Over the weekend we had a pretty epic birthday party to celebrate Brooklyn’s 7th birthday! All the credit goes to Brooklyn for coming up with the concept for this party. She specifically requested an L.O.L. Surprise! Makeover party, where she and her friends would be made over to look like their favorite LOL doll. I thought it was genius!

All the decor is linked below, and I made the balloon tassels after watching a few YouTube videos. They were SO easy, and it only cost around $15 to make all of them. Brooklyn even helped! Because the balloons were all so big, we had to take them to Party City to be inflated. I purchased a helium tank, but the first balloon pretty much used up the entire tank!

She found a cake she liked on Pinterest, and Midwest Cookie Co. recreated it perfectly. The top half was funfetti flavored, and the bottom was triple chocolate. It tasted as good as it looked! She was also very specific on snacks. We had fruit cups and a mix of gold fish, marshmallows, pretzels and cheddar popcorn. The party was at 1pm, so we didn’t have to feed everyone, which was nice.

Each girl was given a bag of goodies, including their own lip gloss, nail file , hair brush, etc. They decorated their bags with stickers right from the start. They were also given a water bottle. (If you don’t know, each LOL doll comes with it’s own water bottle.) I tried my best to find these that looked the most like the LOL water bottles, and I used paint markers to write their names on them and ribbon to spruce them up a bit. I found these LOL waterproof vinyl stickers, and the girls also decorated their water bottles.

I set up three stations: hair, makeup and nails. I recruited a couple of our neighbor girls to help with hair and bought a bunch of temporary hair color and hair chalk. I also ordered bows and some LOL hair ties. Each girl was given their own brush to use. I found these at Target for $3 a piece.

For the makeup station, I used Brooklyn’s pottery barn vanity and let them do their own makeup. These girls love to do their own makeup! I found some inexpensive makeup brushes from Target and a great neon eyeshadow pallet. The LOL press on earrings were also a big hit!

I did everyone’s nails, since that’s my jam. I already had a bunch of nail polish, but I ordered a couple pink fans to make it seem a little more like an actual nail salon. I also bought some cute nail decals and each girl got their own LOL nail file.

After the makeovers, they all sat in a circle and we gave each girl her very own LOL ball to open. I found the Winter Disco series on clearance at Best Buy for $6 and put them in a cute LOL bag. They watched each other open them up one by one, which took quite a while.

We sang happy birthday, ate cake, opened presents, and then everyone went home full of sugar, with multicolored hair and their new L.O.L. Suprise! swag. Brooklyn had the time of her life, and I was so happy I could help make this happen for her.

You may have heard of Bumble, which is traditionally known as a popular dating app but after a recent Instagram poll, I realized not as many of you are familiar with Bumble Bizz. In fact, several of you simply responded to my poll by asking, “What is Bumble Bizz?” Well, this post is for you!

1. What is Bumble Bizz? It’s a way for business professionals to network and connect with each other. The app works in a similar way to those who may be interested in e looking for love (Bumble Date) or friendship (Bumble BFF). Bumble Bizz is the first to bring the “swiping” and “women first” experience to professional connecting. Users can instantly find others who are looking to network, connect professionally and mentor.

2. How does it work? I recently set up my own Bumble Bizz profile, and it only took a few minutes. You’ll input a lot of the same information as you do in Bumble Date, such as name, location, etc. Once set up, you’re faced with the decision to swipe right (yes) or left (no) on potential networking opportunities. If you and another Bumble Bizz user both swipe right, you can start a conversation with them.

3. Why it’s for you! Since jumping out and becoming an entrepreneur, I have come to understand how important networking can be for your business. I also really, really enjoy connecting with like-minded people. If you are in the same boat, and are interested in making business connections in your area, Bumble Bizz is a great place to start.

4. Favorite features: There were a couple of Bumble Bizz features that I thought were worth noting. First, you can identify what you are looking for on Bumble Bizz, such as an internship, investor, part-time job, mentor, and more. I am personally looking for a business mentor, and this is the first thing I’ve found that will directly connect me to someone. Second, I love the option to only connect with other women, if that’s what you prefer. If venturing into a new online space makes you a little uneasy, I think this option is a good place to start.

I hope this information was helpful and will take some of the mystery out of Bumble Bizz. To get started using Bumble Bizz, just download the Bumble app. For those who are in a relationship, you can also remove Bumble Date from your app — and it is time stamped for accountability! — so you can use Bumble Bizz (or Bumble BFF) without any concerns about being “on a dating app”. Bumble Bizz is  really easy to use, I promise. Swipe right if you want to connect!

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As improvements in technology make it easier for people to work remotely, I find that more and more of my friends are working from home. I, myself, started my journey working from home at the end of 2018, and have absolutely loved it.

Here are my top 5 reasons why working from home is where it’s at:

If you think you can swing the discipline it takes to work from home, I highly recommend it. I find that I am much more happy, motivated and successful in my new work-from-home position.

As a kid, I never liked reading. It’s not like I wasn’t good at it. I just thought it was boring. I would rather be playing sports or hanging out with friends. The older I get, the more I absolutely love reading. It has truly become a part of my life.

The books I read each year always seem to leave a little impression on me. Thanks to my beloved book club and a friend who dropped a bag of books on my doorstep over the summer, I read a few books this year that I may not have otherwise–particularly fiction books.

I am not a person with a lot of free time, so I really don’t buy the excuse that “you don’t have time to read.” Once reading becomes a part of your life, you find ways to sneak it in here and there.  I read most of these on vacations or by just reading a few pages at bedtime.

Almost every single one of these books came from the recommendation of a friend, so I thought I would pass along the favor and share my 2019 reading list with you. Those with an asterisk were my favorites, but each and every one of these is worth reading.

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

I’ve Been Thinking by Maria Shriver

Originals by Adam Grant

*Girl Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Everybody Always by Bob Goff

*You are a Badass by Jin Sincero

You are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero

Love Lives Here by Maria Goff

Educated by Tara Westover

*Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

*Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo

*The Rent Collector by Camron Wright

Here are a few of my favorites from Evereve right now, all of which would make excellent gifts for a friend, wife, mom, sister, etc.! You can count on Evereve for high quality pieces and fantastic customer service. You can just feel the love when you walk in that store!

One of my favorite time and money savers is doing my own gel polish at home. It’s incredibly easy, and the cost of a starter set is about the same as one gel manicure at a salon. Below are a few of my favorite designs. You can check out my IGTV tutorials for most of these and stay up-to-date on my latest nail designs by following me on Instagram @overanalyzedthat.

Below are the products I use, including my exact light. I recently came across the Beetles Gel Nail Polish brand on Amazon, and its quickly becoming my favorite. I love that they sell the polish in 6-pack sets. They also have a great starter kit, which is linked below.

Every year I put a lot of effort into our family photos. I can’t lie, I love them. I love everything about them. From planning the outfits to spending hours deciding on which photo will make our annual Christmas card. Unfortunately, I am the only one in my family that actually likes participating in said family photos–lol!

This year I put together (what I thought was) a really chic combination of fall outfits. I’ll share those here below. I started with my daughter to see what she thought, and she immediately, without hesitation, nixed my whole vision. From there, I let her scroll online to find something that would work for her, and then I built the rest of the outfits from there.

My son is super sporty and wears a Kansas City Chiefs jersey to school most days. I found this great Nike jersey, the colors of which matched Brooklyn’s dress. My husband loves Travis Matthews gear, so I found a top that I knew he would wear beyond family picture day. Lastly, I had to have this red jumpsuit from Anthropologie to give a little pop of holiday color to our look.

Oh, and did I mention I also let the kids talk me into bringing our dogs to family pictures this year?!? It was complete chaos, but the photos turned out great.

If you are local to Kansas City, Monica Erdmann from MEPhotography shoots our family photos each year, and I cannot say enough great things about her. She has the patience of a saint and a true gifting for getting kids to smile in photos.

This pumpkin craft my daughter and I did together was super easy, and I love that the end result could actually be used with our Halloween decor. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating your own painted pumpkins:

WHAT YOU NEED:

• Small White Pumpkin
• Acrylic Paint
• Paint Brush
• Modge Podge
• Glitter

HOW TO:

1. Make sure your pumpkin is clean and dry.

2. Using a small paint brush, paint the entire stem with Modge Podge.

3. Dip the stem into the glitter.

4. Shake off the glitter and use your hands to sprinkle more glitter on any spots you missed.

5. Use a clean paint brush to paint the acrylic paint onto the pumpkin, using the natural lines of the pumpkin as your guide.

6. Let everything dry, and that’s it!

*You can use any variation from this, so use your imagination. My daughter just painted the whole pumpkin black and then added glitter. Have fun!!

It’s hard to believe it’s that time of year AGAIN! As I write this, it’s the last day of September, which means tomorrow kicks off the last 90 days of the year.

Around this time last year, I first heard about this “Last 90 Days” concept from Rachel Hollis. Essentially, rather than waiting until the first of the year to start those New Year’s resolutions (which I had always done before), you start October 1st. You can read more about it here and sign up for Rachel’s emails.

I loved this idea, perhaps because I was notorious for slacking on my workouts, eating habits and spending habits, knowing I would make a big change at the start of the New Year. Why throw away all this time I could be working toward my goals?

So, last year I bought into this concept, and it really worked! I started 2019 in a much better spot than if I had just coasted into the end of the year. One of the best things about it, is that I was not out of shape! Working out is so much worse when you are starting from ground zero. Here’s the challenge:

I saw huge changes in the way I felt and some big things in my life started falling into place. Since starting the 90-day challenge last year, I continued to get up an hour earlier, and I have consistently worked out. I never really stopped doing these. The thing I struggle with the most is drinking all that water. It may seem like the easiest on the list, but not for me!

I highly, highly encourage you to implement these five things into your routine for the next 90 days. Finish the year strong! It may seem impossible, but it’s not. One of the things I love about it too, is that if you miss a day or screw up, just get back up and keep going. This is not something you can fail at–just don’t quit!