Gonna be MIA for another day or two guys, finals are killing me!
Archive for 2011
Some exciting news: I am officially interning for College Fashion! I have no idea what that will mean for this blog, but I have no doubt that I'll still be updating here nearly every day.
Anyway in celebration, I thought I would try something new: shining a spotlight on other blogs! None of them exactly need my help in traffic boosting, but I'm sharing them because I think they're awesome and they've inspired me in some way.
So first up...
A Reason to be Fabulous
Every opportunity to leave the house is a reason to be fabulous.
There are about a gazillion fashion blogs on the blogosphere, but I love A Reason to be Fabulous because she takes a few pieces and remixes them in bright, fresh ways. I especially love the orange kneesocks + brown boots combo that she sports here; I've never liked kneesocks, but she's changed my mind!
Plus she works patterns like a crazy lady and wears giant cocktail rings like a pro. How can I not be in love with her style?
Spreading the love with a little Friday link list here...
- Fashion Tips From Comic Strips is a fantastic, cute little blog combining my two favorite things: fashion and comics.
- The food photography here makes my stomach growl...art or food, either way, it looks way too amazing to eat, and way too delicious to pass up.
- Over at Cupcakes & Cashmere, Emily's put together a bunch of holiday gift ideas, all for under $25.
- These boots are deliciously piratey
- A good reminder that success is relative, so relax about it already
- These almond cookies and avocado milkshakes look so good I could just die...I'm on a bit of a food photography kick, you may have noticed!
- The white button-down top, remixed in five different ways
Have a great weekend guys! And for the college students out there...stay strong! Finals can't be that bad...right?
Recently, making it through the day has been a struggle. I can barely get out of bed, I'm falling asleep in class - and as for working out, forget it. All I think about is how long I have until I can flop right back into bed and tune out the rest of the world. Hardly amazing, right?
Well I'm sick of it! I need to take control of my schedule again and chase out those bad habits that are making me so tired all the time and, if necessary, develop some new, better ones to replace them. Here are some habits that are definitely doing more harm than good.
Junk food.
Oh, junk food...is there anything in the world quite as delicious as you? That first bite always hits like a wonderful punch to the taste buds. If only you didn't make me feel so...GROSS after.
True fact: I started trying to clean up my diet last year, slowly switching over to a mostly macrobiotic diet, and was amazed at the difference I felt. Clearer skin, more energy, less bloating and cramping...and yet, there's nothing wrong with junk food - in moderation. But the sad truth is, the more tired I get, the more likely I am to just shovel a pizza into my gut and call it a day. Coming off of Thanksgiving, the American ode to food, no wonder I find it so hard to break the junk food binge-sleep-binge cycle and get back onto my healthy eating high horse.
If you're feeling tired or sick, try cutting out some of the junk food in your diet. See what can be improved or substituted. Junk food lurks around every corner...for example, one large blueberry muffin has 384 calories, while a chocolate chip muffin has 364! CRAZY.
TV watching.
Stop me if this seems familiar...it's been a long day of work, classes, what have you. You're done for the night and you just want to turn your brain off, so you plop down in front of the computer, click on over to Netflix (the best and worst thing to ever happen to me), and start watching Parks and Recreation or Buffy: The Vampire Slayer or something else. Three hours later, the night is gone and you're passed out in bed.
I used to watch almost five hours of TV a day. Oh my god, say what??? My mom would yell at me for wasting so much time, I'd fire back that it was actually really productive because it made me feel better and I was in fact actively engaging with the narrative so it was really good for my imagination and my creativity, she'd respond by telling me that I should go actively engage with my friends in an imaginative and creative fashion for once, etc etc. Yeah...I was full of it, and my mom was totally kind of right.
I love TV! It is one of my favorite industries. I even love commercials in a weird way. But when I'm tired, TV does nothing to recharge my energy levels or reset the clock. In fact, it just makes me feel more tired and even groggier than before. Even taking a break to watch TV for half an hour can derail my workflow enormously.
I need to go back to making TV a special occasion, something that I do with friends rather than by myself in my room in the dark.
These are the two big culprits for my recent bouts of tiredness.
But it's easy to focus on the negatives - this is what I shouldn't do, this is what's messing me up, this is why my life sucks. So what SHOULD I do?
Stay hydrated.
In these dry winter months, staying hydrated is ultra-important. I prefer green tea over water because not only does it have a mild flavor, but it's one of the eight big superfoods, reported to help boost your metabolism and burn body fat. Plus...it contains small amounts of caffeine, making it my favorite zero-calorie pick-me-up.
But hey, regular old water is just fine too! When dehydrated by as little as 5%, most people will experience a 25-30% loss of energy. Dehydration can cause headaches, grogginess, mood swings, and can contribute to loss of motivation and over-eating. (Hey...doesn't that last one sound familiar?) Not to mention the all-important issue: fatigue! So next time you start feeling woozy, grab a liter bottle and start chugging away over the next hour, and see how you feel then.
Catnaps.
Still feeling tired? It may be time to head back to bed for a quick catnap. Felines know how it goes - they can sleep anytime, anywhere. I've found that the best way to avoid oversleeping is to nap somewhere outside of my room, like on the bus on the way to class, in a chair in the library, etc. Anywhere that's comfortable, but not too comfortable.
I've found that 20-30 minutes is the magic number. Any longer or shorter just makes me want to sleep more! So the next spare half hour you've got, lean back and close your eyes. You don't even have to fall asleep all the way, just enough to relax and let your brain recharge for a bit.
Like I said...stay out of your bed for this one! Last time I napped in my bed, it turned into a 3-hour snoozefest.
Snacking.
Tell me the truth, guys...how many of you make it to all three meals every day?
Yeah, well, no judgment here - a lot of the times, I only make it to one meal out of three a day, and sometimes not even that. Snacking is key here - healthy, low-calorie snacks that give me a slow energy boost throughout the day. I know, I know, this sounds nauseatingly healthy, but really, just keep a granola bar on hand and you'll be good to go. I love Nature Valley, but for the gluten-free and health-conscious, Larabars are fantastic. I have a desk drawer devoted to snack foods and I always just keep one bar stored in my bag at all times, then break off pieces throughout the day to keep my stomach from growling embarrassingly loudly. Fruit is also a great option, though one I tend to avoid because everything gets squashed in my bag.
Plus some light snacking will help stave off hunger cravings, meaning you'll be less likely to overeat during the meals you do make it to, meaning you'll be less tired...
Work out a little bit.
When will this crazy girl shut up about exercise? We get it, we get it, exercise is good for you, blah blah blah.
But no really, exercise is super good for you! I'm not saying that during lunch you need to go sprint a mile, but if you're getting worn out from sitting at your desk or cramping up from studying, stand up, stretch, and do some jumping jacks. Run in place. Do some crunches. Whatever it is you do, get your heart racing and the rest of you will follow. Not to mention, it'll break up the monotony of your day or study routine, it'll help you keep those pounds off, and there are no downsides to it at all! (Except maybe looking a bit silly if you do this in a public place, but everyone should look a bit silly now and then.) You don't even have to do something that regimented - a friend of mine turns on her ipod and dances in her room for forty minutes, just headbanging and rocking out.
What's making you tired? What do you do to fix it?
I thought I'd try something new today...Sunday diary entries! I'm writing these in Illustrator, so this is what my handwriting actually looks like...v. v. messy, I know.
Anyway...yesterday I had a pretty decent trip down from Boston when the most awful thing happened @ Market East. Some guy sat next to me and started jerking off while asking me ??s about myself. I didn't know what to do so I just left and hid behind a pillar until my train came, but it upset me so much. What would you have done? I always thought I'd be the kind of person who'd get angry and confront him but instead I got afraid.
Also, I don't know why anyone would ever think that that was okay. But why didn't I get angry? I didn't want to overreact, especially since I had no concrete proof, but why is it such a bad thing to overreact? Can't we just be angry, or even just feel things, without having to worry about how we look to other people? I'm obsessed with beauty, but sometimes we are NOT beautiful, but that's still us and there's nothing wrong with that. Why couldn't I have told that man to go fuck himself if he was so desperate?
Anyway I hope you enjoyed this departure from my normal broadcasting. To be continued next Sunday!
In the words of Ned Stark...winter is coming. And this winter, I want clothes! (When do I ever want anything different?)
This winter I'm eyeing a light colored jacket, preferably one with FUR. I am getting into fur and fabulosity in a big way. I love cute demure little Mad Men-esque dresses and always pair them with opaque black tights, but in the winter I need wool to keep my gams warm. I'm starting to discover a deep love of cocktail rings, especially the ones with animals on them, which I blame entirely on my turtle ring Hermy. (Yes. I named it.) Plus more jewelry! I don't wear earrings with fur trims because of a few unfortunate experiences with getting my earrings tangled in the material...ahem. Gloves to keep my fingers warm, earmuffs for my ears, and these buckled converse wedges that I've been eyeing FOREVER. Well...since the summer, anyway. They bring the outfit down enough to wear to classes without looking overdressed, and hey, if I need to, I'll throw on a pair of knee highs to go out and about in.
This Black Friday, I bought...NONE OF THE ABOVE.
Like most cities, Boston is indeed beautiful at night, especially as we walked across the bridge outside of MIT.
Sorry ladies and gents, my smartphone's the only camera I've got on me these days.
My friends and I headed over to the neighborhood Best Buy, where the line was long but not that long, and then headed straight for the laptop section. None of us bought anything, but I did spend a very pleasurable hour or two wandering the sales racks. Consumerism and discounts - they make Black Friday my favorite holiday of the year, and yes, I do firmly believe that Black Friday is a holiday. So this Thanksgiving, I was thankful for my friends and for Black Friday being only a day away.
While I bought nothing at Best Buy...I did go back to Amazon and buy a tablet pc! For less than $80, I'm crossing my fingers. I don't need anything very powerful, just something I can watch movies on while I work out and read books on in buses and airports.
Muahaha.
- Fashion Is A Feminist Issue: Greta ChristinaIf fashion is a language, then women have a much wider vocabulary. And we have a wider range of things we can say in that vocabulary.So again: Fashion is one of the very few forms of expression in which women have more freedom than men.And I don’t think it’s an accident that it’s typically seen as shallow, trivial, and vain.It is the height of irony that women are valued for our looks, encouraged to make ourselves beautiful and ornamental… and are then derided as shallow and vain for doing so. And it’s a subtle but definite form of sexism to take one of the few forms of expression where women have more freedom, and treat it as a form of expression that’s inherently superficial and trivial. Like it or not, fashion and style are primarily a women’s art form. And I think it gets treated as trivial because women get treated as trivial.
Happy Black Friday, everyone!
LINKS
- A woman after my own heart, Sonnet created an October-only Friday column dedicated to demonstrating the ways beauty products can be made from cupboard ingredients. My favorite of these is Baking Soda and Vinegar Hair Care! She finds ways around the common problems (ie. the smell and the dryness) to create what looks like a fabulous makeshift, green-friendly shampoo.
- How gorgeous is this photo shoot? It looks like a bacchanal, all dark and sensuous and earthy.
- Are you an organic or a mechanic? I'm definitely an organic, haha.
- Cheapie swaps for high-end skin care is worth taking a look at, because who can't afford to save a few bucks here and there? Especially high-maintenance gals like myself who love love love our skin care products...
- The difference between a brand and a signature is pretty interesting to think about, in this day and age of the blogger. How many people are making the leap from blogger to business?
- Oh my gosh, and you thought YOU were busy...Leonardo da Vinci's to do list. da Vinci is my man, his paintings were so exactingly perfect that that was passion in its own right.
- And on a more relaxed note...natural hair care recipes for the hippie in us all. As soon as I get some ingredients together, I am going to try them out for sure. After all...I already put olive oil in my hair, sour cream's not going to hurt it.
Traveling up to Boston has required me to pack light...which is not exactly easy for me! I collect, collect, collect, I overpack immensely, and I always regret it the moment I have to struggle my way through the aisles. Makeup's been a bit of an issue for me - I usually favor light, natural looks during traveling because I can slap them on with minimal fuss in the mornings and wash them off quickly at night, but how natural is natural? Any makeup aficionado knows that the more natural your look, the more work you've put into it!
1. MISSHA M Signature Real Complete BB Cream (SPF 24, No. 23)
2. A makeup bag, don't know where it's from
3. Bare Minerals Mineral Veil
4. Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner (black)
5. Urban Decay Naked Palette
6. Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
The best part of this is that with the gel eyeliner and the naked palette, I can create a whole range of looks, from the soft and natural to the striking and dramatic. I favor dramatic winged eyeliner for my day-to-day look, but some days I just don't have the time. (Or, rather, my friends don't want to wait for me...)
BB cream is amazing. If you've been paying attention to Asian beauty blogs in the past couple years, BB cream has shot its way up to the top of the HG beauty products. It doubles as both foundation and concealer for me, with the mineral veil dusted on after to set it a bit. The only way you can tell I'm wearing any at all is because my skin looks too perfect to be real! Gel eyeliner is a godsend, it doesn't smudge even when I hit the gym. (True story: once I was too lazy to wipe off my liquid eyeliner before I went for my daily workout, and it ended up streaking all the way down to my chin. Attractive, c'est moi.) And naturally, who wears eye makeup without primer? UD's is one of the best on the market and their new packaging is so much better than those annoying little bottles of yesteryear, letting you actually squeeze out all the primer rather than having to scrape the inside of the bottle with their wand.
Everything but the Naked palette sits snugly inside the makeup bag, making it perfect for a weekend visit up to Boston. You can even just sling it inside your purse every day for quick touch ups.
What's in your bag?
Oh man, it got crazy around here. I've been neglecting this blog sorely in the hustle and bustle of scurrying to do makeup work, get my work in, and get some work done ahead of time so that my Thanksgiving weekend won't be filled with non-stop homework. But I went up to Boston to visit a friend at MIT and it is so pretty here, if extremely cold. What can I say, I have such a fondness for red brick buildings. (My friend disagrees...she says everything breaks. Oh dear!)
But the cold has highlighted the importance of something in my wardrobe...or rather, something that my wardrobe lacks.
EARMUFFS!!
A Bryn Mawr friend has this pair from Uniqlo:
A Princeton friend of mine once very sadly announced that it was so cold he was reduced to using his headphones as earmuffs...and man, they were not effective at all. Well I would offer to him these (only slightly girly) earmuff + headphone combination pair from Target:
True...you could just clap a hat on over your head to keep your ears warm, but where's the fun in that? This way you can look cute AND prevent hat hair from sneaking onto your scalp.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!
What does your daily routine look like?
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| Source: Imgur |
"If only my routine were PERFECT. Then I too would be PERFECT!" I say this every morning, each time believing that if only I could figure out that ultimate life hack, I could Have It All. I wake up full of ambitions to Get It Done, but crawl back into bed later admitting defeat. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
My daily routine looks something like this:
Wake up at 6:30 or earlier ♥ Run 2 miles or do bike intervals for 20 minutes ♥ Shower, get dressed, go to classes ♥ Go to work ♥ Do my homework ♥ Go to the gym ♥ Fall asleep at midnight or later ♥What I want my daily routine to look like is this:
Wake up at 6:30 or earlier ♥ Run 3 miles ♥ Shower, get dressed ♥ Plan my day out over breakfast ♥ Go to classes ♥ Get all my homework done ♥ Go to both my jobs ♥ Go to the gym ♥ Watch an episode of TV ♥ Fall asleep at 11 PM ♥What a glorious looking schedule. Look at how much sleep I get! Look at how much stuff I get done! Look at how I get to eat breakfast! (I might talk a good game about healthy eating, but I'll totally sacrifice meals just for a bit of extra time in the day.)
Well the key to accomplishing anything is figuring out how to make what we have now look more like what we want. You've all heard my thoughts on how to wake up early, so how exactly do you hack the rest of your life?
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| Source: WeHeartIt |
Start small, then get big
Look at my schedule. I want to run three miles every morning, but I only have twenty minutes to do so. That's a six minute mile and right now, it's so not happening. So I'll start with two ten minute miles, which I can handle, and aim to run those full three miles by 2012. I may even make a schedule for myself! (For I am a schedule obsessive fool...)
The Pomodoro Technique
So the best way to get things done is to power on through until the task is complete, right?
BZZT. NO. Everyone knows that you have to break things down into small, easy to manage chunks. You don't eat the whole cake in one sitting, you cut it into slices; you don't run a marathon, you run a couple million steps.
Each person has his or her own way of doing things, but my very favorite is the Pomodoro Technique, which basically calls for this:
1. Choose a task to be accomplishedI have no idea why this is so effective, but it has made my life about a gazillion times easier. It helps me blitz through my homework at warp speed, leaving me lots of time to faff around on the Internet and go to the gym. (Or, you know, see my friends. Social life, what?)
2. Set the Pomodoro to 25 minutes (the Pomodoro is the timer)
3. Work on the task until the Pomodoro rings, then put a check on your sheet of paper
4. Take a short break (5 minutes is OK)
5. Every 4 Pomodoros take a longer break
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| Source: Favim |
Break the rules.
Sometimes the whole daily routine isn't helping. Sometimes it just drives home the fact that you are in a rut and your life is boring and you are boring and you should just give up on ever being an interesting person...and on days when you feel like that, step out of your life. Call in sick, skip a class, whatever it is you need to do - take the day off and make yourself feel good. Go on a bike ride, go shopping, pamper yourself. It's your own personal one day vacation and you have all the choices in the world!
However...I would not recommend spending the day watching TV or movies. While this is something I've done myself and there is a certain rejuvenating effect after, most of the times it just leaves me groggy and reluctant to return to my normal life. The point of the exercise isn't to turn your brain off for a couple of hours, but to recharge it - key difference there! Come back to your life feeling fresh and ready to take on the world again.
What's your daily routine like? And what do you want to change about it?
What I'm into right now: crazy colors paired with black, crazy hair, crazier eyeliner, stripes, and Japan, because the Japanese know how to get crazy.
For the curious, the characters in the middle are onna no hito no getsuyoubi, which means Woman of Monday. Four months of first-year Japanese are really paying off!
The picture on the left was taken by Lara Jade. The rest are from random places all over the internet that happened to find their ways into my computer.
About a year ago, I started hearing of this bizarre thing called dry skin brushing. It sounded (well, let's be honest) incredibly hokey and about as legit as all the other New Agey beauty treatments. But people were swearing by it, so I added the Yerba Prima Tampico Vegetable Fiber Skin Brush to my Amazon wishlist and moved on.
Well, now I have one!
AND IT IS FANTASTIC.
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| The love of my life |
The idea behind dry skin brushing is that it removes dead skin cells without touching the body's natural oils, cleaning without drying, and helps new skin cells to regenerate. Essentially, it's a form of dry exfoliation. It's a recommended part of the detoxification process and stimulates blood circulation and the lymphatic system. It's even said to help you lose weight because it breaks up cellulite. Personally, I have no idea about how true any of this is, but I have noticed that my skin is much clearer and more even all over, and I never get ingrown hairs anymore (aughhh bane of my existence). I suffer from keratosis pilaris on my arms and legs (chicken skin, if you want to be mean) and ever since I started dry skin brushing, they've all but vanished. It's a Thanksgiving miracle!
So now that you've run out and bought a dry skin brush of your very own (based solely on my testimony!), here's what you do:
Before you shower, start brushing the soles of your feet in the direction of your heart, slowly moving upwards. Brush either in short strokes or in small circles, whichever feels most comfortable. If this is your first time, don't brush too roughly. Over time your skin will get stronger. Avoid bruises, scratches, and other irritated areas.
Put one arm up and brush gently towards your armpit, then do the same with the other arm. Don't forget to concentrate on your armpits, where there's a whole host of lymphatic nodes just crying out for attention.
Brush up your belly towards your heart, then do the same with your back and butt (this is where having a long handle on your brush really comes in handy). Brush over your neck and shoulders, as well as the underside of your chin.
Be careful to avoid brushing your face! You need a specialized, softer brush for that. Clean your brush gently with soap and water every week or so.
Doesn't this sound crazy? But I'm a total believer now! When I'm done, I just hop in the shower and wash off any remaining dead skin cells. My mom asked what the giant brush in my room was for and totally laughed at me. But this shall help me to remain young and beautiful foreverrrr... or at least until marriage when it's too late to run away! (True fact: I sometimes wander around my dorm halls with grayish-white clay smeared all over my face, looking something like a geisha ninja in pajamas. I am an attractive person!)
What are your totally weird skin secrets? Or your not-so-weird ones? Share in the comments below!
So now that it's 1 AM and I have three posts on this blog under my belt, I have decided that it is time for an ill-advised and somewhat tardy introductory post.
Hi y'all. I'm Melody, known here as Girl Monday. Like my profile says, I am nineteen, a college student, and here to talk about the things I find pretty and/or inspirational. I have a lot to say, which is perfect for the Internet, where everyone likes to talk. I will be updating nearly every day with tips, links, pictures, YouTube videos - any content that I feel fits the style and theme of this blog. Anything I want to share with you will go on this blog and I hope you'll love what I find as much as I do.
As for who I am and what I do...despite never having taken any design courses, I am hoping to become a graphic designer and am planning to get a degree in that field. I like to write and draw. My Twitter will almost certainly be stream-of-consciousness. I like to take pictures of things but don't really know how, so you all will be continuously subjected to my mediocre photography. Please, critique anything you like! I am looking to improve my abilities in almost everything.
As far as college goes, I am on track to graduate a semester early, live on campus, and am currently working two jobs, as a student manager in the library and as a theater tech.
Ask me anything! Tell me anything! I am here and waiting.
Love,
Girl Monday <3
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| Source: WeHeartIt |
My entire life, waking up before 10 AM was a major accomplishment. Getting to school by 8:30? By senior year I had mastered the art of the ten minute morning - eight minutes to clean my teeth, brush my hair, wash my face, and get dressed; two minutes to get into the car and out onto the highway. I would sleep the entire way there, all ten minutes of that commute. I didn't wear a single smear of makeup most days and my wardrobe was reduced to (dress code violating) T-shirts and crappy blue jeans that I'd been wearing every day for at least a month.
Freshman year of college was rough. My first class started at 10 AM, but I didn't get out of bed until 11 AM. Fast forward to junior year, and oh my god I wake up at 6:45 AM and I love it.
So how did this happen?
First, some background information: teenagers naturally sleep and wake late.
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| Source: Favim.com |
A hormone called melatonin is what induces sleep in everyone. For adults, this hormone gets released at about 10 PM; for teenagers, at 1 AM, explaining the usual 2 AM bedtime that most teenagers follow. So that 7:30 AM (or earlier!) wake up call becomes even harder when our bodies are telling us that it's still nighttime and we need to be in bed. Not to mention, sleep is crucial at this age for general physical and mental well-being! But there isn't much anyone can do at this point. A few schools have started to set start times later, with positive results such as improved attendance, increased alertness, and less tardiness. If my high school had lowered its start time to 9 or later, I would have been so happy. Let's not even talk about senior year, when I regularly started skipping my first period to go lie down in the halls and sleep, or when I started having to bike to school and wouldn't show up until noon. (Looking back, I have no idea why they didn't just fail me out of senior year.)
Hopefully, my increasingly earlier mornings aren't a sign of aging... I sleep at midnight and wake up 6:30 every weekday, clocking 6.5 hours of sleep a night - somewhat less than the recommended amount, but as long as I feel fresh and awake in the mornings, I don't really see the problem. Waking up early not only lets me eat breakfast (because breakfast foods are the BEST) but gives me the time to review the information I need to know for any upcoming tests, plan out the day, and even meet up with a few friends. I have the time to look cute and feel great. I love it! Naturally, it helps that my first class is at 8:30 AM, so I need to be up early regardless. If your first class is later than that, go hit the gym! Start your day with a huge boost of energy and sweat out all the toxins that build up in your body during the night.
But if you're less crazy than me, don't worry! There are still a ton of ways to grab every second of sleep you can and still start the day energized, put together, and on top of things.
Give yourself some leeway in the mornings.
How much time does it take you to get ready? 10 minutes? 20? 30? (60. I am ashamed.) Take that time, add fifteen minutes to it, and set your alarm to that time. Don't make a habit of sleeping that entire fifteen minutes either! Save it for when you go to bed late or when you're just absolutely exhausted. I only take that fifteen minutes if I went to bed especially late the night before. That extra time lets you relax as you get ready and go back for anything you might have forgotten.
If you actually want to wake up earlier, take it slow. Wake up half an hour earlier every week and you'll be good to go.
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| Source: WeHeartIt |
You don't have to leap out of bed and run a marathon, but when you wake up, before you do anything else, get up and get moving. 100 jumping jacks, fifty crunches, ten pushups - anything you want. It just needs to get your heart rate up and your blood pumping. Pretty soon your body will start getting used to it and you'll be leaping out of bed ready to go. That might be an exaggeration, but you'll have to find out for yourself! I personally favor 100 jumping jacks and four minutes of crunches to music, because my neighbors don't hate me enough. Not to mention, exercising regularly, even if it's in small quantities, is a great habit to incorporate into your daily routine.
If you want to kick it up a notch, try this: 100 jumping jacks every morning, 100 jumping jacks at lunch, 100 jumping jacks every evening. This might not sound like a lot, but 300 jumping jacks burns an extra 150 calories per day, to the sweet tune of 1050 calories per week, or .3 lb.
If that's too easy for you, try this: Monday, 100 jumping jacks 3x per day; Tuesday, 200 jumping jacks, 3x per day; Wednesday, 300 jumping jacks, 3x per day; Thursday, 400 jumping jacks, 3x per day; Friday, 500 jumping jacks, 3x per day. 4500 calories burned per week, or slightly less than 1.3 lbs! I'm going to be undertaking this challenge too as a matter of fact, so leave a comment if you're interested in coming along with me.
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| Source: Visualize |
Listen to music.
This is something I do whenever I'm tired, not just in the mornings, but it works amazingly in conjunction with both of the above. The trick is to find a playlist that has a good beat but isn't going to jerk you right out of bed and into the dark, harsh, and above all cold world outside of your bed. Even if your favorite band ever is Linkin Park, you need to pick some songs that bring a smile to your face and will get you in the right mood. To that effect, I have some suggestions for you below! Add your own in the comments if you so desire. I love music recs!
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| Source: WeHeartIt |
Streamline your routine
If you're rushed for time and find yourself constantly running back and forth between your room for forgotten objects (homework, books, pencils, anything!), do yourself a favor and get ready the night before. Lay out the clothes you want to wear, pack your bags, keep your daily makeup in a separate container by the mirror - whatever it is you need to do to shave a few minutes off your morning routine, do it! Do you drink coffee in the mornings? Can you make it in advance the night before and drink it iced? Or, if you need it to be freshly brewed and piping hot, set everything up so that all you have to do in the morning is hop out of bed and press a button. Every minute you save is an extra minute in bed.
A friend of mine says she has to launch herself out or she'll spend the next hour inching her way out from beneath the sheets. Brilliant (and hilarious)! I like to hide my alarm clock in my room and let the process of searching for it wake me up (in related news, I think my neighbors hate me).
What about you?
I wore...
♥ White tanktop dress from Forever 21 ♥ Grey boatneck giraffe sweater from YesStyle ♥ black leggings from Macy's ♥ Qupid Pack Wedge Boot ♥
I bought...
♥ Turtle ring from Payless ♥ Chandelier earrings from Payless ♥
Today was fantastic. A friend and I went into Philadelphia. We stopped for lunch at Mizu, one of my favorite sushi restaurants, and discovered that it was Korean run. Fantastic! Fellow Koreans, high five! Then we went to Nook and discovered the beauty of Japanese matcha lattes, followed by some light shopping, and dinner at Famous 4th Street Delicatessen. To the confusion of the other diners, we conversed in a mix of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, which was far better than what we did at Barnes and Noble, which was talk about animal manure. The conclusion we drew then was that manure was really nothing more than hipster shit. We are classy, elegant ladies, y'all.
While this isn't exactly a well-kept secret, there's absolutely no reason to keep buying eye makeup remover (approximately $4-8 a bottle) when the homemade kind is incredibly easy to make, cheaper, and much longer lasting. You only need three things:
Needed:
- Petroleum jelly
- Q-tips
- Alcohol- and fragrance-free baby wipes
Roll the Q-tip around in the petroleum jelly, spread it on top of and underneath your lids, then use the baby wipes to remove the jelly.
Why would you do this instead of buying eye makeup remover?
Petroleum jelly costs about $1-2 per jar and will last for months. It won't sting or otherwise irritate the skin around your eyes and may in fact be good for them! Some people even swear that combing it through your eyelashes will help lengthen and thicken them. As for the baby wipes...if it's good enough for a baby's butt, it's good enough for your face.
I've been removing my makeup this way for about a month now and I have to say, my eyelashes are looking fantastic. There's so much less breakage than there used to be. Not to mention this is a more effective eye makeup remover than store brands. Sometimes when my mascara is on really thickly, I have to do this several times, but no worries--the whole point of this is that this stuff comes cheaply!
I love DIY beauty treatments. They're not only fun to make but also fun to apply, and usually quite edible.
Tutorials from around the web:
- Customized Earrings @ CollegeFashion (The technique she uses to transfer the image can also be used to transfer images to cloth. Just want to put that out there!)
- Feathered headband/hat @ Craftser (So pretty! I'm not a particularly craftsy person, but if someone were to make this for me, I'd probably take them out to Starbucks or something.)
- Castor oil facial cleanser @ myLot (I did this for about a year...not only was it amazing for my skin, but it was so so cheap as well. The best part is that because you're making it yourself, you can adjust the formula to suit your skin type. However, I'd caution against using it to remove makeup - while it will do the job, often it initially causes some breakouts.)
- Homemade Pumpkin Mask Recipe @ bellasugar (This looks good for both your skin and your belly...)
- Body scrub @ the creative mama (I used a recipe very similar to this in high school and I can testify - it works! Plus it's fun to feel it all melting off your skin as you stand in the shower. Beauty should be fun!)
- Lush Sweet Lips Lip Scrub & DIY Lip Scrub Recipe @ askmissa (My lips often get so dry in the winter that either this or Vaseline is the only thing that will fix them. Not to mention, every time I licked my lips I got to taste all that delicious sugar.)
Unfortunately...I have a nail biting habit. Not very classy, cute, or sexy, right? But luckily for me, my habit isn't so strong that I have to go out and buy some sort of nail cream to condition myself out of sticking my fingers in my mouth all the time. Instead I just wear nail polish!
Nail polish is pretty much my favorite thing in the world. I used to match my purple nails to my sweater and luggage whenever I traveled...perhaps a little matchy-matchy, but I loved it, so who cares?
(apologies for my messy desk)
Despite being such a nail polish fan, I don't have a lot of colors. But whenever I go somewhere new, I like to pick up different shades from brands that can only be located in that area...for example, although the Maybelline polishes are from the Rite Aid ten minutes down the street, the dark green (second from the left), the sea green (third from the right), and the orange (very right) are all from Korea. The sea green I got from the Daiso in my neighborhood but both the dark green and the orange are from Nature Republic, who have yet to make it across the pond into America.
PS: The orange is my favorite! It's so pretty I can't take it. It's so perfect for the summer.
But wearing nail polish all the time can damage your fingers pretty badly, so that's where base coats come in, so I always make sure that I have enough on hand. I've gotten really into crackle nail polish though (god I love trends) and I picked up the sparkly top coat in Korea where it fast made its way into my heart. Glitter nails are the best, guys.
My favorite combinations:
Blue + silver crackle (perfect for winter)
Black + silver crackle (the classically edgy look)
Orange + glitter top coat (perfect for spring and summer)
Anyway...what's a girl without colors to do?
Have a nail polish party of course! My friends and I like to get together and combine our nail polish collections. We paint our nails together and do designs and borrow each other's colors, while (classily!) swigging X-Rated Fusion Liquor which is, in honor of the occasion, bright pink and super sweet. If you do have a nail polish party, don't forget to crack a window, those fumes can get mighty nasty.
Links:
- How to Get Swirly, Tie-Dyed Nails - water marbling is the big new nail trend to hit this year. It's super hard to do and I've never done it before, but I may try it my next free weekend. Look at how fantastic those nails are!
- Cupcake Nail Art Tutorial - if you're into nail art on fake nails, this tutorial is amazing! Her nails look delicious. I don't wear fake nails but these make me want to try...
- True Metallic Nails - nevertoomuchglitter uses foil to create fantastic looking party nails.
- River Rock Nail Decal Technique - A DIY method of making nail decals, inspired by New York Fashion Week.
- Purple Gradient Nail Art Tutorial - Jen is one of my favorite beauty bloggers, and not just because we're both Koreans. Her purple nails straddle the line between edgy and girly effortlessly!
- Sweet Mani - Even though Halloween is long past, these candy corn nails still totally work for fall.
- Fall/Autumn Themed Nail Art - The video is rather poorly shot, but the nails are gorgeous and the instructions are clear enough. I don't have any colors that work for this, but her nails look so beautiful! This video definitely is not for an amateur though, it's one of those tricky 3D nail art tutorials.
- First Snowfall - Even if you live somewhere without snow, you can still enjoy these gorgeous nails with snowdrifts painted on them. I am definitely going to try these over winter break. They even have little rhinestones for maximum effect!
