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?

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 :-)

Those are your shoes. These are my shoes. We've got issues.

Growing up, all I ever wanted to be was a punk rock kid. I thought they were so glamorous with their tattoos, and their piercings, and their dreadlocks. And in my 12 year old mind, being a punk rock kid was synonymous with skateboarding. I gravitated to the boys with the boards, who stood outside my middle school and jumped down flights of stairs.

I immersed myself in everything skateboarding. I read Thrasher cover to cover and dog eared pages in CCS, picking out trucks, decks and barrings. My closet was soon filled with tee-shirts baring logos from element, DC and Independent. As the summer drew to a close and the back to school shopping began, I had my eyes set on one thing-shoes.

But not just any shoes. I wanted my first pair of Vans, in all their color-changing glory.

That's right-my shoes changed colors. Inside they were stark white, but step into the sun and they turned bright yellow. I never felt cooler than walking into the first day of school that fall, as my shoes faded back to white during first period and watching every one stare in amazement at my shoes.

I wore those shoes everyday. No matter how dirty, or worn out they looked, they still retained their color changing magic. I covered the soles with lyrics I deemed fitting to my teenage angst, and continued to wear them as a symbol of rebellion.

Almost two years later, I was on the brink of high school and decided to trade in my well worn, and even more well loved, pair of shoes for a new pair. By this time, Vans was no longer just a skating brand and every one of my friends had at least one pair. I bought a pair of standard pink and black shoes, but every time I put them on, I missed my worn in, eye catching, dream encapsulating shoes.

Today they sit at the bottom of a closest at my parents house, thier fat tongues and think laces, collecting dust. I just can't bear to throw them away and finally give up my dream of living the life of a punk rock kid.

Today's prompt is Flicker of Inspiration #6: These Shoes Were Made For Talking at The Lightening and The Lightening Bug

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)

Now I'm just gettin to know you, what you got for me?Tell me about your parents 'cause the fruit don't fall far from the tree.

Rebecca at rebecca likes nails was nominated for the...


and it is so appropriate and perfect for her! Her blog was one of the first nail blogs I started reading, and I love her blog and all her designs! They are all so cute and fun and I'm so jealous of how creative and talented she is!

At the end, she tagged anyone who was wearing glitter on their nails, and thanks to my new mani from last night-I am!

Proof!
(I don't know if you can tell but the blue is blue glitter-I swear!)

So I'm going to play along and post 10 random facts about myself-I'm not every good at this so bare with me!

1. I used to work in the pastry department at the bakery I'm at now. It's actually where I got my start at the business and I considered going to culinary school, but along the way realized I'm much more a people person than a food person-luckily for me, the job I have is a perfect mix of both!

2. I'm short. Like really, really short. I'm barely 5' even. My dad calls me a hobit and my brother (who is over 6' tall) likes to pick on me about it haha

3. Going along with that, since I'm so short, I LOVE HIGH HEELS! And to be honest, the higher the better. I have an exorbitant amount and no where very few places to wear them ha!

I would die for the Louboutins.

For realz.

4. Nail polish is my newest obsession. I bought 10 new polishes last week! I started to count my collection the other day and gave up when I got to 50 because I was a little ashamed lol

5. I'm not a huge fan of the beach. I'd rather go somewhere urban, like New York or Boston. I also fell in love with Vermont when I went there a few years ago. But if I had to go somewhere exotic for a vacation it would definitely be one of three places (Or all three if I'm lucky lol)...

Oh, hey. What's up Santorini, Greece?

I see you there, Italy.

You too, France!

Aren't they all so pretty? *sigh*

6. My "List of Things To Do Before I Die" include seeing a European soccer match (preferably in one of the above), visiting Israel, visiting every Major League Baseball park, and attend every major sport championship (Superbowl, World Series, NBA Championship, NHL Stanley Cup, etc), among other things.

7. My favorite animals are pandas, as I mentioned in here, but I have a soft spot in my heart for squirrels. If I could keep one as a pet, I totally would!

They are just so cute!

8. Five things I couldn't live with out are: cellphone, Ipod, gum, water bottle and a hair tie.

9. I'm a sucker for reality TV. It's bad. My co-workers call me "Snooki" and request I come in rocking the poof. And to be honest...

I always usually oblige.

and 10. I try to live by the philosophy that life is really to short to be anything but happy. I spent quite a bit of time being pessimistic and I'm trying hard to turn all that around and be a smiling, happy optimist! And so far, it's much easier (and way more enjoyable) to be happy :-)

So I think the rules are that you're supposed to tag people, but I'm not sure if anyone even read this, so if you do-go for it and let me know so I can read it :-)

We have our very own everlasting love.

I'm linking up with This Kind of Love for my first "What I'm Loving Wednesday"!

I'm loving Target's $1 Section! I always find great stuff there, whether it's cute socks, party favors or these yummy treats!

I was so excited I had to take a picture in my car haha

I'm loving the fact that I have small enough feet to wear kids shoes! I was perusing the clearance section at Famous Footwear and I found these for $5! They are little boys shoes, but I think they are super cute.

I'm loving that March Madness starts this week. I'm in a pool at work and in one with my family and will definitely be posted on the couch for the first round games on Thursday and Friday :-)

I'm loving Glee! I know I'm late but I just died when they did this on the show last week!

I'm loving that because of daylight savings, it's no longer pitch black when I get out of work *and* the birds were singing when I woke up this morning! It's almost spring-yay!

On a much different note, I have a prayer request for everyone-My boss's friend was in a really bad accident and broke 2 vertebrae in his neck. He's responsive but doesn't have feeling in his fingers or legs. He's going to have a long road to recovery, and any prayers would be greatly appreciated!

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

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.