i love my sister.

{Peanut Butter Crispy bars that my sister and I made this summer. Never actually made it to our baking blog. Sad & pathetic. Here's the recipe if you want to make these. I suggest you do. But don't think too much about the ingredients. Clearly these bars are the opposite of good for you.}

Happy Friday! I hope you're enjoying yours. I just made homemade salsa (I guess it's more like pico de gallo, actually.) and it is the bomb. All you need to do is cut up a tomato, cut up some onion, drain canned corn, chop up 3 leaves of basil, put it all in a tupperware, scoop it onto a chip (I like the Tostitos Multigrain, personally) and enjoy. You're welcome.

My sister just emailed me a document titled "Oh Baking, I love you." That is precisely why I love her, among other reasons, of course. After every recipe, the type of recipe is written in all caps with an exclamation mark. Example: "DESSERT!" "DINNER!" "SAVORY!" I just had to smile about that. We both love to bake (not very well evidenced by our baking blog, which I'm pretty sure has not been updated since August), but she is much better at actually baking. I just dream about it all. I think every time I talk to her on the phone she's baked something new. And we talk on the phone sometimes bi-weekly, people. That means she is baking a lot, and I'm not reaping the benefits. Oh well, someday we'll live in the same state again. Let's hope it's sooner rather than later.

I know I've said this twice now, but Jeffrey and I are going camping this weekend! And, we had a little cold front come through last night so the temperature is sitting at a lovely 76-ish degrees. Hello, Perfect Camping Weather! Have a really awesome weekend. Do something fun for Halloween! I'm hoping to make Caramel Apples one of these days, but who knows, maybe I'll just dream about it (while my sister actually does it...) xo, R.

i feel like i'm wearing pajamas.

I feel bad about something that I did guys. I didn't tell you about these pants, and it's my fault. My mom bought me these pants from Gap in August. They've been sitting on a hanger in my closet, unworn for a couple of months now. I wasn't exactly sure what I would wear them with. I mean, they kind of intimidate me. But I wore them today, and now I'm sorry I didn't wear them sooner because I feel like I'm wearing pajamas, and I want to tell you to go buy them right now, but I can't because I got them in August and here we are at the end of October, and I'm positively positive they're gone. But on the off chance that these Carpenter pants were a big hit with other people, and Gap took note, and they're currently planning to come out with more, please be on the look out for these pants. And buy them. Be careful, though. You'll never take them off.

{Those are the Beatles' feet, by the way. In case you were wondering.}

In other news, I may do some outfit posts in the near future. I need to utilize the clothes in my closet, and I feel like I need some more creativity in my life. If I go through with this you'll know because there will be random pictures of me frolicking in my clothes on this blog. So be on the lookout for that. Jeffrey and I are going camping these weekend. Yay!

Any really comfy clothes you're obsessed with? I'll let you know when I take these pants off. xo, R.

birthday breakdown.

Well, I had a beautiful birthday. I'm not surprised though. I was surrounded by my favorite people and the best food ever, so there you have it. My birthday started at midnight when my roommates came out with noisemakers and huge bags fulls of gifts. I'm a lucky gal. My parents drove up for lunch and we ate at Boca Fiesta. Don't let that margarita fool you, it was awful. I recommend the food, but not the alcohol. PS. That's where those awesome chips & salsa came from. I know you were wondering. After the disappointing margarita fiasco, we went to this sweet little park on campus and had birthday cake. My mom made Posie Gets Cozy's go-to birthday cake, and now I totally understand why it's her go-to birthday cake. All I'm going to say about that is if you like cake, make this one. You won't be sorry. And, of course, it was covered in sprinkles because no cake is complete without them. That's how I feel about it, anyway.

After that, my mom and I split a Mike's Lemonade because it was my 21st birthday after all, the margarita at Boca Fiesta was awful, and I really wanted to have my first drink with my mom. You understand. My parents left (and I didn't cry this time!) and Jeffrey and I got ready to go to Satchel's (the most divine pizza place in our little college town). We picked up two of our best friends, Sara and Khoi, and went on our merry way. I got a Coke with dinner because there's nothing like Coke and pizza. I know that's not really 21st-Birthday-ish of me, but it was my special day. I make the rules. Sara and I bought each other plastic dogs because we were (and obviously still are) in love with little plastic animals as children, and these were only 50 cents. An obvious must-have. Khoi (Sara's boyfriend, by the way. We also went through all of elementary school together.) drank about 8 glasses of Sweet Tea, and I'm not kidding. Everything was awesome. Just when I was pretty sure that things couldn't get any better, they did. I think it's pretty clear by now that I am hopelessly in love with Audrey Hepburn. My roommates surprised me with a movie night (where the main feature was Breakfast At Tiffany's, my favorite movie of all time. Please go watch it now if you haven't ever seen it.) complete with a heap of blankets, pillows, movie snacks, and donuts. The donuts were a necessity since Audrey Hepburn eats one at the beginning of the movie. I promise this would make more sense if you just watched it.

My friends, family, and Jeffrey are perfectly perfect. I could not have asked for a more wonderful 21st birthday. My parents spoiled me with two adorable skirts, some new shoes, and a bunch of other really sweet and awesome things. My roommates each gave me really sweet, sentimental gifts that made me want to cry happy tears, my sister and her fiance (what?!) gave me a pair of tights and a REALLY cute scarf (that my sister knit!) that I haven't been able to wear yet because of silly 80 degree weather, and Jeffrey surprised me with a brand new Brooks leather saddle for my bike. That's like, the Bentley of bike seats, y'all, AND I HAVE ONE! I'll take a picture sometime soon. Promise!

And, as promised, a picture of Jeffrey's short hair. This was taken on my birthday! I'm getting really great at self-timer, don't ya think?! Woosh! That was a crazy long post. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Now I'm tired. :)

xo, R.

list ten: because i know you wanted to know what i was thinking about on this monday.

{Is it weird that my photos almost never have anything to do with what I'm posting? I'll fix that in the near future. Also, these chips and salsa were probably the best I've ever had and I ate them on my 21st birthday. Still haven't posted about that, but I will sometime. Possibly.}

1. I think it might be kind of miserable to be a bus driver. Every single time someone requests a stop this voice comes on and says: "Stop requested. For your own safety when crossing the street please pass behind the bus." Yeah, I memorized it. Stops get requested a lot. And can you imagine being a driver? You would hear that a lot, a lot. Plus, I think it would just be boring. The most exciting part, in my opinion, is when two buses pass and the drivers wave at one another. Kind of like at summer camp when your line of campers passes another line of campers and you look at the other leader with a face that reads exhaustion and the feeling is totally mutual, but at least someone understands. That's what happens when bus drivers wave at each other, at least that's my evaluation of the whole thing.


2. Weekends should be longer than two days. Groundbreaking thought, huh? But seriously. Who decided that two days was adequate weekend time? Because I seriously have a bone to pick with him/her. (It was probably a guy, though. Girls just don't make mistakes like that.)


3. I tried to style my hair according to Sydney's tutorial, but still can't do it. I am not kidding. I have absolutely no skill when it comes to styling my own hair. I will, however, continue to try. One day I will master hair styling 101. Hopefully.


4. Norman Rockwell is really cool. Don't ya think?


5. My sister and her fiance (still weird to type that) made a sheet fort this weekend. Want to know what Jeffrey and I did? Watched HGTV and ate Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. Mind you, we only spent a few short hours together, but still, that's what we did with our time. (To clarify, I think watching HGTV and eating Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream is an exceptionally great thing to do on a Saturday night, but making a sheet fort is obviously far superior. I don't know what we were thinking.)


6. Who wants to give me $3,000 dollars to expand my wardrobe? You'll thank me when I'm famous someday and you can say, "Oh, I once gave Roxanne $3,000 to expand her wardrobe." People probably won't believe you, but you and I will know it's true. And I'll mention it in one of my many interviews with Elle. Deal?


What are you thinking about? Seriously. I want to know. xo, R.

*PS. Sorry the text is one million different sizes. It happens, you know?

the sick day.

{Should I get my bangs back? I don't know, still deciding. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. And I promise Andy loves me. He was just being the Diva that he is. Oh, and I'm still pretending to grow my hair out, but I have to ask: Is it still pretending if I think I'm actually doing it? I have had only 3-4 urges to cut it all off, but I have yet to do so. My friends, I think I'm growing up & growing it out.}

{Will you please look at my dog in the bottom left corner? You're in love, right? So am I.}

Well, there seems to be some kind of bug going around campus, and I got hit with it. Have no fear, though. I stocked up on Emergen-C, (My secret cure. Get the orange kind.) and some NyQuil, and I think I missed the worst of it. However, I did sit in my cozy chair all day and watch chick flicks, which helped immensely, naturally.

I also pretended to be sophisticated and flirted with the idea of drinking my green tea without sugar, but that seemed silly.

Dear sugar, I promise to never turn my back on you. People pretend to like things without you, but I think they're lying. You don't have to worry about me, though. I am loyal to a fault, especially to you.

And I saw Jeffrey for more than 10 minutes, so I'm feeling pretty great right now. Except for the stuffy nose, the clogged up ears, and the overall feeling of bleh-ness. But hey, who's complaining, right? Not me. xo, R.

I once had a boyfriend named Jeffrey.

Hi! :) I hope you are all enjoying your Wednesdays! It's beautiful where I am, so I hope it is where you are, too.

Posting that above picture of Jeffrey and me because I haven't seen the guy in over 32 hours. Oh yeah, there was that five minute run-in on campus, but it totally doesn't count because he was freaking out about some email that wouldn't send. So yeah, I'm having withdrawals. He is holed up in his studio, and I can assure you he will not come out until his (almost) life-size sculpture is complete.

So, I've been drinking Almond Milk mixed with Ovaltine to help ease the pain. And painting my nails. And watching reruns of Glee. And experimenting with curling my hair (I'm getting pretty good at it)! I did mention that this week was the opposite of crazy for me, right?! It only figures that this would be his crazy week. That is just the way the cookie crumbles. I can't wait until I can see him for more than five minutes. Maybe we can even sit down for a nice meal. Or hold hands. Anything would be nice, really.

Lost Boyfriend, please come back to me. I really miss you. xo, R.

PS. Did I tell you Jeffrey got his hair cut off? Well, he did! This is an old picture (pre-haircut), but I'll post a new one soon. I've probably posted one already since it's been gone since August, but I'll make the conscious effort to post one entirely dedicated to his hair (or lack thereof) soon!

weekend love.

Hello, all & Happy Monday! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. As I mentioned, I decided to head home, and I'm really glad I did. My family is notorious for carving our pumpkin the night before Halloween (sometimes even the day of), so my jaw naturally dropped to the ground when my parents proposed that we carve one up this weekend. It all started when my dad and I went to the grocery store to get ingredients for this stew (I highly recommend, by the way) and we saw the most perfect pumpkin of all time. Picking the perfect pumpkin is a pretty big deal in our household so when my dad and I immediately agreed on the same one, I guess you could just call it fate. Not 30 seconds later, he was sitting in our cart among butternut squash and bell peppers.

There were quite a few other happenings this weekend that included a trip to our favorite Thai restaurant, dinner at one of the most wonderful pizza places I have ever eaten at, browsing through an antique shop or two, the essential trip(s) to Target (Yes. There is often more than one.), brownie making & chick-flick watching, Dutch babies for breakfast, pumpkin donuts for another breakfast, and the celebration of a sweet family friend's 80th birthday party. The fall decorations are up around our house, and just thinking about all the sweet little kids trick-or-treating in their costumes makes me feel giddy.

{My dad and I tried a new technique where we didn't carve the eyebrows all the way through. Carving away just the surface is supposed to give the pumpkin a sort of dreamy, glowy look. Obviously we haven't really mastered that technique yet, but we're trying.}

{Not a decoration, but he sure is cute.}

Every time I go home I feel so well-rested and perfectly calm. It's a nice oasis in the midst of all this chaos. My teachers are taking it pretty easily on us this week. I can't help but feel that there must be a million things I'm forgetting to do, but I'm giving myself this week of freedom. It's a mental health week, or something. I hope you all had a marvelous weekend. Did you do anything exciting? xo, R.

**If you get nothing else from this post, please make the stew immediately. Thanks.**

home for the weekend.

Sorry I have been so non-existent this week. Things got pretty crazy. You know how it is. I am going home this weekend to gather my thoughts and clear my head. Hopefully I'll be back Monday with a happy perspective and a well-rested mind.

Have a beautiful weekend. XO.

today i just wanted to sing.

This makes me happy, you know? This weather is insanely awesome. I want to bake something fall-ish. I want to sing everything I say (kind of like a musical, but cooler). It is my birthday on Friday, and I can't wait to see my parents.

I hope you're having a beautiful week, friends! XO.

(Also, I have no idea where this photo came from. Sorry for that. And, aren't her shoes awesome? They are.)

the town that was lost in time.

This weekend Jeffrey and I decided to go to one of our favorite little towns and have a picnic. Micanopy is about 20 minutes outside of our college town, and it is the sleepiest, most relaxed town that I have ever happened upon. If there was a dictionary of phrases and you were to look up the phrase "as slow as molasses," Micanopy would be the picture accompanying it. And I love it so much. We each packed our own lunches (PB&J on toasted bread for me and chicken breast nestled into an everything bagel for Jeffrey) and stopped at a gas station on the way to pick up a Coke. Normally we share, but we decided to splurge and get our own. And then, we meandered around downtown, which literally consists of about 8 storefronts, and got lost in the Micanopy timezone. It was fun, and very needed. And, here's a fun little fact: Doc Hollywood was filmed in one of the homes in Micanopy. Strange since it's such a tiny, tiny town, but totally understandable because of its Southern charm.

What did you do this weekend? Have a splendid Monday!
xo, R.

P.S. Remember when I blogged about the sweetest song that Jeremy wrote for Elsie? It's available here to download, and it is completely free thanks to Jeremy. Worth the download, I'd say. :)

list nine: things i love about fall.

I love the day when I step outside and I can feel Fall in the air. It's all fine and dandy when the first day of Fall officially arrives, but it's not truly fall until I can walk outside without sweat collecting in unfortunate places. Here in Florida we don't get any fancy color change, and we're certainly not removing our summer clothes from our closets to make room for coats and scarves, but we have our own way of doing Fall, and I think it's just perfect.

1. Pumpkins. There is nothing more exciting than pulling into the local grocery store and seeing the huge pile of pumpkins outside. In my family, there is much deliberation about which pumpkin is worthy to step foot (wait, pumpkins don't have feet!) into our household. When my sister and I were younger (and argued about almost everything) we each made a potential design for the pumpkin carving, and my dad took the care to combine them, making sure that at least one element of each of our designs was included. Then, we went to work.

2. Toastie-Warm Halloweens. I'll admit, I did not always find this precious. As a matter of fact, I remember one year my sister and her good friend dressed up as prairie girls (hello, layers) and probably felt like they were going to faint from heat exhaustion. On the rare occasion that our Halloweens decide to be breezy, it's awesome, but there is something so Florida-ish about a Halloween evening when it's 8pm, and you're walking around with a pillowcase full of candy, sweating buckets. And when you come back to your house to sort out all your loot (don't pretend you did not do this. Who else had specific piles for each kind of candy? Kit-Kats. Snickers. Dots. Three Musketeers. M&M's.) you could not be more thankful for the invention of air conditioning. And even though it's kind of awful when your beyond awesome Halloween mask is suffocating your face, it's still kind of cool, in a weird Florida it's-always-humid kind of way.

3. Camping. Sometimes Florida decides to give us some REAL fall weather and it is entirely appropriate to shirk all responsibility, buy some marshmallows, and go camping.

4. Decorations. Fall decorations are the best, are they not? It's the only time of the year when it's considered appropriate to litter the front yard with mock gravestones bearing [beyond] tacky puns about how 'Barry M. Deep' died. And, for whatever reason, it is hilarious.

5. Thanksgiving. Self- explanatory. Good food. Good people.

6. My Birthday. Yep, I'm one of the lucky ones that was born in the Fall, along with my sister. And I'll be the first person to admit that I love birthdays, especially if it's mine. (Just kidding, but seriously.)

7. Tights. This might be stretching it. It is likely that I will not be able to pull out a pair of tights until early December, but hey. Here's to hoping.

8. We could still go to the beach if we wanted to. To all the fancy people up north who can enjoy hot apple cider, and tights, and cool fall walks around the neighborhood, and a breezy Halloween, and a game of croquet in the backyard where you're sporting a cardigan (and not a tank top), you probably won't be heading to the beach any time soon. And hey, neither am I, but I totally have the option if I feel so inclined.

What are some of your favorite things about Fall?

Have a lovely weekend! xo, R.