Winter Fashion Hacks + a Mini Life Update

Hello dear readers, happy holiday season! I'm so excited for the holiday frenzy to begin now that it's finally November. It's been a while since we've chatted so I wanted to bring you up to speed on what I've been up to the last few months. Not only that, but I also wanted to share some fall/winter fashion hacks with you that are must-knows this season.

With fall and winter fashion comes inevitable mishaps that can actually be easily fixed in simple ways that are not only budget friendly, but will keep your clothes, shoes and accessories looking brand new.

Hack #1: Invest in an at-home suede cleaner.

Suede is one of the biggest trends each and every fall and with the moody weather, conditions aren't always the best to break out your newest suede boots in. But make way, at-home suede cleaners are godsend. For the rainy, snowy, muddy, whatever it wants to be season, when things get messy the cleaner surprisingly work so well (for how affordable it is) and it keeps my shoes, bags and suede jackets clean without leaving any visible stains or wear-and-tear. It works with faux suede as well and doesn't ruin the quality of either which I love because I always get so worried about trying out a product and instead of helping clean it, it ends up making it worse.

For under $10, this can save you on a rainy day when you wear suede mules or boots and mud gets on your shoes, when you spill something on your suede purse, or dirt collects overtime on a garment.

Hack #2: Invest in knit over-the-knee socks.

I've found there's no simple way to keep over-the-knee boots up and completely perfect how they look in pictures. Let's face it. There's bunching, folding, creasing, it's a whole big mess and it's a pain to have to pull them up every so often for them to keep their shape and form on your legs. I've found that when I'm wearing thicker socks that match the exact height of the boot, it tends to help immensely better than thing or regular knee high socks.

Other options to keeping them up include fashion tape, DIYing a boot-bra, and more but I don't really wan't to have to tape my boots to my pants or legs every time I wear them or have something tight suffocating my thigh...ya feel me? The nicer over-the-knee socks it is. Get some here, here, here and here.

Hack #3: Dawn dish soap.

This is pretty much a known fact, or at least I thought it was, but dawn dish soap is a true fashion hack at it's finest. Oil stain? Dawn dish soap. Food stain? Dawn dish soap. Wine stain? Dawn. Dish. Soap.

Hack #4: Use a disposable razor or mini face razor to get rid of pilling on sweaters and pants.

It kind of sounds weird and seems like maybe you might cut the fabric and ruin the clothing completely, but this has saved me time and time again. I have used this hack on leggings, tank tops, tee shirts, sweaters, you name it. I typically opt to use the mini face razor though as I think they tend to get straight to the point better and not cut any unnecessary fabric off.

Hack #5: Stuff OTK and leather boots with newspaper or stray plastic bags to keep their form.

Over-the-knee boots and leather booties are notorious for losing their stellar form by cracking and creasing as you wear them in the colder months. Once you take them off, stuffing them with a few extra plastic bags you have or some newspaper will help rid of the cracking and creasing. This is also a plus if they're wet from rain or snow as they'll dry evenly and in their right form.

I hope you find these tips useful as they've truly saved me over the years. Now that we got that out of the way, here's a little update on what I've been up to recently!

Shop my OTK boots under $50 here (they also come in black!).

I graduated back in May (read about it here) and moved back home. It was an entirely different change but I was excited to be back with family and friends. And in all honesty, once I was done with school I didn't have a job lined up like I had planned. It's seriously hard AF to get a job, you guys. I seriously didn't believe it when people told me it was going to be a process, but man, was it a process. I first started my job hunt back in January and as you can imagine, it took me a whole nine months to land a job (yes, I am a working lady *thanks god.* Don't worry, I'll get to it in a bit)

Over the summer I spent my days nannying the same two kids I've nannied the last three summers before. It's always so fun with them and it's been awesome to see them grow over the years. I turned 21 (read about it here), saw Ariana Grande and the Jonas Brothers in concert and I also spent a lot of time with family and friends, teaching myself how to play piano (I'm still awful, but we're getting there), journaling, celebrating Lover's release (read my review here) and went to the MN State Fair at the end of the summer. I actually worked a majority of the fair through one of my part time jobs in events so it was cool to be on the other side of things for a change.

After summer ended, lo and behold it was time to really crack down on finding a job. I swear to God, I applied to at least 70. S E V E N T Y. It was mad, absurd, crazy....but it landed me a job ;) AHHHH, the sweet feeling of relief. I have now been working as a Social Media Ads Specialist for a company in the Twin Cities for a month. It's so exciting to be in an entirely new environment and to put both my skills and knowledge towards something I'm passionate about. My coworkers are awesome too so it's been such a great time so far!!

I work on ad strategy, creation and reporting during the day so I have time to listen to music and podcasts while I work. Since I've started, I've been hooked on Anna Faris is Unqualified. I totally feel bad sometimes when I'm listening to it at work because it's so funny and relatable that I literally can't help but laugh out loud. It's seriously so good. She hosts different guests and it's honestly just the best to hear what they have to say and the advice they give. My favorite so far has been the Chelsea Handler episodes (one and two). If you haven't checked it out yet, you totally should because it's my new favorite thing to listen to. And if you have, well then you know where my greeting at the start came from ;)

Thank you so much for bearing with me as my last few months have been the quite the change and I'm slowly but surely getting adjusted. My holiday page will be live again soon with gift guides coming so I'll make sure to update you on when!

Until next time.

Xoxo,

Abby

#fashionhacks #lifestyle #lifeupdate #fallfashion #winterfashion