my heart, your skin, this love i'm in

i am on the biggest red hot chili peppers kick of my entire life right now. i've listened to nothing but stadium arcadium for at least a week now! spring break was the week of the 12th & it was a great opportunity to recharge. the weather turned out perfect! i stayed with corey in his condo for the first part of the week. we went to mcguire's in pensacola - which is one of my favorite places on earth! the second part was spent with my friends in a different condo on the beach. i think i started kinda tanning? who knows. also, texans are interesting people.

i spent the weekend of the 17th at my parent's place for the arts & crafts festival in downtown fairhope. i got some gorgeous goats milk soap, then i made a trip to ulta for a full size purity cleanser & other odds & ends. when i got back to tuscaloosa sunday, i found a beautiful shabby chic dish that i now use as a place to put my daily jewelry on my nightstand. it's actually a soapdish, but i thought it worked perfectly!

now that this week is over, i will have a little time to relax & enjoy the spring weather outside. i just wrapped up working on the druid city arts festival in tuscaloosa (which was a huge success!) & now i've got to get down to planning my summer & spring schedules. i just found out that i will graduate on time if i take one class this summer. i can't even believe that.

happy spring!

soft snickerdoodle cookies

after a crazy week of papers and internship insanity, i settled down on sunday & baked for the fist time in a while. these cookies have been on my "to bake" list forever, & i'm glad i finally made them - they're delicious! these are a definite do over, & true to their name, very soft & chewy. the only thing i changed was adding a dash of vanilla extract. recipe courtesy of food.com.

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 & 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• dash of vanilla extract
  
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

preheat the oven to 350 degrees f & begin to chill a baking sheet in the fridge. combine the butter & sugar & beat with an electric mixer until fluffy, then add the eggs & vanilla. whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda & salt in another bowl. add the dry ingredients to the butter & sugar mixture & mix until just combined. chill the dough in the fridge for 10-20 minutes. during this time, combine your sugar & cinnamon with a whisk or fork. grease your baking sheet & form the dough into balls with your hands, then coat them in the sugar mixture. bake for 10-12 minutes.

pre spring break haul + life lately

opi's lincoln park after dark + nicole by opi's rainbow in the skylie (best combo ever), surprise roses from corey, fiji water is love & deliciousness from gigi's cupcakes.

anyway, it's starting to look & feel like spring around here! save for a few days of rain the last week of february, it's been beautiful outside. luckily, i think i'm over my month-long february sickness... yeah, literally, the entire month. it was awful. last week was midterms & i got to the point where i was delirious from studying, so i did the cinnamon challenge. it was both not as bad as i anticipated & dreadfully awful at the same time. do i recommend trying it? yes, everyone should know what it feels like to see a plume of cinnamon erupt from your nose. it builds character.

i went shopping on tuesday for a few spring items & i'm pretty satisfied with the trip. forever21 was no good & i only got 1 top & a necklace, but i ended up with 3 casual dresses from other shops + a belt, & a floral sweatshirt from urban outfitters. i have one more day of class & then i'm on spring break! AH! i'm so excited to spend a week at the beach, i really need it & i hope the weather is good!