molly of make today lovely

hey y'all! i'm currently in denver, colorado for a little vacation, so i'm welcoming fellow birmingham bloggers member molly of make today lovely for a guest post! her blog is wonderful - my favorite recent post is for this cinnamon caramel peach pie. see y'all soon!

Hello there! My name is Molly-Brown from www.maketodaylovely.com. I am so happy to meet all of you, and thank you to my blogging friend Floral Frocks for welcoming me to her blog! I am a twenty something nursing student, and I currently reside in sweet home Alabama.

I chose to blog because I wanted to bring a little brightness to my readers' day by sharing everything that I find lovely. I believe in enjoying every moment, and Make Today Lovely allows me to share those special moments with all of you in hopes of inspiring your own zest for life. I never want the little things to pass without me noticing their true beauty. Through my blog this ordinary beauty is brought  to your day through style and good taste. Come by and visit Make Today Lovely to take a break from everything that is strictly business, and enjoy yourself through fabulous clothes, delicious food, and lovely sights. Make Today Lovely is a way for me to express my creative side in hopes of bringing smiles and joy to my readers.  Here are a few lovely loves of mine, and I hope to see you over at Make Today Lovely very soon! You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

         

                                            Fresh Food                                        Flowers                                     

My puppy Eden

XOXO

in-flight essentials

july is insane for me - work is nuts, and i picked the most inopportune month to travel my heart out. it just sorta happened that way. it's been a minute since i've been on a plane - 2010, exactly. i had to ask my friend mike to remind me how the whole process works. "where do i get my tickets again? how many bags can i take?"

as you're reading this, i'm on my way to atlanta to hop on a flight to denver for a little mini vacation. i know, i know, i was JUST in atlanta for the southern blog society's 2nd annual conference -- but flights out of birmingham are crazy pricy. i've never been to colorado before, and i'm super excited to see real mountains (not to knock you, birmingham, but i dunno if red mountain counts).

i'm using my kate spade andee bag as my carry on. it's the biggest bag i've got, and it easily fits everything i need. i actually bought one of those silly airplane pillows for my neck. will it help out? i mean, maybe. i've loaded up my ipad mini with movies, books and other things to keep me entertained. and i can't forget my quest bar - i'm going to attempt to stick to my diet while i'm traveling this month. keyword: attempt.

don't forget -- birmingham bloggers, if you're in town this weekend, don't forget to head to see jane write's bloganista mini con! also, stay tuned for my #SBSCon part 2 recap!

2nd annual southern blog society conference {part 1}

WOW. i had to do this post while everything was fresh on my mind! i just got back from the most incredible weekend in atlanta to attend the southern blog society's 2nd annual conference. i learned so much, met some amazing women & got some incredible swag bags!

friday: i got to atlanta around 4:30pm & immediately headed to buckhead where i met whitney & her mom! we settled into the hotel, and then promptly went across the street to lenox square to check out the mall & the sprinkles cupcake atm. we had dinner at true food kitchen just as molly arrived!

that night, we ventured to whiskey blue at the w hotel for the welcome party, complete with champagne, macarons & a gorgeous rooftop view. 

saturday: what a long, crazy day! we got up bright & early around 6am to get ready for the coffee talk at the w. we had a gorgeous spread of fruit, pastries & coffee ready for us! this talk featured experts from ahalogy & shopsense, who gave us some insider blogging knowledge on pinterest, marketing & monetizing your blog. next up was the brilliant amy flurry of recipe for press - i quite literally hung on her every word! i cannot wait to read her book, which she so generously included in our coffee talk swag bags. 

afterwards, we got a chance to mingle & interact with the brands - kendra scott, intimacy, pla beauty, asos, dermalogica & dress up. (psst... a kendra scott is opening in birmingham soon!) asos had a gorgeous clothing rack full of tons of floral goodies... and y'all know how i feel about that. we also got to preview kendra scott's fall 2014 line!

jessica & cathy truly outdid themselves on the swag bags (just wait till you see part 2 of my recap, it gets crazier!) we received the most adorable notebooks, pens, jewelry, clothing and so much more! my favorites from the coffee talk gift bag were these gorgeous kendra scott earrings & this moon and lola hashtag necklace! adorable!

stay tuned for part 2 of my sbs weekend recap later this week!

glorifying busy + life behind the blog

i've been busy lately.

actually, busy is an understatement.

between working 70 hour weeks at my day job, managing birmingham bloggers, social media, preparing to travel the entire month of july and recently learning i'll be moving in the next two months, i haven't really had a second to breathe. or do my laundry. or go to the gym. normally my days are structured, i get to leave work at 5pm, i have time to meal prep, do my yoga, get drinks with friends, and breathe. not lately. but, for someone who thrives on routine, i'm doing surprisingly well having it all thrown out of wack. i'm not sure if i'm just functioning on some bizarre auto-pilot mode or what.

busy, busy, busy. we're all so busy. and we use that excuse for everything. caught up in our own busyness, it often feels impossible that anyone be busier than us or even begin to parallel the madness our life sometimes feels it is.

lately i've tried to remind myself that i'm but a piece of the puzzle. that my busyness is no more or less important than anyone else's, and that we all deserve a breather every now and then. i'm trying not to glorify 'busy'. i'm trying to be grateful and receptive to 'busy', but able to take a step back and take care of myself. busy isn't validation, busy isn't a purpose, busy is a word we use to feel important sometimes.

i still have time for what matters - myself, my relationships and my well-being. and letting busy overtake that isn't cool. (aka i have got to stop ordering takeout to the office)

be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

review: nyx's dream catcher palette

ok, i do love my naked palette. and i've used the hell out of it. it's a little embarrassing how dirty and busted up it is. i've even gone out and purchased singles of some of the colors. needless to say, i love me some neutral shadows, so this palette caught my eye in ulta when i was perusing for a a shimmery champagne shade after my single pot of 'sin' ran out.

nyx's dream catcher palette comes in 3 varities - golden horizons, dusk til dawn and stormy eyes. originally, i was set on the golden horizons palette. when i got to ulta, it was sold out! i was really drawn to the dusk til dawn palette and ended up picking that one up instead.

for $14.99, it's definitely more affordable than the naked palette. this week it was on sale on ulta.com for $8.99! i wanted to see the colors in person though, just to be sure. so far, the pigmentation on colors is a hit or miss - some are far more pigmented that others. these shadows are also slightly more chalky than i anticipated, and it feels like there's lots of product going on and not enough color payoff. however, as i said, this is differing from shade to shade so far. using a primer is a must.

it's a good buy for the number of colors you get. however, if you've got the money to spend and you're looking for a neutral palette, you're better off with naked or a too faced palette. i'm going to continue playing with the colors here as i do enjoy the shimmery shades for basic lid colors, but will i repurchase this? probably not. nyx is a wonderful brand for the price point, but this palette only looks gorgeous - the actual color payoff and shadow texture falls just a bit short.

overall rating: 3 of 5 stars.