The official return of summer.

Summer in New England has always meant soft serve ice cream with jimmies. My first cup was a 2013 milestone and now I'm hooked! I've been trying to eat healthier, but I can't say no to ice cream! I know that it's not technically summer yet, but I don't care! Ice cream = summer!

(My best friend Ashley and I had shakes and floats before seeing Iron Man last weekend.)

Oh summer, I hope you stick around...

Thrift Finds!

My favorite seasons are upon us! Spring and summer make me feel alive again! The weather is warm, there are animals all around, and the flea markets and yard sales are in full swing. I've been going to the flea market every Sunday and have found some great treasures! I only happened to snap photos of a few things, but I am going to make a habit out of photographing them all to share. Here's a few of my favorite finds from the past couple weeks.

 I finally found a diner style vintage table! My mom and I stopped in at a garage sale in our town and were browsing around chatting with the people hosting. They were selling a lot of their great aunt's things after she had passed away. I was carrying around a couple clear glass Pyrex bowls and some vintage deer figurines when I bent down to check out a box of jewelry and I saw it. There was a red metal table hiding under a pile of junk. I took a chance and asked and yes, it was part of the sale. The woman was so nice and told me to offer something very low - they just wanted their great aunts things to go to someone who would appreciate them. I ended up getting the table, two chairs, and the bowls and deer I already had in my hands for $25.00. WHAT. So happy! The wood paneling you see in the photo is actually just contact paper. I tore that off at home to reveal the white metal underneath.

The huge frame was found at my towns recycling center. I've been searching for a huge frame to display all my Postal Pix and this will do the trick perfectly! It used to hold a mirror, but the mirror cracked so someone put it in the free room. I will probably DIY it into something similar to this.

This lamp. I mean, are words needed? I took my cousin to the flea market for the first time and we found this gem. We both love E.T. so I knew one of us was going home with it. My cousin snagged it for $10.00 (without negotiating - she's a bit of a newbie, but it was worth every penny!). This is one of those things that is so ugly it's awesome.

I've been wanting a big furniture-style record player for years! I found this one at a yard sale and got it for $25.00. It's a 1960's Magnavox and it sounds amazing! It's going to live in my mom's living room until we find a house because it's too cool to go into storage. 

And last, this huge screen was found in the dumpster behind my office. We work above a coffee shop and the employees had thrown their garbage in after whoever dumped this beauty so it was stained with coffee grounds but I'm going to replace the fabric and it will be good as new! It's six panels and I can't wait to separate a room with it!

Have you been thrifting, flea marketing, or yard saling this year? I'd love to hear about your treasures!

2013.

I didn't realize that I was holding my breath waiting for something good to come until it suddenly became known that it wasn't going to happen. How devastating to all at once realize how much happiness you had riding on this one opportunity.

13 has always been my lucky number since I was born on a 13th day. My brother was born on the 31st. My mom always bets 1's and 3's. I remember thinking that 2013 would be the year that it all happened. I would have my shit together by then for sure. Of course, back then 2013 sounded like a far off futuristic land. This year was going to be my year. The year of Brittany. Thinking that now is almost laughable. What an idiot I was. Nothing has changed. Bad things happen to good people. There is no law that says you get a break just because you've had a shit past four months.

We didn't get the house we were putting offers in on. Even though our last bid was the asking price and it had been unsold on the market for months with no other interested buyers. Nope, sorry Brittany. No house, no engagement, no marriage, no children. Not that the thought of kids doesn't terrify me right now but it would be nice to have the rest of those things out of the way In the next couple of years so that when it wasn't so terrifying it would be a possibility. Thinking that I will be 30 in 5 years scares the living shit out of me. I'm so not ready to be 30. But maybe most 25 year olds think that.

I rented a storage unit yesterday to get all these boxes and pieces of furniture out of my parents house. I had been hesitating because I was pretty damn sure I would only end up needing the storage for a few months while we closed on the home and didn't want to waste the money storing it for such a short time. The guy at the storage company asked me how long I would be renting there for. I said hopefully not too long. We are still house hunting, even though I'm picky as hell and we are on a barely over minimum wage budget.

He said "that's what they all say."

Get Ready With Me Video!

Does anyone else love to watch people put their makeup on? I used to love having friends sleep over and watch them do their makeup in the morning - weird? Anyway, one of my favorite types of Youtube videos are the Get Ready With Me ones so I decided to try it out. 

If anyone of you guys have a Youtube account, please, PLEASE, subscribe! I would love to have people to chat with. And, if you post videos as well, I would love to see!

Cruelty - Free Beauty : Newest Favorites!

Hi guys! Long time, no talk! My love of trying new makeup products has grown so much in the last few months and I'm having so much fun with it. I've been really exploring the animal cruelty - free world and have discovered a few new (to me) brands. These are my favorite new products:

Milani Easy-Brow Pencil : Shade 03 Natural Taupe
I went back and forth between this shade and 02 Dark Brown but decided to give the taupe a try since I had recently read that you should buy your eyebrow products in a color a shade lighter than your natural brow color. Plus, my hair recently went to an even lighter shade of bleach blonde and I wanted something a little less dramatic. This pencil  has been great! It is a twist up pencil, so there is no sharpening necessary and it has a spoolie brush on the other end for super quick blending and brushing. It's available for $5.49 on the Milani website, but I found mine at CVS. (I think I payed a little over $7.00 for mine in store.)

e.l.f Studio High Definition Powder : Translucent
I'm a huge fan of e.l.f. products, especially anything from their Studio collection and this did not disappoint. I had been on the hunt for a good loose powder to set my makeup and heard rave reviews about this one "blurring" imperfections. I'm not sure that it blurred as much as I was expecting, but it definitely adds a softening effect. There is also a corrective yellow shade as well as a shimmer version available on the e.l.f. site and all shades are $6.00. I bought mine at Target (I've also seen it at Walmart) for the same price.

NYX Powder Blush : Pinched
I have never been impressed with blushes. I found that even though I have pale skin, they never showed up the way I wanted them to. Then I found the Wet 'n Wild Color Icon blushes, which showed up great but were so highly pigmented I found them difficult to apply. I had heard that this particular shade in the NYX Powder Blush line was comparable to the highly praised NARS Orgasm, so I gave it a go. It is gorgeous! It's a very pretty coral pink shade with some warm shimmer to it. It goes for $5.00 on the NYX website, but it's currently sold out. I found mine on Amazon.com for around the same price.

NYX Round Lipstick : Chic Red
I am a red lipstick collector. I gravitate toward them and I can't help myself. Even so, I was convinced that I didn't own the perfect shade of red worked well with both my pale complexion and my not always blindingly white smile. Chic Red is all of that for me. I was pleasantly surprised that it is also long lasting even though it's not advertised to be a long wear formula. Available for a crazy $4.00 on the NYX website (along with another 123 extremely tempting shades). I grabbed mine on Amazon.com for a bit more.

Real Techniques Makeup Brushes : Expert Face Brush
I have been hearing rave reviews about the Real Techniques brushes and always assumed they would be pricey - good thing I finally looked into them! This particular brush sells for $9.00 on the Real Techniques site and has quickly surpassed every other brush I own. I have been applying my foundation and blending in my concealer with the Expert Face Brush and am noticing that I'm using so much less product than I did with a sponge. The bristles are stiff enough to blend the product in but soft enough to be comfortable on skin. I will definitely be buying more of these brushes - I'm itching to order the whole Core Collection. I found mine on Amazon.com for a similar price as the website.

While, I've got you here :  I found a fantastic article on animal testing. What exactly it means, why it even exists, and what to look for in a product to ensure that your money isn't being used to pay for these tests to be done. Check out The Truth About Cruelty Free Beauty - Part One : What Is Animal Testing? And don't worry, the article is truthful and informative without being too graphic.

Beauty Things I Suck At - My First Video on YOUTUBE

My adorable (and hilarious) friend Sara inspired me to create a Youtube channel. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while, and I think now is a good time. I need some distraction from life. So, my first video is live on my Youtube channel! I'm a little nervous about it but I think it will be fun! If any of you have Youtube, please subscribe to my channel or let me know so I can find you!

24 Hours in NYC

After an incredibly emotional and heartbreaking week, my mom and I decided last minute that we were going to New York City for the weekend. We booked bus tickets, a hotel for a night, grabbed my best friend, and left. It was good to get away from such bad memories and a suddenly too quiet house.

We had cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery (How I missed REAL butter cream frosting!) and mostly just walked and felt the city. There is nothing like waking up in the morning and walking out onto a busy, sunny NYC street. I absolutely adore it.

We went to the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market and it was amazing. We immediately decided that our next NYC trip will consist of flea markets only.

Ashley "climbing" the wall of our hotel ala Spiderman, Candied almonds on the street - SO good!, I had to pose in front of Harry Winston, and, as always, we loved Anthropologie.

And the best part of the trip - I got to cross something off my bucket list and eat breakfast at Tiffany's on Sunday morning. I hummed moon river on the cab ride to 5th avenue and then looked in the window at the pretty diamond key necklaces. I was in heaven.

Now that I'm home, all the emotions that I was avoiding have caught up to me and I'm having a difficult time. Keeping busy seems to be the only thing that keeps my mind in an okay place.

Thank you for the sweet distraction, New York.