Dutch Braid & Hat

Just a quick (and over exposed) photo of a hairstyle I did a while back. I saw this on Pinterest and had to recreate it. It's basically just a simple dutch braid around the nape of my neck and then I put a hat on top! It's a cute and easy way to get the hair off of your neck and still be able to wear a hat. Hope you guys like it!! 

Fancy Pjs // Part 2

Brandy Melville shorts

Hey guys! Just wanted to show you an outfit I created to try dressing up these pajama shorts from Brandy Melville. I think they would look super cute, with tan gladiator heels, sadly I don't have a pair of those though, so I went with my black heel ankle boots. The button down shirt kind of reminds me of the button down pajama tops, but a black sheer top is a more formal version (and it matches my shoes). Coming up with it in my head I was kind of worried it wouldn't look that great in reality, but I was pleasantly surprised when I put it on. I think this outfit would be great on cooler summer days and a transitioning outfit from summer to fall. You could recreate this outfit with any pair of loose comfy shorts and a semi loose button down top.

Which Fall Blanket?

I'm looking for something I can just throw on to keep me a little warmer during the fall. I love the look of capes and it's basically like wearing a blanket out in real life, which is a dream come true for me! I've started to look into a cape for this fall, but I also found some extra large square scarfs that could double as a cape, and now I'm not sure which to get. I'm thinking that a large scarf would be enough for the fall and could also be used during the winter as, what it is, an oversized scarf. These are some I'm looking at, let me know what you think!

Femme Super Soft Square Scarf // Urban Outfitters
Cape In Color Block // Asos 

Oversized Grid Check Square Scarf // Asos

Plain Oversized Square Scarf // Asos 

Oversized Scarf in Kaki Stripe // Asos

Oversized Blanket Wrap // Asos 

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star // new cartilage earring // Fashionology

Flower Quartz Ear Pin

When I found this earring on Fashionology the other day, I was so excited. It's so cute and sparkly which I love. The photos don't capture how delicate and beautiful in person the earring is. How it  captures the light and shines bright. Over a year ago I pinned a photo of an earring very similar to this on Pinterest and I've been looking for it ever since.

Fashionology is handmade sterling silver jewelry, I would check them out if you like really simple and cute pieces. Their jewelry is very simple and geometric and their new collection has a lot of tribal aspects. Their pieces are very different than anything I see everywhere else. I also really liked these Teardrop Quartz earring and these Dot earrings. 

I must also add that they have great customer service, unfortunately one of the quartz stones fell out the same day that I received the piece. I contacted them and they quickly replied and were so nice about it, they sent me a new earring right away. All their jewelry has a one year warranty, which I am forever grateful for.

ootd // fancy pajamas

brandy melville shorts & american eagle sheer button down

I have some actual photos of this outfit on my camera, but unfortunately I can't get them onto the computer and edit them at the moment, so there will be another, bigger post on this outfit with better photos and where it came from. Unfortunately I can only post photos from my phone, so there will probably be a lot of POV outfits and other things that didn't go on Instagram up on the blog for the next month or so. I currently have two outfit posts, a jewelry review and I will have a bunch of photos from Vietnam, so don't worry there's lots of content coming your way :) 

ootd // ribbed knit crop top

forever 21 top & american eagle shorts 

TrueBurger is a must.

Cheesy TrueBurger & fries & toasted marshmallow milkshake

If you live in the Oakland area you probably know about TrueBurger, there's just no way you can't. It's just so so so good. All the ingredients are really fresh and there's nothing flashy about it, but a lot of care to detail which makes the perfect burger. The one word I would use to describe it is: buttery. As a whole it had a very rich, buttery flavor which I highly enjoyed. I really thought the bun of the burger was really good, most of the time I hardly notice the bun, it's just used to get the inside ingredients into my mouth, but this one had a really flavor and a light texture with a little bit of chewyness (in a good way). We also got regular and garlic fries, which were both great. Super thin and crispy. And the milkshake. They have a huge list of other flavors you can add to your milkshake, so we got two vanilla milkshakes with different mix-ins. Twinkie and toasted marshmallow both absolutely delicious. It's a very subtle flavor in you milkshake but you can definitely taste both of them and both really really good. The toasted marshmallow was my favorite and I highly recommend it, I could drink it everyday. They started to get crowded just as they opened up, but they got your order out fast, so it wasn't a big deal at all. They have two locations in Oakland, on Grand and one on Broadway and sadly closed on Mondays :( TrueBurger is definitely one of the best burgers I've ever had. 

Japanese Candy and Soda

Went to a local Japanese grocery store and we picked out the sodas with the cutest bottles, and candy with the coolest packaging. The peach soda was actually pretty good, but we can't figure out what the lucky cat soda is supposed to be. It's a little sour, seems like something I know, but I can't put my finger on it. The Super Soda has a very very very sour powder coating, but after that it was sweet and then a powder filling that was a little fizzy. It's very hard to describe, but its definitely an experience. The other bag was other flavors of soda, coke, grape, melon, lemon and ramune. This one was sweet and also had that fizzy quality. It was a lot of fun picking out drinks and candy that we had no idea what would taste like and even more exciting trying them. 

twisted fishtail braid from Barefoot Blonde & a mint mojito

tried a tutorial from Amber at Barefoot Blonde

Love her hair tutorials, wish I had as beautiful and long hair as her. But I can never get my hair to stay very long in loose braids, it just slips right out. I love this hair style because there is so much texture and I think even as it slips out it still looks beautiful. All those braids were quite a work out for my arms though!

I miss this coffee so much when I'm in NY. Philz Coffee is a chain in California that serves a wide variety of blends of coffee, haven't tried a single one I didn't like. The Mint Mojito might be their most photographed and famous cup. It's sweet and creamy, and they stuff the cup full of fresh mint. It is a light coffee that is very refreshing. Also tried the Anesthesia to the Upside with cream and sugar today, I really enjoyed it. Had a very full coffee flavor without being overwhelming with just a little bit of sweetness. Would definitely recommend both of these cups. 

cooking pork belly buns / momofuku

our finished bun & the cookbook

We bought frozen plain buns so we only had to take on one challenge at a time and then we have the pork belly after cooking it for two hours, some greens and lightly pickled cucumber I think next time we'll try making our own buns and cutting the cucumber a little thicker so they hold their crunch for longer. The only seasoning we used in the whole dish was salt and sugar and hoisin sauce and it turned out really good!

plating our pork belly buns

Obon Festival in Japantown

San Jose Taiko drumming at Obon Festival in Japantown

painted utility box in Japantown

Computer History Museum & Google's self driving car

Google's self driving car at Computer History Museum

At the Computer History Museum in Mountain View they had one of Google's self driving cars on display. You could sit in it and they told you a little about what the car could do and how it worked.

I mostly enjoyed looking at the old posters and advertisements, a lot of the graphic design I really liked, you could really see how they used the grid. I wish I could have gotten better pictures of the posters, but the lim was so dim and the spotlights added a lot of glare. These are just two photos to give you an idea of what I was looking at.

 

recent purchases

Two of Urban Outfitters most popular bralettes.

lace halter & strappy bralette

I love bralettes for layering because they add just a tiny little peak of texture or color and they're super comfortable. :) 

beach day // VS & Gayle's Bakery

Bought lunch at Gayle's Bakery and then brought it to Seacliff State Beach for a picnic. Every time we go to this beach we stop at Gayle's to pick up food for our lunch. Huge selection of food, we got sandwiches, pasta, pastries, bread and shrimp that were all delicious.

Swimsuit from Victoria Secret, summer 2014 collection

virgils & fentimans & wild poppy

Virgil's is my boyfriend's favorite root beer, and we finally found it at Whole Foods. There were quite a few brands and drinks that we've never heard of before so we also picked up Fentimans Cherry Tree Cola that had a very cute dog logo. 

Virgil's root beer tastes like black licorice &

Fentimans cherry tree cola tastes like sour cherry 

I also had to try this wild poppy because the bottle is too cute.

I love the little poppy.

I actually really like this one! It really does taste like peach and the light vanilla makes it very sweet.

cat grass update // approved

Jaws mowed the grass down, so I think he likes it

planting cat grass in my previous post here

Zeni Ethiopian Restaurant

meat combination & ye doro tibs

I love Ethiopian food and this is probably my favorite place. The flavors are so bold and buttery with a little bit of spice. The cheese and the salad add a nice refreshing touch, especially good on very hot days. This restaurant has won tons of awards, and I highly recommend it!

egg planters

after four days

growing grass in eggs

after three days 

Because of the drought here in California most of the grass around our house is dead and my two cats have nothing to snack on so I planted some cat grass for them until it rains here again. The eggshells are super cute and also great to put seeds in because they will decompose and add nutrients to the soil when moved to a bigger pot.

I soaked the seeds for a couple of days first, and then filled the eggshells with potting soil and crammed a bunch of seeds into each egg. I didn't expect so many of them to grow, so I'll probably have to move them to a bigger pot sooner than I expected.