Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Featured Friend: Meet Taylor!

Meet Dazzling Taylor!





Top (overlay): Charming Charlies
Skirt: Forever 21

As you could probably tell from her photos, Taylor is an energetic ball of personality and fun! Her happiness radiates to everyone she meets! What a joy it was to snap some photos of this girl in her Charming Charlies and Forever 21 outfit. The boots complete the outfit making it casual and chic! Thanks Taylor!

Friday, March 15, 2013

Featured Friend: Lindsey!

Meet Exquisite Lindsey!




Dress: Urban Outfitters
Shoes: Urban Outfitters

My beautiful sister Lindsey has always had a unique and classy sense of style (as you can see by the photos above). This is the PERFECT "winter to spring" transition outfit. The floral pattern makes the dress seem light while the darker coloring and closed toed shoes balance out the look. Thanks for inspiring us Linds!

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Weekend Wisdom: Failing to Prepare is Preparing for Failure

Failing to Prepare is Preparing for Failure

Sunday rolls around every week, and I believe it is a day meant for rest and restoration. However, attempting to avoid the inevitable start of the work week would be foolish! So, I make sure I am PREPARED to be HEALTHY and make wise decisions all week! The key to a healthy life style is consistency and balance! I usually like to splurge on the weekends, but I make sure I eat pretty clean throughout the week - this usually comes out to eating clean and healthy 80% of the time and 20% splurge...

Darling Tip: What is a "splurge"? For me splurges are not as extreme as some may think. I usually avoid eating a TON of processed food, white flour and sugar most of the time so a splurge would be giving into that type of "junk". For example, on the weekends Ill "splurge" by replacing my typical salad for lunch with a yummy sandwich or a slice of vegi pizza! 

Anyway, back to Sundays prep! I prepare as much as I can for the upcoming weeks breakfasts, lunches, and snacks...I eat many small meals throughout the week. 

Breakfast is SO important! So I start off with some solid protein...
2 Hard boiled Egg-whites 
1 Banana with 1 tablespoon of low-fat peanut butter...oh and COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE!
Mid-morning Snack is a piece of fruit. Either an apple, or an orange.

Lunch is a yummy salad complete with:
Lettuce
Yellow, orange and red bell peppers slices.
Red Onion
1/4 cup of chickpeas 
1/4 serving of avocado
Dressing is balsamic vinegar.

Afternoon snack is fresh fruit with 1/4th cup light vanilla yogurt...so yum tastes like dessert!
Usually before dinner I'll have some lower-sugar oatmeal as a late afternoon snack...it's so important to not let yourself get TOO hungry!

Dinner varies from day to day but usually its some type of vegetable with hummus or chicken. 

Email me with any questions! Happy Sunday and don't forget to Prep to Stay Darling~

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Featured Friend: Liz!

Meet the Incomparably Unique & Darling Liz!



Shoes: Toms
Bag: Fossil

This toms wearing cutie is one the sweetest girls with a hilariously unique personality. She is creative to the CORE which is demonstrated in her style. Thanks for letting me snap these darling photos, Liz!

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Weekend Wisdom: Darlings Nails!

For a good 6 years in my life I paid to get my nails done professionally every other week. That's about $40 every other week to get those glamours nails professionally manicured! Manicure/ gel/ acrylic... you name it, I did it! There's nothing like walking out of the nail salon with a fresh coat of paint! But my faster paced lifestyle did not leave me much room for this luxury! Plus I didn't even want to BEGIN to think about the thousands of dollars I had spent in my life on maintaining the perfect french tips! 

So I started to do my own manicures&pedicures! I did a lot of research on how to get those classy nails looking perfect on my own! Here is what I found...

There are a few steps required to getting the perfect manicure. First off lets discuss the products you will want to invest in!
1) Cuticle Pusher Nail Tool and Cuticle Oil
You can skip the oil and soak your fingers in warm, soapy water if you want to cut cost a bit! Do NOT trim your cuticles yourself! This can cause infection, so leave that to a professional, just pushing back your cuticles is sufficient enough. 
Darling Tip: Push back your cuticles right after you get out of the shower.
2) Shape and trim your nails using a nail file
I do not use nail clippers, I find it easier to get the shape of nail I want by filing them. I am not a fan of the plastic/glass/metal files, I have found that the classic emery board style works the best!
3) Base coat and Top coat polish
Spending a few extra dollars on polish actually pays off! I noticed a HUGE difference when using Sally Hansen base and top coat and a Revlon base and top coat...The Revlon worked better each time.
Darling Tip: The Quick Dry top coat works wonders and really does dry faster than the others! Just wait until your top coat of your colored polish is dry before you apply this baby otherwise you could create tiny bubbles in your polish, OYE!

4) The Perfect Polish
As I stated earlier, nail polish brand counts! Using the cheap brands will really cause you more work in the end because the polish will chip and look cheap after only a couple of days! You know you have a good polish when your manicure looks good for 5 days at least! The only brands I use are Revlon (about $5 a bottle) , OPI and Essie (both about $8 a bottle)



4) Prep the nail and Paint!
After your cuticles have been pushed back, and your nails filed to the perfect shape you are ready to paint! I start with one coat of the Base Coat. Let it dry (about 2 minutes) Then I proceed with 2 coats of the color of my choice (letting the first colored coat dry for about a 2 minutes before painting the second coat of color). Lastly, I top it all off with the top coat! I try to avoid doing anything really with my hands for at least an hour since the nails can FEEL dry but are probably still tacky. 
Darling Tip: I try to wait to do my nails until right before bed! That way, when I wake up I can be confident that my nails are completely dry and ready to go!

Here are some of my favorite colors and styles!

Email me if you have any questions about this! 
And Stay Darling!