Here's What- July

Playing off a phrase from Andy Cohen (whose book I read this month), Here's what three things I was obsessed with this month:

#1- The Andy Cohen book I read this month! The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year was my book of choice for July. It IS shallow, and entertaining and funny and doesn't take much concentration- all things I find important in a summer book. Who wants to spend a hot day swinging in a hammock reading a book that feels like it requires a book report at the finish? Not me. I have reoccurring dreams about waking up the morning I am to give an oral book report in my high school English class, only to realize I haven't actually read a book, or know my locker combination or where exactly my English class is located.... Obviously school was NOT my jam. (I mean, I kind of enjoy run on sentences.)

#2- Pita Pit. I'd heard wonderful things about Pita Pit, but we didn't have one within driving distance until June of this year. My mom and I tried it out on her birthday shopping trip the beginning of this month and I've gone there at least once a week since. In fact, my 3 day in a row streak earned me a Pita Pit employee boyfriend! He remembers me and knows my order and is adorable and probably 17. But whatever. I turned 31 on the 19th and I feel like that makes me old enough to think a 17 year old is cute without it being weird because I could be his mom. If I had him when I was a freshman in high school....Ok so maybe it IS a little creepy. Who cares, the humus pita with spinach, olives, tomatoes, roasted peppers, and cilantro is worth a high school kid thinking I'm a little creepy. ( If I can sneak a under the radar selfie with him the next time I go, I'll post it. Is that legal? Ahhhh I am a weirdo)

#3 The Kat Von D Shade and Light eye contour pallet/ BH Cosmetics sculpt and blend brushes. These two gems were birthday presents to myself this month. I have been wanting a good matte eye shadow pallet for awhile now since I'm reaching the age where I don't want to draw attention to my fine lines with gobs of shimmer in my eye shadow. The Shade and Light pallet did not disappoint. The colors are super pigmented but blend really well. They have a creamy, smooth feel going on and last allllll day. The looks you can create are endless but for those of us who are not quite makeup masters,  Miss Von D came in clutch with the easiest step by step pamphlet included in the pallet. Love. 

The BH Cosmetics brush set was a steal at $20 for 10 brushes AND came with a free eye shadow pallet as a surprise! I first heard about this brush set from Shelbey Ashburn's YouTube channel. She's cute and southern and says things like "the bomb.com" so of course I take any and all makeup advice she doles out. Anyway, these brushes are ridiculously soft and versatile and feel really high in quality for being so inexpensive. Check 'em out ladies (and gents who wear makeup)

                                  Looking "fresh" in my new shadow pallets applied with my new brushes haha!

So that was my July. Shopping, reading and eating and getting older. Oh and UCA Cheer camp! Super fun 3 days with my team. Blood, sweat and tears. Literally. But it's always a great team bonding time and I already can't wait for next year's camp. 

Until next month readers...a.k.a Mom :)

Shelbey's Youtube Channel

5 Favorites- June

Happy July everyone! Well, mostly just my mom because let's be real, she's the only one who is reading this blog :) June was HOT but that didn't stop me from shopping and finding a few new favorite things to share.


First up is something I fell in love with just yesterday- JUICE! Real, fresh, good for you juice that I made all by myself in my Jack Lalanne Power Juicer. It's SO fun. Push the fruit and veggies down the shoot, watch the juice poor out! The chopping and washing and preparing part is SO not fun, but the result is worth it. The juice is cute in my mason jar and hopefully drinking it will make me cute too. 

My next favorite thing, and perhaps the reason I am now juicing...OREO SUNDAES. Obsessed. 3 in a weekend obsessed. Girls at the burger joint that sell them don't even ask what I want when I pull up obsessed. Layers of Oreo and soft serve and whip cream and peanuts all gooped together in a cup. Heaven. On. Earth. Also about 500000000 calories. But whatevs. It's hot out and that means we do whatever we want in the PNW. 

Number three on the list: Babe Lash eyelash serum. I've heard the hype about lash growth serums but never got on board until a friend of mine needed me to pick her up a tube of Babe Lash from one of the local beauty supplies. I decided to get a tube too and let me tell ya, the stuff really does work. At first it turned my eyelid red, which probably isn't a good thing, but in the name of beauty, I kept applying and a month in, I see results. $32 well spent and I will repurchase, eyelid damage or not.

My 4th favorite of the month is this little gem that I found at Earthbound Trading Co.

It's a Himalayan salt lamp that plugs in your usb port instead of a normal plug in. Adrobs right?  They were buy one get one half off so I got one for my mom too. I don't know all the science behind these lamps, but apparently they are good for you and after all those Oreo sundaes, I need all the help I can get. 

Rounding out my list of favorites this month is the Biolage Cleansing Conditioner. It smells amazing and has a slight tingle to it on the scalp which makes me feel like I'm actually getting clean. It has no lather which always wigs me out, but I use a wide tooth comb to work it through to my ends, and my hair and scalp feel just as clean as they do with regular shampoo. It's sulfate and paraben free and since it's just one step, it cuts down on shower time, wasting less water. 

There ya go mom, thanks for reading :)

Diva Cup, where have you been all my life?

It’s time to talk about lady things. I spend soooo much time with high school cheerleaders that I’m pretty much immune to all things TMI. If you don’t spend lots and lots of time listening to teenage girls talk about vagina's and tampons and the like, you might not want to read this. Just sayin'.

So I decided that I needed to try the Diva Cup. My one and only experience with a menstrual cup was when I was like 12, in the drugstore (Bartel's on the West side where World Market is now…cuz that’s how good my memory is folks) looking at tampons with my mom for the first time. I saw the box of Instead softcups above the rows and rows of scary tampons and remember thinking “how stupid is that, you strap that on and how do they expect you to wear pants or sit down?” Ha because the thought of sticking a CUP inside of me DOWN THERE was insane. Also I don’t really think at that point in my young life I was convinced you could actually pee while wearing a tampon…. ANYWAY, I recently saw a picture of a Diva Cup on Michelle Money’s Instagram page and decided that if someone as fabulous as Michelle Money was raving about this, I probably needed to try it and be fabulous too.

I ordered mine on Amazon for around $30. I didn't get the special “wash” they make to wash out your cup, but if you’re like me and don’t own any unscented soaps and your husband is like mine and doesn't really love going to the grocery store to buy special soap for your lady products, you might want to get that too. Hubs picked up Ivory hand soap and it seems to work just fine. The package included, the cup (obvi), a little pink and purple carrying sachet, and a pin. Yep, a pin. Like the kind you can proudly wear on the lapel of your jacket proclaiming to all that yes, in fact, I do use a menstrual cup and am now saving the environment one period at a time. Isn't that funny? I’m so going to wear that pin.

I have to admit, I have never been more excited for my period to start in my whole life. (ok that’s a lie but my mom might read this so I will omit the details of my wild oat sewing days….) I seriously spent several days just looking at the cup, showing my husband the cup, watching YouTube videos of other women talking about the cup. Once it came time to actually use the cup, I almost got too scared. It’s big and it has this creepy looking stem thing on the end. And it's springy. Like you have it all folded and ready to go, if you’re not careful, it might just bounce open and fly across the room leaving you to wonder how you’re going to make it from the toilet to where the cup landed and back without making a mess….  But I sucked it up (buttercup), folded it the way I wanted, and shoved it right in. There, that’s not so bad. Walk, walk, wiggle, wiggle, squat down to make sure it won’t fall out. SUCCESS! I know why they call it a “diva” cup now people, because I was feeling pretty fancy for figuring it out on try one.

Day one was good. No leakage, nothing weird. I could feel that little tab thing at the end, but I’d read that you could cut that off so I figured that would fix it. You’re supposed to be able to leave the cup in for 12 hours at a time but curiosity  got the best of me and I took it out in the shower before it was time just to see what was really in there. And ya know what? There wasn't half as much as I was imagining. Why didn't I try this in high school? It would have saved me so many frantic trips to the bathroom on games days when I was wearing my white cheerleading uniform scared to death that my tampon would leak. 

The whole removal process was weird. They tell you to “bear down” like you’re giving birth- which is stupid because the model 1 cup is for people who have never given birth.  So I did my best mimicking labor, complete with facial expressions and grunts for dramatic effect. It wasn't bad. It was weird, but not bad. Actually a few nights in to the cup using experiment, I even had a dream that I was giving birth to twins and the nurse was so impressed with how well I was doing. I told her it was because I used the Diva Cup. Not. Even. Joking. After the initial giving birth in the shower removal, I just took it out over the toilet, no big deal. My sink is close to the toilet so I would just toss it in the sink, finish my  business, wash it out and pop it back in. Literally it kind of "pops" when it's situated correctly up in there.

So all in all, the Diva Cup experience was generally pretty pleasant. It wasn't life changing like a lot of YouTubers claimed. Though like I said,  had I tried this in HS, I could see where it would be. I do think it's much better than tampons and will most likely keep using it. And of course proudly wearing the Diva pin.

 Here are some tips I found over the course of the week:

• ·        Cutting the stem just made the end sharp and poky so if you try one and the stem bugs you, just flip the cup inside out. It still works just the same.
• ·        Also, be prepared to spend some time figuring out what fold works best for you. There are a million ways you can fold it so just test it out.
• ·        If it flings across the room, its ok, the bathroom door is closed (hopefully) and nobody will know. Unless you’re me and you tell the world via the internet….

Watch this video for some more Diva Cup humor :

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22bGbXUnN6o