Five on Friday: Skincare

 It's that time again y'all! A little five on Friday action. It's turned into one of my favorite days to blog.

I unfortunately missed out on the adorable Jordon's linkup about all things glam the past two weeks. Major boooo!
So she inspired today's post where I am sharing all things about my skincare routine.

With that being said, I must say I have very, and i mean very, problematic skin. Not so much with breakouts, but with blackheads, combo of oil and dry skin and sunspots from years of bad decisions regarding the sun/tanning beds in my teens and early twenties. Ladies - wear sunscreen!!! It's pricey to erase the damages done by not wearing some SPF. Trust me, I know.  And i am a picker...it's nasty, but at least I own it. If it pops up on my face, I will pick at it.  And for all you people blessed by the skin gods - well i wanna say a few bad words to you right now under my breath.

Before the wedding, I started putting a little extra cash flow into more expensive skin care routine. I started seeing an aesthetician for microdermabrasion and light chemical peels and my skin never looked better. Since the wedding is over, and high maintenance trips to my Lexington aesthetician are hard to fit into my schedule, I keep up with a fairly high end routine at home. I still try to see her every 8-10 weeks if I can for a peel or microdermabrasion, depending on what I need.

Now don't get me wrong, there are drug store items I do use....coconut oil has became my new best friend this winter, but these are the items that work for me outside of the drug store realm.

skincare by whitney-banks featuring SkinMedica

1. Lytera - made by skin medica. This stuff is magic in a bottle. It has helped my melasma/dark/sun spots the most and has improved the evenness of my skin tone. Lytera really helps to reduce the appearance of skin discolorations. It’s a  non-hydroquinone formula and gentle on the skin. It does have a wee bit of retinol in it as well. I try to use this stuff twice a day - once in the morning before moisturizing and the same at night. 

2. My Clarisonic. By now you have heard of this little gem, and it truly is. Keeps my blackheads at bay. I notice a huge difference when I slack off. 

3. Skin Medica APA/BHA Cleanser - just switched to this stuff and I love it. I use just a pea size amount to wash my whole face with my clarisonic. It has a mild exfoliate in it, which has been great with this dead skin in the winter crap. I love the smell of it too. 

4. Skinceuticals retinol complex 0.5 - girls start using a retinoid now. you can even find them at local Wal-marts/Target/Walgreens. It helps so much with the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Retinol essentially helps to stimulate cell regeneration and build collagen to diminish the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. I literally use a pea size amount around 3 times a week (once daily) in the winter, and try to do it every other day in the summer. You have to be careful because it can make you very flakey if you use to much. 

5. Skin Medica Ceramide Treatment Cream - this is essentially my moisturizer in the winter. It's very thick for my dry skin. This is not something for those of you that are prone to more oily skin. I use it after cleansing, toning and applying my retinol/lytera. 

You will also find in my skin care regimen - sunscreen, coconut oil, and witch hazel (for toning).

So there you have it folks. Feel free to ask me any questions, I am by no means an expert, but I love learned a lot about skincare in the past year or two. 

Happy Friday!!! 

a day with a photo every hour

Super excited to link up with Steph and Meg O for a "photo an hour" today. 

When I read Steph's post last week I immediately thought - i love this!!!! and then she announced there would be a link up and I knew I had to jump on the bandwagon. So last Sunday I literally had to set an alarm every hour on my phone, or my flighty mind would totally forget to snap a photo....and every hour I grabbed my phone and snapped away.

Not gonna lie, I really enjoyed it. It was fun to remember the little details of the day, and I could totally see myself doing this from time to time. There was nothing particularly special about last Sunday, just your average lazy weekend day....here is how it looked for us. 

 6:50 am wake up call thanks to Mr. Bailey who needed a potty break. He immediately ran and jumped right back in bed. BTW - this is our dog bedding....i promise we have acceptable/pretty bedding, too :-)

First things first in our house in the mornings....coffee! 

I did a little Sunday morning cleaning before church. I get a little OCD about my floors. 

Breakfast time for the puppies. Look at hubs in his star trek robe. I secretly love it! 

Sunday selfie and OOTD before church

12:00pm - church time. lots of people getting an extra cup of joe before and after service. can't complain about free coffee. we were blessed with an amazing service

met up with one of my college gal pals after church. we had a quick lunch at panera and came back the house to visit. it was the first time she had seen the new house and was so much fun. 

yummmy girl scout cookies. get them away from me cause i can't stop! 

finally updated my 2013 planner. found this cute one at tarjay for ten bucks. i love how big it is. 

bundled up in layers and layers of clothing and took the doggies out to play in the snow 

we watched a little television and did some leisure reading. Jillian Michaels for me......science fiction stuff for Kev. 

Homemade turkey chili for dinner.....yum yum. 

I worked on adding new frames, decor and photos in our bedroom. It had been put off for far too long. 

Turned on The Grammys and watched Queen B and her hubby's steamy duet. I must confess that I am a huge Bey and JayZ fan, but this was almost a little too hot and borderline uncomfortable for me to watch. I liked it when he came out, I thought it became more more playful.

Ending the day with books in bed and cuddles with the puppies. We usually get in bed around 930 through the week and lights out by 10 together....and you will hear no complaints from me about going to bed early.

So there you have it....my day summed up in iphone photos.
Excited that tomorrow is Friday and today is my last day of the work week. win win!!! 

our weekend in a nutshell

This weekend was my kind of weekend. We did a whole lot of nothing....and you will not hear me complain! 

Top Left: Kev picked out these cute boots from tarjay for me. I love them! We love us some weekend target trips together...Kev's wallet...not so much. 

Middle Left: Our house discovered the many wonders of coconut oil this weekend. How have we lived without it? We have cooked with it, moisturized with it and washed off  my makeup with it. I am semi-obsessed.  

Middle Bottom: Our weekend motto. We were snowed in all weekend and spent our no shower Saturday in our pajamas. 

Top Right: We were in our jammies before 9pm and we loved every second of it 

Bottom Right: We started out friday night at one of our local faves - Flipdaddy's. A craft beer and burger joint. It was delish. Kev and I split a turkey burger on a pretzel bun with horseradish, cheddar, sauerkraut and dijon mayo. OHHEEEMMMGEEEE good! 

 Top Left: We stayed in for dinner saturday night and Kev whipped us his famous homemade chicken nachos

Top Right: two thumbs up from me and a photo bomb by Uggie Sue 

Bottom Left: I put on so many layers of clothing, including Kev's coveralls, to play with our fur babies in the snow. I may have looked like the Michelin tire man. 

Bottom right: The snow y'all! It's for real up here in the NKY. We had over a foot of snow in some of the drifts in our front and backyard. Kev shoveled for nearly an hour Saturday morning. 

Sunday - I participated in "a photo an hour" for this bloggy link up. Even for the photo obsessed like me, this task was hard. Can't wait to share.

Hope everyone is having a great week and that you all are warmer than I am....it's a high of 8 degrees here today. Yuccccckkky. 

Five on Friday

It's that time of the week again...thank goodness for another Friday! 

1. Got my hair did end of last week and I am rocking out bangs again....and my hair is much darker. No more ombre'. It was too much upkeep and was making my ends so fragile. This gal's baby fine hair couldn't take it. Kev loves my hair dark...I like it with more red/copper tints...but gotta make my man happy. knowwhatiamsaying??? And I cut a good two inches off....lord knows it needed it. 

2. We be up in the gym just working on our fitness......
That's right, Kev and I have finally started working out again. We hit the ground running Monday, and I must confess, I have been so sore all week. Like can't sit on the toilet cause it hurts kind of sore. It's embarrassing that I could only crank out seven push-ups Monday....seven! and they were "girl" style on my knees. I can't even talk about it. It's kind of pathetic....but I will tone it up by bikini season, especially with the neighborhood pool around the corner :-)

We still have lots of work in store for this area of  our basement, but so excited that it's up and running and a functional space we plan to sweat it out in. 

3.This huge wooden monogram I am ordering to hang above our bed in the bedroom. Can't wait to get this bad boy at my doorstep. A little bummed it takes 3-4 weeks to ship and delivery, but it will be well worth the wait

Via

4. The snow! 

Brrrrrrrrrr....NKY got another 4 inches of snow this week. I do love the pretty white snow so much, but I am over it. I need the sun and 70 degree temps on my skin. Come on summer and spring....hurry up and get here. I am ready to put my wellies up already. 

5. These two new recipes that have became staples on our menus. check them out on my pinterest board. 

via

(we have been eating this one without the tortillas...it's super yummy with cilantro coleslaw or a side of black beans.)

via

Looking forward to a weekend with no major plans. Hoping to do a little home improvement and a lot of lounging and taking it easy. I live for weekends like this and so looking forward to this one.

Happy Friday Y'all! 

Home Tour: The Kitchen

I do love our kitchen. It's got great counter space and is so functional for us. I tend to spend a lot of time in the evenings in this room and I love how country/homey it feels.  We also love how the kitchen spills right into the formal dinning room on one side, the living room on another, and the kitchenette area just over the snack bar. I love the island, under cabinet lighting, back splash, the seamless sink and our corian counter tops. The white and neutral tones in this room makes everything feel so crisp and clean. I try to keep only the things we use regularly on our counter tops. I hate junking them up. Kev and I cook all meals sunday-thursday in the kitchen, so functionality is super important to us.

I do plan to add some color and may change up the white canister and utensil holder, but for now, we sure do love our Kitchen. 

Take a look around.