Philadelphia.

Last weekend we  took a three day trip to Philadelphia to see a concert. It was an amazing trip I only wish it would have lasted longer than three days. We drove to Syracuse first to drop our dog off at my mother and father in law's house because they watch her for us when we travel. It was about a 4 hour drive from their house, and a six-ish hour drive from our house had we left straight from there. We stayed at the Hampton Inn at King of Prussia. Let me start by telling you that I am in love with that mall. It took all of my might not to blow my entire vacation budget on my coveted Louis Vuitton bag. I was able to finally get into a Whole Foods and I don't joke when I say I need to be near one permanently. I had the most amazing cupcake from the bakery there. Then there was the concert. This was the third time I've seen Ramin Karimloo. This concert was just as spectacular as the first two times I saw him perform. He covered some of my favorite songs from shows including Anthem. It was my first time visiting a Wawa. I fell in love with Philadelphia. I know it's crazy but it's true. So without further adieu I'll show you all a few photos of my trip!!!!

This one is pretty obvious! Neiman Marcus at King of Prussia. Amazing store.

The love of my life Louis Vuitton.

This is the car I'd love to own someday, but who am I kidding. I'll never be able to afford a 106,000 Tesla. It's a gorgeous car though.

Lululemon King of Prussia. This store is amazing. I love Lululemon. It's some of my favorite workout gear! (Well the shirts, I'm still a few pounds shy of the pants. But I'll get there)

I cheated so bad on my diet with this, but this Godiva Milk Chocolate Shake was absolutely to die for. It was worth every calorie.

This is Steve Young, He was part of Ramin's band.

Ramin Singing! So Passionate.

Sergio Ortega playing the banjo.

This is the AMAZING cupcake I was mentioning, Vanilla with FRESH blueberry frosting. It was insane and pretty healthy. Whole Foods does not disappoint.

Sergio Ortega, He is so friggen adorable.

The street sign. We were SO close to New Jersey.

For those of us in New York, you know how rare of a find this is. All of the Hooters in New York have closed. It was so good to find one. The food was so good.

Apartments in downtown Philly. They were so cool.

Downtown Philadelphia Skyline.

WHOLE FOODS! I love this grocery store.

Whole Foods Love

Downtown Philadelphia sign.

More of the Skyline

A look down the street.

The Riverfront by the Running Path.

Another view of the beautiful downtown Philly.

You all know of my love for Starbucks, this was right across from Whole Foods.

Thought this was interesting.

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh. The Pleasure Chest...

...Was right next to Wonderland. I thought that was funny.

Walnut St. Apple Store downtown!

Beautiful River

There's your sign!

More Shots of Ramin Singing.

Mid song!

I think he was singing Bring Him Home here, so amazing.

The Finale!

So there it is, my trip in photos. It was an amazing time and I really fell in love down there. I can't wait until we're able to go again. Hopefully next time we go it will be for a longer period than just three days. Next time I want to go to the Rocky museum. 

May 2013 Ipsy GlamBag.

I got my May 2013 Ipsy Glambag in the mail today. I was thinking I was going to make video's on this but there so many of the beauty guru's do video reviews. Maybe next month I'll actually decide to do a video but until then I'll do monthly posts here. Soooooo here it is.

The bag, it's a Chevron, southwestern print. Inside came Lotion, Nail Polish, Hair Oil, and Lipgloss,

Close Up Shot!

The Chevron Bag

Macadamia Healing Oil Treatment. I got this in a BirchBox a couple of months ago and it's a pretty awesome product. I really like how it made my hair feel.

Juice Beauty Organic lip gloss. I tried this on and so far so good.

This is a Yaba product. I'm not sure if it's a cream eye shadow or a concealer.

Zoya professional nail polish, it's in a really great baby blue color. I love Zoya nail polishes. They are phenomenal!

Pacifica Coconut bronzing lotion. Pacifica products are amazing, they are so moisturizing. I tried a little bit of this product and it's VERY shimmery. I'm not sure if I like that or not yet. I'll have to try it out when it warms up.

So there you have it. The May GlamBag. If I absolutely LOVE any of the products I'll do a review, but you can expect June's bag next month for sure!!

<3

Danielle.

New Home Office Tour!!!

Wellllll Hello!

I have finally created a space in my house that I can call mine! If the title of the blog didn't give it away it's a new home office. I have a little filming area now, which I plan on expanding a little bit with a backdrop, but for now at least I have a dedicated place for filming. I am excited that I have a space to work at home now that isn't my bedroom. Having a computer in your bedroom creates a lot of problems. I would stay up way later than I wanted to because my computer was right there and so easy to grab! I know...bad Danielle! That is no longer a problem. We didn't use our dining room. It became kind of a catch all for junk so this weekend our plans were ruined because Buffalo decided it wanted to be winter again so our plans to go hiking were put on hold because it was freezing, in fact right now it's really ominously dark and windy. I'm afraid it's going to snow. The good thing that came out of the crappy weather was this blog post about my new office which I set up yesterday!!!

So without further Adieu....here is the photo tour of my new office!

An overview shot, my desk with my computer, printer, post it container on the left, bookshelf on the right. My race photo and a couple of pieces of wall art. You can't tell I love Disney? Can you?

A Close up of my book case, most of it is Disney stuff right now, but I'm sure it'll evolve.

My filing cabinet and plastic drawer set. Check out the AWESOME Mickey cutting board. My aunt got it for us as a wedding present but I don't have the heart to actually cut on it, so it's a decoration! I adore it!

Close up of my desk. My phone and a Franklin Covey planner catalog I just got in the mail, post it notes galore, tons of pens (I am a pen junkie). The green box is a Kate Spade box that my new planner came in, it's got a whole bunch of accessories in it and it fits nice. My new obsession is Sparkling Ice water, I'm trying to cut out Diet Soda and this stuff doesn't have Aspertame or any of the bad chemical crap in it. It tastes really good to, and still no calories! That's what the orange bottle is.

My beloved A5 planner now has a home so I can make my to do lists and stuff. (I am in the process of downgrading my planner to the personal size...more about that below)

And yes since this space was formerly a dining room, it housed my Keurig and I like the setup I have so I kept it! Girl's gotta have coffee.....and yes I am aware I need to buy more K-Cups.

So there you have it. This is my new home office and I'm pretty happy with it! I have a couple videos scheduled to film and post this week including a new packing video for my trip to Philadelphia next weekend to see Ramin Karimloo, yes for a third time and yes it's worth it! If it makes you feel better I also have tickets to see Fun. in Toronto in July and tickets to see JOSH GROBAN in Pittsburgh in November! Yes I am more excited than I should be and I am proud! Anyways back to the point, packing video. I am also planning to do my very first What's in my Bag video. I did have another planner video planned and I did receive the Kate Spade planner in the mail, but the inserts were from 2008, so I'm waiting for my new inserts to come in the mail, the company I ordered from sent me the wrong size so I've sent them back and I'm currently waiting on the correct size to come! So I'm sorry for the delay on that video but I'll have new content instead!

I hope you are all having a good weekend, I must go and find some food and some Doctor Who!

<3 Danielle!

My Faux-Filofax Daytimer

 

My Filofax Video 

Hey Everyone. I've been really crazy obsessed with watching Filofax Videos on YouTube recently and after doing a quick Google search I found out that there is a whole lotta love for agendas and Filofax's. I can't tell you how many agenda's I've gone through over the past 9 years. I really started to utilize them when I turned 18 and I had to keep track of working almost full time and going to college. I started using Franklin Covey in college and I ended up really liking it and that worked for me for a while. Fast forward to two years ago and Vera Bradley came out with an Agenda and if you know me you know I have an almost psychotic addiction to Vera Bradley products (I have an addictive personality what can I say?) so I HAD to have that binder. I didn't care that it was just cardboard with a pretty pattern on it. I didn't care that it wasn't as customizable as I'd have liked and it only had two pockets for storage. It was $25 dollars how could I go wrong? Well. It was a short affair. I use my agenda on a day to day basis and it travels with me to and from work and pretty much lives in my purse, so I lug this thing around everywhere, after all, if made right they are built to last. I'd only had it for a month before the sides of the binder started to fray, and shortly after that the ring mechanisms started to gap. It was a horrible break up. I put my tail between my legs and returned to my leather bound agenda. Then I thought well, maybe Vera Bradley's student agenda's would suit my needs because it was plastic and a spiral bound planner. That lasted a little bit longer than the other one, but still wasn't quite what I wanted and I hated that I couldn't add or remove pages. So I started browsing the internet to find a binder that I liked enough to commit to a long term relationship with. I looked at Filofax USA's website and I do love Filofax, they have the quality and the durability that I was looking for but none of the A5 sized binders spoke to me. The one I did find myself liking well enough to almost consider is sold out online until further notice, but even so I don't TOTALLY love it. I just really like it. I figure if I am going to spend over $100 on a planner binder I want to ADORE it. So I looked at Office Depot and Office Max. Sadly Buffalo does not have a Staples, which happens to be my favorite office supply store. I ended up finding a wonderful binder that I love. I wish it was Pink, like the Filofax I wanted but red will do, it's still feminine but what I really love about this binder is the pockets, this thing has SO much storage and that is exactly what I was looking for in an agenda. So thus my love affair with my Day Timer Snap Tab. So I'm going to go into further detail about how I organize my agenda and there is no shortage of pictures to go along with it. I am in the process of uploading a video to YouTube, but there is still 143 minutes of upload time left and I wanted to get this post up tonight. I've been promising it for weeks. So without further Adieu here is my planner in Photos!!

This is a Teavana catalog I take keep in the long front pocket of my agenda. It was given to me when I purchased tea there last week and I have notes in it on which tea's I want next and I have a product marked that I'd like to buy so I keep it for reference.

This is my pouch that I carry along with my agenda and the box of magnetic paper clips. These go with me in my bag to work. I usually don't carry them in my purse. This keeps all of my pens and post it notes and things I use in my planner.

This is everything that is inside the pouch. Pens, Post It Notes, my weekly stickers...etc.

This is a close up view of the pens I use. I use Sharpie Felt Tip Pens, these are my new favorite pens, they write so well and do not bleed through the paper. You can buy them at Target or any office supply store. I LOVE these pens.

These are the stickers that I use for weekly reminders. I do like the Martha Stewart Tear Drop stickers that I've seen on SOOO many Filofax blogs, but I don't live by a Staples. The closest one to me is in the next city over which is almost 70 miles away from Buffalo. I'd order them online, but with the frequency that I'd be using them it's just easier for me to use these and they are readily available for purchase. I like them and they come in pretty colors. They work for me. The Foil stars I use kind of like the stickers, but they symbolize date nights with my husband.

These are magnetic paperclips and extra pencil lead for my mechanical pencil I got both of these at Target.

This pouch is an extension of my planner, this houses my project notebook, which has things like Monthly and Weekly Projects I'd like to work on, goals, my budget, my wishlist and misc project I'd like to work on.

This is my planner set up, and my iPhone, which I use in conjunction with my planner. **Edit** The photo on my phone is a NOH8 campaign photo with Nate Ruess of Fun. It's not just some random dude with a duct tapped mouth I promise, I'm not THAT strange.

This is the front flap of the agenda. It has a clear ID pocket, but I don't use it as a wallet so I printed a picture I took at Disney World in February at Wishes. On the back of this is my name, address, phone number and E-mail in case something happens and I lose my planner, it can be returned to me.

This is just showing the ring size.

This is the first thing I see when I open my planner, it's a collage of inspirational quotes, and I like having it there so when I need a little bit of positivity I can open it right up and just read them. It also helps to motivate me to be a better person and if I'm having a rough day it gives me a little bit of a push in a better direction.

I had to sneak in my Dr. Who picture, it's my current favorite show. This is the current and 11th Doctor.

This is my goals/resolutions page and I have this right behind my inspiration page, this keeps me focused on what I'd like to achieve this year and what I'd like to continue working on personally. I like to keep this right in the front so I can refer to it often.

This is my color coding chart and each color represents a different aspect of my life that is noted on my calender. This is my reference so I remember what colors I use for what.

This is a monthly view of my calender and as you can see there are different colors marking different events or appointments. I like having the monthly view to help me make plans and have quick glance at my month.

This shows a little bit of the color coding better.

This is my daily view. I continue the color coding in the daily calender too. This is where I keep my to do list, track appointments, weekly tasks that need to get done. This day I didn't have too much going on, but I did have an example of how I used everything.

This calender is something I got from Disney Movie Rewards and it was the perfect size to go in my A5 sized planner, It is a yearly calender and I use this to outline Travel that is set in stone, this helps me to plan my year a little bit more efficiently so that I know when I will be away. It has all these cute Disney characters on it so it's fun.

This section is my business card holder, I keep various business cards in here, right now I have my Curves cards in there so I can get in touch with my Coach, and so I have the hours of my club handy, and since you all know I'm obsessed with Vera Bradley I have the CEO's card in there, he actually wrote me a hand written letter because I wrote to VB headquarters praising one of their telephone employees for helping me with a bad order. The last card, because I didn't have anywhere else to put it and I wanted to carry it is my Friends of Josh Groban Fan Club card. I paid for a membership so I'd have access to pre-sale concert tickets and other fun things. I adore his music.

The next is more business card holders but since I don't have a need for them right now. I've printed out photos that I've taken, minus the one wedding photo. The first photo is Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom. The second Photo is Guthrie Castle near Aberdeen, Scotland in 2010 at my Sister in Law's wedding. The third Photo is Manchester City hall in Manchester, England that I took on our trip there in May of 2012. The fourth photo is my wedding photo with my Bridesmaids and I and Where's Waldo. I got married on the weekend before Halloween and there was a party going on at the Winery where we took Photos and he asked to be in a picture and it turned out awesome!

This is the last page of my binder and I just have another Dr. Who Postcard and a Vera Bradley Catalog and my Teavana Catalog which I pulled out of the front pocket just to show size.

This is the pad of paper I keep in the back, just for quick notes and scrap paper.

These are my post it notes that I use, some I got at Office Max on clearance and the others I got at Disney World in February. I love Post It's and Disney so I HAD to buy them.

This is just what the planner looks like when it is closed. Pretty neat and Tidy.

So That's my agenda in a nutshell. I hope you guys like it. If you have a planner obsession let me know, post photos or links to your own blogs or videos. I'd love to check them out. Like I said, I'm a planner girl and I'm always looking for ways to customize or update my planner. It's a big part of my world so I like to make it my own.

I will have another planner video up within the next two weeks, I've found myself wanting a smaller more portable planner for my purse and I was able to buy a Kate Spade planner on Ebay and I am expecting in the mail within the next few days, so once I get moved into it and set up I plan on doing a video on that organization. I LOVE my A5 sized planner that I have now, but sometimes between carrying that and the pouch of extras sometimes it gets to be too much and I just don't like the iCal app so I'd rather have a smaller planner I can just carry with me. So we'll see how it works and I'll have a blog/video on that too. Then I will have a third blog post that goes into detail about my workout/Curves binder so you can see how I organize my meal plan and workouts.

Thanks so much for stopping by, see you real soon!!!

<3

Danielle

Just a really fast update!!

Hey Everyone!!!

Sorry I've been pretty scarce lately. I've been working through a couple of things in my personal life that have taken me away from being able to film and edit and update blog posts. I'm working through them and things are getting much better. I can't get into too much detail right now about it but when the time comes I may get into it. It's nothing to do with my husband or my family but it's something I am personally working through so please don't worry, everything is all right!

With that being said! I did film one video, and I have bits and pieces of a vlog style video started. I'm in the process right now as we speak of uploading my filofax video to the computer. I will be editing it and uploading it to YouTube tomorrow! I also have a corresponding blog post to go up once the video is uploaded so new content tomorrow!!! I will have an Open Box coming towards the end of the week/beginning of next week depending on when I get it. I have an Ipsy video or blog post coming next month. I have a lot planned for content and I very much hope I am able to deliver it.

I appreciate your continued support and patience with me. I do plan on making this a big priority in my world and I know great things will be coming along!!

<3
Danielle.

Hello!

So after some much needed time to think, I think I've finally been able to get my new layout up on the blog and my redesign is taking shape nicely. I've also been able to think of some really great topics not only for future blog posts but also for some new video's. First though I wanted to introduce you all to my new layout. My graphic designer (husband) has designed my new layout and logo. It shows a bit more of my personality rather than being just a boring standard layout. I am really pleased with the way the new site looks. It's simple but fun at the same time. I will be integrating the new logo across my social media outlets in the upcoming days for a more uniform look. I'm excited because I will be able to finally print my business cards! I hope you like the new layout!

Anyways onto the new things coming up in the next few weeks (because the last few haven't been all that exciting.) I am going to film a series on my new diet and fitness plan that I'm doing so I want to give you a look into how I keep track of my food, diet and training/exercise. Along those lines and also in the series I am going to do in in depth look at my Day-Timer and give you a glimpse into how I manage my time and my calender and thirdly I will be doing another video on my project/home management system. It will be my little organization series. So those videos are coming up. I am also going to be filming or blogging my March favorites and that will be up by the end of this week. Things I loved and used a lot in March. There will be some other things in the works too. The major decision that has been made in regards to my blog and my YouTube channel is that I think I finally have the courage to begin vlogging. It's something I want to do and it's something I enjoy doing being in front of a camera talking to people, but at the same time it's very nerve wracking as well. It will feature a glimpse into my day and for now I plan on doing two "vlog" style videos per week. That will begin in the later part of April. With my full time Job and my commitment to my Curves plan I think for now that's a schedule that I can be okay with. If I really get into it then I will see what I can do to add an extra day.

The type of photos I post on this blog too are going to hopefully change a little bit. I will be taking photos to go hand in hand with what I share in my video's and sometimes I will just blog. Regardless I want my photos of what I share to be a little bit better in quality so I will be utilizing my DSLR a little bit more. I HAD to have this camera in late 2011 and I think over the course of the last year or so I've only used it handful of times so I want to use it a little bit more. It's a camera worthy of use, not just sitting in it's bag in my closet.

So that's the word for right now. I'm back in action again after a much needed break to just really think about what I wanted to do and the direction I wanted to take and now that I've found that direction and gained my motivation things in the world of Just Danielle will be a lot more regular and a lot more fun. Thanks for sticking with me and helping me to grow into my own.