lifestyle

,

I Tried a Professional Color Analysis Session— Here's What to Expect

,

On cold wintery day in February I made my way over to Cold Spring, NY to try out a color analysis service and experience with Dana Hammond from @ColorfulStylebyDana.

Dana does a whole range of services including color and style analysis, wardrobe reviews, and personal shopping in the Hudson Valley.

For those unfamiliar with the color analysis process let’s walk through it.

Color analysis in itself is a method of determining the colors of clothing and cosmetics that harmonize with the appearance of a person's skin, eye, and hair color for use in wardrobe planning and style consulting.

During my appointment I was first greeted with coffee and water. Dana has a great welcoming personality and makes you feel right at home. First she walks you through the color analysis concepts and how hue combinations, value, lightness/darkness, intensity and brightness all play a role in your season and best colors.

Next, Dana starts by matching your skin, hair, and eye colors. After that comes the draping to determine your seasonal color palette and skin undertone and which colors either brighten or wash out your skin.

All this data is put into her computer and a system to create your unique palette of colors and season. My results showed I’m a Contrasting Dynamic Winter. A winter palette is inspired by the deep rich bold colors of the season including jewel tones like emerald, sapphire, and ruby.

Finally, Dana walked me through a makeup tutorial so I could see what shades work well for me. She matches the right consealer shade to your skin tone, advices on how to shape your eyeshadow in just the right way. Most importantly she gave me the confidence that I could pull off a red lip; and all this based on my perfect color pallette.

Dana will send you hope with a packet of information and will also email you the digital version of your color palette. For about $100 or so more you can opt to take home a color swatch of your shades. This would come in handy if you’re shopping and can easily match clothes to your color palette. Additionally, you can buy any of the makeup or skin care products that she uses while you’re there.

The whole process itself took about 3 hours.

Final thoughts:

As a busy working mom and someone who never grew up really understanding makeup, style, or fashion, I needed this guidance! I truly loved the entire experience. It opened my eyes to different colors I can pull off for future shopping. Dana was kind, welcoming, helpful, and gave me the tools I need to feel more confident in my fashion and color choices. All in all would totally recommend!

Color Analysis is for you if you’re looking to determine which colors are most flattering based on your natural features, and to help you with you style/wardrobe and makeup.

BONUS Promo code:

Reach out to Dana and mention this video and “Women Who Brunch” to get a promo code for 10% off your service.


What are your thoughts and would you try this for yourself?

,

The Best Halloween Toddler Books

,

A list of cute Interactive Halloween books for Babies and toddlers ages 1-3 years old

Nothing spooky or scary for little ones! Just great storybooks that rhyme and are interactive. I’ve tested many books from the library so trust me on this list.

Little Blue Truck Halloween by Alice Schertle (Author), Jill McElmurry (Illustrator)

The friendliest Little Blue Truck is a classic series. Now Little Blue is picking up his animal friends for a costume party. With flaps for each animal friend, babies and toddlers will love playing peek-a-boo with each farm animal.




Follow Boo the Ghost as he celebrates his first Halloween with all his Monster friends! He is a shy little ghost and quickly goes on little activities with his friends and realizes how fun the dark can be. It’s a very cute story and best part of all is the cover glows in the dark.





The witch and her cat couldn't be happier, flying through the sky on their broomstick-until the witch drops her hat, then her bow, then her wand! Luckily, three helpful animals find the missing items and all they want in return is a ride on the broomstick. But is there room on the broom for so many new friends? And when disaster strikes, will they be able to save the witch from the clutches of a hungry dragon?

Gustavo is good at doing all sorts of ghostly things: walking through walls, making objects fly, and glowing in the dark. And he loves almost nothing more than playing beautiful music on his violin. Now that the Day of the Dead is fast approaching, what can he do to make them notice him and to share with them something he loves? Flavia Z.Drago’s fun and vivid illustrations tell a sweet and gently offbeat story of loneliness, bravery, and friendship that is sure to be a treat for little ghouls and goblins everywhere.

My toddler loves finding Gustavo in each page as well as Leila from her second book, entitled Leila.

Tiny and Pointy love Halloween and they are eager to share their tips and tricks so that readers can have a perfect treat-filled Halloween! A heartwarming story, Tiny T. Rex and the Tricks of Treating reminds each of us that the sweetest Halloween treat has nothing to do with eating candy after all.

It has such a cute ending and my dinosaur loving 2 year old loved counting along with all the treating “rules”.

Let's ride the bus on Halloween! Who will we find inside? Grab a ticket and hop aboard for a trick-or-treat bus ride!

Families will love creating a new Halloween tradition as they sing along to this joyful, boisterous version of the classic song "The Wheels on the Bus." With a gaggle of adorable Halloween passengers—including pumpkins, witches, cats, and candy—this bright and festive book is sure to have children eager to read it (and sing it!) again and again.

My toddler LOVED singing along to this book. It’s so silly and gets a kick out of all the different Halloween characters.



This book is a bit lengthy but overall a fun interactive book about how A young girl lives in a haunted house, but she has never seen a ghost. Step inside and help the girl as she searches under the stairs, behind the sofa, and in the attic for the ghost.

It has transparent pages where when you turn the page the ghosts will appear. It’s very unique and fun for kids to find which ghost will appear next.

My son’s name just happens to be Ollie (Oliver) so of course I has to try reading any book with his name in the title… but honestly he loves this series and these gosling adventures.

While Gossie, Gertie, Peedie, and BooBoo are tricking and treating, Ollie is thinking about how sharing is better than scaring.

From fuzzy leaves, to bumpy skin, as well as a velvety Halloween witch's hat, there are lots of different touchy-feely textures to explore. My sin loved exploring the different textures on each page.

Halloween and fall is our favorite time of the year. I hope these kid friendly Halloween books will help your family think about some fun traditions you might like to try with your toddler this year.

Quarantine "Time Capsule" Writing Prompts for Journaling & Reflection

Zoom parties and virtual events have been all the rage during quarantine. This week I attended one of my past brunch attendee’s Arielle event for Quarantine Time Capsules and writing prompts to think about for journaling and reflection during this time. Nothing like this virus has ever happened before in our lifetime and before we know it we’ll be back to normal.

Besides the fact that I’ve been collecting physical pieces to add to my journal… receipts from my very large grocery shopping spends at the peak of panic shopping, receipts from gas - never being this low at currently $1.81/gallon, and dried dead flowers my husband got for me for our 9 year anniversary during quarantine.

These prompts were what we discussed on our call. It was so interesting to hear other people’s perspective on some of these points and explore their daily lives. We had one woman who is a pharmacist noting the increase in antidepressants she started to see. A nurse on the front lines where they converted her facility to ICU/ER. A mom with 3 little kids at home. Others furloughed from their jobs.

Writing Prompts:

  • What have you been consuming, binging, cooking, people you’ve been following, podcasts, content, memes, virtual music/band sessions, videos?

  • What are you missing during quarantine?

  • What are you NOT missing during quarantine? (example: going into work, traffic, etc)

  • What have you been struggling with? The most challenging part of quarantine?

  • How did we all adapt online, with social media and technology?

  • How has the relationship with your mind, body, self care changed?

  • What would you like to forgive yourself for?

  • What’s the silver lining in all this? What practices would you like to carry on after quarantine?

  • Where are you traveling to after this is over? Where does your mind wonder to?

A few highlights and insights I wanted to mention from the discussion on this particular question to get the writing juices flowing:

Q: What’s the silver lining in all this? What practices would you like to carry on after quarantine?

  • Silver-lining - These virtual events, never imagined being able to connect with so many different people all over the world.

  • Time - We’ll never be able to have this much time again with our families, between traveling, work, commuting.

  • Making memories with family whether it’s having to be the teacher to your kids, new recipes, at home activities, watching movies together.

  • Carrying On - Most said they’d like to carry on with their daily workout routines. I think the thing we’re all going to take with us is taking better care of our physical and mental health. We know this virus affects those with lung/respiratory issues, diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune disease; believe we’re all going to start putting health at a forward focus now.

Pink and Orange Abstract Quote Instagram Post.png

A Guide to Working From Home (WFH) Life

Screen Shot 2020-03-25 at 5.48.44 PM.png

I’ve been working from home since October 2018.

To be honest, it was extremely challenging the first month to get used to… It’s very isolating. It’s very lonely. It’s difficult not really being able to talk to people during the day except during meetings. Or even being able to “read the room”, or knowing when to “jump into” a conversation. It’s taken me a while to find my rhythm and routine.

Recently, my whole team has to work from home due to the coronavirus as many teams have begun to. And truthfully, I’m actually glad.

I’m indépendant worker. I feel I get so much more done without office distractions and love being remote. Don’t get me wrong the work/life balance and flexibility of working from home is AMAZING, my stress has dropped significantly because of it. My only hope is my team will see this new way of life from my perscpective and feel the challenges I face with not always feeling like “part of a team” because you’re not physically there seeing them everyday. I’ll admit my biggest challenge when you WFH is having to communicate twice as much and be so much more “visible”.

Remote life definitely has it’s pros and cons.

If you’re new to WFH, here were some of my tips that have always helped me:

✨Be visible. I can’t stress this one enough. You have to show up twice as much being remote. There’s no way around this. You have to communicate more clearly and effectively. You need to speak up in every single meeting and be that authority perspective in your given role. You also need to raise your hand 🙋🏻‍ on new projects/opportunities.

✨ Have a work buddy you can call or chat.


✨ Get moving - Stretch, Get up and walk around, go to the gym. One of my tips is saving a podcast and only listening to it on a lunch break walk.


✨ Since I can’t always chat with someone. I CRAVE knowledge. I’m always listening to podcasts, audiobooks, reading, online/in person classes, I’m always trying to learn something new.


✨ Cook healthy meals, either on your lunch break or for weekend meal prep. You’ll thank yourself when work gets busy or there’s a meeting scheduled near lunchtime.


✨ Respect “offline” hours. Just because you’re work life is in your home space doesn’t mean your need to be “always on”. Create boundaries and a set time everyday on when you’re clocking out.

✨ Weekly check in calls. Especially to catch up with your team.


✨ Get dressed and shower. Make coffee, breakfast, journal….Create a routine for yourself.