This post has been a long time coming and is finally here!
About a year ago, I decided my bedroom was in dire need of a pick-me-up. As a journalist with two degrees worth of student loan debt, I don’t have any a lot of money, so I started trying to put together a plan that would give me a new look while using much of what I already had on hand in order to avoid breaking the bank.
And, it seemed to work! My old IKEA furniture looks eons better after a simple paint job facelift.
Happy Daylight Savings! Anyone else a complete zombie today? Here’s a week-end-roundup.
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Your tipsy face looks best after one glass of wine. Keep this in mind the next time you have staff photo day at the office. Kidding. Kind of.
Did you vote for your city to make it to the next Monopoly edition? I voted for Detroit, of course.
Ikea has rigged a new line of furniture to charge your electronic devices. You just have to remember to plug your nightstand in first, of course.
This man was dancing and some jerk on the internet started body shaming him. Now hundreds of women are throwing him a dance party. How awesome!
Here’s an interesting account of what it’s like to be the “relationship girl” after being the “single girl” for so long.
A Planet Fitness near me revoked the membership of a woman after she complained about a transgendered individual using the women’s locker room.
Stylecaster has some inspiring feminist quotes in honor of International Women’s Day (which is today btdubs).
Stylecaster also has a laundry list of things that 20-somethings need to stop spending money on. What are you guilty of? Pressed juice and overpriced cocktails are two of my biggest guilty pleasures of the list.
Dogs using cat doors. I giggled.
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Me this week? I didn’t really do too much of anything and had a perfectly lazy week. I…
You can keep up with all this stuff as it happens if you follow me on Instagram.
How was your week? Any plans coming up? Let me know in the comments!
I mentioned in my last weekly recap that I went home to visit my parents/ get a new phone last weekend, and while I was there, my mom somehow roped me into being her baking assistant.
I don’t hate it. Being the designated taste tester is super awesome.
I’ve mentioned it before, but my mom has her degree in culinary arts. She’s retired, but she spends her free time baking practically non-stop. Her chocolate chip cookies are on point and she has her multigrain bread recipe down to a science.
Sometimes she shares quirky videos and recipes on her Facebook, and this one caught my eye. I commented on it “MOM MAKE ME THIS” and to my surprise, she had everything laid out on her kitchen counter to bake with me as soon as I got home.
Voila, pull apart Nutella bread.
Casual Friday is and always will be my favorite, and it’s a great chance to wear two of my favorite things: black and denim.
Although let’s be real, near the end of winter, casual Friday is also celebrated on Wednesday and Thursday as well. Sometimes Monday. And Tuesday.
I try not to get too casual since I like to leave the stained sweatpants chic to the sports reporters, but at this time of year, I find myself passing on tights, sweaters, pencil skirts and actual effort for lazy layering and black. So much black. And easy shirts like denim.
Black on black is kind of like my one last hooh-rah to winter, you know? Soon it’ll be replaced with cheerful combinations of navy and white.
I found this look on Instagram (Brenna is one of my favorites) and knew I could recreate it with everything I already had in my wardrobe!
Love when that happens, amiright?
Weekly news and feature roundup time!
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Fellow bloggers, Corals + Cognacs posted this guide to blogging smarter. I love the tips about keeping stock images on hand. I do this for work and it helps so much, so I really need to bring this concept into my blog life as well.
Leonard Nimoy, known as Star Trek’s Spock, has died.
If you haven’t heard about the dress you’re living in a cave. My roommate and I turned it into a drinking game.
Thought Catalog posted a piece about things that strong women do differently. These serve as good reminders. Always treat yourself as an investment, go for it and never, ever put your life on hold to be somebody’s idea of who you should be. Be yourself.
New Carly Rae Jepsen! I haven’t listened yet because my parents’ Internet is slower than a turtle swimming through molasses, but I can’t wait to check it out once I make my way to an acceptable bandwidth.
Kanye apologized to Beck after that incident at the Grammys.
New Galaxy S6 design has been released if you’re into that type of thing. I personally just bought a new iPhone so I’ll pass.
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My week? I…
You can keep up with this stuff as it happens if you follow me on Instagram.
Short of work this week, I don’t really have too much planned. I will probably forget to change my clocks for Daylight Savings and then struggle for three days. I can almost guarantee that.
What’s on your agenda this week? Let me know in the comments!
Nothing too spectacular to update on here, but I did promise to eventually post a photo of my much needed annual haircut.
It’s blue and black.
And unless you live under a rock, you know what I’m referring to.
#TheDress.
It popped up in my Facebook feed last night: an ordinary white and gold (and somewhat ugly) dress. The caption read “Seriously guys! This is white and gold! How can you see it differently?” I agreed. It was white and gold. I googled “white and gold dress” and it seemed that most of the rest of the Internet agreed with me. There were a few protesters, but I chalked that up to Internet trolls.
I got home from work, and asked my roommate. “It’s white and gold,” she agreed. I scrolled through tweets hashtagged #TheDress, and saw a photo of a blue and black dress in flames. Ah, I thought. Clearly the white and gold opinion wins.
Then, something strange happened.
All of the dresses on my Twitter feed became blue and black.
I asked Elise again, “is this white and gold, or blue and black?”
“White and gold,” she insisted.
My brain stopped working. I poured a glass of wine. And then, the greatest idea ever was born.
#TheDress drinking game.
It’s nearing the end of February and even though I have a ton of Netflix left on my list, I’m slowly running out of Netflix accompanying snacks.
Because I love my snacks.
Snacks.
So last night, while Elise and I were having our twice-a-week debate… (Should we order Insomnia? Do we really want to spend the $6 to have it delivered? No… Yes? Insomnia.)
…I remembered a little trick I used to practice in my old apartment that I hadn’t taken advantage of in a while.
Mug brownies!
Something has been very out of control lately and for once it is not my coffee addiction or Gossip Girl bingeing.
It’s my hair. And I think it is very much time for a long-awaited haircut.
For the record, I am good at a lot of things. I’m good at writing, picking out designer clothing I cannot afford, making a hella good vanilla soy latte and delicately informing my parents that once again I need financial assistance when it comes to my medical bills.
But there are many, many things I am not good at. I am terrible at car maintenance, cooking meat, saying goodbye to puppies and doing pushups.
I am also very, very terrible when it comes to hair.
Growing up, my mother was a factory worker. I’m actually very, very proud of her and very grateful (more than she will ever realize) for the life that her hard work and dedication gave me. She sacrificed many things so my siblings and I could have great lives. She is the best mother anybody could ever ask for and I am very blessed that she raised me.
But, because of her job, she never needed to apply makeup, or wear cocktail dresses, or maneuver updos. And therefore, I never learned much about all of those feminine things that young girls learn from their mothers, like the ins and outs of hair, makeup and styling. My mom followed a simple philosophy when it came to hair: long in the winter to keep your neck warm and short in the summer to keep you cool.
And as a result, I’ve never bothered to do much with my hair. I was actually pretty stoked when the whole being a scene kid thing was cool in high school, because it meant I could abuse the hell out of my locks with my Wet2Straight. That was simple enough that even I could do it.
Blow outs? Chignons? Hahaha, you’re funny!
And now here I am. I come to you, wise Internet, asking for help.
What the heck should I get done with my hair when I finally make a long awaited visit to the salon for my annual haircut?
Weekly recap time!
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A Michigan woman was selected as a finalist for a one-way trip to colonize Mars. I personally think the most interesting part of this is that, while the finalist does not have children, she has a husband, who is 100 percent supportive of her ambitions and dreams. Relationship gold standard in my opinion. A+++ for both of them.
Emma Watson is not dating Prince Harry.
Everyone in the world got engaged last weekend and now you’re a bridesmaid. Or something. Levo League has a piece on how to be a good bridesmaid despite being broke.
Refinery29 published an interesting piece profiling several women who had the same problem: Their husbands treated their careers like hobbies. Many of them ended up getting a divorce. Interesting perspective, especially for me, because whomever I end up marrying (should I ever marry) will have to understand he takes a back seat to my career and professional development.
OATMEAL NUTELLA MUG CAKE Thanks The Kitchn.
I’ve been trying to figure out forever what shape my face is, mainly so I know whether I can pull off a pair of Karen Walker Super Dupers. This Lifehacker guide should help.
Cosmo posted a survey on workplace sexual harassment. I worked as a waitress in a bar for years, so I’ve had my fair share of sexual harassment by customers and knew how prevalent it was, but I was astonished at the results regardless.
Dove and Twitter are partnering for #speakbeautiful. It’s so easy to troll online due to anonymity, so I love positive campaigns like these. One of my good friends is a teacher and goes by the “three positives to counteract a negative” rule an insists her students follow it. I think it works well outside the classroom too.
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Anddd me this week? Unfortunately it was like NEGATIVE EIGHTEEN outside this week before we even added in the windchill, so I wasn’t super productive. I…
You can keep up with this stuff as it happens if you follow me on Instagram.
I don’t really have too many plans this coming week aside from work, errands and tax filing. Really though, I’ll probably put the tax filing off for another week or three.
How was your week? Any plans this coming week? Let me know in the comments!
