9.27.13

I went on a bit of a shopping spree yesterday, so naturally I have to post a new outfit ;) I went a little out of my comfort zone with a printed blazer, but I think it's paying off well :)

9.26.13

I've seen some pretty interesting outfits that girls have been wearing to go out to bars...and most of them want to show an unnecessary amount of skin. From crop tops to micro mini skirts, most of them are overly suggestive and honestly, they have to be cold considering the temperature at night...haha. Here is my take on fall nights out.

Most of this outfit is about as affordable as anything else. The burgundy dress is $12.95 at H&M, scarf was $15 from Target (I miss target...), socks were $10 from H&M, bracelet and earrings were on sale at target. I said most of this outfit because my Arturo Chiang chocolate brown boots were a steeper $190 from Dillard's a couple years ago. They have lasted great and are super versatile, so definitely still worth it.

J

9.25.13

I've been spending a lot more time in grad school trying to look more professional and put together, so I'll probably be blogging some of my fashion on here in the future. It's been a little hard because my closet in Boston is maybe a tenth of the size of my Waco closet...but I'm making it work ;)

Here is my outfit of choice for today :) I love mixing neutrals and bright pattern...and who doesn't love sequins on an infinity scarf ;)

J

9.24.13

So I've been a little MIA since I've been in Boston because I've been so busy, but I have to say that I absolutely love living here! The city is full of excitement and things to do, and it's already starting to look a little like fall! Since I've neglected blogging, here are some pictures of life since I've been here :)

If you know me at all, you know I have to post pictures of my runs, so here is a view of downtown from along the Charles  River on my 9 miler this past Saturday. The weather was gorgeous!

I've also visited some interesting restaurants since being here...I can't remember what this place was called but they brought you your food and you cooked it yourself at the table! It was an interesting experience...(;

This past week I experienced my first Red Sox game at Fenway park, and they fortunately won! It's super convenient because it's only about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. I can't wait to go back, it was so fun!

Welcome to the view from the 52nd floor of Prudential tower! My friends and I went up the the restaurant to get drinks and check it out. Unfortunately we didn't eat because it was $24 per person just so sit at the table...so we opted for the bar.

And what's New England without some great fall fashion? It was actually cool enough outside for my to wear a blazer! (I'm loving this weather so far..) 

And here is today's outfit, loving the 50s outside that actually allows me to wear a fashionable jacket...sorry Texas ;)

J

9.3.13

So I've finally moved into my new apartment! It's tiny, but since I live alone it'll work ok :) so far, i love living in boston and it feels surreal to walk around knowing that i live in such an amazing place! here are some pictures of my new studio :)

Love,

J

8.20.13

So I've been a little m.i.a. this summer for  a couple reasons: either I had a million things happening at once or I had absolutely nothing going on. It's been a little rough going from zero to sixty and back constantly, but I have no real complaints. Fortunately, I am almost to a new chapter in life because next Thursday, I will load up a U-Haul trailer with my dad and set off on the three day trek to Boston, Massachusetts where I will begin my life as a masters student at Boston Conservatory. In preparing for this move, I wanted to make sure that despite the limited space in my tiny new apartment that it could and would still feel like home. Or as I like to call it, my own little oasis. Since I didn't own any of the furniture in my previous apartment, I have spent a lot of time finding pieces and giving them makeovers to fit my vision. Here are a few of the things I've been doing this summer: 

 

This is my new headboard. It is a 36x48 canvas with some fabric and burlap ribbon attached by staple gun. I'll hang it on the wall behind my bed.

You may recognize this dresser from an earlier post, but it's finally gotten its well deserved makeover. Some paint from vintage vibe in Mansfield and new knobs from hobby lobby make it super shabby chic. Here is an up close of the knobs:

I just love this color, so I also painted a small side table to go next to my bed!

Love,

J

7.20.13

So it's been a while since I posted anything on here because I have spent the last four weeks in Sewanee, TN at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. It's been an incredible experience being a part of the festival and I have had the privilege of working with so many great musicians and conductors.


Easily the most exciting thing was being selected as one of the concerto competition winners. There were about 70 people who auditioned for the competition and I was selected as one of the top 5. It was a surreal experience playing the Dvorak with an orchestra, and I learned so much from this experience.

In my time here, I also had the opportunity to sit principal under Maestro Carl St. Clair of the Pacific Symphony. He is probably the most inspiring conductor I've ever worked with in my life, and he is also  incredibly innovative and creative in his approach to running an orchestra.

6.18.13

One thing I love to do in my free time is search for new blogs to read and follow. I recently stumbled across the blog of an author that I've come to really enjoy because it offers daily food for thought. The post I'm going to share today is from earlier in the month, but it really hits home for me as I prepare to go to graduate school.

It addresses the issue of money and how much people (including myself) worry about it. 

The most eye opening part for me was this statement: "If you worry about money when you don't have it, then you'll worry about it when you have it." 

Totally true.

I just want to share this because it made me feel a little more at peace.

You can find the blog entry here!

6.16.13

Sorry I've been sort of MIA this past week. Between babysitting, moving, and preparing for a concerto competition life sort of got away from me. I do however have some fun things to share! (Excuse the poor picture quality as I am uploading from my phone lol)

So last weekend I was in Brehnam, TX for a friend's wedding and I had some downtime to go shopping! I found these marquee letters at a local antique shop for about a dollar a piece! I decided to use them to spell out a quote about running (surprise, surprise) in my new apartment this fall. Since living in Boston is extremely expensive, I'm looking for cheap, creative ways to decorate.

  

The next thing I found was actually at the Michaels here in Waco. I've always wanted to decorate using fun, shabby chic frames but never actually bought any because you can spend over $100 getting enough of them for what I wanted to do. I came across these on sale at Michaels and only spent $13 for all of them (you can't tell here, but some of them are even two packs).

I've also come to the conclusion that you can never have too many Nike shorts ;) 

They were on sale this week at Academy and I'm exited to say that I bought my very first pair of size smalls! A year ago at this time, my size large shorts were tight! Running has been so rewarding (despite the occasional injury lol) and I'm so excited to keep working so I can drop the last few pounds to my goal weight. I've lost a total of 17 pounds and went from a size 10/12 to a size 2/4. :)

J

6.7.13

     So I've been off of blogger for a few days because I have been working as a nanny for 8 hours a day to a 5 year old. Needless to say, I'm usually super tired by the time I get home. However, I have a few new things to post about!

    So most people don't realize it, but I'm a vegan. I try to eat only plant based foods, and most of the time I don't even use oils (sometimes you can't avoid them in restaurants, and the Lord knows I love popcorn). I eat vegan because it makes me feel really great. I have more energy and my running has improved drastically. A lot of people worry that on a plant based diet, you will have some kind of protein deficiency, but plant based foods provide more than enough proteins and other nutrients for a perfectly balanced diet. Because of my diet, I spend a lot of time cooking new foods from all kinds of different cultures and finding new recipes. This week I branched out to some middle eastern food! It's a dish called mujaddara (or mujadara..not sure on the spelling) and it basically consists of rice and lentils blended together and garnished with sauteed onions. Before adding the onions, you add both cinnamon and allspice to the lentils and rice. I was skeptical while I made it, but pleasantly surprised by the depth and richness of the flavor. From a health perspective, lentils are high in protein yet low in calories and are a great source of fiber.

I've also been experimenting on new foods I can snack on to create a healthier diet. (As much as I love popcorn, it's not the best option because of all the oil and salt) This week I bought some sweet twister peppers from HEB, and they were pretty good! I just chopped them up and ate them plain because these peppers are not spicy. They are great because they are a good source of nutrients such as vitamin A and C and are very low calorie. 

__

I have to say my favorite part of this week so far has been picking up my brand new pair of running shoes! For a runner, I'm pretty sure it's the equivalent of Christmas morning...(literally...I got running shoes last Christmas). I'm so excited because I pre-ordered this about a month ago because a brand new color came out this past weekend. These are Asics GEL- Kayano 19's, and I LOVE them. These shoes come with a pretty hefty price tag of $150, but it is worth it to invest in good running shoes that fit your foot well.

The Kayano series are a great stability shoe with good cushioning. I got these to replace my Kayano 18's for my birthday, but I had to wait because there was no way I would pass up these colors. Stability shoes are generally really boring to look at (although they have improved recently), so I had to snatch these once I knew they were coming. 

These will be the shoes I run my first marathon in, and I couldn't be more excited.

Sincerely,

6.2.13

One of my favorite parts of summer is finally having time to play sand volleyball. Sand volleyball is my second favorite sport (next to running, of course) and today I got to play my first few games of the summer :)

Second, I totally found a great new workout tank top! Work out clothes don't have to be grungy or dull,  they can be full of color and fun!

Oh, and sports bras can be awesome too! I highly recommend the nike pro series, they come in so many crazy colors and patterns.

I'm hoping to happen upon this one soon...


Happy workouts y'all!

6.1.13

Hey bloggers!

I spent the day with my mom exploring and shopping, and found some awesome things!

We started out at a place called Homestead Heritage where we got to walk around through the gardens and ate a delicious lunch :)

We both got the same thing, which is a veggie focaccia sandwich. Seriously, if you are ever out there, the bread is amazing...

Here are a few photos from walking around, it was really pretty :)


After Homestead, we went shopping at a few local antique style stores.
My first find was a ring that I absolutely adore.

Super cool right? Best part is that it was only $8.

The second, and more exciting thing I came across was a dresser that I am going to put in my apartment (more like efficiency) in Boston this fall!

Someone has painted over the original wood to make it white, so I figured why not paint it again? I want to make it a teal/turquoise color with some white or clear knobs (Hobby Lobby here I come!). Why turquoise? The whole theme of my room/future apartment revolves around the pictures, fabrics, and souvenirs that I have picked up in my travels, especially from Africa. I am also going to make a headboard for my bed using a canvas panel and stapling some fabric from both Kenya and Ghana. The turquoise will really help bring all the different colors from the headboard and pillows on my bed and pictures from Kenya together.

Cost of this gem? $150. Not too bad for an actual wood dresser :)

I want it to look somewhat similar to this, but obviously without the extra detailing on the front of the drawers.

Onto clothing! My mom and I went to Kohls and a few other places and found some stuff.

First, this fun tank top!

And at Marshalls, I found a striped shirt that I really liked. I'm a huge fan of the 3/4 sleeve shirts and like I said yesterday, stripes are in right now ;)

(By the way, this cute shirt was only $13 - Marshall's y'all)

Sincerely,

5.31.13 pt. 2

I've been looking over some photos from the last few years and I came across pictures I took in Kenya in 2011. I loved Africa and I'm determined to go back as soon as an opportunity presents itself, but for now I can just post some of what I saw on safari! I'll add more photos of Nairobi in the coming weeks.

 This is my all time favorite place on the face of this earth-the Maasai Mara. The Mara is essentially the northern tip of the Serengeti plains and gets its name from the Maasai tribe of Kenya. I'm pretty sure I could retire here and be completely content. 

We were really lucky to come across a group of cheetahs (who were not in a very good mood, might I add). My guess is that they are all siblings, because I don't think they generally live in groups otherwise. The picture seems really close right? A lot of the animals in the Mara are used to cars being around, so that allows us to get pretty close! 

This was probably my favorite moment on safari because we got to witness a pride of lionesses hunting for zebra. As gruesome as it is, 1) it's the circle of life (gotta love the lion king) and 2) you could spend months on safari and not get to witness this so the fact that it happened on the first ride out is unbelievable. The grass is blurry because we were literally driving alongside the lioness as she was running after the zebra. It was need to see them working as a team and using our cars as cover so that they could sneak up on their prey.

And the result of the hunt ended in this:

And the adults were soon to be joined by the cubs.

Later we came across a herd of elephants (this was only a few of them) and as happy as I was to see them, I don't think they reciprocated my excitement... ;)

There is nothing like a sunset in the Mara, I miss those.

And on the way back, we came across this interesting cargo...who knew you could strap live goats down to the top of your car to transport it?

Okay...so technically this place isn't the Maasai Mara, but I thought it was appropriate to add it to the bunch :) 

Love,