Friday Confessions!

Today I'm linking up for my first confessional!


Link up here

I confess...

I just donated $ to a charity for my cousin but thought about using that same donation as a "gift" for another friends birthday (she requested charity donations instead of gifts) hey, dont judge me, im a girl on a budget!

i weighed myself this morning and considered the extra pound that I put on as "period" weight... when in reality i haven't been eating that great. But listen if i want to be a little delusional this week, aren't i entitled? i mean, just a little bit?

and i'm still thinking of eating junk for lunch! taco bell anyone? nom nom nom...

i am purposely ignoring the "hey how are you" email from shitty friend that has been previously mentioned in posts because i quite frankly just don't feel like responding. (even though we all know im going to cave sooner or later)

i contemplated not going into work today so i could stay home and watch the royal wedding with the pups. and yes, i know a co-worker who actually did!

i sent my BF to my house today to mow the lawn in the backyard because i just really didn't feel like doing the work! and the grass is SUPER long!

i cannot stop playing WWF and play at red lights, at work, when i should be sleeping... its actually worse than the angry birds addiction was!

what are your confessions for today?

What I'm Playing Thursday! Ingrid Edition

Ingrid Michaelson Edition


The first Ingrid song i ever heard. It was on an episode of One Tree Hill - the wedding episode where Peyton and Lucas tied the knot... after i heard this beautiful song, i was hooked on ingrid's music. If i ever end up getting married again, i would seriously consider walking down the aisle to this.


Ingrid Michaelson - Nightswimming (REM Cover) - if you haven't heard this live, watching it on YouTube is the next best thing. She uses a looping pedal an its truly amazing.


One of my favorite Ingrid tunes, its happy, its fun and it just puts you in a lovey dovey mood.


The Hat -- the chorus to this song is just so catchy, totally makes ya want to sing-along!

Link up with Sarah here and tell us what you're listening to today!

Suggestions Needed!

So, G and I have finally decided on Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for my birthday. Neither of us have ever been there, we both wanted something relaxing and beachy where we can get some sun, and also have activities. I know i was talking Vegas and Disney a while back, but because of financial reasons, inflexible dates (i definitely want to be away ON my actual birthday) and the fact that we have to work around G's school/work schedule, we have settled on driving down to S Carolina late Thursday (over) night to get there early Friday morning... then leaving early Monday and driving home. As I've never been on a road trip this long, it should be interesting, and hopefully fun!

Here's where I need YOUR help! We need to pick a hotel. The ones I looked at and have liked so far are the Hilton, Hotel Blue, Marriott at Grand Dunes, and Anderson. If you've ever stayed at or know anything about ANY of these hotels, any info would be MUCH appreciated! You can only learn so much from the internet and I'd love some more personal recommendations!

ANDERSON

HILTON

HOTEL BLUE

MARRIOTT AT SAND DUNES

I also need a restaurant recommendation for Saturday night (ma bday)... Thinking something a little more upscale, maybe a good steak or seafood place... though this girl can get down with a hot dog and a beer just as easily!

And finally, suggestions for nightlife, things to do, places to go, what to see... Please! Please! Please HELP!

Tail Wagging Tuesday! - Pet's Beds

Link up here

Soooooo going thru my iphone pics to find where the pups sleep, i noticed that i may have a slight obsession with my little guys - you see, not only do i take pictures of them awake, i also love snapping them when they are sleeping... maybe cuz they look so cute and innocent - something they are definitely not when they are awake! ;P

OK, so here goes...

Mostly, they will snooze anywhere that has a blanket/pillow/item of clothing they can lay on... here rio is sleeping on a comforter that i had in my spare bedroom, he liked it because it was in the sun. he's dreaming about lying on a beach chair with a mai tai, er, frosty paws in his hand.

Rio is sometimes more of a loner, and would rather sleep alone in his bed, than cuddle with the family.

This is a leather chair in my BF's living room. Note the laundry under him. Not sure if its the scent or the softness of the clothes he likes but he'll sleep there even after we turn out the lights and go in the bedroom. (And yes, he is wearing a doggie diaper. don't judge...)

The bed is scooter's absolute favorite sleeping spot. as you can see, he thinks he is the king of the castle, and therefore entitled to some pillow action.

he also thinks he's a real boy - and yes, he will really stay like this... brat.

They also enjoy cuddling up with each other... ahh the brotherly love...

All these pictures of beds and sleeping is making this girl tired. *yawn*
Happy Tail Wagging Tuesday!

We're hitting up Kohl's at lunch today, i'm excited to check out Lauren Conrad's line there. Cross your fingers that i find some cute buys.

OOTD: Easter Edition

Hope everyone had a "hoppy" easter! Mine was kind of laid back... church and then brunch with the fam. It was a buffet and i've decided i'm possibly the worst person to take to an all you can eat buffet. Mainly because I was full after my first plate. LOL. But, being a trooper and wanting to get my $40 worth (yup, the rents made me pay my own way, something about being an independent woman with a better job than them?) I managed to get my fat a$$ up there not one, not two but THREE times!

Anyway, being that my dress from this post had just come in the mail, i figured i'd share my Outfit Of The Day. Minus it being 90 degrees out, and me sweating my tooshy off, i thought i looked pretty fly... ok ok, maybe not fly per se... but not completely unfortunate looking. :)

dress: anthropologie, shoes: steve madden, belt: from a shirt i got at a boutique in virginia, ring: Brandy Pham, pearl necklace: gift

(don'cha love scoo chowing down in the background of the pic? hehe...)

What did you do for Easter? Egg hunts? Easter baskets?

Trips

Took a trip to Target yesterday on our lunch break and found some great bargains i wanted to share with you lovelies! (some of these weren't "bargains" per se, but it was also a PINK themed shopping trip!)

Top left: Roll-up beach mat $2.50
Middle: Colgate toothbrushes (Grey and Pink)
Bottom left: Magenetic notepad $1.00
Bottom middle: Mini pedicure set $1.00
Bottom right: Olay Body Wash (pink and yummy smelling)

I was personally thrilled with the beach mat since i live at the Jersey shore in the summer. Yup, there. i said it. I live at the Jersey Shore in the summah... well not THAT Jersey shore... my shore looks more like this (snooki-free).

via

Anyway, i thought it was a super cute find, and nice and small so i can throw it in my beach bag and go!

In other news, i've decided that as much as i do love the Jersey Shore, i think i'd like to go away for my birthday. Its in June, so beach/beach bar weather will have just started. I did Headliners last year and it was a blast but i think im ready for something a little more low key this year.

Last year:

Group Shot!

Me and the bro

This year:

Disney?

or

Vegas?

or

Suggestions??

What are your favorite vacation spots? I'm thinking an extended weekend, Fri-Mon - something fun, exciting, and an all around good time.

And then I woke up.

via

Did you ever have a dream that when you woke up you thought it really happened? That's what happened to me last night. I'm guessing I had this dream because this person has been on my mind for a while now. (See this post at the bottom)

So in my dream I remember going to visit M in my dream. (IRL she just moved to a new apt with her BF and got a new puppy) and I was going there to see the dog and her place. A lot of the details now are very fuzzy, but i remember for some reason both of our families were there. And as we were sitting down and talking, i look down and see this enormous engagement ring on her finger. And when i say enormous, in my dream that puppy was like 10 carats. Though in the dream when i asked, she told me it was 3 (funny how the mind distorts things).

Pause. a little back story to my friendship with M. We have pretty much been BFFs for 10 years. I met her right as i was finishing college through a mutual friend. We had a lot of similarities and just clicked. Over the years, even though we live about an hour away from each other, we have managed to maintain a close friendship. Granted as our lives move on, and as we get older and don't hit the party scene as much, our times together have dwindled, but we've always managed to talk to each other everyday either by phone, email or IM. Until this past summer. When it all changed. M started dating JB "supposedly" in August. I say "supposedly" because i think they both basically lied to me about when they started dating. A)because he had a long-term gf for 4 years and hadn't called it quits with her and B) because i "dated" JB a couple of years ago (not knowing he was still with the girlfriend and therefore a scumbag player, and by dated i dont mean dated, i mean drunken hooking up, you get the picture). BUT Anyway. Since they started "officially" dating, she has completely distanced herself from me, for whatever reasons, and when we do talk, its very awkward. She only wants to brag about what HE buys her aka "he got me Christian Louboutins for Valentines Day, what did YOU get", or we talk about general kinds of things, other friends, work, the weather. So that's the abridged version of the backstory.

OK, back to the dream... so i look down, see the ring, and was like, "wait... you got engaged and didn't even TELL me???" she looks at me sheepishly and was like, "yeah, i wanted to talk to you about that"... so we end up going into another room where she starts crying and i start basically going off on her about how crappy of a friend she is and how hurt i am over her distance and how i can't believe that she got engaged and didn't tell me. then i ask how long have you been engaged... and she says... 9 weeks! well at that point i just lost it and felt myself not able to breathe, that's how enraged i was. and starting to scream at her, but no words were really coming out because i was so choked up.

And then... i woke up.

What a seriously f'ed up dream right? I mean, i guess i am just so at a loss over this whole thing IRL, that it carried over in my dream. And thus far, i haven't said a word to her about how i feel because i don't know if our lack of friendship would even matter to her (i'm certainly not the first person she's written off as a friend, and i'm sure i won't be the last). Anyway, just had to share, guess its something that's bothering me a lot more than i thought.

On a happier note, when i did finally crawl out of bed this morning, someone didn't want to wake up, and had buried himself IN the pillows. He wouldn't even open his eyes at first! I had to snap a photo!

So I Splurged...

I didn't quite time for the weekend recap yesterday, but in all honesty there really wasn't that much to report. Saturday took the BF for a nice little surprise Couples Massage and it was absolutely heavenly! We've both been hitting the gym pretty hard and figured we could use the hour long kneading and rubbing and beat down. LOL! Other than that the rest of weekend consisted of mostly eating out, relaxing, and went to church for Palm Sunday (well we went Saturday).

So i wanted to share my latest splurge with you ladies! Now, i'm not usually one to a) shop online for clothes and b) buy things that have been worn by celebrities. But as i sat home watching Extreme Home Makeover on Sunday night, i fell in love with Jillian Harris' green shirt dress. And lo and behold, Monday morning as i'm checking my blogs, i found this!

its from urban outfitters, so i snuck on to see if they had any left... and sure enough...

So, I'm not totally sure about the size, i got a medium... so there are 3 scenarios... it will be a tent on me (aka too big) it will be like a normal button down SHIRT (aka too small) or it will be perfect! Cross your fingers for the last one ok?

And being that shipping was $10 flat rate, i got this for my bro for his birthday (even though its not til august) i just couldn't resist!

What have you splurged on lately?

It's the End of the World as we Know it...

... and i feel fiiiiine...

ok, not really. actually i feel horrible.

i just read THIS article that literally makes me want to cry. "Pet rescuers brave Fukushima danger zone" which is about all the pets and livestock left to basically starve to death when the Japanese people had to evacuate. Getting through the article was hard enough, i couldn't bring myself to even click on the YouTube video of the malnourished beagle tied to a post. It just makes me sad because these animals don't understand whats happening, they don't know why their owners have left them... Thank God there are people out there willing to risk their own lives in order to save these poor innocent animals... i know if i was over there and could do it, i would be signing up myself.

Then I read THIS article: "Tennessee woman, 20, missing after being dragged from home". My heart goes out to this family who are doing everything they possibly can to find this girl... and to these families here who are dealing with a serial killer (or killers) in Long Island: "Police hack through brush on NY beach in possible serial killer case"... it really makes you realize that there are such evil people in this world, and sometimes i feel so insulated in my own safe world, that these things don't seem real. But they are real, they've just never been MY reality. It makes me feel bad for complaining about the small things, about thinking how hard MY life is. Because compared to these people, its not. I have a good job, a roof over my head, a family that loves me, clothes on my back and food on my table.

i guess the important thing to take away from all this is that you never know when people are going to be taken away from you, or when you will be taken away from them. So, love hard, laugh often, cherish your loved ones, spend quality time with people, dance like no one's watching (see, i'm not ALL debbie downer, i'm still TRYING to find the sweet silver lining to all this). My favorite quote from Grey's Anatomy:

Did you say it? 'I love you. I don't ever want to live without you. You changed my life.' Did you say it? Make a plan. Set a goal. Work toward it, but every now and then, look around; Drink it in 'cause this is it. It might all be gone tomorrow.

So between all these natural disasters, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes in the south last night... and all these man made atrocities, sometimes its hard to keep a positive attitude about the world around us. Sometimes, its just really depressing. And it really seems that the end of the world can't be too far away. I hope i'm wrong and we have many more years ahead of us... and with Easter approaching, maybe we (and by we, i mean me, i don't try to push my beliefs on anyone) just need God to show us that there is hope, there are people who are still kind-hearted, caring and good. I'm not overly religious, but after reading a mornings worth of depressing news stories, i can use a little God in my life.

There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off. —Proverbs 23:18

Have a hopeful and happy weekend and we'll catch up Monday!

Wee Bit Wednesday! Rainy Day Edition

{one} have you ever fainted?
yup. a few times. (unfortunately)

• on a college tour when i was a senior in hs.
• at a mcdonalds at 4am when i was in college (there may or may not have been alcohol involved!)
• on the sidewalk in nyc - we had just left a club (no drinking involved for this one, i swear!)

they say i have some sort of sensitive nerve that makes me more prone to passing out. lucky me right? LOL

{two} what is your favorite casino game?
texas hold em or let it ride. ac is just an hour car ride away... hmmmm... :)

{three} do you have a good sense of direction?
only in jersey... if im not familiar with it, i suck.

{four} laptop or desktop?
BOTH. laptop at home, desktop with DOUBLE monitors at work!

{five} what is your go-to hair style when having a bad hair day?
ballerina bun. pretty, easy and simple!

{six} do you read the newspaper on a daily basis?
No. But i do read CNN, NJ.com and our local newspaper RSS feed daily. does that count?

{seven} do you have a favorite celebrity chef?
Bobby Flay. love his burger palace and his restaurants in manhattan are great! still hoping to try Mario Batali's restaurants too!

{eight} what tv show would you like to make a guest appearance on?
Bad Girls Club... LOL JUST KIDDING... mmmm, Grey's Anatomy - i could get in on a little McSteamy/McDreamy action!

{nine} do you have satellite radio in your car?
No... not willing to pay for radio. I use my iPod instead or listen to regular radio

{ten} what was the last movie that made you cry?
believe it or not, True Grit. i was suckered into seeing that with the BF and it turned out to be a great story. but the part i cried at was when her horse died. LOL, im an animal lover, i can't help it...

Swing Batter Batter...

With baseball season in full swing, i'm definitely looking forward to some summer tailgating, a little flip cup and of course watching the Phillies!

I have a great group of friends that get together every year and hit up a few games and i'm hoping this year will be no different.

I rocked this shirt all last year...

(yup, thats me, rockin out. and wasted. LOL)

so this year, i'm hoping to get a new shirt and change it up a bit! here are my choices...

All the shirts are around the same price, so that's not a factor... i just can't decide which i like the best. and being a girl on a budget, i can't justify buying more than 1 per season. esp since the BF is a die hard Yankees fan and is planning on converting me soon (though, i don't know if that's going to happen)

So which one would YOU pick?

My Beauty Closet

Shampoo/Conditioner: Brazilian Blow Out Acai Shampoo/Conditioner... keeps my brazilian blowout looking fresh ta death... every 2-3 days...

Styling products: Brazilian Blowout Acai Smoothing Serum and just picked up Redken vinyl glam 02 mega shine spray

Shower Gel: I usually just buy whatever is on sale... i get tired of the same scent all the time... right now i think i'm using St Ives Citrus wash. I also know i have a bottle of Bath & Body Works Sweet Pea up next!

Do you splurge on body wash or just go with the drugstore brands?

Body moisturizer: Jergens Naturals

Deodorant: Secret Platinum Clear Gel, nuttin' special, but gets the job done

Fake Tan: Loreal Sublime - i wear latex gloves and spray it on after the shower. then i just make sure to rub it in and make sure its even over my body. i like this one because it doesn't take long to dry and i can usually get dressed within 5-10 minutes of the application.

Face Cleanser: Cetaphil and something my dermatologist gave me called Glytone (acne fighting face wash)

Primer: Too Faced Primed and Poreless Face Primer, on the rare occassions i wear a primer.

Foundation: Too Faced Amazing Face Liquid Foundation in Warm Nude. I'll probably switch to something different for the summer, though i actually really like this one so far.

Powder: Too Faced Absolutely Invisible Candlelight

Blush: I have a couple of MAC powder blushes that i use, but i just got a sample of Makeup Forever's HD Microfinish Blush and even though you have to use your fingers to put it on, if you blend it correctly, it looks amazing. I also sometimes use Nars Blush Stick in Orgasm if i want a little sparkle.

Bronzer: I've been going without bronzer lately because of the cheek color i've been wearing (see above) but when i use it i like Sun Bunny by TooFaced.

Eyeshadow base: Too Faced Shadow Insurance. I use this and if i don't wash my face my eye make up is pristine til the next day (i may or may not have done this on a few *drunken* occassions! hehehe...)

Eyeshadows: Mix and match between mostly MAC and Too Faced palettes. The Too Faced Natural Palette is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. Though sometimes I love wearing matte eye shadows and MAC has some great colors

Eyeliner: Liquidlast by mac. this stuff is MORE than waterproof. it does not budge. good for when you need it to last. bad when it gets on your contact lens! i also love my mac paint pot.

Eyelash Curler: Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler - hands down the best one i've ever owned. unfortunately they've stopped selling this at sephora so i'll have to find my next one somewhere else.

Mascara: Dior Show Blackout for when i get dressed up (though it does not come off easily)... Too Faced Lash Injection for everyday...

Lipgloss/Lipstick: OK so disclaimer, im a lip gloss/balm JUNKIE. So i use whatever is at reach depending on where i am. i keep Carmex in my purse for everyday. its medicated so it helps prevent chapping... I have a million and one MAC Lip Glasses and a few Too Faced glosses. I've been using a Cover Girl lip stain for when i want a more natural look.

I told my roomie that i would take her challenge of trying to wear lipstick at least once a week... (i have 2 roomates - both make up artists, can you guess what companies they work for? LOL) so I usually stick with a Mac Lipstick with a Too Faced gloss. But I have a bunch of "back to mac" products im going to bring back to the counter for recycling and try a RED like this one.

Nail Polish: Obviously i love OPI and Essie (and SO glad they now sell Essie everywhere) but if i see a color and like it, it doesn't matter what brand it is, i'm open to trying it!

So those are all the products (or the main ones) in my beauty closet... what are your faves?

Disclaimer: None of these companies paid me to promote their products or supplied me with them. Not that i wouldn't be open to that... but they're just my own personal faves.