Thank you to Cosmetics Hideaways for sponsoring todays post. As always, all thoughts, opinions, and experiences are my own.

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10 Things I Loved In July

Manifesting

Ever since I was a little girl, I believed in all things woo-woo, supernatural, and energetic. I used to have dreams that would happen in reality. As I’ve grown older, I learned how to harness some of that energy to manifest things in my own life. I loved your response on the abundance mindset post, so I decided to share my 7 steps to manifest anything you desire in life! Practicing these steps really allowed me to make anything happen that I set my mind after.

Elevating blogging

I am overjoyed that blogging is my career. I love teaching you guys and consulting with your on your own blogs, and believe it’s a truly amazing industry. Which is why I partnered with my friend Katherine, a PR professional and blogger, to write about why bloggers need to stop bashing brands! Seriously, if we as bloggers want to be taken seriously, both individually and as an industry, it’s our responsibility to elevate it and act like true professionals! In the same vein, I shared a throw back post of tips to help you create content your audience will love!

Cosmetic Hideaways

Something you might not know about me is that I rarely carry a purse! I usually just carry my key, credit card and ID and a chapstick with me everywhere I go. The most annoying of all those to carry is my chapstick by far since they others just lay flat in my clothes. Which is why I am SO excited to have discovered Cosmetic Hideaways! They create products to conceal chapsticks or lipsticks, like this beautiful necklace!

Brainstorming

The struggle of #summerbrain is so real for me lately! Between attending multiple conferences as an introvert, and traveling, my brain is a little fried. I figured I can’t be alone in the struggle so brainstormed 115 lifestyle blog post ideas!

Meeting friends IRL

At Her Conference I got to meet some of my blogging friends in real life!!

Darrian was one of the first people I met through blogging. We immediately bonded over the impact of disabilities on millennials and how confusing navigating the rehabilitation system can be. It’s such a specific niche that I rarely get to geek out with others over. Her blog and youtube channel cover a lot more than that, and her energy is absolutely contagious!

Sarah is one of the few college blogs I truly love! She actually has two sites now that she’s out of college, College Compass (all things college) and Sarah Laughed (all things adulting). She actually lives overseas so it was a major surprise to see her in a session and I’m SO happy we got to connect!

Erica and I basically talk every. single. day. I’m more likely to call her if I’m upset about anything than any of the friends I have locally. Our first “hang out” was a four hour Skype date. I loveddd meeting her amazing husband too! She always told me that he and I were basically twins, and honestly it’s true! I was having a NYC melt down (not my favorite city in the world) and I swear he spoke straight to my soul getting me to calm down.

Email Etiquette

In line with elevating the blogging industry, I’ve been paying particular attention to email etiquette lately! Particularly to tone and directness in exchanges and the impact they have on a relationships. Check out my top do’s and don’ts of email etiquette.

Guest Room

Our guest room is the next one done in our new home! I love finding ways to take care of our environment and stick with natural products, so we focused on upcycling for our guest room!

Looking back on my career

As we enter August, I always wax a little nostalgic about my career. I’ll be sharing more about it this month, but May 2014 is when I graduated with my master’s degree in counseling, and July and August were when I got fired twice in under 30 days. Honestly there are so many things I wish I knew before entering the workforce. I know everything happens for a reason, and that time in my life was the Universe doing for me, what I couldn’t do for myself. I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to attend Her Conference where I listened to keynotes from Troian Bellisario and Lisa Sugar. Their stories were so relatable and reminded me about the importance of soft skills in becoming a leader.

Washing my hair with beer

I washed my hair with beer last month…and loved it!! Seriously, I was SO shocked! I don’t drink and absolutely hate the smell of alcohol, so I was pretty skeptical. But I heard such amazing things about how beer makes your hair stronger and shinier, and it’s true! My hair feels so soft and I’m obsessed!

Tucker’s in middle school

Ahh Tucker’s in middle school!! Tucker is legit the smartest dog Eric or I have ever had! He gets commands so fast! But we think if he was a person, he’d be on the spectrum. He just doesn’t get social cues. So school has been a great way to learn social cues, and improve his impulse control when he gets fixated on something, while learning adorable commands like paw!