New Sneaks!

These are my newest sneakers and boy I was LONG overdue for a new pair. I wish I had taken pictures of my recently retired lace up vans. They were pretty much disintegrating from the inside out. Every time I would put them on, after a few minutes of walking rubber flakes would come off and feel like little rocks in my shoes.
Anyway, I was torn between these and cream colored converse but then these went on sale at Madewell and I got them for 25 Dollar!!!! (They still have a few left in the sale section if you want. Plus, they have high top and elastic banded bensimons if you fancy those)

I have to say that I feel pretty cool when I wear them. I feel like a cool city girl walking around in them and wonder about the cool french girls in Paris wearing them. I'm not even sure if they are popular in France like Madewell tells me they are but I'd like to think so.

Really, I want those converse too because in my heart I am a shoe whore, I just can't afford to buy all the shoes yet (and yes, I mean all the shoes. Well, almost all the shoes).

Winter Skin Survival Check List

I have so many things I need/want to post about but this one probably shouldn't wait until, say, spring since it's a seasonal post.

In past years my skin never reacted badly to winter, and I could never relate to people who said that winter was hard on their skin. This year is totally different and I don't know exactly why but my skin has been super sensitive and dry. It has taken a while but I've tried a few products and have discovered some great gems that really have been saving my skin this winter.

first off, let's talk scalp. My scalp is very sensitive and gets itchy and dry in the winter and my hot showers do not help one bit. I can't give them up though, and don't plan to. My solution for my dry itchy winter scalp: Lisa's Hair Elixir by Carol's Daughter. It's a gentle scalp and hair oil treatment that I use about once or twice a week and it really saves me. There are several ways of using it, you can rub on your scalp and ends before showering or as I like to, as a hot oil treatment before your shower. One main reason why I like this product is that it's effective and cheap! An 8 oz. bottle is only $20. That might seem like a lot but I did my research here and a lot of other scalp treatments are much more expensive and come in 2, 3 or 4 oz bottles. You can pick it up at your local Sephora or online here.

Next up Hands and Cuticles! L'Occitane is probably my most favorite skin care company (well, it probably ties with Kiehl's). Anyway, the best hand lotion that I've come across is L'Occitane's Shea Butter Hand Cream. It's amazing. It has 20% pure Shea Butter in it and it's basically amazing. I have probably three or four tubes of it floating around. I carry it everywhere. They sell it at J.crew as well as Nordstrom, Sephora or if you're lucky you might have a L'Occitane store near you. If not, you can find it from Sephora here. My next weapon also comes from L'Occitane and it's their 100% Pure Shea Butter. I only recently discovered this product and it is saving my cuticles. I rub a tad on at night and then usually once during the day if I think of it. You can find it as well at Sephora, Nordstroms and again at your local L'Occitane. It comes in a little container but it's one of those products where a little goes a long way.

Now on to lips. There are a lot of lip products that I really like. These are a few of my favs right now: L'Occitane (like I said, one of my fav brands) has done it again! Their lip balm has 10% Shea Butter and is prefectly moisturizing and I also love the smell/taste (always a bonus, right?). Kiehl's Lip Balm #1 is a classic and is a great choice. It also comes in great flavors, I currently own the pear and it's delightful! The one thing that I sometimes don't love about this lip balm is that it's much more like a gloss than a balm. It's not thick or sticky but it doesn't go on as a stick. Another that I've been enjoying lately is the classic Rosebud Salve. It's great for lips and cuticles as well, but I'm gonna be honest and say that I don't love the rose scent (as a general rule I'm not a huge fan of fake floral scents. Don't get me wrong there is nothing better than real flowers but fake...meh). Also, it's a tad sticky or greasy or something so I usually only put it on my fingers at night. You can find all of these at Sephora except for Kiehl's which you can find at Nordstroms or if they have a store near you.

I hope winter isn't wreaking havoc on your skin like it is mine!

My non-Holiday, Holiday Post No. 2

After Finishing the last post I realized that I had in fact taken a few pics revolving around Christmas. Mostly they are of tree decorations on the tree at my parents house, but that's still fun.
These are some of my favorite tree ornaments that have been around longer than me, which isn't terribly long, but still, they've been around (except for the madeline head).

 My brother Michael made this bear of pom poms when he was a kid and it's probably one of the goofiest ornaments we have. I clearly remember a Christmas when he made a point to hang it at the top of the tree, in place of a star (and this was probably only a few years ago, when he was in his mid 20s, not when he was young).

 This cow is one of my most favorites we have. There is also a cat and horse that look similar but the blue cow is just the best. I even instagramed it.

 My sister-in-law gave me a cute Madeline ornament and I think in storage the head broke from the body, so now it's just a Madeline head. This year my sister asked my Dad which was his favorite ornament and he pointed to this one. So, despite it being just a head it's still loved.

My good friend and I made a Gingerbread (or graham cracker, if we are being technical) tardis. If you don't know what that is, it's the time machine/space traveling machine from Dr. Who. And if you don't know what Dr. Who is, then I seriously think you need to figure that one out on your own. It's really only the coolest show ever. The main character (the doctor) wear suspenders  and bow ties and fez's and Stetsons and he's cool. We tweeted our creation to him but haven't heard back....

Another exciting event this Christmas was the return of Jeff and Melissa!  They've been in Africa for the past 6ish months and we weren't expecting them to come home until this spring, maybe even summer. They surprised us at a Christmas party and it was the best surprise! I think I probably scared everyone when I screamed so loud once I saw them walk into the room. Also, I cried. I was so surprised and happy to see them! So happy they are back!

I think that's all that I have about Christmas. But I'm working on a  New Years resolution and reflection post.

p.s. every time I typed ornaments I spelled it "ornamets" I don't know what that means. But, it was weird for me.

My non-Holiday, Holiday Post

This year Christmas time was weird. Because of school I wasn't able to really get into the spirit of things until pretty much the week before. I didn't even put up my little table top tree that I bought last year (actually I hadn't realized that I left it at my parents house until about 5 days before Christmas).

Which also means that I didn't take any pictures during the season and I am regretting it most right now, not being able to show you how much fun it actually was.

Well, it was a low key Christmas this year, Boyf and I exchanged gifts on a low budget and we had a nice breakfast together much like last year sans hashbrowns. You can go to my post last year to see some happy Christmas pics including the breakfast we had that included hashbrowns.

I was at such a loss for boyfs gifts this year. I still kind of feel bad about how they turned out, so let me just say that Valentines will be AWESOME, or I'll make it up to you somehow. Anyway, I bought him this print (it did come framed), a new coffee travel mug some instant coffee mixes and boxers. When you think about that seems pretty okay, but then when you compare it what he got for me it's not.

For my gift Boyf got me a DVD player (I have been sans DVD player for over a year), a new necklace, this one to be exact and I was ECSTATIC when I opened it. I had shown it to him on etsy and said you know, if you still need a gift for me.....And then he told me it had sold out. I was actually kind of sad when he told me so I was thrilled when I opened it Christmas morning and have worn it every day since. He also gave me  A Very She and Him Christmas cd which was happy for me and for the biggie, he fixed up his old ibook G4 for me. I was telling someone at work and she had no idea was that even was, and if you too are confused it's an old lappy from apple. Probably from 2006 maybe '07. Anyway, it's old, but I have no lappy and so it's great! I am actually using it right now for blogging.

So that was Christmas for me and Boyf. I hate to see the winter holidays go, I definitely look forward to them all year long.

Of course, Christmas with the fam was a blast as always! My brother and his wife always have a Christmas party and we watch Elf and eat a lot of food and it was so fun this year! Their kids are getting older and I feel like each time I see them they are totally different. It's weird, but I love it and them!

Now if we could only get some snow....

As Far Back as November, But No Less Exciting!

It's been a while since my big sis broke the news, but since I went on a blogging hiatus I never told the world, that my sister is PREGNANT!

I wish I could have recorded the moment that she told my family because my mother was so shocked, I've never seen her quite so speechless. It probably seemed like my mom wasn't excited but trust me, she is! I know for a fact that my mother immediately went out and bought baby things for my sister, and probably not even two weeks after we found out I ended up spending pretty much a WHOLE day shopping at several Carter's across Salt Lake City for baby things with my mother (of course we got things for the other children).


Next month we find out what she is having and it'll be exciting! Also, I think she mentioned that the gender unveiling might involve cake, and if that's true then I'm even more excited.

This is a pretty old picture of my sister and her husband, engagement picture old, but it is a pretty cute one of them both.

Congratulations Christine and Derk!

Holidays Are Over

It seems like an age since I last blogged, and it feels as though every day I think about something I need to blog about.

Things I want to blog about:

-family
-christmas
-christmas break
-make up
-H&M
-New Years and resolutions
-recently acquired things (clothes, shoes, kitchen appliances etc.)
-internship beginnings
-blogs I love (some repeats from last time because they are so great)
-Dr. Who
-work

As you can tell I have a lot to catch up on and part of me doesn't know where to begin. However it goes, be ready for a barrage of posts.