Sensitive Skin Woes

Since I'm attempting to transform into a functional domestic diva, I have to make sure I see to both my needs and John's. John is just a damn mess. He can't eat wheat or milk, and has super sensitive skin. He is itchy all the time.

He switched from whatever body wash he was using to fragrance free soaps, and we switched laundry detergents as well. Right now he is using Dove Sensitive Skin Body Wash, which seems to be a lot better for his skin that Old Spice or whatever he was using before, but he is still very itchy.

We've also switched to Tide Free & Gentle Detergent for our laundry and that has made a noticeable improvement as well. These were suggestions given to us by his grandparents because his grandmother has a similar sensitive skin issue, so I guess it runs in the family. 

Diet probably has a bit to do with it as well. He tries to stay away from wheat and cow's milk as much as possible (it really is in everything, it's kind of insane). 

I just feel like there are better alternatives to Tide and Dove that might still be better for his skin. No offense to Tide and Dove, I adore you two. I am using Dove soap for myself as well right now. And don't get me wrong, they have made noticeable improvements to his skin in contrast to the other non-sensitive skin products he was previously using.  

He can't use anything with dyes or fragrance, so if you have similar sensitive skin issues, please let me know what you use! If he can find some detergent and body wash that will work for his skin he will be willing to dish out the money I'm sure. 

That being said, what are your new years plans?! I hope you all have a good transition into 2016!  

One more thing, if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook then you might've seen that I found my things from Two Krafty Chicks that got ignored/lost when I was moving my things to a different house back in May! A few of the stickers got a little damaged unfortunately, but to make up for my awfulness I went to Target yesterday and bought some things to add to the giveaway! Stay tuned!  

Article Archive & Christmas Update

Just thought I'd share the articles I've written for other websites since July. These websites include College Fashion, Every College Girl, and The Odyssey.

It would mean a lot to me if you would read, give feedback, share, etc. I love knowing people read my articles! 

College Fashion

Class to Night Out: Slit Maxi Skirt

Class to Night Out: Bardot Top

Class to Night Out: Watercolor Dress

Class to Night Out: Palm Tree Print Dress

Class to Night Out: Polka Dot Blouse

Class to Night Out: Printed Denim Shorts

Class to Night Out: Leopard Print Top

Class to Night Out: Bell Sleeve Mini Dress

Class to Night Out: Lace Blazer

Class to Night Out: Plaid Dress

Class to Night Out: Motorcycle Jacket

Class to Night Out: Turtleneck Dress

Class to Night Out: Gray Jeans

Class to Night Out: Houndstooth Skirt

Class to Night Out: Poncho

Class to Night Out: Fringe Jacket

Class to Night Out: Faux Fur Vest

Class to Night Out: Suede Button Front Skirt

Class to Night Out: Hoodie Dress

Class to Night Out: Snake Print Pants

Class to Night Out: Chunky Sweater

Class to Night Out: Destroyed Skinny Jeans

Class to Night Out: Black and White Striped Sweater

Class to Night Out: Embellished Shoulder Sweater

Class to Night Out: Sequin Maxi Skirt

Class to Night Out: Red Velvet Dress

Every College Girl 

First Day Looks Under $100

Steal Her Style: Selena Gomez

Why You Should Wear Hats

5 Books to Read When You Miss Your Dog at College

1 Cardigan 3 Ways: Holiday Gathering Edition

5 Easy Gifts For Your Party Friend

21 Freeze Ahead Snacks Every College Girl Should Try  

The Odyssey

What You Need To Know About Assistance Dogs

The Problem Is Bigger Than Shark Finning

Why I Look Up To My Boyfriend

The Benefits of Therapeutic Horseback Riding

You Need to Surround Yourself With People You Like

Your Life in Retail Summed Up By 'Sex and the City' 

Challenge of the Day: Be Nice

3D Printing: The Good and The Bad 

Your Charleston Winter Drinks Menu

Offensive or Sensitive: The Kylie Jenner Problem

You Are Not Your Horoscope

12 Gift Ideas for the Animal Lover in Your Life

As you can hopefully tell I've been hard at work. My internship at College Fashion just ended so I have a little bit more free time. 

I got a makeup palette for Christmas that I want to write a quick review on at some point soon.

 I have a camera that takes passable pictures, but I cannot for the life of me decide if I want to spend my Christmas money on a new camera or on some other things I've had my eye on. It's not like I do super in-depth beauty reviews all the time so I don't need a crazy expensive camera. Oh, decisions. 

Christmas was kind of low key this year. John had some horrible tooth problems that were so bad he/I couldn't sleep. Apparently he grinds his teeth during the night and has caused some nerve damage that is unbearably painful, if I remember correctly? He didn't know what was going on and called his dentist the day after Christmas and they met in his office. Dentist did some grinding down on his teeth (ow). 

I don't remember all the details, but the bottom line: if you grind your teeth at night, get a mouth guard or you will want to fling yourself off a building eventually. 

But the food and wine was good. My mom's dog that we were dog-sitting was good. All around a good Christmas! 

How was your Christmas? 

That 70's Wishlist

I think I was born in the wrong decade. I'm seriously obsessed with the 1970's, fashion-wise and not. I don't know what it is. Maybe the effortlessness of it? Maybe Stevie Nicks had something to do with it?

I've had a major craving for some 70's swag lately, and I know it's a little late for Santa to get my list but I figured I'd put it out there anyway. 

Free People

Zara

1st Dibs 

Farfetch

One Kings Lane

Dot & Bo

Etsy

I'll keep it short because I could go on for literally pages with this 70's wishlist. I love it, I really do. I'm glad John likes interesting pillows, because the 70's had some bangin pillow designs. 

What's your favorite fashion or decor decade, or just decade that's been catching your interest lately? 

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas! 

Personalized Stationary

Hey hey! I'm taking a break from cleaning right now and it's absolutely freezing in my room right now. I have no idea why it's not warming up.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I geek out over pens. Fountain pens in particular, though I don't own one of my own. I enjoy writing, and by writing I mean physical writing. I enjoy looking at people's handwriting, I like old script, I like writing by hand over typing (except when writing articles, writing by hand is just not practical since I edit so much).

I don't mean to be, but I'm kind of a bad family member in that I don't make phone calls just to say "hello" and all that stuff that good family members do. It's that that I don't care, I love my family! I don't have a phone, which is of course a problem. But I just don't think to do it. I prefer to write, but I don't really think to do that either!

I'm on the hunt for some personalized stationary to write thank you letters, happy birthday cards, hello notes, and all that jazz. I bought this set of 20 note cards from Papyrus last year and they've lasted me a while because I haven't thought to use them very much, but I plan on writing more notes and letters this year. Resolution maybe?

We have a Papyrus store here in Charleston so I might go browse. I like these.

Set of 16 notecards for $14.95 is not bad at all! I still think I'd prefer some monogrammed or personalized stationary though. I don't think Papyrus does that. They have some writing paper with single letters so I could get paper with a "G" on it, but the styles are very limited. 

These note cards are cute and simple but expensive. $20 for a set of 6. There isn't an option to customize them but the website (Sugar Paper) has a "custom" section of the website that doesn't show options - rather you give your name, email, and a message and I'm assuming they will email you and go from there. Since these non-customized cards are so expensive I'm not going to bother, but if they weren't so expensive I'd be all over it!

They are also pretty small - 4.25 x 5.5 inches

I've found a lot of the stationary I like has been around that size and I'd like some a little bigger, but if I can't find any then I'll at least try to get one with a blank back so I can write on the back if I need to. 

I think I prefer the non-obnoxious customization options like this one. My name on the bottom or just initials at the top would be enough. Nothing too huge. This is a serious consideration - $25 for a set of 20. The only thing I don't like is the size. You can tell by the picture comparison to the pen how small it is. These are from Curio Press on Etsy. 

Perhaps? I swear if I ever get married I'm going to take a year just to pick out invitations. These are from Modern Pink Paper on Etsy. The size of the notecards wouldn't be a problem if I didn't write so big, maybe I should start practicing my handwriting. These are $18 for a set of 10. 

No matter what I decide on, I'm 100% getting a wax seal stamp. Now I'm not sure if I should get one with my initials or one with a shark, because that's my House sigil I have decided. I have also decided that there is something wrong with me, heh. Really though, I'm getting one. This is from Back to Zero on Etsy. 

Well now you know all of my current stationary struggles. 

Let me know which stationary you like, or if you have any other stationary stores you'd like to suggest! 

Baked Salmon & Asparagus (Gluten Free and Dairy Free!)

I've started attempting to cook and I'm going to start sharing recipes!

I usually cook at night so I don't normally have natural lighting on my side, so my picture may not be the best. And since I'm not used to blogging my recipes I have to start remembering to take pictures of the cooking process (this one only has 2, sorry!).

Also, John has a wheat and cow's milk allergy so most of my recipes will be gluten free and dairy free. His particular allergy isn't life threatening, it's more of an inconvenience and annoyance so we don't worry too much about butter (because butter makes everything amazing!) but if you are sticking to a dairy free diet you can always switch out regular butter for dairy free butter.

With the exception of this post, my intro to "Gracey is cooking?!" posts, I'm going to try not to write a novel before we get down to the recipe, because I know when I'm searching for a recipe I really am not interested at all in what is being said above it (sorry if I'm offending, I get angry when I'm hungry).

Umm what else...I've given thought to the Keto diet because of my epilepsy but I haven't had a chance to talk to my doctor about it yet. I'd like to give it a shot in combination with my medication if he thinks it's a good idea, and if that's the case then there will be some Keto recipes coming up!

Anyway, my recipe inspiration came from a few different salmon recipes I mashed together from Pinterest, but here is the main one.

I'm hesitant to put a prep time because it takes me AGES to prep because I still suck at everything, so I'm going to kind of take my prep time estimate what a normal person prep time would be.

Note: This was before it was cooked. I am a dingus and didn't take any after pictures because I got excited and ate it. I didn't even think about it because I'm not used to taking pictures of my food before I eat it. Sorry! I'll hopefully get better. 

Baked Salmon & Asparagus (Gluten Free and Dairy Free)

Prep time: 10 minutes 

Cook time: 25 minutes 

Ingredients

4 (6oz) skinless salmon fillets
1 lb asparagus
1 shallot, sliced into thin rings
4 cups spinach
1 lemon thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt & black pepper
Thyme sprigs

Instructions 

1. Preheat oven to 400°F
2. Cut 4 sheets of aluminum foil about 14 inches long
3. Place 1 cup of spinach in the center of each sheet of foil *
4. Divide asparagus equally and place in the center length of foil (about 6-8 pieces per sheet) on top of spinach 
5. Thinly slice shallot into rings and scatter on top of the portions of asparagus
6. Mix together garlic and oil in a bowl, and drizzle 1 tsp over each group of asparagus and shallots. Season each group with salt and pepper. 
7. Rinse salmon and season the bottoms with salt and pepper, then lay each fillet over asparagus. 
8. Drizzle tops of salmon with 1 tsp olive oil and garlic mixture and season with salt and pepper. 
9. Place 2 thin lemon slices and 1 thyme sprig over tops of fillets 
10. Enclose the salmon in the foil by wrapping the sides inward and folding the tops and bottoms in. 
11. Place in single layer on baking sheet in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. 

*I did not do this, but we had leftover spinach and I thought about it and when I brought it up with John after he said I totally should've done it. I'm 99% sure it would be delicious. 

Again, I'm sorry for the lack of "after" pictures, this one was taken before it was cooked. I got too excited and ate before I even thought about taking a picture. 

I think this is the perfect thing to make if you need to get yo green on. John is obsessed with this spinach and goat cheese stuffed meatloaf that I make, and even though I use way more spinach than the recipe calls for, we are left with a boatload of spinach that I have to find a use for. As I said earlier, I totally should've put a bed of spinach underneath the asparagus. 

He has discovered that he really likes spinach chips though, so I guess that solves that problem. 

Anyway, I need feedback on my recipe post formatting please! I'm horrible at giving directions so let me know if these are unclear, as I'm sure they are. I'll try to fix them if they are. 

Do you have a favorite way to eat salmon? I'm on the hunt for new salmon recipes! 

The Struggles of Being a Young Writer

The title is way more dramatic than this post, haha.

After taking my internship with College Fashion, I realized how much I enjoyed it so I started taking on a few more writing jobs. I'll be posting a collection of my posts soon in case you want to read any of them. Anyway, I got a little in over my head and between school and all of the deadlines so my personal blog got a little neglected. My internship with College Fashion ends at the end of this month (so sad!) so hopefully I'll have a little more time to devote to my baby.

Writing wasn't really something I ever imagined doing as a career, and I still don't see myself turning it into a career. I love doing it though. I get asked a lot why I don't want to be a writer when I "grow up", whatever the hell that means. If I had to depend on writing for my main source of income, I imagine I would end up hating it. As you can imagine, and know if you are a writer yourself, coming up with content (especially with deadlines) is stressful.

Sometimes you just have to force yourself to come up with something, kind of like writing a paper for one of your professors. Even if you know it's not your best work, it's ok, everyone has those kinds of days and moments no matter what industry you're in. But when you write, it's published online for everyone to read, forever. I will do this for my good pieces as well, but sometimes I go back and read my "fluff" articles and become displeased with myself. I feel a bit like a failure, even though I know everybody has those days.

credit

Another slight annoyance is censorship. Writing for likes and shares over what I really want to talk about or what should be talked about, but that's partially why I have this blog! This is a huge problem for a lot of writers that actually do depend on getting published for money. In order to get hired, they need to write about what the newspaper/magazine/blog wants them to write about, not what they want to write about. Which is all part of the job of course. After a while your creativity just becomes stunted and you begin to hate something you once loved.

So the point of all that was just summing up why I don't want to write for a living, just to keep it as a hobby. I want to be able to stop whenever I'd like. And I've never tried writing fiction and I'm not sure if that would be my cup of tea, so I'm not even sure what that's like. Let me know if that's your thing though, I'm curious!

Talking to people at parties about it is fun though. They ask what I do and I'm in school but I'm not working so I say "I'm a writer I guess" in hopes that someone will reply "You guess, don't you know?" so that I'll have a new best friend, but nobody is worthy yet...le sigh.

To sum up the post:
1. I'm bad at balancing deadlines
2. Forcing content sometimes must be done but ends in disappointment
3. I don't want to write for a living because I will start to hate it
4. Censorship sucks
5. Nobody is worthy to be my new best friend yet

What have you all been up to lately? I have a lot of catching up to do, yeesh.