Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Dear lovely readers,

I had planned on updating you all yesterday, but decided it would be far more appropriate to explain my absence on this, St. Patty's Day. As someone who's something like 1/4 Irish (or whatever), I really believe in the luck of the Irish, and unfortunately, mine's been a bit rotten by story, but actually not all too terrible overall. Mostly, it's just been very, extremely exhausting. Let's being on February 24, 2012.

The night was mildly warm. It was a nice night, and after driving to my hometown to see my family, my mom, sister, and I went out to run a bunch of errands (take her to a bowling party) and then to her soccer game. Since we'd be running all over town, we'd decided to just spend the several hours out and about. My left eye, after we were out, began to feel itchy and dry. Since I was wearing my contacts, I simply did some blinking and eventually called and asked my father to bring me some contact solution when he met up with us a few hours later for the soccer game. By the time he got there, my eye was bloodshot and hurt, but I was convinced (since it was just the one eye feeling super dry and a bit scratchy) that it was my contact needing moisture. I'm also half-blind and figure I'd rather look scary and weird around people I didn't know than run into a pole and get a concussion. Of course, after getting my contact out, dosing it in solution, washing out my eye just to be sure, and getting the contact back in, it still hurt like hell. So, when we got home an hour later, I took it out, put on my glasses, and went to bed soon after.

hit the books (or the lights)

I've spent the last hour at my local Panera eating a delicious Chicken Ceasar Sandwich, apple, and glass of water. Water is yum? Whatever! I've also spent that last hour studying for my freshman level Physical geography lab test coming up in about two hours. I'm totally uninspired to continue, but figure maybe between the next hour or two of web surfing I can flip open my notes and glance at a few. It sounded more overwhelming then my notes are making it look- I'm a little worried about memorizing the equations for converting things to whatever and this-or-that, but everything else shouldn't be too difficult. I already knew what a cartographer was, after all!

source

Truth be told, I'm a terrible studier. I hate studying, and I rarely have the patience or attention span for it. It's sort of the bane of my existence if you can believe it (or even if you can't). Still, I'm hoping this test goes well- it's multiple choice, so it can't be too bad, right? Right!?- because how sad would it be to be 24 23 years old and unable to pass a freshman level geography course?

Granted, apparently I'm too senile to even remember how old I am anymore so...

Graduation Announcements

Darlings! I'll be graduating in May, and I could really use some advice- I really don't want to spend a billion dollars on announcements (because I'm a broke college student) but I'm not sure what sort of do-it-yourself graduation announcements I want to do! I don't mind putting some time into it, and I have lots of things left over from the Christmas presents I made for family; so, what do you think? Should I...

Go with some pretty photo cards from Snapfish?

Handmake some DIY cards with card stock, embellishments, etc?

I'm leaning towards the handmade... but I'm really afraid they'll turn out/come across as tacky. What do you all think?

Also; no Valentine's day update. There was nothing to update! I hardly even noticed what day it was- I worked. My car was my Valentine by default though- because I spend $100 getting a new battery since mine decided to totally fail at 6am when I was trying to go to the gym. So sadly, no workout, and no padding in my bank account, but it's okay! There were some pretty delicious cookies at work to even out the bad stuff though! Does this count as a Valentine's Day update? Oops...

Friday Afternoon Drear

It's absolutely pouring outside. It's dreary, but in that lovely sort of way that makes you want to curl up on the couch with a good book. Since I've been addicted to How I Met Your Mother and there are only two episodes left on netflix that I haven't seen, I'll be curling up with The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton after I finish those- and typing out this blog! For the record, while it's one of those books I've always wanted to read out of curiosity, I'm not just reading it because I'm incredibly smart and awesome (which I am). I'm reading it for my Senior Project.

But for now, I thought I'd leave you with some cheery things in case you, too, are having a dreary day outside as well.

I finally got a pinterest and I love it!

Funfetti cake batter dip is delicious and low-fat. I paired it with some honey graham crackers (and ate it ice-cream style and loved it. I made a big batch for work and was too lazy to convert numbers, so I just mixed a bunch of the three ingredients together. but the results were awesome and amazing.

With Valentine's Day around the corner, here's a list of sexy scents to seduce your significant other (or find one if you're a fellow single girl)!

How fun are these studded-trim rainboots?

It's the perfect day for one of these perfect hot chocolates.

I need this trenchcoat.

And probably this pretty floral dress to go under it.

True fact about libraries.

Unshelved has the perfect idea about dieting.

Have a wonderful week, or day, or few days depending on when I see you next!

Natural Cures Part 2

So, I promised a follow-up to my first post on Natural Cures, and here it is. Part 2! Calm down! Don't get so excited! It's amazing, sure, but it's not like it's going to suddenly make you a billionaire or convince Ryan Gosling to marry you (but would that be wonderful? Like, absolutely, heart-wrenchingly wonderful?).  Anyhow, part two focuses on something that I have been using for years and years, though not quite to the extent I've started realizing it this past week or two: Vaseline.

As a poor, broke college student without extra money to spare, I'm always interested in finding cheaper alternatives to products I'm already using. When I noticed that my $6 Clean & Clear Morning Glow Moisturizer was getting low, I hit the net and started researching reviews on the best-value-for-your-money moisturizer I could either order online and get shipped quickly, or that I could pick up at a drug store or local Walmart- one of the huge downsides of living in a small college town with a not-so-reliable postal system (a month and a half later and I'm STILL waiting on my free samples of new Emergen-C samples). We don't have a Sephora or a whole lot of wonderful shopping delights; though we do have some awesome hidden gems in our local businesses. The thing is, while my current moisturizer was cheap and worked okay, my skin is pretty dry. I wash it twice a day, and the town we live in is incredibly windy (apparently we're in just the right spot of a basin of the state for the wind to be speeding through all the time) and it's winter which is dry enough of a time. I hate not washing my face each morning and night though- because I'm not up for putting makeup on an unclean face (ew!) and I've never found a makeup remover that wasn't also a cleanser that didn't leave my face feeling icky before bed. Point being: I needed a better moisturizer.

Now, I've been putting Vaseline on my lips as a gloss/chapstick for as long as I can remember. I've done it every night right before bed for a least the past 5 years, and I have found memories of crushing sale lipsticks up with a glob of vaseline and putting them in old compacts when I was a kid. This is a great tip, by the way, if you want an ultra-moisturizing tinted lip balm that's really cheap. Though I won't vouch for the color lasting a million years, it's great for kids and as a DIY (or gift!). Anyhow, the thought struck me with another: if it can moisturize my lips so well, then why the hell not my face? You can get a gigantic, ever-lasting tub of it for cheap, after all! So I hit the great and powerful Google. And yes, Google is the best search engine, no matter what anyone else says.