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By Sami, on January 15th, 2012
Guess who’s obsessed with French Macaroons now? Me! I bought these today at La Petite France Bakery & Café in West Hartford. I ate the vanilla one, which is why it is not pictured, but I’m trying to be good and wait until after dinner to daintily devour the rest.
Who am I kidding? I will devour these suckers after I post this. In any case, you should stop by La Petite France! They’re right in West Hartford center and they have delicious sandwiches and desserts, of course. My sister Suzi took me out to lunch there today and we wanted to eat everything.
By Sami, on January 12th, 2012
I published this today on the Jennie Fresa blog.
Even though there hasn’t been any snow this winter, we’ve certainly felt the effects of the season, especially on our lips! Dry, cracked, chapped lips are very common during cold months due to cold winds and the lack of moisture in the air. Here are a few ways to keep your lips happy:
1. Drink water. It’s always important to keep your body hydrated, but especially during the winter when the air is so dry. Drink lots of water and other fluids, and run a humidifier in your home if you find that you often wake up with a sore throat.
2. Apply lip balm regularly. A lip balm made with natural waxes and oils is a must-have during the winter. My Coco Balm is a good choice because it’s made with Candelilla Wax, Cocoa Butter, Coconut Oil, Certified Organic Jojoba Oil, and Vitamin E Oil — all skin-nourishing, natural ingredients. You can buy Coco Balm in my Etsy shop, at Jennie Fresa, or Brazen Betties.
3. Use a lip exfoliant. Many of us exfoliate our face, feet, and other areas of dry skin, but we don’t always remember to exfoliate our lips! Here’s an easy and natural lip scrub DIY I found on Pinterest:
By Sami, on January 6th, 2012
This holiday season was my favorite so far as an adult. I had so much fun gifting! Most of my gifts were handmade and the few things that I bought were mainly fun gifts. Here are a few of my gifting highlights:
My all-time favorite gift was the Hogwarts acceptance letter that I gave to Jill:
I bought it from this Etsy seller who customized it with Jill’s name and address {right down to “The Loft in the Tiny Apartment”}, and I sneakily left it clothes-pinned next to her door while she was at work. See her reaction here. This was my favorite gift because it had nothing to do with the money I spent, it was 100% about how perfect it was and how crazy excited I knew she would be when she found it unexpectedly. That is my favorite thing about gift-giving and surprises. Images courtesy of {totally stolen from} Jill.
As I said before, many of my gifts were handmade, including these holiday-themed soaps, made possible by an early gift from Michele and Jeff:
I also made these two necklaces with the help of Ali from Birds and Beads. The one with just the sparrow was for Stan’s sister Danielle, and the one with the sparrow and scissors was for Mish.
Another thing you must know about me: I am a prankster, especially when gift-giving. One year, I got my brother an iTunes gift card and I put it in about 4 layers of wrapped boxes. It was great! My prank gift of this season was actually a gift box from Prank Pack. They sell gift boxes that look like the packaging to “real” gifts. The products on the boxes aren’t actually real, but they’re crazy enough that they just might be. The one I got for Stan was for iDrive, a supposed mount that you use on your steering wheel to play with your iPad while you’re driving. Ha!!!!
The idea is that your recipient thinks they got this whacky gift, and you let them think that for a while, then you tell them that their real gift is inside. Prank Pack has some other hilarious ones like a shower coffee maker, slipper speakers, and a griddle alarm clock, which reminds me of The Office episode where Michael burns his foot on the George Foreman grill that he kept by his bed. I bought the iDrive one because Stan doesn’t have the best driving record {that’s putting it mildly…} and he’s pretty obsessive about his Apple devices.
I made a few candles and some bath salts and sugar scrubs for friends and family, and I made a mix cd for my Dad, but I didn’t take photos of those things before wrapping them. What were some of your favorite things you gave this holiday season? xo
By Sami, on January 4th, 2012
After realizing I didn’t do many of the things I set out to do last year, I wanted to take a look at what I did do. Really, where did all the time go? Here are some of the fun things I did and posts I wrote during 2011:
January: Wow, January was a pretty crazy/spectacular month. Stan and I spent the last week of 2010/first week of 2011 in California {specifically, Los Angeles} with my aunt and uncle. We were there to help him switch his website over to WordPress, but we did far more play than work. After we got back from our trip, Stan and I moved right into our very first apartment. Also notable are the Sweet Heart cupcake soaps that I introduced that month. To be honest, they didn’t sell very well, so I don’t know if I’ll bring them back this year.
February: I didn’t blog very much in February, but Stan and I did a fun Valentine DIY and I looked back on some of the crazy hairstyles I’ve had in the past 4 years.
March: In March, I finished up my hair timeline, took on Sabrina Allard’s re-style challenge, and wrote a few posts for the Jennie Fresa blog.
April: Like January, April was another busy/exciting month. For starters, I introduced a few new “spring” scents — Aloe, Juniper!; Plumeria; Rice Flower & Shea; and Strawberry — to the Etsy shop. They’ve done so well that I’ve kept them year-round. I was also profiled as a successful student/entrepreneur in UConn Magazine. I had an amazing time restyling my wardrobe with Sabrina Allard and doing a photo shoot for it with my friend and now-fellow-alumna Mayya Medved. I also redesigned the blog and shared a recipe for my favorite breakfast meal: chocolate-chocolate pancakes {courtesy of my Mom}.
May: I discovered a few of my favorite local businesses in May, including Bolo Bakery, Chet’s Italian Ice, and Simpson & Vale. Stan and I visited some of his family in Long Island, I dyed my hair red, and I turned 24!
June: I did two great hair accessory DIY posts: one for yarn-wrapped headbands and one for braided fabric headbands. I celebrated turing 24 with some good friends during a role-playing murder mystery birthday party, took a stroll with Stan in downtown Glastonbury, and introduced some new summer soaps to my Etsy shop.
July: I made delicious red velvet cupcakes and blew up a watermelon with my family for Independence Day, Sani did a great French pedicure tutorial, I made my own beachy sea salt hair spray which became pretty popular, Jill & I teamed up to do a super fun Bohemian-inspired photo shoot, then we went to the final Harry Potter midnight showing, and I bought a perfect polkadot dress.
August: Mish and I made the most amazing vegan cupcakes and I discovered Priti NYC non-toxic nail polish & gave myself pink nails and turquoise toenails. I also attended the New York Renaissance Faire with some family and friends, and I dressed sailor-esque.
September: Stan and I had super-relaxing massages from Apricot Blossom Therapeutic Massage, I introduced American Pie and Pumpkin Pie cupcake soaps, and I made a list of things to do in New England during the fall.
October: I explored 25 ways to tie a scarf, rounded up a few great Halloween DIYs, had a wonderful weekend in Collinsville, scored a sweet vintage leaf belt from loveyvintage, and exhibited at my very first craft fair!
November: I introduced new products, got colorful with my sexy artsy floral skirt, exhibited at the Brazen Betties Indie Craft Fair, and had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family.
December: I met Rebecca Pickering from Like A Fresh New Penny, graduated!!!!!, made tra la las, and rocked red and green for Christmas Eve.
Phew, 2011 was a busy year!
By Sami, on January 2nd, 2012
Happy new year, readers! If you remember from last January, these were my 11 resolutions for 2011. Now that it’s 2012, it’s time to see how I measured up to my promises.
1. Get an apartment. Check! Stan and I did get an apartment. This resolution was kind of a gimme. See it here.
2. Learn to sew. Sort of check. Stan bought me a sewing machine for Valentine’s Day and while I’m very adept at threading it and I know how it works pretty well, I haven’t done as much as I would have liked to with it.
3. Knit more. I definitely knit more last year than in 2010, but it was mostly practice knitting, trying to learn new techniques. I am working on a sweet new baby scarf for Noah though {he is the baby in the dragon costume here}.
4. Exercise more. Mayya and I had a really great thing where we planned on going to the gym every Tuesday after classes. That happened 2-3 times. Then I was doing Zumba at home for a few weeks. Then I signed up for a gym membership again in November, and I only went to the gym once. Tsk, tsk, Sami!
5. Meditate. … That didn’t really happen either :(
6. Do Yoga. I did do Yoga quite a bit this year, but I did not keep my resolution to do it once a week.
7. Have more date nights with Stan. I think we did do more date nights this year, and we definitely made a habit of eating dinner together every night, which is excellent, but we also fought a lot more because we were living together.
8. Hang out with friends more. Happily, 2011 was a great year for my social life. While I shed connections with some people who were dragging me down, I became really good friends with positive and creative people like Jill and Mayya. I re-connected with Jordan, Michele, and Mish, and became closer to a few of Stan’s friends.
9. Visit Ben & Marcus again. I couldn’t visit Ben & Marcus again pretty much solely because I didn’t have the money.
10. Keep better track of my money. I haven’t started using Mint.com obsessively again, but I definitely have become better at managing my expenses and trimming back on needless spending.
11. More consignment. Check! I didn’t buy a whole lot of clothes this year, but almost all of what I did buy was from consignment stores. Plus, I started consigning some of my own clothes.
In short: I did not do so well keeping my resolutions. I could blame this on my crazy hectic school/work schedule, but that would be a cop-out. The truth is, I should have tried harder to keep commitments to myself and others, and I should have had more fun. I focused so much on doing well in school and finishing up my final year that I forgot to have fun. My 2012 focus? Relax and have more fun!
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