And the winner is...

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway!! I got THE BIGGEST kick out of all your answers. Your worst first date stories were actually the best!!! Thanks again. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Aaaaand our lucky winner is....

Michelle from Impressions Of My Life At The Moment!

Thanks again everyone, I heart you more than you know :)

Last day!

Today is the last day to enter my giveaway!

What's YOUR worst first date story?

Stay tuned for the winner announcement tomorrow!

More Phoenix love. And antiquing!!

I've been determined lately to make the best use of my waking hours. This means not staying in bed til noon all weekend, no matter how good it feels. This means going to Safeway in the morning to pick up the necessary ingredients for a delicious brunch omelet. This means frolicking in my city on a gorgeous day! AND FINDING VINTAGE PYREX. OMGZORZ.

Downtown Phoenix has so many diverse nooks and crannies. Parks full of homeless people, playing children and interesting sculptures.

Huge buildings that boast trendy architecture.

Old buildings that give Phoenix that cool retro vibe.

Abandoned buildings. Historic homes.


Many, many little churches.

Interesting alleys.
A good friend of mine, the fab Efrain, shot a few photos of me in this very alley a few years ago.

Nobody puts baby in the corner!


It's easy to take photos when your subject is so handsome ;)

THEN. THE BEST PART OF THE DAY EVER. THE ANTIQUE SHOP.

There's an antique shop on 7th avenue and McDowell that's huge, diverse and reasonably priced. Ryan promptly broke something very vintage and very breakable and spent the rest of our antiquing adventure with his tail between his legs. I made him wear the giraffe mask of shame.


I scored these Oleg Cassini sunglasses for ONE DOLLAR. Not sure how old they are, anybody have any ideas?


And, the most exciting find!! I've officially hopped on the vintage Pyrex bandwagon. The pieces are so fun to hunt for, individual and cuuuute. Plus, they last forever and they're dishwasher & microwave safe. How could it get any better?!?!

I spied a butter dish first and literally squealed aloud. I've become kind of a nut about butter dishes. I think they're super cute and quaint and adorable and I just discovered the magnificence of keeping butter at room temperature which is something my parents never did but I can do now because I'm a big girl and live on my own!

I paid $20 for all these pieces, and they were from 3 different vendors! SCORE! How cute is it that the butter dish and the littlest serving bowl have matching patterns!?!

I'M DYING.Are any of you guys nuts about vintage Pyrex too? I know I've seen a ton of your collections all over the blogosphere. Send me the links!

Also, isn't my city sooo pretty? Phoenix, represent!

Starbucks copycat couscous salad = party in my tum tum

Have you entered my giveaway yet?!?!

Scene: Kara enters a Starbucks one evening after a very, very long day of school and doing therapy. She's meeting girlfriends from class to study for a midterm and hasn't eaten in hours. She glances down thoughtfully at her rapidly diminishing Starbucks gift card and weighs her options. She's way too hungry to wait another two hours to eat. She grudgingly pays WAY too much money for an attractive couscous salad with pretty tomatoes and shredded carrots.

Courtesy, Starbucks.com

Kara sits. She stirs her salad. She takes a bite.

HER JAW DROPS TO THE FREAKING FLOOR OVER THE SURPRISING MARVELOUSNESS OF THE COUSCOUS SALAD SHE JUST PAID $79 FOR AT A STARBUCKS.

Kara, to self: Dude. You can totally make this at home. Seriously. In fact, here are the nutrition facts from the Starbucks website. Just copy it. Piece of cake.

*

And so, here we are. I bebopped over to F&E to pick up some goodies the ol' pantry was missing and I was on my merry way.

You'll need:

-Grape tomatoes (or cherry...in fact, what's the diff? Anybody know?)
-Carrots
-Pinch of curry powder
-Cubed chicken. I used about 1 1/2 breasts and I cooked them beforehand.
-One box couscous, your preference. I used F&E's Lemon Saffron Israeli Couscous because I thought it'd taste yummy with curry. The one from Starbucks has quinoa in it too.
-Almond slivers
-Raisins. Your choice, reg or golden. The original had golden, I subbed regular.
-Ingredients for "citrus cumin" dressing (not pictured, sorry. I wasn't entirely convinced it'd be good so I didn't photo the process). Starbucks included "water, sugar, soy sauce, orange juice concentrate, canola oil, ginger, rice vinegar, orange peel, spice, chili peppers, citric acid, xanthan gum, carrageenan gum". I was fresh out of the aforementioned gums so instead I combined the fresh juice from two oranges (plentiful right now in AZ), a tablespoon of vegetable oil, a pinch of cumin, a teaspoon or so of brown sugar and a sprinkling of ginger. It totally did the trick.

Toss some oil in a pan and heat up your cubed chicken. Add some salt and your curry powder until chicken is browned (er...yellowed).

Cook your couscous according to the directions on the box. Yowza, our stove is dirty. Pls ignore.

Once cooked, combine the two in a bowl and chill until the temp is cool.

While you're waiting for your hot stuff to chill, shred up some carrots and prep the rest of your ingredients. Take the now-cooled chicken and couscous out of the fridge and layer your pretty extras on top.

Admire the gorgeous colors for awhile. Seriously, isn't this meal so pretty?

Stir up the lot of it, pour your delicious citrus sauce over the top, and serve to your man, woman, friend, family or roommate.

The combination of sweet, spicy, crunchy and soft is totally awesome. It's like a disco party in your mouth.

This meal is officially Ryan Approved™.

Voila! A delicious and nutritious meal (with nearly all the food groups!) for a fraction of what you might pay at Starbucks. Refrigerate your leftovers and be THAT PERSON at the office with a way fancy lunch to rub in everyone else's face who's eating a boring turkey sammy.

Easy peasy! Let me know if you try it!!

Have you entered my giveaway yet?!?!

GIVEAWAY TIME!

*I'm keeping this post at the top til the giveaway ends, scroll down for new posts!*

'ElllllLLOOOO, lovely blog readers, and happy Friday!

I'm super duper excited to announce that I'm hosting a cuuuute giveaway from CSN Stores! They have all kinds of awesome home bars, kid's stuff and a TON of cute modern home decor. I could spend hours browsing the home stuff, seriously. So much to love.

For one of you lucky sunshine cupcakes, I'm giving away this super-cute-omg-adorable mirror with a songbird cutout. HOW CUTE IS THAT.

Overall Dimensions: 16" H x 12" W

To enter, all you have to do is leave me a comment (include your contact info pls!) with a story about your WORST first date. I've got a really good one, but I'll let you share yours first :)

If you're in to getting extra entries, you can get an extra one each if you do the following:

1) Follow moi (or remind me that you already do!)
2) Tweet about this here giveaway
3) Blog about this here giveaway

Just make sure you put each item in a separate comment and include your link!

I'll pick and announce a winner a week from today on Friday, March 12th. GOOD LUCK, LOVERS!

Phoenix love

I'm hoping this post is more of a mood-lifter than a NEENER NEENER to all of you shiny happy people living in snowy atmospheres...so please don't hate me. We suffer so much in the summer, sometimes we're allowed to gloat! Today is March 8th. In many of the cities that my friends live in, it's barely above freezing. In Phoenix last week, it was 65 degres and sunny.

*BASKS*

Needless to say, I've been taking 100% advantage of the sunshine despite my incredibly nutty schedule. I took last Friday afternoon off to go to a baseball game and I'm not sorry! I'm an AZ native and Ryan was born in Chicago, so naturally we went to see the Cubs play the Diamondbacks.

I bought Ryan a couple of lawn seats for Valentine's day and it couldn't have been a better day for sitting in the grass surrounded by happy people watching baseball. I wore a Cubs shirt to support my man (Go Cubbies!) but I couldn't help cheering for the Dbacks too, especially when Upton hit a grand slam (Go Diamondbacks!). I got a lot of shit from fans on both teams, but it was good-natured shit and really, that's the best kind.

We drank beer, ate bad (for your health) food and our toes enjoyed sunshine.





Ryan joked with a couple nearby with the cutest baby EVAR that I just got out of prison for stealing a baby. Totally not funny. We had to sit through 4 more mildly uncomfortable innings while they looked at me askance and hovered over their child to keep me at a safe distance. Come on guys! I just wanted to chew on his fat little legs!! IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK!?



It was a really great afternoon and exactly what I needed to unwind. There's nothing better than baseball, green grass, beer and sunshine. Except maybe the sunburn Ryan got on his forehead in the exact shape of his backwards hat. HILARIOUS.

Happy spring!

P.S. Have you entered my giveaway yet?!?!

VERY EXCITE

Hi guys! The super fun Giovanna over at SWOON nominated me for this here pretty award recently:

Thanks! The award dictates that you tell your readers 7 things about yourself that they didn't already know, and nominate some more of your fabulous blog friendsies to do the same. Giovanna's are hilarious and involve mention of chicken wing sauce and Vespas. Make sure you pop over and check hers out.

I know you're chomping at the bit for my 7 things, so here we go:

1. I'm a total freaking nerd. I love Lord of the Rings (Ryan and I often speak to each other in LOTR quotes, Gollum ones are our favorites), the TV series Firefly (and anything Captain Mal has ever been in, especially Dr. Horrible), Harry Potter books & movies, lolcats, and all things The Neverending Story. When I was little, I used to think the loft at my grandparents' house SURELY had a copy of The Neverending Story hanging out amongst the other books, complete with an Oren symbol on the cover. They never let me go up there because there was no safety rail. I'm still convinced it was there. Also? I wanted to marry Atreyu. Girls (and/or guys!) of the 80s, who's with me?

2. I played keyboards in a band in high school and early college. We played at some of my favorite downtown Phoenix venues like the Trunk Space and the Modified. We were instrumental and maybe not very good, but we had fun and people actually shed blood dancing at our shows.

3. I've been through my fair share of academic hell, including graduating from the International Baccalaureate Program in high school and doing the Barrett Honors College COMPLETE WITH THESIS at ASU during my undergrad. Super, super, super, super thankful that I'm finally in graduate school doing what I want/love and there are no stupid, stupid graduation requirements OTHER THAN DOING MY JOB. Vocational (practicum-based) school ftw!

4. I love, love, love metal. Slipknot, Fear Factory, Mudvayne, old school Tool - I like it all. The local metal station here in AZ (97.9) has been my favorite for years.

5. I got fired from nannying once. That year, I also worked at Schlotzky's in the basement of the student union here at ASU and also had a stint at Victoria's Secret. BAD TIMES.

6. I'm terrified of natural disasters. I can handle spiders, snakes, clowns, ghosts, cotton balls, whatever. Tornado, hurricane, tsunami?! GET ME THE F OUT.

7. I have zero competitive streak in me. I could care less about winning or losing or anyone else's progress in anything for that matter. As such, I suck at team sports and always chose individual ones like jumproping (nerdy, I know) and karate. I'm pretty sure the only time I ever got super pissed about losing was when I got really into 4-square in about 3rd grade and made my dad practice with me incessantly so I could kick ass when I got back to school. He thought it was hilarious to beat me with what he called "The Charles Barkley Serve" which had nothing to do with Sir Charles but was obnoxiously hard for my 9 year old self to hit. He STILL laughs about The Charles Barkely Serve.

And now, I nominate:
1. Shosh!
2. Kelli!
3. Jess!
4. Sam!
5. Katie!
6. Emma!
7. Liz!

Lastly, if you've made it this far...

GIVEAWAY COMING SOOOOOOOON!!!

Spolled brat

My grandma on my dad's side was a fiery woman full of Southern sass. When something surprised her, she'd say "Well, who ever heard the like?!" in her thick drawl. So thick, in fact, that it literally took me years to figure out what on earth she was saying. Also popular with Grandma G was "Quit tucking your hair behind your ears, it'll make them bigger!" and "Stop acting like a spollllled brat!" She taught me to never take things for granted and to make the most of what I had. She cooked oatmeal on the stove every morning for breakfast. She sewed and made things with her hands. Visiting her in Tennessee when I was little was quite the treat - she lived in a quaint little house surrounded by nothing but green, and life was slow and simple. She always chewed Wrigley's double mint gum.

I didn't intend for this post to be about my grandmother originally, but I like to remind myself to be thankful for the life I have and not take the little things for granted, as my family has made the effort to remind me as I've grown up.

I saw Hillary, one of my besties, yesterday for coffee and girl talk. She brought me a belated birthday gift of a pretty feather headband, a gorg big flower ring and some super cute owly sticky notes and little tabs. She knows me so well!


Ryan also gave some bubbles recently because he knows how much I love those little gestures. I can't wait to go frolic in a grassy field with him and our puppy, blowing bubbles in the Arizona sun as springtime approaches. (P.S. Go away, rain.)


And finally, I treated myself (with leftover birthday cash) to the perfume I've been coveting for months now. I splurged on the gift set because I swear it's a better deal...right? Marc Jacobs is a master at packaging and displaying his products. It's all so pretty and easy to use - I love the rolly ball in the purse-sized perfume and the twisty lid on the lotion. Kudos, MJ.

Despite being sick, I've had a pretty productive weekend and took some time off to relax. Since feeling cruddy my drink of choice has been Perrier. Weird thing to crave during a cold? I'm not sure. I knew a girl once who replaced beer with Perrier when she wanted to quit drinking. She said it had a similar taste and that the carbonation tricked her into thinking it was beer. I don't have a drinking problem but Perrier sure feels good on a sore throat.

Never taking the little things for granted and promising to avoid becoming a spolled brat.

Music....Saturday?

I'm sick and in bed with a bowl of ice cream and Netflix. I want to do a proper post about a whole bunch of cute stuff I bought/was given this weekend, but to satiate your music desires in the mean time, please enjoy the songs on repeat in my head lately (and some awesome music vids as well!).

Said the Whale - Camilo (the Magician)

Broken Bells - The High Road

Beach House - Silver Soul

Let me know what you think!! Any good recommendations that I NEED
to know about?

Snake ring

I'm loving this wraparound snake ring that I wore today, I think snakes are the cutest things ever. I think I got it from Charlotte Russe like 25 years ago for $4 or something ridiculous.

What ring(s) did you wear today?

Embroidered planner cover DIY

Hi lovies! I had a flash of creative inspiration this weekend, the kind that doesn't take a back seat to homework, reading or housecleaning. I simply HAD to get off my studious bootay and do something pretty!

A few weeks ago I saw a link to a personalized planner where the woman embroidered the cover of her planner to give it some pizzaz. I cannot for the life of me find that link again and I stupidly forgot to bookmark it!!! Thankfully, I came across this website which helped spark the project in motion. I'm a nut about planning out my day and I figured, I'm gonna look at this planner every day for the next year, so why not spice things up?

Without further ado, the embroidered planner!

Step 1: Use a hammer and a nail with a skinny tip to punch your design into the cover of your planner. Punch from the front to the back so you don't have any funny-looking pucker marks on the front. I put a piece of cardboard behind the cover to protect the table. I used a fern stitch for my planner, but only because I'm impatient and a non-perfectionist. I'd love to see this done in a more intricate design!

I started with just one sprig in case I hated how it turned out. If you're comfortable with embroidery, punch out the whole design!

Step 2: Thread your needle and use the holes you punched to stitch your pattern into the cover of your planner.

Step 3: Repeat steps 1 & 2 until your cover has been fully stitched!

Step 4 (optional): Add beads, buttons or other bedazzlethingys to your design. I added a little orangey-red bead to my sunburst. Hopefully it won't get knocked off in my bag!

And you're finished! This was a super easy project that took me an evening to complete. I had all the supplies laying around so it was F-R-E-E and now my planner will stand out from everyone else's. You'd be amazed how easy this is after pre-punching your design! Piece of cake. Link me up if you try it :)