January 19, 2015

Review: Boots No7 Protect and Perfect

January 19, 2015

I am in my mid-twenties, but I’m conscious about what I put on my face to help slow down the aging process. I made a decision to invest on the things that go on my skin and get a little cheap on things like mascara and lipstick.

I usually use Philosophy skincare products and I haven’t purchased anything from the drugstore (aka the drugstore section of Ulta) in ages since I no longer work close to an Ulta.

So I am out of the loop when it comes to what brands are available. Thanks to Influenster, I know that a quality Boots No7 skincare line is available at Target. I just know them as color cosmetics, but I guess they’ve grown up.

I received the Boots No7 Protect and Perfect Serum to try out.

I was excited to get it because it is for the early signs of aging. I know my skin isn’t looking old, but now is a great time to start to ward off problems down the road.

Trying out the Boots No7 Protect and Perfect Serum

I liked the way it made my skin look and feel. It was light weight and left my skin feeling fresh and supple. It was almost like splashing water on my skin. This serum made it feel comfortable and I did see a bit of a glow on my skin when I used it.

I did see that after using it for a while, I had some pitting in areas I never did before. I don’t know if I had some problem areas from acne scarring that weren’t noticeable or this created some issues I’ve never had. Either way, it was unusual to look at my forehead and see dimples.

I haven’t seen them since the sample ran out, so who knows.

Serious drugstore skincare from Boots No7

My big problem is the sample. Boots No7 says that you’ll see first results in two weeks and full results after a month. Fantastic. Buuut…..

….C’mon now. This packet doesn’t have two weeks’ worth of product in it. I think I got a scant week out of it. Sadly, I don’t know if I’ll be purchasing more.

I know, the whole point of a sample is to give you a little taste, hook you, and make you buy the full size. It’ll start to work its magic and you’ll want to keep it going. I get that. I just wish I was able to get a little more of a well-rounded review out of this.

Overall: I like this serum, but with the imperfections that I noticed the longer I tried it and the short trial time, I don’t know if I’ll be picking it up.

Have you tried Boots No7 Protect and Perfect Serum? What do you think?

Disclaimer: I did receive this product from Influenster to review. As always, you’re getting my honest opinion. This post does contain a referral link to Influenster should you like to sign up!

January 18, 2015

Sunday Lately, 3

January 18, 2015

It has been a snotty week. Not that I was being a brat, but I couldn’t stop blowing my nose. I’m lucky that I get to work from home if I need to, and in the interest of not infecting others, I worked at home for most of the week. Side note: I think someone who came to work with a cold got me sick. Oh, sweet irony.

Dwelling

I compare myself to others very easily. At the end of the week, I was really focused on what I’m doing “wrong” because I’m not being accepted in to certain groups and I realized I need to stop that. It’s like high school; why am I worrying myself about being part of a group that clearly doesn’t care to include me? And that’s all I’m going to say about that right now.

Helping

My father’s fridge broke. The water intake hose thingy has been leaking for a while and it got under the floor and finally loosened the adhesive holding it down. Yesterday, Jonathan came over and helped us rip up the old floor. Then we realized when we tried to lay down other tiles that wouldn’t work that we’ll have to do this all over again in two weeks when the special order comes in. It’s like Money Pit. Two weeks.

Forgetting

To do something, I’m sure. If I knew what it was, I wouldn’t forget it.

Switching

Still working on getting things transferred over to Gardening in High Heels. I like where it’s going but I still want to change the appearance a little bit. I think because I’m using the old design I had on when it was SyntaxxErrorrr, it doesn’t feel “new,” yknow?

Relying

On no one! Kidding. I’m pretty self-sufficient, but I will be relying on Jonathan to help transport furniture from my aunts and move things around. So that’s what I’ll be relying on.

What are you up to this week?

January 16, 2015

Five things that make winter suck less

January 16, 2015

Winter sucks. I’m sorry to those who are on speaking terms with winter, but in my mind, it’s like winter is wearing pink and it isn’t even Wednesday. Colds, shoveling, ice, freezing temps. There’s nothing good about it.

Except these five things.

Here are five things that make winter suck less for me and hopefully for you, too.

A good, warm beverage

I am all about a good cup of coffee. In the wintertime, it’s even more important. There is nothing more satisfying than wrapping chilly fingers around a steaming mug of deliciousness.

Tea is my thing right now. I have a wicked cold that’s kicking my ass and tea is the only thing that warms, soothes, and doesn’t put my nerves on over-drive.

Candy Cane Lane tea from Celestial Seasonings tastes fantastic (the peppermint covers the blah green tea taste) and is decaf. I love the Gingerbread Spice, too. The flavors are outstanding.

Snacks

Dude, you best believe I hibernate in the winter. I just ate ice cream and now I’m debating something crunchy. Usually I go for chocolatey/sweet snacks, but you can’t beat guac and chips or good homemade hummus (why yes, yes I did make that delicious hummus pictured below).

I’m also digging these Fruit Vines from my Influenster #FrostyVoxBox.

I’m not a huge fan of made-mostly-of-gummy-sugar-stuff treats, but I love the sweet strawberry flavor and the chewiness. Very satisfying.

A full Netflix queue or a stack of books

There are days when I just don’t want to do a damn thing. Living with a parent requires me to look like I’m a contributing member of society, but when I lived alone, there were weekends when I didn’t eat anything with nutritional value and ripped through seasons of SATC in a day.

I can quote each episode and I still cry when Aidan leaves for the last time. Since I discovering the miracle of Netflix, though, we’re no longer exclusive.

Books are also a necessity. Anything that you get emotionally invested in or are hilariously entertaining. Yes Please was done in a weekend. Bonus points if you’ve already spilled food on the pages.

A low-commitment and high-guilt-removing workout

I have to start training for the Pittsburgh Half Marathon soon, but when I don’t want to drive out to the gym just to use the treadmill, I gotta have backup. I feel better telling myself, “Well I didn’t run today, but I did do __ instead.”

Plus, you may want to add a little physical activity to get endorphins flowing and combat the winter blues. Or something.

I’ve been getting into kettlebells lately. It’s a low-impact strength workout that gets the heart rate up. I also love 10 minute workouts from FitSugar because we can all suck it up for at least 10 minutes. And Yoga With Adriene is a new obsession. Since my doctor said yoga is an acceptable workout, I feel totally justified by subbing this in.*

*I’m not a doctor, so don’t take this as end-all-be-all health advice. I just told you to pig out, remember?

A project

When you finally have drank, eaten, read, watched, and worked everything out and can’t stand it anymore, something to focus your energy is necessary. I’ll clean, knit, write, organize, anything to get my mind off winter.

Bonus: you can binge-watch and scrapbook at the same time.

I love doing #30Lists. It gives you something to do every day that’s easy to manage. Plus, I got to make my own mini-notebook for it out of Project Life cards.

Or you can try a new hobby. Book binding or photography, anyone?

When all else fails, have a stock of beer on hand!

What do you do to make winter suck less?

Disclaimer: I received the tea and Fruit Vines from Influenster for testing and review. These are my authentic opinions and everything listed is what I actually recommend to make winter less awful.

January 14, 2015

How to make a planner with a Moleskine Square Journal

January 14, 2015

I am a proud organization freak. I love planners, Post Its (true story: I got a box of Post It Notes for Christmas one year) and just about all things organization. Pins with pictures of other people’s planners is like..organization excitement. Imagine my joy when Meghan @ Hayes Days reviewed the Emily Ley Simplified Planner, a piece I’ve had my eye on for about a year!

I haven’t settled on a blog planner that I like (please let me know what your favorite is!) but I do have yearly planners picked out in October (only slight hyperbole).

It’s no surprise that I made my own this year.

I love Moleskine and have used their Weekly Diary/Planner Horizontal for 3 years in a row. That’s some serious commitment, people. As with all relationships, I didn’t love everything about it. I wanted a calendar view and more room to take notes so I didn’t have to carry around a separate notebook.

So when I was in Virginia visiting my mom, I picked up this Moleskine Square Journal. Even the book itself has a memory attached to it!

I started out by listing month-at-a-glance. This is where I put all-day events or after work plans – big things I don’t want to forget. I also have a space to write monthly goals. After I finish my Stratejoy Holiday Council worksheets (I know, I know, it’s a little late for that), I will have an easy place to write my goals for the month.

I’ll be able to see them in front of me and more likely meet them or make plans to work towards them. I can also say, “Hey will this commitment get me towards my BIG IGEA this year?” if I’m on the fence with something.

Then I have a calendar. Here will go fun plans, dates, appointments, weekend coverage for work, etc so I can see everything easily in a calendar format.

I know, it seems a little redundant, but I really missed not having a calendar view in the past years. It’s easier for me to visualize what’s happening in the month in this kind of layout.

Next is the week starting on Monday. I have plenty of room to write to-do lists and actionable goal steps along with weekly plans. I do the Rapid Logging / Bullet Journal method in a smaller scale. It really helps to say, “Okay here’s the Big Thing, now what steps need to happen to complete the Big Thing.” I learned that from Molly (of Stratejoy)!

I just used an office stamp to get the dates in there. I embraced “imperfectly perfect” and didn’t freak out when some ink bled through or it didn’t get stamped down all the way. Not being perfect is a first for me. It’s a daily struggle that affects millions (god, I hope you people get my humor).

I’ve been doing “The Three” aka the three things I must complete today and I write them out here, too. I heard somewhere that three is the number to list when you’re writing a daily to-do list, so…that’s why I picked three.

And finally, I about a third of the book is blank. I was hoping to have a page-per-day layout and be able to journal a bit more / write out more lists on a day-to-day format, but I didn’t have enough pages…oops.

So I have a notes section instead. Rapid Logging / Bullet Journaling definitely happens here. For example, I wrote the big things to focus on for the change to Gardening in High Heels and the small steps under neath that will reach that goal. It was so overwhelming to think about the tasks I needed to complete for GIHH, but writing it down in bite-size steps made it much easier.

I was also thinking about blog planning in the blank part so everything is all in one place, but everyone talking about blog planners made me want one. It’s only child syndrome.

I will jazz it up with some washi tape, color-coordinated pens, Project Life cards, etc, but that will come later. Organically. I want it to be used and have a record of the great things that happened this year.

Do you use a planner? What’s your favorite way to track your day?

December 24, 2014

You’re not “too busy”

December 24, 2014

I’ve used the phrase “writer’s block” plenty of times. It’s almost like one of those throw-away “excuse” kind of things like, “Oh I’d love to do __, but I don’t have any time,” and, “I’m just too busy.” We all toss it out there as an explanation for why we can’t do something, but does it really mean anything?

Nope, not at all. It’s a total cop-out. We’re all busy. We wear or busy-ness on our chests like a medal.

My point is: if you really want to do something, you’ll figure out how to make it happen.

This came up at a breakfast I was at the other week The topic was running the Pittsburgh If you want to do something badly enough, you'll figure out how to make it happen marathon. Two of us will do it, one said oh hell no, emphatically.

And that’s totally cool. I’d rather have someone just be real and be like, “Yeah no, that’s never happening,” than sit there and pander on about it.

“Well, I don’t have time now, but it might be something to do in the future… Oh, it’s great that you’re doing it, but I’m just so busy.”

Oh, yeah? With what?

That just sounds like, “Oh good for you that you have the luxury of spending time on that, but I am far too important and busy to spend time on myself” even if it wasn’t intended that way.

Why are we so scared to say, “I just don’t have an interest in doing that,” or even a simple: “I really don’t want to.” There’s nothing wrong with admitting that you don’t want to do something.

Is it because if we don’t have the drive to run a marathon or start our own business, we’re looked down on upon? It seems like it’s worse to admit that you don’t want to do something than never follow through on what you claim you’d like to do, y’know, when you have the time.

Similar to having to appear busy at all times, we have to seem like we have all of these desires piling up just waiting for the time, but poor us, it just never makes itself available. It’s a totally vain to-do list since we can’t just say “Nope, not gonna do that.”

I’m totally to blame for using this, too.

I won’t pretend like I never say, “I don’t have time” or “This writer’s block is killing my vibe!” I do it all the time. I don’t have time to vacuum or take the patio furniture in or get a hair cut or remember to text my mother that address.

For the company Christmas party, we were asked to bring a dish if we could. I had time off, but I didn’t make that a priority over other tasks on my list. I said I didn’t have time and everyone knowingly nodded. I’m sure if I said, “I had more important things to do and just didn’t feel like making a cookie plate when I got a spare moment” wouldn’t have been as readily accepted.

And I probably shouldn’t publicly admit this, but I still have Christmas presents for my aunt and uncle that my mom left for me to deliver at the beginning of November; sorry guys, I really just didn’t feel like hauling ass to drop things off.

So with the new year approaching, it’s the perfect time to strike these empty statements from our vocabulary. Make time to do what you want and let the other things drop off. Be real with what you want to do and stop making excuses.

What excuse phrase are you guilty of abusing?

Gardening in High Heels

Review: Boots No7 Protect and Perfect

I received the Boots No7 Protect and Perfect Serum to try out.

Have you tried Boots No7 Protect and Perfect Serum? What do you think?