Charlie's Europe Trip Via Birkenstocks

Hi everyone!

While I was on my Europe trip, I wanted to capture it in a different way than most "tourists". After thousands of ideas, I finally decided on this idea: Why don't I take my favorite pair of shoes and show my trip through where my shoes were? In a way, it's like taking a walk in my shoes and you get to see the landmarks visited. 

Let's go! 

**forewarning: About halfway through the trip, I hurt my toe, so I wasn't able to take photos of my shoes at the landmarks like I had planned. I did get the majority of the landmarks from the first half of the trip though :) 

Saint Frances Basilica 

Capri Island, Italy 

Palace of Versailles, France 

Versailles (Hall of Mirrors), France 

Sorrento, Italy 

Paris (Shakespeare & Company Bookstore), France

Paris (Eiffel Tower), France 

Rome (Colosseum), Italy 

Welcome Back!

Hey everyone!

I'm sooo sorry I haven't updated you all in a while. I've been super busy lately and had a ton of things to write about, but I just could not find the time to do it. Now that I am back from my amazing trip to Europe, I thought I would start things back up!

I have so much to share with you all about my trip, but it's a lot to put in one blog post. Because of this, I've decided to divide up my two week trip and share the highlights with you.

I learned so many life lessons on this trip that I believe everyone should know about. Along with new life lessons, I also discovered multiple different cultures and was able to photograph some of it. 

Hope you all enjoy!

Life Essentials

Life Essentials: Charlie Edition 

For this week's blog post, I wanted to do something a bit more personal. I've seen lots of posts similar to this lately. People are posting them on Instagram, Pinterest, and their blogs, so I thought I'd give it a shot. The idea is to post at least 5 things that you believe are essential to your everyday life. The objects I chose were a journal, a pen, a book, a camera, and a candle. 

Journal: As weird as it may sound, I have a fetish for notebooks. I got this one about a year ago and am still trying to fill it up. I write things all way from random notes, quotes, to check lists in my journals. P.S. if any of you are wondering, this is the journal I am writing the quotes in that I talked about a few posts back. 

Pen: I write absolutely everything down! I love writing and always have a pen with me. 

Book: I'm always reading a book. In fact, I'm currently rereading The Spectacular Now because it was so good! 

Camera: I'm one of those people who lives by the saying "capture the moment and keep it in a picture". I tend to have a selective memory, as I only remember the things I want to. For example, I couldn't tell you what I had last night for dinner, but I could quote specific things I said when I was in 2nd grade. 

Candle: I've noticed lately that I always have a candle lit in my bedroom. Even if I'm doing homework at my desk, I still have a candle lit on the shelf. 

Hope you all accept the challenge of posting your life essentials somewhere!

Celebrating My 16th Year

So I was honored to have my 16th birthday on Friday the 13th! Nothing bad happened (thank goodness) and I had a blast with all of my friends :) Once the party came to a close, I decided to open up a few of the gifts. I was immediately blown away by how amazing my friends were! I decided I would post this to give you all ideas for your friends birthdays :) Let's get started!

P.S. I will also leave the links to the websites at the bottom

Polaroid Camera: This is on the more expensive side, as it was from my parents. If you are really close with someone and know they would love it, it might be something to keep in mind.

Nail Polish: This could range so much. You could find small bottles, big bottles, bright colors, or soft colors. I've always thought nail polish was a great gift. 

Jewelry: As many people have said, jewelry is a girl's best friend. Well techinally diamonds are, but jewelry works too :) I'm not quite sure where the top necklace came from, but I think it looks georgeous! The jewelry in the middle picture is all from Charming Charlie's and the bottom piece of jewelry is from a website called Stella & Dot. The necklace that says "Creativity, Vision, Orgininality" is from Tweed. One thing I really like about these two bracelets shown is that they can be loosened and tightened. I have a really small wrist, so it's hard to find bracelet's like this. 

Lush: Any bath and body products are a great gift for a close friend, but Lush seems to be the new thing lately. You can purchase things such as edible lip srub, face masks, shower gels, to bath bombs anf fizzers. 

A few ideas not pictured are candles, stuffed animals from their favorite movies, and movie gift cards. 

I hope this inspired everyone for their friend's upcoming birthdays! 

Charming Charlie:  http://www.charmingcharlie.com/?gclid=CjwKEAjwotmoBRCc6LWd2ZnkuBYSJACyt2qumuUYU86vMsDSh3fQxtBA3VOKdbBGUsBGM5ghdv023RoCm-Hw_wcB

Lush: https://www.lush.com/ 

Stella & Dot: http://www.stelladot.com/ 

Tweed: http://tweedathome.com/home.php 

20 Facts About Me

Hi everyone! So I have the day off today and really wanted to post something, but I just didn't know what. After thinking about it, I realized you all know very little about me! Here are 25 interesting facts about me :) Let's get started!

1. In 9th grade, I made a PSA with a few other girls and it won two awards; one county award and one state award

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ2JsxTmctA

2. When I got to college, I want to study interior design 

3. Finding Nemo has alwasy been my go-to movie in life

4. I came up with the idea of Beauty & Lifestyle 101 on a random summer day when I was sitting at the pool

5. I've been to one One Direction Concert (I've also been given the privilege to see them again this summer!) 

6. I've own two hermit crabs, 3 cats, one dog, and a bunch of fish in my life

7. Hikes have always been a major stress reliever for me

8. I've been playing soccer for 12 years 

9. When I was a little kid, I always had my hair in pigtails and looked like Boo from Monster's Inc. 

10. My favorite show is F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

11. Zoella was the main person who inspired me to make a beauty blog 

12. I have an obsession with photography 

13. My lucky number has always been 13

14. I love quotes, as I find they explain how I'm always feeling

15. I can't wait to finally go overseas this summer

16. Miles Teller is my celebrity crush

17. As weird as this may sound, I don't like donuts

18. One of my favorite things to do is doodle

19. I have a weird interest in elephants

20. As a project once, I had to make a reliquary for someone who was dead. I chose Robin Williams and he's has been my inspiration ever since

Document Your Life

Document your life. 

For a while now, I've been documenting events that have happened in my life, things I've said, and thoughts I've kept to myself. Along with this blog being one of the places where I document, I have been keeping a journal. Now this isn't your ordinary journal. Instead of writing down "Dear diary, I went to the park today", I've been writing down quotes. I seem to find quotes really neat. The majority of the time, I can't put my thoughts into words, so I read quotes and find ones that are similar to what I am feeling. Since the summer of 2014, I've been writing quotes in my journal. A few of the quotes in it are self written as well. 

After about a month of doing this, I realized that I wanted to fill up the entire journal with life lessons and quotes from my favorite people. I think this is a great thing for everyone to do. It's so simple and when you're older, you can go back and see what was happening in your life that you may not remember. You never know, maybe you'll inspire others with the quotes you've kept. Or maybe this will show people in your life what you were thinking when you kept to yourself. For me, I did this to let things out. I'm not always comfortable with telling people how I feel, so I then become overwhelmed by all of the things kept inside my head. Once I started writing things down, I felt so much more relieved. Either way, I feel as if this is something everyone should try and do at least at one point in their life. 

You all are probably wondering why I am just now posting something about my journal, if I've had it since I started the blog. When I first started using the journal, I wasn't sure how it was going to work out. Do I really want to do this? What if I look back at it and think I was the strangest kid? I contemplated posting something about my journal for the longest time now and just recently came to the conclusion of doing it. 

I also just reached my 100th quote in the journal and thought this would be a great way to celebrate it! Woohoo! I've been slacking off lately on it, but I hope I have more time in the future to write in my journal. 

I was thinking that if I did this, I could inspire so many people to do something similar. It doesn't matter if you film bits of your life, write in a journal, or anything else you can think of. Just document your life in some way. 

Let's Go on A Food Trip

A new store called Southern Seasons has arrived in my area and I've been dying to go there and see what they have to offer. A few days ago, I finally got the chance to visit.

When I walked in, I was immediately overwhelmed (in one of the few good ways though). There were so many foods to choose from. The carry things all the way from wine, cheese, candies, to gift cards. I decided that in a store like this, words can't describe how amazing it is. Here are a few of the photos I took along the way. 

Enjoy :)

Doesn't it look delicious? 

February Ipsy Glam Bag

Happy Valentine's day!

Hi everyone!

Here's what I got in the February Ipsy Glam Bag. 

1. Luxie 504 large angeled brush 

2. No. 1 Parfum

3.  Cargo Cosmetics lip gloss in the shade Anguilla

4. Rob Scheppy powder eyeshadow in the shade Pearl Fizz

5. Model Cosmetics blush cheek powder in the shade Peach Bellini

I've been so happy with Ipsy so far! Along with receiving amazing products for myself, I've learned about other bloggers who have loved it as well. I remember when I first started looking into monthly bags and boxes. I was a little hesitant because I didn't know much about it. I'm so happy I finally took the plunge and became a part of it. I recommend all of you go to their website and check it out. I promise you won't regret it.

http://www.ipsy.com/subscribe

P.S. For any new makeup goers, Ispy glam bags are a great and cheap way to build your makeup collection and find new products to try!

There's a First Time for Everything

Hi everyone!

This is my first beauty haul! I'm so happy I've finally got the chance to post a haul. I rarely get the opportunity to go out and shop my butt off, as I have school and sports so often. I went on what I call a "haul", so it my not be a lot compared to what some of you are used to going out and buying. Either way, let's get it started. 

For today's haul, I went to four different stores: Lush, Francesca's, J Jill, and Nordstrom. At Lush, I bought three things. I've never really looked at their bath bombs (as I'm not a "bath goer"), but I thought I'd give it a shot today. I bought the two scents, Butterball and Blackberry. The lady in the store told me that those are some of their most popular scents and were good to start off with if you are new. I also bought a BB Seaweed face mask. The seaweed, rose, and honey soften and cleanse your skin. While I was scanning Nordstrom, I came upon the jewelry section. I spent a good 10 minutes looking at all of the Alex and Ani bracelets until I finally decided on the four leaf clover bracelet (upper right photo). At Francesca's, I bought a dress (below), page markers and lemon candle (left photo). I'm currently burning the candle and it's making my room smell absolutely delicious! The dress is made out of lace material. 

(sorry for the terrible quality, I used my phone for this photo)

In J Jill (all clothing store), I bought a vest. They seem to be in right now and I have yet to purchase one for myself. I finally found the perfect vest for a cheap price! 

Sorry if this didn't seem like a huge haul, as it truly wasn't. I thought this was more than I usually buy, so I wanted to share it with you. Hope you've seen new products and are interested in trying new things out! Hope everyone's new year has been great so far. 

January Ipsy Glam Bag

Hi everyone! 

I've signed up for monthly 1psy glam bags!!! I heard so many good things about them that couldn't resist. Every month they send you 5 different travel-sized beauty products. The products can range from moisturizers to eyeliners. It's only $10 a month, which I consider quite a bargain for the amount you get! Here's what came in this months bag.

1. Malin and Goetz mojito lip balm 

2. Hikari eyeliner "storm"

3. Pacifica natural mineral coconut eye shadow 

4. Eco-beauty day moisturizer 

5. Manna Kadar sheer glo shimmer lotion 

My Top 10 Beauty Products 2014

Hi everyone! In honor of it being the last day of 2014, I thought I would share with you my top 10 beauty products that I have been loving all year. Now, I've tried so many new things this year and it was very hard to narrow it down to my 10 favorite. I found a use in all of these throughout the entire year and couldn't find anything that got the job done better. I'd also like to note that these are in no specific order, as they all serve different purposes. Let's get rolling!

1. Bio Oil has literally 1,000 different purposes. It can clear up scars, soften skin, and make your skin look so much brighter! Now, you all must be wondering why it is full when I said that I had loved these the entire year of 2014. I just recenetly had to go and purchase another one of these bad boys because I had used the last one all up. Bio Oil can be used all over and makes your skin feel 10x better immediately!

2. This is the Garnier Balancing Daily Exfoliator. I am always scrubbing my face with this in the shower and can immediately feeling it cleaning my skin. This is literally the best when it comes to hydrating your skin. I didn't start using this daily until the winter and once I started using it with the cold weather, I could tell my skin wasn't looking or feeling as dry as it was before. I most definitely recommend this to everyone! It works wonders with all skin types.

3. Revlon's BB Cream has literally been my best friend this year. It wasn't hard at all to find my skin color, unlike other brands where I have to buy 3 or 4 to find the right one. This BB cream lasts me all day and I don't see any different between it at the beginning and end of the day. I absolutely adore this stuff and can't believe I went this long without using it. 

4. This Style Sexy Hair Blow Out is without a doubt the best hair product I have every come across! I've never been a big fan of hair products like this, but I decided to give them the chance this year. All you have to do when using this is make sure your hair is slightly wet, and then you are ready to go! Quickly spray this awesome product in your hair and blow dry with a comb. My hair was so much softer than usual when I was done blow drying. Every has got to try this out! I promise you won't regret it. 

5. L'Oreal's eye makeup remover has been so amazing! It gets all of the makeup off and hydrates the area around the eyes as well. Literally the best eye product I've had. Unlike other brands, this remover doesn't leave your skin feeling greasy, which I absolutely love in a product! Couldn't wish for better eye makeup remover!

6. I have gone through several of these puppies this year and that truly says something! Eos are so hydrating and leave my lips feeling perfect. Every single one of my friends has loved this product as well. We just can't get enough of them!

7. These wipes have been with me through thick and thin this year! The Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes have done so much for my skin. They do more than clean your skin well before you go to bed. These also take of all of your makeup! This is the best two-in-one I have ever had. 

8. This is the Dr. Brandt pores no more refiner primer. When you don't feel like caking your face with makeup, this will do the job. Just push the pump and the perfect amount will come out. Honestly, I've just worn this before and feel amazing. I could go on for days, saying nothing but good things about this product. 

9. The Tarte mascara (left) is absolutely amazing! When you put it on your lashes, it doesn't immediately clump up like other brands. The brush evenly spreads the mascara and puts it on perfectly. I've been using this all year and haven't found a better mascara yet! Definitely suggest this to all you who are looking for a new mascara to invest in. 

10. The eyeliner on the right is by far the best eyeliner I have ever used. This one is the best! Trust me, I have experimented with so many different eyeliners and at the beginning of last March, I finally found this one! I've stuck with it since and it's never even crossed my mind to go out and try other types. This eyeliner has a brush tip and applies so well!

I hope everyone enjoyed reading about my favorite beauty products of 2014 and are now inspired to go out and try new things for 2015! As we are approaching a new year, I thought I would change a few things that happen on Beauty and Lifestyle 101. For instance, I'm thinking about doing monthly favorites and posting a few clothes here a there. Comment your thoughts on the new ideas and please share anything else you think I should start doing in 2015! Happy New Year!