A Journey to Self Employment

I saw this graphic on a friends twitter and instantly heard the song playing in my head. If you are not familiar with this particular song then you should look it up on youtube! I am not a huge country music fan, but these words resonate with me. 

Time is the most precious resource that we have, even more precious than money or any possession you may have.  Life is a one shot deal. Everyone gets one run to do as they please. 

Through most of my adult life I feel like I have been wishing for something different or something better. I have never had a fulfilling job that I enjoyed for longer than six months. (I have held jobs for much longer, but lost almost all interest in less than half a year) Graduating college in 2009 and trying to find a job was one of the more difficult times in my life. Although I started a job this December that I am very grateful for, I still feel like I have not found my calling or true passion. I am almost 27, and this scares me. I realize that I may not be destined to do AMAZING things, but it would be very nice to have an occupation that I don't stare at the clock all day waiting for time to tick away. I feel especially conflicted wishing away the minutes because I know there will be a time in my life where I will look back and wish that I had just a few of those seconds back.

I think a good amount of people around my age are also in this state of almost constant confusion. Being lost, wandering around life looking for meaningful or even just steady employment. Does anyone else feel this way? 

I want to make a change. I read that making goals public is a great way to keep yourself accountable for actually fulfilling the goals. Well here's my goal: be self employed by the time I turn thirty. I want the kind if control that being self employed will allow me to have. This gives me exactly three years and one month to transition from a corporate drone to a self employed freedom lover. 

I am going to give monthly updates on this blog along with the usual things that I talk about! Feel free to offer any advice you have! 

Vacation Adventures and Relaxing

Sometimes all you need to get a fresh perspective is a few days out in the middle of no where relaxing with your family! Every summer my family takes a vacation to a lake in Oklahoma. The area that we stay is very sparsely populated. We spend time at the lake, sitting outside sipping tea and hanging out by the pool.

Taking a few days to yourself for your mental sanity is very important especially when you live a fast paced modern life. I always feel like my summer vacation realigns my perspective and revitalizes me in a way nothing else can. The nature and time away from my cubicle brings about a carefree feeling that I hope to be able to feel every day. 

How do you relax? Do you have any secrets for staying relaxed and happy after get always?

What I Wore.. OOTD

I work in a casual work environment.. This means I can wear pretty much anything I want to wear as long as I look half way acceptable. I am going to start a new series of posts showing the simple inexpensive work outfits that I put together. Here is my first one. 

Shirt: New York & Co.

Skirt: Target

Belt: Target

Shoes: Payless ShoeSource

Toenail Polish: Zoya

Sister Time Fun Event

Everything changes once you move out of your parents house. You are off on your own to pave your own trail and start your own life. For myself and my sister that also means working more than 40 hours per week with rather unique and sometimes totally opposite schedules. This weekend I got to spend some time with my sister, who also happens to be my best friend and it was wonderfully fun! We are lucky enough to live decently near each other and our schedules finally matched up so that we could spend some time together. We hung out and chatted, went on a little costco shopping trip, hit up ulta, had a tasty lunch at chipotle, then filmed some videos at my house. It's so refreshing and fun getting to hang out with my sister. She has such a unique sense of humor and I always enjoy getting to be around her. I hope the stars align again soon so that we can have another sister day in the future!

My family members are the most important people in the world to me, and I am so very lucky to have such a positive and hillarious family! I always make sure to take advantage of any opportunity that I have to spend time with my family and you should too! 

I will be posting our YouTube videos this week so keep an eye out for them :-)

Entering the Natural World

I have decided to make a change in my beauty life... I'm going to products that are as natural as possible!! My plan is to gently fade out my commercialized chemical filled products and replace them with natural skin safe ingredients! This should bring about lots of natural product reviews and thoughts. The process began with switching over my shampoo, conditioner and leave in products and has been a huge success so far! Stay tuned for my journey to the natural side of beauty! 

Along with this change I have recently been changing my food intake as well. I am trying my best to cut out processed foods and stay away from things with too many questionable ingredients. I have cut out fast food already and the chance was very easy for me since I rarely ate it anyway! I do not drink pop or coffee and mainly drink water and tea. I have been purposely eating more fruits and veggies as well! So far I feel as if I am noticing a difference in my energy level and mood which is wonderful! I believe that the fuel that you put into your body has a large impact on your health, emotions and physical looks! I want to be eating the best food possible while still on a budget.. Costco is my best friend for bulk fruits and veggies :-) I will soon be sharing some recipes and tips if you would like to join in my health journey! 

<3

Aubrey 

Daily Vitamins for Sensitive Stomachs

When I was in college my mom always wanted me to take daily vitamins, why you ask? Because I ate JUNK and never really got all of the nutrients that my body needed.  I took the giant women's one daily, but I had to take it with a tummy full of food or I would get SO sick that I couldn't even stand it.  Eventually my stomach became so sensitive to those giant multi vitamins that I couldn't take them anymore.  Still wanting to get my daily values of proper vitamins I tested out some gummy vitamins for children.  They tasted delicious and worked amazingly well as far as tummy sensitivity!

These are the tasty little vitamin treats I take every morning.

Now I have found adult versions of gummy vitamins in BULK at COSTCO.  So I buy two giant gummy vitamin containers and work my way through them.  They don't make me sick and also trick me into feeling healthier! If you have a sensitive tum you should totally try them! I know that they had other options as well, not just the daily vitamins.  I have seen a variety of different ones at Target such as calcium, zinc, and an immunity version. 

Do you take daily vitamins?

<3

Aubrey

Reducing My Use of Unnecessary Chemicals In My Everyday Life

For pretty much everyone who lives in America, and any other country that has running water, using commercial cleansing products full of nasty chemicals is a normal average every day part of their life. Generally people jump in the shower, lather up with body wash and jump out. They wash their face every morning and evening with face wash. They shampoo and condition their hair regularly and put in tons of random styling products.

For someone with ULTRA sensitive skin like myself this can be a nightmare. My skin is super sensitive (like if someone is wearing a perfume that I am allergic to I can break out in hives.... Not a good time). Every winter I would get so itchy and dry that my legs would HURT every night after my shower. My faces gets so dry and sensitive that it peels for no good reason. I thought that this was just 'normal' and unavoidable.

Once I got a little older I started googling things - like any good 20 year old, and I found out that there are so many toxic and harmful chemical ingredients in pretty much EVERY SINGLE PRODUCT THAT I USED. Since then, I have been on the hunt for less harmful ways to stay clean and hygenic while using as few and as mild prodcuts as possible. Now don't get me wrong, I love trying new products and fun make up. I just want to be able to cut out as many harmful chemicals as I can while still being clean and getting to try new fun products. My last post about my journey on my water only hair care 'experiment' is my next step in my journey to less chemicals.

So far I have made the following changes since my teenage years:

1. In the shower I use primarily water to cleanse myself. I will use a more natural body wash/scrub to wash my 'hot spots' but everything else just gets a nice rinse and I am EXACTLY as clean as when I did a full body wash, except my skin is MUCH HAPPIER.

2. I DO NOT USE SHAVING CREAM. I shave with a razor and water... and I never cut myself or have in grown hair issues. The secret is to let the warm water soften your hair for about 3 minutes before you shave. It may take some getting use to, but try it. You'll like it.

3. The only time I use face wash is at night when I am removing my make up. I wet down my face with warm water and splash off as much make up as I can, then I use a mild face wash (Simple Brand) to wash of my face. I then pat dry with a soft towel and put on my night time face lotion. In the morning I rinse my face with warm water and am ready to go!

4. I have switched to deoderant ONLY. I no longer use antiperspirant. I tried many natural deoderants along the way and could not find a single one that I was not allergic to. I now use a men's deoderant. It may take you a few days to adjust to using simply a deoderant, but your body will acclimate and you will not sweat as much as you did before. Promise.

5. I switched to more natural lotions. I now only use lotions with natural ingredients and no parabens. I found that I am allergic to parabens and they were part of my issues with itching on my legs. Once I cut them out, problem solved! Coconut oil is a great natural moisturizer as well.

6. For my hair I have had years and years of trials and errors. In high school I would shampoo and condition every night then blow dry and straighten as well. This was a bad idea. My hair quickly turned to dried out straw. I switched to letting my hair dry naturally and this helped a lot. I have tried many things since them. Natural shampoos, cutting out shampoos, using the curly girl method, stretching out the time between washes. Right now I am doing a water only washing method experiement. I will let you know how it goes :-)

7. For my face washing and lotioning I have switched from the 'normal' versions to more natural versions of the same products. I have also switched out my night time lotion for a more natural version and sometimes I use oil as well.

One last thing, when you have an option to choose 'regular' or 'sensitive skin' products. Always go for the product formulated for sensitive skin. In my experience these have less harmful ingredients. Also, when having the option to go for Fragrance Free or Unscented, always go Fragrance Free. This has less harmful chemicals. Unscented products may have even more harmful chemicals in them because often times they have an added agent to mask the smell of the product to make it appear 'unscented'.

Do you have any additional suggestions for me to avoiding harmful chemicals? Also, what has your experience been like if you have been trying to cut out harmful products?

XOXO

Aubrey