One to Nothin'

Springsteen

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Dress: Kohl’s // Boots: Steve Madden // Earrings: Lucky Brand

You know how sometimes you have those beautiful days? Where you spend the morning relaxed, then you have lunch with your amazing family, then the sun is shining so you roll down the windows and blast a country music station because it’s a day where you just want to hear music that makes you happy because you are happy. So then you go home, put on a dress and some cowboy boots and dance around in front of your self-timer. It’s one of those days. I hope your Thursday is just as happy.

“Funny how a melody sounds like a memory, 
Like a soundtrack to a July Saturday night.”


Whole30 Part II

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After a weekend of bodily abuse via junk food and alcohol, I’ve decided to start my second Whole30 (which you can read all about here and here). Basically for the next 30 days I’m going cold turkey on my sugar addiction — no sugar, grains, wheat, gluten, soy, legumes or processed food. Yesterday was Day 1 and this is what my meals looked like:

Kale chips, fried eggs over asparagus and coconut red curry with chicken. I also had sausage and sauteed peppers for dinner, which I forgot to take photos of. I have recorded my before weight and took my awkward before photos. So cheers to another 30 days of craziness! Let’s hope it’s far more successful than my juice cleanse.. If you’d like to see an obnoxious amount of homecooked Paleo meals, follow me on InstaGram –> @mackensieg

Flat Iron Curls

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Misikko.com contacted me a while ago and asked if I would be willing to do a review of their Hana Pro 1″ flat iron on this here blog, and considering I haven’t bought a new straightener since about 2007, I jumped at the chance. I was already super excited for a new flat iron, but when I received the package, I opened it up to find ALL these goodies..
There was a lot of excited shrieking on my part. It had Valentine’s Day chocolates, a high-quality hair brush, a case for the straightener, a pad for the hot iron to rest on without damaging any counter tops, dissolvable bath roses, elf eye shadow, makeup brush and eyelash curler, and last but not least, a super creepy angel ornament. Not really sure where that one fits in, but I loved it anyway. Needless to say, I was already pretty pumped about this brand just by the packaging, but I knew I had to try out the iron a few times before I gave it an honest review. Luckily I wasn’t disappointed.
My hair is naturally wavy, but there’s really not a whole lot of crazy kinks or anything in it. However, living in Florida where the humidity can get ridiculous, a good flat iron is important for keeping my frizz from getting out of control. Above on the left, you can see what my hair looks like after just brushing and blow drying it and the photo on the right is after using the Hana pro flat iron. I put it on the highest heat setting (it ranges from 140 to 460 degrees) and it was hot after only five minutes and it continued to heat up as I was straightening. I like how thin the barrel is and how light weight the iron is, especially since I tried curling my hair with this iron as well (and I have a lot of hair, so my arm usually gets tired). It was super easy and consistent. I usually have some issues curling my hair with my Chi flat iron as far as having a couple perfect curls while the rest are awkward kinky curls. I definitely think the straightening capabilities are comparable to my Chi. My hair stayed straight and frizz-free for a few days straight. I used it this past weekend for my crazy adventures (nobody got time to shower!) and it stayed stick straight the entire time. Also, I made my first video! I had never ever used iMovie before, so don’t judge my skills just yet, but here’s a video of me making my hair all curly with my new flat iron. And here’s what it looked like the next day after sleeping on them.

Have you ever tried any of Missiko‘s products? Thoughts? How do you feel about vlogs? Feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, friends. Have a great Tuesday.

Weekend

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This weekend was RIDICULOUS. 
Friday was my friend Jenn’s birthday, so after work I drove to Gainesville. I got there around midnight, so obviously I immediately began chugging chardonnay. It wasn’t long before the bars closed and we headed home, where we changed into footie pajamas and headed to Walgreen’s. We bought coke and thought it was pretty hilarious to pretend we were snorting it. I think that license plate said “McKenzie” or something similar.. hence the beautiful photo. Jenn and I proceeded to stay up until 6am and I might have kicked a cat (on accident!). Then we woke up three hours later to go to Universal for my first Wizarding World of Harry Potter experience.
The Harry Potter ride is amazing. I might have cried a little. I wish I could just live at Hogwarts forever and ever. We drank butter beer and pumpkin fizz, walked around Hogsmeade, rode our Nimbus 3,000s, tried on robes and rode the Hulk, Dr. Doom and Dueling Dragons. SO much fun. And yes, I wore shorts because I’m an idiot. I still can’t feel my legs. 
It is way too cold right now for this Florida girl.
Then Sunday came. Oh, Sunday. See, we didn’t get to go too hard Saturday night because we didn’t finish dinner until midnight or so and the birthday girl was feeling nauseous, so Sunday morning we went to iHOP, got our pancakes on and for lack of anything else to do, we ended up at Senor Frogs. Before we knew it we thought we were in Mexico and were belligerent by 2 in the afternoon. These are just a few of the pictures that were actually semi appropriate for the public to see. You can tell we were not planning this excursion by our lack of cute clothes and any makeup whatsoever. I think we thought sunglasses would hide our hobo-chic looks we were rocking.
I feel so bad for all the families that came in expecting to just enjoy some chips and salsa and instead found us. Loitering there for a good seven hours. Craziest Sunday I’ve had in quite some time. You would’ve thought we were all celebrating our 21st birthdays. Ridiculous, I tell you. No judging, friends. What happens in Mexico stays in Mexico.
Time for a serious detox.

See Ya!

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Guess who’s going to Hogwarts with some of her favorite people this weekend?!
THIS GUY!
Happy Birthday, Jenn!!
See you guys Monday. I hope your weekend is half as awesome as mine will be…
 but I highly doubt it. 😉

What I Wore

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Shirt: Billabong//Shorts: Volcom//Straightener: Hana Pro

I made my very first video for this blog, you guys! Vlog, if you will. However, I have no idea what I’m doing as far as editing and what not goes, so for today all I have is the aftereffects, aka still shots from the video and the outfit I wore during it. Happy Vagina Day Eve! 😉

Linking up here!

The One Where I Embarrass My Exes

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I mentioned to you all in this post that I’m a serial monogamist of sorts. While I’m currently trying to work on the whole being single, loving myself, blah, blah stuff, when I look back on Valentine’s Days past I always seem to have had a boyfriend. So with the big V coming up on Thursday, I thought I’d take a little stroll down lovers-past lane and describe some of the adorable, hilarious and awkward romantic gestures these poor souls who put up with me have done in the past (sorry, guys..).
(via)
Remember that scene in “Love Actually” where Keira Knightly opens the door to this adorable man confessing his love via poster board? No? Watch this, then come back (and if you haven’t seen the whole movie, do it because it’s awesome). This is definitely one of my favorite movies, so my boyfriend at the time tried out this romantic gesture…except the cards had different messages, the song playing (which wouldn’t start at first) was not “Silent Night” and it was a lot harder to execute in real life as it turns out. I appreciated it anyway. 
This gesture was pretty funny. I had the BIGGEST crush on this dude in 8th grade and we started dating the summer before freshman year. He dumped me when school started I guess because of all the high school babes. But then he realized what he was missing out on (heavy eyeliner, men’s Vans and hair down to my knees? Um, yes please) so one day as we crossed paths in the hallway, he handed me a permanent marker and stripped off his shirt. His back read ‘Will you go out with me? Yes No Maybe.’ 
And yes, I am the asshole that checked ‘maybe.’
This was a map of my parents’ house leading me to the buried treasure in the backyard, strategically placed there by my boyfriend at the time. I think it was on my birthday because of the Jell-O shot clue, and I’m pretty sure there were Hannah Montana stickers inside the treasure chest. I think this was the same birthday that my friend hid a Target gift card in the bottom of a bowl of chocolate pudding. I think making people work for their presents is severely underrated.
What you’re looking at here is a homemade guitar.. from a shoebox. It was a Christmas gift from my boyfriend at the time (back when we couldn’t drive or talk on the phone past 9pm), but he made me swear up and down that I wouldn’t open the present until midnight Christmas Eve, so I didn’t. My favorite part is the butt crack on the bottom of it.
So.. consider this fair warning, boys. If you ever do anything thoughtful/sweet/bizarre for me, I will blog about it one day. Even if it is eight years later..

Weekend Music

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I had a pretty productive weekend, y’all. And no, that does not mean I did any cleaning (not even a load of laundry or dishes). It actually means that I worked two super busy nights, did three interviews for freelance stories, ran a 5K (meaning I woke up before 9am on a Saturday. I know, inconceivable!) and went out for some dranks with friends.. With a lot of snapchatting, stupid-picture-taking, reading JK Rowling’s new book (!!), weather enjoying and junk-food-eating strewn about in there. Oh, and my sister is a professional iMadeFace artist, by the way.

I watched the Grammys last night long enough to decide that my favorite thing about it (besides Fun. winning everything) was Kimbra’s dress (it’s okay if you hate it. I’m a weirdo.) and my least favorite thing about it was Frank Ocean’s awkward ode to Forrest Gump. Seriously, who is this guy and why is he famous? If you love him, I genuinely want to know what the appeal is. I saw him on SNL the other night and was just as confused as I was during his performance at the Grammys. I don’t get it. Help me understand, friends. 
Here’s my Grammys playlist: the winners, nominees, etc. that I’m a fan of. Enjoy!

Linking up with this pretty lady:

Friday’s Letters

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Dear InstaGram, I’m obsessed with you. I’m checkin’ you out all day, erryday. And I like what I see. 😉 Follow me –>@mackensieg Dear Florida Weather, You are simply marvelous lately. Ziggy thinks so too. Keep this up when I actually have a day off, please. Dear Self, Stop baking things. When you do, you can’t stop eating them. Seriously. Running a few miles a day isn’t going to stand up to the dozen cookies you eat prior. Dear Juicer, I really enjoy watching you dominate carrots and celery like a BOSS. Dear Drunk Bathroom Selfies, It’s embarrassing/hilarious/awesome how many of you I have stashed on my phone at any given time. Ridiculous. Dear 5K Tomorrow, Briskly running 3.12 miles probably isn’t the best idea right before working a double at a restaurant.. Let’s hope the running gods are on my side and I don’t end up with any epic blisters this time. Dear Hair, Let’s get back to the length you were on my 21st birthday. Ya know what? Let’s just go back in time and be 21 again while we’re at it. Dear Music, You make my life SO much better. Especially when one of my favorite singers does a remake of one of my favorite classics.. Like this.. or this. Sigh. Dear California, Please give me a job so I can speed up this process. I am so ready to get my adventure on. 
Dear Friends, Happy Friday.
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