{My Life} Inspiration Board Challenge Winner!

A Very Vintage Holiday board by Jessica. See more Minted.com

I'm super excited to announce that I am the winner this week's Editor's Pick for my inspiration board (pictured above) in Minted's Inspiration Board Challenge!  I can't wait to decide what to spend my prize on!    

{Holidays} Minted's Inspiration Board Challenge

A Very Vintage Holiday board by Jessica. See more Minted.com

I always look forward to getting emails from Minted (remember my ridiculously lengthy post when they started selling art prints?), so you can imagine how excited I was when I saw that they were doing an Inspiration Board Challenge!

The process was all pretty simple (you can find all the instructions here).  I chose one from my many favorite holiday cards, and then created a virtual mood board right on their website using other pictures I found around the web (mostly on Pinterest).  I think it all came together really well.  It also helped me zero in on how I want to decorate this year.  I can't wait to start decorating!  Is November 1st too soon?

If you love my board (pictured above), it would be awesome if you would "like" it for me.  You can do so by going to my board here, and then clicking on the heart.  They are selecting three winners weekly that will be given $200 to spend on Minted!  Be sure and let me know if you make one too!  I'd love to check it out!

I hope you all have had a fabulous weekend!  

{Lovely Pins} Orange

Image Sources (clockwise from top left): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

October is a month that screams orange.  It might be the changing leaves or all the pumpkins, but either way orange always makes me think of fall (which makes me happy because it's my favorite season hands down).

How do you all feel about the color orange?  

{My Life} Busy, Busy

You may notice that I'm a little MIA this week.  We are getting our house ready for an appraisal, so I have lots to do.  I also have lots going on with BYW Bootcamp.  The picture above is a photograph I took for a mood board assignment.  Anyway, I'll be back in full force next week.   

{Causes} Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2012

Last year during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an amazing woman in our life was actually battling breast cancer herself.  I used this quote in my post last year because it reminded me so much of her.  She is always ready to tackle things head on, and rarely accepts no for an answer.

While her battle is slowly fading in the rearview mirror, it is never far from our minds.  It's a reminder of how quickly things can change, and how they often sneak up with little or no notice.  

The facts haven't changed a lot since last year.  1 in every 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.  70 - 80% of those women will have no history of breast cancer in their family.  The good news is that the mortality rates continue to go down every year because of awareness and early action.  There are currently 2.9 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.  

There are many ways you can get involved either by donating your time or your money.  If you don't have a lot of money to give but want to help somehow, the American Cancer Society and Susan G Komen have lots of great information on how you can do so.  

If you want to donate money straight to the cause, there are so many places out there that you can donate to.  Here are just a few: BreastCancer.org, the American Cancer Society (make sure to specify you want it to go to breast cancer), and Susan G Komen.

Another way to help is by buying products that donate to the cause.  There are lots of great companies out there that are donating part of the proceeds of certain products to breast cancer research.  I will warn you though that some companies are not so great and hardly give anything, so make sure you're reading the fine print.  Here is a little round up of some fun stuff I found out there.  

Image Credits (clockwise from top left): 1, 2, 3, 4

If you're a nail polish addict like me you might want to try Nails Inc's Pinkie Pink (meant to go on just your pinkie to raise awareness) or Ciate's pink duo.  I'm a huge sucker for Tocca's perfume, so I had to include this little set.  All the scents in it are fantastic, and they donate a whopping 50% of the proceeds to BrightPink.org!  Lastly, this mud mask sounds awesome.  I really want to try it!

Image Credits: Coach

Every year Coach does a line of products, and donates 20% of the proceeds to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Image Credits: Loft

Another company that does a line every year is Loft.  They have nine "pink pieces" in which they donate 25% of the purchase price to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.    They also do the Loft Cares Card.  90% of the price of the card ($25) goes to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and with the card you get 20% off any purchase of $100 or more.

I hope all of this has you thinking about how you can help.  It seems like today most of us know someone that has been affected by breast cancer in some way.  Hopefully as the years go on we will get to see a cure.  

{Beauty Obsessed} Too Faced Better Than False Lashes

Photo Credits: Sephora

What's the one thing most of us won't leave the house without?  Well for me and a lot of women, it's mascara.  I feel like without it I look sleepy and drab.  A month or so ago I was at Sephora looking for a new mascara, and a girl that worked there told me I had to try Too Faced's Better Than False Lashes.  I picked some up, but I didn't really try it until this last weekend.  After getting it home I read through the instructions, and it just seemed overwhelming.  I wasn't expecting one of the tubes to be a powdery like substance (it's actually fibers).  Eventually I just kinda forgot I had it, and kept using my old standard Covergirl Lash Blast (If you're looking for an everyday cheap mascara, this stuff is awesome!).  Then the other day I saw it in the bathroom, and thought I should finally give it a try.  It is awesome!!!  I probably won't replace my everyday mascara, but when I want to go a little more glam, I will definitely do this over false lashes.  

Here is what I look like with no mascara...tired right!  

This is the mascara/primer before I put the fiber stuff on.

With the fibers on before I put the mascara on top.

This is after I put the top coat on and with one more coat of both...

the finished result.  Pretty awesome right.  It totally looks like I'm wearing false lashes.  It's a little strange when you take it off because it feels like you are loosing a ton of lashes, but it's really just the fibers.

I definitely recommend it, but like I said I don't know if I would use it everyday.  It's $35 compared to my $7 tube of lash blast, but for special occasions or days when you know you'll be in a lot of pictures, why not!

{My Life} My Lovely Little Blog and BYW Bootcamp

I don't know if you guys have noticed (I'm quite certain many of you have), but my blog has been a little sparse lately.  I'd love to blame it on the fact that it was summer and I was busy, but in all actuality I really was just lacking motivation and inspiration.  To be honest, I didn't really like the direction Serendipitous Things was going, and it was starting to become a chore to write posts.  I know a lot of you aren't bloggers, but I'm sure you can relate what I'm about to say to other situations in life.  I found myself constantly comparing myself to other bloggers out there.  Wanting, wishing, that I could be as interesting and talented as them.

Being the ocd person that I am, I was desperately trying to make my blog fit into what I thought was the "perfect blog" formula...structured, organized, and oh so commercial.  It's like I had it in my head that it had to read like a magazine or something.   Serendipitous Things has been lacking a very important thing, MY voice.  I've tried so hard to make it "perfect," that you don't really see me in my posts at all, and as result, it ended up being boring and blah.  So, I'm turing over a new leaf, and going forward I'm going to try really hard to just be myself on here.

The timing of my little epiphany couldn't have come at a better time because today I'm starting Blogging Your Way Bootcamp.  I've taken pretty much all of the BYW classes at this point (Holly is amazing!), but I feel like this one is coming at a different time for me.  I'm not a rookie blogger anymore, not that I'm a pro, but I feel like I know more about what I want to get out of blogging this time around.  I'm going to dive in head first this next month, and hopefully it'll bring some great improvements to my lovely little blog.

I hope you all have a fantastic week!       

{Beauty Obsessed} Caudalíe Paris Thé des Vignes

Photo Credits: Caudalíe

When doing a little after dinner shopping the other night with a friend, I stumbled upon this 

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G perfume at J Crew.  It's made by Caudalíe Paris, and it is called Thé des Vignes.  It has quickly replaced my all time favorite, Tocca's Cleopatra.  I love how unique it is.  It smells like a classic somehow, even though I don't really think I've ever smelt anything like it.  Caudalíe Paris describes it as combining "sensual notes of white musk and neroli with a hint of ginger liquor, with an infusion of orange blossom and jasmine."  I don't know what all that means, but I love it!  If you want to pick some up yourself, you can get it in J Crew stores or directly from the source on Caudalíe's website. 

{Lovely Pins} Japanese Washi Tape

Image Sources (clockwise from top left): 1, 2, 3

Happy Wednesday everybody, and Happy 31st Birthday to my amazing husband Jason!  I hope you all are having a wonderful week!  

I'm guessing most of you are familiar with Japanese Washi Tape at this point.  If you're not, do yourself a favor, and order/buy some pronto.  Then hop on Pinterest to find lots of lovely projects to use your washi on.  

I had seen washi around, but really didn't get too excited about it until I took a few classes from Leslie Shewring at The Creative Connection last fall.  After that I was pretty much hooked.  Now I have more rolls than I can count, and probably use it everyday (seriously).  

Here are some more lovely washi pins.

Image Sources (clockwise from top left): 1, 2, 3, 4

 Washi is the best thing ever, if you're trying to spruce up a package.  I actually throw a little on every card that I send out.  Something Leslie had brought up was the idea that by making something pretty, you may actually end up brightening someone's day (think mail carrier).  I love this idea, and actually relate to it a lot.  Pretty things definitely make me happy.  

Image Sources (clockwise from top): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Party decorations are another fabulous way to use washi.  I've made lots of cake decorations already, and I love the use of it in this guest book.  

Image Sources (clockwise from top left): 1, 2, 3

It works great if you're trying to add a little fun to everyday objects.  A boring to-do list or calendar doesn't seem so mundane, when you add a little pop of color or a fun pattern.  

Image Sources (from left): 1, 2, 3

Here are a few more fun uses around the house.  Create a window in a windowless room, the illusion of a headboard, or the look wallpaper for next to nothing.   

Image Sources (from left): 1, 2

Lastly, think of all the fun things your kiddos could do with it.  I love this wall collage, and what a fun idea to make a racetrack for toy cars out of it!

So there you have it, lots of washi inspiration.  You can find it in many paper and craft stores now, but if you're having a problem getting some, you can always look online.  I've ordered a lot of mine from  Etsy.  

Well that's it for me today.  I hope you all enjoyed today's Lovely Pins and have a great rest of the week!