Friday Favorites

For my inaugural Friday Favorites, I'm going to tell you about an exceptional facial cleanser.

I told you this blog would be a little bit of everything.  You were warned.

Clarins One Step Gentle Exfoliating Cleanser has been a lifesaver so far this winter.  My typical winter routine in this, the land of no moisture of any kind whatsoever, involves two types of moisturizers and, depending on the dryness of the skin on my nose, a lip balm chaser.  Yes, lip balm on my nose.  I am super classy.  However, after getting a sample of this wonder cleanser in a Sephora purchase I haven't had to use the lip/nose balm once.  This must be what normality feels like.

The cleanser has a light, citrusy/orangey fragrance that makes me think of summer and sherbet as I scrub away the dry winter flakiness.  And the super-tiny microbead exfoliators don't bother my skin like the multitudes of others I've tried.

Give it a shot!  It beats the heck out of smelling like Carmex all day.

New Year, New ?

The lead-up to the new year always makes me a crazy person.  A physical embodiment of the emoji with the big eyes and clenched teeth.

It's not so much the reflection on the past year and what I have or haven't accomplished --  I stopped making serious resolutions a few years ago -- but more the giant shiny orb of possibility hovering there. Waiting.  I mean, last year I decided in April that we had to stop dreaming and talking about going to London and Paris and just do it.  And we did.  I had no idea last New Year's Eve as I waited for midnight that we'd be riding bikes around a shimmering night-time Paris in October.  Super exciting, right, the possibility of a new year?

And yet, I made that decision to go on our adventure because I had a health scare.  Well, let's be honest, I live in a state of perpetual health scare, but this one seemed more plausible than the others.  When you're a cancer survivor (long story.  I feel certain it'll come up again) any little off-kilter thing can feel THIS BIG.  It all turned out fine, but after it was over I was just done with waiting to go places and do things. See, the shiny orb of possibility can hold this kind of stuff, too.  And that's what makes me crazy.

Sitting on my couch waiting for the potato to drop on TV (yes, in Idaho it's a potato that drops.  I don't get it, either) I couldn't stop thinking of what life will look like next December 31st.  I could be sitting on the same couch revising a book I've written while holding a baby we've adopted, or I could be sick or injured or grieving.  So many possibilities.

Then again, I was thinking this through while getting ready for work this morning and I thought, forget about years.  Days have the same shiny possibilities hanging around.  Hours.  Minutes.  I don't need a crystal ball. I just need to live.

With that out of the way, I do have a few resolution-esque things I'd like to see/do/work on this year:

• I would like to lay off the Amaro filter on Instagram.  I'm in the process of putting together our photo book from 2013 and there's an inordinate amount of Amaro happening.  It needs to stop.
• I'd like to go to some professional library conferences this year.  I've met a lot of cool people through the Internets and I'd like to meet them in person.  And, you know, learn stuff.  And fangirl over authors until the authorities are called.
• I want to do a lot of little clean-up/organization projects around the house that will eventually equal a clean and organized abode
• I will edit my photos as I go this year and not during a three-day editing marathon in December 
• I'll try to read 100 books this year, not counting picture books
• I will aim to walk to work as many days as I can

Here's to the shiny orb of possibility that is 2014.  

This is me.

I realize blogging is, like, so 2003.  What with the ease of jotting 140 characters or snapping and chatting or clicking reblog on Tumblr to get your point across.  And I do all that (except for Snapchat.  I haven't made it there yet.) But what I do most on all the social media sites that I visit obsessively is like things or reblog things or favorite things -- I skulk, basically.  I depend on everyone else to entertain me or inform me or inspire me or -- from time to time -- infuriate me.  It's time for me to attempt to do most (or all) of those things for other people.  

Enter The Everyday Hedgehog.

I've tried the whole blogging thing before:  there was a knitting/crafting blog that was eventually abandoned because I never actually finished my knitting projects and a couple of lifestyle blogs that went belly up because I lost motivation.  Actually, no -- they died because they were built on a perfectly styled bed of lies.  I tried to style my life to look like the ones I saw and envied on other blogs.  And that never works, I'm here to tell you.  

So what's this blog about?  That is a giant bowl of "I have no idea."  I've been grappling with that question for a while now and agonizing over the things savvy people probably have all the answers for when they start a blog: 

• Who is my target audience?
• What will the focus be?
• If I talk a lot about this thing, does it mean I can't talk about that thing?
• etc.

I have no answers.  I wish I did.  I could go on forever asking the questions and still be sitting here next January with nothing to show for it.  All I know is that I'm a Teen Services Librarian at a public library, so you might see some stuff about what I do for a living.  I'm occasionally a lifestyle photographer (people pay me and everything :) and very often a snapshot-taker, so you're likely to see  photos and photo-related things.  I read a lot and shop a lot and watch a lot of movies and TV and listen to a lot of music, so there will be some reviewing and opinionating about all those things.  Finally, I've wanted to be a writer since the day I was born.  And in trying to get out of my own way and turn off the incessant snarling of my inner editor I have come here.  

Hi.  Let's do this.