Deep beneath the cover of another perfect wonder, where it's so white as snow.

The other night I was driving home as it had just finished snowing and it was so peaceful I couldn't help but notice. There was no one out walking around, the snow was still clean and white and my neighborhood was abnormally quiet.


It's been a weird winter and all of the snow that fell is already gone. But it was fun, and pretty while it lasted.

Is there lots of snow where you live?
Do you enjoy the snow? Or wish it away? lol

She's not in bacon; not in sausage; and she won't eat eggs.

Last weekend, my friend Katie had a few of our friends over to her house for a little dinner party-she made a delicious vegan meal and it was sooooo much fun!

I brought over a yummy salad...


and while Katie finished getting ready, I hung out with her cat, Iggy Pop...


I made some vegan ranch dressing...


and green beans with vegan "bacon" (which was actually bacon flavored tempeh lol)...


I didn't get a picture of the full spread, but we had seitan "ribs" (she made me tempeh "ribs" so they would be gluten-free-so sweet!), au gratin potatoes with nutrional yeast which sounds kinda weird, but was really good and buffalo tofu bites, which were my favorite (but I'm a sucker for Franks hot sauce lol)

After dinner, we had some vegan cupcakes...


and it wouldn't be a party without some games, of course!


It was such a good time-I hope we are able to do it again soon!

Do you guys have dinner parties?
What are your favorite dishes to bring/serve?
What are your favorite games to play?

But I'm nothing special -- I'm not unique. I have many secrets.

Welcome to another week of confessions! We're on part 7, so if you want to catch up, click the link on the side and you can see parts 1-6! (I'm too lazy to post individual links)

61. When I was in elementary school, I went to a pool party and someone jumped on my head while I was under water, and chipped my tooth. I had to have emergency dental work and now, half of my front tooth is fake. I still have to get it re-done every few years.

62. A few years later, at another pool party, I was trying to swim in the deep end and it did not go well. I don't remember much except my friends dad jumping in, fully clothed, to pull me out. That and feeling super embarrassed the rest of the party lol

63. One night while slightly tipsy, I accidentally my shaved my right eyebrow almost entirely off. To this day, it grows in all wonky.

64. Growing up, we never had pets, but in high school I took home my physics class pet, which was a beta fish named Benny. After that, a friend of mine got a job at a fish store and hooked me up with a tank and some guppies. They lasted a few years, surprisingly. But the beta, met a tragic end when I forgot to put water in his open air bowl and it all evaporated. Ew.

65. I've never egged anyone in high school (though, my car was egged more than a few times...), but my freshman year in high school, we had a team sleepover and TP'd a few peoples houses. It was fun for about a minute, then I thought it was super lame and never did it again lol

66. Up until about last year, I didn't really have the attention span to sit through movies. Without fail, I would fall asleep about half way through or start day dreaming and be completely lost. Luckily, I've grown out of that haha

67. If I could have one superpower (not really sure if that's what this would be qualified as, but we'll go with it...) it would be to change my appearance like Tonks from Harry Potter. I don't like change, hence having the same hair style for going on 10 years, and I rarely venture away from my basic make-up, so being able to change it all with a snap of my fingers would be awesome. Also, that whole not having to spend an hour getting ready would be wonderful.

68. In middle school, I decided I wanted to have different colored hair, ya know...cause I was so edgy. My parents were cool with it, but their only stipulation was that I had to ask permission from my principal. His answer- "As long as you wash your hair, I really don't care what you do with it." The next day, I dyed part of my hair purple, and a few months later, blue.

69. For as long as I can remember, my mother has called me Panda-this has led to a huge, massive, ridiculous collection of panda memorabilia. Every stuffed animal, shift, book, card, whatever-if we saw it, and it has a panda on it, it came home with us.

70. If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be pizza. But not just any pizza, Mr. Pizza pizza. If you are ever in Southeast Michigan, you MUST eat there. It will change your life. And no, I'm not exaggerating.

I've been looking so long at these pictures of you, that I almost believe that they're real.

Woo hoo! Here's week three of the January Photo Challenge! I'm seriously loving doing this-so fun!

1/21-Reflection

1/22-Your shoes

1/23-Something Old

1/24- Guilty Pleasure

1/25-Something you made

1/26-Color

1/27-Lunch

Are any of you doing the photo challenge?
I'd love to see!

But I can't keep my hands out of the cookie jar.

One of the benefits of working at the bakery I work at, is that we are able to take the classes we teach for free and bring people with us-which is great, because they are lots of fun! I've taken a few before, so I was pretty excited when my Grandmother suggested that her, my mom and I take one together.

She came down for the afternoon and we met up for dinner before class. The class we took was all about Jewish cookies-including how to make rugelach, my grandfathers favorite!


We made rugelach (cream cheese pastry rolled up with currants and walnuts), mandelbread (Eastern European biscotti with almonds and citrus) and apricot hamentashen (sugar cookie-like dough filled with apricot preserves).

The second best part of taking the classes is that everything is done for you-all the ingredients are provided and measured out for you, and they do all of the clean up. It's baking without any of the hassle, only the fun part! lol

The best part of it, is of course, all of the goodies you get to take home :-)

By the numbers, by the numbers, reading the signs in everydays figures.

I saw a post like this a while back on Katie's blog and I thought it was such a great idea so....I thought I'd do it too :-)

Here's my life, by the numbers...

357286704397602 = number of cheese, meat, vinegar and olive oil copy I've typed up at my internship in the few weeks (note: this one may be slightly exaggerated...but only slightly)

160 = retail cost of everything I bought at the VS Semi-Annual sale last week

50 = the amount I actually paid! Woohoo!

1 = number of days this week I Snooki'd it up at work and rocked a freakin' poof.


10 = number of days till my birthday!!!!!

3 = number of times I woke up last night...ugh

6 doz = how many cookies I brought home from my baking class (seriously, sooooooooo many!)

2 = times my car has been in the shop this week :-(

Waiting for my car to get done...the first time.

1 week = how long the big bosses are out of the office... party time lol

So that's my life by the numbers....
What does your life look like?

I have to bury one more thing in my backyard, once again this year during the Ides of March.

Living in a college town has some definite perks. Growing up there were always parties, there's lots of good food and resturants and lots of people in town. I have a love/hate relationship with the students themselves (why, oh why, must you walk in front of my car? The crosswalk is literally five feet away!) but for the most part its been a pretty cool place to live.

Especially when there is events on campus. Double points if said events are free.

This past Friday, some student orginization was showing a movie for free so me and my friends decided to check it out. We totally lucked out because it was a movie I had been really wanting to see!


I'm pretty sure it's going to be nominated, so I was able to get a jump start on my Oscar challenge. It was really, really good. Besides the obvious eye candy, the story was interesting and new. I know political dramas aren't exactly ground-breaking, but this one felt different than others I've seen. I know Clooney won the Golden Globe for his performance, but I would contend that Gosling was just as good, if not better. He played his character just perfectly-it was really amazing to watch. Paul Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman were wonderful as always-they are both two of my favorite actors and they were perfect accompaniments to Clooney and Gosling.

We found out that the same student organization is showing 50/50 this week (with Seth Rogan and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) so me and my friend made a date to go see it-I'm super excited!

(PS I'm taking a film course this semester so I'm hoping that my movie descriptions will evolve beyond just "It was good" and "You should see it" lol)

Have you guys seen Ides of March? Or 50/50?
What did ya'll think?

I've been up for days, trying to find a way to write this confession down.

This is getting hard! I'm not sure I'm going to be able to come up with 40 more after this! If you wanna catch up go here:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

51. I have a kinda unhealthy obsession with squirrels. Like I want to own one. They are just so cute! When I went to camp, I used to chase them and try to catch/pet them haha

52. If I could've lived in any era, it definitely would've been the 80's. I think all the music and clothes were so fun. I've always been super into the 80's-I think would've fit in well haha

53. Even though I'm really picky about how my nails look and am super into nail polish, my worst habit is picking at my polish. It so so so bad for my nails, and I know this!, but I just can't help it! When it starts chipping, I keep picking at it and just ruin my entire mani and the nails underneath :-(

54. I'm hard pressed to eat ice cream, or cake, or cupcakes, without sprinkles on it. I'm not sure when it started but, now I put sprinkles on everything!

55. In high school, I tried to act like I was a tough guy (my mom even used to call me a "thug" lol) but my bark was always much worse than my bite. The few times I was actually in confrontations, they never went anywhere besides some loud talking (not even yelling lol) because I always backed down

56. My friends used to call me "Super Jew" because I was super involved in my youth group. Every weekend I was at a retreat and I spent most of my summers at a Jewish camp in Wisconsin.

57. I've known what I wanted to do for a long time, but it has taken on some different incarnations over the years. Though I love my job and even customer service (yea, I'm weird, I know...) my career *will* be sports related. There's multiple jobs I would love to have within that, but working with sports is a must.

58. For years, I though I either had to be a tomboy or girly, but not both. I didn't understand that I could watch and talk and love sports while still being in to fashion and clothes and shoes. It's really only been in the past year that I've embraced both side of myself. It feels weird a lot of the time, but it's a lot of fun, too. Crazy, huh? lol

59. If I could inherit two skills it would be my grandmothers baking and my mothers cooking. My grandmother made the best pies and cookies and cakes (and milkshakes, even though those aren't baked lol) and my mom can take any amount of seemingly random ingredients and make a delicious meal. I can only hope I'm lucky enough to feed (and love) my family as well and I've been fed (and loved) by mine.

60. Can I use the fact that I seriously doubting whether I'm going to be able to come up with another 40 things about me? I'm really not that interesting lol

Yay! Another one down! This is getting hard ya'll!

Do you guys have any confessions?
Give me some inspiration lol

Carry this picture for luck, kept in a locket, tucked in your coller, close to your chest.

I can't believe I made through two whole weeks of this! I think that might be a record haha Here's my second week of the January Photo Challenge!

1/14- Something You're Reading

1/15- Happiness

1/16- Morning

1/17- Water

1/18- Something You Bought

1/19- Sweet

1/20 - Someone(s) You Love

Are any of you guys participating Project 365/January Photo Challenge?
I'd love to see!

I'm getting my tan in your Sunray

Every year my mom and I have the same argument discussion...

Me: I think I'm gonna go buy a tanning package soon.
Mom: Please don't. You don't need it/there's nothing wrong with being pale/you'll get cancer/it causes aging/etc
Me: Yea, I know...
Mom: Just try a sunless tanner... Please?
Me: Fine.

So I do-I do some research find one that seems decent and go buy it, thinking this time it will be different. It'll give me a nice golden glow without being streaky, or greasy, or a pain to apply.

And every time, I'm wrong. Every.Single.Time

So I inevitably end up back at the tanning salon for a month or two during the spring so that my legs aren't seen through the first time I decide to show them off

I started the whole song and dance a little early this year and picked up some sunless tanner when we were out shopping this past weekend. I bought L'Oreal Sublime..... and when I used it for the first time, I tried to keep my expectations low.

Which worked out well, because I woke up splotchy and streaky and gross. I'm going to try and even it out a little bit and see if I can get this stuff to work, otherwise I think I'm going to take it back.

So now, the question-what do you guys do? Go au naturale? Fake bake? Or do you have better luck with sunless tanner than me?

I'd love to hear some suggestions-Help a sista out!

Girls talk, if they say that it's so

I'm sure most people have seen these, but if you haven't WATCH THEM! They are hilarious!

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Too funny, right?!?!
Although, I'm a tad embarrassed to admit that I say pretty much all of this...oops lol

Oh, my God, shoes. These shoes rule.

A while back, my co-workers started calling me "Snooki" because...well, I'm not really sure why but I didn't mind and the name just kind of stuck. Luckily, I love the name and her haha

My friends and I have joked that I'm slowly in the process of transforming into a guidette- I am Italian so it's not that far fetched lol

I bought some new shoes the other day that I think will put me one step closer...

via

I swear I saw pictures of her wearing something almost exactly like those, but I can't find any so maybe I'm just crazy lol But don't those look like something she would wear haha And even if she wouldn't, aren't they so amazing? I'm pretty much in love

Now, all I need to is work on my tan orange hehe

What do you think?
Are my new shoes outrageously awesome or awesomely tacky?

I admit, I admit.

Hey everyone! You ready to read up on today's confessions? If you want to catch up on the past few parts you can go here: 1. or here: 2. or here: 3. or here: 4.

41. I'm now an ex smoker, but at one point, I was smoking nearly 2 packs a day. It still boggles my mind I ever smoked that much! I can't believe I spent all that money...I mean nearly $15 A DAY! So crazy!

42. I still sleep with the same teddy bear I've had since I was a month old. I take him with me pretty much everywhere-he used to come to sleep overs and camp with me and now I still take him sometimes if I stay at my parents for the night. He has a pretty creative name, too- Teddy haha

43. My hair has been basically the same style since I was in high school-long, brown and for the most part curly (though I occasionally straighten it). I've always envied girls who change their hair often, I think I'm too scared to actually change it. It's like my security blanket!

44. I got my first kiss by telling the boy to "shut up and kiss me". True story. My friend and I had sneaked out to meet a few boys in the park, including one I had a little crush on. My friend bet me I wouldn't say it, so after we had snuck away from the rest of the group, I did. And he did :-)

45. If I could be one thing, I'd be more spontaneous. I'm a definite planner-I love to know where we're going, what time, how much time it takes to get there, who's going to be there...you get the point. I've been working really hard on loosening up, but I still have a looooooong way to go lol

46. One year for Halloween, my roommates and I dressed up as people from Rock of Love-ie the Brett Michaels Dating show. My guy roommate was Brett, his girlfriend was the one with pink hair (Jess, I think?) and I was Heather, the trashy/stripper one with the 80's hair. It was pretty amusing

47. Even though I had never acted before, I ended up getting the lead in the school play my senior year of high school. The part required short blonde hair and my director actually expected me to cut and die my own! Luckily, I convinced her a wig would work and wore that-Thank God, because short and blonde was not exactly a good look for me lol

48. During my first semester at college, my friends and I used to drive around a lot and listen to music. One day, my Ipod/CD converter stopped working so we had to listen to tapes (because my car was old school lol) but the only one I had was a tape of covers done by...The Fraggles. We totally rocked it lol

49. I've been wearing heels since about middle school and I've only ever really fallen once. Of course, it was in the middle of the hall way during 8th grade...in front of everyone. My friends made fun of me for YEARS! That definitely helped me learn my lesson-practice walking in them before you leave the house haha

50. I am terrified of geese. My co-workers make fun of me for it (even though I'm still not convinced they can't kill you....) but seriously, what's good about geese? The poop everywhere (and potentially on your head-gross), they are loud and get in the way of my car. Plus, they can kill you lol

Yay! I'm finally half way done! I'm surprised I came up with so many. I dunno how I'm gonna be able to come up with another 50 haha

Do you guys have any confessions?
Spill 'em! haha

All I want is a photo in my wallet.

I'm a little late (what else is new) but I decided last weekend I want to join in on the January Photo A Day challenge. I think I'm going to extend it after that as well, and try to do Project 365, but we'll see :-)

For now, here's my first week of photos!

January 7-Favorite

January 8-sky

January 9-Routine

January 10-Childhood

January 11- Where I Sleep


January 12- Close Up

January 13- What's in Your Bag

Is anyone else doing the challenge? I'd love to see your pictures!

Got her toes done up with her fingernails matching

It's time for my new favorite link up again! Yay!

Go link up with Fabulous but Evil or My Vikilicious Life to check out all the other fabulous entries!

For this one, I started off with OPI Funky Dunkey.

I love this color on it's own, but I wanted to try out a new polish that I recently picked up and I thought the two would look great together

And they did!

I used Finger Paints "Twisted". "Twisted" is a multi-colored flakie polish.
I loved this combo and couldn't stop staring at my nails when I was wearing it!

What do you guys think? What are you wearing on your nails?

Cause I'm fixing my hair for you. I want to be beautiful

I've been pretty unhappy with my hair lately. Not necessarily the color, or even the length. And I've learned to accept I'll probably never have too many layers (layers and curly hair just don't mix-believe me, I found out the hard way :-/)

But my hair has just been looking....blah. I know it's winter in Michigan, so some frizz and drying is to be expected, but this seems worse than normal. And my ends are just ridiculous! But really, my main problem, and I know this will sounds kind of superficial silly, is that it's just not shiney. It's dull, and boring, and blah.

I stopped washing my hair everyday, and it's helped a little, but I've been debating about going "no-poo" as in...no more shampooing.

Apparently it's supposed to restore your hair back to a natural, healthy state. I've read some "recipes" using baking soda and vinegar, light weight conditioner, or even just water. I'm definitely intrigued...but still a little hesitant.

Regardless, I picked up the supplies before settling in to watch the game last night (Roll, Tide, Roll!) and now I'm just waiting to use up the last of my shampoo and conditioner before I try it out-so we'll see how it goes!

Here's a couple of the websites I've been referencing, in case your curious:
How to clean your hair without shampoo-The Simple Mom
No shampoo routine-The Motown girl
How to quit shampoo without becoming disgusting-The Hairpin

Have any of you guys tried this? Or know anyone who has?

It's time to have a Christmas Party!

Before things really hit the fan at work, my friend Katie hosted an Ugly Christmas Sweater party and it was soooooo much fun!

I stayed entirely too late but we were all having a blast-laughing, dancing, playing games-I just didn't want to leave lol

Pretty decorations...

games, dancing and general shenanigans...

and fun friends!

Every single one of us, the devil inside.

Every year, even though I want January to be a month of rest and catching up, it seems like I'm just as busy as December some days! But it's all good stuff, so I can complain too much :-)

A lot of the busy-ness involves catching up with friends who I hadn't been able to see during the holidays-even some of my co-workers lol

So last night, my friend Katie and I went to grab some Chinese food and a movie. The food-delicious, the movie-not so much haha

We saw The Devil Inside....and it was decent at best.

I probably would have like it a lot more if there hadn't been so many distractions! I apparently forgot what its like to be at the movies with a theater full of high schoolers on a Friday night. Never. Again. will I make that mistake lol

After work on Saturday, I headed over to my parents to watch the Lions play the Saints. Even though the game didn't turn out like I hoped, I'm still pretty happy with how the season ended up. The Lions have made a lot of progress and it's been really exciting to watch them this year. I'm a Lions fan-always have been, always will be- but it makes it a little a lot easier to say that when they are winning. For the first time in a long while, I'm actually looking forward to the next season.

I felt kind of bad last night-we play a playoff pool at work and I drew the Saints and now, since the Lions lost to them, I still have a chance of winning some cash money. So for the rest of the play offs it's.....

GEAUX SAINTS!

How was your weekend? Did you do anything exciting?
Any other football fans out there?

Now hear my confession.

Finally time for part four of Sunday Confessions! If you want to catch up, here's parts:

1.
2.
3.

31. Given the choice for a famous hook-up, I'd pick a professional athlete over a movie star any day. A baseball player in a fitted hat, a football player in his tight pants, even a hockey player with a black eye-I dunno what it about it, but I love them. Plus they clean up pretty nice, too hehe

32. I am completely phobic of vomiting. And I realize no one likes it, but it's seriously full-on panic attack inducing for me. I usually start to cry and freak out and make myself feel way worse, but I've also learned how to basically talk myself out of it-it's been a handy trick.

33. I was never a nail biter, but my worst habit is picking my cuticles. I used to do it until they were all red and raw. I've been better about it since I started getting into nail polish and nail art, but I occasionally still do it-and always regret it.

34.When I played soccer, I used to carry around 2 or 3 bottles of Gatorade in my bag, pretty much at all times. Since there was no way to keep them cold (or I just didn't bother enough to figure one out) I usually drank them warm, sometimes even hot from the sun. Now, I can't stand to drink cold Gatorade-I usually leave out to come to room temp before drinking it.

35. If I eat a meal, I usually eat all of the vegetables before any of the protein. Not quite sure why, maybe its from my mom making us eat veggies when we were kids haha

36. I could eat plain rice and plain pasta everyday. I know it's super boring and has very little (if any lol) nutritional value, but I love it lol

37. In my next life, I think I'd like to come back as a biker chick-I have a kind of unhealthy fascination with them. The bikes, the leather, the boys-I love it all. Never mind the fact that I've never been on a bike lol

38. A few years ago, a few friends and I decided to go explore an old insane asylum a few towns away at like 2 am. We didn't get very far because there was a police car stationed in front of the building (we came around from the back) and as soon as he saw us we all sprinted away. It was such an adreniline rush and lots of fun. Luckily, the cop either didn't see us or ignored us, because I was set to be at the airport and on a plane at 6am haha

39. I used to drink 3-4 energy drinks a day. I loved them! Until we discovered my friends kidney stones were due to over consumption of energy drinks-I've had maybe a handful since then and that was about two years ago.

40. I'm a crier. I haven't always been, but now I cry at the drop of the hat. Anything can set me off-a movie, a song, a commercial, people I see on the street-seriously anything. It's kinda ridiculous lol

Whew! I finally got through 40! I can't believe I have 60 more to come up with-what did I get myself in to!!!!!
Do you guys have any confessions? Spill 'em!
And! Go check out Three in Three and see everyone else's confessions!

Start with straight shots and then pop bottles.

In the hustle and bustle of the holidays I totally forgot to share somethings...I still have a Christmas party to recap-oy vey!

A while back, I was messing around on Twitter and saw Girl Talk mention a show in Ann Arbor for the next day. I went to check it out but found out tickets weren't for sale, you had to find the bus and they would give you tickets. It was part of a concert series sponsored by AXE-they bring big name acts to small venues in college towns-and Girl Talk was the latest to go on tour.

Gift bags they gave out-believe me when I say it legit smelled like a 13 year old boys room in there lol

I was a little disappointed but figured it was no big deal. As I was leaving work, I remembered my friend Katie is friends with Girl Talk aka Gregg, so I mentioned to her he was in town. Fifteen minutes later I get a text from her that she got us tickets! I was so excited I literally squealed in my car ha ha

The next day at work I could barely contain myself and couldn't wait to leave so I could go get ready!

You have to have some sort of neon to see Girl Talk haha

Katie and a few of our other friends met up for a few before we headed down to the Blind Pig, where the show was being held. The worst part was that we had to wait in line before the show and it was freeeeezing! By the time we got inside, my fingers were so cold I couldn't even text-it was pretty tragic lol But we were "on the list" so we got to cut in front of a few people towards the front- I felt pretty special lol

After we got inside, we made our way up to the front of the Pig (which is pretty easy to do)-we ended up being on the side of the stage when the opening band was performing.

People Under the Stairs were the opening act and they were pretty great. I used to listen to them and they put out some pretty legit hip-hop. It was definitely nice to be able to see them perform in person.

The crowd was a little iffy and I was starting to get worried because of how everything had gone down the last time I saw Girl Talk. We even got into a little fight and got some girl kicked out in between sets. Luckily, after she left, it got a whole lot better.

Unfortunately, that picture is the only one I took because.....

I WAS ON STAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At all of his shows, he brings people up on stage to dance and we were able to spend pretty much the entire concert dancing and jumping around. By the end of it, we were sweaty, gross messes but I can honestly say it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. Definitely something I'll remember for the rest of my life.

I was so happy to be able to go and it definitely filled the live music void I was feeling in December. Though, it's back again now...guess I'll just have to find some more live music to fill it hehe

By the way here's a picture I got off of AXE's facebook page....

Place was packed!

(Points if you can find me haha)

Nails done, hair done, everything did.

Today I'm linking up with Fabulous but Evil for....

I was so excited when I found out about this-I'm a little obsessed with nail polish! My collection is embarrassingly huge and I'm stoked to be able to show some of them off and see what everyone else is wearing too!

So this is what I wore this week...

Essie Mint Candy Apple
I used this tutorial by Kayla Shevonne to do a cherry blossom accent


What are you guys wearing on your nails?
Go link up and see what everyone else has on their nails!