Pages

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Trader Joe's Haul

Like many, I love Trader Joe's. The following items are what always seem to make it into my basket when I shop there. I call them The Essentials:

Sweet Chili Sauce


I use this on everything. In particular, with rice, or in a stir-fry, or as a marinade, or a dip...

Soy Chorizo


This is both tasty and cheap! I use it in all sorts of recipes. My favorites are a pasta casserole and in sloppy joes.

Roasted Seaweed Snack
                                                                   Photo: traderjoes.com

This is one of my favorite snacks. It isn't for everyone, but I really enjoy it and seaweed is chock-full of vitamins.

Speculoos Cookie Butter

I can't eat gluten anymore, so this has sadly become a purchase from the past, but I still recommend it to everyone. It is too delicious. My favorite way to eat it was just a spoon and the jar.

Powerberries


What are they? Dark chocolate-covered dried berries. I put up a post before about them being one of my addictions and it's true. Once you start eating them it is difficult to put them down.

I could include more Trader Joe's items that I love, but then the list may never end...


Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Necessary Summer Hair

Hairstyles I prefer for summer involve no heat. It is often too hot to use hairdryers, curling irons, straighteners, etc. I look for cute and simple hairstyles. The following three are my go-to:

Beach waves

-I know that a lot of people use Bumble & Bumble Sea Salt Spray, but I prefer to use John Masters Organics Sea Salt Spray with Lavender. It doesn't make my hair feel as crunchy and the lavender helps moisturize and adds a nice scent. I spray it on when my hair is damp and then scrunch it. I have ridiculously straight hair, yet this still manages to add some volume to it.

-An alternate way is to loosely braid or twist your hair the night before. I get more defined waves this way. I use the sea salt spray, the pin up braids or twists (so I don't get the kinks from hair bands). I like to use slightly damp hair, because if it is too wet, it doesn't dry fully by morning.

Braids! (side, fishtail, Heidi)

- I alternate between a loose messy traditional side braid, a fishtail side braid, or fishtail pigtails (ha). I try to add a little volume to my hair before braiding it, so it does not lay flat. The sea salt spray is useful here. I usually add a floral headband (like the daisy one I mentioned in this post).

- I do two different types of Heidi braids. One way is to braid pigtails and then pin them up (folding the ends under) on top of my head. The second way is to french braid my hair around my head. It's easiest to do the french braid from one side and braid normally on the other side. Start at the crown or the side, work your way around your head, braid to the end of your hair and pin the braid to your head.

Top bun w/ style

-Finally, I often go to the old stand-by (particularly for HOT days) of the top-of-head bun. I give my hair some volume with the sea salt spray and then I usually like to messily wrap the bun and secure it with either a hair band or pins. Some alternate ways to style it include adding a floral headband (my fav), adding a bun bow (which you can make yourself if you don't want to spend $28 on one), or I will sometimes flip my head over and french braid the bottom half of my hair leading up to the bun.

Outside of the trusty ponytail, these are the hairstyles I rock during summertime.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

My Teen Dreams Release an Adult Drink

                                                                              photo: itv.com

Hanson has released a beer called "Mmmhops"(seriously, could the name be any better?? *chandler voice*) and this makes me endlessly happy. I could go into how much I loved them when I was 12, but I will spare you the details.

I'm just grateful that this was not released when I was a minor, because it would have broken my little tween heart that it was something Hanson-related that I could not have (it also would have been questionable for them to release this at that time as well).

I look forward to trying this beer in the future. For now,  I can just follow its twitter account. (yep)

My suggestion for the next release is:

"Where's the Lager?" or "Thinking of Brew"

Oh yeah, and I think they should name their brew house : "I Will Come to Brew"

I could continue with beer names..."A Minute Without Brew", "Look at Brew"... Oh and here's a very failed attempt: "w(rye)d" haha, that one's so bad, but I tried...