Inspire

05.03.18

Travel Skincare: 5 Favorites

I’ve recently changed my focus. I’m now into skincare. But not just any skincare, travel skincare! Or TRAVEL FRIENDLY I should say. I was focused on makeup and finding the greenest and most pure (for makeup). Now however, thanks to newly becoming a low-key FANGIRL of The Skinny Confidential, I’m into ALL kinds of skincare. I have always been very good at having a morning and evening routine comprised of a clean face and then a great moisturizer or serum. Now though, I have a wedding coming up (MY OWN) and I want the most dewy, fresh, well rested, looking skin I can achieve!

However, I have some particular needs because of how much I travel. So I’m going to share with you my new favorite 5 travel skincare items!

Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask

I bought this because it said “sleeping mask” and who hasn’t woken up with dry lips before…ESPECIALLY IN A HOTEL. After the decision to purchase I found out that Laneige is one of those “cult beauty” products that people just love. It’s not hard to see why, because it just does so much for your lips! You have to be religious about using it every night, but I swear my lips are fuller. It’s also a god send to carry on the plane with you because it’s like a moisture locking barrier that insulates your lips!

Drunk Elephant Protini Polypeptide Cream

This night cream combined with my nightly serum has made the texture of my skin so soft. The story behind the Drunk Elephant brand is fun too and has to do with ingredients. You can read that here. I also love how hygienic the dispensing of this product is. You press down on the top and it squeezes out, instead of having to stick your fingers into the jar.

Avene

I just bought this a few days ago and I’m already loving it. It’s a french skincare product so of course it’s fabulous, but it literally melts makeup away. WATERPROOF EYELINER? buh bye. I don’t LOVE the smell, it smells very clean, but I can get past that for how well it does it’s job.

Suntegrity 5-in-1 Natural Moisturising Face Sunscreen

I have the full body sunscreen of this as well and I just adore both. Traditional sunscreen has MULTIPLE ingredient that are considered toxic, and this product was designed to be as green and pure as possible. It’s also tinted so it’s a great light foundation!

Glow Recipe Watermelon Pink Juice

THIS SMELLS SO GOOD. If you like watermelons, which I do. But it also is such a great daily moisturizer! I put it on in the morning before all my makeup and it hydrates my skin, smells amazing, and helps my makeup sit even better on my skin. I also love the design of this product, it’s beautiful to have sitting out on your vanity.

If you enjoyed this travel skincare guide Into The Gloss has a similar guide you can find here!

Those are the five products I’m loving and have been taking with me on all my travels lately. What skincare secrets do you have?! Share with me in the comments!

04.28.18

Guiness Storehouse: Five Things To Know

Ireland was SUCH a good time. I loved exploring both Northern Ireland and Ireland and seeing all the beautiful natural wonders. We saw and did so many cool things, including the Guinness factory tour!

Here are five things to know about the Guinness Storehouse tour!

1. The music doesn’t just sound good because everyone’s had one too many Guinness, there is so much musical talent in Ireland! After the Guinness Tour is a great time to go to Temple Area and explore the pubs and music! Ireland had so much to offer in terms of interesting things to do, so much history to learn about and study, and the MUSIC in the pubs was exactly what you would hope to hear while visiting Ireland!

2. Arthur Guinness started the company and employed so many families in Dublin. It was also considered a job for life and was something a lot of locals aspired to have. Make sure to tour the hall with the portraits to learn more about Arthur and his wife!

3. The tour starts with explaining how Guinness is actually made; right from the farming process. The center of the factory is actually a giant Guinness glass that the four levels are built around! There’s a tasting room where you get to learn about the tasting notes of Guinness with the cutest baby glass of Guinness. You also learn about the perfect way to enjoy it and why it supposedly tastes the best in Dublin.

4. After exploring all the different floors full of secrets, history, past marketing campaigns, and a cafe with foods enriched with actual Guinness, you make it to the glass circular room at the top of the building! From here you can see all of Dublin and also enjoy a a full pint of the ruby red liquid itself. It’s definitely worth going up for the view and the experience!

5. If you want to get something engraved make sure to allow time for that! I ended up having to go back and pick our stuff up the next day!

What’s one of the coolest “tourist” experiences you’ve had while traveling?!

04.24.18

Old School Style Brunch

I’m sitting in the DC airport, but I’m thinking about the the brunch I had in Nashville recently. It was at The Old School Farm northwest of Nashville.

We had just left church and wanted to try something new and interesting when I remembered somebody telling me about the goat yoga they had done at The Old School before having brunch there.

So naturally my inquisitive self had to check it out. The Old School is a farm-to-table on a micro scale. So instead of being a “farm to table” restaurant, they are a FARM with a restaurant. Meaning they source most of what they serve from their own gardens or chicken coop (for eggs). What they can’t source from themselves they get from about 5 other farms close by.

What I love about any farm to table restaurant is how GOOD and PURE the food tastes.

At the old school they also made the coffee cream butter for the bread basket we got! Somehow farm fresh eggs just taste so good when compared with typical grocery store eggs. It’s like the hens are happy with their lifestyle and that’s reflected in their eggs! We had the mushroom and ricotta omelette and the baker’s basket. Both were so good, but the bakers basket was a piéce de résistance! Each bakery treat was so good but we especially LOVED the coffee cake.

We were sat in the room that used to be the lunchroom, cafeteria, and auditorium so we got to listen to a jazz quartet while brunching. It felt very 1920s. Which felt very fabulous. Overall I loved the atmosphere, the mixture of corner booths, roundtables, high tops, and more intimate tables. The whole experience was so enjoyable, and I’m definitely adding this to my “take people who visit Nashville here” list.

04.05.18

Brand New Fire

I wrote this song, working title “Fire” or “Fire In Me” about two days before my recent show. Then I decided to add it to my set! I’m not sure what I was thinking, except I just really loved the message. The whole song came to me in about 15 minutes, and I’m happy to share it with you, especially when it’s so new! Tell me if this song speaks to you and if you think I should finish it for my next project/album!

03.29.18

Fork and Spoon Something New!

Being on the road a lot makes it easy to just eat whatever, whenever. Recently though I’ve been watching what I eat really closely, which is why I want to share Fork and Spoon with you!

No, not MY Fork and Spoon, but this great restaurant I just discovered! Recently, I started getting a little ill if I ate to much bread, pasta, baked goods, etc. but I thought it would pass. I tried not eating any thing with gluten in it and a few times I slipped up, each time I would get the same pain and discomfort.

Now it’s been several weeks and I’ve been really strict with myself about not eating anything with flour in it…and I’m feeling better! Which is why I want to share Fork and Spoon with you. I’m exploring new options for this new lifestyle change!

Fork and Spoon is a Japanese restaurant with Thai dishes that has two menus. Well, three sometimes. It has an all-you-can-eat menu, which is great if you’ve got a big appetite. It has an a la carte menu from which you can order any of the entrees or sushi rolls. However, this third option is my favorite. They have an amazing lunch special menu on week days! You can get 8 pieces of nigiri sushi, a spicy salmon roll, a California roll, soup, and seaweed salad for under $20!

I’ve been on weekends and weekdays so I’ve tried both menus, and I like them both! The a la carte portions are much larger. Whereas the all you can eat portions are smaller and made so that you can try many things. Beware though: you have to finish everything you order from the all-you-can-eat menu! If you love Japanese or Thai food then you will probably LOVE Fork and Spoon like I do. If you have a food sensitivity to gluten, wheat, or flour, then this is a great option to feel like you can order pretty much anything you want and not worry about getting sick!

03.27.18

Ailsa Craig, where in the world?!

We drove past farms and through a community called, “Punkey Doodles Corner” and made our way to Ailsa Craig.

We pulled into the cutest little town and stopped at the Crown and Turtle for a preshow bite to eat. Then we went over to the venue and did a sound check and met Cameron Arts, the opening act. The theatre was an original theatre with INCREDIBLE acoustics in their town hall which has so many beautiful historic details.

I played my radio singles, The Phoenix Story, and some brand new songs! It was so exciting to hear the Ailsa Craig audience’s reaction to my newest songs that I’ve never played at a show before. I love it when I play acoustic shows because I get to do some really fun things with the songs. Sing a little different and play around on the guitar more. Things I don’t get to do when I’m doing a full band show.

The audience was so attentive and I loved that so many people had already heard of me or my music and were waiting for certain songs to be played in the set! As a music fan myself I love that part about going to a show; the anticipation of waiting for your favorite song to be played and hearing the opening notes!

Playing in these beautiful theatres, that I’ve had the chance to play in for the past year, has been such an honor. Ailsa Craig’s theatre was beautiful, just like the others I’ve played recently.I love that people are excited to come out and listen to my radio singles but also my new stuff. It’s so exciting to watch the audience grow each time we come back. To hear and see that people are enjoying the show enough to bring friends with them!

Ireland was SUCH a good time. I loved exploring both Northern Ireland and Ireland and seeing all the beautiful natural wonders. We saw and did so many cool things, including the Guinness factory tour!

I’m sitting in the DC airport, but I’m thinking about the the brunch I had in Nashville recently. It was at The Old School Farm northwest of Nashville.

What I love about any farm to table restaurant is how GOOD and PURE the food tastes.

Being on the road a lot makes it easy to just eat whatever, whenever. Recently though I’ve been watching what I eat really closely, which is why I want to share Fork and Spoon with you!

We drove past farms and through a community called, “Punkey Doodles Corner” and made our way to Ailsa Craig.

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