Sick Day, What to do to Feel Better

Hello everyone! With the colder weather unfortunately comes diseases like colds and flues. So I thought I would share my tips for feeling better when you are under the weather. Remember I am not a doctor, this is just my personal opinion about what helps me.

It is awful when you are coughing a lot. Cough drops help a little bit. I recommend the Burt's Bees brand cough drops. I prefer the honey ones because they seem to help me the most.

Having a stuffy nose is one of the worst parts of being ill. I go though tons of tissues when I'm sick. I really like using Puffs Plus, the one with Vick's Vapor rub is the best because it helps to clear your sinuses a little bit more than just plain tissues.
I also use a Saline nose spray, I recommend the Ocean brand, is also great for clearing out your head.

Keep hydrated! Drink lots of water, juice, or some tea. Tea helps sooth a sore throat especially if you add honey and lemon to it. Gatorade and Vitamin Water are good things to have to replace electrolytes when you are sick.

Have some soup. I know when I'm sick sometimes I just don't feel like eating at all. Soup is good because it has a variety of things like vegetables and protein that will help give your body the nutrients it needs. Homemade soup is the best, but the can stuff works too.

Make sure you rest a lot. Don't do unnecessary activities. Get extra sleep. Sleep helps the body repair itself, and you will feel a little better.

Take a warm shower or bath. The steam from the shower can help with congestion and to relax you. It is also nice to feel clean when you are sick.

Take cold medicines if necessary. Make sure you follow all instructions from either your doctor or the bottle. I had a horrible cough with my allergies this year, so Robitussin for congestion and cough was a huge help. Benedryl also helped me because I had the watery eyes and itchy throat issues with my allergies.

Lastly, just wait it out. You might not feel better right away, but you will be back to normal in no time. Stay optimistic.

Top Ten Books I Read In 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish

Like I have mentioned before, I read quite a few books this year. It was a little hard to choose just 10 as my favorites, but I decided that I could only use one book from a series and that made my choice a little easier. So here are my top ten books that I read in 2014 in no particular order:

1. Switched by Amanda Hocking
2. Wake by Amanda Hocking
3. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
4. Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
5. Divergent by Veronica Roth
6. Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
7. Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo
8. Vitro by Jessica Khoury 
9. Bliss by Lauren Myracle
10. Girl Online by Zoe Sugg - I haven't finished this one yet, but it will be finished by 2015 and I can already tell that it will make this list! ;)

Study Tips

Hello everyone! I am a first year college student and this time of year means final exams are here. I realize that a lot of people will be taking their finals now as well, so I just thought I would share some of my study tips with you. So here are some things that really help me when I'm studying for a final or test/quiz in general.

• Make flashcards! I know this seems like an annoying thing to do, but if you make flashcards for things like vocabulary words it can really help you memorize them quicker. You can also easily carry the cards around with you and if you have a free moment, take them out and quiz yourself. You can also have friends help you study by asking them to quiz you.
• Use different colors for different subjects/ideas. An example of this might be using pink index cards for vocabulary words and using blue ones for possible essay questions. Or you could use different colors for different classes such as purple for english vocab and green for history vocab. You could also highlight important details in you notes that you will need to know. This makes it easy to distinguish what things belong to which subject or idea.
• Use acronyms to help remember things. An example I'm sure many of you have heard before is PEMDAS or Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally to remember the order of things for math. Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.
• Use word association! This one might seem silly, but it really does help. An example of this that I love is actually from an episode of an old TV show called "The Facts of Life" the specific episode this is in is called "Take my Finals Please". In this episode one of the girls needs to memorize the symbols for the elements on the periodic table. She is having trouble remembering that the symbol for Gold is AU. So her friend suggests that she uses word association and says to think, somebody stole your gold watch and as he is running away you yell "Ay you! Give me back my watch!". I actually found this very helpful a few years ago when I had to memorize the elements for my chemistry class. 
• Make a study group! If some of your friends are in the same class as you, you can suggests that you all get together to study. You can quiz each other and make some snacks and have a good time while you study.
• Review Homework questions and Past Tests/Quizes. Many of the subjects from past things are sure to show up on your final. So go back and see what you have done wrong in the past and try to remember to fix that on your next exam.
• Make sure you get sleep the night before! Staying up all night cramming is not going to help you. You will be very tired during your exam and will be more likely to forget things than if you got a full night's sleep. If you do stay up all night studying, make sure to take a few naps in between studying, even 20 minutes will help you feel more refreshed and ready to learn.
• Take breaks! Make sure you give yourself a little bit of time to relax in between studying. Go grab a snack, take a brief walk, or just do something you enjoy for a little while. 

I hope this was helpful! And if there is anything that you like to do to study that I didn't mention above, please share them in the comments because I would love to hear your ideas!  

Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish

I read a lot of books in the past year, but looking back I didn't read a large variety of authors. Most of the books I read this year were by Amanda Hocking and Richelle Mead. However, I did manage to find 8 other authors that were new to me besides these two. Not all of these authors really thrilled me, but some were very good. The first 5 are definitely my favorites of the new authors and then it kind of goes downhill from there in my opinion.

1. Amanda Hocking
2. Richelle Mead
3. Veronica Roth
4. Zoe Sugg
5. Becca Fitzpatrick
6. Jay Asher
7. Mizue Tani
8. Milk Morinaga
9. Todd Burpo
10. Jon Krakauer

October & November Favorites

Hello everyone! I never made a post about my October favorites, but many had stayed the same during the month of November as well so I have decided to combine my October and November favorites into one post. Sorry there aren't any pictures! I've been quite sick lately and haven't been feeling up to doing a lot so I didn't want to gather all this stuff up for photos. Instead, stay tuned soon for my upcoming post on how to feel better when you feel sick. For now, I hope this is somewhat interesting for you. <3

Food and Drinks:

• Sour Pez Candy - My friend had visited the Pez factory and brought me back some sour Pez candies. They were really good, definitely sour though.
• Apple Cider - I love apple cider during the fall, it is great hot or cold.
• Pumpkin Spice flavored things - Tis the season for pumpkin spice... enough said.
• International Delights Hazelnut flavor - I love hazelnut flavored coffee, and these International Delights creams are great for keeping in my dorm room because they don't need to be refridgerated and they make the coffee taste great!

Beauty:

• Softlips cube - I received this from Influenster for testing purposes in my Deans List VoxBox and I have been using it non-stop ever since. I really like the formula, it is extremely moisturizing. The only thing I don't like is the square cube packaging, it makes it difficult to close because you need to be careful not to squish the product. 
• Warm Vanilla Sugar Scrub from Bath and Body Works - I love this scent and I need to exfoliate more often to remove dead skin during the colder months. 
• Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin Scent from Bath and Body Works - I love this scent in the fall. I have the candle that I burn whenever I get the chance and I also have the lotion.
• No Text Red nail polish - This is another product that I got in my Deans List VoxBox. I love the color and the message it has about not texting while driving. I think red nails are perfect for any time of year, but they are especially great during the fall and winter seasons.
• Good Soap, Vanilla scent - I have used up another soap by the Good brand from Whole Foods. I really like these soaps.

Random!

• Pumpkin Carving - I had to carve a pumpkin for Halloween and it reminded me of when I was little and just made me feel good inside. 
• Movie: Dracula - I saw this movie with my friends while I was home from school one weekend, and it was actually really good. I had entered with low expectations and it surprised me.
• Music: Taylor Swift 1989 - I am a huge Taylor Swift fan, however I don't love the new album. There are a few songs that I do have stuck in my head. The songs I really like are: Style, Blank Space, Shake it off, and Bad Blood.

Holiday Bath and Body Works and Lush Haul

Hello everyone! I recently ordered a few things from Bath and Body Works and from Lush. I love Bath and Body Works products and I have been wanting to try something from Lush for a long time and I finally got around to ordering something. So I thought I would share what I got with you guys.

Firstly from Lush I got a soap, a bath bomb, and a bubble bar. 

The bath bomb I got is called "Shoot for the Stars" and I think you can tell from the picture that it has the shape of a shooting star on it. I used this recently and it smells so good. It has a really sweet smell. It turns your bath a dark blue color when it is finished fizzing and it also has silver glitter in it, which it quite difficult to get off of your skin afterwards but looks fantastic while your in the bath and it's swirling around you. This also left my skin super soft and smooth.

The bubble bar I got is called "Candy Mountain" and it smells very sweet like cotton candy sort of. You crumble this under the running water and it creates lots of bubbles in your bath. 

The soap I got is called "Rock Star" and it smells like bubble gum. I can't wait to use it, but I'm trying to use up my old soap first before I start using a new one. 

Then from Bath and Body Works I got three little candles and two body cremes.
The candles I got are in Merry Cookie, Vanilla Bean Noel, and Pumpkin Gingerbread. The body cremes are Vanilla Bean Noel (Can you tell that I like this scent?) and Warm Vanilla Sugar.

I hope you enjoyed this little haul and I will put up a new post very soon! :D 

Top Ten Books I'm Looking Forward To In 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish

The year is coming to an end so quickly! Here are the top ten books I am looking forward to in 2015. The first 6 are new books that will be coming out and the last 4 are just random books that I am looking forward to reading in the new year:

1. The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead - I have been loving the Bloodlines series lately. I just finished reading The Firey Heart and I can't wait to start Silver Shadows and then finish the series with The Ruby Circle. I am sad that the series will be coming to an end though.
2. Frostfire by Amanda Hocking - I have read quite a few books by Amanda Hocking this year and I have enjoyed all of them, so I am looking forward to this new one.
3. Sapphire Skies by Becca Fitzpatrick - I liked the first two books in the Hush Hush series and this one sounds even better than those.
4. Sweet Sixteen by Jennifer Lynn Barnes - I loved the Raised by Wolves trilogy so I'm excited to get to see some of Lake's point of view.
5. The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes - Like I said, I loved the Raised by Wolves trilogy so I would like to read more of her books.
6. Zoe Sugg might be coming out with a new book next year. Right now it doesn't have a title but perhaps it will be a sequel to her first book that just came out?
7. Speaking of Zoe Sugg's new book, I plan on reading Girl Online in the new year if not before the new year ;)
8. I also would like to get Zoe's boyfriend's book The Pointless Book by Alfie Deyes, this book is already out but I don't own it yet. It is more of an activity book and not a story. 
9. Icing on the Lake by Catherine Clark - This seems like a good book to read during the winter time near New Years
10. Cinder by Marissa Meyer - I've heard that this series is really good, so I plan on reading it in the new year!