Come alive

We are never happy with what we have.

I'm a brunette, I wanted to be blonde or redheaded for most of my life.

I have straight hair, I want it to be curly. 

I have brown eyes, I wanted blue ones.

I want to be thinner, I want a nicer room, I want more girlfriends, I want more freedom, I want a car, I want a tattoo, I want to play an instrument, I want to travel every year, I want to make more money and work less, I want, I want.. I want...

We all want so many things that we can't have. Or at least, that's what we think. We all wanted to date that cute and sweet guy but never even made a move because we thought "there's no way..." We all wanted to get something done but we lacked motivation.

Granted, there are some things that we can't control... But out of all the things I mentioned, I could do something to change every single one of them.

I could dye my hair, I could get a perm, I could wear colored lenses, I could workout, I could redecorate, I could go out more and meet new people, I could talk to my mom to give me more space, I could save up and buy a car, I could just go to that tattoo parlor, I could sit my ass down and learn to play the freakin' piano, I could save and travel instead of spending on the spot, I could find a better job, I could, I could.. I could... I can.

This is actually really not what I was planning on writing, but my hands took over and this is the result.

It's probably because of the song that's stuck in my head, which is "Hit the Lights" by Selena Gomez.  

I think it ties into what I mean pretty well...

Before leaving you with that, all I want to say is you are the one who has the most control over your life. Carpe diem.

Seize the day.

Here comes the sunshine...

Today, I had a massive reality check.

As you might have read earlier, I felt like I was having a pretty shitty last couple of weeks.
The breakup has really been hard to handle and any other obstacle I was faced with seemed to be like a mountain.

Well you know what? I just realized all of this is ridiculous.
I mean, yeah, breaking up with my ex and seeing how awful he's feeling now makes me really sad and I wish I could help.
But I realized that life is short, and it's worth living to the fullest. If you ask me now, I'll say that there's no point in dwelling on the past and being all depressed about something you can't do anything about.
You either seize the day, seize the opportunity to improve your situation, or you let it go.
Right now, there is not much I can do to help my ex, as a matter of fact, I'm probably gonna do him more harm if I try.
Therefore, dwelling on the pain and sorrow I feel is unnecessary.
"Live life as a work of art". It's the sentence I wanted to tattoo on my ribs... Heck, crying and being all depressed 'cause no one is texting or calling me is not what I had in mind when I thought of that sentence. So instead, I could either call or text someone, or try to have a good time by myself. And so I went out and had a blast with my brother.

I'm not being selfish, I'm being realistic. I believe happiness is a choice you make. You either choose to see things in a certain way, or you don't. Until recently, I was seeing everything in grey. But I realized through something my dad once told me, which is "Life is beautiful if you look at it through the right pair of glasses," that you can choose to see things a different way. So, I've decided that it's time for me to see things in a brighter light. Besides, I have many positive things in my life, despite the negatives. I should be grateful for the nice things surrounding me.
However, I truly and genuinely hope that my ex will feel better soon and that he will see the light. I care for him dearly and I'm looking forward to the moment we will be able to be friends again.

Sending a happy, positive thought to whoever's who's reading,
Alexx -xox-

Try It On: Rihanna

I decided to start this new capsule called "Try It On" where I re-create makeup looks from celebs, either videos, movies, red carpets, you name it.
The first one I chose to do is Rihanna's look in her video for "Where Have You Been", 'cause the song is stuck in my head and I liked her makeup in this video.
Here's the picture I used for inspiration:

And, here are a few shots of my take on this look!

Let me know what you guys think! If you have any suggestions of looks I should try out, leave them in the comments below or on Twitter!

Back in action!

So, I haven't written in ages...
My life has been a pretty crazy rollercoaster during the past weeks.
I had a hectic semester at school, with endless research papers, exams and projects piling up non-stop.
Now that it is finally over, another huge thing happened in my life: I broke up with my boyfriend of 4 and a half years.
The reasons behind my decision only regard him and I, but it has been a pretty hard week.
I've been having terrible mood swings. I lost at least 8 pounds in a week because I couldn't eat, I felt nauseous all the time. Like my friend put it, going through a breakup after so long is almost like going through withdrawal from a drug. Having this person in your life all the time and suddenly not takes a toll on your mind, but your body as well.
Anyways, I wanted to let you all know that I will slowly be getting back into things...
Among other things, I have a cruise-party coming soon and I will probably blog about that. I also have a long Summer ahead, so I promise I won't go M.I.A. again!

Encouraging you to keep eating and taking care of yourself after a hard breakup,
Alexx :)

Let's get philosophical

Live Life as a Work of Art

I was in my history class and my teacher was talking about an Italian philosopher who said this during the Renaissance. 

For some reason, this quote spoke so much to me and I felt really drawn to it.

It's true, when you think about it, it's rare that we look at somebody's life and think "Wow... that is a great life."

Obviously, there are and always will be bad moments. What can be different is how much importance we give to that negative event and how we view it. 

If something bad happens, the more we think about it, the more it seems to become worse. If we try to look at the good side of things, or at least look at them realistically, and try to brush them off while learning from them, life doesn't seem so bad after all.

Not only does this quote remind me that it's important to be realistic and positive, it also reminds me that we need to give life a try. What I mean by that is give everything you want a try! Too often I've heard elderly people complain that they would've tried this, or done this differently. 

I find that having regrets when growing old seems like the worst feeling. This quote made me realize that it's so important to try things out, even if you're scared or unsure. 

Chances are, you'll learn something from it, or even better, you'll discover that you enjoy it. 

Finally, "a great life" may not be the same to you as it is to me. We all have different ambitions and preferences. I think what's important is to make the best of it FOR YOU.

I want to see my life as a work of art when I grow old. I want to look back and think "Yep, nothing can be perfect, but this sure was a great ride." I want to look at things realistically, and hopefully have less sad moments than happy ones. I want to be the best I can be.

Sorry for this urge of philosophy that I had to express.

I hope that it got you thinking about your life too.

***

♥ Journey To Healthy Update

Last week was not so great for some odd reason. I did stay of track nutrition-wise, although I binged a little too much on chocolate.

I didn't work out at all, though. I was lacking the motivation, but I was pretty active in the sense that I was not a couch potato all week. 

This week, I gotta step my game up. Today I was sick, so my week is kinda out of balance right now. I plan on getting my 3 workouts done and on eating my fruits and veggies excluding today. I also want to limit myself to 2 portions of chocolate per day. We'll see how that goes!

xox :)

NOTD & Review: Classy manicure

Yesterday, I decided to finally paint my nails!
It had been such a long time, but I wanted to go with something very natural, mainly because I wanted to try a new nail polish my mom bought.

Excuse the dry cuticles :S

*Drumroll...* Review time!

I wanna talk about the three products I used on my nails.
First, my base coat.

Misa Base Coat - 7.95 $CAD

This is from Misa and it works great. Don't worry, it doesn't make your nails look pink-y, it goes on sheer. However, it works so well 'cause it's slightly adhesive after drying, which makes the nail polish adhere better to it. Not only that, but it's really meant to protect your nails from getting stained!

The nail polish I used is from OPI, called Bubble Bath.

OPI Bubble Bath - 9.95 $CAD

My mom is yellow under-toned, so she thought it looked to pink-y on her nails. Since I'm more of a pink undertone, I find that it's a great nude for me! Absolutely nothing bad to say. I does need 2 coats to be more opaque, and it dries pretty quickly.

My top coat was also from Misa.

Misa Top Coat - 7.95 $CAD

It does wonders! It dries and creates a shield on your nail polish to protect it from everything. My nails are really dry and thin, but after using these 3 products, I feel like I have gel nails on or something! They have never felt as strong as now. And needless to say, the quality of the top coat is great: no bubbles. I have only worn this for a day but usually, I always chip my nail polish the first day.. not this time. And I did hit my nails on pretty hard surfaces... not a scratch.

I definitely recommend these 3 products!!


♥ Journey to Healthy Update
Last week was pretty good. I managed to eat all of my fruits and veggies like planned.
I did do my three workouts, although I skipped a couple during the week so I had to do 2 Sunday night to achieve my goal.
Next week, I want to do the same thing.
Practice makes perfect! The more you do it, the more you get used to it.
Check out the three workouts I have to do this week!

Sore and Vows

Excuse the slight lateness of this weekly update regarding my Journey to Healthy! (Towards the end, I'll share my thoughts on the movie The Vow!)

So, this week has gone really well! I did my three workouts and I have to say that I'm sooo sore right now, and it's two days after my Sexy Bum workout! That's good, eh?  As far as the food goes, I managed to eat one portion of both fruits and veggies each day. I've really been good with this!

Next week's goals remain the same. The reason is that I want to make this part of my routine, and hopefully not have to think about it too much, so the more I do it, the more I'll get used to it.

Now, The Vow. Oh, you guys have to know I'm a huge sucker for romantic movies. Titanic is my favorite movie, it makes me cry every time, even the song makes me cry. So, going to see The Vow, I kinda knew what I was getting myself into.  

I went with two of my friends and weirdly enough, I didn't cry, although I teared up several times. The plot is good, and it's not too cheesy. I don't want to spoil to the end for anyone, but I think it was the best way to end this movie; not too predictable, not too unrealistic.

I really suggest you go check it out with your girlfriends! May I add that Channing Tatum's bod... m-mmm!

Finding time to workout?!

Welcome back to my weekly update on my Journey to Healthy!
Last week I mentioned that I wanted to keep better track of my efforts to reaching my goals. So, I put a post-it in my agenda where I wrote all the days of the week and where I put a red check mark for every portion of fruits eaten, and a green one for veggies.
I took this pictures on Saturday morning, here's what it looks like:

As far as working out goes, I printed a calender-like table that I hung on my white board and where I write down every physical activity I've done.

For this week, my fruits and veggies goal remains the same: 1 of each, each day.

As far as fitness goes, I've realized it is surrealistic for me to workout everyday. I can't go from 0 to 7 days of working out in 1 week. So, I've decided that instead, I would find 3 high intensity workouts and do them each week, which means I will have a workout for 3 days of the week. If I manage to get in more, that's great, but I won't beat myself up for not doing more than 3 days of workout per week. I will make sure those workouts last at least 20 minutes, though.
Click here if you want to check out this week's 3 workouts, by Amanda Russell!

Time is obviously an issue when it comes to working out for me, so hopefully I will be able to stick with this.
However, I must say that blogging about it weekly definitely helps motivate me! Hope it's not boring for you to read...

Any requests of articles you want me to do? :)

Until next time,
Happy Valentine's Day!
- Alexx ♥

Squats and Lipbutters

It has been a week since I decided to get on my Journey to Healthy.

I'll be honest, I wasn't as successful as I would've wanted to be. I didn't record properly my fruits and veggies intake. I also didn't finish my 7-day Just Dance challenge, mostly because I wasn't home 4 nights this week, which obviously makes things harder.

However, I can say that I know what I've done wrong and I can only improve.
So, for next week, I will have a little post-it in my agenda on which I will draw a grid of the week. For every portion of fruits that I eat, I will check in red, and for veggies, in green. My precise goal is to eat two snacks per day, 1 fruit and 1 veggie.
For my fitness goal, I want to do 3 sets of 20 sit-ups and 3 sets of 20 squats each day. I'll increase if it's too easy. I'll create a grid which I'll hang on my white board and write down how many of each I've done each day. For the days when I run out of time or am not home, I'll make sure to take the stairs everywhere I go.

Now that my goals for Week 2 are out of the way, I just wanted to mention my newest makeup item which I've wanted for a loooong time.
Revlon Lipbutter! Oh yeaaah. I got it in Sweet Tart and I do love the color. My only concern is that after a while, it dries on the lips, probably because my lips absorb the moisture. I will try using a lipgloss on top.

Not the nicest pictures but the color is pretty close to reality.

What were your New Year's resolutions for 2012? Still working on them?
xox, Alexx :)

Journey to Healthy... How I want to do it!

So in the last 2 days, I've been thinking about planning a routine for my everyday life.
One of my biggest problems since forever has been working out. I don't like sports and having an active lifestyle has been a challenge. However, I think I might have just had a massive light bulb over my head!

So, I was thinking: "I usually suck at achieving long term goals. I tend to forget about them, or become discouraged, since I find it too hard to reach and I'm too lazy to do the work."
And that's when it hit me. "Set short term goals instead! Duh!" I have to admit I was inspired by Just Dance 3, the Wii game. They have a 7-day challenge section where you have to earn a certain number of Sweat Points per day, in a week, and I've started doing that yesterday.

I realized that psychologically, this is so much more motivating for me than setting long term goals.
It kinda reminds me of the saying "Live day by day." Basically, the more you focus on the present, the more you'll make out of it. So to me, setting goals for the year is unrealistic because I have to think of all the days I will have to work towards my goals. However, my idea of setting a weekly goal seems so much more easy to do, especially if you want to shift your lifestyle. You only have to worry about the 7 following days, not 365!

So I'm starting by taking baby steps. My goal for this week is to finish my Just Dance 7-day challenge successfully. I know I can earn all my points easily, the challenge is to actually take the time to do it each day. I also have another goal which is unfortunately not very specific: eat more fruits and veggies.
I think that the more specific your goals are, the more you will be able to achieve them. I should be deciding on a certain number or a certain category instead of being general, but for this week, I'll see what I can do with this general goal.
My plan is to continue shifting my lifestyle in this way: one week at a time, a different goal each week. After time, some things will start becoming part of my routine without me noticing, so hopefully, by next year, I can say that I've become healthier.

And yes, I will try to make a weekly blog post stating what my goal for the next week is, and how the previous week went. Can't wait to see where this takes me, and your support is greatly appreciated!

xox :)

No makeup?

So, I haven't blogged in a while. And I know I made that little list of what I wanted to blog about but thing is, it doesn't inspire me.

I have to admit I'm being a little lazy too but I guess it's okay. I started school 2 weeks ago and after 5 weeks of winter break, I'm still not back on track.

However, I'm planning on changing that. Now that I'm aware of the dynamic in most of my classes, I know how much I need to work for most of them, so I'm in the process of creating my homework schedule. 

Among those hours, I really want to find time to work out, or simply move a bit, whether it's playing Just Dance on the Wii or actually doing pull-ups and all that jazz.
In there, I want to find a time where I can blog.

Speaking of blogging, the reason that this is entitled "no makeup?" is because I haven't been into makeup that much, lately. I don't watch as many tutorials, I don't wear a lot of makeup anymore, and I haven't purchased makeup in a long time! So, you must understand that it's hard to keep up a beauty blog when I'm being more "au naturel" and where I really don't have much to talk about. For this reason, I am thinking of making my blog very miscellaneous.
I write for my college's newspaper, and I only write about things that interest me, and when it doesn't, the writing process becomes excessively hard and painful for me. So I don't want to force myself to write about beauty if I don't care about it as much. Therefore, this blog will probably become more "open," where I'll write about whatever the heck I want, and yes, there will be beauty stuff in there, but also food, experiences, thoughts, songs, videos I enjoy, etc. I will try to keep up the VOTW series but no strictly beauty-related.
Therefore, yes, this blog will become more personal in a way.

I hope you will bear with me as I'm trying to get into a routine again. But mostly, I hope you will stick with me and my blog, and find out where it's going!

xox, Alexx

Coming soon...

As you can probably tell if you read my blog regularly, I've been slacking on the job to get posts up.
I am simply having a writer's block. Not just for this baby, also for my school newspaper. I am totally uninspired and it's stressing me out.

So, I thought that I would help myself and create a list of posts I wish to write soon for this blog.
You can help me by commenting on which you are most interested in, as this is more of a brainstorming and I might not write all of them.

Here goes:

• Review of my Cortex flat iron
• Recently purchased nail polish
• Favorite products of 2011
• DIY Box of Memories (very easy but cute gift idea)
• Favorite moments of 2011
• New Year's Resolutions

I'll hopefully get to do these articles ASAP.

Which would you like to see first? What tips do you have to getting rid of writer's block?

Where have I been?

I know I've been M.I.A. lately.
As most of you, I've been enjoying my winter vacation.
I spent Christmas with my mother. I also made my own Christmas log! It took 5 hours!
It's chocolate, with coconut-rum filling and chocolate frosting.

I also went to my boyfriend's aunt's house for Christmas dinner and had a good time. A few days passed and I went to a Christmas-&-New-Year's party with some friends. Then, my boyfriend came to my father's house on the 31st. Today, we're back from a mini road trip, we went to visit his step-dad's family at a 3-hours drive yesterday and we're back today.

As you can tell, there wasn't really anything I could blog about. However, I will be back at home soon and will be able to review a flat iron I received for Christmas.

Do you have any requests for future blog posts? How were your holidays?