Resolutions: 2011 Recap and 2012 Overview

Generally I use some pretty standard resolutions--eat healthy, get organized, get good grades.  I have done decent with these resolutions over the past year. I am eating more than I used to but it is relatively healthy food. I am not as clean as I should be but all of my stuff is organized--I know where EVERYTHING is.  My grades have improved SIGNIFICANTLY and I've raised my GPA .5 points in one calendar year!

Somehow when I look back over 2011 I don't see much improvement in my life. I am not being ungrateful for the people in my life or the opportunities I've had, but I'm not where I pictured myself being. With that in mind I've tried to craft some different (and some the same--I can't change THAT much) resolutions for 2012.

1.Exercise on a consistent basis. I go through fits and spurts when I exercise, and even though I eat relatively healthy when I'm cooking for myself, I should really try to be better about exercising. That's what makes you get into shape anyway!

2. Spend more time with my friends. This probably sounds really weird, but I lost two of my good friends from high school in less than a year. I wish I had spent more time with them on breaks from school and work, just to catch up, see how they were doing, and make some more memories with them before their time here ended.

3. Enjoy time at Disney. I have an annual pass and since there's a chance I won't be in Orlando after I finish undergrad I want to use my pass as much as I can!

4. Continue to get good grades. Pretty self explanatory, but going into grad school I want (not just need) to get good grades and continue learning in all of my classes.

Cute or annoying?

When does not being able to do something stop being cute and start being annoying?

I wasn't able to cook until this year when I started to worry that my inability to cook anything might lead to me not being able to find a husband.  I can cook a few dishes now, but I am still nowhere near my mom or grandma's cooking level.

I literally can NOT bowl.  It's really embarrassing. I went bowling with my family yesterday and my total for two games was 102.  I feel like if a guy ever took me bowling as a date he would break up with me because I can't bowl, but my whole family thinks it's really funny that I can't do something!

I feel like grown ups can do SO many different things, and when you can't it is either kinda adorable or really annoying. I hope that my inability to cook and bowl hasn't passed over to annoying from adorable!

Things I Love Thursday: HGTV

I could sit around and watch HGTV all day long.

House Hunters has been one of my favorite shows for as long as I can remember! I love looking at thow people decorate their homes and how diferent homes are set up. I'm also a big fan of House Hunters International.

I seriously LOVE Property Virgins with Sandra Rinomato. It's in Canada which is completely foreign to me (haha get it?) and the houses are usually SO expensive! They are all beautiful and I love watching Sandra work her realtor magic!

The properties in Selling New York are crazy! Some of the realtors make around $1 million in commission on the houses they showcase! If you can't tell my favorite shows are the ones with the most expensive houses.

I used to be really into the decorating shows as well but those have gone downhill over the last few years. I could sit around and watch HGTV for hours and hours because even if I don't really like the personalities on the show I can see different things in/out of the houses and decide what I do and don't like for whenever I buy myself a house/condo/apartment!

Lush Favorites

I went to Lush yesterday for their Boxing Day BOGO free sale with my mom and aunt (we even made a haul video) and it made me think of doing a Lush Faves blog post!

The Abombinaball Bath Bomb (no link as it's sold out on the website =[) is a winter product, so it is in the BOGO free sale that is going on right now.  It has a sweet and citrusy smell and turns your bath water BLUE! The outer shell fizzes and bobs along the top of your bath while the inner ball (the blue part) dyes your water. It doesn't leave a stain in your tub or on your skin though--it's just fun to have really blue water!

Honey I Washed the Kids is tied for my favorite Lush soap. It is well worth the cost for its moisturizing and calming effects on my very sensitive skin! This soap smells like honey/toffee and leaves you squeaky clean!

Rockstar is my other favorite Lush soap (also sold out online). This (in my opinion) is more of a fun-smelling soap... I don't use it every day when I have it. It has a very strong candy/vanilla scent to it, and while I like it I don't think that it could ever be the only soap that I use.

The Squeaky Green Shampoo Bar is a miracle worker. I have very sensitive skin, and even my scalp tends to get very dried out or break out if I use shampoos that have too many chemicals or yucky things in  them. I've tried another shampoo bar (Jumping Juniper) that is more for oily hair, but Squeaky Green prevents oil buildup and is very easy on my scalp.

I've tried many more products from Lush and liked almost all of them, but these "favorites" are the ones I keep going back to repurchase!

What I'm Reading 12/27

       

These are the two books I've finished recently. I actually read Mindy Kaling's book in a day! It kept me laughing the whole way through. The Grits Guide to Life was really good as well, but it took me forever to finish.

       

These are the two books I'm currently reading. I need to finish 2 more books before the 1st of the year, and I'm hoping I can get through these two quickly. I started reading The Horse and His Boy, but I lost the book for a while then found it while cleaning my apartment out.  I've read Naked before but it is a good, easy read so I thought I'd re-read it.

Stocking Stuffers

I thought I would do a post about the gifts I got this year, but then I decided it would be MUCH easier to just do a post about the things I got from Santa in my stocking.

My stocking is usually more full with candy and food than it was this year. Santa even brought me  some Lush!

I love Lush. Their products work really well on my sensitive skin! From left to right, the products pictured are Snowcake Soap, a bubble bar (I don't know the name of it and can't find it online), and the Melting Snowman Bath Melt.

These cute little owls actually have lip gloss in them when you open the bottom!

And Vera paperclips! Precious.

Hope you've all had a blessed holiday season. I'm very blessed with a loving family and we've been fortunate to have so much. 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas y'all!

Hope you all are enjoying this time with your family and friends (and the gifts too of course!)

Christmas Traditions

All of the families I know who celebrate the holidays have a random tradition that they love and couldn't live without. It really wouldn't be the holidays without some of our wacky traditions.

My family always goes out to lunch at Cracker Barrel on Christmas Eve.

My next-door neighbors always go get Chinese food after the Christmas Eve services at our church.

I know someone (who shall remain identity-less) who watches the entire 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story. I don't get it.

Hope all of you are having an awesome holiday season!

Instant Watch: Archer

I was so busy baking yesterday that I didn't have time to schedule a post! I wanted to do another Instant Watch but didn't know what to post about.

Archer is a TV show on FX (another FX show and I don't even know what channel FX is at my house!). Currently Netflix has Season 1 available for instant streaming. Archer is an animated comedy/spy show that follows Sterling Archer (an agent at the spy agency ISIS) and his coworkers as they get themselves into some REALLY funny situations.

Archer's coworkers aren't really voiced by your typical voice actors. Comedic actors like Chris Parnell, Aisha Tyler, Judy Greer, and Jessica Walter all provide voices for characters on the show. I think that the show needed these actors--they make it seem less like a cartoon and more like a comedy.

Like all of the other Instant Watch movies/shows, Archer is available on Netflix Instant Streaming.

Things I Love Thursday: The Pioneer Woman

You might remember my tweet "True Life: I'm Obsessed with The Pioneer Woman". I stand by that tweet wholeheartedly. But really you guys, have you checked out her blog? Or her Food Network show? Or her twitter? Or her books?

Ree Drummond (THE Pioneer Woman) lives on a ranch in Oklahoma with her husband who she calls "Marlboro Man", their four ADORABLE children, and their herd of animals. Literally. I mean, they have pets and stuff but they live on a ranch you guys. THEY HAVE REAL ANIMALS!

I have to hand it to my Grandma, she is the first person who I heard talk about Ree's blog. When I visited her over the summer she asked me if I had ever heard of the blogger "The Pioneer Woman".  She probably had Ree's cookbook already... I'm not positive. I actually HAD heard of her blog before, but never visited it until my mom forced me to sit down with her and watch an episode of the Food Network TV show.

All of her recipes look DELICIOUS. Ree fixed these Duchess Potatoes on her Christmas Special, which re-airs for the last time today (12/22) at noon EST (so if you haven't watched it already make sure you set your DVR this morning!).  I'm making these for Christmas... mashed potatoes and egg yolks, what could be better?

I mean really, look at this. How can you not want to make these?????

Anyway, big ups to my Mom and Grandma for introducing me to The Pioneer Woman! If you haven't watched her show or bought her cookbook or read her blog or followed her on twitter yet, WHY NOT??

What I've Pinned...

I know I'm not supposed to be lustful, but Pinterest makes it REALLY hard.

Look at this super cute entryway organization!

I seriously love using binders to organize! I might do a series on different ways you can use binders for school and home organization!

Seriously love this. Things Walt Disney taught us!

Speaking of Disney, I love Disney at the holidays! I'm hoping to go back to the Osbourne lights sometime this week. I am definitely going to take pictures this go around!

If you have a Pinterest, you can follow me here.

Planners, Agendas, Organizers... Oh My!

Most people I know (which is mostly students since I am a student) don't buy a new planner at the start of the year. I get my planners in August before the start of the school year, but whenever December rolls around I start lusting over new planners. While I'm still in school I'll probably continue to purchase academic planners, but once I get out BOY OH BOY you can bet I will be finding one of these to use each year!

This Sarah Pinto planner reminds me of my favorite football team, the Colts!

I had a Filofax a few years ago but I didn't really have all that much going on and didn't use it very often. I love this new style (Dakota) of their planner and think I'd be able to get more use out of a Filofax once I'm out of school.

This butterfly planner from Barnes and Noble is just adorable. My mom is seriously obsessed with butterflies... she needs this!

If I had a lot more time and patience, I think I would try to create my own planner on my computer.  I feel like that would take WAYY more patience than I have for things like that though. What about you? What planner do you use? I have a Lilly Pulitzer academic planner, and it is perfect for me right now!

Oh Diet Coke

Diet Coke is the devil. It tempts you with its delicious flavor and fizziness and ZERO CALORIES and NO SUGAR, and then BAM. You gain 5 pounds after going on your craziest Diet Coke kick yet.

The thing that Coca Cola forgets to mention when marketing Diet coke is the ridiculous amount of sodium it contains. I drink several glasses/cans/bottles of Diet Coke each day and in one 12 ounce serving you have 40 mg of sodium. I am at a risk for developing high blood pressure (Darn you genetics!), so I'm supposed to limit my sodium intake to 1500 mg per day. If I drink 7 Diet Cokes in one day (not that uncommon unfortunately) that's almost 19% of my daily recommended value!

I could never COMPLETELY cut out Diet Coke. It has been my favorite drink since I was a wee one, and will probably be my favorite drink until I die. I've tried to drink a caffeinated tea in the morning instead of one can and some decaf tea before bed instead of a decaf Diet Coke.  I haven't kicked my DC habit completely though (and like I said... never gonna happen), and still drink 3 or 4 during the day. I'm hoping I can cut back to one with lunch and one with dinner over break and be drinking water and tea the rest of the time.

PS: If you're curious about why I didn't mention Aspartame, it's because I've decided to to not worry about it. I've seriously been drinking Diet Coke as my soda of choice since elementary school, so if the cancer from that is going to kill me it is gonna get me regardless.

Instant Watch: The League

A lot of people have Netflix Instant... myself included. I'm going to start a series type thing about movies and TV shows on Netflix Instant that you should be watching.

The League is a TV show on FX, but I've never seen it live on TV because I just watch it on Netflix Instant.  It's about a group of friends who are in a Fantasy Football league and some of the messes they get themselves into. If you've seen Mark Duplass's movies (Cyrus, Humpday, The Puffy Chair), this is VERY different. The characters are realistic to an extent--I'm in a fantasy football league and my friends and I talk about it ALL the time, but it isn't make or break for any of us. We aren't as invested as these dudes (and lady) are.  Each episode makes me laugh OUT LOUD.  If you like football, fantasy football, or funny shows, you need to watch this.

Funny People

No. Not the terrible Adam Sandler movie that he made with Seth Rogen that was Seth Rogen's first movie after he got skinny and wasn't as funny anymore. NOT that. The funny people who I like to listen to when I'm sad or watch when I'm bored.

Mike Birbiglia is one of THE FUNNIEST people. Just in general. Rarely does he say really bad words... he doesn't need to curse to be funny. I really like that. He makes white people jokes. I am white. I think he's REALLY funny. This is a good sampler, and if you like it you should look up "Mormon Rock" on youtube.

You probably recognize Craigy Ferg from his TV show (The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson), but OMG his stand up is hilarious! He has the best facial expressions in the universe. Seriously. He curses but he is just so funny!

David Sedaris is one of my absolute favorite writers.  I have read every single one of his books (several times) and I always laugh until I cry. I don't listen to him frequently (except when he's on NPR), but I love hearing him read his stories. He was in Orlando in late October, but unfortunately I didn't get tickets and I've been kicking myself ever since!

Do you like comedy as much as I do? Who are some of your favorites?

Surprises or Not Surprises?

Personally, I hate surprises. I think they are totally overrated. Even for birthdays, Christmas, whatever... I hate surprises. Mostly because I am basically Kristen Wiig's character on SNL who freaks out about surprises.

I spend a lot of my time before Christmas shopping for myself! I am really good at buying gifts for others so that doesn't take me much time but buying things for myself takes me forever!

My mom absolutely hates knowing what she is getting for Christmas... I don't understand that! I almost had a heart attack the year I got a car for Christmas!

What about you, do you like getting surprises or do you prefer knowing what you got for Christmas before you open it?

Things I Love Thursday: NPR

Let's get the whole calling me a nerd thing out of the way. Yes, I am a nerd! I really love NPR!

I don't just listen to it in the car though. That's for regular people. I go back and listen to old "Fresh Air" episodes when I'm bored. I follow all of the different NPR shows on tumblr (and a few follow me back!). I love the NPR logo above this paragraph (and would really like the shirt and would do all sorts of things to have one)! I'm a contributor! Ahh I just really love NPR.

I feel like Ryan Gosling would be an NPR nerd too. We should get married.

Late Post Excuses

Y'all are going to laugh when you see the reason I haven't posted yet today.

I've been playing this little beast of a game since yesterday afternoon. I've barely stopped to eat and sleep, let alone blog. I AM SUCH A FAILURE.

I don't usually do this (the whole obsessively playing them until I realize I haven't eaten in like 12 hours thing) with video games. I really don't even play video games... the extent of my gaming knowledge is classic Mario Bros, MarioKart Wii, and Wii Sports Resort.

DOES THIS MAKE ME A GAMER? Don't know.

Favorite Winter Nail Polishes

Since I am basically a nail polish expert (lol), I thought I'd make a list of my favorite wintertime nail polishes for you guys! These aren't my pictures, but they link back to the posts they came from.

This polish is Lincoln Center by New York Color.  These nail polishes cost less than $2 and have incredible staying power for the money.  This dark red just looks so warm and cozy--I absolutely love it!

This color is Warm and Fozzie from OPI (The Muppets Collection). I love this multifaceted brown/bronze color... you really need to click through to the website to see all of the different shades that come out of this polish at different angles and in different light. I love it--it's actually what is on my nails right now!

This last polish is ELF's Dark Navy.  You can buy this nail polish for $2 at eyeslipsface.com, but they usually have sales where you buy one get one free or get free shipping. I love all of their nail polishes that I've tried! They all are really long wearing and have a rich color--you can get away with just one coat on many of the shades!

Things I Don't Like That My Peers Tell Me I Should

You might not know this about me (but who are we kidding, you are most likely my mother and definitely know this about me), but I am basically a grandma. I don't enjoy people my age, I prefer to be in bed watching TV anytime after 9, and I don't like loud music. Being LOUD and WILD and CRAZY is just not who I am. I can't help that I don't like what every other 20-something college student likes.

 Since I have really strong opinions about the things I don't like, I thought I'd blog about some of them. I get into arguments with people about said things, and as you will be able to tell by this blog post, I ALWAYS WIN (in my mind).

Nicki Minaj. I just don't get it. Why am I supposed to like her? Because she's weird? There are plenty of weird people in this world. Because she is a girl who raps? I rap... in my car... along to the soundtrack to "The Muppets". BUT WAIT, DON'T JUDGE ME. YOU LIKE WEIRD PEOPLE, REMEMBER?

Pedicures. As a girl I am supposed to like being made up and pampering myself, WHICH I TOTALLY DO. I just don't like having people touch my feet... it is gross and I am always worried I am going to get tickled and kick a very nice Asian lady (who I don't know) in the face. Just thinking about getting a pedicure gives me the heebie jeebies.

High heels. Sure they are pretty (especially these Kate Spade ones), but I can't walk in them. I can barely walk in flip flops, Toms, sneakers, barefoot, etc... how does the universe expect me to be able to walk in shoes that throw me off balance? The universe obviously didn't understand my lack of competency in walking in general when it decided to make girls wear high heels.

Coach purses. This is kinda false, I actually really love the Coach bags that don't have a bajillion C's all over them. But let's face it--these janky bags are the only Coach purses you ever see out anywhere! I like the plain leather bags... why did Coach have to go and ruin their nice bags for me by making such gaudy bags too?

Anyway disclaimer: I do actually believe all of these things but I don't want to make you feel like you have to. If you like these things on your own GOOD FOR YOU but you really should reconsider the ugly Coach purse.

Book Recommendations

Y'all I only have four books left to finish the year out with 25! My goal! And since I'm out of school now, hopefully it will be easier for me to finish reading.

Unfortunately, I'm all out of book ideas! I'm currently reading The Grits Girl's Guide to Life, but other than that I only have one more idea for a book I want to read--The Book Thief. I've heard mixed reviews about it though, and I'm really not sure if I'll like it. Once I finish this book I'll only need three more (or two more if I read Book Thief), and ZERO IDEAS!

So like I said, if you have any ideas for good books to read please leave them in a comment! If you want to know the books I've read so far this year I have a list on my GoodReads account here.

Etsy Finds: Goo Jaya

I’m a few days late (thanks a lot final exams!), but I was just watching EmilyNoel83’s Drugstore Makeup Gift Bag Ideas video and saw that she included her cupcake makeup bags in it! I’ve admired these for a long time and she included the Etsy store these are from.

GooJaya is an accessories shop on Etsy “inspired by Pin Ups, Rockabillies ,and Rock Royalty”. I love all of her cute accessories!

This is the bag of Emily’s I have admired for a long time! It’s the Rectangular Cosmetic Bag (“The Primper”) in Cupcake. It’s a box shape with a zipper that goes across the whole top.

I love this Triangular Cosmetic Bag (“The Touch Up”) in Nautical!  It’s smaller than the rectangular bag and would be a good way to carry your daily items around with you in a purse! I’m also a big fan of nautical items in general, so if I were to buy something from this store (hint hint mom!) it would definitely be in this print!

This store has everything—even a makeup brush roll (“The BFF” in Zebra)! I think a brush roll is a great way to take your brushes with you on vacation so that you don’t run the risk of them getting messed up in your cosmetic bag. It has a tie closure so your brushes don’t roll out into your suitcase, which is really nice!

I haven’t bought anything from this store yet, since I just found it today, but I am definitely putting one of the nautical bags on my Christmas list! She also sells change purses and wristlets in the same fun fabrics that the makeup bags come in! 

All of the pictures in this post came from items currently in the Goo Jaya store!0

Current Non-Beauty YouTube Favorites!

I haven’t had much time or the resources to post a YouTube video on my personal channel in quite a while! My laptop is with GeekSquad at the moment and I’m still not sure when it will get back to me.  Hopefully I will have it back by Christmas, but I’m not getting my hopes up. Since I haven’t been posting YouTube videos, I’ve not only been able to blog more, but I’ve also been able to watch more YouTube videos! These videos aren’t beauty related, which is probably my favorite genre on YouTube, but they’re all really great and talented people!

I’m really sorry if they have any profanity, I don’t curse personally but I don’t get offended when others do =]

Daily Grace is so funny! She is one of my favorite vloggers!

 

WheezyWaiter is another really funny vlogger I watch religiously.

 

So adorable… the most recent Vlogbrothers video is about Hank’s dog Lemon. She is presh!