women

Gift Guide for Her

December 20, 2019 By Kat

This is Part 2 of my holiday 2019 gift guide! See Part 1 on Gifts for Him.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate for Nordstrom.com and Amazon, so I may earn a small commission on purchases you make through these links.

I wanted to write these gift guides because a lot of the guides I read in magazines or online actually contain a lot of things I would never buy. I don’t know why. So I try to keep these as practical as possible and do a wide price range because your budget will depend on how well you know the woman / how close of a relationship you have with her. So enough talk, here is the list!

Nest Fragrances Grapefruit Reed Diffuser – Perfect for adding a nice scent to any room. I got it a housewarming gift, and it lasted a long time! Plus it looks nice on a coffee table.

Rainbow Silicone Skin Keyboard Protector – After I spilled boba on my keyboard and broke it, I got this colorful protector to prevent future accidents. Be sure to check that it’s the right size for her laptop. This one is for a Macbook Pro. At under $10, this is a good deal!

Kylie Skin Headband – This is from Kylie Jenner’s skincare brand. I have not tried her skincare products, but I’m on the lookout for something to keep my hair back when I wash my face / do makeup, so a headband like this would be nice.

Longchamp ‘Le Foulonne’ Pebbled Leather Card Holder – This is convenient for holding your important credit cards for a small purse that may not fit a wallet. And it’s even more useful for switching purses quickly because everything is in one place.

Uncommon James Girl Boss Square Hoop Earrings – A novel twist on classic hoop earrings from Kristin Cavallari’s Uncommon James jewelry brand. These bold square earrings make such a style statement for the ultimate girl boss.

Topshop Heavy Brush Check Scarf – Scarves make a great gift as they can be thrown over any outfit to add more interest and make it look more cozy. I like a good checkered / plaid scarf for the cold months. This scarf would go well with a black jacket or outfit.

Beis The Travel Set Passport Wallet, Pouch & Luggage Tag – Black Croc – Cute luggage tag and passport holder set. Beis is the travel luggage brand by Shay Mitchell. Everything looks so swoon-worthy! See their Instagram page.

Too Faced Chocolate Bar Eyeshadow Palette – Besides being a go-to eyeshadow palette for me (with matte browns and shimmery shades), this also SMELLS LIKE CHOCOLATE because the shades are infused with cocoa powder. Win win!

Tasha Wave Headband – I think a headband would be a cute gift to give a gal pal. Just picked one example here. Headbands are usually at an affordable price range and she could use it to accessorize and look fabulous for the holidays.

La Luna Zipper Front Sports Bra – front zip sports bra that provides full support for the woman who wants to be more active next year. Created by my friend Linda Lippold, the Wrights Active brand donates 5 percent of proceeds to The Joyful Heart Foundation.

32 Degrees Ladies’ Heat Tees and Pants. Costco has a nice brand called 32 Degrees where they make long sleeve shirts and pants that are lightweight but keep you warm. I suppose you could wear these outside as a layering piece, but I like to wear them at home. For my recent Europe trip, I underestimated how cold it would be, but I wore the top and bottoms to sleep and it was a lifesaver!! Having a set of these would be very practical.

Veja Women’s Campo Low-Top Sneakers – This is the brand of sneakers that Meghan Markle wore. Ever since then, I’ve been eyeing them as basic white sneakers to add to my wardrobe. 😉

Williams Sonoma Silicone Utensils – I enjoy using silicon utensils – especially my silicone spatula and tongs. They have a range of sets with varying number of pieces or you can buy individual items. If she doesn’t have any of these, I recommend them!

Sugarfina Peach Bellini Candy Cube – The Sugarfina cubes are a fun gift for a lady who likes her sweets. They have an assortment of flavors like champagne gummy bears and come in pretty bento box sets too.

Okay last but not least:

Massage gift card – send her off to some rest and relaxation with a massage. For those in the Bay Area, Kua Body offers gift cards and has amazing massages!

Style makeover with me – gift her a personal styling session with me, where I take her shopping and show her what styles and brands can fit her body well and make her glow with confidence!

Bouquet of flowers – who doesn’t love fresh flowers? Even better if you picked out the flowers in the arrangement yourself. See my earlier blog post on flower bouquets from Whole Foods.

Photo prints – We take a lot of photos at family gatherings. But for my grandma who doesn’t have a smartphone, that means she can’t see them! So I like to go to CVS or Walgreens to print out physical prints of photos of us from throughout the year and stick them in a Christmas card for her. You can upload them from home and go in store to pick then up. You can usually find a coupon code too!

Good luck in the last days of holiday shopping!! Don’t get run over by frantic shoppers!

Age Pressure

August 14, 2018 By Kat

You HAVE TO see the below video. Bravo to Chloe Bennet for expressing these words that so many of us feel. I saw this video as an ad on YouTube and it resonated so strongly with me (and apparently 5.4M other people as well). I’ve watched it multiple times and it evokes emotion for me every time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNPLbbluze8

(By the way, if you’re curious, she is reacting to the brand SKII’s short film called The Expiry Date.)

POWERFUL WORDS

My favorite part of Chloe’s video is at 2:01 when she says, “I think the moment that resonated with me the most in the film was when you see all these women really deciding to take their destiny into their own hands and make that decision to be true to themselves and say ‘Look this is who I am.'” These words (and the powerful way she says them) just sends chills through my spine. She goes on to describe the woman leaving the date as a powerful moment of standing up for herself. YASS GIRL!

MY MOMENTS

For me, the moment of “getting up from the table” was leaving my secure, well-paid job at Google. “Getting up from the table” was moving from being an author into personal styling. Sometimes it takes us months, years to realize that we need to get up and put ourselves in a different situation – whether for work or a personal relationship.

I think this gets a bad reputation because it looks like we’re unfocused / giving up early / unable to commit, but it’s just part of the journey. When we do something, we give it our all. But we don’t stay in the same place for very long. What worked for me at 28 years old, may not work for me at 30 years old.

Change is the only constant, and I’m not going to let anyone else box me into something they think I should do or be. And I’m definitely not going to go the “safer” route because oftentimes that makes me feel …(for lack of a better word) dead inside, like I’ve betrayed myself.

THIS IS ME

I’m going to be someone who is willing to re-invent myself over and over again until I get closer to who I am. I won’t minimize the hard work or fear involved. It’s going to be a daily challenge, but I’m going to keep “getting up” and going after what I want.

What are you going to choose?

Gift Idea Under $30

July 12, 2018 By Kat

A hobby I’ve been playing around with is flower arranging. There’s something so beautiful about flowers and the process of arranging them is so creative and artistic. I feel like an imposter saying that it’s my hobby though because I’ve only done it once (ha!). But nevertheless, below is my first creation.

I had grand plans of doing custom flower arrangements for all the women in my life as celebrations came up – bridal showers, birthdays, etc.. I think it’s a thoughtful handmade gift – like an equivalent of baking something sweet for someone (except my baking skills are nonexistent).

I even bought another vase, but it just sat there for months with no flowers in it. (By the way, I got the vase at Michaels. I used the 40% off coupon of course.) For these special events that came up, I either got too busy or planned my time poorly. Hence I didn’t have time to pick up the flowers and do the whole artistic process of sticking in flowers, judging if I like it or not, and pulling it out, etc…

GRANDMA’S BIRTHDAY

For my grandma’s birthday recently, I decided I would make time for this! But by the time I left the house that morning, the flower shop I wanted to go to was already closed for the day. -_- So I decided to stop by Whole Foods.

FLOWERS FROM WHOLE FOODS

Oh my! I should have come here sooner! I’ve always seen the beautiful local flowers on display at Whole Foods but I didn’t look too closely at them because I figured they would be expensive like everything else in this “Whole Paycheck” store.

I did notice that they sold flowers in smaller quantity stems though. So I decided to pick out a couple types of flowers, and then go home and arrange it. They also have small bunches of mixed greenery that you can buy – they add lots of dimension to a bouquet!

It took me FOREVER to decide which colors and flowers to mix and match. (Can you tell I have an issue with indecision? hehe)

I liked some peach roses but they were wilting already, so I asked the lady who worked there if they had anymore.

She disappeared into the back and came back with a slightly different color they had: sage roses. I liked them! And they were very fresh!

FLOWER ARRANGEMENT

She handed them over to me to add to my existing flower selections, and I was about to go pay for them, when she said the glorious words, “Would you like me to arrange them for you here?” I was like “…really??”

I thought about all the time I would save by not needing to cut stems with stubborn scissors (meant for paper not flowers) and sweep the leaves off the floor at home if I did it myself. So I eagerly said YES!

But then I didn’t have an actual vase, and I wanted the flowers to last longer. So I told her I’d be right back, and I literally went home to grab my empty vase and came back.

By the time I returned, she had already trimmed all the stems and arranged it nicely into a bouquet bundled with a rubber band. She held it next to the vase to eyeball the height. Then she chopped off the stems in 1 fell swoop, with what I can only describe as a giant paper cutter for flower stems.

She plopped the flowers into the vase with water and even gave me a nice box for transporting it and some tissue paper and flower food. Oh and she spritzed the flowers with water for an extra oomph.

When I paid, it only came out to be $26.16 for the flowers!

I walked out of there so proud – for getting myself a great deal and saving time LoL! My grandma loved the flowers by the way. Hooray! So it wasn’t entirely homemade, but I was part of the creative process! 😉

Anyhow, just wanted to share this little tip in case you need a gift for a special someone in your life. Especially for people that already have everything they need. But I think most people would love flowers to brighten their space!