Cleanse

    Lately, I have been doing some reevaluations in my life. I am very overwhelmed about everything that will be happening this year. This year I wanted to start fresh and be more aware of my surroundings and enjoy all of the good things that come my way. I'm not going to lie, but I spend a lot of time on the computer. It distracts me a lot from my work and i definitely plan on spending a lot less time online in the months to come. I also decided to delete my facebook for various reasons. It's not like I hate people, it's that some people who i was "friends" with on facebook were not my actual friends. I want people to put in effort into wanting to see me or do things. I feel that personal contact in my life has diminished a lot and I'm trying to change that. I'm also trying to get people out of my life who either don't appreciate me or take advantage of me. I'm cleansing my life. 
     I have, within the past two years, changed more dramatically than I could have ever expected. I had been looking through old photos of me and my friends from high school and literally did not recognize the person there with my face. I dont even know how to say all this without being completely straight forward. I've changed inside and out. I lost (roughly) 70 pounds from the time I started college until now. I hadn't been checking my weight frequently, but i decided to last week for the hell of it. I have not been this small since I was about 14, and even then, the jeans i wore at that age are now loose on me. I don't want to be completely overjoyed by this because I still want to be at a healthier weight, but god damn, when you get to the point where you can actually see a change it feels amazing. And I've noticed since I became a vegetarian at the beginning of this year, I feel ten times better. I didn't just stop eating meat, I picked up eating healthier foods. I haven't eaten anything processed in a month and have been eating mostly fruits and vegetables and whole grains, and trying out new recipes and discovering new foods I never even knew existed. 
    And I'm finally living my biggest dream to live in France and travel around Europe this May. I'm going to be an au pair and live with a family for around 3 months and then start classes at the Université de Lyon. There's a handful of people who have been extremely supportive and inspired me and I just want to give them all big hugs and tell them how much they mean to me, but I'm going to give myself some more time because I want to do something nice for each of them. Well, if you read this or follow my blog at all (looking at my follower count it doesn't seem like too many), thank you and I hope you stick around for all of the adventures that are coming my way.

Je ne sais pas

My Boo ( Balam Acab remix) by Ghost Town DJ's

Twin Sister

Last Night I saw Twin Sister play in Tallahassee. I have been a Twin Sister fan for a while so it was really cool to finally see them play live. After the show I talked with Carlos and a few other members from Ava Luna who were really cool and told me about a few places to go when I am in Brooklyn this March, and Places to eat for really cheap, like a thai restaurant that I completely forgot the name to but I will try to find it again! My friends and I also got to talk to Andrea from Twin Sister and she was so sweet. Overall, staying out late and not going to bed until 2am was worth it, even though I can barely keep my eyes open at work right now hahaha.

Saturday Creations

This week I found some string in my desk and have been making lots of friendship bracelets while watching That 70's Show and Twin Peaks. They are fun to make and I love learning how to make new patterns, my favorites are this one and this one.

Saturday Creations

I've been trying to cook and bake a lot of my own food lately and I've been wanting to give my blog a bit of character, so I'm going to start Saturday Creations to give myself something to do.  So, I cooked pearled barley for the first time a few days ago and was thinking about other things i could make with it. And so I grabbed a few fruits and some brown sugar and made this:

Okay so the recipe is really simple and easy to make. here are the ingredients you need below:

1 1/2 cup of pearled barley

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 can of sliced peaches

1 or 2 handfuls of fresh blueberries

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

First, set your oven to 350F. Measure out your barley and set it aside. You then boil the appropriate amount of water for the barley. In my case, the package said 2 1/2 cups for 1 cup of barley, so about 3 1/4 cups of water for 1 1/2 cups of barley. Bring water to a boil and then add barley and turn stove down to medium heat. Let barley simmer for 30-40 minutes, or until it is soft on the outside and a little chewy and firm on the inside. There should be almost  no water left over, a little bit is fine and will keep it moist. Add the brown sugar and take your stove off. You're going to want to cut up your peaches into chunks, and then throw them into the pot. Add the blueberries and stir them into the barley. Add your vanilla extract and stir that in as well. Next, you can either choose to use a muffin pan like I did (because I have a cookie pan and a muffin pan and nothing else) or you can use a cake pan. Pour mixture into the pan of your choice and spread it out evenly. You can also sprinkle a little extra brown sugar on top. Bake for 10-12 minutes and voila! It's finished! 

Fairly easy, fairly inexpensive and really delicious. I ate mine with vanilla greek yogurt and a cup of coffee, but a glass of orange juice would be just as good. 

Have a good Saturday everyone :]

When'd You Find Me

I have been really really busy lately with school and work and trying to figure out a million things. Currently I am looking for a job as an Au Pair this summer. Ideally, I would like to be in France, but i would be more than happy to find a position anywhere in Europe, like the UK, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, ect. other than that I will be working a lot over the next few months so that i can have enough money to go to NYC in March. I'm going to be doing odd jobs on the side to make some extra money too. And I have not been taking many digital photos today and I don't have enough money at the moment to develop the film I've shot, but im hoping within the next few weeks i can develop a roll or two so I can make a new post :] Anyways, I was going through my google reader and was looking through the photos of a blog I follow and I thought I'd share these photos because they are fantastic! You can look at Fanny Latour-Lambert's other photos on her blog.

Pretty Things That Cost More Than My Textbooks

Spring semester has started and I'm about to spend a ton of money on school and textbooks, sadly. So I decided to put together a few nice things I would love to have but probably won't ever own because my textbooks are too pricey for me to afford anything ever.

Anaïse Small Leather Handbag and Illesteva Leonard Sunglasses

Apc Cable knit Pullover and Blouse from La Garçonne

Crewneck Pullover from La Garçonne and Leather Oxfords from Coclico

Night Time