Weekend Reading

Happy Saturday y'all! As y'all read this, I am en route to Hilton Head Island for a week long vacation! I hope y'all have some exciting weekend plans and in the meantime, grab a cup of coffee because a new Weekend Reading post is up today!

image via my instagram

1. Have y'all seen Lilly Pulitzer's latest collaboration with Goop? The pieces are so cute and classic Lilly!

2. My friend Renee has been interning this summer in NYC (so jealous!) and her post from visiting the Met is so cute!

3. While walking through Nordstrom the other day, this Gal Meets Glam dress caught my eye and it is stunning in person

4. Love this outfit that would perfect for a wedding on Annaliese

5. This Tory Burch dress is so cute and currently on sale!

6. My Pure Barre studio had a 20 classes in 30 days challenge for the month of June and I'm so excited to have had reached the goal of 20 classes! Love getting back into a routine of going to barre classes after being away at school!

7. Looking to feel better about yourself? Decide how to treat yo self using this fun flow chart

8. Carly really hit the nail on the head with her post about the truth behind Instagram

9. Love this post from the Everygirl on 9 things successful women do before 9 AM

10. The Fourth of July is right around the corner and I've been looking to my "Fourth of July" board on Pinterest (follow me here) for inspiration for a fun dessert for the occasion! Any recommendations?

Have a good weekend!

My Chic Week: June 22-28

Happy FriYAY! I'm super excited that it's Friday because it means it's almost time for vacation! My family and I are heading down to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina for a week and I'm so excited to spend some time by the beach! As always, I'll be sharing more about that next Friday but for now let's catch up on the past week!

On Friday, we decided to head over to the shopping center near my grandparents to do a little shopping. They just opened a Lilly Pulitzer store so I wanted to stop by and see it and it certainly did not disappoint!

left: top ⎢shorts ⎢purse (for less here) ⎢sandals

right: dress

left: shorts

right: romper

left: dress

right: dress

We then had lunch and then headed to the beach for the afternoon. We had a pretty laid back afternoon and then had dinner at my grandparents's house!

Saturday morning, I slept in and had a pretty low key morning at my grandparent's house. We headed over to the beach for a little bit and then came back to get ready for Church. We went to church and then went back to my grandparents's beach club for dinner!

Sunday was a day spent in the car as we headed back home to North Carolina. The ride was pretty uneventful and once we got home, I unpacked and had dinner with the family before showering and getting ready for the week ahead.

After a few days away, Monday was a pretty typical day as I was up early to nanny. Before dropping the boys I nanny off at school, we stopped at Duck Donuts for an iced coffee for me and a donut for them!

I then headed home to work on the blog for a bit and then to go to a Pure Barre class. After my class ended, I had lunch at home and was able to be productive before heading back to work. I nannied for a few hours and then had dinner at home with an early bedtime (my favorite these days!).

Tuesday morning, I was up bright and early to go to work. I nannied for a few hours and then went to a Pure Barre class. I nannied in the afternoon as well and the kids and I picked up dinner from a nearby pizza place (they have the yummiest Caesar salad!).

Wednesday was another pretty typical day as I nannied in the morning, came home and went to a barre class, and then nannied in the afternoon!

I nannied in the morning on Thursday and then met my mom and siblings at Costco afterwards. We needed to do some grocery shopping for Hilton Head and then stopped by the mall afterwards. We grabbed Chick-fil-a for lunch and then I stopped into Lilly to pick up my sunhat that I ordered a few weeks ago (and that I'm obsessed with!).

I worked on pre-scheduling some blog posts for the week ahead and then nannied in the afternoon as well.

On the Blog:

My Chic Week: June 15-21 ⎢College Packing List ⎢My Experience Doing a Juice Cleanse ⎢Pajamas for Summer

Happy Friday!

Pajamas for Summer

As weird as this may sound, one of my favorite little luxuries is wearing a set of matching pajamas. It just feels so glam, to me at least, to have your pajamas match and be cute rather than be a random oversized t-shirt and pair of shorts. As simple as it is, it makes me feel like I somewhat have my life together and who doesn't love feeling that way!

So many retailers have adorable pajamas for summer so I wanted to share with y'all a roundup of some of my favorites! I think this is such a fun little item to treat yo self to too :)

lilly pajama pants ⎢nightgown

gingham long sleeves ⎢navy & white striped ⎢blue & green striped

Where are your favorite pajamas from? Let me know in the comments!

My Experience Doing a Juice Cleanse

If you follow me on Instagram, you might of saw on my stories that I did a juice cleanse a few weeks ago. This has been something that has been on my radar for a while and I decided to finally bite the bullet and do it! I wanted to detox a little bit after not eating the healthiest while at college and I have heard so many good things about juice cleansing. One of my best friends from high school has done a couple of them and highly recommended it to me so I decided to try it out!

I thought this would be a fun blog post to share with y'all so I decided to share my experience doing a two day juice cleanse!

The juice bar that I got my cleanse from asks that you call a few days before starting your cleanse so they have time to prepare it and then you pick up in-store. I called on Monday, picked up my cleanse on Tuesday, then cleansed on Wednesday and Thursday. This was my first ever juice cleanse so I opted to do the two day option but they offer a plethora of options!

I picked up my juices on Tuesday and you can either pick up all of your juices for the cleanse or pick up for only that day. To make things easier, I decided to pick up all of my juices so I picked up my 12 juices, 6 for each day that I would be cleansing.

The first day was honestly pretty rough but I woke up feeling optimistic about it. I am not a big green juice gal and the first juice of the day was what is called the "sweet green". I drank it around 7 AM on my drive to work and honestly it was kinda rough. They recommend spacing out your juices to drink one every 2.5-3 hours so I had my next juice, the orange one, at 10 AM. I was pretty hungry when that time came around but the juices did a good job of satisfying you! 

I went to my Pure Barre class as usual at 12 and it was a bit more tough than usual, nothing I couldn't handle but I wasn't feeling 100% haha! Once I got home, I had my next juice, which was the green one and wasn't my favorite as it was very bitter.

Things started to look up in the second half as the yellow one was my favorite juice of the cleanse! I would describe it as a spicy lemonade and it was refreshing after the two green juices. I had the fifth juice at 6 PM while I was at work and I liked that one as well!

The last juice of the day is definitely filling and is a thicker consistency than the other juices. At this point, I was ready to eat some "real food" and was questioning whether I wanted to go through with day 2. I told myself that I already paid for (as juice cleanses are not cheap) and went to bed early as I was exhausted.

Day 2 was a lot better than Day 1. The juices seemed to taste better, I had less food cravings, and I also lost about five pounds. I know a lot of that is water weight that I would gain back but it's crazy to think about! I followed the same schedule as I did on Day 1 and felt a lot better about it. The crazy thing about the cleanse is that the juices are just filling enough so you don't get hungry until it's time to have your next juice. It was a bit weird to come home and not have dinner after work but I definitely felt better during my workout during Day 2. Side note about working out: some juice cleanses recommend taking the time off to rest but mine said that as long as it's something you consistently you do, it's ok to do during your cleanse. I go to barre 5 times a week so I figured it would be ok to do during the cleanse.

By the end of Day 2, I was excited to reach that final juice and go to bed with the promise of "real food" the next morning!

The Verdict? Even though it was definitely pricy and a little rough not having solid food for two days, I think it was definitely worth it to get off of processed foods and sugars for two days. I would definitely do it again before a vacation or even after the holidays to detox a bit!

Have you ever done a juice cleanse? Let me know in the comments!

College Packing List

I am so excited for today's blog as I am sharing *drumroll please* my complete college packing list! I remember being completely overwhelmed this time last year in what exactly I needed to be bringing with me to college. I'm the oldest child in my family so I didn't have an older sibling to look up to in the dorm preparation process so I read a lot of packing list posts on other blogs as well as on Pinterest.

For a bit of background, I am a rising sophomore at Clemson University where I am an Elementary Education major and a Kappa Alpha Theta. At Clemson, we are required to live on campus our freshman year so I lived in an all-girls building that had hall-style bathrooms (meaning I shared a common bathroom with other girls who lived on my floor). I absolutely loved it as it provided such a sense of community and made my dorm feel more like a home! If you're looking at Clemson for college and want to chat more specifically about dorms/where to live on campus, feel free to reach out to me at chicincarolina@gmail.com. I will be living on campus again this year as I'm living in my sorority hall so I will be reusing the majority of my freshman dorm room and using this packing list!

After many Target runs last summer, I feel like I was pretty prepared for dorm life so I wanted to share my complete college packing list (excluding clothes, which will be another post!) of items that I actually used in my freshman dorm!

Creating your perfect dorm can be pretty overwhelming so I recommend starting early and going slowly rather than buying everything and anything you need in one afternoon. This way too you can plan out your purchases based off of when they go on sale (I would look around this week for Fourth of July Sales!). I also used Pinterest (be sure to follow me here) to help me plan out what I wanted to buy and see how well it meshes together.

Freshman dorms tend to be on the smaller side so definitely talk to your roommate about your vision for the room. I wanted to have a typical "Pinterest dorm" so it was important to let my roommate know that so we were on the same page. Picking a few colors for your room is a great way to coordinate but not 100% match as you can have different pieces that still complement the room really well.

Making your dorm feel like home can be hard to do but trust me, decorating it helps so much. When I was packing everything up on move out day, it was strange to see my room without all my stuff in it as it truly did feel like a home away from home! Also, having a comfy bed makes a busy day of classes and studying so much easier- a good mattress topper is a must!

Are you moving into your freshman dorm this fall? Did I miss any items that you loved for your dorm? Let me know in the comments!

My Chic Week: June 15-21

Happy Monday y'all! Sorry this MCW post is going up on a Monday instead of Friday as usual- I was pretty busy with work last week and then my family and I took a weekend trip down to Florida to visit my grandparents so I decided it would be better to share this post today!

I had last Friday off from work so I slept in before having breakfast and then organizing all of my stuff for my dorm room. I then went to a Pure Barre class before running a few errands with my mom. The rest of Friday was pretty laid back as I got some organizing done, crafted, and then worked on a few posts for the blog.

Saturday morning, I slept in and ate breakfast before going to a Pure Barre Empower class. In the afternoon, I did some crafted and then headed to a grad party for a family friend!

As y'all probably know, two Sundays ago (the 17th) was Father's Day so my family and I had a pretty laid back day to celebrate my dad. We made him breakfast and then had a yummy steak dinner later in the day to celebrate.

It was back to the routine on Monday as I nannied in the morning, came home for a Pure Barre class, and also nannied in the afternoon.

After work on Monday, I met up with one of my best friends from high school to catch up over dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. We hadn't seen each other in a while since our work schedules have been so crazy so it was fun to finally catch up with her and, of course, yummy food didn't hurt!

Tuesday was a pretty typical day full of nannying with a Pure Barre class in between!

Since I shared my summer daily routine on the blog last Wednesday, I decided to share a peek into my daily routine on my Instagram stories that day. I didn't remember to share as much as I wanted to but it was still fun to do!

Wednesday was a pretty typical day as I nannied in the morning then headed back home for barre class. After my class ended, I met my family for lunch and then we grabbed fro-yo afterwards. I nannied in the afternoon too!

We headed down to Florida on Thursday to go visit my grandparents for the weekend so it was an early morning (with a stop for Starbucks, of course!). Once we got there, we headed to the beach for a little bit before heading back to get ready for dinner.

We had dinner at my grandparents's beach club on Thursday night and since it was National Wear Your Lilly Day, I decided to wear my Lilly romper for the occasion!

romper ⎢sandals

On the Blog:

A Day in my Life: Summer 2018

Happy Friday!

Weekend Reading

Happy Saturday friends! I hope y'all are enjoying your weekend and soaking in the summer sun! My family and I are in Florida until tomorrow so I'll be enjoying my last day visiting my grandparents here in the Sunshine State!

Grab your coffee because the latest edition of Weekend Reading is ready for y'all!

1. Love this article on why friend breakups hurt so much

2. Dorothy's summer bucket list is too cute and full of such fun items to accomplish this summer!

3. My friend Sally of Sweetly Sally sent me the cutest art print from her Etsy shop and it's too cute! She gifted it to me in exchange for helping her promote her shop but I wanted to share now as everything is so gorgeous!

4. Love these royal beauty hacks!

5. If you're looking for a way to brighten your day, look no further than this buzzfeed post

6. I've been using Pinterest a lot more lately-it was my guilty pleasure in high school and I kind of fell off the wagon using it. I've been using it a lot more this summer (mainly for crafting ideas for my future little) and love that they have a tab to see what your friends are pinning! Be sure to follow me here!

7. Love this post from Ashley (who is also a Theta!) about slowing down and enjoying life where you currently are! Definitely such a good reminder as I'm definitely guilty of looking forward into the future and rushing things

8. Annaliese's outfit for National Wear Your Lilly Day is too cute!

9. Love this Draper James dress inspired by Big Little Lies- who else is excited for season 2?

10. I'm getting ready to share my complete college packing list with y'all next week on the blog so get excited!

Have a good weekend!

A Day in my Life: Summer 2018

One of my favorite blog posts to both read on other blogs and to share with y'all here on Chic in Carolina are daily routine posts. I think they are so interesting and that it is fun to peek into other bloggers's day-to-day lives. I've shared several different "A Day in my Life" posts with y'all before (including last summer, my freshman year fall semester, and then my freshman year spring semester) so I wanted to share this summer's. I'll also be sharing snaps of what my daily routine looks like over on my Instagram stories so be sure to check that out as well! 

I'm nannying for the same family as I did last summer so even though my days are definitely busy, I love my job. I wake up pretty early to get to work in the morning but I get the middle of the day off as the boys are in preschool and then work again in the afternoon. I'm definitely the type of person who operates best on a set schedule and I know if I wasn't nannying, I would definitely get bored during the summer haha!

What does a typical day look like for you? Let me know in the comments!

My Chic Week: June 8-14

Happy FriYAY y'all! I hope y'all had a great week and even if it wasn't the best, it's officially the weekend!

Every Friday here on Chic in Carolina, I share a recap of my week in a "My Chic Week" post so let's catch up!

I worked a little later in the day last Friday so I slept in a bit before heading to go nanny. I nannied for a few hours and then headed back home. I had a pretty relaxed afternoon and then headed to a Pure Barre class.

Saturday morning, I slept in before heading to a Pure Empower class, which totally kicked my butt! I then headed home to shower before heading down to the Drybar for a blowout. The Drybar just opened up a location in Charlotte, which I am too excited about! I've been to a few other Drybar locations and have been dying for them to open a location in Charlotte so I'm so excited that it's actually open!

They were doing a custom sunhat painting event at the Lilly store in Charlotte so I just had to stop by the mall for that. I, of course, ordered a sunhat and also bought this adorable top! All of the Lilly summer pieces are too cute!

left: dress

right: top ⎢skirt

left: top ⎢skort

right: romper

similar shift ⎢sandals

After leaving the mall, I headed home and then my family and I went over to our family friends's house for dinner, which was a lot of fun!

One of my favorite things about weekends is sleeping in so I love that I was able to that on Sunday too. One of our family friends graduated from high school this week and had a graduation party on Sunday so my family went to that in the afternoon!

I worked in the afternoon on Monday so I was able to sleep in and get a few things done before going to a Pure Barre class.

Tuesday was a busy day as the little boy I nanny came over to my house to come play. We had such a busy and fun-filled day as we baked cookies, swam in the pool, painted. went out for frozen yogurt, and watched a movie! We then headed back to the family I nanny for's house and picked up his little brother from school.

Wednesday was an early morning to go nanny and also my first day of my juice cleanse. I'm planning on sharing a full post on that soon but Wednesday was definitely rough getting used to drinking juice instead of food haha! I nannied in the morning and afternoon with a barre class in the afternoon!

Thursday was a pretty typical day as I nannied in the morning and the afternoon and also went to barre- nothing too crazy to report!

On the Blog:

My Chic Week: June 1-7 ⎢Father's Day Gift Guide ⎢How to Get Your 10,000 Steps In Everyday ⎢Summer Wishlist

Happy Friday! 

Summer Wishlist

With a few summer trips on the horizon over the next month, shopping for summer has been on my radar lately. I think that it is always so fun to go shopping for clothes for a new season and summer, in my opinion, can't be beat as there is so many fun options. I mean who doesn't love a new swimsuit or two and some fun Lilly pieces!

Every once in a while, I share a "wishlist" post with y'all and figured it would be fun to share what is on my summer wishlist as it's perfect if you have some fun trips planned or just want to jazz up your summer wardrobe!

seersucker shirt dress ⎢romper ⎢gingham skort ⎢pajama set

scalloped skirt ⎢scarf ⎢hoop earrings

What is on your wishlist for summer? Let me know in the comments!

How to Get Your 10,000 Steps In Everyday

Ever since getting my first Fitbit a few years ago, the goal of reaching 10,000 steps has always been at the back of mind. They say 10,000 steps is the optimal number of steps to take daily and it can definitely be tricky to reach some days!

I'm always looking for easy ways to help reach 10,000 steps everyday so I wanted to share some of my favorite tricks with y'all!

Take the stairs

I try to take the stairs as often as possible as it helps you get some more steps in. My freshman year dorm building had the world's slowest elevator so even though taking several flights of stairs up to my dorm wasn't the most fun activity, it was often faster than waiting for the elevator and also helped me get more steps in throughout the day.

Park farther away

This is such an easy habit to incorporate into your day-to-day routine that can definitely add up. Whenever I'm parking whether it's at the grocery store or the parking lot of my barre studio, I park a little farther away to get some extra steps in. Even though it may not seem like a lot, it definitely adds up and can make a difference (plus, usually there's more parking farther away!).

If you can, walk instead of drive
Obviously you can't walk to your destination every time but if you're close enough to walk, it's definitely a great way to get your steps in as well as some exercise. Whether it is walking to a friend's house that is nearby or to a local store, this is a great way to be more active throughout the day.

Incorporate walks into your daily routine
Having two dogs makes this a bit easier but getting up and just walking obviously helps you get your steps in as well as be more active. This is a great way to keep up a healthy lifestyle as you can walk and talk with a friend or even catch up with a friend on the phone while doing so!

Get your 250 steps every hour
Fitbits have the super handy feature of alerting you to take 250 steps every hour. This encourages you to get up and get moving every hour so you're not being immobile for too long. This adds up throughout the day and helps you get closer to your goal of 10,000 steps!

How do you get your steps in everyday? Let me know in the comments!

Father's Day Gift Guide

I can hardly believe that it is almost Father's Day! It seems like the start of the summer is just flying by without a stop button haha! Last month I shared with y'all a gift guide for Mother's Day so I figured that it was only fitting to share one for Father's Day too!

I feel like dads can be pretty tough to shop for as you can't exactly get them a cute bracelet or something like that so I decided to round up some gifts that will be perfect for Father's Day at a variety of budgets- but if you're reading this Dad, your gift isn't on here!

vineyard vines tie (choose his favorite football team!) ⎢american flag spatula ⎢ ray bans

yeti tumbler ⎢fitbit (on sale!) ⎢socks

What are you planning on getting for your dad for Father's Day? Let me know in the comments!

My Chic Week: June 1-7

Happy Monday y'all! I hope y'all had a good weekend and are ready to take on this new week! Since I missed sharing this MCW post last Friday, I decided I would share it with y'all today so that way we get things back "on track" here on Chic in Carolina!

I had Friday off of work so I was able to sleep in, which was so nice! Friday was my 250th Pure Barre class (which I talked about in this post from last week but I messed up and Friday was actually my 250th), which was super exciting!

The rest of my day was actually pretty relaxed as I worked on a few canvases for my future sorority little and had dinner with my family on our back porch!

I was up bright and early on Saturday morning as I went to an early Pure Barre class to start off my day! After class ended, I filled my car up with gas and then headed back home to quickly change into "real clothes".

The little boy I nanny is turning 2 in a few weeks so they had his birthday party last weekend. I went to help everything run smoothly and of course hang out with the birthday boy!

After the birthday party ended, I headed back home to hang out for a little bit before babysitting that night!

Sunday morning, my family and I went to church and then had breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants afterwards. I got some work done for the blog/got my life together for the week ahead before going to a Pure Barre class in the afternoon. After barre, I did some more blog work and then had dinner with my family!

It was back into the swing of things on Monday with nannying in the morning, a barre class, and then nannying in the afternoon!

I nannied in the morning on Tuesday and wound up heading to the mall afterwards. My mom wanted me to run into Anthropologie to find something for her to wear to a grad party we had last weekend and we both loved this dress that I will definitely be borrowing. I then grabbed lunch at Chipotle and did a little window shopping around the mall.

dress (excuse my socks haha!)

Tuesday afternoon, I nannied again and we wound up doing a little painting, which was fun and crazy at the same time!

Wednesday was a pretty typical day as I nannied in the morning, came back to go to barre, and then nannied in the afternoon as well. We went to swim lessons and then after dinner for the boys, walked to get a popsicle as a treat!

I nannied on Thursday morning and the kids and I stopped for donuts on the way to school, which wound up being so much fun! I then came home to go to a barre class and afterwards, my family and I got milkshakes to celebrate my younger siblings's last day of school (really healthy to drink a milkshake after barre, right?). I then nannied in the afternoon as well!

On the Blog last Week:

May Favorites ⎢Casual Summer OOTD

Happy Monday!