Emma Lou Loves: Alex and Ani Bracelets

In addition to being the most beautiful bride in the entire world, my best friend is also one of the best gift givers in the world. For my birthday this year Leah got me three Alex and Ani bracelets. I had seen our friends Ashely and Jacqui wearing them when we were in NYC for Bach Weekend and fell in love, but I had no idea Leah remembered that and was plotting to buy me some!

Alex and Ani is an awesome company for multiple reasons. They have beautiful but modern charm bracelets, their products are made in the United States, they are eco-friendly, and some of the proceeds for different collections go to specific charities.

Leah got me three charm bracelets, each with a different meaning for my life!

The first was a cupcake to commemorate my time at my current job. While I’m so very excited to be moving soon, it will be bittersweet to leave the bakery and a job that I’ve had since I was 16.

The second was a NYC subway coin, a little part of me will always live in NYC and will always always miss those busy streets and smelly subway cars.

And the last was from the Olympic collection (it has since sold-out). I love this country, I love the Olympics, and some think I’m patriotic to the point of being weird, so this was incredibly fitting for me as well.

I love them all so much and they go beautifully with the Kate Spade bracelet Leah got all of us to ask us to be her bridesmaids! I’ve been wearing at least one of these bracelets everyday since Friday.

There are literally charms for everyone and I have quite a few in mind to buy for friends for their upcoming birthdays!

Emma Lou Believes In: Love

I’m working today and heading to DC to job/apartment hunt tomorrow so things will be a little light around here for the week! Thanks for bearing with me, friends!

You guys, Leah and Austen’s wedding was the best thing ever. This was the best weekend ever. I cannot even come up with better adjectives to describe it right now because I’m just so tired and have to snooze, but just know that it was AMAZING. Below are some iPhone snap shops from the day, but more pictures to come soon!

It’s cheesy and by the end of the week I’m sure you all will be tired of hearing about this incredible, amazing wedding, but I just can’t help it!

Emma Lou Writes: Snap Snap

Details and pictures from Leah and Austen’s wedding to come, I’m still in Chapel Hill this morning but I’ll be writing up a post for Wednesday as soon as I get home!

When I first started reading blogs, I was drawn to the visual content before the actual written content. Now that I’ve been reading for years and years, I often flock to blogs for the words first, and pictures second, but I still remember looking forward to posts for their beautiful images. So when I started this blog, I scoured Pinterest all the time looking for the best pictures and graphics to include in my posts. I always linked back to the source, so I thought that was good enough.

But as I’ve put more of myself into this blog and am taking more pride in it, I’ve found myself wanting to generate more of my own images, more of my own visual content. I was blessed to be gifted a DSLR camera for my high school graduation 5 years ago, and while I have taken millions of pictures with it I’ve never really harnessed its full potential. While relaxing in bed on a morning off recently, I reached over to my camera and decided it was high time we get to know each other a little better.

I did some quick Google searches for tutorials and picked up some basics that I didn’t know about before, and I’m attempting to shoot only in Manual. So wish me luck, I’m aiming for at least 75% original content on the blog from here on out. Bare with me as I work on getting things in focus, finding the right light, and just generally figuring this whole blogging thing out.

 

Clearly Mowg makes the best model.

Emma Lou is Blessed: May 17, 2013

Guys, the day after tomorrow, one of best friend gets married to her best friend! Oh happy day! The festivities begin on Saturday morning! Friends are coming in from far and wide to celebrate these two and I just cannot wait. I cannot wait to wear a pretty dress and get all fancy and dance the night away with my beautiful friends.

Above is a glimpse into my packing for the weekend, I think I’m all set to go but I still feel like I’m missing something! Leah and I decided that since the last big trip we packed for was her Bach weekend in NYC, when each outfit required 8 pieces of clothing, having to only pack a dress and heels for each event just seems too easy! But I’ll take it

Have a SPLENDID weekend friends, I’ll be off toasting to two wonderful people, and I hope to wake up with sore cheeks on Monday from all the cheesin’ I’ll be doing.

Emma Lou Reads: The Everygirl News Now

One of my favorite things about my undergraduate degree in Political Science is that it has made me so much more aware and curious about the news and the world around me. I am not one to sit around and wait for the news to knock me over the head, I seek out news day and night, through all types of sources. Sometimes this becomes troublesome, during major news events I become all consumed by the 24 hour news networks, but I would rather have to rip myself away from the news than not know what is going on.

I’ve found that most of my peers are not incredibly informed when it comes to the news, but I don’t think it is for lack of trying. There is a lot of stuff out there and articles are often long and cumbersome for someone looking to quickly find out the highlights of the week.

And that my friends, is where The Everygirl’s News Now feature comes in. I have been a huge fan of The Everygirl since their start in 2012, but one of their newest features, News Now, is my favorite for sure. Each week, Lacie and Brooke break down the week’s news into categories and then provide a brief blurb with the updates, as well as links to other sources. This system is genius, my friends, it uses an outlet that hundreds of girls already read, and makes it easy for them to stay up to date on current events.

I plan to start linking to these posts both on my Facebook page as well as on the blog as often as possible, and I SERIOUSLY encourage y’all to check it out!

Staying informed of what is going on in our world is the first step towards changing it.

Emma Lou Loves: Sunshine

A quick one today, friends!

Dreaming of sitting by the pool, or better yet the beach, while I’m at work today. Hope that some of you are getting some sun!

Emma Lou Believes In: Gifts that Give

Over the last few years, I have started to stumble upon different companies around the web that promote the idea of buying ‘gifts that give.’ The most well known organization that follows this model is probably TOMS, when you buy a pair of shoes, TOMS donates a pair to someone in need.

This business model has really caught on and this year, I’ve decided that I’m going to try to purchase all of my Christmas gifts from places that promote ‘gifts that give.’ I’ve started a board to keep track of all of the great socially minded companies I come across, but I wanted to share a couple of them with y’all today.

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One of my favorite places to look for jewelry is at 31 Bits. Founded in 2008, the company employees women in Uganda to make the beautiful jewelry and accessories that they sell. They have multiple programs in Uganda to help the people there and they offer all types of products on their site. I received one of their necklaces from my family for my 21st birthday and I get so many compliments on it every time I wear it! Plus, it’s super cool when someone asks where it is from to say, oh, you know, Africa.

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This next business, Better Life Bags, is a more domestically minded organization. Rebecca, the founder of Better Life, describes how they operate on her blog:

We hire first generation immigrant women in our community who otherwise could not work outside the home.  We rent them a sewing machine and tools while teaching them a skill set that allows them to become a primary or secondary provider in their families.  Each bag is lovingly made with their hands and each purchase gives respect and dignity to their lives.

So cool, right? I’m OBSESSED with the bag above, and they make it in a black and white stripe as well that I’m dying over. This might be the big girl bag I reward myself with once I finally get a ‘big girl job.’

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And our last business for the day, Noonday Collection, sells all types of cool things! Of course, my favorite is this awesome chicken, but they have jewelry, accessories, home goods, and much more! Noonday started during the owner’s international adoption and was originally used as a fundraising tool, now they donate 10% of all profits to families that are adopting as well as towards orphan prevention.

Aren’t all of these businesses the coolest? It makes me cheese so hard to think that we can help change lives while doing something as simple as our Christmas shopping. So check all these out, and let me know of any other businesses that are doing something similar!!