A WEEK IN REVIEW

Good Morning lovely followers and Happy Sunday-

I am currently on my spring break and enjoying this week in beautiful Hilton Head, South Carolina! For todays post I will be talking about my week and what I did this week, what I bought and thinks I liked and I will for sure be attempting to do this post once a week meaning that I will now by trying to post two times a week! Okay so this week for me was only a three day week! On Monday and Tuesday I was at my schools FBLA state leadership conference where we ended up placing first in our category which qualified us for nationals in Chicago this summer! SO when I got back from that it was already Wednesday and I had received a package in the mail with my order for my favorite website (pikoshirts.com) I am obsessed with PIKO tops so for spring break I had ordered myself a PIKO dress! I ended up getting it for around $21! You can find all sorts of PIKO tops on here too. They have the long sleeved, 3/4 sleeves, short sleeves, v-necks, boatnecks, & all different colors and they are all reasonably priced! So I highly recommend checking this site out!

So when I got back on Wednesday I had to start packing for spring break! I packed a lot of stuff and I am sure that you guys can understand the serious problem of being an overpacker. I can't help it I just always bring more than I would ever need. I would include a list of things I packed but I feel that posting packing lists for spring break is kind of irrelevant now because most people are already on their spring break! So I will skip over that for right now. While on my business trip I had bought a lot of stuff at Target before I left including knee high socks covered in pineapples and then dried strawberries. First off the socks were so stinkin' cute and myself like the rest of the blogger world are currently obsessed with the pineapple fad that seems to be going on so why not start the collection of pineapple items with some super cute high socks. THEN I went to the health food aisle and I saw dried strawberries. WHERE HAVE THEY BEEN ALL MY LIFE?! Seriously love love love dried strawberries. They are so tasty and not to mention they are only 110 calories for the ENTIRE BAG! So good for you and so yummy. I had a pretty dull week filled with lots of school work and preparation for spring break after I got home so there really isn't much more to talk about in this weeks review! I hope you all had a good week and I hope that for those of you also on spring break that you are having a wonderful week and enjoy lots of quality time with your families!

Until next time, 

XOXO

-Kait 

MACARON DAY

Hi friends! Yesterday (for those of you who didn't know) was National Macaron Day!! And I got to celebrate by going into my city and going to the cutest little place called The Macaron Bar! For my friends 16th birthday we went to dinner and afterwards we then went to get some yummy macarons. We had so so much fun and I loved eating macarons. Here are some pictures from the fun night!

The Macaron bar was absolutely precious. It was small and modern and seriously so cute. It is located right here in downtown Cincinnati and I highly would recommend it! They had around 12 different flavors of macarons and I had at least 5 of them and they are some of the best macarons! What did you guys do for macaron day!?

Love you all!!

XOXO-

Kait

WHAT I WORE: SPRING SEMI-FORMAL

Hi guys! So currently editing my video I made of myself getting ready this day and I have been crazy busy with testing this week so I will try to have that up by Sunday!! This past weekend however I had my spring formal and it was seriously SO MUCH FUN! My dress is the JCrew Scalloped Dress and my shoes are from DSW and my necklace is from Francesca's! My friend Bella is wearing a Lilly Dress paired with her silver Jacks! I hope you all enjoy these pictures and keep an eye out for my Get Ready with Me video!!

Xoxo-

Kait 

HOW I HAVE DEALT WITH WHAT LIFE THROWS AT ME

So my last time I tried posting this I guess I really wasn't as honest with you all. So lets try this again....without further thoughts here we go. The start of my freshman year was a very confusing time period for me. I had transitioned from 8th grade which was by far one of my favorite years ever. I had so many friends and I just really will always remember that year as one of the best years of my life. I went into freshman year with the same people that I had ended 8th grade with. I was loving my life. I entered my freshman year just so excited to have sort of a fresh start and experience new things. Little did I know that my whole life as I knew it was about to go through the blender. I started off high school just very unsure of where my life was going I knew I had a good head on my shoulders and I knew that I was going to have a great year. This was very wrong. Very quickly I had began to lose the friendships that I had valued so much and I was so lost. I had depended so much on the other people in my life to make me happy that I was not sure how to be on my own. I quickly started to panic about trying to find new friends. I was not sure who to go to anymore and I just felt so lost and alone. With that I started to lose who I was and was just trying to fit in with anyone I could. I wasn't the girl that I once was. The girl who had passion and drive and dreams that were so big. I had used to love dressing nice and going to school and by halfway through my freshman year almost all of that was gone. I hated school. I put the minimal effort into everything and I was not the person that I was. 

About midway through my freshman year things had somehow managed to get even worse. I was so scared to be myself and my confidence was just so low that I really struggled with body image and how I saw myself. I turned to overworking myself and skipping meals to make myself look that way that I at that time thought was beautiful. This is not a light subject matter to talk about and I know that people have it a lot worse than I did but no matter what it changed me and mentally hurt me in more ways than one. After that had taken over my mind and body I was still worried about trying to fit in and find my "group of people" People in my grade had began being exposed to the whole idea of partying and drinking at some point during the year and I knew that it was wrong and I knew better than that so I usually would spend the majority of my weekends alone thinking about why I couldn't just be like everyone else. I can't remember specifically what night it was but I know it was in about April 2014 that I woke up from this nightmare that I had put myself in and just broke down. I couldn't believe that the girl I was at the beginning of the year was so far gone and that she was replaced with this zombie of a person who had no dreams or goals of any sort. And that night I had realized that something had needed to change.  

I went into my summer with an open heart and open mind about what I would be doing during the summer to help myself get back to the person that I used to be. I got a job as a lifeguard at a local summer swim club and I had met so many amazing people that had just accepted me for the person that I was. I didn't have to put on an act around any of them I could just go into work everyday looking forward to being there and with the people there. This positive outlook I had received everyday during the summer at work had carried over into my school year this year (sophomore year) It was also during the summer that I had been privileged in meeting an amazing group of friends. We spent lots of time together and I felt loved and included and happy for once. I was healthy and in a good state of mind. But all that from a glance seemed so perfect to me. I thought I had everything. I became even more dependant with making sure that the group of friends that I had established was always with me and we were always together but even in the past week I have learned that I don't think that I have found the right niche of people just quite yet. With everything that the past few years have thrown at me I have learned that I really need to try and always remain positive and the people that I was associating myself with were not always the support system that I was looking for and with that I turned a lot to myself. I took yet another step back and I said to myself that maybe instead of worrying so much about having a group of friends that I poor my heart into when I am not even sure if they feel the same way I need to choose several of the people that I know I care about and that I know care about me and poor as much as I can into those relationships. I cannot agree how true the statement is "I would rather have two amazing friends than a bunch of mediocre friends" Nobody needs to settle for anything less than what they deserve. I am not sitting here and telling you guys that I am perfect because boy, I AM IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM. But I am incredibly happy with where I am right now with or without having lots and lots of friends by my side I at least know that I will always have the selected group of people always behind me. 

I know that life can be really hard sometimes, especially for those of us in high school and even college. So many things are changing and people are different. BUT if there is one thing that I wish I could go back and fix would be trying to change who I was in order to be whatever the word normal means. Do I still today struggle with the whole friends thing? YES! In my life things are always changing and I feel that obviously I am still so young I have so much time to build relationships and find those amazing people that I know that I deserve in my life and I know that all of you reading this right now also deserve to be as happy as you possibly can be. Being happy is something that truly will never go out of style. So until next time, remember that things may seem awful at the moment but it is how you will deal with those things that will make you an even better person than you already are. 

If anyone ever feels alone or lost. You are not. YOU are loved. 

Xoxo-

Kaitlyn. 

JULIANA'S BOUTIQUE

Hi guys!! Recently I had applied to be a rep for this boutique called Juliana's Boutique and well what do you know- NOW I AM A REP FOR THEM! This is such a cool experience for me and I want to share the website along with my code that saves your 10% off your entire order!! its quirkykaitlyn and lowercase letters. Julianas has some of the cutest clothes and they are priced very well so you won't have to empty your wallet!! For those of you with spring dances/parties coming up you should definitely check them out!! So check them out and I hope you all enjoy your weekend!!

{http://www.shopjulianasreps.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=257}

OOTD: BOYFRIEND JEANS

Alrighty so  a few month back I had purchased a pair of the Gaps boyfriend jeans. I couldn't figure out what to wear them with but yesterday I finally got my life together and figured it out. I paired the boyfriend jeans with a navy blue top that I got off of Tobi.com and a beige cardigan also from the Gap. For my arm party I am just wearing my Kate Spade watch and some bracelets that I got as a gift for Christmas! My shoes are not shown but I am just wearing a pair of Pink suede JCrew flats! I messed around with them some more yesterday and I paired them with a flowy grey short sleeved shirt and my black Tory Burch Reva's and it was perfect! So hopefully I will figure out some more ways to style them and I will definitely keep you all posted on my hunt for things to pair with my new favorite pants~

Hope everyone is enjoying their Monday off!

XOXO-

Kaitlyn 

LET'S GET FIT

Hi fellow blog readers- sorry this post has been such a long time. I seriously made it a goal this year to make sure that I post more and I promise I will I ended up getting sick and when you miss a day in high school you miss a lot! So being sick for two days really go tmy behind on all my school work but I think I am just about caught up now. So todays post I am sure you are able to tell by the title will be about staying fit and workout routines that I use! I have thought up two separate workouts for at home or at the gym! Sometimes you can't make it to the gym but you still want to workout so I have two amazing options for you that I myself use. And then what is more confusing then being at the gym and not having any idea of what to do because there are so many cool looking machines- trust me, I know we all have had a moment like that. Okay so lets start off with this much awaited post!

Step One: Getting motivated-

Okay so you're laying in bed and you just don't want to do anything besides just sleeping and watching Netflix. NO GIRL! You get out of that bed. My favorite thing I will do is I like to look up workouts and healthy fitspo things on pinterest before I workout. I also like making sure that I have a cute outfit on because face it everyone loves looking cute in the gym or at home when you workout. I think staying self motivated is such a very important skill in more then just working out. So whatever you can do to get motivated is totally up to you but that personally is what I do!

Step 2: Little snack before you get r' done-

Uh this girl right here loves snacking. Something about having healthy snacks just makes you feel happier you feel lighter, and of course healthier! Before you workout you want to eat something small and substantial to give you energy but not something too big to make you feel sick. A few of my favorite snacks would be Luna bars (specifically the Lemon Zest and the White Chocolate Macadamia Nut), Hummus with pretty much anything to dip in it and fresh fruit. I also always make sure to drink some water and then also take a water bottle with me to the workout!

Step 3: WORK OUT-

Okay so you ate your snack, you got your cute clothes on you have some music pumping and you are ready to go. First I will talk about the two workouts you can do right at your house!

1. I LOVE doing Zumba videos- I will search songs that are popular on the radio and look for a Zumba routine to do and I will do about 7 songs and that will be my workout for the day followed by my 5 minute ab workout* that I do every night! 
2. Run, run, run! Okay I am not the biggest fan of running but I will try and run a mile around my neighborhood and then come inside and do the 5 minute abs* along with some lunges while holding two 5lb dumbbells and then also doing some squats!      

For the gym workouts-

1. I like to warm up with 10-15 minutes of cardio so either the treadmill or the elliptical. After that I will head over to the bike machines and do about 3 miles worth of biking. After my legs are feeling nice and tired I will go and work on my shoulders and arms; pull ups and push ups! 
2. Once again after warming up with 10-15 minutes of cardio I will head right back on to the elliptical. I like sometimes to just do cardio for the entire workout and then follow it up with five minute abs* and so this workout is really easy because YOU pick what machines and what cardio you would like to do! 

*My 5 minutes abs:

:30 Russian Twists

:30 Heal Taps 

:30 Crunches making sure to get shoulder blades off the floor!

:30 Crunches touching right elbow to left knee

:30 Crunches touching left elbow to right knee

:30 Leg Lifts

:30 Seconds of flutter kicks

:30 REST

1:00 PLANK

I hope this helped a little bit. I am certainly not a fitness instructor or anything but these are some workouts that I like to do and that get me sweating so I hope they help you on your fitness journey let me know if you try them out and tell me how you liked them!!

XOXO

Kaitlyn