Hot Dogs and Ice Cream

today was the prettiest day we've had since last friday, so we had to celebrate! we almost went back to cinco de mayo for the sangria margaritas, but we walked up the street to jonny b'z instead. being vegetarian, it's always great to find a delicious veggie dog, and theirs is delicious. they also toast the bun, yum! i got mustard, tomatoes, onions, and pickles on mine. andrew always gets the veggie chili.

 i like the above picture because the little girl at the pinball machine had a crazy outfit on! a crazy orange piece in her hair, a nice dress, and cowboy boots! andrew looks nice too; )

we walked back home to eat on our swing!

 i lost this necklace with some of my other jewelry for a year and a half and i FINALLY found it! i always get compliments on it and tonight was no exception.

 new beer we tried from martha's vineyard. they spoke very highly of it. i really like it for an IPA. check out their website here.

brad walked over to join us for dessert. andrew took us to the jersey junction in east grand rapids. the line was huge, but went pretty fast.

they had hudsonville ice cream, so delicious! and a large assortment of candy and other treats. i'm not going back to eastown sweet treats after coming to this place. they had great prices, too. next time i want to try the chocolate covered fruit kabob, it looked sooooo good.

we walked around gaslight village with our ice cream and andrew almost lost his scoop.

brad's new friend!

my blue lips and my pretty boyfriend. happy friday! how did you spend the day?

Ear Candy

three things i've been listening to lately:

alex winston:

dude, this girl is awesome! i'm kind of bummed i hadn't heard of her sooner, but better late than never, right? she is actually from the detroit area, which makes her even more cool, and she sings about some really interesting subjects. check her out!

"choice notes" - 99% certain this was shot on Heidelberg street in detroit.

fanfarlo:

one of the reasons i love london-based fanfarlo is that they use so many instruments in their music, which is something i appreciate (like beirut!). i have seen them three times, 2x when i went to sxsw and once just a few weeks ago in ann arbor. they put on a really great show and were genuinely excited in ann arbor that there more than 40 people in attendance. anyway, they have two albums out, the most recent called "rooms filled with light." this is one of my favorites from said album:

"deconstruction"

icona pop:

my instructions to you are: turn up real loud and dance! i don't know anything about icona pop. i just love it.

"i love it"

i am also very excited to announce that youth lagoon is coming to michigan on july 13th. he'll be at the crofoot in pontiac. listen if you haven't, and come to the show: )
two days after that, andrew and i will hopefully be volunteering for andrew bird at frederik meijer gardens. it really is a super amazing venue for a concert.

what music can't you get enough of right now? and what's your summer concert schedule hold?

Mug Collection

so i don't really know what kind of a blog i want to have, but i've just been so inspired by some of the other blogs i've been following that i know i want to try and keep it up! since nothing totally exciting has happened since the gala (except our trivia team came in first on sunday with a near perfect score of 85!) i thought i would share one of my collections with you. since i am a barista, and i love coffee, it's only fitting that i have a much too large collection of coffee mugs! i have several of them stowed away at my parents' house, and some of them packed away in the attic because our kitchen isn't ideal to display allllll of them. but here are some of my most prized!

my go-to mug these days. this morning it holds my gevalia french roast and hazelnut coffee-mate creamer.

the above mug is from the very talented etsy-ist MaidOfClay, who custom made this true blood mug for me! (i found her through a similar one by her on pinterest that drew me in, btw) i love love it, but i keep it up on my desk because i don't trust anyone and i don't want it to be lost or broken. if you haven't seen true blood, listen to the theme song and you'll understand! the fang marks on the rim are the best part: ) the front says "i wanna do bad things with you."

this mug has sadly been worn out since this photograph. one scary similarity is that this photo was taken the night my two front teeth were chipped and alas, the mug is now chipped. it still sits on my desk because i love it too much to say goodbye.

this is one side of my vintage owl mug that i found at my favorite big rapids thrift store, the wise shopper. i hope nothing bad ever happens to this lil guy!

found this cutie during our stop at minty keen the other day! the year on it says 1956, and it's just adorable. if you're in grand rapids, you must check out this shop: )

i love my south dakota mug. not sure why, i guess because i like that it's kind of etched and not just printed on. makes me want to visit one day, for sure!

 if you haven't been to tim hortons, GO!

self-explanatory!

this tuesday i have work and trivia, or that is the plan. and i've been missing the sun, so hopefully it makes an appearance today. i also have to announce that today is exactly one month until our trip to croatia!!
what have you got goin' on? do you collect anything? watch for owls, mushrooms, and pin-back buttons at some point!

"Hippies Are So Phony and Fake"

yesterday evening andrew and i were graciously invited to go to the grand rapids art museum's annual gala by our friend, beth, who is on the executive board at steelcase. we got to wine, dine, and dance with some pretty important people, so that's always an interesting time; ) usually if i am at an event like this, i would be volunteering and not able to wear the dress i wore, which i found it at the goodwill shop i mentioned, blue, for $30, and squeezed myself into it! so it was nice to be a guest for once and enjoy the open bar and dance floor. the gala was based around the Rauschenberg exhibit, so there were some great 60s get-ups. andrew and i just went for the black tie affair standard, but it was great to see how everyone dressed! there was also a great band and lots of go-go dancers to entertain us. i didn't get a lot of great photos, but here's what we snapped:

this flourless chocolate peanut butter cake
was SO GOOD!

go-go dancers and band!

the dance floor

our gracious friend, beth, looking amazing! 

i think andrew's eyes are closed >.<

we got in trouble for taking this photo. i liked the owl, obvs!

60s furniture - i want one!

andrew looked so dashing!

it was a great time, and after my 5 (or so) drinks, i'm not even hungover! also, i found all my jewelry that i had been missing for over a year yesterday, so i got to wear my black dangly earrings! YAY!! 

what i wore: 

dress - from goodwill shop, blue

shoes - urban outfitters

necklace - target, i think?

earrings and ring - forever 21

side note: we ended up missing the super moon last night. we saw it at around 11:15 and it didn't look any bigger than usual, so we didn't bother trying to catch it around midnight. did anyone see it? was it awesome?! hope everyone had a great cinco de mayo!

Star Wars Day

i hadn't seen schuyler in a couple of weeks because of car crash busy-ness and other crazy happenings, so luckily she was free to go shopping and catch up with me around downtown grand rapids this beautiful friday afternoon. i met her at her building after being semi-harassed by a scary man on division ave, and she was going for a "diva pocahontas" look. get it, girl!

first we went to the shops at monroe and division, aka modiv, specifically to the new goodwill shop, blue. it is basically like goodwill has sorted through their donations and pulled out the really good stuff and upcharged it slightly for their trouble. fine with me because i do not have patience for thrift store racks!

not used; was afraid this was too 'little girl' but
i bought it anyway. the back is really
neat but i didn't get a photo!

i really like how this looks and it matched
my sandals EXACTLY, but it was just too
thin and see-through for $48. wahhh.

schuyler wore her new dress out!
check out the shops at modiv: )

then we walked over to minty keen because i had never been there before! we tried to go one other time, but the hours are a bit scattered so it's best to try them during the day. the owner, angie, has the neatest shop setup and items for sale and it's certainly a must stop shop downtown. 

pretty banner in the window 

glass and cup collection 

such fun lion art!

poses in front of the curtain of love

wanted to show off my nail polish, but
it's hard to see. it is however,  a
nice minty color!

may the fourth be with you!!! hahahaha i love it.

then we had a little more time to kill before picking up andrew from work, so we stopped at schuler's for a snack. another great local business. (and the coffee is delicious)!

lemon poppy seed!

we then retrieved andrew from worked and stopped at home before grabbing dinner. my dress from kohls that i ordered had arrived, and it fit! yayyyy. here it is:

and then we headed to cinco de mayo! this is what i want to do every friday for the rest of my life. cinco de mayo is a super yummy restaurant downtown that really good nachos supreme (and other food) and great drink specials. i haven't been in a while, but they have a $4 32oz oberon on mondays that they serve in a giant chilled mug. this is a new obsession though - the frozen sangria margarita. perfect for relaxing after a week of work!

sangria margarita?! YES. $5!

love at first sip.

schuyler explaining that the strange ringing noise
was just aliens warning of their takeover of cinco de mayo.

our talented and friendly waiter, george doing the balancing act.

such a fun afternoon! i love the warmer weather even though our house is humid and full of bugs. i also love to explore all the neat places in grand rapids. so much to see: )

fyi, what i wore: 

blue jean jacket - scored at a clothing exchange

tank - urban outfitters

belt - target

shorts - forever 21

sandals - target

ring - h&m

What I Wore // We All Scream!

yesterday was a very warm day, so i told andrew he had to buy me ice cream. "life's short, eat dessert first," i quoted. so we went to eastown sweet treats for the first time, which carries hudsonville ice cream - michigan made and super delish! the inside of the place kind of stunk, literally, so that was a little disconcerting, but our treats did not disappoint. i got a chocolate/toasted coconut ice cream, and andrew had superman. i had gone to the mall beforehand to order andrew's swimsuit, and while i was there i picked up a summery yellow skirt (on sale) and some pretty nail polish. i love jcrew, but they are very expensive. if you ever go, make sure to show your student ID and you get 15% off! even on sale, even at the factory outlet! i didn't know this the first time i went, so i'm just passing it along: )

anyway, photos:

andrew = superman

not attractive! but ice cream so yummy.

get it

no good pictures of my outfit either

mmmmmm!

my pretty new  nail polish!

what i wore:
sunglasses: forever 21
tank: jcrew factory outlet
skirt: jcrew
sandals: target
ring: h&m