2018 Reading Challenge

If you ready my year in review post, you probably know that 2017 was a rough year for sure! I didn't get as much time to read for fun as I would like and so out of my 20 book goal, I only read 8. Not bad, but far from what I wanted.  Also, of the books on my reading challenge list, I only finished three (and in the middle of a few of the others).

For this year, I decided to lower my goal to 12 books instead, since it is more attainable and I would rather surpass my goal than fall short again.  You can check out the progress I make via my Goodreads which is in the sidebar, or by clicking on the sticker below.

2018 Reading Challenge

Kimberly has

read 1 book toward

her goal of

12 books.

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1 of 12 (8%)

view books

Here are the books I am currently working on (because I am weird and read multiple books at once)

• Terry Pratchett - The Color of Magic (currently misplaced the book)
• Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
• Neil Gaiman - Stardust
• Sarah J. Mass - Throne of Glass
• I also am an hour and a half into the audiobook for Girl on the Train and am unsure how I feel about continuing it.

These are the categories I am interested in from the Popsugar challenge:

1. A classic you've been meaning to read (from a past challenge) - Pride and Prejudice
2. A book by your favorite author - for this one I am finally picking back up the Dark Hunter Series by Sherrilyn Kenyon
3. A banned book - Looking for good suggestions
4. Author of different race/ethnicity
5. A book you borrowed - Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass
6. A past Goodreads award winner - I have a couple I am considering such as Yes Please by Amy Pohler and Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
7. Award-winning book - The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
8. A book you meant to read in 2017, but didn't get to - Into the Fire by Jeaniene Frost

Suggestions are welcome for all the categories I don't have a book set for, or just in general.  Let me know what books you plan on reading this year!

Good luck

<3 Kimmie

Self Care Ideas and Why it's Important

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With the semester now in full swing, I feel like it is important to mention self-care.  Some people might be familiar with this term but not the practice.  In simple terms, it is doing an activity or taking the steps to make sure that you are giving yourself the chance to decompress from all the stressors placed upon you.

It is often very easy to forget to do this when you have a million deadlines coming up and school and work and everything else on your plate.  I am personally very guilty of this! I personally have a tendency to put everyone else first, and one day my cousin sent me the quote, "you can't pour from an empty cup."  Honestly, that quote hit me and made me realize that in order to take care of others, you have to first make sure you are taking care of yourself. 

First of all, take a deep breath, and yes I mean right now. Take another. Ok, now do a self checkup. How are you feeling right now? Is anything bothering you? What is on your mind? If there is anything pressing that needs to be taken care of, write it down and deal with it in a few minutes.  Try to clear your mind if you can, I like to imagine being on a beach while doing deep breathing. That is how I help when I am in an anxiety attack, fun fact. This is good to help calm you down and get you started in relaxing.

Important note, self-care doesn't require Bath and Body Works candles and Lush bath bombs. That is a fun option but not the only type. I define self-care as anything that helps you relax or de-stress.  Self-care is important because with so much stuff on a daily basis that demands our time and attention it is easy to forget about making sure we are doing well.

And now, after lots of Pinterest and internet scouring, here are some of my favorite quick, fun self-care ideas, enjoy!

• There are the obvious and popular ones like take a bubble bath, hot shower, light a candle, etc.
• Get a piece of paper or journal and just write! Get out everything in your mind, don't pay attention to grammar or spelling or if anything makes sense, just write.
• Follow along with a meditation or self-hypnosis audio track.
• Make some comfort food.
• Declutter an area
• Write yourself a love letter
• Look in the mirror and compliment yourself.
• Put on some music and have a dance party.
• Watch a stand-up comedy or comedy movie.
• Call or text a friend or family member, catch up!
• Cuddle your pet, or your human lol
• Blow bubbles! (I love this! Don't forget to pop them too!)
• Try and say goofy things in an angry voice.
• Watch funny YouTube videos. (I love silly animal fails or Markiplier raging)
• Do some stretching or work out  
• This releases endorphins (see Elle Woods lol) and there are studies that show exercising regularly can help with depression - Linked a couple studies for your reference
• Write down a list of things that make you happy

These are just some things I like to do, but honestly, self-care is as simple as doing something you know will make you smile or feel happy or relaxed.  Self-care is about taking some time out of your day to make sure you are doing well, to make sure you are happy and relaxed and sane.  Taking care of yourself is not selfish.  I hope these help and you guys are able to make self-care a regular part of your life.  Now go make your own list! Any other self-care ideas you may have, share them below!

Have a great day,

<3 Kimmie

My Vacation Snapshot

Hi everyone!

Prior to the start of the semester, I had a really fun vacation I wanted to share with you.  I got a new boyfriend back in October and he and I went to Disneyland with our friends and he met my mom and grandparents! He did really well with my family and they all loved him.  Here are some fun snapshots from our vacation!

The pin said "I lava you"

I hope you all had an amazing winter break. School is back and session and I wish you all luck and let's kick this semester's butt!

<3 Kimmie

My Year in Review - the Good, the Struggles, and the Chaos

This year has truly been a rollercoaster.  I have moved three times and faced potential risks of being homeless.  I went through the pain of getting over a brutal breakup, but dated two people and now in a relationship with one of them.  I have had my car broken into three, yes three, times and the most recent of which they smashed my passenger window.  I cut out fast food (mostly) and am teaching myself to cook and meal prep.  Still trying to manage money better.  Had a falling out with friends, made new friends, started seeing a chiropractor, went back to therapy, got a new tattoo, and a slew of other events.  One word that definitely doesn't come to mind for this year is boring.

I didn't give this blog as much attention as it deserved and I really hate that with how busy I have been due to work and school, a lot of other things in my life have been neglected.  So tonight I decided to just sit down and write, to reconnect with why I started blogging in the first place.  I wanted to just let the words come and reflect on my year.

This year has tested me in a lot of ways.  There were a lot of tears, sleepless nights, heartache, stress and being terrified of not knowing what would happen next.  However, this year was not without its good moments.  I learned a lot about myself this year.  People came into my life who helped me learn more about myself and who I want to be.  They helped me grow as a person, teaching me new lessons and some I maybe didn't want to hear.  A year ago I certainly never would have pictured myself where I am today - a stronger, but still slightly unstable, but now capable of handling a whole lot more crap than before.

If there is one thing this year has taught me, it is that you can always get through it and that even when you don't realize it or want to ask for help, you have people who are willing to stand by your side, to dust you off and help you back up.  I am so incredibly thankful to all the people in my life who have helped me through this year; to everyone who has reminded me that I am strong enough to get through whatever storm I was facing, to lend a helping hand because they knew I hate to ask.  I know I will come out of 2017 as a stronger person, more willing to ask for help because I know that I have wonderful and caring people standing by my side.

Despite all the insanity of this year, I am happy to see the leaps and bounds I have made and I am excited to see what 2018 has to offer.  I don't really have resolutions but I do have goals for myself, to continue my growth as a person. 

Los Vegas Shooting

I woke up this morning to the news of the mass shooting in Los Vegas.  It breaks my heart to hear about this terrifying event.  I have friends who were at this concert, as well as friends who live in the area.  I can't even begin to understand why people do things like this.  So many people were injured or killed for no reason except because some lunatic decided to make a country festival target practice....I have no words to describe how horrible this is.

Please if you can, donate! Go down to your local Red Cross or Blood Source location to donate blood and help the victims.  If you can afford to, they have a GoFundMe account set up as well.

We need to come together to a country and stand against this tragedy.  At the last count I saw, about 50 people are dead and over 400 injured.  Please do what you can to help.

Back to School! Goals for Fall 2017

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Holy crap summer is already over?! School is back in session and being lazy is no longer a thing.  I have a lot of fun content planned for the new school year.  Starting off with just a short post to share my goals for this semester.

1. Consistently update calendar with upcoming assignments and "backwards plan" in an effort to complete my assignments ahead of time.  The goal is to do a little at a time and have it done!
2. Study a little every day! This one is a valiant goal, but studies do show that those who study consistently, do better in class.
3. DO THE READING BEFORE CLASS!  This is an area I have consistently struggled with all throughout college and I want to really focus on this, especially because this semester I have teachers who have assignments due at the beginning of class to prove you did do the reading.  
4. Finally, GPA.  This semester I want to shoot for mostly A's. I am trying to bring up my cumulative GPA in order to get into an honor society.  It's one of my biggest goals, but each of the ones listed before are essential to reaching this!

Let me know what your goals are for this upcoming semester and feel free to comment.  Good luck everyone!

<3 Kimmie

Work, Ferrets, Moving and Summer School

Hey everyone,

I hope you are al having a great summer so far.  Just wanted to catch up, it has been a crazy summer so far. I have been working a lot (but what else is new lol) and doing summer school, had my birthday, some sadness happened, and finally found somewhere permanent to live!

So to get the sad part oit of the way, my ferrwt Kiki, after being sick for a couple months passed away back in June due to an insulinoma. Basically, she was the opposite of a diabetic where her body over produced insulin because of microscopic tumors on her liver and pancreas. She was not doing very well and as hard as we tried, we couldn't get get her system to stabilize. I'm just happy that she isn't hurting any more and I'm happy for the time I had with her. Zero, since she passed away has been doing well thanks to hanging with the cats and has started hoarding plastic bags....its cute, funny and a bit heart wrenching.

On happier notes, my birthday went well with the exception of a creepy dude hitting on me. But I got to go to a club again and went bowling the next day. I'm really glad I got to spend time with friends and family.

Also, this summer I also got to go to Fanime Con/Clockwork Alchemy and finally got to go floating down the American River! Plus, I started a new job working with kids with autism! I'm excited to be working in a psychology field!

My last event before school starts is going down to LA to visit family and friends. This summer is drawing to a close and I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer!

- Kimmie

Project Pan 2017!

Hey everyone, here is my list for project pan 2017. I FINALLY am posting this after it sitting in my drafts forever...oops.  Let me know what your picks are if you are participating.

 

• Palette: Tarte Tartelette Palette
• 2 Primers
• Becca Backlight (Done!)
• Stila Aqua Glow Stick
• 4 foundations
• Revlon Colorstay (Done!)
• Maybelline Dewy and Smooth 
• L’Oreal TruMatch
• NYX Total Control Drops
• 1 blush
• The Balm Hot Mama
• 1 face powder
• Tarte Smooth Operator Loose Setting Powder
• 1 bronzer
• Laura Geller Balance-N-Brighten Foundation in Medium
• 2 highlighters
• Becca Moonstone
• Mac Lightscapade
• 2 lipglosses
• Buxom Dolly mini
• Buxom White Russian mini
• 2 lipsticks
• WnW Spiked with Rum
• Milani Best Red
• 3 lipliners
• Nyx Hot Red
• Maybelline Toast
• Colourpop Brink
• 2 Eyeliners
• Maybelline Line Express
• Revlon Liquid Liner
• 3 face washes
• 1 face mask

How to Bounce Back from Being a Hermit

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So one thing I will fully admit to falling prey to, is that since I moved up to Northern California, I have essentially become a hermit. I stay at home and hardly ever go out, well more so I fall into a routine of work and school and one or two people I see, and for a while there I hardly ever talked to any of my friends or family. Suffice to say, it wasn’t the best time.

But that was just me, for some, you may enjoy being alone and that’s ok! Each person has their own schtick, but if you want to get out more and try to be more social, I hope this helps!

I've reached the point where I consider myself and extroverted introvert.  I have definitely become more of an introvert over the years but with the right people and situation my extroverted, social butterfly side comes out.

Deep down I feel like pretty much everyone in some way wants to connect, to find a group they are comfortable with.  Recently I’ve heard my dad and a few others talk a lot about ‘their tribe.’ Frankly, I have been a little confused by that expression.  But essentially, I think it’s one in the same.  Your tribe, your social group, your crew, etc., whatever you want to call it, the existence of one in your life is important.  In one blog post I read by Claire Obeid, she makes a great point, you need to find balance between your hermit and your social butterfly. (You can check out her post here.)

For the purpose of this post here are a few key tips to getting yourself back out there that I had to learn:

• Sometimes you have to be the one to ask. I’m the kind of person who often, I feel like I have to have an invitation to do something fun. But waiting around for someone else to make the first move doesn’t work out. If you feel the need to get out and want to hang out with people, you need to be comfortable making the first step and asking others to hang out. Even if it’s something as simple as “hey let’s go get coffee” or going for food, for me I like to go karaoke or go bowling (despite the fact that I stink at it lol).
• People are there for you, trust me. Sometimes when you’ve shut yourself off for a while, it’s easy to forget that you have friends who like being around you. So when you are trying to step back out, that can be the scariest part, feeling like no one is there.  I can almost guarantee that there are at least a few friends you are overlooking.  Try posting something on Facebook about wanting to get together and see who responds.  Text people you used to hang out with, they are there.
• Find your tribe. Like I talked about earlier, you want to find that group of people you feel comfortable around and you know you can go to.  Within that tribe, you want to make sure you have at least one or two close people you know you can turn to regardless of if you are having an off day, or just who you know would be willing to make time for you. I have a small handful of people like this, my best friend and “hetero-life partner” (a term I learned from my roommate) is two hours away from me and with conflicting schedules we can’t always see each other, but I do know I can call her whenever. In closer proximity, I have another best friend who is always there for me and I’m very glad they came into my life and has pointed out, none too subtly, that I needed to get a life!
• Don’t push yourself! While the other three tips are all about getting out there and getting in contact with people, maybe forcing yourself out of what has become your comfort zone, you want to make sure you don’t overdo it all at once. If you push yourself to do too much too fast, you could stress yourself out and it may even backfire. So with all these, find your own pace. Be sure to check out the other post I linked above because she does have a lot of good tips about finding a balance in your life.

I definitely fell even farther into being a hermit after my relationship ended.  For a while it was just work and school and that was it.  I know I neglected this blog a lot in the past year due to everything that was going on in my life and I want to change that along with finding a balance between my obligations and my hobbies.  With a new job and summer here its time to push myself into new, healthy habits. Wish me luck!

If anyone has any other tips please let me know, thank you!
<3 Kimmie

2017 Reading Challenge

So for this year’s reading challenge or reading goals, I’m going to be using the Popsugar Reading Challenge list. I definitely don’t think I’d be able to do all 40, but my overall goal is to read 20 books this year. I decided to pick and choose categories from the challenge to create my list:

1. A book involving travel: Stardust - Neil Gaiman
2. A book involving a mythical creature: WIld About You - Kerrelyn Sparks
3. An audiobook: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
4. A bestseller from a genre you don’t usually read: Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins
5. A book that’s becoming a movie in 2017: Either Red Sparrow - Jason Matthews or Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie
6. A book that’s published in 2017: Into the Fire - Jeaniene Frost
7. The first book in a series you haven’t read before: The Selection - Kiera Cass
8. A book that’s been on your TBR list for way too long: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
9. A book by a person of color: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? - Mindy Kaling
10. A book with a title that’s a character’s name: Cinder - Marissa Meyer
11. A book with a subtitle: Dear Mr. Darcy: A Retelling of Pride and Prejudice - Amanda Grange
12. A book with career advice: #Girlboss - Sophia Amoruso
13. A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you: House Girl - Tara Conklin
14. A book about an interesting woman: Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly
15. A book set in wartime/A book you bought on a trip (Yes filling two categories): The Zookeeper’s Wife - Diane Ackerman

For now I’m going to stick to 15/16 categories so I can have some wiggle room to read books that I want and may not fit. I do want to try and complete the books from my 2016 challenge, but that will be on the back burner. I will be updating this with any changes to the list or if I decide to add to it. If you want to try the Popsugar challenge, check out their Goodreads group. You can also see my progress on my Goodreads account and challenge. I do have a widget in my sidebar!

Do I have any active readers out there? Let me know if you plan to challenge yourself this year and what your picks would be.

Hugs from my computer to yours!

<3 Kimmie

My Goals for 2017

Everyone has their "New Years Resolutions" and I feel like a lot of the time these drop off within the first several months of the year.  And to be honest, a lot of the time the goals we make for ourselves are very broad or very large goals that we become overwhelmed by and just forget about or get too overwhelmed by the prospect.

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So I just wanted to create a simple (yet a little vague) list of goals that I want to keep in mind throughout the year...and yes I realize in this list I switch between first and second person a lot lol.

• Be Yourself!
• It's ok to be yourself, and people who aren't ok with that don't need to take priority.
• It's ok to be on my own.
• Learn how to survive on my own!
• Stop putting yourself down!
• Build self confidence and self worth.
• Get to know myself
• Blog, read, and write on a regular basis.
• Work out on a regular basis.
• Complete the rock climbing mile high challenge at school.
• Stay up to date on project pan.
• Read 20 books this year.
• Get my GPA above 3.3.
• Work on developing study plans and sticking to them.

I'm going to try and do my best and update you on some of these that have deadlines. Any related posts will be linked in the list. If my reading goals and project pan posts have not been posted already they will be soon!

What are some of your goals for this year? Share them with me in the comments.

I hope 2017 is a wonderful year for all of you.

- Kim

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Combating Post-Breakup Blues

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Most people have gone through some type of breakup in their lives, and the majority will probably tell you that it sucks and is painful. I have been going through this as of late and personally, I'm with the majority.  So here is what I have learned over the past few months that have been helping me get through this hard time.

- Get your support system! I can't stress how important it is to be around people who genuinely care about you and who want to support you.  By having a strong support system you have people who you can turn to when you are having a bad day, who are willing to listen to you talk, even if you are saying the same thing as before.

- Put some distance.  For me, he moved back home to a different state, so I didn’t have to go through the issues of seeing him on a regular basis.  Bt I did have to force myself to talk to him less.  If you do see your ex frequently or have the same friend group, try taking a step back.  I’m not saying stop hanging out with the friend group, just take some time away from events where you would be in the same place.

- Allow yourself to grieve.  One thing you absolutely don’t want to do is bottle up those feelings, because they will explode in the worst way, and probably the worst timing.  If you need to cry, that’s ok, you’re allowed to.  You need to let yourself go through the grieving process, because in a way, it’s like a death.  Something that has been a big part of your life has come to an end and you have to ride that out.

- Friends on social media. As much as it sucks, you will want to remove them from your social media because it will torture you. If you guys do plan to remain friends, at least remove them for a while. I personally stayed facebook friends with him for a while and I was paranoid about posting anything that he could take the wrong way, etc.

- It’s your business.  On the social media note, don’t post all the details on facebook or anywhere really.  Because really all that will do is probably open up a can of worms of people dumping on them and trying to tell you what you should do and personally that just made me feel worse.  I really didn’t want to hear people trash talking him and I certainly didn’t want to draw the limelight on what had transpired.

- Painful memories.  You probably want to delete your photos together and remove anything that is a painful reminder of the split.

- Don’t drink alone or hole yourself up.  We’ve all heard about the infamous way of getting over someone through the bottom of a bottle.  Alcohol is actually a depressant.  If you do want to drink, invite over someone who makes you feel good and safe and who wouldn’t mind if you got emotional. The day he and I broke up I went over to my now roommate’s house and we drank and watched a movie and hung out.  Going back to the first point, don’t try to fight this on your own, don’t shut yourself off from everyone, in fact, I’ve gone out more than I have in ages because I don’t want to fall into the trap of sitting at home wallowing. I want to be surrounded by good people in a good situation.

- Rebuild yourself.  I started rock climbing more and trying to figure out who I am on my own.  We were together for 4 years, so I hadn’t been an adult on my own, I’m learning how to do that now.  Focus on learning to be happy on your own, you don’t need a significant other.

I hope this helps some of you out there and if you are going through a breakup, I wish you all the best and remember, if no one else, I believe in you!

Hugs from my computer to yours -

Kim

P.s. here is an article that helped me and inspired this: Cosmo.

Life Threw Me a Curve Ball

I wanted to apologize first off for the radio silence from me the last six months. My life took a turn for the crazy over the last half of 2016.  My boyfriend lost his job which resulted in me working on average 50+ hours a week between my two jobs and trying to balance 15 units in school. Everything went haywire and to say I was stressed would be an understatement of epic proportions.

Unfortunately, in December, my boyfriend and I split. We were together for nearly 4 years.  It has been a very difficult transition and an even worse build up. Making the decision to end our relationship was incredibly emotional and one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. I don't want to go into the details of the situation but I do feel that it was the best decision and course of action, no matter how painful.

I honestly feel like the last half of 2016 every time I thought I had hit rock bottom and it couldn't possibly get any worse, some asshole threw me a shovel.  It has been a whirlwind of changes, challenges, and sometimes seemingly impossible hurtles to get over.  But I'm still trying, taking each day at a time. 

Now that the holidays are over and my work schedule has calmed down, I finally have time to really think and I am trying to still process everything.  School is back in session and with a new year I am really hoping for a new beginning. 

I have some new content lined up for this blog and some posts will be going up soon.  I have a goal to have a post up every Wednesday.  If there is anything you would like to see me talk about please let me know in the comments.

Thank you, I hope all of your holiday season went well.

- Kimmie

Life Update: Graduation and Goals

Hi everyone! I have returned once more lol. I'm sorry for the radio silence, so here is a brief update on what has been going on with me. I graduated from community college about 3 weeks ago, and I just went to orientation for Sacramento State on Monday. Other than that I have just been working like crazy and trying to find something full time related to my major.

I'm excited for this transition and excited that, after 3 years since leaving Concordia, I am back at a university ready to go!

And what the heck, here are my goals for my time at university:

• Join a club - believe it or not I have not joined a club since Concordia.
• Get into both the business and psychology major programs. Bit of explanation, both of these majors are impacted so, come September, I have to complete the supplementary application to be admitted to the major. 
• Here are my long term goals:
• Join an honor society
• Graduate cume laude - which means with honors, having a GPA higher than 3.5. Overall I am trying to aim for magna cume laude which is having a GPA between 3.75-3.889 GPA.

I hope you are doing well and having an awesome summer. Let me know if there are any posts you want to see :)

Big hugs from my computer to yours,

Kimmie

I've Been Accepted, Now What?

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Now that all decision letters have been sent from universities, here comes the even trickier part of the application process. Taking your acceptances and making a very critical decision about the next few years.

Here are some steps you will need to take:

1.  Evaluate your financial aid packages. There is something we can probably all agree on, college is expensive. It is also equally true that the amount of financial aid you get can sway your decision. It is important that you carefully review the amount of aid you will be getting per school and weigh your options.
2. Intent to enroll. Once you have made your decision it is very important to give the colleges your intent to enroll or not. These do have strict deadlines so keep track of them and make sure you give your decision prior to this.
3. Register for orientation. Orientation is where you will get to meet your counselors, get all information about classes, figure out how to register, etc. These are mandatory and extremely helpful.
4. Follow the check list. Much like the application process, the acceptance process has quite a few important steps and deadlines. Make sure you are frequently reviewing these and completing any necessary documents. Many colleges will have a checklist for you on their student portals.
5. Accept your financial aid. The offer you are given through the portal, or mailed, isn't enough. There are some parts of financial aid you will need to accept. Make sure you understand each parts of your offer, along with what is, and is not a loan.
6. Keep in touch with your counselor. The counselors at both your current and future schools can help you out in so many ways. They are the experts on this process and will answer any questions you may have, and keep you on the right track.

Overall, make sure you stay on top of all the deadlines because you don't want your acceptance to be revoked on top of something small. Such as...

Senioritus! It is a thing! And if not the most important, make sure you do not slack off, just because you've been accepted doesn't mean you're out of the woods yet. Keep in mind, your acceptance is pending the receipt of your final grades.

I know you will all do well and I wish you luck as you begin on the next step of your journey. (And good luck on finals!)

Good luck,

Kim

10 Blog Post Ideas

It can happen to anyone. You go totally blank and can't think of anything to write about or content to put forth. So, for those times, here are 10 ideas to get you going again:

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1. Your current favorite movie, book, song, food, etc. Let us know what's going on with you.
2. What's your vice? No one is perfect, this reminds us of that.
3. Advice - if you are good at something or have gone through something tough recently, give us some tips from your experience.
4. Worst movie ever, and how you would fix it.
5. Give your opinion on a hot topic right now. (The elections, candidates, Kesha, to name a few.)
6. Review your own blogging, give your reaction to old posts.
7. Psycho-analyze yourself  based on your favorite movies, your book shelf, etc. (Read mine here)
8. Top 10 played songs on your iPod, be honest!
9. Tell me about your weird pet peeves, explain.
10. Free write - just sit down and type what is on your mind. Edit as little as possible, and only afterwards.

Your turn! The final suggestion is to post your own ideas. Don't forget to leave me the link in the comments so I can check them out!

For further inspiration:

 - Daily Post at Wordpress has daily prompts and lots of helpful info.

 - My Pinterest idea board.

Project Pan 2016

Hi everyone, I will be continuing project pan into this year with some pretty ambitious goals. I picked out 20 items that I want to completely use up by December 31st. You can check out my original project pan post here, along with my 2015 wrap up.

Here is my list with my revisions in pink. I made these revisions in an effort to use up products that I don't really use and move them out of my collection. (Please forgive my handwriting)

I also made a broader list of goals of the amount of each category I want to use up. I want to finish:

- 2 bronzers	- 3 foundations	- 1 blush	- 1 lipstick	- 3 eyeliners
- 2 face powders	- 1 face primer	- 2 eye primers	- 3 concealers

I will be posting more frequent updates through my Instagram page, so be sure to check that out by clicking here or the button in the side bar.

I will keep you guys posted as often as possible. Will any of you be participating in project pan this year? If so, what are your goals? Let me know in the comments!

Have a wonderful day
<3 Kimmie

Exciting News and Updates

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Interwebbies! Ok, so since we last spoke here is the lowdown:

1. I am moving to a new place, still in the same city, but it is a very beautiful townhouse that I am super excited about. I will be moving this upcoming Friday the 25th, and I may post a couple pictures once I get everything set up.

2. I GOT ACCEPTED! After 2.5 years of hard work and dedication, I will be returning to the world of universities for another go. (I attended a university for a semester before life happened and since have been attending community.) I will be graduating in May with an associate degree for transfer in business and will be attending Sacramento State in the fall.

3. I did get in a car accident about a month ago, everything is alright, it was pretty minor.

4. Sleep schedule is still a horrific mess...yup probably not gonna change any time soon XD because who doesn't love a closing shift to turn around and work an early morning shipment and then close again that night....it is definitely a roller coaster. 

5. My schedule in general is still cray cray! Haha, if you have been following me at all you know that my life is pretty much always busy. As a college student working two jobs, I don't really have much time for a social life or my poor neglected blog. But I do try, I still love my blog very much.

6. The fur babies are still doing well. And for fun, here are some goofy pictures of them:

They sleep so weird....

During the moving process I will have some posts coming your way that are already scheduled and ready to go. I also have some good content for my College Survival Guide coming up soon! Starting with "I've been accepted, now what?"

If you have anything you would like to see me write about I would love any feed back and suggestions you have to offer :)

Have a wonderful day,

<3 Kimmie

Project Pan 2015 Roundup

Hey everyone, I know I am late to the round up considering that it is now February, but I figured better late than never. I didn't accomplish all of my goals, but, considering the fact that I started in about October/November area, I'd say I did pretty well. (You can check out my initial post here.) So, here we go:

Here is a picture of the overall products

1. Hit pan on the Walking on eggshells palette - Lid and Crease shades - Fail! While I did make a pretty good dip in these two shades, I sill have a ways to go.

2. Hit pan on Lorac 2 mini - Rosé. Nope, just a dip.

3. Hit pan on Maybelline Fit Me Powder - Did it ^_^ now to make as much progress as I can in the next two months. Dang! Look at that pan!

4. Finish Covergirl 3 in 1 Foundation - DONE!!! Woop Woop! I absolutely love this foundation and I always tended to get complements on my skin when I wore this. I wan to use up some of the other foundations I own first, but I definitely plan to repurchase this foundation. It also has a pretty good shade range so I would really recommend this to everyone!

5. Finish Dream Smooth Mousse - Ha, yeah no....honestly I hardly touched this foundation because even though it is the lightest shade in the range, it is still a bit too dark for me right now. I plan to use it up over the summer. I really do enjoy it though.

Products that weren't completely finished, but for some reason forgot to take out the smashbox primer!

6. Finish Smasbox Photo Finish Primer - Really proud of myself for finishing this! I have maybe one or two uses left if I really try and get all thats left at the bottom but overall I am calling it done. I really like it and do have another mini sample size, but I am looking forward to trying other primers.

7. Hit pan on Too Faced Milk Chocolate Soleil Bronzer - WOOOHOOO! This is the first bronzer I truly fell in love with. I am super fair so finding a bronzer that doesn't make me look orange or muddy is a mission. I definitely plan on saving up for the full size!

8. Finish Makeup Geek Peach Smoothie - Didn't totally finish it, but did make massive progress.

9. Finish Makeup Geek Creme Brûlée - Really close to finishing this, I had to repress it because of how far out to the edges it was getting. I am annoyed with myself for not taking a picture of it before I repressed it but oh well. I actually hit pan on the repress today.

10. Finish Makeup forever hd 117 - FINISHED!

11. Finish Neutrogena moisturizer - Finished! I really enjoyed this as a light everyday moisturizer. However, I want to give other ones a try and find something I really enjoy and can actually see benefits from, especially now that it is cold and my skin is even dryer than normal.

Products that I finished, plus my Maybelline concealer for some reason...lol

I am super excited to see the progress I can make in 2016. I have got some ambitious goals, keep a look out for that post!

Have a great day!

Kimmie

Items Every College Student Should Have in Their Medicine Cabinet

As I mentioned in my recent post, the cold season has finally caught up with me. I just got back from Walgreens to pick up cold medication and decided that I should do a post about the handful of items I feel like every college student should have in their medicine cabinet for when you get sick.

1. Some kind of Cold/Flu/Cough syrup - I pretty much always have day and night time cold medicine stashed away under my bathroom sink. I feel like you should always have a day and night time version, because when you have a lot of things to get done, the last thing you need is to be kept up all night because of *insert symptom here.* Also, the day versions are specifically meant to be non-drowsy so you can still kick butt.

Here is a little cheat sheet for what you want to look out for depending on your symptoms:
Sneezing - Decongestant
Cough - Cough Suppressant as well as something to get rid of mucus
Acetaminophen - this will help reduce fever and is also a pain reliever

2. Cough Drops. I always, always have cough drops because you never know when you are going to have a sore throat, dry, etc. I keep two types of cough drops around: one with Menthol and Luden's. When you have a painful cough or sore throat, you will want to get a cough drop with menthol in it because it works as an anesthetic which means it will numb your throat and help with the pain. My favorite are the Ricola Cherry Honey ones because they don't taste overwhelmingly like menthol and actually have a pleasant taste. Also, I keep Luden's around because I have been using these since I was little. They taste good and is amazing for just every day.

3. A thermometer - well...duh. You should always have this.

4. Tums - I always have tums or some sort of anti-acid because my stomach tends to over produce acid when I am stressed, but you never know when food is going to disagree with you, when heartburn is going to strike, etc.

5. Soup! Haha I wanted to include this because when you are sick classic Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup is a lifesaver.

For more info, you can check out my posts on how to avoid getting sick and what to do when you get sick.

Take Care,
Kimmie