One to Nothin'

Best Songs of 2013

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Helene in Between

Helene announced she was having a Best Songs of 2013 link up last week and I definitely couldn’t resist such a challenge. Of course picking my favorite songs from all genres was just too daunting of a task, so I surpassed most pop, country, hip hop and electronic music so I could concentrate on my indie/alt rock genre that I adore so very much. Here’s what I came up with rather haphazardly (although I was adamant about checking the release dates of each album). These are the songs I’ve been listening to obsessively for all of 2013. Check out my favorites of 2012 here.

What were your favorites this year?

Surprise!

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Surprise, I’m in Florida! I went home early and now I get to play with my family, drink spiked soynog and turn Christmas cards into ornaments for the real life Christmas tree chillin’ in my parents’ living room. 
After obsessing over all the adorable Christmas card options at Tiny Prints, I decided on this fun design to show off my life as a single chick in California with her little sausage dog because I’ve only ever seen Christmas cards featuring vom-worthy couples, adorable babies and santa hat clad ginormous families. I decided to shake it up and be all I-am-woman-hear-me-roar or whatever and send out my very own cards. Can I get an i-n-d-e-p-e-n-d-e-n-t? The best part, however, is the fact that I’m a procrastinator to the highest degree and even though I put my order in two days ago, they arrived today. In other words, if you’re a lazy SOB like I am, you can still get your card fix on at Tiny Prints.
On the website, there’s an option to turn your Christmas card into an ornament in itself, but I wanted the best of both worlds, so I decided to turn this normal sized card into my own ornament. What you can’t see is that the thick, matte texture of these cards that make them perfect for hole punching and ribbon tying. 
I punched a hole in one corner, threaded a piece of red ribbon through, tied a bow and voila! Unto you a Christmas ornament is born.
Merry Christmas, friends!

Weird & Awesome Christmas Gifts

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One of the best thing about being a blogger is that even when you’re poor (and I mean really poor) you can still create gift guides and pretend like you’re going to buy Christmas presents for your friends and family (provided the internet bill doesn’t draft from your account in the time it takes to compile said “gifts” into a pretty collage, of course). It doesn’t stop at gift guides either, you can also pretend like you could potentially wear even a fraction of all the adorbz outfits Pinned each day even though it’ll never happen. Until you get offered a book deal based on all the ridiculous things you brain spew onto your blog every day anyway. So check it: One to Nothin’s Quirky Gift Guide (provided everyone on your list loves the things I love).
1. Ebay Holiday Collective — Adorable USB/charger bracelets. Seriously, what better gift is there for bloggers? These bad boys were designed by Mara Hoffman, Michael Bastian, Milly, Rachel Zoe, Shipley & Halmos exclusively for ebay, so in other words they’re cute and convenient. Even if you’re not a blogger– I know I can’t be the only one who’s ever borrowed a bartender’s phone charger at the risk of letting him text my friends while getting my drank on. This is better.
2. Mixtape Glasses — We have discussed on multiple occasions my obsession with mixtapes, so the idea of drinking out of one makes me happy. Also any time I can doodle on my beverage is a good time. 
3. Bootie Babe Nail Polish — These nail polishes are highly inappropriate and therefore I love them. The holiday collection is here and the colors have names like, “Goldie Juan,” “Crack A Toe Uh” and “Bronzie Fonzie,” however in honor of my NorCal residence, my fave is “Hella Hiney.”
4. I Wore Yoga Pants — A lot of graphic tees are hit or miss (emphasis on the ‘miss’) but Whitney of IWYP is a genius and therefore her new limited edition t-shirts are hit after bloggie hit. So far she has sold “Blog So Hard” and “#OOTD” shirts as well as some baller koozies to go along with them (super jealous I missed out on those). Check out the deets here. 
5. Forget Me Knot by Keil Mead — Once upon a time a friend said something along the lines of how I seem to buy on-trend items that are just a little different (read: weirder) than everyone else’s. I took this as a major compliment and I think this is why I love this ring. It’s delicate and pretty like the bow jewelry I see all over the place, but it’s actually a knot that looks like string–like tying a string on your finger so you don’t forget something. So damn clever. 
6. Crescent Gold Plated Ear Cuff by Maria Black — Much like #5, this earring cuff is delicate and pretty but also crazy unique and a little edgy. I think jewelry/piercings/clothing items that make you do a double take are the best kinds. 
7. SunniChic’s Dinosaur Planters — Can you tell I’m vibing on this gold thing? How adorable are these dinosaur planters on Etsy? The only thing better than giving someone flowers is placing them in a gold dinosaur first. Try to argue with that logic, I dare you. There are all different colors and types of dinos available and they’re only $12 each.
8. Grammar Grumble Mugs — Okay, this has quickly become more of a “Kensie Wish List” rather than a gift guide, but whatever. If you know any grammar freaks like myself, these mugs would be the ultimate gift. “I am figuratively dying for a cuppa.” Amazing.
What kinds of gifts are you guys buying this year? 

Playlist technique

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How serious are you guys about playlists? 
I’d like to think I can make some pretty solid ones, but I’m starting to think that throwing together random songs I happen to like in that moment does not a solid playlist make. Sometimes I think I should labor over it more. Think about how each song transitions into the next one. Consider the tempo, mood, voice and message of each song and how they come together to form a whole. Ask myself what the audience will take away from my compilation of songs and all that. But I don’t. Part of it is laziness, part of it is eagerness to just listen to it instead of obsess over it and I think there’s even a small part of me that thrives on doing something, anything, even if it’s just a playlist, based solely on emotion. 
Come to think of it, that’s probably why I love blogging so much, too. But unlike blogging, which makes me face an empty box each day, music is a page that already has the words. I just have to arrange them in a certain way. Now this I can do even when picking up a pencil seems exhausting. I can just borrow the words and if they don’t work, I can exchange them. Some of my least thought out mix CDs from middle school are the best (even though they all contain at least four of the same Alanis songs) because as soon as I listen to them, I remember exactly how I felt during that time. I think that’s why I get so pumped when someone takes the time to make a playlist specifically for me. I get a glimpse of that person’s inner workings for a while and it’s fascinating. 
With that said, here’s my brain goo in music form. I even did it on Grooveshark for you crazies not on Spotify yet- get on that! And those of you on Spotify who I don’t already stalk, please friend me and hit me up with your favorite playlists. 
Let me know your thoughts on this eclectic mix, but more importantly, have a rad weekend.
PS: Thanks so much for the encouraging words on yesterday’s post. You guys are wonderful.

On body issues & my paleo experience

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It’s been almost a year and half since I first discovered the Paleo “diet” and completed my first Whole30 cleanse. The article I wrote about it in January 2013 (you can read it here) described the stomach issues I’ve been dealing with since college and how this cleanse was a way to open my eyes to which foods trigger what in my body. While this is still very true, and it was incredibly helpful in this respect, there were other reasons for my decision to go Paleo (twice) for 30 days at a time.
I generally steer clear of any body trash talk around this blog, not to pretend like I don’t have insecurities (because I most certainly have lots of them), but rather to keep this a positive place where people can read uplifting, silly and sometimes self-deprecating anecdotes, but I think body image is something people can relate to, so I think it’s time to get real for a sec.
After graduating college, I moved home and had no idea what I was doing with my life. I was in crisis mode. I chopped off 17 inches of hair in an attempt to take control or something. I thought I found a path, so I started working on it while eating healthier and working out like a champ. I was in decent shape and abstaining from the self-destructive behavior that goes along with college life, but this only lasted for so long. During a dark time when posts like this and this were running rampant around here, I lost interest in eating and decided to give up on the new career path I thought I was on.
Instead of visiting the gym to run on the treadmill at 11pm, I went out drinking and inevitably ended up crying by the end of the night every time. I woke up without an appetite or a hangover (that’s how you know something is really wrong). I lost about 10 pounds, which on my already-in-shape 5’4″ frame was a pretty dramatic loss. I didn’t hate being scrawny (although looking back, it didn’t look great), but my skin was awful. I had just started working at a Japanese steakhouse, so I was surrounded by people who were down to drink the night away after we finished waiting on douchey customers and that we did. Often.
After a couple months of buying clothes that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to fit into since middle school and partying every night, I got my appetite back. I started ignoring my stomach issues again so I could indulge in free fried rice every night before work, chomp down on extra cupcakes people brought into the restaurant for birthdays and sneak sushi throughout the night. Suddenly I could no longer fit into those baby clothes I had just dropped my hard earned cash on, but I could feel my work pants I’d been wearing every night squeezing my hips. I had gained back the 10 pounds plus an extra five or so. My “What I Wore” posts were far less enjoyable for me to look at and my skin was still sucking hard, so I decided to try this Paleo thing–I told everyone it was for my stomach and my health, but it was also because I didn’t like the way my body looked at all.
This was the part I avoided telling people when they asked why I couldn’t drink alcohol or why I brought a salad to work instead of eating spaghetti with the rest of them. Even my stomach issues answer wasn’t enough to ward off the annoyed looks and “Why are you on a diet?” comments. I knew I wasn’t fat and that people wouldn’t understand that even though five pounds doesn’t seem like a lot, it was enough to make me unhappy with how I looked, but the bottom line was I was doing it for myself and it was none of their damn business. I wasn’t cutting or counting calories, I wasn’t even strenuously working out, I was just making better choices. The strict rules, however, made people skeptical and made me self conscious.
Before this point, I had experimented with a lot of vegan cooking on this blog to transition away from dairy (due to extreme lactose intolerance) and before that, I never cooked anything without a microwave ever. Pretty much everything I ate in college was awful if it didn’t come from my sorority house. So during this first cleanse, I cooked meat for the first time ever. I was thoroughly disgusted by raw chicken and beef, but I did it and was ridiculously surprised to realize that it tasted good when I cooked it, too. I had my ups and downs through this cleanse, there was one particular night (around day 24) where I went back to my college town for a football game and cheated on the cleanse with jager, vodka waters and one infamous meatball sub. I felt so guilty. And while this new way of eating was a vast improvement on what I had been doing to my body prior, this extreme sense of guilt over vodka waters and a sub was not healthy either.
Thirty days of no sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes or even starchy vegetables, taught me a lot of things about myself. I gained confidence in my cooking. I learned that coffee isn’t so terrible without three Equal packets. I learned that gluten bothers my stomach in addition to lactose and that even Lactaid products cause bloating and discomfort. But most of all I learned that I was addicted to sugar and that without it, my skin was clear, my sleep patterns were better, I had more energy and that it’s not impossible to go without it.
After the cleanse was over, I lost a collective three pounds, which isn’t much, but my body looked completely different. I felt and looked much better, healthier, more fit. But I think the strict, no cheating ever thing made it too easy to fall back into old patterns once I was done. When that extreme guilt feeling passed, I slowly started eating grains again (and implemented another, more unfortunate hair change) and while the cleanse definitely accomplished what I needed it to, it didn’t stick.
Eventually I started feeling crappy about my bod again (after a particularly rowdy weekend at Harry Potter World and Senor Frog’s day drinking) and I decided to try the Whole30 again (starting here). This time it was much easier to resist temptation and I didn’t berate myself as much for messing up here and there. Once again I got great results and felt fabulous, but slipped into crazy eating habits after moving across the country and suddenly living in the most amazing foodie city there is (when you see a Ramen burger, you have to try a Ramen burger..).
So the most convoluted intro to a blog post ever brings me to now, eight months later. I mentioned before how my skin has been freaking out lately, and while working out pretty consistently has seemingly kept my weight under control (I don’t own a scale), other health issues have been rearing their ugly heads and I know exactly why they’re happening: sugar. For the past week or so, I’ve been semi-consciously cutting out grains and added sugars and I’ve already noticed an improvement in my skin and energy.
This time I’m doing it differently. I’m not giving myself a time frame and I’m not going to “lose” if I decide to leave the bun on my burger. I’m going to cut out as much sugar as possible and not worry so much about whether there’s vegetable oil in my salad dressing or corn in my salsa. I’m going to have soy milk every once in a while if I want it, and I’m going to avoid even “lactose-free” dairy products. And if I want a vodka water, you can bet your arse I’m going to have one–as long as there’s plenty of lime in it.
I’m doing Paleo my way. I refuse to let others make me feel like I’m some dumb girl on a fad diet who thinks she’s fat. I’m making a lifestyle change so that I can feel, look and be awesome. Feel free to e-mail me (mackensieg@gmail.com) if you have any questions or just to get a high five from me for reading to this point in this novel of a blog post. Also, get ready for plenty of Paleo foods to creep back in on the Instagram feed (@mackensieg). 

What I Wore: The Bloopers

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Sometimes you just gotta laugh at yourself, right? Right. I present to you my What I Wore outtakes (as inspired by this post).

“I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy.”

The shrubs are NGAF about my emo pigeon toed fashion blogger pose. Gimme dat fringeeeee.

So you might’ve seen a similar photo in this post, but what you may not know is my idiot brain forgot how forward facing screens work and went back to the drawing board after the above photos to create this sign…

Turns out I’m kind of a champion when it comes to writing backwards. Also, I’m a big dumbass.

I’m pretty sure this is me auditioning to be a part of the Village People.

“Maybe if I just stare into the sun and pretend like I’m enjoying my retinas burning out of my skull, it’ll look really artsy.”

The happy dance with just a hint of constipation.

Super adorbz right? But then, BAM sausage dog butthole photo bomb.
Linking up here.

The Blogmopolitan Quiz

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I’m in a weird place, guys, so instead of trying to talk to you like a normal human being, I’m going to let this Cosmo-style quiz from the genius over at Two Thirds Hazel take it away for me instead. Just pretend like you’re at the grocery store checking out with your box of tampons, Skittles and teriyaki beef jerkey when you see a so-Photoshopped-you-can-barely-recognize-her MackensieG wearing something fabulous on the cover of Cosmo surrounded by words like, “HOT,” “SEXY” and “SIZZLE,” so you fork over five bucks to learn more. This is one of the first pages you see:
Five bucks well spent, no?

Not So Silent Night, Mt. Diablo & Peanut Butter Burgers

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I started my Friday night off with some Panda Express before heading to Oakland for night 1 of Not So Silent Night with that handsome guy. We quickly realized our seats were up really high and all the way on the side of the stage, right in front of the railing. In other words we couldn’t see much of anything. We missed Capital Cities, but from these seats we watched the Arctic Monkeys (the lead singer was everything I needed an English frontman of a rock band to be), AFI (dude looks like a dude now! My eighth grade self was so stoked and confused at the same time..) and Queens of the Stone Age (who quickly reversed all of the lessons being taught to fifth graders in D.A.R.E. across the country by starting the set with this song). While Vampire Weekend prepared to grace us with their loveliness, we took a stroll around the Oracle Arena where some guy just decided to give us his tickets in section one, row five. We entered a lounge full of drunk people and descended down to our seats where we could see the stage perfectly from our new seats that were as close to the floor as possible. From there we watched Vampire Weekend tear it up–seriously, they’re so fun live and their guitarist has the best dance moves. I first experienced them at Outside Lands and he just expanded upon them this time. Next Kings of Leon came on and aside from a slight lack of enthusiasm, they were pretty great. Nobody got crazy with audience participation or did covers of anyone else’s songs but I guess that could just be the nature of a mega concerts. Also I feel that it’s necessary to shout out to the sloshed couple in their forties behind us who hit me in the head, like, eight times. Those crazy kids.
Saturday we took Zigs to Mt. Diablo where it was way too cold for comfort. My toes are having a hard time adapting to this weather. They’re just playing dead every day. Get it together, appendages! The trails looked amazing but apparently dogs are only allowed on paved areas, so we observed from afar and enjoyed the sweet view as the sun set. The end of the night involved “The Runny Elvis”–a burger that has peanut butter, pepper jelly, bacon and a fried egg on it. I’ve never looked so sloppy while eating a meal in my life (Rose has though, I’m sure). I can’t say I’d do it again, but I felt it needed to be done at least once. There was also a bacon old fashioned involved. 
Sunday was so very lazy. I made breakfast, had a mini “Girls” marathon, experimented with a sugar-free vegan hot chocolate recipe (which I think I might just have to share later) and hid inside to avoid the cold. It was a solid, relaxing way to start this, what I now realize is sure to be, crazy emotional rollercoaster of a week. Perhaps more on that later. For now, linking up with Sami.

Winter Modcloth Style

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Modcloth Winter Style

The super stylish clothing brand Modcloth asked if I’d be willing to make a fantasy outfit around their Winterberry Tart Coat, so naturally I jumped at the opportunity because who doesn’t want the fun part of shopping without the paying part? Right? Just me? Anyway, this is what I came up with. How flippin’ cool are those squirrel earrings? 
That’s all I got, friends. Enjoy your weekend!

Spiked cider & a playlist to match

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I might be going overboard with the hot drinks lately, but it’s 30 degrees out right now and this Florida native can’t stop obsessing over things she never used to care about, like hot toddies, thick socks and sweaters that actually keep you warm (why do I have so many hole-y sweaters?). I considered boiling actual apples to make hot apple cider from scratch because this NorCal thing is changing me (I swear in college I only used my stove when I was feeling fancy with the Ramen, which was not often because Ramen tastes better uncooked. Rawmen, if you will.), but then I realized that it would be a lot easier to just do it ABM style and add cinnamon and nutmeg to apple juice–but even that was a process because I realized I didn’t actually know what “from concentrate” meant. After some iPhone searching, I decided it was necessary to spend the extra $8 to get the apple juice that was solely juice from real apples without things removed from it first. This is who I am now. I even expect coffee shops to have a vegan creamer option these days. The trip to Florida in a couple weeks will be an interesting experience (but no, really, I’m super pumped). 
5 cups apple juice (the real kind)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
undefined amounts of Captain Morgan spiced rum or Fireball Whiskey**
Heat the juice, liquor and spices on the stove over medium heat while stirring it up. Pour into a mug that has a handle unless you’re taking photos and are okay with burning your hand off by pouring it into a mason jar. Garnish with a cinnamon stick and an apple slice so you can feel fancy (and kind of weird about the fact that you now have a bottle of cinnamon sticks and ground cinnamon in the pantry and no protein or veggies in the fridge).
**adjust according to how sloshed you want to be because whether it’s one shot or four, you will not taste it. At all.
And now for a playlist to enjoy while sipping your cider (which is actually my autumn playlist with extras added and a super creative name change).
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