Local Landmarks: Washington Rock State Park

Since it has been so nice out lately, and I've been getting better, I went with a friend to Washington Rock State Park. Washington Rock is only five minutes from my house driving, so it is easy enough to hang out with some friends there whenever you want.

Basically, during the Revolutionary War, Washington and his troops had sent up camp where this park is now because you can see for miles when looking out from the edge. Washington used this to his advantage in order to spot when and where British soldiers were coming. 

Now its more or less used for looking at the skyline of New York City in the far off distance 

And there's always a flag because America.

 (There were actually quite a lot of people there, which was surprising because usually no one is there)

 My friend and I then decided (more like I decided) to check out the trails that were also part of the park

 It was so serene and beautiful walking through the trees (instead of sitting inside on the computer as usual)

 (I also found a secret trail that I decided to venture down)

 Oh look nature... so pretty

If I can do it, so can you! Go check out a local landmark near where you live and rediscover it again, you never know what you'll find.

Talk to you later,

-Karin xx

Skincare Routine

In an effort to make my skin look its best, I try and keep a daily routine that makes my stay moisturized and healthy.

I start off the morning with a makeup wipe to get the residual makeup from the night before off 

(if I didn't wear makeup the day before I skip this step)

(these ones are from Costco)

Then I go to my toner, which I spray all over my face 

(the Breath of Fresh Air Facial Toner is from Lush)

After the toner dries on my face, I then dab on a little moisturizer 

(this is the Imperialis Facial Moisturizer also from Lush, also I only use a dab of this because a little goes a long way)

I then follow along with whatever makeup I'm going to use that day or just stop there.

Then I spray this moisturizer on my legs and arms and I'm ready to go for the day  

At night I do the same process as I did in the morning and once or twice a week I use one of the following face masks

(I got these in a set and I plan on buying them in full size soon. I got the set from Sephora, it also comes with an application brush so you don't get any of the mask on your hands)

I try and keep my skincare as simple as possible and I've found that these products work the best for my skin (I have combination skin where its oily in my T-zone and drier on my cheeks). I hope this helps anyone wondering which products work well!

Talk to you later,

-Karin xx

A Chronic Sickness

For those of you who didn't know, I have been out of school since April 22. That is exactly seven weeks today, and believe me I would do anything to be well enough to go back.

It all started when I got a severe case of bronchitis. I went to the doctor, only to find out that on top of the bronchitis, I also had an ear infection (which is very unusual for a teenager to get). At that point I didn't even know that I had anything wrong with my ears because there was no symptoms of anything. So my doctor had prescribed me some antibiotics and said that if I wasn't better after taking it for six days, to come back to be re-evaluated.

So six days later I show up again, only worse. I could know feel the excruciating pain of the ear infection, which felt like I was being stabbed in my ears and fully blocked all hearing from my right ear and partially from the left, light sensitivity and a nonstop headache that wouldn't let me fall asleep until I passed out from exhaustion each night around 2 AM. My doctor, surprised that the medication was ineffective, then had me come to her office three days in a row to get shots of a different medication. (at this point I still had a little bronchitis too, but it was going away thankfully)

After those three days of shots only left me with bruises on both of my arms, and no effect on my ears. My doctor the suggested that I go and see an ear, nose, and throat doctor (ENT for short) to see what was wrong with me. I went to the ENT the next day (his office looked as if it had not changed since the 80s) and he only reiterated what I already knew. I had an ear infection in both ears blocking some of the ear drum which is why I could barely hear. He prescribed me steroids in an effort to bring down the swelling around my ear drums. This worked well but not without any consequences. Now instead of not being able to hear while having a horrendous headache and light sensitivity, I now have hypersensitive hearing. Which does not help when you live in the loudest house on Earth.

My neurologist had said to get a MRI and a MRA, to see if the problem was in my brain. The experience of having a huge, extremely noisy machine around your head for 35 minutes, on top of already having a headache did not make the situation better. The only worse thing was that the results came back normal. Which means no one knows what is really wrong with me. My neurologist now wants me to get blood work done to see what exactly is happening.  Great.

All of this on top of the school work I need to catch up on is adding to an already stressed out teenager. I hope everyone else is doing better than I am because if you're not I truly feel for you.

Talk to you later,

-Karin xx

Party Time!

A couple of days ago was my birthday! I am now officially 17 now, so exciting (but not really)! For my birthday, I had a couple friends over that I haven't seen since I've been sick and put on home instruction. It was great to see them and catch up on all of the stuff they've been up to and what's happening in school, considering I now go to a school of 1 (just imagine being the only student in a class for 2 hours, not fun, but neither is being sick).

I got balloons and cards from everyone and had a cupcake piñata that was full of candy, that ended up being torn apart (oops).

This is what the piñata looked like before being hit multiple times with a baseball bat. 

Then they wore it as a hat, posed heroically, and then used it as a frisbee

It's never fun to be sick on your Birthday, but when surrounded by friends, the possibility of forgetting about being sick, even for a little while, goes up immensely.

Talk to you later,

-Karin xx 

Junior Prom 2014!

Guys I can't believe its June already! Anyway, a little over a month ago, I went to my school's junior prom, which was super fun! I got to hang out with my friends that I otherwise don't get to see outside of school, and look amazing at the same time! Who wouldn't want to do that? No one I can think of.

Since it was Junior Prom (or Junior Semi-Formal), I decided to go with a short dress instead of a long one. I got this one called, "New York Minuet" from Modcloth.

 

This dress was super comfortable and didn't show off too much cleavage and was the perfect length, in my opinion. I wore this dress with a pair of classic black heels by Steve Madden like the ones here.

I got my hair done right after school ended and at one point, looked like Taylor Swift circa 2006

Here's the finished look all together:

 

(I have on  Bite Beauty Luminous Crème Lipstick in Tannin and then did some simple champagne eyeshadow and eyeliner.) 

Here are a couple of pictures I took with my friends that night.

All I can say is that Junior Prom was a ton of fun with all my friends, I wish it lasted longer.

Talk to you later, (actually super soon!)

-Karin xx