Book Review: Drinking & Tweeting.

Posted on May 22, 2013 by

After my super serious read Salt Sugar Fat, I needed a light hearted book. I ordered Drinking & Tweeting by Brandy Glanville because it was recommended on Amazon and had high reviews.

I didn’t know who Brandi was or any of her drama before reading the book so I think I went in with a pretty open mind. I am familiar with the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills although I’ve never really watched it. So I expected a dumb, drama filled book with little to no take aways.

While I wouldn’t say Drinking & Tweeting is the best biography ever, I found it incredibly interesting, light hearted and helpful. Brandi is that friend who shoots straight, she tells you that you need to move on and stop cyber stalking your ex. She admits that she’s done the same thing while chugging wine and obsessing over tweets. She knows it’s unhealthy but at the same time healthy.

I had to look up some details that she only lightly talks about (because I’d never heard of her and her divorce drama), but overall I found it enjoyable. Brandi is down to earth and admits that she’s not always the best at giving advice (she did slash her ex husband’s tires after all), but she’s been through worse than most normal people and seems to have come out of it well. If you need a good beach book or post-breakup book make sure to check out Drinking & Tweeting. It will keep you laughing while giving you some solid advice!

Upcoming reviews…
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
Fireflies in December by Jennifer Erin Valent
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

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Book Review: Salt Sugar Fat.

Posted on May 10, 2013 by

After reading multiple positive reviews and hearing rave reviews from friends, I decided to finally read Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss. The whole book focuses on the addictive tactics of processed foods. Written by a journalist, I knew this book would be fact heavy and a more solid read.

While the book as a whole was enjoyable, it did feel like at a certain point he had covered basically everything you needed to know. But there was still half the book left! There were only so many ways to say and show how the processed food industry had given us little to no other affordable options to healthy eaten and thus had driven society into obesity. I found the actual science behind most of it to be rather dull, while the analysis of the marketing campaigns and inner workings of the companies were often riveting. The best parts were finding out how companies found the perfect crunch ratio or the invention of a childhood favorite (Lunchables, etc).

Although Salt Sugar Fat made me question my eating habits—and I have been trying to eat better since reading—I haven’t given up my love of Oreos, potato chips, or cereal. So if you’re looking for a highly educational (although sometimes taxing) book, check it out and make sure you keep the Twinkies close by!

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Happy 1 year anniversary, New York.

Posted on March 30, 2013 by

The eve of my 1 year anniversary in New York is upon us. This time last year I was fresh into the city, still sleeping on an air mattress (wether working or not depended on the day), eating without utensils, and waiting for all of my stuff to arrive. I spent my East Sunday and Silence! The Musical and started learning how to become myself in New York. That’s right. It’s been a year. Quite a year might I add. In the past year I’ve lived in two apartments (I moved out of apt 1 a few weeks before my lease was up), worked at 4 different jobs, been on so many crazy adventures, and somehow I managed to thrive. Even as I type, I cannot believe it’s been a year since I packed my bags and decided to move- with only a few weeks notice! It’s been an incredible ride and I can’t wait to see what happens in years 2 and 3 and 5 and 10? Ok…I’ll slow down, let’s just start with year 2!

There will be plenty more craziness to come and I can’t even imagine what is in store. But get excited!

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Month One at the New Job.

Posted on March 25, 2013 by

I can’t believe it’s already been a month! Boy how time flies. I have been so busy at work that I hadn’t realized how quickly things were moving along. So first things first, I want to give a brief summary of what I work on: I create a variety of graphics for Luckymag.com while also working closely with the Lucky Breaks team to ensure that the sweepstakes we run online look beautiful, run properly and achieve results. But that’s all just talk, now let me show you some of the stuff that I’ve worked on this past month…

I created the graphics for the Designer Collabs That Should Be Real: Kid Cartoon‘s story. This was such a fun project! I had a lot of freedom to be creative and work with the images that I was given. I think this story turned out really well and I loved every minute of it!

I created the graphics for the Lucky Spring Edit.

I created some of the graphics for our Luckyfabb event. The April event will be taking place in LA and I got to create the contest graphics and then also the winners graphics. This was really exciting since it involved our ever growing Lucky Community of bloggers!

I also created the Lucky Spring Cleaning image that was featured on the Spring Cleaning page and also on our homepage.

I created the MyLucky Spring Jackets graphic. This graphic promotes a story that was in the April issue of Lucky while also showing people how they can shop the trends on our site!

And last, but not least, I created the graphic for the cover girl makeup giveaway. For April it was Julie Bowen, so I created a composite to promote this awesome sweepstake!

 

There’s some more exciting stuff happening right now! Can’t wait to share more with you soon!!

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Skinnygirl On-the-Go Bars!

Posted on March 14, 2013 by

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I previously blogged a bit about my Skinnygirl on-the-go bar from Influenster. I loved the taste of the bar, but I wanted to give some more details because I just had a bad bar experience.

Not with Skinnygirl! Phew.

Now, let’s all take a breath, my bad experience was with a different bar. I was all excited about it but it paled in comparison to my Skinnygirl bar. I was quite upset because this bar boasted all kinds of benefits and I didn’t feel half as fulfilled as I did with Skinnygirl.

Maybe this other bar was better for me, but the lack of taste and inability to fulfill me left me desperately hoping I could make a Skinnygirl appear! Alas, I couldn’t, but they are now on my shopping list as a must get!

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Influenster Sweetheart VoxBox 2013.

Posted on March 12, 2013 by

Sorry for my absence, but starting my new job and looking for an apartment has kept me swamped lately! But I’ve got some fun stuff to talk about…products!
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Olay Fresh Effects (Va-Va-Vivid!) Powered Contour Cleansing System $12.99
photo IMG_7940_zps854fc99e.jpg I love my Clarisonic, but I gave it up for a week to try this Olay similar powered face cleaner. First let me begin by saying, this thing is tiny! I was shocked and a little afraid that I was going to break it. But I didn’t! Now I enjoyed this product, but I think I preferred the face wash that came with it over the powered cleaner. Compared to my Clarisonic, I didn’t feel like it gave a great clean. It also isn’t auto-timed so it didn’t shut off after a minute of cleaning. While I think this would be a good intro to someone looking to try a powered cleaner and not ready to invest (or for travel!) I don’t think I would buy this again. I would recommend using this as a test before buying a more expensive brand though.

Olay Fresh Effects (shine, Shine Go Away) Shine Minimizing Cleanser $6.99
As mentioned above, I really enjoyed this. It was a good cleanser that didn’t strip my face too much or leave it oily. I would invest in this in the future!

Secret Clinical Strength Stress Response $7.99-9.99
photo IMG_7943_zpsedef9cac.jpg I’m not stranger to Secret’s Clinical Strength deodorants and I love them. And while the product worked great, I wasn’t a huge fan of the scent on this one. I felt like everyone could smell me all day long. And it wasn’t a great scent- it was more like a coconut oil/tanning bed scent. So, Secret Clinical Strength is great, but maybe try a different scent.

Skinnygirl Daily On-The-Go Bars (Greek Yogurt Blueberry Crisp) $9.99/5 bar box
photo IMG_7944_zpsc9c0be39.jpg I enjoyed this one day while I was slammed at work. I was so busy and knew that I was going to end up having a late lunch so I snacked on this Skinnygirl daily bar. And it was delicious! The blueberry taste wasn’t overpowering or fake tasting (you know that weird blueberry taste that really just tastes like blue?) and at only 180 calories per bar! I’ve been watching my sugar intake so I was surprised that at only 10g of sugar, the bar still tasted sweet and fruity and not like many other on-the-go bars that are…well…gross. So I give this baby a thumbs up. It was a delicious quick snack for when I was in a hurry. And- not that it matters to me- but it’s Kosher so that’s kinda cool!

I don’t know exactly where these are available? I’d guess probably places like Target, but I found them online at Amazon. They are in the normal price range for these kinds of bars, but they are also small (although it kept me satisfied for quite awhile). So I’d say give them a test and see if you enjoy them! I did.

Not Your Mother’s Beach Babe Texturizing Sea Salt Spray $6.00
I needed this! While I straighten my hair for it, it has gone through a lot of wear and tear over the winter months so my hair is brittle and fraying at the end. So having this sea salt spray to enhance my curls and keep from damaging my hair was exciting.

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$13 a Week: Week 2.

Posted on January 27, 2013 by

1/20
Lunch: Cheese and black bean nachos
Dinner: Fried rice with peas, carrots, and egg

1/21
Lunch: Bowl of Hearty Chicken soup
Dinner: Whole wheat grilled cheese, Hearty Chicken soup
Snack: Air popped popcorn

1/22
Breakfast: 2 pieces wheat toast buttered
Lunch: Fried rice with peas, carrots, cottage cheese
Dinner: Tortellini with butter

1/23
Lunch: Fried rice with peas, carrots, cottage cheese
Dinner: Courtney’s homemade spaghetti sauce and noodles, fresh bread with brie

1/24
Lunch: Bowl Hearty Chicken soup
Dinner: Leftover tortellini with Courtney’s spaghetti sauce

1/25
Lunch: Leftover chicken fried rice
Dinner: Homemade Irish Soda Bread with basil pesto and mozzarella (AMAZING!)

1/26
Lunch: 2 small bean burritos
Dinner: Courtney’s homemade cajun grilled tilapia, coconut potatoes (chopped red peppers cooked in coconut milk, white table wine, dill, onion, garlic), asparagus

So fun thing for this past week, Courtney and I got really into having some home cooked meals. We had 3 homemade dinners and they were all incredible! I think we are going to try to make that happen more often. Nothing better than that.

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