.png)
Here’s everything you need to know, plus a few tips to make the most of your alcohol-free month:
Why Try Dry January?
Boost Your Health
Taking a break from alcohol can have noticeable health benefits in just a few weeks. Think clearer skin, better sleep, more energy, and a healthier liver. Not to mention, many participants report feeling mentally sharper and more focused.Save Money
Let’s face it: cocktails, wine nights, and even happy hour specials can add up quickly. By skipping alcohol for a month, you might be surprised at how much you save. Use that extra cash to treat yourself to something you’ve been eyeing like a fitness class or a new skincare product.Reassess Your Relationship with Alcohol
Dry January isn’t about quitting drinking forever (unless you want to, of course). It’s about understanding your habits and seeing how you feel without alcohol in your life. Many people find they enjoy socializing and relaxing just as much—or even more—without the buzz.
How to Nail Dry January
Stock Up on Alcohol-Free Alternatives
The alcohol-free beverage market has exploded in recent years, offering everything from craft mocktails to zero-proof wines and beers. Experiment with brands like Athletic Brewing Co. or Recess for fun alternatives and still offer a little buzz.Find Your Why
Whether it’s improving your health, boosting your productivity, or saving for a big purchase, keeping your “why” in mind will help you stay motivated when temptation strikes.Get Social (Without the Booze)
You don’t have to become a hermit to stick to Dry January. Suggest brunch, coffee dates, or even a mocktail-making party with your friends. Remember, the people who truly support you will cheer on your goals, not question them.Track Your Progress
There’s nothing more motivating than seeing how far you’ve come. Use an app like Try Dry, or simply journal your thoughts and experiences throughout the month. Celebrate the small wins—like how much better you feel after a Friday night in versus a Saturday morning hangover.
By the end of January, you’ll have more than just a sense of accomplishment. You’ll gain clarity, confidence, and a fresh perspective on what role alcohol plays in your life. Many participants even choose to extend their alcohol-free streak into February or beyond!
Dry January isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress. If you slip up, don’t sweat it. Focus on what you’ve learned and keep moving forward. Grab a sparkling water and toast to a healthier, happier you.
If you want to create the life you desire in 2025, creating a vision board can help. A vision board is a collage of images that represent the dreams you want to turn into reality. By consistently visualizing your goals, you keep them at the forefront of your mind and enhance your focus and motivation.Vision boards also serve as a powerful declaration of what you want to achieve in your life, especially when you place your vision board somewhere that you can see if often whether that is in your office or on your phone. Plus when life gets overwhelming, a vision board can spark your passions again and remind you why you’re working towards these goals.
The process of creating a daily visualization helps you gain clarity on what truly matters to you, leading to personal growth. Whether you only use images or choose to include words or quotes, your vision board should be something beautiful that you can look at and remind yourself of what you envision for this year (or beyond). If you need to get your inspiration flowing, try this short visualization exercise:
Vision Board Questions
- What makes me happy?
- What do I want my life to look like?
- What do I want my home to look like?
- What do I want my food and nutrition to look like?
- What do I want to do more of in my life?
- How do I want to feel this year?
- What words, phrases or quotes make me feel good?
- What career goals do I want to reach this year?
- Where would I like to travel to this year?
It can be exciting when your friend welcomes her new baby into the world. You likely want to rush over with a hot meal and coo over the little bundle of joy, take a selfie to post, and maybe even bring a nice gift to support your friend as she grips with the reality of motherhood. But is that the best way to be supportive?
The outpouring of love from friends and family coming over to see the new baby actually has the opposite effect that it should. It likely makes your mom friend feel stressed, overwhelmed, and even depressed! Bunches of flowers that need to find homes in a vase just to be thrown away in a few days, cards that scatter glitter all over everything (“Can that get into my baby’s mouth?!”), and meals that require more than just a night or two to eat through, which can take up too much space in the refrigerator and freezer, can all make a mom feel more emotional, on top of just having brought a new baby home!
So, as a friend, how can you do better? What does it take to be a good, supportive, and caring friend after she just had a baby? Many people don’t know what to do, so you’re not alone. Here are some helpful hints and things you can do to support a friend with a new baby.
Ask Her What She Needs
One of the easiest things you can do to be the most supportive is to converse with your friend. Maybe you’re not that close - so shoot her a text! Ask what she needs, how she’s doing, and what you can do to help.
Maybe you could swing by the store and grab her some fragrance-free baby wash, come over to help her put away baby gifts and clothes, or help her install her wall-mount camera. Some other helpful things for new moms include:
Suncreen: New moms don’t always think about taking their baby outdoors in the sun, but if you live in an area where you have sunshine or it’s summer, this is a great gift for her!
Baby wipes: She can never have enough!
Your friend may not want visitors right away, even you. Don’t take it personally. Most moms may feel that they have so much going on, and maybe your friend won’t know what she needs help with, and that’s okay, too. But at least then, you’ve asked and put it out there so she knows you’re there in case she needs you.
It would benefit your friend if you keep asking her, too. Don’t stop at just one time of “What can I do to help?” Reach out a couple of times per week or more, depending on your relationship, so she knows you want to be there for her.
Clean Her House
If your friend isn’t sure what she needs, new moms everywhere can always use help with cleaning. You can offer to do a couple of loads of laundry, even if you don’t necessarily visit—just pick it up and do it at your own home and bring it back. If she doesn’t mind you visiting, offer to wash dishes and put them away, run the vacuum, sweep the floors, or do some surface dusting.
If you want to make it more of a gift for your friend, you could send a cleaning surface or buy her a voucher for those services. It can be one of the best gifts for a new mom not to have to worry about housework when she wants to put all of her focus on her newborn.
Organize Meals
Yes, meals are still a great thing to offer your friend since dinner plans are probably the last thing on her mind. As a supportive friend, it’s a great idea to organize a meal train with other friends and family to drop off on different days so she’s not being bombarded with meals all at once. You might also want to offer her some options for various meals and ensure they aren’t duplicated so she’s not eating the same thing. Maybe locate some of her favorite restaurants and send over some takeout so she can feel she still has the option to “eat out” once a week.
It’s worth mentioning that these meals should be manageable in size. Many people create big, casserole-like dishes for these life-changing events, thinking that it’s helpful when they can be incredibly wasteful. Remind those who want to help make and drop off meals how many people are in the family and work to keep the serving level down so she’s not overwhelmed with lots of leftovers.
Run Errands
New moms don’t like being away from their babies and getting the baby ready for a simple outing can be a real chore. Offering to run errands, such as grabbing your friend's groceries or picking up something she needs from the store, is a great way to be supportive and reliable. It can be as simple as dropping off her favorite iced coffee, taking the dog for a walk around the neighborhood, or running to the bank to deposit her check, but it can go a long way to show that you understand those little things can help tremendously.
Be Respectful and Listen
Your friend may want you to visit, and if you do, be supportive and not remark on the state of the house or anything she’s doing with her baby. As a friend, it’s natural to offer input or advice, especially when your friend may be asking questions out loud or inquiring about what she needs to do in situations with her baby. However, rather than coming down on her with criticism or tons of suggestions, just listen.
Her emotions are still not under control, and your friend may burst into tears seemingly for no reason. Just be there and validate whatever your friend is going through. That’s all she needs right now to help her feel better.
Check In Often
Your friend will be going through a lot in the upcoming months. Once the baby is born, it’s only the beginning of how much changes in her life. As a supportive friend, you should check in with her often to see how she’s doing, even if she isn’t contacting you. It’s easy to feel neglected because your friend has so much going on, but she still needs you.
Parents often receive much attention for the first few weeks, and then it tapers off. Your friend still needs attention and consideration since even though things have settled, there’s still a lot happening. Maybe you can send a hefty breakfast order on a random weekend morning when you know the whole family is home and give them a nice boost for the day when the baby is 7 or 8 weeks old.
Supporting a friend with a new baby can mean many things, but the most important thing you can do is just be there for her during this time. It’s exciting and wonderful, yes, but it’s also overwhelming, stressful, and scary. Knowing that your friend can count on you if she needs you in any way will be a fantastic resource!
 |
| Source: Styled By Becky |
How long have you been living in your house and what inspired you to start sharing your home styling journey online?
We bought our home in 2016 and have been here for the last 8 years, working on making it truly feel like home! It all started in 2020--everyone was at home during Covid, and I had an itch to change everything up. I started an IG page but kept it private, mostly to help me document all of the changes I was making and so I could see progress over time. My husband later suggested that I make my page public so others could be inspired. Once I went public there was no turning back. I started posting more about my home and I had people asking me questions about design all the time!
You’ve mentioned your South Indian roots have influenced your design style. Can you share more about that?
My family is from South India (Kerala) and that's been an influence in my life for sure. My mom and sister have always somehow used it in their designs, and that got me hooked into looking at certain fabrics as well, especially with block prints. Through my travels to India and working with Indian companies/designers, I've been able to incorporate my culture through bedding, throw pillows, curtains, etc. in a way that is not overpowering, but tells a story and adds charm/character to a space.
Let’s talk about "color drenching." What is it, and how can people incorporate it into their own spaces?
Color drenching simply put is painting everything the same shade. In my case, we've color drenched our dining room and bathroom in one color, from ceiling, to walls, to doors, to the crown and base molding. The neat thing about color drenching is that it creates an illusion of height, making smaller rooms SEEM bigger. If you're wanting to try color drenching, start in a small space, perhaps a bathroom to make sure you truly love it (and use a color that feels calming to you!). I love using different sheens of the same color for visual interest--try using matte/eggshell on the walls, flat on the ceiling, and satin/semi gloss on trim, doors and cabinets!
Has there been a particular room or space in your home that has transformed the most since you moved in?
Our powder bathroom was one of my first DIY projects. It started off as a boring plain builder grade space that I never wanted to walk into. We touched it up with some bold moody dark paint (Athenian Black from Annie Sloan), some vintage inspired floral wallpaper (from OnDecor Store), and warm brass touches (faucet, lighting, door knobs, hardware, etc.). It's since become a talking point as it's the main powder bath that everyone uses and loves! Another space that has transformed is my home office. It went from boring to charming in a matter of months with a fresh coat of bright paint, some arched built-in bookshelves perfect for styling, and moody curtains -- it's become I space that I love working from everyday!
You don't seem to follow specific rules when it comes to styling, yet it looks so perfectly curated and cozy at the same time. How do you decide which patterns or colors to use?
For me it's a matter of figuring out what FEELS and LOOKS right. For example, I like to visualize which colors and pieces go well together and how will it be functional? Whether I'm in a store or visualizing online, I try to picture in my mind what a space would look like when its being utilized to its full capacity. For example in a living room, visualizing folks sitting on a couch - what is across from them? An accent chair? Another sofa? What's on the coffee table? Is there a side table if someone needs to put their coffee down, etc. It's when I start putting the pieces together that I experiment where things should be placed and how it all looks together as a unit. I tend to move things around a lot as I'm experimenting with placement, so you'll see pieces moving around our house over the years. Sometimes moving an old piece of furniture to another room is all it takes to give it a fresh new look.
You’ve mentioned mixing affordable finds (like peel-and-stick tiles) with pricier, timeless pieces. What’s your approach to this?
I know for certain spaces there are things I won't skimp on, especially if it's one of the more common areas of our home where most people tend to see first (i.e., kitchen, living room, dining room, etc.), so those are areas I tend to invest in with more timeless pieces that might be a bit pricier, but I know will last forever. For less visible areas, I love to experiment! We used a peel and stick tile in our kids bathroom because I wanted an easy option that required no demo (and honestly I've never put up REAL tile before). I wanted an option that I knew I could easily take down or change if down the road it doesn't work anymore or if my kids happen to damage it. The beauty of peel and stick is that it's designed for easy take down with little to no damage (which is why it's a great option for those who are renting). I've worked with peel and stick wallpaper in our guestroom as well, and we have been loving it!
How do you handle negative feedback when it comes to design and styling your home?
Don't let anyone dictate things you love about your home. If you love an all white home, do it! If you love color in every space, do it! Make your space personal to you and what makes home feel like "home" to you, a place you want to keep coming back to (or never leave!). Take other's suggestions or opinions with a grain of salt, because at the end of the day, you're the one living in your home and spending the most time there on a day to day basis. Don't let the year's trends and society's comments bog you down. Do what you love and that's all that matters!
Follow Becky for more design inspiration on Instagram at @StyledbyBeck.
Some of my favorite unique ideas include a cozy pair of cashmere mittens (hello, winter luxury), a set of festive tea blends, or even a set of luxe candles in tiny sizes that feel indulgent without the hefty price tag. If you’re shopping for someone who loves a good hobby or craft, a set of artisanal stickers, a portable puzzle, or a fun DIY kit can be just the thing to make their stocking extra special. The key is finding little treasures that feel personal and thoughtful—because even the smallest gift can have the biggest impact when it’s something they’ll actually use and love.
.png)
When it comes to holiday shopping, I’m all about finding pieces that strike that perfect balance between festive and affordable. With the season of gifting and celebrations around the corner, it’s easy to get swept up in buying a whole new wardrobe—especially when those glitzy sequins and plush velvet pieces keep calling your name. But here’s the thing: You don’t have to break the bank to feel like you’re stepping out of a holiday catalog. With the right mindset and a little creativity, there are plenty of chic options under $200 that will have you covered from your job's Christmas party to New Year’s Eve and won't go out of style so you can rewear them for next year.
A metallic sweater, a pair of tailored trousers, or a festive midi skirt can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion. Whether you’re looking to stand out at a cocktail party or just want something cozy for a casual holiday hangout, there’s no need to splurge to look and feel amazing. These picks are great for your wallet and can be styled in a number of ways!
.png)
Goodreads has just revealed the winners of their annual Goodreads Choice Awards and the list is good. It’s safe to say these picks come straight from the hearts of book lovers everywhere since there were over 6.2 million votes.
Let’s hit the rewind button for a sec. If you’re not too familiar with the Goodreads Choice Awards, here’s the scoop: this year marks the 13th time these awards have been held and the process works in two rounds. First, 20 books that have a rating of 3.5 stars or higher are selected in each category—from genres like Fiction, Horror, and Romantasy, to Historical Fiction, Debut, and Audiobook. Then, members vote on the finalists, and finally, they pick the winners.
This year, Goodreads introduced a brand new Readers’ Favorite Audiobook category, featuring 20 incredible nominees across all genres. These picks were curated from the millions of books added, rated, and reviewed on both Goodreads and Audible, so you know you’re in for some seriously stellar listens.
POPULAR POSTS
.png)
.png)
.png)
.jpeg)
Advertisement
.png)
.png)