One of the emotions I never thought I would feel as a Mother would be guilt…I know you may be laughing, but hear me out. Sure I was a little nervous going into Motherhood, but for some reason I also felt prepared and a sense of calmness about the whole thing. I knew that I was made to be a Mother and I had wanted to be one for so long. But what I wasn’t prepared for was how guilty I would feel for anything that went slightly wrong with my child. Read on to hear about my experiences and how I have learned to cope with this guilt. My Magical Thinking about Motherhood Magical thinking is something I’m familiar with because I’m a Social Worker; it’s basically when you think two things ... Read the Post
About that Mom Guilt Thing
How to Throw a Chic Galentine’s Day Brunch
I absolutely love celebrating Galentine's Day with some of my best girlfriends near Valentine's Day, but event planning is not my forte. So I enlisted Jen from Girl Meets Party to share some tips on how to throw a successful Galentine's Day Brunch. Girl Meets Party is a lifestyle blog run by Jen and Suree and they have the most adorable studio in downtown Chicago that I recently got to visit! They are party planner extraordinaires and also do social media consulting and will be helping me with a few blog related things. Without further ado here's Jen. -Julia If you ask me, Galentine’s Day is better than Valentine’s Day. Being a now 30-something, I cherish time with my ... Read the Post
My Favorite Activewear Picks from Target
Hey friends, while I was on one of my Target runs this week, the active wear section caught my eye with some super cute styles. It's been a while since I bought fitness gear from Target, but I decided to give it a shot. And I'm so glad I did! They have a lot of high quality items in this season in a number of different colors and styles. Here are some of my favorites I tried on this past weekend On the Go Cozy These Burgundy stripe leggings are extremely stretchy and flexible; they would be great for any high intensity workout or running. The ankles have a little reflective striping and can be rolled up if your shorter. I did the squat test in them and they passed. I was very ... Read the Post
Safer Dry Shampoo’s
Serious question: what did women do before dry shampoo? I think it might be the most practical invention of the decade/century. There certainly are dozens of dry shampoos on the market and it's hard to know which one to try. Because there are so many dry shampoo's on the market, some manufacturers are skimping on both the ingredients and the quality of the dry shampoo. And if you're interested in safer beauty products (products without less-than-stellar ingredients), it's even more difficult to know what to choose since there is so little regulation in the beauty industry, so I've gone out and done the research for you! I went ahead and tested six different safer dry shampoos for about a ... Read the Post
Switching My Fitness Mentality
My Old Fitness Mentality For many years, I had quite the negative relationship with exercise. I thought it felt like torture or punishment to run and I also thought running was the only type of exercise I could do to lose weight. I also thought I needed to spend at least two hours exercising to burn enough calories to deserve my food. And no surprise, I did not work out consistently. I began to loathe working out and when that happens, you find reasons not to do it. For several years in my 20's, I alternated between exercising a lot and going weeks without exercising. I couldn't really find a rhythm or balance that felt healthy or was consistent for me. I had a very love-hate ... Read the Post
New Year, New Blog Goals
2018 Recap 2018 was my first year of blogging and my goals were simple: just to get started and to find my niche. I was so worried about what people would think and felt self-conscious, that my only goal was to do it. Now that I'm about 10 months in, I feel a lot more confident about my blog and truly want to make it into a creative space that I can share with you. I learned that my passions are lifestyle blogging which includes: fashion, beauty, motherhood. I know at the beginning, I shared some recipes, but those really aren't what I want to focus on. I have immense respect for food bloggers though! Some of you may know, my blogging journey began as an outlet to cope with my ... Read the Post
