January 2018 Favorites + Reflection

January has come and gone and this year I decided to do something I’ve never done before. If you watch a lot of YouTubers or read other blogs then you have probably seen other influencers round up their monthly “favorites.” I decided that I would start doing this in 2018 and I would also use this time to reflect on my month. I think this is a nice way to make sure I’m progressing, moving forward with my goals, and sharing with all of you what I’ve been obsessing over lately.

January Favorites:

Beauty products: “Curl Sculptor” by Mixed Chicks, “POREfessional” face primer by Benefit Cosmetics, “Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation” by FENTY Beauty, and I dyed the ends of my hair pink by using Splat hair dye.

Movies: This month all the movies I saw were great! I saw Pitch Perfect 3, I, Tonya, Justice League, and The Post.

TV Shows: This month I was kind of all over the place on Netflix. I started Shameless, finished season 1 of The Crown, watched some more of Grace and Frankie, and rewatched all of season 1 of The Carrie Diaries. I also returned to Criminal Minds after taking a break from all the serial killers and now I’m almost on season 10.

Book: Fashion Journalism by Julie Bradford — This book was a little hard for me to finish. It was very informational, but it’s basically a textbook so it could get a little boring. I think it’s a great study tool for anyone interested in fashion journalism, but since it is by a British author, many of the examples were European based. I still learned from it though and I’m glad I read it.

Song: “Finesse” by Bruno Mars ft. Cardi B

Places: I sat in the live studio audience for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and Ashley Graham was the guest, so that was amazing. For my birthday, I went to Madame Tussauds wax museum for the first time and had so much fun. I attended an Industry Brunch that was hosted by Carl Lamarre from Billboard Magazine. I also attended my first Black Bloggers Unite Power Hour and an alumni reunion for my arts journalism graduate program. I also went to church for the first time since I moved to NYC.

January Reflection:

This month was pretty good overall. For some reason, I ALWAYS have bad luck with New Years and this year was no exception. I missed my flight back to New York and had to stay home in Michigan so I missed out on my first New Years in NYC with my best friend. And, to make it worse, my bags got checked and were already in NYC, so I had no clothes to go out in while I was stuck in Michigan. So, I ended up at home and my parents and sisters were pretty much asleep by the time the ball dropped lol. But, it honestly wasn’t that bad. I had a chilled New Years and I made it back to the city by the time I had to work on the 2nd.

The rest of the month was pretty steady with a lot of work. I’m still at my full-time, paid internship with CafeMom and to be honest, with the way the journalism industry is right now, I’m just happy to be writing full-time and being able to pay my bills from it. I won employee of the week twice so far and the second time was just this passed week! Woo hoo!

On the 20th, I turned 24 years old! Yup, I’m getting old. I had a wonderful time at brunch and the wax museum with my friends. It was a busy, but great birthday. And the weather was about 50 degrees and sunny — not typical at all for the middle of January! So I definitely enjoyed it. This month was also my dad’s birthday, my Uncle Rich, my grandpa, and my little sister Ciara! She’s 10 now and I can’t even believe it! Brb, crying!