Today I’m so lucky to have two amazing shops offering a giveaway to one lucky HLL reader. So if you are in need of some new accessories this Spring season this is the place to be! Today’s giveaway comes from the ever so awesome Style Lately and Soul Makes.
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Style Lately is an online clothing shop based out of Salt Lake City. Bringing you the latest trends and hottest collection of fashion jewelry and accessories for 30-70% off! Full of feminine and fun pieces, it is the online shopping experience you will be left fully satisfied with.

THE GIVEAWAY
The Evo Chain Bracelet 
Pssst, I have the same one and I’ve gotten lots of compliments already 😉
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Soul Makes is a collaboration between two love birds; MacKenzie and Trevor Mars. She is the designer and maker behind this collaboration of wild and free accessories and he is the photographer and visionary that breathed life into their passionate story. With jewelry designs that appeal to both men and women, our collection is inspired by all things worldly, capturing a little of the wild west, a bit of gypsy magic, and a whole lot of soul…

THE GIVEAWAY
A $50.00 store credit to Soul Makes.
You can get great pieces like this and we can be twins! (I adore this feminine, statement piece)
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It’s Thursday!! I can’t even believe it! I don’t think you all realize how relieved I will be once Sunday rolls around and Eric and I are up in the air on our way to Germany! Sunday can not come soon enough! These past few days / weeks really have been a rough one, and wanderlust has kicked in full swing. Just trying to finalize all last minute details. Picking up our euros at the bank, making sure they know that we will be using our credit cards out of the country, finding adapter’s for all of our electronics, travel maps and books. Basically we are going to be the ultimate tourists. Nose in the maps, loads of cameras, fanny packs and all.
While I get myself under control I wanted to keep you guys occupied with someone special. Today we have the lovely Bre’an from ST8 of MIND. This little photo savvy, New Yorker is too cute for words, and so wise in her outlook on life. Don’t believe me? Read below, and make sure to check out her blog after this interview!

As most of you know Google Reader is soon coming to an end. To some this can be devastating. To others, we improvise and find other ways to keep our readers in tact (BlogLovin’, what have you). And then there’s others who took off Google Reader from their sites months / years ago and never really cared. Either way, this whole “numbers” thing really had me thinking. Why do I blog?
When I first started up my blog almost two years ago I was going through a great change in my life of getting married to my best friend and I wanted to document it. I was never very good at keeping consistent journal entries and turned to the Internet, a space where I consume so much of my time, as the next best option. Within weeks of starting I really just found a passion for blogging – the community, the writing, the inspirations I found from other bloggers and within myself.

And as blogging is continuing to be seen as this massive platform for other potential opportunities (writing your own book, becoming a spokesperson for clothing lines, starting your own line, getting your own television show) so many have turned to blogger for their chance. I would be lying if I were to say that numbers didn’t matter to me. Don’t get me wrong, numbers aren’t everything but there is just something so exciting when you sign into blogger and see that you have gone up another reader. That’s another person who enjoys coming to your site, loves reading what you have to say, what you have to show to the world. Who doesn’t want that, to feel that their voice matters? So yes, numbers can matter if you are really wanting to take your blog somewhere “special”.
Where am I going with this? Of course I would love if I could really turn this here blog into a mini business. To make it my big platform into bigger and better things. But more importantly I don’t want to loose that sense of community and being inspired from one another. So going back to Google Reader…
Is it just me or does it seem like ever since Google Reader announced that it will be removing this feature within the coming months that blogging has just changed? It’s almost as if we are all throwing in the towel and giving up on blogging. A lot of people don’t seem to be posting as much, commenting as much (all of which I’m guilty of as well). Instead of building each other up there’s so much contention of comparison and breaking each other apart.

I guess what I’m getting at is, why do we blog? What are our goals?
Don’t loose that first initial passion that I know we all had / have.