Day to Day has moved

Sorry Blogger you're clinky user interface has given me the umph I needed to move the blog over to Wordpress. Join me here (http://amandarecord.com).

Sparkles in the Home Office

My sparkly headband arrived from Forever 21! I swear I'm a million times more productive working from home when I dress up for work. Case in point. There's no reason to look like a slob in the home office (says the girl typing in flannel & sweats).

NYC to Chicago - The Rest

Breaking up all of the remaining photos from the trip into individual posts just doesn't seem too practical. So here's the rest of the trip in pictures in backwards order from Chicago to NYC.

I wasn't a fan of Chicago. I'll chop it up to the very short stay, unbearable humidity and rude people I encountered. But that dog was delicious. I got two!
None of my CA friends got why I was so excited about "The Bean". You can see the skyline in the reflection!

On the way we had an hour to kill before our host got home from work. So we yelped "Swimming Hole" and ended up in Michigan City, IN at Lake Michigan.

We got our make-up done at Fred Segal. Her lipgloss is by Tarte.

Central Park

Outside of MOMA was this incredible jewelry vendor that makes these necklaces from leather & suede. They're $50 a pop but Jasmine wore hers for the rest of the trip. I begged her to start selling on Etsy.com

New York, New York - Day One Cont.

The plan was to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It didn't quite happen but I got to see the bridge from the subway. At least it looked cool. We went to dinner at this place called "The Diner" which is a built in a 1930's style train car. I must admit it was pretty good.

View from the Subway

Jasmine & I at dinner

New York, New York - Day One

Last week I got back from my very 1st trip to New York! Well it was actually a massive road trip from New York to Chicago. So fun but soo very exhausting. Trust me there's not a whole lot in the states in between the two. A friend of a friend who works as an artists' assistant was driving her artists' car across the country back to Los Angeles where her artist resides for the majority of the year. My BFF (from HS) and I met up in NYC for a couple of days before heading out for the drive. I jumped on the chance to tag along on this trip but I couldn't take enough time off of School to do the whole trip from NYC to LA. I loved New York far more than I planned to. But when I was in Soho it didn't quite hit me that I was in New York. I felt like I was in San Francisco but a flat San Francisco.

Day One - Shopping in Soho

I got all Stalkerwatski with the camera. All the girls look so cute & fashionable.

A good scrub, a dub, dub

Last week I got this insanely cute black romper. My only oversight was how fair (aka white) I am. I could say "How white I am right now" but I'd only be kidding myself. I've been "porcelain" year around since I hit my twenties for a mixture of reasons. I embrace it now instead of taking pleasure from feeling my skin burn in the sun. I got my romper for my upcoming trip to NYC later this month. So a little self tanning was in order. Tip 1 for a good self tan seems to be exfoliating beforehand. So I went on the hunt for a good scrub. I came across these 2 by Bliss & Hugo Naturals (available at Whole Foods Market).




Option 1 - Bliss "Hot Salt Scrub" for $36 is available at Sephora. I tested this one out at the store and it heats up once you start applying it on your skin. My hand was baby soft after using but it was a little hard for me to validate the price tag. If you don't mind the price then I would definitely go with this one. It brings the spa to you.

Option 2 - Hugo Naturals "French Lavendar Dead Sea Salt Scrub" for $17.99. What can I say I'm a sucker for lavender? There is a bunch of aromatic oils (almond oil, jojoba ester, etc.) mixed in with the salt. Your skin will feel fantastic after using this bad boy and you won't need to put on lotion afterwards. Using a salt scrub (vs. a sugar scrub) is supposed to kill toxins. If you haven't figured it out . Yes, I went with this one and I'm VERY happy. Self-tan results pending.

Weekend Visit

My little cousin Kim finally (well I've only been here for a month) came for her weekend visit with me at my new place in San Diego. I had tons of fun with her and am going to opportunistically post pictures of her on the blog that she does not know that I have ;). She picked up the clothes to the left at Ragz Dressware in Carlsbad, Ca.










Along with a pic of the Rigatoni in Pesto cream sauce with Peas that I made at the start of the weekend.