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.

A Hard Earned Cheesecake

Something I don't openly advertise is that I'm a culinary school graduate (CCA in San Francisco, CA). As soon as people find out that little know fact I find they look at you differently and their next sentence is usually, "So when are you making me dinner?". I quickly figured out that cooking as a career wasn't for me and the truth is that I retained very little of what the chefs taught in School. I would say 87% of what I do in the kitchen is a result of the kitchens that I cooked in after School. Working 12-13 hour days 6 days a week you learn pretty quickly how to make your time in the kitchen the most pleasant.

I graduated from CCA in 2005. The same year that one of my oldest friends, Troy began begging me for a cheesecake. Baking isn't really my thing. There's a whole other program for that. The main problem that baking and I encounter is that I'm a rebel when it comes to measuring cups. In savory (everything other than sweets) cooking you can correct seasonings by taste. Baking is a science. So I don't have that luxury when baking.

Since I just moved to San Diego (where Troy has lived since 2003). I thought the least I could do was bake him a Cheesecake when he came to visit me in my new digs. So I headed over to Whole Foods and $40 later I was on my way. It cost so much because I didn't have sugar, vanilla extract, etc. I also didn't invest in a whisk, a spatula or reasonably sized mixing bowls. So it took me a while to get all of the lumps out with my handy fork! I looked over a couple of Cheesecake recipes. In general I like Tyler Florence or Jamie Oliver's recipes. Tyler bakes his Cheesecake surrounded by water. Which should make the texture more velvety. I would have liked to do it this way but I baked mine in a toaster over (convection setting) and didn't have another baking this that was the right size for the job.

Troy's Raspberry Cheesecake
Golden Graham Crack Crust (pre-made from WFM)

Filling ( listed in the order you put them in together)
Cream Cheese
2 Eggs
2 cups of Sugar
Lite Sour Cream
1 Lemon (juice & zest)
2 Tblspn. of Vanilla Extract

Raspberry Topping
1 Package of Frozen Raspberries
1 Lemon (juice only)
Sugar
1 Dash of Strawberry Lemonade

Combine all ingredients and bring to a light boil. Then turn down to a simmer (this will thicken the liquid part). You can mask up some of the raspberries but I like to leave a lot of them whole so there's a little texture. Taste it. If it tastes too tart from the lemon add a little more sugar. It needs to be a little tart to balance the richness of the cheesecake. But you don't want anyone to "pucker". There are seeds in Raspberries. If you have a very fine strainer you can get out all of the seeds. If not, well your friends have all eaten seeds before.

Putting it all together
By now you've taken out the Cheesecake (done-ness tested by a toothpick that was dipped in the center of the cake & that came out clean) put it into the fridge (no lid/plastic wrap) stat. This stops it from cooking further. After the Raspberry topping is reasonably cool. Spread a medium layer of it on top of the Cheesecake with a knife (or a spatula if you have it). Leave the Cheesecake in the fridge for at least 6 hours before you slice & devour it.

Split Second

Yesterday was the worst day for me. I can't put my finger on exactly one thing that brought my day down. It was a million little things. I felt like everything I touched just turned to crap. I spent entirely too much time putting together one of my "e" marketing projects. Usually when I work on putting together eMails, Flyers, Posters for one of my clients. I just open Photoshop and get the layout, type, etc. figured out as I go. For the sake of not pulling my hair out I'm going to try to start sketching these out before I start to build them. That's what my old creative director used to do (with good reason).

But this story has a happy ending. Against all internal instinct I drove to the College area to meet my friend, Erin for the MGMT concert. I'm one of those people where I have to force myself to go out. Then once I'm out I have a great time. But my day was going so bad that I was nervous about getting into a car accident on the way to the concert!

We weren't able to buy tickets. So we were stuck sitting outside the concert (all outside sitting with a view was blocked off) listening to this amazing show on a cement bench. We're sulking on a bench and this guy walks up and asks us if we want two tickets for the show. Apprehensive Erin asks, "How much?". To which the guy hands the tickets to us and says, "FREE". Can you believe it? I swear as soon as he said it I felt all the ugliness of my day just wash right off of me. The show was AMAZING. Probably even more so for me. They sound exactly the same live as they do on the record.

Family Outing - Alexis graduates High School

This past Friday, June 18th, my cousin Alexis graduated from Buena Park High School with Honors. After her it's gonna be around 8 years until our next graduation ceremony so everyone was pretty excited. A interesting little tid-bit is that my grandma lives across the street from the High School (my Mom's alma mater). I just got a Flip video camera. Now I want to film EVERYTHING! I still remember when Alexis was a baby. I used to plant her in our Papasan chair (so early 90's right?) and talk to her when no one else was around trying to get her to say my name. So "Amanda" could be her 1st words. That plan didn't really work. But I'm proud of her none-the-less.

Yelp Elite Event at the Wavehouse

I'm one of those snooty people that yelps all the time and belongs to the official "Elite" club. My friends make fun of me for this. But it's really just a cooler way of getting free food at the new joints in town. Many of which I hope I would go to anyways. I dragged my buddy Troy to go with me to this one. Hands down the best food was Berkeley Pizza. It's really similar to Zachary's in Berkeley, CA if you've ever been. It's the ultimate deep dish pizza (Chicago style) with a twist. The tomato sauce layer is on top and the best tomato sauce on any pizza that I've ever had. The owner was handing them out at this event and he was soooo nice. He took the time to tell every single person (that he served) about the fresh herbs that he uses in his sauce and that he uses no sugar in his dough. If you live anywhere near downtown San Diego then you must give Berkeley Pizza (http://www.berkeleypizzaonline.com/) a try.


Berkeley Pizza on the right, Shredded Pork, Sope (SOH-peh) & Cilantro Micro-Greens courtesy of Soho Restaurant

Old friends make my heart go BOOM

For the last 3 years I lived in the Bay Area. I wish I could say that I loved it but the truth is the weather depressed the heck out of me up there. I think they call that SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) but there's not really a definitive test for it so I guess I'll never know. Best believe I won't be signing up to live in Seattle anytime soon. It probably took me 2 years to get adjusted to the cold, overcast-ness and gather a small group of friends (most of them co-workers). So really I just enjoyed that last year and the food.

Last weekend, one of my friends (Bex, short for Rebecca) came down here (San Diego) because a friend of hers was relocated temporarily for work. The funny thing is Bex is a San Franciscan (born & raised) through and through. Even though I lived just over the bridge in Emeryville I only managed to see her a handful of times. Most of those times involved Dim Sum. I see her more now that I live in the opposite part of the state from her. Ooh should tell you that I met Bex all the way back in 2004 when I was living in San Francisco and going to Culinary School. We were pretty inseparable. I saw her everyday! Usually she followed me home because she was still living at home. I miss my little apartment in the Haight sometimes.

Anyhoo, Bex has this huge group of friends that she goes everywhere with. I finally got to meet about 10 of them. They were so so nice. Do you ever meet someone and it just feels like you've talked to them a million times before? Well that's how this went. Ooh and they are all so stylish. Wish I was petite and Chinese so I could borrow all of their clothes and more importantly their minuscule sized shoes. I met them in the Gaslamp and we went out to this really horrible bar called, The Fleetwood. I say horrible because it was so, so hot in there. It felt like you were going to melt. I even welcomed escaping with Bex on the smoke deck. For anyone who has never met me I have a serious dislike of anything that involves smoke. I'm usually that one annoying non-smoker friend you have that tries to get you to quit every 5 seconds and reminds you that you are killing yourself (politely of course). Oh and some of the shot/wine glasses they gave us were warm. But regardless I had a great time with the old bestie!

HootSuite anyone?

In working for one of my Retail clients I got a request for demo-ing how to write tweets and manage multiple social network accounts by using HootSuite.com, a professional Twitter client that I absolutely love. The how-to screen cast below is really basic but some of my favorite features are scheduling tweets in advance, tweet statistics, and the customizable drag +drop dashboard. One of the things (that I'm sad about) on the Twitter UI is that you can't see all of your twitter lists, @mentions, re-tweets, direct messages and so on in one screen. Which the HootSuite dashboard amends. On Twitter they make you click on different links in order to see that info. Oh and did I mention HootSuite is free? Give it a try if you haven't all ready. Let me know if you have any other how-to videos for Social Networking sites that you'd like to see.

My YouTube channel - http://www.youtube.com/amandarecord
My Twitter - http://twitter.com/amandarecord

Email Marketing - Small Business Style

Small businesses out there I thought I would help you out with a quick list of my favorite ESP's (eMail Service Providers). I've either used or tried out every service on this list (and many more). Feel free to ask any questions later on. After you've used one tool/software it's kind of like riding a bicycle. Sure some things (layout wise) differ from site to site. But all should have a tab for Create, Send, Track, Lists/Segmentation (creating defined list of customers for certain campaigns) at a minimum. Going a little bit above the basics.... A/B Testing capabilities, Deliverability reports (hard/soft bounce).

Please note that all the options below have a FREE test drive (no credit card required). I highly recommend browsing around at least 3 eMail service provider options before you settle on your solution.


Oh iContact. I'll cut straight to the point. I don't like these guys. On the range of small business solutions I would say iContact and Constant Contact are on the bottom. In eMail Marketing I've found the saying " You get what you pay for" to be very true. The only reason I would really use these guys is if I were a retail only business (or something similar) where I could not easily track my eMail conversion (define). iContact offers a monthly plan for $9.95 for 1k subscribers (6K max. monthly messaging). But if you are really just starting off MailChimp lets you use their tool for FREE as long as you have 500 subscribers or less.

Pros -
*designed for small business owners. Interface is very basic and easy to use.
*switching from double opt-in to single opt-in is a click away
* can reach support by phone, chat or eMail (eMail response wait is bad)
Cons -
*Use live to chat to contact support. Email response rates are very bad if they respond at all.
*Their definitions of terms like campaign and bounces are not consistent with industry standards. For them
Campaigns = List Name
Released = Sent
* Bounced # is not broken down into hard bounces vs. soft bounces (email addresses that don't exist/ typed wrong vs. correct email addresses where the mailbox was busy/full). In the reporting the # for bounces is not reflected in the Released (aka sent #). But in order for those messages to bounce they had to be attempted.
*Not all of their buttons/icons work. This is especially true for their icons for editing your eMail. Which are supposed to be useful for non-code people. If anything I find these "helpful" icons make it more difficult to produce a good looking eMail.
* Low customization for your opt-in form. Also to track opt-ins for different forms you need to keep a separate eMail list for each form.
* Pixelated images in reports (see your pie graph for message reports). Never a good sign.


For the most part I like Vertical Response. These guys are definitely a step above iContact and Constant Contact in my humble opinion. Vertical Response was the 1st ESP that I ever used for a client. That client used VR for about 1 year and 3-6 months. In the end they outgrew VR due to the length it took for updates to the tool. Since the last time I used VR there have been alot of updates issued.

Pricing - sorry if the image below is too small to be useful. In the past my clients have gone with Pay-As-You-Go with these guys. They advertise unlimited sending for a list of 500 subscriber per month. But you could be paying nothing for a list that size at through MailChimp's Forever Free Plan


Pros -
*Homepage Dashboard - Drag 'n' Drop customizable
*Lists have "mapping". So say you upload a list with a field name. After you upload the list you can choose the field in VR (ex- zipcode, retailstore) that you want the info to be used for. So your field names headers don't have to be identical to the headers in VR.
* Customizable sign-up form - add fields like zip code, state or any custom field (ex- retail store, birthday). You can also add your logo to your form, choose your redirect for a thank you page (after sign up is complete) and customize your doubt opt-in (aka email confirming you really did sign up for email from sender)
* Option to integrate your reports with your FREE Google Analytics account (do this!).
Account> Analytics Settings> Google Analytics
* Social sharing - add your Twitter and Facebook account info to automatically share your eMail campaigns on these networks.
Account> Social Sharing
Cons -
* A little slower on updating the tool.
* Based on the east coast. So get you campaigns in order early in the day in case you need help.


Yay! Now for the fun stuff. My recommendation for small business owners would be MailChimp! Especially since they have the Forever Free plan (unlimited sending to list size of 500 subscribers). Once you get out of the Free zone it does go up but in comparison with the other options MailChimp is only $2-$5 more per month. For most of my clients monthly pricing makes the most sense.


Pros -
*Simply put the UI rocks! It's pretty but more importantly it makes sense. You basically have 5 tabs (dashboard, campaigns, lists, reports, autoresponders).
* Templates are worlds ahead of templates offered by other ESP's.
* They have a how-to video for virtually anything that you will ever need to do. Check out their YouTube channel here.
* On-going free webinars and daily/weekly technical updates from various staff members.
* Follow them on Twitter (they respond to every @mention)
* Most customizable sign up form. You can even add your own header image (for branding purposes). You can also create "hidden fields" that your subscribers can't see on the sign up form but you can use for segmenting in the backend. Example would be creating a "source" field of where you got a list of email addresses (ex- partnered eMail sweepstakes).
* Reporting integration with Google Analytics through SiteAnalytics 360
* You can synch your customer database (through your shopping cart) with your eMail database through MailChimp. Once you do this your list will automatically be updated and you can start getting into behavioral eMail targeting (ex- segmenting by purchase history). This is huge!
* For your lists you will want to create 1 list and with either groups (dynamically defined segments/preferences that are then on your sign-up form) or you'll define your segment criteria (based on zip code, etc.) with each send. If you do it the 2nd way then those options do not have to be on your sign up form.


Cons -
* Based in Atlanta. I'm west coast based so I wasn't able to get a hold of them if I was trying to contact anytime after 1-2pm.
*The biggest complaint I have for MailChimp is that there is NO PHONE NUMBER for service. Reaching support through email or live chat are your only options. Even if you beg for a number you are really out of luck. They just don't have one. Probably the reason why they have so may help docs for everything.
* In their segmentation tool they do not have a "not" statement ability. So say I want to mail to all my customers whose country field is "not" Canada. I would create the segment using criteria that the customers I want to include "do have". Having a "not" or "does not" statement ability would be alot faster. You basically have to create a work around for these cases.
*Pain in the butt to get rid of double opt-in (they don't recommend it). Solution for Single Opt-in here.
*API documentation is written strictly for developers (aka in greek so good luck understanding it). Frankly I got the feeling they didn't want any Marketers getting involved in the process. I just wanted to be able to understand what I needed from my developer before I had to ask him for it.
If you need to integrate your customer database with your email marketing database then I would join the MailChimp jungle round table and their Google API Discussion Group.

How to create your 1st Facebook Page

In the social media world you need to be on Facebook right now. You should also be on Twitter and publishing new posts on your company blog consistently. But from what I have seen customers/shoppers are most likely to interact with your brand on Facebook.

Facebook has created "pages" for businesses and "profiles" are meant for personal use. One of the major differences (between the two) being profiles have a limit of 5,000 friends and pages have no number limit. The more the merrier. Here a How to video for creating your 1st Facebook page.



The Steps
1.Log-in to your profile
2. Create your page here or go to Advertising (on bottom navigation bar)>Pages>Create a Page
2. Select your business type + choose the name of your page (carefully). Please note that you cannot change the name of your page (EVER) after you create it.
3. Edit Info, upload your profile image + any other product images
4. Add Social Networking links (you tube, vimeo, twitter) and if you have a blog import it using the "Notes" tab
5. You can access your page later by going to Home (top navigation bar)> Ads and Pages (left side of page).

Tragedy

It's with a very heavy heart that I write about my recent family loss. I have to admit that I am not one to get super into the whole resolution-ness that is the New Year. But I felt myself getting really excited for 2010. Maybe it's because that year symbolizes the end of an Era (in my mind) and the beginning of a new Era with a clean slate. But whatever the case I felt genuinely ecstatic & optimistic about the possibilities of 2010.

On the flip side my little sister (24 years old) lost all of her hope. She chose to end her life on January 19th, 2010 by jumping off the Coronado bridge in San Diego. No one in my family saw this coming. My sister never mentioned suicide. She had her fair share of problems but she would never talk about them and if you tried to go there she would just tell you to go f*** off. As she told me often. Suffice it to say that we were not close. But that wasn't from lack of trying on my part. I always felt like she hated me. But I think she was just really unhappy and lost. For a brief period when I moved back home (San Diego) in June 2009. We got along. She seemed like she was in a genuinely good place. She was with a man that she loved, running a childcare program at her local YMCA and she had just moved into a new apartment in Pacific Beach/Mission Beach (I can never tell them apart). So for 2 months I almost had the relationship with my sister that I had always wanted. Then her drinking got the best of her and all the pieces of her life started to crumble. So many people have asked me "What happened"? The truth is none of us will ever know what was really going through her head that day. But my answer is that it wasn't any one thing. But a combination of all the areas of ones life that takes a hit when you use alcohol or drugs as your coping skill.

For the last couple months both of my parents were on edge. Always waiting for that other hat to drop or the phone to ring. Heather was in a really bad place. She reached out for help a couple times. But she couldn't really get past the starting point. In the end I think thats what did it. The work just seemed too big for her and she didn't know how to just take it piece by piece, day by day. For anyone out there thinking about taking my sisters path...DON'T. Theres a reason why they call the remaining family members "survivors". A suicidal death hurts in a cruel way that a normal loss doesn't. Speaking for myself there's a whole lot of shock going on (even post funeral). But the loss stays with you. Its the 1st thing you think about in the morning and your last thought at night. I cry at the most random things. It would actually be funny if it was so horrible.You really feel like there's a hole in your chest. But I might possibly have the strongest support system that anyone could ever ask for. From the time I found out to post funeral I had various friends and family staying with me (day and night). Longtime friends that I hadn't seen in years drove/flew other states to attend the funeral. Post funeral I get text messages every day to make sure that I'm STILL doing okay. I am okay.

I really believe that my sister is watching over me and once in a while I wish she would show her face (so I could punch her). I know she knew that I wouldn't let this get the best of me or my parents. (By the way I have the best parents that anyone could ask for. They were together until we were out of the house and they had the drugs, suicide and sex talks with us.) We were their number 1# priority. If anything I feel like I have to live enough for the both of us now. If you are depressed or thinking of choosing this messed up path please call 1-800-273-TALK for help.

Spring Semester

I can't believe the Spring semester is right around the corner (this Monday in fact). Exciting and petrifying at the same time! So in an effort to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I signed up for a Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator class. I have some not-to-shabby Photoshop skills as is. But since I'm 100% on the job taught I'm super excited for the chance to actually know what it is that I am doing. Plus I downloaded Adobe Illustrator last week and I'm just dying to get to mess around with it in a proactive way. The class is mostly online so I'll be posting my work (aka homework) to my blog. Genius, huh? The professor actually asks us to do this (through Blogger) in the syllabus. So you can look forward to regular posts in the near future on a regular basis.

LULAC Award Ceremony - Hispanic Women of the Year 2009

A couple of weeks ago my grandma Lupe (certified crazy) was awarded as one of LULAC's hispanic women of the year for 2009. Here's some quick pictures. The ceremony took place in Santa Ana, CA or Orange County for your Bravo watchers out there.


Ever since I can remember my grandma has been a huge proponent for education. She's been a substitute teacher for the last twenty some years in Orange County. If you want to see her then make sure you call ahead. She's always taking some type of night class on any given subject.
You would never be able to tell by looking at me. But I am actually 25% Mexican and it all comes from my dear ole granny. My grandma Lupe actually didn't speak an ounce of english when she came to the states 45+ years ago. The story goes that my newly widowed grandpa was on vacation somewhere near Guadalahara and BAM! 2 weeks later he had a wife. Consequently, my grandma drives like she is still in Mexico.


top picture - me (Amanda Record) and my great aunt chiao
bottom picture - me, my mom, grandma, my aunt becky and my great aunt chiao

Gemology Institute of America

My Geology professor Matthew Taylor gave us an option of earning extra credit by attending an optional field trip to the Gemology Institute of America (aka GIA) in Carlsbad, CA. Most of us jumped at this offer. I'll be brief. It was a really nice visit even for someone that is only taking a Geology college course to satisfy breadth area requirements for transfer. Our tour guide was Terri Ottaway, curator of the GIA Museum. She was nice enough to let us view some of the newly developed course materials for becoming certified at Gem identification. I was really impressed and if this sounds interesting to you. I would look into their distance learning programs. I should also mention that GIA hires graduates of it's programs. Out of everything we saw I was most impressed with the staff's photo essays taken in Columbia and the Columbian Emeralds. Forgive the photo quality (iphone photos).

Chrismukkuh Holiday Gift List

So I've been just horrible lately -- I mean horrible at keeping up with my blog . Believe me I do not refer to myself as a blogger to newbies. Well at least not yet. School is just taking up about 75% of my time and work the remaining 25%. The only thing that's been getting me through is that the fall semester end is near! December 15th in fact. Next semester I'm only taking half as many classes as I am currently. So I'm hoping to devote more time to work. I thought that when I moved back home I would enjoy not working and focusing 150% of my attention on my School work. But alas for quirky old me it is quite the opposite. I find I do better when I'm working and my time is crunched. It forces me to do my School work right away rather than procrastinating away my time.

So Black Friday is practically upon us. Most of these goodies I own and am quite fond of for anyone and everyone that I love this Holiday season. I say Chrismukkah because I've celebrated Hannukah since well before I was born. It's a long story but suffice it to say I have an extended Jewish family and I've never minded 8 nights of gift receiving!


Lush Sex Bomb $5.95
Inhale the come-hither fragrance of jasmine, clary sage, ylang ylang and soak your blues away. I've been really into my baths lately and like to up the ante with a pink glitter bath! Check out Lush's bath boms. This one the most popular for good reason.


Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Dinner's Cookbook - $25.16
I've loved this guy for years. I have numerous cookbooks from him and this is my favorite! It's basically a family themed cookbook. It'll keep your dinners interesting! Jamie blends Asian, Italian, and English flavors together seamlessly.

Love Necklace $58.00
My go to necklace by Dogeared. I love how delicate the chain and heart are. I also like the karma necklace version.

Solid Anklets 3 Pack $24.50
I love these in the neon colors or the neutrals. By Jcrew of course.

Three Star Apron $32.00
Anthropologie has an amazing selection of fun and ridiculously cute aprons! I have no idea why no one knows about them.

Micheal Antonio McKey Booties $60.00
So what a steal. Jcrew does a twin looking bootie to this one for $250.00. You won't find a better deal anywhere. The heel is a little high so you or your giftee won't want to wear these to work all 7 days of the week. Pair them with the solid anklets to show you care.

Purity 1 Step Facial Wash $32.00
Really gentle cleanser by Philosophy that one of my Aunties turned me onto.