25th Birthday Recap!

I turned 25 last Sunday, and had the loveliest weekend celebrating with some of my favorite people! My dad was kind enough to plan a special weekend for my birthday and flew out to New York to celebrate with me, Joe, and my aunt & uncle. We spent the weekend in the Hamptons and then came back to the city on Sunday for the Yankees vs. Red Sox game!

I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but I am a big birthday person. I really, really like having special plans for my birthday, and that usually includes seeing people I love or traveling somewhere special. My birthday weekend this year was absolutely wonderful and I've been feeling just so happy and lucky ever since. Let's recap the weekend!

This Week's Top 10: Birthday Weekend & Currently Loving

image via pinterest

It's been a few months since my last installment of "This Week's Top 10," which is a Friday series of blog posts that I created years ago to share weekly favorites and discoveries. This week I found myself just loving and sharing so many things that I had to bring it back!

1. I think the highlight of the week is undoubtedly that I published my first vlog of 2023! I hadn't vlogged since December, and I know many of you missed the vlog content, so I did a mini "week in my life" last week. If you haven't watched it yet, you can find it here! Hope you love it!

2. In the vlog, I talked about some of my favorite skincare products, including this Vitamin C Serum, Retinol serum, and moisturizer. I did not, however, show you my new *obsession:* this Summer Fridays lip balm. Oh my gosh, it's so fabulous. The color (I have the vanilla beige) is surprisingly stunning and the product is soo juicy, shiny, and hydrating. Love it.

3. I received both the moisturizer & the lip balm in my Fab Fit Fun box, which I have a discount code for: FRANCESCA20 for 20% off! The price of the box ends up coming out around the price of one of the items in the box, making everything else an added bonus. Such a great deal and so much fun!

My Delusional Birthday Wishlist / Gift Guide

My 25th birthday is this weekend and I thought it might be fun to make a delusional/unrealistic wishlist and put it out into the world!

In my family, my parents have made milestone birthdays really special. As a Leo, it's something I do not take for granted and means so, so much to me. In exchange, we don't really do birthday presents, and I love it that way! I have more than everything I need in life and really all I want every year is to spend time with the people that I don't get to see enough now that I'm an adult.

A few favorite birthdays were: my 18th birthday when my dad surprised me with a sunset sailboat ride in Maine, my 20th birthday (my golden birthday) when my dad took me to Palm Beach for a weekend, and my 21st birthday when my mom took me to Napa for a week of wine tasting. 

This year, I am turning 25, and I'm looking forward to spending the weekend in the Hamptons with my dad, aunt and uncle, and Joe! I feel so grateful for them and the fun experiences they've given me! In exchange, as I mentioned, we don't really do physical gifts, so this list is completely just for fun!

Also - I already own a few of the items on this list and absolutely love them, so I thought this could be a fun mini-gift guide if there's anyone fabulous in your life with a birthday coming up.

Wedding Guest Dresses Under $350

I have a friend's wedding next month, and the search is on to find something fabulous to wear! I have been looking around quite a bit lately and thought I'd share all of the wedding guest dresses I've come across so far, at a reasonable price range (in my opinion, under $350). 

Shop them below!

August Moodboard (Desktop & iPhone Wallpaper)

Happy AUGUST! This month I really felt the pressure with the mood board. Usually, the "theme" just comes to me; it pops into my head and I know exactly what to do. This month, I wanted the theme to just be "me" because August is my birthday month, but for some reason "me" as a theme was a little difficult to fit into one aesthetic... the chaos was really showing ;) additionally, I feel like everyone loved the July mood board, and personally, the August 2022 mood board is my favorite mood board of all time. 

ANYWAY, I am happy with how this one turned out and I hope you love it. I can't believe August is already here!

Please tag me on IG if you download it- I absolutely love to see the mood board on your screens!!