Interviewista

It's the "Fashionista" version of Interviewing. 

Interviewing really is an art. I've had some good interviewing luck as of late so I decided I would break it down into some key points.

• Have a well designed resume. This is a big one, ladies. I have seen way too many of my friends resumes that make my skin crawl. Don't be too wordy, get to the point, make sure that the esthetic qualities are good. Your resume should have some distinction that will help you stand out from the rest. Resumes don't have to be boring!

• Prepare, prepare, prepare. Research the industry, the specific company, the hiring manager (if you know who you will be interviewing with). Research everything you can get your perfectly manicured paws on.

• Charisma is key. The definition of charisma is as follows: "compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others." I know that this is known for being one of those "you either have it or you don't" qualities but I truly believe that with enough practice any Interviewista can come across as being charismatic. 

• Ask questions. Interviews are as much about you learning about the company as they are the company learning about you. Be prepared with at least 10 questions to ask the person who is interviewing you. They can be personal, such as "How did you decide that you wanted to get into this industry?" or industry/company specific, such as "How long has "x company" been around? How did it get started?"

• Attire: Be professional but do not be boring. Gone are the days of the traditional dark suit, spice it up a bit, show your personality. If you want to wear a dark suit that is fine, just be sure to add some cute accessories, make it your own. Just like your resume, you want your outfit to be distinctive and help you stand out.

• Last but not least, make sure that you "close" the person who is interviewing you. Ask what the next steps are, explain why you are interested in the opportunity and why you believe that you are the right candidate for the job. In one of my sales training classes I learned that the "close" consists of 5 steps, summarize, present investment, present return, handle objections and ask for commitment! Take these steps into consideration during interviews because ultimately you are selling yourself. 

Good luck out there, Interviewistas!

xoxo

Weekend in the mountains...

My Friend Nicole and I decided to pack up this past weekend and leave sunny warm Texas for snowy cold Colorado! Smart, I know, but we were long overdue for a visit to our friend Rebecca who moved to Denver about a year ago. Want to know something? Denver is awesome! What a cool city. Everyone is so laid back, easy going, friendly, fun... Maybe it is the recent legalization of a certain substance but Colorado just has a great vibe! Right when we landed Rebecca wanted to take us to see her office which was actually really cool because she is a western apparel designer for Roper/Stetson. One of the rooms in her office actually looks like this...

Which is amazing... Nicole and I drooled over these boots for a good half hour. I thought rooms like this only existed on Pinterest. These were all of the new designs that are coming out in 2014! Such a fun job!

Another really cool thing about Denver is that in the past few years, 4 girls that we used to show Quarter Horses with have relocated to there. So we got to have a fun little reunion dinner on Friday night! It was so amazing to see these ladies! I hadn't seen a couple of them in almost 12 years so it was a blast catching up!

It was restaurant week in Denver so we had an incredible 4 course meal at Fourteen 72 for just $30 + 1/2 priced bottles of wine! If you're ever in Denver, checkout Fourteen 72 and order the Key Lime Pie!! To die for. 

Saturday we woke up and were ready to head to Vail!!! We were so pumped until we realized that the mountain pass was closed due to weather so we were stuck in Denver for at least awhile longer. We decided to pass the time by going out for an amazing brunch at Stubens.

So incredibly delicious! And the best part was that after a couple mimosas and a lot of laughs at brunch the pass was back open and we were cleared to head up the mountain!

Vail... Oh Vail... This was all of our first visit to this magical little mountain town and we did it right. We Vailed HARD!

Fancy food, fur and champagne seemed to be the theme for the weekend and I was Loving it!!! Nicole's brother Ryan recently moved to Vail to be a chef at one of the fancy restaurants in Vail Village so we had our own personal tour guide. What an amazing little town this is, it seriously is like you're in a snow globe and I loved every minute of it!

Hanging out with "the locals" in Vail was pretty stellar. We got to see some of the not so fancy bars and even took a ride home on the "drunk bus" which leaves Vail Village at 2 am every night and takes the local drunk folk home. What a trip.

We spent most of the day on Sunday being tourists and obviously indulging in a fabulous brunch. 

Once we were back in Denver on Sunday night it was time for the Oscars!! We put together a little spread and had some girls over for a little Oscar party. I can not think of a more perfect end to a girls weekend :)

All in all it was a fabulous weekend in the mountains. The worst part was having to come back to reality this week!

Until next time,

Lauren

Oh how I missed the Stockyards...

We have lived in Fort Worth for a little over a year now and my favorite place to hang out is STILL the Fort Worth Stockyards. It's probably the country girl in me who just feels at home when there cattle and horses walking down the streets and country music in the background. The Stockyards just make my  heart happy. Unfortunately, a few months ago, our favorite hole in the wall bar with live country music, the Thirsty Armadillo, was taken under new ownership and I haven't been real thrilled about hanging out there since. This weekend though, our favorite local band, the Jim Bowies, made a triumphant return to the Thirsty Armadillo to play for a regular's Birthday party and it was incredible. We also had some incredible weather this weekend which made it all the more wonderful!

So my friends and I slipped on our boots and headed down to the Armadillo just like old times and my heart felt happy once again :)

Now since the Stockyards are also a pretty big tourist attraction in Fort Worth, the people watching is always top notch. This past Saturday did not disappoint. The person who hired the Jim Bowies to play was a 50 something year old biker who had a serious obsession with Kelly Clarkson. I'm not kidding, this guy had Kelly Clarkson's face tattooed on his body in 3 different locations that were visible. His wife also brought in a 3 tiered birthday cake for him that had a giant picture of Kelly Clarkson on top. Nicest people ever, just really bizarre. So obviously with the Kelly obsessed birthday boy came all of his biker friends. Let's just say there was not a dull moment at the Armadillo on Saturday! 

About a year ago my husband and I had our engagement photos taken in the Stockyards and every time I'm down there it reminds me of our fun day running around taking photos. Here are a few of my favorites.

With spring being right around the corner I am excited for a lot more Stockyards fun to come!

On Sunday we woke up to 70 degree weather and the sun shinning so we headed to meet some friends at Winslow's Wine Cafe for brunch. Winslow's is one of my favorite happy hour spots and we just recently learned that they also serve brunch on the weekends and it is AMAZING! Delicious food, $6 bottomless mimosas and a killer patio make for a fabulous brunch. I wish I had a picture of the yummy food but you'll have to give me a break, I'm new to this whole blogging thing after all!

Make it a great week!

Lauren

Sit back, take a sip and smile :)

Kenny and I just returned from 4 wonderfully relaxing days in California. A few months ago some of our very favorite friends, Nate and Kathleen, moved to Southern California and this was our first trip to visit them. Our friends from Minneapolis, Tanner and Stephanie, also flew in for the weekend and the 6 of us really did have a blast.

I hadn't been out to Cali since 2010! This really is a long time for me because I love it out there. I love it so much that I moved there when I was 19 and I enjoyed every sweet second of that sunny, palm tree filled goodness. One thing was very apparent on this trip, a lot has changed since 2010! Instead of posh clubs and hip restaurants, our nights were full of beach sunsets and cocktails on the patio. I wouldn't have had it any other way. 

We spent our first night at Hunnington Beach which is one of my favorite SoCal beaches. The vibe in Hunnington is very relaxing, the hippies and surfers with their not a care in the world attitudes really tend to rub off on you.

We had lunch at Fred's which is one of my favorites. Great mexican food, killer margaritas (seriously, there is a 3/person limit!) and beach views, what is not to love? At one point during lunch I caught myself staring at one of the many vintage winnebagos parked along the beach and wondering what that would be like. How do you decide that you are just going to pack up your winnebago, live at the beach and surf all day? I'm really not sure and I always wonder about people like this and how they make it work. What do they do about money? I guess maybe they have trust funds, or blogs :) Anyway, here was my lunch at Fred's, surf and turf enchiladas, seriously DELISH!

Our second afternoon/evening was spent at Paradise Cove in Malibu. This was my first time actually hanging out in Malibu, I had driven through it before and drooled over the gorgeous beach homes but never actually stopped. Paradise Cove was prefect for a bunch of Malibu rookies like ourselves. It was nice, but not to fancy, such a comfortable place to hang out. They had this amazing frozen drink bar with dozens of drink options all of which contained, you guessed it, Malibu rum :) Here is Kathleen with her cute drink. 

After cocktails we enjoyed a nice sunset on the beach. Malibu really does have beautiful beaches, it's different from Hunnington, Newport, etc because the cliffs are so close to the water and you can see all of the beautiful homes. It is much more residential than the other beaches in the area. 

Dinner at the Paradise Cove Cafe was incredible. We had lots of yummy fresh seafood, I love eating seafood when I can see the sea, it just tastes better. I wish I had taken some pics of dinner! It really was fantastic. 

All in all we had a GREAT weekend! On the ride home from the beach one night I was feeling so blessed. Surrounded by lovely friends and my amazing husband, laughing and sipping cocktails on the way home from a stellar day at the beach, it was almost overwhelming how happy I felt. I consciously told myself to sit back, take a sip and smile :)

Life is amazing, go out and live it!

Much love!

Lauren

"Why not?"

Well, here it is. I have a blog. I am not one of those people who thinks "oh, blogging, that looks easy", no the truth is that it looks really hard but at the same time I am still intrigued. Blogging is hard because you are putting a lot of yourself out there for others to examine. Will people enjoy reading my blog? Will I be the only one who ever reads my blog? Surely my mom will read it, right? 

There are a lot of questions going through my head right now, the biggest one being, "why?" Why am I starting a blog? Well here's the thing, I always used to be a journal person. When I was younger I would journal ALL the time, I still have all of my old journals and I think it's fun to go back and read them and see how I was feeling at different times in my life. Sometimes it's very comical, sometimes I think I really had it all together, sometimes I can't believe what a mess I was. For whatever reason I stopped journaling when I was in college. Mostly because I was just really busy going to school full time and working full time, then I got sucked right into the real world and my journals slowly began to collect dust. Now, at 28, I feel like I have finally settled into the real world, as much as one possibly can, and I'm feeling the need to keep track of my thoughts again, so.. Why not a blog?

That is what it boils down to, "why not?" Why not try it and see if I like it? Worst case scenario, it's an online journal for myself, and hey, that wouldn't be so bad. So here it goes. I'm joining blogland. I'm completely clueless when it comes to this stuff, but I'm going to give it my best shot!

Make it a great day and if you're feeling down, just add a little sparkle. Sparkle makes everything better!

Lauren