My April Favorites

April was a rather busy month as I had a few events on my calendar, went to new places, and tried and found new things. But most of all of my favorites for last month came from the April 2, when I went to downtown Chicago and had a great day in the city. This monthly favorites post is full of fun pictures and entertainment, including movies, musicals, and more.

Winky Lux Experience Chicago

I knew I wanted to write about this fun, awesome place and experience on my blog, but I didn't know if I wanted to dedicate an entire post to it. Well, now it's been nearly a month since I went to Winky Lux and went through the Winky Lux Experience, so it felt too late to give it it's own blog post. So I'm just featuring it as my top favorite from April in this blog post!

Simply put, the Winky Lux Experience is like a super cute, interactive, Instagrammable exhibit inside the Winky Lux store in downtown Chicago. There are a bunch of different rooms featuring different Winky Lux beauty products, and they're all adorable. I didn't get a picture of every room, but I did get a picture of most of them. 

One of my favorites is the first room, picture above, which is the floral room. It's no secret I love pink and florals, so of course I'm a fan of that room. It promotes Winky Lux's signature flower lip balm, which is what it's known for. Someone please tell me where I can get a pretty floral backdrop like that entire room! Thank you. 

Up next is the watermelon room. If I recall correctly, this room promotes its watermelon lip balm, which is a reactive pH lip balm, so when you apply the lip balm, it reacts to the pH of your skin and lips to change to whatever shade of pink/red goes with your skin. 

I absolutely love the neon sign in this room. I love a good pun and reference, and I 100% want a pink neon sign for my room. 

My December Favorites

Before we get too deep into the new year, I wanted to share my last monthly favorites post of 2018. December was a great month as I got to spend a lot of time with my family, and I also just love Christmas and the holidays. Last month, I tried new recipes and food, watched new movies, and bought new things that I adore.

As usual, any of the stuff I've featured and found online will be linked in the subhead.

Disney "Being a princess is exhausting" pajamas

I found this super cute pajama set at the Disney Store at the outlet mall on a clearance rack for only $18 and instantly loved them. I've always been a fan of Disney princesses, but my love for Disney ― especially the princesses ― has grown within the past year. At first, I was upset because the only size left was extra small, and I haven't worn an extra small anything since middle school probably. However, when I took it off the rack and got a better look at it, I realized it was a big extra small and would totally fit me.

I love the light pink color as it goes great with the gray princess print and text and the gold accents. I love the sketches of the princesses everywhere and like how they all have different expressions. I do wish they included more of the princesses, but that's alright. These pajamas are super comfy and I even like to wear the pajama top when I'm not sleeping.

My November Favorites

November was a pretty eventful month as I saw new musical productions, tried new restaurants, heard new music, and read new books. I even put together a lot of new outfits with some new clothes, which was evident in my November OOTD post titled "New November". So I had some favorites from all over the place last month.

Blush pink Gap bomber jacket from TJ Maxx

If you saw my October Shopping Roundup or November OOTD post, this jacket should be familiar. I won't say too much about this since it's already been in two of my blog posts, but this has easily become one of my favorite coats. Also, I always feel the need to mention how it reminds me of Regina George's jacket.

My October Favorites

Last month was pretty eventful for me since it was my birthday month, I went to see Hamilton, and I went on a road trip with my family. However, I still had a hard time picking things for this monthly favorites post, which is why this is coming over halfway into the next month. Basically, I tried a lot of new, good food in October and got a new top that I love.

Silver Lining Creamery

Sea salt cookie butter fudge in a sprinkle waffle cone and chocolate ice cream in a waffle cone

Silver Lining Creamery is definitely my favorite food place my family and I tried in South Dakota during out fall road trip. It's in downtown Rapid City, which isn't too far from Mount Rushmore. If you ever go to Mount Rushmore, you're probably going to end up in Rapid City to eat at some point anyway, so this is definitely a must-go even if it isn't summertime. (When we first got to South Dakota, it was freezing with snow on the ground and everything. But it warmed up after a day or so, and then I didn't even need a jacket anymore.)

My July Favorites

With this post, I've officially done a monthly favorites post every month for a year! Despite this July being busier than I expected, I don't have too many things to include for last month. However, I did get to try new dessert places, found my new favorite dancer, and even read an entire book series in July.

Cream Bar

If you're from the Chicagoland area, you've surely heard of Woodfield Mall, one of the best and biggest malls in the area. Not far from there is a fun ice cream sandwich place called Cream Bar. This little restaurant has lots of ice cream flavors and kinds of cookies to create your perfect ice cream sandwich. You can even make a brownie ice cream sandwich or a brownie cookie ice cream sandwich like I did!

While it can be difficult to eat the creation like an actual sandwich, it's delicious all the same ― spoon or no spoon. The ice cream is nice and creamy, and I believe the cookies and brownies are baked daily, so they're fresh! I had a chocolate chip cookie and Oreo brownie with chocolate ice cream and almonds. The cookie was nice, soft, and chewy, which is how I like my cookies. The Oreo brownie was nice and decadent, and the Oreo pieces were a fun touch. If you're ever in the area, I'd definitely recommend going there.

My May Favorites

I know I probably say this a lot, but I really mean it this time. How is it already June?! I can hardly believe it because I don't really feel like I've been out of school for over a year. Anyway, I got caught up and a bit busy last week, but I finally got around to working on my May favorites.

Steve Madden purse from Marshalls

Sometime in the past six months or so, I've realized that most of the purses I have and use often are either quite big or quite small. I don't own a lot of medium sized purses, which is a problem when I don't have a lot of stuff I want to or need to carry but it doesn't fit in my small crossbody bags. I also don't have a brown purse, so this bag solved both of those problems.

It's Steve Madden, which I love. Most of my purses are either Steve Madden or Kate Spade. It has a little pocket in the front, as you can see it the picture as well as a zipper compartment at the front. The inside is lined with hot pink fabric, which I adore, and then there's a leather divider so everything inside doesn't get jumbled around.

Youth feat. Khalid - Shawn Mendes

This song and this performance are so moving and so powerful. I love the lyrics and the message and find it so inspiring.

Smallcakes chocolate cookie cheesecake cupcake

Doesn't a chocolate cookie cheesecake cupcake just sound delicious? Well it was. This cupcake was nice and decadent with nice chocolate flavor and a touch of cheesecake. Nothing was too sweet, and the Oreos on top added a nice crunch.

Disney x Target mermaid Minnie water bottle

Mickey Mouse & Friends Minnie Mouse Stainless Steel Water Bottle

This water bottle is part of Disney and Target's new collab collection, which is full of fun stuff for Disney fans of all ages. This is a smaller water bottle since it only holds 12 oz, but it's great for when I don't want to carry a lot of stuff with me. I love the mermaid Minnie graphic! It's so cute and perfect for summer. The pink and sea foamy green are an adorable color combo, and the gradient background is a nice touch. The best part of this water bottle is that it keeps my water cold since it's stainless steel.

My March Favorites

Last month was probably the most eventful month of 2018 for me. I went to multiple sporting events, tried lots of new food, and discovered some great music. Here are the things I discovered/initially tried and really enjoyed in March:

GK Elite x Marvel Comics Fitted Pull Over

Marvel Comics Fitted Pull Over

I got this quarterzip from the GK Elite booth at the Nastia Liukin Cup meet I went to at the start of March. I originally wasn't going to buy anything from its booth but saw this and thought it was too cool to pass up. The Marvel movies are my favorite superhero movies, and I could use more activewear, so I splurged.

Full Tilt mesh inset leggings from Tillys

If you saw my Tilly's shopping haul post, then these leggings should look familiar. These are really comfy, and I love the cool mesh and faux leather inset details. I'm a sucker for leggings with mesh insets and cutouts like these.

My January Favorites

Image credit

January was a pretty chill month (literally and figuratively) as I spent most of it watching TV, reading, listening to music, eating, or job searching. That gave me a lot of time to find and try some new things that I really enjoyed, which I've listed below:

Supernova - Ansel Elgort

Actor and musician Ansel Elgort released his latest song last month, and it's so fun! It's definitely unlike anything I've heard before with the electronic beats and jazz flute combination. His voice sounds amazing and really stands out against the electronic-sounding music, creating a cool juxtaposition of sounds and vibes.

Christmas Treats Galore

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the food. It's a big celebration, and every big celebration should have delicious food. While there's the iconic Christmas dinner with ham, my favorite food aspect would have to be the Christmas desserts. I mean, it's not Christmas without cookies for Santa, right?

I don't consider myself to be much of a cook, but I do love making desserts and baking. Whenever we have a big family get-together or anything, I always make some sort of dessert, usually cupcakes. This Christmas, my sister and I were rather ambitious and made four different desserts all on Christmas Eve!

Cutout sugar cookies and Rice Krispie treats

• sugar cookie recipe

Every Christmas celebration should have cookies! My favorite cookies are chocolate chip, but sugar cookies always seem more appropriate to me for Christmas. The recipe I used is a great cutout sugar cookie recipe. The shapes of the cookies didn't warp one bit. 

The Rice Krispie treats aren't anything special in terms of a recipe. It's the same recipe that's on the cereal box of the Jet Puffed marshmallows bag. These specific ones consist of two layers of Rice Krispie treat with a layer of holiday mini M&M's in the middle. When my sister and I were spreading out the first batch into the pan, it seemed too thin, so we added M&M's on top. Then we decided it would be kind of cool to put another batch of Rice Krispie treat on top like a layered cake. After that layered cooled and hardened a bit, I drizzled melted white chocolate on top and sprinkled it with some more mini M&M's just to make it more festive and decorative.