spring awakening

blood orange cocktail at hot & hot fish club, going to the fair, hiking to the falls at chewacla state park, tiger blood sno cone (in auburn, boo) & recent ulta buys. finals, studying & enjoy the last few days of my spring semester have taken over my life. see you in may!

one year anniversary : april 27th, 2011

i cannot even express in writing how much has changed in a year. i haven't decided how personal i would like for this post to be, so i am just going to write and see what comes out.

april 27th, 2011 is a day i will always remember. it was a day like any other day. i was out applying for summer jobs. the sky was dark and the traffic was heavy as it was late afternoon. the wind was intense, and i had to shove my application to a newly built greek restaurant under the door so it wouldn't blow away. 30 minutes before the storm hit, i was driving down 15th street listening to the radio. i got a phonecall from the manager of the greek restaurant. he had stopped by to pick up the applications that had been turned in that day.

"they say the weather is going to be bad, you should probably head home. we can set up an interview next week."

had i not decided to heed the warning i heard about weather and give up my job search for the day, i would have been right in the thick of the tornado. my only regret is that i didn't look around me and take in the scenery one last time before i headed back to campus. little did i know, it would be the last time i saw any of it.

to this day, my friends & i still struggle with what happened. i don't like viewing pictures of it, and video is far more frightening. although other towns and communities were devastated by storms last year as well, i feel that everyone has their own personal horror story - none are more terrifying than others, each holds its own devastating weight in someone's heart.

that day, i learned who my true friends were. the people i can count on were there for me and we saw each other to safety. we cried together, held each other and watched it all unfold. i will never forget waking up on april 28th, 2011 and wondering if it had all been a dream.

as i write this a year later, i still can't find a "point" to this post. my intention, i suppose, is to show that there is life after disaster. time heals and the world keeps turning. but nothing is ever forgotten and the pain is a scar now that is still visible. it's still there. april 27th is something i still think about, and always will. i cannot bring myself to say something like, "it happened for a reason" because no, it didn't. there was no rhyme or reason for the lives lost that day. it was a "one hundred year event" - something so colossally incomprehensible that it only happens once a century.

please remember to heed the warnings given by your local weather station. never again will i ignore a siren or an order to find shelter. while i imagined that day would be like any other, it changed my life and the lives of my peers. i am grateful to be alive, i am grateful that the people i love are alive, and i am grateful that my community is coming back. the mcdonalds on 15th street opened yesterday after being completely rebuilt from the ground up - i don't even eat mcdonalds, but i have never been so happy to see one in my life. there is lots of progress still to be made.

"mostly it is loss that teaches us about the worth of things." - arthur schopenhauer

hello april

♥ last weekend i drove to auburn to spend some time with the boyfriend & we saw the hunger games. i meant to read the books for the longest time but i never got around to it - i did know the basic premise though. i enjoyed it, but i guess it was a little more brutal than i expected? a game where children kill each other... yeah, i am not entirely sure what i was expecting it to be like, but i was surprised. it was very well done & i'm still interested in giving the books a shot.

♥ on tuesday, i went shopping for patio furniture for the balcony at my apartment. my roommates & i have lived here for almost a year, & our balcony was totally empty! i picked up 3 chairs & a cute little table. i'm looking to get some decorative pillows too.

♥ i'm definitely no gardener, but i purchased a chocolate mint, strawberry plant & begonias for the balcony. the chocolate mint will make a great garnish for desserts, & the strawberries are more of an experiment, so we'll see if i'm totally lacking in the green thumb department. any tips?!

♥ everybody loves funfetti, right? right. making cupcakes mid week was awesome... & my roommates ate them all. goodbye temptation.

♥ i finally got the naked palette!! this has been on my wishlist forever, & i went back & forth between whether or not it was a worthy purchase. i have a lot of neutral shadows, but i'm really not crazy about any of them, & i've hit pan on most. i went to ulta intending to buy a single shadow, but i got sucked in... & i definitely don't regret it. i cannot wait to experiment with this palette! even shades i wouldn't normally purchase, like gunmetal, look like they'd be a lot of fun to play around with. i also got a cute cupcake bath fizz, just because.

♥ i've got a lot of studying to do this week because i have a huge exam coming up, but other than that, you'll find me poolside or binging on mad men.

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.