What I'm Loving Wednesday

It's Wednesday! Hump-Day! Middle-of-the-Week Day! I hope that you're having a good week so far, like I am!

I'm linking up with Jamie's weekly "What I'm Loving" post this week because...well...I have the time, haha! And because there are a few things that I really HAVE been loving.

1) Lisa Eldridge's amazing video on Marilyn Monroe's makeup. According to Lisa, there was much more to Marilyn's look than her signature red lip, and she demonstrates on her model how Marilyn and her makeup artist, Allan Snyder, essentially turned her face into a living, breathing optical illusion. Skin prep, contouring, highlighting, and even a tricky little smudge of brown liner under her lower lashes all played an important role in creating Marilyn's look. I think it's absolutely fascinating, and Lisa really, really knows her stuff on this one!



Relatedly, I love all of Lisa's makeup videos. She's a famous makeup artist in the UK and has done makeup for the red carpet and magazine spreads in Vogue, Glamour UK, and so on. Check her out!

2) Reasons to Be Fit, a tumblr dedicated exclusively to, well, reasons to be fit! Text overlies images of super-fit women, so it's a major visual impact! My favorite reasons thus far have been:

Because my body is my temple.
To not feel the pain of atrophy.
'Cause it all comes down to survival of the fittest
To make sure that I don't carry on the Diabetes in my family
To do amazing things with my body
To KNOW you can escape the murderers in horror movies (<--This one made me laugh and is so valid!!)

In a similar vein, there is a tumblr totally dedicated to fitness goals, or a fitness bucket list.

3) My dog. Duh. But this week I've been noticing how good he is with our other pets. He's a boxer mix, so he's very tactile; he likes to lean up against people and snuggle with other animals. Here's some photographic proof:

With my mother's dog, Scout

With my cat, HRH Skittles, Queen of the Mississippi

With my dog-in-law (my brother's girlfriend's dog), Captain

So, this week, I'm loving what a sweet, loving dog-friend he is to everyone!

4) Eating clean! I'm trying to make a very conscious effort to be aware of what. I. am. putting. into. my. body. I love working out, and I'm noticing the tone that I'm acquiring through my arms and legs as I get further down the NTC road, but omg I have GOT to stop eating crap. This week I have been better about making some awesome smoothies, some awesome sandwiches with veggies instead of pickles and hummus instead of mayonnaise, and some awesome TEA. Green tea, mint tea, all of it is "Go" in my book. I'm also nursing a massive glass of water at this moment. And for breakfast this morning, I made oatmeal with egg whites and a bunch of spices to get my body "warmed up" for the day. I just have to make sure that this becomes a habit, not a fling!

Evidence of Awesomeness
V8 Splash, baby spinach, kiwi, frozen strawberries, some vanilla NutriSystem powder, and greek yogurt. Mmm!

5) Etta James. I just happened to get her Millenium Hits CD for Christmas, and I've been listening to it since. Now that she's passed away, it seems to be on constant repeat. What a woman! You just can't beat At Last or Something's Got a Hold on Me.

And 6) Hayao Miyazaki movies. Call me a nerd, but Mr. Miyazaki creates the most breathtaking and bizzare worlds in which to tell his stories. I watched Castle in the Sky this weekend and My Neighbor Totoro is in the mail from Netflix for today. I'm glad I'm finally watching these, because they are the "original" Miyazaki movies. I already own Spirited Away, which is the only non-English movie to ever win an Oscar for Best Animated Picture. My favorite movies, though, are Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle, which is based on the book of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones (and was also nominated for an Oscar). I highly, highly recommend his work to anyone! It's truly escapist film-making, and the majority of his works, though targeted at children, have very pronounced themes of family, love, and environmentalism.

So what are YOU all loving this week??

Tag, you're it!

So, I've been tagged by Faison to do a set of fun facts + questions about myself. I love these, so here I go!

Rules of the game
1. You must post the rules.
2. Post eleven fun facts about yourself.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, then create eleven new people to ask the people you've tagged.
4. Tag eleven people and link them on your post.
5. Let them know you've tagged them!

Eleven Facts about Porter:
1. My first and middle names are family names--my first name is my mother's maiden name, my middle name is one of my great-grandmothers' maiden names. I love them both!
2. I love taking baths. I know a lot of people think that it's ~unhygienic~ but whatever. There is nothing better than steaming hot water + bubbles + tea + candles + a great book. Haters gonna hate.
3. I'm an HGTV sucker, but not in the way that you would think. Yeah, design shows are great and Candice Olsen is a goddess, but I live for construction/renovation shows. Holmes on Homes or Holmes Inspection? I'm in. Property Brothers? Let's get some popcorn. Yard Crashers? Might as well get a blanket, 'cause it's gonna be a long night on the couch. There's just something about watching people tear something down and build it back up again that makes me a happy camper.
4. I cannot understand football for the life of me. I'll watch games, but I'm so indifferent as to what's happening and really don't care about the outcome. Sorry?
5. History was always my favorite subject in school. My fascination is split most intensely among European Medieval/Early-Renaissance history and Ancient Greece and Rome. I also am interested in Colonial America and Ancient China and Japan, although on a lesser scale. I'm also mildly obsessed with Greek/Roman mythology as a result of this. (Aryx, who I named my dog for, is a mythological son of Aphrodite.) So, yes, I have seen 300, Rome, Clash of the Titans, the Odyssey, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Troy, and anything remotely mythology related (*cough*Conan*cough*).
6. For some reason, I name all of my inanimate objects Bessie. My car, iPod, and laptop are all nicknamed "Bess" or "Bessie." I have no idea why.
7. Even though I'm almost 23, I love YA fiction. It's a total guilty pleasure.
8. All I really want in life is a comfy sweater and a cottage in the Scottish highlands. Seriously. Even with my law school dreams, I want to end up retiring to somewhere vibrantly green and chilly so that I can wear huge sweaters and have wind-tousled hair blowing every which way.
9. I pierced my own belly button when I was in middle school. Literally. With a safety pin. That was my "cool phase." It's grown together now, but there's still a little scar. Now, we will never speak of this again.
10. If I'm cleaning or cooking or baking, I have to be listening to my Aretha and Etta Pandora station full blast. It always makes me feel super sassy and fabulous.
11. My Netflix queue is 36 movies long. It's a problem.

Faison's Questions:
1. Tea or coffee? Oh, goodness. Honesty time: As much as I love tea of all colors and aromas, it will never be the comfort drink that coffee is for me. I love a massive mug of drip coffee, creamed with half and half, and sweetened with Sweet n' Low. It settles into my bones and calms me down, which is weird because isn't that the opposite of what coffee is supposed to do?
2. What is your favorite place in the world? I loved Italy. I visited with my family in high school and as soon as I saw those tall skinny cyprus trees from the airplane's window, it was love at first sight. When I walked the forum in Rome, I fell head over heels in love. And when I got to Florence and looked up at the Duomo, I was ready to propose. My fate was sealed at a wine tasting in a barn in Luca--I was ready to make beautiful Italian children and chase pigeons with them at St. Mark's Square. Despite this, I studied French in college. Don't worry, I'm smacking myself, too.
3. What did you major in college, or majoring in now? International Studies with a focus on Europe and International Governance and Politics. And French. I'm going to law school next year at the University of Virginia and I'll hopefully be able to focus on international law and try to find a balance between human rights law and national/international security law. It's gonna be fun!
4. If you have your ears pierced, do you prefer studs or dangle earrings? I really prefer dangly earrings, but for work I have to wear studs.
5. What jewelry do you wear daily? Either my silver knot studs my cousin Sarah gave to me for college graduation + 1) my silver starfish necklace my grandmother gave to me after my first play in highschool or 2) a Tiffany heart necklace my little brother gave to me for high school graduation -OR- my gold and black bow studs + my Phi Beta Kappa necklace. Maybe a ring if I feel like it, but I wash my hands so much and they can kind of get in the way.
6. It's Friday night, and you have two choices: stay in and watch a movie or go out on the town. What would you choose? I do like going out, but I just can't turn down a good movie. However, I do like to have people over to watch movies or marathons of TV shows, so I guess it's a happy medium.
7. If you have a day planner or organizer, which one do you have? I have a cute mini Kate Spade planner that Faison gifted me!
8. When you travel, which do you prefer: Traveling by car, train, or plane? The plane is quick, but trains are so easy. I'm looking forward to the train rides between Charlottesville and, oh, the entire northeast.
9. What is your go-to comfort food? Kettlecorn. Salty AND sweet!
10. What was your favorite Christmas/holiday gift that you received this year? My blu-ray player from my parents! I can't realize its ~*full potential*~ just yet, but eventually I will be able to stream Netflix, Youtube, and Pandora onto my TV!
11. Why did you start blogging? I'm going to law school next year in one of the most beautiful regions of the country, and I wanted to get in the habit of blogging so that my family and friends could keep up with me!

MY questions for YOU (explain WHY for all of them!):
1. Sunrise or Sunset?
2. McGonnagall or Snape?
3. Beach house, lake house, or mountain cottage?
4. Fiction or non-fiction?
5. Solid colors or patterns?
6. Book smell or freshly-cut-grass smell?
7. Black and white or color?
8. Cooking or baking?
9. Salty or sweet?
10. Favorite flavor?
11. Why did you start blogging/tumbling?

I don't have eleven blogs to tag, but I'm going to tag who I can!

Leigh at Year One
Matthew at EcoNomics
Rachel at Colorado Rachel
Colby at The Intersection of Order and Chaos

Yeah, sooooo....go for it!!


Ocracoke Island's Harbor, my favorite place to have a beach house

New Cities, New Faces

This past weekend, I traveled to two famous "new" cities: New Orleans, LA, and New York, NY! The pretext for this trip was my wonderful friend, Faison's bachelorette party. She had the most amazing idea to book a private trapeze class with Trapeze School New York, located in Chelsea. Because I have never been to New Orleans before (travesty, I know.), Faison and I went down a day before to wander around. I had a Shark Attack at Tropical Isle, and boy, it was delicious. Grenadine makes me a very happy camper, and I still have the shark as a keepsake of sorts, haha. Unfortunately, I broke the cardinal rule of not mixing liquors and woke up with a horrid hangover. I pulled myself out of bed though so that we could walk the French Quarter and take in the sights. It's a beautifully historic city and I'm so glad that I got to go!!









We met Meg, one of the other bridesmaids, on the flight to La Guardia, and arrived in NYC just in time to go to a fabulous restaurant in Little Italy, Novella. If you ever go, get the stuffed artichokes as an appetizer--out of this world, I promise. We also ate at Cafeteria in Chelsea and, let me tell you, it was like I was living in Food Porn Daily for two hours. The food not only looked absolutely divine, it was hearty and filling and tasted amazing.







Trapezing was exhilarating and freeing and so much fun. I honestly did not anticipate enjoying it as much as I did. I've always been terrified of being upside down without safety--it's why I never learned how to do handsprings or layouts or anything that removed a barrier (like my hands) from between me and the floor. But I didn't even think about that when I was doing this! It was like, when they said "jump," I just....jumped! Our bodies ACHED afterwards. Even on my most brutal NTC workouts, my abs and arms have not burned like they did the day after trapezing. Faison and I were cutting up on the flight and couldn't even handle it because we would laugh and then groan and hold our stomachs. Faison kept telling me to stop making her laugh because it hurt too much. I can't WAIT to go again to the DC branch while I'm in law school. Faison has pictures and a video on her blog, so check them out there!

Faison and I spent an extra day toodling around the city, visiting heaven on earth at Jacques Torres Chocolate. I have got to find out what they did for my drink, which was a white hot chocolate with chai spice. It was absolutely phenomenal, as were the two little pieces of chocolate that I nommed on while chatting with Fais. She, of course, did her blogger thing, taking beautiful and artsy photos while we ate. The Rock is so pretty at night right now because they still have the lights on the trees--it made for great picture-taking opportunities!







As fun as the trip was, it sadly lasted but a few days. Now I'm back in the land of Jackson, MS, back on that daily work grind and trying to make money so I won't have to live on ramen and kraft next year. So all y'all better remember to be polite to your waitresses and counter servers!

Happy New Year, one and all!!

I had a low-key night reading "A Raven in Amber" by Patricia Smith. I bought it on the spur of the moment, and it was totally worth it in the end. We've all read our fair share of trashy romance novels with surly-for-no-good-reason men and swooning-and-naive women, so I was taken by surprise at the plot and pacing of this one. It had a mystery, true romantic tension, friendly relationships between secondary characters, and native american legends to give the modern-day romance a bit of a primal sub-layer, if that makes sense.

New Year's Day was productive for me. I straightened my room a bit, opened my window to air it out, brushed out Aryx and Scout, and took out the recycling. I also finished my mom's laptop sleeve, which I'll blog about soon with the rest of my "what I made for other people for Christmas" stories. During all of this, I noticed that our Camellia bushes in the front bed had broken into bloom. I actually really look forward to the colder temperatures because of these flowers. Once the buds begin to show, I keep an eye on them because for the first few days, the blooms are absolutely gorgeous!





These buds are probably going to open up tomorrow. I think that the pink tips are very pretty against the green. They remind me of what we're like on New Year's Day: Still little buds, but nearly ready to burst forward into the sunlight of the new year!

My New Year's resolution is broader than it could be, but I think it'll be easier to stick to this way: I'm going to be a better person this year. Eat better, exercise more, make healthier choices, and be a better neighbor and friend. I gossip too much and can be too cuttingly sarcastic. I'm going to be more compassionate, empathetic, and polite, and stop picking fights just to get my bitterness out. I've been reading up on Buddhism lately, which advocates following the eightfold path to find enlightenment. The eightfold path involves cultivating the right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. (A super-brief look into the eightfold path can be found here) So yeah, here's to a bigger, badder, and better new year!

I was extremely lucky to get some great Christmas presents this year. I got a Kindle and have been toting it everywhere since I opened it! I'm a bit worried to break it, so I ordered a case from off-line to protect it. In my search for free books (because I honestly do not feel like paying more than a few bucks for anything that I'll probably read once and never own a physical copy of) I found Project Gutenburg which has downloadable versions of books that are considered public domain. If you use this, you'll need to get a program like calibre to move the files onto your Kindle, Nook, or iPad. But I was able to download the Apocrypha, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Golden Bough (I like reading about myth and religion, y'all, duh!), and the Art of War fo' free! Then I realized that some of them were also free on Amazon so I'm playing around with both versions to see which versions I like more.

I also got a Blu-ray player AND all 8 HP films on Blu-ray. The player that I got is also internet accessible, which means that I'll be able to stream Netflix, Pandora, Youtube, etc, on it when I'm in Charlottesville. I'm not close enough to or even on the same floor as my router to maintain a physical ethernet connection like the box requires, but I'm going to PLAN on that for next year! I love streaming on Netflix, but my 13" laptop can be kind of...limiting? Oh, lord, this is such a #firstworldproblem. I'm just going to quit while I'm ahead.

I'm finished with my internship, so it's back to Newk's full-time starting next week. Re: my NY resolution, I'm going to be a better server, employee, and co-worker. Write it--it is now law!

Nail Polish: Nomad's Dream by OPI. Pic below because I lurve it!

Quiz Time!!

Okay, I have a serious confession to make to y'all: I love taking blog quizzes. Remember how many of them were on Myspace back in the day? Yeah, I loved them. I think it's interesting to read about other people, and it's fun to think about your own likes and dislikes. Also, they're great to kill time.

So, until my next ~serious~ post, here's a quick infomercial about yours truly (and it was totally ganked from Faison).

the A-B-C's and 1-2-3's of P-H-W!

A. Age: 22
B. Bed size: Full mattress in a wrought iron frame salvaged from Canton, TX and lovingly straightened out, sand blasted, and painted white by my Uncle Bee.
C. Chore that you hate: Probably de-cluttering. I don't mind cleaning that much, but getting rid of all of the STUFF everywhere in order to get to those dirty surfaces can be frustrating!
D. Dogs: Aryx, my Boxer-mix, aka, my son, aka, love of my life.
E. Essential start to your day: My contacts. I couldn't get around the house, much less the world, without them. I realized the other day that as much as I would have loved to have lived in ~another time~, I probably wouldn't have made it. #nearsighted
F. Favorite color: Purple!
G. Gold or silver: I have so much silver jewelry, but I'm really starting to love gold now that my hair is reddish.
H. Height: 5'1".
I. Instruments you play: I used to play the violin and the flute--I wish I hadn't stopped!
J. Job: Newk's Express Café. Gettin' ready to get back on that student grind, though!
K. Kids: zilch.
L. Live: Flowood, MS, for now--Charlottesville, VA in July/August!
M. Mother's name: Mama!
N. Nicknames: P.dubb, Porterhouse (by the guys at work), P-H, Porter Paws (Porter Paws, porterpause?? Haha, get it?? I'm so crevarrr.)
O. Overnight hospital stays: none, thank goodness.
P. Pet Peeves: Not using one's blinker, talking like one is still in high school, general laziness and slovenliness, leaving crap everywhere.
Q. Quote from a movie: "Screws fall out all the time; the world is an imperfect place." - Bender, from The Breakfast Club
R. Right or left handed: Right. #boring
S. Siblings: Two younger brothers, two step-sisters (I'm one of five now?? AHHH.)
T. Time you wake up: Let's just say that I SHOULD be able to pull myself out of bed at 6:00 or 6:30. Now, does this happen in reality???
U. Underwear: Cotton bikinis
V. Vegetable you hate: Raw broccoli. It's a texture thing and I'm always freaked out that the little buds are stuck in my teeth!
W. What makes you run late: Getting distracted by email, twitter, etc; saying goodbye to the pups.
X. X-Rays you've had: Other than dentals? I had one done of my pelvis a while back--I have hip pains sometimes and wanted to see if anything was up.
Y. Yummy foods that you make: Moroccan chicken, easy chicken masala, baked salmon with lemon and dill, chicken tortilla soup. Lotsa chicken, I guess.
Z. Zoo animal: Cheetahs and Orcas. Brilliant, brilliant animals. And tigers, but in the wild only!!!!!!!


Badum tschhhhh. The end. Merry Christmas Eve to everyone! I'm avoiding claymation movies in the other room!

Nail Polish: "Mermaids Tears" by OPI

Look at this little elf...

Look at this face. Take it in. That's my son right there. And look at how patient he is being with his holiday "ruff" on!

My last post was from Halloween. Uh, what? Have I really been that lazy?? (yes, I have.) Anyway, now it's the Christmas season and We've already started the gift giving at my house. On my mom's side of the family, we trade names with each other so that we only have to buy a gift for one person instead of like, fifteen. It's worked out really well, especially for us in the younger generation that can't really unload a bunch of cash. We also have a tradition of "Robber's Christmas" (some people call it "Dirty Santa"). In the end, I walked off with a nice little haul!



From my cousin, I got seasons 2 and 3 of Battlestar Galactica, the Cranium game was from Robber's Christmas, and the dish towel is from my lovely aunt. I guess I'm a nerd, but I had no shame in asking for the BSG DVDs, and of course I ended up with the braniac board game. The gift that had been opened just before had been a bottle of cheap wine with an Elvis label and an accompanying can of spotted dick. Yes, this exists. It's some sort of bread pudding, I think. I'm really just trying to wipe the whole sexual references + family from my memory. When all of the knee-slapping was over, I chose the box with the dancing penguin wrapping, and then was like, "Wait. This could be a trick. They're attempting to lure me in with cute wrapping." Luckily, it was the Cranium game, and I remember saying, "Okay, I'm satisfied with this." Of course, I've never played it before and I need three other people to play it, but at least I didn't end up with the spotted dick or the two-toned bath towel--the white end for your face and the brown end for your butt. Yeah. That happened too.



Back in November, I went to Mistletoe Market at the Jackson Fairgrounds with my aunt (the same one who gave me the tea towel) and my cousin. It's a really big marketplace hosted by the Jackson Junior League and it's always super crowded. I have mixed feelings about Mistletoe, mostly because I think that it is aimed at a demographic that I am not a part of: women in their 30s married to hunting and sports fanatics with toddler children. However, I did find some stuff that I liked. (duh.)

The two posters are from Brittany Fuson Paper, and I am in love with them. All of her stuff is so snazzy looking! I haven't framed them yet because I didn't realize until I got home that they're on 8.5"x11" papers, so I have to trim them down to get them into my 8"x11" frames. The ring is from the Diamondhead Pearl Company, the same place that I got my pink pearl starburst earrings and matching long necklace. I honestly love their stuff! The ring is kind of big, though, so I have to get it sized or something. But it's this beautiful irregular pearl set into the ring, and the way it catches the light is absolutely fantastic. Everyone knows that I have an obsession with rings, but I had been on the lookout for a while for a chunky cocktail ring. The two jars of marinade are from Loredana's. I got a garlicky one that made fantastic garlic bread and a sweet lemony, almondy one that I've used twice on salmon steaks. They're delicious and made of organic and other natural ingredients. Finally, I got a chunk of honeycomb from the Savannah Bee Company. I will admit that I haven't used this as much as I would have liked, just because in order to eat a fancy snack of apples and honey is actually more time consuming than I would like. Still, I would swear under oath that it is some of the best honey that I have ever tasted. It's still sealed in the honeycomb when you get it, and it doesn't get any fresher than that! You can also eat the beeswax without any adverse effects.

Happy Christmas and Hanukkah to everyone! I hope that you find yourselves in a charitable and giving mood over the rest of the season.

Nail polish: "Dear Santa" by OPI

These days...

Happy Day after Halloween, y'all! We had a rush of trick or treaters that we were not expecting and were all but wiped out of candy by 8 PM. Coincidentally, I've been worked to the bone over the past few days, so I just turned out the porch light and retreated to a hot bubble bath and my FITNESS magazine.

I've been bouncing through a rough patch lately, but instead of projecting that energy by blogging about it, I decided instead to do a post about some things that I've been loving lately!



Of course, I have not been gifted with any of these product from their companies and I am not receiving money to promote them. This should be obvious, but there is a federal law saying that these things need to be disclosed.

First, between work and the encroaching cold weather, Vaseline's Healthy Hand and Nail Conditioning Lotion is a must-have these days. I've always had really bad cuticles; they get dry and pull away from my nails, and then, being the anxious stress-carrier that I've always been, I start to pick at them. A few months ago, I found out from internet research that dry cuticles can result from working with lots of paper and textiles. Of course! It's always a #CroftProblem. I can't even think of how many books and sheafs of paper I've gone through in my life! And now that I'm working at Newk's, I'm handling a lot of napkins and washing my hands a lot, so I was looking for a hand lotion that I would be easily able to carry around with me. This lotion is easy to locate in a purse because of a) the bright pink color and b) the larger size of the packaging. It's not huge, but it's not a dinky little $1.00 package, either. The consistency is very creamy and spreads out easily when you rub your hands together, and it doesn't have any of those cloying floral scents that manufacturers seem to think that we want. The back label claims that it makes nails 10x stronger--I can't vouch for that because I keep my nails short but I have noticed that the layers of my nails haven't peeled back lately. My cuticles haven't completely healed up or anything, and they still dry out, but I would say that the overall quality of my hands has improved since I've started using it.

Second, I used the two Essie nail polishes today: the gray (Chinchilly) on my toes and the pinky-gold (Tea and Crumpets) on my fingers. Tea and Crumpets has been a fave of mine since I bought it over the summer, but this was the first day that I've used Chinchilly. Tea and Crumpets is such a beautiful neutral color and very elegant looking with the iridescence that pops so subtly in the light. It's like a cross between a champagne and a pale gold with just the slightest pink undertone. I can't wear my favorite colors these days because of Newk's (no crazy nail colors--no blue, no purple, no green--can you tell I'm dying??) but neutral and "traditional" pinks and reds are allowed. Hence, Chinchilly on my toes. It's a typical deep gray, but very glossy looking. I had been worried that it would end up looking too dark, but I was pleasantly surprised. The ubiquitous Essie complains still apply though for both colors: the brush is too skinny and will never compare to OPI's, and because the consistency of the polishes are so thin, you really have to pay attention as you paint. If you can bear with the tricky application of Essie products though, the result is worth it!

Third, the product that I love to hate is the Nike Training Club app for iPhone and iPod. My relationship with this app is well documented on Twitter, but I admit that I haven't really worked out in over a month. Well, I paid for it this morning when I was barely able to push through 20 minutes of a 30-minute workout. NTC will kick. your. ass. but you will see results so insanely quickly. My first round with NTC lasted maybe fix or six 30-minute workouts over a month, and my legs and arms were visibly changing shape from one session to the next. All you need are some 5- or 8-lb dumbbells, a yoga mat, and one of those weight ball things (mine is 5 lbs). The app itself is free, so other than getting two or three things from WalMart/Target, you are losing nothing. In fact, if you're imaginative enough, you probably already have some things in your house that you could substitute--I used to use full water bottles as makeshift dumbbells in my dorm. I've been inspired by the fitness section of Pinterest and I am going to try my best this time to work out and make a positive change!

Related to this, you see that tall glass of water? Yes, that is another thing that I'm in love with these days: Water! In order to stay hydrated and also work at keeping my skin clear, I'm trying to drink as much water as possible. I get headaches because I'm always so busy (I'm scheduled to work 55 hours this week) but since I've been drinking tons of water and tea, I've noticed that they haven't been flaring up as often. I need to pick up some lemons at the store to add to my first-thing-when-I-wake-up and my last-thing-before-I-go-to-bed glasses of water; the benefits of lemon water are pretty well documented.

Next, I've only used it twice so far, but I am in. love. with this Olay Professional Pro-X Cleansing Brush. My struggle with mild-to-moderate inflammatory acne is pretty obvious to anyone that I've ever met and even a serious combo of birth control + oral antibiotics + Retin-A wasn't able to completely clear it up. I know that a lot of it has to do with a lot of dead skin hanging around and clogging up my pores, so I've been poking at the idea of getting a Clairsonic. Those things are ex.pen.sive. though, so I thought that I would try the Olay Pro-X, since it's the same concept for a fraction of the cost. Basically, you smooth your cleanser onto your face and massage it in to make sure that you've hit all of your skin. Then, you turn on the brush to one of the two speeds, and slowly move it across your face with barely any pressure at all. I focus on my chin and cheekbones, since that is where I get both full-on zits and annoying non-inflammatory clogged pores. I haven't seen an impact yet on my acne, but I can tell that it's coming. My skin is soooo smooth, y'all. The brush whisks away all of the dead skin, and since your cleanser is on, it moves the cleanser over all of that new skin. Afterwards, my skin sucked up all of my moisturizer and felt so plump and healthy. With all of the dull skin on top gone, my skin also looks more glowy than usual, similar to what it looks like after a good exfoliation, but more even-toned and less red from the scrubbing that goes with manual exfoliation. It isn't completely waterproof, but in theory, you could step out of your shower's spray and use it over other parts of your body, like shoulders, neck, etc. Lovelovelove. Sanitation seems to be a bit important so after my second use, I dipped a qtip in some rubbing alcohol and swiped it through the bristles.

Finally, an old favorite of mine is the Jergens Original Scent Lotion, which has the most delicious cherry-almond smell to it. I first started using it years ago and I just keep coming back to it. It's thick enough to make you feel like you're not just smoothing on a superficial layer of oily lotion, but it absorbs quickly and without feeling greasy. I use it all over my body and sometimes don't even use perfume after because it smells so nice. Like the Vaseline hand lotion, it doesn't have that flowery smell that I kind of hate. I always feel like between my shampoo/conditioner, body wash, and makeup/hair products, the smells become overpowering. Not with this lotion! Mmm I'm going to go put some on right now!

Not pictured: Florence + the Machine's new album, Ceremonials. I downloaded it last night after it became available and have been listening to it to get a feel for the songs. Ceremonials is sitting at #4 on the iTunes Top Albums the day of its release and not for no reason: it is truly above and beyond Florence's first album, Lungs, which was a masterpiece in and of itself. Her music isn't full of sunshine and puppies, but her voice is so unique and soaring that it seems only appropriate to accompany it with harps, pianos, and drums. The deluxe edition is $14.99, but can be streamed from myspace for free here. "Shake it Out" and "What the Water Gave Me" were released a while back, and those singles were fantastic. I found and downloaded the Bonnaroo performance of "Strangeness and Charm" and I dare to say that after the passion of that performance, the album version just doesn't measure up. Still, "No Light, No Light," "Heartlines," and "Never Let Me Go" stopped me in my tracks when I first heard them. Guh, Flo, you've outdone yourself again!!

So, this is a monster, and congrats if you made it to the end!