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!

china glaze omg

I'm wearing China Glaze OMG right now - it's a really fun holographic polish that I bought a few years ago and have kept in my ever-growing stash of polishes. I want to try nail art (pondering on whether to buy stamps and mini rhinestones/beads right now), so I'm going to attempt a 31 day/manicure challenge I found on Emerald Sparkled!

In thinking about what sort of stuff I want to post about from now on, I've come up with a few categories and silly names to keep me organized. So there's the "nailed" category for nail polish. I'll share the other names with you when I actually getting around to posting about those categories!

random snapshot

Little shoes, big shoes.

B and I have oddly similar taste in "everyday" shoes. And it always makes me smile when I see we're wearing the same pair of shoes. 

I especially love it when we have these Adidas shoes on at the same time. Before, I had to defend my (so-called) stubborn decision to wear these everywhere - which might explain why they are so beat up. B never questions my choices regarding shoes; in fact, he loves it just as much as I do that we own and wear the same shoes. It's a really nice feeling. 

all that change

The second half of last year was rough.  It felt like I was frantically trying to make up for all the mistakes I've made in the past four years of my life.  

Which is just total, complete bullshit. 

It's my life, and we're allowed to make mistakes.  I'm allowed to doubt myself and cry (occasionally) and scream and throw a bitch fit in the privacy of my own home. And after I've exhausted myself crying, I'm allowed to sit on my couch and watch mega-marathons of Phineas & Ferb while I eat disgusting amounts of pasta until my brain is mostly numb (and my pants don't fit, but that's why you have super-stretchy sweatpants). 

And I'm allowed to make my own decisions about where my life goes. 

So I'm back, in a sense.  Things are a little different.  There are some new people in my life.  One person in particular is pretty damn special.  And amazingly, I managed to get through the first semester of business school with just a minimal number of panic attacks and white hairs.  

If you ask me, that's a solid start to an epic 2012. 

Wolfish

Hey all,

I've posted a little widget (designed by Queen Michelle) to the side of the blog in support of Wendy Brandes' latest fundraising efforts to help out awesome blogger Sister Wolf. She's sarcastic and blunt and brilliant!  And she's also had a lot of troubles this year - enough to make you want to reach out and give her a big ol' hug over the Internet.  

So, do you have a 'Team Jacob' or dog-lover friend in your circle? This would be a PERFECT Hanukkah/Christmas gift!  As you can see, I already own the Little Woolf necklace, and I can attest to its amazing quality - as with any Wendy Brandes piece! It's very detailed, and although small, it still has a good, hefty feeling to it.  I always get tons of compliments when I'm wearing this necklace.  Women love, men love it, little kids love it!  

I'm tempted to ask WendyB to make me Little Woolf earrings using two of the little doggies.  You hear that, Miz Brandes?  You make me earrings out of them wolves, and I will pay for the price of two necklaces!   

If you don't like dogs/wolves (shame on you!), you can still get in on the action with the infamous Wendy Brandes Swear Rings.  Tell people to f*ck off in the most fashionable, sassy way possible!  

Thanks,

Esther

Surrounded + Wendy

Top, H&M.  Both rings, Wendy Brandes. 

When the wonderfully talented Mimi Jung of the Brook&Lyn boutique/blog (check out her amazing personal style!) mentioned that her 'Surrounded' collection would be available in black, I was suuuuuuuper stoked.  I've been trying to stock up on more interesting accessories, and I really loved the way the braided rope looked in her original collection featuring white rope.  But me + anything white = inevitable stain action.  And I don't know how the Tide pen works on shiny, braided rope.  So I'm happy that Mimi has added a black collection.  I shall consider this one of several early Birthmas (birthday + Christmas) presents to me, myself, and I.

And we all know my undying love for the fabulous WendyB.  The Asterisk ring is my third purchase (after the Borgia poison ring and the Little Woolf necklace), and definitely not my last.  Ohhhh yes.