Trend to Try: Lavender

Pics from here.
 
Lavender-everything started emerging early 2018, but this fall, lavender has been all the rage with no signs of slowing down. It couldn't be a prettier, more versatile color trend for all seasons - great for winter and spring alike - and all reasons to get dress.  
I love this color trend for workwear, dressed up and casual outfits. It even quickly acts as a neutral when paired with bolder colors.  With so many options, and so many sales - it's a great time to try out this color in your own wardrobe! 
I'm sharing how you can match this color up + my top lavender outfit pics below! 

With so many sales, it's a great time to pick up a lavender (or lilac) piece.  I've rounded up some of my favorite items that could easily be matched back to other colors (see the color combos above for ideas) to create on-trend, fun and versatile outfits.

Are you trying the lavender trend?  I'll be sharing how I styled it next!

Follow along here: BlogLovin, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

To Make: Last Minute Cheese & Fruit Plate for Kids & Adults!

Still need to bring and/or put something together for your family Holiday gathering (or even an idea for next week's NYE events!)??  I love a good cheese/fruit/nut tray - but for a recent family gathering, I also needed to appeal to the little ones, as well as the adults!  So I put together a kid & adult friendly platter! 
Fruits: Pomegranate Pear Apple Blackberries
Cheeses: Mozzerella Colby Jack Chunks Parmasean Goat Cheese (with honey!)
Other: Crackers Blackberry Jam  Nuts (we love Marcona Almonds)
Then arrange it all on a big bamboo butcher block - which I got last year for Christmas from my mom and have used it weekly since! I love it for adding counter space over my sink, cutting on, arranging foods on, using as a background and so on.

If you don't want to pick out seeds bit by bit, or send them flying by flipping chunks inside out, I suggest simply cutting a pomegranate in half and soaking each half in a bowl of water - seeds facing into the water.  After 15-30 minutes, they will come loose in the bowl. Then simple drain the water in a colander.  So get this going first, while you slice up and prepare everything else!

Easy and liked by all - Merry Christmas/Happy Holiday gatherings and yummy food eating. ;)

Follow along here: BlogLovin, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

To Make: Refreshing for Summer, Flavorful enough for Fall Cocktail

The grapefruit-vodka cocktail has been my refreshing go-to all season long, but just subtly summer enough to transition into fall just fine.  Actually, grapefruits reach their peak around the holidays, as they have a longer gestation period than the average citrus fruit, so you may consider squeezing the fruit for your own juice come winter!
Keep reading for the ingredients and recipe!

What you need (it's really quite simple):

1. San Pellegrino, flavor of choice - I love using the Blood Orange flavor for extra hiding of the Vodka taste.

Alternatively, you could also select any other sort of tonic or club soda you fancy.

2. Grapefruit juice (or fresh grapefruit, squeezed).

3. Vodka (I like Grey Goose - it's more expensive, but I don't drink enough to put me out of house and home or anything, and I'd rather it go down smooth.

4. Limes - for the juice and garnishing (I use at least one per drink - I love lime!)

For a single serving: 

(I always make my drinks in singles, unless I'm making a batch of margaritas or summer brew or something like that)

1. Fill glass of choice with ice (I like to use a stemless wine glass or something of similar size)

2. Add a shot's worth (more of less depending on your tolerance/preference)

3.  Fill the glass 3/4th of the way with San Pellegrino

4. Fill glass the rest of the way with grapefruit juice

5. Squeeze at least 2 slices of lime (I like 3-4!) into the glass

6. Either stir OR dump into a shaker and, well, you know... shake!

7. Once back in glass, garnish with another lime slice and add a straw (I like to continuously stir to keep the ingredients mixed throughout my slow drinking).

Mmmm... and there you have it. A cocktail to take your right into fall, and yet keep you holding on to summer a bit longer.

Follow along here: BlogLovin, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

4 Tips to Posting Better Photos on Instagram

Instagram is my favorite social channel these days... (followed maybe by... SnapChat! There, I said it! I admit it!  I love them for very different reasons, but that's for another day... oh, you can follow me there, too, at ChasingDavies).  I love Instagram because I taking pictures is my hobby and I love working on sharing a feeling through an image or capturing my children in a cool or different way. I also love looking at other's photos and finding inspiration to challenge myself to look at something from a different angle. This channel is straight to that point. 
I'm not the best at Instagram at all, but I think if you scroll through my feed you can see an improvement in my photos (in the uniqueness, angles, and colors) . And of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder - we each have different perspectives on what makes an image cool or unique.  I have to show off for a tiny second - One of my photos was just recently selected by famous photographer, Gray Malin as a runner up out of more than 6,000 entries in his #FollowGrayContest!  The image that I entered and was selected can be viewed here!
One thing that I don't do that well at on Instagram is taking similar photos, or only publishing photos that include the same colors for a cohesive feed.  My first priority is capturing and sharing real life and my favorite looks - no matter what colors or scheme it happens to hold.  I think using a similar editing technique (like I tend to do) does help keep my feed looking like each photo is at least part of the same family, though. :)  
So, through my own trials and tribulations, and hopefully apparent improvement on this platform, I share with you 4 tips that I've learned along the way:

1.  Pre-Edit BEFORE you get into the Instagram app.  I know this sounds like a lot of extra work, and Instagram has some great editing tools, but I've found that a combination of pre-editing and using Instagram's provided filters makes my photos look so much nicer and more unique than other Insta posts. 
The largest folder on my phone is my Photography one, which is filled with tons of different photo apps. I mainly use AfterLight to pre-edit my photos and LOVE the "relic" filter (that is last in the selection, in the "Originals" after the Facebook filters - which I didn't find until more recently). This filter is especially great for indoor or warmer looking pics (it adds a cooler layer).  I also like the added light features this app has - like adding a streak of light on one side!

2. Go cooler than you think. In temperature, I mean. And this depends on the photo, but for any photo I take indoors or around a lot of warm colors, I use the temperature tool to cool it down.  This might be my favorite tool, actually. 
And I always go a bit cooler than I think, because once it is published and on the white background, the photo always looks warmer.  If there is any white in your photo, it can look tan or pinkish next to the white background, which immediately takes away from the photo...

3. Check your progress. Once you are editing in the Instagram app, you can check you progress to see how far you have or have not strayed from the original (or pre-edited).  I accidentally stumbled upon this feature and use it all the time to make sure I'm actually improving my photo and not getting to edit-happy.
You just press down on the photo in edit mode and when you release, it goes back to the edited version.

4. Preview on Instagram's white background. Ah, another stumbled upon trick, and one I'm so happy to have found!  I hate that you edit on a black background - make your photo look different than how it will actually look against the white feed background.  
Before you publish, tap your image and it expands over a white background to preview. I've caught many whites looking to tan in my photos agains this background before, and simply using the back button, you can go back to editing before finalizing it!
Now, spill some of YOUR favorite Instagram tips or tricks and/or other photo editing apps that you love in the comments below!

Follow along here: BlogLovin, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

How to Wear the 'Not Nude Lip' Trend

I've never been very good at applying makeup or being on the up and up of makeup trends, but as I'm getting older, I know it's important to learn these little tricks and figure out what products are going to work the best on me. That's one reason I love shopping at Ulta - they have so many options under one roof, from designers to drugstore brands so you don't even have to spend a ton to find something for you.  More than that, I love that they have experts there ready to help you find the right product, brand and shades for you and how to apply it - giving on the site tutorials on your face.
So, this last weekend I set out to learn how to wear the 'Not Nude Lip' trend and what products would work for me.  Lipstick has always been something I've had fun playing around with. It is a bit easier to grasp (I mean, a swipe of the tube to the lips - anyone can do that!), but what I learned at Ulta was that you should to think past just your lip color.  Depending on what you're doing to your lips, you have to balance out the rest of your face.  So, of course, this not quite nude, a bit more pinkish lip trend comes with the some suggestions.
I wanted to still keep my makeup more natural looking and less cumbersome for an overall more casual look. But before even getting to the lips, you have to start with the base of your face.  While there are no strict rules you must follow (hey - if you like it, you should flaunt it), with this not quite nude lip, you should add a bit of contouring to your face to keep everything from fading into each other. This just helps accentuate your features. 
(Full list of products at the bottom of this post, but all products found at Ulta! Beautiful photos by Jeannette Howard Photography - she is awesome to work with if you need a family photographer!)

For the face, the awesome artist at Ulta actually showed me how to contour my face, which is something I've never done before!  Contouring sounds scary and like nothing I have time for, but it's really all in the brush stroke and right products - so really very easy.  My other concern was not feeling weighted down by layers of make up - but with thin layers of the right product, my makeup felt very weightless.

What you need to set the right foundation for your look:

1. Primer - I used Spackle by Laura Gellar.  This just allows everything to lay nicer on your face and help you achieve more of that clean and smooth look.

2.  BB Cream - I used this instead of foundation which includes SPF. (*Tip: Apply with a brush for a more airbrushed look!)

3.  Using Crease-Less Concealer for the Under Eye by Laura Gellar, smooth over your under eye skin.

Now you can move on to adding some dimension to your face:

1. Brush Bronzer just under your cheekbone back into your hairline. I used Laura Gellar's Bronze N Brighten, which I liked for a smooth color as all the different hues are swirled and baked together.

2. Add highlighter to the inner corners of your eyes, under your eye brow and under your eye bone, below the concealer to lift the skin color.

3. For a little color to your face, add blush to the apples of your cheeks (above the bronzed contouring).

Next, whether you're playing up the eyes or not, you need mascara!  For the daytime, I kept it simple and just applied neutral shadow and Fortifying Lashes Mascara by Laura Gellar.  This mascara is actually a lash primer and conditioner, but looks great alone or top with another mascara for extra pop for night. 

And don't forget the eye brows!  I'm actually in the process of growing mine out (trying to achieve a fuller brow), but you can easily fill them in to achieve the same look!

^^ One eye with the primer mascara and one eye without!  See the difference?!

And now the lip...  This might be the easiest part!  

1. You need a lip pencil (which I tend to skip most of the time, but for this look, it really helps make your color last).  I used a waterproof pencil in buff by Laura Gellar to outline my lip, but also fill it all the way in! This sets a good base to allow your lip topper to stick.

2. I tend to shy away from lip glosses because they are sticky, my hair gets stuck to my lips and it wears off really fast, but I love it for how smooth and moisturizing it is. So, Ulta suggested this Luscious Lips Lipstick which feels like lip gloss, but is a stain that lasts a long time! 

---> Cherry Almond is the perfect 'Not Nude Lip" color!

Full list of products used to make this look possible c/o Ulta:

Now head over to my friend, Erin's blog at Pretty, Polished, Perfect to see her 3 product picks at different price levels to achieve this 'Not Nude Lip' - something for every budget! And stay tuned to see how I take this look to a night look, playing around more with my eyes.

This post in sponsorship with Ulta, but all my options and makeup choices my own!

Follow along here: BlogLovin, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

How to Build the Perfect Cheese Plate

A couple weeks ago, a few friends and I gathered to celebrate the holidays together, sans kids or any other distractions. It was really nice to spend quality time together - and one of my favorite parts was the awesome cheese plate my friend built up for us to munch on before dinner. This would be the perfect thing to create last minute before any Holiday gatherings or parties you might have!  Easy, grocery store finds arranged prettily with a variety of flavors for everyone to enjoy.
I particularly loved this mix of sweet, savory and salty. There are other variations you can take a cheese plate should you have other cravings or crowd requests, but here's the details of this one (with a few options for additions or swaps):
Fruit Pomegranate seeds, bought already extracted (from CostCo) and placed in a wine glass Grapes Another option: apple slices
Salty Salami slices Nuts: almonds & macadamia nuts are my fav! Another options: prosciutto
Cheese Depending on your crowd, you can get adventurous or play it safe!   Rosemary cheese Parmesan
Extra Baguette Another options: crackers, thin breadsticks

Of course, no cheese plate is complete without the perfect bottle of wine to accompany it. I am a BIG fan of the affordable Castle Rock Pinot Noir (I think it's about $11 at CostCo).  

Have a favorite cheese/appetizer plate addition or wine recommendation to share?  I'd love to know, leave a comment below!

Follow along here: BlogLovin, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

3 Ingredient Homemade Popsicles + Date with my Liam

It's always special to spend some one one time with Liam, but even more so with another baby around and how busy we've been.  It's great to just take that time to get away from it all and focus on him.  He's talking up a storm these days with full on conversations and has mastered the the word "why."  He is curious about everything, and we're able to sit together and talk about the littlest of things. I just want to soak up his little voice and funny comments and remember it always.  He makes my heart feel so happy.
So we took some time to escape to our patio with homemade popsicles to enjoy an evening together. These homemade popsicles only have 3 ingredients blended together and then frozen in some cute molds (shop molds here).  Super easy, no extra sugars or other ingredients that aren't needed included.
To make 8 popsicles: 3/4 of a can of coconut milk (in a can) 2 bananas (frozen or fresh) 2 cups of pineapple (I used fresh, can would probably be fine)
Combine and blend until smooth, then pour into molds.   Give it about 2-3 hours to freeze, then enjoy!

Cheers to many more summer popsicle dates!
{Peaches & cream popsicles recipe here!}

Follow along here: BlogLovin, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook