Summer Brights

Things I'm loving right now: bright bottoms with neutral tops. This summer I'm going to take a page out of these lovely fashion bloggers' books and try rocking a colorful bottom layer matched with a basic shirt. 

Kendi Everyday 

Cupcakes and Cashmere

Sterling Style

La Petite Fashionista

The Daybook

I need to make this again. NOW.

First of all, drool:

This is not my picture. This is from Joy the Baker  where I found this amazing recipe for cinnamon-sugar pull apart bread. My pictures don't look that nice, but then again I was cooking this at 10 pm with no natural lighting or photography skills. But I bet mine tasted just as good!

This was quite a process because technically it's bread that has to, you know, rise and stuff which I've never tried before. So I mixed up the dough and set it aside for an hour to do its thing.

Then after it doubled in size I dumped it out on the table and looked at how cute it was.

Then I rolled it out, slathered it in deliciously unhealthy browned butter and dumped a truckload of cinnamon and sugar on it.

Then I cut it into 6 strips, layered those on top of each other, and cut it into 6 again to make squares. I may have eaten one of the squares raw. It was incredible.

Then I layered the pieces in a bread pan and made the picture look cool with my instagram ap on my phone. I almost died smelling it bake in the oven.

It finally came out of the oven, literally exploding with goodness. Ok so I guess it was only overflowing, not technically exploding, but it could have been! Somehow I restrained myself to eating only one piece and took the rest with me down to Iowa a few weeks ago when I visited Lindsay.  Yeah, I've been meaning to post this for a while.

Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread Recipe 


P.S. Yes I did just post this after a healthy eating post. Because I'm all about striking a balance. And not denying myself delicious food.

Healthy Eating

I recently read a great article from Self Magazine about the Mediterranean Food Pyramid. I love Mediterranean food (expect olives - so much hate! But not olive oil, that I love) so I'm eager to start following their guidelines. The base shows exercise and enjoying meals with others, which I think is not only healthy but the way great meals should be eaten. Remind me to make some more friends so that can happen more often.

Above that is a nice mix of fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. I love that olive oil and spices are included because I use those almost daily in my meals! I also like that it's a broad range, unlike the American versions where everything is very segmented.

Higher up on the pyramid you have fish and seafood with poultry, eggs, cheese, and yogurt right above it. I also very much approve of the fact that wine is listed next to these sections and that all meat isn't frowned upon.

Finally at the top are meats and sweets. I'm also glad they don't forbid sweets - moderation, people!

I feel like my life has been in constant upheaval the past month between moving out of my apartment and being in transition between places right now. Once I settle down and find/move into a new place I'm going to get serious about healthy eating again and this is going to be posted to my fridge!

Graduations and Desert

How was everyone's weekend? I spent the weekend flying down to Arizona for my younger brother's college graduation. 

When did airport food become good??

Best grilled chicken omelet I've ever had. 

Me and my 2 younger (yet taller) brothers

The graduates' processional

Me and my little bro

My flight to Arizona was a story on it's own. After leaving too early from work and getting through security pretty quickly I ended up sitting in the airport for 2 hours waiting for my flight. Once on the plane I had the pleasure of sitting next to a husband and wife for proceeded to talk the entire flight, tell wonderful stories about various plane crashes they had heard of, and the woman throwing up all over herself. I was ready to stab someone by the end of it. Thankfully the rest of the weekend was spend relaxing (and eating the most delicious omelet ever) and made up for the awful trip. 

Anyway, the point of this trip was that my younger brother graduated with a double major in Accounting and Entrepreneurship and has already landed a job in San Francisco (lucky duck).  Congrats Ben! 

But you've gotta have friends

This is the first time I'm posting from the ap on my phone so we'll see how this goes.

Last weekend Kace and I took a mini road trip to Iowa to visit these fools:



Aka my best friend and her hubby. They're being all academic and getting various masters degrees and PhDs. I haven't seen them since Christmas so we made the drive through the middle of nowhere to visit.





Iowa. It's boring. But we had all sorts of fun wandering around the city, eating and cooking delicious breakfasts, playing frisbee, and watching Wizard People (a hilarious Harry Potter parody.)

The cute diner we had breakfast at.

Me and Kace.

Yum.

Cool old building downtown.

All in all it was an incredibly fun weekend and I can't wait to see them again this summer.

Monday Miscellany

Here's some randomness from around the web to start off your week:

Parisian Chic

Source

How cool is this?

I made cinnamon sugar pull apart bread to take to my friends' house this weekend

Speaking of baking, I want to try making this pie crust. 

Loving spring trench coats. 

Happy Monday!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

We haven't had April showers here exactly, it's more like April snow/sleet showers. But the temperature has slooowly been creeping upwards so I've been looking for some transitional fashion inspiration. This has been out for a while, but I absolutely love the Paper Crown lookbook for Fall '11.

I love the floaty silk, the comfortable sweater, the tailored blazer, and the mix of maxi skirt and jacket. I think I may have to try the maxi/jacket combo this week for work. Well April, since you failed to be warm, here's to a delightful May.

Wardrobe Wednesday

This is my first outfit post so don't laugh. I've wanted to do outfit posts since I started this blog over a year ago but I was scared. Scared my clothes wouldn't be good enough. Scared that I don't have any photography skills. Scared I would look like an idiot. I went through a pretty awkward adolescence and I was a mess in high school (it was the early 2000s ok? grunge was still in) and as a result I'm still not entirely comfortable in my own skin. But after a glass (or like 3) of wine I decided today was the day to stop being scared and start doing something that I've wanted to do. So here we go.

Tank: Forever 21, Sweater: jcrew, Skirt: Forever 21, Boots: Miz Mooz from Nordstrom, Knee high socks: Target, Ring: Forever 21, Necklace: Target

Home Sweet Home

The lease on my apartment was up this past week so it's been absolutely crazy trying to pack, clean and move. I'm going to miss that apartment, it was a great place to live, but ultimately I decided that I needed a place closer to my work. I realized I never really took any pictures of my place, so I snapped a few before I started boxing everything up.

The second bedroom/office

The living room

My super cute bathroom that I'm going to miss

Removable wall decals to break up the blank space

I didn't get any shots of my kitchen while it was still decorated because it became a holding ground for all my junk, but here's one from my phone after everything was packed.

I'm staying at my parents' house for a few days before I can move in to my new place. I can't wait to stop living out of a suitcase and live in a condo that actually has a dishwasher, covered parking, and air conditioning (I've come to appreciate the small stuff)! Even if it is only for a summer, I think it's going to be great.