steal deals.

i love a good deal.  and recently i have been striking gold in the deal department.  check out some of my (and reis’) recent buys –>

1) my current bag that i’m using and love so so much.  found it on ideeli.com.
2) white pants that i plan on cutting soon to make into shorts/knee cutoffs from old navy.  for $8 i couldn’t say no.

3) my sperry topsiders (that i’ve wanted for so long!) that reis bought me when i was having a bad day.  he found them for a steal from nordstrom rack.  that place rocks.  so does he.

bella mia for dinner [with a side of instagrams].

i know you probably think that i only eat mexican food if you read my blog.  not true.  i eat italian food too.  tonight i got a special treat of having a mini date night after work with reis at bella mia.  he is a slave to the hospital now so i only get to see him like once or twice week.  (tomorrow he goes in from 5 AM to 1 PM…on saturday)

i’m so happy it’s friday and i can’t wait for the weekend!  fridays are my favorite day of the week.  fridays around 4:00 to be exact.  you only have a few hours of work left, you have the whole weekend ahead of you and nothing has passed yet, and everyone just seems to be in a generally happy mood.  hope you all have a great weekend!

fourth of july fun.

so even though i didn’t make it into the ocean over the weekend, it was still amazing to have a three day break!  i’m not sure what it is about just one more day off, but it is so much more refreshing than just two days.  and i love that it not only extends the weekend, but it makes the work week shorter!  a win-win situation, i tell you.  my weekend was filled with some catching up on my to-do list, house hunting (more to come on that later), the north shore, eating good all-american food, spending time with friends, and a lot of sleeping.  i hope you had a wonderful fourth of july!

let’s talk design.

this is afterall a lifestyle-design blog so i think i should talk some more about design on some of these posts of mine.  what do you think?

i get inspired to do graphic design by soooo many  unique and aesthetically pleasing things in life: browsing other design blogs, watching movies, running outside/being in nature, my most recent discovery (and greatest procrastination tool ever) Pinterest, or just random little things in life.  One of my best friends Janelle recently sent me a sweet card in the mail.  i love the whole tape-look thing going on on the envelope and was immediately inspired to recreate it on the computer!

after a little photoshop and illustrator fun…TA. DA!

chevron tape. striped tape. soo many options!  i can’t wait to create more and use them in some design ideas i have coming up….thanks janelly for the inspiration!
.
p.s. i will be starting a pinterest this weekend.  goodbye more time that i don’t have to this suck-you-in internet world!

typical day as of late.

1) wake up at the [butt] crack of dawn.  press snooze about 3 -5 times on average.
and i sleep through a lot of those snoozes…which explains the 3 different alarms.
2) finally get up and go running or to the gym.
by far one of the best parts of my day!
3) NEED COFFEE.  after that 4:50 AM wakeup call, by 8:00 AM,
helllloooooo iced coffee.
(im normally very partial to starbucks IC,
but lately coffeebean has been doing the trick)
4) sit in front of those fancy dual screens for about 10 hours.
 do some nifty accounting stuff.
5) hit a wall at 2 PM.  NEED MORE COFFEE.
6) get home around 8.  eat dinner. (which is mexican food 5 out of 7 nights a week…
or cereal when im lazy, which has been most nights recently.
taco salads, burritos, quesadillas..
honey nut bunches of oats, cheerios, puffins…i. love. it. all.)
7) blog/do design work/read in bed.  then crash hard.
8. repeat.

oahu food guide: part I

i am no foodie by any means.  i am actually a very picky eater according to others….i don’t think i am, but i guess not eating any kind of seafood when you live in hawaii is constituted as being picky.  if anyone reading this is planning a trip to hawaii in the upcoming future, i want to share with you some gems i’ve discovered that are beyond the “waikiki-tourist-central-realm.”  this past weekend we went to Shokudo Japanese restaurant in Honolulu; a really fun, yummy, and affordable place if you like sushi or fish (don’t worry – i got teriyaki chicken).  but if you go, you HAVE to get their famed honey-toast for dessert.  it really is the simplest concept, but it tastes so so good.  thick pieces of bread crusts toasted with butter and smothered in honey + cubes of bread (scooped out of the crust) with honey in the inside + vanilla bean ice cream.  umm…YUM.  and yes, we still did go to Yogurtland after too.  don’t judge.  (our friends that met us for dinner live on the north shore — a land where froyo places do not exist — so we gotta live it up when they come to town.)
.
then on saturday afternoon reis and i went to lunch at my favorite cafe ever: Bogart’s.  everything I have ever gotten on their menu has been delicious but my all time favorite meal is one of their salads — the Avocado Chicken Salad.  it’s kinda pricy at $12 but worth every penny.  their chicken is out of this world and I guess it’s a top secret too because I asked the lady at the register what seasoning they use and she wasn’t allowed to tell me.  fine then.
.
anyways.  if you come to oahu, go to these places.  they will make your tummies very happy.  the end.