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!

Pear-gruyère pizza

So if you read my blog even infrequently you probably know that I love naan pizza! It's become a family favorite and it's so easy to use. Tonight, I wanted to imitate a pizza that I have had at a CPK (yum yum!). I have ordered their pear and gorgonzola pizza multiple times because I find it delicious. With an extra piece of naan, some left-over gruyère, and a few pears lying around I decided to get to work. Although the pizza I was trying to imitate had gorgonzola and arugula on it, I figured I could substitute with gruyère and call it good. When looking around for a third topping, I decided to use some cooked onion and I'm glad I did. 

I toasted the naan for a few minutes with a bit of olive oil spread on top. Meanwhile, I cooked the sliced onion on medium in butter until browned, and added that to the naan on top of sliced pear. On top, I grated a generous amount of gruyère. I then baked this creation at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about five minutes (nothing had to cook, just the general warming of the toppings). Super pleased with how it turned out, I'm not ashamed to say I wolfed it down in less than ten minutes! (To be fair, I had just returned from a strenuous yoga class :) )

Fancy kid food

So I was babysitting and the kids asked for quesadillas (naturally) but instead of making a third one for myself, I decided to eat like a grown-up. Therefore, I made a fancy quesadilla: whole wheat tortilla, monterey-jack cheese, spinach, feta cheese, salt and pepper, and a yogurt-dill sauce to dip in. I enjoyed it, but the kids were in no way jealous :)