Category Archives: Fun

Jun8

THANK YOU!!!

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THANK YOU!!!

Hello!!! I just wanted to write a quick post to thank each and every one of my darling readers for all of the happy birthday wishes. I had an absolutely fabulous 23rd birthday yesterday and am looking forward to continuing my celebrations with friends and family throughout the rest of the week.

I got to spend my birthday morning with my beautiful sister (who got me concert tickets to see my favorite band, AFI, at the House Of Blues!!), my afternoon with my boyfriend who drove from North Carolina to make it for my birthday, and the evening with some of my best friends at my favorite bar, the Cashmere Cricket. Today, one of my girlfriends is taking me out for lunch and then I get to spend the evening with my beau. Tomorrow, I’ll be celebrating with my family. And finally, over the weekend, my boyfriend has a bunch of birthday surprises for me! So, obviously, I have a really good rest of the week in store!

I am so thankful to all of my friends and family who reached out to me with well wishes whether it be on the blog, Facebook, text, phone call, or email and all of you truly helped make my 23rd birthday a special one! I LOVE YOU GUYS! ❤ -Sarah

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Jun5

Monday Update: Salute To Summer Guest Bloggers Series Conclusion

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Monday Update: Salute To Summer Guest Bloggers Series Conclusion

Helloooo everyone and happy Monday! This past week has brought so many fun posts compliments of my talented blogging darlings for my Salute To Summer guest bloggers series. I had such a blast working with all of my lovely guest bloggers and I want to give them all one last thank you shout out!

Thank you all so much again for making my Salute To Summer guest bloggers series so successful. It was an absolute blast working with all of you either again or for the first time. Each and every one of you is always welcome back on lifewithlilred so don’t hesitate to get in touch – especially when my fall themed series rolls around! ❤

Jun5

Money Management For Summer Fun

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Money Management For Summer Fun

The summer season is unquestionably the greatest time of the year. It offers the opportunity for non-stop fun through a wide array of activities. Sadly, though, those ventures can hit your wallet hard. So, needless to say, finding the right balance between amazing summer adventures and not breaking the bank is essential.

Summer is the perfect time to start generating savings at home because with vacas and day trips, you won’t be there as often. However, you will still be there sometimes, which is why you need to have some entertainment features on hand. You could probably cut down your TV package without noticing the difference, I’m sure there’s countless channels that go unused! Try downloading the Cinemabox movie app for access to the latest films and shows. Not only does it save money, but it also gives you the option to watch from the back yard hammock or on the move.

Speaking of the back yard, that could be one of your greatest assets throughout this part of the year, too. Nothing beats relaxing on the patio with rattan furniture. Whether it’s a relaxed evening with a book or spending family time together in the evening doesn’t matter. Those joys are better than anything offered during the colder months. Best of all, enjoying the garden is virtually free. Your lush back yard could even become your new place for social activities. Invite friends over for a summer BBQ or garden party, and it’ll be far cheaper than heading out to the local bar. And, let’s be honest, this option sounds like a lot more fun!

There are many other ways to save money at home during the summer. This is the ideal opportunity to complete various home upgrade tasks for long-term rewards. Increasing the home insulation will work wonders that will truly pay dividends in the winter. Meanwhile, looking for cheaper energy quotes can help decrease the bills even further. Growing food and generally living a greener life should bring ample rewards, too. Of course, it might be a bit late in the year to start with certain fruits and veggies. But that’s okay! Do your research and learn what types of produce grow best for this time of year and in your area and you’ll be well on your way to delicious summer salads in no time!

You will still inevitably go out on various occasions – it is summer, after all. The key is to make smarter choices. Leave the expensive internal activities for the autumn through spring. The summer months should be filled with hikes, sports, and exploration. I’m sure we’ll all be longing for those opportunities once the weather gets worse.

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Pretty!

Vacations are another crucial part of the summer. Most families have their big trip of the year during this time. Be sure to follow these ideas for a non-budget breaking holiday so that you can score the best deals during your big vaca. Money shouldn’t dictate every decision that you make in life. But maintaining a greater sense of control over your finances will enhance the summer and the rest of your year. If you can generate those savings without sacrificing your enjoyment, then you’re in for a fabulous summer, for sure!

Featured Image By: Pixabay

May31

Summer Bucket List Ideas

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Summer Bucket List Ideas

Hi everyone and welcome to day two of my Salute To Summer guest bloggers series thanks to the darling Charlotte of CharlieeStar. Charlotte is one of the most sweet as can be girls that I have had the pleasure of working with and her blog is a real treat! She is just starting out in the blogging world, so please make sure to check out her page and give it some love! In this post, Charlotte is going to provide us with some super fun Summer Bucket List Ideas, so take a look and enjoy:

Summer Bucket List Ideas

Hey guys,

After reading that Sarah (lifewithlilred) was looking for summer guest writers, I jumped at the opportunity! So before I get into my post I’d like to say a thank you to Sarah for letting me appear on here! Anyways, who am I? Well I’m Charlotte from CharlieeStar. I’m a UK blogger focusing on lifestyle, beauty, and relationship posts! Seeing as summer is just around the corner, I thought that I’d do a post on potential Summer Bucket List Ideas. Basically, these are the things that I think I would like to do this summer and I thought that you might be able to take some inspiration from them, too! I think I’ve done enough rambling now so let’s get into this!

Beach BBQs:

Luckily for me (or unluckily depending on how you look at it), I live about 15 minutes away from the beach. This means, that in the summer I have a pretty obvious area to hang out. But don’t be fooled, the beach is always mobbed by tourists. This is why the first thing on my bucket list takes place in the evening. BBQs on the beach sound so basic, but they’re such a great way to hang out with your friends and enjoy the warmer summer evenings. By the evening, the gathering tourists will be heading back inland for dinner or whatever it is that tourists do. Meaning the beach is quiet and the world feels like yours. There’s no limit to this just being a beach activity though! If you don’t live near a beach, then you could hold the BBQ in a nearby field or even in your back garden.

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Catch Up On Some Reading:

I love reading but never seem to have enough time for it! That’s why this summer I want to take some time to read. I’ll be publishing a ‘What’s on my summer reading list’ over on my blog so please feel free to follow me and look out for that if you are interested!

Star Gaze (With Haydn):

My boyfriend (Haydn) and I are a long distance couple so we don’t have endless amounts of time together, but a peaceful night under the stars together listening to music and eating snacks sounds perfect to me. If you’re not in a relationship, you could totally do this with your close friends, your dog, or even just you. Although, if like me you do live in the UK, you’ll probably need to take some blankets so you don’t get hypothermia.

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Enjoy The Area:

This probably sounds really old person like, but I want to make better use of the area I live in. I love going for walks or riding my bike, so this summer I want to do more walks around local rivers and in the countryside or take my bike out. Even on days where my friends are busy, I still want to motivate myself to actually do something with my days. Contrary to popular belief, you can have too much Netflix – trust me!

Work On My Blog:

Of course, one of the main things that I love doing is blogging! I started in January as a way to do something more productive with my spare time. I haven’t grown a ton (as I’m writing this I have just over 100 followers), but I’d really like to. Over the summer, I’ll hardly have any school work so I want to use some of my free time to learn about how to be a better blogger! (If you’ve got any tips please let me know! You can comment down below or message me on Instagram @charliestarblogs) If you haven’t got a hobby or want to put more time/effort into the ones that you do have, summer is the perfect time to work on them.

Movie Marathon:

I know that I just stated how much I love being outdoors, but I’m a ‘homely’ kinda girl at heart and a movie marathon is likely the only marathon I’ll ever complete! Either with my girls or on my own, I want to put my pajamas on, snuggle under a duvet, and binge watch a good series (TV or movies). Does this count as something to go on a bucket list? I think so!

Feel Body Confident:

This is one that I thought a lot about before putting it onto my list. I mean, it’s not something that you can do for fun in the summer but it is something that I want to feel? IDK. This summer, I want to stop worrying that my boobs are too small to wear some of the cute crop tops out there or that my back acne is gross so I shouldn’t wear low backed tops. I want to wear the clothing that I think looks cute and feel confident doing it! After all, we’re all beautiful in our own way and someone will always love the flaws that you hate.

Thank you guys for reading my little list. I think I broke a lot of the bucket list rules but that’s okay, we’ll just roll with it. These are all of the things that I want to do/achieve but what about you guys? Let me know in the comments below! Once again thanks to Sarah for letting me appear here on lifewithlilred!

*Pretend my sign off is cool*,

Charliestar xoxo

Blog: CharlieeStar

Instagram: @charliestarblogs

Thank you so much again to Charlotte for sharing her Summer Bucket List Ideas with us! What are your summer goals? How do you plan on spending your summer? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

May29

Monday Update: Salute To Summer Guest Bloggers Series Lineup

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Monday Update: Salute To Summer Guest Bloggers Series Lineup

Hello everyone and happy Monday! This week is a fun one because tomorrow is the beginning of my Salute To Summer guest bloggers series! With the change of the seasons, I love inviting my fellow bloggers to join me on my page to celebrate their favorite parts of that time of year. It’s a joy to see the tips, fashion, beauty, and hang outs from all over the world, thanks to the wonderful ladies that bravely volunteer to write an article for lifewithlilred. Chit chatting over email with all of my girls always makes my day and each of them have come up with a wonderful and unique article to share with all of you. So let’s get to the lineup:

Salute To Summer Guest Bloggers:

As you can see, I have a fabulous lineup in place for this guest bloggers series and I cannot wait for it to start tomorrow with a gorgeous OOTD compliments of K.M.! Thank you to all of my amazing guest bloggers for participating in my Salute To Summer series – I so loved working with all of you. And, of course, you are welcome back on lifewithlilred any time!

What is your favorite part of summer? What is the summer weather like in your neck of the woods? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

May6

Weekend Reader Q & A! (Yayayay!)

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Weekend Reader Q & A! (Yayayay!)

Hiii everyone and happy weekend! I had so much fun with my Friday Q & A here on lifewithlilred. I love it when my readers have the opportunity to get to know me a little bit better BUT, more importantly, I love getting to know you guys better even more! That’s why this post is going to be all about you. Below will be a list of questions and you can choose to answer as many or as little as you want in the comment section. Or, you could even make your own post to respond to my questions if you’re feeling saucy! Alright, let’s do this:

Lil Red’s Reader Q & A:

  1. Where are you located?
  2. How did you come up with the name for your blog?
  3. What was your favorite childhood toy?
  4. What qualities do you look for in a friend?
  5. Favorite band?
  6. Do you have any weird or hidden talents?
  7. One celebrity that you can’t stand?
  8. Someone you admire?
  9. Favorite restaurant?
  10. Alcoholic or normal beverage of choice?
  11. Summer plans?
  12. Would you rather wear the same outfit for a month or the same shoes for a year?
  13. Favorite way to spend free time?
  14. Coffee or tea?
  15. Best date you’ve ever been on?
  16. How about the worst?
  17. Favorite season?
  18. Biggest guilty pleasure?
  19. Something that you love?
  20. Something that you hate?

Sorry for asking all them questions but hey it could be super fun and I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

May5

Friday Q & A

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Friday Q & A

Hi everyone and TGIF!! I have seen so many fun Q & A posts lately and I WANT IN! It’s Friday, which usually means having some fun at one point or another and I thought there’s no better place to do that than on my little ol’ blog. Not only do I think that Q & A’s are an enjoyable past time, but they are also a great way to get to know each other better so LET’S DO THIS:

Lil Red’s Q & A:

Age? I am 22 and am going to be 23 on June 7th. I am SO not excited. -_-

Favorite food? I’m all about that Taco Bell, darling. And as a vegetarian, I always get the most confused looks when I say that but you can get beans on everything there instead of meat! #protip

Last thing watched on Netflix? A movie called We Need To Talk About Kevin, which I’ve seen like a million times but I still love.

Current series I’m watching? I am keeping up with both the new seasons of Fargo and Wentworth at the moment. I would consider both of them two of my favorite shows. And I’m super looking forward to the new season of Orange Is The New Black!

Favorite candy? Anything sour.

Favorite ice cream flavor? Mint chocolate chip but only the green kind!!!!

Favorite store to shop at? TJMaxx is my number one favorite, but I also love Target, Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, and H&M.

Last movie seen in theaters? I saw Beauty & The Beast with my mom and sister for my mom’s birthday and I freaking loved it.

Last YouTube video watched? One of my ex boyfriends showed me this and it’s the first thing that I think of when I think of questions, lol.

Last song listened to? Basically an ode to my talons.

Last book read? I just finished rereading the Sandman graphic novel series by my author crush, Neil Gaiman. ❤

Alcohol of choice? MOSCATO, lol so girly.

Beverage of choice? I am a Diet Coke fiend and yes, I know it’s super bad for me!!

Weekend plans? I make it up as I go along!

So there you have it, a little Friday Q & A here on lifewithlilred! How would you answer some of my questions? What are some of your questions for me? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Apr14

Sarah & Lea’s Eggcelent Adventure

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Sarah & Lea’s Eggcelent Adventure

Hi everyone and TGIF! Yesterday was a HELLUVA day because someone t-boned the Little Red Love Machine, making this my second accident in four months that I’ve been in that was far from my fault. With twenty-five hundred dollars worth of damage to my car thanks to someone disregarding a stop sign, I was left feeling stressed, depressed, well dressed, and pissed off! BUT, thanks to a boozy BFF evening and carrying out a long time friendship tradition, I was left feeling infinitely better.

My best friend, Lea, and I are going on about ten years of friendship and in high school we began a tradition of coloring Easter eggs together every year. Last night just so happened to be our egg dying eggstravaganza, which was so needed after my car trauma earlier in the day. We had a dozen blown out eggs, two bottles of wine, and excellent company considering that Lea’s family is basically like my second family.

We created some crazy cool tie-dye eggs, which we learned how to do from a Facebook video that Lea’s mom showed us. Take a look at our finished product and then I’ll tell you how it’s done:

Caution: Your hands will get messy!

You Will Need:

  • EGGS. Either blown out or hard boiled (but don’t expect to eat the eggs if you use hard boiled because shaving cream)
  • Shaving cream
  • Plastic containers or something similar
  • Food coloring
  • Cooling rack
  • Paper towel

How To Guide:

  1. Take your containers and coat them with a healthy layer of shaving cream. Make sure that you spread it evenly.
  2. Choose two or more food dye colors and add them to your shaving cream. Then, use a knife and blend the colors. You can make as many color combinations as you want!
  3. Take an egg and then cover it with the colored shaving cream.
  4. Place your eggs on a cooling rack and let them sit for twenty minutes.
  5. After the color has set, take your paper towel and wipe the shaving cream away very gently!
  6. Clean up your work space and enjoy your new tie-dyed eggs!

Lea and I had SO much fun creating our shaving cream colored eggs. We had lots of wine, lots of laughs, and we will definitely remember this year’s eggstravaganza for many years to come! Of course, a best friend hangout wouldn’t be complete without some pictures so here we are looking mighty cute! Also featuring her twin brother, BILL!

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^^^ I LOVE US! And the second picture is one of my favorite ones ever, even though Lea doesn’t like it! Her brother was making us laugh when he was taking our pictures and obviously Lea was holding it together better than me!

So there you have it, Sarah & Lea’s Eggcelent Adventure! Who has traditions with their best friends? What is your preferred egg dying method? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Apr12

Lifewithlilred’s FIRST GIVEAWAY!!

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Lifewithlilred’s FIRST GIVEAWAY!!

Helloooo everyone and welcome to a super exciting Hump Day post here on lifewithlilred! After over two years of my blog being a thing, I have yet to do a giveaway and I think that that is an absolute shame. BUT, there’s no better time than the present, and with the recent launch of my fragrance, Ruby Tulip, now seems like a perfect time for a giveaway! So, take a look at what one lucky reader is going to win and then check out the rules for your entry:

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The Prize:

  • One roll on bottle of Ruby Tulip from Angie’s Bath & Body
  • Two travel sized lotions from Bath & Body Works, Pink Cashmere and Japanese Cherry Blossom

Unfortunately, this giveaway is limited to US residents only, but here is how you can enter:

  • Like lifewithlilred on Facebook
  • Follow me on WordPress
  • Reblog this post
  • Leave me a comment to let me know that all three tasks are complete

Lifewithlilred’s FIRST GIVEAWAY will conclude this upcoming Monday, April 17th! Yayayayay! Much love. -Sarah

Apr10

Monday Update: Sister’s Birthday Celebration Edition

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Monday Update: Sister’s Birthday Celebration Edition

Heyyy everyone and happy Monday! This past weekend was SO much fun because it was my sister, Kristen’s, 25th birthday! We had such a wonderful time celebrating and I was really happy because I got to spend her entire birthday with her. Kristen is unbearably hard to shop for, so for her birthday I decided to keep it simple and snag her some gift cards so that we could make a day out of using them. Which is exactly what we did!

I got Kristen a gift card to Sephora and to the nail salon that we go to, so we spent the afternoon girling out with pedicures and makeup shopping. Although I didn’t get a pedi because balling on a budget, I got to soak my nasty feet and sit in a massage chair while Kristen got pampered and we had so much fun chit chatting and laughing with all of our favorite nail techies. Kristen got the Hello Kitty pink polish that I recently got on my nails on her toes and it looked so freaking cute! I can’t say that about my feet, but I’m glad that her toesies are on point just in time for flip flop season!

After pedicures, we went to the mall to ultimately spend what felt like forever in Sephora. I have actually never spent that much time in there before and it was surprisingly really fun. We tried on different lipsticks and browsed through the aisles pointing out ridiculous eyeshadow or lip colors and figuring out the best way for her to spend her gift card. Kristen ended up getting a gorgeous new lipstick and an eyebrow pencil as well as a birthday gift from the store (a blush and lip gloss) and some freebies that she got from cashing in the points on her reward card.

Although I tried on some okay-ish lipsticks, I just ended up going with a tube of the Better Than Sex mascara. Kristen got it for me for Christmas this year and since I’ve ran out, no other mascara can compare, so it was a must to get another one! I was really happy because the gift card that I got her covered everything that she wanted and she also got some super nice freebies, so she walked away with an awesome Sephora birthday haul.

Once we were done shopping, I treated Kristen to coffee and then dropped her off at her apartment so that she could get ready for the evening festivities. Our night was a boozy celebration of going to get margaritas with her friends and then hitting the bars afterwards for some more alcohol related fun. AND I also got to ride in my first Uber, so that was really exciting, lol. THE DRIVER WAS SO NICE!! #ubereverywhere

bdayyyyybdayyy

(The lovely lady in the second photo, Kelsey, will be featured on lifewithlilred soon so keep your eyes peeled!)

The day after Kristen’s birthday was spent nursing a very worthwhile hangover and celebrating at home with the family. I know I had a blast and it felt really good knowing that Kristen did, too, and I like to think that I helped make that possible! Now, I’m just excited for my birthday to roll around in June so that she can return the favor!

So there you have it, this week’s Monday Update: Sister’s Birthday Celebration Edition! How did you celebrate your birthday this year? How did you spend your weekend? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah