December 31st... approximately 6 hours til 2010

Hey everyone, hope you're excited for the New Year! Today I went shopping with my mom and my sister. I wore the outfit featured above.

Sweater: 525 America

Tank Top: Sustainable Collective by Convoy

Boots: Bare Traps

Jeans: Madewell

Ring: Forever 21

  

I bought the ring when I went to the Mall with my friend the other day. It's an owl, and a very cute one, I might add.

Today, when I went shopping, I purchased this purple dress from a store called Homeward Bound. Here are a few pictures of ways I was thinking I might wear it.

Look 1: with jeans and boots

                                  

Look 2: with tights and boots

Look 3: with black tights and black/gold flats

Dress: Kensie

What do you think? Which way do you like best?

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

My Day In Review

Today I met up with a friend from high school to see the movie "Nine". It's a musical about an Italian moviemaker and the women in his life, including his friend, mistress, muse, wife, and other assorted women. I was pretty disappointed as the movie was all glitz and glam that somehow says very little. It is, ironically, the same problem that the moviemaker, Guido Contini has with his movies. (Or so they say, you never get to watch any parts of the actual movies he directed) The only good performances were by Marion Cotillard, who played his wife and Penelope Cruz, who played the mistress, Carla. These were the only two characters that seemed to have depth. I will also give Nicole Kidman credit for playing her smaller part very well. She has a great voice, as I found after watching Moulin Rouge. Fun fact: she also voices the main mother penguin in Happy Feet.

After hanging out with my friend at the mall, I went to Barnes and Noble, got myself a Caffe Latte with nonfat milk and read magazines. I'm still a little sad that I cannot find the perfect magazine to suit my interests. Reading Cosmopolitan usually angers the feminist in me. Reading feminist magazines like Bitch and Bust make me wish for more fashion advice and for something to suit my craving for "guilty pleasures." Vogue has way too many advertisements and the clothes are completely unaffordable. Lucky is nice, but caters to an older age demographic. Elle has too much of a focus on fashion. I feel too old for Seventeen Magazine and Teen Vogue, though at least Seventeen shows clothing that is somewhat in my price range. My favorite magazine is long gone. Elle Girl, which somehow managed to give the right amount of everything from fashion to book recommendations, unfortunately is no longer published. The website is still up, but for some reason it seems different than the Elle Girl that I remember. Does anyone know of a good magazine for a person like me? The perfect magazine for me would be catered towards college students and women in their 20's age bracket. It would have advice for time management, recommendations for movies and books, cute and somewhat affordable clothes (for me that usually means under $100 for most things, though I make exceptions for bags, shoes, dresses, and the occasional pair of jeans). Does such a thing exist?

These images are not my own and no copyright infringement is intended.

New Year's 2010

It's December 27th, which means I'm actively thinking about my New Year's Resolutions. According to my journal, previous New Year's Resolutions included the following:

1. Finish this journal by December 31st 2010 (Last year's Resolution-- I still have a good 40 pages left in this journal, but I'm about 3/4 of the way finished.

2. Exercise More (Go to the gym at school, take a gym class - I have gone to work out much more often than I did last year, but my work out sessions declined around the second half of the semester. My record for going was 4 times in a week. I often went 2 times a week, but also equally as often, I did not go at all. I also took a Zumba class, which was scary as hell. I have never seen so many butts moving in ways they should not.)

3. Wear my hair down more often (As I write this my hair is up. Somehow I can't stand the feeling of hair against the nape of my neck. However, whenever I've gone out to dances or parties, I've begun to usually wear my hair down)

4. Be Happier (Ah the elusive Be Happier goal. While I sometimes think I've achieved it (during times that I'm happy), at the times that I'm sad I curse myself for making such a wretched New Year's Resolution. Because, after all, isn't being happier more of a life goal? I guess it's something that you try to do constantly, but often fail at doing. And since the goal of perfect happiness is pretty much unobtainable, the negative feelings from failing to achieve that perfect happiness are not really worth it.

So, this year my resolutions will include the following.

1. Don't be afraid to say no to party invites or extracurricular opportunities. I packed my schedule so much this year that I think it's time to take a chill pill. I plan on spending at least one weekend night doing a relaxing activity, either by myself (watching television shows, journaling, blogging, reading, etc...) or with friends (watching a movie, going bowling, hanging out in the dorm).

2. Going to the gym at least once a week. (This should definitely be feasible. Once I get that down, I will try for 2 times a week. More than that is probably not realistic for me at this point, and going 5 times a week and then not going for 5 weeks is not nearly as good as just going once or twice a week)

3. Taking more photographs (I haven't taken my digital camera out with me in the longest time, because a year or two ago it broke when I was at this dance and someone elbowed it out of my hands. I mean, what is the point though of having a digital camera and never using it?

4. Be more relaxed about planning (When I got the iCal I decided to record everything I did, in 15 minute intervals, which was, of course, INSANE! I need to let myself not feel bad about taking an hour to just listen to music while flipping through magazines. One can never be productive 24/7.

And with that I am done for now. Because my 5th New Year's resolution is to not make so many New Year's resolutions that I go crazy. So, I think I'll begin that now. 5 Resolutions is plenty for me. Now, what about you? Do you have any personal philosophies on the art of entering the New Year?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! This morning my family and I ate apple pancakes with maple syrup. We opened presents by the Christmas tree. I got the ipod Nano that I had been wanting forever! It's a 16GB and purple :) Then we went to Massachusetts to visit my Aunt and Uncle's place. They had invited their side of the family over as well as ours. There were lots of people and there was lots of food. My dog, Lila met their dog Boulder. Lila, a golden retriever who gets scared of buckets, boxes, and guitars, was absolutely petrified of Boulder. Boulder is this huge black dog. I can't remember what breed he is, but from a distance he looks kind of like a small bear. All in all, a very good Christmas. I'm exhausted now, so here ends my post.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night !

First Outfit Post

Get excited, I'm doing my first outfit post! This is what I wore to Church today with the family. Since it's Christmas Eve, it was packed with people. Mass was going to start at 4:00 or when the Church was full. Apparently they filled up by like 3.

Anyway, is the outfit better with hair up or down? Also, I wasn't entirely sure about the color of the cardigan, but I felt like the outfit needed a little color.

Earrings: Jasminesola

Pants: East 5th (From my Mom's closet)

Shoes: FS/NY

Cardigan: Gap

Black Top: Pure & Simple

Necklace: Pearl comes from an oyster I bought in Hawaii!

Late Night Online Shopping

I haven't bought something online in the longest time. You can get such cute things, and look at tons more clothing than you ever could in real life, but my biggest problem is figuring out if things fit. Also, sometimes the pictures just don't look the same as the product that gets mailed to you. Here are a few things I'm considering right now.

This is the Chane Jersey Dress by "Velvet by Graham and Spencer" $114 on Piperlime.com

Now I love the color and cut of the dress. It totally looks like something you could dress up or down. I'm thinking paired with brown or gray tights.

I'm also really lusting for this red scarf from "Love Quotes." But at $85 I'm probably not going to end up getting it. Last winter I somehow managed to lose my favorite scarf, a multishaded purple scarf from Urban Outfitters.

This last item, however, is definitely cute and on my list to buy. At $26.50 at Ann Taylor Loft, the Satin Trim Cami looks like the perfect new item for my wardrobe. Under a nice cardigan this could be an outfit for going to dinner with the family. Without the cardigan, a great going out outfit. (Though by all means I'd layer to go out in this cold)

Christmas Decorations and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here is our lovely Christmas tree. Complete with an Angel on top. It looks pretty nice, for a fake tree. In past years we have usually gone out to cut down a pine tree to decorate. But, this year our tree base was nowhere to be found. So, we had to settle for the old fake tree. Still, it has a nice quality to it, I think.

I wish I had been there, though, to help decorate it. Because my winter break started so close to Christmas, my family had already decorated the house and the tree without me. Those presents under the tree are from my parents. I still haven't finished wrapping mine for my family. (I happen to be one of the world's worst gift wrappers). Even my little sister can always wrap a present with more precision than I ever could. I can't believe that Christmas Eve is tomorrow. This year has gone by so quickly.

On the right is a small Christmas wreath that my Mom propped up against our windowsill. I think I may have made that Angel in Girl Scouts when I was younger, but I can't really remember. I actually really loved being a Girl Scout. Around Christmastime we would make ornaments and crafts to sell at the Christmas Bazaar they held every year at our Church. I remember we once made little Gingerbreadmen that we stuck on pins. Other popular crafts were snowflake ornaments, bags of "Reindeer Poop" and "Snowmen Poop." I think Reindeer poop was made of chocolate covered raisins and Snowmen

poop was tiny marshmallows.

Here are the ingredients that I used today to make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from scratch. I hadn't baked cookies from scratch in years. Probably the last time I did was in Home Ec in the 8th grade. Anyway, they came out great. Below are some pictures of my cookie making process and the cookies themselves.

Here are the cookies right before I put them in the oven.

The picture (left) is me showing off my kitchen gloves and preparing to open up the oven. These cookies are ready for liftoff!

Finally, here I am, showing off my hard work. Those cookies took me forever to make. But it was definitely worth it. Over the break I will try to make gingerbread, sugar cookies, or Snickerdoodles.

Winter Break: Day 2

This morning I tried to post a video of myself singing Silent Night, but I can't get it to load on blogger. Oh well, maybe I'll figure it out later. (So if you see a post wishing you a Merry Christmas next April, don't get confused)

Another thing I had wanted to do was take some of my own pictures for this blog, but, unfortunately, I think I left my camera's battery at my dorm in Boston. I figure that pictures are often what draws people into reading blog posts, but then again, my blog is still quite young, so maybe I really have no idea.

In other news, all but one of my grades are in, and I somehow managed to do much better than I thought I would. A holiday miracle perhaps? Now that I can stop worrying about school (Finally), I'm trying to think of fun things to do that are relaxing (aka not stressful) but productive at the same time. I've gotten to have a minor obsession with productivity blogs and books.

Some of my favorites include http://www.calnewport.com/ He has a blog that talks about studying habits for college students. He also wrote a book called "How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less" This book is really helpful so I definitely recommend reading it before the next semester begins.

Another good website is http://www.hackcollege.com

But enough about school. While I'm sad that most of the television shows I watched this fall are on hiatus, (Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, and Glee) to name a few, I am also excited to see Greek return this January. I'm still a little behind though, so I need to watch the last few episodes before then.

Well, I'm off to the library to return "In the Woods" by Tana French. It was amazingly terrifying. A murder mystery where one of the main detectives on the case plays an interesting role. In the 1980s he and his two friends ran into that woods, and only he came back. When they found him, he had blood in his shoes and no memory of what had happened. Then, years later, after he has changed his name and tried to leave the past behind him, he gets put on this case. Definitely read this if you have the time. I couldn't put it down, and managed to finish it in about 2 days.

Hope everyone's break is going well :)

Finals Week

Oh Finals Week, how I loathe thee.

Actually I'm well past the worst of it. Tomorrow is my last exam in a political science course I'm taking on the American Judicial Process. However, it's at 9 a.m... 9 a.m. Saturday morning. How cruel can they be? As of right now I'm already dreaming of sugarplums and fairies, getting excited for Christmastime. Though because I will not be home until December 20th, it somehow already seems like I missed out on Christmas.

Let me explain: Christmas for me usually takes on the entire month of December. I love Christmas carols, nativity plays, greeting cards, eggnog, roasting chestnuts on an open fire, making snowmen and snowwoman, snow forts, paper snowflakes, and Holiday movies. It's not that I'm super religious or anything. I think I just love the holidays. The only thing that saddens me around the Holidays is the fact that I'm not half-Jewish as well. Then I could extend the holiday spirit by celebrating Hanukkah, too. Then I could join to my list of winter wonders: dreidels, menorahs, and latkes. *sigh*

I can't wait to be on my winter break. Look forward to seeing many more posts from me, as I finally will have the free time to do it.