I love (birthday) lists.

I'm turning the big two-three (23) in less than a month! I love birthdays (I don't dread mine yet - that'll be 25, I think) and  I love making lists and I love wanting everything ever so I figured this was a good time to list out all of the things I'd like for my birthday. Everyone can buy me something but no pressure or anything.

1. This Remington Curling Wand. I've wanted it for a few months now. My cousins came up from North Carolina in the fall and my cousin Kimmy curled my hair for Thanksgiving with this wand. I was so in love. I can't justify spending $25 on it even though I would use it all the time. 

2. Nike Revolution sneakers. Look at them. So pretty. I haven't had a pair of sneakers (besides my running shoes) in a long time - partially because I'm so picky! These are winners. I stare at them all the time on Zappos. 

3. Okay, this is $800 but still. I got to mess with a Canon similar to this one in my photography class that I had to take last summer. So so so dreamy. I'm apparently without a camera (I've been borrowing my mother's - life. - and now I have to give it back! What am I going to do?) moving forward so this is me pleading to everyone to put their money together and buy this for me. I definitely forgot to mention this little guy in my lottery post. I'd definitely buy this guy if I had $640+ million dollars lying around. 

4. This PowerShot would work fine too! It's a teeny tiny bit cheaper. Just saying.

5. It's not often that I'll laugh so hard that I cry (or that I'll pee my pants, hahaha). But trust me (you can ask Shannon), when I read this book, I go f'ing crazy. I need this book for any bad days I'm going to have. It would definitely make me feel 100% better. Too hilarious. I'm laughing just thinking about the things that are in this book. 

6. I want go to to Georgetown Cupcake. Badly. So badly. Very badly. Badly badly badly. 

7. This Coupons Receiptables from Knock Knock would make my weekly grocery and Target trips a lot easier! So many coupons and so much disorganization right now. 

I love quotes.

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." 
- Winston Churchill

I love Easter.

To be completely honest, Easter isn't my favorite holiday. I think what I love about it is that its a sign of spring (finally) being here and there's pastel colors everywhere and I love it.

I also love the ideas of holidays, in general, so I try to make them as special as I possibly can by doing things that are very Easter-y, Christmas-y, 4th of July-y, etc.

This Easter I:

• Made Bunny Bait. I thought it turned out pretty amazing. I didn't use any pretzels because I didn't have the right kind but it's fine without them, I think! Sasha loved it (see pictures below, hahaha).
• Did an Easter egg hunt in my backyard with my 7-year old sister, Brooke. I've been wanting to do one for a few years now but I use to work the 6am-1pm shift at Panera every Easter before now so I never got to! I'm glad I got to this year :)
• Ate great homemade mac and cheese...and cheesecake. I've been trying to eat "good" but when that kind of stuff is in front of my face AND it's a holiday (aka an excuse to eat "badly"), I can't resist it.
• Spent time with my family and with Paul's family. Paul's family is pretty awesome. I like hanging out with them...a lot. Most of his family "gets it." 

I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• Drank Natty Boh for the first time ever. This is worth noting because it's the second weekend in a row that I drank beer. So rare so rareeee. 
• Shopped with the crazy moms at Target on Saturday (the day before Easter). So many people. So many crazy moms last minute Easter shopping. So much anxiety when you enter the Easter section in the back. Carts hitting each other and moms staring at walls of candy. It was fun, though.  
• Finished birthday gift shopping for Paul. This is actually pretty late/too close for comfort for me. I'm excited and happy to be done! I love birthdays.
• Was pumped that the O's won THRICE (or three times) and the Caps won! Yaaaay sports!
• Got Starbucks with my long, lost friend Amanda that I don't get to see often. It's awesome when I do get to see her. Fun, fun, fun, fun. 
• Went to Kmart...twice. This is worth noting because I NEVER go in there. It depresses me...a lot. But I went two times this weekend - so crazy! RIGHT, YOU GUYS? My life is exciting! 

I love pretty iPhone cases.

It's true. It's so true. I'm finally becoming like everyone else and getting an iPhone. I'm lucky enough to have my birthday be around the same time of when my BlackBerry contract ends so I get an iPhone for free (as a gift). 
I'm excited.
Really excited. 
I've waited all of my life for this.
My BlackBerry has been so...not fun. It was fun in the beginning and then as time went on, it broke and broke and broke and broke and got replaced and replaced and sucked and was lame and sometimes was cool.

Yaaay for getting an iPhone. You know what that means...the time has come for me to buy a pretty case to put on it so that it doesn't break because I'm not going to be getting insurance on it! Yaaaaay. Which one will I get? Who knows? I'll decide later - they're all so cute.

1. Red (or is it pink? or is it orange? Or it is red-orange-pink?) polka dot case from NapPage on Etsy.

2. Vertical stripes (oooh cool) in different shades of teal/coral/green-blue from incase. 

3. Colorful, pretty circles overlapping each other on a pretty, white background also from NapPage on Etsy.

4. Yellow and chevron bright, bright, bright case from redtilestudio on Etsy.

I love Nutella-filled sugar cookies.

I always find recipes for baked goodies that have the potential to be an extremely huge mess when I am making them. I'm drawn to these types of recipes/goodies even though it doesn't make sense. I get so anxious and frustrated and messy and have fingers that are sticky that I have to wash every two seconds. 

Of course when I saw a recipe for Nutella-filled sugar cookies, I instantly felt the need to bake them as soon as possible. After making these, I'm come to the conclusion that it seems like anything (cookie, etc.) filled with something else (Oreos, Nutella, etc.) in baking means a hot mess is going to be made. Flour EVERYWHERE. Dough EVERYWHERE. Sugary, sticky counters EVERYWHERE. 

Anyways, the messy life that these cookies caused was definitely worth it. Cookies + Nutella = always a good idea. I think it's hard to please everyone when it comes to baking things in my house sometimes. Everyone has different tastes and likes different things. But I'm pretty sure everyone on the planet loves Nutella and who doesn't like sugar cookies? Exactly. 

Side note: it seems like every cookie recipe that I follow never calls for enough flour. Or maybe I'm just crazy. I always end up adding, at least, 1/2 cup more than it says to use because my dough is just slimy (gross word, I know. I'm sorry, you guys). Does anyone else feel this way? That's a rhetorical question, I guess. I don't expect anyone to answer it. I just feel crazy and I think maybe that my obsession with adding too much flour to my cookie dough makes sense as to why I feel the need to flour bomb the people I can't stand. That's all. 

I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• Had my first beer(s) in a looooong time at Pub Dog in Columbia. It was called Raspberry Dog so obviously I thought it was going to be awesome (raspberries are good and dogs are awesome, so...). Anyways, it was pretty alright. Drinking beer this weekend reminded me why I stopped drinking beer years ago, haha. I'll stick with my wine and margaritas. 
• Didn't win the lottery. Ooohhh maaaaannn.
• Went to Target with Catie and had to be evacuated out of the store for 20+ minutes because someone smelled smoke. I had straightened, then curled, then straightened (again) my hair earlier that day. I joked that someone just smelled my hair and thought it was smoke/something burning - because my hair smelled bad/like burnt hair, haha. Mmmm.
• Surprised JD for his birthday! Shout out to Lindsey for planning such a cute/great surprise party! It was really fun! I love the Velaro crew + their girlfriends. Also, the candles for the cheesecake (see above) were lit a little too early as we waited for JD to show up so they melted into it. Hilarious.
• Tried vodka gummy bears for the first time at the surprise party. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm obsessed with gummy bears. They were everything I always dreamed they would be.
• Baked Nutella-filled sugar cookies - I'll post on that later this week. Yummy.

I love(d) March.

March March March. In March, I:

• ate 6 too many bear claws from Panera. I don't regret it, though. They're amazing.
• learned how to play one song on guitar - thanks to Paul :) and me finally having enough patience with myself.
• was f'ed up about Pretty Little Liars for days after the season finale. I had several nightmares about Mona being in my room/trying to kill me. This is my life.
• didn't watch enough college basketball. I wish I had watched more!
• had to leave my parking garage in the city because there was a car on fire - what?
• saw lots of cute puppies walking the streets of Mt. Vernon because it was so nice out.
• made friends with lots of babies at Target.
• got to wear a dress without tights for the first time this year! 
• raised $220 for the Maryland SPCA March for the Animals. I'm $30 away from my goal!  Please donate right HERE. :) Time is running out!
• went to friends' apartments and saw great views of Towson (see above) and Canton.

It was a good one! I'm happy it's officially spring. Now, all I need to do is get a pair of rain boots so I can be prepared for all of the rainy April days ahead!