Sunday, October 28, 2012

IT'S WEDNESDAY

Every Halloween, I try to dress up as someone using items that I already own so that I won't have to buy anything, but still look awesome. This year I was Wednesday Addams from the Addams Family. Wednesday's character really allowed me to embrace the dark circles under my eyes and my permanent bitchface, which is not something I do very often! I was really considering buying some of that temporary spray hair color so I could make my hair black to really pull the whole look together, but I was afraid that it'd stain my hair and clothes. So, let's just pretend that Wednesday grew up and wanted to be a blonde :)

I tried to take pictures of my entire outfit but unfortunately they didn't turn out too well. My costume was quite simple; I wore a blouse with contrasted collar and cuffs from American Apparel, black tights, and Jeffrey Campbell wedges. I really love my face in the second photo - so much angst!

I hope you all had a fun Halloween weekend! What did you dress up as? xo

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

EARTHQUAKE

Friday night one of my friends invited me to go see SSION live with him. The only song of theirs I knew was My Love Grows in the Dark thanks to Rookie Magazine posting about it, which I liked so I figured why not go? I am so glad that I went. Normally I don't really like going to shows where I don't like the band too much and I don't know the lyrics to their songs. It makes me feel like I don't deserve to be there and if I see a band live, I need to participate whether it be by singing along or dancing to the music. SSION definitely took the crowd by storm. They had absolutely every person dancing like crazy to their 80's styled dance beats. Just recently I was talking to someone about how I hate what the crowds have turned into at shows: teens standing there bored and taking pictures with their smartphones so they can post them on various social networking sites. Not a single person was doing this on Friday night. It was refreshing to see the band get absolutely everyone in the crowd to join in on the fun. I remember very specifically jumping around like crazy to Earthquake throwing around metallic streamers that I found on the floor. There was even a time when singer Cody Critcheloe had the whole crowd get onstage with him. Everyone went nuts and danced like there was no tomorrow. This was the most fun I had had at a gig in a long while! If SSION is coming to your town, go see them and you will not regret it! You'll be completely blown away by their amazing performance.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

PUMPKIN PICKING

Friday afternoon my friends and I took a drive up to Eckert's Orchard to pick pumpkins and enjoy the beautiful afternoon. Much fun was had! We spent hours wandering through the fields in search of the perfect pumpkins, drinking delicious homemade apple cider, and hanging out with baby goats. I used to go apple picking here all the time when I was a little kid so it was great to be able to go back now that I'm older. If I ever become a mom, I'd definitely bring my kids to do the same! 
Here's Anna, Ellie, Emma, and Brittany with their pumpkins. Look how pretty it was out there!
Baby goats! These little guys were ridiculously cute. We hung around their pin for so long feeding them, trying to communicate with them, and petting them. The little black one on the rock was small enough to jump through an opening of the fence. I saw him standing out in the open, and I rushed over to go put him back but he jumped right back in once he saw me coming over. I just really wanted to hold one of the babies for a second!
This goat was the oddball of the bunch. He stood and stared at the wall for something like ten minutes before he came over to nibble on Emma's hand!
Emma and Brittany attempting to swing on the tire swings.

We sort of had a rough start when we arrived at the orchard. All of us realized that we needed to go to the bathroom so we had no choice but to use the porta-potties. Despite that, we still had a wonderful time! Here's to hoping that we can make it out there every fall!

Friday, October 12, 2012

BACKYARD BUNNY


There's a family of bunnies that live in my backyard! I always get so excited when I spot one of them because they're just SO cute! My cat usually finds them first; she likes to sit on the window ledge in our dining room and make those little chattery noises at them. Usually I won't know one of them is out there unless I see my cat intensely staring out the window. I would have scared this little cutie off if I had gone outside to photograph him (or her), so thanks to my zoom lens I was able to stay in my dining room and take its' picture through the window without disturbance. He was in the middle of grooming himself while I was photographing him but then when I looked outside a little bit later, I saw a sleepy bunny! How adorable! Just look at that fluffy tail!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

LIFE AS I KNOW IT, 5

It's been quite some time since I've written about what's going on in my life. This may or may not be a bad thing, but I almost never talk about myself or how I'm doing. If someone asks me, "How are things?" I'll answer without elaborating much or at all. It doesn't make for great conversation. Anyway, here goes my first personal post in a long time.

I've posted before about how I was struggling with a drawing course I'm in, but now I've got another problem. I want to be an art therapist and in order to do that I have to have a background in a variety of different forms of art. A few weeks ago I discovered that I have to take nine courses for my studio art minor, whereas most minors at my university consist of six courses. At first I thought, "It's okay. I can do it." but then the feelings of doubt and wanting to give up set in. Feeling overwhelmed, I stopped by one of my professor's office today for some advice. What she suggested was that maybe to prevent becoming burnt out on art by the time I graduate, I could take an extra semester to finish with my minor. Instead of being finished with my degree in the spring of 2015, I'd be done in the fall. Honestly, that's not really something I want but it's certainly not the worst. I really think that once I get passed the drawing classes, I'll be a lot stressed out about my minor. There's just so many prerequisites that must be completed before I can enroll in the courses I really want to take. Art therapy is something I really desire and I now know that I'm willing to go through all the hard work that's required. I never realized that the road to my dream would be so difficult, but I knew it wouldn't be easy by any means. I just need to keep my chin up and I know that the more work I do now, the happier I'll be with my accomplishments when I graduate!

This is completely unrelated to school, but I got a new tripod! My mom was kind enough to buy me a new one after my other one broke. She bought me a Manfrotto, which basically puts all other tripods to shame. It can be adjusted to be taller than I am and is really simple to use. That's me playing with it in the photo shown above. It's heavy, but extremely durable so it's not going to break if I drop it like my other one did. The only drawback is that they're a bit expensive. The quality is well worth the price, though, but they have a wide range of products at a pretty decent range of prices. I'm so thankful that my mom was nice enough to spend so much money on a tripod that I'll most likely be using for the rest of my life. I would highly recommend looking into Manfrotto if you're looking to buy a high quality tripod!

Enough about me. I've still got schoolwork that I need to do. I hope you all are having a lovely day, take care!

Friday, October 5, 2012

NEW LUSH GOODIES!

Anytime I walk into a Lush store, I find myself wanting to look at everything despite how many times I've already looked at it before. Mid-September I stopped by to pick up one of my favorite and regularly purchased products, the Cupcake fresh face mask, and I ended up leaving with more than I had intended to purchase.

For my birthday this year, my mom went to Lush to get me a gift-card and the salesperson was kind enough to give me some free products for my special day. This was the first time I had ever gotten the cupcake mask and I fell in love with it after the first use. First off, this stuff smells like a chocolate mint cupcake. It's so pleasing to have on my face! After I've left it on for about ten minutes and have rinsed it away with warm water, my skin feels smooth and brand new. My skin is seriously so soft for days! It also helps a bit with oil control. By the end of the day, my face is really shiny but cupcake keeps it down to a minimum. The only bad thing about it is that since it's fresh, it has an expiration date. Typically the mask is good for a month or a little more, but there have been times when I've bought one that's been in their fridge for a while and I'll only have a week to use it before it expires. 

Since I bought the cupcake face mask, the salesperson asked if I have trouble with oily skin and acne. Yep, that's me, so she recommended that I try the herbalism cleanser. She tried some of it out on the back of my hand, and it felt like heaven! It's got little scrubby things in it, which are actually rice bran for exfoliation, and left my skin extremely smooth and bright. I compared the backs of my hands after I had tried this out, and the difference was insane! Herbalism has no soap in, but uses rosemary oils to help tame problematic skin. Trust me, this will get you clean! And since's there's no soaps, you can get it really close to the eye area and I know we've all gotten soap in our eyes while using facial cleansers. I've been using this every morning for about three weeks, along with the cupcake mask a few times a week, and I've had tremendous improvement. I have almost zero oil on my face at the end of the day and my breakouts have really calmed down. There are a few minor cons about it, such as it's messy. After you've used it, it kinda likes to hang out in your sink so make sure you rinse it down the drain. Overall, this is a fantastic product and I would definitely give it a try if you've got oily/problem skin! I'm definitely going to start buying this regularly now.

After using herbalism on the back of my hand, the salesperson (I really wish I would have asked her her name!) gave my some vanishing cream moisturizer to try. On my hand, it felt so light and dreamy. I really liked the way it felt but wasn't up to buying it so she gave me a free sample container of it. When I used it at home after I had washed my face, it was thick and heavy. I found it difficult to apply and it gave my skin an almost sticky feeling and was rather greasy too. According to Lush's website, this is supposed to be great for oily skin because it will feel lightweight without leaving residue, but I think it's just the opposite. This has great reviews on lush.com so I'm not sure as to why it felt great on my hand but not my face. I wasn't a fan of this and won't be buying this in the future.
Whenever I went to check out, the cashier saw me look at the charity pot lotions earlier and asked me if I wanted a small pot. I'm such a sucker for charities that I just couldn't say no. It's my weakness, but at least it's a good one! All the proceeds from the lotion goes to fund and support grassroots charities all around the world. The lotion smells like almonds and butter, it's yummy! I love to rub this on after I've taken a shower. It makes me feel like I've got baby skin! It also works great on parts of the body where skin is thicker, like elbows and feet; for some reason my left elbow is always really rough and now it's completely smooth. It's like magic. Another plus is that it's in a black pot, so if you save up five of those, you can bring them to Lush and great a free face mask! This is a great product so I'd suggest you get it. You're doing yourself and someone else some good!

For the most part, these are really great products and I'm more than happy with my purchases. If anything I've talked about has sparked your interest, stop by a Lush store and they'll be more than happy to let you test stuff out and give you samples!