LA Trip Prep

{tank: American Eagle; cardigan: American Eagle; shorts: Zenana Outfitters; tights: H&M; shoes: Payless}

This evening was spent in preparation for my weeklong trip to LA tomorrow! I am going down for my amazing friend Brittnee's senior art show at Biola. She's graduating in June with an art degree and I am oh-so proud of her. She'll be on Spring break so it'll be nice to just hang out and help her with any last minute prep work for her art project. On Tuesday my parents are taking her and I to a James Blunt concert! I'm so excited about that. What I love most about this trip is the fact that other than the concert and the art show I don't really have an agenda other than having fun and spending time with family and friends and relaxing. Nothing sounds better to me right now. I'm happy that I'm finally learning to live a little and stop stressing about everything which I have a tendency to do quite often. One thing I'll be bummed about is missing the royal wedding. Surely I'll be able to see it somehow, right? Let's hope so. If not, I am making sure to TiVo it at my house and plan on having a belated viewing complete with tea and girlfriends when I return. Packing went unusually well tonight. I think it was because I completely arranged every outfit so I wouldn't be stuck with a bunch of random clothing items and not knowing what to do with them. Typically, I pack way more than I ever end up using and end up wishing I had packed other things so I'm trying to eliminate the issue by planing every outfit down to the last detail. So far it has actually made the whole process easier and I actually look forward to getting dressed down there. Maybe now I won't be as tempted to shop because I have nothing to wear...

I might be absent for a while till I get back but I'll try to squeeze in a post or two while I'm down there. Now I must get my beauty rest before our flight tomorrow. Well, after catching up on Modern Family of course ;)

A Vacation at Home

Have you ever had a weekend that felt like a refreshing and fun-filled vacation without leaving town? That's what this weekend felt like for me. My beautiful friend Brooke packed up her life and came to stay at my place for the weekend. My parents have been out of town all weekend so I was especially happy to have a companion over the Easter weekend. Some of our activities included: seeing Water for Elephants with friends, being introduced to Will & Grace and gabbing trough it all, gabbing even more till the wee hours of the morning, a delightful walk up our hills with more gabbing, our first trip to Jasper's burger joint (see above) where we had a couple of the most amazing burgers of our lives, buying matching shoes with our friend Grace and wearing them at a concert/fundraiser where my art was featured, nail painting, candy, Red Robin, and Easter service outside at church in our Sunday best. Thank you Brooke for the best weekend I've had in a long time!

Leo for Robert

In honor of this upcoming fun-filled weekend that includes a Leonardo DiCaprio movie night with my friend Brooke who counts him as her top celebrity crush, I've decided to give Leo some blog love and credit where credit is due. But let me first start off by saying that if you don't know already, I have an unhealthy obsession with Robert Redford. As in, seen most of his movies, posters on my walls, wallpaper on my computer at work, named my laptop after him, bought tickets to see him honored in person at the San Fransisco Film Festival and dragged my friend Ruby with me there and back in two days, planning on reading the new biography coming out on him (so excited!), and planning on painting him something and sending it to him obsessed. I know, I can't believe I'm making myself look like a freak on my own blog but it's the truth, my friends, handle it or not. So, you can only guess that when I heard they were remaking The Great Gatsby I was anything less than pleased. How on earth could anyone possibly replace Robert Redford?! Robert Redford! However, the more I see of Leonardo, the more impressed I am and the more I realize that he is one of my favorite actors and when I heard they were casting him as Jay Gatsby and Carry Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, I became a lot more comfortable with the prospect. If they were to replace Mr. Redford and Mia Farrow with anyone it should be those two. And then hearing that Tobey Maguire is to play Nick Carroway and the film will be directed by none other than Baz Luhrmann, director of Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet, the deal was sealed and my mind was changed. I am incredibly excited to see how this adaptation turns out and can only say, Leo, you have some large shoes to fill, but I believe you are worthy of the challenge. Now make us proud!

Recipe: Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

It's about time I posted a recipe. Banana bread has always been one of my favorite things in the whole world. Nothing beats waking up in the morning to the haunting smell of delicious banana bread hot out of the oven....well, except for actually eating it of course. My mom knows my faithful love to banana bread and bakes it for me every birthday morning. I still think that my mom's good old recipe is the best, but lately I've been exploring all the healthy gluten free/vegan versions I can make of my favorite treats. Thank goodness for Babycakes who changed my world and my sister Chelsea's who has a severe gluten allergy. I stole Chelsea's Babycakes cookbook the last time I was at her place and have been having fun with it ever since. Chels, you'll thank me later when I make you some delicious treats next time you come! Here is the banana chocolate chip bread recipe straight out of the book but with a few minor adjustments. I've found that Babycakes calls for more oil and sweetener than necessary. In fact, whenever I use as much coconut oil as they call for the baked good ends up being too oily and takes too long to bake. I used a little over half the amount of oil and sweetener they called for and still had to bake it longer than the recipe called for and in my opinion, it came out perfect.

Ingredients:

2 cups Bob's Red Mill gluten free all-purpose baking flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

about 1/3 cup coconut oil (you could even put in 1/4 and feel it out from there)

1/3 cup agave nectar + 2 or 3 tablespoons of agave or honey (I added a bit of honey because we ran out of agave)

2/3 cup rice or almond milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas

about 1/4-1/2 cup chocolate chips (I use the grain sweetened kind)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a 7 x 4 x 3-inch loaf pan with oil.

In a medium bowl, wisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, and cinnamon. Add the coconut oil, agave nectar, rice milk, and vanilla to the dry ingredients. Stir until the batter is smooth. Using a plastic spatula, gently fold in the bananas until they are evenly distributed throughout the batter. Add the chocolate chips and fold them in. I just poured straight out of the back so feel free to add your own desired amount.

Fill the prepared pan halfway with the batter. Bake the banana bread on center rack for 35-50 minutes. I say this because the recipe calls for 35 but my oven might be cooler because I had to bake it for 15 minutes longer and it came out perfect after 50 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees after 20 minutes and periodically check on it if it's not done after 35. The finished loaf will bounce back slightly when pressed, and a toothpick or knife inserted in the center will come out clean.

Let the banana bread stand in the pan for 20 minutes. Gently run a knife around the edge of the cake, cover the top of the pan with a cutting board, and invert the loaf onto the bread. Carefully lift the pan away and re-invert the bread onto another cutting board. Either cut and serve warm, or wait until completely cool before storing. Cover the uncut banana bread with plastic wrap and store at room temp for up to 3 days....or freeze for up to eternity! Ok, maybe not that long but it'll hold in the freezer for a while if you don't trust yourself not to eat it all in one sitting if you keep it out.

In case you're wondering, it turned out to be quite a hit with even the non-healthy eaters (unless, of course they're lying to me which I highly doubt because I consider myself a banana bread connoisseur and my own worst critic and am quite happy with the result). Enjoy!

I Hear Fake Wedding Bells

Let me just preface by saying that living in a small town, you are very limited as to what you can do for fun. So, when my friends Grace and Brooke and I were hanging out in Barnes and Noble as we always do, Brooke mentioned that she always wanted to try on wedding dresses for no reason, and that's where it all began. With Grace's leadership, we marched into David's Bridal, prepared with a made up story about Brooke's fiance and the way he proposed. Did they ask anything about him? No. But I'm still glad we let our imaginations run wild with it. Grace and I were bridesmaids of course, so we had to try on a couple bridesmaids dresses as Brooke tried on five or so wedding dresses. It was hysterical. Afterward we had to treat ourselves to some See's chocolates next door. I just love these girls and I must say, Brooke is going to make quite a beautiful bride one day. Wouldn't you agree?

Love at First Sight

I am beyond excited for Water for Elephants' release next Friday. I ate up the book like a piece of chocolate and was left wanting more. Fortunately I don't have to wait much longer to get more! Only six more days till I get to see Reese and Robert reunited once again! I say once again because many of you may not know that Mr. Pattinson's gorgeous face can be seen in the deleted scenes of Vanity Fair playing Reese's grown up son...which makes it kinda creepy that he's playing her lover now, right? I can proudly say that I discovered Robert Pattinson before all the crazy Twilight fans did when watching the Vanity Fair deleted scenes years ago with a couple friends. I remember us actually pausing the scene on his face because of how beautiful he was (above). Clearly, his face was meant to be seen more. I received my Vogue in the mail today and can't get over the gorgeous shots of Reese and the elephant. Stunning right? Leave it to Hollywood to make the circus look so glamorous.

A Much Needed Break

{dress: Free People; cardi: American Eagle (hand-me-down); shoes: Steven by Steve Madden}

Remember when I was sick a couple weeks ago? Well ever since then I've completely gotten out of the habit of working out. It felt so good to stop and take a break that I just never started it back up. Now normally this should be a bad thing but for me, it just might be a good thing. There is a daily battle within me about calorie intake versus outtake. Most of the time I'm working out to be able to eat more and feel little and toned. I should be working out for my health. I should be working out for my heart, for my strength, to build endurance. But when I wake up extra early to squeeze in a workout before work I'm doing it to meet society's standards of beauty. Yes, it's the truth. It's hard to admit something like that when I'm so against succumbing to our culture's impossibly thin ideal but even though I'm in recovery I still very much struggle with it. When I workout in the mornings day after day after day I often feel exhausted and drained. My stomach feels awful and I never feel really rested. But ever since I've replaced my early morning workouts with more sleep I've felt so much better. I actually feel rested and although my appetite has lessened, my stomach feels so much better. Who would have thought?! But I don't like feeling so stagnate and lazy. So, I have decided to ask you all to hold me accountable to listening to my body and possibly working out every other day even if I feel good enough to work out every day. Instead of looking to people like Gwyneth Paltrow who I look up to in many ways but believe she works her body too hard to achieve her incredibly svelte frame, I should look to people like Kate Winslet who embraces the body she has and doesn't work tirelessly at molding it into a size it's not meant to be. As my friend reminded me today, our bodies are temples and should be treated with care and not worked to the ground to become a certain size. When we need rest, we should give our bodies rest. We should be healthy and active and give our bodies the nutrients they need. I'm glad I've gotten this much needed rest. It's forced me to take a step back, as I've often had to do, and get some much needed perspective. If having the "perfect" body means being unhealthy and feeling like crap all the time then it's far from worth it. Who am I trying to impress anyway? Myself and only myself. Well, that's my body image vent/rant/call it what you will for the day.

Oh and the last picture is my latest obsession. Coconut water, where have you been all my life? You are so refreshing and delicious and healthy! I am smitten.

Happy 50th Birthday Mom!!!

Ok, how gorgeous is my mom?! Seriously. And at 50 she still looks amazing. Let's just say I hope I've inherited her genes. Mom, sorry I didn't get you a card. I hope this makes up for it. I remembered today that on your birthday last year we went to class together. I'm so glad I got to go to school with you before I graduated. Don't worry, you're a cool mom so I wasn't in the least embarrassed (especially since you helped me out with homework). And look at us now all graduated and stuff! I'm so proud of us. I love the pic of us at Morning Glory having lunch before class. Such fond memories. I love you!

Desk Love

{top: Urban Outfitters; long sleeved shirt: Target; skirt: Target; tights: Target; shoes: Kelsie Dagger}

I hate Mondays. But one thing that sure perks up a Monday morning is finding desk love greeting me when I come in. Jessica is always so sweet to leave me little notes and gifts on various occasions and this Monday I just so happened to find a beautiful Papaya calender awaiting me on my desk. If you aren't familiar with Papaya, go to their website immediately. I am in love with their uniquely beautiful artwork adoring their greeting cards, journals, posters, etc. You will fall in love. I toured their company once and it was just as beautiful as the artwork they create. Every room was a different masterpiece. Someday I'd love to work at an aesthetically pleasing and creative place like that. I also found a little note taped to my computer from my friend David who visited from LA this weekend for my mom's birthday party. Even though the note was dorky and short, I loved getting it. Little things like these help get me through the workdays that I barely mustered myself out of bed for. They make me realize that if we stop and make a point to show someone we stopped by or were thinking about them we just might perk up their day too. Just thought I'd share that with you before I drift off into slumberland...

A Magical Night

Words cannot fully describe how wonderful my mom's 50th birthday bash was last night, but let me just say that it was absolutely magical. Of course my mom was incredibly touched and brought to tears several times. I loved seeing her feel so loved and special. Here are a few other things I loved about the night:

1.) Spending time with old friends and new. I loved having a lot of my favorite people all in one place enjoying the night together.

2.) Presenting the gift to my mom (second photo) that the 5 of us kids went in on together. We had a ring custom designed with each of our birth stones in age order. Needless to say she was choked up and loved it.

3.) Eating delicious catered food and admiring the amazing cupcake display featuring 4 different kinds of gourmet cupcakes (I tried to stay away from the cake part but ate a lot of the frosting off with my sister. YUM!) And of course drinking some delicious girly fruity pink wine. Just the way I like it.

4.) Taking in all the hilarious stories in the roast to my mom. My mom rarely tells stories from her youth, mostly because her memory isn't the greatest so I especially loved hearing hilarious stories from her crazy high school days from her amazing best friend from high school. And of course there were a couple incredibly touching and sweet speeches, one of which brought me to tears.

5.) Dancing the night away! I can't believe I'm listing this as one of my favorite parts about the night but now I can officially say that I am falling in love with dancing! It has to be with the right people (no creepy guys, please) and the right music and last night I had both. I danced so much my knees hurt and my shoes and earrings had to come off. Being a former strict non-dancer at parties due to feeling too awkward and self conscious I was quite proud of myself.

6.) Wearing my beautiful H&M dress I bought specially for the occasion. I cannot number the many times I was complimented on it but it reaffirmed how amazing it was. I felt like a fairy princess and it was absolutely perfect for dancing. Any excuse to dress up in a dress like that I'll take!

The party was just part of the wonderful weekend we devoted to my mom's birthday. Now that people have left and things are settled down, I have a feeling similar to the day after Christmas. All the anticipation is over and back to reality I go. Thankfully, I am left reminded of how wonderful great friendships and family truly are. Well, I am off to drowning my post-party blues in watching movies with Ruby and my baby sis Hayley.

Photo credit: Grace Aspinwall. I hope it's okay I stole your beautiful pics Grace!