It’s been about six months since my last general life update so I thought it was time!

This weekend is my sisters wedding. I am a bridesmaid and Ryan is playing videographer. I am excited and hoping to get through it without crying too much.

I bought some very light pink or nude colored nail polish, some white nail polish and nail stickers to do a french manicure and pedicure for the wedding. My little sister was here a couple … Read the rest

I started doing reviews on my blog Emily Reviews back in 2009, though it had a different name and URL at that time. I had originally started the blog to promote my Etsy shop, but I found other review blogs. I started branching into promoting other Etsy shops, and doing some reviews of Etsy shops. Shortly thereafter I got contacted by brands who weren’t Etsy shops at all, so it kind of went from there.

At first I didn’t have … Read the rest

This is a sponsored post for Black Note.

My boyfriend Ryan was 21 when we started dating. He was a cigarette smoker at that time. A couple years later our state banned smoking in public places such as bars and restaurants. I don’t remember if it was in that legislation or not, but around that time most (all?) public places started requiring that smokers stay a certain number of feet away from the buildings. Shortly thereafter, a lot of smokers … Read the rest

I’ve had my tongue pierced twice. The first time I was 15, and then I let it close after about a year. Then I had it re-done later. I recently was at the dentist and was asked about the scar/hole from the piercing which reminded me that I’ve never shared my experience. My post about industrial piercing pain and experience did well so I thought a tongue piercing version of that post idea may be of interest as well.

Prior … Read the rest

I have pretty bad dental anxiety. I remember being in elementary school and getting an upset stomach before my dentist appointments. Fear of the dentist is a common fear. When I recently started seeing a new dentist, the forms I had to fill out int he first visit asked if you have anxiety! Over the years I’ve had several methods for trying to cope with dental anxiety because I don’t want to let my fear of the dentist to keep … Read the rest

As I type this, we are two days shy of the four year anniversary for when I bought home Frank and Beans. It was so hot and humid. Their previous owner gave them to us wearing collars, so we had to stop to buy harnesses (I knew collars were unsafe for pugs). Ryan ran into the store for less than 5 minutes while I stayed in the car (With A/c on) with the pugs, but they were panting so heavily … Read the rest

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Last summer we went to the Grand Canyon the last week of June. It was something like 118 degrees! With us being native to Michigan, we had never experienced weather over about 105 or so before, and we were surprised that 118 didn’t feel even worse. The whole “Dry air” thing definitely makes a difference but make no mistake – 100+ degrees is hot no matter how humid it is!

Anyway, we … Read the rest

It’s been almost two years since my boyfriend and I both decided to work on losing weight. Ryan had been unhappy with his size for a long time.I was 138 pounds and 5’1. I had stayed in about the 125-128 from age 12 to 23 or so. Even back then I wanted to be slightly smaller but after gaining 10 pounds I was truly unhappy with my appearance. I’m very short so 10 pounds is rather visible. For the first … Read the rest