Hey There, Chelsie

Lifestyle + Personal

10 Ways to Become a More Optimistic Person

This post was sponsored by Frost Bank. All opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands that support HTC. I don't think anyone would categorize me as an optimistic person growing up. Not that I was negative or pessimistic - but I just wasn't one of those people who immediately was categorized in the optimism category. I was most often put in the dramatic and angsty category, to be honest. I guess that's why my parents had a bit of a hard time taking the complaints about my leg pain I was experiencing in my sophomore year of high school seriously. I mean, I can't blame them. I remember being so frustrated that they weren't taking me seriously one night . . .

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Beauty + Health

Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas for Yourself

Thanks to Babbleboxx.com for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions and thoughts presented are entirely my own. Thanks for supporting Hey There, Chelsie!  If you've been around here for a while, you might know that Valentine's Day holds some significant meaning to me, as it marks the anniversary off finishing my first chemotherapy treatment 13 years ago. For a while, Valentine's Day was hard for me because it brought back some pretty rough memories but I've worked hard to change how I felt about Valentine's Day over the last few years. Now, instead of using Valentine's Day as an excuse to feel sad about what I went through, I use it as an excuse to celebrate . . .

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Beauty + Health

3 Healthy Valentine’s Day Date Ideas

It's no secret that Dustin and I have been working really hard at changing our lifestyles for the last year and, I'm proud to say, we've been really successful in just that: lifestyle changes. Two years ago, we found ourselves both at our heaviest weight, with Dustin recovering from a very scary emergency gallbladder removal surgery while traveling for my sister's wedding. It scared us both. We realized that we had developed a lot of habits that were resulting in our bodies feeling pretty crummy and not performing the way we wanted them to. So, we set out to make changes that would actually stick and would slowly, but surely, give us the results we wanted: feeling . . .

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Lifestyle + Personal

How & Why We Celebrate Chinese New Year

This post was sponsored by Ling Ling, all opinions expressed in my post are my own. Six years ago, I was packing up two suitcases with all of my belongings and all of the school supplies I could fit in them and getting ready for the adventure of a lifetime. After getting my left knee totally replaced, courtesy of my tumor, I finally felt like I was ready to take on the world and shove it right back in cancer’s face. I was going to take back my life and everything that cancer had told me that I would never be able to accomplish or do. So, as any logical twenty-four year old would do, I deferred from school, packed my suitcases, and got on a plane that took me . . .

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Lifestyle + Personal

Homegating Essentials for the Superbowl

This post is sponsored by BabbleBoxx.com on behalf of popchips. Thanks for supporting the brands that support HTC! Superbowl Sunday is just TWO Sunday's away and we are VERY excited (being Patriots fans, and all.) Even though we've been pretty dang spoiled with our team making it to the Superbowl for the last three years, we love throwing Superbowl viewing parties every year, no matter who's playing. There's just something magical about combining the biggest football game of the year with friends, family, and food! Sometimes we're invested in the game and sometimes we're not, but we love an excuse to get together to watch the commercials, critique the . . .

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Lifestyle + Personal

Everything You’ve Got | Year of Courage

The New England Patriots are going to the Superbowl.  I know, I know. If you aren't from New England, chances are you're miffed, upset, and annoyed that TB12 and crew are heading to the Superbowl for the 3rd year in a row (and for the 10th time in his career.) I can understand why that might be a little bit of a bummer for fans outside of Boston (which is why last year's super bowl loss wasn't as big of a heartbreak as previous losses were - I was okay to share the trophy with the Eagles.) But, as a girl who grew up 45 minutes outside of Boston, who spent every Sunday afternoon watching the Patriots with her dad and learning the game inside and out, and who met . . .

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Lifestyle + Personal

6 Motivational Quotes for 2019

It's the first Monday of the new year and I don't know about you, but I'm feeling on fire after spending the weekend checking off the rest of my list of things to do to prepare for the new year! My house is clean, laundry has been folded and put away, we've meal planned and prepped and I'm slowly (but surely) getting ahead of myself on blog/business work. I'm feeling all of that motivation that comes with a new year, but I know that in the next couple of months, I'll start to lose some steam and get lazy (and I know I'm not the only one.) So, I'm pulling together a list of motivational quotes to refer to when we're feeling a little stuck or unmotivated to keep . . .

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Lifestyle + Personal

13 Ways to Prepare for the New Year

*affiliate links There's nothing quite like the feeling a fresh start, am I right? Even though I know that I can have a fresh start any time or day or month during the year, there is just something so special and motivating about the fresh start that comes with a new year. However, I've found that I typically start the New Year with a sense of chaos because of the holidays just ending and all the traveling and craziness that comes with the holidays, especially when you're hosting. This year, I wanted to make sure that we did everything we could to put some distance between that chaos (as magical as it is) and carve out some time to really prepare for the . . .

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Lifestyle + Personal

My Word of the Year (2019) | Utah Lifestyle Blog

Hi. Hey there. Hello.  2019 is here and I honestly can't believe that another year has flown by. I normally feel so hopeful and bright and shiny at the beginning of a new year, and while I have had glimpses of that feeling over the last week, I've also felt a bit more unsettled. Weird, right? I just have this feeling that 2019 is going to be life-changing, in more than one way and even though I'm excited to see what changes come, I'm also a bit nervous. Change can be hard, ya know? But, if there's any lesson that 2018 has taught me, it's that sometimes, the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of change. So, I'm doing my best to mentally prepare for 2019 . . .

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Lifestyle + Personal

HTC Top Moments of 2018

Hi. First of all - MY COMPUTER IS BACK IN MY ARMS! HOORAY!  After almost 3 whole weeks without my personal laptop, I was beginning to think I'd never write a blog post again (which was a major bummer since I was feeling ALL sorts of inspired and had shot a ton of holiday content for December before dumping a full mug of peppermint tea and honey all over it.) Not having my computer was a blessing in disguise for the most part, though, because it allowed me to truly unplug from HTC during the holidays and it allowed me to do some deep thinking/reevaluating/planning on what I want to do and where I want to take my blog in 2019 without being distracted. I'm so, so . . .

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Lifestyle + Personal

HTC & Purina Give Back | Giving Tuesday

This post was sponsored by Just Right by Purina. All Opinions are my Own When Dustin and I were newly married, living in a small trailer home on the outskirts of our college town, we dreamed about the day we could bring home our first dog. We were THAT couple that oooo'd and ahhh'd at every dog we saw walking by us at the park and we would spend hours researching different breeds online and planning our future life with our future dog. One day, early into our marriage, we decide to take a drive down to the Idaho Falls Animal Shelter (about 30 minutes away) to see if we could get our "dog fix." We were told that they were always looking for volunteers to . . .

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Lifestyle + Personal

ChelsChats – November: BIG Life & Blog Updates (+ some things in my shopping cart)

affiliate links used in this post at no cost to you - thanks for supporting HTC!  I've definitely fallen out of the habit of writing here consistently over the last few weeks (or months) and to be honest, it's been kind of hard to get back into the swing of things with all the changes we've had going on over here in the Carr home. I've seriously had months of content shot and planned and just haven't had the time (or, to be honest) the energy to sit down and write about them by the end of the day. And, once I made some big decisions over the last few weeks, it felt weird to write about anything until I could share what's going on in my life and where things . . .

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