Hi there!

Life is crazy and sometimes my brain can only do one thing at a time. It feels like it’s been a million years since I’ve written anything, so here we are.

This is something I’ve noticed throughout the years while being in Alaska, Juneau specifically, and since I know lots of people here and from here that don’t live in town anymore, this trend seems to follow Juneauites wherever they go.

I’m calling this phenomena the Juneau Dress Up. The idea is pretty simple. Sometimes, living in Alaska is hard. You have to wear Xtra Tuffs everywhere because it’s raining buckets outside, plus it’s cold so you just want to wear every single sweater you have in your closet at the same time. When all of this is combined, what is an Alaskan lady to do when she wants to get fancy for those special occasions? She goes into her extensive collection and puts on earrings. Bam, Juneau dress up.

So I’ve seen this happen so much in my life, and I really love it. Both my mom, aunt and cousin (oh hey Elizabeth 😉 ) wear earrings everyday. I’ve even been told by some of them that they feel naked without their earrings. Other women in my life wear earrings a little less, but you can be sure those earrings are in if there’s any event happening outside of their normal routine, ie getting on an airplane, going to lunch, Pink Martini concert, etc.

Now, I don’t necessarily subscribe to this Juneau Dress Up routine as I wear the same studs everyday, and I do like to wear my fancy clothes when I get a chance, but as I spend more and more time here in the land of rain, I’m starting to convert to the earring craze. Who knows, maybe I’ll start earrings of the week here.

Thanks for reading to the end, even if this one was a little silly. But you know what, welcome to my brain space. Have an awesome week and let me know what you think about the Juneau Dress Up. Is it true? What are your favorite earrings?

Follow me on Instagram!!!! @dressingoptimistically

Okay this is a little different than previous questions of the week, but I had a genius moment a couple of days ago and I wanted to share. So then I thought I would collect some really dumb hacks together and share them with you 🙂

1. Rubber Band Sleeves!

So I have this really awesome army green sweater that I’m obsessed with, but it has huge sleeves that I am not a fan of. So I came up with a great plan of using regular old rubber bands to hold my sleeves together and then I could fold them and push them up to my normal sleeve place. Here’s a photo for proof.

2. Dryer sheets fixing static

You guys have probably done this before, but I have several sweaters that are get tons of static when I put them in the dryer. And I put them in the dryer to shrink them back up after wearing them, but that makes the static monster happen! To combat this, I use a new dryer sheet and run down the inside of the shirt while I’m wearing it. This also works for your hair if you’re having a crazy static hair day.

3. Putting a glass of water in with cookies to make them soft

This is probably my favorite hack from college, mostly because I hate eating hard store bought cookies. If you have a hard cookie, put a half full glass of water in the microwave with several cookies and microwave for about 30 seconds. And bingo, you have warm, soft cookies.

4. Avoid helmet head and fly aways at the same time!

Living in a super humid climate is murder on my hair sometimes, and I definitely fall victim to the frizzball crazy hair days. When this happens, you can use the dryer sheet trick, see #2, or you can spray your comb with a little hairspray and brush it through your hair to catch all the fly aways. This trick also works with dry shampoo!

5. Wash your face with coconut oil!

If you read my review for Two Faced Better than Sex waterproof mascara, THIS ONE, you will know that I had an ultimate panic trying to get that stuff off my face the first day wearing it. Which then led me to trying different ways to removing makeup in a gentle way. Coconut oil was the key! That stuff is amazing, I’m so tempted to buy a huge jug of it at Costco to use literally everywhere in my life.

With this stuff, I normally take about a dime size chunk and melt it in my hands by rubbing them together. After it’s melty, I rub it all over my face, concentrating on my eyes and eyelashes by massaging the oil in. Once all of the makeup has been dissolved, I wash and kind of scrape my face with hot water and my fingernails to get the excess off and then wipe my face with a clean towel. This has the added benefit of leaving a little moisture on your face and can eliminate some face lotion use!

6. Use a hair straightener to iron hems of shirts or pants

I have been doing this a lot this summer because apparently I bought several shirts that need to be ironed, how dare I, and have no way to iron anything. So I pulled out my trusty straightener, heated it up, and straightened (see what I did there?) the hem of my shirt. Mostly I do this while wearing the shirt, because I’m always in a hurry when I’m doing it, but doing it on a hanger works too.

7. Paint jewelry with clear nail polish to keep it from reacting to your skin

I have done this trick many many times in my life because I like to buy cheap jewelry and then where it forever, especially cutesy rings. After some green eczema made an appearance however, I freaked out. So, to combat the cheap copper jewelry crises, I paint the inside of whatever jewelry is touching my skin with several layers of clear nail polish. Works every time!

8. Combat deodorant marks

This happens to me all the time, and I finally learned how to fix it. If you notice a deodorant mark on any of your clothing, grab a little extra fabric from that same article of clothing and rub it on the mark. By some sort of magic/friction/good intentions, the mark will disappear!

Alright, those were only a couple of my silly life hacks, I’m sure you’ve heard of most if not all of these, but I wanted to share! Let me know what your dumb/super genius life hacks are for everyday situations and let me know if you tried any of these yourself!

Question of the day, what is your favorite dumb life hack?

As always, find Dressing Optimistically everywhere on the internet by searching @dressingoptimistically, and Happy Life Hack Monday!!

Hello everyone!

How is this December treating you so far!? I love this time of year, especially the christmas music everywhere. I even got to sing Bach in a choir here in Juneau, so much fun! My favorite thing is to sing, play and listen to christmas music while binge watching every hallmark christmas movie ever made. (Ask me for a list of my favorites sometime :))

I’ve been thinking a lot about adulting this year, especially because I’m away from my immediate family. I love all things christmas, but it feels a little different now that I’m a “certified” adult. It’s got me thinking a lot about the differences between my kid life and this awesome adventure I have going on now. Especially stuff that I definitely couldn’t do as a kid that I can totally do now. I made a little list just to prove it.

1. Making christmas/thanksgiving food all by myself. I made pumpkin roll last week and I was barely able to share a piece of it! And this thanksgiving was the first that I was in charge of specific food with no adult supervision. It was liberating and a little scary, but my potatoes went over well I think.
2. Present giving. I feel like I have always been a terrible gift giver, but in the last couple of years I think I’ve finally figured out how to be an adult and pick things for people that they might actually like! My struggle dates back to middle school, when I gave a close friend plastic food for christmas. I thought it was funny!!
3. Practicing for literally anything. I STRUGGLED through high school to practice the piano. And let me tell you, the struggle struggled. I’d like to think that in these adult years, I could practice my little heart out. I probably won’t, but still, I could.
4. Not having a full blown meltdown when I’m so sleepy I want to crawl under my covers and sleep for three days. How very adult like of me! I think being tired because of too many fun and good things makes that easier though. Plus pumpkin roll to get me through 🙂
5. Round out my diet. I feel pretty on top of how to not just eat chicken nuggets and cereal for every meal. Don’t get me wrong, I still eat chicken nuggets and cereal all the time, I’m just saying I throw in some quinoa too. Maybe even a banana to keep the scurvy away.

I’m pretty sure I could go on, but I want to hear from you! What are some things that you most definitely couldn’t do as a kid that you can do now? And tell me your most favorite christmas movie too! I love finding new ones, the cheesier the better.

Happy second week of December everyone, follow me on Instagram at @dressingoptimistically for daily adventures and things, and like my page on facebook to be updated when I upload things! Here’s some fun adventure pictures for making it through my post. 🙂