ABOUT THE BLOG & BLOGGER

About the Blog, The Lovely Side:

 Don't just look on the bright side! Live on The Lovely Side. This blog is a young lady's guide to doing just that. So what kind of loveliness will you find here?  Small space decor ideas and inspiration for dorms and apartments. Do-it-yourself projects for every budget and skill level. Fashion and beauty tips. Money-saving tricks. Food and drink recipes and recommendations. Reviews on books, music, television, and movies. Candid insight on friendships and relationships. And much more!  Most of all, living on The Lovely Side is about discovering and building a lovely you: creative, classy, confident, crafty, and clever.  Welcome to the lovely side!  Grab a cup of tea or coffee, settle in, and stay a while!

About the Blogger, Jessica Hansen:

I'm a 24-year-old young lady living smack-dab in the middle of Iowa.  I'm a: Journalism major. Magazine hoarder. Do-it-herself decorator. Hardcore thrifter. Vintage typewriter collector. Tea with milk drinker. Coffee guzzler. Beer lover. Novel writer. Historical fiction reader. Antique store regular. Spray paint extraordinaire. History buff. And Rhett Butler's #1 Fan.

I've been known to swoon over tufted, vintage, velvet furniture. I'm head-over-heels for the color turquoise. I 'm slightly obsessed with pretty floral patterns, fat little bird figurines, deer, Downton Abbey, and paint chips. I yearn to visit (and enjoy an extended stay) in the U.K. And I study ancient Roman history in my spare time.

Some of my lovely experiences:

I rounded up a list of 13 Dorm Decor Essentials for Real Simple online, picking out all the necessities for a lovely dorm room.

For the sake of confused guys everywhere, I demystified Men's Pants: Pleated vs. Flat-Front for Internships.com's Eye of the Intern career development blog.  

I launched the Iowa State University branch of Her Campus---writing about game day fashion, diving inside Iowa State girls' beach bags, and doting upon spring's pretty floral clothes.

As a writer for Iowa State's fashion magazine Trend, I toured The Refined Graduate's apartment and wrote about his tasteful small-space decorating in a lifestyle article.  

I spent my Summer 2011 working as an editorial intern at Meredith Corporation, specifically for the Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Home Design publications.  (You can see my work in the Winter '11 and Spring '12 issues of Do It Yourself, the Fall/Winter '11 and Spring '12 issues of Storage, and the Fall/Winter '11 edition of Cottage Style.)

My old apartment bedroom was featured in the September 2012 i-pad edition of Seventeen magazine!

I was interviewed and featured on RetailMeNot's The Insider Blog (alongside HGTV's Sabrina Soto!) for a story on dorm decor. 

About the Blog's Beginning, Lovely Undergrad:

The Lovely Side was originally launched in March 2009 as LovelyUndergrad.com.  Lovely Undergrad centered around creating a lovely undergrad living space and lifestyle.  But since so many of the lovely readers fell outside the undergrad label (high school students, grad students, and young professionals) and I found myself growing out of the dorm and dining hall and into my own apartment and kitchen... I decided it was time to make a change.  Lovely Undergrad has been renamed and re-branded to encompass all lovely young ladies who stumble upon the blog and find inspiration here.






Want to know more about me, ask a question, pass on a comment, or just chat?  Send an email to [email protected].  I look forward to hearing from you!