Last night I had the absolute pleasure of witnessing one of the funniest comedians in our country at the moment. I had never heard of her before, but felt compelled to book tickets to her Sydney Comedy Festival show when I heard her title: ‘I’m eating peanut butter in the shower because I’m sad and you’re not the boss of me.’
Alex Lee, ladies and gentleman.
It was hilarious. My friend and I were in hysterics the entire hour, brought to tears and almost sobbing with laughter. Because it was clever, funny and real. We found ourselves faced with a woman who was most definitely our soul mate. Her show consisted of her relaying her teenage years through the most hilarious of mediums: her diary. The self assured tone to her thirteen year old self and her deep and angsty poetry brought us to tears because I felt like she was literally reading out of my own childhood diary.
Alex was clever and funny and honest and just plain fun so if you ever get the opportunity to check her out I would highly recommend her! In fact, I hope you go and see any show from the festival this year, it really is a great night out.
A Novel Idea
I have a confession to make. My deep, dark secret if you will.
I am the world’s worst procrastinator.
I procrastinate so much that my procrastination procrastinates. And if that doesn’t completely blow your mind, I don’t know what will. I get lazy and tired and then suddenly I find that I have wasted five hours doing absolutely nothing and the crushing guilt leads me to slump in bed and open another book that I will probably only half read because once again, I’ve procrastinated. It’s a well oiled cycle and one that I am trying my very hardest to beat.
Because I know that in order to achieve everything I want to achieve, I need to kick procrastinating to the curb. I need to utilise every moment I have free, whether it’s with reading or writing or even experiencing; taking photographs to inspire me or having coffee with friends and hearing their stories. I have tried over the past few weeks to become more active in this and I am slowly getting there. My days off are filled to the brim with activities and even when I’m just at home in my comfy pants I’m writing and reading and making my bedroom a happy place to write in.
I’ve started writing a few pieces that I’m quietly confident about. I’ve started writing a pilot for a television show I’ve had in mind for months and I have slowly begun to compile rough synopsis’s for a novel that I have been pondering since mid last year. Both these pieces are my own and I am proud of what I have come up with so far, even if I am just in the early stages. I’m starting. And to me, that’s the world.
I hope you all have had a delightful April and I look forward to sharing the pretty month of May with you.
x
Top 3 Beauty Products
It’s a little known fact that I own a great deal of beauty products. I’ve always been into skincare and makeup but it wasn’t until last year that I started getting serious about it. I’ve tried heaps of different products and lotions, some making me break out in horrific hives and some leaving my skin soft and supple. It’s a risk, but it usually pays off and I have a really amazing skincare collection. I have been really blessed with naturally healthy looking skin so I figure I better repay God by taking care of it. It is also true that I spent a great deal of money at Sephora on my recent trip to New York. But it came away with some beauties.
I use everything from Clinique to Kiehls, MAC to Smashbox to Garnier. I’m not loyal to one particular brand, just product. When I find something I love I latch on and it will never leave my sight ever again (or my makeup box, anyway). I’ve come up with my top 3 beauty products right now to review for you today.
Kiehl’s Actively Correcting and Beautifying BB Cream (SPF 50+)
BB Cream seems to be a pretty big cosmetic fad at the moment. I’ve used quite a few different brands, all of them great, but nothing has compared to Kiehl’s. I think the main draw for me in using BB cream is the sunscreen used in it, ranging anywhere from 30+ to this little tube of 50+. Also the moisturising portion of the cream makes my skin feel amazing.
This product is the most amazing BB Cream I have ever used. It is light and easy to apply; you barely have to use any at all to get full coverage. It blends in perfectly with my complexion and leaves my skin soft and healthy looking. I generally like to dab a bit of light powder over the top of it (I use Rimmel London) to dim the shininess of it upon application. You can’t fault this because this little beauty is SPF 50 – no horrific sunburn here! I’m pretty picky with my facial products but this has completely surpassed all my expectations and is worth the reasonable $36 dollar price tag.
Smashbox Brow Tech To Go
Up until now I have never been a big fan of using eyebrow pencils. I used to just go and get my eyebrows dyed. However this little black stick of ridiculousness is incredible. I use the Taupe shade and it shapes my eyebrows nicely, leaving them a really delightful shade that even tinting doesn’t really achieve. I have fairly light skin yet the Taupe seems to darken my eyebrows more than the colour actually lets on.
It’s really light and easy to apply and I find just a few strokes brightens my eyes, leaving them looking big and gorgeous. It’s amazing what a good eyebrow pencil can do! I have yet to use any of Smashbox’s other products, but this little beauty has made me a massive Smashbox fan.
Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion (Dry-Very Dry)
While blessed with fairly blemish-free skin, it does get quite dry at times. I have tried more moisturisers than you could possible imagine, from brands to types to literally everything at the supermarket. It wasn’t until I went on a bit of a Clinique binge that I came across this lotion and it is so good.
I take my makeup off every night. Of course. After wiping it off I use a variety of Clinique toners and such (I’ll get to that another blog post) and then I use this straight on my skin. It is really beautiful, a little heavy but for night cream that is generally the case. It cleanses my skin nicely and I’ve found that my skin hasn’t been dry since I’ve been using it. It leaves my skin really soft and ready for the mornings makeup ritual (primer first! Always prime!) Couldn’t recommend it enough.
(My face. Using above products.)
If you have any questions regarding my application/products I use, feel free to ask away!
x
New York, I Love You
Falling in love with New York City was easy, like falling in love with a new book, a character or words. For me, it was everything. The city crept up on me, filling my wholly and suddenly I could feel it in every piece of my body, from the tips of my toes to my fingertips. There is something so majestically wonderful about it, the people, the smells, the energy radiating through the busy streets of Manhattan. It makes me smile just thinking about it, that feeling ever present in my heart.
I knew it the second I emerged from Queens, reaching the bridge and the second the skyline of Manhattan came into view. It was early morning, just after seven, and I was exhausted from my red-eye flight to JFK from Las Vegas. But the moment the city reached my sight, the sun just rising over the skyscrapers, it completely, totally took my breath away. As long as I live I will never forget that feeling, that moment, forever etched onto my memory.
I’m an artistic person by nature, I live to write and read and being in the city that just radiates such raw talent was incredible. Walking the streets and seeing people tucked away in coffee shops reading and writing filled me with such joy; I finally felt like I had found my people, my soul mates. The people with whom I share a passion for telling stories in a city that breathes storytelling. It was the most magical experience and one that I can’t quite put into words.
There are places in this world that you dream of visiting your entire life and in my short twenty four years, New York was that city. I was there for the most amazing two weeks of my life and I wrote and people watched and saw shows that left me breathless. I walked the streets for hours on end, watching in sheer wonder at the daily functions of a city that literally never sleeps. It is constantly busy, streaming with people and thoughts and ideas and it’s one of those things that you can spend your whole life thinking about but until you experience it words can’t quite describe the reality.
The reality is that I love New York. It is one of the great loves of my life and I can’t wait until the next time we meet.
Coffee
I love coffee.
There, I said it. (Like it’s some big secret, pretty sure the aliens in space know about my caffeine addiction.) I love the taste of it, I love the ridiculous buzz that rushes through me after I have reached the bottom of the mug and I love sticking my finger through the hardened chocolate foam on the surface of cappuccinos. And then directly sticking it in my mouth. It’s aces.
I tried giving up coffee once. It was the worst week of my life. Since then I have learnt to completely give in to the coffee, revel in it, in fact. I have learnt to accept that my brain is all fuzzy in the morning and cannot form coherent sentences until I have a pot full of coffee beans in my belly. (How the brain and the belly correlate with each other, I have no idea, but I’ll go with it.) I have learnt that there is no better relationship starter than sharing a conversation with a stranger over coffee. I have learnt, as a writer, that I am never more at home than in a coffee shop with a take-away cup and a novel or notebook in front of me, people watching from the sidelines.
I consider myself somewhat of a coffee connoisseur (pretentiously claiming that title, what of it?). Everywhere I go I try and find the best coffee, the cutest and most intimate coffee shops with the most delectable writing spots. I found a delicious little café by the name of Jeremy’s in Hardware Lane in Melbourne, Australia that had the most amazing coffee I had ever tasted to date. Creamy in texture with just the perfect amount of punch, I went back there four times in my three day stay in the city.
But by far the best coffee shop I have encountered in my travels is one by the name of Gregory’s Coffee in New York City. Situated right in the middle of 44th street in Manhattan, this coffee shop was directly across the road from my hotel and became my local haunt in the two weeks I stayed in New York. The coffee was amazing with a bite I had never tasted before and the barista’s were top notch. You could tell they loved coffee. Not only did this shop have this, but they also had the most amazing array of pastries I have ever encountered in my life – croissants, bagels, danishes, donuts and cakes. I had to spend the rest of my days walking the city (no complaint at all) just to walk off the amount of food I consumed mid-morning.
The clincher? My whole life one of my most vivid dreams included myself sitting in a café in New York, a window stool, with my notebook and my coffee and just watching people while writing. And Gregory’s had that, right in the center of Manhattan, and countless mornings I sat in my little spot with my hardcover book spread out before me as I hand wrote diary entries, short stories and character outlines. It was the most magical experience, my dream coming true.
Coffee brings people together. It makes me happy and warm and allows me to pull all-nighters while I am on a roll writing piece after piece and for that I am eternally grateful for you, you brown gross-looking but delicious tasting bastard.
An Introduction
I am Brooke, a twenty three year old, overly caffeinated girlwoman, one who counts procrastination as an art form and The Newsroom as her total intellectual jam. I wish my life was like ‘Girls’ but it’s more like ‘The Golden Girls’, with less cool, witty old chicks. I am friends with tons of famous people (one sided, entirely on Twitter) and enjoy the soothing tones of such musical genius’s as Ryan Tedder and Dallas Green. I wish I was best friends with Lena Dunham and Lea Michele but alas I have to stick to my boring real life friends. (Entirely false, for dramatic effect. My friends are freaking awesome.)
I live to write and I write to read and without either my life would be an empty place. I am way too attached to my iPhone, it’s practically glued to my fingers, and I am particularly attached to a little-known app called Instagram. It’ll get big soon, I can feel it in my bones.
I hope you enjoy my posts, and my photography. All in all I am just a girl who loves to write, even if it’s to nobody in particular, and if it pleases even one person then I’m pretty damn happy with that.
x
