June is when the sunflowers in our flower garden start to bloom. That's when I know that summer is really here. When I can look out my front door and see all the sunflowers growing taller and opening up to the heat.
Our flower garden is right outside our front door, going all the way along the path from our driveway to the door. I love when they grow tall and basically hide our door from the street. It's like a secret path hidden away by green and yellow and it makes me smile so much.
We usually plant a bunch of other flowers at lower levels and in other parts of our yard, so we've always got something new, but we love these sunflowers coming back year after year. Announcing the start of summer, opening themselves up to the sun even as I want to close myself off from it.

Floral Photography

Our front garden is starting to bloom, so I thought I'd share some photos I took of it last week. We've got a little of everything in there.

And a photo of one of our friendly strays we feed named Meow Meow. He looks a little worse for wear because he's been feeling the need to defend our yard from some other neighborhood cats. 

Getting Out, Body Acceptance and that summer feeling

The sun is shining, we have heat advisories and you start to sweat just walking from the house to your car. Summer is definitely here. Even though it is hot and everything is crowded, Summer is a great time to do some reflection and with that in mind....Here are 10 things I'd like to accomplish this Summer.

1- Learn to accept/love my body more. Look, I'm fat. I know that. There's no getting around it, but I've spent too many years letting my insecurities and worries about what other people might say about me keep me covered up. I live in Texas. It is rare that we ever dip below 90 and common to be above 100 most days in the summer. I've forsaken comfort to keep myself hidden away in cardigans and long pants in this heat for too long. Which leads me to

2- Step outside my comfort zone. Wear sleeveless shirts more. Buy some shorts. Let myself be a bit more comfortable and learn to ignore all those insecurities to at least not keep so covered up I give myself heat stroke.

3- go to the pool more. Go to the waterpark. Get in that water and get out of that heat.

4- Keep going to the gym. Go more. Work up to longer time/higher incline on the treadmill. 

5- Stop eating out so much. Cut it down to once or twice a month instead of 2 or 3 times a week. 

6- Eat healthier in general. Instead of ice cream or cookies or cake, have fruit for snack. Or nuts. 

7- Look for a job. All of my previous work has ended and I really need to kick it into high gear, beat my anxiety that's been keeping me from working and get back into it. 

8- Explore. Texas is such a gorgeous state and I really want to get out there and see more of it. There are so many cool cities and towns and areas to visit so close by. I just need to get out there and see it. 

9- Have fun!!! Whatever I'm doing I want to have fun. I have such a tendency (well mostly due to my pessimistic attitude and anxiety) to over analyze things and not actually enjoy the moment. I need to work on just enjoying what I'm doing instead of worrying about everything else. 

10- Keep Cool. Like I mentioned, it gets hot here. It's already hot, so have fun. Keep hydrated and keep COOL!

Favorite Liquid Lipstick: Makeup Monsters

t-b: wolfsbane, dusk, darkness prevails, vintage avenue

I have what I like to think of as a healthy obsession with lipstick. The past few years, liquid lipsticks have stolen my heart and I've tried a large selection of brands and colors. So far, my absolute favorite brand is Makeup Monsters. 

Makeup Monsters in an indie cosmetics company based in Washington that creates vegan and cruelty free liquid lipsticks. They have such a wide selection of shades from the most natural nude pinks to blues, purples and greens. There's something for everyone. The formula is the best I've found. It is a thin, quick drying formula that is super opaque and once it sets it is incredibly long lasting. I don't find these as drying as most other liquid lipsticks and in fact, basically feel like you aren't wearing anything. 

I've got a good selection of four shades initially and can't wait to try more. 

Wolfsbane is a deep greige with lavender undertones. On my very fair skin this is a deep mauve/purple. 

Dusk is a cool toned light grey. On my skin tones, this leans more blue-grey.

Blackness Prevails is a true black.

Vintage Avenue is described as a plummy mauve with brown undertones. On me, this is a great dark nude. I get so many compliments anytime I'm wearing this out. 

Even though I only four shades right now, I hope to get more because these are an amazing formula from a really great indie brand. 

A little intro since I'm new to this.

I'm Tiffany. 34. I live in Central Texas with my husband of 10 years, Dustin. I've been working as a freelance editor and part time substitute teacher for the past 6 or so years, but am currently on the hunt for a change. Maybe this blog will help me along the way.

I'm a lover of tea. Used to be addicted to coffee, but had to give it up due to anxiety. I have been a big reader my entire life and am always in the middle of at least 3 books at once. I love horror movies, Richard Linklater films, collecting figures, matte liquid lipstick, and visiting modern art museums. 

I love cats. Had them all my life. We lost our baby cat Lestat last year at 13 years, but luckily we have this one to still keep us company:

A vacation can be anything you need it to be

I used to think vacation meant something where you saved up a bunch of money, got on a plane and went on an at least week long trip. For a lot of years, that's what it was in my mind. However, after years of financial hardship without the means to go on a "traditional" vacation, I had to learn to change what vacation meant to me.

Growing up my family was never well off, but got by. Somehow my parents scraped together money for trips to places like Disney World numerous times and New York City. It was exciting. It was an adventure. It was VACATION.  Even well into college, vacation was still a grand design. A road trip to New Orleans with my friends; a trip to Disney World with friends and my boyfriend; a week at the beach with my now fiance's family.

And then reality set in.

I graduated. Work was hard to come by. Student Loans needed to be paid. Bills were a reality and with no more student loan money, vacations weren't an option. It even took a number of years of no trips (besides out honeymoon) before we were able to reach a place where we were even thinking about spending the money a vacation would cost. For the first time as a real adult, married and with only our own money, the thought of spending that much of what little we had on a big trip somewhere was disheartening. So, the new version of vacation started.

Small weekend trips to some of the great places here in Texas we could easily drive. San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin. We discovered airbnb and never looked back.

Vacation didn't have to means tons of money and flight. It could mean just getting away for a few days and exploring a different city. Living in Central Texas, we have easy car access to so many places we've yet to explore. I'm looking forward to expanding our vacations and really learning to love the state I've spent my whole life in and yet seen so little of.