bloggers do it better:: arm party

My week has been crazy busy, but I'm taking a minute to have an arm party here to celebrate Pretty Shiny Sparkly's Bloggers Do it Better August Challenge. The theme is (duh) arm parties. In case your invitation got lost in the mail (or in translation), let me explained: An arm party is a phrase coined by Man Repeller to describe tons of bracelets of assorted styles stacked on one (or both) arms. Consider this your official invite to rock on with your very own arm party.


This arm party is my standing weekend date. It's perfect for throwing on with most casual weekend clothes, and it has a perfectly beachy vibe. Most of these bracelets are at least from last summer (except the big sparkly purple one, which I picked up at Target this past weekend). 


This one's a mini arm party; a small gathering at home rather than a full-on rager. But I love these two bracelets together and have been known to wear them a lot. Bracelet on the left is my own design from Sun Sugar Studio, bracelet on the right is from J. Crew last year. 

52 weeks of downtown lancaster:: week 13

I'm way behind. I've missed a million weeks. But instead of posting a million weeks' worth of downtown Lancaster this week to catch up, we're just going to pretend I never missed any of those weeks and just pick up where we left off and keep it rolling from there, okay? Okay. So that puts us at week 13, which happened to fall on May's First Friday.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the First Friday idea- shops, galleries, museums, theatres, et al, all stay open late, give out free wine, and sometimes have special deals. Traffic is a mess and restaurants are fully booked, and it's shoulder-to-shoulder in every shop, gallery, museum, theatre, et al, because everyone from the 'burbs comes into town for the night. Usually, I avoid this insanity because I live so close to everything and I can just wander down whenever I feel like it, but it was such a nice night on Friday that one of my good friends and I decided to venture out in the craziness.

We went late, so (thankfully) much of the craziness had died off and we could navigate around pretty easily. And then it appeared the sky was going to open up and pour down on us, so we ducked into Crush Wine Bar to have some wine and cheese. All-in-all, it was a good way to unwind on Friday night after a nutty week at work.

All photos taken with my iPhone.

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52 Weeks of Downtown Lancaster is my photo project for 2011. It's meant to keep me creative and posting about a consistent topic on a weekly basis. And I'm also pretty hellbent on to getting the word out that there's more to Lancaster, Pa. than Amish buggies, farms and outlet shopping. View the rest of my 52 Weeks of Downtown Lancaster pictures here.

All pictures taken by me, unless otherwise noted.

52 weeks of downtown lancaster:: weeks 9, 10 and 11

Wow. I'm a few weeks behind, no? But with good reason! You may recall that I had a thesis proposal presentation two weeks ago (as mentioned in this post). Good news, guys! I passed! But I didn't have time to breathe because I had to jump right into two midterm projects and midterm exams (good news there, too- A's all around!). And then I got sick. Boo. I'm starting to feel better today, but I spent the past few days feeling dizzy, headache-y, stomach-achy, sore throat-y, and just generally miserable. Yesterday I had mint chocolate chip ice cream for dinner because that was the only thing that sounded decent to me.

But anyway, enough of my excuses- here's three weeks worth of downtown Lancaster:

Week 9: week of March 7-12
We usually get our milk from Central Market. Aren't the jugs it comes in just adorable?


Week 10: Week of March 13-19
Apparently, the Rendezvous Lounge had free bacon in honor of St. Patty's Day. Who knew?


Week 11: Week of March 20-26 (that's this week! Yay, we're caught up!)
I was feeling a little better this morning (although still a little dizzy and achy), so Mr. DU and I ventured a few blocks down the street and around the corner for breakfast at On Orange.





So that's what I've been up to around Lancaster the past few weeks. How have you been?

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52 Weeks of Downtown Lancaster is my photo project for 2011. It's meant to keep me creative and posting about a consistent topic on a weekly basis. And I'm also pretty hellbent on to getting the word out that there's more to Lancaster, Pa. than Amish buggies, farms and outlet shopping. View the rest of my 52 Weeks of Downtown Lancaster pictures here.

All pictures taken by me, unless otherwise noted.

beagle mania monday!

Yep, it's time for another Beagle Mania Monday post! Self-explanatory, I think. Check out my super adorable beagles (and Stella) lounging in our sunroom:

52 weeks of downtown lancaster:: week 6

I have summer fever. I have summer fever so bad that I stopped at Carmen & David's Creamery on the way home from running errands last Saturday. Because I needed some icy cold, homemade lemon lavender sorbet despite the 30 degree temperatures.

For those unfamiliar, Carmen & David's is a locally owned, downtown Lancaster ice cream parlor, and they make all of their ice cream from fresh, local ingredients and they keep several flavors on rotation. If you're downtown, definitely stop in. My recommendations: lemon lavender sorbet, strawberry thyme sorbet, mint chocolate chip ice cream and chocolate peanut butter oreo ice cream.

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52 Weeks of Downtown Lancaster is my photo project for 2011. It's meant to keep me creative and posting about a consistent topic on a weekly basis. And I'm also pretty hellbent on to getting the word out that there's more to Lancaster, Pa. than Amish buggies, farms and outlet shopping. View the rest of my 52 Weeks of Downtown Lancaster pictures here.

All pictures taken by me, unless otherwise noted.

52 weeks of downtown lancaster:: week 5

Chocolate + Beer = Love.

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that equation is an absolute truth. I snapped this picture (with the Hipstamtic app, of course) while out with the girls last night at happy hour. That's Iron Hill Brewery's Overload Stout and I am ready to go get a growler and pour its milky, chocolatey goodness over my bowl of Cocoa Krispies (don't judge me!).

Iron Hill is a regional brewery with a downtown Lancaster location, and not only do they have yummy beer, they have pretty tasty food, too (I highly recommend the sweet potato fries- little slice of heaven on a plate, right there).

Speaking of absolute truths, here's another-
Friends + Food = Good times and the best therapy money can't buy.

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52 Weeks of Downtown Lancaster is my photo project for 2011. It's meant to keep me creative and posting about a consistent topic on a weekly basis. And I'm also pretty hellbent on to getting the word out that there's more to Lancaster, Pa. than Amish buggies, farms and outlet shopping. View the rest of my 52 Weeks of Downtown Lancaster pictures here.

All pictures taken by me, unless otherwise noted.

beagle mania monday!

Listen, I said I liked (er...loved) beagles, so really, it was only a matter of time before I launched a regular weekly(ish) post dedicated to beagles. And since Mondays generally suck, I thought that would be a good day for some beagle cuteness. (That and, "Beagle Mania Tuesday" just didn't have the same ring to it.)

Mostly Beagle Mania Monday will be pictures of my beagles, because it's my blog and my beagles rock.



PS- I know that big black thing in the bottom left image isn't really a beagle, but I don't want her to feel left out of the fun, so I made her an honorary beagle, okay? Okay.

a gigantic case of the mondays

Raise your hand if you ever felt like you needed a weekend to recover from your weekend so you can get the things done you were supposed to get done over said weekend had your weekend plans not been hijacked by the weekend plan stealing banshees?

This weekend, I intended to:

• Set up my photo studio and take What I Wore pictures
• Write this week's blog posts, or at least a few of them
• Make root vegetable pot pie for dinner on Sunday
• Relax and zone out mindlessly in front of the TV
• Run a few miles on the elliptical

Instead I:

• Ran around for most of the morning on Saturday, buying not-fun things for our new house (like mouse traps and plastic containers)
• Visited the Humane League (twice) and came home with another beagle (her name is Meadow, she is awesome and I'll introduce her to you soon)
• Went to the pet store to buy Meadow lots of presents
• Nearly set the kitchen on fire by using the oven for the first time (for that pot pie I wanted to bake), but apparently, the oven is broken

I see no resemblance between list one and list two here, do you? And that is why, you are stuck with this random post, and that pretty picture of orchids that I snapped while shopping at Lowes for mouse traps and containers.