Starting Over

Wow its been awhile. Too long. Somewhere in between school and in general, life, I lost the reason I wanted to start this blog. I know, its only been a couple months since I wrote my first post, excited for my new hobby, but I think I've changed. Actually, I know I've changed. Cliché, right? Maybe its a good thing, the fact that I'm not behind a computer everyday typing, maybe not.

This isn't the end for me though, I've created a new blog that doesn't limit me to my possibilities. There,  the limits are endless and it will basically be my diary, open for the world. There, I won't pressure myself to take and upload photos and I'll post at my leisure. Its summer, so hopefully that'll be more often than not.

freshhe.blogspot.com

xx, Madison.

Spring Break

Spring break... Or lack of... has sprung up on us yet again and even though I didn't go anywhere (#lacrosseproblems) I did get to go into the great city that is New York not once, but twice. I know, getting crazy. Both times equally amazing. 

The first time was planned and the second was completely spontaneous, which is always a great thing. On Monday, I was lucky enough to go to the Broadway show, Newsies, as a fun little thing to do. The show was so good and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for something fun to do in the city. We went out to dinner before to a restaurant called Becco's and lets just say that the food was phenomenal. I got the tri pasta special that included spaghetti, ravioli with a creamy cheese filling, and another pasta that I unfortunately don't know the name of. All of them were equally amazing, but there was so much I was pretty much stuffed. I did have a little room for dessert though, I had the chocolate mousse cake *drools.* I regret not taking photos for you all, but I was too caught up in the moment I guess.

The next day was a spontaneous, short afternoon in Soho, which in my opinion is a absolute must if you're visiting the city on vacation or something. It's a shopaholic's heaven. You got your high end stores like Chanel and Burberry, your in okay priced stores like J.Crew and Anthropologie, and then you got your inexpensively priced stores like H&M and Old Navy. Our first stop was to a crêpe restaurant called Vive la Crêpe. It was a cute little place we stumbled upon while trying to find where to park (which let me tell you, is nearly impossible in this area of Manhattan). I got the tomato, mozzarella, and basil crêpe. Unusual choice right? Well, I don't regret it at all. So good. (I know, I need to find some new ways to describe things.) We then went to the C.Wonder flagship store down the street. Oh my goodness, it's my new favorite store. It had so much cute jewelry, clothes, and even home ware and all at an even price. I definitely spent three times the amount of money there than anywhere else I went. Maybe I'll do a haul? Still on clothing and things we popped into Rag and Bone just for a browse and the workers in there were so nice that I felt bad not buying anything in the end, but who am I kidding? I cannot afford anything in there. I will say though that their workers were some of the nicest I've ever come across. Feeling hungry again, we went to Georgetown Cupcake *swoons.* If you're ever looking for a good cupcake stop in there and you'll be good to go. We walked around for a bit, but that was pretty much it. Short, no hassle, that's what I like to hear. 

Kate Spade New York.

I loved the contrast of a high end store to the graffiti. 

Got a little messed up in the car, but *heart eyes.*

Until later,

xx, Madison.

Have you ever been to Soho? What do you like to do there?

Inspiration

Lately, I've been experiencing some extreme writer's block. Like I'll write half a post and decide that it's pointless and I hate it. This has been happening for a week and I started to feel like I'll never get out of this rut that is writer's block. Everyday in English, we have to write for ten minutes about a given topic, or just free write. I never fully complete any prompts, mostly because I always choose the given topic, but I wonder, how can I write endlessly on any boring topic when I can't even write a blog post about whatever I want? Its simple, because I have to. It's different when you have to do something for school versus your totally optional blog. It's different when your writing just for yourself versus for an audience, I want to write something everyone will find interesting, not boring and pointless.

That leads to the purpose of this post. I realized that in order to write something I'll find worthy of my blog, I need inspiration. I need to dig deep to that part of me that wanted to begin a blog in the first place and write from that part of me. Not the part that just does it because it needs to be done. I think in order for this to work, I need to constantly remind myself that this is what I want to do and it should be fun, not a job. Yes, it is harder than sitting on my butt and watching TV, but it's fun for me. I love that satisfaction of hitting the publish button and seeing that people have actually read my work? I love that even more. So I guess the purpose of this post is to tell you guys that, even when you feel like all is lost, don't worry because inspiration is just around the corner waiting to be discovered and remind you why you love what you do. For me, it could be a simple post idea or another blogger finding success in something they love to do. For you, it could be something completely different. Just don't give up.

Until later,

xx, Madison.

What is your inspiration? 

My Summer Wishlist

Recently, I talked with you guys about things I bought keeping in mind the warm weather. Since then, I've been thinking about new clothes - lighter clothes at least - and wanting more (of course). With that, I've also discovered a new, well new to me, online store and dropped a few things in my imaginary cart. I kept in mind all the pricing, a new obsession of mine is finding the best deals, so all the products are fairly inexpensive. Although I'm sure you could find a more high end version of each item. I decided to write this post to show all of you what styles I'm looking forward to wearing this summer.

Lots and lots of maxi. Now I've never been into the whole maxi skirt/dress craze. I always thought that I'm way too short and a long skirt covering my entire legs will only make me look shorter. Even though I loved this style on everyone else, I always thought it just wasn't for me. Not anymore! I was recently in J.Crew and saw their striped maxi skirt and though, "yeeeaaahh, I could rock that!" So now I'm on the hunt for all things maxi. I think that they could go really well with a pair of wedges or a pair of cute sandals and I can't wait to rock this look this summer. These are two of my favorite maxi items I've found so far:

If you watch Zoe (Zoella) on Youtube, you 

would know that she featured this dress in 

her recent haul. It looked so nice on her 

I'm dying to give it a try for myself!

Thought this would be the J.Crew skirt didn't you? It's not! Like said before, I'm kinda into looking for deals and found this gem at Target (aka, my go to deal finding store).

Swing Dresses. Again, I never jumped on the bandwagon with this one because of my body shape. Lately, I've been accepting my body shape and thats been letting me wear more styles. Shift dresses is something I will be trying (definitely) to wear this summer. They're so nice and flowy for the hot summer and will be perfect for all sorts of occasions.

I've never been one for paisley either, 

but this dress was love at first sight!

Tank tops. This isn't something I refused to wear up until now, but I'm going to try to wear more flowy tank tops (not a big fan of really anything tight) that are versatile and easy to wear. I'm going to try to go for the staples like greys, black, and white before I get into the crazy stuff though. I also thought a white tank top would look perfect with the maxi skirt! I've found great tank tops at both Everlane, Target, and J.Crew. Although, I'm sure most places sell them.

I didn't put any pictures in hoping that you all know what a basic tank top looks like.

Here are some other things I really want to get to wear in the summer!

Plus black bottoms (Target) 

To go with the dresses right? (Nine West)

Target

Plus matching bottoms (Target)

Until later,

xx, Madison.

What are you looking for in summer?

Sports Preseason

If any of you noticed, haven't been writing everyday lately like I normally do. If you can't tell by the title, its because of preseason and just lacrosse season in general. From now until around June, I'm just going to be posting on days where I have the time and when I have an idea that I think all of you will really enjoy. I don't want to have written out a full post and not have anyone like it... What's the point? So, from now on, all of my posts will be quality, but they won't be posted everyday. They will be posted when I have little school work to do and enough time to write a quality post. Maybe in the Summer when I have all the time in the world I'll go back into my normal everyday schedule, but for now, this has to do.

Now that I got that off my back, there are a lot of things I have to say about preseason. First off, my legs are dead. In mucho pain. It always makes me wonder if I will ever go back to normal and have it not hurt with every step I take. Whenever I know I'm going to be sore, I do everything humanly possible. I ice, I stretch, I put on this weird arthritic cream, I use icy-hot, I even use this massage bar from Lush that I love even when I'm not sore. (I mean everything in Lush is great so...). I love this massage bar because it smells great and massages my skin so that they (temporarily - I don't think anything would permanently ease my pain) feel great. The smell is light and fresh so its not too over powering and you can use it everyday. As you all can probably see, my muscles are a big issue at the beginning of the season.

Something else I'd like to touch upon is hydrating. It's so important and so often overlooked. If you're not hydrated, you won't be able to do any of the sprints and may end up getting sick, which no one likes to deal with. Soo, drink up! Like five bottles a day. I'm serious. That may seem weird to some of you, but trust me, it's key to any running sport.

Something that's equally important is training in the offseason. You don't want to just pick up your stick that first day. You have to be prepared and be training even when the Spring seems centuries away. Even more important though, running, see I put it in bold to emphasis how important it is. Try to run everyday to make sure you stay in shape for the upcoming season and don't have sore muscles. Clearly I'm a bit of a hypocrite on this one, but I'm trying to get better.

Someone can learn a lot by just one day of practice and years of practice. They are all so important and I hope you utilize them!

Until later, 

xx, Madison.

What are some of your big tips for surviving preseason?

Imagine Dragons Concert

I had the luck of getting tickets to the Imagine Dragons concert a couple months ago, and the concert was yesterday! It was amazing, of course, although it could've done without two opening acts. Opening acts will probably be the death of me, I mean they're not bad, I just didn't come to see them. Anyways, the concert was so good and we had no disturbing people around us (another concert annoyance) that I only took some photos. You know how sometimes you take photos at a concert and you don't really pay attention, so they turn out awful? Yeah, well I kept this in mind and only took photos I knew were going to be good because I knew I was going to share them with you. Without further ado, here they are:

It was a hike to get this photo, I climbed all the way to the top!

A friend of mine took this, she's an amazing photographer!

Just one of the lead singer of Imagine Dragons.

These were taken with an iPhone, so I'm sorry these may be not up to par to other photos, but I thought you all may like to see them!

To the concert, I wore my black thick lulu lemon leggings, riding boots, a hot pink J.Crew tank top, and a plain black sweater. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos, but it was a pretty simple outfit, so I hope you can imagine it easily!

Until later,

xx, Madison.

Do you all like the Imagine Dragons?

Scheduling Tips and Tricks

My organizing post is by far my most popular post, so I decided to make this a little series. A tips and tricks series where I tell you guys my suggestions/advise on a specific topic. Today I'm going to tell you my tips and tricks on scheduling. With school, sports, and work, my schedule is pretty jam packed, so I have to really plan out what I'm doing and I've managed to pick up some useful tactics.

Stick to your schedule. I talked a bit about this in my organizing post, but its just so important for keep a good schedule. Do not push everything back and expect there to be enough time. Its just not going to happen and you'll end up being stressed and tired and wishing you'd just done your work earlier. 

Plan early. What I mean by this is that you shouldn't plan to start something at eight o'clock at night because it could either take you five minutes or three hours. Start your work early and it will get done early. (I value my sleep so this is number one for me.)

Write it down. Write down your schedule so that you don't a) forget anything or b) leave anything until the last minute. Not leaving things until the last minute seems to be a reoccurring theme here... Nevertheless, it's probably the most important thing ever to having a good schedule.

Give yourself a break. I know way too many people who pack their schedules and have no time for themselves. It's work, work, and more work. Giving yourself time to relax is so important because you cannot work yourself to death day in and day out. Relaxing will ensure that you don't get too stressed and always have an open mind.

I hope these helped, I know they help me!

Until later,

xx, Madison.

What are your best scheduling tips?