Sunday Shoutouts: Products Unreviewed

Me: It's Sunday!!! You know what that means?
Beau: Shoutouts!
Me: Good job.

So... that just happened.

Best Marriage Advice: I absolutely LOVE this post by Kim over at She Is Fierce. Kim explains that as much as she loves her husband and children, they do not "complete her." I've always found the idea of needing another person to be "complete" very unsettling, so it was refreshing to hear a married woman agree with me.

Best Historical Post on Breastfeeding: I can't believe I'm sharing a Buzzfeed post... but I'm a total sucker for both history and the right for mothers to breastfeed in public.

Best Scientific Post on Breastfeeding: The first article I read was via Jezebel, that summarized a new study questioning the superiority of breastfeeding over formula. This post is a press release that includes quotations from one of the scientists, along with her contact information. While there are certainly benefits to breastfeeding, like boosting an infant's immune system, it's great to see some research that highlights the socioeconomic influence on childhood health.

In other (blogging) news... I haven't had the chance to try out two of the products I received in my VoxBox. I've never worn fake eyelashes before. Since receiving my VoxBox last week, I haven't done anything fancy enough or exciting enough to try them out. I mean, I wore jeans and a sweater to a wine tasting Friday night, no make-up. Why would I bother experimenting with my KISS Looks So Natural Lashes for such mundane activities? I hope to try them soon, but my review will be limited to Instagram.

I also haven't tried out my John Frieda Frizz Ease 3-Day Straight Flat Iron Spray. I don't know if y'all have noticed this or not, but I have curly/wavy hair. I don't even own a blow dryer, let alone a flat iron. My best friend Lauren sometimes straightens her hair, so I plan to give her the sample to try out.

Curls everywhere, pretending to do a keg stand in Niort, April 2011

Keep your eyes posted for my thoughts on the other products I was sent to review!

What have you been doing this week?

Read anything interesting?

Write something controversial?

Let me know!

*Influenster sent me these products to test and review. 

Noël à Niort

Paris isn't the only French city where I've spent the holiday season. I taught English in Niort from October 2010 to April 2011. 

Niort is obviously much smaller than Paris, but the lights were still very pretty!

I loved shopping in the marchés de Noël in France. The ones in Niort were small, but still very cute!

One night I got together with a very international group of friends who I had met via couchsurfing. It was a nice mix of French locals, teaching assistants from Canada, the US, the UK, and Germany, and other internationals who lived in Niort. We sang Christmas carols in multiple languages and played bilingual board games. It was so much fun!

That was my first year spending Christmas away from my family. At least I had a tiny Christmas tree in my apartment. 

I like the REAL tree that Beau bought me this year much better. And while I'm going to miss being away from my family for Christmas, I like the plans Beau and I are making to celebrate next week.

Are you ready for Christmas?

They love me! They Really Love Me!

This is my second time being nominated for a Leibster Award! This time, Aukele of 91 Dash nominated me.

The award is pretty simple, given to bloggers by bloggers. It's a way to acknowledge your fellow bloggers' inherent awesomeness, even if they don't have a lot of readers. In fact, it's only for bloggers with less than 200 followers!

 

The Rules:

• Acknowledge the blog that nominated you in a post.
• Share 11 facts about yourself. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger created.
• Nominate 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers that you believe deserve some recognition.
• Post 11 questions for them to answer.
• Notify all the bloggers selected that they have been nominated.
• And finally, you can't nominate the blog who nominated you.

Imperfectly Perfect

Today's title is inspired by the blog series over at Grace for Gayle. The "Blog Every Day in May" prompt is Your 3 Worst Traits.

Okay, so I first wrote this on May 22, but today (May 23), I realized another one of my worst traits. So here are four of them instead of three.

4. Sometimes my self-confidence and high self-esteem lead to vanity. I love looking at myself in the mirror. I always feel like I look good, even in jeans & a hoodie. Most of the time, it honestly is just a healthy body image, but I do know that sometimes I spend more time looking at my reflection than I do paying attention to other people. The worst is when I'm skyping with Beau, and I look at my small image more than I look at his big image.

3. I leave stuff everywhere. You will find my shoes all over my apartment, wherever I happened to kick them off. I often have a few mugs from hot tea in my bedroom. My little card table turned kitchen table is covered with mail and receipts and paperwork that I need to sort, but haven't done yet.

I tried (and failed) to take a picture of everyday in 2011. This was an honest look at the shoes in my bedroom in Niort.

2. I am so bad at replying to emails sent to my anon address. Part of it is that I have enough communication to maintain with the people who know my real name. Part of it is that when I receive an email, it's usually 5+ paragraphs long, and a proper reply will take at least an hour to compost. 

And part of it is that several of the emails I've received have been wonderful, encouraging words that I needed to hear... But I couldn't address directly. This is also why I'm not reply to the five supportive comments I received on this post about my twin brother. It was hard enough writing about it. I can't engage in conversation about it. Just like I wasn't ready to engage in conversation about my bisexuality when I came out last July, even though I received some truly heartwarming emails from my readers. 

If you receive an email from me a month, or two months, or a year after the fact, don't take it personally. It's just that I have to juggle so much with this blog, and promoting my blog, and maintaining friendships with the people I've known for years who don't know about this blog.

1. I haven't even started looking for a local church to attend, and I moved here almost ten months ago. I rarely spend more than five minutes at a time praying. I can't remember the last time I read the Bible. Most of my Christianity is reading Christian blogs and offering my perspective. Sometimes this involves reading several quotations from scripture, but not always.

Do you have any bad traits you'd like to 'fess up to? Share in the comments!

Paris, je t'aime

Paris me manque.

Two years ago today, I left Paris.

Writing that out breaks my heart. I miss Paris so much.

I began my love affair with Paris at a young age. I have no idea what initially piqued my interest, but for as long as I can remember, I have wanted to visit Paris.

Le Tour Eiffel

My junior year of college, I finally fulfilled my dream and studied abroad in France. For three months, I lived in Versailles with a French family and took theatre, conversation, grammar, and culture classes with eleven fellow students from my school. Each Wednesday afternoon, we had a cultural field trip, like to the Musée d’Orsay or to Auvers-sur-Oise (where Van Gogh died). On the weekends, we had optional trips, but they were even cooler. One weekend we toured Giverny (Monet’s home and gardens), and another weekend we spent visiting Le Petit Trianon. I found out that recent French grads could teach English in France, and I vowed to return when I finished school.

The grave of Vincent Van Gogh.