happy birthday ju !

happy happy  birthday to my

beautiful best friend & sister , julia .

I love you so much and wish 

I could be in connecticut with you

to celebrate ! 

stylemint

it's nearly impossible to find a great tee shirt 

at a decent price

that fits well in all the right places , is a 

soft ( but not too soft ) fabric , but yet still looks polished &

put together .

 my favorite tee shirt of all time

is from j crew - it's a white v neck boyfriend tee . 

I love it because it's not too snug but not

too big . do you know what I mean ?

It's perfect ... & I've literally worn it so much

there are holes in the shirt ! not okay but I still wear it ...

I even wore it out last night ( guilty ) .

I kept hearing about stylemint - a website curated

by mary kate & ashley that bases all outfits around tees .

they even offer design tips on how to style the pieces - 

& with an average price of $ 30 per tee , it's hard not to 

want every one .

via stylemint

reverse french manicure

 I have officially become addicted to the

gel manicure . I love that the color doesn't chip

for at least two weeks & that bubble-looking 

gloss I can never seem to do painting my nails at home
that the gel mani provides .

three gel manicures in a row later , my nails

are somewhat back to normal ( only negative

side effect of the gel : my nails are now thin & brittle ) .

while I have the chance to experiment with nail polish

before I get my next gel manicure treatment , I decided

to play around with the idea of a reverse french manicure :

[ essie : mucci gucci pucci ]

[ 1st : use a white polish to paint the top portion of

nail white - shape / sloppiness does not matter ]

[ 2nd : using second color ( mucci gucci pucci ) , paint 

over half of white section & bottom of nail ]

[ 3rd : many coats later ... ]

[ finished product - I think it's pretty darn cute ! ]

bieber fever

if you didn't already have justin bieber / selena gomez /

ashley tisdale fever ...

you will now .

[ p . s . bieber's the one in the beanie ]

crouton encrusted chicken fingers & thai chili dipping sauce

the food network website is always

full of ideas for a next meal , though I find

I rarely end up utilizing all the recipes from the site .

this recipe by sandra lee was an exception .

I was one of those kids that constantly ordered

chicken fingers no matter how nice of a restaurant

my parents took me to , so making chicken fingers 

as an adult provides a feeling of nostalgia . 

though sandra's orange bbq sauce sounded delicious ,

joey & I opted to make our own thai chili sauce instead ,

as we have been wanting to make it for some time now .

[ we had every ingredient at home for the thai chili sauce -

from the rice vinegar to the chili flakes that came right 

out of my dads garden ! ]

walnut & cinnamon swirl coffee loaf

tomorrow I leave for florida & 

couldn't be more excited to spend some

quality time with my family .

since joey is arriving a couple 

days after me , I wanted to make sure

he had some snacks in the refrigerator 

for when he's off to work 

( read : an excuse for me to bake )

it looks like another brief hiatus is 

in store for the blog - but check back 

soon as I may be able to sneak a post in
while I'm in west palm beach .

I used this recipe , but made loafs rather than a cake & 

added silvered almonds & chocolate

chips on top 

p.s. - check out my friend's blog - http://maralaroux.squarespace.com

for a hilarious take on my blog & other highly entertaining posts

about her fabulous life !