Sneakers n' Shakes

Summer is usually busy and I always set a personal goal to make plans with as many people as I can and do a bunch of fun things. But it’s also important to spend some time with yourself, so I made sure to pencil that in for this summer too. One of my 25 in 25s (essentially my goals list for the year) was to go on a solo date. The first thing I had to figure out though, is what does a solo date really entail? First:  Getting ready as if you're actually going on a date. Treating yourself like someone you love and putting in the extra effort you would for another person. So I chose some cute, comfortable clothes (I wore a Taylor Swift shirt to impress my target audience: me :) and did my hair. The goal is to make this feel different from an errand, it needs to feel special and intentional.  Second: It's important to consider the location. I chose a café because I absolutely love coffee shops. (I actually prefer coffee dates in general.) Here are a few things to consider as you...

I don't normally set a summer bucket list and actually enjoy randomly stumbling across Snapchat, Instagram and Pinterest filters/pins that allow you to check off what you did over the summer. (And I enjoy that I tend to unintentionally do a lot of the items.) However, this year I thought I'd actually set one up myself and include some things I know I'm going to do, some things I want to try to make happen and sprinkle in a few of my actual goals for the year as well. If you set summer as a three month long season (June to August or if you're following the solstice June 21 to September 21st) then that's a fair amount of time to accomplish some goals! It's also a time to let you home in on a few key goals or projects without taking the rest of the year into question. If you're not someone who does monthly goals, I have a blog post here that explains how I set mine up: I'm going to use the same concepts I use for monthly goals when setting up my summer buck...

Summer is right around the corner so this month I thought I'd share my summer skincare faves! I will admit I'm not really a skincare aficionado but I will be sharing the few basics that I actually use. I've noticed that certain products work better for me during the summer and others work better in the winter. The biggest thing is I need a lot more hydration in the winter and if I use the same products in the summer my skin gets too oily. (I’m not sure what my skin type is but it seems to be dry in the winter and oily in the summer.) So with that let me jump into my summer faves: 1. Bliss Drench & Quench Cream-to-Water Hydrator During the summer, this becomes my primary face moisturizer. It's super light and provides just the right amount of hydration. Like the name suggests, it starts out like a cream but the more you spread it across your face it feels like water. The overall effect, as a result, is a lighter and airy feel that dries really quickly.  I don’t need ...

It’s poetry month so I thought I’d once again share a one-week poetry challenge! These are prompts I’ve collected from all over and have actually written on too, so I’ll be sharing the prompt list and my entries for them! 1. Write a poem where every line is a question and the last one an answer 2. So many skies 3. Here’s to moving on 4. Keeping the light on 5. All of my ghosts 6. Seems like forever  7. Write a poem where the last word of the previous line is the first word of the next line And here are my entries! 1. Write a poem where every line is a question and the last one an answer Are we going to be alright? When everything feels so bleak? When the state of the world feels like it’s falling apart, how can we even sleep? How do we contend with rights being stripped away? And when there’s so much uncertainty, how do we get through every day? Are we going to be alright? Doesn’t the Earth keep spinning, and each day still arrive? And somehow when we focus on the simple moments, d...

I know a lot of birthdays in March, so I figured the best blog post for this month would be to list out some unique, handmade gift ideas! Everything I am listing out are things that I have personally gifted to people with good results. This is by no means a comprehensive list because I find the best gifts to give people are tailored to that person specifically on their specific likes and passions. But I did try to get together a few items that could be adapted to suit your specific need. Most of these have some handmade aspect and they all range in price depending on how far you want to take it. Without further ado, I’ll start the list: Annotated Book: Buy a physical version of their favorite book and as you read through it, add your notes and annotations on the margins and then gift it to them.          Connecting with someone through something as personal as their favorite book and showing effort to understand things from their perspective but ...

February 13 th  is self-love day, so this month I thought I’d share 3 Self-Love/Self-Care activities that I’ve personally been incorporating into my life recently.   1. Rest Rest is by far the kindest thing you can do for your mind and body. And by rest, I mean guilt-free rest, where you simply let yourself relax. This can mean going to sleep on time or even early to ensure you get enough sleep. Other times it means saying no to plans or events so you dedicate time to rest and recharge. Rest in this form is intentional and is about ensuring that you don’t burn out or stretch yourself too thin. I personally struggle with resting because I’m always trying to be productive and cross things off my list. But I’m working on allowing myself to rest and not be productive without feeling bad about myself. From cycle syncing, I know that there are times where I can get a lot more done so I try to plan my super productive days when I think I’m going to have the energy to do the...