Gifts for Guys 101

Tuesday, November 24 • beauty, fashion, gifts, navy-life, quick guide

Hey everyone! The malls are all a buzz these days with happy Christmas shoppers (thankfully the stress hasn't set in yet). Since Black Friday is right around the corner, I wanted to post a little gift guide for that special guy in your life. Whether it be your husband, boyfriend, brother, dad or friend here are some gifts he might enjoy!

1. A nice classic watch. I have heard wonderful things about Nixon watches and they aren't bank breakers.

2. An iPad. I purchased one for my fiancé last year so that we could FaceTime while being long distance but he also loves to play games on it.

3. A G-Shock watch. The guy in your life might be more active and get more use out of a g-shock instead of a Nixon. These watches have really good reviews and look very durable!

4. Sports Equipment. My guy really loves soccer so I put a soccer ball but you really can't go wrong with any kind of sports equipment.

5. Socks; because who doesn't need socks?

6. A go-pro. I picked up one of these for my fiancé for his birthday and he used it while flying this summer. It is really nice and the only down side is the battery life is short. It is perfect for any guy who is an adventurer.

7. A wallet. One word of caution is that genuine leather is not real leather (I might be the only one who didn't know this). Genuine leather is made with leather but only has a small percent of leather in it. I would look for a wallet that was made with whole grain leather or 100% cowhide.

8. Nike shoes. Every guy could get use out of a pair of Nikes. If you don't know his shoe size it might be a little more difficult.. You could also get him a gift card and say "this is for a new pair of shoes."

Happy Holidays!!

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The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

Thursday, November 19 • attire, fashion, girly, quick guide, winter

It is officially winter here in Washington, I awoke to snow on the ground! I am honestly not the biggest fan of winter. But when the weather gets cold and the snow comes down, the holiday season makes me happy. I do love sitting on my couch, drinking hot coco, snuggling with my kitty and watching the snowflakes come out of the sky. My favorite part about the holidays is the opportunity to see my family and celebrate together, as well as the joy that it brings to people around me.

However, with the winter comes the ~~cool~~ freezing cold weather! These are my go-to outfits when the snow starts to fall...

When the snow is coming down:

down trench coat // sweater // omni-heat leggings // wool socks // boots // scarf // gloves

A chilly day:

Summit Series jacket // jeans // Hunter boots // infinity scarf

Night on the town:

long sleeve dress // tights // booties // floppy hat // tote bag

Thank you for checking out my blog!

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Lush Cosmetics Review

Tuesday, November 17 • beauty, review

This past weekend, I visited my first Lush store! When you first walk into the store you are greeted by a wonderful aroma of different scents and smiling faces of employees ready to help you decide on products. The specific store I went to closed at 7pm and I ran up to the door right at 7 and was bummed to see they were closed. However, the supervisor saw me and let me in even though they were closing! I didn't get to spend a lot of time picking stuff out so I just picked up a couple bath bombs, shower gel and samples of shampoo and conditioner.

I am so happy with the two scents I picked out! The white one is Sakura and the blue one is Avobath. They both smell absolutely amazing and I'm excited to use them in the near future!

For shower gel, I decided to go with Its Raining Men. This shower gel is perfect for my skin because it has been really dry. When I use this, my skin feels nourished and smells amazing!

I also received two samples for shampoo and conditioner since I couldn't decide. I really love the Daddy-O Shampoo and will definitely purchase a bottle of it next time I go to Lush! It is a purple based shampoo so it really helps blonde hair stay rich and not turn brassy. I have tried other purple shampoos and they all smell bad so I was really excited to find purple shampoo that smells wonderful! While I love the shampoo, I'm not too crazy about the American Cream Conditioner. It smells really good but it is a thiner conditioner that just didn't work for my hair type.

In all, my experience in the Lush store and the products has been very good! I will definitely be visiting them again in the near future to purchase some more cosmetics! Thanks for checking out my blog!

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I DO

Thursday, November 12 • disney, engaged, milso, navy wife, navy-life

A common question I get is "how did he pop the question?" So I have decided to make a post about the day my fiancé got down on one knee!

Once upon a time, Daniel came home from base and told me that he had been granted leave and we could go to Disney World. I was really surprised because it is rare for Ensigns to get leave while in API (aviation preflight indoctrination) unless its for a special reason. It turns out that he went to his command and told them he wanted leave so he could propose to his girlfriend. However, I didn't think much of it at the time because I was so excited to go to Disney!

It was on Sunday that we went to the Magic Kingdom park. It was June 29th (Father's Day and National Wear Your Lilly Pulitzer Day) so I was going to wear my Lilly dress but decided I didn't want to get it dirty. Daniel seemed bummed that I wasn't dressing nice for a day at Disney. I was so confused as to why he would care what I wore but again, I pushed the thought aside!

The first thing I wanted to do was get a picture in front of the castle, of course. But, Daniel refused to get a picture in front of the castle because he "wanted to wait until the lighting was just right in the afternoon." I was honestly a little peeved because I thought he was just trying to avoid pictures, like he usually does!

As the day continued on, he got even stranger! He was carrying my water bottle in his bag so I kept reaching for it to get a drink of water. Every time I would reach for the bag he would pull it away from me and carefully pull the water out of his bag. He would also take it off and hold it in his arms like it was gold. I kept asking why he was being so weird about the bag and he didn't really answer which kind of got me thinking...

When the sun was finally at the right angle, we headed back to the castle to get a picture. However, Daniel wanted to wait until the courtyard had cleared out so we waited around 30 min for people to pass through. Finally, impatient me, said enough and told him "we're taking this picture right now and then going to use our fast-passes." It was at that point that he pulled a little box out of his bag, whispered something to the Disney photographer, came over to me, got down on one knee and asked "will you spend forever and always with me?!" I was so happy and all I could say was YES!! When he got up, hugged me and spun me around, everyone around us was clapping. We then got buttons that say happily ever after and were congratulated by park members for the rest of the trip. I still have my button on my backpack because it reminds me of that fantastic day (:

Getting engaged in Disney was my dream, and he made it come true. Daniel is the most amazing man I ever met and he is my happily ever after!!

Thank you for reading my blog, I hope you enjoyed reading our story!

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TBT: The post that started my blog

Thursday, November 5 • navy-life

As many of you already know, I got the opportunity to spend my summer in Pensacola, FL with my boyfriend (now fiancé)! Exactly 2 months and 10 days ago, I arrived in this beautiful southern town. It was extremely humid and I couldn't breath when I first got here. However, I adjusted very quickly and now I love the humidity and heat!

Since Daniel is a pilot, we had many dinner conversations revolving planes and flight regulations while he was in Introductory Flight Screening (IFS). I have definitely learned a lot more about planes that I ever would have known! He also informed me of the weather conditions each day (storm front, Cumulonimbus, cold front, VFR and IFR flight conditions)! Once IFS was complete, and he obtained his pilots license, we got the chance to go to Disney World!

We spent 4 days there and hit every single park! Our favorite rides included the Rock and Roll Roller Coaster, Space Mountain, The Yeti ride in Animal Kingdom, Astro Blasters and Hollywood Tower of Terror. This was the most unforgettable trip because we got engaged! In front of Cinderella's Castle, Daniel got down on one knee and asked me "will you spend forever and always with me?" Luckily, he had asked one of the Disney photographers to take our picture so we have a picture of the wonderful moment. Our trip to Disney was so much fun and we both still have the Disney-blues!

For the Fourth of July, my mom and brother got the chance to come visit! Some other family friends came to visit us and we had a great day at the beach! At the end of the night we sat on the deck and had a view of about five different firework shows all over Pensacola.

Another one of our adventures included one of my best friends, Katie, coming down to visit and going to see the Blue Angles Show on Pensacola Beach (picture credit to Google). I had never seen a Blue Angles show and was completely in awe. The F-18 hornets all fly in formation and do unbelievable stunts. We were swimming in the water and they flew right over our heads! If you have never seen the Blue Angles, I highly recommend it.

One weekend, we headed to Foley, AL to check out some outlets! These outlets are home to about 120 different outlet stores. We only had a couple hours to spend so we tried to just walk around the entire mall and only go into a few stores. It was basically retail heaven there! After that, we went and spent 3 hours registering for our wedding. I couldn't believe how much time it took to pick out everything; deciding on a shower curtain was the biggest dilemma lol. Once we were completely exhausted, we decided to go play a game of mini golf! Surprisingly, after 3 years we still had never played mini golf together. It was such a fun little outing - and I got a hole in 1!

Our last trip was to Destin, FL. Destin is a big spring break place for kids who go to school in the south and I understand why. The water was pure blue and beautiful! The water wasn't as warm as it is in Pensacola but it was crystal clear. We went to Henderson State Park and highly recommend it, if anyone gets the chance to go there! While we were there, we ate a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co and got pictures in Forest's shoes. Our drive home was very interesting because it poured rain the entire time and there was also a lot of debris on the road due to the high speed winds. However, we made it home safely!

In our last week, we realized we hadn't visited the National Naval Aviation Museum. So we went to base after Daniel got off work and walked around for an hour. The museum was amazing! There were so many planes from all eras and so much history. It is definitely a place to go if you love planes or history! On my last day we visited my favorite little snowball place, Dave's Authentic Snowballs, and picked up some snowballs. In Washington we call them snow cones but down here they call them snowballs which I found amusing. They are probably the closest to snow Florida ever gets!

Now, I'm sitting at the airport (due to some mechanical failures I have a 4 hour layover). Reflecting on my summer makes me realize how truly blessed I am. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to explore the world and have gotten to spend time with my fiancé. I won't be able to see Daniel until Christmas time, but at least I have this amazing summer to remember!

Thank you for checking out my blog!

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Fall Faves

Sunday, November 1 • attire, fashion, quick guide, review, travel

Now that fall is in full swing, I wanted to share some of my favorite wardrobe essentials. Since it gets pretty cold up here in Eastern Washington, I wear a lot of long sleeve shirts and layers, layers, layers! We will probably have snow on the ground by Thanksgiving so I only really get a full month of wearing cute tops before I have to cover them with a winter jacket. However, I use accessories to dress up my attire! My favorite thing to do is wear a cute hat or headband with a scarf and I always carry a cute coffee mug. Side note: it is officially red cup season at Starbucks and I am beyond excited! Anywho, I hope y'all enjoy my faves (if you click on the pink links they will take you to the site to purchase). Let me know if you have anything that you cannot live without in the fall! (: