If I Won the Lottery...

The Currently EuroMillions Jackpot is set at £58,000,000. That is a lot of zeros people. Though neither my husband or myself play the lottery, we do sometime speculate what it would be like to win the lotto. So I decided that for this weeks blog post I would have a little fun. I did some research on how much of winning I could actually get and how much tax would be paid, and then went on a make believe shopping extravaganza!!!

So for starters I had to read up on the EuroMillions FAQs, which was actually quite informative because I found that because I am hypothetically playing in the UK, my money wouldn’t be taxed. I would get the whole lump sum! Now, I know for the US Powerball there is a the lottery tax, which is about 40% when taken in a lump sum. In the UK, if I were to win, I would eventually have to pay HMRC inheritance tax, which is about 40%, so it is like a delayed lotto tax that the people in my will are going to have pay.

Now that I know I am going to get the huge lump sum, which is apparently just transferred into your bank account now (they used to be given a cheque), I can start making a shopping list. But before that I will be visited by a counsellor from the EuroMillions Company to help me cope with the being an overnight millionaire, which to be honest is probably a good thing. I am going to pretend I have been counselled and all that jazz, keeping in mind I was told not spend a shed load all at once.

Where is the fun in that?

For starters, the first thing to go is my student debt, don’t need that hanging over my head if Ben and I ever decided to move to the US. Because I was lucky with scholarships and my worked my butt off in college, I have less than the average debt of most US college students. So I haven’t even made a dent in the money yet.

Next is the obvious purchasing of a house. Since we will be able to buy it straight up with cash, there is no mortgaging involved which is great because housing London is ridiculously expensive and we don’t need the added stress. We want to live near the ZSL: London, Ben’s

One of my favourite things about this house is the garden

parents, and a good tube line. Camden has all of that and so much other stuff to do, so we are gonna buy there. So we buy a house.

After we buy that beauty of a house and renovate it to our liking. We still have a huge chunk of change left. A lot of advice given by past winners is to not retire early, the cost of living is super high and you also want something to keep you busy during the week. But hey, just because we have decided to keep our jobs doesn’t mean we can’t go on vacation some time! So we go on an awesome holiday, in which we gorge ourselves on amazing food and drink from dawn till dusk, and because I am in love with the movie Moana and want to go to the beach, we decide on Hawaii! Beautiful beaches, snorkelling, and volcanoes, what more could a girl want?! On the return trip, we make a pit stop on the way home to visit my family in Indiana (and to go clothes shopping of course).

Look at this scenery people

But now we have an issue, we have probably only spent about 15 millions pounds. What are you supposed to do with all this extra cash? Invest it smartly? Give to your favourite charity in hopes they name a building after you? This is the part of this hypothetically that always stumps us. Where do we go after that? Our lives are never the same, but they also aren’t too different. We are the same two people, with the same loving family. We still get up and go to work just like everyone else. We still do regular people things. So I guess even if we won the lotto, we would still just be people. Hopefully the money wouldn’t go to our heads, but you never know.  Although after thinking super hard about this, pretend buying a house, and planning a luxury vacation has made me wish I won the lottery. What would you do if you won £58,000,000?

Staying Creative in a Busy World

Keeping it short this week as starting new job has taken up most of my time and energy. I hadn’t even realised it was Thursday until Ben asked me what are weekend plans were. This week I wanted to talk about how I stay creative and keep creating in a busy world. It is very easy while you are still at school or university to take all of your “creative” time for granted. I know I did; getting up early to write, staying up late to paint. As an adult, with a job, responsibilities, and all the other lame stuff that comes with life, it can be tough to muster up even the slightest bit of energy to create. It can be even harder if you adult job involves you being creative at work. Between loads of laundry, trying to bagel recipes, and spending time with my husband, I often struggle to consistently stay creative. So below are my tips on how to stay creative in a busy world.

This could be you writing
the most profound poem of the century

1.  Use your commute time productively

Thanks to these wonderful things called phones, it is so much easier to take note of creative ideas and witty poems you come up with on the train to work. Simply open up a keep document or a new note and starting writing things down.

2. Doodle anywhere

Doodling is great. It is a quick way to jot down ideas for a new bigger scale art piece or simple keep your mind occupied during a boring meeting. Doodling can also lead you to some interesting places artistically and encourages you to be less strict with your art

10/10 would recommend

3. Buy an art or writing book/magazine

Looking at new art or reading something new is an excellent way for you to keep your mind’s eye open to new ideas or ways of doing things. ARTnews is a great place to read about upcoming artists and trends. If you are looking for something physical to carry, you local newsie should have plenty for you to choose art/design magazines.

4. Utilise your weekends

Most of my weekends are spent doing the actual making part. That is normally when I write my blog posts for the week (this week being an exception). It is when I finally feel alive enough to to work any sort of painting or drawing I have started. Whether you are taking the time to physically write down that poem that been begging to get out of your head or finally finish that drawing you started a month ago, the weekend is when you will feel most motivated to do it and when you will probably have the most time.

I hope you find these tips helpful as you continue your journey with art. I know that without consciously trying to keep up with my art I struggle to stay afloat in life. Make sure to spend sometime this week really making something, and start incorporating my tips into your weekly routine.

P.S. Here is a picture of my cat, Pico de Gato, who has taken up quite bit of my time this week. She is 5 years old and has completely stolen my heart. ♥

Being A Plus Size Girl in London

~~*Apologises for the lateness of this post, but good news--I have found permanent work and I have been busy prepping and actually being at work! But now that my schedule is more concrete I will be able to plan my Thursday posts better. So normality will be returning as of next week. *~~

As I sit on the couch, wearing new faux suede flats that I ordered to replace some old studded flats for interviews and work, scrolling through twitter, window shopping at some of my favourite shops (all plus size friendly), I started noticing a trend in the women I was seeing. They all had that classic hourglass look, perfect hips, no tummy, and the most perky boobs of any woman around. As a plus size women with an imperfect body, this is upsetting not only because these women rarely even look plus size, they have been made up and photoshopped in such a way that the clothes look perfect on them from every angle.

I asked the internet, “what is plus size”? There are a lot of posts from 2016 because it is becoming more mainstream to talk about “real” women, but nothing really explains what exactly it is. The Mirror published an article about it that I found to be one of the better explanations of just how confused retailers are about what women look like. Another article that I found to be eye opening was a Buzzfeed article in which two of their plus size fashionistas try on different outfits based on their measurements. Both women note that even when they get the size that coordinates with their measurements it, items of clothing still might not fit right.

Excellent example of model v reality

It isn’t just online that being plus size is misrepresented. Since living in London, I have found it nearly impossible to find any shops that carry my size (anywhere from 20-24 depending on the shop). Though watching what I eat and exercising more will hopefully solve this issue in the several years, it doesn’t solve my problem now. How am I supposed to be stylish if I can’t even find good clothes to wear?

So below are my tips, as a plus size woman discovering her city style, on how to shop when nothing is really available to you.

1. Start by going through your current wardrobe and deciding what to keep/sell/donate
2. Create a budget so you know how much you feel comfortable spending.
3. Follow some trends and do some window shopping you take the plunge
1. One of my personal faves to follow is Style Doctors, they have a UK and US team of stylist how can help you stay on top of all the greatest trends
2. But remember, it is important to have classic pieces of clothing, as well as trendy items
4. When it comes to where to buy clothes, I have found most of my success at Forever21+, Torrid, Lane Bryant, and Maurices. These places will make it easy to  mix casual, sexy, and fun into your wardrobe.
1. I know most of these stores are US based, but all them have international shipping and some even have UK prices.
5. Show off your awesome new outfits, because you are beautiful, inside and out, no matter what.

     

       As someone with the style of wannabe lesbian hobo grandma, I can say that coming up with style that make me look professional and comfortable was tough to come by. It took several wardrobe changes (and saying goodbye to my 30ish tie dye t-shirts) to find a style that I think reflects my personality without making me look frumpy, uncomfortable, etc. If I can eventually find my style, and so can you.

London Living: The Reality of It

London has a population of 8.7 million people. London has the oldest underground public transports system in the world. It is one of the most expensive city to live in the world. If you want to know some more boring fact about London you can look here. The Greater London area is separated into boroughs and I live in the West London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. There isn’t a lot to do here, but there is Westfield Mall, one of the biggest shopping centres in Europe. Shepherd’s Bush, where we currently live, has a high population of immigrants. Which is great, since I am an immigrant.

I’m gonna start by saying my life isn’t like a Bridget Jones’ movie. It isn’t like that early naughties Amanda Bynes movie that no one really remember (except me probably). I’ve never been in a black cab. I have never been to Buckingham Palace, and honestly I think the royals are overrated anyway. I am living an average life in an unaverage location.

My average day starts at 8:30am when I shove my feet into my slippers and shuffle to the kitchen. There is at least one day’s worth of washing up. Though we live in a pretty big flat, we don’t have a dishwasher to hide all our dishes in until the machine is full and can be run. I might do some of them this morning, or I might just wait until the evening when I need one of the dishes to make dinner. After maybe doing the dishes, I make Ben and I breakfast smoothies. We are trying to change our eating habits right now, so that includes becoming one of those people who drink their breakfast.

Not all stations have two entrances and a shopping centre

Once we are finally able to put ourselves together to get out of the house, there is a twenty-five minute walk to drop Ben off at work, then I walk another ten minutes to get to Hammersmith Station. On the way there, I pass by a Subway and the smell of warm bread is a nice distraction from the exhaust fumes and urine. After walking down to eastbound platform, I stand around waiting for the Piccadilly line train to arrive. Since I refuse to get on a train with no seats available (because yeah I am that uppity about standing on the tube), sometimes I have to wait a bit, other times I don’t, it just depends on the day. Per tube etiquette I do my best to not look at other people, but because I am very nosey I will listen to conversations and probably stare anyway. Sometimes American tourist will get the same train car as I am. I always want to talk them, mostly because they stick out like a sore thumb and I am worried I still look that way, but also because it’s nice to talk to people about what they are doing here. So thirty minutes later, I get off at Caledonian Station and walk another ten minutes to my in-laws where I am currently doing freelance database and archivist work. My commute time is actually pretty typical for people in London. Where I used to only have to drive 5 minutes to get where ever I wanted to go when I was living with my parents and now I consider my hour commute totally normal.

Probably over 1,000 Penguin Publishing books on these shelves

From 11-5:30 I am surrounded by classic novels, comic books, and piles of archival plastic. There are a lot of breaks for coffee and tea, I eat the same lunch (a ham and cheese sandwich with a couple gherkins on the side) everyday, and then at the end of the day I make the long commute home. On my way to the station there is an amazing (read as pretty alright drunk food) Chinese take away that does a huge six quid pot filled with chicken, rice, noodles, and spring rolls. I have to force myself not to get a snack box on the way home. One of the most tortuous things you can do to a person is force them smell your hot delicious food while they are trapped in a tube car. I rush out of a crowded Hammersmith Station and head to Ben’s work.

Formally of Camden Market, 

this is the best goddamn chicken ever

On our walk home, we spend most of the time debriefing about our day, talking about what we will have for dinner, and what we could do that weekend. Once home, I’ll make dinner and we will relax in our living room, watching 3rd Rock from the Sun, playing video games on our computers, and just decompressing after the day. We will probably go to bed around 11pm and watch another episode of TV or maybe we will just snuggle up and fall asleep, but that is it.

That is what a day is like for those of us average people living in London. Sometimes Ben and I will get drinks with friends, other times we will order take away, or maybe will we go to the cinema to see a movie. On the weekend we might do something a bit more exciting, but that could walking thirty minutes to visit the big Sainsbury’s supermarket in Chiswick. Living in a city doesn’t mean we live a more exciting life. Which was something I didn’t learn until recently because spending semester abroad doesn’t really mean you understand a culture. We aren’t living in a fairytale, it’s tough living in one of the most expensive cities in the world. So I guess that means life is what you make it. I feel like I’m living in both a harsh reality and a dream. There are many time when I think about how our life would have been different if Ben had immigrated to Indiana, but then I remember that wouldn’t have made us happy. I would rather struggle together in London, than have stayed in Indiana. I’m sure there are a lot of people in similar situations who feel the same. Though not all parts of my life are glitz and glam, I feel most at home here London. To be cliche, life is what you make it, so make it yours.

Why I Write and Blog Revamping

Well it has been a while… nearly a year since I last posted to this blog, but I am back! It has been a roller coaster of stress, anxiety, sadness, and happiness. After I arrived in London in May, I got married to the love of my life, was at risk of being kicked out of the country, only to be let back in six weeks later. But I have found that since then I haven’t found the time, or the will really, to write or be creative. I haven’t written anything or made any art. Searching for permanent work has taken up most of my life since coming home, but it has also done quite a number on my self esteem. So I have decided to start writing again and I am going to start by talking about why I write.  

I’ve known for a while that writing is hard, especially when I look back at the writing I did when I was in middle school, high school, even last week if I am honest. Often I tell people that I’m an artist, and my two favourite mediums are paint and words. I remember the first serious piece of writing I did. It is gathered in a blue floral notebook, the pencil writing is nearly illegible. It was a story about a girl who moved to London for school and met her favourite band of all time. She fell in love and married one of the band members. There was drama, adventure, tragedy. Thirteen year old me had some really optimistic dreams about her future. Though I have now moved to London, and have married the Englishman of my dreams, I can’t help but think about that 200 page notebook that is lost in closet at my parents house in Indiana.

My adorable parents and sister

But that was thirteen year old me, who thought life was simple. That I could write easy love stories and live off that forever. Now that I'm older I know that isn’t what’s gonna pay the bills at the moment. So I’m gonna write blog in hopes that it will encourage me to keep writing, to make time for this passion of mine. However, I find myself asking what kind of writer to do I want to be now? I have the necessary equipment to write-a pen, a notepad, a computer, and some creativity-but I seem to be lacking a course of action. Throughout school and college you are always given a prompt, an idea starter. But as I am no longer a student, I don’t have that crutch. I have to be my own writer from here on out, and I think I want to write about life and all the cheesy, corny things I do. I often found myself in school writing about that topic anyway, so why not try to do that in real life? I don’t have the most boring life on the planet, so this could be a good place for me to start. So I am going to outline what the general themes of my posts will be about and all the jazz.

Lifestyle blogging will be this blog’s overarching theme, but with sub-themes of what I call typical “Pinterest Mom Shit”. So that means I will be writing about; budgeting like an adult, crafting crap, recipes because I enjoy eating too much, but I will also be writing about video games, art, and living in London as a small town girl.

So you'll be hearing from me again soon with a new post about what it is actually like living in London

A Goodbye Letter

It is a lie for me to say that I am not tired of these “Open Letter to…” blog posts, but here I am starting my blogging career with one because I feel like there is no good way to say goodbye to people.

Source: giphy.com

I don’t hate goodbyes. I actually enjoy getting to say goodbye to things/habits/people because it means I’m either headed somewhere better or they are. If I were to get teary eyed every time I said goodbye to people, I would have cried a small lake by now. Since leaving school this past week, I’ve had to say goodbye to a lot of people, and by a lot I mean like 10, which is a lot for me. And I had to say goodbye to these 10 people because I graduated from college and I’m moving out of the country for the foreseeable future (read "forever and ever"). I will, of course, miss my friends immensely, but this is how life works. Just because we are apart does not mean that we can no longer be friends. Sure it means no going to the HUB for lunch or China Garden for dinner, but this does mean late night Skype calls and group text messages and new experiences to share.

From the left-Vivian, Ne-C, Me, Johna, and Kertney

As I sit and reminisce on what lead me to this revelation, I must admit that I do hate saying goodbye to one person, but after Wednesday, I won’t I have to do that anymore because I will be with him. The first time I had to seriously say goodbye to Ben was on December 18th, 2015. We were only going to be separated for three days (oh, the agony!), but this was the first time we were going to be an ocean apart. I bawled like a child who had lost their favourite toy in the Heathrow Airport. It was so incredibly hard to say goodbye because of the uncertainty our relationship. Yes, we wanted to make this last (and we most certainly have), but in the moment, the ocean that was about to separate us was ripping my heart apart. I have since cried in several airports because of him, and hopefully Wednesday will be the last time I cry in an airport.

Aren't we adorable?

I realised in August 2015, that sometimes when you say goodbye, it isn’t really goodbye. When I said goodbye to my family before my semester abroad in London, I wasn’t sad. (Just as I predict I won’t be sad on Tuesday when I say goodbye to them again.) It didn’t feel like goodbye at all. It felt more like a see you tomorrow because, well, I did see them the next day, thanks to the wonders of the Internet. You can’t say goodbye to family completely, which I think is one reason I do not get super emotional about it the prospects of leaving them. Sure my mom will cry and my dad will hug me extra tight, but it isn’t forever. I’ll be texting my parents the next day, and I will set up a weekly time to Skype call them, but I’m not upset about this new arrangement we will have.

As I move on to bigger and better things in life, I want people to know that I am not sad about leaving or scared for the future. I don’t regret the decisions that I have made or the action plan I have set forth for my life. I am excited to be moving forward. I have a lot of growing up to do and there is much living to be done.

My advice to anyone who is moving out or moving away is to think of the adventure you are embarking on. You only have one life to live, don’t weigh yourself down with regrets and fears. Everything will work out in the best way possible, even if you can’t see it now.

So here is my goodbye letter to all the people I am leaving behind in the US.

Mom, Dad, and Emily, I can’t wait for you to come and visit!

Grandpa, I will make sure that when you are with my parents, you get to hear from me.

Kertney, Vivian, Johna, Ne-C, being in school with you all for the past three years has been great. I know you will do great things. Don’t let the group text die!