silky hair treatment

i don't know any girl who wouldn't want silky hair. i mean, frizz-free hair that is really soft to run your fingers through, feels like silk, and smells amazing is pretty much what i say when i describe my ideal hair situation.

i also am a product junkie. wait, let me revise that. i don't have a ton of products that i put in my hair every day or have a complicated ritual to get my hair ready everyday. but i am always trying new products that will make my routine simple with maximum result. 

my routine is: shampoo, conditioner, (towel dry hair), then argan oil.

simple, right? 

the products i use now make my hair super silky (aka, all i want to do is touch my hair all day) and wonderful smelling.

after trying A BUNCH of different shampoos, conditioners, leave-in conditioners, lotions, and a bunch of other products, i am happy share with you a combination of products you would be remiss if you did not try.  

first off is the shampoo/conditioner duo:

surprised? i have this thing against the suave brand where i think it's super cheap and will never work.

i picked these up when i they were on sale ($2.47) at wal-mart and i didn't expect much. but THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!! the smell is great and they really live up to the keratin name they carry on the bottle. these are supposed to help maintain your hair once you have the keratin treatment done, but for me they totally calmed down my frizz and made my hair smell amazing. they also help smooth your hair and contribute to the softness.

you can buy it at wal-mart or amazon online (at amazon you buy 2 shampoo bottles for around $7)

after you towel dry your hair, apply a VERY LITTLE amount of this:

a little bit goes a long way with this product, which is great, because it costs $7.99 at Target. (which is expensive for me)  this also has an amazing smell (ask my husband, he'll tell you) and it is wonderful if you have thicker more unruly hair. it makes your hair super-de-duper silky. 'nuff said.

if you want to read more about this product, go here and you will probably buy the item off the website after reading the reviews. 

so that, ladies (and perhaps a few gentlemen) is my hair routine. i don't blow dry, flat iron, or curl my hair (although i've heard that all 3 products work miracles with heat tools). these 3 products cost a total of about $13 and i've had them for months. the oil i've had for at least 6 months and it still has quite a bit in the bottle. 

the best of bacon

i pretty much love bacon. it is sosososososososo good. it may surprise you that i did not have bacon until i was in college. (yay! sheltered food diet growing up)

i also did not have chocolate until i was 16 years old. that also may surprise you.

however, unlike my reaction to chocolate, i loooooved bacon from the minute it crunched in my mouth and the smoky, salty wonderfulness filled my mouth.

i had 12 pieces of bacon that day. in one meal. breakfast.

that being said, you can imagine my delight at finding these wonderful pins on pinterest.

please, be my guest and let your eyes and heart feast on the wonderfulness and humor below.

source

source

source

i'd have to say, it would be my dream if i was paid to review different brands and kinds of bacon. except for turkey bacon. that stuff should not be allowed to be called bacon. it shames the name from whence it came. anyone else agree? ;)

are you a bacon person too?

new glasses!

have you guys heard of zenni optical? it's sooooo amazing if you wear glasses- you should check them out! [ok. that's all i'm going to say about that. ] 

both karl and i ordered new glasses a little over a week ago, and they came in the mail today. i really like my frames- i think they're trendy and more of what my style is (or is becoming).

earrings: charming charlies

glasses: zenni optical

jacket: marshalls

super-comfy-colored pants and belt: old navy 

shirt: target

shoes: chinese laundry via tj maxx (remember when i got these last year for like $3?)

we went outside and took some pictures, also featuring my new colored pants from old navy (yeah! scored on clearance with the belt!)

also notice that my hair is getting longer and i can finally put it in a bun with no bobby pins!

yay for longer hair. mine grows so... slowly...

i think i may start wearing my glasses more than my contacts. 

i really like that this season's colors are bright and bold.  they just look so happy! these colored pants (one of the best $10 i spent) are ALMOST more comfortable than my yoga pants! can you believe that?   crazy. they're easy to wear- you can roll them up or down and they look great either way.

what's your go-to spring/summer piece?

(i bought crocs) shhhh!

although the fashion world may never forgive me, i bought some crocs. you know- the brand that became famous like 10 years ago for making the world's most ugly, most comfortable shoe. probably mario batali helped them become famous as well. (you know,  the super-famous chef) he wears the orange ones all the time...in the kitchen, on tv, on the red carpet. 

you can see by this picture that he had to coordinate them with an orange tie so they wouldn't look absolutely ridiculous.  (ok, so they still look horrible)

just so you know, the original ones looked like this:

pretty horrible, right? but i swear on bacon, they are like the world's most comfortable shoe. i actually had the green pair (bottom right) in college. i wore them pretty often. oh and after that year, there was an ACTUAL RULE made that crocs were NOT appropriate for classroom attire and you could get demerits if you wore them to class. (what?!?!?! yes. it's true.)

fast forward like 6 years. crocs realizes even though they have the worlds most comfortable shoe, everybody who wears them basically looks like they're headed to a clown audition and barnum & bailey.

enter: new designs.

to be honest, i don't really have any summer shoes that are not 1. high heels, or 2. platform wedges, or 3. wearable in the rain (aka, not flat sandals, flip-flops, etc), oh and 4. also comfortable for miles of walking a day.

after searching lots of athletic apparel stores and trying on expensive "comfort" shoes (think born, merril, sanuk, and such) i finally tried on some crocs at cabela's. so. comfortable. like so, SO comfortable. unfortunately they didn't have these babies in the color i wanted, so i had to order them online. 

so cute, right? i love the color and how the inside is really colorful and most importantly that it's super comfy. the comfort part is the most important because these shoes are 1 of 2 pairs i will be bringing with me to europe this year. the other pair will be teva's just fyi.

when looking for a shoe that you will walk 5-10 miles a day in, it has to be "oh, wow, my foot could NEVER get uncomfortable in this shoe- feels like heaven!" you cannot get a shoe that you feel like "oh, this is really comfortable." believe me, there will be a time when the heaven shoes will become uncomfortable, but it will be much further down the road than you "really comfortable" shoes.

anyways, i am so excited to finally have these shoes. after a long trip from ontario, then california, and finally connecticut (can you tell i was tracking these babies everyday since i got the "your item has shipped" email?) i am happy to be wearing them.  unfortunately, crocs do not carry 1/2 sizes so for these i had to order a size up.  

yayah for new shoes! what are your most comfortable pair of shoes?

fav. food blog

guys, i think i found my favorite food blog yet. 

go check it out.

the raspberry buttermilk cake cake is de. licious.

smitten kitchen

you're welcome.

balcony garden

this year i started a mini (and by mini i mean a couple pots on the porch) garden. when you live in the city, it's pretty much all you can do. well, there are community gardens, but i am not that adventurous to have a plot and actually grow things far away. (aka, if i have to put on shoes, it's far away)

i'm super ocd with these plants. i check on them like 5 times a day and move them according to the sunlight and feel their dirt for moisture. i'm watering them, trimming them and i have a strong feeling they won't last the entire summer. (i'm super unlucky with plants of any kind.)

 here they are!

on the far left is ROSEMARY- supposed to last all summer and come back next year. love perennials. i'm afraid to trim it too much, so i'm just letting it be for now.

next are 2 LEAF LETTUCE plants i bought from whole foods. they were a bit tinier when i first got them and have grown a bunch! i don't know how to harvest the leaves....and i don't want to kill them...anybody know how?

in the front are my CHIVES. these survived from last summer and i am completely surprised. i had cut them all off a couple days before ( i read that was good for them) so now they're are all really short.

on the right to the back is MINT. it's kind of like a weed, but still not growing fast enough for me. this is also a perennial (yay!).  the dried leaves make a wonderful tea. 

on the right is my BASIL and 2 more LEAF LETTUCE. i originally had these on the other side of the porch, but some bug was eating it. moved it to the other side of the porch and bingo. problem solved. guess lazy bugs live on my porch. fine with me. 

 leaf lettuce! 

can you see the 3 little green sprouts? that's basil i planted from seed! i thought it was never going to sprout but a month later, it's finally showing! 

rosemary. how do i trim this? snip off from the top? sides?

basil and leaf lettuce. both were started as littler plants. i don't really haven any faith in my ability to grow from seed. and i don't like waiting forever from them to sprout.

what do you grow?

sandwich love

if you know me super-well, you know that i love a good sandwich. a really good out-of-the-ordinary, yummy ingredients sandwich. 

most of my favorite sandwiches include bacon. um, can't have anything delicious without that. 

i also really like avocado. i once ate guacamole for breakfast. so. good.

anyways, i love a good sandwich for lunch. it's super-fast, filling and yummy.

i'm all about improvising in the kitchen. that's what makes cooking (and ultimately eating) so much fun!

i constantly am trying new combinations. i think i should experiment more with different types of bread. this sandwich was on a slice of homemade white bread. which didn't rise like it should have, so it was more like french-loaf size. 

step one: cut a slice of bread

smear on something delicious: in this case a roasted eggplant and red pepper spread from trader joe's

add some arugula

add some bacon 

step two: add a fried egg

and half a sliced hass avocado

eat with a side of yummy crackers.

oh guys, i could never go on a diet that didn't let me eat bread, pasta, crackers, rice or any grains. i would not. know.what. to. eat.

seriously.

oh, and if you have a Trader Joe's near you, get these crackers. they're like dope.

not that i know what that's like, but Tom Haverford from Parks and Rec is always saying that about awesome, addictive stuff. 

what's in your favorite sandwiches?

i'm back!

wow. it's been a long time since i've blogged ANYthing. 'bout a month my the date of my last post. before you think i deserted all humanity just for the fun of it, let me explain: for some odd reason i ran out of space on my blogger account. (perhaps i upload too many large pictures?) i looked into relocating my pictures to another storage site and even starting another blog under a different publisher. but alas, my lazy bones didn't do fbi-quality research and i ended up (finally) paying a yearly fee to get more space on my blog. since you probably have no idea what i've been up to these days (unless you're like my mom or something) i'll give you a little update.

-my husband had his graduate cello recital and a bunch of people showed up from our church. it was really nice to have all of them there.

-i decided to have a nice little reception for after his recital. we had lots of little sweets including:
chocolate strawberry oreo cake
coconut lime sugar cookies
lemon bars
chocolate covered pretzels
chocolate mints
chocolate peanut butter cups
veggie tray
chocolate covered oreos
chips and salsa
cupcakes
that was a busy baking day.

-his parents drove out from Minnesota and stayed with us for 5 days.

-we drove to a wedding in South Carolina and had a blast seeing old friends and getting away for a couple days.

-i bought plants to start a little balcony garden. my chives survived the winter so my little collection now includes:
rosemary
basil
chives
mint
and 4 lettuce plants.

i may be blogging about this soon.

-the weather is definitely warming up. yesterday was 89F. What?!?!?!?! yes, i live in the northeast.

-found the perfect hair products/combination. may also be blogging about this soon.

-ordered my first pair of crocs online. (eeks! i paid full price for shoes! i never do that.)

-karl and ordered new pairs of glasses. can't wait for those to come either! (i hope they look good)

-my mom ordered me new makeup from faire organic. also waiting for that to come in the mail.

-we planned out our summer. hello europe!

-read a really good post on blogging....it talked about how when people only blog about the awesome stuff that's going on in their lives it gives a really skewed perception of real life. i'm gonna be really real with you guys. when my plants die and when my kitchen is an explosion of mess i may photograph it for you. you're welcome.

-i finished the hunchback of notre dame. spoiler alert: everyone dies.

-still not done with the hobbit, by the way.

-saw the hunger games on opening day. wept through the entire movie. forgot tissues, so my sweater sleeves were soaked.

-oh and most recently, ate a filet mignon steak for dinner. and now i'm on the couch blogging. i'll probably only get up to have some ice cream later.

ps. i'm not really as lazy as i pretend to be. but sometimes i am. like now.