J.Crew Factory Finds

Sorry I'm getting to y'all late today, it was a pretty busy week on campus. We had our cumulative exam this morning, so I've been very preoccupied with that until now. I did want to share with y'all some great finds from J.Crew Factory who is also having an extra 30% off today! Don't miss out on these fabulous fall styles!

Magic Kingdom

Saturday we went to Disney's Magic Kingdom for a day full of fun. Warning to those of you wanting to plan a visit soon, their new fastpass+ system is absolutely terrible(I'm still trying to decide if I should dedicate a whole post to this fact). It allows you to reserve three rides 90 days before you go to the park. Seeing as we planned ours only a month out, the newest Snow White ride was already all booked (which is completely absurd if you ask me). We never rode it as we didn't want to wait over an hour for it. 

Moving on… We arrived early enough to see the rope drop, it was wonderful. I highly recommend getting to the park at least 30 minutes before opening (or even earlier if you can score a reservation at one of the two restaurants that serve breakfast).

Our first stop was to charge our batteries with a quick shot of caffeine. 

We then promptly headed to find some Minnie ears. For some reason we've never bought them, but we absolutely had to have them this trip. I had a very hard time deciding between three pairs, and Jared wasn't answering my texts to tell me his opinion, hence the sad face. 

After much deliberation, I finally decided and we headed off to get our pixie dust.

After that, we were finally ready to ride the teacups, and Space Mountain, and everything else!

Hungry and not willing to wait in the lines much longer, we settled into our spots at Toni's Restaurant in Town Square. This is the place that Lady and Tramp can be seen sharing their famous spaghetti and meatballs. Their food is rather delicious, we highly recommend the zucchini fries. 

After our lunch, Ashlyn was surprised when the lovely server brought out a birthday ice cream!

We went and enjoyed a few more rides before getting a snack and a LeFou Brew at Gaston's Pub. It's by far one of my favorite stops, and partly because Gaston is absolutely hilarious. He and the evil stepsisters from Cinderella may be my favorite characters in the park. Oh how fun it would be to be them for a day!

The rest of the day was spent mingling between the many lands of the park. 

And of course we had to add a little more caffeine to our systems. After all, we didn't plan on leaving until they kicked us out. 

We took on the rides just as cool as cucumbers. 

One thing we did stop for was the Celebrate the Magic show that night. It's something that you don't want to miss. We watched the second show, as it was less crowded but still fabulous. Here's just a taste of what you'd be missing.

Several hours later, we finally tired ourselves out enough that we were ready to leave, but not before a few more photo ops. 

We returned to the hotel around 1am, propped our feet up for some much needed rest, and went right to sleep. 

We had such a fantastic time, I can't wait to do it again. Although the next time may be a little different as it won't be able to be as "spontaneous" as we usually like to have it.

Universal Parks

Our first day in Orlando was spent at the Universal theme parks, mainly the Harry Potter portions. We woke up bright and early to prepare for a day full of wizards and butter beer. We were all rather eager to see the new park and arrive about an hour before it opened. We wandered around City Walk until they finally let us in (15 minutes early by the way).

We made our way to the back of the park to London and the hidden Diagon Alley. 

Tank found here. They also have some others I really liked. I would definitely buy a size up though, it was a tad tighter than I would have liked on my shoulders. 

After getting our first round of butter beer, we ran into the dragon that was guarding the Gringotts vaults!

We scurried into the local shops to avoid being seen by the ornery beast. While we waited, we tried the dragon ale The Leaky Cauldron had to offer. I'm not big on beer, but my sister seemed to like it.

I took a risk and tried the new Fishy Green Ale. It was pleasantly delicious, a bit of mint with some little squishy sweet "eggs" at the bottom. The food was also excellent, especially the fish & chips. I would highly recommend it. 

After riding everything at Diagon Alley, we made the trip over to Hogsmeade. It was as fun and magical as we remembered. It's still our favorite part of the two parks. 

I haven't gotten the rest of our pictures from my sister at Universal, but we didn't take that many seeing as we were too busy enjoying all the new parts of the park! Check back tomorrow but be warned, I have tons of photos from Disney!

Disney Bound

We are currently on the way to the happiest place on earth. Keep up with my travels on instagram and see what we're getting ourselves into!

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Classic

I've never been a fan of black. My closet is 50% navy, 40% cream with a few other colors thrown in. I found these fabulous BCBG heels last fall, and they have been a favorite of mine since. The problem was that I didn't have much black to pair them with. Over the last year, I've been accumulating a few classic black pieces, but this one I'm featuring today is my number one favorite. 

I promise I will get some better detailed pictures when the weather decides to cooperate with me. 
When I stumbled upon this dress on ASOS I knew it would be a classic. I originally ordered the size 4 based on my measurements. The 4 fit, but I just didn't feel comfortable with how tight it was. It is a body-conscious dress, but I just liked it being a tad more loose so it's more appropriate for various settings (Thank you ASOS for free shipping both ways).

Sephora + Pantone

I may have been living under a rock the last year, but I just found out that Sephora and Pantone have teamed up to bring you your perfect match for practically any brand of makeup. I had planned on taking my little sister to get her color matched for her first makeup, but I also needed to get a lighter color for myself for fall. I've filled out my Sephora Beauty Insider profile long ago, but this is a little different. It asks you questions about your skin and what your major concerns are, for myself I answered dry skin and fine lines. They then take this handheld contraption that takes a picture of your skin in pitch darkness. It allows them to focus on skin physiology instead of the other lighting factors that often interfere with picking good colors. (Read more about it here)

The results were absolutely amazing. I was really nervous when she told me the bareMinerals bareSkin was several shades lighter than the shade I currently have, but I couldn't be more ecstatic with the results. Not only did it tell me my bareMinerals shades, but it also gave me tons of shades in other brands for me. If you haven't been, I encourage you to go and get matched (even if you think you know what color you are). It was so spot on, my older sister went to get matched on Sunday. Here's a taste of what it looks like.

Sleeping Beauty

Last but not least we have Aurora, from Sleeping Beauty. Often overlooked as she doesn't have an attraction for her either, she does have three fabulous fairy godmothers. I couldn't find the perfect blue and pink dress her lovely fairies made her in the movie, but I do love this blush maxi dress. Its easy to wear and flowy enough to keep you cool in the heat. And of course you need a headband tiara to top it all off.