taylormae

About Me!

June 10, 2018June 26, 2018 taylormae

Hello and welcome to Tay By Day! This blog is the space where I will share content on how to stay organized when you’re busy living your best life, have you follow me on my journey to living GREEN, and how to make healthy inexpensive meals the entire family will enjoy. I will also share my endless D.I.Y. projects, beauty and health tips, and the realities of being a young military spouse.

Lets start with the basics, shall we? My name is Taylor and I am currently 20 years old, but about to be 21! Can I get a WHOOP WHOOP! I am a born and raised Idahoan and loved my years spent growing up in small town America. I met my husband two years ago on vacation and on March 10th, 2017 we got married and I moved to the island of Oahu! Its been a crazy and exciting journey that has helped me learn and grow in ways I could have never imagined! I am more than thankful for the experiences I have had and opportunities I’ve been given to grow as person.

My goal is to grow this blog by sharing relatable content and to grow a community centered around these three principles: compassion, creativity, and self awareness. I hope you will stick around, there is sure to be some fun times up ahead!

XOXO Taylor Mae

Lifestyle Cat.

Morning Self Care Routines You Should Be Following

June 10, 2018June 10, 2018 taylormae

We all want to be our best selves, but sometimes actually accomplishing it can seem daunting, right? Where do you even start? As a nanny for two wonderful but energetic children under the age of five, and a military spouse to boot I always struggle to maintain my calm throughout the day, and keeping my energy centered so to speak. Over time however I have found a few basic things that you can do to start your day on the right foot!

If you had asked me a year ago what my morning routine was, it would have been totally different than what it is now! I had just moved to Hawaii and got married to my husband Rey! I was 3,000 miles from home, had gone from working three jobs to none, and unlike before I had no family or friends to support me through this gigantic change in my life. To say the least I was extremely depressed and often felt like I had no purpose. About two months into my move to Hawaii I woke up one day and just knew I needed a change, and would do whatever I could to get back to the happy girl I used to be. The changes were small at first, but over time they helped me find a routine that worked. I was waking up excited for the day, and that was a welcomed change from before. A little effort goes a long ways when it comes to your personal happiness.

And it all starts with a glass of water!

Feel free to pick and choose from this list to find what best suits you and your lifestyle, this list is here to help and inspire you to start your day off right!

Wake up with the sunshine!

If Possible wake up to a beautiful sunrise streaming through your window rather than an alarm clock! Studies show that alarm clocks, unlike gradually waking up with the sun, can disrupt your circadian rhythm. If you don’t have the luxury of waiting for the sun the I recommend looking into Wake Up Lights or Sunrise Alarms.

Grab a glass of water to wake up and hydrate the body!

There is nothing your body will appreciate more than a cool glass of water right when you wake up. At first an entire glass might be hard to get down, I won’t lie, if your body isn’t use to it. Within a couple days though you will wake up and crave a cool glass of water, I promise! I like prepping a reusable water bottle with cut lemons, mint, and cucumber the night before, its so yummy and it gives the water a chance to absorb all the flavors of whatever you decide to add to your drink!

Stretch and meditate! Visualize your dreams!

I always take a moment after waking up to collect my thoughts and picture what I want my day to be like. Do I have a crazy schedule today and need some positive energy to get through? Or is it my day off and my goal is to write lots of awesome content? Whatever it happens to be that morning that you need visualize it! You’ll be astonished by the impact positive thinking will have on your life!

Find a skincare routine that works and follow through!

I could be fifteen minutes behind schedule of fifty, it doesn’t matter to me. I never skip out on my skin! Maybe its just because my mom was a licensed cosmetologist and salon owner for over a decade but she drilled it into my head that I have to take care of my skin, and I have! I wash my face with an alcohol free cleanser, apply my Thayers Witch Hazel Toner, pat on whatever serums I am using at the time, and then gently rub a facial moisturizer onto my face. It takes me maybe 5 minutes top so there’s no reason to skip out on this super important step!

Dress for Success, whether at work or home!

Wake up, Dress up, Show up! That’s the mantra my dad taught me and its what I repeat over and over in my head when I’m having one of my “lazy mornings”! Whether I am going to work or just lounging around the house I always make an effort even if it just means changing out of my pajamas into a pair of leggings and top. I don’t know about you but I always feel like more of a woman when I have made an effort to look nice!

Plan your day out in a calendar or diary!

I honestly own at least 15 journals/day-planners. Its like this weird obsession with trying to plan out every aspect of my life haha! I blame it on my type A personality, but my husband just tells me I’m a control freak. There is just something so relaxing about knowing what to expect from your day, at least for me anyways! It always makes every aspect of my day just run so much smoother and gives me an opportunity to make a list of things I want to accomplish.

Get Sweaty!

If you’re someone who always wants to exercise but by the end of the day you are too tired adding in a workout to your morning routine is a total game changer. I for one get lazier and lazier as the day goes on so working out in the A.M. is my only option if I want to get in my 30 minutes of exercise. Not to mention all the cute Instagram pics you can take at the gym or of that special view on your morning run!

Don’t skip out on the most important meal of the day!

I’m a breakfast kind of gal! I swear I haven’t skipped breakfast since my middle school days. I just can’t function like a normal human being without getting some food in my tummy, and I always feel like my brain functions so much better. Not to mention it curbs those mid-morning cravings, which means fewer calories consumed during the day! There is a reason they always say its the most important meal of the day!

Feel free to pick and choose from this list to find what best suits you and your lifestyle, this list is here to help and inspire you to start your day off right! Whatever you guys choose to do with your mornings I hope that you remember self care is important to maintaining your personal happiness!

XOXO Taylor

Lifestyle Cat.

10 Drugstore Beauty Products You Shouldn’t Live Without!

June 10, 2018June 10, 2018 taylormae

As I was doing my makeup this morning and reaching for all my go-to products, a thought occurred to me. What are 10 things in this bathroom I cannot live without? If I was stranded on an island what would I want to have with me? Well, technically I am stranded on an island, but you know what I mean!

Let me start by saying I am such a beauty product hoarder, and have signed up for every sample box there is. So I’ve tried it all! My husband tells me I have a problem and that in ten years I’m going to end up on the reality TV show Hoarders. I want to deny it, but he’s probably right… Y’all are lucky though because since I have tried every product out there, you don’t have too! So here are the 10 drugstore beauty products that should find a permanent home on your bathroom shelves!

Links will be provided to all products via their pictures for your convenience! If you do decide to buy through the amazon affiliate links I may make a profit from it.

1. Kiss Everlasting French Nails Kit

Okay, so these little babies are seriously no-joke! Anyone who knows me knows how OBSESSED I am with these glue on French nails. I have an entire basket in my bathroom dedicated to storing these bad boys for those times when you really want to look put together, but don’t want to spend the big bucks to do so. Lets face the facts here people, not all of us can go out and spend $50 for a set of nails, or even have the time do so. With these nails I’m literally done in about 15 minutes and only spent $6.00! What a deal!

Burts Bees Eye Mask

2. Burt’s Bee’s Rejuvenating Eye Mask

So I will start off by saying that I literally have the worst undereye bags and dark circles imaginable. Unlucky for me its hereditary and there isn’t a lot I can do about them, but then I stumbled upon these eye masks! For $3.00 I figured “What the heck!” and bought a couple to try and have been in love since! It leaves the skin under eye my eyes feeling plumped and soft, reduces the appearance of my eye bags, and smells good on top of it! What’s not to like!

*Amazon does not have an affiliate link to this product as of right now so I provided the address directly to the site or you can find it at any Target store near you!

3. Sun Bum Sunscreen

I don’t know about y’all but summer is in full swing here on the island of Oahu AND IT IS HAWT! Shoutout to my Irish heritage for my lovely yet very sunburn prone fair skin! I seriously keep a bottle of this stuff in my purse, in the car, and a couple for good measure in the bathroom incase I lose one! I like the SPF 30 but Sun Bum comes in a variety of SPF protection, and they even make a tanning oil that is the bomb.com! With the hottest months of the year approaching I can’t recommend this product enough, because we should all be doing our very best to protect our skin!

4. Queen Helene Cocoa Butter

I swear I came out of the womb with this lotion rubbed into my skin. Maybe its just me but there was always bottles of this stuff laying around my house growing up. Its cheap, it comes in HUGE bottles(I buy it in the 32oz size and it literally lasts me months), and smells delicious! I have extremely sensitive skin and have never once had a problem with this stuff! I mostly use it now for moisturizing after the shower but when I was younger I would spend too much time in the sun and come home looking like a lobster so my mother would rub it into the sunburned areas and I would feel good as new by the next day.

5. Garnier Whole Blends Repairing Mask

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m hard on hair. Blow drying? Yes. Curling? Yes. Straightening? Yes. Throwing it up in a bun and not washing it for a couple days? Double yes! Luckily for me though I stumbled upon this magical hair mask and have never looked back. Both my husband and I are in love with the smell and will spend a good five minutes just sniffing my hair while waiting for it to soak in! I leave a bottle of this stuff in my shower and use it almost every time I wash my hair and have noticed a huge difference in the health of my scalp and hair. Honestly even if it didn’t work I would still probably use it because it smells so good!

6. Bio-Oil

So in middle school I was that kid who hadn’t grown an inch since 4th grade and then one day I woke up and I swear I was foot taller and all of sudden I had a bigger chest and a butt and thighs… AND STETCH MARKS! I was so upset about all these purple lines that had magically appeared over my once flawless skin that I had asked my mother to find a product to help. We tried a few different things but the one product that I have used consistently since then is Bio-Oil. I use this as a “toner” for my skin these days since my troubles with stretch marks are over, but it still works wonders. I only use it a couple times a week since it is too much of a “heavy” oil for a daily face moisturizer but I notice a big difference in the over all evenness of my skin and scarring from my hormonal breakouts.

7. Epsom Salt

Some people don’t classify this is as a beauty product but I can’t survive without it! I don’t just use Epsom salt in my bathtub, I use it to make really easy exfoliating body and facial scrubs(One of these days I will get around to making a post on my DIY scrub recipes!), and on those days when I’m not careful enough and get fried by the sun I use Epsom salt to treat sunburns! The possibilities are endless when it comes to this magical stuff! I use the Dr. Teal brand but any kind will do. However I have to say that the Dr. Teals Soothe & Sleep Epsom salt is by far my favorite and perfect for those nights when you just want to light a couple candles and relax in the tub.

8. CHI Silk Infusion

My step mom got me hooked on this stuff way back when and there is always a bottle on my bathroom shelf now. Its a little more expensive than the rest of the products on this page but completely worth the money, I assure you! It only takes a very small, I repeat, a SMALL amount because this stuff packs a punch! It’ll leave your hair looking like you just stepped out of the salon. I have dry frizzy hair and CHI makes it manageable in seconds. I apply a small amount after I have towel dried my hair before blow drying and even my husband will attest that I go from swamp monster to L’Oréal cover girl with photo ready hair!

9. Earth Therapeutic Sleep Mask

Like I said earlier, I have terrible dark circles and under eye bags, so any product that helps with those problems I am all for, so when I found this eye mask I was pretty excited. It has this cool concept of combining a super soft sleep mask with frozen spoons. Am I the only person who put frozen spoons over their eyes to eliminate under eye bags? I hope not! Anyways, so from day one I noticed a difference when using this mask. My eyes stayed de-puffed longer and felt more refreshed when I woke up not to mention it blocks the light from the window directly across from our bed which is a total plus! All you need to do is pop this sucker in the fridge for an hour (or freezer for about 10 minutes) and then catch some beauty sleep! Easy as pie!

10. Thayers Witch Hazel Toner

I cant remember which YouTube beauty guru introduced me to this toner but thank you to whoever it was! Even my husband loves this toner and uses it all the time! Its perfect for those days when you’re in a hurry in the morning but still want to treat you skin with all the love it deserves! I noticed fewer breakouts and a more even skin tone when I used this product with an alcohol free face wash and have loved the results! Whenever someone comments on my skin I always tell them about Thayers Witch Hazel Toner because its honestly just that good!