This Insta Life

I tried to do a little play-on-words with the title of this series. Instead of "this is the life", "this insta life"... Insta for Instagram. See what I did there? 

Anyway, now that I have started somewhat regularly using Instagram, I thought I would share some pictures from from there that don't necessarily make the blog.

Be sure to follow along @Simplysarahsblog

Obligatory selfie on the way to my college roommate's wedding. I could count on one hand the number of times I had worn lipstick before this event and now I'm in love with lip color - not necessarily red all the time, but I've definitely been busting out some new lip shades. (I'm wearing Sephora Collection "Pure Red" color lip last and Charming Charlie sunglasses.)

Have I mentioned I love succulents? We have about 15-20 plants my apartment inherited one of our porches and I'm obsessed with them. Minimal upkeep and maximum beauty = my kind of garden. (As you can see, I am once again wearing my favorite sandals and my toes are paint with Essie's "Blanc" nail polish.)

One noticeable different between the Bay Area and where I grew  up in Ohio (minus the snow) is that flowers bloom all the time here. The university where I work has hundreds, yes hundreds, of rose bushes and they have blooms at least 90% of the time. Couldn't help but snap a picture of this gorgeous rose after a picnic on campus last week. So pretty.

Now that it's officially summer I want to keep trying new recipes and experiment with delicious meals. I hopped on pinterest on Tuesday to look for some inspiration and right at the top of the suggested pins was this recipe for shrimp and quinoa. Two of my favorite foods in one spectacular recipe - it was fate. Keep a look out on the blog for another "from That to This" including some changes I made to suite my tastes.

Finally, yesterday I attended an event at the Gap in San Francisco where they introduced their partnership with Birchbox! For those who don't know, Birchbox is a monthly beauty subscription that shares generously sized samples of high end make up and beauty products. We were able to build our own Birchbox while we drank champagne, received free makeovers and shopped around. It was a ton of fun. You even got a free gift just for posting a picture to Instagram, which ended up being a lipstick (to add to my new and rapidly growing collection) and a travel sized bottle of shampoo which will be perfect for my European travels this month! I'm super happy to have stepped outside of my comfort zone and gone.

I hope you're all having a wonderful Thursday! Does anyone have fun weekend plans?

Peace,
Sarah