after traveling consecutively these last 3 weekends, I made a consious decision to to take a little break. Or at least I attempted to take a break. Now that the switch in my brain marked 'explore' has been switched its hard to waste a perfectly good weekend resting. Especially since ive had more than enough time to relax in the 5 days since i returned from Ireland.
One of my dorm friends Jess, had wanted to visit amsterdam, and since shes much better at planning things out in advance this is one of her last free weekends to do so. I had always been planing on visoting in the winter, but figured it would be alright to go twice so we decided to do a quick 2 day/ 1 night trip. Booking spots in the cheapest busses and finding a decent priced hostel. I have a small budget for this trip, considering i spent so much the last week, im trying to give my wallet a break without resitsting myself to the point of not being able to do something I want to do. It's a fine line to walk. I just keep reminding myself thqt there was a reason that I've been saving for so long and that this might be the only time in my life I'll be able to travel so much (for fun) in such a small period of time. I'll probably do another post about saving money and budget travel, however for this trip specifically we were able to do travel and accomidation for 55 euros.
We may need to spend a little more on public transit while in amsterdam, but it gigea me the freedom to spend 50€ on whatever i want and still be under my usual budget of per
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Ireland has always been high up on my list of places to see one day, so when a classmate booked a trip on her phone on a whim during dinner one of our first nights in Belgium, the rest of the tabel followed suit. The return plane ticket only cost $40 usd, And we would figure out the rest later.
This is my 4th weekend abroad and my 3rd country. Im still exausted from paris, (i only had 2 days to rest!) and although im excited to be touring a new country, it hasnt really sunk in yet. The hostels in dublin are pretty booked so ill be going to a different one every night, a very different experience then in paris. As of now our itenary is still sort of open. We're arriving in dublin thursday afternoon- going to spend the day exploring the city, friday a friend and I are doing a day tour in Galway and Cliffs of Moher, saturday were spending the day in dublin, sunday were back with the same tour guide but going to northern ireland and on monday we'll be flying home in the afternoon. Today I stopped by my local print shop to pre print out the day tour tickets and the ryanair boarding passes. Did you know that if you dont check in in advance they charge you 40 euro?! Crazy. Anyway the weather is supposed to be cold and rainy so I'll be packing my rain coat for the first time! Hopefully ill have more energy once i get there and see the beautiful country. Two years have past since I've been blogging regularly. I suppose I just let life get in the way a little bit. People aren't kidding when they say that blogging is a LOT of work. After filling up an entire moleskin journal this summer during my time Interning in NYC I've re discovered a love for writing things down. Even if its just for me.
I wish I blogged this summer. I was living in Greenwich Village, smack in the heart of NYC working in the skyscraper that is the time warner building for turner broadcasting right on Central Park. Sounds amazing right? It was. Not only a completely life changing experience but it was for the most part all free. I'd won a fellowship from the International Radio and Television Society (IRTS) which paid for my flights to and from Chicago and my stay in one of the NYU dorms. In my program we joked that you can only live in Greenwich now- at the start of our careers- and in 30 years when were all high up network execs. So much has happened this last semester since my last post. I always have a hard time writing when the semester starts, I run out of inspiration and time. I had 18 credit hours again, with work and the sorority and netflix some things had to get cut off, but through bright eyes has always been like a journal and I felt like I needed to take a bit of a break before I got back out there again. Hopefully if I don't force it things will come more naturally....
Anyway I'm in my second week of summer (although it feels a lot longer) and the job I stayed on campus to work has scheduled me for zero shifts. That's right. Zero. Im pissed but I should have expected that the summers would be slow on campus and that we would have more staff then events. I applied a few other places and found out that if I pass my lifeguard certification course next week ill be hired as a lifeguard and will get 30-40 hours a week easy. The pool is 2.5 miles away from my apartment so ill need to get a bike but if until then I guess walking and rollerblading will be the way for me. I just really want something stable and FAST. I seem to always have the worst luck with finding jobs, or just really bad timing. I came home this week because I had been accepted to a job shadow at Epsilon an agency in Chicago, which was an amazing experience. I didn't know much about them before but they're really cool. Definitely on my "to apply" list for next year, but who am I kidding, everything is on my "to apply" list. At least until I get some REAL agency experience under my belt and work my way up to a real intern queen status. My strategy for this summer is this: - First things first I need a job. I'll work in the day, pools usually close relatively early anyway, the rest of the time leads me to what I really want to do this summer -I want to focus on no stress: No deadlines, no planning. Just play around and take things one at a time -Download the Photoshop trial (I'll do that when I get back on campus) , watch the lynda and play around with it. Then work my way to Indesign and eventually Illustrator. -No stress blogging without a content calendar or anything -maybe break into youtube? -and really learn my camera and how to take kick ass photos anyway I'm going to head to bed and finish this great book called the Language of flowers then get up and visit some family members tomorrow. Ciao! As the second part of my many part InstaNatural review series Ill be reviewing InstaNaturals Dead Sea Mud Mask and Yourth Express Night Cream. Check out my last review here! I was super excited for these items to arive because I LOVE mud masks and am looking for something to repair my skin and reduce blemishes. The Night cream was an Add on Instanaturals offered and I accepted because I'm always looking for great lotions and suffer from dry skin expessially in winter So lets get right to it! Dead Sea Mud Mask Im going to start off by saying that this product is about $26 and you get 16 oz which is really an incredible amount of product for the price. You're only supposed to use it once a week and I usually try to get a full weeks worth of use in before I write a review so I can have the most knowledge about the product so both me and my roommate have used this twice. You do apply a super thin layer because it takes a while to dry, so the amount you received should last you at least a year. The formula is thick and black. the smell is very natural although its faintly salty. Because of the dead sea mud perhaps? It has all organic items and contains she butter which makes your skin really soft. I usually put a super thin layer on by putting the product in the palm of my hand then applying it with my fingers. It takes about 10 minutes to dry. The only negative thing is that while drying my face becomes almost unbearably itchy. I have felt a "tightness" when face masks dry before but never really and Itchiness. after it starts to itch I can really only take about 5 more minutes before I have to wash it off. The itchiness is worth it because afterwards my skin is super smooth. I cant say much about if my acne is decreasing or not because i have only been using the mask for 2 weeks. My roommate said that she hasn't noticed a difference either, but her skin does feel softer and the itchiness does not bother her as much. Youth Express Night Cream
Have you ever used these products? What do you think? Both products reviewed were given to me for free from BrandBacker. As usual my review is completely honest. For more information on BrandBacker check the logo at the sidebar.
It's been a while since I've done a skincare review. I think my last one was the Mary Kay ClearProof Line (which I still use) but I was set up to work with InstaNatural through Brand Backer and their products all have amazing amazon reviews so I figured I'd give it a try. They're sending me a ton of products so Im breaking the reviews up into 3 parts. Today I'm reviewing their Advanced Action Retinol Moisturizer, Youth Express Eye Gel and Youth Express Eye Serum. I was interested in trying both their eye products so I could tell you guys which one I thought was better, and Im always on the lookout for new moisturized because I have Dry/Combination skin. And have a lot of redness/acne scars. Im on the lookout for something to get rid of redness once and for all. InstaNaturals is made with all natural and organic ingredients, Not tested on animals, made with recycled materials and made in the USA. they have a variety of skin care products specializing in Anti-wrinkle and youth enhancing serums. All products also have a 100% satisfaction guarantee so if you don't like it you can return it. Advanced Action Retinol MoisturizerToday I decided to try out something new and do an outfit of the day post with my sister Jenna. She had a snow day and It was so cold that there was nothing we could do outside so we drove to a small mall in our town and and took lots of pictures. Every Wednesday I'm going to spotlight an outfit from the shoot. This is just for fun, mostly because i wanted to practice using my new camera. This first look is a casual winter look. Modeled by Jenna Winter CasualWHAT JEN IS WEARINGwe paired the busy top with a basic cardigan for warmth, and added Jen's Favorite faded jeans. The combat boots are great for trekking through the snow and over the top socks at a pop of color while not allowing snow in your boots. The statement piece in this outfit is the hat which is super cute and adds color to this outfit as well as warmth. :) Hat: Stolen from my dad. Originally from Austria Socks: Forever 21 Boots: Target, given to me for my birthday last year. Glasses: Goodwill. They're not perscription, just for fun lol. Give a round of applause to the naturally photogenic Jen HilgersWhat do you think? Should I keep doing OOTD Posts?One of my New Years Resolutions is to read 12 books: One for each month. And since I'm devoting this year to professional development and success in my future im giving myself some "homework" books to read to better myself as a person and in my future carear. I split it into three Sections: Advertising, Clasics and Memoirs. Here are the books I'm planning to read: Janurary: Not That Kind of Girl (Lena Dunham)I chose this book because I actually bought it in November after seeing it on Instagram and Urban Outfitters. I bought it on amazon because the price is cheaper, and have read the first two chapters during finals week. I've never seen Lena Dunham but her book is seriously inspiring me. Feburary: This side of Paradise (F. Scott Fitzgerald)I read the first have of this book second semester of Senior year of High School and regret not finishing it, It's such an under rated Fitzgerald. All about an entitled kid who graduates from college and realizes that the real world isn't all its cracked up to be. Reminds me a lot of the Bell Jar by sylvia playth. Which is one of my favorites. I chose February because this is a very wintery novel in my opinion.
We all get sick, even if you think it wont happen it will. College wears you out and living in close quarters with thousands of other students its super easy to catch a cold. In order to not be caught off guard when you do get run down it important to keep an emergency medicine kit or as I like to call them, Cold packs. and before you go running to throw everything you can think of in there, here are what I think is most important. Start with a medium sized makeup bag.I got mine from target in the dollar section years ago to use as a travel makeup bag but it wasn't really that pretty. Unfortunately my bag is at college instead of at home with me so i cant show you exactly what it looks like, but choose something that's small with lots of storage and an outside pocket. My bag looks a lot like the one pictured above, with a handle, a zipper pocket on the outside and the inside has a mesh pocket on one side. The separate pockets are good for separating items so you can find things easily. What to have
My pack as been a life saver since I started college, and its saved many of my friends and roommates. the small size is the Key. your not going to finish full sized bottles of things, so get mini or travel versions and replenish when the semester ends! Did I miss anything? What would you put in your pack? |
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