Winter Lovin'

My little owls,

Can you feel it? It's in the crisp air, it's in the snowfall, it's in the sweaters and the already displayed Christmas trees. Can you feel the best time of the year? Oh I can feel it. I can feel it like a warm hug, like the smell of crackling fires and wintry candles. Cloudy mornings. Oh, it's here!

I love love love this time of year. Where the decorations are out, Thanksgiving is approaching, the smell of turkey and ham already tingling in my nose. The suspenseful waiting for the first day of December so that Christmas child inside can escape and dance around. Dying to start playing all the Christmas music you love. And the SNOW! Oh the snow, my favorite favorite type of weather. The constant urge to cuddle with someone, the end of the school semester, ice skating and snow ball fights. Lovely lovely.

November-December are my favorite months, for all the reasons stated above. I am so excited for the snow we had to today. For Thanksgiving, Christmas, for dressing up all sweaters and boots, candles, snow snow snow snow. You have no idea how happy this time of year is for me.

I love Christmas music, giant comforters, Christmas movies, cookies and pies. Scarves and hats on hats, that cold air rushing around you when you open the front door, your fingers freezing as you drive.

Remembering the whole year you had. All the good and the bad. The new people you talk to and the ones who have lost your number. The people who have moved away and those who have stayed. The length of your hair. The crazy styles and hair your had (the crazy but super rad and rockin' hair). The new places you've gone and the ways you've grown. The leaps of faith you made, the growing up you did. The letting go of all the bad things and people and holding on to the good.

The lovely feeling of peace that comes with winter. It's here. It's good.

Owl Be Hawkward

New Project: Still Adventure

Oh how I have waited so long to write this post!

At the beginning of the school year, my English textbook inspired me. For the longest time I have wanted to create a photography blog, but I was just never sure if I should. I wondered if I should make it apart of Owl Be Hawkward, or a different blog all together. Finally I decided to just do it.

I wanted to announce it right away, but I waited to make sure it looked good and I had plenty of material to put into it. I didn't want it to be an 'everything' photography blog of landscapes and flowers. I wanted it to be of something different, unique. So after much inspiration and love for adventures, I decided I would photograph all my adventures and put them into this blog.

All the pictures are mine, and all the editing is done by me as well. It's one of my favorite hobbies and I hope you guys at least like it, if not enjoy it/love it.

The name of the blog is Still Adventure , and I am so happy to finally be "launching" this. I kind of love blogging, and this is just a result of that! I hope it is as equally successful and known as this blog is. It will be like a little window into my life, where you can go with me to Germany and the Grand Canyon and all the other adventures I have.

About every week I will be posting new pictures. It's only a secondary blog; Owl Be Hawkward will take priority on weekly posting. As I have a lot going on in the next few months with travel and school, and Owl Be Hawkward, I will have to work around everything to post on Still Adventure. I am so completely excited to begin this new adventure.

You guys are really awesome. I love it when you see me and say "I've been reading your blog!", you have no idea what an encouragement that is to me! If you guys like this blog, I'm sure you'll like the other one as well. The fact that you all even read this makes me happy. I hope you enjoy this new blog!

Owl Be Hawkward

Project Work-Out: Update & 30 Day Challenge

A few months ago I started the Project Work-Out to help me get back into shape. I haven't kept up with you on this, nor have I kept up with working out! I have taken 3 weeks off of the gym. I run occasionally but to be honest I haven't been great. The diet has been okay, not terrible (although I did binge on my favorite doughnuts while in Texas). To hop back on the work-out train, I am starting the squat challenge tomorrow! I found one on Pinterest to use, and it's a 30 day squat challenge.  I will start with 30 squats the first day and work my way up to 175 squats!

It doesn't end there, though! 30 Day Challenges has many different challenges! After the Squat challenge, I will a push-up challenge, triceps dip challenge, ab challenge, calve challenge, and many more! I will keep you updated on my Snapchat (@ owlbehawkward), Instagram and my Twitter daily, and on my blog weekly (I solemnly swear to do so!).

Along with the challenge, I will be hopping on the clean diet train! No soda, no sweets (with the exception of Thanksgiving day...come on, a girl has got to get some pie!). I will put more veggies in my diet and more fruit. I will also be doing a water challenge. I will be gradually drinking up to a gallon of water every day. I will start with 34 ounces for one week, 68 for one week, 102 for one week, and finally 136 for a week. After that I will continue to do a gallon (which is technically 128 ounces, but who's counting?) for the next month as well.

I hope you all have good weekend! I'll see you next week with an update on the challenge!

p.s. thank you for over 2,000 views! <3

Owl Be Hawkward

how to pretend you're a beauty guru

Good evening all. I should be asleep, but I'm not (clearly). I have been watching loads of YouTube videos of how to do contouring/highlighting, different make-up product hauls, and different tutorials. Why? Because I love make-up. I'm not the best applier, but I still love it. The past year and a half I didn't wear any make-up except for eyeliner and mascara, mostly because my acne was really bad so I had to stop. Because let's be honest, make-up over bad acne just doesn't do much. The past month or so, I started wearing make-up again because my face cleared up (yay!). I realized how much I enjoyed putting make-up on! It's so fun to me! Yesterday I thought about writing a "beauty tips" post, which I still may do, but this week I decided to do a make-up post of all the products I use and why. Most YouTube tutorials and hauls are of the super ridiculously expensive make-up products like MAC and NARS, bought at  Sephora and crazy places of the sort. I have hardly any money and I don't like spending a lot of it on things I can buy for less. So here's everything I use, nothing I ever bought was over $10.

CLEANSING: 

I just started using make-up remover wipes. I have wanted to forever but I just never bought them. I use Equate Beauty Make-up Remover Cleansing Towelettes, because Neutrogena or Burt's Bees was more expensive, and I'm just not a spender. I love this because I dread washing my face at night, it's so messy and honestly I'm too lazy. I wipe off all my make-up and then rinse a few times with warm water to get all the goop off.   This is simply the perfect solution.

When I do wash my face though, I use Neutrogena Deep Clean Facial Cleanser. I really prefer the Neutrogena Foaming make-up remover, but this works too. I'm not actually supposed to wash my face, so I only use this in the shower after I've worn make-up all day. It really does get deep, but it leaves my skin dry because it's strong. It really works though!

MOISTURIZER:

I live in Arizona, and it's really dry here. My skin dries out so quickly and gets really itchy, so moisturizer is a huge must have. I use two moisturizers most of the time. The first is the original Ponds facial moisturizer (picture has no label because it came off because I have had it for like 2 years). This is a bit greasy so I use it only when my face is really dry. Mostly at night because it helps repair all the damage done from the sun and make-up. I love it (minus the greasy feel), because it makes my skin feel hydrated and lovely.

The second moisturizer is Olay Complete All-Day Moisture cream. It has sunscreen (plus), and it is not greasy. It feels nice, and it's thick so it moisturizes well. I'm probably going to invest in the night cream soon!

FOUNDATION:

I use two foundations. The first is liquid and the second is powder. The reason I use two is because I love how well the liquid covers and I love how the powder sets and gives a more natural look. It doesn't look caked on, it blends in with the skin. The liquid foundation is MaryKay TimeWise Matte-Wear liquid foundation. A friend gave it to me, but once I run out I probably won't buy MaryKay again because it's pricey. I'm going to try out e.l.f. whenever I run out of this. It works super, and it has really awesome coverage. I would continue to us this if I had the dough!

The powder foundation is my go to CoverGirl powder. I'm not even sure what this is actually called or the shade because I've had it a long time. When you don't wear make-up for over a year it tends to last you a while. I love the way it looks and it's inexpensive! I use this as a set, to make my face look natural and to blend my bronzer.

ACCENTS:

I have no idea what to call this, maybe contouring? I use bronzer and blush because I just do. The bronzer I use is called Me Make-Over Essentials. I got it for Christmas and it's the best thing ever. It's kind of shimmery and it's gold tinted. It works like a charm for making those cheek bones pop.

The blush is simple CoverGirl blush (can you tell I love CoverGirl?). It's the lighter pallet because I'm fair skinned. I didn't want anything super bright or bold because I like to be a bit more natural. It's pretty great for adding a bit of color to your popping cheek bones. 

EYES:

Eyes are my absolute favorite. In my own opinion ( and a few cute boys'), my eyes are pretty beautiful (ugh, that sounds so vain). They are blue, and I like for them to pop, and for the blue to be brought out as much as possible. I typically do smokey eye or browns depending on my outfit. I like to go dark because I think it makes the blue more obvious. For eye shadow I use this wonderful, inexpensive pallet I found at WalGreens. I'm going to have to replace it soon, but it works so well. It applies easily, stays on all day, and lasts forever. 

Eyeliner is the freaking bomb dot com. I use two because let's be honest, there are days when we are too lazy to use liquid. The liquid liner I use is Rimmel London Exaggerate Eye Liner in 100% black (because black is the new black). I like the tip and the way it applies and looks. Simply awesome.

The second is a pencil liner. I just bought CoverGirl (surprise, surprise) Perfect Point Plus Eye Pencil in Charcoal. It has a really great point to it and does wings really well for being a pencil. It is awesome for casual days and lazy days when I don't feel like being careful.

Mascara is again CoverGirl! I don't know what it's called but it's the orange one (if you use this type, you totally get me). I've been using this for 7 years and it's just my favorite. I go back and forth between purple, green, and orange about every 6 months. It all depends on the mood I'm in. This mascara has a really great, thick brush and the mascara just spreads through your lashes beautifully. I use very black because I don't get brown mascara...what's the point? 

LIPS: 

When I was a little girl, my lips were naturally bright red. They weren't dry or anything, they were just super red. They still are to some extent. I don't use lipstick because I always feel weird wearing it. Occasionally I wear lip gloss, but for the most part I stick with lip balm. Like I said before. it's really dry where I live so my lips get dry a lot. Because my lips are so red already, I like to just moisten them up a bit. Most of the time I use Nivea Lip Butter in Raspberry Rose Kiss. I got it for Christmas and it's AMAZING. It's like lotion for your lips but better. It feels so good!

I just bought the EOS lip balm, mostly because it's the most awesomely designed lip balm ever. I got honeydew (which brought me back to my childhood, another story for another post). It's smells/tastes so good and it feels good too!

LASTLY:

The last product I want to share is this life saver. As I said in the beginning of this post, I had really bad acne. My life got so stressful last year and along with it my face got so zitty. It was awful, but I didn't think it bothered me until it started clearing up. The reason it cleared up is because my mom took me to the dermatologist. She prescribed me with this cream called Adapoline Gel. Let me tell you, it is magical. You can only get it if it's prescribed, but it's really great. I am here to tell you that if you have a few zits, even small ones, it's worth the trip to the dermy because she will fix you right up. Don't bother with "dermatologist recommended" products, go straight to the dermatologist herself. I actually had to stop the cream for this week because my face started peeling really weirdly around my mouth and I'm not sure why, so I'm seeing if it's the medicine (it might be because I spent time in the sun when I'm not supposed to because of other medicine). It's amazing though. If I have a zit, I dab some on it in the morning and by the afternoon, even if I put make-up over it, it's gone! 

That's all for now! I promise the next post will be more literature-y. If you have any advice on what make-up to use or any product, let me know! Also, I'm so excited to be announcing a project I've been working on next Monday! There will be some changes in the New Year as well that I have been planning and perfecting. I am so excited for improving this blog and my material! Have a super awesome week! 

Owl Be Hawkward