little + me

J eating an oyster for the first time!

And his reaction when we told him oysters are aphrodisiacs! 

Little bruzza came to visit me in Boston at the beginning of August! He brought his uber-kawaii girlfriend, too! It was a grand ol' time. We did lots of touristy things. And we shopped a lot, too. Which was fine by me. I finally had a chance to replace some of my ratty cotton t-shirts. It's been ridiculously hot in the New England area this summer. And while I would prefer to run around naked, social norms dictate that I wear clothing.

In front of the Boston Public Library

We are so obviously related!

Rawr. 

Yeah, I miss Boston a lot. I definitely feel like I'm home when I'm there.

And since I guess this is sort of a fashion-ish blog, I should tell you that I'm wearing American Eagle cutoffs, silver glitter Toms shoes and a silk blouse from NastyGal in that one photo. Oh, and Ray-Ban Clubmaster sunglasses. And I'm laughing at my brother.

the beach house

Hello there, sailor!

The happiest place in the world is the beach house! B and I went to Scituate (in Massachusetts) last weekend, and had a wonderfully relaxing time. We're going back this weekend, too! It's the best place to unwind after a long work week, and I'm so so so so grateful to B's family that they are letting us stay there a few times over the summer. My summer got infinitely better, wouldn't you say?

Best view in the world...!

Love these cups!

Goofing around on the rocks 

Of course, it wouldn't be summer without some good summer beer! B and I try not to be too snotty about booze, but it's a lot more fun to get tipsy/drunk when it tastes good. Who am I kidding... we're total snots.

amy's bridal shower!

One of my best friends from graduate school is getting married oh-so-soon (towards the end of August), and I was so so so happy to be invited to the festivities! Her bridal shower was on Saturday at Diamond Hill Vineyard in Rhode Island, so obviously I was there. Me + grape juice = awesomeness. Okay, not really. I got to try some of Diamond Hill's fantastic cranberry wine with brunch, and I even won a small prize during bridal shower bingo! Woot woot!

Diamond Hill is pretty well-known in the area for their fruit wines. So I brought home a bottle of peach wine and another one of berry wine. Hooray! And while I wasn't "tasting" copious amounts of cranberry wine, I took some pictures! 

Gorgeous flowers around the party area!

My lucky bingo board!

Adorable shower favors - wine, naturally!

twenty-one

J and Momma. You can see my reflection in the glass!

I had to make an impromptu trip to Charlotte last weekend for another reason, but my trip was perfectly timed, because my little brother turned 21 on the 7th! Yeesh, I'm getting old. I took my family out to Nikko in Charlotte for J's birthday dinner. He's not much of a partier (or a drinker), so there was no big 21st birthday booze fest. I bought him a few drinks at dinner, though. I'm such a nice sister... and such a good influence, too!

Happy birthday, bruzza!

J'S FIRST LEGAL DRINK... was a fruity martini. 

Delicious birthday dinner!

My silly family - J looks a lot like my dad, huh?

Side note: yes, there were photos of us all together, but I look absolutely atrocious in all of them - either tired, fat, or tired AND fat - it's been a rough week and a half. I'll be on back on track soon, though! Zumba + yoga + half-marathon training should do the trick!

fourth of july, 2012

B manning the grill! 

Steaks and corn!

Our fantastic apartment complex's pool!

My favorite beer!

This year's 4th of July celebration was decidedly low-key for us here in Connecticut. Me, B, and one of our friends grilled up some steak (and veggies!), drank some (Canadian) beers, and hung out by the pool for a while before going to see the movie Ted. Very American of us, don't you think? We live in a complex with an awesome outdoor pool and grills, and we've been taking full advantage of it since we moved in.

Anyway, that's all for now!

I'm not sure why, but these guys are in my friend's car. Buckled in and everything.

run free

B and I registered for the Boston Half-Marathon in October! We're running and raising funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. My major goal is to finish the 13.1 miles, so I started training last week.

During my first training run, my Asics running shoes started to feel really heavy, and I had shooting pains up my legs after just one mile. Not good. I did some research and then went and tried on a pair of Nike Free running shoes at the local Finish Line, and it is the best decision I've made in a while. They're super-light, and perfect for my feet.

And bonus points for the integrated tongue design - now I don't have to worry about the silly things shifting all the way to the side of my feet. Oh, and I didn't get paid by Nike to write any of this. Or by Finish Line, for that matter. Just so you know.

B and I each got a pair in different colors, so we can match. His are the comically large ones, naturally. Sometimes I think we're just too silly for words.

panda balls

During my recent trip to Japan, I brought home an onigiri (rice ball) mold. It's shaped like a panda - how could I possibly resist?! I plopped down the 1000yen for it without even thinking.

I finally put it to the test a few days ago when B and I decided to make our own onigiri. We used a mix of canned tuna, mayo and hot sauce for the filling to try and replicate the onigiri I had in Tokyo. They actually turned out pretty well! The only thing we were missing was nori (seaweed). My panda mold came with a little hole punch-like thing that you can use to cut the seaweed into panda faces. Still, the panda balls were so cute, and so much fun to eat.

B and a panda rice ball.

B made regular rice balls, because he didn't want to wait for the pandas. But then he ate the pandas I made anyway. Ha!

coventry

Today, B and I went to Coventry Farmers' Market! It was definitely worth the visit, and we came back loaded up with so many fresh goodies for our ongoing kitchen experiments. I would recommend checking it out if you live in the New England area.

Alpacas!

Our first experiment was a kale chip recipe! Perfect munchies for an episode of 'Game of Thrones' - I just got B into the series, and we're working through the first season.

beantown!

Sometimes being a tourist in your own city is fun! A friend came to visit us at our temporary residence in Connecticut, and we made a day trip over to Boston. The weather was fabulous until right as we were getting ready to leave. Maybe Boston was sad that we were leaving! 

post-travel blues

My new friend from Thailand!

The last six weeks of my life were completely crazy due to:

1. Finishing up my first year of business school. 
2. Learning how to use my new camera!!!
3. Taking a month-long trip all over Asia.
4. Catching an insane flu/cold and being sick for three solid days right after setting foot in Boston.
5. Moving to Connecticut for my new internship. 
6. Getting the most random eye infection (yuck). 
7. Starting my new internship in two days (yikes!). 

I think I'm finally ready to really start blogging and taking photos of myself again. I feel it'll be a good way to deal with some of my strange issues that shouldn't be taking us so much space in my brain. 

The Shanghai skyline

seoul, korea

Somewhere in between finals week and packing for my "grand tour" of Asia, I forgot to update this blog. Wherps. I was in Korea for eight days; I'm in Phuket now with B and a few other friends! Anyway, thought I'd share some of my photos from my adventures in Korea (aka the motherland). The little dog is my cousin's, and his name is Michi. Dapper little fellow, no?

I'll be stopping in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo before eventually making my way back to Boston. Ah, the broke jet-setter's life for me.

challenge day two

I'm behind, as expected. So here's the day 2 challenge - orange nails! I was so excited about taking pictures with my new camera that I forgot to clean up the manicure. Whoops. I added stars to my thumb. The manicure was inspired by Flyers colors for the game today! Except they lost... womp womp. I guess they're saving their energy for the playoffs that start next week!

These little stars are my favorites to add to manicures! I need to be careful not to use all of them too quickly! I purchased them from Born Pretty. They have a ton of nail art tools - stamping plates, gems... everything you might possibly need. 

That's it for now!

the hungry asian strawberry

The first challenge is red nails! I did one layer of a base coat (OPI Start to Finish), one layer of China Glaze Poinsettia, then one layer of The Hungry Asian Strawberry. It's such a fun red polish with really fine black glitter to mimic its namesake fruit. The lovely Kae from The Hungry Asian makes her own nail polishes! She has better swatches, too, so go check her blog. My camera refused to photograph the glitter for some reason, so I had to use my iPhone... not that it's much better!

Here's the whole schedule, if you'd like to do it as well!

I realize the challenge is supposed to be completed in 31 days, but I just don't have the time (or patience) to do a new nail color or design each day. I'm going to bend the rules a bit and do the 31 manicures at a snail's my own pace.

sun scones

I made these scones a while ago, but I still wanted to share them! I like using a cookie cutter to make different shapes. I use this recipe from epicurious, but I've tweaked it quite a bit. You'll need:

3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, diced

1/2 cup (or more) chilled whole milk

Position rack in top third of oven; preheat to 375°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 cup sugar in large bowl. Add chilled butter; using fingertips, rub in until coarse meal forms. Add 1/2 cup of whole milk. Toss with fork until dough comes together in moist clumps, adding more half and half if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Press out each half on floured surface roughly 1-inch-high. Use cookie cutter of choice or cut traditional rounds or wegdes. Transfer to baking sheet.

Bake scones until golden and tester comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Scones are naturally a little bit dry and crumbly, so people usually pair them with clotted cream and jam or honey. I like to make a mascarpone cream to go with it. You just need three ingredients (1 cup mascarpone cheese, 1/3 cup chilled heavy cream and a 1/4 cup sugar) and a whisk or an electric mixer!