Cause you're a sky full of stars...

Hi guys!

Man it's been a while since I've done a personal post.

The past few weeks have been very stressful and exhausting for me. Trying to recreate something you have no basis for is not fun. Essentially the person who had my job before me did much of her work on her personal computer and then never transferred it to the marketing laptop. So I've been trying to recreate things we did last for with nothing to reference. It's led to a lot of mistakes and things going wrong.

Thankfully, I think I'm finally past all that. I'm really looking forward to doing this again without everything going wrong this time. I feel much more prepared for next year already.

This past week alone I got up at 5 and 6 am and worked a 16 hour and 15 hour day. But, we're about to go into opening all shows, and (I think) that once that happens things should go a lot more smoothly.

Of course there are always frustrations and those have come up multiple times. Overall, though, I think things are going very well everywhere. I'm constantly overwhelmed by how friendly and talented this company is. Definitely a huge improvement from last year. Honestly, I think everything is better than last year. I sold more ads; Amy is kicking ass on our Silent Auction; the talent is better; the drama is less; and we spent less money on important things.

I can't believe it's already July. This year is flying past. I have so many things to look forward to in the next year. All I need is to stop living paycheck to paycheck, and I may finally feel like I'm getting things under control.

Chaotic Goddess Book Swap Reveal!

Hi guys!

Today it's time for my Chaotic Goddess Books 'n' Bloggers Swap reveal!

I picked up my package on Monday, and was totally excited to open it when I got home.

The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir - I actually found this book while looking for Megan, my swap partner, and sent it to her as well!

Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser - I've never read anything about Marie Antoinette, so I'm excited to dive into a similar era, yet a situation I've ever explored.

The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory - I've read a fair amount of Philippa Gregory (especially her Tudor books) but not this one! I'm excited to read more of her AND more about my favorite historical era.

My partner for this swap was Megan over at Who me, run? and she was great! You can check out her swap reveal here and see all the exciting historical fiction I got for her!

This swap was really fun, and I love that I have more books added to my ever-growing list!

Home is wherever I'm with you

Hi guys!

At the end of May, I got to go home for a little bit to take a break before TAM gets all crazy for the summer. It was a great trip, even though it was too short.

I was home for my mom's birthday, so on Sunday I got to see my O's play!

Adding some variety to my normal game day hair

The best way to celebrate a birthday!

Such a beautiful day for some baseball!

Then on Monday, Memorial Day, we grilled, and I made a sour cream chocolate bundt cake for dessert!

Unfortunately I don't have an after picture because, well, I forgot. Also the bundt pan I was using was not very conducive to actually having a whole bundt cake after the baking process. I'll know better for next time.

It was a great trip. Baltimore really is home for me, no matter what. 

Chaotic Goddess Books 'n Bloggers Swap!

That's right!

I'm doing another swap. But seriously. A book swap? How can I not?




I'm so excited about this one. Even though I've been doing just horribly on my 50 Book Challenge this year, new books and sharing my favorites with other people are some of my favorite things!

I'll find out soon who my partner is, so be on the lookout for that! And at the beginning of July you'll find out what three books I got!

Color Swap Reveal and Announcements

Hi guys!

I apologize for being MIA for a little bit, but I'm realizing that with my schedule, my current blog posting is just not going to work. I simply don't have enough time or flexibility to be able to post that regularly. To that end, I will still be posting. And I will try my damnest to post at least once every week. But I can't promise how often beyond that.

And now onto better things!

It's time for my Color Swap Reveal! In case you missed it, I did a Color Swap with the lovely Devon of New York Cut. She got me all the lovely things!

And if you want to see what I got here, check out her post! I had a hell of time finding coral things. It just wasn't on trend this year!

I'm especially excited about the nail polish because....well.....nail polish.

Speaking of which, I never got around to painting my nails last week, and one of them broke badly today, so I might be a little behind on the nail painting. I will continue to try and get my NOTW up every two weeks. I feel like I should be able to handle THAT at least. 

Until next time, friends!

A quiet week, events, and looking forward

Hi guys!

It has been a crazy couple of weeks for me. Last week Dawn was on vacation with her family, my homestay parents were gone for vacation, and Ryan was out of the office for tour rehearsal, so I spent most of my week alone!

I got two graphic design projects started as well as various ad selling/building and research for some things. Mostly, though, I worked on the website because I hit a point where I needed direction! It was a good week, though.

Thursday night I went out to dinner with Ryan, Max, and Eric at Margaritas. It was nice to have some time with people my own age.

Dawn got back Friday, and I went in Saturday around 2 to finish preparing for our Shakespeare's 450th Birthday Bash event. Basically that involved nothing but free food and watching people recite Shakespeare or sing Shakespeare inspired songs. It was fun, but my introvert side was kind of over it after a while. Afterwards I went to the Knights with Ryan, Max, and Eric and played Hearts until way too late.

Sunday I slept WAY longer than I planned to and basically had enough time to grab breakfast and take a shower before I headed to the church to help set up for the Community Supper. After setting up, all I had to do was count people, so that was fine.

Now, after working all weekend, I'm pretty wiped out. I'm taking a half day tomorrow, though, and I get to go see one of our regular company members' show in Lewiston tomorrow night. I'm excited about having a real weekend, though. I'm thinking I'm gonna go to Portland on Saturday to use my Body Shop Groupon, go to Lush, and shop for my Color Swap Buddy!

I know that this weekend was nothing compared to what summer's going to be like. I'm really excited about it, but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now. Hopefully once my ad deadline hits on Friday, I can relax a little before jumping into crazy summer mode. And I get to go home to Baltimore for Memorial Day.

I think May is going to be a very good month.

Color Swap Partner & Aerie Underwear Haul

Hey guys!

I got the email about my Color Swap partner on Monday, and I'm so excited!

Her name is Devon, and you can find her here:

Her favorite color is coral, and it makes my inner color nerd really happy that our favorite colors compliment each other. Her blog is lovely, and I'm really excited to get to know her and pick out pretty girly coral things for her! New blog friends are the best.

In other news, New Hampshire was really fun, but it definitely strained the money situation a little more than I thought it would. I've been trying to save money, but of course things happened, and I feel like I've been spending even MORE money than usual.

But they're (almost) all things that I need or they're presents for other people, and I'm not totally broke. I just need to rein it in a little. One of the things that I have needed for a while is more underwear, so I may have taken advantage of Aerie's 7 for $26.50 sale...

Practical and pretty is my favorite!

This isn't all of them, but I forgot to take screenshots while I was buying them, so I think the others I got are now sold out. Brightly colored underwear make me the happiest little girl.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Chaotic Goddess Favorite Color Swap!

Hi guys!

Just a quick update to let you guys know that I'm taking part in:

I did a post swap with Chaotic Goddess in November, and I'm very excited about this one!

My favorite color is:

Turquoise

Check back Wednesday to see who I got paired up with and what color I'll be in search of!

Have a great weekend everyone!

There's a fine, fine line..

Hi guys!

It has been a crazy week so far!

This weekend, I went down to Plymouth to visit my alma mater and see Avenue Q. It was a crazy whirlwind of a weekend. I drove down Saturday morning, met up with Alex, her friends, Tyler, and Bob for lunch at Burrito Me, saw the show, grabbed ice cream with the gang and Kizer, wandered around campus, had dinner at Foster's, and finally crashed for the night.

On Sunday, I had breakfast at my favorite diner, grabbed vanilla chai from Cafe Monte Alto, popped into Burrito Me to catch up with Sarah for 5 minutes, and then got on the road. Stopped briefly in Conway to ride the Conway Scenic Railroad, and then set off back to Maine.

It was fun, but it was a lot of driving. Needless to say, I was already tired when I started this week. Then on Tuesday I had to get up two hours earlier than normal to volunteer at the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce Member Appreciation Day.

Today was the start of everyone abandoning me. My homestay parents left for Hawaii for two weeks today; Dawn won't be in Friday because her family is leaving to go to Disney, and Ryan won't be in the office most of next week because of spring tour rehearsals.

It's kind of nice, though, because it means that everything is starting to gear up. I only hope I'm ready for this summer!

In beauty news: I have a lot of exciting things coming up! I'm looking forward to sharing them with you guys!

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

Life Update

It has been a crazy month, you guys.

I've pretty much been going non-stop since I got back to TAM.

Between ads (selling, buying, and building), graphic design work, website work, press releases, program rebuilding, and everything else, I've been working my butt off.

Every once in a while, though, I feel like I actually know what I'm doing. It's a cool feeling. I had my first real meeting. I have people call to talk to me, and I'm being given the freedom to make decisions. It's a really great feeling.

Dawn is really excellent at giving me enough responsibility without overwhelming me with it.

We had a Board Retreat on Saturday, and though it was long, I felt really good about being there. Coming from zero marketing background, I know I have a long way to go, but I'm in the perfect place where everyone is patient with me while I do.

I'm really looking forward to this season. I have a ton to do between now and then, but I'm excited to spend another summer at this lovely hidden gem of a theater in the middle of nowhere Maine.

This weekend I'm going to Plymouth to see Avenue Q and meet up with Alex, so I'm really excited about that.

It's been a busy, but productive, fabulous month. I hope everyone else feels the same way!

My Skincare Story

Hi guys!

Today I thought I'd share a little bit about my dermatologist visit I had right before I left Baltimore. I have always had ridiculously oily skin. It's always been fairly sensitive and acne-prone too. Unless I had a TON going on, I never got really ridiculous breakouts, but they were always a constant for me.

Around November, I got off the birth control I had been taking since I was 15. Not for any particular reason, just because it happened, and at the time it wasn't important. I originally got on the birth control for period issues, and as I'm not having those issues anymore, I decided it wasn't a necessity to get back on the birth control right away.

My skin completely freaked out. I was having massive breakouts even with the least stress I've had in a while. At the beginning of the year I was put on my Mom's insurance, so I decided to take advantage of it and go see a dermatologist.

I talked to the doctor about what I was experiencing. We talked about what kinds of acne I suffered from (cystic, whiteheads, blackheads, pustules, etc.) and what sort of things I'd tried in the past. I know I'm fairly young, but I'm not 16 anymore, and now that I'm in a more professional setting work-wise, I'd really like to be able to put my best face forward. When the doctor asked if I wanted to hit it hard, I agreed.

So now I'm on two oral medications and two topical ones.

The two topical ones are Aczone:

And Tazorac:

The Aczone is a twice daily medication, and the Tazorac is a nightly medication. Unfortunately, these dry my skin out so much that I can't use them as often as I'm supposed to. I'm trying to work up to using the Aczone twice a day, but for now I'm only using it as night. The Tazorac ends up being once every 2-3 days or when I remember.

As for oral medication, I'm on an antibiotic (which causes issues of itself long term) and aldactone.

I'm coming up on a month of treatment, but I haven't seen any major improvements. The doctor in Baltimore said it could take up to two months, so I'll wait until the end of April and reassess then.

In the mean time, I need to invest in an excellent moisturizer so that my face doesn't fall off!

Lush Haul and Best Friend Time

On my way back up to Maine at the end of February, I got to stop in Connecticut for a few days and spend time with my best friend from college, Alex!

We had a lot of fun together. We went shopping; I accidentally convinced a Cheesecake Factory employee that we were lesbians and on a date; We hung out with her best friends from high school and went bowling with her new man friend. It was so nice to see her after over six months of abscence. But, that's how you can tell that we're great friends: it was like we'd never split up!

On our major shopping day, she took me to Lush. Now, I'd popped into a Lush before in Portland and had a shower gel demo, but I didn't really feel like I'd gotten the full Lush experience. And let me tell you, this time I did! Alex wanted to go to get face masks, but I ended up talking to the woman about my new acne routine (I guess I should do a post on that sometime..) and how it was drying the absolute crap out of my face, and so I ended up getting more than just a face mask.

While there, I demoed two different face masks, a serum bar, and a lip scrub. I left with the following:

Oatifix Fresh Face Mask

Daily Grace Serum Bar

Lip Service Lip Balm

Celestial Moisturizer

(This one was just a sample size)

The face mask is a little weird. It's chunky and has an...interesting smell. It's not unpleasant, but it's a little strange. The woman at Lush kind of talked me into the serum bar, but I'm actually really enjoying it a lot. And I'm totally obsessed with the lip balm. I'd love to get a big size of the Celestial moisturizer, but I don't have $25 to drop on that right now. Some day, maybe!

And, for fun, here's a picture of Alex and I trying our face masks for the first time! Hers is much more exciting-looking than mine because hers is blueberry based!

Do you guys love Lush? What's your favorite product?

Graphic Design Inspiration - Jessica Hische & Archan Nair

Hey guys!

Just a quick update today to share with you two of my new favorite discoveries! I came across both of these artists while learning about graphic design and working on my Write On! poster for TAM during the end of February.

The first is Jessica Hische who does awesome typography work. Here are some examples:

This one's the current lock screen on my phone!

I just love everything about these. The typography, the quotes, the simplicity that's totally motivating. I wish I could create things like this. Unfortunately, I have to settle for using someone else's work, which leads me to my next artist, Archan Nair.

I came across a BEAUTIFUL piece of artwork that I ended up using for my Write On! poster. I looked up the artist, and his stuff just completely blew me away. Totally abstract and creative and absolutely beautiful. Take a look!

That last one is the piece I used for my poster. Not only is his stuff stunning, but he also gave me permission to use it! So cool.

I hope you enjoyed my little bit of creative inspiration!

Major ball droppage

Guys.

I know. I dropped the ball. I dropped the ball, and it rolled under a desk, and I've spent the past two weeks looking for it. I found it, and I'm picking it back up, I promise.

I'm sincerely sorry for my absence. The past two weeks have just been ridiculously busy. It started with Dawn getting me started on a project toward the end of my furlough which I spent the majority of my time on. Then, just as that was coming to an end, I got sick. Right as I was getting done being sick, I drove to Connecticut to hang out with my best friend from college, and from there back to Maine. I got here on Sunday, started back at work on Monday, and I've been trying to get my feet back under me ever since.

But I will catch up. I'm starting now, and I will do my NOTW this Friday as usual. This weekend, I will unpack my stuff and figure out my blog so I can start posting regular content again. I have so many things I wanted to share with you guys, but I just couldn't find the time to get it done.

Please bear with me as I catch up on everything. I will try my hardest to regain my balance between personal life, work life, and blog life.

In repentance, please accept some pictures from the past two weeks.

(Late) Valentine's Day cookies

Paint Nite with my Mom

Best friend time with Alex