July Favorites!

Here are my most used products for the month of July. Woo, almost done with summer! :)

Wet n' Wild 8-Pan Coloricon Palette in Walking the Red Carpet

I purchased this limited-edition W&W palette sometime around May, but I haven't gotten around to using it a lot until this month. I used the 'Eyelid' and 'Crease' shades in the first column last month, but I didn't like it too much because it made my eyes look tired and dull. This month, though, I've been experimenting with the second column a lot more. I've especially liked using the 'Crease' shade in the second column all over my eyelid during the daytime. It looks so gorgeous as a shimmery, yet natural daytime eyeshadow color! Makes me look much more awake and it looks stunning when worn alone all over the eyelid. No smokey crease color needed. I hope W&W releases more natural-colored eyeshadows in the future! Amazing drugstore eyeshadow palette for only a few dollars, what's more to ask for. 

Maybelline Volum' Express Pumped Up Colossal Mascara

My new favorite mascara of the year. I normally don't like Maybelline mascaras because they tend to clump really really easily. I've tried the Great Lash and the Rocket Volume in the past with little success. Therefore, I was initially skeptical to try this mascara, but I decided to give it a shot after seeing the fat-bristled brush and a lot of Youtube gurus rave about this product. In a nutshell, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this mascara. It barely clumps, separates my lashes beautifully, lasts all day, doesn't flake, volumizes without over-lenghtening my lashes, and comes in a pretty eye catching hot pink tube. Love love love. In fact, I love this mascara so much I've been wearing it alone most days with just foundation, without any eyeshadow, blush, or even lipstick. I love how when I'm in a rush, I can just swipe on a few coats of this mascara and I look awake and polished. Truly an express product.

Physician's Formula Happy Booster Blush in Natural

I've probably mentioned this in a past favorites post, but I've been using this blush literally everyday this month. Alongside the Maybelline Pumped Up Volume mascara, this does a great job at making me look awake and polished within minutes. It doubles as a highlighter and a blush without being too frosty and it's great for when I'm in a rush and want a no-brainer face product to give me a nice, healthy glow. Doesn't require much blending and it's sheer enough that you can't overdose on it.  

Maybelline Baby Lips in Pink Quartz

I absolutely love the new Maybelline Crystal Collection!! For years, I've wanted a sheer Baby Lips collection because most of the other Baby Lips collections are super opaque and look terrible on me. I don't really like opaque tinted lip balms, which is what most of the Baby Lips are. I struggled to find a shade that works for me, until this collection came out. I love every single color! I like Pink Quartz especially because it's truly a MLBB color and it's sheer enough that I can swipe it on without a mirror and look great. Again, great for days where I'm just running errands and don't want too much makeup on or when I'm in a rush and need a quick no-brainer lip product. And they're so hydrating and smooth, and the tube is gorgeous and sparkly. I hope I can pick up a few more shades in this collection this coming fall because these are going to be my favorite lip balms for this cold weather season, hands down! The berry and mauve shades are going to look especially beauty for fall time.

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Pango Peach

This lipgloss looks so fricken pretty in the tube, I couldn't not mention this in my favorites! It's a really pretty melon-peachy-coral color that is perfect for the summertime. I've been wearing this gloss a ton this month, mainly around the house because this gloss does tend to wear down pretty quickly and needs to be reapplied fairly often. But, it's super shimmery so it looks great when worn outdoors in the sunlight which is how I'm hoping to wear it for the rest of the summer. But it's a really breathtaking, unique lipgloss color and I don't have anything like it in my collection. Great gloss for the fall and even goes with heavier eye makeup, since it is a nudey lip color.  

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Nailpolish in Speedy Sunburst 

Hands down my favorite nail polish this summer. I love neon colors for the summer and since pink is my favorite color, this is of course my favorite nail color this season. In fact, it's been on my hands or toes most of this summer and I'll probably be reapplying it next time I do my nails. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri also happens to be one of my favorite nail polish lines because it's affordable, has a great color selection, and has a really nice applicator brush. Plus, it dries in a jiffy and doesn't chip for a while. Don't know how much more I can gush about this nail polish color!

S'mores!

Favorite summertime treat! My brother and I have been loving eating smores for dessert once every few weeks. We finally figured out how to make the perfect indoor smores and have been obsessed! I forgot how wonderful summertime smores taste and smell, ahh! Hoping to carry on this tradition to fall time, maybe even on an outdoor fire pit! 

Evol Sausage, Egg, & Smoked Gouda Breakfast Burrito

Not gonna lie, on most mornings I barely have time to put on makeup, let alone make a proper breakfast. I always struggle to find grab n' go breakfast options, because most of them are sweet and I'm definitely a savory breakfast kind of girl. I've always hated cereals, yogurts, granolas, or anything sweet in the morning because they make me kinda feel sick. The sweetest thing I can scarf down in the morning is a banana. But when I went to Target a few weeks ago, I found these on sale and grabbed a few to try. And I am IN LOVE. First off, these burritos taste so fricken' delicious and hearty! Definitely my kind of breakfast. Second, it takes only 2 minutes to heat up in the microwave. Third, it's actually good for you and keeps you full for hours and hours!!! Not many things I can say that about. It's packed with protein, only has 35g carbs, and only 300mg of sodium!!!! The last factoid there is the reason why I love these babies. It's so hard to find frozen meal options that aren't saturated with salt and other nasty preservatives. They're on sale at Target for $1.66 until the beginning of August, so I stocked up on a bunch for rushed mornings where I have to grab n' go my food. I wish they made other flavors, but for now I'm going to stockpiling these in my freezer like crazy. 

Fall 2014 Candle Loves ♥

Bath & Body Works fall preview is here! Since I find candles to be one of the most soothing things in the world, I couldn't help but do a little online window shopping. Now I'm being good and not buying them ahead of time like I really really realllyyyy want to. For one, they don't have the 2 for $22 deal on these yet and I also have some summer candles to burn before September.

Now the good news is that I actually need some fall candles this year! I believe I burned most if not all of my fall candles last year, so I have absolutely none to burn this season. That means that I can splurge a bit on fall candles and still justify my crazy expensive candle purchases. But that's just how much I love burning candles, especially in the fall. Candles to me are a fall-winter thing so I go through literally a candle every 2-3 weeks from September-February. In fact, I barely burn candles in the spring and summer because I don't really like floral/fruity candle scents and also because I don't feel the need to be cozy in the summer time. I pretty much burn through all fall-winter candles I purchase, so I always think it's a good investment especially if it makes me happy :) Plus, I love to try new candle scents and always LOVE fall and winter scents (mmm cinnamon!). And believe me, this fall will be so crazy busy I'm going to be burning candles like crazy while studying for medicine shelf exams. 

BBW has a lot of amazing collections out this fall, but there are a select few candles that caught my eye and that I will most likely purchase this fall. Probably September since they tend to have the 2 for $22 deal around late August/early September, which is the start of fall in my book. I really hope they don't release more scent collections because I already have my eye on five candles I will most likely purchase and don't need more to add to the temptation. Here's the five I narrowed it down to (...for now):

By far, I'm most excited for Pumpkin Cupcake and Pumpkin Sugared Doughnut. OH MY GOSH. I love bakery-scented candles, especially on days where I'm feeling like doing some housekeeping, cleaning, organizing, or baking. I love cupcakes and doughnuts, so these two candles are perfect. Plus, they're raved about like crazy and I missed out on Cinnamon Sugared Doughnut last year, so I'm excited to finally get my hands on these sweet candles this year. 

As popular as Leaves is, I've never even smelled it in the store. However, literally every review I've read has raved about this candle like crazy, I don't think I've seen one negative review to date. Therefore, I thought I'd cave in and give this candle a shot. I hear it's fall in a candle, which sounds pretty promising. I love fall, this candle looks/smells/sounds like fall, so it should be a winner. 

Yankee Candle released a candle called Vanilla Chai last year, so this one caught my eye while I was browsing the BBW site. I went through a large tumbler of the YC Vanilla Chai in about a month. Yes, that's how much I loved that scent. I'm hoping this one smells similar to the YC version. It's such a unique, but perfect scent for the fall time! Warm, cozy chai with cinnamon...ahhh reminds me of a fall afternoon at Starbucks. I love Starbucks in the fall, so no wonder I love this scent so much.

Lastly, I've always really wanted to try Marshmallow Fireside. Not gonna lie, mainly because of the name. I hear it's a sweet, but smoky scent and another great fall candle scent. I think this candle would be great for wintertime too, but I'm pretty sure this is released as a fall scent only if I'm not mistaken. I'm always up for trying new scents and this one would be a great one to cross off my list this fall!

Fall Dreaming ♥

The weather here has been quite cooler lately and as a result, I've been dreeeeaaaming about fall! As you know, fall is seriously my favorite time of the year. In fact, I'm even looking forward to the end of my research month (aka beginning of my crazy back-to-back core clerkships) because that means FALL WILL BE HEREEE. Ahh, just one more month I cannot wait. My friend and I are making a fall bucket list this weekend and I'm so incredibly excited.

I spent the last two days mega cleaning my apartment (blog post will be up soon once I take out all the trash, organize some more stuff, do laundry, etc) and it's actually been quite refreshing. Our kitchen was so incredibly dirty since it hadn't gotten a good clean in over 2 years :x oopsies. But it's sparkling now and I'm really hoping to take the first day of the month to maintenance-clean the apartment. I also finally cleaned out all the trash in my closet and threw away a lot of stuff I'd be hanging on to that I never used. Needless to say, I'm loving my new, cleaner, more-organized room.

In the fall spirit, I created a new YouTube fall playlist! SO excited, much more than I was for my spring playlist. Here's to the beginning of a wonderful, new, cozy season :) ....well just a month in advance :X

August Recipes

New recipes to try this month!
Leggo :)

BREAKFAST

Bob's Red Mill 7-Grain Pancakes

Breakfast casserole -- chicken sausage, potatoes, onions, peppers, and cheese 

Strawberry cream cheese waffle sandwiches

LUNCH

Ham & cheese with mayonnaise on a wheat baguette

Tomato & mozzerella sandwiches

DINNER

Chicken broccoli pesto pasta

Creamy vodka pasta with meatballs 

Chicken fried rice

Tofu with Saffron Road lemongrass & basil simmer sauce

SINFUL EATING

Hash brown casserole

Banana nut muffins

Trader Joe's pumpkin bread mix

My 2-Minute Makeup Look

Good news: I'm done with Ob/Gyn!!!! Thank God! It was a very rough month. I had to fake interest like crazy and it was incredibly hard dealing with bitchy residents and getting on their good side. Didn't even get to deliver a baby or the placenta. Got to do some cool stuff with C-sections and watch babies come out though. But still, I feel like it was really hard to be proactive, like they're always wanting us to do. Ugh whatever though, it's over. I'm kind of scared about my evaluations, but hopefully I can still maybe muster a High Pass? *Fingers crossed*. Should have my expectations as low as possible though, just in case my evals and grades were lower than I had thought. Argh, I hate the guessing game of clerkship grades. The good thing is that no matter how bummed I am about my Ob/Gyn performance, it won't matter too much because I'm not planning on going into the field and now I have a better idea on how to boost my performance in clerkships. It's a little easier to be proactive in medicine rather than surgery, so looking forward to beasting my medicine-based rotations. In fact, I'm planning on studying medicine during my research month in August so I can be prepared to wow them with my clinical knowledge :)

But anyway. Just as I had expected, I barely have had any time this past month to get ready in the morning. Usually, it's a successful morning if I remember to pack a sandwich for lunch. However, since I had been on outpatient medicine last week, I figured it would be unprofessional if I went in looking like I just woke up. For the surgical part of Ob/Gyn, I was able to throw on a eyeshadow on most days and sometimes even do a full-face makeup. But for some reason during my last week in outpatient medicine, I slept right up until 30-45 minutes before I had to leave, so it was a challenge to put on makeup with only a few minutes. 

So instead of attempting to do a full-face makeup everyday, I chose to focus only on the parts that take twenty seconds to put on, but make a big impact. For me that means mascara and a blush. As much as I love eyeshadows, I knew I wouldn't have time to put any on since that requires longer (gotta put under eye concealer, primer, eyeshadow, blend, blah blah...TIME CONSUMING!). I know I look a lot more zombie-ish without concealer under my eyes, but it takes me quite a while to put it on properly...much more time than I have in the morning. So, I think it's better to have dark circles under my eyes rather than have patchy concealer put on or put too much concealer on and look like a cakey mess. To each their own though. 

The part of the look that makes the biggest difference is the blush. I bought this one back in March and have been in love since. I love it's packaging (obviously), but I've been especially loving it recently since it's such a multi-tasking product. It's a blush, but because it's so shimmery it doubles as a highlighter. It is quite shimmery, but not so shimmery that you're going to look like a disco ball and can't wear it to work. Plus, it's not super opaque, so if you put on a little bit extra, it's not going to be a mess and can easily be blended out to be as sheer as you want. Shimmery blushes are the best for when you're in a rush or can't pack too many face products because they have this multi-task perfectly as a blush + highlighter and make you look incredibly awake and fresh faced.  

Second, I put on a few coats of mascara, which perks up my eyes. I'm absolutely in LOVE with the new Maybelline Pumped Up Colossal mascara, and have been using it like crazy. Again, the packaging is adorbs but I love the fact that it doesn't clump at all, even when I rack on three or four coats. That's the biggest complaint I have from most mascaras I've used, but this one hasn't clumped on me even once yet (knock on wood!). Maybe because it's waterproof? Plus, it makes my lashes look so much fuller without over-lengthening them. No flaking either! Since it's so low maintenance but has amazing results, it's been my go-to mascara this month and I cannot leave the house without putting on a coat of it. 

So that's it, that's my 2-minute makeup look! It's basically just my usual foundation routine + blush + mascara. Choosing the correct blush and mascara is important because you want a multi-tasking, shimmery blush paired with a fuss-free mascara so you can dab them on and head out the door in a jiffy. Of course, it's not as glamorous as a full face makeup look would be (especially with the uncovered dark circles), but when you're pressed for time and can only put on a few products, I think these few will make you look much more awake, refreshed, confident, and ready for a full day of work while taking only a few minutes. 

Products

St. Ives Even & Bright Pink Lemon and Mandarin Orange Scrub

Aveeno Smart Essentials Daily Moisturizer SPF 30

Organix Coconut Milk Anti-Breakage Serum (best used on damp hair; really makes my dry hair alive, smooth, and frizz-free. went for a week without using this product and my hair was a giant mess.)

bareMinerals Matte Foundation in Golden Tan

Milani Secret Cover Concealer Stick in Medium

bareMinerals Mineral Veil

CoverGirl Volum' Express Pumped Up Colossal Mascara

Physician's Formula Happy Booster Blush in Natural 

New Milani Goodies! ♥

Milani Secret Cover Concealer in Medium

Photo credit = www.storenvy.com

Milani Baked Blush in Rose D'Oro

Photo credit = www.sarahassansblog.com

Milani Baked Blush in Red Vino

Photo credit = www.musingsofamuse.com

Milani Baked Eyeshadow in The Intermix

Photo credit = www.vsmakeupsecrets.blogspot.com

NOTW: Watermelon Pink Glitter

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Nailpolish in Speedy Sunburst

Maybelline Color Show Nail Lacquer in Punk Rock Pink

Ain't nothin' like rediscovering old nail polish faves! I recently re-organized my nail polish box and was sooo happy to dig out this really pretty hot pink watermelon shade, which is literally screeeeammms summer. I remember it being one of my absolute favorite summer polishes a few years ago. So very glad I found it again!

I decided to pair it this week with a shimmery gold topcoat and I love love love the texture and sparkle it adds. It makes the polish pop so much more and jazzes it up so it's not just another boring, flat pink nail polish. Just makes it much more summery, girly, bright, sparkly, and fun! It actually reminds me of the Revlon Colorburst Lipgloss in Strawberry, since the color and sparkle is so similar. Hot pink/neon pink shades look amazing on tanned summer skin and are perfect for this time of the year! Also would look amazing on the toes (new nail polish idea?!?!).

Overall loving this combo and will probably be wearing this quite a lot until the end of the summer! Yay for neons!!

De-bloating After The Holiday Weekend

BLOAT. I effing hate hate hate that word. I absolutely HATE being bloated and for some reason, my body is super prone to becoming bloated even after one salty meal. This past week, I've unfortunately been cheating a lot on my diet and as a result, have become bloated like a pregnant lady. But no fears, I refuse to look back and instead choose to be optimistic and focus on the future.
But yes, as a result of eating as much salty fatty yummy foods as I want, I'm feeling incredibly bloated and hate hate hate hate haaaaaaate that feeling. So, for this week, I have some specific fitness/health goals I want to try and adhere to. I will be undergoing a schedule change this week, since (starting Wednesday) I begin night duty in the labor and delivery suite. Not totally excited for the crazy circadian rhythm change, but still excited since I'll get to deliver babies!! But, I'm still going to try and follow these few simple diet rules even through my crazy schedule change in order to reduce bloating and get a fitter, flatter core. I don't bloat as much on my upper/lower body (does anyone?) but when I bloat, my back and my stomach area puff up like crazy. And that's just not very pretty.

1. Water, water, water
By far the best thing to reduce bloat for me is to drink copious amounts of water. I'm hoping to drink 4-5 bottles of my 24oz bottle for the next two days for a total of 96-120 oz of water per day. Crazy! But, this is literally the best thing to fight bloat. After that, I'm probably going to drop back down to drinking 3 bottles per day (72 oz) and try to continue drinking that much each day to prevent bloat in the future.

2. Salt
Next best thing: cut out sodium from my diet. Dropping my sodium intake down to 1500 mg is the best way to lose my bloat. Now, the issue is that eating only 1500 mg of sodium on normal days is kinda impossible. So, after I go back to normal, I'm planning on resuming my 1500-2000 mg sodium regime and this time, strictly adhere to it!  No more venturing above the 2000 mg line because that just bloats me right back up.

3. Cardio sweatfest
While drinking water and cutting sodium are the two most crucial things for me to reduce bloat, I will say that exercising also helps. How? Because I sweat like cray cray when I do any form of cardio exercise, which is another great way to drop water weight. Sure crunches help, but a cardio sweatiest is golden. Since I have a lot of abdominal fat, crunches and planks and abdominal exercises won't help as much in visibly reducing bloat for me. But, they do give you a feeling of having a tight core, which also helps.

4. Drop the carbs
I've read in several magazines that eating a lot of carbs causes water weight retention....which leads to bloating. So, I'm also hoping to cut down my carb intake to less than 150g per day. I'm finding that to be easier said than done however, since I'm out of my apartment for most of the day and don't have a fridge to keep food in during my rotations. Most perishable snacks tend to be carbohydrate-rich, which can be a problem. I have found that nuts are great snacks though full of protein and healthy fats and tend to hold me over for a long long time. Plus, the Babybel prepackaged cheeses also hold up well in my lunch sack. I'm hoping to stock up on these healthy, low-carb snacks and munch on those in between my rotations instead of grabbing a granola bar or pretzels.

June Favorites ♥

Lots of beauty products I've been loving this month! I've had a lot of time this month to experiment with new stuff and have hauled up a lotttt of goodies that I've fallen absolutely in love with. Here they all are. It was really hard to narrow them out, but here are the main products I've been loving. I wanted to mention a lot of products I mentioned in my Summer/Spring favorites, but I left them out so I wasn't talking about the same products again and again. But, I still loveee those products and have been using them a lot still, but here are some of the newer products I've loved and discovered this month.

PINK Sweet & Flirty Body Mist

Photo credit = www.iamlinderella.blogspot.com

Smells like summer in a bottle! Super light, breezy, and fruity. I've been wearing this in the morning as a light fragrance and it makes me smell amazing! Doesn't last a long time, but that's just the way I like it for an everyday scent. 

BBW Candle in Lilac Blossom

Photo credit = www.todayiadore.com

I usually don't like floral candles, but this one is an exception. Very light floral, lilac smell and the mason jar version is strong enough to fragrance my entire bedroom! 

Real Techniques Expert Face Brush

Photo credit = www.makeupyamind.wordpress.com

I normally don't mention makeup tools in a favorites post, but this foundation brush is soooo nice! It's nice and dense and it applies my foundation like a dream in less than 3 minutes without any fallout or streaking. 

Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Dust (Naked 3 Palette)

Photo credit = www.beautyjunkiesunite.com

I mentioned the Naked 3 Palette in one of my spring favorites, but I've been using this shade in particular the entire month! It's such a pretty frosted pinky-rose color and I love this shade in particular because it doesn't look too light or too pink on me. It almost looks like a light mauve on me. It's the most natural looking pink in this palette (for my skin color) and I've been loving it on days where I want a non-brown, but still natural eyeshadow. It makes me look refreshed and awake without looking like I applied a ton of pink eyeshadow.

Make Up For Ever Smoky Extravagant Mascara

Photo credit = www.musingsofamuse.com

bareMinerals READY Blush in The Aphrodisiac

Photo credit = www.loveshelbey.com

A beautiful blush I recently rediscovered. I've owned this blush for a few years and I have a love-forget relationship with this. This summer, I've been loving how beautiful and glowy this shimmery apricot blush makes me look while still appearing natural! The best part? No need for a highlighter since the shimmer specks in this blush do all the work and light me up instantly while giving me a healthy, pretty, sun kissed glow. 

Clinique Cheek Pop in Berry Pop

Photo credit = www.musingsofamuse.com

Another blush favorite this month. I've always been afraid of bright pink, fuchsia blush colors but I gave it a shot when the new Clinique blushes came out, and I'm soooo happy I did! This color looks gorgeous on tan skin and has been my go to blush on most days since it makes me look extremely well rested, fresh, bright, youthful, and like I just worked out...in a good way! I like to wear this color on days when I want my cheeks to pop a little bit more since this isn't as natural appearing as a peachy-apricot blush. But yet, it doesn't look like you slapped on blush. Just enhances your look in a very pretty, doll-like way! Next to a shimmery peachy blush, this is definitely my new favorite summer blush color -- probably will look great in the colder months too! 

CoverGirl Lipslicks Smoochies Sizzle Gloss in Hot Stuff

Photo credit = thebeautybudgetblog.wordpress.com

I was browsing around Ulta a few weeks ago and picked up this gloss because I had heard good things about the Smoochies line. And ohhh my gosh this gloss smells and tastes just like cherries! I really like to wear this on days where I'm wearing minimal makeup, usually on weekends on days off when I can get away with wearing glitzy makeup (this gloss literally has chunks of glitter!). Beautiful sheer peachy, glittery gloss for the summer, especially with the fruity taste and smell! I'm pretty sure I'm halfway done with the tube, thats how much I've been wearing it recently. 

Maybelline Baby Lips in Rose Rush

Photo credit = www.musingsofamuse.com

I'm usually not a big fan of the Baby Lips balms because they're quite opaque and I don't wear tinted lip balms as much anymore. However, they recently came out with a Pink collection and this color looked absolutely beautiful in swatches. On me, it translates to a gorgeous mid-opaque hot pinkish color. This shade in particular is gorgeous because it's sheer, but yet opaque enough to enhance my lip color. Plus, it smells like watermelons mmm! I really like Baby Lips because they're so incredibly hydrating and for only $4 a tube, they do well in terms of pigmentation. I'm glad I finally found a wearable color in this line!

Trader Joe's

Photo credit = www.mediabistro.com

Oh my gosh, I recently discovered TJ and I'm in LOVE. Their frozen section is absolutely amazing! They have cheap food, but the best part is that it's so much healthier than the grocery store frozen foods section in terms of sodium, sugar, and ingredients. Their other sections are good as well, but the frozen foods section is a total winner. Things I've been loving are their potato pancakes (with only 5 ingredients!), pad see-ew, and a pesto pasta TV dinner (with only 390 mg sodium and 300 calories!!!). I'll definitely be going here every single time I need to restock my freezer! 

Sesame Oil! (hahaha)

Photo credit = www.budgetbytes.com

Totally random favorite, but I've started using sesame oil to cook my Asian dishes and ohmygosh it makes SUCH a big difference in terms of taste! I love love love Asian cuisine and I've been experimenting with cooking my own Asian dishes at home. So far, I've used sesame oil to make chow fun noodles and fried rice, and it definitely gives these dishes more flavor than olive oil. Definitely a must ingredient for any Asian dishes...olive oil definitely won't cut it! I'm so surprised I didn't discover it sooner, but never again will my pantry be without this!!

"Keep Calm And Have A Cupcake" Desk Notes

Photo credit = www.scribewritingessentials.com

Last but certainly not least, my new favorite desk accessory. I found this at the clearance section of my university book store, and it is SO fricken beautiful. Love the light pink casing and the cupcake imprinted notes. I love baking and love love love cupcake-baking and decorating in particular, so this message is me in a phrase. I love everything about this...the box, the notes, how big the notes are, the design, the elegance, the font size, the message. Ahh, love love love. So me in every single way. Plus, it's been keeping me organized and top of things this past month so it's a total win win!