Taylor's Summer Mix

I know it's almost September and the warm weather is on it's way out (cue hysterical crying), but here in NYC it still feels like full on summer, so I'm going to stay in denial for a little longer :) Here is Taylor's summer mix to carry you through the last little bit of summer. Hope you like it! You can check out our other summer mixes here. What have you been listening to this summer? I'm always up for some new music recommendations!

Guest Post // Tips for Travel (On A Budget)

Happy Friday, friends! I have today off, and I'm pretty darn happy about it. Taylor and I started the day off right with coffee at our favorite new cafe, and I have plans to spend the rest of the going through my stuff for our upcoming garage sale (if you live in the Portland area, contact me and I can give you the details! It's gonna be a good one).

Anyway, I'm just stopping in to tell you all that I wrote a guest post for Jess of Foreign Room and you should go check it out! Jess is in Japan right now (jealous), so she asked me to write a travel related post...I decided to throw together some tips and tricks I've learned throughout my travels. You can read my post here. Happy weekend! xx

Guest Post on Coffee + Honeycomb // Valentine's Day Nails

Hello Hello! I'm just popping in to let you all know that this morning I'm over on Jennifer's blog, Coffee + Honeycomb with some (last minute) Valentine's day nail art inspiration! These ideas are super simple, and perfect to do this morning/tonight before Valentine's day festivities begin! Go take a look!

Guest Post: White Rose Hot Tea Cocktail

Hey friends! I'm over on Life Laid Bear today sharing my recipe for a hot tea cocktail!...I know, sounds pretty weird. But it's delicious, I promise! Head on over to Jessica's blog to see the full post!

In other news, I apologize if posts over the next week are a little sparse. I started my new job today (yay!) and am adjusting to the new schedule and trying to figure out how to fit in all the other responsibilities I committed to while I was unemployed (ugh). Then this weekend Taylor and I are heading up to Seattle to see my mom (she will be there for a wedding) and do some exploring...So you might see some pictures from that trip around here in the near future!

Adventures in Infusing Alcohol

A couple of weeks ago my friend, Caroline, and I decided to give infusing alcohols a try. This has been the summer of cocktails -- all of our friends are finally 21 and we've been enjoying experimenting with different ingredients in mixed drinks. We decided to make 5 different infused alcohols using both vodka and tequila and were super happy with the results.  Over the next couple of weeks we will be sharing 5 different yummy cocktails we came up with using these!  See below for the details of each infused alcohol!

1) First, we made a small batch of jasmine tea infused vodka.  We just threw in a couple tablespoons of the dry tea (see above) with the vodka.  We left it in for 3 days but this made it wayy too strong...because it's tea...duh (honestly we kind of forgot about it...).  It worked out ok because we can just dilute it with plain vodka. We mixed about a third of a shot of this with 2/3 of a shot of plain vodka to get a good strength. If you just leave it in for 24 hours it should be fine to use on it's own.

2) One of the riskier concoctions we threw together was jalapeños and rosemary in tequila...In the end this one ended up being one of our favorites, even though it took a bit longer to perfect a cocktail using it since the flavors are a little different. First, we put around 5 or six sprigs of rosemary in with a little tequila and muddled it.  Then we added in a couple chopped up jalapeños and the rest of the tequila. Definitely take the jalapeños out after 24 hours or it will get too spicy.  We left the rosemary in for 3 days which may have been a little too long--it is a pretty prominent flavor.  I would suggest taking it out after 2 days, but if you want it to be a very subtle flavor you could take it out on the first day with the jalapeños.

3) We also made some vodka with just jalapeños.  Just throw in a couple of chopped up peppers and leave them in for a day.

4) One of our favorites was cucumber vodka -- so refreshing and summery (quick, go make it before summer is over!).  We just threw a chopped up cucumber into some vodka and let it sit for 3 days.

5) Last but not least was ginger pear tequila. We cut up a pear and a couple of inches of fresh ginger and let them sit in the tequila for 3 days.  The flavors weren't super distinct so I would suggest muddling the chopped up ginger in a little bit of tequila to get the juices out before you add in everything else.

Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks for some yummy drink recipes using these!

first guest post: brandied cherries

Hello friends! I can't believe it's already Monday...my weekend was full of family, friends, yummy food, and crafty projects...and it flew by so quickly. I also made a very special early birthday present purchase for myself this weekend--I got my first DLSR camera! I am so excited to learn more about photography and have been snapping pictures of everything around me ever since I got it. Hopefully this means that there will be some improvement in the photography around here--I love that I have a space to share my photos as I learn...hopefully it will push me to practice and improve.

Today I'd like to share a post from my sweet friend (and future house-mate!) Alex. She is super smart and creative so I told her I would love if she would do guest posts every so often on here. Here is what she came up with!

Brandied Cherries

The best part of summer is enjoying fresh fruit in all forms. This summer my mom and I have been placing fruit in everything we eat: salad, yogurt, water, cake, and homemade ice cream. So we decided to follow a simple recipe we found in Sunset Magazine to turn ripe Rainier cherries into an awesome new topping for all our favorite things, it is an excellent twist on a maraschino cherry (and super easy to make too)!


You can start with a fresh batch of Rainier cherries; we got ours from the local farmers market, and begin pitting the cherries. The pitting is a bit complicated so here is a little demonstration.


Next, you fill up your jars with the cherries and a few cinnamon sticks.

Bring your sugar, brandy, and 1 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved.


Once the jars and liquid have cooled, seal them with a lid and give them at least a month to absorb the liquid.

We are super excited to eat them on top of some homemade vanilla ice cream! 

(original recipe source)