thank allah for Groupon!

sometimes I feel like Groupon truly is a lifesaver (or perhaps just a moneysaver)! I'd been really wanting these Silky Jumper Pants from American Apparel and lo and behold... a Groupon pops up that costs $25 in exchange for a $50 gift card! so obviously I bought it immediately. I also bought a few other things to make it to $50 and I love each of them. I'm so excited to see all the different outfits I can make with these:

  

aren't they fabulous? I also got the Twist Scarf in "Lieutenant" and I have a great Ralph Lauren jacket that will match it perfectly. below the headscarf is pictured the pencil case that I ordered and that I plan on using to store my make-up brushes on the go! I'm a bit of a cosmetics junkie and am in dire need of a separate pouch just for my brushes.

I'd certainly say this was a great haul (especially for only $26)! and it's scheduled to be delivered the same day two of my favorite shows premiere their new seasons! is anyone else way too excited for the Girls premiere? I follow Lena Dunham on almost every social network and she is hilarious. how about Californication? feel free to leave comments!
enjoy your weekend!

p.s. - Groupon came to the rescue again with a great deal for a Chinese/Indian fusion restaurant in Midtown NYC. now the girls and I will be able to eat for relatively cheap when we head up on January 22nd for our Sex and the City tour!

new year's resolutions

welcome back and happy new year! hopefully everyone's holiday was just as great (yet not as short) as mine. i got a boatload of things that I'm ecstatic about - a sandwich grill, a wok, a griddle, a blender, a down comforter, tons of French movies - and spent time with my family and my three fabulous best friends. something we discussed while I was home was, of course, new year's resolutions. this is actually the first year that I've paid any mind to them. I've always thought them to be sort of silly. can't you make a "resolution" at any time of the year? needless to say, yes - but it's proven that measurable short-term goals are more effective, and a new year certainly feels like a clean slate! here goes:

resolution number 1: start immersing myself in the education that I'm paying for. i always find myself blowing things off and finding reasons not to go to class - I'm tired, I'm hungry, it won't matter. why do I pay a tuition that's going to leave me in debt valued at more than my house if I'm not going to act like I want to be here? from now on, I'm going to be a model student. if you know me personally, this is laughable... but a new year is a perfect time to kick it into high gear!

resolution number 2: use my things or get rid of them. a clutter free home is the way to a clutter free mind!

resolution number 3: start being on time for things. when it comes to meeting with my friends, I find myself getting there early. but work? couldn't get there on time if my life depended on it. it's got to go.

resolution number 4: reduce, reuse, recycle! I really, really hate seeing paper, cardboard and plastic get thrown in the trash but unfortunately I see it daily. I work for a fairly large corporation and they waste thousands of sheets of paper a day just because people don't want to walk to the recycling bin on the other side of the room. i'm going to start walking - and separating everything at home, too.

resolution number 5: cook more - buy less! Matt and I always find ourselves eating out and complaining afterwards about the (inevitable) guilt of having spent that money unnecessarily. and half the time, there's already food in the fridge! I plan to make a conscious effort to cook what's in my fridge and stop throwing my money at places like Chipotle. I've also decided to stop giving myself a label when it comes to my diet. I don't need to consider myself a vegetarian to eat well. processed food is everywhere - surely not just in the meat industry - but if I just think before I eat, eating well should be a piece of cake (lucky for my body weight, I don't much like cake)!

resolution number 6: drink 8+ cups of water a day! according to some research I've done, the whole "8 bottles of water a day keeps the doctor away" thing is more of an estimation. in fact, it is recommended that people drink half of their body weight in ounces of water a day. but for me, that will still add up to be about 8 8-ounce cups of water a day. not bad at all!

resolution number 7: get rid of any and all negativity in my life. this includes people, things, attitudes, beliefs, etc. I've been on this positivity kick for a while and, seriously, it works. things just go right when you're in that mindset. I try to tell my friends about it so often that it comes off as preaching, so I've given up a bit, but I really swear by living a negativity-free lifestyle. I've gotten so good at turning a cheek to a negative situation, avoiding drama and creating friendly environments. I've been going to yoga, reading about Ayurveda,  complimenting people more often, thinking about the tone in which I say critical things, and just passing on good vibes in general. it sounds ridiculous until you try it, but your quality of life will dramatically increase. take my word for it.

resolution number 8: start reading for pleasure again. the girls and I always joke about starting our own "book club", but I'm really going to make it happen (and by club, I mean four girls passing around awesome books to one another). we've actually already agreed on the first round! we're each going to begin reading one Michael Pollan book and pass it on when we're finished. we've all agreed on this resolution and the fact that we have all been slacking on reading for pleasure and soaking up real knowledge as opposed to the garbage on television (this is not to say I don't love the garbage on television - but sometimes you just need a little raw information).
note: if you've never read anything by Michael Pollan, do yourself a favor. if you're anything like me, you'll be almost upset you didn't know some of this stuff your whole life. he does a fabulous job of putting food and food culture in perspective. and not only is he an established author, but he's made a few documentaries you may have heard of, too! Michael Pollan is the mastermind behind both Food, Inc. and The Botany of Desire.

resolution number 9: start to sell my crafts! I love to DIY. that's actually why I started blogging - I fell in love with all the DIY blogs I follow! they make it seem so easy and exciting. this year I want to really start getting into my crafts and making enough to sell them! I'll probably open an Etsy store within the next few months and start showcasing it. something I've been really inspired to do recently is open a paperie. I love stationary and everything that goes along with it (you should see my stamp collection) and I think it would be a great way to stay inspired by the arts and make some money on the side.

resolution number 10: take more trips! I am borderline obsessive about traveling - especially internationally. this is going to be my year. I will finally make it out of this country if it kills me! since I started at the job I'm at now, I've been saving every week for a huge Europe trip - I want... need... to see it all. but for this resolution, traveling inside of the US border will suffice. I've actually already begun planning some small trips! so far, the girls and I will be in NYC for a day in January and February (we have tickets to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart!) and are taking a trip to Savannah, GA for St. Patrick's Day to stay with a friend. we're also taking a road trip to Texas (with a few stops in between) with our entire group of friends! it should end up being about 20 of us. that is going to be crazy by every definition of the word.

there's my list! hopefully it inspires you to make some changes, too. becoming a more perfect version of yourself is always possible!

i sincerely hope that my millions of followers are able to forgive me for taking this short hiatus. truthfully, I wasn't satisfied with my writing and so got fed up and quit! but as i don't consider myself a quitter, here i am. hopefully this time around i'll have more numerous and interesting things to divulge to you - and maybe you'll even like it.

Today I had a job interview in a Philadelphia suburb known as Newtown, PA. The interview was at a small accounting firm that I immediately fell in love with, and hopefully will hear back from in a matter of days! I left Philadelphia rather early though, and found myself wandering around the town for about an hour before I had to meet with the firm's partners. What seemed like a dreary little town turned out to be absolutely adorable!

Among the cigar shops, restaurants and boutiques, I ran into a little shop called "The Zebra Striped Whale". Their claim to fame was being an ice cream/coffee shop. They certainly had more to offer than just the two though - they had candy dispensers, fruit smoothies, chocolate covered pretzels (as well as espresso beans, gummy bears and almost anything else imaginable), and crepes! I ordered a crepe known as the "Elvis Crepe" that consisted of sliced bananas, peanut butter, chocolate sauce and peanuts, and to drink I had their own special Yerba Matte "lat-tea". Everything I saw and ate was incredible, and if I (hopefully) get the entry level accountant position, I'll have to stop myself from eating there every day at lunch! Here are a few the pictures I snapped inside the Zebra Striped Whale:

The food was delicious, the staff was incredible, and the prices were reasonable! I will definitely be returning next time I'm in the area!

bonjour!

I don't usually use my blog to review products, but I recently used a cleanser and found it to be highly impressive (and since I haven't yet decided on all the aspects of my life to focus on writing about, why not give product reviews a go? If you've ever seen my make-up bags, it's not hard to tell I have an addiction). I got it as a free sample with a purchase from Sephora and tossed it in my make-up box without a glance. But late last night I ran out of my usual face wash (St. Ives Green Tea Scrub... I swear by it!) and dug around for something new to use. And surprisingly enough, it turned out to be fantastic!

The brand is CLARINS, and the product is One-Step Gentle Exfoliating Cleanser. The directions say to massage onto damp skin using circular motions, and so I did... and the results were beautiful. It was almost literally a breath of fresh air for my face. My skin just felt so clean. The cleanser has a wonderful citrus scent that definitely adds to the freshness factor. I've only used the product twice and I already know I'm hooked.

Luckily, unlike many of Sephora's products, I don't find this cleanser to be too out of my price range. It sells for $35 on sephora.com, and although it seems pricey for a face wash, I've certainly seen much worse. Your face is the first thing people see - make sure it looks fabulous!

CLARINS One-Step Gentle Exfoliating Facial Cleanser

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting the lead singer of Circa Survive, Anthony Green! Mc won studio passes (I swear I don't know anyone with better luck than this girl) and brought me along! We were a part of a small group of people watching the band perform a few songs off of their new album that's being released soon. Radio 104.5 took photos of us with the band and they'll be released shortly, so check back for us posing with the five kick-ass members!

Meanwhile, here are some mediocre pictures I got from their set:

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working the runway

Hey everyone! This is admittedly my most exciting blog post yet, but I'll start with a little background info.

I get asked relatively often, "Why Drexel?" and the easy answer is, of course, "co-op" (which, by the way, I just began interviewing for and am very excited to find out where I'll end up!). But another huge advantage of attending Drexel is the immaculate amount of opportunities that are, well... thrown at me on a daily basis.

The most recent of these opportunities was a chance to volunteer as a dresser at Drexel's fashion show! Now, I know, a college fashion show isn't exactly a rarity, but what's special about this particular show is that it was partnered with URBN, Inc, the umbrella company for Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, Terrain and one more beautiful store. The show took place at their headquarters here in Philadelphia and it was nothing less than extravagant.

I had to attend the initiation of the new members Alpha Sigma Alpha in the morning (congrats!), but that afternoon I headed over to the Navy Yard for one of the best experiences of my life. My model's name was Jordan and she was spectacular. As a dresser, I was in charge of... can you guess? Dressing her! It seems like a pretty easy task until she walks off the runway with 45 seconds until she needs to be strutting across it again. This left me with essentially a half of a minute to strip her of her entire outfit and put her in the correct outfit for the next collection seamlessly. She should have on the right clothes, accessories, shoes and have a pin-straight ponytail, regardless of whether or not I was shoving her head through a turtleneck.

Of course my partner in crime was there, too, dressing her own model, so peep her blog to see some fabulous pictures and her own description of our day!