Just a little Cheer

Hi peeps!

I just saw this baby otter wandering around on the internet and decided that he needed to be shared with my lovely internet strangers. Enjoy.

http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=49707



See, the internet can have positive benefits too! There are so many ways you can harness the power of the world wide web to motivate yourself.
Try fitness tumblrs, funny stories, or youtube videos of super athletic people.
It really gets you moving.

Okay that's it, hope you all are having a lovely sunny weekend!
Enjoy loveliness and remember to muse :)

Banana Cake

FOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDD!

I'm not even going to attempt to describe my love-hate relationship with that simply edible entity.
Instead, here's a 3-ingredient recipe for simple and cute-looking banana cakes!

http://get-thinspiration.tumblr.com/post/30959948461/healthyhallelujah-justbreathe831

If you haven't yet, read the last post (Refresh Yourself) and try your hand at baking! Let this be your "something new". :)

*From Healthy Hallelujah:

No fuss, 3 ingredient banana cake

- 1 banana
- 2 eggs
- 2 scoops of protein powder

Mix everything together in a food processor. Cook for 20 minutes at 220 degrees Celsius (430 degrees F) or until lightly brown on top.   

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't own any protein powder. I'm thinking you could probably substitute flour with a pinch of baking powder. But hey, I haven't made this yet....I guess my period of begin refreshed has ended, seeing as how I'm becoming reacquainted with procrastination so quickly. 

WELL I hope you give this a try! Enjoy loveliness and remember to muuuuuuuuse! :)

Refresh Yourself

Hello earthlings!

For two days this week I have been dazedly observing some sort of miraculous occurrence; I went to bed before 12:00. Both nights.
STRANGE RIGHT?! Seriously though, I had developed a legitimate routine of getting into bed at approimately 12:48 each night. Not exactly healthy when you need to wake up at 6.

But seeing as how this strange, strange thing will most certainly be short-lived, I'm going to take advantage of the time that it does exist and tell you, to the best of my abilities, how I did it.

I refreshed myself.
Hence the very creative post title.

 No but really, trying something new, or simply forcing your mind to do something a little bit differently, completely refreshes your mind and can easily lift your brain out of that cavernous pit of procrastination and self-despair. You all know what I'm talking about; we all know the inside of that pit better than we know our pillows.

For me, the catalyst was beginning to read for pleasure again. Reading is great. It's like the smart-people form of distraction, and it sharpened my brain while giving is a respite from soggy math homework.
I also found some new music, and this helped to enliven my zombie-like state of being. "One More Night" by Adam Levine. That's my jam.

So step out of your normal routine. Try something new. Hopefully, if all goes well, you'll see a spike in your productivity and creativity and general well-being.

Hm. I guess this is a sign from Mother Nature to literally spice up your life. Because new is only new more so long, you know?
Is a good life the life where there is no normal?

Ha. Let THAT be your unofficial thought provoker. :)

And here's a picture, just for good measure.


http://www.goodnaturedllc.com/wp-content/uploads/whole-spices(2).jpg

Enjoy loveliness and remember to muse!

Inner Creative Demons- Thought Provoker #4

Good 10:54, folks!
Oh, something I've noticed is that the time displayed for my posts are off by about several hours. So when I write a post about being sleepy at 7 pm, it's really not 7 pm. I'm not THAT lame.
At least that's what I would like to hope.

Isn't it fun sometimes to just let your inner creative demon run free, running around scrawling sappy-descriptive passages that have no meaning whatsoever? Don't disregard these creative urges. Use them! Sometimes the most random, impromptu pieces of writing will spark a genius idea for something actually worthy of presenting to an audience (whether or not they're behind a computer screen).

Plus, for me at least, descriptions are just the most fun. I subconsciously do it in my head sometimes.
Hey, it's satisfying. Don't judge.

So, in celebration of all of our inner creative demons, today's thought provoker will be a picture! Have fun with it. You know you will.

http://enpundit.com/starry-night-light-installations-by-lee-eunyeol/

This is the work of photographer Lee Eunyeol. No copyright infringement intended! 

Aaaand enjoy loveliness and remember to muse. :)

WHY STRESS IS BAD because you really didn't know

Note: GIFs come from whatshouldfigureskaterscallme.tumblr.com


Although I've only had 2 weeks of school, me and stress are like best buds now. Seriously. I overloaded myself on schoolwork and extracurriculars, and the most sleep I've gotten in two weeks is less than seven hours. No lie.
Which, by the way, may explain why this post is somewhat more grumpy and stupid than the rest.
Although I'll admit, that buttermilk post wins the stupidity prize, any day.
Hehe.

You're probably thinking, "Ew gross, I don't want to hear about this girl's anxiety problems." But I'm sharing this with you because I think I've finally figured it out.

How people become stressed:
You go on some sort of break.
You're relatively refreshed, whether you know it or not.
You come back to normal life and think, "Hey, I can handle this
and this
and this
and this
and this,
I'll just be like kind of a person who has everything and has it all togther.
I'll like learn from this experience or something.

Basically:
YOU OVERESTIMATE YOURSELF AND THIS IS BAD.


^is this you?
WRONG!

...Because your refreshed and thoughtfully-ignorantly-planning-your-own-demise self has no idea what it will actually be like to do all those things you mentally (or maybe actually) signed yourself up for. Don't do this to yourself!
I know it can actually be really difficult to turn away from this self-over-estimation. Heck, I haven't even done it yet. All I can give you are some tips that sound like they came from a school planner.

Horrible Tips if You've Already Done the Above (like me)

Plan your time. Do it realistically. And by this I mean plan for times when you might get distracted if that's something that happens every day.

Get some priorities. When your schedule crunches your soul into a thousand tiny pieces, at least know which pieces you're going to save.

Refresh yourself. You brain is like a knife. You gotta sharpen it to increase it's efficiency!



I hope you enjoyed those tips that, quite frankly, made absolutely no sense. 
I need some sleep.
Goodnight and remember to museeeeeeeeee..................

Back to Business

Hello again gorgeous internet strangers! Sorry that I haven't posted in an obscenely long period of time...you see, I was at summer camp, and then I went to California, and then I *insert excuse here*, so that's why I didn't finish my summer homework. I MEAN POST ON MY BLOG IN A LONG TIME. If my summer homework taught me one thing, it's that denial ain't just a river in Egyt. (--Mark Twain). Also, try not to embrace your screwedness when you find yourself cramming or furiously doing something at some ungodly hour. No denial. No embracing the screwedness.

Yes, school has started. And it's just like I never left. Which I really didn't, given the 26 pounds of summer homework given to me by my lovely, demanding, get-no-sleep Georgia school. Man, I missed getting only five hours of sleep.

AHAHAHAHA JOKES ON ME.



Anyway, my lazy bitterness aside, the start of the school year always gives me plenty of new thoughts to pretend to be occupied with. Something about being crammed into a low brick building for eight hours with 2700 strangers makes you think about people and how they act. So, without further ado, I present to you: My Thoughts During Five Minutes of School!

Time for third period!
Woah, look at her shirt! It's so pretty. Man, I wish I had a shirt like that.
...
We're supposed to write an essay by tomorrow?? YOU KIDDIN' ME WOMAN?!
Oh wait it's only a page. That's no too bad. But I'm gonna tell my little brother that it's an essay cause then he'll be scared for high school.
Hehehe.
He.

We're supposed to write about our identity? I DUNNO.
Who am I anyways?
....
HEY LOOK! Her hair is the exact color of a squirrel!
That is SO cool.
.....
Oh yeah, essay. I wonder how people respond to their expectations. Do I work to become my expectations, or do I live to defy them?
...I'm kinda hungry.
I wonder if that girl's parents fight at home. Maybe they do and nobody knows.
Everybody has a secret.
WHAT'S YOURS? SECRET- deodorant.
HAHA that's not even how it goes.
...
Get out a sheet of paper? NOOOO that's too much work.
Hey I like this teacher, she's cool.
I wonder if she thinks our faces look funny when she's teaching us.
...
What are sponges made of?


I have to say, that's as accurate as it gets. Think what you may of it.

Enjoy school kiddos, or summer if it's still hanging around for you. Anddddd of course,
enjoy loveliness and remember to muse. :)

Buttermilk and GIFs

IT'S THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER!
Which is really the longest day of the entire year. Wouldn't you think that the summer solstice would occur in the middle of summer, not at the beginning. Well.

How have all of your summers been so far? Fun? Productive? Filled with soft fabric and yummy beverages?

I want to share this really easy way to make a buttermilk substitute with you guys. Because I have nothing better to do and I can. :)
By the way, buttermilk actually has no butter in it. Real buttermilk is, hypothetically, the liquid left behind when you churn milk into butter.
But something tells me that buttermilk companies don't churn butter every time they make some buttermilk. I dunno.

Okay, before I decide this is too weird to post, here goes.

BUTTERMILK SUBSTITUTE


Add a tablespoon of white vinegar (or lemon juice) to a measuring cup.

Fill the cup up to the 1-cup line with milk.

Stir and let sit for 5 minutes.

Ta-da!
Now before you leave and question my sanity, let me inform you-- buttermilk has health benefits! Okay so that probably didn't really help my case....
It's good for digestion, and it has calcium, phosphorus, and potassium. Yum.

BUT WAIT. Don't make it just to drink it. 
I tried that. Not good. Let's just say........
Okay it was just really sour. JUST not good.

But if you need it for a recipe, this is perfect!
I'm sorry this is such a random post. It's not even past midnight.

Here's a GIF that accurately illustrates how I feel when I ask myself "Where did all the time go?" 





And I don't doubt that this is you right now if you read my entire post. Buttermilk. I am entirely too weird.
Anyways, enjoy loveliness and remember to muse!