SOCIAL MEDIA

Foil-Stamped State Maps

May 28, 2015

I've been looking for some art to decorate my space for the last few months and came across this cool sit called Minted. It's basically independent artists selling their amazing photos and artwork in a way that's simpler than searching through Etsy for pieces because it's not as overwhelming.

I'm really into clean lines, open spaces and love using white, gold and silver together so when I saw these foil art pieces I was in heaven. I think it's a great way to pay homage to where you're from and where you are now, or to give love to a place of some kind of significance to your life, without worrying about it clashing with everything else in your space.

I didn't make an effort to decorate my last two apartments in LA because I still felt like a long term visitor up until now. In this new place, and after 3 years in SoCal, I'm finally ready to set down some roots (in a decor sense) and am looking into ways that I can make this and any future home reflect me as best as possible. I love the NYC foil print by Alex Elko Design but my only complaint is that it cuts off Manhattan so that my neighborhood isn't shown which kind of sucks but I does show my old hood in Astoria and the rest of the island which is where I made my mark so it's kind of a win.
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My Urban Garden

May 27, 2015

About six weeks ago I decided to take advantage of all the sun my balcony gets by planting some herbs and buying some plants to spruce up the place. The plants will probably arrive a month before I move out but the herbs and flowers are making their mark!

After my Ikea trip last month I planted some flowers and herbs that are finally starting to grow! I think I'll finally be using my basil and cilantro by the end of June! I also planted tomatoes but they just started to grow and chives that are beginning to sprout as well. I'm really excited for the lavender to keep on growing though because we want to make our own lavender infused soap because it's one of my favorite scents.

I'm excited to see how much my herbs grow and to hopefully have some tomatoes soon. Our next thought was to get some berries planted so I'm going to find something nice and long to put those in. I've been looking at tons of websites to get tips and ideas so I'm going to link them below. They are my go-tos and the ones I keep checking out to get some gardening inspiration.

Tomatoes, Basil and Cilantro

Cute Gardening Hack from Buzzfeed



Some Tips from Burpee


I can't wait to share more pics of the progress. It's be unseasonably cold these last few weeks but at the hint of sun everything pretty much goes into overdrive. I'm crossing my fingers in hopes that the sun keeps on shining from here on out!
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Spaghetti Doesn't Always Have to be Carby

May 16, 2015


I'm a total lover of spaghetti. I love how it looks, how it grabs on to sauce, and how great it tastes when mixed with grilled chicken of ground beef. But, I don't love the carbs in it. So I've been trying to find ways to cook and eat it without having to pack on the extra pounds. Especially since the summer is just around the corner and I want to lose the extra pudge that I packed on in this surprisingly cold SoCal winter.

On came Varietyland's Vegetable Spiralizer. I never gave any of these a try because they just never looked like they were sturdy enough to actually work correctly. I was pleasantly surprised with this one though because the edges were sharp (be careful!), it was easy to use, and my carrots and zucchini didn't turn into mush when I attempted to use it.

I'm forcing myself to get used to zucchini pasta but this slicer makes it easy because it gives it the shape so when I mix it with my sauces and meats its not a total shock to my palette. I'm happy with it and think I'm going to test some non carby pasta the next time I cook for the man to see how long it'll take him to notice the difference.

If you want to try this out, leave a comment! Varietyland is letting me give one away to a lucky reader!



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Gimme That Juice

May 13, 2015



My obsession with my iPhone is pretty much the same as everyone I know. I need it in my hand, 24/7 with Instagram, Facebook and iMessages constantly running. This of course means that my battery gets drained at warp speed. I used to have a charging case for it but my iPhone 4 outlasted it years ago so I've been trying out some portable chargers to see which one I like best. I did have one a few months ago but I gave it to my cousin because she seemed to have needed it more than I did at the time so now I'm working with CoreThirds Portable Charger to see what it's all about.

I guess I can say that it's a pretty basic charger. I plug it into my computer at night in order to juice it up and when my battery gets in the red I plug this sucker in and I can get it to at least 70% within an hour. And this is with my apps constantly running so I'm sure it can get totally full in that time if I just let it be. It's def not a bad little machine and I like that its small and cute enough to fit in even my smallest purses.

If you want to get one of these to try out for yourself just leave a comment and you might never have to worry about not having enough battery to take (and post) all the beach and wedding selfies that are sure to happen in the upcoming months!
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