Emerald & Mint Nails

One of my favorite bloggers to follow is the classic and adorable Jessi from Haircut and General Attitude. Not only is she absolutely gorgeous but damn does that girl know how to throw together an outfit and then wear the shit out of it. I always tell her that she is the layering queen because somehow she manages to wear #ALLTHELAYERS without ever looking bulky at all. #TeachMe.

I like getting nail polish inspiration from interesting places - take the Demoiselle fancy jewelry nails I did a few weeks ago, for example - so when I saw Jessi's St. Patrick's Day mint and emerald outfit, I immediately decided to make a nail polish look that used the same scheme.

AND SO, here we have some emerald-colored nails with a mint polka dot accent nail, inspired by Jessi's vintage skirt and peter pan collared minty shirt:

.  jessi from haircut and general attitude  .

Get it done:

1. Paint all nails except ring finger 3 coats of Sinful Colors' San Francisco polish. I'm glad I went for the third coat with this color - the second coat made it "eh" but the third coat made it totally opaque and allowed the shimmer in the polish to start reflecting some light. I do wish I had a darker emerald though - something closer to the dark skirt in the above pic.

2. Paint ring finger 3 coats of Essie's Turquoise & Caicos. Again, I'm glad I decided to do a third coat. Even Essie's pastels streak a bit with the first couple of coats!

3. Add the white polka dots on the ring finger using a dotting tool. I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White because it's a perfect white-out style, totally opaque, shimmer-free white.

Check out Haircut and General Attitude for very well put together outfit ideas and check back here at aka Bailey for more nail polish ideassssss. Or DON'T. SEE IF I CARE. (I do.)

The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant in Vancouver

On a recent warm and rain-free evening in Vancouver, Dave and I went out for a walk along the Seaside Bike Path in Kitsilano. As we approached Granville Island Dave announced that he had quite a hankering for some crab so we ducked under the Granville Bridge and continued our walk by winding through Granville Island's paths and streets, looking for the ideal crab-serving establishment.

We scoped out a few restaurants' menus before deciding to eat at The Sandbar - a seafood restaurant next to the big Granville Public Market building. The menu looked expensive, but we don't eat at truly expensive restaurants too often, so we thought #WHATTHEHELL. #TreatYoSelf. If my guy wants some crab, by all means, let's get him some crab.

.  the sandbar / false creek / granville island  .

And, um, yeah they certainly had crabs there. Full tanks of the little guys greet you at the downstairs entrance of the 3-story restaurant. We immediately wondered if we were not dressed well enough to be eating there but #psht #whateva. Not like we were wearing rags. Passing the sushi chefs who were hard at work on the first floor, we climbed up a flight of stairs to the second floor where we were greeted by the hostess... who then invited us to dine up on the third floor on their covered, heated patio. So many stairs. They were all worth it.

The patio upstairs at The Sandbar was absolutely perfect and was bumpin' with well behaved yet totally happy people. The building itself is right on the water beneath the Granville Bridge, so we had views in several directions via the partial glass walls on the False Creek side of the patio. We happened to be able to sit at a two-top right against the glass wall - probably one of the best seats in the house :)

.  view from the patio  .

The patio also featured tall, West-coast style heaters, two fireplaces with beautiful (probably fake) fires, a good sized bar, and lots of low wooden tables with Adirondack-style cushioned chairs. We opted not to sit at one of those, thinking that maybe the low seats would be too awkward to sit and eat at. (They'd probably be perfect for enjoying a drink with a buddy on a nice night, though.)

.  under the granville bridge  .

For dinner I ordered pan seared scallops, which were served with citrus butter, jasmine rice and a broccolini/cherry tomato medley. It was all really effing good.

.  i ate the shit out of this  .

Dave ordered a 1/2 Dungeness crab with French fries and the broccolini/tomato veggie side. He attacked it with fervor and appeared to enjoy it.

.  dave ate the crab out of this shell  .

We were both, seriously, very pleased with the entire evening at The Sandbar. The patio's atmosphere was a great balance between comfort and luxury, the food was worth every penny, and the waitstaff was really friendly and professional. I'm pretty sure we'll happily go back again sometime!

Mexican Food, Mariachi Band and Mi Amigos ♡

While home in Massachusetts recently, I had the distinct pleasure of spending some quality time with some of my fwiends in the Boston area.

Arriving in Boston on the night of Thursday March 14 (in my mother's brand new Honda Element that she allowed me to borrow... thanks Mom!!), I checked into Hotel de Kara... aka my friend Kara's Cambridge apartment ;) The two of us got to catch up and were soon joined by me buds Jrod, Derek and Jenna. Cue immediate laughing and jokes and love.

On Friday, after much deliberating and an excess of self-indulgent quips via a long email chain amongst 20 people, we decided that our group of UMass' finest would meet up at El Potro for dinner - a Mexican restaurant in Somerville that boasted a live mariachi band on Friday and Saturday nights. Not just any mariachi band... but the "Best Mariachi in the Boston Area" - Mariachi Estampa de America!

Massive kudos to El Potro for allowing us to reserve space for 11 people, even when they claim to not take reservations. We arrived to see a long row of tables had been moved together and set for our group - hoozah! The waitstaff totally put up with all 11 of us showing up at different times - literally the arrival times spanned at least an entire hour - but they let us hold down the 11 seats we'd requested. They must have realized there was a profitable light at the end of the tunnel for them ;)

With a table full of amazing friends catching up with one another plus tacos, enchiladas, margaritas, nachos and tortas a go-go, shit was wicked good. I had El Potro's Tacos Chipotle - spicy chicken tacos served with rice and beans. Unfortunately the place was so packed and chaotic - what with a live mariachi band playing and all - that I had to suffer with an on-fire tongue/lips combo as I made my way through the tacos because no one would come and refill my water glass :(  The food was so delicious that I kept trying to take further bites of it, sans water. It hurt... so good. My lips were chapped for the next 3 days because of it. #BattleWounds.

The mariachi band was extremely spirited. And loud! They were a lot of fun though and added real character to the place. They made their way around from table to table, playing for all the groups in the restaurant. We even got to hear them perform Feliz Compleanos for a couple of tables.

They took up position at the head of our long row of tables right as our friends Stephanie and Gerry came into the restaurant and sat down in the end chairs to join us. So the two of them basically arrived and could immediately not hear a single thing happening elsewhere at the table! #OOPS. Poor timing.

After a confusing group bill-paying scenario of epic proportions (seriously, this was one for the books) we finally gave El Potro their restaurant back and allowed them to seat the growing number of people who had been lined up at the door for 45 minutes. Whateva.

The only picture I have of the evening is this blurry shot that I tried taking while we walked between El Porto and the next bar we ended up at:

.  awesome picture  .

Even though there are plenty of friends who still live around the Boston area, bulk style UMass outings like this one don't happen super often anymore - when we're able to actually get (almost) everyone together in one place. More often, it sounds like friends gather in groups of 2-4 people every week or every couple of weeks to enjoy each other's antics. A nice sizeable group of 10+ of us really only happens nowadays when someone (like me!) is home visiting from the West Coast... or around Labor Day when our friends Geoff and Abby hold an annual kick-ass party... or around Thanksgiving when my friends hold an annual "family" Thanksgiving potluck that usually attracts at least 20-30 people. Here's what that ends up looking like, if you're curious:

.  peeps on peeps on peeps  .

After we left El Potro we took a stroll down the block to find the next suitable establishment for our group. We settled on Precinct, where we were joined by a few other friends as well, with plans to watch our friend's band play... but they ended up going on too late for most of us to stick around for it. #GettingOld.

The next day (Saturday March 16) a few of us managed to get up and out to an Irish breakfast at Tommy Doyle's Pub & Restaurant in Kendall Square in Cambridge. I then spent a completely relaxing afternoon at Jenna's apartment with her fiancé Dan, plus Jrod and Derek. After some group hugs and some sad puppy faces, I said goodbye to me buds and hopped into the Element for my drive back to Pittsfield.

When I'm with my friends it's more than fine to just sit in a room and make each other laugh. Spending time with them all made me feel like a small weight had been lifted off of me - like something was put back into place. Meeting new people is always nice - and I'm trying my damnedest to become better at doing that in Vancouver - but being with the friends I love so much gave me a sense of relief. That just because I'm across the country from them doesn't mean there's one single ounce of love lost or forgotten. ♡

#ZOOOOOOOOOOOMASSSSSSS!

.  this picture does not belong to me. thanks danielle .
. umass homecoming game at gillette .

My Long, Serious History With Justin Timberlake

IT'S HAPPENING PEOPLE.

Two of my all-time favs - Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z - are going on EFFING TOUR TOGETHER. It's almost like they're doing it JUST for me. This is like the last 14 years of my musical life mashed together into one concert experience, and my mind has practically just blown right out the side of my head about it all.

But before I hyperventilate or just drop completely dead, I'd like to go back to the beginning for a moment or two... and reflect on the origins of my fandom.

I still remember the first music video I ever saw Jay-Z in... It was Foxy Brown's "I'll Be" and I was in 8th grade. It was around the same time that Jermaine Dupri's Life in 1472 album was out, with Jay accompanying him on Money Ain't A Thing. I was a little late to the Jay-Z party, having totally missed Reasonable Doubt and In My Lifetime, Volume 1... but by 9th grade, I'd copped Hard Knock Life, Volume 2 and was totally versed in "Hard Knock Life" and "Can I Get A..." In fact, I relished the latter coming on over the speakers at high school dances because I could school everyone on every lyric from Jay's to Ja's.

Becoming a fan of Jay-Z was easy for me, since I'd been a fan of hip hop since about 2nd grade. I had the 1992 Kris Kross Totally Krossed Out cassette, watched plenty of BET (my parents had blocked MTV on our televisions), was a fan of Queen Latifah, Zhane, SWV and En Vogue, and could not get enough of the "Nuthin But A G Thang" music video. Man, what a party that looked like.

Boy bands and Justin Timberlake fetishes, on the other hand.... those started out as more of a joke. It's time for this story to take a dark turn, as we delve into a detailed account of my long, serious history with Justin Timberlake. Hold onto your hats.

Oh sure, I dabbled in NKOTB as a youngster... I owned an NKOTB sleeping bag and a set of "I (heart) Jordan" earrings, but I was really too young for them to have any real lasting impact on me. I was like four years old.

Fast forward to 1999 when I went to an 'NSync concert with my friends Rachel and Patrice and my sister Mallory. Rach was obsessed with boy bands at the time, and the rest of us thought it was hysterical. When 'NSync was set to perform in Albany, NY, we thought we'd entertain Rachel by going to the concert with her.

JOKE'S ON ME, as it turns out, because I was immediately turned into a teenybopper during that show. The dancing. The heartbroken pop songs. The outfits. It was all too much. I blacked out and woke up with an 'NSync t-shirt on and a self-titled 'NSync CD clutched tightly in my fist.

From there, things deteriorated pretty rapidly.

I listened to the CD constantly. I'd bring a CD player into the bathroom with me and play the album while I showered. I was buying Tiger Beats by the dozen, scrutinizing entire racks of teenybopper mags for seriously a half hour before deciding which ones to buy. Soon, friends were giving me those ENORMOUS jumbo pencils (super popular in the late 90s/early 2000s) with 'NSync pictures on them and I had my mom rushing home from work to record Rosie O'Donnell appearances for me.

And Rosie O'Donnell was really just the tip of the "TV appearances to record" iceberg. There were stacks upon stacks of VHS tapes in my house, each with the same threatening message scrawled across them: "*NSYNC TAPE - if you tape over this I will KILL you!!!!"

.  exhibit A  .

I wasn't joking either. Ask any member of my family.

Each tape was also meticulously labeled with details of which performances could be found on it:

.  exhibit B  .

My one 'NSync CD somehow turned into fourteen 'NSync CDs. Yes, fourteen. You may ask, "'NSync had FOURTEEN albums????" To which I'd reply, "They've got even more than that if you're digging into their expensive import albums and singles released overseas in Sweden before they were even famous in America."

.  yikes  .

My bedroom walls and ceiling became covered - and I mean COVERED - with 'NSync pictures and posters. It was a big room, too, so there were a lot of freaking pictures. (I shared the room with my little sister, too, the poor thing. She had absolutely no identity in the bedroom except for the lone Britney Spears poster that I conceded to allowing on the ceiling. Sorry, Markie.)  God knows how much money I spent on magazines and pictures to hang up on my walls and inside my locker. Oh yeah, inside my locker, too. You think this addiction stopped at the door of my home?! Nope. Everyone who knew me knew I'd become freakishly obsessive about this boy band.  I was doing 'NSync-based projects at school, amassing a nice stockpile of 'NSync-inspired ceramics, short stories and essays.

.  i made this  .

This was all pre-Facebook, obvi, so Internet chatrooms were the proper outlet for me to compare myself to other girls in terms of how "serious" each one REALLY was about 'NSync. And there was a hierarchy, ladies... so if it's the year 2013 and you're not writing a blog about 'NSync then I'm pretty sure it's obvious who the "Queen of That Shit" is.

Other Internet-related 'NSync fan activities included reading legit fan fiction (you have no idea the seedy underground involved in this one, people), searching out the very best photos of the fab five (and using every expensive ounce of ink inside my parents' printer cartridges to print out what must have amounted to hundreds of them - please see above and below examples), reading chat transcripts from AOL-sponsored 'NSync/fan chats (pre-Twitter, this was your only chance to interact online with a celebrity), weeding through fake Justin Timberlake AIM accounts, and trolling eBay for ultra-expensive concert tickets.

I ultimately ended up at nine of those concerts, by the way. Many of which I paid an insane eBay price to see from the world's shittiest seat.

Once in 2001 I made my mother drive me to Long Island, NY to see 'NSync perform at the Nassau Colosseum and then threw an absolute FIT on the highway when we got a flat tire and would only end up getting to the performance two hours early, rather than the five or six I was aiming for. In the parking lot that day, I participated in a radio-sponsored dancing contest for front row seats and backstage passes. I didn't win.

Speaking of dancing, did I mention that I knew the choreographed dance moves for all their songs and am pretty confident I could still perform them to this day, thanks to the wonders of muscle memory? Because that's true. 

Also speaking of concert-related contests, here's a heart-breaking tale:

In the summer of 2003 my friend Jamie and I heard about a contest for backstage passes and front-row tickets to a joint Justin Timberlake/Christina Aguilera concert that would be coming to Albany. The contest was easy enough - just make a cool sign and then come on down to the arena that night to try to win the tickets. Jamie and I made the most incredible banner - not just a sign, a BANNER - using tons of small photos of Justin and Christina to write out the radio station's frequency - 102.3 - in huge, 3 foot tall numbers. For good measure, we added hundreds of cut-out pictures of lips to the rest of the banner - representing the KISS 102.3 radio station. We spent weeks on this thing and it was good.  I've never in my entire life been so sure that I was going to win something. We KNEW we were going to win. There was absolutely no way we couldn't. We told our friends and family to stay tuned, because the next time they saw us they'd be staring at two chicks who just watched Justin Timberlake perform from the front freaking row... and off we went to New York to claim our well-deserved prize, giddy as we could possibly be.

Long story short:  KISS 102.3 gave away the tickets to practically every shitty fan there except for us. In a "salt in the wound" move, the final set of front row tickets was given to a little girl and her mother - neither of whom EVEN HAD A SIGN. THEY DIDN'T HAVE A FUCKING SIGN!!!

Jamie and I were disgusted. Dis. Gusted. The entire thing was a sham. I could not believe that we hadn't won. We literally threw our banner into the back of the radio station's white van (we didn't even want to look at that stupid sign anymore), told them to eff off, and contemplated just driving straight home to Pittsfield with our heads hanging in shame and our proverbial teenybopper tails tucked between our legs. Instead, though, we scalped a couple of (again, super expensive) tickets from some old guy who was out in front of the arena taking advantage of the assortment of devastated contest-losers, and we went inside to see the show. It was great. But it would have been a lot better if we'd gotten backstage or been in the front row. Curse you, 102.3. Curse you.

It wasn't the only time I was slighted in my quest to be 'NSync/Justin Timberlake fan Numero Uno. Lesser fans than myself made it onto MTV's FANatic show to meet 'NSync, that's for damn sure. Don't think for one second I've forgotten about that, MTV. If MTV were a boy, it would be a boy who should be sleeping with one eye open. 

For a year or so of my 'NSync obsession, I pretended that Lance was my favorite. I didn't want to be as generically "into" Justin as every other girl on the planet was at the time. But I knew the real truth. Justin was the cute one. And the funny one. And the one with the best dance moves. And the best cornrows. Wait, what?? Yeah, I stuck by his decision to rock the occasional cornrow hairstyle. Shit, I rocked it myself now and then in high school. Clearly, with the bounty of white flav between the two of us, we were kindred spirits. I had it in my head that surely - SURELY - someone who was as big a fan as I am must at some point meet their idol. Right?? At some point the stars must align and the boy band gods would shine down on me with a beacon of light that would lead me, coincidentally, right into the same {book store / movie theater / mall / NYC street corner / airport terminal} that Justin was chilling in. 

To this day I'm still waiting for that to happen.

And so here we are, fourteen years after my first 'NSync concert, still talking about it. To my family, I really want to say... I'm sincerely sorry for everything I put you through because of Justin Timberlake from the years 1999 to 2003. I hope that someday we can all look back and laugh about it.

Ha... ha... right?

UPDATE: Well after I wrote the bulk of this blog (and bought my tix to the Justin Timberlake/Jay-Z Vancouver concert!) I discovered I won't be able to attend due to some super ultra important scheduling conflicts. And just like that, the dream is dashed!!! Wish me luck in my solution to this issue ;) The quest to meet my idol lives on.

That Shet I Don't Like About Traveling

Having just gotten back from a cross-country trip to/from Massachusetts, I've got some freshies in my head when it comes to some things that really grind my gears when traveling.

This is just some of that shet I don't like about getting from hither to yon:

- Businessmen going through the first class line. I hate them and want to punch them all in the throats. Specifically when they're wearing light colored khakis with a navy blue blazer with gold buttons on the cuffs. That outfit especially makes me want to make you choke on your company-bought smart phone.

- Layovers that are less than an hour long. It's just too damn stressful to get to your connecting flights with a layover that short.

- People who take up more than their 1 single purchased seat. Just because I don't take up the entire width of my seat doesn't mean I need you to help me fill in the rest of the space. I don't understand how on earth you'd think it's appropriate to be in my seat. How many times do our never-met-before bodies need to touch each other before you realize you're invading someone else's personal space in what is already a claustrophobic environment? Totally effing rude. PUSH. OVER.

- People who need to be told multiple times to power down their electronics or put their seats upright. Why can't people follow basic instructions? The flight attendant isn't your babysitter. Do you need her to follow you into the restroom and remind you a few times to wipe ya bum as well??

- People who - despite being seated in the back of the plane with at least 120 people in front of them who are not moving anytime soon - insist upon standing up in the aisle immediately to get their bags from the overhead compartment when we pull up to the jetway. If you're wondering, on my last flight the same schmuck was guilty of BOTH of the last two offenses.

- People who insist upon talking about themselves to the poor stranger beside them for an entire flight. After listening to one particular ass clown rattle on about himself for most of a 2-hour flight, I turned around to glance at his "listener" who was gazing out the window in the saddest way, just trying to ignore the person talking at him. Dude, he doesn't want to hear about your budding music career or your experiences playing at a dry wedding in Pennsylvania or your "affinity for dogs"... and neither do the rest of us. You gotta know your audience, brah. And on this plane, your audience is a ton of strangers who want you to shut the crap up.

- Silver Linings Playbook. Saw it on the TV on the plane. Didn't care for it. I don't like it when movie-makers expect us to believe that two people "fall in love" after only speaking a couple of times. Or, in the case of Silver Linings Playbook, after speaking once. It's lazy story-writing and I refuse to just overlook it and suspend my disbelief when it's the basis of your entire movie. SAWRY.

- People who bring onion-ladden or other stinky foods onto the plane to eat in very close quarters. I only did this one time on a bus a few years ago before I realized it was a bad idea for everyone involved. On my last flight, a woman literally brought sushi to eat. Sushi! Were you trying to win a contest for who could bring the most awkward food onto a flight?? GAH.

- People who use the entire width of an escalator. To stand still. In an airport. Where everyone is in a rush to either get to their next flight or get the fuck home. You're an inconsiderate asshole.

Here's something I do like... a lot:

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Me 'n My Lil' Buddies: Aunt Bailey Time!

For the last 14 months, I've been living 3000 miles away from my family - and that means I am missing out on a LOT of time with my nephew Cohen (4) and my niece Tierney (2).

And I don't just mean "missing" it as in "I'm not there for it." I mean I'm MISSING it. Like, real bad.

I'm home in Massachusetts now, for a little 11-day stint of a visit. Finally, I'm able to squeeze my lil' buddies and hear their voices and have conversations with them in person! I'm loving it :)

They're both growing up so fast - as small children often do.

Cohen is now completely able to hold any type of conversation with me and his critical thinking skills are really great. He asks lots of interesting questions and you can almost see his mind working while he's chatting with you. His dad Doug (my brother-in-law) is a mechanical genius when it comes to cars, trucks, heavy machinery, building houses, electronics, and just about any other "handy" hobby that a guy can have, and Cohen has been soaking it ALL in as well. That means that my 4-year-old nephew knows more about ball bearings, 18-wheeler trucks, and ratchets than you do. It's awesome.

Tierney has changed a TON since I last saw her (in person) in September of 2012. There's a huge difference between a 27-month-old child and a 20-month-old child, mentally and physically! I love hearing all the words she says now in her tiny, sweet little voice... and I'm even getting pretty good at figuring out what she means to say, when she's not being super articulate. ;)  She is almost always smiling - a huge, room-lighter-upper type of smile - and is generally just a huge joy to be around.

While living in Oregon and then Canada, I've been surviving off of lots of pictures and videos of the kids, sent to me from my family. It's been a great way of preventing me from missing absolutely EVERYTHING that's going on with them as they grow. Nothing compares to seeing them in zee flesh though. I love loving them so much :)

Here's a little bit of what we've been up to together since I arrived in the state:

.  tierney girl pulling her sled  .

.  swinging and smiling in clifford  .

.  cohen swinging away  .

.  heading out for a walk in the woods  .

.  big bro, lil sis  . 

.  precious mother-son moment with mal and cohen .

.  tierney having a ball with her aunt markie  .

.  coconut having some quiet time  .

.  love this picture!  .
.  me, cohen, mallory, tierney, doug (in front), robbie and markie  .

Thanks for reading! I'll take any excuse to make people look at pictures of these kids ;)

Coffee Cubes: A Great Way to Use Leftover Coffee

Do you ever find yourself with a little bit of extra coffee leftover in the pot that you end up having to toss out? I have a great way for you to use that coffee rather than waste it - and it's even more perfect now that we're approaching spring and getting ready to get our iced coffees on.

For no good reason, really, Dave and I have a tiny 6-cup coffee pot. This means that on most days we end up having to brew a second pot of coffee to make enough for both of us.  Some days there's a rogue amount left in the second pot and I just can't bring myself to drink another cup. Lately I've been letting the remaining coffee cool to room temperature and then pouring it into an ice tray that I've designated just for the coffee cubes.

I throw some coffee cubes into a glass jar, add a couple teaspoons of sugar, pour some cold coffee over the top of it all and then add a few splashes of low-fat milk. Mmmm...

Use these coffee cubes in place of regular ice cubes in your next iced coffee at home. This way, as your cubes melt, your coffee isn't getting watered down and stays delicious till the last drop!

#YouKnowYouWantToTryIt