mexican layer dip {for game day!}

Who else is excited for the Super Bowl this weekend? My team isn't playing this year {boo} but it's still fun to watch anyway. And Super Bowl parties seem to be such a big thing that I thought I would share one of my favorite dips ever. I promise it will be a hit at this weekend's party and any party you bring it to.

I promise it's a good one!

Ingredients:
16 oz can refried beans
5 oz grated cheese {I used to Mexican cheese mix from Sargento}
16 oz jar chunky salsa
12 oz sour cream
3 1/2 tbsp taco seasoning
16 oz creamy guacamole {handmade or store-bought}
1/3 cup green onions, optional
1/3 cup olives, optional

Directions:
1. In the container of your choice {I used an 11x7" brownie pan}, lay the refried beans in an even layer.
2. Next, layer the grated cheese. If adding green onions or olives, place them over the cheese.
3. Spread the salsa over the cheese. I suggest using chunky because it's not as watery and won't mix in with other layers.
4. Mix together the sour cream and taco seasoning in a separate bowl. Then spread this over the salsa.
5. The last layer is the guacamole. If you're finding that it's hard to spread this over the sour cream, outline the pan first and then fill in the middle.
6. Serve with tortilla chips - I love this with hint of lime chips! - and ENJOY!

 

 

 

 

skincare & makeup haul

I've accumulated a bunch of new things over the past month and wanted to share them with you! Sephora was double the rewards points on skincare products, and it was something I just couldn't pass up given the time of the year. My skin is always so dry during the colder months and the fluctuating temperatures aren't helping. Then Ulta was buy one, get one half off on most of drugstore brands so I picked up a few things there, too. And there might have been a stop at Bloomingdale's, CVS, and Duane Reade along the way - oops! Some are new things that I've never tried before but have heard great things about, and others are my tried-and-trues.

A full list of products is on YouTube!

i moved!

Image via

Guys, I moved! To New Jersey! On January 14th!

To say I'm excited about this move would be an understatement. I've actually been thinking about this for over a year now but never really did anything about it until October/November 2015.

When I graduated from college in 2011, one of my goals was to move to New York City. It was part of this grand plan I had in my head and I couldn't wait to get that underway. I moved to my first super, super tiny studio apartment on the Upper West Side and... it was a good first apartment. Not great, not awful. I always knew that I was going to live by myself, which is probably the independent and only child tendencies in me. So the apartment was fine for one person, but there wasn't any natural light and it affected me in a big way.

I moved into a bigger studio {with natural light and a little view!} in the same building after one year. It had me thinking that maybe the city wasn't so bad and that any negative thoughts I had were just due to the living situation I was previously in. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

New York City, just like any other bustling city, is not for everyone. And I learned in my three and a half years of living there that it wasn't for me. I started to look at the city and only see the negatives and it was severely affecting my daily life. I felt so unhappy nearly all the time. And that led to some very stressful moments. My eczema flared up for two straight years, which added to my really low days. And I'm talking some really low days where I cried a lot and questioned why I had ever made the decision to live in New York. I never wanted to go out - not to see my friends, not to walk to the gym, not even to take the subway to work. All I wanted to do was get out of the city, which I did nearly every weekend before I moved.

Two years of feeling like this made me start really considering that I needed to move ASAP. I didn't care where I moved to; I just knew that I needed to be out of the city. The quickest and easiest move was to NJ, where I was born and raised. The process happened rather quickly. One day I was talking to my parents about it, and then suddenly I had two appointments booked for that weekend. A week later, I'd applied for an apartment and gotten it. So fast!

Just the thought of having an apartment in NJ had me in such happier spirits. And since I was less stressed, my eczema cleared up in a matter of days {eczema can actually worsen because of stress.} I moved out of New York City in early January and was in my apartment on January 14th. All of the belongings that seemed to crowd my Upper West Side studio barely fills the living room {I HAVE A LIVING ROOM} of my new apartment. In fact, my living room is actually bigger than my city apartment. I'm not too far from the city {just 25-30 minutes} so I'll still be able to see and visit and do all the things I've always loved about New York.

I could go on and on about this - the bigger apartment, less expensive rent, overall happiness - but I don't want it to sound like I'm completely bashing New York City. I'm glad I had the Manhattan-living experience. I became more independent, grew a bit of a thicker skin, and learned a really valuable lesson - don't sit around waiting for change to come to you. If you're not happy with where you are in life, you have the power to change that. You create your own happiness.

And... that's that.

Happy Monday! xx.

2015 fashion & lifestyle favorites

Hello. It's me.

I won't continue on with the Adele lyrics because that joke is getting a little old now, but seriously - it's been a bit since I've been on here. Life got really hectic and busy and tiring and I put the blog and YouTube on hold while I tried to get everything together. I'm not quite there yet, but I'll be sharing an update soon!

In the meantime, you can watch my latest video that I posted about all of my favorite fashion, life, and golf things from 2015!

One of my goals is to post more content and videos in 2016, which I've failed at so far, but it should change in the next month or so! Enjoy and don't forget to let me know what things you loved last year!

2015 beauty favorites

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful new year! Don't you think the holiday season just went by so quickly? The end of the 2015 was a bit of a whirlwind for me, full of ups and downs, but I wanted to share a little bit of positive with you. And what better way to do that then with some beauty favorites? Everything from hair stuff, skincare, nail polish and, of course, makeup.

A full list of products is available on YouTube! :]