the end of the world as i know it

So this is it. The last day. Tomorrow marks September first and thus the beginning of my entire month of no buying clothing. I am kind of freaking out, but I also have a weird sense of relaxation. Of course, the relaxation is probably brought on by me fantasizing about the other things I will buy instead of clothing. Here's what I scored in a mad frenzy to buy whatever I could this past weekend:

Marc Jacobs Latin Phrase Ring -$3

Marc Jacobs Swallow Earrings -$32

ring only found at Marc Jacobs stores, earrings can be found at shopstyle.com

Jamie and I spent the afternoon in Boston on Sunday (more on that in another post). Happily, that meant we got to hit up Marc Jacobs for some affordable accessories and also to drool over shoes and bags. 

Forever 21 Leatherette Jacket - $34.50

I. Love. This. Jacket. I have wanted a cropped leather jacket (faux or otherwise) for the longest time. I do have one, but it's not quite so motorcycle-esque, which is why I really like this one. I plan on putting it over every dress I own once the weather cools down. It is the softest, squishiest fake leather too. (Note: blogger is telling me I spelled "faux" wrong, which I did not, but has nothing to say about "squishiest" which feels made up. Hmph.)

And that's really it! I did buy a work out tank for yoga, and to be honest I will probably buy more in September, but I think work out clothes should be excluded, seeing as I truly have none. I go to yoga twice a week and need a clean outfit each time as I sweat like a you-know-what in church. I don't have the time or inclination to do laundry more than once a week, thus I need more workout gear. The tank I bought (and am about to test-drive for the first time) is Under Armor, bought on sale at Nordstrom. I can't imagine a plain work out tank is interesting enough that anyone will be upset I am not including a photo. Google it if it is bothering you that much. :P

Oh and I did purchase a sweater dress and a pair of tights at French Connection, but they were bought with store credit and so I am not counting them! (I am feeling very sassy with this post, can you tell?) You will get to see them come fall when they are inevitably included in an outfit post. 

What do I plan on spending my hard-earned money on in September that isn't clothing, you ask?

Wa-BAM! Super Mario Galaxy 2 my friends. I will be hibernating for all of September with this, waiting for October, when the mall is once again a safe haven. Just me, Yoshi, and those adorable little stars. Special times are just ahead.

my appliances are out to get me

I have come to the conclusion today that my appliances have all joined forces to make me completely lose my mind.

I think the incident(s) that started all this is the power going out. The power has gone out about five times in the last month. After around power outage two (what can I say Boyfriend and I are lazy) we stopped fixing the clocks. The clock on Oven, Microwave, and on the TV stand have been blinking for weeks. The only clocks with the correct time are the old-school battery operated ones, and the one on the cable box. My alarm clock has never been the right time, since I always set it eight minutes ahead. Though it isn't blinking.

Though, now that I think back, maybe Oven orchestrated this whole thing. Have you ever heard of an Oven taking a half hour to preheat to 350 degrees? I haven't. The Oven at Mom's takes four minutes. FOUR MINUTES. It has a preheat timer. My oven takes thirty minutes. THIRTY MINUTES. I have to plan when I want to cook dinner, then add thirty minutes for a pre-heating allowance. Not cool.

Microwave was next to join this mutiny. I hardly ever use Microwave, but when I do I am always annoyed. I put something in Microwave this afternoon and when it was done, Microwave beeped. "Thanks Microwave, I'll be right there. See, I'm spending time with Washer and Dryer right now and my hands are full of sopping wet towels." Microwave has jealousy issues. A minute later it was beeping again. "OKAY Microwave, I hear you. I am aware I put food in you, I will not forget it." I continue with my laundry. A minute later, Microwave beeps again, I swear more obnoxiously than before. Disgruntled, I drop the last of the laundry into Dryer and slam the door. I turn the dial to MORE DRY (more dry than what? I have always wondered. More dry than wet? Well yes please, that's your job!). Nothing happens. I wiggle the knob just so and hit START again. Dryer reluctantly turns on. My appliances are lazier than me. Meanwhile, Microwave has become beside itself and is beeping even more annoyingly. I march to the kitchen, "All right! Enough!" I forcefully press the CLEAR button on Microwave. Take that, you ungrateful plastic box. I remove the food and eat it. Mmm mac n' cheesy.

Oh and I'm sure I mentioned at some point that Dishwasher also hates me? Yep, Dishwasher has never cleaned a dish in the eleven months we've lived here. Not because we're not making it, oh no. Just because. The maintenance people are on the Appliance Team as well. I called them to take a look at Dishwasher who doesn't wash and Sink, who doesn't drain. He deemed them both perfectly fine, poked at the sink a bit, and told me to buy Jet Dry. Gee thanks. Sink still doesn't drain, and Dishwasher still doesn't wash (even with the Jet Dry).

The big appliances are clearly ruling the roost around here. The only two that don't seemed to have completely succumbed to their threats are Washer and Dryer, my faithful pals. It could be because they are too far away (all the way in the bathroom!) for Oven and Dishwasher to get their message to them. More likely, Washer and Dryer are too busy doing all of Boyfriend's laundry (more about that on Thursday) to listen to any nonsense from those awful kitchen appliances.

The Kitchen Gang has, however, convinced my computer and all battery operated items to go againt my wishes. Firefox has been giving me a hard time all weekend (I am still too stubborn to convert to Safari, though Firefox is getting on my last nerve). The batteries in my mouse have died TWICE in the past two weeks. Same deal with the Wii-mote. And all my re-chargeable batteries have gone mysteriously missing. I had a whole set of them and can't find them anywhere. They're not in anything either. Very suspicious.

Well I went out and bought a big pack of new batteries today, so bring it on Mouse. And see if I ever cook with either of you again, Oven and Microwave! Your clocks can stay blinking for all I care. The whole thing is really making me crazy. I threw a fit the other day and told Boyfriend we were going back to the olden days and we would no longer be using electricity. I made him turn off the TV and the lights and told him to light candles and get out the playing cards. He looked at me for a moment, then said "I bet you don't make it fifteen minutes before you run to your computer." Yeah well he was wrong. I only made it ten.

rockport

Last Sunday my mom, aunt and BFF went to Rockport to walk around and get our fortunes told. It was a cloudy and overcast day, but we were hoping the rain would hold off. Unfortunately, it didn't and we ended up cutting the day short. Rockport is a cute seaside town with little gift shops and whatnot and it's nice to walk around on a summer afternoon. On a drizzly, cold summer afternoon...not so much.

We did manage to hit up the candy store, where I got a dark chocolate covered Oreo as a treat. Mmmm, yummy. If I go to the Topsfield Fair this year, I am definitely going to try a fried Oreo. I love Oreos. And fried things. This seems like a no-brainer to me.

We also got our tarot cards read. I had gotten my palm read in Rockport years ago - freshman year of high school years ago - and it was totally spot on, so I've always wanted to go back and do it again. I feel like this was a good time in my life for a little peek into the future anyway. I thought the reading was pretty accurate, she seemed to know enough about me that I didn't think it was completely made up. I mean obviously you can't exactly a tarot card reading as the end-all-be-all of your future, but it was interesting none the less.

One of the gift shops had a viewing deck out back, so of course I had to head out and snap a few pictures. I love waterfront pictures. I have a bunch, but they're not hard to take in New England! I bought Boyfriend the Red Pepper Jelly he likes from this shop. It's slightly hard to come by. Put it on a cracker with some cream cheese...nom nom nom.

I'd love to have a house on the ocean some day. The psychic told Mom she'd have a second house in the next two years, so maybe we'll finally get the beach house we always wanted!

H&M sweater - Old Navy shorts - American Eagle sandals

Once it started raining we called it quits and headed towards home to go to the movies instead. We saw The Switch with Jennifer Aniston (who truth be told is not my favorite actress. The movies she's in tend to just be alright). It was cute and the little boy in it was adorable. Plus, Jason Bateman holds a special place in my heard due to my love of Arrested Development. <3

Those are fake birds. Fun with picnik!

Lots of adventures in store for this weekend, so there should be some good updates for next week! Stay tuned for a Things My Boyfriend Does as well!

[note: If I provide a link for an item of clothing, that means you can still find the exact item I am wearing or one like it at the store. If there's no link the item is old or the store has no website! :)]

mum's the word

Mum's the Word

Time for another story about my darling mother. She actually found the last one quite hilarious (she's a good sport) so I thought I would do another one.

My mother has troubles with pronunciation. It's a miracle I speak even half as well as I do after growing up listening to her speak. I can only figure she learned these terrible speech habits as a child, in school, since as far as I have noticed neither of her parents speak badly. My grandmother is actually a pretty accomplished wordsmith. She's into crossword puzzles and those elusive word jumbler puzzles in the paper. So here is a list of words my mother commonly mispronounces:

Library - "I just want to stop at the liberry on the way home." Yes, my mother says "liberry" like a toddler.

Breakfast - "The best part of going on vacation is going out to breffast every morning!" Replace the K with an F and you too can say "breakfast" just like Mom!

Pumpkin - "Are we having punkin pie?" Yep, another toddler-style pronunciation.

Bathing Suit - "I own 126 million bading suits." How does one "bade"? Why do you need a special suit to go "bading"?

Dungarees - This isn't actually a mispronunciation, but who still calls jeans dungarees?! Mother, that's who.

Flip-flops - She calls them "thongs". Sadly for her, a thong is now underwear and when she goes on and on about which thongs go with which bading suit people look at her funny.

Chimney - "Do we need to have someone come clean our chim-en-y?" We know where she got this one, and we're all looking at you, Mary Poppins..."Chim-chimeny, chim-chimeny, chim-chim-cheroo..."

Wheelbarrow - Up until a month or two ago, she thought this was a "wheel barrel".

Facade - Up until last week this was a "fa-kade".

And the classic Mother Mispronunciation Moment: she was playing Scrabble with my aunt and asked her to look up a word to make sure it was actually a word:

Mom: "It looks like a word...but I'm just not sure..."

Aunt: "Well what is it?"

Mom: "Mow-ve. M-O-V-E."

Aunt: "M-O...You mean MOVE?!"

Miss Thang Herself

[Note: This list is by no means comprehensive. I'm sure I've forgotten some doozies and I'm sure she'll come out with something new any day now.]

don't you forget about me

Just a clip from my all time favorite movie on this dreary New England morning.

Unfortunately, the embed feature for all the Breakfast Club clips has been disabled on YouTube, but here is a link if you are so inclined. It's worth it!

Screws fall out all the time, the world's an imperfect place.

from russia, with love

You guys, Russia is all over the place right now. Mostly because everything there is on fire, but check out today's post from The Big Picture. It's color photographs taken in Russia between 1909 and 1912. Cool stuff! You know I have a weird think about Russia, that time period specifically, so I was so excited to see this posted this morning.

via

you got the right stuff

Just a little run-down of how my week has been since I last checked in. I took Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off from work and today was my first day back. I liked relaxing better than working. I think I need some kind of sabbatical.

 Mini golf! Summer tradition. I let Boyfriend win this time...

 Hole 13, obviously.

 Watermelon Ale! Another summer tradition. This batch was particularly watermelon-y.

 Little Italy! This is a year round best-pizza-on-Earth tradition. Coming to a movie marathon Sunday near you! ;) [and 'Gansett, to keep it classy]

 I dig my toes into the sand...

 Sam Adams brewery tour for Boyfriend's birthday afternoon.

 Entrance to the brewing room.

 Mmm, beer. Plus, we got to keep the glasses.

 Televisions in someone's front yard. Someone drew faces in the dirt on them. This is what my brother's front yard will some day look like, because he is a pack rat.

 View from our restaurant at lunch. We ate at Post390, in the Back Bay.

 I just saw this on TV on a History Channel show about brewing beer. I was pumped to try it. It was really good.

 This is what Boyfriend ordered when I told him Guiness was boring (they had like four pages of beer! Try something new I say.)

 Calamari! Nom nom nom.

 Cupcake trio for desert! (I had already dug into the first one before I remembered to take a picture.)

 Boyfriend's creme brulee. It was restaurant week so we each got an appetizer, meal, and dessert. We're piggies. I was so excited to eat my sandwich that I forgot to take a picture, oops.

 Boyfriend and the Pru.

 Kids splashing in a fountain. Lady giving me a look.

Boyfriend got these to use on his motorcycle at night, but I thought they were awesome geek glasses, so I put them on and acted geeky. I don't need my glasses anymore and it was weird wearing them again.

So sorry if my life is boring, I've just been doing a lot of relaxing lately and loving every minute of it! I have some cooking posts and crafting posts coming up this weekend/next week, so stay tuned!

happy birthday boyfriend!

Today is Boyfriend's 25th birthday! I've been off of work the past three days so we could celebrate. I'll have a post of our adventures up tomorrow, today I'm too busy cleaning, cooking, and relaxing before I have to go back to work tomorrow. :(

Then (age 15-ish)

Now (age 25, wearing my sunglasses)

the mysterious ticking noise

Time for another Manic Monday video (yes, I do come up with a new name for this segment every week)! This week we have the Potter Pals rendition of...

The Mysterious Ticking Noise

*I'm going to stick with this Manic Monday video format, mainly because I'm typically too exhausted on Monday to write up a new post. So I am now taking video suggestions! All suggestions can be emailed to ksolano13@gmail.com and may or may not be posted at my discretion. All videos are fair game - music videos, movie clips, parodies, you name it.*

dog days are over

Just a little of what I've been up to lately:

mmm corn

acapulco is where it's at

mmm growler

mmm bbq

yeah, we've got that

trinket.

l.o.v.e

reading is sexy

mia's pals

Spent Saturday night at the Gloucester cottage. BBQ, board games, and beach. Couldn't have been a better weekend with my best crew <3.

i want money! (that's what i want)

I love Marc Jacobs. If I was a rich lady I'd own a lot of Marc. Particularly handbags, but pretty much all of it. Here are some of my current OMG-I-die-like -Rachel-Zoe Marc Jacobs accessory items:

Modified Cat Eye Sunglasses - $98

I might have to move around some of my budget to allow for these babies. I love the black and teal ones. I think the shape would be really flattering, too.

"Flash Shapeshifter" Zip Trim Satchel - $478

This is what I would love to buy with my tax money this year. (Provided I get enough. Taxes suck man.) I love the color and the zipper details.

Mouse Ballet Flats - $230

Seriously, how cute are these? SO CUTE.

The Marc Jacobs stores also carry a bunch of awesome and affordable stuff. I highly recommend dropping into one and checking it out.

Floral Umbrella - $18

Charm Necklace - $16

Latin Bracelets - $7

[above images from marcjacobs.com]

 I love those bracelets. I have two of them but I may need more. Because they look awesome layered with other bracelets.

I feel your pain Lucas.

tue-torial: half-moon manicure

So I saw this picture of Jessica Biel in a magazine, and thought her manicure was so subtly cool. So I decided to try it out for myself. I'd show you a picture of my inspiration but I can't find it online and my scanner stopped working in college when someone spilled a particularly sticky adult beverage on it. But if you Google "half-moon manicure" you'll find people who's manicures came out far better than mine.

Step 1: Gather your supplies.

I used OPI RapiDry Top Coat, Revlon nail enamel in White on White, Orly Bonder Base Coat, Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Naked Ambition and Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in White.

Step 2: Paint the base coat on your nails. Let it dry.

Step 3: Draw over the little half-moons on your nails with the nail art pen. You can exaggerate them all you want, mine were barely visible, so I basically just drew them on. No easy task. Plus, I don't really like the nail art pen. It's a bit too sheer for me and dries kind of lumpy.

Doesn't look so bad from far away, eh?

Step 3: Do a second coat of white over your half-moons, if so desired. I ended up attempting to go back over them with the Revlon White on White, and I wish I'd used that in the first place. You can dunk an eyeliner brush in the nailpolish for a more precise drawing tool. Clean up any mess with the eyeliner brush dipped in nailpolish remover.

You should have this now:

Sassy!

Step 4: Wait for everything to dry. Don't smudge!

Step 5: Pick a sheer, slightly shimmery white or pink color to go over your half-moon. I picked the Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Naked Ambition for this step. I wish I had used a white, but I kind of like this too. It's okay if it makes your half-moon kind of pink, it helps it blend and look more natural, I think.

I've been told I have nice nail beds. What a lucky girl, right? I guess it's a kinder compliment than "nice rack!"

Step 6: Top coat time! Yes, only one coat of the pink or white shimmer, then top coat. You don't want to completely cover your moons.

Finished product:

Why yes, I was reading Harry Potter. Book Four. I re-read them every summer, like a Nerd Queen. 

ANYWAY, I'm not totally in love with the way the manicure came out, but I do love the idea of it. Next time I'll try some different techniques, maybe even different colors. Hope you all enjoyed! If you try it, send me a picture so I can see how yours came out!