SUMMER GIVEAWAY!

Hello there lovelies! As promised, here is my second giveaway. Since I recently turned 22, and because it's been a while since my last giveaway, AND because I want to thank you all soooo much for the continued love and support, I decided to treat you guys to a couple of my favorite things for the summer to fall transition. Because of my love of all things blush/pink, (as seen here, here, and here) one of the first things I picked out was Essie eternal optimist. To spruce things up a bit, I included my new favorite necklace from Forever21 and Stiletto lipstick from Victoria's Secret. 

In under a year, I have somehow made it to over 200 followers and I truly appreciate each and every one of you and this is my way of showing how extremely humbled and grateful I am for that support. :)

To Enter:
  You MUST follow Inspiration by S on Google Friend Connect and leave a comment below

 Increase your odds -- leave a comment for each

-- Like Inspiration By S on Facebook --

-- follow @steFANYovals on twitter --
-- tweet about the giveaway (please include @steFANYovals in the tweet) --

-- blog about this giveaway and make sure to leave a link below! --

and there you have it! the giveaway will run for one whole month.

a winner will be chosen at random Wednesday September 7, 2011 at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time!

giveaway is open to domestic and international bloggers! :)

Happy Monday!

Friday Fancies: Independence Day

Dress - Lulus, Bag - Rebecca Minkoff, Bracelet and Ring - Forever21, Shoes - DSW, Hat - American Eagle, Nail Polish - Essie Mesmerized

IT IS OFFICIALLY FRIDAYYY! I'm doing a little happy dance as we speak, even if no one can see. (That's when the best dance moves come out anyway). I'm so ready for this long weekend. In my town, they celebrated Independence Day last night by having fireworks at a park overlooking a river so I decided to go with a couple of friends. It was definitely a perfect summer afternoon/night. 

Luckily for me, the festivities don't end there as I'm heading to Brett's town for the weekend where the fireworks are literally above your head. Double dose of fireworks? YES PLEASE. I know I'm going to come back a little deaf but it's completely worth it. In Brett's town, everyone gathers on blankets on the football field of a nearby highschool and have little picnics while they wait for the fireworks to start so for this Friday Fancies, aside from being patriotic, I wanted to make it "picnic/sitting on grass for a long period of time" friendly and what is better than a pretty dress? I love this dress and didn't think twice about incorporating it into my Friday Fancies. The tough choice was choosing whether to accessorize with red or blue. In the end, after seeing the ombre American Eagle hat, I knew I needed to accessorize with blue. I usually don't have only one color that I accessorize with but considering how busy the dress is, sticking to one color was probably the better choice. :) What do you guys think?

What do you guys have planned for the weekend? Hopefully it includes BBQ, fireworks, and perfect summer nights. I cannot waitttt to get my picnic onnnn. Oh and I'll make sure to also show some pretty pictures of Brett's town. It's seriously the complete opposite of the city. They have barns and woods that seem to go on forever. They even have bears! The city isn't necessarily known for having many wild animals (well, unless you count the insane number of pigeons we have for some unknown reason) so this was a pretty big deal for me when I first heard of this, haha.

HAPPY FRIDAYY!!!!

Oh and p.s., please go here, if you'd like. :)

Favorite Spring Trends

 

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The weather here has been terrible to say the least. We've had rain since Saturday and it seems like it's not ending until next week. Between work and the terrible weather, it's been a bit difficult to get outfit pictures in and that has me focusing on trends I've recently been loving and can't wait to get more of and wear once the weather gets to be a little nicer.

Stripes - I have always been a huge fan of stripes although I usually saw the pattern in boring colors like black and white and mostly used in tops in the past, but now they seem to be everywhere today and on everything. From tops, to dresses, and skirts, stripes now come in all colors and all widths. I love the big, wide stripes of the dress/tunic, the grungy look of the top, and the contrasting stripes of the skirt.

Bright Nail Polish - I have been stocking up on bright nail polish lately and my obsession started with a coral looking color from Essie. Since then, I have a teal, a light blue, and a fuchsia color but I am now on the hunt for an orange-y nail polish. How cute is Essie Capri?!

Florals - While I avoided this girly pattern like the plague when I was younger, I can't help but feel drawn to anything floral recently. I love the details of the dress, the little flowers of the top, and the big and bold flowers of the skirt.

Neutral - I am obsessed with anything in this beige/taupe/blush color and i love that the color looks so feminine even when used in trousers. The ruffles in the dress are absolutely beautiful and delicate looking and the detail on the shoulders ooze femininity.

What are your favorite spring trends? :)

Happy Wednesday!

In Full Bloom

 

The warm weather has hit NJ and it looks like it's here to stay! Well, according to the 5 day forecast, it's here for the next four days at least. Hopefully we're going to see more and more sun and no rain. Rain makes my hair ridiculously frizzy. It was really frizzy while these pictures were taken but thankfully it's not that noticeable.

 

 

Because of this warm weather, I knew that the first thing I wanted to do was give my legs some much needed Vitamin D and show them off by wearing this skirt I bought in SoHo. Bright flowery skirts? Always good in my book.

 

 It's already the middle of the week and I feel like I haven't done anything. Plus, my allergies are seriously killing me which is probably why my eyes look so small in all of these pictures. Definitely not the best start to the week. Graduation day can't get here soon enough.

OUTFIT DETAILS

Sunglasses - Random street vendor in NYC
Shirt - Forever21
Necklace - Flea Market in Jersey City

Skirt - Necessary Clothing in SoHo

Shoes - Forever21

Lipstick - #100 in Inglot
Nailpolish - Over the Knee by Essie

Happy Wednesday & Happy Humpday!

I'm sorry that this is such a quick post. The boyfriend needs some attention and I don't know how long my Itouch can distract him, haha. Although, he does seem rather focused on an intense game of Unblock Me right now ..

IMAT's + Haul

So I wanted to share some pictures with you guys from the IMAT's show as well as all the goodies that came home with me. I'm definitely a minimalist when it comes to makeup and at first I was unsure if I wanted to wake up early on a Saturday morning to go to something about stuff I don't know much about (read: don't know anything about. I mean, I even have an irrational fear of mascara, seriously) but I'm definitely glad I went. While I might not know anything about what brushes are good and what blush goes best with my skin tone, I do love lipsticks, nail polishes, and eyeliner and Inglot, Essie, and Obsessive Compulsive definitely helped fuel my obsession.

There were so many vendors and so many people that it was a little hard to take good shots of the actual makeup as there as was usually a huge group of girls trying to see everything but the event space was absolutely phenomenal and quintessential New York.

Hardwood floors, floor to ceiling windows, industrial pipes, exposed brick. SWOOON. 

They had a student makeup competition where the theme was tribal and the makeup artist that did the above model's makeup only won 2nd place. I didn't even see the 1st place winner but I can only imagine that it looked amazing if this only won 2nd place, right?!

 

And noooow for the goodies I've recently purchased from the show and other little shopping excursions. :)

 I have #127 from Inglot which is the red lipstick I wore in the last outfit post and I love it so much that I knew I needed more Inglot lipsticks in my life. They seriously last all day and they go on really well. I ate, drank, and ate some more all day and my lipstick stayed in tact until I washed it off so if you're looking for lipsticks, I HIGHLY suggest Inglot.

 Since I've only tried their lipsticks, I wanted to try their eyeliner as well because that's the only other thing I wear and I loved this teal color that I figured would be perfect for Spring and Summer.

There were brushes everywhere and I was ridiculously overwhelmed by how many brushes there are to do specific things for your face. I do want to learn about makeup, but I had no idea what brushes were good for what so when I was this travel case full of brushes, I knew it could be the perfect starter kit for me. Plus, the $10 price tag didn't hurt as much as spending $10 on one brush.

Nail Polishes from Essie. I'm currently obsessed with Boat House that I've worn for a week and a half with no chipping! Yay. :)

 

New wallet and new rings from Lulu's. Remember the ring on the right from my last Friday Fancies? :)

And there you have it. Have you guys purchased any awesome goodies lately? I want to expand my ring collection. Up until recently,  my accessories mainly comprised of earrings and necklaces but I now find myself looking for (read: obsessing over) rings everywhere!

Happy Tuesday!