Keep It Classy, Keep It Sassy

I may have just been binge watching Mad Men for the past few days, but I've become smitten with the classy vintage style! The makeup, the clothes, the personalities, the whole thing. When we think of "classic beauties", our minds steer toward Marilyn, Audrey, Grace Kelly, Jackie. Don't forget about the rest of the ladies! 

Shirley Jones

Martine Carol

Lesley Lawson (Twiggy)

Lola Falana

Anna May Wong

Kit Smythe 

So much class, so much beauty. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong decade. Ah well. Hopefully ya'll enjoyed and got a little inspiration from these! 

Who is your favorite classic beauty queen?

Life Tip #3: Take Cranberry Pills

I did life tip #1 and #2 here, just trying to make life a little better for ya :D 

Tip #3: Take cranberry pills

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My mom used to get a lot of UTIs when she was younger and lucky for me so do I. Ugh. 

If you've ever had a UTI, you know how horrible it is. Everyone always tell you to drink cranberry juice, but having cranberry pills is a lot more convenient sometimes. 

There isn't much evidence that they actually treat existing UTIs, but they do prevent future ones. 

I find that they do help when I have an existing UTI, but I drink a whole glass of water when I take them so that probably helps too. 

Other possible benefits include improved dental hygiene and gastric ulcer suppression if taken on a regular basis. 

Epilepsy is a Pain

I don't think I've ever mentioned it before, but I am epileptic. I kind of just need to rant about my neurologist appointments. Feel free to ignore this! 

I started having seizures sometime in 2012. Throughout those years, the main triggers are dehydration and stress. I've had generalized anxiety for god knows how long so I'm usually stressed all the time about everything (nothing). 

I've been taking Lamictal for my seizures, I'm up to 500mg a day now. Lamictal is used for seizures and other mood disorders - my friend takes the same thing for her bipolar disorder. 

What seems to happen is I'll go months without seizures and then all of a sudden I'll start having them every month, which probably just means my medication needs adjusting as my body has become used to it. Also over the years, the side effects of Lamictal have started bothering me. I didn't experience any immediate side effects, it just seems like they've slowly crept up on me and only then realize that it could be the medicine causing these. 

I've brought up these concerns with my neurologists several visits before, and they usually just up my dose, tell me to sleep and stay hydrated and send me on the way. 80% of the time I don't even get to talk to my neurologist - it's this old balding lady that's his "assistant" (I'm in the process of switching neurologists).  Talking to the assistant doesn't really bother me if I'm there just for a medicine refill, but if I'm there for some other reason - paying them - I want to see the doctor that I'm paying to see. Neurologists are not cheap. I've seen the assistant several times, she's nice. She just has to re-read my entire chart before talking to me about anything and doesn't seem to remember ever seeing me. I guess I'd like a more personable doctor. 

Anyway, I expressed my dislike for Lamictal to her. She has told me every other time I told her I didn't like this medication "Lamictal has the least amount of side effects". I've heard that so. many. times. from them. But I insisted so she put me on Vimpat to use in conjunction with Lamictal. I'm hoping the new neurologist gets me on a new medicine cocktail altogether.

Sorry for the poorly written rant if you read any or all of that! 

TwoKraftyChicks!

Last month I did a post on paper planners and journals, specifically about how adorable they are! TwoKraftyChicks is an Etsy shop that I found while looking for planner accessories, which are going to be featured in the upcoming giveaway! 

I don't think ya'll quite understand how hard it is for me to restrain myself from taking that pink sparkly bow bookmark and use it myself. To whoever wins the giveaway: I'm jealous. She sent over 2 bookmarks (the sparkly bow and "love"), 3 little washi tape samples, and 7 sticker sheets. 

Katie (Krafty Chick #1) is incredibly sweet, and is obviously very good at what she does. Everything is just so cute I can't get over it! "Krafty Chick #2" is her baby daughter Avery, by the way. 

This is just a little preview of some of the things that will be included in the upcoming giveaway, so keep checking back for more. 

The Color Pink Makes Everything Look Pretty

I woke up today with an insane craving for anything fruity. I got a Snapple Apple when I went grocery shopping earlier but the craving is still going strong. Ugh. Also I had no earthly idea that almond milk was so good! Why didn't anyone tell me?! 

After I went shopping I was browsing the Kate Spade website earlier and got a little pink inspiration. Seems fitting since I have this insatiable fruit craving. I could reaaaalllly go for a passion tea lemonade from Starbucks right about now. I'm in a more colorful mood today than I was while doing my last post I guess! 

3 of my favorite Kate Spade items right now. I don't own a lot of hats - mainly because I just don't think to put them on when I'm leaving - but lately I've been obsessed. I really really want that purse because I need a new one and I love those colors together. And you all know I'm all about scarves whenever and wherever. 

MAC Pink Nouveau

Hopefully this craving will subside soon, but at least it's not a chocolate craving. When I start craving chocolate I have to have it right at that moment or everyone will die. 

Sigh, we shall see. Are you feeling the pink vibe too? 

Currently Loving: Dark Tie Dye

When I walk downtown during the summer, the sidewalks are littered with color. I'm always partial to darker colors, and after seeing this dress on display at Earth Bound, I fell in love. I have a really long, flowy dark blue tie dye scarf that I got last year and never really wore, and I'm SO excited to wear the crap out of it now. It's the perfect relaxed summer print.

Are you going to rock any dark tie dye this summer? Or do you prefer brighter colors? 

Writing

I was looking over some of my older blog posts while trying to decide what to write about, and I got a little discouraged. This is more of a rant than a regular post, but feel free to read anyway! 

Writing is hard. Good writing is hard. Sometimes I can't think of what I want to write about, and I always do come up with something, but a lot of the time I feel like my heart just wasn't in it. I'll go back and read some of my posts and wonder why I wrote what I wrote. None of them have been particularly bad posts, they just seemed like "filler" posts. I was going to say "bullshit posts" but eh. 

I started to write a post last night and I stopped in the middle to think about what I was writing about. Was this a new or helpful idea I'm putting out there? Is it different? Will someone get something out of reading this post? What am I actually contributing by posting this? 

I've felt like that a lot lately, not only with writing but about life in general. I feel like I'm having that early-mid 20's crisis that everyone seems to go through. What am I doing with my life? Not just career wise either. Just like when I was writing and thinking about what people would get out of whatever I was going to post, sometimes I think - what am I actually contributing to the world? Am I contributing at all? Sometimes I just feel like I'm wasting space, using energy and resources for whatever reason. And then I look at all the idiots around me and I realize I probably come off as one of those fuckers to everyone else. 

But, I woke up this morning to find out that I got an internship to be a contributing writer at College Fashion, which greatly lifted my spirits. I applied last month and I am so excited that I was chosen to fill one of the spots! This has made me feel a little bit better, as my title is contributing writer I feel like I'm actually going to be doing something productive. I sincerely hope that people will read what I write and gain something by reading it. 

I hope this didn't come off as me saying I don't put anything into my blog - I really do! Sometimes I just look at things I wrote and wonder if it actually impacted anyone in ANY sense, no matter how small. That is my goal as a "writer". Finding my writing "style" is also something I hope to accomplish in my journalism journey.

If you managed to read all of this, thank you and sorry for the negativity!