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!

freezer friendly fundamentals

as a college student, i know how hard a good meal can be to come by. even for those lucky enough to have a kitchen at their disposal, sometimes whipping up a great meal is too expensive or time consuming. while i have stocked my kitchen to the best of my abilities, there's always a few ingredients i don't have, and even a simple grocery trip for one dinner can cost over $20. multiply that by 4-5 nights a week, & it's safe to say i come to conclusion to eat out or have a peanut butter sandwich quite often. i'm guilty of having panera more than twice a week sometimes simply out of laziness, which is why having something delicious already made in the freezer is a much better idea.

my mother, the wonderful woman i inherited my domestic tendencies from (although my mom transcends domesticity & has fancied herself into a working, domestic x 1000 juggling-it-all superwoman), suggested we whip up a few freezer friendly entrees that could be easily consumed on my busiest of weeks. having already made meals in the freezer (no, not lean cuisines) is a lot healthier than eating out constantly & saves on time. i took a trip to my parent's place this past weekend, & my mom & i came up with these dishes on saturday night:

• spaghetti sauce - this one is simple. any variant of your favorite homemade sauce can be frozen and thawed to add to a batch of pasta at any time.
• lamb meatballs - throw these in with the spaghetti sauce & you've got a full meal.
  
• southwestern chicken & corn chowder - i've made this recipe a handful of times, & it's amazing! it freezes incredibly well & is awesome for when it's a little chilly out.
• chicken poppyseed casserole - best casserole ever, hands down. freezes great!
  

other great ideas for freezer meals are chicken enchiladas, nearly all of your favorite homemade soups & pasta dishes like baked ziti! if you enjoy making bread, most doughs & starters can be frozen for months at a time, in addition to cookies, baked bread & muffins. i froze my amish friendship bread starter for over 2 months, let it thaw in the fridge & it was definitely still good to go. if you're a sometimes lazy but mostly busy student, like me, or hate spending money eating out, hopefully these ideas are helpful.

what's in my bag?

what's in my bag posts are my favorite, so i decided i needed one for my blog! last year, i did an entire post about my bag, the marc by marc jacobs baby q groovee. if you decide to go back & read that post, keep in mind that i'm totally geeking out in it because i love my bag, probably way more than a healthy woman should. it's incredibly versatile & has served me well!

i'm not the type of girl to just toss everything in my bag & go. it must be organized. bags within a bag. it's a little silly when you think about it, but i much prefer knowing exactly where i keep something as opposed to rummaging for it in the dark. it makes my bag 1000x heavier than it needs to be, so thank goodness for the shoulder strap.






1. marc by marc jacobs wallet - i was afraid to get a white wallet, but i don't regret it. i'm a sucker for anything marc. honestly. have you noticed? so yeah, this was a must.
2. coach wristlet - in here i keep medicine, gum, feminine fun stuff & a random usb drive. yep.
3. makeup bag - contents include mac pressed powder, rose salve, ahava hand cream, 2 mac tinted lip conditioners, visine, lip venom, burt's bees, mini perfumes of viva la juicy, daisy & twirl by kate spade, mac cremesheen glass in fashion whim & joeur lip conditioner.
4. glasses - because being able to see when i drive is awesome & contacts scare me.
5. my keys, of course! inside my mini juicy zip-up is my university ID card for easy access, i need it to swipe into my parking deck on campus.
5. & inside my zipper compartment - fruit snacks! life's essentials, y'all.