January 2013

Kelsi Vande Velden

Kelsi Van Velden is a huge source of inspiration for me. Not only is she a jungle babe (I mean just look at this shoot) but she also is the designer behind the insanely creative Pandeia. The brand has essentially created sundial watches for their customers, and you can tell a great deal of time and research goes into the final product, because each handmade piece comes out looking super rad.

Free People: Bike Girls - Part II

images via Free People

Bike Picnic Baskets

As if the Free People bike inspiration wasn't enough. How rad is this?? Now your bike can carry your lunch/dinner too. Complete with your food, cups, dishes, and eating utensils.

This wonderful idea is brought to you by creative Dutch designer Jeriël Bobbe. He created the pannier that will double as a compact picnic table, with two cushioned seats (see image below).

The one above, fits a wooden bar, dual speakers and a fold-out tray table, all tucked away neatly into the diamond frame of a bicycle. Now that's what I call picnicking in style! Is it too late to go ahead and add this amazing contraption to my Christmas list??

images via Velojoy

Free People: Bike Girls - Part I

images via Free People

Six Bands You NEED To Know!

Thousand Foot Krutch - "War of Change" If you haven't heard of Thousand Foot Krutch by now you definitely need to check them out. I tried to score an interview with them a while back, but unfortunately they were leaving to go on tour in Europe.

Halestorm - "I Miss The Misery" I love when women are in the forefront of rock bands, afterall my first concert ever was Evanescence, and Halestorm is no exception. They've been around since 2009 and are still making insanely amazing music.

10 Years - Wasteland 10 Years is one of those groups you can't help but fall in love with. They're an alternative metal group that has been around since 1999 and while this is one of their best known songs, I love all of their music.

IN THIS MOMENT - "Blood" This is another talented group with a female lead singer and while IN THIS MOMENT has definitely had some ups and downs since their start in 2005, they're back now with a completely new sound!

Young Guns - "Bones" Now it wouldn't be fair to showcase bands only from the U.S. and Young Guns is one of those groups hailing from the U.K. that I hope they're able to crossover to America A.S.A.P!
Evans Blue - "Beyond The Stars" Canadian group Evans Blue hails from Canada and they've been creating alternative music since 2005. They're another super talented group that I hope makes the jump across the pond soon!
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Thrift Shop Finds

My roommate and I cleaned up at the thrift store today. They had quite a few unique items that I just couldn't pass up. I'm always hunting for prints and interesting patterns, because these are the items that speak to me. If you have a statement top all you really need are basics to showcase your items. My favorite top is the bright printed floral one. I can hardly wait to put it on! I'd probably be wearing it today, but it kind of smells a little weird so I definitely need to wash it haha.

Happy Friday!

image via lashes & bones

Hope everyone is having an amazing Friday! I'm beyond excited for the three day weekend! My roommate and I are going finally going thrifting tomorrow! So I'll be sure to share my finds!

Hot Topic Thursday: Is America the Greatest Country in the World?

I stumbled across this video not too long ago. I really liked the dialogue in this discussion because it's so raw and honest. You can see how his words challenge the way we think, and lead the audience to question why it is that we believe what we believe. As American's I feel that we get coddled all the time, often times by the influential people in our life. Our teachers or parents will tell us how lucky we are to grow up in the ‘home of the free’. Yet, people from all over the world are just as lucky and often grow up in a similar situation to ours, in terms of freedom, if not a better one.

What did you think of the video? Has your opinion of America changed? Do you think America is the greatest country in the world? divider

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Children With Swag

I stumbled across Children With Swag the other day and upon seeing the first few pictures I was hooked! I ended up clicking through this tumblr for hours! These little tykes are dressed to the nines and all of them are extremely cute. So basically if you need some entertainment in your life and want to drool over some adorbale kiddos this is literally the perfect time waster :]

images via tumblr.

Is Destiny's Child Back Together??

If you haven't heard the rumors circling around the internet by now I'll let you know what's up. Apparently, Destiny's Child has teamed up with producer Pharrell to sing their first song together in eight years. The song "Nuclear" [above] has a kind of R&B feel, but I'm not all that in love with the track. Sure it sounds nice, but I thought they would come back with some fire or something! Not this sappy stuff, but hey I'm no musician. Now, many people are super excited to hear what else this group has come up with when they release their rather unexpected album Love Songs on the 29th. But after doing some research of my own on the album, I was disappointed to find that Love Songs is nothing more than a compilation of the trio's 'romantic' songs from 1997 to 2004 plus their new song "Nuclear".

Not the greatest plan for getting your music back on the map, but it does make for good publicity! After all the trio is set to perform together for part of Beyonce's half time show. Hopefully they pull this off because the acts they have been putting up there lately have been the reason I change the channel. Sorry (but not really) Madonna, Fergie, Tom Petty and everyone else. Ever since the infamous wardrobe malfunction of '04 (Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake) the show has kind of been a snooze-fest. Although I can't lie, I mostly watch the show for the commercials haha.

What about you guys though? Do you watch for the game, the commercials or the halftime show? divider

Location: Katy, TX

Tasty Tortilla Soup!

Just a quick recipe on how to make tortilla soup! I love this recipe because it involves hardly any cooking! Just chop up the veggies, add the broth, and viola! Instant soup.

Ingredients:

1 can of corn
2 Jalapeño Peppers
Red Chili Powder
1 can of Blackbeans
3 cans of Rotel (hot and mild)
Vegetable Broth
1 bussel of Cilantro
1 White Onion
3 Limes
4 Serrano Peppers
1 clove of Garlic

Directions:

Put the vegetable broth in a pot and turn on the heat to simmer.
Chop up all the vegetables.
Put the onions and peppers into the pot first.
Once they're tender start adding the other stuff.
Make sure you drain the corn and the beans before you add it to the pot, but keep the juice from the canned Rotel for flavor!
Add the chopped up cilantro and garlic.
Stir all the vegetables and raise the heat to boiling point.
Let the pot cook for 7 minutes or so, or until the onions are cooked to desired level of crunchiness
Add four or five sprinkles of red chili powder, and squeeze in the lime juice.
Stir.
Let cook for one minute and then your food is ready!
Feel free to garnish with extra cilantro or cheese.

Enjoy!

Untamed Youth.

images via Paul Ward

Sorry for not posting for so long! Things have been really crazy for me lately but I'm back now!

I stumbled across this website Dairy of Ward. It features the life of super talented photographer Paul Ward who's based in South Africa. I really liked these photos because they reminded me of how rowdy my friends and I got last night. We all got together to celebrate my sisters 21st birthday! The night kicked off at midnight and then things started to get really crazy. The thing was we were only in the bar for an hour or so? But somehow we ended up getting on karaoke and singing Vicente Fernadez, becoming best friends with the bartender, dancing all over the place, basically going crazy and having a kickass time. It was wicked fun and by some miracle no one woke up with a hangover this morning. Pretty amazing right? Especially since we discovered we had about 13 shots each. And i'm not talking bottom shelf stuff, the bartender made sure we were pretty liquored up with the four horsemen and el presidentes. I can't believe we were that intoxicated. Once I start only speaking in spanish that's how I know I'm done for the night haha. The total was a riduclous amount, the bartender would ask if we wanted to take a shot with him and then charge us for the shots! Including his own. So shady. Anyways, I hope everyone's having a good day! Stay awesome beautiful people.

Creepers

I've definitely been dressing darker lately. Maybe it's because I'm getting back into my angsty middle school days and listening to my favorite bands lately. Anyways, I've been wanting a pair of creepers for what seems like an enternity, but no way in hell am I dropping $70 to $100 bucks on a pair of shoes. I've been combing over eBay trying to find a decent pair & somehow I ended up at ASOS. I found a "knock off" pair on sale for $30 bucks and then googled for a coupon code and got 10% off. So I ended up getting them for $27! Score! I don't really care if they're not name brand. I have no shame.