A Game of Tag

I was so excited to see Brooke had tagged me! This is my first time being tagged here in blog world. I think this is a really fun one, because we learn so much about each other :) I learned that Brooke is amazingly awesome and loves mint chocolate chip from baskins!

What is your current obsession?
Three words for you:
Epic. Pet. Wars.





What is your current favorite memory?
Oh wow... So many amazing ones to pick from! How about this one from tonight...

Getting all sanzzied up and going out for a romantic dinner with Ryan. Then going to the park at twilight. Walking, talking and swinging on the swingset. What a great night!

Starbucks or Peet's?
As long as I can get a White Chocolate Raspberry latte, I'm good to go!


What's for dinner?
Pasta House! Love this place so much... I have so many amazing memories involving this place. They even catered our wedding :)

What would you eat for your last meal?
Vegetable dinner from O'Hana. It's pure heaven! I promise I'll take pics next time I go :)





What's the last thing you bought?
Lunch for me, my mom and sister! Girls afternoon out, ya know.


What are you listening to right now?
Ryan playing Plants vs. Zombies haha


What is your favorite ice-cream flavour?
Chunky Monkey! I love to sit down and eat the whole container!! Ahhh, the advantages of having the metabolism of a caffeinated squirrel...





What do you think of the person who tagged you?
I think Brooke is adorable, quirky and all around fabulous! I feel like we have loads in common and can always count on a smile from reading her blog :) I just wish she lived by me so we could be shopping buddies!!

What was your favorite toy growing up?
I adored Littlest Pet Shop and the original Polly Pockets! I had sooo many of those things... 80's/90's had the best toys ever!

If you could go anywhere in the world
for the next hour, where would you go?
Parrot Cay in Turks & Caicos. A hour there will rejuvenate you for years! (But it apparently can't help you hold a camera straight. This was before I'd taken up photography...)

Which language do you want to learn?
Spanish! It was my dad's first language, but he never taught me. Now I wish I spoke it fluently...

What's your favorite quote (for now)?

Reason. Season. Lifetime.

Big thank you for Sarah to telling me this quote. It has made such a difference in my life! It tells you that some people are brought into your life for a reason, maybe to teach you something about yourself or to show you something about life. Some people are brought into your life for a season and even if them leaving your life hurts you, you know that it was meant to be. Lifetime is for amazing people like Sarah and Ryan, who I know without a doubt will be in my life for me whenever needed, no matter what happens.

What is your favorite colour?
ooo... Toughie! Maybe yellow? I'm pretty drawn to that lately.


What is your favorite piece
of clothing in your own wardrobe?
My new destroyed jeans! Luv 'em!

What is your dream job?
Professional photographer! I love taking pictures and capturing moments that you might otherwise miss. Nothing makes me happier than taking someones photo and having it show, not only their outer beauty, but their inner beauty and personality!

Or a stylist... I love clothes and love putting outfits together for people! I believe having clothes, hair, and accessories that expresses who you are is very important. I love doing this for all my friends and family, hopefully they don't mind too much... haha

What is your worst habit?
Probably over thinking things and worrying myself sick about things that don't really matter... Or not keeping up with housework... But I'm making a lot of progress in that department! I think I've hit my groove or something...

If you had £100 now, what would you spend it on?
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8!! Gotta love the low aperture, gotta love the low price. And of course, every photographer needs a "niffy fifty" in their bag :)





Do you admire any one's style?
I admire so many girls style everyday just walking down the street! lol But as far as celebs go - I wouldn't mind swapping clothes with Rachel Bilson, Keira Knightley or Vanessa Hudgens!


Describe your personal style?
Since the end of last year to this Spring, I've changed a lot as a person and made a lot of good and needed changes to my life. I'm kinda in the middle of a style change to reflect that. I want to my outside to reflect what I feel and who I am on the inside. So far I'm really liking all the changes :)

Right now I've got kind of an indie chic socal with a bit of 60's vintage thing going on. Maybe... I dunno how to define it! You tell me lol

What are you going to do after this?
Go watch tv and snuggle with Ryan! And I'm going to see UP!!!! (tomorrow... but still, I'm stoked!)

What are your favourite movies?
Here are my current top 5 movies.

1) Star Trek! Yes, I am a trekkie. At the end of the movie I sat there and almost cried because it was so amazing. Seeing my favorite characters portrayed so perfectly and those famous classic lines delivered anew *bliss*

2) The Dark Knight - It's awesome. 'Nuff said!

3) Casino Royale - The actors, the sets, the wardrobe. Amazing!

4) Pillow Talk - A 1959 gem that even Ryan (who doesn't like old movies) loves!

5) The Ice Age Series - I cannot wait for the new one! Scratte in the new one looks and acts, just like Twiggy.

What is your favourite fruit?
So many choices... I'll say a crisp white peach! Nothing beats that in the summer. Or watermellon... That's pretty epic as well.


What inspires you?
People who beat the odds
Big cities
People who are true to themselves regardless what other people think
Beautiful parks
The ocean
Genuine people who truly care
Zoos
Stary nights
A truly good movie

Your favorite book?
I love books! I have so many favorites... The one I'm reading right now is Eclipse from the Twilight Saga. That's my favorite of the four!


Do you collect something?
I have so many little collections... As a young girl I collected rocks! And marbles... and teddy bears... and vintage buttons... and anything I could get my little hands on! haha

Now I just have a mini-sized perfume collection.


What is your favorite smell?
My new Cherry Blossom perfume!! I usually buy pricey high-end perfumes - but this one is amazing!! It mixes perfectly with my body chemistry.


What are you most proud of?
I'm really proud that I've learned to stand up for myself and be true to myself. I don't let people push me around anymore!

What do you like most about yourself?

Probably my ability to be friends with anyone!

What is your go-to nail polish color?
Maybelline Express Finish in Racey Red. Goes with everything, and dries crazy fast! And it makes short nails look amazingly chic, which is good for this bass player.

1) Respond and rework. Answer the questions on your blog. Replace one question that you dislike with a question of your invention and add one more question of your own.

2) Tag eight folks

Brooke and I hang with the same blogging crowd, so I didn't tag any of the awesome gals she did. Not that it's a rule that you can't! I just did it this way to spread the love a bit more :) But I wanted to say why, so they didn't think they were unloved haha

I'm tagging these amazing chicks:

Sarah @ If my life were a blog post...
Maegan @ ...love Maegan
Violet @ The Quiet Life of Violet
Gigi @ love, milla jane
Anne @ Six Gun Annie
Dana @ My Simple RaNdOmNeSs!
Haley @ elizabeth haley
Lorianne @ One Minute at a Time

I wanna tag everyone! I hate picking... So if you read all the way through this - considered yourself officially tagged :) If you give it a try post a link in the comments. You know we all wanna see!

Where It All Came From

Oh gosh, I can't believe I forgot to include links, let alone the store the stuff came from! I feel like I failed blogging 101 haha Thank you all for your sweet comments and glad you guys like the stuff so much you wanna know where to find it :)

White Blouse - dELiA*s

Destroyed Jeans - dELiA*s

Shoes - Jessica Simpson Camila in Antique Natural Leather

Orange Floral Top - Forever 21

White Beater Tank - Forever 21 ($3.50 and loads of different colors!)

Shorts - dELiA*s

Koi T-shirt - Urban Outfitters

Grey T-shirt - Urban Outfitters

Wolverine T-shirt - Urban Outfitters

Giraffe T-shirt - Forever 21

Plaid Shirt - dELiA*s

Fab Satin Hair Bow Bobby Pin - Forever 21 ($1.50 for 2!)

Braided Print T-shirt - American Eagle (also in that outfit Seven jeans and Ann Taylor Loft espradrills)

Yellow Dress - Urban Outfitters (sold out in the yellow, sorry girls...)


Thank you all again for the sweet comments and all the new follows!! I'm so glad that you liked everything!!

What's In Those Bags?!

It's about time I made this post! I kept meaning to take pics of my new clothes, but first my batteries died, and then things got busy. So here they are! The photography is just horrible... I have bad bad bad lighting in my bathroom and hallway... *cringes*

This is one of my new favorite outfits!! The first night I wore this out, I got a compliment on the jeans, so I was happy :)

Better shot of the shoes! Any idea how hard it is to take a picture of your own shoe? It's hard, believe me!

eek, this one turned out way too warm! But the shirt is amazinggggg! Quick tip, if you want a great beater tank, go to Forever 21. They're only $3.50!! Crazy, right?

I've got a thing for Koi fish. And pale colors. So this shirt was made for me! Oh, and how awesome are these shorts?? I'd been wanting a pair like this really bad, and finally found them in my size. Score!



Trying out the tucked in style. I think I like it! And I love Urban Outfitters t-shirts...



Vintage. Japanese. Wolverine. Yeah, this shirt rocks.



Loveee this shirt - and my little cream hair bow :)

The camera strap and my hand blocked some of the detail... Stock photo saves the day!



Lovee this top!! So comfy but chic. I wore it out to dinner in Kansas City (the day I bought it haha)



Some of you might remember this from a post a while back! I'm so happy to have this dress!! I forgot to get a pic of it... So once again, stock picture saves the day!



Giraffe in heart shaped glasses. Coolness indeed.

I was out of body wash, so I popped in Bath & Body Works to see if anything caught my fancy. I lucked out and they were having a sale! Buy a perfume get a body wash free :) I decided on this fabulous Cherry Blossom scent. Mmmm, I love it!

So that my friends, sums up my shopping! I hadn't been able to go shopping for a while, but since Ryan got a fabulous promotion I was given free reign. It was quite funny though. Since I had only window shopped for a while, it took me a bit to get out of that mindset. Ryan had to practically force me to buy things at first! But once I get started... Uh oh!

"Weekend" Getaway part 2

Day two began with us heading over to Zona Rosa - yet another outdoor shopping/dining district! They had some of my favorite stores like Forever 21, DSW, and dELiA*s. The weather was perfect for strolling around in the sun. I sadly didn't get as many pictures as the day before because I was plum worn out from all the activities from the day before...





I've got to give a little kudos to Ryan here - The guy was amazing! I shopped allllll day long. Looked at every single item in Forever 21 (and you know just how many items they have!) and tried on at least 30 shoes of a similar style at DSW, and the never complained once!! How amazing is that?? He gave great opinions and even helped me find some great pieces I'd missed. He's the best! What can I say :)



He was rewarded with an amazing lunch and drinks at Bravo Cucina Italiana! It was a great resturant and now I'm wishing they had one in Springfield. It's a nice mix of fine and casual dining and has amazing fresh-made food with great presentation.

We both got the Mezza Ravioli Insalata - which makes a great lunch because it's half an order of their cheese ravioli (housemade ricotta & parmesan ravioli striped with basil-pine nut pesto and cream tomato sauces over alfredo) and a side salad. And as a nice refresher from the simmery hot day, we both got mojitos :)



Later in the day we meandered on over to One Nineteen, which is the KC metro areas latest slice of shopping heaven. It has a very upscale boutique feel about it, which I loved. I pretty much died and went to heaven while in Crate & Barrel and West Elm... I prolly could have dropped 10k easily haha

They also had the cutest little frozen yogurt bar Mochi-yo. We of course couldn't resist and had to get some! Yummy stuff...



So that concludes our adventures of the week. We later headed home and enjoyed Sonic cranberry slushies and tatter tots for dinner midway on the trip home. Perfect end to a perfect trip!

Tomorrow I will finally post pics of my haul. Keep an eye out - there's some cute stuff!

"Weekend" Getaway part 1

This week Ryan and I took a little "weekend" trip up to Kansas City for some shopping, eating out, and just having fun relaxing. I say "weekend" because this trip was in the middle of the week. All the shopping districts we were wanting to go to were outdoors, so we waited for the perfect weather. Wow, what a great decision that was! Nothing beats shopping til your hearts content on a beautiful summer day :)

We first headed over to Country Club Plaza, which is just amazing!




It was designed in 1922 and has beautiful Spanish architecture.


They have over 150 stores and dozens of restaurants. It's a great place for both window shopping, and actual shopping. Having a wide range of stores from Tiffany & Co. to American Eagle. They also had the most adorable specialty food shop, I was ready to buy the place out!



They also have oodles of fountains and fun statues like these penguins :) This is for you Sarah!





And of course since this was a trip for shopping... We picked up a few things :)



I was going to include pics of all my haul in this post, but my camera battery died! So you'll have to wait... But keep an eye out, cause I got some rad stuff!



We stayed at the most adorable hotel & spa ever. It's actually a historic hotel that has completed a total renovation into the chic and green Q Hotel + Spa. It might not be the biggest most luxurious hotel I've stayed at, but it as a million amenities and I felt right at home! Best part... Free made to order omelets!






For dinner we went to Uno Chicago Grill. We'd recently seen it on the Food Network, and wanted to see if it lived up to the hype. WOW, did it ever!!



We of course, had to order their deep dish pizza. After much debating, we ordered the Four Cheese - mozzarella, cheddar, romano and feta with basil pesto and plum tomatoes (my favorites all in one pizza!) I still dream about the flaky delish crust...



After dinner we headed back to the parking garage, when I had the brilliant idea to head up to the top story and get some night shots. I've never really done night photography, so I was excited to mess around a little.


I was extremely proud of this skyline style shot. I had to use a crazy long shutter speed (2 seconds!) - and I have no tripod, so that was me bracing against a thin rail atop a very very high parking garage!



And that pretty much concludes the first day of our trip :) Check back Monday for part 2!

Epic Pet Wars

I have a confession to make. I've been bitten by the by the MMORPG bug... And I'm showing that I'm a nerd by knowing what MMORPG (also called MMO, MMOG, etc) means. For those of you who don't know what it means, I'll shed some light on the subject. It stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Whew... That's a mouth full! Hence the scads of abbreviation used for it.

Some of the most common of these include, of course World of Warcraft. And most recently I believe the world of social networking has been taken over by Mobsters... I've never played any of these games. Never seen the appeal... Then while browsing the top free apps on my iPod, I saw it! Epic. Pet. Wars.

The cute little animals totally caught my eye and seeing as it's a free app, I just had to install it. That and I'm a sucker for games where you can adopt cute little pets :)

Friends, let me introduce you to my cute little warriors!





I love using strategy in this game (as you're supposed to). I'm always plotting the best and most efficient ways to level up... And so far so good! These screen shots were taken last night, and since then my careful plotting has taken little EmmyBear to a level 9 and IndieBindi to a level 8!

Seriously - addictive, cute and fun! I urge you all to give this game a try, it's free and a great way to pass some time. If you've got an iPhone/iPod grab the app, and if you don't head over to the website. Oh, and since I'm in desperate need of a posse... Please add me using the friend code braynl :)

Shame on me!

I feel I owe you all an apology for the serious lack of blogging going on here! It was one of those weeks that lots of crazy stuff happened, some of it good, a lot of it fairly crummy... And I know you all don't want to hear about that junk!

But I have lots of exciting stuff going on this week that I promise to blog about! And get some more recipes up :)

Now that I've taken care of that... I will continue with my regular random blogging.

PS Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments! They always make my day :)

My kind of Saturday

Today was a good day. Due to rainy, rainy, rainy weather we decided to take a cozy and laid back approach to Saturday night out.

No a-list dining tonight. I wanted my version of comfort food! Dinner at my favorite deli. Oh, and the big tv was set on HGTV! How awesome is that??

I got the veggie sandwich, vegetarian chili and the best pickles you will ever eat! Unless you're Ryan, who hates pickles, hence me having two haha Ryan got a delish Panini and mashed potatoes, and helped me finish off my chili. What would I do without him? Oh, and I got an amazing huge fresh baked white chocolate & macadamia nut cookie, but forgot to get a picture...






Then we headed out to Barnes & Noble. Where we snatched up all sorts of awesome books and curled up at coffee shop with them. Mmmm, talk about a great way to enjoy a stormy day! Due to his work, Ryan was drawn to all the marketing/business books - and due to being a guy, he was drawn to the latest Lee Child book lol

I collected a variety of photography books (of course!) and Confessions of a Shopaholic :) I bought Confessions of a Shopaholic, but decided to be content reading the photography books in the store for the time being. Saving all I can for our Kansas City trip :)





Out of all the photography books, this was one of my favorite. The photos were beautiful and I loved how they explained all the technique!





Oh yes, and Ryan's a pyromaniac... And I was proud of my nighttime lighting :)



All in all, a great Saturday :) What have you all been up to?

Pizza Night!

I love pizza... Love it! And Ryan, he loves pesto. I do mean loves it! Toss those amazing things together and what do you get? A delish pesto, roma, fresh mozzarella pizza!

To make this extra helpful to all you girls with busy lives, I'm going to include time saving short-cuts that can be added to make this almost as quick and easy as delivery!

First of all, start off with your favorite pizza dough. I've always had good luck with this recipe:

3 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup warm water
1 package dry yeast (1 Tbsp)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 cup water
Combine salt and flour. Dissolve the yeast in warm water; let sit for 10 minutes. Add the oil, honey, water, and yeast mixture to the flour. Stir. Knead for 5 minutes. Let rest in a warm place for an hour. Stretch dough and place on an oiled sheet (don't oil the sides of the pan so that the dough will adhere and stay stretched). Top with sauce, cheese, etc. Bake at 425 deg.

Quick & Easy Tip: Just grab a Pillsbury thick pizza crust from your favorite supermarket, it tastes great! And no one will know but you, promise!




Now take several dollops of pesto and spread it around. I didn't really measure, just put it on until it's how you like it!

Quick & Easy Tip: Use a pesto from a jar. Sometimes they're even yummier than fresh-made! And they save so much time...




Now thinly slice some Roma tomatoes (I believe I used almost 2 for this). Make sure you slice them nice and thin, otherwise they'll make the pizza watery. Also slice up some fresh Mozzarella - once again make thin slices.

Quick & Easy Tip: Have your husband chop! Other than that... I'm not sure how to make this step quicker or easier lol




Now just lay the Mozzarella evenly across the pizza. Don't use too much, a little goes a long way and you don't want to lose that wonderful pesto flavor! Then lay the tomatoes on top and you're almost done.




I lightly tossed some Feta and Parmesan to add even more flavors. It would still be delish without it, but I'm a sucker for Feta. I love the tangy flavor!

Quick & Easy Tip: Be like me and use the Parmesan out those plastic tubs! I wanted to use fresh, but I didn't have any on hand... It still tasted amazing!




Now just follow the directions that go along with whatever dough you use and you will shortly have an amazing, mouth-watering dinner! Tastes extra yummy when severed with a salad and Vitamin Water 10 in the Lemonade flavor...