Celebrate Galentine's Day

This is a sponsored post by Memebox.

Galentine's Day is the new Valentine's Day, didn't you hear? This Valentine's Day make some room for the gals in your life and celebrate how much you love and care for each other. In my mind the perfect girl party has dresses, flower crowns, flower petals, makeup, wine and candy. What about you?

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For the perfect makeup look, Stephanie of SN Makeup Artist and my dear friend, created an EASY makeup look for you. Simply apply Memebox's I'm Lip Tint Balm #2 in Flash Neon Pink and you have the perfect lips. Done! That's right. A DIY with one step. That's what I'm talking about! Get 10% off your lip tint when you use the code AVE10.

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Malori Maeva of Hoot and Holler created giant pink and red crowns for us to wear, and I dressed Steph and I up in dresses from Frances Vintage. Put some wine and chocolate out and turn on some girl tunes, and you got yourself a lovely, memorable Galentine's Day.

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Photos by Michelle Herrick; Art direction and styling by A.V.E. Styles; makeup by SN Makeup Artist, florals by Hoot and Holler.

Valentine's Dinner for My Love

We can all probably agree that men and women think differently even when it comes to food. When I think about cooking a romantic meal for two I think of things like wine, chocolate, cheese and bacon wrapped dates. When Ryan thinks about a tasty, romantic meal he thinks of steak, chili, potatoes and beer. So, since Valentine's is all about showing your loved one that you care for him or her, I decided I would should you what I would cook for Ryan. It's super, duper easy - cheddar and green chile cornbread with a slow cooker tortilla soup. CHEDDAR & GREEN CHILE CORNBREAD preheat over to 400 degrees.

Ingredients: 1 box of Jiffy corn mix 1 egg 1/3 cup of milk 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese 1 4 oz can of diced green chiles

Combine the first four ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix so all ingredients are combined, but leave the batter a little lumpy. Pour batter in a greased 8 x 8 pan or pyrex dish. Sprinkle chiles on top of the cornbread. You can make a heart or spell out a message if you would like.

Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Make sure sides are golden brown and that a toothpick comes out clean when you poke the center of the bread. Let stand 5 minutes and serve with butter.

You can make this bread a day ahead of time, but it tastes best first out of the oven.

SLOW COOKER TORTILLA SOUP 2 cans of Rotel with lime diced tomatoes 5-6 pieces of frozen chicken tenderloins 1 48 oz box of chicken broth 1 can of black beans drained and rinsed 1 yellow onion diced 4 cloves of minced garlic 1 4 oz can of green chiles 1/2 cup of frozen corn 2 1/2 teaspoons of chili powder 1 1/2 teaspoons of cumin Salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients together and cook on low for 10 hours. Pull out the chicken tenders and shred with two forks. Place back into the crockpot and stir. Serve and garnish with your favorite toppings such as shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, lime and/or cilantro.

I hope you enjoy this easy meal anytime of the year. You really can't go wrong when making this dish. I promise! If you're looking for more ideas to serve for Valentine's Day, please check out these other recipe ideas:

Savory crepes with creme brûlée by Friday We're in Love Panang curry with chocolate croissants by Freckles in April Smothered ranch chicken burritos with apple nachos by Deidre Emme Lasagna soup with sourdough bread and cinnamon rolls by Along Abbey Road Leige waffles with bacon and eggs by Nothing Comes of Nothing Make-ahead French Toast with bacon and fruit by Everyday Reading Pork chops with roasted broccoli, drop rolls and f'zhookie with ice cream by A Prioritized Marriage

Perfect Makeup for Valentine's Day

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I remember it wasn't until I was 19 year's old that I finally had a Valentine. I never had a boyfriend in high school, so it was really special when Ryan, my husband, was my first Valentine. I will never forget that date. It was our second one and first official date because long story short our first date was a bust when Ryan's car got stolen. No joke! haha. (I'll be sure to tell you that story later).

I still have the J.Crew red skirt that I wore on our first official date, and I remember how embarrassed I was when he opened the front door wearing a red shirt and black pants, almost my exact outfit except flipped. We looked like a walking checkerboard. When we got to the restaurant we sat down only to find his sister and her husband just a table away. It was still romantic nonetheless.

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Do you remember your first Valentine? Do you remember getting dressed up for that special someone? Well, I hope you have a Valentine this year, and if you do I really hope you get to go out since it's on a Saturday night. Here's a gorgeous makeup look created by Stephanie Neiheisel of SN Makeup Artist using Memebox's "I'm Lipstick #5" in pink fuchsia and then adding "I'm Lip Crayon #4" in Juliet on top. For a total of $14 you could have Valentine's Day ready lips and get many more uses after that. Use code AVE10 for a 10% discount of any lip product purchase.

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Pair this makeup with a classic LBD and loose curls and you've got yourself a show stopping Valentine's Day outfit! Have fun!

Makeup by Stephanie Neiheisel, Photography by Michelle Herrick, Styling by A.V.E. Styles; Florals by Hoot and Holler and makeup products from Memebox.

Polkadots & Pearls

When at Alt Summit dress to stand out. This is something that I have learned over the years. The outfits at Alt are always top notch, oozing with creativity and style. There definitely is an unspoken pressure to showcase your personal style, and so I decided to pack my fluorescent orange skirt for one of my outfits. I am literally a walking traffic cone, but I LOVE it! When you need to stand out and have brands notice you count on neon to do it.

Also, mixing patterns is always a great way to express creativity. I decided to mix my polkadot cropped sweater with my damask orange skirt to create a more dynamic outfit. (Check out my earlier post where I paired my skirt with leather). A touch of pearls and a chambray shirt underneath gave a feminine and preppy element, but it wouldn't feel like "Alex" with out a little edge. My open-toe leather shooties (get similar ones here) did just that. Of course, you could pair a classic pointy toe pump with this outfit and continue to the classic vibe, but why be predictable? I'm wearing neon orange after all.

Photos by the AMAZING portrait photographer Sarah Deragon. 

Recap of Alt Summit Winter 2015

Oh, Alt Summit. You are a genius. Three days of creative entrepreneurs and brands together in one space = magic. This was my third Alt Summit experience and my second one speaking, and it was just as incredible as the events in the past. Each year I have gone to the conference for something different. 2011 was about learning as much as I could about blogging. 2014 was about delivering a successful Pinterest talk. 2015 was about connecting with brands AND delivering a successful Pinterest panel discussion. AirBNB, Honest Co., Overstock, Wayfair, Microsoft, Munchkin, and many more were at this conference, and I definitely was able to have great, long-lasting conversations with each brand. If you want to get practice pitching brand partnerships, go to Alt Summit. It's the only conference I know where brands are genuinely approachable and WANT to be pitched content ideas.

The most important nugget of gold I took home was to be purposeful with each social outlet of your business. Write out your objectives for each one and focus on that. Below, you'll find mine:

Pinterest | a curatorial experience of what A.V.E. Styles enjoys

Instagram | a portfolio, behind the scenes experiences and work philosophies of A.V.E. Styles

Facebook | a place to share latest blog posts

Twitter | an extension of Instagram and Facebook

Now that I have these filters in place I think it will be a lot easier to hone in on growing a genuine and engaged audience.

The Pinterest panel with Rachel Faucett, Kelly Beal and Sara Martineau was a success. It was great hearing the different perspectives of Pinterest, and learning all of the new things Pinterest has in store for their users. Pinterest is truly a company that listens and cares about it's users, and for Pinterest to sit on this panel it was crystal clear that they value the blogging community. If you weren't able to attend the presentation here are 5 things you should know about Pinterest:

1| You NEED to Rich Pin - Okay, well, you don't need to, but if you're a blog or business that is not doing this you are missing out on MAJOR traffic. You see, Pinterest gives priority to Rich Pins and recommends Rich Pins to their users because it's content that is ensured to be good and valuable. How does Pinterest know that? Well, you have to apply to use Rich Pins, and a staff member at Pinterest goes through the applications to make sure you a a legitimate business that is not spamming people. Since using Rich Pins my site traffic and engagement has grown significantly. Go get them now! Run! Don't walk!

2| Get a business account - You might be saying to yourself, "Well, I'm just a blogger. Only big brands need a business account." Wrong! If you care about getting your blog content out there and growing your Pinterest community your business account will be able to give you statistics that will help you measure your Pinterest success. You'll be able to know how much traffic is coming to your blog from Pinterest, which pins are performing best, which users are repinning your pins the most, where in the world your community lives and more. This is all important in building a Pinterest strategy. Plus, it's free! Get one here.

3| Time does not exist within Pinterest - I'm not trying to be philosophical here. Time literally doesn't matter anymore when it comes to your feed. Your Pinterest feed is a smart feed based on the interests you follow, what you are pinning and who you follow. You will still see content from those you follow and your followers will still see yours as well, but it just won't be shared in a chronological format. What does this mean for you? Well, you can go on pinning sprees as not worry about stuffing your followers' feeds. Also, you need to be purposeful about SEO and optimizing those pin descriptions to get your content in front of your audience.

4| SEO matters - Did you know that search engines like Bing and Google pull in your pins now? Awesome, right?! That means it's important to write great pin descriptions that reflect what a user would search. Simply describe what you see in the pin. For example, "ivory sweetheart lace wedding dress by Claire Pettibone."

5| Image matters - Well-styled, illuminated, colorful content that's oriented vertically will out perform a landscape, black and white iphone photo any day of the week. Make sure you are paying close attention to the creation of your pins. If you don't know how to take great pictures, hire a photographer. If you don't know how to style images, hire a stylist!

Want more tips? Follow me on Instagram (@avestyles) where I will share a new tip each Friday, AND I'm starting to plan a webinar. Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement. If you are interested in being the first to know, please send me a note alexandra@avestyles.com and I will put you on the notification list.

All images provided by Alt Summit and taken by Brooke Dennis.