by Joey | Jan 14, 2015 | Throwback
Since the sun goes down so early now, I have to be sure to get my run in before it’s dark! So I ended my work day around 4:30 and hit the pavement. I learned my lesson, though. Saturday’s run was so frigidly cold that I thought my fingers were going to snap off. So I was prepared this time with gloves and an ear band. I stayed surprisingly warm. Another 2.5 miles in the books! And my pace is increasing with every single run which has been awesome! At some points throughout that particular run, I was pacing at a 9:39 mile!!!
It’s a grainy iphone photo kind of post, huh? Also, there’s really no good way to take a picture of yourself stretching if you’re not in front of a mirror. So, it is what it is. But anyway, I take the time after every run to stretch for about 10 minutes. It’s not much, but it definitely helps prevent sore legs.
5:15 Shower!
Run days are hair washing days. Yeah, I don’t wash my hair every day (but I do shower every day). And no, I don’t run every day. But anyway, I’m getting off topic. Shower. Hair washing. Once a week I use the Pantene Pro V Aqua Light Shampoo (clarifying) with the Aussie 3 minute miracle deep conditioner: this shower happened to be the lucky one with deep cleanse and the deep condition. Getting rid of build up once a week with a clarifying shampoo helps keep volume in your hair. Don’t use it more than once or twice a week–and always follow up with a good deep conditioner. The 3 minute miracle one is probably all you need, and it’s under $4. Other products used:
- Venus Razor
- Exfoliating Scrub Gloves
- Equate Tranquil dusk body wash
- Clearasil Ultra Acne + Marks Wash partnered with my Clarisonic Mia
Post Shower Routine
Ah, yes. A very attractive PJ photo in front of my dirty bathroom mirror. It’s real life, people. Anyway, after my shower I let my hair air dry. I have a natural wave/curl to my hair so a lot of times I’ll just wrap a few pieces around a curling wand the next morning and call it a day.
- Face: Coconut Oil, Bobbi Brown Extra Repair Eye Cream, Neutrogena On-The-Spot
- Arms + Legs: Suave Advanced Therapy Body Lotion
- Hair: Suave Natural Infused Strengthening Light Leave In Cream
- Deodorant: Mitchum Power Gel
Single Wife Dinner + The Good Wife
While on a normal night at this point in the season, I’d have a husband to prep dinner for and eat with, he was actually still on his way home from the coaching convention in Kentucky. So, I opted for a Single Wife dinner (2 eggs over easy on an english muffin, leftover bacon + a banana. I know, so glamorous) while watching The Good Wife (thanks,
Myrtle).
Close Down Kitchen
I’m one of those weirdos who can’t leave dishes in the sink. I ended up having to run the dishwasher before I ate, so yeah–you see my clean dishes there on the counter, drying. And the pan I used for the eggs is also drying. Anyway, after dinner I typically close down the kitchen. Meaning, I do one last wipe down to make sure I wake up to a clean kitchen. Now, that doesn’t stop the snacking husband after I’ve gone to bed–but he at least knows to make sure I wake up to it how I left it. I also set the coffee pot around this time. Funny, I can pretty much forget everything else in my life, but I’ll never forget to clean the kitchen or set the coffee pot. Priorities…
More TV
It’s 10PM, and I’d definitely normally be reading in bed at this point in the evening. But J’s flight didn’t get in until late, and the roads are already getting slick so I’m a nervous wreck. It’s an hour drive from the airport home. So instead, I’m finishing up this blog post and watching some more of The Good Wife to distract myself. Does anyone else’s minds do all sorts of crazy things while their husbands are traveling? I have such bad anxiety that my mind always jumps to the worst possible outcome whenever he’s on the road. So it’s probably best I drown out the noise with fictional political scandals. Oh, and I ate a chocolate covered marshmallow Santa.
Sleepy Time Tea + Kindle
I have the worst time sleeping. Like, ever. If you listed all the things I suck at in life, sleeping would be at the top of that list. And I suck at a lot of things. So bedtime for me is always a bit of a…well, process. After I brush my teeth, I hop into bed with my kindle and a mug of hot sleepy time tea. Call it hokey all you want, but the tea really does calm my system and make me sleepy. It helps to read, too, because it closes down my mind. Reading is the one activity I can do that my mind simply cannot wander. I also take a mild sleeping pill. Don’t let all that fool you, I’ll still wake up a bajillion times in the middle of the night. It’s so bad (and normal) at this point that when I say goodnight to the J (who usually stays up to watch a few more shows), he says “okay, see you in a little bit” because he knows I’ll come back out into the living room at some point. Where are my fellow insomniacs at? Insomniacs unite! (Oh, and I’m currently reading All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven)
Bed Time
On most nights I try to have lights out by 11. But since the hubs didn’t get home until late, I definitely wasn’t asleep by 11. Hey. It is what it is!
What do your evenings usually look like?
by Joey | Jan 13, 2015 | Throwback
Hi friends!
So, the other day I was comparing my life now to what my life was a couple years ago.
Even just last year.
And I realized a lot has changed!
Some of it has been circumstantial, but some has been because I changed it.
So, it got me thinking…
And thus…a new series has been born!
I think the hardest thing about changing your life is expecting it to happen over night. Everyone is always telling us to look at The Big Picture. But sometimes The Big Picture is overwhelming. Daunting. Seemingly impossible.
Making radical changes is hard. It’s not impossible, but it’s not easy. And even more so, when you make a radical change–it’s unlikely that you’ll stick to it. I can’t tell you how many times I tried to quit soda cold turkey. It always lasted a day or two and then boom. I’d be back on the wagon. Sounding familiar?
Is there anything you want to change? With the New Year, I feel like we all get introspective. We look over the year behind us and think I didn’t accomplish half of what I wanted to. I feel like we always go into the new year expecting that we’ll be different people by the end of it. And you know what? We can be. But it takes work. And commitment. And decision making.
Small choices. Small commitments. Literally, one small step at a time. Take a look at what you want to change. What is The Big Picture? And then dissect it. Turn it into something attainable. Take on the challenge week by week.
Everything we do in our lives is a result of choices we make. If there is something you want to change, examine it and decide which choices will help you attain it. Decide how you are going to spend your time. Pay attention to how you can decide to make productivity a part of your daily lives. Choose to spend your time wisely.
There’s something to the quote:
The things you want to accomplish take discipline, but they also require you to be prepared. If the things you wanted to do were easy, you’d already be doing them. Set yourself up for success. It takes extra work and effort, but it’s worth it. Once you’re able to commit to the small, attainable goals, you’ll find that before you know it, you’ve made the changes you wanted to make. And now they’re habits.
So make the decision to do it.
Investigate your options.
Dissect it into small, attainable goals.
And commit.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to elaborate a bit on this topic and share some of the different things I’ve changed in my own life over the last few years! I’d like this to be something that gets you all thinking about your own changes–how you did them, what you want to change–how you want to go about changing those things! I’d like this to be an opportunity for us to really connect and inspire each other!
by Joey | Jan 12, 2015 | Throwback
Is there a more unfortunate season for matte lipsticks to be in style? I mean, c’mon universe! You have summer! You have SPRING! But no! You chose the one season when our lips are already struggling to make the most unforgiving lip product on trend.
Cool, universe.
Cool.
I’m already hugely insecure about my lips as it is. They’re small. They’re full of fine lines. And I’ve had a good 10-year-long addiction to lip balms. But I really fell in love with the matte lipstick trend, but that made my insecurity even worse. I just couldn’t get them to look good.
So I had to take some action.
Now, this is nothing revolutionary. You’ve probably seen this all over pinterest. But I just wanted to pop in and say that it really does work! No need to spend your dollar bills on an expensive scrub from a high end brand. You probably have everything you need right in your cabinet!
What you’ll need:
- 1/2 tsp honey
- 1/2 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp sugar
Mix it all together! You want the consistency to be very grainy so you can really go to town with the scrubbing!
This scrub really does the trick! My lips have never felt healthier or looked better. I’ve started using this scrub every evening and morning. My lips are moisturized, plump, smooth, and the scrub brings a good natural flush to your lips!
Now, that you’ve got your lips how you like ’em, it’s important to lock in that moisture. And like I already admitted, I have a pretty serious addiction to lip balms! So here’s a sampling of my favorites!
- Nivea A Kiss of Cherry This fruity scented balm leaves your lips feeling moisturized and looking juicy! It also adds the tiniest bit of color for a healthy glow.
- Nivea A Kiss of Mint & Minerals This is the only balm I’ve ever used the entire tube of. I’ve repurchased this more times than I care to admit.
- Chapstick Hydration Lock This has quickly become part of my daily routine. I slather on the night end just before I go to sleep. I use the daytime end just as I wake up. My lips feel healthier than they ever have.
- EOS My favorite balm to wear under lipsticks. They’re moisturizing enough to feel comfortable throughout the day but waxy enough to keep your lipstick in place.
- FRESH Sugar Lip Treatment This is a sample tube, but there’s something about this lip balm that makes it the most moisturizing balm I’ve ever used. I mean, I guess there should be considering this sucker is $22. I’m still savoring this little sample from my Sephora bday gift a few years ago.
- Vaseline Creme Brulee I’ve mentioned these a lot lately, but they’re the perfect thick consistency to relieve severely chapped lips. They’re also great at protecting my lips from the brutal cold and harsh wind during my freezing cold runs!
- Baby Lips Dr. Rescue in Soothing Sorbet This is moisturizing enough to relieve chapped lips, but also adds a good bit of color. Definitely my favorite tinted lip balm!
by Joey | Jan 9, 2015 | beauty, Loves
Another great gift from Santa Husband left underneath the Christmas tree. I won’t lie, only moments after we ripped through all our gifts, I was at my vanity table testing this sucker out!
For the first time in my life, I was nervous while painting my nails. Knowing that the mani would be on my hands for at least 10 days, I felt immense pressure for it to be perfect. I also wasn’t sure if I could clean up with acetone like a normal mani. The good news is, you can (before you cure). The bad news is, I was so worried about it, I didn’t push the polish as close to my cuticles as I would have liked.
Freshly Applied
Let me say this, I was completely blown away by
- how easy it was to do
- the fact that they really did set/cure with the lamp (no dry time!)
- how gorgeous they looked.
The polish cured so beautifully; they really looked like I’d gotten them done at the salon. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was really just so pleased.
Before we get into how they wore, I need to make a few things clear:
- I didn’t cap the edges like the instructions said to do. Remember I said how nervous I was that I couldn’t clean up with acetone? Well, I was just sure that I’d end up painting all over my skin (my nails are short) and wouldn’t be able to get it off. Now that I know that I CAN clean up with acetone, I will definitely cap the edge next time.
- I didn’t push the paint as close to my cuticle as I would normally have liked. I know I said that earlier, but I just felt like that needed to be reiterated.
- I was unfairly hard on my nails through the course of this experiment. With the holiday comes a lot of un-decorating, box packing, tape ripping, label peeling, dish washing and house cleaning. You get the picture. I didn’t have great expectations.
DAY SEVEN
As you can see, there is some wear on the tips. I feel like I probably could have avoided that if I’d capped the edges like the instructions said. You can also see that my nails grew out quite a bit. My nails grow insanely fast, so I expected that.
DAY TWELVE
I took the mani off on day 12. And the only reason I did was because I am super picky about the length of my nails (I blame the fact that I’m constantly typing) so they were driving me crazy! They still looked really good, though, besides the crazy growth & the ragged cuticles.
I didn’t feel like these were going anywhere. And I definitely didn’t feel like they were going to break or snap. I feel like it’s also worth mentioning that I didn’t have that annoying hair-caught-in-cuticle experience that you can sometimes get from gel manis. (Please tell me you know what I’m talking about–you know, as the polish grows out sometimes it can lift a bit at the cuticle and when you run your fingers through your hair, it can snag). That didn’t happen with this mani.
I was hugely impressed with this system.
And because I know you’ll ask…
How did you remove them? I did the cotton ball soaked in acetone wrapped around the nail with aluminum foil method. I left it on for 15 minutes.
Was it hard to remove? Not any harder than any other gel manicure I’ve ever had. In the prep instructions, it said to only use the gel primer on the edges of the nail (opposed to painting it on like a regular polish) to make sure removal was a little easier. I didn’t have the removal tool they sell, but I will probably buy it while I’m out next. I was able to push the gel off with a cuticle pusher and then I buffed off any remaining pieces with a file.
Did it ruin your nails? Again, not any more than any other gel manicure. It definitely didn’t ruin my nails, but it didn’t leave them in awesome shape. They were a little damaged. I was able to buff them out, and they’re not crazy thin or brittle. For reference, here is the regular polish manicure I did just after removing the gel.
(essie: smokin’ hot)
Definitely not ruined.
Over all, I am absolutely positively IN LOVE with this system. Thank you Santa Husband for such an awesome present!
If you’re on the fence, and you think you’d use the system at least TWICE in your life, I say go for it. A shellac manicure is at least $25 at the salon. This system is $49 at Target!
I didn’t think I’d like having gels on my nails for 12+ days. I thought I’d get restless and want to change the polish (which honestly, I could always just paint over the gel if I really wanted to). But I discovered that the main reason I change my polish so much is because I’m picky about it looking perfect. Having the gels on was nice because I didn’t have to even think about my nails!
And if you made it to the end of this post? CONGRATULATIONS! Pat yourself on the back because phew! This was a long one!
You can purchase the kit
HERE if you’re interested!
**This is NOT a sponsored post. I genuinely asked for this kit for Christmas, and J spent his own money on it. I happen to be a Target Affiliate, therefore the link you’ll find at the end of this post is an affiliate link!**
by Joey | Jan 8, 2015 | Throwback
>> For a crockpot meal, this broccoli & cheddar required a good bit of prep. But was totally worth it. J and I used to eat at McAlisters almost every day in college, opting for the broccoli & cheddar soup in a bread bowl so this was total comfort food. I’m debating making another batch today because holy bananas it’s freezing here in NC!
>> Bailey has started this new thing where she wakes up about 6 times a night to go outside. If you look at my fitbit sleep history, it looks like I have an infant. In an attempt to get her tired enough not to do this, J and I started trading off taking her for our runs. Her longest one was with me on Tuesday when we ran 2.5 miles. At one point I ran by a house where a guy was getting into his car. He laughed. It took me a moment to understand WHY he laughed and then I realized it was because B was trailing a good bit behind me. Poor pup was exhausted. But the good news was she only woke up once that night!
>> My happy place lately has been at my desk during my lunch hour. A good sandwich (still on my sandwich with ALL OF THE PICKLES kick) and The Good Wife. Friends have been bullying me to start this show for a good long while but I resisted. I finally gave in and I’m loving it!
>> In TV binging related news, FRIENDS is now on Netflix. This excites me only because I’m supremely lazy and it makes my nightly FRIENDS watching easier since I…you know, don’t have to get out of bed to put in the next disc. I was disappointed, though, to realize it’s the TV edit of the show. I can quote FRIENDS in my sleep, so it throws me off when I know what the next line is but it never comes. Some of the best jokes are only available in DVD form. But nonetheless, FRIENDS on netflix is a GOOD thing!
>> I got about 4 inches of hair chopped off over the weekend. I’d share a picture but 1) the only one I have is of me still in my onesie and I fear y’all would judge me and 2) you can’t even tell I got a haircut. That’s when you know your hair was way too freaking long–when you chop of 4 inches and you can’t even tell. I’m really tempted to keep going…and hack it off all the way to my collar bone. But I’m resisting for now. 4 inches was at least something.
Okay now it’s your turn!
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