I don't know about you, but I'm a huge fan of makeup. I wear a lot of it and I love all the stuff you can do with it, but I've always just kind of figured it out as I went along. Last week, I sat down for a HiLovely Beauty Chat, where I spent a half hour getting one-on-one makeup coaching, discussed the famous smokey eye (plus a few liquid eye liner tips), and learned how to actually make it all come together for everyday wear.

Here are a few things I took away from my session:

• You really can use all four colors in an eye shadow quad, and you can do it without ending up looking like a clown.
• Concealer is your friend when you're working on the perfect winged liner.
• Good brushes absolutely do matter (I've always suspected this but now know it to be true).

This post is brought to you in partnership with HiLovely. My session was the "All About Eyes" Beauty Chat, but they have a variety of different topics that are customizable, easy, and so fun!

Thinking about how much I've been enjoying barre this month. I wrote a little about my first month at the beginning of April, but now that I'm almost done with two months, I have so many more thoughts about the whole thing. I'm mostly surprised by 1. how much I love it; 2. how much better at it I'm becoming; and 3. how quickly I'm becoming more flexible every class. I've always been an active person but in the past year or so I've gotten really out of practice, so it's nice to have something physically challenging in my life again--and one that I actually look forward to daily!

Listening to lots of The Lively Show and quite a bit of Jack's Mannequin. I had the pleasure of meeting Jess Lively at Alt Summit this year and I'm so happy to have her podcast in my life. It's really been great for me over the past few weeks. And who doesn't love Andrew McMahon's music?

Watching the newest season of Game of Thrones. These past few episodes have been so good! I've also read that there may only be a couple more seasons, which I actually think is perfect. I'd love to read the books but I really want to treat the show and the novels like two completely different things. It's hard to stay away from them when the seasons are over, though!

Drinking coconut La Croix. It tastes like vacation!

Looking forward to Memorial Day weekend in South Carolina with some friends. We haven't been to the beach since last year (although I did go to Dewey Beach in August for a bachelorette party), and Rob and I are really looking forward to that. And it'll be so great to spend some time with my friend Tina, who I hardly ever get to see.

Loving spring in Charlotte. Rob and I have been walking Ender along the lightrail almost every night and it is so nice. We're also starting to run into people we know from our neighborhood which just makes this city feel so homey. It's been really great the past few months.

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What have you been up to these days? I want to know! Happy Monday!

Happy Friday, friends! Rob and I are headed to Food Truck Friday tonight (again--we go almost every week!) before a busy weekend at home: barre, a wine tasting, the South End Hops Festival, a going-away party for a friend, and hopefully some time at the dog park on Sunday. Until then, here are some links I've been gathering for you. Enjoy!

To Read:

• When Close Friends Live Far Away (A Request). This piece meant so much to me. It made me think about how whenever I'm in town with my friend Tina, getting Thai takeout or just walking around the grocery store picking up stuff to make dinner often feels like the most special use of our time together. Normal stuff that we miss out on by living in two different cities.
• What I've Learned About Heterosexual Female Desire From Decades of Reading. This is hilarious.

To Watch/Listen to:

• This is an older episode, but such an amazing one: Falling, on Radiolab. It actually made me cry a little.
• Macey Goes to The White House! I'm seriously obsessed with this cute, smart, and funny little girl.
• Love these Andrew McMahon videos that Jenna sent me the other day. Cecilia and the Sattelite is one of my favorites.

Wish List:

• I think these shoes are super cute.
• This looks like a great jumpsuit for only $35! Old Navy has a ton of awesome stuff out right now--one of my neighbors was wearing the cutest maxi skirt from there the other day.
• The perfect wrap dress.
• I just bought a couple new things to wear to barre, but I still have my eye on these grey leggings.

Other Stuff:

• This chocolate iced mocha with ice cream looks like an amazing thing to do with coffee.
• We've been getting our apartment cleaned once a month lately and it's sort of the best. This is our referral link if you want to schedule a cleaning and get $25 off. 
• Are any of you guys using Point yet? It's pretty cool.

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What are you up to this weekend?

Photo by Sarah Gatrell for Freckled Italian--a sneak peek at next month's La Crema collaboration!