Fashion Archives - Audrey JoAnn | Content and Copy Writer

The “Every Gal’s” Gift Guide 2020: For Busy, Ambitious + Fun-Loving Women

November 25, 2020

I was helping one of my clients pull together her annual holiday gift guide and found myself sending her link after link of things I’ve bought or had my eye on lately. And then I was like, “Wait a second, why don’t I just pull all of these into one spot?!” I mean, I am by NO means an influencer, but I do think that holiday shopping is often one of the more stressful parts of the season. Sometimes it’s just HARD to think of the right thing for everyone on our list on our own… this year more than ever.

And in 2020 especially, I know a lot of people’s travel plans have adjusted, or they’re gathering for holidays in smaller groups. The stress of a regular holiday season is a bit intensified as we navigate tricky, weird times, so I figured rounding up some things that have been bringing me joy would be a good way to help you gift your nearest and dearest. (Or… just go ahead and get yourself one or two things on this list. You deserve it!)

We’re staying put in California this year since I’m 8.5 months pregnant, so we’ll be missing all of our family and just mailing gifts out this year. Which—honestly?—is sort of a relief. Your girl isn’t good at ordering ahead of time and getting gifts perfectly wrapped, so I’ll let the delivery pros be Santa this year.

(BTW, can we all just pause and acknowledge and thank the REAL heroes of this season, aka the UPS, FedEx, USPS, and other delivery drivers and workers?! They have a thankless, endless job and I am soooo, so grateful for them.)

If you’re looking for the perfect gift for your sweetest gal pals, besties, female relatives, coworkers, or clients, get some inspiration for fun home items, comfy work-from-home clothes and necessities, and practical gifts they wouldn’t think to buy themselves below!

HOW TO SET SMALL GOALS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE

August 23, 2018

Is it just me, or can setting ambitious goals feel unattainable or unrealistic at times? Especially those big-picture, long-term goals. Sure, yeah, in 10 years I’d love to own a house in the country and have a couple books published and have a few more figures in the bank and maybe have a mountain home for long weekends and holidays. That’s easy to visualize and dream about all day long, but how in the world do you actually get there?

I believe the key is starting small — like minuscule, the teeniest of tiny — and then building and stacking from there. This realization came to me as all the best ones do: accidentally. It started with flossing.

LOVE YA FOREVER

March 23, 2017

Hello. Happy almost-end-of-March. I’m having writer’s block and can’t think of any charming stories or witty pieces of advice for this week’s post, so instead, here’s a list of things I hope I never get tired of — and, you know what? It was oddly therapeutic and even a little challenging coming up with this list. So, maybe I do have some advice (because I’m bossy like that): Try coming up with your list of things you hope to treasure forever, and then actively add those things into your day-to-day life. I know that’s what I’ll be doing with mine (‘specially that first one).

A good glass of wine. Or three.

Listening to live music.

People-watching in airports.

Homemade sundaes.

A sweaty yoga class with good music.

Cracking bad jokes, even if they only make one person laugh. (Even if that one person is me.)READ MORE

3 WORDS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

March 15, 2017

I am a big, BIG listener to and lover of podcasts. I nanny during the day, so — while I can do baby talk and love hanging out with my best 13-month-old pal — sometimes I need a little more stimulating “conversation” during my weekdays. Podcasts might not provide the back-and-forth of your typical conversation, but at least I can get a laugh or learn something interesting throughout the day.

I subscribe to funny ones, like My Favorite Murder (you might not think murder is comical, per se, but the hosts somehow tell these real-life horror stories in an unabashedly fascinated and, yes, humorous way); inspirational ones, like The Skinny Confidential: Him & Her (Lauryn Evarts is the creator behind the blog, The Skinny Confidential, and the banter with her husband, Michael, on their podcast is all at once informational, relatable, and hilariously real); and mindless, fun ones, like Straight Up with Stassi (she’s my favorite Bravolebrity and always has interesting guests and behind-the-scenes stories that I live for).

The latter is what I was listening to a couple weeks ago on the treadmill when I was happily surprised with a more serious topic than Stassi normally goes into. In this particular episode, she brought on a life coach who gave advice on working through anxiety, not letting others’ opinions get to you, and a simple method to understanding your place in the world. The life coach said that sometimes we get bogged down by other people’s expectations, and even our own expectations about how we think our lives should be going or how we should be dealing with things. (Raise your hand if you’re thinking, YEP, because I sure was.)

And then we get disappointed when life doesn’t go according to plan, or when we fall short in some way. So, she explained that we should all have a phrase to come back to when we’re feeling lost or out of sorts, no matter if it has to do with your personal life, work, relationships, or even just being stressed out in traffic. This phrase should be your home base, your reason for what you do and how you act in every situation and every second of the day.

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