Mundane.

Most of my blog post ideas come to me when I'm at the gym in the mornings. Mostly because I put all of my brain power into thinking about anything other than my workout because I just hate it so much. No, I still don't like working out. No, it isn't fun. All those damn healthy-living, weight-loss, workout bloggers are liars. Don't believe them.

Whoa, tangent.

So this morning while I was trying to pretend I was having a great time, even though my arms felt like they might fall off, I started thinking about the mundane. Bloggers don't talk about it, but it's one of the things I'm curious about the most. We're so busy trying to make our lives "blog-worthy" that we leave out some of the mundane details, and damnit, I love those mundane details. I'm overly curious about a bloggers LIFE, as in how they actually live and those little things they do.

Here's some of my mundane this week.

>>---> Speaking of "mundane", I love that word. If you've been reading this blog for a while then you know I have a "thing" for interesting, uncommon words. I heart them so much.

>>---> Sunday I took the hose attachment to my vacuum cleaner and cleaned all of my vent covers.

>>---> Sunday I spent a couple of hours editing a friend's paper for her persuasive writing class because I always tend to be everyone's go-to to edit papers. My mom was my go-to, so I guess everyone has to have one.

>>---> Sunday night I watched the movie Drumline on vh1. Okay guys, I know, Drumline is kind of terrible and Nick Cannon is.. really terrible, but I LOVE THAT MOVIE SO MUCH. I did remember however that watching a movie on TV is the most annoying thing. They stretch the last 30 minutes of the movie into an hour+ and it is so frustrating.

>>---> Monday night vh1 premiered the new sequel to Drumline - Drumline: A New Beat. In the most geeky way possible, I was pumped. BUT I didn't want to annoyingly sit through all of the commercials again, so I got smart and decided to DVR it so I could watch it another time and fast forward through the commercials. I outsmarted you vh1, and damnit, it feels good.

>>---> Monday night I also made a chicken and rice bake from a recipe my grandma gave me that never turns out as good as when she makes it. She doesn't add veggies, but I added a shit ton of broccoli, because I'm really into trying to add veggies everywhere now and eat them constantly. Small changes and all.

>>---> Tuesday I went to get a coffee at 2:30 in the afternoon because I thought I was going to fall asleep at my desk. Caffeine is the name of the game these days.

>>---> Tuesday night I got a little overwhelmed with the number of shows on my DVR that need to be watched, so I decided to watch a few shows live so that I didn't back up my DVR any more. I went with NCIS (8pm), Supernatural (9pm), then Chicago Fire (10pm). Of course, I still had 3 other shows that recorded while I was watching those, so my DVR still feels full. Sigh.

>>---> Wednesday I spent the entire day at work by myself, so I blasted my Spotify Christmas music playlist as loudly as possible. It. Was. Awesome.

>>---> Wednesday night I volunteered to work an IU volleyball game for "pink night" for Breast Cancer Awareness. The IU pep band played Talk Dirty To Me and Rebeeca Black's Friday. Which would have been even more hilarious had it been Friday, but it was Wednesday, so everyone (under the age of 25) just looked confused. Actually, everyone over 25 looked confused too, because.. obviously. But I liked it and I was amused.

>>---> Oh yea, and because I worked on Wednesday night, my Wednesday night shows? Didn't get to watch any of them. First of all, my TV watching and the number of shows I watch is beyond pathetic. It truly is. Feel free to talk shit about me. Second, my DVR is SO FULL. I have no idea when I'm going to get caught up.

Make-up Brush Cleaning Routine Update

Yesterday as I was getting ready to do something I do frequently, I realized I never tell you guys about it, so here I am, telling you.

About a year and a half ago I blogged how I clean my make-up brushes, and it is one of my most popular posts. This is kind of a follow up to that and a discussion about make-up brushes in general.

In my previous post I cleaned my brushes with a hot water, vinegar, and dish soap mixture. I still use that exact same thing. I know a lot of people use baby shampoo to clean their brushes and I have definitely done that (johnson & johnson tear free baby shampoo, in the yellow bottle, is what I used) and it works great, truly. I don't really ever notice a huge difference in how clean my brushes are between my cleaner and the baby shampoo. The biggest difference is that hot water, vinegar, and dish soap are things I always have at my apartment. Baby shampoo is something extra that I have to purchase.

*ProTip: When I'm cleaning all of my brushes, I go ahead and make up 2 jars of the cleaner. I know I'll need to refresh it at least once, so if I already make 2 then I'm saving time.*

I clean all of my make-up brushes every other weekend. Some brushes actually get cleaned a little more frequently than that, such as my blush brush, my foundation brush, my bronzer brush, my face powder brush, and my eyeliner brush. Those just get cleaned any time I feel like they need it, which sometimes is weekly, sometimes a few times a week. You never know.

My friends think I'm crazy for cleaning them so often, but about 10ish months ago when I started cleaning them every other weekend I noticed a huge decline in my breakouts. Those brushes are dirty and then we put them on our faces. My friends can think I'm crazy all they want, I'm still cleaning them obsessively.

Now, I haven't noticed anything wrong with my brushes since I've started cleaning them so often. It's not like I'm running them through the dishwasher. I'm cleaning them gently. Cleaning does not equal ruining.

As far as my brushes go, I have Bare Escentuals, Bare Minerals, Mary Kay, and e.l.f. brushes. I love them. The e.l.f. brushes are so good for the price, honestly, however they have the most fallout of all of my brushes. It's nothing crazy, but especially my face brushes you get some fallout. But again, for the price, they are so worth it. Mary Kay has the least fallout, except for one particular Mary Kay brush and it drives me absolutely crazy, so I have like 4 back-ups of that brush. The Bare Escentuals and Bare Minerals brushes are fine, but there's nothing amazing about them. I didn't buy any of them, they were all given to me.

I did have a Sonia Kashuk brush that I loved, but I dropped it in the toilet and there's just no coming back from that. I watch a lot of make-up tutorials on YouTube and honestly, a lot of them use the Sonia Kashuk brushes. Most of them do use the Sephora brushes, which I would love, but I also don't want to pay $20+ for each brush. Sorry.

So that's that.
Clean your make-up brushes.
Buy me some Sephora and Sonia Kashuk brushes.
Catch ya on the flip side.
Happy Monday!

Things That Are Unfortunate

It's unfortunate that my DVR can only record 2 shows at once. Which means if I am recording 2 shows, then I can't watch a 3rd program. So for instance, last night I missed the first 30 min of a show that started at 8pm. But I couldn't start the show at 8:30pm, because I have 2 shows that record at 9pm, so I wouldn't be able to watch the 8pm show while the 2 9pm shows were recording. Super unfortunate.

It's unfortunate that I put that much thought into my DVR.

It's unfortunate that my work schedule for November looks absolutely ridiculous. It's actually laughable how little of a social life I'll have the entire month.

It's unfortunate that for the month of November I'm mostly worried about how behind I'll get on my shows and not how little of a social life I'll have.

It's unfortunate that not everyone was in on the text conversation I had with my stepdad the other night. An hour and a half of only texting quotes from Ocean's Eleven back and forth. "Ted Nugent called. He wants his shirt back."

"he doesn't make me cry"

It's unfortunate that I have written a proper blog post to insert the following gif into, so I'm inserting it here, because it's amazing and amuses me and it just needs to be shared in general.

It's unfortunate that I'm not a huge fan of the Chandelier song by Sia, because it is played approximately 82,239 times on the radio a day. This is why I pay $10 a month for Spotify, because I can choose my own damn music to listen to 82,239 times a day. Also guys, the way she says "chan-DUH-luh-hhhhheeeerrrrreeee" and all the other parts where it sounds like she's actually losing her voice because she can't hit the high notes? Drives me bananas.

It's unfortunate that I have to end this blog post here, because I didn't realize what time it was and now I need to go not-so-fun adult things.

Catch ya on the flip side, friends!

Why Blogs Die

This has been on my mind for a while now. Really ever since Young House Love decided to say goodbye to Blogland.

You see, Young House Love was the first blog I ever started reading. The first one and I read it for years and years and through them ultimately found this thing I call Blogland. Finding Blogland and expanding my blog reading list ultimately led to my desire to start a blog of my own. To say that I'm taking YHL's goodbye hard is maybe a small understatement.

The last few weeks I've started thinking about why blogs die and I've got a few theories.

1. Critics
It happens to everyone at one point or another. You're putting yourself and your personal life and sometimes the lives of those close to you onto the internet where anyone and everyone can read it, critique it, and judge it. It happens. There are a hundred ways a blogger can handle the situation, but it basically comes down to if a blogger can deal with it or not. If they can't, then bye bye blog.

2. Privacy
Bloggers are typically straddling an invisible line of sharing too much and not sharing enough to please your readers. A blogger usually has a list in their head of things they can't share on the blog. Once that list becomes too long, it makes writing a post difficult and you stop getting readers because your post quality starts to decline. Eventually a blogger's need for privacy outweighs their need for a blog and then bye bye blog.

3. Expectations
Sometimes you'll get a blogger who comes on the scene who is in Blogland just to make money. Which is totally absurd. If this is you, quit now and save yourself the time. Yes, some bloggers can and do make significant money blogging, but that's oh so rare. When you consider how much time and money they put in to make that money? It's just totally absurd to get into this for that reason only. Usually when these types of bloggers don't see the results quickly then it's bye bye blog.

4. Inspiration
You've heard it before, a blog is only as good as its last post. Content, content, content is the key to any "successful" blog. You can usually tell when a blog is nearing its end, because there will be a uprise in guest posts and sponsored posts and very few original posts. Usually, at least in the few bloggers I've discussed this with, it's not that you have nothing to write about, it's that you don't have a creative way to write it. But also, sometimes a blogger just has nothing to write about. When the post inspiration goes, that usually means bye bye blog.

5. Fun
Honestly, for the majority of bloggers, blogging is a hobby. Sometimes a hobby that pays, but mostly a hobby. Hobbies are meant to be fun. Bloggers need to enjoy the whole process or things start to become a chore. Once they're a chore? Well then they aren't fun. Once blogging isn't fun, then it's bye bye blog.

6. Time
In my humble opinion, I think this is the big one. This is definitely the number one reason I see blogs die. I've said it before and I'll probably say it a hundred more times - Blogging is a time suck. Blogging is so time consuming. There is nothing quick about any piece of the blogging puzzle and typically you're "expected" to blog 3-5 times a week! I say "expected" because that's what a lot of bloggers do, but honestly, do whatever you want. I clearly do. I've seen blog after blog after blog end because they just don't have time for the whole blogging thing anymore. A blogger is getting married or having a baby or just got a new great job and suddenly Blogland becomes just a huge time suck and not much else.

These are my theories. I think that when a blogger ultimately decides it's time to say goodbye that it's a combination of all of the above. Even if you're a blogger and you aren't ready right now to say goodbye, I'm sure you've at least thought about it for one of those reasons or another. I know I have.

What do you think? Are there any more reasons that I missed? What's a blog you loved that has said goodbye? Are you as broken up about YoungHouseLove as I am? Because dude..