Sunday, May 31, 2015

The Weekend | DUMBO

We frequent Brooklyn Bridge Park quite regularly throughout the year. It's only a few subway stops away and has amazing views of the city without having to leave Brooklyn. Today, we went to see the new art installations.

We started off the afternoon with lunch at Shake Shack.

Yum!

We've seen a few different art installations over the years and love the more interactive ones. There were rooms made of fountains of water, crazy shaped neon benches, and a spiral maze of mirrors.

You could stand in the 'rooms' without getting wet. Unless a kid decided to splash you...



All the mirror selfies...


I loved seeing Brooklyn and the trees reflected on the mirrors, looking like a part of the skyline.



It was a super hot, humid day, so we ended our afternoon (perfectly timed before this thunderstorm) with venti green teas from Starbucks. Now, I am curled up on the couch watching Call the Midwifes, listening to the rain. Perfect Sunday.

Hope you had a lovely weekend!


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Birchbox Nail Art | Cupcakes & Cashmere

Now that you've seen what was in my Birchbox + Cupcakes & Cashmere,  I have a fun nail art design inspired by said box. I did this last month with the gorgeous Rifle Paper Co. collab, so I thought I would do it again with another pretty box. It seems like June will have a special box too-it looks like this is turning into a series!

This one is simple tape mani. I used three different nail polish colours that corresponded with the box and a mini tape dispenser to make the crisp lines to mimic the geometric pattern. For my white shade, I used Color Club Mod in Manhattan, and for the dark peach, Julie G Old San Juan. There are two lighter shades of peach on the box, but I didn't have any similar polishes, so I mixed my white & peach for a middle shade and kept it at that. The middle of the box has a gold hexagon-to represent that, I did half of my nail gold using Zoya Ziv on an accent nail. For this mani, I just angled the tape half way diagonally across the nail to have two half triangles. I finished up with a coat of Seche Vite.

I have two tips for tape manis: 1. Make sure your base coat is completely dry. The tape will peel up semi-dry polish. Either do your base coat at night and finish the nail art in the morning, or use a quick dry spray, like Julep Ta Da! Drops, to make sure the polish is dry all the way through. 2. After applying the tape and painting your second colour, peel the tape of right away. Do not wait for the nail polish to dry. Wet polish makes for a crisper line. If it dries even slightly before you peel the tape off, it can remove bigger sections of polish.

Where do you get nail art inspo?
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Saturday, May 30, 2015

Birchbox | May 2015

Cupcakes & Cashmere was the first blog I ever read. It definitely inspired me to start my own blog.  I still read it religiously and was so excited to hear that this month's Birchbox was in collaboration with Emily. Plus, her newest book Cupcakes & Cashmere At Home was released this month too.

Box Breakdown
Coastal Scents Revealed 3 Eyeshadow Quad in Desert Bloom
Harvey Prince Yogini
Marcelle Hydra-C 24H Energizing Hydrating Gel
Smashbox Photo Finish Primer Water
Macadamia Nourishing Moisture Oil Treatment

I really like my box this month. A great mix of make-up, skincare, hair, perfume-it has it all. For my sample selection, I went with the Macadamia Nourishing Moisture Oil Treatment. I love their Healing Oil Spray, so I wanted to try this out. I'm a total eyeshadow addict, so I am excited to try the Coastal Scents Reveal 3 sampler. Plus, I really love the mauve-y shades-you know me... I enjoy Harvey Prince scents. They are usually fresh and easy, and Yogini is just that. I tried the Marcelle Hydra-C Energizing Hydrating Gel this morning and really like it, especially for summer. It applies smoothly and absorbs easily. It's very brightening as well. Finally, I got a sample of Smashbox Photo Finish Primer Water. I have heard goods things about this from a friend. In addition to the usually samples, there was a promo code for a Domino subscription and a discount for their shop. I will definitely be signing up for the magazine. Birchbox has a code to get Emily's Cupcakes & Cashmere At Home free with a $55 purchase, so if you haven't picked it up yet, check that out!

What did you think of this month's BB?

P.S. BB inspired Nail Art will be coming soon!
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Friday, May 29, 2015

A Cozy Bedroom

I love living in Brooklyn, and for the most part, enjoy my teeny apartment. My bedroom is not the largest or brightest spot in the place, but it is one of the most used. Think of all the time spent just on sleeping! Our bed takes up most the space, so I try to keep it as cozy and cute as possible. Soft throws, pretty duvets, and fun pillows are key to making it an inviting space to spend an evening or weekend morning curled up with a good book and a cup of tea. Our decor is very shades of grey. It's always been a colour (or tone..?) that I have loved. And it helps keep things not too feminine for Preston. In college, I did have a seahorse patterned duvet...Probably for the best that things are more neutral.

I feel like I have been wanting to shop more for home items than fashion or beauty of late. As a neutrals girl, I have been loving the site Parachute for some classic bedroom inspiration-shades of gray, cream, and navy. I could see Preston loving the slate shade of this bedding set. And having a blank slate for the bed leaves room for bolder accessories or perhaps a fun throw pillow or two. I can't resist lusting after their cashmere throws. If you are looking to upgrade your bedding, check out this post from Cupcakes & Cashmere-it has tips & info from the founder of Parachute.


What is your bedroom style?

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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Garden State

When we weren't hiking up a storm, we were breathing in the fresh air, watching the birds. Ah, that deck life. We would just sit out there for hours...even nap. After a makeup-less, sweaty, work-out clothes wearing camping experience, I decided to dress up a bit. I felt like I was in a secret garden.

 Bulbasaur!
The dress is from Target. They have so many cute maxi dress options. Gladiators are Vince Camuto Hevelli-I scored them from Marshall's for a huge discount, so I suggest checking out the discount stores first. Nails are Butter London Fruit Machine. Weirdly, it's one of the very few pink polishes I own.

Sunny days outside planting tomatoes. It makes me excited to one day have a garden of my own. Though, I admit I could put in some more effort into my concrete jungle of a backyard. My succulents are still alive! Whoop-whoop. I know, it's only been a month...


City, country, or suburbs?
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Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Photo Diary | Camping at Round Valley, NJ

This past weekend Preston & I were feeling particularly adventurous. I love the city, but every once in awhile, it's nice to take a break. We took advantage of the long weekend by taking a trip to Jersey to visit Preston's grandmother and decided to spend one of our nights camping. We consider ourselves quite the walkers, easily clocking in five miles on a weekend day-just the weekend before this we did the 10K AIDS Walk. We were up to the challenge of 'primitive' camping-hiking to and from the campsite (around 5 miles each way) and to and from water sources (a rusty well about a mile away from our site). However, we came to discover, urban walking is very different.

We started our hike Sunday afternoon. Luckily, we had amazing weather.

Lugging around our belongings for miles of hills and uneven terrain was exhausting. We were basically dying.

But, it was so worth it once we got to our spot. We were in a more wooded site-they have many beach side ones that you can even take a boat to, but it was easy (though thorny) to make our way to the lake. The water was cold, but it was fun to splash our feet around.

I am a pro at marshmallow toasting, if I do say so myself.

My other hidden talent is finding perfect sticks for a variety of purposes, such as the aforementioned marshmallow toasting and as a writing utensil. Preston is the fire master. And he was pretty handy at breaking logs in half with his bare hands ....well, by whacking them against a tree....

On this romantical camping date, we just had to see the sunset. It was rather cloudy but still so pretty.

Time for s'more S'mores. (HEHE I couldn't resist...)

Had to complement the sunset, with a sunrise. A cloudy morning, but a perfect early start to the day and our hike back. 

Our 'I can't hike anymore' faces. We did it! And we saw deer & bunnies, so it was a win. Even though I am so sore, I am looking forward to the next time.

  Is a camping trip on your summer bucket list?

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