Recap: 1st Semester @ Fordham University

Hey Everyone! Long time no see, welcome to or welcome back to my blog. It sure has been a while, 5 months to be exact, but I’m happy to be back blogging. I’ve been home for a lil over a week now after finishing my 1st semester at Fordham University. If you’ve been here for a while you would have seen one of my last blog posts which was where I decided to go to New York City instead of going down South for college. When I wrote that post little did I know I was about to have the best 4 months of my life. Ngl I couldn’t blog because I was always on the move. There was no extra time for writing when you are exploring New York City with your best friends… I don’t know how Carrie Bradshaw does it. Now that I’m home having a staycation away from the city : ( I thought I’d take this time to update you guys on what you’ve missed.

★On August 26th, I moved into College

📷- @sayycheeseforme

I went to Fordham a few days early for a community engagement program Fordham offers called Urban Plunge where you are taken throughout The Bronx and complete community service projects in small groups. If you are planning to come to Fordham next fall, I would 100% recommend doing Urban Plunge. I met some of my favorite people ever throughout the 3 days of doing plunge, and the program really allowed you to understand the city where you will be living for the next 4 years. It basically gives a pre-orientation to the actual orientation Fordham has, but you are with a much smaller group which makes it very easy to connect & meet people.

★On September 1st, I started my classes

Our first day of classes was quite the event because by the end of that day the whole campus was basically flooded. There was a huge storm that hit that night which led to a bunch of buildings getting flooded on campus. After the flooding classes were canceled meaning it was time to start exploring the city a lil earlier than expected. My first of many city trips included lunch at Bryant Park, Shopping, and lots of pictures! Bryant Park has became a staple spot in the city for me because its a few blocks away from Grand Central Station. We take the metro north from The Bronx to Grand Central to get into Manhattan which has led Bryant Park, New York Public Library, Sweetgreen, Cava, and shops on 5th Ave to be usual stops for me.

★On September 25th, My friends & I went to Governors Ball

Gov Ball was my first music festival I’ve been to and lets just say… I’m obsessed. We went for one of the three days of the festival and saw a bunch of artists including ASAP Rocky, Meghan the Stallion, and Amine. I decked my friends out in glitter & did some fun hairstyles on them, so we all were feeling our best which was good because everyone at Gov Ball had the best fits! I even became friends with a girl we met who had the same purple Zara flare pants on as me. The highlight of the day tho would probably have to be when MK, Jenna, and I made it to the front row for Amine, then somehow ran from his set to ASAP Rocky’s and got up close for his performance as well.

★On October 16th, I saw Harry Styles Perform

Now this was a night I truly will never forget. My friend Meghan had bought Harry Styles Love on Tour tickets prior to his show getting postponed from Covid, so she ended up having an extra ticket for the cherry pit. This led to me getting to be 10ft away from the king himself… Harry Styles. Let’s just say I had no clue his voice was gonna sound even better in person since it’s so good to begin with… but Harry outdid himself. The vibes were immaculate, and we met some of the sweetest people at the concert. Oh and how could I forget at the end Meghan and I got splashed with Harry Styles water that he throws out on a section of the audience during his final song Kiwi.

★On November 4th, It’s my Birthdayyyy

Turning 19 in NYC = the best birthday yet! my friends really did the most to make my birthday amazing. A few days before my bday we all went and got dinner in Noho at an Italian restaurant called La Pecora Bianca, and took a bunch of pictures in Soho. We also met the lead singer of the Neighborhood, Jesse Rutherford, and I may or may not of shed a few tears after he left lol. The day before my birthday I had a campus activities board meeting – side note if you decide to come to Fordham you NEED to join CAB I genuinely have the best time with everyone in the club & It’s definitely my fav part of the week when we have our Wednesday night meetings- okay back to the moral of the story they got a cannoli cake.

On my actual bday my friends and I went ice skating at Bryant Park, checked out the winter village, did some shopping, and took a ton of pics. We then went back to the campus, went to an event in the gym where ASAP Ferg was performing, and then went out in The Bronx!

★On December 1st, Christmas Time in the city had begun

Being in the city during the holiday season put me in the biggest Christmas spirit. We saw all the classic tourist spots like the Rockefeller Tree, Saks, Radio City, and much more. Everything in the city was covered in red & green and Christmas lights. My favorite part had to be the winter village at Bryant Park. Every time I went there I felt like I was in a Hallmark movie which I was living for. They always had Christmas music, ice skating, and some of the best desserts I’ve had in the city.

So that was my first semester of college! It’s crazy to think back to 5 months ago how anxious I was about what was to come, if I was choosing the right school, and if I was ready for college… little did I know a year full of making resumes, writing supplemental essays, and completing the common app was gonna all be worth it in the end. Anyone that is currently in the step of the app process that is full of unknowns just know everything is going to work! It’s normal to be anxious about making big life choices, but change that mindset into excitement for what’s to come because this is only the beginning of your journey & you’ve got a longgg road ahead… so get excited!

p.s. Oh yeah I did really work hard at school too. Its just took finding the right balance…Fordham is a Work hard Play hard type of school.

xoxo- Ashlyn Kate

New York City Bucket List

Hey everyone! Welcome to or Welcome back to my blog. I know it’s been a LONGGG time since I’ve been on here, but I’ve had quite the summer. On the day I’m writing this I’m officially 23 days away from moving to New York City for my freshman year of college!! That means this summer has been full of college prep which left not a lot of time for writing lol. BUT I’m back and I’m here to give y’all some NYC inspo…

( BTW I have been more active on my Youtube channel this Summer with my college prep videos & vlogging, so if you want to see what I’ve been up to the last few months head on over to my channel⇩) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLeB1GUPJ65iByB0lEVUbA

Since deciding to go to Fordham University all my social media For You Pages, Explore Pages, etc. have been full of the must visit locations, restaurants, and exhibits in the city. I’ve been favoriting all of them to look back at this Fall, but I thought a blog post listing all the locations would be more helpful for me & it allows me to share these cool spots with you reading this!

Whether you are visiting NYC this month or you don’t know when you will get to go, save this post to look back at in the future. Trust me you won’t want to miss out on these spots! Some are spots that I have visited before & others were recommended by TikTok and Insta! So without further ado here is my New York bucket list…

☆EXHIBITS☆

• Artechouse
• Van Gogh Exhibit
• The Friends Experience
• Happy Go Lucky Exhibit
• The MET
• Bronx Zoo

☆FOOD☆

• Starbucks Reserve
• Breakfast at Tiffanys
• Elios- possibly could have a celebrity sighting *cough*cough* Paul McCartney
• Bronx Night Market
• Mariebelle Soho
• Bandits 44 Bedford- 70s inspired restaurant
• Milk & Cream bar ice cream
• Boucherie
• 16 Candles- sells oatly ice cream
• Serendipity3
• Prince Tea House
• The Chai Spot
• Pietro Nolita- The most Instagram- able location
• Milk Bar
• Katz Diner- Iconic spot from “When Harry Met Sally” BEST pastrami sandwiches
• Eataly
• Sunday to Sunday

☆VIEWS☆

• The Edge
• Botanical Garden
• Little Island NYC
• Pebble Beach Dumbo- best view of both the Manhattan & Brooklyn bridge at once
• High Line
• Tudor City Bridge
• Prince St & Green at Soho
• The Vessel/Hudson Yards- right next to some great shopping as well
• Central Park- Make sure to find the spot where Chuck & Blair got married
  

☆SHOPPING☆

• KITH- Grab cereal flavored ice cream while you’re there, you won’t regret it
• Showfields
• Brooklyn Flea
• MoMA
• Hershey Chocolate Store – Gotta represent for my town lol
• Macys
• Chelsea Market
• FAO Schwarz
• Shops at Time Out cafe- grab some delicious food while your at it
• Strand Book Store

As of right now this is everything on my New York bucket list. I already know this list will expand in the future as I find even more spots in the city, but I hope this post gave some good city inspo for your next trip to NYC.

I really do hope to continue blogging in college, but the posts as you probably can tell will be when I get a spontaneous idea to create a new post lol. I’m really gonna try my best though to keep creating content on this website since it has been such a big part of my life throughout the past few years. I can’t wait for this next step in my life, and hope you guys enjoy the new NYC content to come!

xoxo- Ashlyn Kate

College Admissions Process + Where I will attend next Fall!!

Welcome back everyone! Todays blog post is gonna be a long one, BUT that’s because this post has been a year in the making. It’s about making a college decision during the midst of a global pandemic. This year has definitely been one for the books, with so much of the college process changing throughout 2020, I thought this post would be helpful for any upcoming seniors or high schooler. If you’re interested in hearing my journey, getting college tips, and most importantly hearing what school I chose… keep on reading!

(p.s. I also made a YouTube video about my admissions journey in case you wanna watch that as well)

Let’s throw it back to March when I started this process. School was cancelled for 2 weeks while they prepared a way to do virtual learning due to Covid cases in the US. I got bored very fast, so I decided to take advantage of the time and start preparing my college resume. I thought back to any community service opportunities, leadership positions, or awards I had gotten throughout High School and made a list.

Tip #1- Start early and prep for the process. You have a lot of planning ahead. As you do community service, receive academic achievements, etc. keep a list of them in the notes app on your phone, so when you start to prepare your college resume it will be easy!

While I worked on my resume I started researching schools. This is where Covid- 19 made things interesting. I had taken the SAT & ACT a few times, but planned on taking them again in the spring of 2020, while other students were planning on taking the test for the first time. After the test dates got pushed back multiple times, most colleges in the U.S. went test optional. For me it was the best news, standardized tests have never been my thing, and like many other students I don’t think it well represented the student I am. I took this opportunity to apply to the schools who went test optional like ,as I found out, so did millions of other students, I think some kids said I guess “I’ll apply to Harvard, might as well”…The extra applications at elite universities in 2021 made acceptance rates hit record lows due to the changes from Covid-19.

Tip #2- Many schools are planning on staying test optional for another year or years to come, so do your research! If you don’t think your scores show who you are, then find a school that understands that and went test optional because TRUST ME you will find some amazing options. Many schools now choose to get to know you through their extra essay questions.

My next step was to start brainstorming an essay idea. If you don’t know 99% of colleges will require around a 500 word essay to apply to the school. If you are applying through the Common App, which is the route I took, then you can either follow 1 of 6 general prompts, or do the “make your own prompt” which gives you full creative freedom. I know many students biggest stress is coming up with an essay topic. For me personally I decided to combine 2 unique stories of my past that came together in the end to build one general theme of ” Fake it till you make it”. I told a story, using lots of figurative language, about the time I was in a Field of Screams video commercial with my dance studio. I was the girl who got lost then got chased by monsters, unfortunately for me I’ve always been terrified of Field of Screams, but didn’t want to pass up the opportunity because of fear. Then, I proceeded to go into how I forgot the entire routine and just stood there in an audition I did for The Radio City Rockettes Summer Intensive. When the music stopped the Rockette told me ” The best advice I could give you girl is fake it till you make it.” That’s just a portion of the story, but those where the main topics I choose to write on. The topics reflected a unique story of character and effort.

Tip #3- College admissions counselors want to get a feel for who you are in your essay, so just be yourself! Write about any story from your past that has left some sort of impact on your life, it can be funny or serious. Just remember though that they are reading thousands of essays, so find a way to make yours pop out of the bunch.

Fast forward to August 1st when the common app opened for the class of 2021. By this point I had absolutely no clue where I wanted to go to college which meant I was not going to apply Early Decision since I didn’t want to be bound into attending a school I never saw. Throughout the Summer I had walked around the campuses of a couple of schools in my state because with Covid we couldn’t really travel, but I had seen a couple of schools from my 2 older brothers college tours.

Tip#3-Safety vs Reach schools, select a percentage from each and look for free applications. I ended up applying to more schools then I ever would have thought. I applied to 15 schools in total with 5 of them being free applications. I applied to so many since #1 I hadn’t ever seen 90% of them, and #2 this year was most definitely unique. With so many schools going test optional for the first time, I didn’t know what they were looking for in an application. This year most of the schools I applied to had their number of applications they received highly increase and set all time records for the universities. You were applying with more students applications, and students from the class of 2021 who had taken a gap year. To be honest I was extremely nervous. My applications were all sent in by the beginning of November, and I got my final decision result on March 31st. Before we get into where I got accepted here are a few more tips…

Tip #4- During your Sophomore or Junior year attend online events from schools you are interested in. By attending digital tours or information sessions it gives you a good chance of possibly receiving a code to enter to receive a free application.

Tip #5- Don’t Procrastinate. Once you start the school year your mind is gonna have a lot going on, and you’re not going to be wanting to write a college essay or supplements on top of all your other school work. I KNOW it’s hard to not procrastinate since the applications mostly aren’t due until the winter, but trust me it’s gonna feel so good when you don’t have to cram in the end.

Tip #6- Organize your work.My biggest tip would be to make a google doc and give each school a different color. Under each school, type out the prompts of the supplemental essays you have to write & the word count. By doing this it made it feel like an assignment. I put the colleges in the order of priority deadlines then just worked my way down the list writing a little more each day. As I finished one then I would highlight it so I knew it was completed!

Tip #7- Find a teacher, a parent, a friend, etc. and have them EDIT, EDIT, and EDIT everything. In the videos I’ve watched of what college admissions counselors are looking for they always say when they see a silly mistake like spelling a word wrong which could have been fixed by spell check on google docs, it immediately turns them off, so do ya editing!

Tip #8- Patience is hard when you are stressed and working so hard to get all your applications in and then have to wait so long for decisions. Just know that your senior year will go fast and there are so many great universities to choose from, but in the end it will be pretty clear which one is for you. Worrying won’t allow you to enjoy your senior moments.

Now on to what my options were, I got into 9 schools and wait listed at 2.

★Elon University ★ American University ★ Duquesne University ★Fordham University ★ High Point University ★University of Pittsburgh ★ La Salle University ★ Lebanon Valley College ★ Saint Joseph’s University ★ wait list- Villanova & Syracuse ★

If you want to know how I got down to my final 2, then you’ll have to check out my YouTube video which was linked at the beginning of this post, but I lowered this list down to 2 choices…

★ELON UNIVERSITY or FORDHAM UNIVERSITY★

This was funny because they are 2 totally different vibes.

Starting out with Elon, My older brother Gavin’s Alma Mater. Elon is a school on the smaller size located in North Carolina. It has a large sorority life, the cutest little town, and some nice warm weather. They also have a great communications program which was my biggest priority throughout the college search. My only concern was the distance from my home, it is one longggg drive and did I not want to be near a city??

Then, we have Fordham located in the Bronx in New York. With Manhattan just a 30 minute Metro ride away, Fordham also has a great communications program and connections to NYC. I was accepted to the Rose Hill campus, but they also have a campus at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. Fordham has a vast amount of things around campus, but the school had no sororities and is a little smaller than Elon.

I had to look at my list of pros & cons many many times, but I finally made a decision. Next Fall I am going to attend…

★FORDHAM UNIVERSITY★

I officially am going to be a part of the Fordham class of 2025!! I am so excited to be a part of the Ramily & can’t wait to make some memories the next four years. Make sure to follow my blog if you want to see all my college content coming up, you guys came through high school with me, and now you are coming along with me to college.

To all the high schoolers out there I wish you all the best as you start the process of applying to your future colleges, and to everyone else thanks for reading this far! Stay tuned for a new blog post soon.

xoxo- Ashlyn Kate

Monochromatic Photoshoot with Besties

Whats up you guys? Long time no see! I’ve been a little off my blogging game recently due to the struggles of college decisions, working on my schools yearbook, and school in general, but I’m happy to be back posting today! This weekend I had an experience that I knew I had to share. If you look back to the Senior photos blog post, you would know that I worked with the amazing Slice of Lime photographer Emil! I’m apart of this street team that she has, that is a group of seniors from neighboring school districts that do photoshoots together! Unfortunately with COVID-19 we couldn’t really do shoots together as a street team, but she came up with the idea to let us bring our “bubbles” to the studio and do a BFF mini shoot. We each were allowed to do a 20 minute shoot with up to 4 of our closest friends. I decided to invite my girlies Keeley, Paige, Annalee, and Catie and asked them to pick a color because we were gonna go in monochrome…

I’ll start with Keeley’s fit. She was originally going to do orange or purple, switched to grey, but in the end decided to do a sleek black look. She wore some edgy cargo pants from Garage but added some classy heels to complete the baddie look. I was very excited about her heels because it meant one of my friends would be closer to my height because in most photos I look like a Giraffe next to them lol.

Paige took the opposite vibe of Keeley and went with an adorable baby blue look. She found the cutest sweater dress from Lulus, it came a little long so she did a life hack and used a belt to scrunch it up to make it fit her height a little better. The life hack worked out perfectly because the dress looked so cute on her.

Annalee also took the pastel route and wore pastel purple. Her look was giving me very soft girl vibes because of the pastel color & how girly the look was. She wore a fuzzy cropped cardigan from Target, with a frilly mini skirt from Forever 21. I was excited because she even let me do a natural light purple eye shadow look on her, which completed the whole look!

Catie went with a dark green color that literally is her color. Green was the perfect color for her, especially the shade of green in the Francescas sweater she wore. The sweater was paired with a mini skirt from Amazon and some Air Force ones, it looked super stylish. Also, as Catie said in the video she was “Ballin on a Budget” with her trendy Amazon rings.

Lastly, we have my fit! Anyone who knows me knows 2 things… I LOVE red, and I’ve always wanted to do a monochromatic shoot. This meant I got to combine the two for this shoot. I ordered my whole outfit from Zara, but it never came in the mail. This meant the day before the shoot I had to drive to my closest Zara to see if I could find it in person. I found the two pieces of the top, but had to get a different pair of pants… If we are being honest though I loved the new pants 10 times better! I paired the Zara outfit with my Tyler the Creater X Converse shoes. Overall, this might be my favorite outfit ever.

As you can see in the video we had so much fun getting ready together, hanging out with Emil, and getting ice cream at the CUTEST 50s themed ice cream shop that’s across from her studio. We also decided to go to Tomato Pie Cafe which is where I had the best chai tea ever. Once again thank you so much to Emil for setting this up! My life recently had been sitting at home in pajamas doing zoom classes & working on my computer all day long, so having the opportunity to get all dolled up with my friends was literally so much fun.

Hope you all enjoyed todays blog post. I have some fun blogs coming up through the next couple of months, so make sure to hit the follow button if you want to stay up to date. Thanks for reading, hope you all are staying safe and healthy during these times, I’ll see ya next time…

(ps. Instagram posts coming soon)

xoxo- Ashlyn Kate

Tips 4 a positive mindset in 2021!

After a year full of overcoming obstacles and facing new challenges we all have had a year of growth, so why not keep that growth going into 2021. We could easily let the worlds current circumstances let us feel down, but who likes not being in a good mood! 2020 taught me some lifestyle changes that have helped me mentally stay positive. Below is a list of some super easy additions you can make to your daily life to improve your optimism.

1. The Five Minute Journal– It has been proven that the simple act of acknowledging gratitude can improve your mental health. This journal allows you to start & end your day with writing what you are grateful for. It sets the intention of looking at the day positively, and appreciating the little things in life.
2. Screen Time Limitations- A couple months ago I discovered the downtime feature on iPhones. I decided to set it up so I can’t access social media from 8:00 p.m to 8:00 a.m. I enjoy browsing social media throughout the day, but sometimes it can be on the more negative side. By not looking at it first thing in the morning or right before bed, It can tremendously help your mental health.
3. Working Out- This one is pretty obvious. Exercising releases endorphins which are a happy chemical for your brain. Exercise is one of the best things you can do to add productivity to your day & to spend your time doing something that that can benefit your future self. Something as simple as a walk around the block can get your body moving. As well as exercise I’ll add another obvious little bonus tip in this section. Drink lots and lots of water- I recommend with lemons- and eating a balanced diet. Doctors recommend Vitamin B and Omega 3 for helping with anxiety.
4. Headspace- This app takes a little bit of practice, but it’s worth it once you get into it. Learning how to use your breath can help guide you out of any stressful situation. The app has so many different guides to learning how to meditate, sleep podcasts ( good for those who have problems falling asleep), and just many tools to help flip your mindset. They have a free version or a premium version for 12 dollars a month. I’ve been using it for a short amount of time, but I really do think it is a super good tool.
5. Self Care Days- A bubble bath, chamomile tea, aromatherapy air diffusers, and a Rachel Hollis book is the guide to a successful day of relaxation. I try to take a day like this once a week because I think during these times everyone needs a few days to try to focus on themselves & not what is going on in the world.
6. Manifestation Boards- Since It’s still the beginning of 2021 you can still make a board of all the things you want to happen this year. This board will then help you put what you want out into the universe. Go onto Pinterest and just scroll through your feed, pin everything that inspires you to a 2021 mood board tab, and then take all the pictures and collage them on an app like Picsart. Once this is done you can look at this once a day to inspire you to keep chasing each dream.

I hope you can take one of these 6 tips and add it into your daily habits to help keep your mindset positive. Trust me I know it’s easier said than done, but just keep working at it everyday until it clicks. I’ve been trying this since my high school went fully virtual in November, and the positive mindset has been hard when your spending each day in sweats on zoom classes, but I try to remember “happiness is letting go of what you think your life is supposed to look like and celebrating it for everything that it is.”

Thanks for reading todays post, just remember things are going to get better and keeping a positive mindset will help us all get through hard times. Stay safe, be happy, have fun, and I’ll talk to y’all in my next post!

xoxo- Ashlyn Kate

Bonus Tip- Get the daily Grace Notes book by Alexandra Stoddard. Todays quote of the day in the book was “Life is a pure flame, we live by an invisible sun within us.” -Sir Thomas Browne

80 Christmas Gift Ideas

The holiday season is finally here which means it’s time to deck the halls with bows of holly, dream of a white Christmas, and do some gift giving to friends and family. Throughout the year I always can think of such good gift ideas, but then as soon as Christmas comes around I seem to forget every idea that I had. That’s why this year I decided to do my research to find some of the most popular gift ideas for 2020. I hope this gives you some Inspo for your own Christmas wishlist, secret santas gift exchanges, white elephant parties, and presents for the family that you love! Each item has a link to a website where you can buy the item, but also remember you pretty much can buy it all on Amazon as well. Also, I made a little YouTube video where I went through all of the items on this list in more detail, so feel free to check that out below!

Fashion

1. Fanny Packs – get a leather one for a street style look or a fjallraven for a nice hike
2. Pura Vida Bracelets – use code “ASHLYNWEIDMAN20” for 20% off
3. Tennis Skirts
4. Doc Martens
5. Workout Gear
6. Levis Jeans
7. Ugg Slippers
8. Golf Wang – Tyler the Creator isn’t just a great singer… he’s an insane designer
9. Chain Necklaces
10. Cardigans – Unif has some super cute ones right now

Instagram Shops

1. Kandescence – she has the cutest jewelry for great prices
2. Eatbrunchclub – super aesthetic clothing
3. SunshinebyJaina – stickers, water bottles, Ornaments, and more
4. Bubble – new skincare brand promoted by OBX cast
5. Olivergalart – art work great for offices, bedrooms, and more
6. shop.olivelynn – t-shirts perfect for each season
7. West & Willow – custom artwork of your fav pets
8. Knitwrth – take your favorite album and make it into a sweatshirt
9. Lonely Ghost Company – trendy clothes every influencer loves
10. MadLove USA – Tie Dye sets that are adorable

Beauty

1. Glossier Lip Gloss
2. La Roche- Posay– Skincare by Hiram highly recommends
3. James Charles Palette
4. Dyson Hair Dryer
5. Babyliss Straightner – doesn’t tug at your hair while straightening
6. Thrive Cosmetics – up and coming beauty brand
7. Rare Beauty
8. Freck Freckle Maker – Tik Toks fav product
9. Rose Quartz Face Roller – put it in the fridge for the best face massage
10. Kiehls Avocado Eye Cream

Guys

1. Xbox or PS5 – super hard to find so good luck
2. Patagonia Jackets
3. Weight Set
4. Nike Sneakers
5. AirPods
6. Joggers – My brother loves lululemon sweats
7. Mini Grill
8. Golfing Supplies
9. Carhartt Hats
10. Cologne

Home Decor

1. Soapalogy Soy Candle
2. Ikea Clothing Racks – I display all my fav sweatshirts on it
3. Jewelry Holder
4. Tezza Photo Kit
5. Fuzzy Blankets
6. Light Up Signs
7. Skylight – turns your room into a purple & green galaxy
8. Essential Oil Diffuser
9. Record Player
10. Light Up Vanity Mirror

Technology

1. Polaroid Camera – Best way to capture memories
2. Film Camera
3. Canon Mini Printer
4. Ring Lights
5. Apple Watch
6. The Mirror – I’ve seen this add on Tv over and over again
7. UV Phone Cleaner – Great way to save a couple Clorox wipes
8. JBL Speaker
9. Clarisonic
10. Foreo Luna

Stress Relief

1. 5 minute Journal
2. Workout membership – Personally I love Orange Theory
3. Tea
4. Adult Coloring Books
5. Puzzles
6. Heating Pad – These animal ones from Urban are the cutest
7. Stress Relief Hand Sanitizer
8. Lush Bath Bombs
9. Neck Massager
10. Headspace Subscription – relaxing meditations perfect for before bed

Miscellaneous

1. Subscription Boxes – Birchbox, IPSY, Bark Box, and more
2. Silk Pillow Cases
3. Face Masks– These silk ones are apparently great for preventing maskney
4. Jaw Hair Clips
5. Christmas Ornaments
6. Camp Tie Dye Kit
7. Show Subscriptions – get into the holiday spirt with the High School Musical The Musical Holiday Special on Disney +
8. Wildflower Phone Cases
9. Car Decor – These LED car lights are a Tik Tok essential
10. Little Sunglasses

Hope you find Inspiration from at least one of these 80 items! I know this holiday season is different than usual years, but still try to find some joy this Christmas season. Listen to all the Christmas songs, go to a Christmas tree farm, and read more of my holiday blog posts to come…

xoxo- Ashlyn Kate

Come Explore NYC with me!

Last weekend my mom and I took a trip up to the Big Apple! There is never a dull moment in NYC, so I decided to take my Canon G7x along for the ride. I captured all the fun moments & made a fun little montage which will be posted down below ⇩⇩

Keep reading though to get some more behind the scenes of my trip!

✱SATURDAY, November 7th

We started the weekend off by driving over the iconic Brooklyn Bridge to spend the day in DUMBO. If I could describe the area in one word it would be artsy, and let’s just say I got lot’s of fashion Inspo while walking around.

It was around 1:00 p.m which meant we all were very hungry, so we headed into Time Out market which had a vast array of options. My brother got Japanese food, while the rest of us got cheese steaks with sweet potato tater tots… yummmm. We then headed up to the rooftop to eat. This is when I saw the most GORGEOUS view. Ahead I saw waves crashing into rocks, to the left was the Brooklyn bridge, and to the right was the Manhattan bridge. Everywhere I looked people were taking photos, so I had to wait for my turn to take some pics!

Post lunch we spent the rest of the day exploring Brooklyn. I saw tons of cute thrift stores & flea markets. The best part though was going to pebble beach which is where you get the chance to see the entire Brooklyn Bridge!

After a day full of adventure in Brooklyn, we headed to Hudson Yards to do some browsing in Zara and Artzia. While shopping I looked out to a vibrant pink sunset behind the vessel… It was beautiful.

To end off day one we went to the cutest Italian restaurant which had fresh homemade pasta, white truffles, gelato, and much more. It was so funny because I decided to wear red lipstick out for the first time, and that then led the waiter to assume I was 21. I just turned 18 last week, so we all had a good laugh about him thinking I was 21!

While walking around I noticed that the Empire State building was red, white, and blue. This was a super cool moment in history to witness since while in NYC they had announced that Joe Biden was elected the 46th president of the US. Throughout the city I saw many people in Biden shirts & masks, so for the Empire State Building to be the colors of the flag topped it all off.

✱SUNDAY, November 8th

As I woke up to the view of skyscrapers ahead, I was sad to have to leave that day, but also very grateful for how much fun the trip had been. We took my brother and his girlfriends dog for a walk, I ordered an almond croissant from Brooklyn Bagels, and got a hazelnut coffee from a market. We all enjoyed our breakfast on the rooftop of brothers apartment, and I took in the stunning views for one last time. We said out goodbyes, then headed on our way out of NYC….

I hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse into my weekend in the city. I know it was pretty short, but I still wanted to share it with y’all. Thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you all are making the best of some small trips too.

xoxo- Ashlyn Kate

Senior Photoshoot with SliceofLime

✰JULY 29TH✰

What is up you guys! Todays blog post is so exciting because I’m getting my senior photos done. I literally still can’t comprehend that in less than a month I’m going to be heading into my final year of high school… crazy I know. Senior year may be full of stresses like applying to college, but it does have some pros like having your senior photo shoot! I’m so so sooooo excited to be getting my photos done by the amazing & talented Emil who runs the photography company Slice of Lime. She is literally the sweetest & her photos are always killer, so make sure to check out her Instagram which is linked above! Well if you want to see how I prepared for my shoot & see all the final products, keep on reading.

Btw- This post is a little throwback to when I got my pictures done, but I wanted to wait to post it when I actually got my pictures back. It’s November 3rd now & I have the final results, so keep reading to see my senior photos and prep!

OUTFITS

For my shoot I got to choose 2 outfits, so I wanted to do 2 separate vibes for each outfit. Outfit one I wanted to have an outfit that would be a sweet look that I could send to family members, and could be sitting on the mantle in my grandparents family room. Then, for Outfit two I wanted to do the “model off duty” look I always see on Pinterest. To go with these 2 vibes, Outfit one I chose a white dress that is a slip dress with a tole pleated layer of fabric over it. Then, Outfit two I decided on a silk red dress that has the popular cow neck look, white chunky sneakers, and little statement sunglasses. I love both looks so much, and knew they were exactly what I wanted. But my dress for outfit one definitely has an interesting story to it!

Wellll, originally the tole went about 3 inches longer than the silk slip. My mom & I decided that it would look better if we cut the tole shorter to match up with the slip. We started cutting and it all started off fine, then we botched it. I tried the dress back on & it looked no bueno. It looked so bad we thought the dress was a goner, but thankfully we found a seamstress in our area that said she could fix it for us. She was literally an angel sent from above because she totally made my dress 10 times better in one day.

PHOTO PREP

First off, obviously when you’re getting a bunch of photos taken you want to look your best, so you can feel cute & confident. For me personally that included getting my eyebrows, hair, and nails done. Anyone who knows me knows that my eyebrows are naturally white, so in photos they pretty much look invisible. Personally, for me I prefer to have my eyebrows be visible. To get that look I dye them brown. This may seem weird to some people, but when I try to fill my eyebrows in with brow product they never look too good lol, but when I dye them I don’t have to worry about filling them in!

Next, for nails I wanted to keep it simple so I decided to just do a mani pedi with white gel nails. It just looks classic & chic which I really like.

Lastly, on picture day I went to my hair salon to get my hair done. We did tight curls so by the time I got to my photo location they would be beachy waves.

✰THE PHOTOSHOOT- JULY 3OTH✰

For the shoot itself I actually filmed a YouTube video! In the video I show the preparation I talked about above, and filmed during my shoot. If you want to watch that you can go ahead & press on the video below, but I’m still gonna talk some more about the shoot, so don’t click out of this blog post yet!

Any of y’all that have been reading my blog posts for a while have probably seen that my family & I love Longwood gardens. We go every year around Christmas time, and I always write a blog post when I go. Since we have never gone in the summer though, we decided that I would do my senior photos there! It literally is so beautiful & we knew that doing photos there would make it a day to remember. We arrived @ Longwood around 3:00p.m ready to take lots of pics. I was already full glam in outfit now with my hair & makeup all done up.

When we met up with Emil she surprised me with a little goodie bag full of photo shoot essentials like lipgloss, snacks, and most importantly oil blotting sheets. These ended up coming in hand the most because it was hot & humid. At one point, I was sweating so bad that my parents had to fan me. I’m sure the other guests at Longwood were probably very confused by the teenage girl in a full glam outfit getting fanned by 2 adults, lol. I appreciated it so much though because my makeup was melting off. Besides the heat everything was perfect. The views at Longwood always are amazing, and I had no clue how beautiful the summer displays were! Since I was doing pose after pose, then touch up after touch up, I didn’t get to fully see all the areas so I totally want to go back again next summer.

We ended up staying for around 3 hours because every corner we turned Emil would find another location to shoot at. @ one point we were like “we are heading up to one of the conservatories & we won’t stop anywhere on our walk up”, butttttt we found about 5 more locations along the way. In total, Emil told me she shot 699 photos… I know what your thinking that’s A LOT of pictures. But I enjoyed doing every single one!

As Longwood closed at 6:00p.m, we headed out right as they closed. I took one last look at all the gorgeous fountains & flowers, said my goodbyes to Emil, and drove to our usual post Longwood spot Buckleys Tavern!

It was the perfect ending to a perfect day. I got what I get every time we go to Buckleys, a crab cake sandwich and sweet potato fries. Then, my parents and I decided to try a dessert since we were pretty hungry from all our walking in the heat at Longwood. That’s when we had the BEST berry cobbler ever, it really hit the spot!

Well everyone that was my senior photo session adventure. Once again, go check out Emil if you haven’t already & make sure to check out my Instagram to see even more pictures! Thanks for reading all the way up to here, I hope you enjoyed going along with me on my special senior photo shoot experience!

xoxo- Ashlyn Kate

Create a Youtube Channel with me!

Hey everybody, today is a special blog post because last week I hit my two year anniversary of having my blog! Having this space to share my passions & experiences has truly been amazing, and I’m so thankful for all the support I’ve received from the blogging community! With that being said I’ve decided to step up my blogging game for year 3, so I purchased the Canon G7x mark ii. It has totally made the quality of my photos 10 times better. Also, if you’ve been following my blog for a while you probably have seen my many montage videos that I’ve uploaded to WordPress. That takes us to what this whole post is about, I’m making a Youtube channel to go with my blog! This is gonna make my blog videos have much better quality, and allow you guys to have more of a glimpse into my life! Now let’s get into setting up my youtube channel!

To set up my channel here is what I had to do…

• Create an account
• Make a channel banner & profile pic
• make my first video!

Creating an account is pretty self explanatory. The only aspect that might take some time is choosing what your channel is going to be called, but luckily for me I could use the name of my blog! This meant it was time to choose a channel aesthetic to base my banner & profile pics off of.

Since my fav youtubers are Ellie Thumann, Ava Jules, and Romee Strijd, I defenitly took some inspo from their accounts. Even though they all have totally different accounts the one thing they all have in common is that they have really positive accounts full of good vibes. That’s why I chose to make my banner full of bright colors & things that I love. Here it is, the only problem is as of now Youtube won’t allow me to upload a banner, but once I figure it out this is what it’s gonna be.

The final step is creating my first video! For this I put together 2 of my favorite things. Hanging out with friends & photoshoots. My friends Mia, Manisha, and I all decided to go to a playground to take Insta pictures. Because I already was gonna have my camera along to take the photos, I also just filmed some video clips throughout the day. Usually I would write about everything we did throughout the day, but here is a video of it all instead. This may be a little strange because if you have been reading my blog for a while, or watching my montages you’ve probably never heard my voice lol. So for the first time ever here is what I actually sound like in real life!

Thank you all so so much for reading up to this point. I’m so excited to see what comes next for year 3 of ashlynkatexo.com! Make sure to Subscribe to my YouTube channel if you wanna see more of my life, and sneak peaks at blog posts to come. On another note HAPPY SUMMER, hope y’all are having days full of good vibes with face masks on… but let’s not think about that. Well that’s all I gotta say for now, byeeeee

xoxo- Ashlyn Kate

Summer Bucket List~ Collab with Karen Wodstrup

Heyyyy everyone, welcome back to my blog. Todays post is super special because I’m collabing with someone who lives over 4,000 miles away… Karen Wodstrup! She has the cutest account & she lives all the way in Denmark which is so so cool! We decided that it would be interesting to make Summer Bucket lists, so y’all could get some inspiration for the upcoming months. Obviously, this years bucket list is gonna be a little different than the one I made last year (here is the link) due to COVID-19, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have a summer full of ☀Good Vibes☀. So keep on reading if you wanna see what I plan to do this summer, and make sure to check out Karens blog post to see her summer plans in Denmark.

✰College Visits, Probably Virtually & SENIOR picture photo shoot!! 

✰Support Local Businesses in your area….takeout and hopefully in person with friends soon…..

✰ Go to a Drive in Movie

✰Learn a New Language, Personally I Want to Learn French or Italian

✰Tan, Tan, and Tan Some More….maybe a Lake or Beach if any open with social distancing..TBD

✰Do a Disney Plus Movie Marathon & Watch Hamilton July 3rd online!!

✰Find Ways to Make Money @ Home, or Get a Job at an Essential Business

✰Explore New Music Genres…do TIK TOKS and dance….

✰Make a Blog, Youtube Channel, or Podcast

✰Read Books– I am currently reading “the it girl” written by the author of my fav TV show gossip girl, It’s about the character Jenny Humphrey.–I 10/10 recommend

✰Go on a Hike or Walk a Trail- also take advantage of online free workouts on rainy days

✰Take Disposable Camera Photos or Polaroid Pics– make a wall to display your photos

✰Learn How to Make Acai Bowls @ Home

✰Tie Dye More Clothes, Check Out My Last Blog Post For Inspo

✰Bonfires with S’mores Obviously – add Hershey’s Reeses peanut butter cups and Take Fives for a new twist

✰Find Some New Coffee Shops— take insta pics

✰Do an 80’s/90’s Movie and Tv Marathon. I highly recommend The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, St Elmos Fire~~Also Dawsons Creek, 90210 and many more are out there to binge

✰Have a Picnic with friends

✰Relax & Stay Positive and do self care with all the extra at home time

 

Well that’s my 2020 Summer Bucket list!! I know that as of now we really don’t know how this summer is going to go, but it’s nice to stay positive in these trying times. We all have had to get refunds for concerts and postponed trips and plans but by writing out a realistic list like this can give you hope & make you feel like your manifesting what you want to add into your life.

I totally recommend you all make your own Bucket Lists since you probably are thinking about what you’ll do during the SUMMER of 2020.  During these times you have to motivate yourself to stay busy.   Hey,  SUMMER is soooo close so get started…Even if it can’t all be accomplished this summer, your ideas can be accomplished during summers to come. So take my advice go check out Karens post  to see the similarities or differences of our lists, get inspo and then get writing!

Stay Safe!

xoxo- Ashlyn Kate