When is Easter, again?

I am completely obsessed with Christi from Love from the Oven. She has the most adorable and scrumptious baking ideas! This summer when I have my apartment I will definitely have to try these out. I'm pretty sure Devon would eat up almost any of these in about two minutes. One of my major problems with me drooling over this blog, however, is that I cannot eat half of the goodies she makes for a few weeks! If you gave up chocolate like me (or you crazies who gave up all sweets) for Lent, you are definitely going to be feeling what I'm sayin'. She whips up such delicious desserts for everyday that are actually really simple! Like

Chocolate-covered s'mores pops

Chocolate-dipped and sprinkle-covered cake pops

Cupcake-shaped oreo truffle pops

Oreo brownies with buttercream frosting

Are these not to DIE for?! I'm hungry just looking at them and this week she is making me especially excited for Easter for more reasons than just Jesus and chocolate... but perfect easter baking ideas. Introducing Peep Week...

Yes, that is a Peep cupcake pop (those little containers are too cute!)

Chocolate covered Peep pops

Frosted and sprinkle-dipped Peep cupcakes.

And my favorite.....

Chocolate-dipped Rice Krispie treat Peep pops!

Now, I hate Peeps, so I'd probably rip those off in about two seconds but the rest of those desserts (I suppose minus the chocolate-dipped peep pops) look delicious! How festive! Right after my exams are over, I'm going definitely going to be (attempting) to bake some of these treats! (Probably with ample help from my mother.)

For the recipes and more delicious finds.. check out Love from the Oven!



Follow Me!

Since some of my fans (hehe) didn't now how to follow me, this little tutorial will hopefully make it a little bit easier to figure out! 

Step One

Click "Follow" on the right hand side of my blog (about a quarter of the way down the page)

Step Two

• Sign in with something of these that you've already created and then click "Follow"
• Link an existing address (email) to Google by continuing to step 3

Step Three

Link your account (it literally takes thirty seconds)

Step Four

Follow me!

So if any of you were wondering how to keep up with me, then just follow this simple process that takes about two minutes total and you'll get your Daily Kitsch!





Bye Bye Ghettoberry

For a year and half, I've had my Blackberry Tour 9630..

..which has done me very well but now it's starting to enter into old age and does various annoying things like take five minutes to respond to me clicking a button or reboots randomly every couple of days (or sometimes more frequently). Since the beginning of its decline, I've been lovingly referring to the dilapidating piece o' crap as "ghettoberry" and have been looking at eBay for a while for a replacement. My mother found an awesome deal on her Blackberry on there a few months ago and today I finally won my bidding war and snatched myself a new Blackberry Curve 8530 for just $30 from a wholesale retailer.

Yepp, I'm an eBay master. I actually have an interesting history with eBay. When I was about thirteen, my dad and I decided to sell old computer parts on eBay that were still functional but just were not compatible with any of our new technology. So we got a seller's account and everything. We had some success selling and made a little money but soon that business fizzled. Over the years, I've had bidding wars over Herve Chapelier bags and other random items but almost never won (usually fiscal issues regarding those items...) Despite my lack of finances, I've figured out some tips and also some dangers associated with eBay wars and the seemingly friendly "Buy It Now" option.

• Do not get caught up in trying to get something right away. If you're desperate for something immediately, buy it from another source. Finding the best deals on eBay sometimes take time and careful consideration of the seller, the product and the other bidders.
• "Buy It Now": this may seem very convenient as you do not need to enter any sort of bidding war that needs keeping up with but instead can just click and pay. I've figured out that although it saves time (refer to the first bullet point), it actually will usually end up in you losing money. If you've found the right product, bidding will help keep the price low as to get the best deal.
• If Buy It Now is what you want to do, a common scenario occurs. You see that a product only has a few minutes left and the Buy It Now price is higher than you anticipated spending but you do not want to lose it, do not buy it. If the seller does not make a sale on the product after that time, what are they going to do? Keep it? No! They're going to put it back up for sale and usually at a lower price! Just star the seller or check that search term back later to check back when they do put it back up (it may be a couple of days later, but usually it's almost instantly)
• Do not be tricked by a low current price. eBay will automatically bid for you once you put in your maximum bid, so sometimes people will put a maximum bid of $300 or something but the current bid price shown is $40... misleading right? Unless you're willing to wait around and keep upping your maximum bid, you probably won't be winning that one.
• The "remove item" feature is your friend! A lot of the time, a seller will jack up the shipping prices so that they can compensate for selling an expensive item for a low price. If the shipping price turns out to be like $100 to ship a one pound object, then you should probably remove the item from your queue and try another seller or version of the item.

eBay can be tricky and sometimes you get majorly ripped off. Most of the time, though, if you're savvy, you can get some great deals!

_Resolving Dilemma 1

To keep you updated on my apartment decorating process, I thought I'd share my final bedding picks. :)

I kept with the blue and turquoise palet and decided on the Everyday Percale sheets and shams

along with the Everyday Percale comforter in turquoise (this is the light blue)

The comforter will sit on the end of the bed while a white matelasse functions as the main blanket. I caved on the Barcelona shams as well to accent.

Now the only thing left to find is a monogrammed front pillow. I have found a couple of options

1. The Lilly Pulitzer La-Te-Dah lumbar pillow mongrammed in turquoise blue

2. The Pottery Barn Grand Boudoir Pillow (in blue)

3. The Pottery Barn Linen Embroidered Boudoir Pillow that is classic but I'm not really sure how well it fits into my bedroom.

I'm hoping for a solid blue pillow with blue embroidery. The search continues...

Color Me Spring

Despite picking off my nailpolish usually within twenty-four hours of application, I love nail polish. I try to change my nail polish color at least once every couple of weeks or even more often if I have a special outfit that I want it to match. :)  My absolute favorite brand is Essie. I can always count on Essie to have the most selection of colors in almost every shade imaginable.

How many different shades of red are there??

My favorite season. To coordinate my happiness that the warm weather is back (and right now, the perfect temperatures for a few more weeks), I love to pick out cute, bright shades of nail polish Though I have a bad habit of picking nail polish off sometimes within twenty-four hours of application, I am a sucker for it. Particularly if it comes from Essie. My favorite of their spring colors are

Little bit of lavender!

This turns out to be a beautiful light blue (hi Christine :D)

My favorite!

and in honor of the beautiful cherry blossoms I'm about to see in Washington, DC this weekend, I bought the brightest pink nail polish I could find at J. Crew ...

Perfect for the cherry blossoms, right?! I'm already sporting the color (and trying hard not to pick off the polish..yuck!). You can obviously tell I'm taking my excitement a bit out of hand... coordinating nail polish? Every detail is attended to :)

Speaking of Washington DC... I found the most fitting outfits this weekend while in Orlando with my family and my sister's friend Angela.

My little sister, Lexie, and me on Friday night after dinner

I had a very successful shopping trip at Premium Outlets (definitely the best of the outlet malls) and Mall at Millenia. (The best mall, hands down. They're even getting a Pinkberry!)

 

Now, as you can see, I went a little nuts on the same piece in different colors (ahem, Celosia cardigan, numbers 1 & 8) and the ever-popular chinos (#4 & 9). I now have these chinos in seven colors.. wow! Obviously they are a staple for me. I opted for some longer shorts this time because of my upcoming trip to Israel in July. I need modest shorts that cover the majority of my thigh so I went with the 5" chinos instead of my usual 3" chinos.  Number seven I already own in white (it was too cute to resist in plum!) and ten & six come from Vineyard Vines to celebrate the coming of my favorite season!

Most importantly out of all of these items... I found my cherry blossom outfit. Instead of going with a dress, I decided for a very springy skirt, sweater combination (think numbers 1 and 3). They're both from my favorite J. Crew. I can just imagine strolling with Devon through the cherry blossoms looking perfectly floraly (is that a word?) festive. Then, for dinner out (hopefully our favorite District Chophouse if we can afford it!), I'm going to go with the Double in Brass by The Lake & Stars Chiffon strappy dress (#2) from Urban Outfitters. This look is a little dramatic for me so I'm hoping that I will be able to pull it off with some super cute nude Steve Madden pumps that my mama is lovely enough to overnight to me :)

What do you think? All of this DC talk is making me more and more excited! I love the anticipation of a great vacation! Especially because ....

I miss my far away boyfriend and cannot wait to fill in that gap!  ^^   :)

Stir Crazy

I'm so sorry I've been so delinquent about posting. This week was terrible schoolwork-wise!  As I said before, I had so much to do this week and I'm just happy to have survived it. I have, however, noticed a few unsettling patterns I resort to during a very stressful week that I really need to work out.

1. Bad eating habits. Whenever I'm faced with a jam-packed week with schoolwork, meetings for work, and Zeta events, food tends to be on the back burner. Aka, I indulge in foods that I otherwise would avoid...ahemmm  vvv

   

   Am I a barbarian, or what??!

   Gross, I know. I'm definitely not proud of it. (There's something about cookie dough that just makes everything better, though.) Since I cannot make meals at Zeta when I'm so busy (or do not allot time for me to go) and do not have time to go grocery shopping, that type of easy access junk food from the little convenience store across the street from my dorm hall seem reasonable to be eating for meals. Gross. After the first couple days of this week, I noticed how terribly I was feeling and had a little bit of a lightbulb. Perhaps I'm actually making myself feel worse in addition to the feeling of stress? Hmm... ;) I wasn't alone as my friend Megan was feeling the same way. We were both eating bad food because it was convenient and were feeling the effects of those bad decisions. SO we went to Publix and picked up some healthy alternative "convenience" foods. Some yummy Chobani greek yogurt and Bear Naked granola. (You probably remember, it's my favorite combo!) and a few other high protein, nutrient-rich foods to make it easy to get all of the nutrients I need in the little time I have to eat it. Some examples?
   • Bagels with dijonnaise mustard and some turkey breast (has some healthy fats, protein and on top of that, turkey is a very lean meat!)
   • Slim Fast shakes - no, not to lose weight but it's nice to have as a meal replacement with little time. I can put it in my Turvis tumbler, and I'm off! Lots of protein and other nutrients on the go! (I generally get the big container of powder and buy the milk separately rather than the individual cans.. $$ effective!)
   • Fiber One bars. They're the best! The most tasty healthy granola bars I know of. I'm personally a big fan of the Oats and Chocolate but since it is lent and I gave up chocolate, the Oats and Peanut Butter is a tasty replacement.

 Problem solved!

1. Poor exercise habits. Since during my study week I usually stay up later than usual and get less sleep than other less stressful weeks, I don't waste the little energy that I have on one run or one gym session only to be dead the rest of the day. This problem addresses a couple of issues, actually..... It brings up sleep deprivation. I am definitely an over-studier. I get paranoid about exams and try to learn every single detail of every single concept of the material on the exam plus supplementary material I find in other locations. I usually have so much going on a once that this tactic tends to cause me to lose (quite) a bit of sleep. Five to six hours a night - if that - of sleep? Terrible. As I said in my 9 Things Every College Girls Should Give Up for Lent, all-nighters are so so bad for you.  Because these two problems are such a big problem for me, I have devised my famous to-do lists! Making a schedule of my day to give me regimented time periods to get tasks done and alloting time to exercise and get a full night's sleep made the end of my week a lot more bearable. (Because of my anxiety, I forgot to make a list at the beginning of my week! Obviously I was a mess...) 

3. Going a little insane.

Self-Explanatory...

When I get overstressed, overwhelmed, and overworked, I get really negative. "Why am I an engineering major?!" "How can I get this professor fired for causing so much agony in my life?!" "Who invented the idea of higher education?.. They suck" and other questions, sometimes containing some profanities (not during lent of course..) are all thoughts running through my head. These thoughts cause my optimistic outlook on why I do everything I do to turn into super destructive crazy thoughts. After a few days of extreme sleep deprivation and a way too personal relationship with a library cubicle (hello bringing a toothbrush to the library?), these exhausted ideas run rampid.  One my solutions to this problem is to get my zzzzz's and have that handy dandy to-do list. That way, I can balance my activities a little more and not be so overwhelmed with sole thoughts of schoolwork.

These bad tendencies are reversible and need to be eradicated! Goodbye stress week mania and hello stress management techniques!  Luckily this weekend I'm at the happiest place on earth...

and can destress! Thank goodness for my little sister's spring break and my parents for having excellent timing for a getaway. 

Just an FYI: Things I'm super excited about...

1. My very own Florida Gators are taking on Butler tomorrow in the Elite Eight of March Madness to hopefully secure a spot in the Final Four. Say your prayers for us!  Gator Nation!

2. Just one week until Washington, DC, the cherry blossom festival and Devon! I'm so so so hyped. Tomorrow after relaxing by the pool for a while, my sister, her friend Angela, my parents and I are all going out into Orlando to shop. And I'm sure you know what I'm on the lookout for... the perfect cherry blossom festival dress! And some other little events while I'm up there :)

Have a wonderful weekend!!

The Designing Dilemma

In just a few short weeks, I will be OUT of the dorms and into an apartment. I'm looking very forward to it for many different reasons. I love my cozy (and by cozy I mean tiny) dorm room because it's my little home but it's time for more space. I will finally have a full kitchen and my own bathroom and closet. Not to mention, bedroom! I'm so excited!  The biggest reason I'm excited, though, is I get to design my room! I've never been able to do this before. I mean, I got to pick out some pieces for my dorm room an the bedding and all but this time, I have to get furniture and everything! My mother always gave us a little pick of maybe which bedding or a little bit on the colors but for the most part, she was the designing honcho in our household. This is probably good because if it had been up to me during my tweenage years, I would have probably had a room similar to this

I know, yuck. So now that I think I'm mature enough to have better discretion on what is stylish and sophisticated, I am trying to figure out the total design of my new space! Every room I have ever had has had blue and yellow in it

For example, my dorm room right now...

so I'm trying to stray away from that combination. So the first place I went to find some great bedding is what I consider to be the best bedding source, Garnet Hill. Everything is so so cute and the style that I'm looking for.  My primary thought was to go with a grapefruit color scheme

Solid grapefruit sheets

With a duvet in this grapefruit color

all to create the grapefruit version of

It took every ounce of me to not go for that light blue bedding..

I was pretty sure about this until I came across a bedding that is so unique and beautiful but a twist on what I know I love, blue. This time, however, it would be mixed with turquoise. Love it!!

Now, the quilt is a little pricey. Dilemma. Not only would I have to pay the $268 for the quilt alone, but then the $38 shams and sheets, etc... So, I came  up with a great solution that is a combination of all of my previous design plans as well that I think ends up looking cuter than this picture above.

1. The "Turquoise Stencil" percale sheets

2. Mix and match pillows with two turquoise stencil shams

Except in turquoise, of course!

and my favorite pattern, the basis for all of this...

the Barcelona shams! :)

Great compromise, huh? Now, the only thing left that I am still on the look-out for .... either a dark blue matelasse or a solid dark blue comforter.  I want to try to stay under $150 if I can.  I have looked through The Company Store, Jonathan Adler, Dillards, Horchow, LinenSource, and of course, Garnet Hill. Plus a few other bedding sites here and there. If you know where I can get something of the sort, please please let a girl know!

So thoughts... should I stick with the grapefruit? Is there too many tones of blue for one room to handle? Where in the world can I find a great comforter/ quilt?! 

OH! & P.S. I'm also on the lookout for a great small square pillow that I can get monogrammed for the front! :)