Intricate Manicures | All That Glitters

30rock121712

For the past week or so, I’ve spent nearly every night that I’ve been home addicted to what I think might be one of the greatest comedies on TV since Sex and the City! Of course, I’m just now realizing this… and it’s been off the air for 6 months… after 7 successful seasons.

What was a simple night at home perusing Netflix looking for something to keep me entertained, but wouldn’t require a 2 hour feature film length commitment, lead me to 30 Rock (which Netflix kindly noted under my recommendations so I thought I would take their advice).

Interestingly, a similar pattern for this new addiction is exactly how I got into SATC. The series had been off the air for 10 months and after hearing about it incessantly, I spent one Christmas vacation in college watching the entire series in 2 weeks. Ah, memories. For my 26th birthday, I bought the complete series on DVD as a gift to myself and it was worth every single penny. To this day, I can watch an episode if I’ve had a bad day and find it as refreshing and funny as ever. I still have a secret dream of moving to New York City; developing a Manolo Blahnik fetish; meeting my version of Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda at our favorite place for brunch every weekend; while living in my fabulous rent-controlled apartment; with a great writing job.

I often find when watching “sitcoms” in recent years – that I’m either disappointed or I don’t invest in them the way that I would a good juicy one-hour drama. Then again, over the last 2 years or so I’ve stopped following any type of television programming religiously. If I met myself today, my 17-year-old self would be very disappointed – that’s how much I used to abide by a strict television schedule. People knew not to bother me on Wednesday nights from 8:00pm on. That night was for me, Kelly, Brandon, Brenda, Dylan, Donna and the rest of the 90210 gang ONLY (even though I was a baby at the time and my mom probably should have been monitoring my TV choices more closely.)

So while I’m only 30 episodes out of 138 from catching up on all the 30 Rock awesomeness, I can’t think of anything that I’m lovin’ more right now. Then again…

here’s what i’m lovin’ right now

|| “Pup in a Cup” gives me a big smile every time I look at it. Adorbz!||

||10 Summer Snacks Under 200 Calories // Watermelon salad pictured.||

||Light denim chambray + denim cut offs = perfect for summer.||

||Sweetapolita’s Rich & Ruffled Chocolate Celebration Cake //full recipe here.||

||Black french tip manicures.||

|| Lifed.com’s Bucket List: 225 Things to do Before you Die // Warning: some of these are “out there” but I’m all for #13!||

||Gaby Dalkin’s Absolutely Avocados Cookbook features 80 recipes using avocados //

This Cajun Shrimp Guacamole looks delish.||

*click photos for image sources.

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I am what you call a late bloomer. Suffice to say that I’ve always been this way across many areas of my life. What someone accomplished at age 16, I didn’t until 18. What someone achieved at 28, I probably won’t until…well, I couldn’t say. The one area it seems I crossed the finish line “on time” or before many others, was that I graduated from college (cum laude!) with my Bachelor’s Degree at age 22 and had a full-time job offered to me as soon as I walked off the stage practically (but even this began another 2 year journey toward finding my dream job in the industry). The point being that blooming later in life can be disappointing or liberating depending on what subject we’re talking about at the time.

What I find most fascinating as I get older, is how much more I find myself embracing my femininity. This could open a world of debate about what is defined as “feminine” and whether or not women should even be boxed into such stereotypical terms. So for the sake of opening that can of worms, I’ll acknowledge this off the bat and share my story anyway.

While I’ve always managed to keep myself looking presentable when it came to style (though mine was of the jeans, t-shirts, and even overalls variety in college), I wasn’t one of the first girls to embrace bras, make-up, and dresses as some of my peers were during my developmental years. While yes, I eventually ~~was forced~~ learned to become friends with bras (and now consider them BFFs, in fact), my relationship with dresses didn’t really take off until recently. Unless there was a special celebration (or I was 5 with pigtails) you wouldn’t catch me in a dress too often.

Somehow, very likely due to mass media, fashion blogs, magazines, films, TV…Society…The Man!…I feel like I’m finally embracing a new style and it’s turning out to be much more feminine that I’ve ever experienced personally. There were a lot of reasons looking back that it took awhile for me to be comfortable enough in a casual dress while running errands or getting to a place where I even wanted to wear a polished dress to the office. That’s another post, for another time. The interesting thing is that while I have grown of love the perfect summer dress or a great skirt, I find that I’m still slightly more conscious of myself than if I were in a pair of jeans. Perhaps there is still part of me fighting “The Man.” This means, you likely won’t ever see me go full Zooey Deschanel – though she totally rocks that look.

When I came across these awesome looks above*, it got me to thinking more about how to incorporate my new evolving style as we move into the warmer season where dresses are a great piece to have handy. My number one rule in anything I purchase moving forward is function and comfort.

Cheers to embracing whatever your definition of femininity is (or is not) while still managing to fight “The Man.”

And to all you late bloomers out there, our time will come. xx

here’s what i’m lovin’ right now

|| ShoeMint’s Lindsey Heels. Though I, personally, could never walk in them.||

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