Side Bar: Summer Nights

July can’t be over because that means I only have one week with interns left. Waaaa! This summer has been nothing if not productive. If I play my cards right, I will have filed TEN applications this month, which is unheard of (for me)!  Ok but other than filing cases, July was like perfect Chicago summer for me.

July included some fun at the beach

My best friend visited from Tx and I got to hang with my baby buddy Lincoln!

Hung out with my prima (who’s going back to Tampa soon 🙁 )

She finished her semester and will be going back for the fall semester in August. We celebrated by taking her to our fave french bakery.

And I actually did something I’ve never done before: participated in Karaoke.  My work has team building activities that get overly-competitive and this time we had to do sing. I hate hate hate singing in public because I’m horrible. But I took one for the team. It was not as horrific as I thought it would be, but I’m positive the two tequila shots I took before my “performance” helped.

My two big focuses this month (outside of work) were nutrition and the house. So first, no I’m most def not on the What the Health bandwagon. In fact, I will scream at you about why I hated that doc if you want to get into it.

But in general, I have been attempting to eat better. Better in the sense that I’m providing nutrients to myself. So the first thing I did was get back to eating breakfast. It is not a major thing–just yogurt, berries, and granola but I’ve done it now for basically all of july is that’s a huge feat for me. Another thing I’ve done is switch up my meatless dishes at home. Tbh I was in a sweet potato & black bean rut. But this week alone, I tried two new dishes with different veggies and it was so satisfying/filling.

So we’ll see how that goes in August.

And then of course the house. There has been so much progress!!

We started the month on a delay because we had an issue with the city, but as soon as that was handled the siding went up, the drywall went up, some rooms have been primed to be painted, and tile has gone up (and down) on walls and floors. They move so fast every day! We’re probably still looking at a September move in, but still–exciting!

My faves for the month–some of you may know I decided to do a bit of a cosmetic fast until the holidays. I do that sometimes just because I mean, my makeup collection is a lot and I just kept adding to it. This gives me a chance to really use what I have instead of just trying it once or twice. My fave piece this month is this beautiful “nude” lippie (def not my skin tone) from Revlon’s street chic collection in Bare Affair. So pretty. I have to mix it with other products to get it to work with my tone, but I love the color, consistency, and that it’s a true lipstick that actually lasts a while.  It’s the nude lipstick next to the melting pout…and tbh all the products in this picture are winners. Recommend all of them!

And for skincare, I discovered this new coconut oil body scrub that I really love. It’s from St. Ives and it’s a dry oil–so you rub it on dry skin and then add water, which creates a lather, then rinse. It makes your skin so soft and I am all about coconut all the time, but it’s especially perfect for summer!

What are some summer skincare/makeup products you’ve discovered recently?