Alice in Wonderland

When one of your closest friends has a baby you are suddenly exposed to a whole new world of things. You guys know that I'm perpetually 10 years old on the inside; but knowing things like popular baby brands, products, and toys for a person under the age of 5 baffle me. So when my girlfriend showed me this beyond adorable baby book she got for her son, I had to share. Simply, it's a book about teaching colors, but set to the theme of Alice in Wonderland. Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver are the creative minds behind this book along with others illustrated and written in the same fashion. Jane Eyre, Romeo and Juliet, Dracula, and A Christmas Carol are just a few of the titles they've turned into baby books. You can see more of Alice's illustrations work on her blog. So if you're looking to buy a baby gift for someone look no further than these books, Amazon sells them all, but try not to keep them for yourself!

Friday Flick Picks

Still no new movies at the theatre that are calling my name to see, but nothing beats a night in on DVD. I am a big Pirates of the Caribbean fan, and I was disappointed I didn't see On Stranger Tides in the theatre like I did all the others. But it was a good way to fill an evening this week and I was happily swept up in Jack Sparrow's pirating antics. I will say I favored 1, 2, and 3 to this newest installment but it was still a good movie. Just your standard dry humor, sword fights, and high sea adventures you'd expect from these movies. Nothing amazing, but not bad either. Jack Sparrow is by far one of my favorite movie characters so I will happily welcome a 5th movie to the series as well. Only one more week until June, and that's when the real summer watching movie will start. So stay tuned for the big budget, easy going, (silly at times, but my kind of silly) movies that I will definitely be seeing.

I hope everyone has an amazing Memorial Day weekend! See you back here soon. xo

Makeup for the Movies

Earlier this year I became totally hooked on the Sy-Fy channel's competition show Face Off. It's an elimination series that challenges contestants to create full body makeup on models in various looks each week. Zombies, old age, animals, horror villains, and aliens were just some of the creations they were asked to put together each week. Being a fan of movies it was easy to see how I could get into this show, but the amount of talent and knowledge all the contestants had really blew me away. It was cool to see how looks like that are really created for the movies. It's like a behind the scenes look at what happens in the makeup trucks.

So when a friend of mine shared this link for a new Pepsi advertisement, it made the inner makeup geek in me happy. Check out this cool transformation of an NBA player into an old man.

Start of Summer

clockwise: bag, spray, romper, shorts, sunglasses, pitcher, outfit

While at the lake this weekend, enjoying the warm nights and crackle of a campfire, I saw the first signs of summer: fireflies. I think every kid has that memory of catching them in jars or your hands, fascinated by their glowing magic. For me now, they symbolize the magic of summer. When the nights are long and hot and you feel like anything could happen. It makes me smile just writing about it.

So the fireflies helped kick my summer off and above are a few physical items that will make me ready for it too. Effortless outfits, a bag for weekend getaways and trips to the pool, beach waves, fun sunglasses, and the perfect pitcher for gallons of sweet tea (my fuel between the months of May-August).

Lake House Weekend

Starting at 4 o'clock today I will be in (mini) vacation mode. My family has rented a house on Lake Cumberland for the weekend. I plan to lay in the sun, finish the third book in the Hunger Games series, take lots of picture, and bond with my family over board games and s'more making.

(bathing suit: Old Navy)

Blockbuster Love

I have a special story behind my Blockbuster card. Yes, I realize that everywhere you look Blockbusters are going out of business and why do I even have a card when awesome things like Netflix and Redbox exist? I keep this card on me as a reminder of my grandfather. Shortly after my family moved to Lexington my parents went away for the weekend and had our grandparents watch us. And as any good grandparents they gave into mine and my brother's pestering to get pizza for dinner and rent a movie. I remember being really nervous that they wouldn't let us rent a movie because we didn't have a membership, but reliable grandpa to the rescue, and we were able to take our movie home. Weeks later several copies of this very card arrived in the mail and I happily snatched one up to fuel my movie obsession. And as the years went on, and I rented movie after movie with my Blockbuster card, I proudly showed off the cool name stamped on my card. Ask any friend that's known me, (before Blockbuster stopped being cool?) knows I have a card with Elmer Wertz's name on it.

On Monday my grandfather passed away. And while it's very sad he's no longer with us I'm happy he's finally with my grandmother, his wife for over 60 years, and is not sick or in pain anymore. I'll always feel like I have a little piece of him on my mind and in my heart because I have this Blockbuster card in my wallet, and it reminds me of what a great man he was.

Having More Fun

Cross another one off the 30 before 30 list. I got me some red locks over the weekend! In my head I thought I would go for a color like this or this, but I played it a little safe and went with something a little darker. I'm super happy with the color change and think I will be braver on my touch up visit and go a little brighter. I'm ready to see if red heads have more fun!

Flick Picks

You guys should be proud, I watched two new movies this week! (I'm impressed too). Once again you can see that I have no prejudices on the types of movies I'll watch, from bad scary movie to indie. Shark Night was watched purely for a good laugh. It was on Netflix instant, the friends I watched it with were all up for watching a nonsense movie, and this fit the bill perfectly. The other pick this week was for my sudden interest in the creative mind of Lena Dunham. Sadly, I've only seen the first episode of Girls, but I loved what I saw. Tiny Furniture is a common view point of twenty-something girls trying to find their place in life. I find her voice so open and honest and real, it really is a voice of a generation. If you like what's happening over on HBO I say give her movie a watch; it's on Instant too. Besides The Five Year Engagement there's nothing out in the theatres right now I want to see. I'm patiently waiting for June to get here and bring all the movies I've been dying to see.

Have a great weekend!

Catalog Collector

Being the huge Anthropologie enthusiast that I am it's no surprise that, along with all their clothes, I hoard their catalogs too. I became a faithful subscriber in 2009. After I realized that I lived in the same city as an Anthropologie, and became completely obsessed with everything having to do with their store. I was so in love with every photograph and every item of clothing that I couldn't bring myself to throw the catalog away. Forty catalogs later and I'm still going strong. I can't tell you how hard it was to get my hands on a few issues from last year when I moved and the postal service wouldn't forward any catalogs to my new address!

Even now, I love looking through old issues and reminiscing about things I tried on or saw in the store, or worse, wish I would have bought! It's like traveling back in time to spend time with old friends. The top photo is a representation of my favorite covers between 2009 and 2011.

Two of my favorite issues from my ever growing collection of catalogs, is this mid season mini issue Anthro came out with called "From the Hip." It was this feature catalog solely featuring pants/skirts/shorts and shoes. I've never seen them come out with anything like this since this printing so I feel like it's a unique piece.

The other item is a 2005 Spring issue of the catalog. I know 7 years doesn't seem that long ago, but in retail and fashion world it is. I distinctly remember how I came across this catalog too. It was my very first introduction to the company as well. I was in college, hanging out in a friend's dorm room and after turning two pages I couldn't believe such beautiful clothing existed. I asked her if I could keep it and 4 years before I ever subscribed myself, I still couldn't bring myself to throw away such beauty.

What about you guys, any Anthro catalog collectors out there too?

A Perfect Topping for a Spoon

So besides eating these like they're the only food in my pantry...I'm working in spoonfuls of Speculoos Cookie Butter. A tasty little jar I picked up at Trader Joe's over the weekend. It was the best impulse buy I've ever made. It has the consistency of peanut butter but tastes like gingerbread dough. So far I've had it on toast and a spoon. Both ways are delicious and if I can keep eating the spread completely by a spoon I look forward to trying it on other things.

Neon Energy

tshirt: Old Navy, skirt: JCrew, scarf: American Eagle, shoes: Sonoma, watch: Target

If I had the power to name a horse in the Kentucky Derby Saturday it would have been "Neon Energy." Instead of spending a day at the races in Louisville, I went in the opposite direction to Cincinnati to celebrate my besties birthday. Nothing beats a day of shopping, eating, and watching a hilariously bad movie to feel like the perfect Saturday. It made me feel like I was bursting smiles and sunshine. Obviously it busted me right out of my shoes, shopping all day takes it out of me.

Wish List

dress, book, anchor pumps, book, purse, watch, shoes, necklace, sofa

Am I the only one with a mental wish list in their head? You see something online or in a store and you're like, "I'm going to be strong, and NOT buy that item right now," but all you do is sit around thinking about buying it. That is me. Sometimes I stay strong other times I completely cave. These are some items that I'm currently lusting after.

PS If you can't tell this post is taking the place of my flick picks because I've been a total movie slacker lately!

Discover the Rice Flower

I'm no botanist, but I've discovered a new little flower: the rice flower or nophar. While at a wholesale flower shop Monday I saw this colorful bucket of rice flowers in orange, pink, purple, yellow, and green. Native to Eastern Australia this little perennial grows like a little shrub. It looks so little and delicate but the heads of the flowers are actually quite sturdy. I wish I had snapped more pictures of all the colored bunches together but my lone orangey-red bunch will have to do. I found a way to work my little bunch into two small floral arrangements for the store. The real test will be how long they last and perhaps I'll have to get more on my next trip to the florist.

Pretzel Rolls

To know me is to know that I love soft pretzels. If I'm in attendance of a professional sports event, carnival, concert, or mall, I spent 10 minutes sniffing out the soft pretzel stand and then count the minutes until I will jump into line to buy one. So when I found that I could make something very similar to a soft pretzel in my very own oven I realized that I don't ever need to plan a meal for myself, ever again. Because I will be eating my weight in pretzels instead. Sister Schubert makes these amazing things called pretzel rolls. You can find them in the frozen bread section at your grocery store. After your oven preheats to 375 they are ready in 7 minutes! And the taste rivals any pretzel I've bought. Salt and mustard optional, but please raise a roll and toast to the amazingness that is this item of food.