xoxo lauren

after one terrible (and by terrible, i mean amazing) weekend in toronto, i ended up boarding a plane back to nyc without my two lucky charms. no need to go into details about exactly how they ended up on the hotel bathroom floor but i can say that i was beyond devastated! i found this amazing designer over a year ago and quickly became close friends (read: facebook friends) so she was kind enough to send me replacements asap. checkout her website at www.lsgjewelrydesigns.com.

add this to your list

two boxes of peanut butter puffins and no soy milk...what the! you would think that with my weekly freshdirect deliveries (yes, i get my groceries delivered, stop judging me!) i wouldn't be without the essentials yet i find myself in this predicament quite often. and sadly enough when finally make the walk to whole foods to pick up stuff i forgot to get (are you seeing a pattern here?) i find myself saying muttering to myself, "what was i supposed to get??"

well today i decided that enough is enough, i will not forget my soy milk on another trip to the grocery store or click to freshdirect.com!

as many of you know, i work in the baby industry so im constantly trying to find a use, as a 26-yr-old with no kids, for the products im surrounded by. who knew that our skip hop diaper caddy could be used to hold my magazines? anyway, while walking the new york gift show a couple weeks ago i was introduced to the owner of wall candy art. not only do they make cute little graphics for kids walls but they also have slightly more sophisticated wall decals that are totally acceptable in a kid-at-heart's apartment.

long story short, the wall candy arts rococo chalkboard wall sticker makes for the perfect place to keep my grocery list without having that random recycled envelope stuck on the fridge that my mom always had. sorry mom, but the envelope stops here.

seeing red

if you know me at all, you would know that i change my nail polish more than my ummm never mind ;) anyway, knowing that the big ole' heart day was coming up i decided to sample a few new shades of red t0 make sure i wasn't missing out by going with my go-to essie "lollipop."

i recently discovered this uber nail friendly polish called butter London that makes killer colors like teal ("artful dodger"), purple ("HRH") and burnt orange ("Minger"). all of their polishes are sans nasty chemicals like Formaldehyde, toluene and Phthales: hence the name of the line "3-Free."

but i simply can not write a post about my favorite reds without mentioning the new addition to the spring line for essie, "red nouveau." and an oldie but goodie...Chanel "shanghai red."

red 40, yellow 6, blue 2

red + cupcakes = pretty much the only reason i get thru the month of february. forget valentine's day, it's all about my favorite color and dessert!

i've been on a mission to find the most scrumptious red velvet recipe ever since the insanity of Cake Man Raven in brooklyn, ny. now, i couldn't find cake man's recipe so i moved on to the next best thing: paula dean and her pound of butter.

they turned out quite delicious but the fact that i have 2 tablespoons of red food coloring (red 40, yellow 6, blue 2) in my body now kind of scares me...where does it go?

here is Paula Dean's recipe for the cupcakes!

kaffa: the seed of life

grande skinny vanilla latte. sadly enough these four little words make me the happiest i am all day. sometimes i say them twice a day and when i'm feeling really feisty i'll blow right past the grande and head for the venti. 365 days out of the year i deposit my $4.74 into my piggy bank of goodness called starbucks.

but something happened three months ago. something that turned my world upside down. a coworker from seattle (let's call him brandon) said that there was a new coffee joint in town and that we simply had to go. being from seattle, i had to trust him on his coffee recommendation (that's like asking me where to get yourself a boyfriend blazer, uh duh, j.crew!)... so off we went down w. 29th to a place i would like to personally introduce you to...Stumptown, meet my people -- people, meet Stumptown.

one of the very few places that still uses the espresso machines that are as shiny as they are grand and are operated by a barista wearing what i would like to call 'the hipster uniform': tight jeans, skinny black tie, astrological tattoo strategically placed on the forearm and a newsboy cap to top it off. don't even bother showing up with your fancy little visa, cash is king and keeps the flow going. this relaxed environment overlaps into the lobby of the ACE hotel where macbooks open themselves to workers needing an out from their cubicle life.

i'm sure i haven't done this establishment any justice at all but if you find yourself on west twenty ninth street of manhattan, between broadway and fifth avenue, stop by...say hello to kat...her tattoo artist in portland designed the logo on their cups!

p.s. now its just a latte, if you want to be a doll and bring me one.

im hooked

every once in a while i surprise myself with a great idea or stumble across an amazing find so...with all the blogging, tweeting and facebooking i do all day at work i thought i would come home and do some more! so here we go, blog post #1.

i wake up each morning and struggle to put myself together for the day. it seems like ive been constantly running late ever since i moved to nyc, so it doesn't help when in the morning i can't seem to find anything! my last step to my a.m. ritual is: watch (check), bracelets (check) and necklace that will adorn my neck for the day (crap, they are all tangled!).

simple solution:

stop by any hardware store and get a coat hook -- or 5 -- that will be your keeper of all things shiny. i found this gorgeous soda fountain hook at Anthropologie and couldn't be more pleased!