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Monday, December 4, 2017

Blogmas Day 1: How to make your home festive for December



Happy Blogmas everyone!

Can you believe it's already December?!?! How has another year almost come to a close? I hope everyone is just as excited as I am for Christmas!

For my first blog post of this very festive and fun month I wanted to talk about how to add little touches to your home to make it cozy and festive by sharing what we have done around our apartment and maybe it can give you guys some good decorating inspiration!

There is nothing better than coming home after a long day of work to a beautifully lit Christmas tree. That is definitely the number one thing to put up first! This year was my first year being able to decorate a Christmas tree in my own apartment instead of at my parents house and so I think it made me all the more excited to decorate for the season! My roommates and I picked a woodsy/rustic theme this year and I am in love!




My roommate Booker made our tree topper from elements we bought at Hobby Lobby. He made it from this post on Pinterest (https://pin.it/hafsoo4q744fxm). We got the gingham burlap to "ribbon" around the tree from Jo Ann's. We also got rustic ornaments from Hobby Lobby and Jo Ann's Fabric store to decorate it. I honestly think this is one of my favorite trees I have ever had!


We also added small touches around the apartment to make the whole thing feel more cozy and christmassy! If you don't have the room or budget to do a huge tree like that then you could do smaller things such as a tiny tree on your counter like we have on ours.



We just bought a tiny fake tree, a tube of tiny ornaments, small strand of lights and a small bow and voila! The whole tree was about $20 total. It adds the perfect touch of Christmas without going overboard if you want something more simple or, if you're like us, it just adds another element of Christmas to another area of the house! We got everything for this tree from Hobby Lobby!

Another thing we LOVE decorating is our dining room table. Each holiday we always like to add a little centerpiece to celebrate the holiday and of course Christmas is no different! 







It just adds a nice touch of Christmas to the dining room table since it is one of the first things you see when you walk into our apartment. We added a bit of fake snow, some fake christmas tree pieces, and the cutest bear ornament to tie into our rustic themed Christmas tree. If you want something quick, simple, and festive this is definitely a great idea to consider!

I also added a few cute things from Target to my bathroom. They have some really adorable Christmas bath mats and bath towels so I decided to get them to add a little festive cheer into my bathroom! 




It just adds the right bit of festive and the bathmat was only $7.59! They had two other options and you can shop them all here

What are some things you are doing around your house to put you in the festive spirit? Let me know!
Comment down below or tweet me @thejesslauren!

xoxo Jess



Monday, November 20, 2017

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!


Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. Everyone is spreading love and christmas cheer and all of the best Hallmark movies are out. During this time of year I spend December reflecting on the past year and cherishing my close friends and family by celebrating the holiday season with them. I love so many things about the christmas holiday and time spent celebrating it.

So much so, this year I decided to do BLOGMAS! This means I will be posting three NEW Christmas themed blog posts each week in December up until Christmas Eve weekend!!!!

I know.... it's SO EXCITING! I'm sure most of you can agree that sometimes google and blog lists are your best friend during the holidays to get inspiration for food ideas, parties, gifting, and more. I know I definitely do! So, I decided to be a holiday guide resource this year! I have a lot of great posts lined up for December and I am so excited to share them with you guys!

I know I have slacked on posting this past year but as I have said in a post before, it has been a very trying year for me in my professional and personal life. I have had to take time away that I had devoted to doing this thing I love to focus on making good career moves and helping my family.  A lot of things got slid off my plate this year because of it so I thought doing Blogmas would help get me back to doing one of the things I love which is writing!

What are some Christmas blogs you want to see? Any topics you want me to cover? (Maybe I already have one you want planned out!) Let me know by leaving a comment or by tweeting me @Thejesslauren with the hashtag #JessicaLaurenDoesBlogmas!

I am so excited to add some holiday cheer to your life each week!

xoxo Jess


Monday, November 13, 2017

Monday, May 15, 2017

I messed up...



So somewhere in this whirlwind of a year I have yet again let my blog slip and I have messed up big time. You know when you can just feel like something is missing but you just aren't sure what it is until one day you're just living life and then BAM it hits you? yeah... same. It just hit me today that I have been missing such a crucial part of my life by not blogging. I have been missing my outlet of creativity and also getting a chance to talk with you guys. It has been a little over 5 months since my last post on my blog and I have FELT IT believe me! So many new and exciting  yet terrifying things have been happening in my life and I haven't felt the same without being able to share it with you all! so, let's sit down together and have a catch up on everything that has been going on the last few months.

What have I been up to since January? Well, for the first time ever I have moved out of my family home and into a beautiful apartment with two of my best friends. When I tell you this has been one of the single best decisions of my life I don't know that you would truly be able to believe me but it has. I have learned so much more about who I am as a person and I have also been able to spread my wings and take a fun journey into REAL adulthood for the first time in my life. I want to expand on this in a separate post but for now just know that it is truly fantastic. Now I know some of you may be thinking... wow....27 is a little late to be just learning these things Jessica.... but I feel like 27 was just the right year in my life for this step of my journey. As some of you who know me will remember in 2013 I lost my dad to a massive heart attack very unexpectedly and it left just me and my mom on our own for the first time ever and it didn't feel like the right timing to leave her because... well... we both needed each other so much during that time to heal and grow and lean on. Looking back now, I learned so much about my mom and who she is as a person through being able to still live with her in my adulthood like that. I know people say it all the time but my mom is my best friend and closest confidant and I attribute that to sharing such a great loss and learning to navigate through it as well as being able to live with her while being an adult and sharing memories and stories with her that I otherwise never would have. Going through such a huge tragedy together really strengthened our bond and trust with one another and it made me cherish our time together so much more in a way that I know I took for granted before. So I know that when Patrick and Booker started talking to me about wanting to move out of their current living situation and into a house/apartment and that they were looking for a roommate it was the right time to take the chance and jump. As I said before, I want to do a whole post about this later so I will save most of the good stories for that time but just know I am so happy with where I am and I attribute a lot of it to living with my two best friends.

They say that the wheel of fortune takes turns with joy and sadness and for me the last few months that has rang very true. As some of you may know as soon as I moved out it was like a light switch flipped and all of a sudden my mom's health took a turn. I don't want to go into depth of the deep fear and sadness I went through with this but just know it was a very trying time for me as my mom was in and out of the hospital until they finally figured out her heart needed some major repairs. At the beginning of last month she had major heart surgery and had 5 bypasses and a valve replacement. She was in the Cardiac ICU for a few days (which were some of the scariest days of my life) and within a week of being out of the ICU she hit all of her recovery steps and was able to go home. She is still recovering now and can only do small things like walking and resting but she is getting stronger by the day and her doctors think in possibly 3 months she will be able to be fully recovered and go back to work and her normal schedule. It has been a very stressful few months of not knowing and then finally getting answers but I am so very proud of my mom for going through such a scary surgery and proving to everyone just how strong I knew she was. Through that major down point of fear and stress I was truly shown just how many people love and care for my family and my mother. Everyone gathered around us and surrounded us with so much love and positivity and I know that is one of the reasons she was able to make such a vast improvement and to everyone who was there I am forever indebted to your kindness and love.

On top of these two huge life moments I decided to take another huge step two months ago that aligns with my last post from January about wanting to become happier and healthier. I decided, after months of pestering from Booker, to try Thrive. Now, I know some of you are skeptics and think that this product is another one of those pyramid schemes but hear me out on this one... this stuff.... is AMAZING. I really didn't believe it for myself even though I lived with someone who swore by it... I was a skeptic too until he finally told me to 'just do it for a month and if you hate it you can stop.' Y'all.... when I tell you that in that month I became a believer... just WOW! I have been on thrive now for almost two months and the difference in energy I have is astounding! I also find myself eating less because it is suppressing my appetite as well as just making me feel GOOD. Thrive for those of you who are unfamiliar is  a system that uses all natural vitamins and supplements that your body needs to improve everything from weight management to cognitive performance...digestive and immune support to healthy joint function... lean muscle support to antioxidant support.. it is just an overall body overhaul to being a happier and healthier you. I have been telling EVERYONE I know to just give it a try for one month and feel the difference like I have because trust me you will become a believer! It is crazy! If you want more information just google Thrive by Le-Vel or you can go to my link (jessicahead90.le-vel.com). I don't want to make it seem like I'm selling to you guys but I am telling you just how much of an impact it has made on my life already and I want you to see how it can do the same for you!

I have had so many other ups and downs the last few months that I am sure I will delve into in other upcoming posts but for now,  I think those are the three biggest changes I have seen. 27 has been a very roller coaster year for me already and I can't wait to see what the rest of this year has in store!

What are some things that have been going on with you the last few months? Tell me about it, let's catch up! Comment below or tweet me! Can't wait to hear from you!

Until next week XOXO
-Jess

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

New year, Better me



This is the time of year where everyone sees January as an opportunity for a refresh or restart and normally makes some huge unobtainable goal for themselves and after a few weeks gives up and goes back to doing what they were doing before. Well, this year instead of making resolutions that will ultimately fail I have instead decided to take baby steps to my resolutions this year. The key to any successes within making goals and plans is to sit down and map out exactly how you plan on achieving those goals and plans so here are my goals and how I am planning on reaching them!

This year instead of wanting to completely change myself (the whole new year, new me thing) I have decided that after years of self demoralizing I finally am happy within myself so I don't need a radical change. That being said there are some things I want to get better at and pick back up again that I have done at one time or another.

The first thing I want to reach for this year is to become healthier. I was the happiest I have ever been with my mind body and spirit two years ago when I was on a journey to becoming healthy and I want to bring that feeling back. I am going to slowly transition myself back into the clean eating lifestyle because I really enjoyed it and I felt overall SO much better and had so much more energy then. I feel that the key to success with this plan is consistency. Now that I have a full time desk job and I don't work in retail anymore I have been able to fall into a routine which is exactly the key to keeping up with anything food related. I am going to meal prep twice a week, once on Sunday and once probably on Wednesday and plan out my meals ahead of time. Now this isn't to say that if someone invites me over to dinner I will pass them up because I know from experience of doing this last time that the biggest thing is to not restrict yourself. Will I turn down the bad desserts always? No, but that is what makes doing this so much healthier for you in the long run because it is sustainable when you allow yourself to have off days and special occasions. I want to be able to feel like what I am putting into my body is nourishing it and helping my body to become stronger and healthier!

The next thing I want to strive to do this year is to get active again. I want to get back into going to Pure Barre and keeping it consistent. I absolutely love Pure Barre and any chance I get I always rave about it to anyone who has never heard about it and I felt that I was the fittest I had ever been when I was regularly going to Pure Barre. This again is going to be made possible because I now financially am in a position to be able to go back again and make Pure Barre a part of my routine and that honestly makes me such a happy person!

One of my biggest hopes for this year is to not only become healthier in my eating but also in my skin care. Becoming a consultant for Beautycounter in December I wanted a way to ensure that everything I was doing was healthier and better for me including my skincare. I want to make sure that my skin gets some attention to because I want to be able to look and feel amazing on the inside and on the outside! Beautycounter has already opened so many doors for me and I can't wait to see where my business journey takes me this year!

Overall I want to improve my mind and body and by getting myself into healthier habits I know it will lift my energy and my self confidence and happiness back up to where I want it to be. What are some of your new years resolutions and how do you plan on sticking by them? Let me know in the comments below!

Happy New Year loves

xoxo Jess