I have and always will be one to jump on the savings money train whenever it goes by. I did the 52 week money savings challenge for a couple years which was hugely successful and left me with an extra $1300+ stored away for when Christmas rolled around, and now I'm excited to share a different moneys saving project that I've been working on that is very similar to the 52 week challenge.
$20 A WEEK.
Every week I've been putting a $20 dollar bill into a jar that doesn't get touched.  As I jump into week 19, I'm proud to say that there are $380 beautiful dollars sitting pretty for me. I have decided that L and I will be going somewhere very fun next June, and there's no way of doing that without the cold hard cash. I hate, HATE taking money out of savings, and refuse to fund our trip with money that we don't have. This seemed like one of the easier ways of putting money aside, as it is only $20 a week which is $1,040 a year. Since I started in January and will have a total of approximately 78 weeks to save, I should end up with around $1,560 total. This will definitely make a huge dent in our vacation expenses. In fact, I'm almost a quarter of the way through already! It's so easy to put cash away and forget about it!
If you don't consider yourself a cash carrying person, no problem! Every time you swipe your debit card, you usually have the option to get cash back. Take $20 from there each month and you'll barely notice. 
Why don't I just put it into savings where it can gain interest and not get lost or spent? Any money that goes into savings doesn't come out. ever. In fact, the only reason that I will be taking money out of my savings within the next five years will be to either buy a house, buy a car, or an emergency. So if I put it in there, I would become attached to the fact that it was there, and would never, ever take it out. That wouldn't be the worse thing in the world, however I am specifically setting these doll hairs aside to spend on L and I, and I want us to reap the rewards of 78 weeks of diligent savings. I used to have a coin jar with over $1000 dollars in quarters that was going to take me to Bermuda. Then, my smart, financial boyfriend talked me into investing it into my retirement... so there went that trip ;) More on that later!
What's the easiest way for you to save up for something?

Life

Boston had a beautiful day today, I'm talking in the 80's! I went into the office for a couple hours and then decided my time would be better spent working from our roof deck. I'm just so much more productive when I have that sweet sunshine on my skin, and a go-gurt in my hand. Some kind soul that lives in our building set a table up on the deck, so you can be sure I will be working from there more often, as well as eating dinner, playing cards, and everything else I can possibly do. I just decided I'm going up there and reading my magazine as soon as I'm done writing this post. 

These printed boardwalk shorts are my new jam, so comfy! I got mine in ripe kiwi!

Having been on the hunt for a new hair salon since I moved to Boston over a year and a half ago, I feel as though I might have just found the perfect fit for me. I was first drawn to Bangs of Boston by their very modern and chic storefront located on Salem Stret, and the dozens of positive yelp and personal reviews that I had received from fellow customers and friends. I finally pulled the trigger when I saw that they were offering an amazing Groupon deal that I couldn't pass up. Their salon was very light, bright and clean, and I had an amazing experience with my stylist, Danielle, who was extremely helpful and explained everything she was doing and every product that she used. I left feeling awesome, and very pleased with the results!

My Tory Burch Thora Sandals arrived this weekend, and I finally had the excuse to wear them on this beautiful 70 degree Boston day! I ran all over the city and had no problems. So far, so good. I'm thinking about going for these ones next!

Please take this blurry iPhone photo to document my winnings from the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. We all put in $10 for a horse, randomly pulled from a cup, and I lucked out when I grabbed American Pharoah! $180 richer!

Guys, I'm on the struggle bus when it comes to my face lately. I am breaking out like a teenager and I don't know why or what to do! I don't ever wear any makeup on my face besides eyeliner/shadow, however I'm not very good about properly washing my face twice a day. I just bought a bottle of Cera Ve so I'm going to try extra hard to thoroughly wash it in the mornings and evenings. I'm also considering buying a clarisonic. Thoughts?

Happy Monday, friends!

Dear May

Dear May,
Will it every warm up?
I love cool weather, believe me I do! But seeing everyone's tropical vacation pictures has me on the edge of my seat hoping for a ray of sunshine and a day over 60. Thankfully, the temps are going to be in the 70's next week so we should be seeing a warm day in our future! Let's start this beautiful day off with a few of my favorite links and cat pictures of the week!

Tell me more about your day, Macy Cat.
+ I love this modern day board and batten project, would love to do if I had a house!
+ I've been wearing these critter flops for as long as I can remember (pineapples anyone?), so imagine my excitement when I saw that J. Crew  is offering 40-50% off wear-now styles and an additional 30% off of clearance items with the code EXTRA30. I also have my eyes on this summery shift dress, this cute camisole and I already hooked myself up with a pair of these comfy shorts.
+ How perfect is this bookshelf styling!? Not to mention she used the same magazine holders that I mentioned in Wednesdays post. 
+ I'm feeling inspired to organize under the kitchen sink, but only if it looks this fabulous!
+ What I would do to work up enough courage and do what this girl did!
Happy May, friends!!

15 under 15: Amazon Office Finds

Amazon has become my one stop shop for almost everything these days. I've been spending hours browsing through everything on that site and found myself putting together a list of accessories that I would love to add to my office space. All of these items are under $15 and fit well into the bright, and light theme that I love. 


one.

These hanging folders are everything you need and more for your bright and airy office space.  $12.57 for 25!

two.

Fill your hanging folder with these fun and colorful file folders.  30 for $7.38


three.

Store all of your magazines in these chic magazine holders. $14.16


four.

Add this acrylic tape dispenser to your office desk space. $8.84


five.

Come get your wash tape! Put washi tape in you tape dispenser to make labeling everything easier!

$11.01



six.

Match your tape dispenser with this snazzy acrylic stapler.

$14.99



seven.

Store your extra wires and cords in these CD boxes

$10.99

eight.

Use this mint julep cup to hold some fresh flowers!

$14.95



nine.

Get organized with this contempo planner. 

$12.99



ten.

So simple, so clean, the acrylic clip board.
$6.53



eleven.

Add this silver tray to your desk space to corral clutter.
$5.06



twelve.

If you work from home or are in the real estate field, you may just need this casa tissue box cover.
$6.00



thirteen.

Add decorative picture frames to your office space.
$13.50



fourteen.

Use this 2 gallon heritage jar to house pens and pencils! $13.00


fifteen.

I saved the best for last. I bought a baby fiddle leaf fig though Amazon back in September and I love the color and vibrancy that it brings to the room. It's still alive and kicking even though I am not the best fig tree mom. Read about that purchase here. 

$8.99

How do you like to decorate your space?
Links contain affiliates.

Weekend

Happy Marathon Monday! I want to send out a huge congratulations to all of the athletes who trained so hard for this amazing race! It's definitely one of my favorite times of the year having everyone from everywhere hanging out in the city with their brightly colored marathon jackets. I have running a marathon on my 30 x 30 list, and hope to one day have the opportunity to participate in THIS historic race!

via
In other news, I bought a new duvet and euro shams and have fallen head over heels in love with them. Making the bed is one thing that I cannot leave the house without doing. I would much rather be 10 minutes late to wherever I'm going, than come home to an unmade bed. I had been crushing on this set from West Elm for a few weeks and was finally able to justify pulling the trigger when they were offering 20% off and free shipping. Every time I walk in our bedroom my heart jumps for joy, so cute!

My dad scored some last minute tickets to the Sox game on Friday night, so we headed over to Fenway park, sucked down some beers and nachos and were fortunate enough to land a beautiful win! Nights like these make me so thankful to be living in this incredible city.

We traveled out to Stone Zoo on Sunday with my brother to take in the gorgeous weather. It quickly became freezing, so we headed to our favorite pastime, Friendly's, to relive our childhoods with kids meals and ice cream. A quick Uber ride to Chelsea scored us some groceries at Market Basket, and we wrapped the night up watching Horrible Bosses 2 on Amazon Prime. Am I the only person in the world who has been living under an Amazon Prime rock? I knew that you could get free shipping on some items, but free instant access to movies and music, what??

My brothers new phone has a setting on the camera called "beauty face" where you can adjust it to remove your blemishes... so here are L and I's blemish free faces! I'll just leave you with that.

Have a fantastic Monday and a wonderful week!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!
Here's to hoping everyone had a wonderful Easter Sunday filled with lots of love, joy, family and sweets!

L and I finally took advantage of living down the street from Old North Church and attended their Easter service. Being in America's Church truly is such a neat experience and I love that they still hold two services every Sunday. They had chandeliers filled with candles that were all lit, and the music was very traditional with a choir, organist and a brass band for the holiday! What an amazing service, we will definitely be back.

L and I put together Easter "bowls" this year mainly because we couldn't justify baskets that would get in the way the other 364 days of the year. Storage space is limited, so we opted to use our beautiful white serving dishes instead. I had so much fun putting together L's bowl! Being the huge cereal eater that he is, I picked up an adorable cereal bowl and I also threw in a bunch of candy, clothes, a candle, etc. L hooked me up with a ton of kit kats, an amazon gift card, and he filled an entire carton with cadbury eggs!! I was one happy chick. 

When it came to hiding each others bowls... we are both apparently wrong in the head. Inspired by my sister, I wrapped his up in a bag and hid it in the clean litter box. When it came to me finding mine, I looked every where and finally after 15 minutes, and a game of hot and cold found mine buried at the bottom of our trash can, covered in coffee grounds, last nights dinner, banana peels, and who knows what else!

We have a video of each other finding each others Easter bowls, but it's in the vertical format and super long. #rookie
We ended the night with pizza while watching the Wolf of Wall Street, so of course I whipped up a batch of the best sugar cookies on the planet, and made them super bright and fun!

...and what's a post without a super ferocious picture of my pet lion.  

 Happy Monday, friends!