Along with my wishful thinking that spring weather would actually come back and the rain would stop, I decided to eat something light/springy today for lunch. I can't lie, I was a little apprehensive about the bread being too heavy, but it was so delicious the way all of the flavors mixed together. This was actually the second day that I had this for lunch and I thought it was a great mix. Yesterday I had it with a hard broiled egg on it but I have no more of them, must get hard boiling!
I want to say that I HAVE spoken about my undying love for avocados here before. I think I posted another sandwich very similar to this one (but with an english muffin) last year. As you can see, I have decided to go with 7-Grain bread, avocado, American cheese and tomato. What you can't see is the light (very light) layer of some honey dijon.
All of these flavors just mix so well together. Yesterday when I had the egg on the sandwich as well, I tasted a tweet bit and there was no honey dijon so I think the bread has a slight sweetness.
Who doesn't love a nice bowl of fruit with their sandwich? Not only was this delicious, but it's a healthy alternative. Having something crisp and delicious is also something that reminds me of the spring. I'm over the apple pie, bring on the watermelon! For now until watermelon starts appearing in stores around me, I have opted for a pear and some strawberries. Strawberries always remind me of the start of spring and into summer so inherently it just makes me happier!
What do you guys normally snack on/have for lunch in the spring? Do you change up your eating habits drastically to calm your mood? I mean, isn't that the point of 'comfort food?' I love being able to make whatever I want, whenever I want it so this is really good to me. April showers will hopefully be bringing May flowers and some warmer weather and this meal has certainly made me believe it a little bit more. Send me a tweet and let me know what you're thinking! Thanks for reading. -Brit.
It has been raining a lot lately. I guess the last couple of days of April are really taking advantage of the 'April showers bring May flowers' rule. I'm not okay with this. I really just wish summer temperatures would come and stay. To make up for feeling the blues, I decided to paint my nails and toes green. Whats the point in waiting for everything to turn green when you can just paint everything green, right? Needless to say I took to my nail polish rack and chose Jade Is The New Black by OPI.
I've written about OPI polishes on here before. As you know, I always like to do about two coats of polish no matter what. I think here I did three because sometimes I just prefer. This particular color is pretty opaque so you don't have to worry about sitting there forever and getting it to come out the color it looks like it is in the bottle (like some other polishes I know you do). This color just makes me really happy and brings a little color to these otherwise mundane days. Here are a few photos:
I actually started with this color on my toes. After I had the polish on my feet for about two weeks I said to myself, 'maybe I should just put that on my nails.' Haha. Please ignore the bandaid, I stepped on a piece of glass while volunteering with my dad a couple of weeks ago. We were doing a stream clean-up and the glass went right through my boot and into my foot. This did not make me happy as I am sure you could imagine. I got that darling little ankle bracelet from a local boutique called Sunshine Daydream here in Point Pleasant. I know its easy to make myself but I like it! I got another piece from them as well that I will share with you soon. Thanks for reading! Make sure you send me a tweet & let me know what you've got on your nails/toes lately. Talk to you soon! -Brit.
It's spring and summer really is NOT too far behind. These are what dreams are made of. I love this feeling for so many reasons: warm weather, warm weather, warm weather anddddd.. warm weather! Everything is so perfect in the summer. I love being able to spend my weekends at the beach and have fun with friends and family. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.
With the season comes some additional essentials! Every year I like to freshen up my wardrobe with a few pieces, or grab a couple more beauty items right when the season begins! Of course I can supplement as the season goes on as I please. For right now, here are some of the things I am loving and need ASAP! :)
This lace jacket from H&M is darling, it's to die for. I love it. Something so elegant and delicate yet its perfect for a summer night's event. I would definitely be interested in purchasing something like this just to spice something up that would ordinarilly be mundane. What do you think?
The latest from Deborah Lippmann is so cute, I love the '80s vibe. Orange and yellow are my two favorite colors so theres no surprise that I'd love this. I have a couple of Deborah Lippmann polishes and I love them, so I'm sure this one would be amazing. Are you a fan of yellow polishes?
I had an argument with a couple of people not long ago about the relevance of jelly shoes. Someone had asked me what I thought about a certain pair and I told her I loved them and I was quickly judged, I can't really reason to understand why. I love jelly shoes. Always have, always will. These are from Jeffrey Campbell and after I'm done writing this, I'll probably order them. What about you?
So here are just a couple of things that I'm crushing on right now. Like I said about the JC's, I will probably be ordering them right after I am done writing this blog post because I want them the most out of everything. Are there things that you feel like you must have right now? I know there will be more once the warm weather REALLY starts coming along consistently. Send me a tweet and let me know what you've craving lately. Thanks so much for reading! -Brit.
So this week my little cousin is on his spring break from school. I don't know about you but I most definitely miss those days! Some R&R is always appreciated so when it's lacking, you definitely notice! My aunt had suggested when she was at my house for Easter over the weekend that we take a trip to the aquarium while my cousin was off and I thought that was a fantastic idea. I have never been to the Camden Adventure Aquarium which is really weird considering I have lived in New Jersey my entire life.
Normally a lot of the schools do field trips here too so I was kind of surprised that throughout the entire time I have been in school as a younger kid, I never have been! I was so thrilled to be going for the day trip because I love the aquarium. I know what you're saying, it's hard to believe I am 24, it's fine.
ANYWAY! My aunt swung by my house, picked me up and it was off to the aquarium! I live on the very edge of the east coast in a beach town so it was a about an hour and fifteen minutes to get all the way over to West Jersey! Camden is literally RIGHT outside of Philadelphia (as you will soon learn from some awesome photos I was able to snap with the iPhone).
These were the first couple of things we saw when we first walked in, alligators and crocodiles oh my!
Faster than we thought, we made our way through and took a look at this eel, then a lobster. #Casual
So you may have thought I was kidding when I said classes come here for field trips, I wasn't. This is ironically the 'School Zone' where kids can learn about how fish travel together in some cases. Adorbs.
Of course no trip ANYWHERE would be complete without at least ONE selfie. This wasn't my only one naturally (you will see a penguin selfie later). I love trying to make my cousin take selfies with me, it's truly adorable. Check him out here on the right in this huge jaw. On the left, our giant tank selfie!
The huge tank seflie above housed some of these creatures below. As you can see we met a huge turtle and some awesome sharks. Swimming in there too were other types of fish, I'm worried for them.
So the next portion of our journey was our visit to the shark tank. This was one of the two things that I was most excited about when we were thinking of visiting the aquarium to begin with. I thought it was going to be so awesome to touch the sharks; it was everything and more. So amazing. I can't really explain the feeling except for saying that they were slimy, heh. I must admit I was a little dramatic in this video I'm including, but what I didn't seem to get in the frame was this one Tiger Shark that almost hopped right over the barrier towards one of the kids that was petting it. I almost died, hahaha!
Right before the Sting Ray tank, we saw this
awesome 'fish chandelier,' the colors were so
cool, I can't lie.
These cute little guys were outside. I wonder what happens in the summer with them? I can't lie, I thought looking at them was so cool that I needed to get this penguin selfie, I wasn't too concerned about asking questions at this point. Hahaha don't judge me!
So like I told you before, Camden is a stones throw away from Philadelphia and this is the proof. The top floor of the aquarium is a gorgeous view if you wanted to get some food, sit down for a second and take it all in. I loved this part, especially because my cousin was talking about how awesome it was.
One of the exhibits that was being talked about a lot was the 'Respect The Frog' one and it looked pretty cool. While we weren't there for any of the shows, just walking through the frog section was awesome. There were so many different types of frogs that I'm sure you didn't even know existed hahaha. This was really the only semi-good photo I could get, but these frogs were so cool.
Naturally my cousin and I had to act like we were fish. Once again, he's 10 and I'm 24. You would really never be able to tell that this was the case. I'm out of words.
Last but certainly not least (before my phone died from taking so many photos) was the starfish and jellyfish section. I could not have been more excited for this section. It's always nice to see what stings you and what's pretty at the beach, ya know. How gorgeous are these though? The colors!
Now a few photos courtesy of my aunts phone because mine decided to be awesome and die! The first is of me playing the xylophone. Don't you see the common theme in this blog post? I'm a child, I swear. The second is another awesome photo of the jellyfish. I have to extend some pretty great props to my aunt for snapping some fantastic pics. For only bringing our phones and using them for all of these, we both did a pretty good job! The last photo depicts what I was most excited about at the aquarium: the shark tunnel! I was actually walking through the first part of the aquarium and mentioned something like, 'Isn't there an aquarium somewhere with a walkthrough shark tunnel?!' to my aunt and she said, 'Yeah, it's here!'
Overall, I think the experience of visiting the Adventure Aquarium in Camden was awesome. I wish all of the exhibits were open, but with the warmer weather and some improvements they're making, it will all be open again soon. I think it would be interesting to visit there again because I'm sure it will be completely different come summer. A lot of the same animals will obviously be there but there were a lot of things that we didn't get to see.
Next time I go back I want to witness someone swimming with sharks for sure. There is an opportunity there for that, and I probably would do it, but I want to see someone else doing it at least! Also next time, I would like to sit down for some of the shows. I don't think we were there during the time they were offering shows. There was a whole outside section that looked interesting and fun, so I would like to see that as well and finally, the hippos exhibit!
Getting there was fun and being there was even better. I would recommend the aquarium to anyone with smaller kids or younger cousins (like me). If you plan on going, be sure to plan your trip better than we did. Granted, we really didn't care what we were seeing but now that we have been there and have seen all the basics, we want to go back and see more/better things. We will definitely plan accordingly.
Have you ever been to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden or to any aquarium where you live? Check out AAC's website here and be sure to send me a tweet and let me know if you've ever done something like this! Thanks so much for reading, talk to you soon! -Brit.
Calling all lip balm/chapstick/lip salve lovers. For the past couple of years, I haven't really been THAT obsessed with chapstick. If we're being honest, I really haven't loved chatpstick as much as I do lately since the Lip Smackers era. I know, I know: LAME. I'm just trying to be honest. I do however have a brand new love for this new Burt's Bees Hydrating Lip Balm with Coconut & Pear.
What I will say about this is that the coconut is very prominent, but I most definitely can sense the pear. This is strange because most times when I try a product that has coconut in it, it's the only thing that you can either smell or taste (not that I'm complaining, I'm a coconut freak). I've been using the chapstick for about a week now and I have been applying it like it's going out of style. I'm not mad at it. At first I wasn't SUPER impressed but now I can't go an hour or two without reapplying.
I would definitely recommend giving this a try if you're looking for something quick that you can find in the drugstore to leave your lips feeling soft and smooth. I have been turned into a believer by giving this chapstick an extra couple of days of usage. Have you guys tried it? Send me a tweet and let me know if I'm missing out on any other great chapsticks. If you read one of my previous posts about First Aid Beauty products, you'll know that I'm on the ever-so-loved quest to revive my skin back from the dead winter state its been in, so this is definitely helping my lips! -Brit.
All hail queen of all the flat shoes. I can't handle how much I love these. I can't lie I wasn't sure how they were going to sit on my feet as far as the design goes, but I loved the design, color, shoe and basically everything about it so I just thought it was too good to pass up. I almost feel as if, sense they are a bright cobalt blue color, they're like waves running over my foot. I'm probably starting to sound a little ridiculous but these are most definitely the definition of shoe magic and I am not afraid to say it.
These are the Civitate style in Blue Misc. (I like to call it a gorgeous Cobalt instead, because it's just much better that way). As you can see, they are just so radiant. I wish I had take a picture of the outfit I was wearing this day but it was so basic so I didn't worry about it. That's what's great about these shoes though, you can spice up such a casual outfit and make it look perfect without being too done up.
Another thing I love about the style is that they are SO comfortable. I wasn't sure how it was going to be with the straps criss-crossed over the shoe like that but I ended up being completely fine. Ankle straps are continuing to impress and are huge right now and I hope they don't go anywhere quick. I know I wont personally let them haha.
Have you guys purchased a life changing pair of shoes lately? I can't get enough of these, they're perfect for spring and summer so I will definitely be wearing them all over the place and I couldn't be more excited about it. Let me know in the comments below or send me a tweet and let me know what you have been loving! Thanks so much for reading and I will talk to you all soon! -Brit.
Hi everyone! Today I woke up earlier and I was thinking that I would go ahead and actually straighten my hair. Sometimes I just wake up either too late to do something strategic/nice to my hair so I put it up or leave it natural but today was a different story.
So when i got up, I plugged my straightener in and went to brush my teeth, while I was brushing I was running my hands through my hair and naturally (this always happens) my hair was still wet. I have thick hair so this happens all of the time. With that being said, I ran the straightener through some of my hair that wasn't wet and then decided to style it this way. Running a straightener through wet hair is NOT ideal because it will fry your hair and leave it extremely unhealthy. While I was awake earlier than normal, I didn't have ENOUGH time to blowdry.
Here's the first side of the French braid with one side of my head.
This is the longer side on the other side of my head with a slightly thicker braid.
As you can see, I secured the sides respectively to my head. Also, you can see that I didn't braid down the middle because I obviously just wanted this to be a 'side braid' thing.
Lastly, you can see that I secured the rest of my hair in a messy low bun. I really didn't want a perfect low bun look because the braids give the style a 'Bohemian' look anyway, so having it perfectly put together just did not make that much sense. I love the way this came out! I added this adorable clip in bow from Free People that I got a year or so ago. I only wore the bow outside of the office because I think it's a little too casual/playful for the office. I even had thoughts that the hairstyle was a little too playful for the office but I gave it a shot and I think it was perfectly fine.
I last but not least had to share with you the sunset outside from my back deck. I am so lucky everyday to be able to see something like this! The colors were beautiful this evening so I of course have to be capturing it to share with my Instagram followers and everyone here! Thanks so much for checking out this great, easy hairstyle and be sure to send me a tweet with a picture if you give it a shot! Thank you so much for reading and be sure to check back soon for some more! -Brit.
I bet you guys may not know that every once in a while I upload to a YouTube channel. I can't lie, I have an undying passion for writing so most of the time I would much rather write here. When I am feeling inspired to film something though, I definitely will and it will go up on my channel. Check it out and see if there is anything that you like there!
The two things that I have to say I love most about the channel are my Fourth of July Lookbook and my outfits chronicling my most amazing summer of 2013 when I interned with StyleCaster as a Beauty writer for BeautyHigh. I loved every single outfit I wore there so much so I decided that I definitely wanted to share them with people. I didn't get to film every single outfit but I did my best and the result is up on my channel!
Join me there because every once in a while like I said I do post. Most likely I will let you know here as well but I just wanted you guys to check it out and maybe subscribe while you're at it! I hope you all had a very nice weekend! Send me a tweet and let me know what you're up to this week!
Today was an absolutely beautiful day all around. The weather was fantastic and I think spring is finally here! I am so happy to be able to welcome the warmer weather in my outfits, makeup and most of all.. outside! Here's what I wore today as I gallivanted around town shopping and running some errands!
My top is from Old Navy, the thank underneath is from Charlotte Russe, the jeans and shoes are from Forever 21, my wallet is from Target and I am wearing my Rose Gold Michael Kors that I got two years ago from my dad.
I figured I would include my fantastic, full of calories breakfast, a delicious bagel. We go to Barons Bagels which is right around the corner from where we live and these bagels are fantastic! I also went to the mall and picked up a couple of things from Sephora including a Clarisonic brush head from the Luxe Collection that I have heard all about, a couple of Bath and Body Works Candles and a mask from First Aid Beauty. I have been loving the line, as you all know, and figured that I would give a mask a try. After all, my skin is slowly but surely getting back to normal with the weather getting warmer.
What are you doing this weekend? I can't wait to spend tomorrow doing laundry (said no one ever). I just hope we have another awesome day tomorrow and another awesome week to follow, weather-wise. Send me a tweet and let me know what you think and how your weather has been!
