Sangria is one of the most amazing things. There is something summery and romantic about it to me, and I really adore sangria flavored things. Which led me to believe freezing it and recreating my summery berry sangria in sorbet form would be brilliant. Not to toot my own horn, but it was. This is so berry-licious and yummy. I've taken to eating it on the porch in the random April 80 degree weather here in Pennsylvania.

 

I'm about the only person I know who drags a tripod and manekineko to the middle of a city (albeit a tiny one) to take photos of themselves. I'm actually really happy I'm able to do these things. This outfit was inspired by me staring at my Hello Kitty maneki-neko cat bank and deciding I was going to dress like it. Maneki-nekos, or lucky cats, are Japanese figures thought to bring good luck to the owner. Many times they come in different colors for luck in specific things, but white is usually most common. I have a small collection of maneki-neko things - from a solar powered one that waves at me to just a really fat gold one. These things just make me immensely happy and might bring me luck, so why not dress like one?

sweater :: target (similar) remixed

coat :: ann taylor outlet remixed

dress :: c/o eshakti remixed

flats :: target

belt :: modcloth

bag :: emma fox via nordstrom rack remixed

necklace :: crave jewelry design remixed

rings :: sanrio & c/o oasap remixed

Google Reader is going away! Stay in touch and please follow via one of these ways instead!

BLOGLOVIN' // FEEDBURNER

I swear, EVERY city in Pennsylvania is bigger than the one I reside in. Jason and I decided to visit Spring House taproom in order to try the Robot Surf Factory beer (pineapple pale ale) but I ended up not loving it it in the end. We ventured around the city, stumbled across my dream apartment, and now I'm stuck on the idea of moving, again. We used to move fairly often - about once a year - and I get a bit stir crazy in the same place for awhile. I never meant to stay in this apartment too long, and I'm surprised I'm here still. I'm ready to move somewhere new, but I am also unable to get the drive to pay more for rent or any sort of vehicle to move things in. Sometimes owning two sub-compact cars becomes an issue - but gotta love our citrus colored tiny vehicles in the city at the same time.

This dress is yet another adorable thing from Modcloth I just had to have. I saw it pop up on the site and fell in love. It's going to become a spring staple, I'm sure. The adorable colors, cut, and how incredibly happy I am whever I see the print just makes it a great piece.

coat :: rachel by rachel roy remixed
cardigan :: target remixed

martha's air of adorable dress :: modcloth

glitter flats :: steve madden (similar) remixed

purse :: botkier via nordstrom rack (similar)

necklace :: target remixed
ring :: kiel mead forget me knot remixed
sunnies :: ray ban remixed

It wasn't until I was recounting the story of these photos with a friend that I realized it's really quite weird to put my dog in a cape. But -if you want something cute for your dog, a cape is basically a glorified bandana to them. There are no armholes or anything fussy - except the bow which Raynor obviously stepped on. Here's a little DIY on how to turn some simple felt into a puppy cape.

One thing I love about having Jason home is the ability to decide on a whim to go out on a date night and random Target trip just because. After a run in the not-quite-rain, we decided to treat ourselves to Asian food and chocolates at Target. The weather is beginning to warm up a bit, but it's quite nippy so a scarf and jacket are really necessary, especially with the wind. This jersey scarf from Skip N Whistle has been perfect to wear with everything - I've been wearing it to work really often to keep warm. Plus, it's got a vintage rolliflex printed on it, perfect for the photographer in me. They have a lot of other prints - from cats to astronauts - that are really fun. You can check them out here.

jacket :: target remixed

tee :: urban outfitters remixed

camera scarf :: c/o skip & whistle

take the a line skirt :: modcloth

hydrangea heels :: seychelles

mad hatter tote :: baby lit via fab.com

cat ears ring :: c/o oasap remixed

So first - happy national pet day! Go give your pets an extra hug and a special treat today! Today, I'm excited to share my special way of memorializing my pets. Obviously, I'm huge on photography. Since we got our first little furry pet together in 2008, we've been snapping away photos of the animals in our lives. I'm happy to have so many memories of my pets - from videos of my guinea pigs nomming away on carrots to large prints of Raynor and Teemo above my bed.

On St. Patrick's Day, my guinea pig Pichu passed, after nearly 5 years of life with us. I went back through the photos of him that I've dumped onto the internet since 2005, happy that I had the images of him when he could fit into a small glass and was tiny. It really made me realize how important to me it is that I continue to keep these memories of my pets. When Shutterfly contacted me about sharing ways to celebrate National Pet Day with photo memories, I realized I had very few in print of Raynor and Teemo. Sure, I've got loads of photos floating on the web, but not much else. Tons of photos of Jason and I hang around the house, we even have two photo books of our own adventures, but the pups? Nada.

If you are interested in actually having a photo session with your dog like I so often seem to do, I have some tips I wrote up back in February you can revisit here. You don't have to have a fancy camera to take these photos either - a lot of my favorites of Raynor and Teemo are taken with a point and shoot camera - and they print just like the ones taken with my large camera! Here's a page of my photobook from Shutterfly with images taken by both my point and shoot and DSLR - can you tell which camera took which photo?

Even Instagram or cell phone photos these day can be easily turned into something. These coasters would be perfect as a project to turn your Instagram photos into. You can simply login into your Instagram account with Shutterfly and the images are all ready for you to use!

I chose to make a photo book of Teemo and Raynor. Shutterfly makes it incredibly easy to upload your files - even from Facebook or Instagram - and then automatically turn it into a book. I chose the custom path but also to have the photos automatically inserted and organized by date. I changed a few things around, added text, and voila! Photobook while watching a TV show. They have a variety of styles to choose from, and I personally fell for the chalkboard chic story book style. I almost went with the artist's portfolio or the creative type styles, and it took me awhile of playing around to decide which worked best. You can switch styles and layouts easily in the web interface, which is quite simple to use, yet allows you a lot of control.

There are a lot of styles of photo books available - hard cover or soft cover, different sizes, etc. I chose a 8.5" x 11" because it fit well between our large wedding album and smaller honeymoon album. I'm personally not a fan of lay flat pages just because I like how pages in books lay - hence the detail of my lovely pages in the photo book.

The book, along with my coasters and a note pad all customized with Teemo and Raynor's faces, came quickly. Everything was as expected - I've ordered from Shutterfly before to get a mousepad as well as custom calendars, and I'm always happy with their print quality. And I'm picky. They have so many custom photo gift to choose from - I personally love the idea of a blanket with one of the pups on it as I think animals work on blankets quite well (#everythingwithanimals, right?)

Do you have many printed memories of your pets around the home? Tell me, what would you order from Shutterfly in the comments? Use code SHIP30 to get free shipping on orders over 30 dollars!

Products in this post were provided by Shutterfly. This indicates I received a product in exchange for review, although the opinions and ideas expressed are purely my own. For more information - read the disclosure of this blog.

This is the big one! And therefore, this post is broken into two. Here are my basic tips, kind of preliminary pep-talk post of how to take your own outfit photos. Which, by the way, is even harder when you have to direct your husband on how to use your Android's camera because he didn't charge his iPhone WHILE taking your outfit photos! Let's get into this!

When I was 18, my mom and I went to Paris together after I graduated from high school. It was an amazing trip - I bought my first pair of Marc Jacobs flats (which I felt so fancy for ordering my size in a department store in French) and ate delicious foods. But one of the best memories is going to the hotel lounge and ordering a cocktail. Their cocktail menu was full of drinks named after the elemental table, all in French. I took to ordering the 'Zinc', which is kind of unrelated to the element, but a muddled concoction of lime and strawberry and rum. I kept getting them nearly nightly, then returning to the states where kids my age drank cheap beer. See now why I never drank in college? Having my first beverages at a fancy bar in Paris really didn't help there, but I'm quite happy I ended up this way. So here's my first and favorite drink.