rodan + fields & a sample giveaway!!!!

A month or two ago I was connected with Alexa, a fellow ZTA and SC girl by a mutual college friend. Alexa is a consultant with Rodan + Fields, a dermatologist- created skincare line by the two Stanford-trained dermatologists who created Proactiv. I'm sure all of us have either tried Proactiv in the past or are familiar with their products.

If you've never heard of Rodan + Fields, let me give you a little introduction.

From their website:

Dr. Katie Rodan and Dr. Kathy Fields founded Rodan + Fields Dermatologists in 2002 to extend their vision of bringing dermatology-based skin treatment to everyone. Originally available as a top-selling clinical skincare brand in high-end department stores, the company realized the Doctors' vision could never be fully realized when confined to the department store counter.

In an unprecedented move, Rodan + Fields became the first prestige skincare line to exit the department store for the world of direct selling. And today, there are numerous Rodan + Fields independent business owners experiencing the income associated with sales volume that far exceeds what leading department store chains were able to achieve.

The power of the individual, combined with Rodan + Fields' brand legacy, clinically proven products and a proprietary systematic approach to independent business management, makes Rodan + Fields an opportunity like no other. 

Alexa and I were emailing back and forth awhile about Rodan +Fields, and the possibility of me becoming a consultant, but my schedule is just too packed right now to commit to anything else. I really loved hearing about their products and how committed these women are to skincare! Rodan + Fields has a great line of products for all skin types and from everything to fine lines to wrinkles to dark spots to acne. Another great aspect of these products is that there is a 60 day money-back guarantee on all products! 

After talking, Alexa and I decided I needed to sample some of the products myself! I quickly agreed, and agreed to post a review for you all. Alexa sent me a sample of the Multi-Function Eye Cream and Micro-Dermabrasion paste. 

Here's what I thought: 

I'd never used any sort of eye cream, but talked to her about my forehead wrinkles from squinting all day at a computer (guilty). This multi-function eye cream "utilizes powerful peptides to minimize the look of crow’s-feet and reduce the appearance of dark circles and puffiness. Optical filters visibly brighten the eye area." Though I did not see an immediate difference (what can I say, I like to see things asap! But I realize that isn't the case with skincare!), I think if I were to use the eye cream continually I would see a huge difference!

She also sent me the micro-dermabrasion paste which I thought was great! I usually don't use any type of product, face wash, or scrub, just because I have fairly sensitive skin and using products makes me break out. For some odd reason, I noticed a new bump or two on my face after using the paste, but I honestly think they were forming before I ever used the product. It had a great minty smell and made my face feel so smooth afterwards. I actually need to order some of this!!

All in all, I would highly recommend these products, especially if you are concerned about your skin (you should be!!!!) and want to get ahead of aging and damage. I think we can all agree we need to take care of our skin! And remember, I only used these samples for about a week! Things take time!!

And now on to the exciting part for YOU, my readers!!! Alexa has graciously offered samples of Rodan + Fields products to the first 10 readers who fill out the solution tool (it is seriously SUPER easy and takes maybe 1-2 minutes). You can find the solution tool HERE!!!!!. Once you fill out the tool, it sends an email to Alexa letting her know which type of products best suit your needs! She'll then mail you a sample, and we hope that you love them and fall in love with Rodan + Fields! 

In addition, please leave a blog comment letting me know you filled out the tool, and also let me know what kind of skin products you use, I'd love to know!!

Alexa is so passionate about these products and I really enjoyed getting to know her and talking about what Rodan + Fields has to offer. If you have any questions about Rodan + Fields, please let me know and I can direct you to her!

Thank you Alexa for this fun sample giveaway!

Good luck to the first 10 readers! 

wedding recap: father-daughter / mother-son

Are you tired of the wedding recaps yet?

These are so easy to do and I feel like I'm posting them at an OK speed? Yay or nay?

Today's pictures are from mine and my dad's father/daughter dance and Tyler's dance with his mom.

My dad and I danced to Louis Armstrong "Wonderful World" which was his choice and Tyler and his mom Heather danced to Rascal Flatt's "My Wish."

In case you want to listen to either:

Now on to the good stuff!

I love seeing my family in the back of this picture!

Until next week...

home improvement

I'm not sure where it came from, but all of a sudden I had an urge to re-do our guest room. It isn't anything big or fancy, but I recently learned (the hard way) that our white quilt on the bed is a magnet for Sarge. I guess his black fur attracts the white!

I've started making a board on my Pinterest dedicated to my guest room re-vamp. It all sort of started when I bought a dresser at Goodwill last week. After refurnishing our table and chairs, I've wanted a new project and thought this could be a good place to start!

I'll give you a sneak peak of my thoughts thus far.

{via Beach House Linens}
**these are brighter in person!

I already have these Euro shams, but need some turquoise/navy pillows to accompany them.

{via Everything in 3s blog}

{via Overstock}

I have white now, and like I said, we really need a dark color quilt!

{via Haus Artisans}

Gold knobs and bail pulls on the dresser painted white with an antique brown top.

{via Urban Outfitters}

Cute knobs for the dresser.

{via Target}

Beautiful Target sunburst mirror over the dresser.

{via Etsy}

OR

{via Etsy}

Fabric to drape over a small round side table used either as a beside table or TV stand.

{via Layla Grayce}

And a gorgeous gold floor lamp for the corner of the room.

What do you think!?

xoxo

laws in the lowcountry... for real!

Tyler's parents just left a few days ago after visiting us for an entire week! It was so much fun having them here with us and to show them around our new town. We packed in a lot in a little bit of time, and it was worth every bit!

Tyler picked them up from the airport on Friday in Savannah as I drove home from taking my insurance licensing exam in Columbia. I rushed home, ran to the grocery store to pick up some milk and bread and fresh flowers, and walked into the door at almost the same time that they did! 

We hopped on the boat to put out crab pots. Heather grew up crabbing in Baltimore so she was really excited to get back to her roots!

Ty threw the cast net out a few times and we really caught a lot of shrimp! They were teeeeeny, tiny, though!

We all showered and got ready for dinner at a place none of us had ever been before. The president of Ken's division at Pfizer told him about this amazing restaurant downtown called Griffin Market. They are a delicious Italian restaurant and they have quite the menu! We each had our own small appetizer "antipasti" (I had some sort of fried eggplant and honey that tasted like pancakes!) and then we shared the "primi" pasta. Heather and Ken had a risotto and Tyler and I split a penne pasta with fresh parmesan. I also had a crusted rosemary chicken dish with arugala and fennel. We all had dessert, too! Did I mention that we were a) celebrating the Laws visiting us and b) I PASSED MY INSURANCE EXAM!! It was such a fun night!

We  got up Saturday and had a delish brunch and stopped by the farmers market for watermelon, tomatoes, and peaches. Heather had heard so much about my working at the SC Department of Agriculture and the Certified SC Grown program and immediately spotted the Certified sign!

 Then we headed back out onto the boat to check our crab pots and crab with chicken necks.  We used to crab off of the boat in the creeks at Edisto Beach when I was a kid and I hadn't done it in years. We had a BLAST and we caught a ton of crabs. I had the hot line and was constantly catching crabs!

I had a lot of people ask about my shirt and bathing suit! The suit is from Target circa 2009 and the shirt is from Old Navy Outlet probably the same year! It was perfect for this day because my back was burned!

After we got back to the house, the guys steamed the crabs and we feasted!

Tyler's grandfather's nickname was Hump for Humphries and we now have his crab tools!

 My parents came down on Saturday because Tyler, Ken, my dad, and my brother had a fishing trip planned with one of my dad's friends. They caught a bunch of trout and red fish.

Tyler and his red fish.

All of the guys with their trout.

We cooked the trout for dinner along with watermelon from the farmers market and crab soup!

Monday the Laws drove to my parents for the day to spend time with them.

Tuesday, Ken and Heather invited their friends Shelley and Jeff down for dinner. It was delicous! I highly recommend Saltus River Grill if you come to Beaufort.

We ate outside, hence the frizzy hair we all have!

Wednesday Tyler entertained his parents!

Thursday he and his dad went to shoot sporting clays at Brays Island with Ken's coworker from Pfizer. Supposedly Brays is super nice and has a ton to offer! It is such a gorgeous place from what I've heard and the houses start in the $700,000s! 

Later, Ty and his dad drove to the Lewis's about 45 minutes away to deer hunt while Heather and I drove around with a realtor looking at houses and neighborhoods in Beaufort. Eventually, they want to move to South Carolina and are starting to get an idea of where they want to live. Heather and I also walked downtown on Bay Street and got deluxe pedicures. We had to do girl things while the guys were in the woods!

Ken sent me this selfie of him in the deer stand and I almost died! He is one of the funniest people I have EVER met! Ken is also always making us laugh and setting Tyler straight. I love when we are all together, especially with his brothers. There is never a dull moment.

 Love ya man!

It was so much fun having them here with us and man it is quiet in our house now. Sadly, we won't see them until Thanksgiving, but that will be here before we all know it. I'm so thankful for fabulous in-laws and got so lucky with Heather and Ken.

Love you guys!

you asked, i answered! q +a part one

Good morning! I finally compiled my answers to your questions from, uh, about a month ago. I'm telling you, this being busy thing and computer problems are really getting in the way of blogging lately.

I've broken the questions up into wedding/relationship related and then other questions that I was asked. 

I'll start with the random questions!

What makes someone a good blog read to you?

This answer is going to be a book!

1.The first thing I look for in a blog is a connection. Does this person live a similar life like I do? Where do they live? I’m ultimately connected to southern bloggers, especially SC, for obvious reasons! And when I lived in Illinois, I searched high and low for Midwestern blogs to try to get to learn about that part of the country! I’m more into newlywed blogs than “mom blogs,” only because the thought of children for us right now freaks me out. I’m SO thankful no one asked me any questions about kids! I digress.

2. I also look for blogs that have authors that actually comment back when I leave comments on my blog to get to know me back. I have formed a lot of friendships that way and it really makes a difference when someone takes the time to comment back to you saying they agree/disagree in your comment, or even just say thanks for stopping by. I’ve also emailed “big bloggers” before, and to even have them email me back means a lot! When I first started dating Tyler I emailed {av} at Long Distance Loving and she thanked me for reaching out to her and we chatted about long distance. I’d never thought I would meet her almost 2 years later in person in my town!

3. Another thing I look for in blogs is for content. I will immediately stop reading if someone’s blog is clogged with sponsorship posts (obviously trying to make money) or products that the blogger obviously doesn’t use or believe in. I just like real-life, fun, upbeat blogs that I can relate with. Giveaways are great every now and then of course! But 2-3 sponsored posts (I’m talking feminine products and baby supplies for the non-moms) a week are a little much. And there’s nothing wrong with unfollowing a blog for a little while! There are so many out there.  Just don’t make a big deal of it if someone unfollows your blog.

4. Another blog turn-off that kind of goes off of the last bullet is blog/social media drama. You better believe I will not read your blog anymore if you are constantly causing drama on social media for whatever reason that may be! It is silly and childish and I don’t enjoy reading those kinds of blogs or follow people like that on social media. If you don’t agree with someone’s political comment on Twitter, don’t respond negatively back… Just don’t respond! This happened once and I have frowned upon this person ever since! I totally understand people not agreeing on everything, but there’s no need for negativity and unpleasantness in the blog world.

Tell us about your perfect day if you could be doing anything in the world.

I’m going to combine this question with “what’s the best way to spend a weekend” question. One of my all-time favorite things to do is be out on the water. If I could be doing anything, I would pack up my best friends and their guys (boyfriends, fiancés, husbands- whoever) on a few boats and cruise around for a while with some coolers of beer and good music! That is normally what Tyler and I do together on the weekends anyways. To end the day, grilling out after a long day on the boat would be perfect! Now, if only we could find a weekend to actually do this!!

What were you like in high school?

I’d love for my high school friends to answer this, but I’ll do it as best I can. I did ask my friend Caroline and her response was “awkward.” Well, thanks for that.

In high school I was involved in everything. I’m talking e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g! I went to a small private school from kindergarten to senior year, which allowed me to really get involved in a lot! Let me just roll off my high school “resume” for you to understand…. Student Council (9-12), National Honor Society (9-12), Graduation Marshall (11), Basketball and volleyball (9-12), Cheerleading (9- hahaha what a joke!), Yearbook Editor (12), Junior Class President (11), FCA (9-12), Youth Group (9-12), Palmetto Girls State (11-12- I was a counselor too), Leadership camps every summer, sports camps every summer, etc! I also babysat and was a lifeguard at my country club. I was always super busy.  I was voted “Most Talented” as my senior superlative, even though my class and I never figured out what my talent was? I took voice lessons and played piano until 9^th grade when I got more involved with sports, so I think they thought that was my talent… years prior? Who knows.

I was pretty much a teacher’s pet and always tried to please them, whoops. OK, I guess I was contentious and really hard working and wanted to make good grades which I did, but I had a HORRIBLE SAT score. As in, I took it 5 times and never broke 1000. Judge me. But I did get into every college that I applied to and graduated with a 3.8/4.0 GPA and graduated 4^th in my class (of 37 people). So take that SAT score.  I only had a boyfriend my senior year, well except for one guy who I dated for 10 days and who brought me a cake that said “I love you” when I was sick and in the hospital. So that didn’t go very far obviously because that freaked me out. I hung out with people in my class and the class above me (because my cousin was older than me and my best friend Rebecca is older than me too), so I’d say I was pretty social. We had parties on sandbars on the river and/or our friend Matthew’s pond. Oh and I’d go to South Carolina football games and drink screwdrivers. BUT I never missed curfew and only got grounded once (stupid reason) and truly yelled at once by my dad… on the first day of my senior year… I wore Abercrombie and American Eagle and Express- because they were cool and I had to wear them.  My high school car was a 1992 Honda Accord that was bright green until I got a 2001 Pathfinder when I was a senior. So, I’d say I was pretty cool as you could get in high school, only after I got rid of my braces in 10^th grade right before our high school sorority’s formal.

I’m pretty sure I just went above and beyond on that answer, but it’s fun to reminisce and make fun of yourself every now and then!

I'll have part two and three soon. In the mean time, feel free to ask me more!