Summer Beauty Essentials

NARS Larger Than Life Life Lip Gloss $26 each

Happy Monday everyone! This weekend Lani , Lissy and I took a quick girls trip to New York City. And while I hoped to get a few outfit photos from our dinner out Saturday evening unfortunately it ended up raining. But despite a few showers we still had a fabulous time chatting, eating, and of course shopping.  Lani and I even got convinced by Lissy and a few of our other friends at dinner to get a kindle and before the weekend was over we both ended up ordering one. I would love to hear back from you about some of your favorite book recommendations so I can start loading up my new kindle.

Also today I am guest posting for Betsy over at Cool Kids while she is on a blog break and a relaxing beach vacation. Stop by to see my Top 5 Beauty Essentials for the Summer. It's all about experimenting with color and having fun with beauty products. You can also check out some of my other favorite beauty products all in one place here.

Stylish Things

One of my goals right now is to figure out all the features and buttons on my DSLR camera and to learn how to take better pictures. So I love putting together the stylish things post things post because it gives me the opportunity to practice my photography skills.

A new way to organize and display my expanding collection of sunglasses

I just added this bedside carafe to the guest room side table. Perfect timing since my parents just arrived today for a weekend visit.

My new favorite make up routine is to simply use bronzer and the NARS multiple to achieve a healthy and glowing (natural) tan for the summer.

Lately I have been obsessed with sweet and salty crunchy treats. First it was Stacy's cinnamon sugar pita chips and now it's kettle corn.

And in case you missed seeing this on my Facebook page, I now have my own makeup assistant.

Spring Fling

On Saturday Aneesh and I attended the annual Spring Fling cocktail party with his colleagues at the Boston Fairmont Copley Hotel.  I ended up wearing the same dress I wore a couple of weeks ago to another cocktail party, but I created a new look by adding different jewelry and a bright colored clutch.  And for a change I also experimented with my eye make up and went for a more dramatic look with Revlon's ColorStay eye shadow in sultry smoke.

Karen Millen dress, Stuart Weitzman heels, BCBG clutch, margaretruthbeads bracelet and earrings, Swarovski bangles

Reader Request: Shades of Lip Gloss

I have had a few readers ask me about the makeup I use so I thought I would start by sharing a few of my favorite lip glosses.  When it comes to makeup I believe less is more. I don't buy a lot of makeup because makeup does not have a long shelf life and I end up using my favorite products over and over again anyway. Also I don't have that many lipsticks because I prefer to wear neutral colored lip glosses most of the time.  But having said that, I am interested in experimenting more with lipstick colors and would love to know if you have any favorite shades of lipstick.

Lip Gloss Shades
1. MAC c-thru
2. Chanel giggle
3. MAC revealing
4. NARS striptease
5. MAC lust

Stylish Things

It was nice to be home this week after traveling so much the past month. I loved getting back into a routine and I made a conscientious effort this week to work on my time management skills at work and in my personal life. I firmly believe if you write things down you are more likely to accomplish those tasks.  So Sunday I took a few minutes to plan out my week and I wrote down everything I needed to do each day including workouts, errands, and of course all my work tasks and appointments. I ended up having productive meetings at work, got back on my workout regimen, squeezed in a pedicure, and even did some shopping (by the way loving the bright colored items at Zara and all the neutrals and feminine pieces at Club Monaco).

Of course I had to squeeze in a little bit of time to play around with my camera.  So here are my three new favorite travel items.  These will be perfect for our trip to NY city next weekend.

I stopped by Sephora to pick up my favorite dry shampoo by Rene Furterer but they were out of stock. So I bought this dry shampoo and I really like it because it has a much lighter scent.

Rollerball perfume to go by Marc Jacobs

Burberry sunglasses Aneesh got me for Valentine's Day

And after a busy yet productive week I am not making any plans or lists for the weekend. Instead, I am looking forward to laughing and enjoying precious time with my little sunshine.