9.27.2010

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Jenna, Erin, Maria and Amaya. What I love most about these four is how gorgeous they all are and how different they all look. How awesome is it that there's so many different definitions of beauty?

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Give me a few chilly fall days and I start lighting candles.

9.23.2010

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And more about Amanda, haha. She has a tree. And it's pouring. So she's collecting fresh rain water to nourish her tree, that lives in a pot in our house. At least until it grows up a little.

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Amanda's crafty. The first of our fall decorations.

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Amanda has been diligently working on this puzzle for eons. With bits of help from Travie and I. Never, ever pick a puzzle of a ship. They're hard.

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We got fancy Packer bracelets at work today.

9.18.2010

wish

Fall Wishlist

I kind of have a constant wish list going in my mind. Of things I'd like to add to my wardrobe each season. If I had an endless supply of money, I'd add every piece. But because I don't, I pick and choose the pieces that I'm really excited about, the pieces that I think will have a lasting place in my wardrobe, or the pieces that I can find at a great deal. This season, for fall, these are the things hovering around on my wishlist:

White Oxfords. I've wanted oxfords for a while now because of their ease and comfort, and because of their character. I'm a little preppy at heart, and I know I'd get a ton of use out of them. Oxfords that are white and a light tan would work too.
Over The Knee Boots. If I had skinny model long legs I'd want these even more, I'm not sure how they'd look on my short frame. But they're definitely on my list of things to try on!
MAC Lipglass. As much of an advocate as I am for MAC, I've never tried their lipglass. I'd love a warm, natural dusty rose colored gloss for fall.
High Waisted Pants. This is another one of those things that I'd need to try on to check out how it flatters me, but I'd like it if my short legs looked longer. Dress pants that I can roll up the bottoms of to show off cute ankle boots or high waisted shorts that I could wear all fall with thick colored tights underneath them and knee high boots...either way I'd love it!
Puffy Vest. In a bright, obnoxious, look at me! color. I have a plain black puffy vest and I love it because even if I'm wearing a thin shirt on my arms it does wonders for keeping me warm. Easy to throw on, easy to move in when a jacket is slightly too inhibiting. Now just looking for a fun color for winter.
Animal Print. Super in this season, and super timeless. The areas in which I'd want animal print are either a cardigan for layering purposes, cute little flats like these ones that are laced up in the back, or possibly on a purse. But since I'm not really in the market for a new purse, I'm going to look into finding a cardigan or flats.
Lace Tights. Also super in this season by being part of the lace trend, I like their slightly gothic feel. More dramatic than plain tights, they can easily add a little punch to a dress.

9.17.2010

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I remember when I was little we used to play with these on the playground, opening them up and pulling the seeds out.

swiss


OPI just came out with a new Swiss collection and I'm dying to get my hands on a bottle of this Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous color...it's so much more sparkly in person! Also, I just love the names for OPI's colors. There's a gold similar to this silver called "Glitzerland", and it's the Swiss collection. Oh how easily amused I can be!

9.16.2010

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Sometimes my camera struggles to grab the right focus right away and takes a picture where everything's blurry. In this instance, I love it.

9.15.2010

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In my window. Lovely.

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I'm slowly acquiring classic pieces of jewelry. This pretty, simple silver chain is one of them. I rarely ever take it off, even when I'm wearing other jewelry. Just layer it on.

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I'm kind of obsessed with my 50mm 1.8 lens. Tight focuses are kind of my thing.

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I am not a delicate girly girl. But twice this summer I've let my nails look like I am.

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Sticks look cool.

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Sunlight through the leaves makes me sigh with happiness.

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In case you're thirsty.

communicate

I’m in a class called Selling and Sales Management. The teacher is fabulous, and I basically love everything about it. Recently we had to fill out this 72 question survey where it’s all “choose A or B”. Whichever one we agreed with more. And then of course we take those answers and put them in a grid and add up the As and the Bs, etc etc and it all means something. It was developed by Redken as part of their interview process, they’d just give you all these pieces of paper and see if you can figure it out.

The questions start all normal and then all of the sudden,
A) I express what I feel.
B) If married, my erotic needs will be satisfied.

…umm, say what? And then,
A) Most people can’t be trusted.
B) Being erotic is as natural as being hungry.

A) I’m a physical-sensual person.
B) The wild sex life of the old Romans was tame compared to goings on now.

This all seriously interested and totally confused me.

Then, two days later, our answers got put in a grid and measured, giving us scores in nine different segments. Esteem, Assertion, Self Reliance, People Orientation, Conventionality, Romance, Tension, Hedonism, Authoritarian. From those nine segments, we add up different numbers and get three more scores. Parent, Adult and Child. How we communicate.

Within the Parent category, there’s Nurturing – caring, comforting, reassuring, protecting, and Critical – judgmental, criticizing, disapproving, disciplining. And with the Child category there’s Natural – fun-filled, joyful, impulsive, curious, and Adapted – rebellious, anxious, inadequate, pouting. With Adult there’s just one…and it’s basically emotionless. It’s rational thinking, it’s Dr. Brennan from Bones, it’s reasonable. I came out with 24% parent, 50% adult, and 26% child. Which is so dead on.

But. The cool part is understanding how to use all the information. Understanding how you’re communicating, how the person you’re speaking to is communicating, and if they match. Not that they’re necessarily the same, but they add up right.

For instance, if you come to someone with a natural child statement, all excited about something, curious to learn more, happy, and you get a critical parent response, you’re not going to be thrilled. But you could be responded to as a kid, with excitement and joy, or as a nurturing parent, supportive and reassuring, and like either of those responses.

My teacher pointed at the diagram and said, “If you understand this it means marital bliss. If you don’t, it means divorce.” Which is so true. Communication is ridiculously important.

Another reason this fascinates me is that there’s no wrong way. Rational thinking and communicating is good. Rational has a place. And comforting, caring, nurturing – they have their place. And joy, enthusiasm, being childlike is important. Expressing excitement is necessary. Can you imagine what our lives would be like if we didn’t express enthusiasm, if we didn’t share in our joy, but instead bottled it and kept it to ourselves? That would suck. We feed off of each other’s energy. We build each other up through the excitement we feel about things. The number one reason someone is hired over someone else is their enthusiasm. How does that not speak volumes of its importance?!

What I’ve learned in the first few class periods gets me all that much more interested for what we’re going to learn in the rest of the class.

9.13.2010

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I live in flats. Boots that are flat or ballet flats. My black flats had recently been worn past the point of no return, and I was able to find a very similar pair on sale. Give me two years and I'll wear these down to nothing too.

9.10.2010

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Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake. Possibly the best cheesecake ever. Try it for yourself:

Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
8 tablespoons butter

Filling:
4 1/2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1 2/3 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions:
Combine all the crust ingredients, mix well. Press into and 1 inch up the sides of a greased 10 inch springform pan. Back at 325 degrees for 10 minutes, cool.

In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, mix well. Add the eggs, Bailey's Irish Cream and vanilla, until just combined. Pour into cooled crust. Bake at 325 for 55-65 minutes or until center is almost set. Let cool at room temperature for 1 hour. Refrigerate overnight.

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Bailey was one of my best friend in 3rd grade. And then she moved away, and we were penpals through high school. And then we went to college, and she fell in love. And this is Blaine.

9.09.2010

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Door County is my happy place.

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I fell in love with these boots at Younkers. Where they were $200. Then became reacquainted with them at Macy's, where they were $90. A few sales and coupons later, and they became mine for $66. And I'm still in love.

simpson

Normally I am not a fan of Jessica Simpson's shoe line. They always have a close-but-not-quite feel to me. But these adorable lace up booties? Home run.

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My dad took me out to Nakashima's and I managed to eat my entire meal with chopsticks. When I got home I remembered I own a pair -- maybe I'll have to start using them when I have rice.

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Lately I'm into lipstick. Of all different colors. These ones are MAC's Diva, Vegas Volt, and Rebel. I love them all equally.

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I love lace, so I'm basically thrilled that it's super in this season. I got this lace dress at Forever 21 and wore it the next day. It's an off-the-shoulder type and basically perfect.

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I actually got to spend time outside in the sunshine. In a swimsuit, on a blanket, with a magazine all about fall fashion. It was a good day.

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My cousin Jacob is in the stage of his life where he thinks hugging me is completely undesirable. But when he was a Lambeau for the preseason Colts game, he was so excited to be there and see Peyton Manning on the field that he completely forgot his distaste for hugging his older cousin and threw his entire body weight against me. In a relatively tackle-like manner. I'll take what I can get.