are your family traditions leading up to Christmas? I would love to hear about them.
XO
Caitlin

Weight Loss Plan

Hello guys!
As you all know I have started early on my goals/resolutions. Why not now? One of my major goals of 2015 will be to loose weight. I have seriously let myself go as in I have gained about 15 pounds in the last three months. I think the weight gain had to do with a combination of a lot of things but mostly due to depression. I was clinically diagnosed with depression summer of 2011 and I have been learning to combat it it in many different ways. I am not completely in control of it and before now it was getting better. However lately it has been pretty bad. Depression gets worse when you go through trials in your life and this one On Trying to Start a Family  is the biggest thing causing me to be gloomy these days. The winter months don't help much either but I am trying to get out of the house more to help me in this area. Anyway, I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until I fixed our scale and weighed myself. As soon as I saw the number I wanted to cry, I haven't been this big in my life. EVER. It was scary looking at that number and really made me realize the bad habits I was getting myself into.
I now have a weight loss plan, starting Friday, day after Thanksgiving! I'm starting early and I'm excited to see where it takes me next month. I am excited to continue it as one of my new resolutions for 2015 and to really change my habits for a healthier lifestyle.  I am about to get super real with you guys. I don't feel quite comfortable revealing how much I weigh currently. All I can say is that I need to loose about 50 lbs. These are my before pictures:

As you can see my upper body is the area I want to work on the most. I will be doing arm exercises as well as back, abs, and chest exercises to help with my weight loss. I am finally confident enough to post these and say that YES I am starting on this journey and you can do it too! I know that a healthy lifestyle will be key for me so I wrote down some of my goals for fitness in my planner. 

This is my current planner cover and its the best cover ever! I love the Christmas tree, so cute and adorable. I also found a use for the chocolate colored band and I think it fits perfectly and ties in with all the neutral colors on the cover. 

In the back of the Erin Condren planners there is a section filled with lined and blank paper that you can use for notes. I have almost used up all my lined pages for things like blog ideas, makeup wishlists, books to read list (which I do plan on sharing), meal planning staples (our favorite meals so I can reference it when meal planning), a Christmas gift list idea etc. Basically a lot of lists. I decided for some inspiration to use my planner to help with weight loss so I created this weight loss plan.

If you can't read my writing the daily goals are:
Eat only 1707 calories per day: I calculated this using a weight loss calculator for my height and weight, you can find a bunch all over the www.
45-60 minutes of Cardio per day
20 minutes of strength training every other day
No Sugar: extra sugar such as candies, sweets, treats, brownies, etc. I understand that sugar is in a lot of things so I am just cutting out the sweets and extra stuff.
No eating out except date night if we are going out: I have a bad habit of doing this on work days, especially because I don't pack lunch the night before so if I wake up late then I forget to pack lunch while I am running around and am forced to eat out. It's bad news. No more I tell you!
Eat Breakfast everyday: This will force me to wake up earlier, which means I should have more time to pack a lunch helping with the previous goal.

I also put some motivational quotes on the page to help inspire me to not give up:

"get up every morning and tell yourself I CAN DO THIS!" I loved that one.

"The only way you will see results is if you stay consistent." Very true so I am hoping I stay consistent and I am motivated to do so.

"Stop Wishing, Start Doing."

I am sharing these photos and my plan with you to make me accountable. I want to report back on my plan in a month and let you know how its going. I hope to see results and I will share meal plans, recipes and other tips as I go along. For now I am just working on these goals because establishing a healthy habit is the hardest step for me.

What are your weight loss tips? Any yummy recipes I should try?
XO
Caitlin
PS if you would like to get an Erin Condren Life Planner you can sign up HERE and receive $10.00 off your first order. You can also check out my other posts on my planner: HERE, HERE, and HERE

God is on your side!

Hey guys!
Today I couldn't really think of anything to blog about. I mean I have a lot of ideas, I just need to get pictures and other content ready for them. I decided I would share what I have been thinking about a lot this week. I have been re-reading general conference talks and came across this quote:
"I think God knows something we don’t—things that are beyond our capacity to comprehend! Our Father in Heaven is an eternal being whose experience, wisdom, and intelligence are infinitely greater than ours. Not only that, but He is also eternally loving, compassionate, and focused on one blessed goal: to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life.

In other words, He not only knows what is best for you; He also anxiously wants you to choose what is best for you."  -President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

I really have needed this reminder lately. God is on our side, we don't have to fight through everything by ourselves and we have Him to help us. I am grateful that I have this knowledge and I love sharing it with others.

Remember God is on your side!!
XO
Caitlin

You can kind of see the temple there in the background, past Zack's crazy face. Can't wait to go see the lights again this year!