NYC Will Always Have My Heart

I cannot believe it, but my NYC summer experience has come to an end. Unbelievable, right?

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New York City became my home this summer and I feel like I legitimately left a piece of my heart there. When I first arrived in the city, I kept saying “I think I am going to have a great summer but I definitely do not see myself here after graduation.” WELL, I WAS WRONG. This summer my heart grew fonder as the days went on.

From learning the subway to mastering the different areas of Manhattan, to becoming closer with girls in the classes and internship to discovering so many amazing restaurants, my summer in NYC is one I will never forget.

I lived in the Upper West Side, which I always compared to the suburbs of the city. My internship was in the Flatiron District and my classes were in Midtown. I loved my classes and I definitely learned a lot of about myself and what I want out of my future at my internship.

I interned at a fashion PR firm, which was definitely an experience I always dreamed about. For the past three years I have said my dream was to work in fashion PR, but after interning in a fashion PR firm, I learned that I LIKE fashion PR, but I don’t LOVE it. I am so grateful for the experience I had at the agency I interned for. I was able to work at both New York Men’s Day (the opening event for NYFW) and at New York Men’s Fashion Week.

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This summer was amazing, and I think one of my absolute favorite things was getting to try all the different trendy foods that were all over Facebook and the internet this summer. For example, Frosé, the roll-up ice cream and I went to the bakery , Union Fare, which sells the rainbow croissants, but they were sold out by the time I got there so I tried their cookies and cream croissant, which was just as fabulous!

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Exploring was also amazing. You would think in the eight weeks I was there, I would have been able to do everything I wanted to, but I didn’t. If I did not have class or my internship, I probably could have, but I know that I will definitely have to do the things I wanted to do this summer first as soon as I am back in the city!

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Another thing I loved about being in NYC, everyone wants to come and visit! My sister, Payton and best friend, Amanda came twice, my friend Mary came with Payton and Amanda on their second trip and my friend Erin came up for a weekend trip. The FUNNIEST thing was Erin and I sleeping in my twin sized bed in my dorm room, haha!

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During my friend’s visits we explored all around Manhattan and went to Brooklyn! In Brooklyn, we adventured in Williamsburg and DUMBO, which is in the picture below.

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DUMBO: Down Under the Manhattan Brooklyn Overpass 

Dumbo was gorgeous! The architecture, the view of the Manhattan Skyline and the view of the Brooklyn bridge are out of this world. The area is located right in the middle of the Manhattan bridge and the Brooklyn bridge.

This summer also included going to Her Conference. Her Conference is a conference hosted by Her Campus, an online magazine for women in college. I am a writer for Her Campus Kent State and I am also in their blogging network! They hosted a kick-off event, hosted by Rebecca Minkoff. I attended the event and had the chance to meet her. I fan-girled so hard! She was so sweet and even signed the inside of the bag I purchased that evening.

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I cannot believe all of the things I did within these past eight weeks. These were just a few highlights from my summer. I truly cannot believe this summer is almost over. Summer 2016 is definitely my favorite summer yet!

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BYOB- Build Your Own Birchbox! + A Giveaway!

Birchbox is the queen of all monthly boxes! We all know how popular these monthly boxes have become over the past year, and there is no stopping them.

I am fascinated how Birchbox continuously revolutionizes the monthly boxes and how customers try new products. I know so many who subscribe to their boxes, and now I am one of those people after visiting their store in Soho. In the last week, I have visited the store THREE times…you could say I am addicted.

This past time, I went with my two new friends, Morgan  of Mostlymorgan.com and Lara of Seafoananddiamonds.com! We went and created our own, customized Birchboxes.

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Me, Morgan (Middle) and Lara (Right)! 

Let me just start off by saying how adorable the Birchbox store is! Take a look at these pictures:

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Can you see all of the yellow? You all know I am in LOVE with the interior of the store, I mean how could I not be? It is YELLOW and MAKEUP!

After Morgan, Lara and I wondered around the store for a little bit, we decided to get to cracking and build our own boxes. Let’s take a look at the process~

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First, you choose one of the extremely cute box to put all of your items in, I chose the one in the middle!

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Second, look through all of the products and choose one from each other their sections: makeup, hair, fragrance, skincare and body.

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If you ever get the experience to go to the store, you will need at least 30 minutes to build a box because they have so many great products, it’s insane.

Here is a preview of the boxes that are full of sample size products for you to choose from!

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Birchbox has so many amazing options to choose from, especially things that you would be too nervous to buy a large bottle of, like a bee venom face mask.

We had a blast making each of our boxes. It was difficult to choose from each area of products. The only area that was not difficult for me was the hair section, because as most of you know, I get my hair washed once a week, so I do not need my own shampoo and conditioner etc., but I got this amazing hair tie made by L. Erickson.

At the end of a really fun hour and a half in the store, we had three amazing completed boxes! Lara’s boyfriend joined us and even made his own customized box in the Birchbox Men section of the store!

My box included: a Banana Hand Milk cream, a Stila liquid lipstick in the shade Fiore, a Ceramidin liquid skin moisturizer, which I used this morning and it is AMAZING, my L. Erickson hair tie and a Sud Pacifique Vanille Abricot perfume.

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We love our boxes so much that we have decided to gift one to our amazing followers because we love you all so much! <3

We are gifting one of the Radiant Finish Kits. The picture below describes all of the products inside of the box. The summer is the perfect time to have that dewy, luminous skin that we all want! It even has a full-size beauty blender!

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To enter to win the Radiant Finish Kit all you have to do is enter down below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway will start today at 6 p.m. and go until July 13 until 6 p.m.!

We are so excited about this giveaway and we hope you all are as well. I will announce the winner on July 13 on my Instagram: @Danieminor13.

After our trip to Birchbox, we had an amazing afternoon full of yummy food and photoshoots! I am so glad that this summer I met these two amazing women! I cannot see where the future takes our friendship.

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Cannot wait to announce the winner of our giveaway!

XODanieSparkle

Happy second birthday, DD, the Cavs win & my second week recap! 

Time is going by so quickly! I cannot believe I’m already finished week two in the city. 

I’m sad that I wasn’t able to post this on Sunday, but I was a little busy rooting for my team in the NBA Finals! I have seriously adapted very well to living the city life. I have always known that I would thrive living in a city and not just “right outside of one.” 

Week two events: 

The week started off with my going to my new favorite place, Dry Bar! I had a 7:45 a.m. blowout appointment. I seriously love the Dry Bar on the Upper West Side. 

The Upper West Side has become my home. I live on West 88th, which I’ve been comparing to the suburbs of the city. 
I have my classes in Midtown/the Garment District (West 39th) and my internship is in the Flatiron (West 20th). 
On Tuesday I had one of my classes, but this this isn’t a regular class, it’s a cool class ;). This class we get to go around to different fashion showrooms, stores and offices to meet buyers/ merchandisers and learn more about their companies. This past Tuesday, we got to go to Rebecca Minkoff in SoHo. Oh my gosh, it was fantastic! We met with their lead store manager and learn how Rebecca Minkoff is a leader in fashion technology; even her store is full of technology. My class even received 20% off merchandise in the store after the tour, you know the thrifter in me LOVED the discount! 

It was so funny shopping after the tour because I was face timing my sister because she also loves Rebecca Minkoff, so I knew she’d want something! While face timing my sister and shopping, I was talking to the store manager because I realized they sold the Rebecca Minkoff x Minnetonka Moccasins collection. The reason I thought this was so cool, is because the agency I’m interning for represents Minnetonka! 

After me telling him this, he invited me to an event they had that evening for Minnetonka. I went to the event later that evening and learned that it was being hosted by Rebecca Minkoff and two awesome bloggers who run Mimosas and Manhanttans. They were such sweet girls! 

Fast forward to Friday- 
My roommate, her friend from work and I went to dinner at this amazing Italian restaurant, Vapiano. It had a different concept for a restaurant. Their website can definitely explain it better than I can, but the food was great. I had pasta, wine and dessert for only $25, which is hard to come by in the city. 

Saturday was my favorite day last week because it was Defining Danie’a TWO year anniversary! Can you believe it? Because I can’t. To celebrate, I went to a rooftop bar called Loopy Doopy! They serve prosecco, rosecco (rosé and prosecco 😉 ) with Popsicles in the glass!!!! It was AMAZING. 


We had amazing views, I had great company with me and I honestly couldn’t have asked for more to celebrate Defining Danie’s second birthday. 


On Sunday, I met a friend doe brunch at a restaurant that I found right near where I live called Good Enough to Eat. If you are ever looking for a great brunch restaurant, don’t even second guess, go there!!! I had banana walnut pancakes, eggs and turkey sausage. 
Right after brunch, I met a few friends from my internship to go see the musical Wicked. I cannot believe that I haven’t seen that sooner. We sat in the 8th row, it was fabulous. I really need to give a huge shoutout to my friend Cayley because she received the tickets from her grandma and then invited me! The musical was so great. I wasn’t exactly sure what the plot was before going, I only knew that it was based off of The Wizard of Oz. The actors in the show were some of the best I’ve ever seen. 

After the show, I rushed to a bar called The Blind Pig, so I could save me and my three friends seats for the NBA Finals game. As most of you know, I go to school in Ohio, about 45 minutes outside of Cleveland, so the Cavs have really become “my team.” It was so fun because all of the girls I watched the game with were from Ohio, so we were all rooting so hard! 

When they won I started ugly crying of happiness! We were actually screaming we were so excited. I honestly wish I had been in Cleveland that night. When Lebron cried on TV because he was so proud of his team, my heart was full of so much pride. 
Thank you to everyone who has made it with me for the past two years of Defining Danie! Thank you to everyone who continuously reads my posts, shares them, follows me on social media and honestly just supports me through my blogging dreams. I cannot wait for another two years with all of you! 

Defining Danie takes NYC week 1

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So I know a lot of people who follow me on Instagram have been wondering WHAT IS DANIE DOING IN NYC?! I am not in my usual home, Annapolis for the summer because I am interning and taking classes at Kent State’s NYC Studio. I am taking a Fashion in the Media class and a tour class, where we get to tour around various places in NYC including The Met and the FFANY show. I am interning at the fashion PR agency, Agentry!

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Getting to know the city this week has been an event in itself. Being from right outside D.C., I am used to the city life, and I LOVE it, but being IN the city 24/7, it’s definitely an adjustment.

In addition to beginning my new classes and my new internship, week one has consisted of:

  • Finding amazing food on every corner of the city
  • Figuring out the Subway…the D.C. Metro is so much easier
  • Making some awesome friends at my internship
  • Attending a beautiful service at a new Synagogue
  • Attending a free preview of Ferris Bueler’s Day Off with a friend I haven’t seen in over a year! (I also had never seen the movie…I know I’m awful!)
  • Finding an adorable, on-the-road Flower truck called Uprooted (I posted an adorable picture on Twitter! @danieminor13)
  • And the coolest… My Roomie and I stumbled upon the Tony Awards and watched all the celebrities go into the show!

 

I cannot wait to see what the rest of the summer holds for me! I will be posting weekly updates of my time, so check back on Sunday evenings for weekly recaps.

XODanieSparkle

 

Thrifty Thursday: Getting Ready for Vacation!

I cannot believe I have not done a Thrifty Thursday in over two months! To be honest, I had to take a break because at school my closet was overflowing with the awesome deals I was finding! This week I decided I would head over to my favorite consignment store, Oh My Darling in Annapolis, Md. to see what deals they had going on.

They recently posted on Instagram a photo of a few pairs of pineapple earrings and I knew that I had to have these for the summer!

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Amy, the owner of Oh My Darling also posted today about a sale she had today if you mentioned you saw it on her Instagram.

Even though I originally went to the store for just the earrings, I knew I would not only be leaving with just one thing… I also found the perfect dress for a trip I have coming up this weekend to the Bahamas!

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The dress is made by Just Be… I tried to find how much the dress was sold for originally, but I was unable to find it. I can tell the dress is made with a quality cotton though, so I am guessing it was definitely sold for more than I bought it. I purchased this dress for $16!

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The lightweight cotton will be perfect for the hot weather in the Bahamas!

Out of the two things I purchased today, I would definitely say the earrings would be my favorite. I am in love with the pineapples. I am currently obsessing over anything pineapple related!

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I also love the earrings because they were made by a local jewelry designer! Here is her information if you are interested in purchasing this pair of earrings or looking to see if she sells something similar:

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I left the store today only spending a total of $45!

For all of my Annapolis area readers, Oh My Darling is having their biggest shopping event yet that you will not want to miss! Coming up on June 20, they are hosting an event called The Longest Day, which is raising money for Alzheimer’s awareness.

Leading up to the event, they will be having their #30DaysofDresses fundraiser. For every dress sold from May 21-June 20, Oh My Darling will donate 10 percent of the sale to their Longest Day team. If you go into the store and try on a dress and use the hashtags #30DaysofDresses and #THELONGESTDAY, they will donate $1 to their team.

 

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If this didn’t sound intriguing enough for you… on June 20 if you make a $5 or $10 donation to their team, you will receive an empty Oh My Darling shopping bag, which you can fill with anything you can fit into the bag and receive 10 percent or 20 percent off of the items in the bag!

For more information about the event you can contact Oh My Darling’s owner, Amy Darling at amy@shopohmydarling.com!

It felt so great to thrift again! I am glad that I broke my thrifting drought at Oh My Darling!

XODanieSparkle

 

 

21 Things You Should Know About This 21-Year-Old

I cannot believe that I am 21 years old! I have been 21 for a month and a half and I have really thought a lot about 21 things about me that my readers may not not know about me!

But first I want to talk about what I did for my 21st birthday! I was able to celebrate two times, once with my friends at school and then another with my family and my friends in Maryland.

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With my friends from school:

My friends set up a “Bar Appearance”in downtown as we called it because I was really nervous about making it a bar crawl. I did not really want to go to a ton of bars, so we chose the two that we through I would really enjoy and stuck to those!

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My birthday happened to be the same day as “Fake Patty’s Day” in Kent, Ohio, which is why everyone is wearing green!

With my friends in Maryland: 

My sister set up an amazing birthday celebration! She set up a party bus for me and my friends to ride from Annapolis into D.C. for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants called Mission. It has amazing Mexican food. It was great because I not only got to see my great friends from Maryland, I also got to see my best friend, Jake, who I know from Kent State. The party bus was SO fun and dinner was great.

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I would definitely say that I had two amazing birthday celebrations.

21 things about myself that you may have been wondering: 

  1. I currently have two torn ACLs in my knee.
  2. I will be taking classes in NYC this summer for my minor, along with interning at Agentry PR firm!
  3. I love to travel. My favorite place I have been to is Madrid, Spain.
  4. I LOVE the color yellow. A lot of people ask me all the time why my whole blog is not yellow, because I love it that much.
  5. I am obsessed with psychics.
  6. I take my zodiac sign seriously, like really seriously.
  7. I  am pisces.
  8. I cry all the time, no matter if it’s a happy or sad cry.
  9. I have a cat name Angel. She is the cutest.
  10. I think everyone should go to therapy, it’s helped me a lot.
  11. I have anxiety.
  12. Thrifting is a huge stress reliever for me, but I haven’t gone in a few weeks because I have been so busy with classes.
  13. I am a public relations major.
  14. I am double minoring in fashion media writing and marketing.
  15. I LOVE Kate Spade.
  16. Coffee will always be running from my veins.
  17. I am extroverted.
  18. I always try to be positive, even if everything is falling apart.
  19. I have one younger sister, named Payton.
  20. I talk to my mom at least 3 times a day, and I would’t have it any other way. (I talk to my dad, too! don’t worry! 🙂 )
  21. I decided to start blogging because of Beautycon, a convention for all lovers of beauty, social media and gurus!

 

I hope this gives you a little more insight of who I am! I would love to get to know each and everyone of you!

 

 

Beautycon Monthly Subscription Box Unveiling!

So, I have written about Beautycon before, but to refresh your memory it is a convention that combines social media and beauty into one! There is a panel of social media influencers who speak about various topics throughout the entire day and you can also buy products with brands who attend and have a booth.

It is always a GREAT day. I have been to one in London and one in NYC! Well…They created a monthly subscription box that is curated each month by famous social media influencers with some of their favorite products and I wanted to share my box that I received with you. 🙂

Let me know what you think of this video! If you want to see more like this, please comment below. I had a lot of fun making this video. I hope you have a great week ahead of you.

 

XODanieSparkle

The Creation of my Online Portfolio

Happy Friday!

So, I am currently taking a class called Online Tactics. Within the class I have been tasked with creating an online portfolio to showcase my work that I am doing in school to show my future internships and hopefully one day….a job!

An online portfolio is definitely something to consider for yourself, but you may not need one if your major is not something that requires any samples, but in PR I will definitely need one!

If an online portfolio sounds like something that might interest you, keep reading to see if this is something that could benefit you:

I made mine on Weebly. It was easier to make a quick online portfolio on rather than WordPress, even though WordPress will forever have my heart for any blogging needs that I have!

Lets take a look at Danieminor.weebly.com~

My homepage: 

I went with a very basic theme so it was very easy to understand and was straightforward!

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Something that I do not LOVE about Weebly is that it is not extremely customizable. I was hoping to brand myself a bit more with Defining Danie’s colors and fonts, but I had to go with something that was just close to it.

I kept my personality into my online portfolio but of course stayed professional!

Next I posted my Resume:

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One thing that I do LOVE about Weebly is they have a very easy-to-use set up for the pages. For me to upload my resume, it was very simple.

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Where it is circled pink, I dragged that element on to my actual Resume page of                      my online portfolio.

All I had to do was drag the element “Document” onto the page and then it let me upload any style of document I wanted, and then it uploaded into a Scribd document, so someone could scroll through and read my resume!

The third page that I have on my online portfolio is my section with my writing samples! This part took me a little while to figure out how I wanted it to look. I changed the style about three times.

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I finally figured out the best way to show some of my writing samples…I did it in a slideshow where you can preview the story/article I have written and then click on it if you want to read the rest of it. I linked each photo to go to the page where the story is located!

And finally, my Defining Danie lovers… I have a Blog Portfolio! I love writing this blog so I definitely wanted to include some of my favorite posts to showcase my writing skills.

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For my blogging portfolio, I made it look like a mosaic of photos where you can click any of the photos and have them take you directly to the link of the blog post! I thought it was a creative way of putting the posts on here rather than having just clippings of the articles.

This online portfolio is definitely a necessary thing to have if you are looking to go into public relations or any other field of work where your writing MATTERS.

I have been meaning to create one for a long time now, so having it as a project for class was just a way to give me a “kick in the butt” to get it done!

I hope this inspires you to showcase your own writing. If you create one, please share it with me because I would love to read yours!

 

XODanieSparkle

My Guilty Pleasure… Getting my hair washed and blow dried each week

Want to know my guilty pleasure?

It’s most definitely getting my hair washed and blow dried once a week. I really hate washing my own hair for it just look awful after I attempt to blow dry it and then straighten it.

Before you think I am a diva (well TOO much of a diva), it is not as costly as you might be thinking it is! I have found Rush salon in Kent, Ohio that is honestly just PERFECT.

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I used to go and get my hair washed and blow dried before a big event, but this school year I started doing this on the first day of the school year. I called two weeks before school started and told them I needed their first appointment that day because I didn’t want to stress about my hair the first day of school, plus I wanted to look great after coming back from the summer!

HOW DO THEY MAKE MY HAIR FEEL SO SOFT AND LUSCIOUS? 

So now you may be asking yourself…”Does Danie only wash her hair once a week?” and to answer this question, yes I do only wash it once a week unless there is a reason that I MUST wash it. I have truly “trained” my hair to not get oily.

I started only washing it once a week when I had red in my hair because each time I would wash it, the red dye would come out and I was getting more annoyed each time I washed my hair. After researching what I would do to slow down the red washing out of my hair, I found out how awful washing your hair too often is actually for you. So even before getting it washed, I only washed it once a week. If learning how to get down to washing your hair once-twice a week, check out my previous post: here.

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But to get back to my guilty pleasure… I know it sounds ridiculous, but I honestly crave that hour on Tuesdays (the day I get my hair done!). That time I take for myself and I don’t check my phone or think about anything else that I have going on during that time. I focus on myself, which I do not do a lot. It is a stress reliever for me.

I get a lot of criticism from people who do not agree with my choices about me getting my hair done once a week- and what I want to say to those people is: How I spend my money is my choice, and I appreciate you looking out for my budget, but I will continue to get my hair washed each week.

Trust me…if I could make my hair the way that my favorite stylists, Skye and Allison, make it look, I would do it myself! 

To maintain my hair looking good the rest of the week, I wear a shower cap while I shower and I do not put any extra products in my hair the rest of the week.
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The only time I really touch my hair is when I straighten a few pieces that may have gotten curly throughout the week and when I pull my hair in my favorite hairstyle, the half up half down style!

 

I know all of you divas out there will feel my pain out there! I know that not everyone’s budget each week can fit $18 for you to get your hair washed, but definitely think about cutting down on how many times a week you wash your hair!

Let me know what you think of this idea!

XODanieSparkle

 

 

 

Join the Monday Mingle!

for the love of fashion

This Friday, I went to the 2nd annual College Town Kent’s For the Love of Fashion, fashion show! It showed all of the 2016 spring trends that all of the stores in downtown Kent, Ohio will have in stock.

Isn’t this such a cute idea? Wait, it gets better…

College Town Kent, which is a business that markets everything that downtown Kent has to offer to the student of Kent State and the Kent community, hosts a competition between all of the sororities at Kent to see which sorority the money from the show will go to from the ticket sales for the show.

This year the sorority that won was Alpha Xi Delta (AXiD)! Their philanthropy is Autism Speaks. Last year, I loved going to this event, and I know that many others did too since Kent State is number two for fashion merchandising and number four for fashion design in the country.

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The show opened up with looks form UniversiTEES. They showcased all of the various new Kent State apparel and accessories they are offering.

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We could see the models having a great time walking down the runway! There was even some “Dabbing” as you can see in the photo above! My favorite piece from UniversiTEES is the sweatshirt about that says “Home” but the letter O is replaced with the state of Ohio!
CTKFeatured next was Gracylane. The models walked down the runway in all black while featuring all of the latest accessories from brands such as Vera Bradley, Kate Spade and S’well water bottles.

I am definitely need one of the new umbrellas that they were featuring from Vera Bradley’s new collection, because spring in Kent= rain, rain and you guessed it- more rain!

The coolest part of the show was next…

One Love Yoga, a yoga studio and boutique, performed yoga positions down the runway. It was amazing to see the clothing presented in a way that wasn’t just twirling around.

A major trend that was appearing during their time on the runway was tie dye tights! IMG_0878

You go girl! This is amazing, I can only imagine how nervous she was holding this pose in a room full of people.

And finally of the boutiques that were featured was Carnaby Street Style, a London-inspired boutique. The owner, Emma is from England wanted to bring some of her home country to Kent, Ohio.

Their store really featured a ton of pieces that really captivated the 2016 Pantone Colors of the Year: Rose Quartz and Serenity.

Colored jeans, colored hates and floral dresses rocked the runway!

My favorite look from Carnaby Street Style was this fun duo!

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Every model from the show had their hair done by Rush by Dino Palmeri, my favorite salon in Kent! They also had a spot in the show. They named the top hair trends for 2016 are going to be: soft, sun kissed and natural colored hair!

If you’re looking for a great salon that has great prices, Rush is definitely your place.

After the show, they had a mini boutique where you were able to shop the looks of the show. I left with an awesome burnt orange floppy hat from Carnaby Street Style and a necklace that is handmade from the brand One Million Wonders from One Love Yoga.

I had an amazing time at the show and I am already looking forward to 2017’s show.

Did you go to the show? Please share your experience with me!

I hope you had a Happy Monday

 

XODanieSparkle

 

This was not sponsored content, all opinions are my own.