Beading

Spring Break is almost over, nooooo! I was a home for the first part of the week and enjoyed plenty of girl time with my Mama. We shopped, cooked, did face masks, went beading, and did other girlie things like that. Beading was our one last hurrah, since we squeezed it in right before I left, and I'm glad we did. Going beading and making jewelry will be one of those great things I remember for the rest of my life as mother-daughter time.  

Here's what I made today, my attempt at a slightly more wearable version of this fantastic piece from J. Crew.

My Mama made a few great basic pieces. 

Also: leaving for Glenwood Springs tomorrow, so I'll be MIA for a couple days!

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Flower salad

While shopping at Whole Foods the other night with the Mama, I found a little container of edible flowers! They were so pretty, I couldn't resist! I've always wanted to try eating flowers (more for the idea of it than anything else) but never knew which ones I could safely eat and which ones would kill me or something like that. Anyways, this packet made it pretty clear that I could eat these 'edible flowers,' so we put them in a salad with spinach, strawberries, and an orange honey dressing.

 Though they were pretty, they were certainly not flavorful. The parts of each flower that contained the organs was usually bitter, and the petals were tasteless at best. So maybe not a repeat for functionality, but still made for a great decoration!

Lemon butter shrimp

Made a simple, delicious dinner tonight with my Mama. We were searching Pinterest for an easy, summery recipe for dinner, and stumbled across one for lemon butter shrimp. I found the pin here, but it doesn't lead to any source when clicked on so I don't know who to give credit to. Anyway, we changed the recipe a tiny bit to make it our own.

We melted a stick of butter on a baking sheet (the recipe said to use a sheet lined with foil but we didn't and it turned out fine), added slices from one and a half lemons, and added de-veined and shelled shrimp. We seasoned this with salt, black pepper, and a bit cayenne pepper.

It baked at 350 degrees for 12 minutes, and then we ate! It was that simple!

Very pleased with the results, I was able to fool myself into thinking I was eating crab (for way cheaper) and  the flavor was light and fresh. Great summer recipe.

Nails nails nails

Love having the time to shop without the guilt of not studying! Spent my Monday shopping with my Mama, using up old giftcards to places like Sephora, where I got this cute set of nail polish minis :)

The resulting manicures:

Spring toesies!

Spring has sprung

It's here! Although I ushered in the season by watching The Hunger Games premiere at midnight, it has been much lighter and fresher since then. Today I enjoyed my favorite spring sandwich: avocado, monterey-jack cheese and sprouts!

Also, I'm on Spring Break! Finally! Although my week of three tests in 24 hours nearly killed me, I have survived and am finally catching up on sleep and cleaning! I feel revitalized and fresh for spring!

Knotted French

Playing with my hair tonight, and ended up tying knots in it! It worked out well though, as I created a hairstyle I've never seen before, a Knotted French. 

Instead of doing a French braid from right to left (from the view of the observer), I knotted from right to left, starting with a small knot, adding sections of hair until I was across my head. Then I kept knotting, and made a knotted tail.

Here's how it looks without me holding it. (Please excuse the tags, I didn't notice until I had already taken the pictures!)

Who knew knotting your hair could be a good thing?

Banana milk

Early to bed, early to rise... Enjoying an early bedtime with a yummy treat. Remember the 'Tree House'? They have an amazing banana milk recipe that I tried to replicate tonight. From taste, I decided to use:

2 cups of milk

1 ripe banana

2 tablespoons of coconut water

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Blended in my Magic Bullet, it was a tasty, comforting drink to sip on before bed. Night!

Lemon-caper asparagus pasta

Asparagus is cheap right now, so I bought a bunch. I have never done anything with asparagus other than steam it but since I had just received an e-mail from Martha Stewart with asparagus recipes, I thought I'd try one out. The Roasted Asparagus with Capers and Lemon caught my eye, but I figured I'd incorporate it into my main course instead of having it as a side.

Following the recipe, I coated a baking sheet with olive oil and spread out the asparagus, rolling coat the stalks. I sprinkled sea salt and capers on top (not in any particular amounts), and roasted them for 16 minutes at 425.

I probably should have done a little less time (the recipe suggests 12-16 minutes so I'll probably shoot for 12  next time), but I was very pleased with my results.

To complete the meal, I put some whole wheat spaghetti atop the asparagus, drizzled it with olive oil, sprinkled lemons and capers on top, and devoured it!

Lemon scrub

All of this nice weather has been fantastic, and I'm definitely not complaining, but my skin was not ready for it! With my shorts and dresses on, I found that my skin was looking dull, bumpy, and over-all wintery. It was time to exfoliate! I love, love, love the Twisted Peppermint scrub for winter, but I wanted a fresh scent for spring, so I decided that I could probably just make one for much cheaper. Here's what I found: a salt scrub from The Beauty Department, only one of my favorite websites.

I doubled their recipe, so I used:

10 tbsp sea salt

2 tbsp olive oil

Juice from 2 lemons

It was as simple as mixing all three ingredients together, but I must warn you to make sure the sea salt is thoroughly coated in oil before adding the lemon juice or else the salt will dissolve. 

I was really looking forward to trying this DIY because I love using my citrus squeezer-tool!

I'm really happy with my fresh-smelling scrub! In the future, I think I'll experiment with lime and orange-scented versions for gifts!

Sunny Day

Hello Colorado sunshine! And some warmth to go with it!

I've been munching on yummy summery treats like fruit slices...

...and lime sherbet with fresh blackberries.

I wore shorts for the first time this year (other than an the gym), and officially have my first tan of the season!

I hope it's sunny where you are, and if not here are some tunes to make you feel like it is...

Michael Franti & Spearhead - The Sound of Sunshine

The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun

Back to journaling

A year ago I was journaling daily. I started to keep up my writing skills while completing a totally science-oriented degree.I loved having the time to myself, expressing my thoughts, writing in a Moleskine with a Le Pen, and writing in cursive. Lately however, I have been slacking, and after talking with my roommate we have decided to pick it back up, Journal Club-style.

So our inaugural night includes blueberry muffins, tea, and our Moleskines and Le Pens :)

Gnocchi galore

I love gnocchi. Love it. It seems a food's texture is just as important to me as it's flavor because gnocchi falls into the category of foods I have a weird obsession with, along with tapioca (in pudding and as bobas), water chesnuts, and mochi. 

Anyways, I had gnocchi for dinner with the boyfriend. We used a sundried tomato pesto (ohmygoshyum), goat cheese, and sauteed onions and spinach (he added Italian sausage as well because he isn't a vegetarian like me).  

(Mine)

(His)

If I haven't already convinced you with my previous post, you really must try gnocchi (it's usually in with the pasta in the grocery store). Really.

Kombucha

I love the transition from cold-weather drinks to warm-weather drinks. One of my new favorite warm-weather drinks is Kombucha, a strange beverage that smells like beer but tastes like a citrus-y ginger ale. It's very hard to explain, but either way it's delicious.

I had it for the first time at WaterCourse Foods and I was thrilled to find it at a grocery store near me.

This time I thought I'd try cranberry-flavored kombucha, which is delicious as well.

Sunny Weekend

It has been sooooo nice to have a break from frigid temperatures here in Boulder. This weekend we had two days in the mid-60's and we have certainly enjoyed them fully. We soaked up the sun on the roof...

...and took a 4-hour hike to the see a spectacular view of Colorado.

And it only gets better from here on out, with a full week of 60's and 70's!

Recovery Thursday

Sick, of course. I always get sick the week of big tests from the stress and lack of sleep (though I've really tried to be better about that lately). I made a trip to Target to stock up for recovery mode and in addition to some meds, I got:

 Altoids...

because they are so cute, and my taste buds are so insensitive right now they basically taste normal.

Cookies...

because, really, shouldn't this be obvious? There's never a bad time for freshly-baked cookies (and a house that smells like freshly-baked cookies).

These cute little notebooks...

because I haven't been able to get them off my mind for a week now. They say cute little things like, "Looking at the stars always makes me dream. - Vincent Van Gogh," "Joy delights in joy. -William Shakespeare," "Happiness is a bright and shining thing. - Unknown."

Feeling better already :)

Full waterfall

Survived my test, and left it feeling pretty confident :) My favorite way to de-stress post-test is to play with my hair and my nails. Here's what I came up with tonight, a waterfall braid from each side of my head meeting in the middle, and a flower to finish it off!

I'm so addicted to waterfall braids, and hair flowers too :)

Study breaks

With tomorrow's big test looming over me, I have retreated to my favorite coffeehouse for some much-needed focus-time. While here, I am enjoying a horchata latte (something new for me, which I very much enjoyed) in the world's coolest mug:

Humor helps me study, so my study breaks have included such videos as these:

Fantastic comedy!

Favorite mani

Think I have a new favorite manicure! I've done this one twice in a row now, which is unheard of for a polish-addict like me! I used a cheap ($1.50!) NYColor polish with my essie flakie on my ring finger. Love the look of a subtly unique ring finger.

Since I have a huge test coming up, that's it from me today!

Portobello pizza

I'm sick of the lunches I usually take to school. I have limited options at my disposal though (usually just a microwave), so the selection isn't always the best. But the recipe I found here inspired me to try something new. 

Portobello pizza! With a portobello (portabella??) mushroom, diced tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil sprinkled on top.

I made mine slightly differently than in the recipe I found, I cooked everything separately. I roasted the mushroom at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about ten minutes, sauteed the tomatoes with a little bit of olive oil, and the grated parmesan just melted on top. 

Tomorrow I will just pop it in the microwave to warm it up, and I will enjoy a delicious lunch!

Melted crayon art

I've wanted to try melted crayon art for a while now, since I am pretty much bombarded with it every time I go to Pinterest. Finally got around to it, and I think we ended up with a pretty original creation :)

We (my roommates and I) started by buying a TON of Crayola crayons (which was fun in and of itself) and peeling off the wrappers of the blues and greens (not so fun). We aligned them on opposite ends of a canvas and glued them down with superglue.

Using a blowdryer set at high heat on low airflow, we melted the crayons while holding the canvas at an angle so the crayons would drip this way.

We kept going until we felt the blue side was done...

...and then we started on the green side

This is what we ended up with! We are really happy with the originality of it, I've never seen on that looks like this on all of Pinterest!

PS: I've decided to start taking weekends off from blogging, weekends being Friday and Saturday. Have a great weekend, and I will be back on Sunday evening!