Summer Favorites

Hey hey, everybody! How have y’all been?

Where I live, school begins this Wednesday (RIP). This means that summer is almost at an end.

While I’m sad, I’m so thankful for everything I was able to do this summer— from a theatre camp, to helping out with a VBS, to singing in a Fourth of July celebration, to a youth conference, to a retreat, to a trip to Saint Joseph, to two weeks with extended family, to getting a perm. This summer has been great.

That being said, I’m also excited for the school year. Not for homework or anything like that, but I’m really looking forward to a lot of the classes I’m taking. Also, it’ll be nice to go back into a normal-feeling routine and having some more structure put back into each week.

Since summer is pretty much over for me, I figured I would share with you some of the things that made my summer a little bit better!! (BTW, this officially gives me permission to start posting about my favorite season: autumn. Get ready, folks.)

It Cosmetics CC Cream

I’ve tried many different foundations, and often, no matter the price or brand, I found almost all of them went on patchy or were too orange or had terrible coverage, etc. But, bless up, that is not the case here! I have this CC cream in the lightest shade, Fair, and it works beautifully. It’s not super cheap, at $38, but you only need about a raisin-sized pump of this for it to cover your entire face. It lasts all day, has a nice smell (I don’t think it’s scented, but it lacks the odor that so many foundations or CC creams have from the ingredients and chemicals used), and feels light on. 10/10.

Benefit GALifornia Blush

Benefit Cosmetics knocks this one out of the park. I got the mini size of this blush, so instead of paying $29 I only paid $15! For a high quality, BEAUTIFULLY scented (it smells like summer), highly pigmented blush, I’d say that the price is pretty good. It comes with a little brush, as well, which is convenient because it fits right in the container! A gorgeous and worthwhile purchase.

Thrifting

I’ve always been into going to Goodwill and random thrift stores to find treasures, and the past few months were no different. This is in my favorites because I found SO many good things from thrifting this summer. A $10 rosy floral comforter, 4 new books, wall art, a gorgeous $5 dress (it had a coffee stain; we got it out🤙🏼)… I definitely found lots of steals. Yay for thrifting!

Music

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This title is super vague, but there are so many music-related things I’ve been involved in this summer. I’ve played guitar a ton (hello, calluses) which is really fun, and increasing my appreciation for people who can do anything other than simple chording on the guitar because THAT IS HARD ENOUGH. Along with that, I’ve been writing songs a bit. Not really to share with people (I mean, who knows?), but I’ve always liked writing poetry, and writing songs is basically just taking poetry and setting it to a tune.

I mentioned above that I took part in a theatre camp this summer! The show we put together was “Children of Eden” by Stephen Schwartz. It was unbelievably fun (and time-consuming) and a huge highlight of my summer. The music from this show was a big part of my summer, not only because of working on it during the camp, but also because of listening to it after the camp ended to try to get over Post Show Depression (🙃).

Also, really recently, I’ve been into SoundCloud. I’ve had this app before, but I’ve realized how GREAT this app is to discover new music from either well-known or unheard of artists. It’s really special and I love it.

Boyband on ABC

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Okay, y’all. My Grammie actually introduced me to this show a few weeks after it began its run, thinking that I would enjoy it. At first, I was super reluctant about it and kind of thought it was dumb. Don’t get me wrong, there are still times where it’s cheesy (to be honest, that’s mostly the judges’ faults, not the contestants’), but I kind of love the show now. (The judges are Timbaland, Nick Carter from The Backstreet Boys, and Emma Bunton from The Spice Girls.)

Boyband is a reality tv show created to form the next One Direction, basically. The show starts off with a fairly large number of boys, and then the judges narrow it down to around 15. Every week, the guys are put into new groups and perform a song together. Week by week (it airs on Thursdays), the judges get rid of one or two boys, to eventually narrow it down to 5 for the ending boy band that will get a record deal. Several weeks ago, Boyband starting airing live. This way, when the judges put up boys for elimination, America gets to vote for who to save instead of the judges getting to make the ultimate decision. As of last Thursday, there are 8 boys left, and 2 weeks left until the final boy band is revealed.

I think I love this show because I went through a hardcore One Direction phase in elementary school, and because I’ve always just loved boy bands (sue me). I’m a shameless fan girl, to be frank. The contestants livestream on Instagram a lot, and make it personal with the viewers and it’s one of the weirdest yet coolest things ever. This show definitely isn’t for everyone, but I personally think this show is great. And when the final 5 make it big as a famous group, I’ll be able to say that I supported them before they were famous. 😇

Two favorite performances: Click here to watch Topline perform Despacito. Click here to watch Third Wheel perform Fighter.

Perms

Hey, look, that’s me! That’s right, guys. I got a perm. I went into the salon not even thinking about a perm, but after telling the hairstylists what I wanted and thinking it over, I just decided to go for it! For those of you who don’t know, perms take about 3 hours from start to finish… but it was worth it. I love my hair! Curly-haired Lauren is back (from around second grade and down, my hair was naturally super wavy… but also frizzy and I looked like a Christmas tree, so this is 10x better).

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So, there we go. I hope your summer has been lovely! Make the rest of it count.

“Your potential is endless. Go do what you were created to do.”

Blessings! Lauren Joy