Do You Skimm?

I consider myself pretty well-educated, but until a year or so ago, I had very little awareness of current events, nationally or internationally. I just couldn't see an entry point to even start educating myself. All the 24 hours news networks were always in the middle of a story...how could I ever catch a story when it started? Newspapers and news websites seem like a huge dump of information...how could I wade through it all?

That's why I'm so glad I found the Skimm. It's a free email service that sends you important national and international news every week day. It gives you enough to be dangerous and has a link in pretty much every story for if you want to learn more. Plus, the writing is fresh and interesting. Reading the Skimm is seriously the first thing I do every morning.

 

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As if it could get any better, the Skimm is a start-up created by two awesome young ladies in New York. I'd like to think that by reading, I'm supporting amazing women striking out on their own and achieving great things. I follow the Skimm on Instagram and regularly read their blog--I wish they were my big sisters! They give entrepreneurial advice that they learn (sometimes the hard way) on their blog; it's a really great picture of what life at a start-up is like: exciting but incredibly hard work.

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Sign up for daily Skimms here! You will be so glad you did!

xoxo,
E

The Only Reason I Would Take Up Cross Stitch

I was scrolling through my "Smile" board on Pinterest the other day, and, among many pictures of puppies and bunnies, I found this gem:

 

(Insert crying-from-laughing emojis here)

So many more awesome hip-hop cross stitches here.

I love the idea of this hanging in a powder room. Like, you have a guest over, and they're in the powder room, and they're all like, "oh cute, a handmade cross stitch, I bet her mom made this for...wait, what?"

I'm not much of a cross stitcher, but after doing my research, I've realized it's so easy for you to have your very own hip hop cross stitch! It should have been obvious all along that Etsy would have an interesting amount of hip hop cross stitch available. Check it out. I'm gonna need one of these ASAP.

xoxo,

E

Upcycled Candle Jars

I was digging through a box of old stuff (you know, those ones that never get unpacked no longer how long you live somewhere?) and found a bag of old candle jars. Each one had about an eighth of and inch of wax at the bottom, nowhere near enough to burn any of them again. The jars had been so pretty I couldn't bear to throw them away. I know, I'm a packrat/hoarder/whatever you want to call me. I just can't bring myself to throw out pretty things!

How could you throw out this beauty?

I've searched for a good way to clean the wax out of used candles and found the best way is also the easiest. Just pour boiling water into your candle jar, and the leftover wax will melt and float to the top! Let it re-solidify and then just scoop it out with a spoon. I run some hot water to get the clingy leftover wax out and put it through the dishwasher to get it really clean.

 

Bringing some much needed glam to frequently used kitchen utensils.

The only challenge I still have is getting the little metal disk that anchored the wick off the bottom. Sometimes it comes right off, and sometimes it's there to stay. Any pointers?

 

This hobnail honey corrals nail files, perfumes, tweezers, etc.

PS: My obsession with hobnail has been documented. Milk glass is only thing that makes hobnail better.

PPS: Do you like my coral "frame"? Make one!

I love having these beautiful containers around my apartment! So glad I didn't toss them! Hooray for hoarders!

Hey, you! Tomorrow's Friday!

xoxo,
E

What's All This Talk About Carageenan?

As part of my recent clean eating change, I've been paying a lot more attention to the ingredients on food labels. Well, since I've been eating more cleanly, the nice thing is that I've been eating a lot more foods that don't have labels. Think about it: when you eat an apple, the only ingredient is...apple. Pretty nice. (Of course, we're assuming it's an organic apple and you've washed it...there's always a way to complicate these things...)

 

Apple. Ingredients: Apple. Brilliant!

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But when you are eating something with a label, it shouldn't come as a surprise that you should probably be able to recognize the ingredients for it to have a chance of being good for you.

I've been drinking a lot (A LOT) of almond milk lately. In my morning oatmeal/quinoa, in my iced coffee, in my smoothies...I buy like three containers at a time of this amazing stuff. When planning out how to start my clean eating switchover, my aunt (who is an amazing healthy lifestyle guru! Seriously, check her out!) warned me to make sure that I bought a nut milk labeled "Shake Well" since this would probably indicate it didn't contain carageenan.

 

There you are, Carageenan (Carrageenan?)! Now, what are you?

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Car(r)ageenan? What's that? We can't even seem to agree on how to spell it. That should raise some eyebrows right there. According to prevention.com, it's a natural ingredient derived from seaweed. You're thinking, great, it's natural...no big deal, right? Wrong. Apparently, this carageenan stuff has been linked to inflammation, gut irritation, and even cancer. So now the healthy almond milk people are out to get me?! That's what it feels like.

 

I'm looking at you, Almond Breeze.

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Carageenan is pretty much only added to nut milks to keep the ingredients mixed. How lazy do you have to be to not be able to shake a container of almond milk?! Seriously. Shake your own almond milk or drink a carcinogen almost daily? Pretty sure I can handle shaking a box of almond milk.

What's the lesson here? CYL! Check Yo Labels! I know it seems like there is a new killer ingredient written about everyday, but when it's so easy to avoid something potentially harmful, why wouldn't you?

Here are some more articles on this creepy ingredient:

Harmful or Harmless: Carageenan

The Natural Ingredient You Should Ban From Your Diet

Is Carageenan Safe?

Want to just scrap it all, become a pioneer person, and make your own almond milk? Go right ahead. Just to let you know, making your own almond milk will probably involve buying a nut milk bag. Which is both a real thing and a hilarious to say out loud.

xoxo,
E

Cooking Single

Cooking is one of my favorite hobbies. Really, it's like therapy. There are days I get home from school and working out at around 6:30 and happily spend the next three hours dancing to music and cooking for the week. My New Years resolution was to make a new recipe every week, and I've done pretty well so far!

On a related note, one of my many billion dollar ideas (trust me, they're real), is the concept of a single person's grocery store. Everything would be packaged with the single person in mind. How amazing would that be? One of my main gripes about cooking real food for myself is that so many recipes make family sized portions and then I end up eating chili for six days straight. I'm pretty good at halving or even quartering recipes, but then you go to buy the ingredients and you have to buy ten tortillas! What normal person doesn't make unnecessary quesadillas when confronted with extra tortillas?! A single person's grocery store has legs, I'm telling you...

Getting back on topic: look at this amazing product that seems to have been invented especially for single people! Three section lasagna pan! Brilliant!!

 

Chicago Metallic Lasagna Trio, $20

 

Just think about the possibilities...everyone could have the crunchy end piece of lasagna, you could roast veggies in one section and a chicken breast in another, you could do veggie lasagna in one and a meat one in another, AND still roast veggies in the third section! I put my pans through a lot; this one would be an amazing, and much-used addition. I might need two.

How would you use this product? I seriously think I could use it every day.

xoxo,
E

Get After It

I saw this on Pinterest (where else?), and I just thought, "well damn."

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Don't you hate when all your excuses don't seem to have a leg to stand on anymore? I catch myself sitting on my couch, watching TV, thinking of all sorts of excuses for why I can't grade those papers, work out today, make a real meal for myself. If I started doing one of those things when I started making excuses for why I couldn't, it would be done already! This will be my new mantra.

PS: You can own this mug! This cute Etsy shop has this and other awesome mugs/waterbottles/totes! You better believe I just ordered the water bottle with this quote on it. So awesome for working out!

Buy this now.

Actually don't...actually do. I consider myself pretty highly evolved, but I am only a little ashamed to admit that I could live solely on pepperoni pizza and ice cream for the rest of my life. Granted, it would probably be a short life plagued with any number of health issues, but I could do it nonetheless.

One of my favorite jobs I've had was working in a local ice cream shop in high school. I could sample all of the ice cream and make mini-milkshakes to my heart's content! Heaven! My high school metabolism and active membership on the swimming and lacrosse team also combined to ensure I didn't weigh 400 pounds. Double heaven!!

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I've heard of the splendor of Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream (of course they came to Nashville after I moved away), but hadn't had the opportunity to try it. But as I wandered the aisles of my local Fresh Market yesterday, I found several pints for $10.99...yep, $10.99 for a pint of frozen yogurt. I consider quality frozen yogurt an investment, so of course I went for it.

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But, oh that frozen yogurt...I ate half a pint before looking up. I got the lemon blueberry flavor, and oh my gahhhhhh. It was creamy and tart and sweet, but not too sweet, and yummmm. Just take it from me and set up a date with a pint of this bad boy.

Happy Friday!

xoxo,

E

ps: I was not paid in any way to do this post, but if anyone wanted to send me a case of the entire frozen yogurt collection, I would give you many hugs.

Holiday Gift Guide Round-Up

So it's probably a little late to get in on the holiday gift guide game at this point. We've got 12 days until Christmas, but I always end up second guessing my gift choices at this point. Are they going to like it? Are they going to get it? Is it thoughtful enough? Is it too sentimental?

Leg Lamp, anyone?

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I'm not usually a fan of holiday gift guides because I feel like they tend to be full of useless but pretty things that just seem so holiday-gift-guide-ish. I feel like someone would totally know I copped out and shopped a gift guide instead of genuinely thinking about who I was buying for and what they like.

That being said, this is a holiday gift guide round up. These are gift guides that I either have actually bought things from or have thought "huh, that's a really great idea, if I hadn't already bought that completely thoughtful gift, I would totally buy that" while scrolling through it.

• Emily at Cupcakes and Cashmere has some great gift guides that are so stylish and thoughtful at different price points (under $25 and under $100). Each selection really feels handpicked. I even bought my dad something from her gift guide for men. Actually just look up any of her gift guides; they all rock.

• Dinner A Love Story's 2011 gift guide...the 2012 gift guide was pretty good (come to me, Le Creuset french press), but I really like the idea of receiving Pantone ornaments...so I went with this one.

• As always, Gilt has curated a beautiful and unexpected boutique, this time for the holidays. It has lovelies at every price point, without ever sacrificing style. Get your invite here.

OK, so that was only three. Told you I was picky! I've been seriously coveting almost everything on all these for a little while now, so I had to record them here so I could get back to them in the future! 

I hope you're enjoying holiday preparations...remember, if you're in a pinch, nothing says "I love you" like a Starbucks gift card!

xoxo,

E

Birchbox Loves

Hello happies! I hope you're having a fabulous week! Just remember, Thursday is practically Friday, which means it's basically the weekend!

I got my September Birchbox a few weeks ago, and, among other lovelies, it contained these:

LA Fresh Nail Polish Remover Pad

Birchbox and Color Club Custom Collection in Tweet Me

At first, I was not that excited about the color of the nail polish. It's called "Tweet Me", but another appropriate name would be "Tennis Ball Green". Given my choice of nail polish colors, it would not have been my first. But, then, it sat and stared at me from my bathroom counter long enough to make me rethink it's neon-yellowy-green-ness. After looking at all the awesome colors that seem to be dominating the scene this season (hunter green, burgundy, plum, etc.), I realized that this neon-y tennis ball color would actually make for an unexpectedly fabulous accent color. This color is now on my toes (don't worry, there are no foot pictures in your future...at least not from this blog), and it makes me very happy. Next time I get a manicure, I'm thinking maybe a charcoal grey or navy blue with this color as the french tip color...how fashion forward of me, right?

As for the nail polish remover pad, my first thoughts were, "what can a fancy schmancy nail polish remover pad do that my Walgreens acetone-based remover can't?" After I used it, my thoughts were more like, "how soon can I get more of these lovely, orange-scented nail polish remover pads??" And then I thought, "excuse me, 'fresh tuscan orange scent', not 'orange scent'." How do the LA Fresh people know that Tuscan oranges are so much more appealing than regular oranges? Maybe it's their Italian accent...anywho, buy these...they're cool.

xoxo,

E

You Should Know...

Moving always puts me in the home decor shopping mood. Well, mood may be a slight understatement. I've been stalking design and DIY blogs and websites for months and now have enough stuff on my wish list to fill several houses for several thousand dollars. What can I say, I've got expensive good taste. Unfortunately, given that I don't receive my first paycheck from my new school for a month and a half (hello, Cup of Noodles), most of my dream projects and buys will have to be put on hold for the time being.

BUT, a girl can dream, right? Which is why I just HAVE to share the website shop Furbish. They have home stuff, furniture, vintage stuff, and jewelry. I seriously spent an hour and a half on this site last night after stumbling upon it...and...I want it all. Here are just a few finds that are just a little too fabulous:

Barclay Butera Seaside Tray

Love this for cocktail hour on the porch.

Bijou Bright Antler Set

While I'm not a hunter, I'm loving this rustic-with-a-wink look for a little bit of country in the city.

Caneel Bay Bar Cart

A classic piece with a color that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Brass Side Table

My jaw literally dropped when I saw this amazing piece. It's listed under the "one-of-a-kind" section on the site. I'll say.

Mint Drop Earrings

These would be the perfect touch to sweeten up a look.

I think what I love most about all these pieces is that they look like they could all be found in the back corner of a thrift or vintage store. They have the look of being a "find" without having to dig through sometimes allergy-inducing vintage stores. I'll take one of each please!

xoxo,

E