November Favorites

I love watching beauty gurus on youtube, and most of them do a "favorites" video every month. I thought that trying to do a favorites post on my blog every month would be fun, so here are my five November favorites!

*THANKSGIVING BREAK. Need I say more?

*Making my own coffee! Just recently, my roommate bought a coffee maker for the apartment. This means that we have not only been saving money by making our own coffee but now we can make it whenever we want, we don't have to make a starbucks trip!

*Suave Moroccan Infusion Color Care shampoo & conditioner

This stuff is GREAT. I've never had the healthiest hair. After dying it, it became even more dry and felt even more unhealthy. My friend Rhonda recommended this stuff to me and I'm so glad she did. I can really tell a difference in my hair! It is a lot softer and shinier and just feels healthier now. This stuff is also affordable, they are about 2 dollars and some change each at Wal-Mart. Definitely recommend to people struggling with dry, damaged hair!

*Catching Fire

I am a HUGE fan of the Hunger Games trilogy. Catching Fire just so happens to be my FAVORITE book in the trilogy, so I was very excited and also a little nervous to see the movie. I think most book lovers understand that nervous feeling when seeing the movie adaptation of a book you love, you want them to really do it justice! And let me tell you, this movie adaptation was PERFECT. I was so so so pleased with this movie, and I honestly think it's one of the best book to film adaptations that I've seen. Wonderful acting from JLaw (love her) and all of the other characters from the first movie. Some of my favorite characters were introduced in this installment, and they picked the perfect people to play them. I really can't say enough about how good this was, GO SEE IT. 

*Forever Red

My current favorite scent is "Forever Red" by bath and body works. It smells soooo good! It's a very soft, girly scent. It's perfect year round but especially cozy for fall! I love the adorable packaging too!

What have you been loving this November? 

XO, 

Elizabeth 

Motivation

Lately, I have been having trouble staying motivated. 

Trying to get myself to do homework is painful, and getting up and going to class is TORTURE. haha. I think I'm getting kind of burnt out on school, I'm just so ready to be done! I've also been pretty exhausted from starting a new job, so I'd rather be spending my free time resting instead of doing homework. 

I also really want to get better at saving money. It's SO HARD to save money when I live in a bigger city that has sooooo many good places to eat! It's just so much more convenient to go out to eat, but I know I need to stop doing it so often. Speaking of eathing, another thing I've wanted to improve on is my health. I've definitely put on a few pounds in the last year (I even had to buy new pants!) and I want to get fit. I don't care about losing weight or anything, I'd just like to get in shape! 

So, if anyone has any tips on motivation for school, saving money, and getting healthier, I would really appreciate it! 

P.S.-Little update: I now have ombré hair! I wanted to change up my hair and have been loving the ombré look, so I decided to give it a try. I absolutely LOVE the way it turned out!

XO,
Elizabeth

Changes

Hello, imaginary blog readers! It's been awhile.

I've always wanted to be a faithful blogger, but to be honest, it's a lot of work keeping up with a blog. Like whenever I decide to finally post on this blog again, I usually get distracted with changing the look of the blog and I end up not even posting anything! Besides being held back by the work that goes into keeping up with a blog, I'm kind of boring. Most of my days consist of me going to school and then coming home and curling up in my room like a hermit, so I don't really have much to blog about! I guess that's why I usually only blog on here a couple times a year, that way it's been a few months so there's more to talk about! haha

Speaking of having things to talk about, I actually have quite a few updates!

Update #1: Clinton
For about 6 months now, I have been in a long distance relationship with my favorite guy. Clinton and I met on tumblr because of our mutual love for the show Community. Over the course of about a year, we got to know each other and developed feelings for one another. In March we finally got to meet when I went to visit him in Pennsylvania (my first time flying!) and we decided to make things official. He's a cool dude, I love him!

Update 2: Senior Year

I've started (what should be) my senior year of college! I'm in the final stretch! It's exciting and overwhelming at the same time. I'm so ready to finally have my degree and be done, I'm kinda tired of going to school! I do enjoy going to Southeast a lot more than I thought I would though. The campus is beautiful, all of the teachers I've had have been nice, and the Psychology building is named Scully, which I've geeked out about since I started watching the x-files!

Update 3: Moving

Last year I was able to work at the bank and commute to SEMO twice a week. But since I am now so close to being finished with school, I couldn't really get a schedule this semester that would work with me commuting. I have class every day this semester, so I would have had to drive back and forth from Portageville to Cape EVERY DAY. I pretty much HAD to move to Cape if I wanted to finish with school. It worked out pretty well, because two of my best friends from high school had a couple of openings in their apartment, so I now live in Cape with them! We each have our own bedroom and bathroom, and we share the kitchen and living room. I have gotten a bit homesick (I miss my parents, we've always been really close!), but so far I enjoy living in cape. Decorating my room and bathroom has been fun, and there's more to do in Cape than in Portageville! I don't really have any good pictures of my new room to post yet, but I will probably try and post some soon!

Update 4: New Job!!!!

This is the most recent and exciting update. I hadn't had as much luck as I thought I would with finding a job in Cape, and I was starting to get worried. I have rent to pay now! But I am very happy to say that I finally found a job that I think will be a really good fit for me. Monday is my first day as a Part-time Customer Service Representative at Elite Travel! I'm so excited to learn and grow there and be a part of their team. Also, they have a "Watch Cat" and "Watch Dog" at the office!!! SO CUTE. 

I think I'm going to feel right at home there :)

That's it with the updates for now! Hopefully I'll blog again before the year is over, but who knows ;)

XO,

Elizabeth 

Staying creative: Poetry Exercises

One thing that's always been really important to me is staying creative! My favorite way to exercise my creativity is through writing poetry. Sometimes I go through periods of writers block where I don't feel inspired by anything, and when that happens I've found some exercises that help get me through it.

Exercise Number 1: Blackout Poetry

Most of you have probably already seen some of these on the internet. Blackout poetry is taking a page of a book and picking out words from it to turn into a poem, once you have those words you black the rest of the page out.

This is one of the first ones I did, I took a page from The Great Gatsby. Some people blackout the actual book pages but I don't (and I don't really recommend it). I pick a page and then I make a copy of it, so that way I'm not damaging the book.

Exercise Number 2: Collage Poetry

This exercise is especially good if you have a lot of old magazines laying around! I like to flip through one and cut out a bunch of random words, then I lay them out and try to make a poem out of them!

I like these two exercises a lot because instead of forming your thoughts into words (which can sometimes be hard for a scatterbrained person like me) you're taking these words that are already laid out in front of you and turning them into a thought.

Exercise Number 3: Code Poetry

This is a little bit harder but still really fun! I first saw one of these poems on tumblr. These are harder for me to explain, but you basically take your code phrase and then make a word out of each letter in the phrase.

"They all fall no one stays" was my code phrase in this one. These really make you think, plus it's like you're TALKING IN CODE. SO COOL.

I'm no expert at writing poetry, but I do really enjoy it and so I thought I would share these tips with you for the next time you're feeling like you need a little inspiration!

XO,
Elizabeth <3

Favorites

Here are some of the things I've been loving lately!

The Lizzie Bennett Diaries

I've been really into web series lately, and this is one of my favorites! If you are a fan of Pride and Prejudice, you will LOVE TheLBD! I've actually never read the book (I plan on hopefully reading it soon) but I really love the movie (Keira Knightley version). I think this series is such a cool idea, and I get so excited whenever I see they've posted a new video. They're up to 20 episodes now, you should check all of them out!

Revlon Lip Butters

All of the beauty gurus I watch on youtube were raving about these, so I had to try them! These are sort of like a mix between lipstick and lip balm. I love them! These are the colors I have right now, and I really like all of them. My two favorites are probably "red velvet" and "peach parfait" though. "Red velvet" is a really really beautiful red, and "peach parfait" is a more natural, shimmery color. 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

(right where it belongs, with the bestsellers!)

This book, ya'll. THIS BOOK. It's definitely one of my favorites. A lot of people are probably tired of me gushing about it, but I JUST LOVED IT SO MUCH. You will laugh and you will cry while reading this. I read it in JANUARY and I'm still talking about it. I really want to read it again soon, because it was so great and I miss the characters (I get too attached to fictional characters). Seriously, you should read it. I also want to add that the author, John Green, is probably my favorite author. Anything by him is great and totally worth checking out if you're looking to add to your summer reading list! 

Topographe

This is a tumblr by a girl named Anna Peters. She takes beautiful pictures and writes some AMAZING poetry that makes me feel so inspired. Clicking on the poem above will take you to her tumblr, you should really check her out! 

"YOLO"

I love sarcastically using this acronym (I'm so mature).

I think that's it for now.
Two blog posts in one week?! Total record for me.

XO,
Elizabeth <3

Update

It's been awhile since I last updated this blog! To be honest I thought I was done with blogspot, or if I did start blogging on this site again I was planning on doing it with a different blog name. But I started looking through all of my old posts on here and I got really sentimental. I started this blog when I was 17! I've recorded some pretty sweet memories on here, so I decided I'd keep this blog and try to update it even if it's only every few months.

So without any further ado, here's what's happened in my life since my last post!

At the end of November I got a job (finally)! I got laid off from my previous job last march, and was basically convinced that I was going to have to settle for a job that I was going to absolutely hate. I applied at the bank where my best friend worked but I was sure I wasn't going to get the job. Then lo and behold, they called and I got it! I love it there. My coworkers are what make it so great! They are the best and I am so thankful for them!

In January, I celebrated my second vegeversary! Two years with no meat (actually now it's 2 and a half since it's June)! I can't remember what I did on that day. I know I blogged about it briefly on my tumblr but I'm too lazy to go back and find that post. Here is the celebratory picture from that day though! 

Then there's school! I am finally finished with community college! I now have an associates degree in psychology and even though that's really not that big of an accomplishment I'm still kinda excited about it. Don't ask me what I'm doing next semester, because I HAVE NO IDEA. I mean I have a few options, but I'm awful at making decisions. Especially big ones like this. I am sure I will figure it out eventually!

A couple of weeks ago I turned 21! I went to the Memphis Zoo for my birthday with Tyler and Torey and we had a great time! I hadn't been to the zoo in so long. I basically spent the whole time gushing about how cute all the animals were, even the tigers and bears that I'm sure would have had me for lunch in like 2.5 seconds if they got the chance. I loved all of the animals there (well, except the snakes) but I think my favorites were the chimps, the sea lions, and of course all of the cats.

After the zoo we ate at a really cool place called J. Alexander's. I'm pretty sure I had the best veggie burger ever there. It seemed very jazz themed too, with the music and paintings and dim lighting, and I felt like I was in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. Like I was pretty sure Jay Gatsby was going to come walking out at any moment. We ended the day at the mall where I went to Forever 21, which has recently become one of my favorite stores! They have so much cute stuff, and I was glad to try some stuff on so I'd have a good idea what size to get when I order online. I ended up coming home with two dresses and two shirts that I love!

Other fun things I did for my birthday: I went out to eat with my parents the Saturday before. We were gonna go see a movie too, but nothing we wanted to see was out. We decided to wait and see the new Madea movie together when it comes out at the end of this month. So I'm really looking forward to that!
A couple of weeks before my birthday, Morgan made cupcakes to celebrate mine and Staci's birthdays (her bday is may 7th, mine is the 31st)! They were delicious and ADORABLE.

I think the blog has been sufficiently updated (plus I'm starting to ramble).
Hopefully I'll get better at keeping up with this, I like having this blog to look back on like a little scrapbook!

XO,
Elizabeth <3

“Isn’t it odd how much fatter a book gets when you’ve read it several times? As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells, and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like a pressed flower, both strange and familiar.”