1. WTRMLN Water: summer in a bottle! I’d been eyeing these for awhile at Whole Foods, and when I went last week they had two for $6 sale so I bought a bottle. And it is delicious! It’s cold pressed watermelon juice and the only ingredients are watermelon flesh, watermelon rind, and organic lemon. I wouldn’t buy it regularly at its usual price but it’s great as a refreshing occasional treat.
I’m writing this post a few days later than I had planned (my latest Birchbox arrived five days ago), and when I say writing I actually mean “slowly pecking words out on my laptop with my left hand.” For the past couple weeks I’ve had some discomfort in my right wrist and forearm that gets worse when I type or use my mouse, so I’m trying to give those body parts a rest. Normally I’m a very fast writer and I can bang a blog post out. My left hand is rather useless, though, so I’ve been putting off typing this post. But here we are: my August 2015 Birchbox review!
This month, subscribers were given a choice: get a box curated by Nicole Richie, or pick one of four samples for a regular box. I tried to select the Nicole Richie box but by the time I saw the email it was sold out. So I chose Air Repair Complexion Boosting Moisturizer as one of my samples; the other options were a dry shampoo, a mousse, and a COOLA SPF 30 makeup setting spray—which I already have in a full size bottle.
First, of course, let’s see this month’s box design:
1. Rockaway Beach. Our recent visit to Coney Island for breakfast whet our appetite for a legit beach day, so last Saturday we drove out to the Rockaways for a lovely morning on the sand. We got breakfast at Rockaway Beach Surf Club and then grabbed a spot by the surfing area to chill and watch the surfers do their thing. It was a beautiful day, and the Rockaways are an excellent escape from the city; it’s much cleaner, prettier, and more peaceful than Coney Island. There was only one asshole playing her music without headphones instead of dozens of assholes. Plus, if you go in the morning the crowds aren’t bad at all!
My last Stitch Fix was basically a bust, but even so I moved up my delivery date again because I was eager to find out if I could get better stuff this time. After that disappointing Fix I decided not to input any notes at all for my stylist and see if it turned out any better—I wondered if my notes last time around were too specific and caused me to set my expectations too high. My ninth fix arrived yesterday at the same time as my tenth Birchbox (post on that coming soon!) and I tore into it to see what I got:
Since True Detective‘s sad sack second season ended I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about it, so I figured why not post my thoughts about this eight-hour staring contest on my blog. I’m not a trained critic so my post will be fairly disorganized, but that’s only fitting considering the subject matter. Needless to say, spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen the full season yet, stop reading now!
1. Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp. Netflix returned to Camp Firewood to bring us eight half-hour episodes of this cult comedy classic film. I’ve only seen six episodes thus far and it started off just okay but has gotten better as it’s gone along. The weird humor is out in full force, and Talking Can of Vegetables even has an origin story. I’m so impressed by the fact that they were able to get the entire original cast—and then some—for this series, A-listers and all. My favorite moment thus far? When Donna Berman (Lake Bell) gives Coop (Michael Showalter) a gift, wrapped Hollywood style, and this exchange happens:
Coop: “What an odd way to wrap a present.”
Donna: “It’s easier for multiple takes.”
Back in May I took a soy candlemaking workshop at Brooklyn Candle Studio, which I highly recommend if you live in NYC and have any interest in candlemaking. Before the workshop I had started looking into soy candlemaking kits because I definitely wanted to try this at home; I found kits on Grow and Make—the same folks from whom I got my lip balm kit—and a whole mess of kits on Amazon.
When I attended the candlemaking workshop I got a workbook that listed some recommended kits and suppliers, and one of the kits I’d been considering was on the list. SOLD! (Not really, because I got it from my mom as a birthday gift. 🙂 )Continue Reading…
1. Summer means beach time, which I don’t usually get much of. Last weekend my husband ran down to Coney Island and I took the subway (I don’t run) down there to meet him for breakfast at Tom’s Coney Island. After we ate we took our shoes off and strolled along the beach, which was already filling up with people and tons of colorful umbrellas. We plan to do a proper beach day with swimsuits, sunblock, towels, and all sometime soon, but even popping by for a bit still makes for a nice escape from the city. Bonus: Coney Island is only about 40 minutes door to door on the subway from our new apartment!
I’ve seen women running around NYC wearing super cute rompers (jumpers? jumpsuits? onesies? what are these things officially called?!) this summer and I decided I wanted to try one for myself. I’m not a very trendy dresser—when I do wear something trendy I end up feeling really self-conscious about it. I had hoped I’d get a romper in my last Stitch Fix, but no luck there (on many counts). So I began hunting for a romper of my very own from the comfort of my desk.
HauteLook happened to be promoting a “one-piece” collection one day, so I browsed through a ton of rompers and settled on two short ones. I like the idea of full-length rompers, but with the hot summer weather I’m just not into wearing pants.
I picked out two rompers that I thought might work for me: a printed Jealous Tomato romper ($19.97) and a solid coral Michael Stars romper ($39.97). For some reason the prices currently listed on the HL website are higher than what I paid. Anyway, they both arrived last Friday and I tried them on right away.Continue Reading…
1. The Wolfpack: I saw this documentary with a friend yesterday, and it absolutely fascinated me. The film is about a family of seven children who were, somewhat inexplicably, raised in isolation in a housing project on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. I went into the film knowing only the information I just gave you, so that’s all the detail I’m going to give here. Have you seen The Wolfpack? If so, what did you think?
