5 Reasons I Love April + Giveaway!

Before now, I have never had a "favorite" month. I have always loved spring and increase that love by ten and that is how I feel about fall. For some reason though this year it has just hit me that for now, April is my favorite month! For today's "Five on Friday" I thought I would tell you my top 5 reasons why April is my current favorite...

ONE//
The beautiful weather has finally arrived! I'm in Pennsylvania for another 48 hours and it isn't quit warm enough yet to pull out the shorts but I am just loving soaking up the spring air. 

TWO//
Today marks one week till I get to go home for 3 days to spend Easter with my family! I would be lying if I didn't say I'm excited as a little kid in a candy store. Delta won't be able to get me home fast enough next week to see my family and handsome fiancé!

THREE//
I feel like this month just holds so much promise. I am officially done with being a Traveling Leadership Consultant on April 29th and while I am sad that the journey has come to an end, I am gushing to know what is coming next in my life. You best bet the applications and cover letters have been in full swing the past two weeks! (Shoutout to JKG for proofreading every single one!) 

FOUR//
April showers truly bring May flowers and I just keep soaking up that phrase, which leads me to.....

FIVE//

The biggest reason that I'm loving April is because I've paired up with 7 other amazing bloggers to give away a free pair of Hunter Rainboots! Yes, you read that correctly, we are giving away the one and only Hunter Rainboots. Y'all, in case you have never heard of these, they are the greatest thing since slice bread and a fashion accessory that every woman should have! Not only will one person be winning one standard pair (Valued at $140) but you get to pick your color from all the choices below. So what are you waiting for? See the rafflecopter below to start racking up entries! 

Lisa Loves John // Perfectly Scrubbed // Tattered to Taylored // Southern Abundance
Jessi's Design // Mary from the Mitten // B Loved Boston // Perpetually Daydreaming

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Linking up with my Favorite Five on Friday Blogger today! Thanks April :)

Sephora Favorities

Happy hump day friends! We are halfway to the weekend and what I hope will be some warmer weather up here in the North. If you visited me yesterday you saw that I've paired up with 4 other amazing bloggers to host a $75 gift card giveaway to Sephora! Today I'm sharing with you all seven of my favorite products from Sephora in hopes that you can find a new favorite product. Don't forget to enter the giveaway below!

one// Naked 3 by Urban Decay ($52): If you've been following my blog for a while, you've probably seen the numerous post I've done on wishing this Naked 3 eyeshadow palette could be mine. While at first it might seem a little pricey, the money I spent on my Naked 2 palette was the best money I've ever spent. I bought mine last spring and I have not even used half of it and it is a makeup product I use everyday. The Naked 3 is on my list because it has more of a pink palette that could brighten any face! two// Tsubaki Deep Hydration Sleeping Mask ($34): Anyone else out there suffer from super dry skin during the winter? No matter how much moisturizer I lather on my face, the dry skin always seems to pop back up halfway through the day. I was introduced to this product a few months ago and my life has been changed. You leave this mask on over night and wash it off in the morning. Not only is the dry skin gone, but your cheeks are left feeling smooth as a babies bottom! three// Be Legendary Lipstick ($20): Every young women needs a nice shade of red to wear out once in a while and this shade by Smashbox is my all time favorite. four// butter Nail Lacquer ($15): One of my favorite colors to paint my nails in the spring is a mature light (baby) pink. Besides Essie, butter is my go to polish and I love the way this beautiful polish adds color to any spring day! five// Pure Beauty Blender ($20): The shade of my face changes with the seasons but I'm not a huge fan of always having to buy new foundation. This blender works magic and allows me to keep my favorite two foundation shades throughout the year while making the transition from my face to my neck look natural.  six// Pout-o-matic Spa Powered Lip Treatment ($48): Okay, this one might be 110% completely random but I love it. I do not like dry, cracked lips...eww! I used to use a scrub almost on a daily basis but this treatment will last for a week! It doesn't hurt one bit and literally makes your lips so smooth and kissable! seven// Stay Flawless 15-hour Primer ($32): Primer became my best friend about a year ago and I'm not sure how my makeup stayed on before I started using it. I love this 15-hour primer because it literally last as long as it's name states. 

Life Could Be a Dream // The Modern Tulip // Southern Abundance // 

Denim & Daydreams // Ready or Not

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February Sephora Giveaway!

I'm so excited to bring you all another giveaway this month! Every girl loves makeup, am I right? So I've teamed up with 4 other bloggers to bring you a chance to win $75 to splurge on your favorite makeup goodies at Sephora! Just in time for Valentine's Day! I mean who can resist this? So treat yo'self and enter below. :) Stay tuned tomorrow to see my personal favorites from Sephora and get an idea on just what you could spend your $75 on!

Life Could Be a Dream // The Modern Tulip // Southern Abundance // 

Denim & Daydreams // Ready or Not

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The giveaway will run from 12:00 am EST on February 4th - 11:59 pm EST on February 9th. Entries will be verified, so please be honest. Good luck! :)

Weekend Review

Well, I've officially made it to the little town of Martin, Tennessee and the place I'll call my home/office for the next 15 days! I forgot when traveling out here that I would be going back an hour to the central timezone and that just always throws me off. You wouldn't think an hour would make a difference but I constantly have to remind myself that when calling home at 9:00, my parents are probably asleep because it's already 10:00pm there!  This past weekend I traveled from Florence, SC to Clinton, SC and the home of Presbyterian College (PC). I got to visit this pretty little school back in November for work and immediately fell in love with the beauty of the campus. The quad, the worship area by the lake, and all the beautiful oak trees just screamed "southern" to me!

Lucky for me, this past weekend I wasn't alone in my visit to PC and instead was joined by some of my closest co-workers (and sorority sisters) as we met to train upcoming leaders from the state of South Carolina. I can't tell y'all how happy my little heart was to love on these girls all weekend and to stay up late catching up with each other's lives!

I hope you all are having a wonderful start to your week. Just think, we are almost halfway to the weekend!

P.S. Don't forget that tomorrow night at 11:59pm EST my first giveaway ends, so don't forget to tweet, follow on bloglovin, and enter for your chance to win a copy of Blog, Inc!

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Monday Coffee Talk {Vol. II}

Happy Monday my sweet friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend :-) Anyone do anything majorly exciting? At least the weather seems to be warming up for us and hopefully the snow up north is gone for a few weeks. Here is Volume II of my Monday Coffee Talk aka my ramblings for the week. I hope you all enjoy reading along!

Travel Day:

Today is a travel day for work and by the time you read this I'll be on my way to the airport to catch flight #1 of 2 today. I was just saying the other day how I have not flown in 27 days (due to our Christmas break) and that just feels so weird to me. My body is used to flying somewhere new every 4-7 days, so not being on a plane in almost a month has me so excited for this flight today! I've spent the last week at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina but heading out to Martin, Tennessee today, via a layover in Charlotte of course.

Bachelor Monday: Okay, I seriously need y'alls help! You know how ABC used to post the weekly Bachelor episode online the very next day? Well now you cannot watch it until a week later!!!!! To watch it the next day you have to verify your cable provider and all the ones they allow you to verify are strange one's that I've never heard of! This is where I need y'alls help: does anyone know any other website where you can watch the episodes starting the next day? My flight does not land in Tennessee tonight till 10:13pm so I'm going to miss the episode and will be so impatient to have to wait all the way till next Monday to watch tonights episode! 

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Worrying gets you no where:

Y'all, let's be real...I am such a worry wart! I love being a good listener and supporting my friends but lately I've found myself being so worried about things going on back home with my friends and trials of loved ones that those thoughts constantly consume my mind. The worry causes me to not be focused on the "here and now" of the moment and causes me to lay in bed at night wondering if I was back home would things be better? My prayer this week is that God will just heal my heart and cause my wondering mind to stay focused and to know that all our lives are in his control. 

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Giveaway: Don't forget that my Blog, Inc. book giveaway ends this Wednesday night at 11:59pm! Winner will be announced on Thursday so make sure you get those entries in!

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[Mini] Weekend Vacay

I'm heading out of town bright and early this morning for what I'm considering in my mind to be a mini weekend vacation. Well, it's not really a vacation, it's a work trip, but I get to see four of my sweetest sorority sisters and I am so excited to love on them for 2 whole days! Every sorority officer from ZTA in the state of South Carolina is gathering together this weekend for officer training. To my luck, two other current Traveling Leadership Consultants, Mallory (top right) and Chelsea (bottom right), will be there with the two colleges they are visiting right now. My sweet ZTA sister from UNC Charlotte (who was also a TLC 2 years ago), Casey (top left), will be there as a trainer. This will be the first time I've seen Casey since she got engaged last summer and I am so excited to finally see her beautiful ring in person. And last but not least I get to see my Katelyn (bottom left) whom I met several years ago at a ZTA National Convention when we both won the same award. She graduated from Clemson University two years ago and then traveled last year as a TLC. She is my go-to person that I always call with questions when I'm confused on the job! Any who, in case you cannot tell, I am beaming with joy that I get to see these four blessings in my life this week! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back on Monday morning with a little weekend review :-)

Also, don't forget that you only have till Tuesday night at 11:59pm to enter my first giveaway for the book "Blog, Inc.". Enter while you can!

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Five on Friday: Travel Essentials

Happy Friday Sweet Friends!

I'm sorry for such a late night post, but I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off today! You see, tomorrow I head back out for my final five months on the road with my job as a traveling leadership consultant. I had a dreaded doctors appointment today then ran to grab a few last minute things before I finished packing. Packing for five months at a time can be somewhat difficult but something I get better at doing every time I fly to another school. With today's Five on Friday link-up (A. Liz Adventures), I decided to have a little fun and post the five items I have labeled my top  travel essentials.

[ONE]- Mini Travel Steamer

$19.99: Bed Bath and Beyond 

There is no way I could travel without this. My mini steamer heats up in 20 seconds and is ready to steam away and make my clothes crisp and wrinkle free. The biggest plus is that it only weighs 14 ounces so it doesn't take up much space in my bag. I will seriously never travel anywhere without this little friend of mine!

[TWO]- Erin Condren Life Planner

$50: Erin Condren

A year ago I was lucky enough to stumble across the Erin Condren Life Planner and I don't think I'll ever use anything else. I love how each day is divided into Morning/Day/Night and I'm given a large square space to write down all my meetings. I also love the vast array of cover choices that you can select from. 

[THREE]- Lands End Tote Bag

$17: Lands End

This tote bag saves my life on a daily basis. Flying every week requires a strong and durable bag that I can use as my "personal carry on item" and this bag holds so much. I also use it on a daily bases as my book bag to carry notebooks and my laptop to campus for meetings. I also love that you can get your monogram on it! 

[FOUR]- Clarisonic Mia 

$125: Clarisonic

There are not enough words to describe how this little gadget has changed my life. I've only been using my Clarisonic Mia since September but I'll be the first to tell you I'm hooked. Being exposed to different types of water every few days on the road was really starting to make my acne flair back up in the beginning. However, since starting to use this little gadget my face had been more clear. I've also noticed a major decrease this winter in the amount of dry skin I have. 

[FIVE]- Blog, INC. Book

My Blog, INC. book will be the most well loved thing on the road this semester. I still have one more chapter to read in my copy but I'm excited that there is still 12 days to go in my giveaway for one of you to win your very own copy. Don't forget to enter via the rafflecopter below as the winner will be picked on January 15th!

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I hope you all have a beautiful weekend! Tomorrow I'm off to my first school of the semester in South Carolina and look forward to brining you all on the journey! Make sure you're following me via Instagram and Twitter to be a part of my day to day travels!

Hottest Deals in Fashion

Yesterday I may have dragged the boyfriend with me to go do a little new year's day shopping! I was told a few months ago by a sweet friend in Georgia that on January 1st every year, Dillard's department store puts their entire store on sale for 50% off. She informed me that this was not really an advertised sale but that I had to try it. So with my heart set on this "huge sale", Josh and I ventured to the mall this morning. Well, to make the correction, the entire store is not on sale, just the clearance items. However, the catch was around 80% of their store had been placed on clearance so aka almost the entire store really was on sale!!! (My heart was smiling!!) Everything that was marked as clearance was an additional 50% off the lowest price. If you follow my instagram account, you saw that I scored a beautiful $149 dress for just $26.07! Is that a deal or what? Since I am fixing to hit the road traveling again on Saturday and won't be able to shop much anymore, I decided to create for y'all a list of some of the biggest online sales that I'm loving right now. Let me know what you think! 

Jcrew.com is having 40% off final sale items through January 7th with the code SHOPHAPPY.

Factory.jcrew.com is also having 40% off clearance items through January 7th with the code SALE40.

Anthropologie.com has 25% off their sale clothing and accessories with 50% off their home sale. Use code WARMUP.

Nordstrom.com is having another semi annual sale with up to 50% off online purchases! 

Bananarepublic.com has 30% off sale items with the code BRGOOD30 till January 6th!

I also decided to link-up with Showered with Design and Happiness is Not a Destination for the month of January to do their Inspire Me 2014 Blog Challenge! They've listed great ideas for almost every day of the month so hop on over to find a prompt you would like to write about! 

Today's prompt for January 2nd was: What did you do for New Years?

My answer to that is not a whole lot and I was perfectly fine with that! Josh came over to my family's house and we all spent the evening together eating a wonderful home cooked meal, playing games together, and watching Modern Family till our stomachs hurt so much from laughing. At 11:50pm we turned the channels to watch the ball drop and then I was able to share a little new year's kiss with my favorite boy! Originally Josh and I were going to attempt to go to Charleston for NYE but with my work having me go back out on the road this Saturday, I decided to spend NYE right at home and soak in every minute I could get with my loved ones!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway below for your chance to win a copy of Blog, Inc!

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Happy New Year + First Blog Giveaway!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIENDS!

I can just already feel that God is going to bless us with a great 2014! How did y'all spend your New Year's Eve? Hopefully it was surrounded by those that you love. Any one make it up to New York City to see the ball drop in person? I have to say, being in Times Square to celebrate a new year is on my life bucket list!

The family and I hung out at our home like we do every year and I was thankful that Josh was able to join us once again. Originally, Josh and I were going to attempt to spend NYE in Charleston, SC but my work schedule has me going back out this weekend for the next 5 months so I'm trying to soak up all the time I can with my family. Instead we played games, ate lots of my mom's yummy food, and counted down the last few moments of 2013. No matter how you brought in the new year, I hope you loved every second!

Now on to my BIG and EXCITING news! If you read my post yesterday, you learned that today I was making an announcement that I could not wait to tell you all. Well, here it is: I'm hosting my first giveaway! A few days ago I finished reading the wonderful book by Joy Cho titled "Blog, INC." and knew right away I had to give a copy to one of my wonderful readers. The book description goes as follows:

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"With roughly 95,000 blogs launched worldwide every 24 hours (BlogPulse), making a fledgling site stand out isn't easy. This authoritative handbook gives creative hopefuls a leg up. Joy Cho, of the award-winning Oh Joy!, offers expert advice on starting and growing a blog, from design and finance to overcoming blogger's block, attracting readers, and more. With a foreword from Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge plus expert interviews, this book will fine-tune what the next generation of bloggers shares with the world.

Learn how to: - Design your site
- Choose the right platform
- Attract a fan base
- Finance your blog
- Maintain work/life balance
- Manage comments
- Find content inspiration
- Overcome blogger's block
- Choose the right ads
- Develop a voice
- Protect your work
- Create a media kit
- Leverage your social network
- Take better photographs
- Set up an affiliate program
- Partner with sponsors
- Build community
- Go full-time with your blog
- And more!"

I could not put this book down and took so many notes which have made me all the more excited about Southern Abundance and the direction it will go in 2014! So here's the time frame, the giveaway is open now and will run through 11:59pm on Wednesday, January 15...aka you have 2 weeks to enter! Note that tweeting daily about the giveaway will allow you to enter you name in it even more so feel free to do so! 

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I'll leave you all with a few not-so-high-quality pictures that I found via New Year's Eve family video circa 1999. You know the year right before Y2K came and the entire world was supposed to crash? Well, I guess my 9 year old self wanted the fam to wear hats that year! And from the second picture I guess we survived into the year 2000! HaHa Enjoy :-)

Goals for 2014 + Exciting News!

Raise your hand if you can believe today is the last day of 2013...well my hand is not raised! As I sit here writing this last post for the year, I am in awe at how quickly time flies when you get "old". I wish there was a way to wave a magic wand and turn 1 minute into an hour so I could celebrate more memories. 

As I look back on this year, there are no words to describe how blessed I was. 2013 brought about my student teaching semester in my dream grade (5th), I graduated from college, landed my dream job as a Traveling Leadership Consultant for my sorority, and have now completed my first 5 months of traveling the country. In 2013 I also took a chance of starting a blog after reading others blogs for months. Even though I'm still getting into the swing of "blogging world", I am so excited for what 2014 holds for both my personal life and for Southern Abundance. 

I've never been much of a "new year's resolution" setter as I'm more of a month by month goal person. So to start New Year's Eve off right, I wanted to share my top 5 personal goals and my top 5 blogging goals for January. Then at the end of the month we can all take a look back at them and see how I did! Without further ado, here are my January 2014 goals:

Now that you know my top goals for the coming month I'm excited to make the following announcement...

Starting tomorrow I will be hosting my first giveaway! YAY!!! That's all I will tell you write now but be sure to check back tomorrow for all the details!

What are your goals for 2014?