Wordless Wednesday

Poise

Recently I have gotten hooked on the show Pan Am. As I was laying in bed the other day taking in my weekly wonderland of exotic places, elegant women of yesteryear I began to wonder, why are women from this era so different than today's. Of course there are the obvious answers but it's something more than that, poise. Whatever happened to women having poise and a mysterious feminine edge? I'm sure that we all know at least one woman in our lives who's happiness, kindness and joy radiates off onto others. She is always pleasant to be around, never has anything negative to say and seems genuinely happy to be where she is. Basic manners will get you far. It's going to be my personal goal to work on having poise and grace from now on. If you find yourself wanting to be happier and make those around you smile, if you want to ditch that pony tail and sweat pants this blog is a great place to start Grace & Poise. I know it will be a challenge for myself to follow some of this guidance but I think it will only make me a better person! Live life glamorously!

Wordless Wednesday!

Donald Duck, She Hulk and Robin 

2011 Portland Aids Walk

I was on this train this weekend!

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2011/10/pedestrian_killed_by_amtrak_tr.html

When I lived on the East Coast, travelling by train was a lot more common. Over here states are a bit more spread out and train travel is often more costly than driving. However, in an effort to ditch my car for the afternoon. I rode to Portland with a friend and decided I would take the train back to Salem. This decision was made after I learned about bottomless mimosas at Hamburger Mary's. This was quite an ordeal. We waited around about 2 hours for the coroner to arrive at the scene so the train could be released and then about another hour until we could get a new engine and engineer. All in all my one hour trip ended up being a four hour catastrophe. 

My new HP laptop!

During my going back to school adventure I decided that I was sick of trying to do Online courses purely on my dinosaur of a desktop and set out to find the perfect laptop. Now, never having owned a laptop before I was a little nervous not knowing what I was looking for. The staff at best buy were so courteous and helpful and I actually ended up finding one, going home and loved it so much I had to go back later that day and buy it! I got the last one on the shelf- meant to be! They had a sale as well- and being a budget conscious student i had to snap it up! I ended up taking home a new HP Pavillion Laptop. I had a bad experience in the past with HP products so I was very anxious! I had heard some good things tho recently through a friend so I decided to purchase! I'm in love! My favorite part- with a myriad of math classes I have to take I love the 10 key feature! You can't beat the 17.5 inch screen for the price either! The pewter shell is very clean and sleek looking. Biggest con is the weight but I think I made the best choice!

Another year, more procrastination.

School has only been in session but a week and I have already been bitten by the procrastination bug. I missed one assignment in the first week. Tsk tsk. Not a good way to start the term. Now that I have finally settled on a major and am working towards my RN degree I need to lock down! Taking classes online definitely does not help with the procrastination. Does anyone have any good hints to help with procrastination?

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY!

Extreme Couponing

Recently I've become obsessed with a new show on TLC. I'm not really an avid T.V. enthusiast- especially when it comes to reality t.v. but, there is a show that I have happened to come across that I can't seem to get enough of. It's called Extreme Couponing. It will be on TLC tonight at 9:30 pacific time. I am so impressed by the amount of methodical planning and organization that goes into these extreme shopping trips where these coupon extremists will leave a store with 1,000 dollars worth of loot for as little as 4.00 dollars!

It sounds like an incredibly boring program but it will definitely suck you in.

NARSissists ( and NARS GIVEAWAY!)

Hey everyone! A super cool dude I know named Kale is entered into a contest sponsered by NARS. There are 12 looks that the contestant tries to replicate and then uploads a photo of him/herself for a chance to win some amazing prizes including a trip to NY for fashion week including a backstage pass with the NARS team. As a very talented up and coming makeup artist this would be a huge boost for his career. Please go vote asap! If you want to vote for Kale's awesome work just click on each of the 12 looks and search at the bottom of the page for KALE.

In honor of Kales participation (and hopeful winning) I will be giving away one tube of my favorite NARS lipgloss in Easy Lover.

All you have to do is:

1. Go vote!

2. Post a link on your blog or tweet about this giveaway and encouraging other to vote in the contest for their favorite.

3. Make sure you leave me a comment on this post with a link to your blog post.

Giveaway ends and A winner will be chosen at random at midnight on June 1st 2011 and be contacted via E-mail (so make sure you leave this contact information!)

OPEN TO US AND CANADA

Start Voting!

Springs finally here! - Just a little late.

Finally the weather has become acceptable to start doing outdoorsy things! It's about time since it's been in the mid 50's and raining the past few weeks. But, armed with a new job, looking for a new place, new contacts and a quick swipe of my favorite spring nail polish ( Splash of grenadine by Essie- check it out it's amazing you'll fall in love too!) I am ready for spring to begin as well.

After months of searching i am so pleased to announce I found a job in exactly the field i wanted at exactly the place i wanted to work. I couldn't be happier. I start my new job on Monday and cannot wait to re-locate to the albany/corvallis area. I'm hoping to find an OSU student that wants to sublet their apartment for the summer months so I can avoid commuting from Salem to Corvallis while looking for a place of my own. I definitely will be grateful to have my own space again.

Wordless Wednesday

Helpful Web Hosting

Lately I've been thinking about taking The Fabulous Destiny of Arika to a new domain.. It's own domain! I have no idea where to even begin though as far as finding a reliable and decently priced web host. I've been utilizing the ever popular word of mouth routine, asking just about everyone i know that is internet savvy if they know of any good web hosting companies. While talking to some friends I finally came across a website about web hosting that has been such a HUGE help. It lists all the reviews and informational facts about hundereds of web hosting domains with reviews from consumers that are just like me. My favorite feature is that they have a whole section about Green web hosting companies. I wasn't even aware that green web hosting was an option. I have found it remarkable to find such a great informational site about everything I ever needed to know about web hosting all in one spot instead of getting pieces of information from friends. Maybe soon I'll have a new domain! Have you thought about having a spot all your own?

Tulip Festival

Spent the day enjoying the sunshine at the Woodburn, Oregon Tulip Festival at the Wooden Shoe tulip farm! Here are just a couple photos pre-editing.

Score some free Green cleaning loot!

If you head on over to Shimmer Me Blue
you'll find a giveaway from Seventh Generation for a free
starter kit of green home cleaning supplies amazing scents like
wild orange and cedar spice or ruby grapefruit and Herb.
The contest ends today so make sure you get your entries in!

Disgusting

I took one look at this and literally gagged.
Who would think this is delicious, or even think this up.

It's on a website called This is why you're fat.

It's called :

The Porkgasm

Bacon strips, bacon sausage, ham sausage, ham slices, smoked pork sausage and roasted pork belly surrounded by ground sausage shaped into a pig, wrapped in bacon and roasted. Garnished with chili ears and tail.

4 and a half months

It's been 4 and a half months since I got my tonsils out.
Whenever I have a small bout of acid reflux or drink something hot
it burns like I just got them out again.
Anyone else have their tonsils out as an adult? When did your throat begin
feeling "normal" again?

Greek birthday part two.

Wordless Wednesday

21st greek birthday party

From my more rugged days