Eeps

Hi everyone!

I know, I know. It's been like weeks since I last wrote. Unfortunately, I have been totally slammed with work, my thesis, and classes. I feel so overloaded right now. I've gotten to the point where I'm pulling 14-hour days and I had to choose between my blog and my social life and, well....sorry all, but I need the human contact.

I may have to put OHP on a sort-of hold until I can get things back together. I will be dropping in as I'm able to update you all and let you know whenever I see anything interesting, but blogging will most likely be sporadic for awhile. That said, I WILL try to drop in every now and then, so I hope you don't all get fed up and disappear on me, dear readers. Hopefully once this quarter gets wrapped up at the end of November, things will be less crazy.

In the meantime- how have you all been doing?

Photo via Wikipedia.

I Need a Repair Week

Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you all had a great Halloween weekend. Mine was tons of fun- almost a little too fun if you catch my drift. After three days of late-nights, parties, eating mostly variations of cheese and bread (grilled cheese, mac 'n cheese, pizza), and sugary drinks I feel bloated and sort of gross.

So this week I'm proposing a repair week. It's kind of like a detox, except less formal and less extreme. I'm thinking of it as getting myself back to where I should be health-wise. This week I vow to:

• Eat three sensible meals a day and some snacks, instead of waiting until I'm starving and then stuffing myself (not that I ever do that).
• Drink tons of water and tea to stay hydrated.
• NO pop. This is always hard after a few days of drinking tons of it.
• Make most of my meals at least half vegetables or fruit. Catsup doesn't count.
• Get back on track with running- I think I only got one run in last week. Eep.
• SLEEP. 8-9 hours a night. Easier said than done.

All simple stuff, we'll see how it goes.

PS: Unexpected silence last week due to a series of massive projects due and some power outages at my apartment (fun fun). Hopefully this week will be better :)

This Week Bullets and TGIF

This week almost killed me I think. Well maybe that's a little dramatic, but it was pretty rough. Here's the rundown:

• On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I worked pretty much 15 hour days. That's between my paying job, school work, and my thesis. Oy.
• On Tuesday I got a flu shot because my work essentially required the staff there to do so (herd immunity and all). The shot itself wasn't bad- a relief since I hate needles- but nobody told me that the flu shot can make you feel terrible for several days after you got it. I essentially spent two days with sniffles, a sore throat, a headache, and other fun symptoms, and it's just now clearing up today.
• I haven't gotten more than 6 hours a sleep a night any day this week except Thursday. Thursday I got nine hours, because I slept straight through my morning class.
• Today my thesis advisor asked me for a progress report on some computer coding I need to get done to get my project rolling. My report: "not much progress". *wince* Looks like I've got some work cut out for me this weekend.

On the positive side:

• I did decent on my exam that I was worried about.
• I got all my homework projects done, and most of my reading.
• I skipped a meeting for my flu shot Tuesday night, which left some time to get pizza and chill with big sister and the Lil' Bro.

And this weekend shouldn't be as bad. I don't have a lot of plans besides getting a little work done and vegging.

Have a good weekend everyone! What are your plans?

Busy Day

Another late post- today ended up being surprisingly busy. I accidentally woke up late and had to run out the door to get to class by 8:30. There was just enough time to grab a sandwich between classes, and just enough time to grab a coffee between my last class and work. When I finally got home from work and classes, all I wanted to do was collapse, but Lil' Bro was starving so I ended up making potato soup instead.

Now I'm going to snuggle up with my bowl of soup and my textbooks and read the night away. Sometimes I actually don't mind having busy days, because they make me appreciate the calm moments at night even more.

In other news, it's finally feeling like fall. Today was chilly and overcast, which didn't do much for my energy levels but does make me appreciate my warm house and a cup of steaming hot tea (I like this kind). I can't wait until the leaves change and start to look like the picture above (which you can check out here).

Image via dahliahousestudio's etsy shop.

Family Photo Time

I've always had a thing for old family photos. When I was little I would stay with my grandma on weekends and I could spend ages looking through her old photo albums. The best part of inheriting my grandpa's old computer was getting all the family photos he'd scanned into it. These ones of my dad and his sisters when they were little are my favorites.

The bottom photo is my grandparents in California right after they got married- don't they look cute?

Have a good day everyone! I'm off to go work my butt off in class and the lab :)

All images in this post are mine.

New School Shoes

Today marks the start of a new school year for me, a day after the official start of fall.

For some reason, autumn always makes me feel nostalgic. I remember when I was in elementary school my grandma would always insist on getting me a pair of new school shoes to start the year. I have always had big feet which were hard to fit, so we would spend hours driving all over town, looking for the perfect pair of new school shoes. I don't remember a lot about those early shoes, except that they always smelled like rubber and I was always SO excited to pull them on for my first day of school.

Flash forward a few years- here I am, 20 years old with a job and over halfway through my college career, and my grandma still insists on going shopping every August for new school shoes. So today I'm going to be pulling on my brand new size 11 navy blue Converse and heading off to my first class of the year. The shoes still smell like rubber and while I'm not quite as excited for classes as I was back in elementary school, I still love the tradition of new school shoes because they remind me that I am cared for. They are one of my favorite parts of autumn.

Happy autumn everyone! Now tell me: what's your favorite part of the season?

My rockin' new shoes.

Let's make a list...

Awhile ago I read an article in one of my favorite magazines that equated running a business to life. In it, the author discusses 10 common business strategies that can be used by everyone.

I won't paraphrase the whole article* here, but there were two "strategies" that I found particularly life-changing:

• #1: Identify your core values. Companies list what is truly important to them so that those things can guide their decisions- that's something we can all do.
• #2: Understand your opportunity cost. Time, energy, and money are not unlimited resources. Devoting yourself to one thing (opportunity) means detracting from another (cost). For every minute I spend on my blog, that's one less minute spent studying. The trick is to balance costs with opportunities.

The other day I was thinking about this article and I decided to figure out what my core values were. So I pulled out some paper and listed the things that were important to me (not the things I think should be important to me, the things that actually are), in descending order. At the top of the list were values like giving to others, my relationships with the people I love, my education, my health and financial stability, etc. Toward the bottom of the list were things like my hobbies, my ever-expanding makeup collection, my clothes.

Then I took a look at how I devoted my time, energy, and money. In short: not very efficiently. Even though I know what's really important to me, I devote most of my time to less consequential things. To some extent, I think we all do that.

The good thing is, knowledge is power. From now on, I'm going to try and use my values to guide the way I use my resources. That's one of the reasons I wanted to switch the focus of OHP- so that I could spend more time on the important stuff. And I've got my list taped up on my mirror now, so that I won't forget what's important to me.

Readers- what do you all think of this new plan? And a challenge to you: make a list of your own (you don't have to share it with us).

*For the curious, the article was titled "10 Business Strategies to Organize Your Home Life" by Patrick Lencioni, and it was in the Feb.2009 edition of Real Simple Magazine. I highly recommend looking it up on their website.

The New (Improved?) One Happy Panda

Happy Monday everyone!

I promised to say a little bit about the new direction I'm hoping to take the blog in today, so here goes...

When I originally launched One Happy Panda, I did it with the intention of sharing the things that make me happy. These things fall into one of two camps: those that can be bought (a pair of perfect-fit jeans, a gorgeous new lipstick) and those that cannot (less stress, more laughter, solid friendships). Typically, as you might imagine, it's the things that cannot be bought that make the most difference as far as happiness goes. I mean, c'mon, would you rather have a new pair of jeans or less stress?

However, I came to realize during my little blogging hiatus that for whatever reason, OHP focused much more on things that can be bought. Perhaps it's because those are easier to find a write about, perhaps it's because I live in a material society. The "why" doesn't really matter. What matters to me is changing OHP so that it more accurately reflects what really makes me happy.

Which is why I'm switching gears a little bit, and planning to write a little less about "things" and a little more on, well, life. In no way am I an expert on what makes a person happy, and in no way do I intend this blog to become a handbook on how to live the perfect life (like that even exists). However, I do know that even the most tiny life changes can add up to a lot more happy- and since I'm constantly trying to adopt tiny changes that will improve the way I live, I would love to share those things with you, my awesome readers. Those are things I would like OHP to focus on, though I won't be abandoning material things entirely.

PS: Along the way, feel free to suggest new topics and new directions for OHP, either by leaving them in the comments section or by emailing me at onehappypanda at hotmail dot com. I always love to hear what readers have to say, as long as you aren't too mean about it. :)

Comback of the Year (well, sort of...)

Hello readers!

It has been SO long since I have been able to visit the blog and post. I have missed it terribly, but I felt I needed the time to focus on other things and get my life together. I can't promise that I'm all put-together now, but things have settled enough that I would like to start posting again.

A few little notes on what's happened since I last wrote:

• I temporarily have aquired a new roommate- Brandon, also known as Lil' Bro. He's super awesome and often hilarious, so expect to hear about him from time to time :)
• I had a birthday back in August: the big 2-0. Basically that means nothing other than I can now grumble about "annoying teenage girls" without being hypocritical :-P
• I quit my (2nd) retail job, so theoretically I will have more time now (and free weekends!). On the other hand, I'm also launching into my honors thesis project. Which means my chances of having a social life these next few months are slim.
• I'm reevaluating the things I'd like OHP to focus on and considering making some changes. I'll write more on that topic tomorrow, but if anyone has feedback on the blog or topics that you would like to have covered, feel free to email me or leave them in the comments.

Many thanks to all of you who have dealt with my absence, I certainly hope that some of you still remain. To anyone who is just now stumbling on the blog- welcome!

Image via my computer- it is not my photo, but I forget where I got it from. If anyone knows, let me know so I can credit it properly.

It's everybody's favorite disappearing blogger...

Dearest readers,

I have to apologize for my recent absence from the blogging world. Unfortunately, life has become quite crazy for me in the past month and I just couldn't squeeze in any time for blogging. But I hope all of you know that I miss writing for all of you and reading all your wonderful comments. One Happy Panda has become a part of my life that I've really grown affectionate of, and I hate to leave it just sitting like this.

I'm not sure when all the dust will settle and I will have the time and energy to start blogging again. I hope it is soon. In the meantime, keep checking back for updates. And thanks to all of you who have been reading and leaving me comments. I always love reading them.

~Amanda

PS: If any of you have comments/suggestions for OHP (things you like, things you hate, things you want to see more of) feel free to email me or leave them in the comments. That way when I do get back, I can start right off making OHP even better. Thanks!

Panda photo via Wikipedia.

Comfort Food: What's Yours?

I've always had a thing for homemade potato soup. There is something so simple and familiar about it, and it always brings me back to when I was little and my grandma made it from scratch for me. If I'm ever craving comfort food, potato soup is my go-to.

Today I stumbled on the Wikipedia page for "comfort food" (there is a Wikipedia page for everything) and got to reading about comfort foods throughout the world. Potato soup isn't on the list anywhere, but chicken noodle soup was one of the common comfort foods in the States. Other common ones included pizza, peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, and applesauce (mmm). Canada is similar to the States, while the United Kingdom prefers "bangers and mash" (sausage and mashed potatoes) and Ireland likes boiled stews, soda bread, and butter. Other popular choices include fried eggs with fries or rice in Spain and miso soup in Japan. You can read the full Wikipedia article here.

Also according to Wikipedia, comfort food is usually something simple and familiar that is associated with childhood. So I guess my love of potato soup isn't so far off after all.

What's your favorite comfort food? And, just for fun, do you think it's related to where you live?

Image: chicken stew via Cambell's Kitchen. Nom.

In Case of Vegetarian Kitty: Check for Toxic Plants

Every cat owner knows that cats tend to have their quirks. Some cats love singing at odd hours, some love swimming, some have a thing for licking the walls. My cat Tigger? She loves eating plants. It's odd because technically cats should be strictly carnivore, but in the 9 years that I've owned her, I've seen her attempt to eat cut roses, daisies, a mint plant, corn husks (her fave), cactus (not her fave) and a whole myriad of other green things. This is the cat that turns up her nose at store brand cat food, but if I bring in anything even remotely plantlike, she will try to eat it. She's even tried to eat the fake plant I have sitting in a corner. Seriously.

For awhile now I've been thinking about bringing in some houseplants to make my apartment look more "alive" but I was worried about potential ill effects on Tigger if she got ahold of it. So on the recommendation of a friend, I looked up the ASPCA's list of Toxic and Non-Toxic plants for pets. Turns out most of the plants I wanted are highly toxic to cats, causing everything from vomiting to seizures if eaten. A big bummer for me, but I'm glad I looked before I bought.

You can check out the ASPCA's list of toxic and non-toxic plants here. Also- I'd love to know if any of you cat and plant owners have any advice for me and my vegetarian kitty. :)

Tigger: vicious plant hunter

Images: Aloe, ASPCA website (see link). Tigger, mine.

I'm Back

I have to apologize for my recent absence from the blog. I was feeling uninspired and a little stressed last week, plus working a 40+ hour week so I took a little blogging vacation. But now I'm back and I've got a fun lineup of posts for the rest of the week, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's a picture of one of my favorites gorillas at the local zoo (I know, I'm random). I nicknamed him (her?) Bubbles for his/her habit of hanging off of the exhibit fence and blowing spit bubbles at passerby.

I hope everyone had a wonderful week/weekend! :)

Name three good habits!

Random red panda, because it's cute and I was blanking on pictures.

After all the confessions yesterday (if you missed it, scroll down) I thought we maybe needed some extra positivity. So what are three GOOD things that you do for yourself?

Here are mine:

• Drinking water- I love water, plain and simple. You know how you're supposed to go through 8 servings a day? Well I go through about 15, easy. I carry bottles of cold water around with me everywhere (I'm drinking one right now, actually).
• Activity- I genuinely love moving around. Being stationary for too long actually makes me more tired than moving does.
• Goofiness- I'm pretty much a dork all the time. And to be honest, I really don't mind that. It makes me happier and (I hope) makes others laugh. Which is so much more fun than being moody right?

So there you have it, I'm a goofy runner who loves water. What're your good habits?

Have a good weekend every one!

Red panda image via Wikipedia.

What's your worst habit?

We all have bad habits. I have more than I could possibly list- everything from nail biting to procrastination. But what do you think is the one that impacts you the most right now?

For me, it's not getting out of bed in the morning. Every morning is like a fight for me, because I never want to get up, even when I've had plenty of sleep. On a good day, I will only hit the snooze button two or three times. We don't even need to talk about what a bad day looks like.

I know to some extent it impacts me because I never get things done in the morning. This morning I wanted to blog, make a real breakfast, maybe take a quick jog before work at 10am. I did none of that. Instead I got up just early enough to run out the door with a glass of juice and some string cheese (breakfast of champions).

The good news is technically I could turn my habit around. The bad news is that it's really hard to tell that to my sleepy brain, especially on those days I technically need to get up at six.

Your turn: what's your bad habit? Sugar? Shopping? Wasting time reading blogs (*wink*)?

Image via Domino.

First Jobs

For the past couple of weeks I have been looking hard for a part time summer job, and this past weekend I got hired on at a department store. So it's no wonder that lately I've been thinking about some of the jobs I've held in the past.

My very first job was at Steve and Barry's, a large discount store that sold clothes and shoes, with everything being below $20. I spent entire days folding clothes, making displays look neat, and picking up after messy shoppers (fact: women are slobs when they shop). It wasn't my favorite job, but it did pay for gas and nights out with friends AND I got a 30% discount so pretty much all of my clothes for a year there were bought at Steve and Barry's. The chain finally went out of business last year, though, about a year after I left to go to college.

After Steve and Barry's, I spent a summer pulling weekend shifts with my sister at a dinky little diner that specialized in all-you-can-eat spaghetti and Yum-Yums (ice cream sundaes, essentially). Then I got a job as a lab assistant in my university's medical center, where I still work. And now I'm back to retail, albeit at a much nicer store where things generally cost a good deal more than $20. Guess I'm moving up in the world, right?

Where was your first job? Restaurant? Clothing store? Alpaca farm?

Image via bloggingstocks.com

How do you work out?

I've been thinking a lot about workouts lately. Probably because I have no more classes until mid-September and that gives me a lot more time to think about getting healthy. Maybe because I spoke to my mom the other day and learned that over 75% of her parents' generation have died of heart disease related conditions (eek) or cancer. Also, probably because it's hot now and I feel like the Pillsbury Doughboy in my tank tops (not to mention bathing suits). So today I thought we should discuss working out.

I'm not super structured when it comes to working out. I don't have a training plan, I just tend to work out when I feel like it and leave it there. Right now my work outs look a little like this:

Running: I've always been a runner. I was in track in highschool (800m, woot) and I never really lost running as a hobby, though I run more sometimes than others. Right now I run probably 4-5 days a week, depending on how stressed I am (I actually run more when I'm stressed). Usually my runs are pretty casual- I'll head out with my ipod and just let my feet lead me wherever until I get tired enough to turn around. Most of the time I don't even time myself. When I have glanced at the time, my runs are usually between 30 and 45 minutes in length, so not super long but not terribly short either. How hard I run usually varies too- I run faster when I'm stressed and slower when I just want to enjoy myself. In case you can't tell, I'm super casual about my running, and I get to wondering whether I should start planning out my runs better. But I've learned that when I plan them, they start to feel like a chore.

Yoga: This is something that I picked up last spring, when I took a yoga class at my university. For awhile there, I did yoga almost every day. It was amazing for muscle tone and posture, two things I struggle with (not to mention obvious psychological benefits). I've let my yoga slip away lately, to the point where I almost never do it anymore. But it's something I hope to bring back over the summer when my schedule is (hopefully) less hectic. Anybody know of any good yoga DVDs?

Rock Climbing: Okay, so this is something I just started doing once a week as of two weeks ago and already I LOVE it. I'm pretty lucky in that my university has a huge climbing center not too far away from me, and I'm thinking of buying a rec pass just so I can have access to it over the summer. Rock climbing is a great upper body workout for me, namely because I have almost no upper body strength. Not to mention, it's just plain fun. I'm encouraging all of you who have access to a climbing wall to give it a shot- I'm planning on going once a week over the summer if I can get ahold of a rec pass.

Those are pretty much my three primary workouts right now. I'm also thinking of picking up swimming over the summer, especially if I do get a rec pass, since my university has several swimming pools as well. What are your favorite workouts and how do you stay healthy? Got any fun suggestions for me?

PS: Thanks for all of your well wishes last Thursday as I went in for my job interview. I got the job! So now I'm a sales associate and fitting room attendant at a large department store in addition to my usual part time job, which means I can actually pay my rent over the summer. Woohoo!

Image by Per Breiehagen via runnersworld.com

Thursday Bullets

• It's Thursday and I just got done with finals week yesterday. Two tests and one giant paper later, I'm feeling pretty tuckered out. Tuckered out enough to miss blogging for a day and a half, heh.
  
• On the other hand- it's officially summer break for me! I don't have classes or papers or homework to deal with until September! So hopefully you all can forgive me for my sporadic blogging if I promise to throw in a few extra posts over the summer?
• Summer doesn't mean I get to be lazy. Instead, it means that I have to find a (second) summer job stat if I want to pay my rent. I've got my first job interview Saturday afternoon- wish me luck!
• I want an Organic Chocolate Trio from farmsteadorganic's Etsy shop. Organic chocolate fudge goat milk soap, chocolate body balm, and chocolate lip balm. Sounds good enough to eat (not that I'd recommend it).
  
• I have a giant hot fudge sundae in front of me instead.
  
• I just realized that the first ingredient on my hot fudge is not chocolate, as you might expect, but high fructose corn syrup. That can't be good.
• I couldn't come up with a good picture for this post, so I stuck one of a cute girl from The Sartorialist up there. On a related note, I really wish I was as cute/hip/pretty as anyone that makes it onto The Sartorialist.
  
• That's about all I can think about right now (post-exam brain freeze). I'll be back in normal blogging mode again tomorrow though! :)

How has your week been going?

Image via The Sartorialist.

In which I make a fool of myself...

via allposters.com

In case you all haven't noticed, I'm a little bit of a do-it-yourselfer. Especially when it comes to my beauty routine. While I do own a LOT of toiletries (see the proof here) I still love to dabble in making my own. Usually this turns out great, or at least okay, but every now and then I do something really stupid that leaves me wondering "why did I think this was a good idea?" Well, yesterday was one of those times.

Let me preface this by saying that I have super dry and rough feet. My feet are like two little (okay, not so little) lotion-eaters. I put lotion on them, and they're dry an hour later. I put heavy duty foot cream on them, and they're dry two hours later. It's pretty ridiculous just how dry my feet are. Now that it's sandal season, I figured I really need to try and do something about it, which is when I remembered back to February when I tried out the honey facial mask. The mask itself is super simple- smear honey all over your face and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes before rinsing it off. Honey is supposed to soften, calm, and moisturize tortured skin, which in my experience it does pretty well. And since I had a bear bottle of honey lying around anyway, I thought "why not try it on my feet?"

So after my shower (and lots of foot-scrubbing action) I plopped down on my couch with my bear bottle and squeezed honey all over my feet. Feeling pretty genius, I popped open one of my magazines to pass the time. It wasn't until 20 minutes later when I decided it was about time to wash the mask off that it occurred to me...

The bathroom was all the way down the hall and I had HONEY on my FEET.

Oops. I ended up weighing my options for a few minutes: get sticky honey all over my carpet (and no doubt pick up some cat hair on the way) or look ridiculous and scootch/crawl to the bathroom while trying to keep my feet away from the floor. I chose the latter. Thank goodness I don't have roommates (other than Tigger, who is always giving me funny looks anyway).

The good news is that the honey mask did make my feet feel a lot better. They're still dry, but they're a lot smoother and not threatening to freak out and crack anymore. So I might try this whole honey foot mask thing again, but next time I'll be keeping something to wash my feet off next to me on the couch.

Happy weekend everyone!

PS: If someone has a great foot cream recommendation, definitely share. Because my feet are eating mine like it's breakfast.

Greenify: What do you own?

Don't fill me!- via thetrashcan.org

Awhile back, I participated in a 3-month spending hiatus in which I vowed to not buy anything unnecessary for 3 solid months. One of the happy side effects of this (besides a fatter wallet) was a much bigger awareness of all the stuff I owned- especially things like makeup and toiletries. I realized that I was stuck in a cycle of buy stuff, use stuff, get bored with stuff before it runs out, move on to new stuff, eventually throw the half-full container of old stuff out. Now that I've made the decision to greenify, I've realized just how outrageously wasteful I've been, not only with my money but with the environment too. After all, every thrown-out item is wasted money, product, and packaging, and that can build up very quickly.

So in an attempt to save money AND be more green I decided to really cut back on the amount of stuff (cosmetics, personal care, etc) I use. And in order to do that, I made a (very big) list of the stuff I currently own. And because nothing is more motivating than a little healthy embarrassment, I thought I'd share some of my list with you.

Skincare- Face

• 3 Face Washes
• 3 Facial Masks
• 3 Face Scrubs
• 1 Serum
• 2 Moisturizers
• 6 Acne Spot Treatments
  

Total: 18 Facial Skincare Products

Skincare- Body

• 6 Soaps/Body Washes
• 22 Moisturizing Lotions/Creams/Oils (so much! *blush*)
• 4 Sunblocks
• 5 Body Scrubs

Total: 37 Body Skincare Products

Haircare

• 5 Shampoos (3 of which I hate)
• 4 Conditioners
• 6 Styling Products (mousse/gel/serum)

Total: 15 Hair Care Products

Cosmetics:

• 18 Eyeshadows
• 7 Eyeliners
• 3 Blushes
• 2 Bronzers
• 4 Foundations
• 3 Palettes (with eyeshadow, blush, lip glosses mixed)
• 4 Mascaras
• 2 Concealers
• 1 Brow Powder
• and somewhere around 50 lipsticks/glosses/stains/balms before I stopped counting.

Total: 94 cosmetics

Grand Total: 164 Personal Care Products!

Isn't that nuts? I was shocked at how much stuff I'd accumulated, especially since I tend to weed things out pretty regularly. But years of mindless shopping (and some sharing with friends- I inherited 10 of those eyeshadows this weekend alone) have led to quite a stash, to the point where I'm not sure I can ever get through everything before buying more.

So my current plan of attack is to limit shopping to stuff I am running out of, so I actually use the stuff I own. Easier said than done, right? As for stuff I've bought but really dislike using (not everything agrees with my skin/hair), I'm going to make sure those go to new homes instead of the trash. I know that Goodwill takes toiletries, as do the local women's shelters and most of my friends.

But I'd love to know what you all, awesome readers, do to limit the amount of stuff you accumulate without tossing it all in the trash. And please tell me I'm not the only one with a GIANT stash of personal care items lying around?