Salad Spinner for my Delicates

A salad spinner has been on my kitchen wish list for a few months (years) now. The item has been passed over by more necessary kitchen appliances such as garlic presses and doughnut makers. While the salad spinner is quite cool and I hate soggy salads, I have to be true to myself and admit that I don't particularly care for salad and really love garlic sauces and doughnuts a whole heck of a lot better.
Recently, I came across an invention that has the same properties as the spinner but would be way more useful to me and my life style.

THE LAUNDRY POD

If you read through the instructions you will totally see the connection. This is a salad spinner for laundry. I don't care that it costs 5x as much as the lettuce version. I want one, and I want one now...or for Christmas...but definitely soon...ish

Did you think I forgot about you? Naay

Last night I killed some time at Forever 21 with a friend prior to heading over to Happy Hour. It has probably been about 10 years since the last time I stepped in a Forever 21, the store has always just rubbed me the wrong way. Between the decor and the clothes that fall apart, I just didn't get it. Now, I (kinda) do.

Everything I browsed through was under $10. Shirts, skirts, and jewelry, you name it! Bras! There, I named something else, they were $6.50.

As I walked around trying my best to stay away from temptation, I then wandered in the accessories section. Most people know I have a soft spot for owls (see Owls are so in!) but in all reality, I love most animal inspired jewelry. When I saw this horse ring, I had to snag it. The ring was only $3.80! How do you say no to that???

For just a brief second, I had buyers remorse. Who needs such a 3-dimensional horse ring? Then I remembered, I do. Even though it is a little on the big side, I am very pleased and opted to incorporate it into my look today.

Offically

Going on hiatus for the summer. Things are just too busy. Hopefully, I can find time to return to HHSS in the fall.

Happy Father's Day

Baskin Robbins Father's Day cake cracks me up. I love that it almost screams beer stein, but to make the cake kid friendly, it becomes root beer float.

This explains my love of chips

While surfing through the internet I may have found out why I am always craving chips and french onion dip at 11 pm. As it turns out Sleep-Deprived People May Crave High-Calorie Foods and I would wager that this snack is pretty bad for me. Interestingly enough, I have been going to bed around 8:30 or 9 pm the last few nights in an attempt to get over a terrible sinus infection. At no point in time have I walked into my apartment, headed straight for the kitchen for the Heluva Good and Ruffles. Instead I have been going a more healthier route. So strange. In the end, I hope I can return to a lifestyle that consists of 6 hours of sleep and lots of fatty foods.

Commitment Bag

After kickball today, I decided to stop at my favorite store, Hootenanny, to look for some funky accessories for both kickball, and life. After looking at the wall of tights and socks - I chose some black and white striped knee-high tights for weekday kickball - I wandered over to the sales section. That is where I happened upon the best bag ever:

How could I say no to this one. It was only $9.99 and now it is mine. The fabric feels water repellent and I decided it could be my library bag. Between the books and cds that I take out of the local public library, and movies from my college library, I need a designated bag to courier the items back and forth. I couldn't be happier with this splurge.

Best day of the year

What a commitment! I hope my DD has the lemon filled powdered doughnut...yummo

A little history compliments of wikipedia:

National Donut Day is on the first Friday of June each year, succeeding the Donut Day event created by the Salvation Army in 1938 to honor the women who served donuts to soldiers during World War I.

Go Bruins!

I wish I was dressed this spiffy.

No Mess Makeup

I try my best to look put together on a regular basis. Every so often I will go the extra mile and throw on some eye shadow, pencil and mascara. Once in a blue moon I will go balls to the walls and even go for the foundation (let's be real, tinted moisturizer), concealer, etc to give my skin a nice even tone. In the past I have shied away from the foundation simply because I hate the mess. I would end up getting it on my fingers, even with using cotton balls or pads.

While flipping through a magazine, I saw Michelle Phan recommended using a stippling brush (or at least I think she recommended it....there were a few beauty articles) to apply foundation. Last weekend, I stopped at the MAC store in the Natick Mall and purchased one.


This morning, I felt refreshed and ready to take on the world, which meant full face of makeup. I was excited to pull the new brush out of my brush holder to see if the coverage would be even and perfect. Well let me tell you, I am in love.

The bristles are different heights which allow the brush to hold onto the foundation (or at least I think they do). You simply blot the product on your face where you want the most coverage and then start smoothing it all over. The sensation you get as the brush moves around your face is just heavenly. I honestly stood there for a minute or two painting away.

I know I splurged by going MAC, so I understand if you wouldn't want to drop the money for the brand. But I would totally encourage a makeup enthusiast to go for the purchase, or if you simply like the feeling of tiny little feathers tickling your face, either way, totally worth it

Country Kick

Recently Blake Shelton released the video for his single Honey Bee which will be apart of his album that drops on July 12th. I have fallen in love with this song and have probably played it every day for the last week and half. Since I can't find a version of the music video to embed, I am going with his performance of the song at the AMC Awards, please enjoy!



Blake Shelton has intrigued me since I first saw him appear on Chelsea Lately back in March 2010. I am fairly certain that if you watch the interview, you can understand his appeal, I immediately started following his twitter account after the show finished. (@blakeshelton)


Chelsea Lately - Blake Shelton Interview by butterflykisses82

Last night, I downloaded his album Loaded: The Best of Blake Shelton and had it playing all day at work. His voice is just so soothing and fun. In the interim, between now and July 12th, I think I will get the Thompson Square album to deal with my country cravings. My friend sent me the link to their song Are You Going to Kiss Me or Not and I found it rather catchy and pretty awesome. Looks like this might be a country kind of summer!

Gaga for Amazon Prime

Totally woke up to an email with the subject of:

Amazon Student: $0.99 Today Only -- Lady Gaga's New Album

Let's just say that it took of all .000001 seconds for me to click the purchase button. Amazon Prime is my favorite thing in the world, and letting me get the Gaga CD on the release day for less than a dollar is amazing.


I am also digging the Amazon Cloud. Any time you download music, it will get stored on the cloud first, and then you can download it to you computer. Since I have downloaded the Amazon Mp3 app on my Android, I can now jam out to this stuff on my phone! I was able to listen to Born This Way on my commute to work, which was a God send, as it was commencement, which meant that I had to park off campus in a field...a very muddy field. Gaga helped me power through the inconvenience.

UPDATE: Apparently I had gotten a coupon code in recent months and added it to my account, as I just got my "bill" and it shows that I had a discount of .99 making my total due $0!!!

Words to Live by

Since no one sees the tags, who cares where it's from
- Big girl in a skinny world, Marie Clare

This one sentence reminds me that the easiest way to participate in a trend is to go for imitation. As long as the clothes appear nice, who cares what they are necessarily made of or by. After all, most trends only last a season, so why not go for the budget friendly clothing?

Headed home for Memorial Day weekend, thinking I will hit up Kohl's and Marshall's!

Cut-Outs and Greek Key

Now that we are in May we have begun to encroach upon Wedding Season!!!! This year is light for me, just one wedding and bunch of pre-wedding fun (see bacholorette parties, bridal showers, and dress shopping). Even though there is only one main event, I decided I needed a new dress for the occasion.

I popped down to LIT on Newbury and tried on what felt like 25 dresses. As much as I love the store, they are all about the short girls - most frocks barely covered my bum and the long dresses barely covered my ankles.

In the end, I bought a dress by The Addison Story. It is super comfortable but impossible to describe. After scouring the internet, I finally found some pictures. Voila!

The key holes around the neck and down the back are what really sold me on the dress. They are elements that just spark interest. Additionally, I sometimes have redness on my upper arms, so I am extremely grateful for having the coverage without having to have full on sleeves. Can't wait for June to wear this out!!

Perfect for me

Club Monaco's fall collection has the dress I never knew I always wanted. For the last two summers, I have been on the look out for a whimsical white summer dress. But I never realized how delicate a dress I truly wanted/needed. I now know exactly what I am looking for:

Sadly, I have a feeling this dress will be beyond my price range. And furthermore, most of the classier events that I have in the summers are weddings. As of right now, it is still considered tacky and taboo to show up in white. Can't justify splurging a dress that is limited in functionality. Sigh.

Childhood Favorite Destroyed

A month behind the entertainment news, but that doesn't mean I can't relay my horrors to the masses that make up the internet. I just found out that there is going to be a movie version of "The Lorax". This was my all-time favorite Dr. Suess book and potentially children's story of all time. My love for this story began back in kindergarten when I watched the 1st grade class of my school put on a play based on the 72 page book.

Well now Universal is making this into a movie. Oye. What is with producers turning a short, simple children's story into a 2 hour mess?? (I am purely speculating on time, but I am fairly certain it would be more in line of the Jim Carrey 104 minute Grinch than the lovely simple 26 minute animated version)

And how are the producers further twisting the dagger in my heart? They have casted Taylor Swift as one of the characters (who doesn't exist in the actual story). The only plus is that this movie is animated...ugh.

Fingers crossed the Truffula trees and Brown Bar-ba-loots look as crazy fun and adorably cute as they do in the book.

I went to there

Major thanks to a dodgeball friend who swiped me a ticket to the most amazing event. Because of her I got to spend close to 3 hours eating bacon and drinking various beers while unwinding from an INTENSE Saturday. (Morning was spent presenting a major school project)

The foods were tasty. I tried as much as I could handle. By far my favorite food was actually a cupcake that had a bacon topping on the frosting. Yuummmmmm.

Fingers crossed I will be working at the Lobster Party again. I almost promise I will take pictures next time. (There is no way I am really promising, as I tend to just stuff my face at these festivals, no time for pulling out a camera!)

Vanity Sizing My Butt

One Size Fits Nobody: Seeking a Steady 4 or a 10 was recently published by the New York Times. The whole article goes on about the ridiculousness that is female clothing sizes. I always find these articles fascinating. While reading the article I thought back to my sizes over the years.

When I was in middle school and shopping at the Weathervane I started with size 7 bottoms. By the time I hit high school I was capping off at 11s. Classmates were stunned, I admit I was rather gangley looking, but thighs do not lie, and they were not getting into anything in single digits by the time I hit 10th grade.

Now let's flash forward into college and the first year out in the real world. Again, I am looking at pants at 8s, 10s, and dresses at 6s. The dresses could be smaller because the top part of me is rather tiny and as long as it didn't have to hug the hips, I can get away with a dress made for a big tween.

Then came the biggest surprise of my life. I decided to splurge on a pair of jeans and go to Lucky. While looking around I asked for an 8 like always. The girl laughed at me and said I needed a 4. I told her hell no, I have never been that small (and mind you I do weigh more than I did in middle school). Low and behold, there was egg on my face because at 23 I was wearing the smallest size I could ever remember. To this day I stay around a 4-6 in pants, and every time I pick up a pair I am convinced that something is off.

I would be much happier wearing a larger numbered (size would technically be the same) garment. I know I have more mass than my middle school self, and would appreciate this reflecting in my clothing. Additionally, I have been too big for my mother's wedding dress since 9th grade. I know there is no way she was a negative number, so really, these sizes need to be realistic.

In the end, I hate vanity sizing. I would love some standard sizing. And if that made me 14 or 20 so be it. I just don't want to feel like I have a prepubescent body.

Good For All weatherI

ICE-T and Coco are getting their own reality show!!!! (Please note for my blog title joke to work, let's pretend her name is Cocoa for just a second)

Honestly, how do you not smile when looking at this picture??

Months ago, I started writing about how they are my new favorite celebrity couple. I have been following them on twitter - @FinalLevel and @cocosworld - for about 8 months or so, and enjoy the majority of their tweets. The best part, is that their dog also has an account and will chime in on what is going on in their lives (@cutespartacus).

This odd little family just makes me smile. ICE appears to be a genuine person, and if you missed it back in May 2010 (I know who remembers what they did a year ago) he had a great segment on NPR.

Anywho, this is going on my list of guilty pleasure tv. Can't wait!!

Let's not go there

I have to write a one page paper on emerging technology for my class. It is due this week, so of course, I am just looking for a topic. (Things have gotten a bit busy, don't judge my procrastination)

When I searched for "emerging technologies 2011" in google I came across gizmag.com. As I scrolled through, I found a really entertaining new product, the Supple. The product reminds me of the chairs used on the spacestation in Wall*E

The major difference being that these chairs don't float. Lame. Let's hope these don't catch on, like the Segway failed to do. People need to walk or else we will fulfill Pixar's prediction.

Burlesque! Steampunk! Awesome!

A few weeks ago, there was Groupon or Living Social Deal for the Burlesque Expo in Boston. For $10 you got general admission which gives you access to the displays and drop-in classes on April 23rd and 24th. In true form, I managed to commit to a job that made it so the only time I could attend was Easter afternoon. Easter brunch was so tasty and coma-inducing, that I almost skipped the whole thing, except that a friend of mine texted me asking when we were heading out as we bought the deal together.

I can tell you I am so happy I didn't take that nap. If I had, I would not be the proud owner of a owl themed clock necklace.

























This purchase makes me so happy. The metal looks like an antiqued brass color and hangs right at the smallest part of my waste, since I don't have a ruler, I would guess that the chain is about 24 inches. I can't wait to wear it to work, as sometimes my tacky green watch just doesn't go with my outfits and I am addicted to knowing the time.