October 2015 Favorites!

Hey guys!

So if you know me at all, you know that I watch YouTube more than I even watch TV. There will be days when I don't even pick up the remote, but there is never a day that I don't go on YouTube and watch whatever daily videos that I'm subscribed to.

Recently I've been noticing that a lot of YouTubers do a "Monthly Favorites" video. First of all, I am under no circumstances starting a YouTube channel. I don't have the patience for that kind of job, nor do I have a thick enough skin to deal with the kind of hate that goes on from subscribers, plus my social anxiety would likely make for a pretty boring channel. However, I do have a blog. It's not a big blog and I am by no means famous. I think like five people read my blog, and they're basically all family members. BUT the entire point of this blog is to let you guys into my head and into my life so that my family and friends back home know what's going on with me. If you follow me on things like Twitter and Snapchat, you may already know some of this stuff, but since most of you don't, I would LOVE to share some of the things that I come across that I fall in love with each month.

Let's do it!

THIS MONTH'S FAVORITES: 

These pillows!

I've been wanting new couch pillows basically since we got this couch because the ones that it came with were such poor quality that the seams started shredding within the first month we had them. Then we struggled to find pillows that we both liked and that weren't going to put us into debt (have you SEEN the prices on throw pillows?!).

Our couch is obviously brown so we needed colors to go with that and we just happened upon these pillows within a week or so of each other.

The greenish ones are from Tuesday Morning ($9.99 each) AND THEY ARE SO VERY SOFT OH MY GOODNESS. The design is a velvety texture and they're beautiful.

The purple ones are from IKEA. The pillows themselves ($2.99) come separately from the pillow covers ($9.99), which is cool because then we can switch it up later if we want to without breaking the bank.

High five, IKEA!

This food processor!

I've been wanting a food processor for a long time. We "had" a "food processor" (it was a blender attachment) and that just didn't cut it for me, so Patrick did a lot of research and ended up landing on a super powerful food processor with a crazy long warranty (I think it's seriously like a 30 year warranty), which, to us, is worth the price that we paid, especially since we have been on a low-carb diet and have been making a lot of our own veggie-rich food at home. We have used it quite a lot and we love it! Do you need any food processed? Come on over, I'll help you out.

This comic!

If you've read my First Anniversary Adventures blog, you'll know that I'm a little bit obsessed with my new signed comic from Patrick. I will seriously find myself wandering around the house and being drawn to it. I'll pick it up and put it down several times a day and I've probably already read it at least a dozen times in the 6 days that I've had it. There is even a new tattoo idea in the works based on the comic because it means so much to me.

This typewriter!

Seriously, who wouldn't love a vintage typewriter? If your answer is "no one" or "not me", I have concerns.

These bookcases!

We have two. The other one is in Patrick's office.

Patrick has a LOT of books and honestly, most of them aren't even on shelves. Thank goodness we have extra storage here because we don't have enough room for all of our books to be out on display (I probably only have about 1/8 of the size of his collection). His office was looking pretty insane because things that would normally go on a bookcase couldn't because we didn't have enough room, so we invested in our own sanity and bought a couple of bookcases from IKEA. Now I basically have my own bookcase and I'm thrilled about it. I have to show off my J.K. Rowlings and S.E. Hintons, you know?!

This tablet!

This item comes with a story. I have a hand-me-down tablet from Patrick, but I've been in the market for a new one for a while now because that tablet was heavy, took forever to charge, lost a charge really quickly, and just didn't run very smoothly. I kept doing my research and ended up finding a tablet that I really, really liked and was absolutely perfect for me and Patrick was planning on purchasing it for me for Christmas.

Magically one day we popped into Best Buy so that I could physically see the tablet and hold it and get a feel for it to make sure it was what I wanted. When we were there, we found that there were none on display and we had to ask the manager if he had any in back. He did, it was a "returned" item (or so we thought), and he brought it out for us to see. It was over $100 off of the original price because it wasn't brand new, in its original packaging, and didn't come with the accessories, but nothing seemed wrong with it and we jumped at the opportunity to save $100+.

Unfortunately when we got home, I found that the home screen image had somehow burned into the screen itself and we had to take it back (we hadn't seen it in the store because all we were able to see on the tablet was the completely blue "register" screen, and you could only see the burned image when the screen color was lighter, like if you were to open a white email screen). That's when I realized that-- duh!-- the item hadn't been returned, it had been the display item.

It turns out that that was the only one of that specific tablet that they had in store because Samsung had, for some unknown reason, done a very small release of these tablets and then discontinued them. I was disappointed because I felt that we had missed out on a potentially great deal (tablets are not cheap by any means)... Until we realized that they sold refurbished ones on the Best Buy website! We ordered one (for the same price we paid in store) and took a chance on a refurbished item. I'm pleased to say that I've had NO issues with it so far and obviously, since it's in this blog, I love it. Again, this is an early Christmas present.

This tablet case!

Please excuse the bendy lighter in the background. I like candles.

How cool is this case?! When I had finally settled on a tablet that I liked, I immediately started looking at cases. I knew that I wanted a folio case that came with a Bluetooth keyboard, because I truly use my tablet more than I ever pull out my laptop (unless I'm writing a blog post!), and I settled on this one. Then when we got the tablet a few months early because it was such a good deal, I knew I had to get a case. I'm the biggest klutz, and a tablet is NOT the type of thing you want to be clumsy with. The case has a magnetic, rechargeable, detachable Bluetooth keyboard, a little elastic tab to put a stylus in (which I happened to already have), a little prop up stand on the back, a magnetic closure, and the tablet screen turns off when you close the case. Cool, huh?! Again, this is an early Christmas present.

Gel polish!

As you can see, I clearly got the best colors available. They're so pretty!

I have gotten super lazy about doing "girly things". I don't do my makeup more than once a month, I haven't been painting my nails or toes, and I almost never do anything with my hair other than put it up in a messy bun. At 23, I'm already tired of how tedious it is to be what society considers to be "feminine". That's not to say that I don't like doing these things, it's just that I have better things to do. So I haven't painted my nails or toes for at least six months (longer, I think, probably more like 9 or 10) because I hate when it chips and I have to remove it or pick it off almost immediately, which means my nails get gross and dry and they peel, and I hate waiting for it to dry. Long story short-- I don't have the patience to paint my nails every 4-7 days-- sometimes more often.

What I do have time for, apparently, is going to a nail salon to chat with some of the nicest women I've ever met so that I can get my nails done with gel polish! It's fun, relaxing, and I get my nails done!

I've been waiting to try gel polish because I know it lasts for a crazy long time and I have to say, I am so glad I did.

When Patrick and I were in Vancouver, WA this past July, I went for a massage and I made Patrick go for a mani/pedi. He ended up finding a super cute little salon in Vancouver and it's definitely worth the drive! So this time around when he finally had time for another pedicure, we made an appointment for me to have gel polish done on my hands and toes. I'm in love with it.

The third day I had the polish, I carved an entire thirty pound pumpkin and did lots of dishes by hand (as a result of the pumpkin carving) and still the polish didn't chip, which normally it would. I'm so glad I decided to do this and now I'm considering investing in my own gel setup, however the polishes aren't very cheap so in order to have a variety of options, it may be better to just go to the nail salon so I don't have to spend hundreds re-stocking my nail polish collection.


That's all for this month without making this post too crazy long! Stay tuned for my November monthly favorites sometime in the first week of December!

Lucky Friday the 13th! (Phone Trouble and The Great Ring Fiasco of 2015)

Hey guys! I got some really great news today and I thought it would share it with you all. Normally most people consider Friday the 13th to me extremely unlucky, but I have always had nothing but great luck on Friday the 13th, especially since high school and beyond. Today was no different, and how cool is it that we got to have two Friday the 13th's in a row? Gotta love a 28 day month!

Today, Patrick and I went on an early, mid-day date to go see the new Cinderella (it was really great and is definitely worth seeing-- the costumes are to die for!). Since the movie theater is in the mall and I was expecting my wedding rings to come back in today, this was super convenient. When we got out of the movie, we headed to Kay Jewelers just down the corridor to go pick up my rings.

After over a month of struggling with Kay Jewelers to get my engagement ring and wedding band soldered together correctly, everything is finally perfect!

Patrick and I had not been planning on getting married before May, so we were not prepared with my wedding band when we got married in October and ended up ordering it for Christmas. Because my rings are so specifically shaped, the engagement ring and the wedding band have to sit a certain way together in order for them to look correct. Anytime someone would ask to see my ring, I had to adjust and turn them before I could hold out my hand and let them look. I was really looking forward to the day I would have them soldered together, and because of the every-six-months maintenance package we have on my rings, I wanted to wait until February until I got the two rings soldered together because that was when I would have needed to have them sent in anyways to have the rhodium plating re-done.

My engagement ring on the day Patrick proposed, February 15, 2014.

Let me tell you, it was a disaster from the beginning.

When you spend weeks picking out a ring, lots of money on it, and get very emotionally attached to it because of its significance, you always want and expect for it to be perfect. A bride has this mental picture of the perfect ring and never expects it to be anything less than exactly what they wanted, especially when you are dealing with a company like Kay Jewelers who have jewelers who deal with similar jewelry every day and know how it is supposed to look and know that the job is to be done flawlessly (or so you would think).

A screenshot from the Kay Jewelers website of how my rings are supposed to fit together. I would show you a current picture, but it's dark outside and the lighting in our house is not great for photos... Plus my nails look like crap. Maybe I'll insert a photo later.

I sent my rings out on my birthday, February 7th, and they were expected to be back in two weeks. Luckily they came back a little bit early, so I went to pick them up while Patrick was out of town... Only to find that they had been soldered together wrong. Like I said before, the rings have to sit a very specific way for them to look correct (as you can see from the photo), but that doesn't mean they don't fit together in other ways. In addition, they originally did a pretty cruddy job at re-sizing my engagement ring when I had that done in August (the back of the ring was "wavy" or crooked) but I had planned on having them fix that the next time I sent it in because I didn't want to send it back again and be without it for longer. So not only were they soldered together the wrong way, but they also made no effort to fix the crooked part of the ring, and so there was a gap between the two of them on the palm side of the rings and uneven soldering. So I calmly had them send it back again with a photo of how the rings are supposed to look together and I patiently waited another two weeks.

When I got my rings back, they looked even worse.

At first I didn't even notice it very much, but it looked like they had literally clipped a piece of my ring off and then soldered it back on. It was especially noticeable from the bottom, but you could definitely see the shoddy job they did from the visible chips on the side... And AGAIN they didn't bother to fix the crooked part of my engagement ring, so there was still a huge, uneven gap between the rings on the palm side. I barely noticed these things at first, but when we got home I definitely saw them and I was so upset that I started to cry out of frustration, anger, sadness, and definitely fear. My ring looked so far gone that I was afraid they would never be able to make it look like new (and like it was supposed to).

Patrick took us straight back to the store and handled the entire situation beautifully. The woman we had been dealing with was wonderful. She was always so kind and had been in the store every time we had gone in, so she knew the situation and knew exactly what the problems were and could even spot the flaws in the jewelry herself.

This time, she wrote a very detailed note to the jeweler about exactly what needed to be fixed, expressed that this was a top priority since there had been so many issues and it had taken such a long time already, and and she put a rush on it to have it back within seven days.

Today we got it back and it is finally perfect. The wedding band that was so butchered looks brand new, there is no uneven gap between my rings, and there is a small, very even spot where they soldered them together. They look exactly how I would expect from a job done by a professional jeweler. After all of our trouble, we've decided to name this ordeal The Great Ring Fiasco of 2015.

I had been without my rings for over a month for a job that should have taken two weeks, and as much as I adore my grandmother's vintage wedding rings that she gave me for my 21st birthday (which I wear in situations like this when I need to send my rings in for maintenance... No one ever notices that they're different, but they're a little big so I worry about losing them), I was really bummed to be without them for so long.

After we left the mall, we did a bit of shopping for a few groceries and a new cat tent for Marble because the washing machine ate her last one. We ran a couple of other quick errands and then headed back home to relax.

Here's the part where you learn about the other great thing that happened to me today, other than having an overall good day and getting my rings back. A few months ago I rooted my phone. For those of you don't know, this basically means you download a software onto your phone that "opens up" all of the things that you weren't previously able to have access to. Do you have a pre-loaded application on your phone that drives you nuts but you can't delete it? When you root your phone, you are able to delete the things that bother you, change the things you don't like, and load on software that you would like on your phone (plus a whole lot more, but this does void any warranty on your phone and sometimes does end up ruining your phone, so this must be done with caution by someone who knows what they're doing). However, recently Samsung came out with a software update for the phone and I could not find a way to turn off the notification for the update, plus with a rooted phone you are unable to update the software. This meant that I was getting a notification (I kid you not) every time I left my fingers off of my screen for more than five seconds while the screen was awake, plus it would pop up any time I would unlock the phone to use it. I cannot remember the last time I was so annoyed by something so trivial, but I use my phone so frequently (like a tablet or a laptop) that it was something I was dealing with constantly.

So last month (silly me) I thought that factory resetting my phone would fix the problem. I backed up all of my files and reset it, and then painstakingly had to re-download all of my apps, change all of my settings, and adjust my phone to the way it was previously. This, apparently, did not do the trick. I so was worried that I would have to reset it again when I finally un-rooted it that I dealt with the problem until I really couldn't take it anymore because I didn't feel like re-doing everything again. Last night, I actually looked up how to un-root it, downloaded the software to do so, and waited for over an hour for the processes to be over. Thankfully I didn't have to factory reset my phone again. When it was done, my phone tried to update again... and it FAILED. All day I was dealing with that stupid notification again, and I told myself that maybe I did need to factory reset my phone and that I would do it when we got home from running errands today. When I actually sat down to do it, I decided to try to update the phone one last time before I reset it once again...

AND IT FINALLY UPDATED.

Thank goodness, because I was truly ready to chuck the phone out of a moving vehicle. My phone is now finally back to normal, and my annoyances are at a much lower level.

Maybe this was a long, rambling post that no one cares about, and maybe I sound like an absolute brat about my rings, but when you spend that much money on something and it means that much to you, you expect it to be excellent. Plus, dealing with the phone thing was much like dealing with a pop up advertisement on your laptop or phone, and I go to great lengths to get rid of those little buggers.

Regardless, I'm finally happy with my rings and the most constant irritation in my life has finally gone away. Rejoice with me, friends. I don't have to throw a temper tantrum any time soon.



**Another quick update on how I'm feeling: Today was not so great. I dealt with a migraine all day. The headache itself wasn't so terrible after I took Excedrin, but the other symptoms (dizziness, inability to focus or form thoughts, exhaustion, nausea after eating) were very present all day and I felt very out of it-- you should have seen me trying to navigate through the store. I definitely feel that this has to do with our travelling this past week finally catching up with me, so I hope I can kick it with a hot bath and a good night's sleep tonight! Thank you all for all of your kind thoughts and good vibes <3