Whole Life Coffee Review

Hi guys!
Today I'm bringing you a little something different. I recently tried coffee from a new brand called Whole Life Coffee. Because I believe in spreading the word about awesome small businesses, I figured it might be fun to tell you all about my experience. Full disclosure first: I do know the owner of this company, but I bought the coffee myself and I am in no way endorsing something because I was asked to. Everything in this post is my own opinion and was not influenced in any way. Okay, now we're ready!

The Brand

Whole Life Coffee is a company whose goal is to bring high-quality, small batch roasted, wholesome coffee to people's homes. When large coffee companies produce coffee, they cannot give the attention to detail that a smaller company provides, so the quality is lower in large batch coffees. At Whole Life Coffee, the highest quality beans are available for selection, and then those beans are roasted right before they are shipped to the consumer.

The Coffee

My husband and I use a Chemex for our morning coffee. We grind the each morning and always boil filtered water. I can tell you honestly that we are pretty picky about coffee and can taste the difference in freshness from brand to brand. For our first Whole Life Coffee, we chose the Kenya AA beans because of their quality and, quite frankly, the delicious sounding description. I ordered the coffee in the afternoon and it arrived on my doorstep two days later. Not bad at all! As soon as I opened the bag I got a waft of rich, fresh coffee with crisp notes! For one batch of Chemex coffee, I used five tablespoons of roughly ground coffee (we like our coffee strong). That is slightly more coffee than I usually use per batch, but I realized after brewing the first carafe that it was too weak. A little more coffee the second time made the perfect strength. I finished pouring and couldn't help but admire the color of this coffee when backlit. It definitely had a red tint which I'd never seen before! I poured two cups and my husband and I took our first sips. The Kenya AA roast is a medium bodied coffee without strong acidity. It would be the perfect coffee to seduce someone who thinks they don't like coffee. I would describe the flavor as smooth and nutty, with floral hints. I want to try all of the Whole Life Coffee roasts, but it's going to be hard to keep from buying this one again and again!

The Quick Version

If you appreciate the finer things in life, like a strong, flavorful cup of coffee, you need to try Whole Life Coffee. Yes, it is pricy compared to the cheap, mass produced coffee you can pick up at the grocery store, but like most things, you get what you pay for.

Check out their website (linked above) and be sure to follow on social media! They've been having coffee giveaways, and who doesn't love that? Leave me a comment below if you try Whole Life Coffee; I would love to hear your thoughts.

The Five People You Meet on Poshmark

I've been on Poshmark for about 6 months now, and have made a few hundred dollars selling my clothes, so you could definitely say I'm a fan. Throughout my time on this app, I've noticed that Poshers can be diveded into five major groups, with the exception of a few outliers of course. If you've bought or sold on Poshmark long enough, you'll probably recognize these people. And if you're not on Poshmark yet, make an account, list a few items, and sit back and wait for the first type to show up.

The Low-Baller
The low-ball offer made in the comment section is the signature move of this type. They'll like a few items, one for $15, another for $10, and then maybe a third for $8, and then they'll leave the comment, "I'll do $5 for the items I've liked." What?!?! Are you serious? Yes, please let me lose money on the gas it will take to go to the post office to mail your three items for the $2 I get to keep. For those of you who are thinking, "well isn't that kind of the name of the game?" Look, I'm all for making offers. Offers are great! But everyone on Poshmark knows the app takes a commission off the profit, so you're essentially asking for the items to be given away. If I wanted to give my items away, they'd be in a Goodwill bin, not on Poshmark.

The Unrealistic Rater
This type is a lot harder to recognize, because by the time you spot them, it's too late. I won't name names (although you can go on my Poshmark account and figure it out), but someone purchased a pair of like-new 00 pants from me and then gave me a 1-star rating. I saw the alert and panicked! What could have happened? Was the package set outside in a puddle and they were ruined? Did someone open the package and steal the pants from her doorstep? Nope. Turns out the 00 didn't fit her so she felt I didn't do a good job describing the pants. Umm...the pants are a 00. I'm not. I have no way of knowing if they fit like a "true" 00. The number one rule of Poshing is ask questions. If you want to know how they will fit, ask the seller! I have a tape measure lying out just waiting to answer questions like that. If you don't ask the questions and then don't like the results, blame yourself, not the seller.

The Overly Eager Seller
"Thank you for liking my listing!!!! *heart* *smiley* *heart* *heart eyed smiley*" This Posh personality is the equivalent of the sales guy in the mall chasing you down so you'll let him straighten your hair. "Pretty lady! Pretty lady, is that your natural hair?" Please just let me walk by. They mean well, they really do, but sometimes you just want to keep your eye on an item, not be sold on it that very moment. Now, confession time, I've totally been guilty of this, so I get it. You want to make that sale and it's so close you can taste it! But let's face it, no one wants to be hassled whether its in the mall or over an app.

The Posh Goddess
Every now and then, I run into a closet on Poshmark and my jaw drops. Designer bags, adorable tops, dozens of dresses, and all of them are perfectly modeled and realistically priced. Yup, these ladies are the Posh Goddesses. They've got it all figured out and must be making a nice buck doing it. What makes this group even more fabulous is that when you share their listings with your couple thousand followers, they'll turn back around and share your listings with their hundreds of thousands of followers! I imagine that's also the same feeling you get when you're in a crowd, cheering for a celebrity, and suddenly they look right at you, smile and wave. Now that's class.

The Everyday Shopper
This last group is where I, and probably the majority of Poshmark people, fall into. We are the people who like to shop, have overly loaded closets we'd like to clean out, and wouldn't mind making some easy money. These are the people who have like-new Mod Cloth Panda shoes for sale simply because they were bought on clearance and never worn. Be nice to this group, because they could turn into the goddesses one day.


If you're on Poshmark and any of these ring true, let me know in a comment below. If you think I've missed a group, I'd love to hear what other Posh People are out there.
In the meantime, check out my closet because I have recently added about 20 new items!

Developing a Personal Style Through Style Intentions

For the past month, I have been using my Stylebook app to calendar my outfits. I once thought this was a mark of insanity, but it's actually not that much extra effort when you have all your clothes logged in the app anyways. What has surprised me most about doing this is that besides the weekends, I wear the same handful of items all the time. And no, I don't technically have a uniform for work. I knew something must be wrong when out of 85 tops and 55 bottoms, only a dozen were being used. Thanks to a flowchart found on Pinterest, I was able to diagnose that my closet does not match my true personal style. Flowcharts are never wrong #science. That's great to know, but the more I thought about this, I began to realize I'm not even sure how I would define my style. Thankfully another pin had the answer. I've decided to blog my way through "6 Steps to Setting a Style Intention."

Here is the link to the step by step guide! If you have a few minutes (10-15) you might enjoy going through the process with me!

Step 1: If you're following along, you'll see that the first step is to list 5 words that describe how you want to feel after you get dressed. I decided on stylish, comfortable, polished, pretty, and confident.

Step 2: Next, I'm supposed to think of someone whose style I admire and consider the top 3 things I love about her style. Although no fewer than ten names popped into my head just now, I'll use Kendi from the blog Kendi Everyday. I like that her style is simple, classic, and feminine. I think she feels comfortable and confident in her outfits, and I really appreciate that she knows how to accessorize without going overboard.

Step 3: This step took me back to Pinterest, so I've decided to share my board with you. Go ahead. Click it.

Follow Stephanie's board Style Intention on Pinterest.

What this helped me realize is that I love neutral outfits with a pop of color. If the outfit or dress is all neutral, I want it to have some other interesting aspect, like a shimmer or a scalloped detail. I also like completing pieces like blazers, cardigans, or awesome shoes so that the look feels cohesive, not like separate pieces.
After this step, I'm starting to feel like things are coming together. I can't wait to see what's coming next...

Step 4: Looking at all the descriptions I've written down so far, it looks like I value details that make clothes visually interesting, as well as comfort for the occasion, and complete outfits that convey polish and confidence.
For this step, my words are: detail, comfort, polish, confidence.

Step 5: When I look at the outfits on my Pinterest board, I feel interested, happy, confident, like people in these clothes are friendly and smart.

My Style Intentions:
I want to feel confident when I get dressed every morning.
At 3 PM I want to look in the mirror and see an outfit that looks detailed and polished.
I want to wear clothes that feel comfortable and combine for outfits that look smart.
I want to wear clothes that make me feel happy, friendly, and interesting.

And we're done! I hope you took this little mini workshop with me. I definitely found it interesting, and I'm no longer on the fence about many pieces in my wardrobe (hint: they'll be in my Poshmark shop soon @ShopCCR). Comment below if you've also found your style intentions and let me know what you came up with!

Stripes with a Side of Floral, Please

How is it already September? But a better question is why is it still 100 degrees outside? We're at the point in the year when I'm ready for an Autumn chill. I love waking up to crisp air and a cool breeze. Let's face it, coffee never tastes better than when it's starting to cool off outside. I love being able to layer without dying of heat, and I'm especially looking forward to wearing boots again.

Even though it's a million degrees, not even the heat could keep me from wearing this scarf with my striped top. I love how it feels like a floral without actually having flowers. It's more like a modern watercolor interpretation of flowers, or at least I think so. And we all know stripes and floral patterns go together like pumpkin spice lattes and mildly offensive jokes.

Shop my Look: Top / Pants (Loft) / Scarf (Hollister Seasons ago) / Shoes (Target seasons ago)

Teacher Foundation Wardrobe: Day 10

Here we are at the end of August and the end of an era. And by era I of course mean the Teacher Foundation Wardrobe. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have! Throughout this process, I learned the value of basics and how a little creativity can save a lot of trouble searching for what to wear. This capsule demonstrates an essential clothing principle: if it's remixable, it's a staple. Who would have thought that a sequinned shirt could count as a versatile piece of clothing? I certainly didn't. But once I was able to see it away from my stuffed closet, next to only a few other pieces, I realized that it goes with a lot! The same is true of my wine colored pants. Although they're a color (not just black, white, or gray), they count as a neutral because they look good with just about any color.

This mini capsule experiment was so much fun that I'll probably repeat the process in spring with brighter colors. If you'd like to try your hand at making a foundation wardrobe I would love to hear how it goes. If you need more inspiration before trying it for yourself, then make sure you continue to follow Kate in the Classroom since she lives the capsule life 24/7!

Here's a look at Kate's entire Teacher Foundation Wardrobe. So pretty!

Teacher Foundation Wardrobe: Day 9

Every now and then, a remixed look comes together and it makes you wonder how on earth you had never put those items together before! I'm so glad I decided to put this sequinned top in my capsule because up until now, I always thought it was more of a weekend with jeans type of look. Now I'm seeing that sequins can actually look quite professional when paired with classically serious pieces. It's hard to pick a hero here. Is it the necklace? The shoes maybe? I feel like if you were to take away any part of this outfit, it wouldn't have the same effect.

People, it's time for a happy dance. Today is Friday which means we all survived the first week of school! I've had coworkers conversationally ask, "any plans for the weekend?" and I'm just thinking, "yeah, I'm going to sleep." It makes me grin to think about not having an alarm wake me up tomorrow. I could sleep until 8 or 9 and not have that weird moment of wondering why an annoying sound is interrupting my dreams before remembering summer is over. But if I'm being honest, I do have other things to accomplish other than sleeping. I'd like to get outside! It's weird, but being inside all day again really makes me miss mornings. It's August, so unless you get outside early or late, there's no point in facing the 100 degree weather in between. Florida people, testify. So although sleep sounds good, waking up for a morning walk would be nice too. No matter what I end up doing, I want to relax with Dan. We've both been going a hundred miles an hour all week, so I can't wait to slow down and enjoy time with him. I know he's looking forward to it too.

Teacher Foundation Wardrobe: Day 8

I'm happy to report that school has been great so far! I've met most of my students (a few still haven't shown up) and they are sweet, smart individuals. The seventh grade teachers who had these kids last year told me I'd love them, so I'm thrilled to find out they are right. That being said, I had forgotten how tired teacher-tired is. I get home and it's all I can do to keep from falling face down on the bed and taking a nap straight through until morning. This makes scheduling outfits even more important for me! I used to be able to just throw together an outfit each day and be fine, but now that I wake up, do chores while I actually wake up, and then have about thirty minutes to get out the door, I need to know ahead of time what I'll be wearing. I've enjoyed this capsule so much, I plan on scheduling my entire week of outfits each weekend. Although paper and pencil would work just as well, I'll be using my Stylebook app to plan and schedule each look.

The look I'm wearing today is my classic black pencil skirt, a loft tank with fun side trim, and a Hollister scarf I've had forever. It's been over a hundred degrees lately so instead of layering with a jacket or sweater, I decided to add a scarf. It brings a little texture and contrast to the look without making me sweat. That's what I call a win win.