some of my favorites...

So some of my new favorites are Eve Lom Cleanser, its a great product, sometimes I get bad break outs and it really cleans the face well. It comes with a cloth and you wash your face with hot water, which opens your pores, and wipe away the face cleanser with the cloth, and then at the end with cold water, that seals up your pores! I really love it! 

My other favorite is Guerlain Midnight Secret, it's great! It is a late night recovery treatment and it's a good product, I think too put on every night, but if you feel you go out a lot and don't treat your face good this really replenishes it! I really do wake up and think my face looks good... or as good as it can!

An the last favorite that I'm sure a lot of people use is a good tailor! 

I never tried one before and if something didn't fit that well, I'd wear it and not feel good in it our never wear it. So I recently decided to see if a tailor could fix a cute pair of pants that I got, that could be taken in in a few places. And it's genius! The pants turned out great, and now I take anything to a tailor that doesn't fit exactly the way I want it to. And most times its only $15 bucks, depends on fabric and how much your tailoring. I would try out a local place, the best is always to go with a good recommendation, but I just found a random place and I've been going back ever since! 

a new bag please!

The Jordie

The Ginger

 The Bunny

The Camille

The Brit

The Barbie

Nikki the designer!

These bags are not only cute they are designed by are really good friend of mine.  This is her first line of bags and they are so awesome! There is such a variety with different styles, colors and the fabric and quality is great! She has all different sizes, and perfect size one for going out, the camille, or for us mom's who want to wear a cute bag and be able to put a diaper or two in it, I'd choose the Ginger. I would check them out I know she put a lot of time and effort into the design and quality of these bags. Check them out at Donatienne Designs!

Zucchini Cupcakes.... mmmmmm

ZUCCHINI SPICED CUPCAKES

3 cups all purposed flour 

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder 

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

2 cups packed light-brown sugar

3 cups packed grated zucchini (about 1 1/2 zucchini)

1 cup walnuts ( about 3 oz. toasted and chopped)

Preheat oven to 350. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.  In a another bowl, whisk together oil, eggs, vanilla, and zest until well blended; whisk in brown sugar until smooth. Stir in zucchini, then add flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in walnuts.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three- quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until you stick a toothpick in and it comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. 

To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting.  Refrigerate up to 3 days in airtight container; bring to room temp before serving! 

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, room temp

12 ounces cream cheese, room temp

1 pound (4 cups) confectioners sugar, sifted 

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

With an electric mixer on medium - high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy, 2-3 minutes.  Reduce speed to low. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and then vanilla, and mix until smooth. 

Thank you Martha Stewart!

PINTEREST!

This is a fun website that ultimately lets you collage things you like! You can PIN things you like from certain websites and things you see that maybe you want to keep track of. But also it's a community of people you know and it shows the things they love too. So it opens your eyes to new cool things and websites! I'm starting to like it more than Facebook! It's more creative and inspiring! I hope you check out Pinterest it's been my new obsession!  ;)

Falling Whistles - Dannijo collaboration!

BE A WHISTLE BLOWER FOR PEACE! Is the message that Falling Whistles wants to relay about whats going on in the Congo, the worlds largest war! You have to check out the website and read the story, which is heart wrenching, because I don't have the words to describe it. They have whistles that you can get an wear to show your stand for peace in the Congo, but they also collaborated with designer Dannijo, which are the top 5 designs, which are amazing and every dime goes into helping out. Please at least check out the website! 

Alex and Ani

So while spending a good amount of time in Boston I happened to do a lil shopping... oh come on a lot of shopping! They have so many great stores and our hotel was connected to a mall, which should be illegal! While on one of our walks we saw this cute store that said Bangle Bar, I was in! They have so many cute bracelets, along with necklaces and rings and earrings. We fancied the bracelets and how you can stack them and they just look awesome! They have silver and gold and all sorts of different charms, and cuffs. I clearly bought a few and I decide they were so cute, to buy some for christmas gifts! Alex and Ani has retail shops mainly on the east coast but they have their jewelry in quite a few boutique shops and they are online too.  

The Perfect Book for the Holiday Season!

tuscan melon filled with raspberries and red wine syrup
 

four-plus pounds of truffles

faux escargot pastry swirls in a garden trowel

al fresco feast in a wine-crate hamper

strawberry shortcake trifle

cardamon coffee can cake

amaretti cookie clone

mixed berry ice pops

herb-stuffed eggs in a wheat grass nest

This book is great if you love giving gifts that are homemade and are from the heart. Not only does it have great recipes it also gives instructions on wrapping them. It's easy to pick and choose what recipes you can and want to make with info on prep, level of difficulty, and cost. They have recipes for all different occasions, it's such a good book for the crafters.  I gave an example above with the mango and tomatillo salsa, how it's presented, such pretty pictures and easy instructions. This recipe would be a great house warming present or a gift for someone hosting dinner. This book is coming to book stores near you at end of October, it would be a great gift too. 

Doc Marten's....How to wear them, since there back!

This post is dedicated to my sister-in-law... Doc Marten's have already come full circle! I use to wear them in grad school... I still love them though, and they've come back in about every color you can imagine, stripes, polka dots,leopard, neon. As a good friend of mine would recommend, they do need a bit of breakin' in... although you can purchase them already worn in.  I really think they go with everything, you can wear them with feminine dresses to add a little edge, or with tights, skinny jeans, boot-cut, some tall socks with a skirt or shorts! I recommend getting a pair, and saving them for your kids, cause they'll prolly come back around again!