Easter!

This Easter we hosted both our families for dinner and it was such a blast! I really enjoyed setting the table with our {new}vintage china and cooking for our family. We had ham from Jimmy P's here in Naples and it was outstanding! Shane's mom made the yummiest homemade coconut creme pies. They were to die for! 

Dress: {Lilly Pulitzer}

I also made maple candied bacon to go with deviled eggs. Brick top restaurant has this on their menu and it's one of my favorites. It turned out really well! And it's not that hard to make :)

Shane looked so adorable craving the ham I just had to get a photo.

I loved hosting at our new home and I hope I get to do a few more holidays next year. 

I hope everyone had a happy and blessed Easter. It was such a beautiful day in Naples and I loved spending it with family.

xo, Alina

Best Makeup Trick for Oily Skin

As I have mentioned before, I have super, seriously, for real oily skin. Living in Florida doesn't help this situation out, but I have found a way to manage my Oilyness. I actually found this on Pinterest a year ago and I've used it ever since and it really works for me. So here it is...

Cornstarch. 

Yes, cornstarch. The cornstarch you buy at the grocery store in a big bag for like 2$. Yup that stuff! :) 

I have used bare minerals for a long time and I love the matte version of the original powder foundation. It keeps me matte for 4-5 hours depending on if I'm outside sweating a lot or inside. Bare minerals has a product a lot of people are familiar with and it's the mineral veil. I love that stuff but if you look on the back of the jar the ingredients are pretty much just cornstarch. Don't believe me? 

There ya go! 

Right now what's in that jar is cornstarch. I put it in there when my mineral veil ran out. So I keep it in there and in my purse for touch ups throughout the day. To apply it I use a powder puff. I have a small one from Laura Mercier I use. You could use a brush, sponge or powder puff. When I first started using the cornstarch I would mix a little bit of it in with the actually bare minerals powder foundation but after awhile that was making my face too powdery so I switched to just using it when I get oily. 

If you have oily skin try this! If you don't like it then your not out of a lot of money and you can just use the cornstarch to thicken your sauces you cook haha. 

I use a primer sometimes and I'm in the process of trying out new ones to see how they work for me and preventing Oilyness. But some of them are expensive and if they don't work it can be a bummer. Some primers can help to keep you matte longer but I haven't found one that I absolutely love love yet. 

Hope this helps some girls because I know it has definitely helped me :) 

Thanks for reading!  

xo, Alina

UV Free Gel Manicure!

So I stumbled upon this on Pinterest and decided I would try it out see if it really would keep my nail polish on longer. I followed the directions below and I have been testing it out for over a month. And I thought I would share my experience. It definitely made a difference for me. I used a revlon color stay nail polish the first time and my nail polish stayed on for a full 2 weeks without any major chips! I use my thumb nails a lot and they ALWAYS chip on me and after using this they did not really chip at all. Another thing was that my nail polish stayed very glossy and shinny for almost 2 weeks. If you want it to stay super glossy longer I would suggest applying another coat of your top coat you use. I use seche vite because its the best. I've tried the out the door and it left my nails super streaky which I did not like. Also I think this method and product helps with the receding that you often see on the nail tips when using seche vite.  I took some pics to show before and after. 

These pictures were taken right after painting my nails with the method and Gelous polish above

After 2 weeks I had the tiniest chip on my right side of my thumb which is really hard to get a picture of. Otherwise NO CHIPS for 2 weeks!

Excuse my horribly dry cuticles.

I took this one a couple days ago right before I took my polish off. It had been on for about 1.5-2 weeks at this point. This polish is by Orly and its a gorgeous pink-orange neon color.

ok haha last ring shot :)

I did this manicure last night and it turned out awesome! I used a Maybelline nail polish. It almost always chips on my so I was excited to try it with the gelous. It is an awesome red color and I think it should last a lot longer now.

You can find the Gelous polish at Sally's Beauty Supply and it is the one in the green bottle as shown in the picture at the beginning. I think its like 5-7$. I used just regular nail polish remover to get it off which is great. No need to scrape this stuff off or soak your hands in acetone.

I definitely suggest people to try this and let me know what you think! 

xo, Alina

Gator Football is HERE!!!!

The BEST time of year is here y'all!! Because its GATOR FOOTBALL TIME!! This is the first time I will not be in Gainesville for football season in 6 years and it makes me a little sad but the Gator nation is everywhere and I will have a great time here in Naples with friends. I wanted to post a few pictures of some of my favorite game days and reminisce a little bit.

Peace. Love. Gators

Now this is how Gators tailgate 

These pics make me teary eyed because there is nothing like being in Gainesville on game day. 

This is SOOOO me!

Coach BOOM!!!! I must say I think we have the most enthusiastic and entertaining coach in all of college football!

Well I hope everyone who is watching their favorite college football team has a great day! College football is back! 

And remember its GREAT TO BE A FLORIDA GATOR!! Chomp chomp! Go GATA!!! 

        

 xo, Alina

Ruelala Lilly Pulitzer and Jack Rogers SALE

I have been looking forward this sale for a week or so and I have been really excited. Like dreaming about it an night excited. So I got up this morning all ready and I log on and I get this screen 

Literally it stayed like this for 12 minutes and just kept restarting over and over again. Shane will tell you that I can get really annoyed and angry quickly when things don't go my way {we all have flaws oh well}. So I decided to try the app on my iPad and it was working. I posted this picture to my IG and Mrs. Nautical Belle told me to try the app as well. So I got the items I wanted and were still left in my cart and I was actually able to check out on my computer. Here are the items I was actually able to purchase.

I love this skirt I think it will be great to add to my "work" clothes. I have been trying to slowly build a professional section of my wardrobe. I just hope it isn't too long since I am only 5'4. If so then I will have to return it. I got a size 0. 

These Jacks I am SOOO excited for. One of my favorite colors is turquoise and I am so excited that I got these. I got a size 6.5. 

I was REALLY sad I missed out on this dress

I have literally been drooling over it for months and months. I really wanted it for some wedding festivities next year. 

I do have to look forward to the Lilly Pulitzer end of summer sale which should be in the next couple of weeks. My birthday is August 14 so I am so excited that I should be able to get some new LP pretties around my birthday. 

If you guys got some amazing stuff on Ruelala today please share! I would love to see what y'all got! :)

Until next time..

xo, Alina

Wedding Talk Wednesday!!

So I thought it would be fun for the next couple of Wednesdays to share details, and vendors for my upcoming wedding. I have most of the vendors booked and deposits paid which makes me a happy happy happy bride to be :). This week will be about our VENUE.

After looking at MANY different places all over Naples we decided on The Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club. It is a staple here in Naples, right on the beach, and Shane and I both love it. It has a place in our past because during high school, homecoming, proms, and senior skip days were held there. 

People ask me what my theme for the wedding is and I reply "timeless." I want a classy, traditional, and above all timeless wedding. I want to be able look back at our wedding photos 20 years from now an our wedding still be able to have taken place yesterday. Having the beach hotel as our venue will set the tone for the wedding and create a timeless an elegant setting. 

The ceremony and cocktail hour will take place on the lawn facing the beach and the reception will be held in the newly renovated Everglades Room. 

You can check out the Naples Beach Hotel Here

If anyone has requests for what my next wedding talk Wednesday subject/vendor/wedding anything should be just leave a comment below :)

Thanks for reading! 

xo, Alina

Engagement Photos!

As promised here are some of our amazing engagement photos! These are just some of my favorites. The anticipation for these photos over the last month have literally been KILLING me. It was more than worth the wait because I think they are absolutely stunning thanks to our amazing AMAZING photographer Heather Donlan. I honestly cannot say enough great things about her. She helped us so much during the photos letting us know how to pose and what to do. She is the most amazing person to work with and we had so much fun during this shoot. Based on the outcome of these photos I cannot wait to see our wedding photos come next year. 

We started the photos at Shane's parents house because they have an amazing water view and backdrop of Venetian Village. Then we headed to the Hotel Escalante to do the drive way pics. Next was a little bridge in Port Royal and we ended the night on the beach. The sunset was beautiful that night if I do say so myself. 

My hair and makeup was done by the fabulous Gabby Verderamo and I loved it! Cannot wait to see what we come up with for wedding makeup and hair. 

I wore a Lilly Pulitzer dress and shorts and my turquoise sequined dress was from Forever 21. 

I am obsessed with this one on the bridge and of course the pink balloons!

Not sure yet but this one above could be a save the date contender!

Of course I HAD to get my BabyLu in there although as you can tell he wasn't too happy about it

One of my favorites too!

LOVE the sunset

If anyone would like to check out the rest of our photos you can do so Here

You can also check out Heather Donlan Photography here Her pictures are amazing and I love her website. 

You can also check out Gabby Verderamo's Facebook page here 

I also wanted to say a THANK YOU to everyone who looks at my blog and reads it. I reached 1000 views this week which I could not believe. Views might not seems like a big deal to anyone but they are to me and I appreciate those of you who read this blog immensely.  

Well I'm off to bed. Long day at my internship tomorrow :)

xo, Alina

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