one palette three looks: HUDA Beauty Mauve Obsessions

I love all the eye shadow palettes I own, and wanted to do something to push myself to get a bit more experimental with how I do my eye makeup. I'm relatively modest with my eye shadow application, only occasionally playing up the colors when I go out with friends. Now I'm going to try a little harder, and use more of the colors I tend to avoid. I've written about the HUDA Beauty Mauve Obsessions palette in a previous post. I just fell in love with it in Sephora, even though I've always avoided red and pink shades of eye shadow for fear of my eyes looking irritated (as someone with sensitive eyes this is a constant concern). But it's paid off, because these colors are absolutely gorgeous and look phenomenal without making me look like I have pink eye!

This palette has 9 colors; 6 are matte and 3 are shimmery. The shadows have amazing formulation; they are soft, creamy, and so easy to blend. I've never tried any of the shades without primer, but frankly I hate wearing eye shadow without primer anyway. I wear the holy grail of primers, Urban Decay Primer Potion.

This palette is pretty small, which means it's perfect for travelling! I typically don't bring eye shadow when I travel because my palettes are big and I don't want them to shatter. However, I took this with me on my trip to New York, and it fit perfectly in my makeup bag.

I put numbers on the shades of this palette for reference when I describe my application process.

an ode to my porch

Every time I've been going to take pictures for this blog, I head straight for my porch. Not only does it have excellent lighting and a good background, it's also one of my favorite places. When looking at apartments after college graduation, I was really determined to find someplace with a porch, and we stumbled upon the perfect one. I mean, this apartment is really nice, and I love living here and in my neighborhood, but it would be significantly less great if my porch wasn't there.

Our very first of many, many selfies to come

I'm not really an outdoorsy person, but I do like the outside. I like sitting in the sunshine and reading. I like the feel of a breeze coming through. And I flippin' love Christmas lights, which are on all year round on our porch. This space is so serene. Our neighborhood is very quiet, which was such a blessing after living in a raucous college neighborhood for four years. I love having dinner out here, sipping on some coffee in the morning, and having people over to drink with us.

It's so wonderful to have a place like this. It changes my apartment from just the place I live, to the place I call home. One day I'll have to move, and hopefully my future apartments and homes have good porches too, but I'm always going to treasure this space. If you need me, I'll be out on my porch.

a peach and raspberry crumble

It's summertime, which means it's time for some delicious summer fruit! After some travelling and working late all the time, I was able to get a big grocery shop in, which for me means buying as much fruit as I can carry. I adore all the summer berries, peaches, nectarines, cherries, and all the other deliciousness summer brings. Since I went a little overboard with my fruit purchases, I texted my mom asking for some of her crumble recipes. She sent me a Peach Blueberry Crumble, which is absolutely heavenly. (Where she found this recipe years ago, I have no idea. If you know the cookbook or website, I'd be happy to credit it!) I ended up subbing raspberries in for blueberries, but I as pretty happy with how it turned out!

Here's what you'll need to make it!

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 1/4 (packed) light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• Pinch of black pepper
• 2 cups fresh raspberries (or blueberries)
• 2 pounds peaches
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 stick of cold butter, cut into small pieces 

Alright so here's the actual recipe!

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Slice up your peaches and combine the in a bowl with the berries. The recipe says to peel the peaches, but I love peach skin so I left it on. It tasted great, so it's really just a personal preference!
3. In a sauce pan, combine water, 3/4 cup of brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of nutmeg, and pepper. Whisk until smooth. Place the pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Pour syrup over the peaches and raspberries. Toss well and let cool for 10 minutes.
5. In a bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, flour, oats, and butter. Using your fingers, work the mixture together until it resembles a course crumb like mixture. I used my fingers, but I think you could easily get away with using a food processor to combine this!
6. Butter your baking dish. Now the recipe calls for a pie crust bottom (using - gasp!! store bought crust!!), but I wanted this to be bottomless. It's up to your preference again! 
7. Pour fruit mixture into the dish. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit filling. 
8. Bake for 1 hour, or until the crust is golden. Remove dish from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes before serving.
9. Slice and serve warm! Garnish with whipped cream or ice cream.

the peach slices and berries coming together with the syrup

Transforming the topping from a bunch of separate ingredients into a delicious mix!

ready for the oven!

all done, with some aesthetically pleasing flowers!

A couple of notes: Making this dish with raspberries made it a bit more juicy than blueberries, so just be warned! I would probably add a little less syrup next time around. I also used my gorgeous Le Creuset baking dish my mom had gifted me, mostly for aesthetics because it's so pretty! I think it was a little too deep for this dish though. I would recommend something more shallow and wider. But that's part of cooking: figuring out what worked well and what you'd change next time around! I made this right before my friend from out of town came to stay with us, so it was a perfect breakfast treat to have on hand.

Although i recommend reducing the juices a little bit, this will still be a fruit delicious dish

I'm sad I don't have any leftovers anymore tbh

I've already been recruited by my mother to practice this recipe so I can make it for my family vacation. I might try a couple more variants to try and get a nice big version to serve to the whole crew!

hairstyle: space buns

When Fourth of July came around, it was ridiculously hot. In Pittsburgh, over 90 degrees is just... well unacceptable. Fourth of July was very low-key for my family. My stepmom's birthday is actually the fourth, so we just had a little backyard barbecue. There certainly was a dress code, but I wore my red and white dress because it was so loose, and I could get away bra free on this hot day (small boob privileges!) And of course, I put on a red lip, but I don't need an excuse to rock a red lip. I wanted to keep my hair out of my face, but I didn't want to do a little top knot or braid, like I always do. So I took inspiration from Hannah and rocked some little space buns. I thought it turned out so cute, so I went to my favorite photoshoot location, my porch, and snapped a couple pics of my hair.

It was so simple and easy to do. Instead of doing a half up top knot, you just separate the top half of your hair in half, wrap them into buns, and pin away! I really loved how it looked! I'm always nervous about middle parts because I think it makes me look really young, but I thought this style was really flattering. It was also very youthful, but I thought for being outside and keeping the hair away, it was just what a needed. Plus with the heat and humidity, my curly hair gets out of control (these photos were taken at my hair's calmest), so it's nice to have half of it pinned back.

peep my obnoxiously pink nails in my pre-NYC manicure

Since cutting my hair short nearly two years ago, I haven't done a lot of fun hairstyles, mostly because I don't have as much hair to be intricate with. But this look made me really happy, and I'm sure I'll be rocking these little space buns at some other points this summer!

a trip to NYC

Despite facing a lot of perils on my previous trip to NYC, I decided to go back! While, I had a terrible megabus trip to NYC (I got in 6 hours late... it was a 14 hours of travelling!!!), my whole trip was wonderful. I got to see one of my best friends, and frolick around the city with her. We had AMAZING food, some good heart to hearts, and some of the best views on beautifully sunny days. While I didn't take a pic of the meal, Chop Shop II was one of the best meals I had. Oh it was so delicious, I can't recommend going there enough!! She's only a few blocks off from Central Park, so we took a lovely walk around the reservoir.

Spotted: D and A with their favorite things, sunshine and iced coffee

Then my friend convinced me to do a booze cruise. Honestly, the thought of sailing around while drinking made me a little nervous (I'm terrified of water), but it was SO MUCH fun. Our views of Manhattan and Brooklyn were incredible. The skylines look great, but also there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. We were so fortunate.

Hello Manhattan!

Who looks better: us or the skyline?

That golden hour sunlight was so giving to us.

I had to leave on Sunday, although I wish I could have stayed so much longer. We had a fantastic brunch at Jane in Soho, and one of our dear friends took a train in from New Jersey to join us. Plus, my friend's lovely roommate came along too! I'm so happy to catch up with two people I love dearly, and to spend more time getting to know my friend's roommate who is so much fun.

This Vanilla Bean French Toast was incredibly delicious. I'm still thinking about it

Thanks to the random guy for indulging our photo needs

I made it back home safe and didn't break my ankle, which everyone in my life was a little too proud of me. It's gonna take me a long time to get back the reputation of someone who can walk around without breaking a bone! I'm so grateful for the chance to go on this trip. Life is hard and overwhelming, so it's important to spend time with people who love you. I can't express how grateful I am to my friends for showing me unconditional love and challenging me to be a better version of myself. I can't wait to see these girls again.