Friday Five- Flawless Face

Here are some products that I have just fallen in love with!

I have never used this brand before but I have been trying extra hard to have flawless skin for my engagement pictures.  So I tried these out and they are fabulous.  They are pretty sudsy and they are double sided, one side is smooth for around the eye area and the other is more abrasive.  I LOVE these.  This dry skin girl needed some serious help and these did the trick.  I wash my face first with cetaphil and then follow with one disk.

One word... AMAZING.  My face has been longing for this product.  It is so hard for me to find the right moisturizer but this ladies is where its at!.  It provides amazing moisture while still being light and I feel like it cleared up my skin.

Mary Kay Firming Eye Cream

Hands down the best eye cream.  I have been using it for a few years now.  I can completely notice a difference if I forget to use it at night.   Even Nick uses it!!   I said that he woke up one morning and he looked super wrinkly around his eyes.  He popped this stuff on and bam ... firmed those wrinkles right up

Maybelline Fit Foundation

I started using this a few weeks ago and I love it!  I love the coverage and the texture.  I haven't had any breakout problems.  Give it a try :)

Maybelline Dream Lumi Highlighter.

This little thing works wonders on those days where you didn't get enough sleep the night before or your skin is just looking a little dull.  I love putting this under my eyes to give them a little boost of light.

Let me know if you have tried any of these and what you thought!

Wedding Wednesday- Engagement Picture Ideas

I have been so excited to take engagement pictures since WAY before we got engaged.  I have worked with our photographer and she had the idea to do a casual shoot in an apple orchard and a more formal shoot around sunset at the downtown mall in Charlottesville.  So I have been trying on tons of outfits and trying to prep.  If only I could afford a professional to blow out my hair... alas  I may just look like a winded hot mess

List of things to do:

-Self tanner
-Whiten teeth
-Hair mask
-Exfoliate skin
-Drink lots of water
-Steam clothes
-Polish Shoes
-Paint nails
-Clean my ring
-Gather props for shoot



Here are some pictures I have been loving on Pinterest:

Any tips or suggestions?

Beautify your name- Anne of Green Gables style

A friend posted this quote on Facebook yesterday: '[live] so that you beautify your name, even if it wasn't beautiful to begin with…making it stand in people's thoughts for something so lovely and pleasant that they never think of it by itself'   - Anne of Green Gables

What a beautiful quote.  I started to think about when Nick and I would throw around our future baby names and one would come up and it would remind us of someone in our past.  Usually it wasn't a good reminder and that name was tossed to the side.  I decided that even though one in five girls is named Katie, I want to beautify my name.  I want to live in a way that others who knew me wouldn't be turned off by the name because of my actions.


 I have been trying to reflect on this and figure out the changes I need to make in my life.  So here is what I have come up with.

1. Speak kindly-  I love listening to gossip, not for it being mean but just knowing other peoples business, it's interesting and gives me something to talk about.  But I realized that it gets to be exhausting and I start to focus on all the negative things about other people and my life, so I want to focus on trying to uplift conversations.

2.  Give more compliments than criticisms.  I have a bad habit of judging people as they walk by me... terrible shoes, pants that are too short, everything is a hot mess.  That is none of my business.  Who knows why they look a certain way, it isn't my business and I should use my thoughts and time to make others realize their worth not cut them down.

3.  Look beautiful.   Not only do I need to remember that others deserve to see that I care about my appearance in front of them but also I want to have that special something that makes me shine from the inside.   I have met a handful of people in my life that by industry standards are ordinary but their inner beauty makes them absolutely gorgeous, they just seems to radiate.  Those people that come up in conversation that you say "I don't know what it is about her but she is gorgeous".   I want that, and I feel that it comes from being genuinely positive and kind to all.

4.  Go out of my way to make people feel comfortable.   I want to start taking notice of the people around me.  Is someone sitting alone at church?  Does someone look a little down at work?   I need to find an uncreepy way to reach out to them.

Now go and watch some Anne of Green Gables!