Hey Iris -

pretty packaging: korean skincare

Posted on February 23, 2015 Leave a Comment

My cousin came back from Korea with a suitcase filled with beauty products. While they can serve odd purposes, these products have such cool, colorful packaging that I couldn’t resist sharing with you. This facial soap is made in the shape of an egg, and packaged a mini egg carton too. Awesome packaging idea and branding. (also these photos turned out pretty good, I think I may try photographing at this time of day again) This above-the-lip-fuzz remover sports and cute face on the front and two little hands that pop out of the back to make the brand name come to life.And finally, a 3-step black head removal system that is cute, instructive, and with oh-so colorful packaging + graphics. As for the products themselves, I haven’t really tested out the egg soap and fuzz strips but the blackhead remover works like a charm (and you get to see all the dirt come out when you peel off Step 2).

What products do you think have some stunning packaging? Share in the comments!

carnations.

Posted on February 19, 2015 Leave a Comment

I know my name is a flower, a part of the eye, and a Greek goddess of rainbows. But damn, I love the carnation. I’ve half-participated in organizational/spring cleaning projects and activities across the blogoshpere and almost every one says to buy flowers. It seemed so simple, picking up a bouquet at a flower stand down the street and filling your house with them. Living in the suburbs and not New York City, I never really got the chance to bring plants to my room. Earlier this week though, I went to the local grocery store and bought a bunch of carnations. Just a tiny bunch of these little flowers was enough to fill five little vases/soda cans/bottles with their bright faces. I put them throughout my room and the house and are so pretty to look at. Flowers bring color to my room. They bring life and they bring change. (and a little more air to breathe in times of stress.) I can’t stop staring at these beauties. Go get some flowers this weekend, it’ll be great.

monday links.

Posted on February 16, 2015 Leave a Comment

^^^#bossbabe on twitter

Interesting: How to fall in love with anyone.

Process of starting a new venture.

Yum.

You are a big deal, no matter how big your audience.

23 phases every stressed out, strung out, well-meaning business owner (or anyone really) needs to know.

Hilarious rant about Harry Potter’s attitude.

Exploring Snapchat, one pun at a time.

and from me: a new website.

four things on my wish list.

Posted on February 13, 2015 Leave a Comment

Leading up to my birthday, I somehow end up gathering a list of fun things I’d love to spend my money on (or maybe make it easier for my folks). Here are six things on my wish list.

photo creds

1. Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Instant Camera. I’ve always wanted one. It’s easy to use, small, and most of all, it doesn’t require me to go find a printer to print out my photos. This would make scrapbooking on the go so much easier.

photo creds

2. Kate Spade Insulated Tumbler. Ok, ok. What I really want is a tunbler. But come on, this is possible the coolest, punniest one out there.

photo creds

3. Cole Haan Zerogrand Oxford. On the expensive side (almost $200), definitely. And on the stunning side too. I saw these when Kelly Purkey mentioned them on her blog and they sound like great traveling shoes that still look great (so perfect for school right?). While I probably won’t be looking into buying these anytime soon, it’s on my list of “things to think about when I grow up”.

4. 365 Blog Topic Ideas (for the lifesyle blogger who as nothing to write about). Um YES. There are plenty of things I could write about and upload on the blog and sometimes I hit a wall. Usually a homework-filled wall. So a book with a blog post idea for every single day of the year will have at least something I can work with. And this is one of the books where I think “why didn’t I write this book?”.

Happy Friday everyone.

Oh and links to the products are in the photo creds.

the new Hey Iris.

Posted on February 2, 2015 Leave a Comment

It’s finally here you guys, it’s finally here.

I’ve been talking about rebranding and making my blog a legit space for a long, long time. I finally took the plunge, pushed by the idea of my birthday coming up and from the lull I’ve found myself in coming out of winter break. I first wanted to release it one the day of my birthday, but I just wasn’t ready. Didn’t want to rush something so big. Hours and hours of learning have been spent on this site and I’d love to share with you some of my favorite things.

the Sidebar

For ages I have been annoyed by the lack of good themes that had both a simplistic, non-tacky look and could hold all the content I wanted in a blog. That led me to a theme with a floating sidebar, one that always stayed on the screen. It was a downside that I could (maybe) live with. Well, no longer! The new sidebar features all the information and navigation a ~~fourteen~~ fifteen year old could want.

the Logo

I’ve wanted a logo ever since I could remember. To me it represented the entirety of one’s brand and image on the internet. If you’ve been around here in the past few months, then you’ll notice I’ve actually paid a designer for a logo (i mean it was only $5 but still) and I didn’t get anything near what I wanted. So, long story short, I gave up. Turns out the simplest logo is the way to go. Love the one I have.

the About page

I’ve never really had one on the blog, and now I have an about page that is, shall it say, pretty cool. I give a little backstory (as much as you can when you’ve only existed for 15 years and can remember about nine of them clearly) and some multipurpose stuff so that I have something to reference when anyone asks about me.

Just those three things took me a while to learn, to code (and adjust someone else’s code), and ultimately put into place. Now, there have also been some you-related changes. From now on, you can only follow me through Bloglovin’. There’s no other way really, to transfer my wordpress.com followers over. It sucks losing a bunch of readers, people that made my day each time they followed. It really sucks. But hey, change is change and it can’t all be good.

Also, I’ll definitely be adding more (colorful) items to the blog layout and surroundings, but I want to let the photos stand out for now. That leads me to one of my goals for this year: I want to make better content. I really want to step up my blogging game, whether that be more frequently and/or super high quality posts. A good post can make the whole blog look amazing.

As for the specific details, I took advantage of GoDaddy‘s $1/month hosting and domain and also got the WordPress.com website redirect so y’all would arrive here. Other than that, it’s just been me playing around.

This has been such an exciting and stressful experience.

Here’s to another new-filled year. *cheers*

Kingsman.

Posted on January 29, 2015 Leave a Comment

(photo creds)

For the first time, I went to see a movie at an early screening. That movie would be Kingsman. An action film about a private secret service agency and a boy, filled with CGI graphics. It was such an exciting experience, and was a fun end-of-midterms treat. I don’t have any photos because I was too excited and also because there were movie theatre employees with night vision goggles ready to take me out of the theatre at any moment. Yeah.

The boy, Eggsy, is a troubled seventeen year old whose father died training to be a Kingsman. Anyhow, Eggsy gets into the training program and has a hilarious montage-style journey, making it to the top two candidates before failing a test and losing. He goes home, back to his drunk and violent step-dad, helpless mother, and an arrogant gang of teens with money.

Now, another story in the film is about a rich software guy who, after spending millions on global warming research, finds the best solution is to drastically reduce the population. He gives out free SIM cards with free calling, texting, everything (awesome right?), and the ability to make people crazy violent( nanowaves, of course). That way, people kill each other, and the few people he saves can continue on with their lives.

The Kingsmen (and Eggsy ) then have the job of killing this software guy and saving everyone.

Good things: Music (AMAZING), CGI (when the girl with knives as legs cuts people’s arms off, that’s too weird for me.), and the actors are all pretty great. It also prompts you to really consider, how can we really solve global warming? And, is it going to happen in our lifetime? Or ever?

Bad things: The characters aren’t every developed, it’s mainly just an action movie, and CGI can be overwhelming at times.

Favorite part: All the people the software guy saves have a chip in their neck that protect them from the waves from the SIM cards. The chip can also explode the person’s head off, in case they talk about it before the whole plan occurs. The Kingsmen take advantage of it, and decapitate every single person with the chip (politicians and rich people and all the software guy’s soldiers)- WAIT FOR IT – to the song Pomp and Circumstance. It’s the song used at graduations, and with the exploding heads made to look like colorful, non-gory fireworks, it is a pretty amazing scene.

Watch the movie if it sounds good to you. See the trailer here.

What movies have you watched this year? What movies do you plan on watching in the theaters? Let me know in the comments below!
Note: I have no affiliation with the movie, Kingsman: The Secret Service besides watching it at an early screening, one that I went and got tickets to myself.

five songs to dance to.

Posted on January 21, 2015 2 Comments

With mid-terms coming up this week and the week after, I think we all need to take a dance break. (insert Meredith Grey reference) Here are five songs that are getting through these busy times.

Uptown Funk. Number one for a reason, guys. And it’s got Bruno Mars. Dance? Already ahead of ya.

Rather Be (feat. Jess Glynne). From the first few beats, this song was destined to be on of my favorites. Another one of those music-creating groups that features other singers, it sure has a catchy beat. And the album cover is pretty cool too.

Bang Dem Sticks. A song hidden between chart-toppers like All About That Bass and Lips Are Moving, I think it deserves more than 350k plays on Spotify. Upbeat, and with fun musical references, I’m adding this to y playlist.

Chandelier. Ok, this is the song that got me into googling Sia and getting the full story. Interesting artist, and an even more interesting music video.

Centuries. I’m not yet on this whole Fall Out Boy/5SOS bandwagon yet, but this is one song I can listen to. (and I mean, who wouldn’t want to be remembered, for centuries?)

Bonus: I kinda adore the The Best Part interlude on Megan Trainer’s album.

And guess what? I put all of these songs (and a few extras) on a Spotify playlist, so you can give it a listen!

Midterms will be over, you can get through this.

it’s tuesday.

Posted on January 13, 2015 Leave a Comment

Excuse the profanity, but this could possibly be one of the best motivational things on Pinterest in a while. Monday was hard, and it seems like Tuesday is just another day working, waking up early, and staring at the clock. But make today your b, because you really should.

Find this, and more fun desktop backgrounds and stunning brush lettering here. Creds to the talented Hannah who designed this masterpiece.

lately // january

Posted on January 10, 2015 Leave a Comment

finding the peculiar parts of everyone, and how no one is safe from the craziness of teenage life.

discovering how influential a good group of friends can have on my opinion of things

making a group chat with all the kids in my generation (all fourteen of us share the same great grandparent) and hopefully getting us together for the first time

watching countless movies. Just this year, I’ve already watch six movies

feeling absolutely confused.

knowing that these next few years are a blurry mess that will clear when I get there.

struggling to get out of bed every morning.

trying to stay warm in this much too cold weather.

loving that first semester is almost (almost!) over and

hoping that I can make it through the second semester.

30-day minimalism challenge

Posted on January 8, 2015 2 Comments

I’m the type of person who wants to have as little material things as possible, and yet I end up with all this stuff I can’t get rid of. I’m not terribly attached to a lot of things, but memorabilia and childhood items will always be difficult to throw away or get rid of. Of course, my heart will always want to minimize, and so I’m going to take on the 30-Day Minimalism Challenge from Into Mind.

I make big goals every year because I know I can achieve them if I pushed myself. I almost wish I could split in two so that I could push myself from the outside. Push myself to get the things I know I want. But big goals, they’re exciting in the beginning, slowly adrift later on, and soon they’ve been completely forgotten. So let me try these, simple, little tasks everyday and I’ll check in once it’s done.

This printable has gotten my excited and I’ll be printing it out right after this post. Join me in this challenge? It’ll be great.