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Don't think I've abandoned ship on this blog! My laptop decided to go swan diving from the living room table and is in need of a new hard drive that I'll be getting on Saturday. But I've learned a few things from this laptop-less week (teehee, laptop-less)

1. Redbox is king

2. Books are cool

3. Friends are fantastic

4. UPS customer service really sucks.

In the mean time Mama will be coming to visit this weekend and I'll be gearing up for the big move to my little studio this Monday. Hope everyone is enjoying their crisp October!

Scrub a Dub Dub

When it comes to my beauty routine, the philosophy is normally: "why make it at home when you can buy it in the store?" It always seemed like such a hassle to trek out to Whole Foods or Trader Joe's and track down each individual little ingredient that was otherwise impossible to find in regular stores. But then I found a recipe for Mud Scrub on Pinterest and figured, what the heck, I already have most of the stuff in my cabinet, let's go for it.

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All I used were the coffee grounds, sugar, and olive oil, and since using it I can not shut up about it. It makes your skin so soft and glow-y, I'm guessing from the caffeine. It gets your shower a little messy, but that's the fun of the "mud scrub" I suppose. It's made me think about using other at-home beauty recipes...

Like these for a scalp scrub, a brightening toner, or a homemade hot oil treatment. I'll try them out and report back!

Any at-home remedies that you can't live without?

Play On

I read this amaze-balls article on Thought Catalog:

30 Things You Should Do Right Now

Other than reading poetry, writing every day, and flossing my teeth, one tip in particular blew my 24 year old frigging mind:

23. Listen to a whole album. The digital sales market has returned music to the singles-centric model that worked in the 50s and 60s, but even then the best work was the full vision of an artist. Be it Cher Lloyd or Bloc Party, listen to the entire thing and be sucked into their world. 

Blew it. Clean out of my skull. I can easily recall begging my mom to take me to Media Play to buy a couple of CD's so I could lock my door, plug in my little green box CD player and let the music take me where the artist wanted me to go. Whether I was singing, dancing, or writing on my mammoth sized window 95 wordpad, I was intrinsically lost in the music.

In the spirit of my 7th grade self, I bought some whole albums and allowed myself to get carried away.

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Makes me want to dance, love, play the banjo, see the world, and love again.

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Soulful, romantic, and takes me away from the city for a while even when I'm on the train. 

What other albums should I be downloading? Other than a Rat Pack Christmas that is...

Sunday

I have been fighting tooth and nail to prevent myself from listening to Christmas music all week long. I justify it by saying that at the very least it's Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby, but I know in my heart of hearts that it is far too early for "sounds of the season". And yet, I find myself singing it around the apartment and craving a screening of White Christmas.

After fighting all night with different cough medicines and waking up to a less than warm apartment, I crawled under a blanket on the couch and let Pandora take care of me. I don't know if it's the joy of the season I'm looking forward to, being able to stay in and drink a hot toddy without guilt or wear my red rubber snow boots out and about, but I'm truly looking forward to Christmas this year, despite not being able to go home.

I hope everyone enjoys their Sunday! (Only 71 more days until Christmas!)

-K.K.

The Pants Party

Pre-fall it was all about the pants. This has proved a worthy investment since blue denim is an absolute no-no at the new job, but colored and black denim seems to get along just fine. I made a few investment purchases and I think they'll get me through many autumns to come:

Special thanks to the "amaro" filter on insta-gram. I look truly arty here. These are my dark green zipper jeans à la Gap and they've proven to be a really useful transition piece from work with the polo and heels, to stage management with boots and a black top, and out at night with whateveaIwant. See how I'm rocking the half tuck here? My midwest upbringing said: "don't do it you'll look a fool!" But if J.Crew can do it then I certainly can.

No thanks to amaro filter here for making me look like a blurry mess. But note my relaxed demeanor and carefree spirit? It's these ponte knit pants, also from Gap. (Pon-tee) They're stretchy enough to do yoga in yet have the thickness and style to be considered dress pants at work. A pants miracle? I believe so.

American Apparel has some sort of weird and sinister witchcraft that causes me to shell out for the crazies darn things. I'll be browsing plain white t-shirts next to the gold lamé body suits and suddenly I'll fall in love with a piece of clothing that I never in my dreams would think to covet before. It's impulsive, unadulterated, and as freeing as a breezy spring day after a long and dreary winter.

These are my newest infatuation: faux leather leggings. I told Running Buddy I was just trying them on but I knew in my heart of hearts that they were going home with me. Pulling them on sounded like a sweet romantic melody of trying to put on a wet scuba suit, and the texture caressing my skin felt like I was wearing pants made out of rubber bands and angels wings. Already having spent a lot of pants, I asked RB if I should hold off. "You don't have to buy them today...but since you have to buy them eventually you may as well just get them now and save yourself the gas money."


So welcome to the pants party...it's a party with my pants!