Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Moisturizer Challenge Update

It has been almost three weeks since I launched the Moisturizer Challenge and I have not missed a single day. I'm really proud of myself because I traveled on an airplane and have been real tired some days - but I've done it! There is about 1/4 of my Clinique gone out of the pot but I will say I do think my skin feels softer in general. Both after application and hours after. I haven't had a proper breakout the entire time (1-2 zits have popped up but that's normal for me). 
I will say, I do not put it on at the same time every day. I aim to do it immediately after I shower, but that changes day by day. Sometimes I shower in the morning, afternoon or at night so it really just depends. If I'm not showering on a specific day I'll put the moisturizer on before I go to sleep, figuring it will have uninterrupted time to soak in. 
Overall, I'm happy with my progress. I have over 10 days left but I'm excited to finish out the month challenge and I truly think I can keep going. How are y'all doing? - xoxo darling, Hayden.

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Thursday, July 26, 2018

The Mamma Mia Edit

After seeing Mamma Mia 2 this past weekend I have been inspired by the clothes from the film. My mom and I both loved the terrible singing and the beautiful cinematography of the movie. We even ended up singing along with most people in the theater. Below are some of the pieces I've spotted that could have come directly off the screen. Is anyone else really feeling the white and blue, flowy style right now? It seems like the perfect way to end the summer... - xoxo darling, Hayden
P.S. I've included a playlist at the end of this post with all of my favorite ABBA songs to get you in the mood while you're shopping. 
{Items from left to right, top to bottom: Shirt, Swim Suit, Sandals, Overalls, Cover-Up, Yellow Dress, White Top, Black Dress, Hat, Red Top, Stripe Top, Maxi Dress, Blue Overalls, Striped Overalls, White Skirt, Shorts, Black and White Dress, Bag, White Top, Blue Top, Red Top, Blue Skirt, Sneakers, Blue Skirt, Espadrilles, Sandals, Tassel Top, Blue Top}
 
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Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Hannah & Hayden do Florida {Again} Vlog

Follow along Hannah and I's Florida trip! Find out, in detail, all that we did here.

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Tuesday, July 24, 2018

101 in 1001 Update #3

It has been a minute since I updated y'all on my 101 progress! And guess what, I'm doing really well - in my opinion. I've checked off 22 since May of last year and I am working on a lot more. Below are the updates to the list. How are y'all doing? - xoxo darling, Hayden

4. Read 55 Books - Since I've been out of school I've been reading like crazy. My dad and I have been feeling the mysteries as of late. We're reading a Felix Francis book together and then I'm reading The Improbability of Love. Aside from that I loved The Yard and The Countess of Prague. I just purchased four more books so we're on our way! 

8. See three more live music shows - I've officially completed this goal! Hannah and I saw Chance back in May of 2017 (he's great in concert) then Alyssa took me to a show at ACL Live where ZZ Ward, a favorite of mine from high school. The last was a Continental Club show on Thanksgiving this past year. It was such a great moment to witness live music in Austin at such a historic club. 

13. Watch Three Documentaries - This is another completed goal! I started with the Super Tunnel and then watched Secrets of Underground London (way creepier than I expected) and Gaga: Five Foot Two. The Lady Gaga docu was so so so good. She is such an inspiration and there is way more behind the scenes than you could ever know.

14. Go to all of the home Texas football games as a senior - I checked this one off with a loss to Tech, but well, we don't talk about it. I will say it was really fun to be in the stands with the seniors this season. When I first decided not to do football recruitment for a third year I was sad. The experience was something so few students get to witness/experience but after this past season concluded I knew I made the best decision. I was able to watch games with my best friends and meet new people. 

17. Take a trip with my girlfriend(s) - Hannah and I love traveling together so we went on a trip for my birthday in late March to Denver. Y'all can catch all of that in this vlog but I will say - it is so important to travel with your besties. You learn even more about one another and you really bond on a whole other level. We had a wonderful time...and who knows...maybe you'll see more Denver content on the blog soon...

19. Graduate from college - Well...this was a monumental thing that I did a short while ago. Graduation was one of the most magical events ever...well not my college's graduation, my university's commencement. You can see a ton of that content in my one second every day of senior year video but just know this is the proudest I have ever been of myself and I can't wait to use my college degree to change the world. 

30. Host a party  & 58. Throw a surprise party - Back in October I decided to throw a surprise Founder's Day party for my spirit group, the Texas Ladybirds. I recorded the event in this vlog and it was a lot of fun. Maybe a little too stressful? But worth it at some points. I also have been hosting an annual peppermint party every December and I think I want to continue that in the future. 

37. Take in a show at Esther's Follies - On one of my last days in Austin I finally visited Esther's Follies. Hannah Kay took me and we had a blast! It truly is like SNL but with Austin/Texas themes. We enjoyed the whole experience thoroughly and I would highly recommend it to anyone. 

42. Stay in bed all day - I've done this a few times now and I think it's important. Senior year was stressful for many different reasons so a few days I decided to just stay in bed. I would only get up for bathroom breaks and snacks but other than that I napped, read and watched movies/YouTube/tv. It felt like these days were necessary for my mental health, and if you have the ability to do something like this I suggest you do. 

62. Try a new fried food - Have y'all ever had Fried Texas Sheet Cake? Because you should. 

71. Make a chocolate soufflĂ© - I did it! On the first try! These little desserts had always intimidated me but I finally decided a few weeks ago to just make some. And they all rose! None of them fell! It was so exciting and I'm very proud. 

83. Go on three new hikes - Serena and I made it a goal of ours to go on hikes outside of our comfort zone this past year. We did Walnut Creek and a section of the Austin Greenbelt and really enjoyed both of them. My parents & I hiked through Lost Maples State Natural Area and lordy was it beautiful in the fall. 

84. Get straight A's one last time - My last semester of senior year I took very few classes, and none of them were particularly hard, but I wanted Straight A's so badly one last time. And you know what, even though the classes weren't the hardest I've ever taken getting a 4.0 was hard! I have even more respect for students who are taking a full course load and manage straight A's because that was never me. 

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Friday, July 20, 2018

Week Re-Cap: Hannah Visits Edition

What a week! I apologize for not posting the last three days but the best friend has been in Fort Myers so I haven't had the time to write for y'all. But lordy did we have fun...and we took a lot of photos so grab a cup of coffee and tuck in for this post! 
As soon as Hannah landed we headed out - we had a lot to fit in four days - to Wisteria Tea Room. It was Hannah's first time (but y'all know I love it). She had the mac & cheese, which she said was so good, I had the roast beef panini - I know, we're shook. We opted for the chocolate pound cake for dessert and let me just say, it's not just a pound cake it has a molten chocolate filling that adds even more deliciousness to its already wonderful taste. With our bellies incredibly full we drove over to the Butterfly Estates. It had been years since I visited but we stopped in and had the place to ourselves. The butterflies were flying around, some posed for us and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I had seen a cute shop on Instagram, Remedies Parlor, and I couldn't believe the images I had seen. It actually looked cool - and for Fort Myers cool isn't exactly a word to describe it. Like, it's beautiful, quirky, fun, colorful, etc. But cool? Not usually. We stepped inside Remedies and it was like I was back in Austin. The shop sells crystals, scents, jewelry, furniture and more. They also serve beer, wine, champagne and craft sodas. You can take it outside to their garden where they have the most beautiful table that seems perfect for dinner parties! After visiting we walked around downtown Fort Myers for a while and then headed back home for a little down time. Dinner was at Bert's on Matlacha, it's one of Hannah's favorites and it's absolutely delicious. It's quintessential dive bar + fish house. I love it.

Hannah had never been to Love Boat Ice Cream, a big favorite of mine from childhood, so we stopped in there for some late night ice cream. IT WAS PACKED. They have two locations a few blocks away and they were both packed. You can see from the image, Hannah took a photo with my framed restaurant review. Cannot believe they still have that! 
Sunday morning dawned with a trip to the Bagel Factory (aka my favorite place in Fort Myers). We inhaled our bagels as we read the Wall Street Journal and discussed all the topics. Then we ran home, got changed, packed a cooler and drove to the best place in Lee County (in my opinion), Gasparilla Island. We started with lunch at Miller's Dockside on the east side of Boca Grande and then proceeded to the southern tip of the island - Gasparilla Island State Park - for a beach afternoon. The water was warm, the sun was bright and the sand stuck to every part of our body. But we loved it. The day was absolutely beautiful and since it has been raining a lot lately everything was so green! We set up our rainbow umbrella and enjoyed lying on the sand reading our books - so relaxing. Speaking of which, I'm currently reading The Improbability of Love, which I've had on my bookshelf since 2016 but am finally getting around to. It took a while to get started but now I can't stop. After our beach day we stopped for some photos at Hudson's Grocery and then drove to Punta Gorda for ice cream...it was National Ice Cream Day after all. We chose Working Cow and y'all, it was delicious! Very much the classic ice cream spot of your childhood. And unexpectedly Instagramable. 


The next morning was an early morning breakfast at Lighthouse Cafe (a favorite of ours) and headed to Captiva for a Captiva Cruises trip to Cabbage Key. Now the surprising thing about this is despite the fact my dad and I have lived in Fort Myers our whole lives we had never been out to this special spot. So we finally did it and we loved it! The island has the perfect Florida charm with gopher tortoises...so it's basically the best place on Earth? We had a cheeseburger...in paradise...at the restaurant along with margaritas and slices of frozen key lime pie. Then we climbed the stairs to the top of the water tower for a view of the surrounding islands. It was a great lil' experience. After we got off the boat back on Captiva we stopped for a little pool afternoon at 'Tween Waters, affectionately nicknamed 'Tweenies. There we enjoyed frozen daiquiris, piña coladas and craft beer while enjoying their fairly new Serenity pool. After we dried off we headed to Island Cow for dinner and then stopped by Pinocchio's for ice cream (I get the Dirty Sand Dollar). 

Tuesday morning we headed to First Watch for a quick breakfast then drove down to Everglades National Park for a tram ride through Shark Valley. It was beautiful, we saw two alligators and many Great Blue Heron. Once we got back and showered we wanted to go for gelato but ended up trying out a new sno-ball place on the way to Fort Myers Beach. AND Y'ALL. Pelican's has the best sno-balls we have ever had. Hannah grew up eating them, I did not but we both loved them. The people were incredibly nice and it just makes me want to shout from the rooftops how awesome this place was. Let me recommend ice cream with cream on top and then a little dollop of vanilla soft serve. Ugh, I'm dreaming about it now. After enjoying those we did the incredibly touristy thing of playing putt-putt golf. We both loved it - we did Smuggler's Cove toward the beach. 

Wednesday morning we, once again, visited Lighthouse Cafe and then drove down to Lighthouse Beach for a beach morning. The water was a beautiful green and you could see all the way to the bottom. We spent most of our time in the water and a little time eating cotton candy and reading our books. Speaking of books, we then stopped in at Gene's - the best bookstore in Lee County. I bought four books (a blog post is coming about that soon!) and Hannah purchased three. We also walked into Bailey's General Store for cookies. Their black & white cookies are some of the best I've ever had. For lunch we drove back to Fort Myers for Blu Sushi, a place I ate at so much in high school but hadn't been in years. As ever, the Lava Drops were delicious. And you can't have lunch without having dessert...so we drove out to Sun Harvest...aka Hannah's absolute favorite thing about Fort Myers. We enjoyed our orange & vanilla swirl cones on the porch while making noises of approval without actually speaking. 

Then it was time for Hannah to get on her plane and fly back to Texas. We had the absolute best time and I hope y'all enjoy the extreme amount of photos, keep scrolling for even more! A vlog is coming soon (are we surprised?). Have y'all done any of this? - xoxo darling, Hayden  P.S. My Fort Myers Guide can be found here
Keep Scrolling! 

Downtown Fort Myers
Remedies Parlor Garden
Love this girl!
Celebrating National Ice Cream Day a day early.
Miller's Dockside View & Meal
It isn't a trip to Boca Grande without a stop at Fugate's.
Reading "The Improbability of Love"
Ugh look at that! 
This outfit is coming to this blog soon! 
Hudson's Grocery
Working Cow in Punta Gorda
Celebrating National Ice Cream Day
Two natives first trip to Cabbage Key.
The actual cutest place.
Delicious margs at Cabbage Key.
Frozen Key Lime Pie was a new concept to me but I was here for it. 
Tickets for our tram tour of the Everglades.
Gene's Books is the best place on Earth.
Our favorite - Sun Harvest
Thx for visiting boo! 
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