Month: July 2015

Design
30 Jul 2015

A Lesson on Coke

I’m not sure what happened, but tonight I found this absolutely fascinating! Growing up, my family and I always had either Sprite or Coke around depending on what my brother and I were into at the time. I wouldn’t normally have it with every meal, but I did enjoy it every once in awhile. When I got to college, I had more options for drinks and never got a coke. I now have coke as an option for a drink every day at work and don’t touch it. Well, maybe I do once a month as a treat. It’s crazy how much one can of coke can have such a huge impact. I was never that good at science back in school, but still found this super interesting to read.

Thank you Huffington Post for the very educational lesson.

Culture
30 Jul 2015

Room – Trailer

Based on the best-selling novel by Emma Donoghue. A woman is being held captive with her five-year-old son in a single small room for years.
Directed by Lenny Abrahamson, and starring Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, William H. Macy

Just enough of the trailer to get you interested. I love Brie Larson though so I have no doubts that she won’t do a fantastic job in this.

Life
29 Jul 2015

Wedding Wednesdays: Budgeting

Creating a wedding budget is simultaneously one of the most important, stressful, and challenging aspects of a wedding. Lucky for us, we have a wedding planner to help us get organized. But even before our wedding planner was involved, we sat down and discussed our budget together and with our families. I thought it would be helpful, since talking about a budget is such a dull topic, to make this blog into a sort of handy list. So let’s dive into some things we considered in creating our budget for our wedding.

1. Talk to your family

First thing’s first, who is financing this wedding? Traditionally, the bride’s family funds the wedding entirely with the groom’s family covering the rehearsal dinner/Friday evening events. Now that we’re in 2015, this isn’t as much of a given as it used to be and nor should it be. Besides the obvious sexism ingrained in the bride’s family covering all the costs, it is just not realistic for a lot of families to finance a wedding anymore. Have you seen the cost of a caterer? For my fiance and I, we have decided to finance a majority of the wedding ourselves, but our families are kindly pitching in as well. Knowing what they can contribute from the beginning gave us a framework for our overall budget. A good way to approach this is to have conversations with both of your families separately and simply let them know that if they want to help financially, it’s much appreciated, but by no means should they feel obligated to do so. If you’re hoping to have a large, dream wedding you may need to stretch your budget a little bit. A friend of mine decided to look into hard money loans and she managed to get one to help pay for her big day. Not everyone has a family that is willing to contribute financially so it’s good to know that there are lots of other options.

2. Don’t spend money that you don’t have

By no means should anyone, ever, under any circumstances, go into debt to have a wedding. If this is currently a situation you find yourself in, it may be worth doing some research into how to get out of debt, as this will be one less thing to think about when it comes to planning a wedding. As weddings can be expensive, being financially stable will make a lot of difference. I mean, come on people. Weddings are getting out of hand as it is and you want to go in debt for one? Buy a house for Pete’s sake! Keep in mind that you are entering into a marriage and don’t lose sight of the overall meaning of a wedding. Also remember that no one is going to pay any attention to your centerpieces. At the end of the day all that matters is that you and your partner have declared your love and lifelong commitment to each other in front of all of your closest friends and family. Not to mention have the party of a lifetime afterwards. I don’t know about you, but I’ve thrown pretty great parties with some simple decorations and some good whiskey and ginger beer.

Read more “Wedding Wednesdays: Budgeting”

Culture
27 Jul 2015

According to Science:

According to a new study, couples who drink together are happier! Actually clarification – couples who have the same interest in drinking or share the same distaste for it are actually the happier ones. I find this to be totally believable because imagine if you’re person A and you like to have a couple of drinks on a Friday or Saturday night and then your partner is like “nah, I want to be a wet blanket tonight and have a water.” It sounds like a disaster.

A higher correlation was found for alcohol consumption, suggesting that a couple who shares a similar love (or distaste) for drinking is destined to be happier in their marriage and, conversely, that a discrepancy will often lead to marital dissatisfaction.

The study tracked 634 newly married couples over the course of a seven-year follow-up period and found that while smoking habits stayed relatively the same, and so did not incur mounting levels of dissatisfaction, partners who drank did so with more frequency over the years, thus resulting in increased dissatisfaction at each couple check-in. It could also be argued that couples find the process of ending their smoking habit more rewarding if they do so together. It’s something that can bring them close together and strengthen their relationship. The simple task of finding an alternative to smoking such as looking at online stores like Vapebox could have a positive effect on the relationship since it shows that they are taking the steps to find a way to end their habit. While drinking is seen as something that is done within a social situation, it can change if a partner begins to do so independently and frequently. The ability to stop drinking may no longer be possible, it could be even more difficult if the partner’s drinking has increased over the years, creating a more dangerous habit resulting in the need for psychological treatment.

I think as long as you’re not a mess and you and your partner don’t become destructive when you drink that this is pretty positive. Here’s hoping that all my future partners are down to have a least two drinks. Doesn’t this naturally just make dates easier because you’re breaking the ice?

[Source]

Style
26 Jul 2015

Back in Seattle…

Striped dress – Aritzia / Birkenstocks / Sunglasses – Marc by Marc Jacobs

I had the best time returning home and visiting Seattle last month. These crosswalks in Capitol Hill were freshly painted that morning and I knew I couldn’t leave without getting a picture with them. We did our best! These crosswalks are typically so busy in the Pike/Pine corridor so it’s tough to get a photo without another stranger in them. These were mainly done just in time for Pride, but I had heard that they were going to be sticking around for much longer. As they should! They totally bring a little something to the neighborhood, plus they are super fun. I really love dresses like this for the summer where you can just pull it on over your head and have it be a no-fuss type of an outfit that is ready to go.

People
26 Jul 2015

In Powerful Covers of the Day…

Wow, NY Magazine is making a huge statement with this cover and it is incredible. So far, 46 women have come forward about being assaulted by Bill Cosby. The cover features the 35 women that are okay being photographed and interviewed for the article. Bill Cosby’s show came out before I was born and had its final season when I was just two years old so I didn’t have any strong ties to him or the sitcom at all, but until this story came out, I do know that a lot of people really adored Bill Cosby. It’s actually quite sad that this has happened though, but very empowering for these women to stand up and have a voice about the matter. It’s such a takedown on Bill Cosby, but this is the right thing to do.

Life
26 Jul 2015

Blog Roundup

– I can’t even with these sushi beach towels [Colossal]

– The pain of being in love with someone you can never be with [Elite Daily]

– 15 rules for an unconventional wedding [The Coveteur]

– Things to avoid when eating out [The Guardian]

– The Real World is casting in SF next month, do you have what it takes? [7×7]

– Silicon Valley Dictionary – like Urban Dictionary, but a place where people only in tech can truly relate [Silicon Valley Dictionary]

– The most popular foods across the world calculated by Instagram [Photoworld]

– The best amenity kits in first class by airline [Afar]

– How to recover from an all-nighter

– Calculate how much time you’ve spent watching your favorite television shows [tiii.me]