VERSATILE

The wonderful Emma (truly fantastic blog, you really, really need to check it out)  nominated me for this 10 days ago, and I'm only now getting around to responding. Oops! 

Rules

1. Thank the person who nominated you and give them a shout out on your blog with a link to their blog.

2. Share 7 random facts about yourself.

3. Send on the award to 10 other bloggers whose blogs that you appreciate and then let them know that they have won the award.

Facts:

1. I cannot apply eyeliner to save my life. I end up just throwing it on my waterline and calling it a day!

2. I hate green/string beans. I don't know why, but the flavor and texture of them just gags me, and has since I was a kid. 

3. I'm really, super flat footed, and it makes wearing super high heels far more comfortable that wearing Nikes. 

4. I'm a type-a personality, and my boyfriend is type-b. It is really funny for the two of us to be together, because I'm always dancing to get out of the house, and he is dying to get home. 

5. I always have a candle burning in my house, even in the summer time. I love how it makes my apartment smell fresh and clean. 

6. I am far less nervous walking around in a big city at night than I am walking around in my small college town. It is hilarious, because my partner and I went to Portland around midnight on Sunday night, and I was all excited to walk the twelve blocks to Voodoo donuts. He was nervous! 

7. I have two metal bars behind my teeth to hold them in place. My orthodontist couldn't find another way to make them stay in place, so I will have them for the rest of my life. My teeth were so terrible before. 

I am so late to this party that I'm not going to nominate anyone, but if you fill this out please leave a link to it in the comments! I would love to read yours. 

L'OREAL COLOUR RICHE BALM REVIEW (PINK SATIN)

I have been on the hunt for a good dupe for my beloved Dior Color Reviver Balm. I love it to pieces, it works really well for me, and I wear it probably three days a week. Unfortunately, it is roughly $30 a tube. I don't mind spending that much for a product that works so well, but if I can find a good dupe for cheap, I would be thrilled. 
Unfortunately, this is not that balm. It isn't anything like it, not even in consistency. 


However, we can start with the packaging. I really like the packaging! I feel like it is very simple and elegant — I wouldn't feel ashamed to whip this out in public. 



The downside of this is the formula. I wouldn't have minded the color being different, except for the fact that the formula is so mediocre. It is a hard balm, and difficult to apply. You have to rub it over your lips several times to warm it up enough to apply it, and it sits on top of your lips. It feel grainy, while on the lips, and smells terrible. I can't really describe the scent, except for a synthetic type of petroleum jelly. 
The color is nothing to write home about. It looks like a vibrant baby pink in the package, yet has no color on my lips. I have very, very pale lips. It doesn't take a lot to add color to them, and this one does nothing. 
I'm surprised, because L'oreal's lip products are usually pretty good. They did a limited edition red a few years back, and I am still trying to find more of it. I bought five tubes, and it was perfect in both scent and consistency, not to mention color.


This one is included strictly for the hilarity factor. 


*I did the face shots in the mirror to hide how dry my skin is. I started a new acne treatment, and it has dried me out. I didn't want to ick you out with a close up of my face!

FLOOD

I have been busy lately, and not for good reasons. After the wonderful snow came the rain, and the rain devastated a majority of my area. We flooded terribly, which is abnormal for our area, and very few of my coworkers were able to get to work. I ended up working extra shifts, and worrying about my parent's home. The floodwaters got too close for comfort, and they don't have flood insurance. 

Thankfully, my family and I are safe. Sadly, a young woman and her 20 month old son drowned when their car was sucked into a culvert. They had been grocery shopping, and the parking lot flooded when they tried to leave. She was 18 years old. 

FIRST SNOW

Isn't it gorgeous? This is the view from my dining-area-that-I-use-as-an-office earlier today. The first snow of the year/season! We rarely get snow in my area, maybe two days of it every three years. This is just stunning. 

Unfortunately for me, I live at the top of a very steep hill, and I have to go to work tonight. If I drive to work,  I risk my brand-new car, and there is no way that I will be able to gain enough momentum to get back up the hill tonight. If I don't drive to work, it is a six mile round trip walk in the freezing cold. Which do I choose? The walk, of course. It will be a beautiful one, and I'm actually looking forward to it. I feel so much better when I exercise, and that cold completely destroyed me. I haven't felt so completely terrible for such a long period of time for years. Exercise will be lovely! 

SCHOOL

Winter term has officially started! I am still sniffly and coughing my lungs out, and that has been less fun. Being voiceless in a Spanish class is awesome, especially when the instructor calls on you to demonstrate and you sit there opening and closing your mouth. I did a lot of guppy impressions today! 

Otherwise, it has been good! I am really looking forward to my classes this term, and have already gotten most of this week's homework done. I can't wait to be healthy again! This thing has also killed my appetite, which means I forget to eat and end up feeling weak. Not a good thing when you are constantly on your feet. I have been drinking a ton of orange juice and taking my vitamins, and hopefully it will help fight this off. 

Last term was really hard for me. I was reeling from the rejections, and struggling to come to terms with the fact that you can do everything right, and still have nothing to show for it. This term, I feel I have started to come out of my funk. I have accepted the fact that the previous dream is dead, and I now have to start working towards a new one. I never really realized how difficult that could be until I experienced it. Learning to rebuild is a terrifying, yet rewarding task. I can't say that I have completed it, but I will. 

I know that I said I would post daily, but I'm not going to stress too much about that. I don't like scheduling posts, and I have been so miserable lately that by the time I get home from work or school, all I want to do is take some medicine and go to bed (any sort of cold medicine puts me straight to sleep. I don't take medication often, and it has made me super reactive to it.) Several of my goals have not been accomplished this week, and I'm letting them go until I feel 100% again.

LUSH!

Today I went to Lush, and it was... wow. I was a bit nervous about going in, because I have heard that the sales people are a little pushy. Nothing is more frustrating than overly pushy salespeople (except maybe salespeople that ignore you. That, however, is a story for tomorrow.) I went to the only store within 100 miles of my home. It is newly opened, and in a fairly busy mall. I decided to be proactive in my approach: Go in, and be super friendly with the employees. Discuss the products, but avoid making a ginormous purchase. 

I managed to get in and out without making a huge purchase. I bought a small jar of Catastrophe Cosmetic for myself, and an insanely sparkly bubble bar for my younger sister. I thought about browsing a bit more, but they had something near the center of the small store that reeked of barbecue sauce. Not exactly an enticing odor. 

I plan to review the face mask soon! My overall experience in the store was good. The store did seem a bit overstaffed, and it was a little bit awkward with just my sister and I there and probably seven Lush employees all trying to talk to us. Seven employees doesn't sound like a lot, but it was a very small store, and it would have been fine with three or four people there. Everyone was very friendly though, and it was a good time. 

SNIFFLE

Today I have the sniffles. I don't really know why, because I haven't been exposed to anyone with a cold lately (that I know of.) I hope it is just a light cold, and not allergies, because a cold goes away much faster than allergies do. I was lucky enough to have a short shift at work today, and I was able to make it through without being too miserable. That is the only downside of my job: No paid sick leave. The funny thing is that at the jobs I had paid sick leave at, I never used it. I never needed it, and I was able to give it away to people who did. I never really appreciated how nice it was to be able to take a day off when you are feeling poorly and not have to worry about having a smaller paycheck. 

Tomorrow I have the day off, and I plan to spend it doing absolutely nothing. I need to be able to rest and recuperate before classes start, and tomorrow is my last day to do it. I have been saving the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy, and I plan to read that and a few other books tomorrow, while drinking copious amounts of tea and whinging about. 

I'm off to take some Nyquil and go to bed. My goal to exercise every day has definitely failed this week!

PINTEREST

Over winter break, I have come to the conclusion that there is a reason I don't allow myself to be overly active on Pinterest. It isn't because it is an bad site, or that it is poorly designed. It isn't because I don't like the site's content or the people involved in it. It is because, well, I get on the site, and I realize that I have spent the whole day on my computer in one position.

I have managed to pin a shocking amount of bathrooms. The funny thing is this: I live in an apartment. I really like living in an apartment, because I don't have to deal with things like garbage service and plumbing issues and stuff like that. The downside of this is that I can't make any structural changes to my home. And yet... I'm researching how to move my shower head from the wall to the ceiling. Pinterest is a dangerous site. 

LIFE

Today I:

• Ate pizza
• Drank wine
• Ate chocolate
• Drank more wine
• Whined about feeling too full
• Say on the couch.

Suffice it to say, I'm exhausted. Classes resume on Monday, and I'm trying to enjoy every free day that I can in between now and then. I work pretty much all day Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, so today was my last real day to just mess around. Tomorrow I clean the apartment and make food to freeze for the week ahead, and I buy my textbooks on friday. I have a super exciting life, I know. I'm also in the process of changing my hair color from black to... anything other than black. I have tried Color Oops twice so far, and the review is set to post tomorrow. There is definitely a distinct possibility that I may end this bald. 

THE BEST NIGHT

Today Mr. Cat's mum came over, and it went well. We made mole tempeh and spanish rice, and drank tons of red wine. This is the present state of my home: dark, candlelit, and perfect for reading in bed with a glass of white wine. We are midway through the first book of the Hunger Games, and I'm already obsessed. I'm not much of a fantasy reader, but this book is awesome.

Sleep Well Kittens.

Decisions.

I'm trying to decide where I want to go from here. I know that I want to blog my fashion and lifestyle, but I'm not sure if I want to combine it with this blog, which is mostly product reviews. I'm alternating between starting another blog and then linking between it and this one, and just sticking with this one and throwing a bunch more stuff on to it.

Suggestions?

TWENTY TWELVE

2011 was incredibly difficult for me, and I am so incredibly thrilled that it is over. I'm entering 2012 in such a better place, and it makes me happy. I always do resolutions, and I usually have a 50/50 success rate.

This year, I will:

Accept the drinks. So often I decline a glass of wine or a shot because I feel like I should be doing something... worthwhile. Guess what? The time I spend relaxing over a drink with friends is really, really worthwhile. 

Read 150 books, just for fun. 

Exercise every day for three consecutive months.

Save 4 months worth of car payments. 

Post daily.

Attend WW every week.

Get a steady job teaching Zumba

Learn to speak French

Post at least one outfit post every week. 

Drive. Drive a lot, and enjoy every minute of it.

Run a marathon.

Go vegan for two weeks

Or a month. 

Get a dog! 

And two cats!

Take excellent care of myself. 

Be happy!