My excuse is that I'm young. And I'm only getting older so somebody shoulda told ya.

This year, I decided to treat ma' self (Parks & Rec? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?) and take my birthday off. It was quite nice to just be able to enjoy the day and not have to be stuck at work.

I worked on Friday since I was taking Saturday off, but my co-workers let me start my birthday early so I got to leave pretty early. Best co-workers ever. I started my birthday off right- with a nap. It.Was.Glorious.

When I woke up, I met my parents and we went to shul. It was my grandmother's yarzheit (anniversary of her death) so it was nice for the three of us to be there together. After temple, my dad headed home and my mom and I grabbed a snack before running some errands. We went to Cost Plus (which is my new favorite store) and picked up a lovely birthday present that I will be showing ya'll soon :-)

After that we headed to the Creamery to pick up some stuff for our Superbowl meal the next day



and my birthday gelato

Chocolate with pieces of peanut brittle-yum!

Between the sugar crash from the gelato and staying up too late the night before, I decided to take a quick nap before meeting up with my friend to go see a movie.

We saw Beauty and the Beast in 3d and it was so cool! Normally, I'm not a huge fan of 3d movies but this one was the best I've seen so far! My friend brought her 4 year old nephew and he totally made the movie, he was so adorable! About half way through, he put his little head on my arm-seriously, melted my heart! The movie itself was great and I still knew all the songs by heart...love love love!

We went out to dinner later that night, but I think this is long enough so I'll give that it's own post :-)

Someday we'll find it,The Rainbow Connection.

By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, I'm pretty much dead. That week at work is so busy that when it comes time to eat dinner, I'm so exhausted I can barely form sentences. So my Thanksgiving usually involves me trying to hold it together and then sleeping, lots and lots of sleeping. Just one of the causalities of working in the bakery business, I suppose.

This year was no different, but it was nice to see family and then fall asleep at 9pm and sleep for nearly 12 hours. I definitely needed it!

Luckily, I was able to enjoy a little Black Friday shopping-nothing too exciting, but still fun :-) My mom and I woke up around 8 so we missed all the good sales and the crazies but we were able to get everything we wanted. After we did a little shopping, we met my brother and went to see The Muppet Movie.


It was adorable! I am too young to remember the original Muppets, but a few years ago, when they tried to bring it back, I can remember my whole family getting together to watch it. The music was great, I loved all the characters and Jason Segel looks like he's having such a good time. If you get the chance, you should definitely go see it!

This past weekend, my mom and I started to do some things in my apartment-even though I've been there a few months, we've both just been so busy that this was really the first opportunity to get any real work on it done.

So we hung some shelves...



and some wall stickers...



and started to work on the bathroom.
There's still a lot of work left to do, but here's a sneak peak of my new bathroom.

And now, I'm enjoying the quiet this week before the madness begins all over again for Christmas! Woo hoo!

But, I did have a nice distraction from the insanity-I went on a date and it actually wasn't a complete disaster! In fact, we even went out again! haha I was seriously starting to doubt it was possible! He's super nice and sweet and we've had a really great time together so far. We are hanging out again tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it-so yay!

I hope ya'll had a wonderful holiday!

Hey, baby, it's the fourth of July.

I know I'm like a week (plus) late, and my holiday wasn't even all that exciting but I figured I'd give a little update anyway :-)

Work has been redonk. Like, $50K-over-plan-every-week redonk. And considering we still &30 coffeecakes and those aren't exactly a necessity, it's been really nice that business is picking back up. Although, now that we've all seen how this summer has gone (which is usually our slow season) we're all a little worried about the holidays. We don't call them the "Holidaze" around here for nothing.

So, back to the Fourth. Like I said, nothing too exciting. My uncle was in town helping my mom and dad redo one of the bathrooms at their house, so while they were busy with that, my brother and I hit up the Tigers game on the 2nd.


They were playing the Giants, and I bought the tickets hoping to get to see Tim Lincecum. Unfortunately, the Tigers missed Lincecum (or, fortunately, considering he's thier ace), but they ended up losing the game anyway. It was definitely exciting though-they loaded the bases in the bottom of the 9th, but Boesch lined out to short :-(

View from our (original) seats. We ended up moving because the people around us were obnoxious.

After the game we stayed to see the fireworks and they were, as per usual, awesome!

I know it's no NYC or anything, but I do love the skyline of the D.

I had to work on the fourth, so after work I went over to my parents for a bbq and to see my uncle before he left. Nothing too exciting, but I had to work all weekend, including Monday so it kinda put the squash on any big plans.


A few days later, it was my grandmother's birthday, so the whole family got together for dinner. It was delicious! We went to a restaurant we used to go to a few times a month, but none of us had been there in a while. I had some time to kill before dinner, so I stopped by Target to pick up some face wash and walked out with these...

Oops haha

New shoes+Tiger baseball? A pretty perfect holiday week :-)

Santa Clause is coming to town.

The other day, I decided to do indulge in some retail therapy and ended up at my new love fave store, Hobby Lobby.

I had never been to Hobby Lobby until I moved into the place I'm living now, which is close to a town that has one, and I have fallen in love! They always have so much great crafting stuff, cute home decor and good sales.

But I found this when I went there last week. Mind you, it was June 23rd.

Oh, what's up, Santa?

Are you kidding me right now!?!?!

I'll never complain about Christmas decorations being out before Thanksgiving again. Promise. Just put these away for a few months, I'm not ready.

Stilettos, pumps, in da club. Get crunk.

I've been trying really hard not to spend money. I have money to spend, I'm just trying to make a more conscious effort to save it.

But sometimes, it's really hard. Like when you walk into TJMaxx looking for a purse, but they don't have one you like (that isn't a million dollars) so to console yourself, you look at shoes, but keep repeating to yourself that "you're not going to buy anything, because you don't need new shoes."

And somehow, in between repeating that mantra many times over, you walk out of the store with these:

Oops.

(Now I just need to find somewhere to wear them haha)

Just do it with love.

It's been a few weeks since I've linked up with this kind of love for What I'm Loving Wednesday, so let's see what it is this week!


I'm loving Beauty First, a beauty store by my house, which is having a Buy 1, Get 2 free on Essie Nail Polish. And since I live in between two store, I've definitely been hitting up both! But I've gotten 9 new polishes for 8 dollars-amazing!

I'm loving the Memorial Day weekend coming up! I *love* bbqs and this weekend will be full of them! I'm having one on Friday, my parents on Saturday, and maybe another on Monday-yummy!

(Is this not the cheesiest picture? haha)

I'm loving Old Navy! For their "One Day" Wonder this weekend, they had sandals for $1! And the best part, even though I was expecting huge lines and to be there foreverrrrrrr, I was able to go in, grab 5 pairs of sandals *all in my size*, check out with no line and get out in under 20 minutes!

I'm loving my new tanning lotion! I know I shouldn't tan, but I just can't stand to be pale at the beginning of the summer when it's time to wear all my dresses and I haven't had time to lay outside yet. The girl at the tanning salon recommended it to me and I love it!

It's by BoTanica, and it's got Apple, Oatmeal and Shea butter so it's super moisturizing-love it!

I'm loving this ESPN commercial-it cracks me up every time!



Hope everyone is having a lovely Wednesday!

She's crafty, she gets around. She's crafty, she's always down. She's crafty, she's got a gripe. She's crafty, and shes just my type.

A few weeks ago when I was downtown with my mom, we stopped in Peaceable Kingdom, which is like a novelty/gift store type place. They have lots of cute jewelry too.

My mom found these charms and I thought they would make perfect earrings-I was totally right :-)
You can't really tell how big they are, but they are long and dangle-y and I'm in love.

Here's me wearing them so you can see how long they really are-they graze my collar bone if they hang in front of my shoulder. Pretty long, but they are so unique, I just can't get over them!

But there ain't nothin' wrong with the way she moves, all scarlet begonias and a touch of the blues.

In all reality, it's been a pretty mundane week for me. But for some reason, I felt really really really good this week. Like "I woke up happy and smiling" good.

I think a lot of it has to do with my acceptance about moving on from certain people and situations. Seriously, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted from me. I'm not going to dwell and just try to move on and be happy with where ever I end up and who ever is there with me :-)

In an effort to put all that into action, I hung out with some new people this week. I've known a lot of them for a while, and some I've hung out with before, but not in a while. We all sat around and watched Survivor, which I haven't watched in like 5 years and I am now of course hooked! haha I'm looking forward to spending some more time with them and watching Survivor this week-yay for ladies nights!

The work week was pretty blah, but my two days off were full of errands and lots of running around. Thursday I got up and di my grocery shopping-which involved going to the produce market, then Meijer's, Kroger's and Target! But I only spent like $60 total so I was pretty happy about that!

Friday, I had to come to a meeting at work and after my meeting I had to meet with a HR rep because I'm joining the safety committee! Basically, the safety committee just tracks what accidents happen, files accident reports and tries to keep everyone safe. Nothing too exciting but I'm looking forward to it! I have to get certified to teach a safety class, and I'm also getting certified to teach a service class so this summer will be filled with lots of not quite work work stuff. But I get paid for all of it, so I can't really complain!

I also had to drop some stuff off to my aunt and stopped by TJMaxx which is out by her house. I'm really looking for a new purse and just can't seem to find anything I love! I already have a yellow Steve Madden, so I'd like something orange or green, maybe even pink or red. But everything just looked kind of cheap and nothing really stood out to me. Oh well-guess I'll just keep looking lol

Friday night, I picked my mom up from work and we got some delicious korean food from a place called Kosmo's downtown. It was so good and even though we split everything, we were both so stuffed! I worked out extra hard on Friday and got up Saturday before work so the splurge was worth it lol

It was the anniversary of my grandpa's death so we met my dad at temple for services. It was such a great service-really small since it's summer, but really beautiful. I'm such a sap, but sometimes the songs bring tears to my eyes haha The sermon was perfect too-all about a part of Leviticus and the rabbi (who is newto our congregation-I love her!) talked about mourning and how the people surrounding the person who's mourning have a responsibility to help the mourners get adjusted to a new normal and how important community is in times like that. She was much more eloquent then I, but it really spoke to me and my mom. Just so perfect for everything that ahs been going on lately.

I worked out five times this week and am thinking about jumping on the 30 Day Shred wagon. A lot of people have had such good results so it's seriously tempting me. I'm going on vacation the first weekend in May and even though it's not some exotic location that requires bikinis and short shorts, I'd like to go shopping before hand and buy some new things to wear, but I'd like to look good while doing it so I'm really pushing myself this month to workout, eat right, sleep well, and my new thing-drink lots of water! I'm trying for 32+ ozs a day, which means I'm in the bathroom often but I'm hoping my skin and my energy levels will thank me!

Is this love, is this love, is this love, is this love that I'm feelin'?

Well, it's Wednesday so let's see What I'm Loving with this kind of love. (that was a lot of "w"s!)

I'm loving Bob Marley Radio on Pandora! It has been the perfect music for the sunshine-y weather we've been having (even if it's still a tad chilly!)

I'm loving the two new cans of tennis balls I bought yesterday morning. Is there anything better than the smell of new tennis balls? No, there is not haha

I'm loving that I bought 8 pairs of new earrings for $6! Thank you Target Clearance section :-)

I'm loving my new Twitter! I've had an account for a while but never used untill this week and I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it! I'm @AFreund2-follow me (even though I'm not super interesting! haha) and I'll follow you back!

I'm *still* loving March Madness! I thought my bracket was tore up from the floor up, but apparently, I'm one of the final few people still left in my bracket pool and if UConn pulls through I could be $400 richer!

I'm loving this commercial-seriously, it cracks me up everytime!

Hope everyone is having a *lovely* week ♥

'Cause I got your picture, I'm coming with you. Dear Maria, count me in.

I can't believe I lasted through *every single one* of my co-workers catching the cold/flu and didn't get it until now! Ugh!

It started on Friday with a sore throat that I didn't really pay attention to, since my mom and I were going to a Bat Mitzvah that night that we were looking forward to. But then I woke up on Saturday and my throat was on fire, my nose was running and just all over icky.

I got some cold medicine and went to bed sleep at 8:30 last night so I'm feeling a little better, although I'm losing my voice which is tres unattractive, especially when my job is 95% on the phone haha Hopefully this is all gone soon!

In other news, I did some running around on Friday...literally. I went to get my tire (finally!) and grabbed some coffee while I was waiting, which doesn't sound that bad, but I haven't had coffee in about a year so I was totally wired all morning! I went to Target and got these cuties:

They were a little bulky, no no wearing them to work-but I think they are super adorable otherwise! Yay for pay day! haha

Take me for what I am, who I was meant to be.

Even though, on paper, my life looks only moderately busy, this week I've literally felt like I've been on hyper-speed. I've kind of wanted to pull my hair out everyday this week. I'm not even sure why. I suppose going to school part time, working full time, still trying to maintain a social life and fit some "me" time in, is more exhausting than it seems.

Maybe that's why I spent most of the week at my parents. Ha! I was supposed to house sit for a friend at work, but she got sick and ended up canceling her trip. I had told my roommate I'd be out of the house for most of the week, and she had invited her boyfriend and his puppy to stay for the week. SO between that, and my stress, staying at my parents was a much needed break.

Another source of stress, might be my seemingly endless car issues. On Tuesday, I met with my friend Ian for coffee. When I pulled into the parking structure, I noticed my brakes felt pretty mushy (i.e. my foot went all the way to the floor). I didn't think too much of it, but when I got back in the car after coffee, they still felt the same and when I was pulling out of the structure, the brake light on my dash came on.

I ended up taking it over the shop, driving super carefully (read: slow) the entire way. They called the next morning to let me know that the brake fluid hose was cracked so I needed to replace those. Ugh.

I took the day off of work because I wasn't feeling to well to begin with. So I basically sat around and waited for my car to be done. I got a call around noon and Leto came and picked me up to get my car. I bought him some ColdStone ice cream as a thank you (and had a little bit myself hehe)

Since Thursday and Friday are my regular days off, I ended up having a "three day weekend" of sorts. On Thursday my mom and I ran some errands and ended up at Value World (2 pairs of jeans for $3 each!) and Savlation Army. I rarely buy anything but jeans from thrift stores, but they had brand new, in the box little Crock Pots! I think they are like 2 qts.-perfect size for someone who's by themself. Plus, it was only $7.50! :-) I'm so excited to use mine!

The next day involved a lot of catching up on the DVR, watching the snow collect (back up to 8inches, ya'll!) and very little of anything else. But I did get to see this on Glee:

I was seriously so happy when I heard they were doing this-and I love it!

Me=Nerd.

Today, I've been in kind of a funk :-( I'm back to work and after having three days off, I feel kind of out of the loop and things just haven't been going well today. I'm trying super hard to work on my temper and gossiping (not just today, but everyday) but today is *really* testing me. I'm really trying, but somedays, it's just really hard. Luckily, I only have one more hour and then it's home to restful night and hey, tomorrow's a new day, right?

Play my little part in something big.

It's been an eventful January. Even though work has been pretty slow, school starting back definitely had an impact. Both classes I'm taking are online, so I don't actually have to *go* to school, but they are both a lot of work! So far, I'm doing pretty well and for now, I'm just praying the semester flies by!

A few weeks ago, I woke up in the middle of the night because my thumb was killing me. I tried to ignore it and go back to bed, as it was 3:30am and I had little motivation to actually do anything to remedy the situation but I did end up finding my metal water bottle (which was freezing because my house is always freezing! ugh!) and positioned it against my thumb to cool it down.

I got up the next morning to meet my parents at the gym and noticed that it was really swollen and red. I showed my parents and my mother suggested that it was from texting (har har har...) while my dad guess that I had an infection. I started popping some ibueprofen and went to work, where my parents showed up a few hours later with icthamol to try and draw out the infection.

I was being stubborn (suprise, suprise) and didn't really want to go to the doctor, but by Monday, it hadn't gotten any better-so swollen I couldn't move it, really warm and red-so I ended up going to the doctors.

I know they are pretty gross-sorry!

The doctor decided to try and puncture it to see if it would drain, but first wanted to inject some lidocaine to numb it. She stuck the needle in, and I swear to god, it was one of the worst pain I've ever felt. I have a really high pain tolerance and that really threw me for a loop! I almost fainted-saw stars, felt nauseas, clammy, the whole nine yards. She ended up not trying again (Thanks God!) but instead sent me home with antibiotics.

It took a few days, but the swelling finally went down (as Hannah told everyone "Let's just say, there was puss involved") but finally it seems back to normal. Although the skin in peeling, but it doens't really hurt anymore so I'm not too worried. It was kind of scary though-I mean, just wake up and my thumb is 3x its normal size. So weird.

Also, a few friends of mine got married this past weekend (Congrats Eileen and Gino!). Well actually, they had a vow renewal as they got married last year, but didn't get to have an actual ceremony. They are the absolute sweetest couple, and I was there when they fell in love canoeing down the river hehe

The day was pretty eventful in and of itself! It started with me driving all the way to the gym before realzing I wasn't wearing a bra, having to go get one and then drive all the way back to actually start my work out! After that, my mother and I ran some errands, which included finding something for me to wear since what I had wasn't "classy" enough (...grr).

Although, I probably shouldn't complain too much, because she did buy me this...

(Michael Kors Sequin Tunic in Dark Camel)

And I'm in love with it.

It was a little short, but I totally rocked it as a dress with black tights and Steve Madden black patent leather pumps. I've been racking my brain to try and find another event I can wear it to soon, but so far, no luck :-( haha

The night before, I had packed all my stuff-hair products, make up, jewlery options, tights, etc-because I figured I'd end up getting ready at my parents. So I get out of shower, do my hair make up and go to put on my tights and suddenly realized I had grabbed not one, but THREE pairs of brown and not a single pair of black! All I could do was laugh, especially considering the bra incident earlier in the day! I rushed home and luckily, was able to find some black ones quickly. But in the process, I forgot my earring and my cute clutch-oh well. I'm sure my dress brought me all the attention I needed :-)

Working at the bakery, I was able to provide a cake for them as a wedding gift. The cake ladies did such a fantastic job-I gave them the invitation and they just went at it! Everyone raved about how great they looked and tasted-It was great! The sheet cake was cut up for the guests and the couple took home the smaller cake to enjoy themselves.

My mom and I have decided that we are going to try and see all the films nominated for Best Picture this year. We were able to cross another off the list when we saw:

It was pretty good. I *adore* Helena Bonham Carter and Colin Firth was really excellent as well. It kept my attention, which isn't always an easy thing to do. All in all, I really liked it! Can't say whether or not it's the best picture of the year, as I still have a few more to see :-)

The List

1. Black Swan
2. The Fighter
3. Inception
4. The Kids Are Alright
5. The Kings Speech
6. 127 Hours
7. The Social Network
8. Toy Story 3
9. True Grit
10. Winter's Bone

Well, I think I've wasted enough time at work hehe I'm going to go listen to Something Corporate Radio on Pandora and *try* to be productive :-)

It's a wonderful life that I find myself living.

I have a few things to mention but first things first...

T-day.

Thanksgiving this year was pretty darn good actually. My Grandfather and his wife were in San Francisco visting her children and my grandmother decided she didn't want to celebrate, so we just did our own things at the house. My parents, little brother and I, along with my friend Rebecca who is going to school in Ann Arbor. She is from California and couldn't go home for the holiday and my mom was more than happy to have her over. Our neighbors ended up coming over for desert so, all in all, a low key, drama free holiday.

My mom made a *ton* of food. She brine-d a turkey, made green bean casserole (not the regular mushroom soup kind either, which I'm not a fan of. This one was actually really good!), Meme's sweet potatoes (my grandmothers recipe-actually more like desert than a side dish. So effing good), mashed potatoes and sausage stuffing. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie mousse with homemade whip cream and ginger snap cookies. We got most of the recipes from pioneerwoman.com. I wish I would have taken a picture of the spread-there was so much and it all looked so good! My mom is such a great cook-I can only hope to one day be able to cook food like her :-)

After eating all that food, I could *literally* barely move. Luckily, most some of my stuff is still at their place hehe Me and my mom got up at the leisurely hour of 8 am and were out the door by 9 to do some Black Friday shopping. My mom usually hates shopping, so I was super surprised when she suggested we venture out, but I am rarely one to turn down shopping, especially on someone else's dime! I ended up getting a new pair of black "boots with the fur" and we picked up the rest of Channukah presents, which are unfortunately still in her possession.

We went to a few shops, and were back by noon to eat some left overs, watch a movie and take a nap. Pretty much an excellent day after Thanksgiving.

Work slowed down a little bit this week, but it will be picking up again sooner rather than later. Luckily it makes the time go by quickly (as if it didn't to begin with lol) I'm finishing up my last 2.5 weeks of the semester, as well. Have to finish up planning and preparing for the next one...ugh.

Today was also our first snow fall, which is amazing considering I can't remember a winter where we didn't have any snow in November. But luckily, December 1st brought some.

This was the view from my office window at 9 o'clock when I got to work this morning.

And then 10 o'clock. By this time, I'm already dreading the drive home, and lamenting the fact that I need new tires and bitching about how much said tires are going to cost me.

But luckily, I live in Michigan and by 11:30, almost everything was gone. Meaning I can put off getting my new tires for at least a few more days :-)









And finally, a belated Happy Blog-iversary to myself!

I can't believe it's been a year already! I started this as a place to write poetry, because I am occasionally a 13 year old emo girl stuck in a 22 year old's body, and after me and my ex started having issues I stopped writing for a while. But I'm really trying to make an effort to blog more often, and I've been really enjoying it.

So here's to another good year of blogging!

Would you give it all up to live again?

The Holidaze have officially hit the baking world. We've been crazy busy, which is great. We had a few down years when the economy took a down turn, but it seems like this year, people have really been making up for lost time. Even though we've been so busy, my moments of feeling "stressed" have been few and far between thus far. Sure, I've been mad or frustrated with people, but it wasn't the normal "stressed out, I wanna rip out my hair and scream", which I'm really thankful for.

To keep my self somewhat sane, I've been doing a little shopping. But not the normal "Let's go shopping for holiday gifts for friends and family!" Oh no, it's totally been all about me lol

Let me preface this with I don't usually like flats. I'm short, like *really* short. So when I've been drawn to shoes, it's always 4" or 5" or higher, just so I'm of normal height when I wear them. But now that I work in an office and I can't wear heels, I've really taken to flats. Now, don't get me wrong, I still love me some sky high stilettos, but I've come to the (saddening) realization that I do not live in New York or LA and have fabulous parties to attend on a regular basis. In reality, I live in the Midwest and I often go weeks, if not months, without an occasion to get all dressed up for.

I ended up buy a pair of brown flats this summer so I could wear my sun dresses and not wear my Birkenstocks and boots like I had been all winter and spring. After I got over the initial breaking in period, I found that they were actually pretty comfortable! (For some reason, I've always been ok with my feet hurting if there's 5" heels involved, but flats I never found justifiable lol)

Side note, I've been pretty obsessed with leopard print ever since I saw these:

I die.

So fierce I can't even stand it. But because of that whole "I live in Michigan and don't go anywhere necessitating me spend exhorbanant amount of money on shoes that will still on my shelves more often than not" thing, I couldn't bring myself to spend the $100+ to buy them.

So one night at Target (i.e. my fave store) I stumbled upon these:
How effing cute are those?!?! They are a little uncomfortable to break in, but for these, I will suffer hehe

I also picked up some other stuff including these:

Zebra and sequins? Yes, please.

I'm not sure why, I just find those so cute!

After all this shopping, I really need to buckle down on the spending. Winter is coming fast and I need new tires-sometimes I dislike being responsible lol

I give myself to you from the essence of my being and I sing to my god, songs of love and healing.

I have officially given up on online shopping. I bought a super cute camel pea coat that ended up not fitting and being entirely too thin to hold up to a Michigan Winter, so I unfortunately, had to send it back. It may be the third largest disappointment of my life, right behind the

house on Huron River Dr. and the Michael Kors purse fiasco.

The only good thing to come out of the disappointment was that my mother took me coat shopping and ended up finding a pretty cute jacket.

I'm usually not a fan of Guess but this coat was just adorable. I'm still searching for a camel trench/pea coat, but this will be a nice addition to my (ever growing) outerwear collection.

I also got a new pair of ear muffs which I am wearing as we speak (type? who knows?). Dork, I know.

All in all, a pretty good night-cupcakes, shopping, and dinner with my mom (in that order, by the way haha) and then watching Game 1 of the World Series with my dad. He actually asked my mom if I were coming over to watch the game with him...because he wanted me there...Who'da thunk it?

In not so happy news, I had to say good bye to two of my work friends this week :-(

Me and Christie at Patti's Birthday Party
(I unfortunately don't have any pictures of me and Emily together-sad)

Christie is off to Pennsylvania with her (now) husband and Emily moved out to Denver. It's so weird to go to work and not see them-I miss them both already!

Also, Pandora just played Vanessa Williams on "Lil' Wayne Radio". I think that's my cue to get up and change it haha

Glory days, well they'll pass you by. Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye.

Nothing of note is really going on, but I've taken a few pictures that I wanted to share. So pretty much, these are just things that make me smile :-)

First, is my hometown. A lot of people rag on Ypsilanti, where I grew up, but I love it and unless for some reason my parents move to the other side of the country, I don't see myself leaving anytime soon. It's got just the right mix of small town and big city. Case in point, when I was driving home the other day I passed by this:

Outside the computer repair store, there was a piano that had a sign saying "PLAY ME!". And sure enough, an old man sat down and started playing "God Bless America". I turned down my music and listened for a minute. I just thought it was really sweet.

Right next door to my hometown is Ann Arbor, and unfortunately, people often compare Ypsi and Ann Arbor, and try to shed a not so nice light on Ypsi, which I hate! And while I usually resent Ann Arbor for making us look bad, it does have some pretty cool stuff, like this:

It's a fairy door. Probably can't tell from the picture, but it's about 6 inches tall and there's lots of glitter and sparkles all around it. It's on the side of an art gallery downtown. There are tons of them all over and they've been there for years, but I've never actually seen one. I found this one when I was walking to the concert with my Dad and I saw all the glitter on the ground and before I realized what it was I asked if there was a drag parade that I missed. Haha.


Next, is my brother because he doesn't get mad when I send him random pictures in Target.

CASUAL JACKETS!!!

Lastly, is my nail polish. I'm loving all the new fall colors, and was really drawn to this gold that I found.

It's ULTA Lotsa Luxe and then I found gold glitter made my E.L.F at Target (It's called Golden Goddess) for $1, so you know I couldn't say no hehe I look like I have a disco ball on my fingers, but I kind of love it!

Cruel to be kind means that I love you.

First and foremost, it's October 19th. Meaning October is more than halfway over. Meaning November is almost here. Meaning New Years is almost here. Yeesh.

Last week, for my Dad's birthday, he took us to the Ark to see Nick Lowe.

A totally different vibe than the other shows I saw this month. I'm an most definitely my fathers daughter- A rap show, a punk show and a folk show all within a two week span. It was pretty fun-me and my mom went shopping beforehand down in Kerrytown and my dad met up with us for dinner before the show.

(Obligatory cell phone picture. Nick Lowe and his opening act Garent Watkins)

At the Ark, there are some obstructed views from posts and stuff. We sat down behind one at first and were debating about whether or not to move, when we noticed that, sitting in front of us, was Brandon Wiard, who I was basically in love with when I was younger. He used to play shows at a local record store and I would go watch him with my dad and just kind of stare creepily at him haha We ended up moving but it was the closest I had ever been to him, and I was so effing excited, even all these years later! lol

But, one of the best parts of the nights though was getting to wear my new shoes.

This picture doesn't really do them justice-Nude, patent leather pumps. Kinda plain, but oh so fierce.

They are a little too big, so when I was walking with my dad I told him that one of my feet must be bigger than the other because one foot kept slipping out, but the other didn't. He gave me a weird look and said "Well, some women have one breast that's larger than the other." To which I answered "I have that problem too, but right now we're talking about my feet." Probably one of the funniest conversations I've ever had with my dad. When he told my mom what I said, she just cracked up.

Yeah, we're weird. No big deal.

Besides me loving those shoes, I love their price tag even more.

Umm...$7.56? Yes, please.

Besides all that, life is pretty uneventful, which is fine by me. My grandmother moved in to my parents house this weekend, so that's definitely adding some stress and excitement, but it's only temporary.

The semester is about halfway done, and now it's time to start thinking about next semester. Like I said before, Yeesh!

Put down your sword and crown. Come lay with me on the ground.

First things first-I found a place to live! Yay! My aunt happened to know someone looking for a roommate, so I went and checked it out. I really wasn't planning on anything coming from it because I was pretty adamant about getting a one bed room and being on my own. But the place was just so cute and the girl was so sweet, I fell in love. It's a little 3 bedroom ranch over on the east side of town-fenced in yard, garage, cute little kitchen and basement. It's really adorable. Plus, she's letting me paint which is pretty awesome. So I'm moving middle of August, luckily most of my stuff is still in boxes :-P

I want to have an "adult" bedroom. No more of this college-dorm room-nothing matches BS. I have a comforter set that I really like-it's kind of Indian themed with a henna pattern in like burnt orange and gold-ish colors so I think I'm going to get some shade of yellow to put on the wall. I got some shelves and a H-U-G-E mirror that are all in a really deep browns...so that's what I'm going with. Hopefully it'll all come together!

I went on a little shopping spree last week-oops! But how could I not when Old Navy was having a crazy sale on jeans! I got three pairs for $7.50 each, plus a white trench coat for $12! Amazing!

Then, silly me went to DSW. And told myself I wasn't going to buy anything. Cause that's totally possible, right?

Apparently not.

They look kind of plain in the picture...in person they look a lot taller. I think they are like 5.5 inches...maybe even 6. But they only cost me $12. The little yellow stickers at DSW are my best friends.

Then on the way out the door, I see these.

With another pretty little yellow sticker, meaning these cost a whooping $9.

I swoop them up, and literally run out of the door before I can buy more shoes.

Unfortunately, that only lasted about 24 hours, until I went back and bought them in brown too :-)

I did buy some stuff for my new place, which I am rationalizing as "investments". New shoe organizer, some shelves, etc. But I'm really loving the wall decals I grabbed from Jo-Ann Fabrics.

This is one of them (Not exactly, but same basic idea).
The kit I got came with the chandelier and some butterflies to put around it, which are cute, but wouldn't really go with everything else in the room. So I bought some cute little birds with a metallic damask print, which is my absolute fave. I'm pretty stoked to put it all together!

Also, I made a little pit stop a little shop we have around here.


You've never heard of it, have you?
Nah, didn't think so :-)

Every time I go in there I see all these super cool light fixtures and I always want them but never get them. Well, I found one in the As-is section (i.e. clearance) and had to buy it.

It looks kinda weird here, but it's a wreath basically, with little LED lights. And the one I bought is black. I can't wait to put it over my bed.

They also had these super long (I'm talking like 8 ft.) mirrors in there. 2 for $10. I didn't get them but I'm seriously kicking myself about it. Me and my mom are supposed to go shopping this week, so hopefully they are still there. I don't really know what I'd do with them...but I want them haha

My dad has a second interview this week so *cross your fingers*. Other than that, I'm dreading going back to school. Tomorrow is August 1st... Um WHAT! Where did my summer go?!?

Now does anyone know the name Gabriel Prosser? My conscience says he's the one that history missed.

Went on a first date earlier this week. Blah-I dislike first dates, especially ones like this. He seemed really sweet and nice and I was even over looking the fact that he was young (not young exactly, but my age, which is young for me). He was late...And not just five minutes late. No, late by like almost 40 minutes late. And we went to Qdoba, which, while delicious, isn't exactly first date material in my book. On top of that, he didn't even offer to pay! I would have actually overlooked all of that, but I wasn't really attracted to him (too short :-/ ), so it was kind of an all around bust. C'est le vie, right?

After we got done, I had some time to kill before meeting up with one my friends so I went to my favorite store, AKA Target. And just what do I find but these beauties...

I LOVE THEM!

I needed a new pair of wedges and for $13, I couldn't say no! Plus they are like 4.5 inches, and I love me some (artificial) height.

So then I walk into work the next morning to a nice little surprise on my desk.

What's that you say? You don't see anything special about this plain black shoe box? Well don't they always say "It's what's on the inside that counts?"

Well it's totally true!

GAH! How effing cute are those! A woman I work with brought them in for me because they didn't fit her. So she gave them to me. For free. Um...these shoes cost $400 (I only know that because the price tag is still on them!) I have no idea what I'm going to wear them with, but trust and believe I will find something and it will be FABULOUS!

Been apartment hunting a little bit this week, to no avail. I'm putting a halt on it for a week or so, so that I can settle down and relax and let things happen, instead of me getting all controlling and messing things up.

The concert on Thursday was amazing. Although my ears just stopped ringing yesterday and my body is still a little sore from the pit-I'm getting old ya'll! (Yes, I totally just said that and I'm only 22-kill me now lol) Tim Barry and The Whigs were the opening acts, both of which were pretty sweet. Hoping they come back to town soon-would love to see any/all of them again.