2016 Blogging Goals - Update

Since the year is a fourth over, it's time for me to do my first update on my 2016 goals! Back in January, I made some goals for my blog. While I haven't completed them all, I've completed a few of them and have a couple in progress.

Related: 2016 Blogging Goals

Double the amount of followers on each of my social media platforms // I'm almost to my Instagram and Twitter goals. I've doubled my Bloglovin' goal, as well as quadrupled my Pinterest goal. I'd say that's progress!

Redesign my blog // THIS IS HAPPENING VERY SOON I PROMISE! Honestly, the only thing that has been holding me back is the fact that I can't choose between designs... leave a comment telling me which one you like better! Josie | Quincy There's one that I'm leaning toward, but I can't decide between the two.

Buy a custom domain name // I haven't even begun to contemplate this one. After redesigning my layout, this will come next.

Become more active on Snapchat // Done! I am so proud to say that I add something to my story almost every other day. I share mail hauls, shopping trips, and all sorts of peeks into my daily life. If you haven't added me already, add me at livethepreplife!

Related: 101 in 1001

Do more "preppy" posts // I've done a decent job with this one... but I'm not really happy with how they have turned out. I feel like all I've been sharing lately are Polyvore sets. There's nothing wrong with doing that every once in a while, but I don't want that to become the only thing I do. I really want to do more outfit posts, but that requires getting someone in my family to cooperate and take pictures of me. I want to hear your opinion though - leave a comment telling me what kinds of posts you want to see or take my reader survey!

Create a constant theme // Back in January, I did make a specific shade of pink my main color (it's the pink that highlights links and the pink you see in all of my graphics) but as I mentioned in my original goals post, this goes along with getting an entirely new layout... so not much has happened with this one.

Since I've completed some of these goals, I thought I'd set some new ones!

Collaborate With More Bloggers // I did a collab with a blogger last week, and I have one coming up next week, but I really want to work with more bloggers. If you want to collaborate, email me! I'd love to talk!

Start Doing Weekly Updates // If you haven't noticed, I've been slacking off on doing Friday Picks lately because I'm just not that interested in doing them. However, I still wanted to share the link love, but I also wanted to give y'all updates on my life. I mentioned this awhile back, and I think I'm going to start doing biweekly updates. Instead of doing Friday Picks, I think I'll do some sort of link post every other week, and I'll do a life update on the other weeks.

Post 3 Times A Week // I did this over the summer, but I cut it back to two posts after school started due to time constraints. Life is really busy right now, but I would love to start writing three posts each week once school winds down a bit.

That pretty much sums up how my blogging goals are going! I will be making another post on this in June, so stay tuned for that! As for now, enjoy your spring!

How are you doing on your blogging goals?

Friday Picks

Happy Good Friday! For the first time in years, we had off from school today (typically Good Friday is a bad weather makeup day, but we had no snow days to make up this year) so my mom, sisters, and I took a trip to our local botanical gardens and did a little shopping. My grandparents are coming later today, and overall, I can't wait for Easter! I'm kind of upset that I never got to do a post about Easter, but who knows? I might do one on Sunday. Anyways, let's get into the links!

1 // As a teen blogger, I really appreciated and related to this post from Cathleen.

2 // If you didn't know, I went skiing over Spring Break - check out my recap here.

3 // Allison got a dress named after her and it's gorgeous!

4 // What it means to be a girl 

5 // I am now a brand rep for Rosie & Co! Use my code BROOKEB for free shipping on your order.

6 // Speaking of dresses, Caitlin put together a list of her favorite dresses for Easter.

7 // I did a ton of shopping over Spring Break, and here are some of my favorite items I purchased!

8 // You don't always like your little sisters, but you always love them, and you learn a lot from them too.

9 // More March Favorites - but these ones are from Kate, and there's a mini Bible lesson at the end that I really enjoyed hearing.

10 // Tori shares 30 ways to embrace happiness

11 // I was so excited to hear about Target's new collaboration on Miranda's blog! (P.S. here's my favorite item from their collection!)

12 // This lace top that Amy styled is such a unique and gorgeous piece for spring.

13 // Spring essentials at every price

14 // Evelyn Henson released her new spring / summer designs, and they're all gorgeous! See my favorites: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5

I hope you all have a great Easter weekend and you remember what it's really about. The extra day off from school and work, the candy, and the celebrations are great, but that's not what Easter is about. Easter is about how Jesus loved us so much that he died for us, and I hope y'all never forget that.

What are your plans for this weekend?

March Favorites

Is anyone else having a hard time believing 2016 is almost an entire fourth over? I feel like this month especially has flown by so fast! Since Spring Break was this month (see my recap here) and I did a lot of shopping when I came back from Colorado, I have a lot of March favorites to show y'all!

Favorite Clothing Item // I did a lot of shopping over Spring Break (which you'll know if you saw my hauls on Snapchat, add me at livethepreplife!) and I got a lot of new clothes for spring, so this is a really hard question to answer! I'd have to go with this adorable navy and white crochet top from Francesca's, though, because I have so many plans for it and I can style it with so many different navy and white accessories I have! You might just see this top in an outfit post soon, too...

Related: Preppy Beach Essentials

Favorite Beauty Product // I don't really wear much makeup or change up the products in my makeup routine often, but I did open this new lipstick from Tarte this month. I've always loved Tarte's lipsticks, but this color, Hope, has to be one of my favorite colors yet!

Favorite Piece of Jewelry // If you didn't know, I recently got my ears pierced (one of my goals on my 101 in 1001) and the six weeks that I had to leave my earrings in are finally up! This means that I can take my boring earrings out, and put in some fun ones! I got these gorgeous Kendra Scott earrings for my birthday, which was six months ago, but I couldn't wear them until now and I'm so excited! They match my Easter dress perfectly, but they provide such a fun pop of color to any outfit, really.

Favorite Shoes // The other day, my sandals to go with my Easter dress came in the mail, and I could not be more obsessed! I got the Georgica Jelly Sandal in white, and they're going to go with so many different things in my closet. I love the gold studs on the sandal, too - it adds such a nice detail!

Favorite Song // Usually, I have a whole Spotify playlist of my current favorites, but there just hasn't been any songs I've been obsessed with recently. I'm still a huge fan of I Know What You Did Last Summer by Shawn Mendes and Love Yourself by Justin Bieber, although those aren't very new songs.

What were your favorite products this past month?

Beaver Creek Recap

If y'all didn't know, earlier this week, I traveled to Colorado for the first time for spring break! My family and I went skiing in Beaver Creek, and I had a great time! I took a lot of pictures and did a lot of fun activities, so I thought I would show y'all a quick recap of the trip. Enjoy!

When I go on vacation, or out to eat, I'm guilty of taking pictures of every single meal. To keep this post from containing a million pictures, I limited my food pictures to one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner picture. The omelette was actually from the Hyatt breakfast and the tacos are from my favorite taco place ever - Wahoo's Fish Tacos. The dinner is a chicken and pasta combination, and it's from Castle Peak Grille. If you ever go to Avon, I recommend going there!

On the first night of our stay, it wasn't too cold out, so my sister and I took a few pictures. I got my sweater from TJMaxx a while back, and my boots are Hunter rain boots. Also, please excuse my sister's weird face - she doesn't like taking pictures.

Related: Guide to Huntington, Newport, & Laguna

Our first day of skiing was actually really nice! It was about 40 degrees the whole time, and I actually found myself getting hot. Since this was only my second time skiing, I mainly practiced the basics in the morning - how to stop, turn, and ski around. In the afternoon, we went down a few different slopes, which was a lot of fun (even though my sister had to get picked up by ski patrol).

The rest of the week, it was scheduled to snow, and snow it did! Beaver Creek got ten inches of snow on Monday - but my dad and I are convinced that it snowed more than that. It was about 25 degrees colder than the day before, and my fingers were getting numb, even though I was wearing really warm gloves. The snow was also coming down like crazy - on the ski lift, you couldn't see more than two cars in front of you! Despite the cold, my sister and I were skiing down blue slopes and mini moguls by the end of the day - not bad for our second time! We were really unprepared for the snow, because our last ski trip had been so warm (we traveled to Lake Tahoe and it was about 60 degrees). We didn't even have goggles, but we managed to bear the cold and blinding snow and enjoy ourselves!

On our last day in Beaver Creek, we stopped in a few shops in the village, and finished everything off with some ice skating. I've never ice skated outside before, and I really enjoyed it!

This trip was so much fun, and I'm so glad I got to go! We were talking about going back in the summer, and I would love to do that! Let me know if you want to see more travel posts like this - I loved taking all these pictures and putting this together. Also, if you're ever planning to go to Beaver Creek - email me and I'll tell you some more of my favorite places.

Have you ever been to Beaver Creek? What did you do for spring break?

Friday Picks

As you're reading this, I'm most likely at the airport, or on a plane, or maybe I'm sitting at school counting down the seconds until class is over - it depends on what time you're reading this. If you didn't already know, I'm heading out to Colorado tonight, and I couldn't be more excited! It's my second time to go on a ski trip, and I can't wait. Be sure to follow me on Instagram to see fun pictures! I'm also taking over the She Can Community Instagram on Sunday, so I'm really excited for that as well!

Also, I feel really bad, because I haven't published a Friday Picks for three weeks now. I keep drafting them, but I never hit "publish." I'm not really sure why, but I just haven't been feeling as inspired lately. Writing Friday Picks is starting to bore me now, so I think I might change posts on Fridays up. I'm thinking about doing a weekly recap every other week and share some links I've been loving on the other weeks, because I know posts where I share links are some of my most popular posts, and I love giving shoutouts to some of my favorite bloggers! Let me know what you think about this idea by leaving a comment!

With all of that being said, let's get into the links!

1 // J Crew Factory got new arrivals and Sydney's picks couldn't have been more perfect... these sandals are calling my name.

2 // Catherine's pictures of Colorado are gorgeous!

3 // Obsessing over these monogrammed flats - because everything is better with a monogram

4 // One of my all time favorite quotes ever

5 // Ever since I read this post on Soulfully Southern, I've been sleeping with my hair up, and I definitely notice a difference!

6 // 30 prop ideas for blog photos

7 // Stripes have become such a popular pattern lately, and this was such a creative post by the girls at Normally in Navy!

8 // Caitlin was SPOT ON in her "24 Thoughts of a First-Time Skier" post

9 // Major heart eyes for these omelettes

10 // I know a lot of y'all had Spring Break last week, but if you're going on vacation this week, like me, you'll need to bring these essentials for the beach.

11 // Rebecca always has the most unique, thought-provoking posts, and I really related to this one

12 // I've been wanting a FitBit lately, so I found Alyssa's post to be really helpful.

13 // On Tuesday I shared some of my favorite looks from Warby Parker's spring collection!

14 // How to spring clean your closet

15 // Charlotte's biggest lesson she's learned in her teens

16 // I need this peplum top in my life

17 // These brownies look too good for words

Have a great Spring Break if yours is this week! If yours was last week, I hope it was amazing!

Spring With Warby Parker

As y'all know, I love to feature brands on here, so I'm really excited to be introducing a new brand to y'all - Warby Parker! I was so excited when they reached out to me, because they have the cutest glasses and sunglasses. I can't wait to show y'all some of my favorite looks from their collection.

Their Spring 2016 collection is inspired by the circus - full of bright colors and energy. Each pair of glasses adds such a bright pop of color to any outfit, and once you see the outfits I've picked out to go with them, I know you'll love the frames just as much as I do!

Necklace | Top (similar) | Bracelets are sold out, similar here | Glasses | Shorts | Shoes | Watch

Top | Shorts | Glasses | Bag | Bracelet (similar) | Bracelet (similar) | Earrings | Sandals

Glasses | Phone Case | Dress (similar) | Bracelet | Shoes

One other thing I love about Warby Parker is that for every pair of glasses sold, a pair goes to a child in need. As you can tell, they're an amazing brand, and I'm so glad I got to work with them on this!

What do you think about Warby Parker's spring line?

Preppy Beach Essentials

I feel like there are two types of people on Spring Break: those who go somewhere cold, like the mountains, and those who go to somewhere warm, like the beach. This year, I'm going somewhere cold (more on that later) but I thought that I would share a spring break post for warmer weather as part of Olivia's Spring Break Linkup. A huge thanks to Olivia for hosting this linkup!

PFG | Hat | Shorts | Sunglasses | Tumbler | Bikini Top | Bikini Bottoms | T-Shirt | Jack Rogers | Chacos

I've seen a lot of spring break guides with adorable sun hats, monogrammed beach totes, cute swimsuits, and more, but there's one problem: All of those items seem to be at least $100. I think that's a little excessive. The nice thing about all of these items is that they are all under $50, (minus the PFG which is $52) but they are still really cute and will be perfect for your spring break!

Related: Treat Yourself

A huge thanks to Olivia for hosting this linkup! If you click on the picture, it will take you to her blog, or you can click here.

Where are you headed for spring break?