Orchid Love

As I've mentioned on here before, my younger sister is a photographer! I've shared some of her photography before here. She recently decided to add some colour to her living room, and purchased an Orchid! I wanted to share with you some of the gorgeous photos that she took.

I hope that you enjoyed these as much as I did! It's such a beautiful flower and I'm currently using one of these pictures as my desktop. 

Website • Facebook

xo. Nicole

OOTD // Flower Stems

While taking pictures for this post, I realized just how bad I take "selfies". I hadn't taken a good one in a long time, and part of that is from gaining weight and generally not feeling happy with my appearance. That's all changing now, and the exercising is also helping me pick less-plain outfits for work.

I am also super desperate for new shoes. These white ones only have to last me 3 more work days! My job includes a lot of walking, so I'm surprised these even lasted more than a month. 

I am so excited for Friday! We are officially done for the summer, so my friend and I are off to downtown Edmonton to look at some used book stores. She's started to lend me some books, as I want to get back in to reading, and I figured it would be fun for us to go together so she could recommend me some good reads! I think I'll end up sneaking in to a shop to buy some shoes, though. Some to get me through the summer!

xo. Nicole

Weeks End •• June 22

SNAPSHOTS:

• Gunner has this habit of jumping up on our bed and taking my spot as SOON as I stand up. I get the feeling that he doesn't want me on the bed next to Rob, as Rob is his person.

• It was a good mail day on Tuesday. I'm in love with all the colours that I received from Julep!

• My sad cooking fail was trying to make some gluten free alfredo for dinner. I burnt the sauce and I overcooked the brown rice noodles, so they were super slimy. :(

WHAT YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

• I shared some Pinspiration for maxi skirts!

• I reviewed Julep's June maven box here. Loving it.

• The winner for the giveaway was announced! 

GOOD READS:

• Shelby never fails to share an awesome ootd!

• Sam and her family had a "beachin'" good Father's Day. 

This past week went super good, other than failing at making dinner one night. I've been feeling so much better since adding exercise in to my weekly habits. I also find it easier to exercise with a friend, so we have our one hour full body work outs on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and this past week we also ran on Wednesday and Friday. I'm hoping that I can keep this up throughout the summer, as both of our schedules will be different, with our job being finished until September. I may just have to suck it up and try to force myself out of the house for a run without a partner.

xo. Nicole

Giveaway Winner!

I hosted a giveaway to announce my blog's name change from "A Broke Bride" or "a la Maxfield", and the winner is...

Congratulations! I will be emailing you today with all the details. I hope you enjoy your new little set of nail goodies. :) Thank you to everyone who entered!

*Pictures of Beth + her button are from Oak and Oats, which is Beth's blog!

June Julep Review

Wasn't this month's maven box just completely awesome? Last month, I think we all received the Plie wand in our maven boxes, so this month, I purchased the striping and dotting tool to go with it! It came with some pixie sticks that I haven't eaten yet (I'm waiting for a time when I need that sugar rush) and some GORGEOUS colors! I was also surprised to see a box within a box, and all full of nail polish! That was exciting!

My definite favorite color from the bunch is "Ramona". It's a pretty pastel purple, and it's just subtle enough to go with anything in my wardrobe. I don't remember ordering this many polishes, but I'm not complaining! I also polished my toes with "Veronica" (the pinky-coral colour) and I love it. The Ramona polish was a bit goopy when I first painted my nails, so I had to shake it a bit more and redo my nails. Other than that, my only ":(" about this box is deciding which colour to do next!

Did you know that if you click my affiliate link and take the quiz, your first box is free with the code "FREEBOX"!

xo. Nicole

Favourite Things

Happy Thursday! It's only one more day until Friday, and that also means only 5 more working days until my summer break! Anyways, today I wanted to share some of my favourite things with you. I always love reading your posts about what you use every day for make up, and other things, so I decided to share some of my every day items with you.

• NYC Big Bold Mascara: I am totally loving how long it makes my lashes! I had a $1 coupon for it, and it was already on sale for $4. $3 mascara? Sure! It comes off super easy when I want it to without flaking and rubbing off during the day. Definitely buying it again!

• Color Energy Immune Booster: My mom does aromatherapy (and all sorts of other fun things) and she gave me this. When you feel a cold coming on, rub it on your neck and the bottoms of your feet. I choose to also put a tiny bit of it on my cheeks by my nose. It helps me breathe and relieves the ache that comes with clogged sinuses.

• Anniversary Flowers: It was our first wedding anniversary on Monday June 16, and Rob got me this beautiful bouquet of a variety of flowers. They smell SO good and are such pretty colors! Flowers are a rare treat for me, as he reserves buying them for special occasions :)

• Julep: My June maven box arrived on Tuesday. I think that it was my favorite box yet! I received more polish than I thought I would (or remembered purchasing) and they're all gorgeous colors (review coming soon). I promptly put on this pretty pastel purple color.

• Garnier Fructis Damage Eraser: I've been using this hair mask that I received from Influenster a while back, and it really does help my damaged hair. I am in desperate need of a haircut, but after I use this, my hair feels super soft for a couple days. I've had to resort to this more than once a week because the conditioner from this set just does NOT come out of the bottle. If you're in the market for a good hair mask though, this is a pretty good one to buy!

Have you tried any of these products? 

What have you been loving lately? Link me!

xo. Nicole

PS. Have you entered my giveaway? It ends on Saturday!

Pinspiration // Maxi Skirts

With Summer quickly approaching, I've been trying to find things to wear to keep me cool. If you know me, you'd know how much I hate being hot! I'm more of a 'wrap myself in blankets and sweaters' girl than a tank top and shorts girl. Summer outfits are pretty cute though, so I might as well make the most of it! Last Summer, I bought 4 maxi skirts! I have a pink one, black one, beige and navy striped one, and a black and white chevron skirt. My only problem is trying to figure out how to style them, so of course I turned to Pinterest.

I totally have a yellow cardigan to go with this chevron maxi!

Simple and cute! Love it! (Source unknown)

I love the grey top and bright necklace with the pink skirt! (Source unknown)

I could totally go for a floral maxi just because of this outfit.

I've seen so many cute and stylish ways to wear my maxi skirts now. I think I need to add some statement necklaces and a larger variety of colors of my v-neck shirts. 

Have you found some Pinspiration lately?

xo. Nicole

ps. Have you entered my giveaway?

Week's End // June 15

SNAPSHOTS:

• I looove painting my nails, and Julep is totally my favorite polish. I received my May Maven box and these were some perfect spring colors!

• We hosted a BBQ on Saturday for our one-year wedding anniversary. We have leftover cake and burgers on every shelf of our fridge. It was so much fun, and it turned out just perfect. Seriously considering just having a family get together every year.

WHAT YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

• I reviewed my Julep May Maven box! Totally awesome :)

• I shared some ideas from Pinterest for our BBQ.

• There's a SUPER sweet giveaway going on right now, to introduce my blog's new name!

GOOD READS:

• Shelby looked gorgeous in this floral dress!

• Sam shared some tiny home inspiration. Dreamy!

How was your week?

xo. Nicole

A BBQ Preview

Our anniversary BBQ was a huge success! We're both super exhausted from being in the sun and interacting with so many people, but we are forever grateful that our family took the time out of their Saturday evenings to come and celebrate our first wedding anniversary with us. My sister in law took some pretty nice pictures, but I wanted to share with you some of the pictures that I have on me right now:

Today was such a wonderful day. Tomorrow is for relaxing, laying in the grass with Gunner, and some leftover cake. I hope your Saturday was amazing, too!

ps. Did you enter my giveaway??

xo. Nicole

An Update + A Giveaway!

As you've probably noticed around here, Allison from Crafted Love re-did my blog's design. She's always done my blog's layout designs, and always does such an amazing job! I'm loving the purple :)

Part of the design's update was to go along with my updated name change! It used to be called "A Broke Bride", but seeing as how I'm no longer planning a wedding, I wanted to keep my name up to date with what's going on in my life. My married name is Maxfield, so "a la Maxfield" it is! You'll now find fun outfit of the day posts, recipes, DIYs, and other posts that pertain to my every day life. 

I hope you follow along and enjoy our journey as Maxfields :) To get you even more excited about my blog's name change, I'm hosting a small giveaway! It will end on Saturday, June 21.

There's some press on nails from ImPress, a thin nail art brush, and some nail stickers! I hope you're the lucky winner. I love my ImPress manicures :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tomorrow, we're hosting a HUGE 28 people family BBQ to celebrate our first wedding anniversary (which is actually Monday)! My sister in law, who also photographed our wedding, is bringing her camera tomorrow. I'm excited for all the wonderful pictures that we'll get, and I can't wait to share them with you!

xo. Nicole

Pinterest BBQ Ideas

Oh my gosh, you guys. Can you believe it'll have been a whole year of marriage for us on June 16? It's crazy how fast it's gone! In celebration, we're totally planning a huge BBQ at my dad's place for all of our family and friends. Unfortunately, our actual anniversary is on a Monday, so we're hosting the BBQ on Saturday June 14. I have been browsing Pinterest like crazy, coming up with ideas. I'll be sure to post pictures of everything after the BBQ, but for now, here's what I'm thinking:

A polaroid-style photo booth prop! Hung up by some string so that my guests can use some props!

Some super yummy non-alcoholic punch!

Mason jars will definitely have a big part!

With it being a potluck, we'll need some of these to label everything ;)

And of course, the traditional gingham table cloth and twine! 

I am beyond excited for the party! Our only thing is that June is such a toss up for rain here. It'll either be pouring rain, or be super sunny. Let's hope for sun!

I can't wait to share pictures with you :)

xo. Nicole

Julep May Maven Review!

My Julep monthly Maven box for May FINALLY arrived on June 5! It was totally not Julep's fault, just the crappy postal service they used. It was supposed to arrive between May 15-17, but that was sadly not the case. My June box is already on it's way, though. I'm excited! I emailed Julep, wondering if they could do something about how long it had taken for my box to arrive (before I received it) and they were in the process of giving me enough Jules for a free box. It arrived, so I emailed them back saying not to worry. Shawn, you were excellent at your customer service! Thank you!

I received Jules (pink) and Kam (green) in my It Girl box! They are both perfect colors for spring! I bought a mystery polish, and they sent me Bess (light blue). I already had Bess, so I'll be giving that one to a friend. It is also a really good color for spring.

I also added on some rockstar hand cream! I haven't tried it yet, but it smells so good. My hands are always super dry from the terrible weather in Alberta, so I hope it works!

My plie wand also came in my maven box! So exciting! I think I added on the dotting tool in my June box to make some super good polka dot nails. I haven't used it with my nail polish yet, but I took it out of the box and played with it! I'm definitely going to use it when I paint my toes, as I have more trouble with them.

Do you receive Julep monthly Maven boxes? Did you like May's?

xo. Nicole

Week's End // June 8

SNAPSHOTS:
• Lately I've been experimenting with my hair, including some new braid ideas and using a triple barrel curler for the first time! My hair finally held some curl.
• I bought some super cheap nail polish from Ardene, and it's lasted for over a week now. I can't seem to find it anymore, but I use O.P.I top coat.

WHAT YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
• I reviewed my ImPressManicure Vox Box from Influenster.
• I shared a yummy gluten-free, mini meatloaf recipe. So tasty!
• Monday's OOTD included a nice pop of a green cardigan!
• I changed my blog's name! It's no longer "A Broke Bride" and it's now "a la Maxfield" I posted a small update here.

SOME GOOD READS:
• Shelby shared what she carries in her bag! I love that her items always have a story behind them.
• Mmm! Coffee, chips, and chocolate sounds so tasty...but she wore it!
• Sam shared the eating raw basics that she goes by, as part of her weight loss and goal of living healthier.
• Kory shared an amazing June desktop wallpaper! It's currently in use on my desktop :)

On top of all the great things that happened this week, I also started a Facebook page for a la Maxfield! You can find it here! If you were following A Broke Bride on Bloglovin, please switch over to following a la Maxfield! I'm also in the process of receiving a new design for the new blog name! It will also have a giveaway when the design is live ;)


xo. Nicole

Impress Vox Box!

Finally after waiting almost a month after my tracking code said it was "delivered", I received my Impress Manicure Vox Box from Influenster! It appears as if the post man/woman forgot to put a key in my slot after they delivered it, so I couldn't open up the big parcel slot in our mail box.

Anyways, I love Impress by Broadway Nails! If you follow me on Instagram, or have seen some of my recent posts, you'll have seen me trying out some pink nails from them. They lasted about 4 days, and only because I had to do a very hands-on task at work, and they started to peel off afterwards.

Even though the box labels the nails as "short", they definitely weren't. I ended up having to cut and file them down to a functional length, and I think they lasted much longer because of this. As a result of cutting and filing them, the glue that is used to keep the nails on started to pill and collect all sorts of dust, and snag a bit on my clothes. I kept having to pick the pills off, and it resulted in taking some of the sticky glue out from underneath the nail, which I feel also contributed to them coming off after 4 days. 

Even during my small struggle with the glue fiasco, I would still recommend these to friends (and you!), and I would buy them! I am still not a fan of the crackle polish look, so I was a bit disappointed they sent those to me again, but the other design looks pretty cute. I've got my eyes on some zebra print ones, though!

xo. Nicole

I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.

An Update

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hey there :)

As you can probably see, my sidebar and footnote images aren't working right now. My friend, Allison from craftedlove.com, is working super hard to fix the issue. 

BUT

Instead of just finding the images and loading them again, we're changing the designs, INCLUDING my blog's name change! It was previously "A Broke Bride" and as you can see, the top header says "a la Maxfield"! I'm no longer a bride, just a wife now. My posts have changed from planning a wedding to lifestyle, including DIYs, OOTD, recipes, and just general posts about what's going on in my life.

I hope you stick around and enjoy in all the fun around here :) When the layout design is ALLLLL finished, I'm going to host a pretty cool giveaway with the name change. I'll keep you updated!

xo. Nicole