I saw this posted on a friends LiveJournal and really liked the idea. I thought that it could be a really fun way for people to ask questions and to get to know me a little better.

Ask me to take pictures of any aspect of my life that you’re interested in or curious about — it can be anything from the house I live in to my favorite book. I’ll post the pictures in a later entry. Feel free to make your requests as mundane or creative as you like!

I’ve had several people ask that I include more about myself on this blog. So, I decided to post this survey that I found online. Let me know if you include it on your blog too!

1) What color are your fingernails right now? None. I get too lazy to paint them.

2) How about your toenails? Maybelline Express Finish’s Tulip Take-Off. It’s basically bubble gum pink.

3) What is your favorite tv show? Sex And The City!!!! I’ve watched all of the episodes in order at least 12 times thru by now. Honestly, it’s ridiculous how much I love this show.
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While safety is always something that we think about from time to time, very few of us realize how dangerous things can actually be. I don’t live in the best part of the Bay Area, but I had always assumed that the area I lived in was safer than most. It never crossed my mind to worry about if I was in danger on my daily walks to and from work and, just like many ladies out there, didn’t think twice about practically carrying my life in my purse. As those who keep up with me on Plurk or LiveJournal know, this all changed a week and a half ago when I was mugged while walking to work. Frequent readers have probably noticed how light the posts have been and this is the reason. There’s just been so much on my mind.

This post isn’t about the specific event, so I am not going to go into details. There are a few things that I would like to say though. Acts against you strip you of your feeling of personal power. You feel helpless, alone, and scared. I will say that it was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. I am physically okay, but not emotionally. It’s something I don’t want anyone that I know to ever experience, and that I really wish I would have taken some personal safety precautions. Here’s a basic guide on Staying Safe While Looking Good.

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While I do try to keep personal content limited on here, I am guilty of the occasional meme or two. Marsadie tagged me to do this short, random, and fun meme.

Taggers tag any 6 people you’d like then go to their blog to let them know you’ve tagged them… I’m tagging : Alesha, Brandi, Christina, Leander, Pamela, andWhitney.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was 14. Wow. So… Talking on the phone, reading Seventeen, listening to lots and lots and lots of Hanson, and obsessed with collaging everything.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today?
Well, I’m leaving for work in about an hour. After work, I need to do some dishes, do laundry, edit some older posts here on Logical Harmony, and try to clean my apartment as much as possible before I pass out. We’ll see what I actually get done though. Lol. Some times I get home from work and am just way too tired to do anything.

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Fresh fruit of any kind. It’s actually kind of bad because I’ll buy a ton of fruit and end up eating it all within a day or two. Like last week when I bought the biggest package of strawberries that the store had… And ate the entire thing in two days. I also eat a lot of cereal, fresh veggies, and pretzels.

4. Places I’ve lived:
Just Oregon and California.

5. Things I’d do if I were a billionaire:
Pay off all my debt, buy myself one luxurious purchase, donate to the ASPCA (Association of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), buy a car, go to Africa, live in Paris for a few weeks, and bake a lot of vegan cupcakes.

6. People I want to know more about:
My readers! I love seeing repeat comments from people and would always love to connect more with anyone who reads this blog.

Learn more about party invitations!

I just wanted to take a minute to remind everyone that beauty isn’t just about what’s on the outside, but what’s on the inside too. Take a few minutes each day to appreciate everything that you have in your life. Weigh your issues in life and choose your fights. Some really just aren’t worth the hassle, and sometimes things are better off when you accept them as they are and move on. Treat others with the respect that you would like them to treat you with. Take the time to find the beauty in everything. It’s there, it’s just up to you to find it. Realize that beauty often isn’t conventional, and that conventional beauty can be boring.

Life’s too short. Find something that you love and do that to your fullest every single day.

I was tagged by Pamela for this meme. Typically, I don’t post memes here. This 10 Random Things Meme just seemed like it would be fun though.

How to play : Once you’ve been tagged you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random facts, habits, or goals about yourself — at the end choose 5 people to be tagged. Don’t forget to leave them a comment saying “You’re It!” and to go read your blog. You cannot tag the person that tagged you.

1. My two favorite types of foods are fruit and breakfast foods. I could live off fruit, cereal, waffles, French toast, eggs, turkey bacon, etc. and never ever get sick of eating it.
2. I drink a lot of warm and iced tea. If it’s green tea, it’s the one thing that’s better for you than water.
3. I work hard for my money, and don’t feel guilty about spending it. After all, I am a frugal shopper as well.
4. I really really want to learn how to sew.
5. I adore Jason Schwartzman.
6. I do laundry constantly.
7. I live with my boyfriend and our pets : a gecko, 2 hamsters, and a beta fish. We may soon be joined by some fire belly toads, guppies, and possibly a kitten.
8. Spicy food = the devil. I can’t handle the stuff.
9. My coffee house drink of choice is currently a cinnamon soy latte or an iced vanilla soy latte.
10. I prefer beer to wine or hard alcohol. My favorite is Rouge’s Half-e-Weizen.

Tagging : Bobbi, Crystal, J, Kristen, and Tosha.

Well, I’m off to finish getting ready for work. I hope that you all remembered to file your taxes!! I ended up waiting until the last minute to complete mine. But, that ended up working out for the best since my job from Oregon sent me a new W-2 form saying that they had made a mistake on my first one. This increased my state refund, and it’s a lot better than I was expecting. Especially when combined with the economic stimulus checks that are coming as well. I’m going to put some of it into savings accounts and use most of it towards my goal of getting debt free.

I posted pictures of what I wore yesterday on Flickr. I’ve been thinking that I might start to do that more. What do you guys think?

I’m about to head out and do a little well deserved shopping. All my hard work in life and at my job has finally paid off. Along with the promotion that I recently got, I’ve also now received two pay raises. This brings my pay to over $3 (USD) more an hour than it was before the promotion! I’ve been receiving a lot of praise about my work and work ethic from someone at our store that works for the Home Office of the company. They even told me that they wrote to their bosses about how impressed they have been with me. Yesterday I received my first paycheck and, even though it only covered one week of the new position, the check for 2 weeks of work was for the amount that I made in the average month at my former position. Without sounding too full of myself, I want to say that I really do deserve this. I worked my little booty off and things in life weren’t going so great, especially financially. To me, this is proof that hard work, doing good things, and being a good person really do pay off.

Anyways, before I go out shopping I’ve been browsing stores online. I always like to go into a store with an idea of what I am looking for there. I really want to look at some gladiator sandals, spring scarves, and basic layering tanks and tees. Plus, I could really use new earrings and undies too. I’d also love to take a peek at some shorts, skirts and dresses but won’t be buying any. My legs are no where near ready enough for exposure! I need to be a bit more dedicated to my sunless tanner first.

Since I have all these ideas of things that I want to look for, I wanted to ask you all some questions about your spring wardrobe. What things that you are really excited to buy or browse for in the stores? What items do you by every spring? Are there any new items that you are considering this year that you haven’t before? What Are Your Lust Items For Spring?

I try not to do too many meme’s on here just to keep up with keeping the site less personal. But, I saw this one on J’s blog and decided to do it. It’s a seven random facts meme and it sounded like it could be fun.

The rules:
* Link to the person who tagged you.
* Post the rules on your blog.
* Share seven random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
* Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
* Leave a comment on their blogs so that they know they have been tagged.
Easy enough, right?

1. I love love love Soul and Motown music. Sam and Dave, Jackson 5, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding… Nothing puts me in a good mood like this amazing music. I think that the genre in general is incredibly unappreciated and has influenced modern genres more than people realize.

2. Despite my dependency on my flat iron and cosmetics case, I didn’t wear make up on a regular basis until a couple of years ago. It was a confidence thing, really. I always wanted to be girly but didn’t grow up around my sisters, and my mom never wore make up or cared about fashion. I used to go to the public library and spend hours looking at fashion magazines. I just had no one to learn about it from until I made a few really great girl friends when I was 21. I went from being incredibly low maintenance to decently high maintenance. And, you know what? I love it!

3. Peter Jennings is one of my biggest role models. I used to want to be a field reporter in Africa for National Geographic and he was my career role model. I was majoring in Geography, minoring in African Studies, and even looking into studying abroad in Africa. Paying for college myself was hard and forced me to take time off. I used that time to think and it has ended up turning into more time off than I had anticipated, but I’ve finally figured out more about myself. While I’ve now realized that a career along those lines is not for me, I’ve never lost any of the respect for this amazing reporter. Plus, I would have needed to really look into life insurance rates if I planned on going as deep into Africa as I wanted.

4. Now, I’ve realized that my heart lies in fashion. After we move back to Oregon I plan on attending the Art Institute to get my Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Marketing. Then I want to open my own boutique that will show case both well known and local designers. I also want to be a personal stylist on the side. As well as work on designing my own clothing. I’ve contemplated going to Cosmetology school in addition.

5. My favorite color is raspberry pink. A lot of people hate it, but I freaking love it!

6. I love to clean and make lists. Being organized helps me clear my mind. You know when I’m having a stressful day when the bathroom is sparkling and I’m doing random weird things, like trying to clean in the incredibly tiny gaps between the stove and the counter tops or trying to scrub underneath the refrigerator.

7. I’ve always loved to cook and bake. As a kid, my mom and I used to do all kinds of cooking projects. We’d make our own pasta, bake pies, etc. Her family is really into cooking and her parents are two of the best cooks. They used to go on Elder Hostel trips to other countries once or twice a year and would always take cooking classes when abroad. They actually have 2 floor to ceiling bookshelves that are full of only cookbooks. I think the love for cooking and baking runs in the genes.

I am tagging : Anyone who wants to do this! Just leave me a comment if you do.

For Valentine’s Day, my mom sent me a copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. All of the recipes look so good. I’m forcing myself to start at the front of the book and work my way through the entire thing. Not only because the recipes do get more complex towards the end, but also so that I don’t skip straight to some of the most sinful sounding cupcakes. Such as Chai Latte Cupcakes, Dulce Sin Leche Cupcakes, or Cappuccino Cupcakes filled with Espresso Creme.

I had been planning on buying this book and some baking supplies with my tax return money. Talking to my mom the other day I told her all about my plans to buy this book because I’m really wanting to get more into baking. I plan on using my future education in Fashion Marketing and tying it in with the love I’ve always had for baking. Something I’m not going to explain here but a future plan that I am really excited about. Once I have some extra cash, I plan on picking up a few things to help me with this :

+ a cooling rack, possibly with 2 or 3 levels
+ cupcake carrying case to store them in
+ a cake decorating kit with frosting bags and tips
+ sprinkles, especially pink ones
+ a heart shaped cupcake pan
+ possibly a Hello Kitty apron

Then I am going to bake my way through this book. Documenting the entire thing with photos and my reviews of the recipes here, of course. I can’t wait!

Okay, so I’m sure that any regular readers of this blog have been wondering what’s the deal with the paid posting? I know that a lot of people think that it effects the integrity of a blog. Personally, I agree to an extent. It’s frustrating to go a site only to see paid post after paid post, with no real content actually being posted. It’s time for me to level with you all. Things have been very rough for me financially for the past several months. I’m working as much as I can, but you all know how fast basic household expenses and bills can add up. Combine those with my personal bills and, well, I’ve been lucky if I am barely breaking even each month. The paid posting is something that I am doing to try and help alleviate the financial stress that I am under right now.

As I’m sure you have also noticed, the regular posts on this blog are still the same as before. Fashion, healthy, recipes… It’s all still here! Just spaced out a bit more. The bright side of this is that I am posting and sharing even more than I was before. I’ve had so many things marked as topics to post about or recipes to post for months. This is forcing me to get in gear about posting them. I just made a long post in my LiveJournal about this. All my plans on ways to help better my financial situation. I’m through feeling sorry for myself and am determined to be pro-active about getting this situation sorted out. I thought that I would share some of my decisions here as well.

+ Made the decision to stop eating out at all. We do this extremely rarely anyways, but even those rare times need to stop unless it’s a special occasion.
+ Also decided on no more Starbuck’s bought while I’m at work. No matter how tired I am and no matter if it’s just a plain coffee. I’ll bring a water bottle, extra B vitamins, and fruit instead.
+ Saving glass jars from other products so that I can use them to freeze soups and other leftovers in. Instead of throwing away vegetables that are too close to being bad or that there aren’t enough of to make something out of, it’ll go to some use.
+ Eat more tofu instead of chicken. It’s 99 cents for a block of Tofu at Trader Joe’s. How much cheaper can it get?
+ Go to Whole Foods and buy the bulk items needed to make my own bread. My mom gave me a bread machine and I plan on using it! Besides, the average cost of a loaf of bread without any dairy is $3. Considering I eat toast for breakfast pretty much every day, that really adds up.
+ Order more free samples of products that I actually want to use. I’ve gotten shampoo, conditioner, laundry soap… They are super small quantities, but it’s something.
+ Switch to store brands on beauty products whenever possible. Sauve is now back in my shower.
+ Being strict about unplugging the electronic devices that I don’t use. It adds up.
+ Reduce my time in the shower and shave my legs using a sink full of water. We pay for our water and, again, it adds up.
+ No more clothing unless it’s a necessary item. Of course, I won’t refuse gifts.