Comments

To all my readers who are fellow bloggers- can you help a girl out?

I want to be able to reply to people who leave me comments via email.  I've had several other bloggers follow-up my comments with an email generated by the blogging system.  I really like this because it's a way that you can let a reader/ commenter know how much you appreciate their feedback.

BUT- in my {non}infinite wisdom, I cannot figure out how to make this happen.

Yesterday, I installed disqus on the blog to try to rectify this situation.  And, when I did that all the comments on the individual posts disappeared.  Fabulous. Not.

So, anyway, this post is a shout for help! If you are a blogger, what comment system do you prefer? Do you use one that allows you to email commenters back? How does it work?

If you have any input, please leave a comment [oh, the irony].  I will not be messing with disqus anytime soon, so hopefully your comments will be sticking around at least for a little while. 

Thanks in advance for your help! 

Good Reads

I've posted many a post on this blog about books that I'm currently reading, but I cannot recall ever having done a post on my all-time favorite books.  I happen to be re-reading one of my personal favorites, so I thought this would be a good time to share about some of my other favorites. 

Instead of posting about my favorites which are also classics, I thought I would post about my favorites within a genre.  These are not necessarily classic genres- they are ones made up by yours truly.

1. All-Time Favorite

My all-time favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

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If you've never read this one, then I reckon you need to get yourself to the nearest library or bookstore asap.  This is actually the book I'm currently re-reading.  I haven't finished it just yet, but I've been forcing myself to put it down so I don't stay up all night reading it.  I just think it is a beautiful story about human character, friendship, and life-long learning. 

2. Favorite Play

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams 

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I absolutely love all Tennessee Williams' works, but The Glass Menagerie is my favorite.  A Streetcar Named Desire is also a close second.  My parents actually met when they were working on a college production of Streetcar.  Kind of romantic minus the whole fictional-abusive-marriage thing.  

3. Favorite Children's Book

The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown

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Just a warning to the wise: I cannot read this book without straight-up bawling... and it is a children's book so you can probably imagine that it isn't very long.  This story is just such a precious tale of a mother's unending love for her child.  I think it might even top To Kill a Mockingbird as my all-time favorite book, but it's easier to categorize it this way (and people will judge me less).

4. Favorite Children's Series

The "Frances" Series by Russell Hoban

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This series was my absolute favorite when I was a little girl, so it still remains a personal favorite.  Frances is just such a normal little girl (even if she is a badger) and she deals with many of the same problems that other little girls deal with, including moral issues. 

Funny story about Frances: When I was a kid, my parents absolutely refused to help me with any school projects beyond answering my questions or making sure I had the right supplies.  They thought that it was my responsibility to do my projects.  (Truth be told, I think it was also a bonus for them that they didn't have to do anything.)  So, in second grade there was an assignment where we had to paint a pumpkin like our favorite book character.  Well, Frances was my favorite.  So I used watercolor paint (hey- I didn't know any better) to paint a pumpkin like Frances, who is a badger.  Basically you got a pumpkin that looked like it was rolled around in mud because watercolors don't really adhere to pumpkins.  Yeah, good times. 

5. Favorite Chick Lit

The "Shopaholic" Series by Sophie Kinsella

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This is definitely not in the category of best all-time "literature."  Not even close.  But, the shopaholic series is some of my favorite "chick lit." These books are light and funny.  For the record, Kinsella's other stand-alone books are also great- especially Twenties Girl.

6. Favorite Memoir

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

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I just want to say for the record that I read this book before it was so mainstream and before it was a movie- long before.  I wasn't jumping on a bandwagon with this one, I was just reading something I thought would be interesting.  Through this book, I realized that it is okay to not know what you are looking for.  In fact, sometimes it is better to live your life looking for something you aren't sure of than it is to live your whole life looking for one thing that really isn't the right thing.

7. Favorite Novel of the 21st Century

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

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I've reviewed this book on the blog before, but I really think this has been my favorite book of the twenty-first century so far. It is really wonderful if you haven't read it yet. 

8. Book that Really Made Me Think

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

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If you've lost someone close to you, I really highly recommend The Lovely Bones.  But, read the book and avoid the movie.  This book just gives really vivid insight into what heaven might be like.  I really loved reading it. 

By the way, the title of this post was semi-inspired by the goodreads site. If you are a reader, I recommend goodreads to keep track of what you've read.  The site is well-operated and well organized.

P.S.  A reader asked me to keep you guys posted on Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way. It was definitely very good and insightful, but very heavy on the leadership theory.  I think it is a good, straight-forward read on Mrs. Roosevelt, but I would still like to read the Doris Kearns Goodwin book on the Roosevelts, No Ordinary Time, at some point. 

Two Healthy Recipes For You

Looking for a couple of good healthy recipes?  You've come to the right place.

These are ones that I just sort of made up, so there isn't a direct source for them.

Roasted Asparagus

Ingredients:

Fresh Asparagus

Olive oil

Sea salt

Pepper

Steps:

1. First wash, pat dry and chop the end off the asparagus. 

 2. If you want to, peel the last little bit of the asparagus. This is completely optional and time consuming, but I prefer the way it tastes. 

 3. Place in sheet pan. Coat the asparagus LIGHTLY in olive oil.  You need very little because when it gets in the hot oven, the oil will disperse. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper to your taste.

4. Place in preheated 450 degree oven. Cook until lightly browned. Enjoy! 

This asparagus is delicious on its own. It is also fantastic in this salad.

Katelyn's Favorite Salad

Ingredients for the Dressing:

Rice Wine Vinegar

Worcheshire Sauce

Honey

Grapeseed Oil

Lemon Juice

Minced Garlic

Pepper

To make the dressing, I combine these ingredients in a mason jar and shake it up.  Use the Rice Wine Vinegar and Grapeseed oil as your bases and add the other ingredients until it tastes right to you. 

Ingredients for the Salad:

Spinach

Roasted Asparagus (see recipe above)

Sunflower seeds/ Pumpkin seeds

Shredded carrots

Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

1. Begin by chopping up the spinach into strips. 

I love the spinach this way because when I eat it, it doesn't hang out of my mouth when I get a really big spinach leaf. Maybe this makes me crazy, but it tastes better like this! 

2. Finely shred carrots for salad. I also add shredded apples sometimes. 

3. Add all ingredients together, included sunflower seeds and cheese.

4. Dress the salad and mix everything together. Enjoy! 

Little Boy Fun

Last week, I got the chance to watch my friend's little boy, Micah.

When I was in high school and college, I babysat very consistently. My senior year in college, I babysat for a family with twin boy toddlers.  They were so fun and also exhausting at times, but I really loved keeping them!

So, after all of my experience, I did not think that a little six month old would wear me out, but HE DID. Did I mention he's already crawling? He's like superbaby.

Eliza meets Micah.  She sniffed him all day long.

With his momma. 

Even though Mr. Micah wore me out, he was so much fun. He is so smiley and happy- which is remarkable considering he barely naps! Yeah, I think our visit confirmed that being a single young woman sure is nice for the time being! 

A Monday Makeover

While I was at home last week, I finally got a chance to clean up the room I lived in growing up. 

Before I show you the "before" picture, keep a few things in mind.

1. When you go to college and come back over a four year period, things just tend to pile up in your room because you don't need/ want them anymore, but you don't have time to deal with it.

2. I just had a garage sale, that when I prepped for, I just went through my room grabbing things I knew I wanted to sell. I let everything else just kind of fall wherever until I could deal with it.

3. I didn't leave it THIS bad when I left home around Christmastime, but it got this bad after two weeks at home.

4. I'm SUPER a little embarrassed to show you this.

Deep breath. Okay, here it was BEFORE.

Blegh, I know! 

So, when I was cleaning it up I had one main goal:

Make it look like a normal human lives or uses this room, without spending any money.

Okay, so here are the much better AFTER shots:

Organized closet- even though it doesn't look that organized. 

It feels so nice to know that my room "at home" looks normal again. 

Tips for Hosting a Garage Sale

I mentioned that this past weekend, I hosted a garage sale.  It is quite a long story about why I was having the garage sale, but we had a LOT of stuff to sell- mostly clothing (lots & lots of clothing), small home accessories, some electronics, lamps, a couple small pieces of furniture, home organizers, shoes, etc., etc. 

I wanted to recap a few of the tips I have for hosting a garage sale here, mostly so that I can refer back to this post and remind myself of these tips when I inevitably have to host another one.

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1. Go to the bank and get change, but only get $50 or $70, the $100 I got was way more than I needed.

2. Do not allow early birds to look early! 

I opened the garage sale both days at 6 am to accommodate early birds, and low and behold, someone showed up at 5:45 as we were half-awake and still dragging stuff out.  She asked if she could take a look at what we had.  Did she buy anything? Of course not! Because it was all still in a disheveled mess! Next time, I will politely ask her to come back at the opening time or later in the day.  It added unnecessary stress to my morning.

3.  Start early setting up. And ask for help.

4. Think of everyone you know who might have a table you can borrow.

You can never have too many tables to set things on. You are way more likely to sell items that are displayed at a level people can see. 

5. Shoes are very popular.

Our shoes sold out like "that!"  Maybe I priced them too low? 

6.  Mardi Gras beads are very valuable outside Louisiana.

I had two FULL bags of beads that I sold first thing for a dollar each.  (To be honest, I thought they would end up in the donation pile at the end of the sale.)  Well, right after I sold them, a man said he wanted to buy them. I told him they were already sold. He bought a bag from the lady who had just bought them for $5. She made a $4 profit! Oh well- lesson learned.  P.S. In Louisiana, you literally end up giving these things away!

7.  Go gather necessary supplies 2 days before the sale- not one.

Plan to buy poster board, foam board, stakes and sharpies for the signs early so you have time to find the kind of stake you want.  I had to settle for wooden garden stakes when I would've preferred the kind you use for political signs because I ran out of time to look.

8. Check with our town about sign regulations.

I checked with our town about permits and found out I did not need one.  What I did not ask was if there were regulations regarding signage.  I bought balloons and whirlygigs and marked the path to the garage sale with those.  And let me tell you, they worked like a charm.  We made about $650 before someone from the town came and said that we could only have stationary objects- i.e. signs.  He'd cut down our balloons and whirlygigs.  After that, we only sold about $100 more merchandise. I wish I had known that I couldn't have those items before I spend $8 at the Dollar Tree on them.  But If I could go back and do it again, I might use them anyway... because they REALLY WORKED.

9.  In a pinch, turn over same-size empty boxes and use them for tables. 

Cover with a sheet and you are ready to go.  Props to my friend Sloane for this fab idea.

10. Be firm on prices! 

Price everything at what you truly want to sell it for and stay firm.  I priced low and went even lower during the first hour because we had so much traffic and I was so flustered.  I later regretted it, because I'm sure the people would've paid my original (very low) price.

My Beach Time Skin Care Regimen

My entire life, I have been "that girl" that always gets a sunburn that never turns tan. In Bobbi Brown makeup, I wear the second lightest shade they make.  I have fair skin, and I have learned to love it.  It may not be tan or "in vogue," but my fair skin is beautiful skin, and I have learned how to protect it and make it a priority to protect it. 

After reading this informative and courageous post today about melanoma, I was inspired to write this post about how I protect my skin when I go on beach vacations.  This might sound radical to you, and in fact, my friends make fun of me relentlessly for my complicated regimen.  But, you know what? I don't care.  In my short 22-year life span, I've already had a couple of questionable (but thankfully, benign) moles removed from my skin.  Although nobody in my immediate family has seriously battled skin cancer, my dad has had some pre-cancerous lesions removed from his face and neck. And regardless of the cancer risk, sunburns hurt! I've had enough in my lifetime to tell you that.  Here are my tips for doing the best I can to protect my skin, protect myself against cancer risks, and avoid the painful and unattractive sunburn.

1.  Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen.  

My preferred brand is Neutrogena Age Shield Face.  The Neutrogena Ultra Sheer is also really good.  I prefer the Age Shield Face because I can easily find it in SPF 110.  It is marketed for the face, but I use it for my body, too.  A little goes a long way, and you need it to go a long way because this stuff is not cheap. It is about $12 or $13 a bottle, but it works so well.  I've always been able to find these at Target, Walmart, Walgreens and even in the sunscreen section of the local beach grocery store. 

The key thing is to look for a sunscreen with "helioplex."  It protects against a larger spectrum of UV rays.  If you are one of those people who thinks sunscreen doesn't make a difference over a certain SPF, please don't tell me.  I hear that all the time, and maybe for certain people, it's true, but for me- I notice a difference.  I really do.  Since I started using SPF 100 & 110 a couple of years ago when I go to the beach, I have been sunburn-free.  They just work better for me.

Also, just like your mom told you as a kid, reapply often. 

2.  Go in between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.  

I know this is limiting, but think of it as lunch/ nap/ reading time.  You could even just go in between 11 and 1 or 12 and 2.  Just try to get out of the sun when the rays are strongest!

3.  Invest in an umbrella or umbrella service.

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The condos we usually rent for the week have these nifty little things or something similar.  There is usually a teenage boy who sets them up and you can get him to move the umbrella for you with the sun.  The ones we've had in the past usually cost $100 per week, but it is worth it to me.  Alternately, you can invest in a large umbrella and put it up over your own beach chair.  I sit under the umbrella whenever I go out and it really helps me.

4. Cover up!

Invest in a couple of good swimsuit coverups- WITH SLEEVES!  I would do this anyway since I don't exactly have a beach-ready body, but this doubles as being helpful in protecting your skin.  Here are a couple I would recommend:

This one, from Old Navy, is great because it is a light-colored fabric, so you won't get as hot in it. Its also cheap enough that you won't have to get upset when you need to throw it out after it gets worn from a few beach trips.  Since this is so sheer, though, you'd still be better off wearing sunscreen under it. But it will still help you out. 

This shirt from Columbia is another great option.  It is made for men and women and comes in all sizes. Lots of women also wear the men's shirts so they are bigger/ longer.  The great thing about this shirt is that they are super durable AND have SPF 30 in the fabric.  Hooray! The long or short sleeve option is also great.

5. Wear a hat!

This is a great option from Banana Republic. 

Any kind of hat with a brim is great, but sunhats that protect your face and neck are best. My favorite hat has SPF in the fabric.  I found it at Dillards a couple of years ago for $8 and it has been very durable!  It also packs well since it's fabric.

Those are my tips for sun time skin care.  I know they might seem extreme, but they really do help me!