Welcome to A Casual Adventure, the blog that likes to pretend that it has a point, but which, in reality, is mostly just the musings of 23-year-old child who's obsessed with music, fashion, mermaids, food, friends, and chill frivolity! If you can dig it, I'm glad to have you, and hope you enjoy your time here!
This Friday afternoon finds me chilling (almost literally- I'm seated right next to a very cold window) in- you guessed it!- my favorite Barnes & Noble Cafe, sippin' on dranks, and reading through a few of my favorite fashion mags. Today's editorial selections include: the winter 2014 volume of DAZED magazine, and Nylon's February 2015 issue, which features a fun little interview with Anna Kendrick. While I can't say I'm her biggest fan (I mean, I've only seen Pitch Perfect once), the more I read about her, the more I realize how freaking awesome that super-productive, hilarious, and talented woman is. Good for her.
That same issue of Nylon also contains a fashion spread featuring the most recent winner of America's Next Top Model, a show I've been obsessed with since I was about 13, and would binge-watch (back when you had to work for it- TiVoing VH1 marathons) with my stepmother, in Minnesota. I won't tell you who the winner is- in case you're playing catch-up- but they did a really awesome job in the shoot. Very natural and candid in a believable way. ANTM is actually the first of my Friday Favorites that I'm going to tell you about. Last week, when I was chillin' at home with the family, my lil' sister, Karlie, and I happened to catch a few episodes of the show while waiting for some laundry to be done. I hadn't watched the show in years, and, after watching those three episodes, began to wonder how I could have let that happen; I mean, the show has has everything! Fashion, design, killer photography (and not to mention killer Photoshop), and DRAMA. It's basically perfect. One Hulu Plus subscription, and almost two seasons of ANTM later, I can officially say I'm back on the Banks bandwagon.
When I'm not indulging in over-the-top (model! Get it? Top . . . Model!) reality TV, I'm generally treating myself, or my mama, to super-fun bath stuff from the London-based cosmetics company, Lush. If you've never heard of Lush, I'll give you a brief description: Lush is a retail shop that specializes in handmade, often so natural they're edible, bath and skin-care products. They have everything- bath bombs, bubble bars, body scrubs, body lotions, body butter, body soap, makeup, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, face masks (that have to be refrigerated because they're so natural and all that), and much more! And, while all that is reason enough to check the store out, what makes Lush so fun is the fact that the company doesn't just sell you these things, but it aims to make the entire experience- from browsing through the store, to purchasing whatever tickled your fancy, to actually using whatever you bought- luxurious, in a relaxed and fun way. The bath bombs change color, or are molded into fun shapes, or contain shimmer powder or dried flowers (that re-constitute in the water!), and can be combined to create Mermaid Water, or a bath that looks like you're sitting in a swirling galaxy! There are giant blocks of soap in the shape of toadstools or cheese wheels, from which an employee will lop off however much of the fragrant cleanser you want, or, more likely, want to pay for. The generally super-friendly staff is knowledgeable, excited about, and will give personal and/or whole-store demonstrations of, the various products. Plus, everything smells amazing, and the packaging is awesome! The only drawback about the whole thing is how much money one could end up spending in there, and how easy it is to do so. It's worth it, though, so there really is no drawback at all!
Just this morning I took a bath, and used a couple bath bombs (I used Dragon's Egg today, but my fave so far is Honey Bee) from Lush, as well as their parsley body soap. I'd never smelled a bar of soap so fresh and clean and wonderful in my life, until I was introduced to that one. Nor had I ever dropped fifteen bucks on a bar of soap, either. You know what, though? I'm pretty sure I'll be dropping that $15 again. whenever mine is depleted. It's that good. I smell super fresh, and, although you can't tell because I'm all covered up in a blazer, my body is super-shimmery, due to the gold powder in the Dragon's Egg. If I was girl about to clubbing, that shimmer would be hella dope. Just saying.
Currently, the only Lush near me (and I'm in Provo, UT) is about an hour away in Salt Lake. When I move to Arizona, though, there will be one twenty minutes away. When that happens. I might as well just have my checks direct-deposited in Lush's account. All that money will end up in their coffers, anyway.
It's a good thing that I've found non-food-related ways in which I can treat myself, because I'm currently gearing up to perform a diet overhaul and will be changing up how I currently eat (I wrote a post about it on the To Do: 2015 page, which y'all should go and read). Basically, my aim is actually to eat more- sometimes I only eat once a day- and healthily, while having fun doing so. To help with this, I recently bought a cookbook, entitled Well Fed, for inspiration. When I bought the book, which was written by the blogger Melissa Joulwan (theclothesmakethegirl.com), I was really just looking for something with nice pictures of yummy, healthy dishes, that would get me excited about cooking again. What I ended up with, though, exceeded my expectations.
" Dear Melissa,
You're awesome! Or, at least, I think you are. I picked up a copy of "Well Fed" yesterday at Barnes & Noble, just to have another cookbook with beautiful pictures and recipes from which I could draw healthy-cooking inspiration, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the book had a lot more to offer! It's super fun (I mean- who doesn't love dinosaurs, and cookbooks written by someone whose aim is to "make you want to smash in your face with joy"?), and the neat-freak/design-oriented side of me is absolutely OBSESSED with the easy-to-read/easy on the eyes layout of the recipe pages. And the sections for notes? Perfect. Not to mention the fact that there are entire sections dedicated to planning shopping trips, building up a pantry of staple ingredients, and how to cut down individual meal-preparation times by preparing large batches of recipe basics in one go! Well done.
"Well Fed" is pretty much the cookbook version of my soul- minus a few unicorns, mermaids, and 30 Rock quotes. I've been looking for something like this for a very long time, and thought you'd like to know that you're the freaking amazing person who provided me with it!
Your book will definitely help me to achieve my goals of 1:Rediscovering my love of cooking, and 2: Eating responsibly and happily, both of which I recently wrote about on my almost-year-old blog, A Casual Adventure (it's cute to think of it that way- gettin' sentimental here in B&N). You can be sure that there will be a Friday Favorites post up, very soon, featuring my thoughts on "Well Fed." and how much I love it.
Keep up the good work! Stay awesome! Much Love,
Adam"
Melissa has yet to respond- she's on holiday- but I'm sure she will, and I look forward to it when she does! Even if she doesn't, Well Fed is all I really need, and is definitely worth looking into if you're interested in anything I mentioned above, especially something that will inspire you- without any pressure or guilt involved- to get healthy and have fun doing it. Plus, it has pictures of dinosaurs in it!
I'm so excited for what's ahead of me- fun, food, fitness, family, travel, and all kinds of new experiences- and can't wait to continue to share all of it with you! I hope something in this (long) post inspired at least one of you to go out and find something interesting to casually explore! It'll be worth it if you do!
Much Love,
Adam