my new favorite place to get a quick bite.

I went to Smash Burger for the first time in the beginning of this summer, and it was like a burger awakening. Everything about the SB burger is beautiful. Not to mention, I have decided that the way I want to die is drowning in their spicy chipotle sauce.This place is my new "I want to go out to dinner tonight and this is automatically where I think of to go". And that was basically my goal with this item on my bucket list. It's totally delish, it's an easy place to go to, there's one close by to where my friends and I live, and it's cheap. Boom, boom, boom.There were a few new places that my friends and I tried this summer, but this is definitely the place that I think I will want to come back to over and over and have it be one of our go-to choices for nights out to eat. I don't know how it went under the radar for so long! If you haven't been there before - it's time.

everyday summer face routine.

As a late riser, I have to simplify my morning routine to get to work on time, and since I'm a nanny I don't need to put much makeup on to get away with looking alright for the day. I use a few basic products that would work for pretty much anyone in the summer months when foundation isn't necessary and a bit of a tan helps with your complexion.1// benefit boi-ing concealer in 02 medium.
2// maybelline age rewind eraser dark circle corrector in medium.
3// rimmel stay matte pressed powder in silky beige.
4// too faced milk chocolate soleil matte bronzer in medium/deep.
5// mac mineralize skin finish in soft and gentle.
6// urban decay chill makeup setting spray.
7// l'oreal infallible never fail eyeliner in black.
8// covergirl lashblast fusion mascara in very black.
[not numbered // assorted brushes from top to bottom: sigma f-35 tapered highlighter, sigma f-30 large powder brush, sephora collection classic bronzer brush.]

I use boi-ing only when I have any redness or a spot, but not every day. The dark circle corrector is amazing for under the eyes, on the lids (if you have veiny ones like me) and in the inner corner of your eye. I set both of those creams with the stay matte powder and the large powder brush, then I use the too faced bronzer with the sephora bronzer brush around the perimeter of my face. I use soft and gentle and the tapered highlighter brush to highlight my cheek bones and put a little all over my eye lids for a bit of a sheen. I set all of that with the urban decay spray, which is a serious lifesaver that keeps your makeup on all day and night, and then finish off with eyeliner and mascara. It seems like a lot but it's so quick (takes me about three minutes max), and if you're like me and can't get yourself out of bed in the morning, it saves a ton of time. Once foundation season comes back I can't promise the same degree of speed, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

how to: stay active in an LDR.

It should be old news by now that I hate being in a long distance relationship. It's not fun, exciting, or ideal. It's miserable. With that said, if you're in love with the person you're in this type of relationship with, which you probably are if you're putting yourself through it, then it's reality and you have to make it work somehow. R and I have figured out a few simple ways to keep our time apart as normal as it could possibly feel.1// couple. Couple is an app that let's you connect with your significant other. It comes up looking like a regular text messaging screen between the both of you, and allows you to not only message, but also add dates to a personal calendar, send pictures, create drawings separately or together, record a voice message, 'thumb kiss' (you place your thumb on the screen and your partner matches theirs with yours on their own screen), and tell the person you're thinking of them. It's a pretty cool app, we actually don't use it that often anymore so I'll have to get us reinvolved, but when we were active on it, it was kind of fun to use. We iMessage all the time, but this was a little more exciting.

2// skype and facetime dates. Even though R is five hours ahead, we still try to make time every couple days for facetime. Usually I'm at work when he can talk so he also gets some Max time, but it's nice to know that I'll be able to see his face for a little bit. We don't use skype much anymore, even though it got us through most of my college years, but skype is great if you don't have an iphone or if you want to plan a 'date' that won't tie up your phone. Sometimes we pick a movie to watch and we'll start it at the same time so we can talk and watch and feel like we're kind of in the same place. It's a nice little thing to do when we get the chance.

3// snail mail. Everyone loves a bit of snail mail whether it's your favorite magazine, a great fall catalogue, or a letter from a friend. My bookstore in college had the best 99 cent cards and I used to get a bunch of them at a time to send to R whenever I missed him too much or if there was a special occasion that we unfortunately would have to miss. I'm still looking for a good card store that isn't too expensive now that I'm back at home, but I love paper source cards and rifle paper co. ones (even though I can only get them at anthro around here). These next couple months of time apart we have decided to send more cards so that getting home from work to mail can be something to look forward to.

4// make plans for the next time you'll see each other. When R and I know that we're going to see each other, we always try to plan a few fun things to do, even if it's just watching an entire season of a show that we like on the couch. Earlier this year we went to Paris when I visited him, so planning that was a lot of fun and made everything about the waiting seem more worth it. It's exciting to see each other either way, but who doesn't love a vacation or spending twenty hours straight on the couch? Instead of filling the empty space with endless chit chat, talking about plans is much more fun.

5// tell each other everything. Even if you've done nothing all day, think of something to talk about. Frequent communication is so important in the days apart. When R and I haven't gotten a chance to talk in a day or two it makes me really upset and sometimes it's easy to take the frustration of that out on him in another way, and then a fight could start up over nothing. It sounds kind of silly, but it happens to us a lot so we can't be the only ones.

That's all I really have for now. There are so many things that you can do with time apart from your loved one, these are just some of the main ones that help me and Rich get through our weeks and months apart. If you are in an LDR, what do you do to stay in touch and keep things exciting until the next time you're together?

summer book // update 3.

This week I worked on my summer book a bit more (in between watching a season and a half of One Tree Hill) and even though I'm not exactly up to date with it as of now, I feel like it's really coming together with the highlights of my summer.A few Sundays ago, R, my friend Meagan, my dad & myself went to Long Island's Battle of the Burger competition, and there was a lot that went on so there's quite a few pages about it. The left page has a napkin from the Amstel Light sponsors and the voting chip that I was supposed to use that day (oops), and then on the right I used the transparency page to show a few of the business cards through.The rest of the business cards attached to the transparency are on the left here, and I added a piece of plain grey card stock to the right for the last two cards as well as the wristband that I got.The left side of this spread is the last of the battle of the burger, with the rest of my wristband and a little buffalo stick that was in my burger from my favorite place. The right is an envelope from Printic, a printing service app that I downloaded on my iPhone to print pictures like polaroids. Obviously it's one smooth piece of photo paper rather than a truly texturized polaroid, but it's awesome just the same. The 'polaroids' are .99 cents each so I ordered three on my first run just to test it out. Two of them are in the envelope and one of me & R is on my desk. It's an awesome app, I definitely recommend downloading it.
These two spread were pretty simple. The top left is the back of the envelope from Printic, and the right is a picture of the guacamole grilled cheeses that R and I made one afternoon. Since we were obsessed with making fresh guac this summer, I added a little tab that I cut out from gold foil paper and added 'I ♡ guac' to one side, and 'guaccccccccccc.' to the other (though it lacks creativity, I crack up at it). So the bottom left that is the backside of that tag and a picture of the corn + feta guacamole that we made together with an enchilada casserole, and on the right is a piece of cardboard from a Piperlime box from an alternative earth maxi skirt I ordered. I saw Elise blog about it, and since I'm obsessed with maxis and loved this kind of heathered dark grey color, I bought one on the spot (I also found a couple of coupons to bring it down to $20 with free shipping. Love me a bargain). I used her stamp on the bottom for decoration and the tag is taped up top.
I left the back of the cardboard as it was because I love Piperlime's little lime logo and it was cute seeing it printed all over the inside of their box. The right is the front of the card they sent with my skirt, and the bottom picture is the inside of the card. I thought the card was so funny so I had to add it in for laughs. I used a paper source label wrapped around so I could say how much I love the logo on the front and the card message on the back.
Finally, the last spread with a little insert are from the day my friends and I drove to six flags. The left is a picture of my friends Emily & Katherine at our favorite bagel place in town (I've never had a bagel that beats theirs yet) from before we left. It's called Bagel Boss but we always refer to it as Boss, so I used snap letter stickers and wrote a little bit underneath. The insert is the six flags ticket, and I washi-taped (this is a word now) the back of it, put a cut out of our tweety bird parking sign, and called that done. The right is a picture of me and Meagan waiting in line for the green lantern, and I used the bottom third of the ticket to journal on.

And that's all for now. I'm still loving it (in case anyone was wondering, which they're not, but I don't actually care too much). LOVE IT.