Apartment Life: My Desk

This girl no longer has to solely use Starbucks and her bed as an office, work station, writing area, blog spot, whatever else I do that involves needing space for my work and creativity!

Welcome to the first post in what will be the series that will focus on Anna and I's new space. It will be called Apartment Life and will conveniently be a label in my "Scattergories" section of my blog.

Now, let's get to talkin'.

When designing my room and figuring out what I wanted it to be, I had an itch to get a desk. I had realized that I never really owned my own desk. This past year living at home, I had taken a lot of trips to Starbucks, which slowly felt like my office when I was working on blog posts, writing articles, and job searching. When I was home, my bed also acted as an office with my Mac constantly on my lap and my pens on my night stand.

I knew I had to separate my work and creativity from where I am supposed to relax and sleep. 

Eventually you will see different areas of my room and apartment, but for now, I'll just mention things. In my mind, my color palette for my room would be black, white, grey, teal, while incorporating pops of color. The bulk of my furniture is black. And deep down, I just knew a white desk would be fabulous. 

I had seen desk chairs while at IKEA with Anna when we were shopping for other things. I originally had my eyes on a multicolor swivel chair, but the thing cost about double of the price of the desk. I couldn't do it. I was talking with my friend, Kelsie, who is passionate about this kind of stuff and also experiencing a move of her own. We both talked about the awesome clear acrylic chair we had both seen at IKEA. The more I looked at it and after testing it out, I knew it was the perfect match for my desk. 

Interesting tidbit: IKEA labels the clear chair as a dining chair. (Makes breaking that category fun.)

Now for the even better part: Decorating it!

Both desk and chair is from IKEA

I actually didn't have to buy very much for my desk. I used a lot of things that I already had. Pictured:

• I have my Ban.do agenda and Mac as the main focus. 
• Kleenex brand tissues in a blue chevron print. 
• The clock is an alarm clock I got while in college that is somehow still running on the same batteries since about Sophomore year! I found buried in a box while going through my things and packing for the move. I actually like it a lot on my desk! 
• The desk plaque with my name on it was from when I worked in the Office of the President at Emporia State University. 
• Glitter coaster came in a set from Bath & Body Works, which were a birthday gift from Anna!

• The pen holder I bought for my freshman year dorm when I had a dorm desk! 
• The trophy is "The Coco Chanel Award" I won while an Ambassador at ESU. It reminds me of my girly-girl-stylish side. ;) 
• The Pink Power Ranger is a toy I had when I was a little girl and obsessed. My dad found it in the basement while I was in college and I took it back to Emporia with me where I had it on my dresser. It graced my shelf while back home last year and has a new place on my desk! 
• Dress post-its are were from Target. 
• Confetti is from the Katy Perry concert last summer. 
• Fresh flowers from Trader Joe's. 
• Bright yellow letter sorter to organize receipts and mail from Target. 
• Polka dot notepad was part of a graduation gift from my aunt. 
• New "Girls Rule" notebook from Shop Ban.do. 

When looking for the right desk for me, I knew I wanted a lot of storage space because I just have a lot of stuff. I love these shelves and that there are two more shelves on the other side to put more books, magazines, and knickknacks in! 

I wanted to display a few of my favorite girl power books and magazines on the front shelves. The telephone was a gift from my aunt that actually can plug into my iPhone and works as a real phone! 

Here is a peek inside my drawer. I love that I can stash my Vera Bradley laptop sleeve in here when I am not using it to travel. I also appreciate how deep the desk is that I can have my big pack of colored paperclips in there. I also have my headphones, post its, and extension cords for my charger in there. 

You have no idea how excited I was to put all of this together and how anxious I have been to show my Glitter Readers! What do you think? Anyone going to give their desk a makeover? 

#OMGBandoAgenda - My First Ban.do Agenda

Is it a big ordeal when you get your new planner? Are you meticulous when it comes to finding the perfect size, calendar views, writing space, and all the other weird details and preferences that goes along with an agenda?

If you are anything like me, there comes a special organizational high when picking out a fresh new planner that will endure approximately 365 days with you. It was when I was scoping out new blogs, that I stumbled upon a blog post about this amazing agendas. I was sold immediately and bought myself one that night.

This was in June. The planner doesn't even start until August! So you can imagine how hard it has been not to start marking up the pages by making plans and to-do lists, setting goals and dreams, and hopefully scribbling down a trip or two.

But this means that you still have time to get your own! Here, I will make it easier for you and now you just have to click this link and make the tough decision which one, because they are all so cute! Added bonus, if you sign up for their newsletter, you get 10% off your first purchase!

Another cool surprise: They include super cute stickers! And if one page of stickers isn't enough, they also have a booklet of stickers for sale too!

I am also looking forward to doing what is assigned each week as part of the #BandoToDoList. Each week there is something they list for you to do! Here is an example.

So who else has a Ban.do agenda? Anyone going to buy one tonight?! If I haven't sold you enough, watch their agenda video! And I really can't forget to mention they range between $20-$28 depending on what size you get. Can these things get any better? I want to hear from you!

STYLE

You got that James Dean, daydream look in your eye…

Okay.

We aren't talking Taylor Swift songs in this post.

It's actually going to be about STYLE. It's been on my mind a lot this year. I finally accepted the fact that people think I am a stylish person and instead of trying not to believe it, I decided to embrace it. Then the big girl job came up so I really had to up my fashion game with business clothes and wearing makeup almost every single day of the week. (A foreign concept to me)

But let me tell you, I'm having a blast. I had already been stretching my style during college, then even more with the progress I made with my workouts, then more with Miss Kansas USA, and now the corporate world.

I've been learning a lot from contouring to the fact that style isn't just about what you are wearing today. Style encompasses a lot of your life. Gala Darling takes style in a whole lot of directions in her blog post, Style Is The Way You Live Your Life.

Along the lines of her post, I have been trying hard not to break the bank as I am attempting to build a "big girl" wardrobe. I have finally built a good foundation of basics and have been challenging myself to use the same outfits, but accessorizing them to be very different looks (because I don't like looking the same way over and over). It's so. much. fun.

Here are a few examples:

Right - A top bun and bold dangly earrings for an edgy sleek look

Curls and a bold chunky necklace made the dress more feminine and girly - Left

#FunFact - My sister actually gave me this dress! I didn't even pick it out :)

Right - A braided bang, long string necklace, and black heels to tie in with the black waistband

The black blazer makes it even more polished and professional and ties in the waistband. So I played with white by connecting the dots (literally), the necklace, and heels. - Left 

From now on, I will try to incorporate STYLE into my future posts. I will also have an album "Look Book" on my Facebook page that will be my home base for all kinds of different looks of mine. This will be a place for anyone to browse my looks, get style inspiration, ask questions, and more!

To end this post, I would like to show how much of a contrast you can make with your looks and how cool it is that a person can be versatile with their style. What's your style? What looks do you typically like to pull off? Tell me!

Pretty & Feminine

Sleek & Chic

Bold & Edgy

Hair

Five years ago, I boldly cut my hair and hated it. I even made a Facebook “note” about it circa The Girly Girl and titled it, “Life is Short, But My Hair Doesn’t Have To Be.” Cute, I must say. I read it and I feel for 2010 Rachel. Oh, how I have grown. And my hair did too.

Fast forward to December 2014. The week of Christmas, I started having weird thoughts of cutting my hair. Since the 2010 hair cut, I had always wanted my hair long and encouraged others to keep their long hair too. I kept asking my friend Jessica, who just chopped her hair off, “Are you sure?” So when I started discussion with friends, they were pretty surprised.

I was already leaning pretty hard for this cut. It was Christmas night when I was experiencing a breakdown that I grabbed my phone while I was crying and texted Jessica that I wanted to cut my hair as soon as possible.  

I’ve been ending chapter after chapter lately and experiencing a lot of changes internally. I’ve been hurting a lot. Now I wanted to do something physical, but a little less permanent than a tattoo or piercing.

It quickly became an [eff you] to a lot of [bee ess] I went through in 2014. I was getting fresh for 20fifteen. I was hitting a restart button for a brand new year in hopes that these next chapters start soon.

Now I was nervous for it all. Was I going to hate it just like I did in 2010?

The big cut happened and I posted a picture on all of my social media platforms with no caption. I was letting it speak for itself. I was becoming blank and ready for new.

I was overwhelmed with the positive response I received. Really, you guys made me feel like a cool kid. But one word kept appearing. Cute. Was I just cute now? Some of you know my fascination with sexy and some have probably read my blog about that word. Others even remembered my hair “note” five years ago. Didn’t you blog about how much you hated your hair last time you cut it? You guys really do read. I digress. Anyway, sexy is important to me. Now I was feeling like my hair brought that. Was it gone? Did I just chop off a part of my appeal?

I talked to some of my lady friends about it. My short-haired lady friends. They brought good perspective to it. Gently reminding me of things I already knew: that a lot of sexy is in your mind and how you rock it. Also, it’s very subjective. Not just simply your hair. Even though society usually correlates long hair with sexy, they actually feel sexier with their short hair. There is some sort of special dash of sassy you get with short hair as I have been finding out. 2010 Rachel really obsessed over her hair and her confidence. I was refusing to make that a repeat.

A little over a week with my new do, I definitely feel like I found my sexy. And that feels fabulous. Take that 2010 haircut! See 2010 Rachel?! A lot of it is how you own it and back then I still didn't know how. 

As Coco Chanel says, “A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life,” so I’m thinking, lets do this.

Sparkle&Shine.

Rachel

Homecoming: The Fashion

When I was nominated for Homecoming Queen and looking over all the things I would have to dress up for because I was now a candidate and everything else with Blue Key, I knew I was going to have to get all my looks straight and really strategize.

I went shopping with some of my favorite ladies and Dillard's treated us well! I was able to get my formal gown and 2 other dresses. They had a really great clearance sale going on! 

This post is all about the fashion I got to have fun with during Homecoming week. It involved 5 different pairs of high heels, 3 dresses, and 1 fabulous pencil skirt and blazer I like to work!

A shoutout to Sammie & Anna for helping me get the look I wanted just right by letting me know what they thought looked good and what didn't work!

Tuesday - Meet-N-Greet

I decided to go with the pencil skirt and black closed toed heels for this. I love how my legs look when I wear heels and thought I'd highlight them for the Homecoming Royalty Meet-N-Greet if I were to be in front of students for hours. I love this outfit because I like the professional and dark look that gives it an edge. I always feel like a Kardashian in this outfit because they are always about the dark colors! Shoutout to T-Wash for the awesome black and bright pink outfit :)

Thursday - Hayes Lecture 

The day look...

During the day, I would be meeting with Gary and taking him to his leadership class workout. I wanted to look professional as I was escorting him around campus and representing Blue Key in the leadership class. I bought these fabulous closed pointy toe heels from Payless that Monday and I fell in love. My feet, not so much since I got some wounds from them wearing them for the first time! I like the cheetah print because it gives it a pop of my personality in a professional look.

The night look...

After the leadership class, I did a quick outfit change! This dress was the one I originally fell in love when I got my Calvin Klein dress last spring, but it was $150 which wasn't going to happen. Then I found it and in my size for just $20! Meant to be? I love how fun this is. It's so bright and a couple of my favorite colors! I paired it with my bright pink open toed heels to pop with the pink accent. I also loved the blocky navy blue dangly earrings to go with it. I also had a bracelet that had the blocky pink accent to go with the earrings. They were from Icing by Claire's. This was for an event that would include a fancy dinner with important people and then speaking in front of hundreds of students so I wanted something professional, but fun!

Friday - Blue Key Initiation & Reunion

The Blue Key initiation and reunion was another event that I needed to be professional and fancy for. I went with the black and off white dress. I put them with some strappy black heels with some rhinestone front straps. Loved how I felt in this dress. I liked the thinner straps in the back. Couldn't forget to wear my Blue Key pin with it too! Also, this dress demanded my hair down and curly :)

Saturday - Homecoming Parade & Football Game

It didn't take me too long to pick this dress. I loved that it didn't focus so much on my boobs. I also liked the elegant flow of it and that it was black. I also love the straps and back that are filled with jewels to give it that extra sparkle and "wow" factor to represent me. The little rhinestone touch below the bust was also a nice subtle touch. I needed to wear my hair up somehow to show off the straps and back of the dress. I went with a simple side ponytail. The earrings were beautiful layered rhinestone studs. I wanted to keep it clean and simple as not to distract from the beautiful dress!

Todd (my escort) wanted to match me and he coordinated well with all black and a black and gold bow tie to compliment it and stand out. It represented Emporia State well and made us look sharp together. :)

My nails were done with a gel color. It was OPI - Big Apple Red. I thought a bright classic red would go well with all the outfits. It would especially be a nice pop to formal black dress. :)

But I really think the crown was what completed the outfit on Saturday :) Beautiful and went so well with my dress! Thank you all for the love and support! :)

Sparkle & Shine,

Rachel 

@rachelnmsparkle 

My Looks Lately

First of all, let me tell you, this glitter loving girly girl is loving that glitter nail polish is IN. Thank you, OPI! At first, I thought "Teenage Dream" from the Katy Perry collection for OPI was all that and a bag of potato chips when it came out because it was glitter, but it had some bigger pieces of glitter in it. I was in love and wore it for about 3 weeks in a row which is a big deal for me when I usually change just about every week. Two years later and OPI is coming out with bigger and better (literally) glitter! It is almost a given that their newest collection will include a glitter.

I recommend:
The Living Daylights from the James Bond collection
Polka.com from the Euro Centrale collection
Lights of Emerald City from the Oz collection
When Monkey Fly from the Oz collection
Minnie Style from the Couture de Minnie collection

The Living Daylights

Polka.com

Lights of Emerald City

When Monkeys Fly!

Minnie Style

Towards the end of the semester, you enter in banquet season. Banquets and celebrations galore! So I had fun figuring out at least 5 different dresses to wear to various events I was to attend. Mom told me I could get a new dress and I absolutely fell in love with the Calvin Klein dress I came across. I was so excited to premiere it and look forward to gracing it again at the dinner and dance in New Orleans for the CASE ASAP conference in August!
I love the bold teal paired with the black. I wore black opened toed heels with it.

I also liked that it came up pretty high on chest and almost to my neck. I endured a dinner with a strapless dress where my cleavage was prominent. It was uncomfortable for me and probably uncomfortable for the others at the table! For dresses for dinners especially the formal ones I attend, I like dresses that cover me up because it is professional and I don't have to worry about how much is showing and the guests don't have to be distracted! We can focus on conversation and any other event that is going on at the time!

I usually keep my hair down. I rarely will pull it up for an occasion. I decided to pull it up for my interview for the President's office. I was going for the Sandra Bullock look in The Proposal when she has her hair pulled back and she looks professional in the office setting. I pulled my hair up and left a chunk out and then wrapped it around the band. This made it more sleek and put together plus hid the fact that I was wearing a hot pink hair tie!

Summer is here finally! Sammie did a buy one get two free pairs of shoes at Charming Charlies in the winter and she let me pick a pair out. I got these super cute pink sandals and I have been anxious to break them out! Now I wear them often! This is from their first day out on campus :)
I wore a lavender v-neck and teal necklace. I had purple toe nails going on. I played with bold colors.

Over Christmas break I got two new pairs of sunglasses from American Eagle. I got a patterned one that is navy blue with white hearts on them and then plain black ones. I love the hearts pair because they are so fun and I love the colors. I usually wear them the most especially on campus. The black ones I will wear when I am more dressy or going into a professional setting or wearing a professional outfit!

Occasionally I have to go with a laid back look like a braid and throw on my Aladdin sweatshirt! I continue to get compliments on it. I will Snapchat people when I am wearing it and a lot of people will make a comment about it!

I recently got my hair done finally! It had been way overdue since I was able to pull on my hair lightly and get a few split ends to come off! Don't let your hair get like that! I got it trimmed and colored the usual dark brown. Then got some highlights this time. They are pretty bold and gave me a little more edge. This picture doesn't really do it justice but snapped it tonight for the post!

Today I went to an awesome boutique here in Emporia called Twisted Sisters and got a couple bracelets I am in love with! Been wearing them ever since I got them and still need to plan my outfit for tomorrow to wear with them. :) Man I gotta take them off to sleep? One is a wrap around bracelet from the "Good Work(s)" brand. Part of the money is supposed to go to a good cause. It has a lot of encouraging words and phrases on it. For example: believe, faith, plant peace, come together, truth, accept diversity. I love the encouragement and reminders especially as I am about to enter my senior year and as I begin to focus on myself this summer. I have seen these bracelets at The Buckle and I am sure they could be found in other places and online. I also got a small bracelet that I paired with it that has a cross. I strayed away from my religion this semester as I got caught up in everything else and this was a great way to kick off the summer as I reconnect with God and and my spiritual being. Here's a pic!

As for my fashion wishlist this summer, I have my eyes on a pair of Sperry's (yes, I think I may break down and get some), a fossil watch possibly, and I really need to invest in some plain flip flops. I don't own any anymore!

Questions, feedback, suggestions, topic ideas, and more can be emailed to:
glitterandthegirlygirl@gmail.com

Thank you for reading! :)
Sparkle & Shine.
Rachel
@rachelnmsparkle