Big Clothing Haul: Forever 21, Target, Buffalo Exchange, and more!

It has definitely been awhile since I have posted on here, so I thought I would start back up with a clothing haul! The past two weekends I have been shopping for new clothes so I can get rid of a lot of my old ones. I will say that I have bought more than I had planned, (and spent more money) but my closet needed updating. So over the past two weekends I have been to Target, Marshalls, Blackbird Trading Company, Forever 21, and Buffalo Exchange.

So lets start with the items I got from Target. The first thing that I purchased was a gray short-sleeved t-shirt dress. I have seen a lot of these lately and have really wanted to try the trend, it was also a plus that it was on sale. I must say I do like how casual it is, but yet you can make it dressy at the same time. I plan on pairing this with a pair of combat style boots with knee high socks sticking out or scrunched down. You could add a belt to make your form more defined and even add a dark colored cardigan for a more fall look. The next thing I bought from target was a charcoal gray cardigan. I only have one other cardigan and it is white, so I really wanted a gray or black one to go with outfits the white one would not work with. This was more of a standard than an impulse buy. The last thing I bought from Target was a pair of dark green jeggings I have never had dark green pants, but I have always wanted to buy a pair since I already have many items to pair with them. I also couldn't pass up the fact that they were jeggings, since I bought my first pair I no longer wear real jeans. All of my jeans now are stretchy denim or just plain jegging material. 

The next store I went to was Buffalo Exchange. It is actually a thrift store that has gently worn clothes and a lot of name brand items. I walked around the whole store before I really started looking in the racks of clothes. The first item I bought stuck out at me as unusual, but I felt like I had to have it. It was screaming from me to pick it up and take it home with me. The item was a black and white knit animal print cardigan. I am not much of an animal print person, but for some reason this just felt like something I would wear. I do have a rule when it comes to shopping: No matter how weird or unusual an item is if I liked it enough to pick it up and wonder if I should buy it, then I will buy it. I don't want to be scared of trying something new because of the fear of what other people will think, so if I liked it then I will buy it. The second item I bought was actually a pair of shoes for my boyfriend, Daniel. I know how much he hates shopping, but how much he actually needs new clothes and shoes so I decided to help him out. I had a choice of baby blue vans with laces or these gray levis shoes. I decided that the gay ones were a better choice since he isn't very fashion conscious and he could wear these with anything. I put a ? on how much the shoes were if I bought them retail because even after looking online I could not find these shoes, but I am sure they would rang anywhere from $30-$50. The fact that I only paid $17.00 for them seems like a deal to me. 

 The next store where I bought the most was Forever21. The first thing I grabbed was four tank tops for $1.90 each. I choose black, gray, cream, and maroon. I know in the picture it looks red but it is actually a maroon color in person. Over the past year I have some how lost all of my tank tops/undershirts so it was easy to pick these up and the price wasn't to bad either. The next item I got was a black floral dress with courter sleeves and a crisscrossing back/cut out. I love how this dress looks on and the sleeves are very important to me since I got a new tattoo on my arm. It is completely covered by the sleeves and will be great to wear to job interview. The next two items I got wear two paris of jeans, one being just plan black and the other camo. I have not had camo pants since I was around six. I have always wanted to get a pair but never thought I could pull them off. Once I  saw these I felt like I just had to go for it, and with the blessing of my friends I decided to buy them. I must say I am glad I did and can't wait to wear these when it starts to get cooler.

 The next item I got from Forever 21 was also a big leap for me. I bright red sweater. I am not a bright color kind of person. I like to stick to darker shades and colors so when I saw that the dark teal sweater I picked up came in bright red I had a big decision to make. Should I stick to a color I know and love? or go a bit more bold? Well as you can see I went for bold. I have always envied people who wore bright colors in the fall and winter and this time I thought I would be one of them. I asked my friends how I should wear the sweater knowing that I would have to accessorize, which is something I haven't done in almost five years. So this brings me to the next item I bought, a black and gold statement necklace. This necklace goes with more than just the sweater, it goes with almost any outfit. I love the way it looks and will be pairing it with a lot of outfits I will be wearing from now until winter. The next item I purchased was a cream colored shirt with a black front pocket with zipper detail. You can't really see the zipper on the pocket, but I promise it is there. I love how simple this shirt is and how easy it is to wear.

I also wen to Marshalls and bought just a couple of things. The first was a black sheer boho styled shirt with a beautiful patter around the neck and bottom of the shirt. I thought this was another good selection for job interviews, since I have quite my last job and am looking for a new one it has been a priority to find clothes that hide my new tattoo that is at the top of my forearm. The last thing I got from Mashalls was a new pair of shoes. I picked these slip on snakeskin printed shoes. I have been looking for patterned shoes for a while and love how these look. I am sure these will now be second in line for best shoes, while my black converse will alway be in first place no matter how ratty they get. 

 The next store I went to was another thrift store called Blackbird Trading Company. It took me a while to find some things I liked, as in all thrift stores, but I did find a few things. I also continued to be a good girlfriend and bought Daniel a new button down shirt. I am not sure how much it originally cost, but after looking online at other J.Crew shirts I found that they range from $70-$80. Now, I bought this one for $11.95 and it looks almost brand new. This is yet another reason why thrift shopping is always better. The next item I bought was a pair of gray joggers. I am still not sure how I feel about these pants, they are very comfortable and make my butt look like it belongs to one of the Kardashian sisters, but I am just not sure how to wear them or what to pair them with. It will probably take a few hours going though my other clothes and trying everything on to find out. The last item I bought its probably one of my favorites. It is a sunflower tank top with a cut out back. I love sunflowers and when I say this I just knew I needed to have it even though in about a month or two I won't be able to wear it when it starts to get cold, but I am sure I will try. 
So if you have made it this far thank you so much for reading and actually making it to the end! I would like to end this post by announcing you can now follow my blog on Bloglovin, and if you don't know about Bloglovin it is a website/app that allows you to follow any blog on the internet and it will update you when a new post is added and it is completely free! It keeps all the blogs you follow in one place and makes it so much easier to read. If you would like you can follow my blog my clicking the link on the right side of the page, or you can click the Bloglovin tab/page at the top of this page, or you can also click here to be taken to the page. Thank you for reading and I promise I will be posting a lot more this month!

NatureBox Unboxing/Review

Last week I ordered my first NatureBox, and if you don't know what NatureBox is, it is a monthly subscription box that contains five snacks which you can pick or have the company pick for you. I had heard a lot about this company and how great they were so I wanted to try it out for myself. I ordered my box early last week and it arrive this past Saturday.

The main purpose for ordering my box then was so it would arrive before I left for Sweden this coming Friday. I always like to carry different kinds of healthy snacks with me while traveling so I will spend less money on food and I will also be eating something healthier than McDonalds. Since I am quit picky about what I eat I decided to pick four out of the five snacks and leave one to be a surprise. 

The first snack that I chose was baked sweet potato fries. This was the snack that actually made me want to buy a box and try them out. It is also their most popular snack and I wasn't sure I would even be receiving it because there was only a few left. 

The nutrition facts are perfect for a snack. There is very little sugar which is a key factor for me. After tasting these I understand why it is there most popular snack. Not only do they taste exactly like sweet potato fries, but they also have a little bit of spice to them. They are also perfectly crunchy which makes them perfect for any kind of chip replacement. The only problem you will have with these are trying not to eat the whole bag in one sitting. 

 The second snack that I picked was southern BBQ sunflower kernels. I have not had sunflower seeds since I was a little kid and I wanted to to pick snacks that were going to have a good amount of them in a bag, and this was one of them. Being from Texas I do love BBQ and to find a healthy alternative to BBQ chips would be great.

 The nutrition facts are what you would expect for sunflower seeds covered in BBQ flavoring. There was actually more in a bag than I thought there was going to be. Now if something is going to have any kind of flavoring to it, it better have a lot of it. These received my stamp of approval. You still get the taste of sunflower seeds with a good amount of BBQ flavoring. I would defiantly recommend trying these is you are looking for a BBQ alternative.

 So my cat realized I was opening bags of food and started hovering, and hoping I would give him some. Once he realized he was not receiving anything from me he then decided to sit in the box, and yes he is wearing a t-shirt this is because he will chose to run around like a crazy wild cat if he is not wearing one. Don't worry we do let him run around like crazy for a few days while we wash his shirt and plus he looks adorable wearing them.

 Ok, enough about my cat, the next snack I picked was mexicana mango. They are dried mangos and come with about 7 hand size pieces in each bag.

 The amount of sugar in this snack is not what I would like it to be, but since it is fruit I knew there was going to be a good amount of it. This is actually my favorite snack out of all five of them. My favorite fruit is mangos and so it only made since that I tried these. I have never tried dried mangos before mostly because I don't really like dried fruit. Most of the time they are to dried out and taste more like a cracker than fruit. However, while these are dried they still have a lot of moisture still in them.

The size of each one was ruffly the size of my palm. These are full with flavor and taste nice and fresh. It is just like eating a mango with out all mess and because I don't know how to cut fruit properly there is always a mess.

 Then the last snack that I picked was teriyaki twists. After I ordered my box I received an email saying this snack has actually been discontinued and I was quit disappointed since I thought this was going to be my favorite snack.

 The amount that came in the bag was very surprising to me. The bag which was one of the bigger ones was full to the top. The bag contains 5 oz of this snack, so I was really excited to try them and hope I wasn't disappointed. Well, I ended up being disappointed. The amount of teriyaki flavoring was extremely lacking. I had very high hopes for this snack and was extremely let down, and I now understand why this snack was discontinued. It tasted like a plain rice cake with a drop of flavoring.

 The last snack I received was the surprise snack that was picked for me, pb&j granola. I will say I was disappointed that they picked a granola rather than any of their other snacks. I was actually trying to pick between getting a granola or having a surprise snack, and decide to let them pick for me.

 This not the type of granola I would have picked for myself, but I do have to say it was pretty good. I like to have plain flavored granola so I can mix it with yogurt or milk and have it for breakfast. This tasted exactly like an oat and peanut butter cookie with some bits of jelly mixed in.

I am really glade that this snack came in a smaller bag than all the other. Even though this did taste good I would have no use for it, so I will finish it and probably won't reorder this snack. If you do like peanut butter cookies I would recommend this for you, as it is sweet and would be a good fix for any sweat craving you might have.

I also filmed an unboxing video were you can see me taste the snacks and get my first reactions to them. If you would like you can watch the video down below. I also mention in the video when I will be posting a whats in my carryon bag video and my first travel blog video. If you would like you can subscribe to my channel if you are interested in watching any of those by clicking here. 

                              

New Things Always Scare Me

This week I made a big decision to try something new and scary; I made a YouTube channel. I filmed my first video with my blogging camera last Wednesday and edited it on Thursday. Let me just tell you it is not as easy as you would think. It was extremely weird to talk to a video camera and watch it back. The whole process was cringe worthy. It also took about 2 1/2 hours to get ready and film. I filmed the same video three different times, and each time got a bit better, but it still wasn't the best. I know that as I film more and become more comfortable with filming they will get better. The next step was editing. I used IMovie to edit, and it has been a while since I have used IMovie and I could not remember how it worked. I spent about an hour watching IMovie tutorial videos and still didn't figure everything out, so I just decided to wing it. I think it turned out pretty well for my first video. Although, there are a few things I will fix for next time. I chose to make my first video an introduction to my channel. I explained what I had planed for future videos and when I would be plaining to upload videos. I also said that I will be going back to Stockholm, Sweden for two weeks next Friday and I plan on vlogging while I am there. I will also be blogging as well, so don't worry I am not quitting my blog. Before I started my blog I was really considering on if I should start a YouTube channel or start a blog, and the blog won. I still very much wanted to start a channel, as it looked so much fun and was a good way to document what I am doing in my life. I wasn't going to originally post anything about my channel because I was nervous about it. Just like everybody else I am scared to make myself vulnerable to everyone else and blogging about my life was a big step, video taping my life and putting it on the internet is an even bigger step. This is finally a step I have gained the guts to take and I am pretty proud of myself. The video will be down below if you would like to watch it. It would also help me out a lot if you could comment on the video or this post if you would be interested in seeing a whats in my carry on bag video along with a travel vlog or if your would rather just watch a normal travel vlog. I would also like to say thank you to all the people who read my blog and are returning readers it means an amazing amount to me that you actually take the time to read things I wrote. I would also like to say thank you to anyone who watches this video for supporting me, as this is a huge deal to me.  Also I love hearing fead back from people so if you want to leave a comment with some tips or even just your opinion on the video. I am open to all types of criticism good or bad because it will help me learn and help me find a way to do better next time.




My first YouTube video:

Warby Parker Review

 About a month ago I looked in to getting a pair of glasses, but I didn't have a whole lot of money to spend on them. I was watching one of Tyler Oakley's YouTube videos when he mentioned this company Warby Parker. He said you could try on 5 glasses for free in our house and that they started around $95. I proceeded to go to the website and see for myself just what they were all about. After seeing what he had said was true I picked my 5 pairs of glasses for my at home try on. The deal was they would ship you 5 pairs of glasses for free, you don't even have to pay shipping, you then have 5 days to try them out before you have to send them back.

They even pay for the return shipping. After you ship them back you can then, if you want to, order the pair you picked out. The glasses come in there own individual bag inside the box, they even include a sheet where you can write notes about the glasses to help you decided. One thing that I did find helpful was that you could upload pictures of you in the glasses on Instagram or Twitter and use a hashtags they created to get peoples opinions on which glasses look best. I ended up doing so, although I must say I don't look to happy in any of the pictures and I find quite funny. 

I did end up getting a lot of comments saying I should pick #2, but I did decide on getting #1. The picture of #1 really isn't the best one of those glasses, but they are almost the same shape as #2 just with a thinner frame. After a lot of debating I finally decided on #1 and ordered them on the 5th of July. I knew I wasn't going to get them anytime soon since it was a holiday weekend, but I just wanted to get it out of the way. It took about a week to receive them, which felt like a very long time compared to the 2 days it took them to ship the try on kit. 

The packaging was really nice; you had the standard postal box, which contained a nicer box, which contained a glasses case, which then had the glasses and a glasses pouch inside. 

Over all I am happy with my glasses! Although, I am still trying to adjust to them and it feels like it is taking forever. I know it hasn't even been a week yet, but I am a bit tired of getting headaches and feeling sick every time I wear them. This did scare me because I thought maybe they put the wrong prescription in, but like I do with everything else I don't know I googled it ( I don't think googled is a word, if not I am making it one). 

On all the pages I read they all said it was normal to feel like you are looking through a fish bowl for the first week. Hopefully, by this coming Saturday I will be used to them. I have been wearing them all day for the past few days to try to get my eyes to adjust to looking through glass. If it is not fixed by then I will be taking a trip down to my eye doctors to see if the glasses are actually the prescription I needed. I am hoping that this does not happen and my eyes just adjust, so I will not have to deal with returning and reordering. Over all I am happy with my glasses and would definitely use this company again for my next pair. 

Fun Things

This past Thursday I went to one of those indoor trampoline places call Jumping World. I went with two of my friends, Jessica and Sophie. We went around 1:30, and when we got there we almost turned back around and left. As we walked up to the door we saw tons of little kids entering the building. This instantly made us stop and decide if we really wanted to go in. If it was up to me we would have left because I really didn't want to spend the next hour worrying about knocking little kids over, but we had nothing eels to do and decided to wing it. We walked through a maze of children to get to the front desk were we had to sign a waver and pay $11 to jump for one hour. After we all paid we got a sticker that said when your jump time ended and we headed over to put all our stuff in a locker. After we all had our socks on it was time for the fun part. At first it was a bit weird because there was about 50 kids all around us, but we decides to ignore them and the disappointing looks from parents as we jumped around. There was no age limit so we didn't care. As the hour shortened, there became more room to jump around and take pictures as kids jump time was up. It was so much fun, I will definitely be going back just at a later time in the day next time. I would highly recommend going to an indoor trampoline park if you have one in your area.

Normal Things

For the past two weeks I took a break from social media to spend as much time with my boyfriend as possible. It was also finals week for my first summer semester, I am happy to say I passed US History part one! I also pasted US Government, but that wasn't really a surprise. I was having trouble in history and my teacher's teaching style just didn't fit with my learning style. I studied my ass off for that final and I still only did "ok" on it. Anyways I now am in the second summer semester and feel like I am doing much better in US History part 2. That's all I have really been doing: go to school, sometimes go to work, hang out with Daniel, watch Bones or Big Brother, and then do it all over again the next day. I was going to post sometime last week, but I never really went out and did anything fun or interesting. However, I did decided that my life is not were I want it to be and I am deciding to make some changes. The first thing I did was I finally applied to live in Sweden! (YAY!! way to take five years to apply, just kidding its only been a year, but still) Some times I really wish I could include emojis in my blogs just for more oomph, but I will spare all of you from that and just stick to writing. The second change I made in my life is I quit my job, well I turned in my two-weeks notice so I am technically still employed. I don't think I have ever mention it on here, but I work at a bra shop. I have been working for them for almost a year and as much as I like my pay and hours I don't want to spend my whole life hanging up bras. For the last month I just keep seeing new books I want to read, but I still have a whole series to get though first. I have realized that I would really like working in a book store, so I have started to look for a new job. I have had no success yet, but I have only just started so keep your fingers crossed. I really don't want to go to long with out a job since next year I will be moving, and I am trying to save as much money as possible. Those were really they only semi-interesting thing I have done the last two weeks. I wanted to write a post about getting my Warby Parker glasses and how the end product turned out but I haven't received them yet. Hopefully they will ship sometime this week. I am hoping they come in soon so I can make sure they are right before my next trip to Stockholm, so I will have them for the plane rides. I am really excited for this next trip over to Sweden because Daniel is moving into what will be our apartment this month and I will actually get to see and stay in it while I am there. I also might get to do some decorating, which I am really excited about. I have been watching way to much HGTV. However, I still have a whole month before visiting and it feels like time is moving way to slow. There isn't much more to talk about, but I will say I am loving Big Brother this season. I went into the show wanting Frankie to win, but now I wouldn't mind Donny winning he is the most adorable man on the planet. I hope they both get far and one of them wins. This season has started out great and I hope it gets even better.

Small Clothing Haul

Awhile ago I went to our local outlet mall mainly to buy a pair of Nike Free 5.0 and ended up coming home with more than a new pair of shoes. The first store I went to when we arrived at the mall was the Nike Factory store. I originally wanted to get the plain black and white Nike Free 5.0, but they ended up not having that color in stock so I decided to just get the black, blue and pink ones (picture down below). I didn't want to order them or get them anywhere else because they were cheaper at the Nike Factory store than anywhere else. Since I bought new shoes I needed a new work out outfit to go with them right? I looked around at the Nike store, but everything still seemed so expensive for an outlet/factory store. So we went around to the other athletic stores and I finally came across a good deal at Reebok. I ended up getting an outfit there for the same price as a pair of shorts back at the Nike store. I ended up getting a pink tank top that I paired with blue camo-type shorts with some pink lettering on it. Since we were already at the mall my mom and I decided to walk around to other stores and see what kind of deals we could get. One of the stores we went to was Banana Republic where I saw a beautiful sun dress. I was instantly saddened when I saw it was a size to big for me, but I insisted on trying it on once I saw the stretchy elastic at the top. The dress ended up running small and fitting which made me happy. The pattern is spectacular and great for summer. Another store we went into was American Eagle. They were having a huge sale and I end up buying four different items from there. I of course had to get another pair of "stretchy" pants or jeggings. This time I decided to go with plain black high waisted pants that were cropped at the the bottom. I also got three dresses from there. I didn't take pictures of them and they are in the dirty clothes pile so..... I will just explain them. They are kinda modeled after the Brandy Melville dress that has the cut out in the back. The dress from American Eagles was a bit longer, which I like a lot more because I don't like walking around worrying about weather or not my dress is covering my butt. I got 3 different patterns: floral, solid fuchsia, and a tropical-ish pattern. My favorite was the floral one but after I washed it once it shrunk to the size of a long shirt, which was quite depressing. I now know I have to wash them by hand. I know I will still wear it will just be more difficult to pair things with. 

*Also as promised I posted pictures of me in each pair of glasses I picked out from Warby Parker on my Google+: Makenna Kupgisch , Instagram: @Makenna_Kupgisch, and Twitter: @MakennaKupgisch or you can find the links at the top of the web page, but the links won't show up if you are on the mobile sit. I would love it if you could comment which one you think looks best to help me pick a pair!!