Top LiketoKnowit Items of 2019

To shop the items above, simply hover and click over each one!

2019 was my first year using LiketoKnowit, which is an app that allows you to shop for the exact and similar items that I have while allowing me to earn a very small (usually less than 10% of the item's price!) commission. It's been interesting getting a little behind the scenes glimpse of what the "real bloggers" use to make the big bucks...like thousands and thousands of dollars a year. While I'm not there, I do appreciate those who have shopped with me and through my links! It's such a sweet surprise when people will message me on Instagram asking for a link to something they want to buy, that I haven't necessarily even shared yet.

Earning a little bit through LTK lets me continue to blog and share things on Instagram. I find it incredibly helpful to see how different things fit on a variety of body shapes and sizes, and I think it helps others too. Anyways, here's a round up of the most popular items from my LTK in 2019! Ya'll loved dresses and vacation wear so I'll be sure to keep that coming in 2020. And as always, thanks for visiting my Instagram and LiketoKnowit pages, every little like/comment/share/save/shop helps.

One Word 2020: HOME

What do you want your life to look like?

I think we all have pictures of this in our head, but have you ever sat down and actually taken the time to think about your life and what you want it to look like? How you want the people to feel when they interact with you and the things you influence like your family, your work, and your home? I started thinking about a word for the year on the last day of December, and what I wanted my life to look like for 2020. Overwhelmingly, the word "home" kept popping up.

We've spent a lot of time in 2019 working on parts of our physical home and we plan to continue this in 2020. But "home" felt like something that could be broken down into a lot of little pieces that kind of encompassed a lot of my thoughts at this point in my life. So I started asking myself a lot of questions about the intentions I had for my space, things, life.

• Inside my home: I want the spaces to feel cohesive. Right now, our upstairs and downstairs are like night and day and it drives me nuts. I dread going upstairs because it just feels so different than the first floor. Our first floor is clean (for the most part), organized (or at least getting there), inviting, and a place I enjoy being. Upstairs is where we dump and hide all of the things. It's not been painted since before we moved in so it visually doesn't match the curated look of the rest of the house. It's also cluttered, which I'm working on, and there is too much visual stress and mental weight to enjoy being in any of the spaces. I want my upstairs to feel just as good as the downstairs. I imagine a home where I never stress when people drop by and the whole space is fluid and open.
  
  
• Inside myself: Similarly, I want to experience the same feelings of curation, organization, and welcome in my heart that I experience when I step through my front door. I want things to make sense: does this outfit reflect how I feel; does this activity or organization complete or deplete from the image of who I want to be and who God made me to be. Do I make people feel welcomed? Am I organized in my behaviors, with my things, etc.? It's a lot when you start think about it! A lot of it boils down to being intentional.  I want to feel put together, so I have to be intentional about establishing routines and opportunities for that feeling to even exist. I don't feel curated when my house is a cluttered mess and my closet is a mash up of random 'in the moment' interests. 

I know a lot of this may come across as setting an unattainable goals, but I think you have to sit down and figure out what you what your life to look like as some sort of guide. Otherwise it's all a clustery mess! I want people to feel welcomed in my home and in my life. I want to feel put together on the outside and the inside, like everything has a place and that it all belongs, just like a home. I need things to be organized and uncluttered at home and at work to free my mind from stress and be more productive.


So what do you want your life to look? How do you want people to feel when they're around you? How do you want to feel when you're in your space? Do you feel like you're at home? If you have a word of the year, let me know!

One Day in New Orleans

In August, we traveled to New Orleans a few days before Labor Day to kick off a fun-filled weekend trip. The main reason for our trip was to go to the Georgia Southern vs. LSU game in Baton Rouge on Saturday, so we added a stop in NOLA and Biloxi to explore and spend some time with friends.

We flew into Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport Thursday evening and took a Lyft {links with your Delta Skymiles for extra miles, guys!} to our hotel Le Méridien New Orleans. This was a beautiful place to stay in the heart of the Central Business District which is a lot quieter and cleaner than the French Quarter. Literally across the street from Harrah's if that's your thing, and less than a mile walk to the Quarter where you can begin to explore. The hotel has a really fun and eclectic vibe and we greatly enjoyed our stay there.

After dropping off our bags, we began to look for somewhere to go to dinner which proved more challenging at 9 p.m. in New Orleans than I had anticipated. We took off to see what was nearby and ended up at The Halal Guys which, while a chain, was absolutely amazing. I love a good gyro and this one was great--try the ghost pepper sauce, but a drop is a lot! After working all day and traveling that evening, we were tired and headed back to our room right after dinner in preparation for a long day on Friday.

Friday morning started off with the scrumptious breakfast from Bittersweet Confections. Found on picture perfect Magazine Street, we enjoyed a breakfast croissant, prosciutto, ricotta, and honey drizzled toast, a Nutella and white chocolate muffin and iced coffee before catching the free bus to Mardi Gras World. Truly a tourist destination, we were able to see from start to finish how the magnificent Mardi Gras floats are made while learning a little bit more of the history of the festival season. It was absolutely mesmerizing, and a super fun stop for all ages!

Thankfully, MGW has a free shuttle with lots of stops all over the city, so we hopped on the French Quarter shuttle and got to exploring. It ended up being a beautiful and surprisingly cooler August day, so we walked over eight miles throughout the city exploring. We took a lap around Jackson Square, admiring the architecture and the artists, before grabbing our first of many daiquiris at Willie's Chicken Shack. I'd planned on having a muffaletta lunch at Napoleon House but we were still really full from breakfast.

At 1 p.m. we joined the guided tour at the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum. The site of the first retail pharmacy, we were able to see and learn about old instruments, medicines, practices and beliefs from the 1800s. The pharmacist hubs was highly entertained. Once the tour wrapped up, we wandered for a while before heading to Pat O'Brien's for a famous hurricane at the piano bar. Going to a dueling pianos event is always fun, and it was a great place to cool off for an hour or so before a brief trip down Bourbon Street. Never my favorite place {wear closed toed shoes!}, it's still fun to people watch and try a new beverage or two.

After a nap back at the hotel and freshening up, we stood in line at Acme Oyster House for about 30 minutes before snagging two seats at the bar. Of course we had a dozen raw oysters, a po-boy and seafood etouffee--I even tried an oyster shooter. It was all super delicious and worth the wait! I had my heart set on taking a spin around the Carousel Bar with a French 75 in hand, and unfortunately I couldn't get a seat. We did however get a drink at the bar {which is actually a slowly spinning carousel!} and a couple of chairs in a cozy corner and were able to enjoy a fantastic jazz band after dinner! It was a ton of fun.

To top off the day, we of course had to swing by Cafe du Monde for an order of beignets before heading back to our hotel room to rest up before game day. I had hoped to go to the Ruby Slipper Cafe for brunch on Saturday, but we didn't get going early enough and ended up with a "recovery" meal of Raisin' Canes.

What are some of your favorite New Orleans stops?


You can shop my exploring outfit directly from the image below!