a love story

with a salon.

Imagine walking into a space that is both chic and relaxing. There bright colors lining the walls, a carafe filled with chilled lemon water, an offering of beer and hot tea. The floor to ceiling windows let in natural light that filters all the way back to the end of the space, but you can't hear any noise from the street. Colbie Callait, Sara Bareilles and acoustic John Mayer serenades softly in the background, and an old episode of Wonder Woman plays on several TVs. Everything is simple: pure and pristine.

This was my first impression on entering Julep. After leaving my previous employer in Boston, I was kind of skeptical of getting nails and waxing anywhere else. But walking into Julep quelled my fears, and I instantly felt at home. The aesthetics of the salons are very similar, as is the cleanliness aspect. The difference being that Julep has only its own line of nail colors and products available in its salon. Don't worry, though, they have every color you might want -- even metallics. I didn't see any matte polishes, but those were only kind of a fad back when I was working, anyway.

I had an appointment with Vicky. She was cute and quiet, and very apologetic that I had to wait an extra thirty minutes for my appointment. (I know this would be a turn off for some people, but I don't often schedule appointments when I have other places to be, so I don't mind waiting. But I know other people can get all up-in-a-tizzy about it. These nails are only a small portion of my very busy day of shopping!) I decided to go for the Fab for 14 Gel Manicure (similar to OPI's Axxium service) because I'm going to wedding in Boston and I am one of those people who is not at all careful with her hands, so polish very rarely makes it three days still intact, let alone until next Tuesday. Vicky was super thurough my manicure -- a must because I have not had one in *ahem* quite a while -- and made sure that the cuticles and shaping were as close to perfect as possible before starting up on the polish. She even informed me that the color I had originally pick (a mint green very close to Essie's Mint Candy Apple which I love) had been fading on other customers, so she suggested I try a different one. I contemplated going for a shimmery purple, but decided on a nice, Springy periwinkle, instead. After the normal (for me,) comments on how tiny my nailbeds are -- and I really do have the nailbeds of a seven year old -- we were off!

The service takes about 45 minutes but you completely dry at the end of it. Like, dig in your purse, whack your nails on a zipper, shuffle some extra shoes to find your wallet, dry. They use an LED to cure the gel polish as it goes on, and each cycle in the machine only takes 30 seconds (a minute for each land, so you can do your thumb separately and not bump it into anything.) This also means that you can get the quick hand massage after your polish, which I think is excellent, because all the alcohol and stuff dries my already dry skin out even more.

Personally, I think the $48 price tag is totally worth it. Afterwards, I went to Forever 21 and tried on some dresses. It's been three days and they are still totally beautiful. Check plus!

i can't wait (wee bit wednesday)

Want to do it to? Make sure to link up, over at Leigh Ashley's! {one} how many times have you been a bridesmaid/maid of honor?

Hmm...none. My friends hate me. Actually that's a complete lie, none of my close close friends have gotten married (or even engaged, save one) yet!

{two} what’s the last thing your do before you fall asleep at night?

Usually it's either kiss Nate (you have my permission to groan) or check my phone. I do both, in one or order or the other.

{three} you just won your dream vacation, all expenses paid. where are you going?Oh man, this is hard. I love many places, but I'll say Egypt, because I haven't been there yet and I really want to go someday!  

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{four} what is your favorite outdoor activity?I love being outdoors in general, but I'm big on swimming. Only if the water isn't freezing, however.

{five} as a child, what did you want to “be when you grew up”? did you end up there?I don't think I actually wanted to grow up, but at various points I wanted to be an archaeologist and a veterinarian. I've also contemplated being an author, but that would require me to finish something I start writing (besides blog posts.) I still want to be a movie star or a famous singer, but I don't know how attainable those goals are. Especially since I'm not really working at them...  

(silly singing picture)

(for real singing picture)

{six} what are 3 things your dream home would have that you don’t currently have?The most giant and beautiful room of a shower ever known to man. A pool and hot tub. An awesome kitchen with gas stove. (I think these things are totally doable, right?)  

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 {seven} what’s for dinner tonight? No clue. Pasta? Maybe with peas. And green beans? We don't have much left in the house, because Nate is already gone and I'm about to be gone for 5 days.
 {eight} if someone stopped by your house unannounced on a typical Saturday night, what would they find you doing?

Prob watching TV/movies or playing on the computer. Sometimes we might be drinking. Almost always eating!

{nine} what’s your average monthly water bill?

We don't pay water, our apartment building does. It's a good thing, too. =P

{ten} what do you do to relax?Read. Sometimes I'll listen to music and play on the computer, but mostly my downtime is spent with my kindle. Or possibly in the shower -- so relaxing =)

spektor

"I hear in my mind,

all of these voices.

I hear in my mind,

all of these words.

I hear in my mind,

all of this music --

and it breaks my heart;

breaks my heart."

(Regina Spektor - Fidelity)

just the same

I have recently become kind of obsessed with owls. Thankfully, so is everyone else,  so I don't have to go too far to find my feather friends!

Owl Soap Dispenser and Toothbrush Holder

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Owl Measuring Cups

{via}

Owl Lovers on Music Print

{via}

Peekaboo Owl Teacup

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Owl Multicolor Necklace

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Owl Watering Staes

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Ceramic Owl Bank

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I admit, too many of one decoration can be a tad bit ridiculous -- with this many owls, your house will start looking like an aviary and less like a living space. But how can you say no to their little owl faces?



(woah woah) evacuate the dance floor (ten on tuesday)

There are just simply so many of my friends' birthdays this month, I don't even know what to do with myself. So I ignore them all, and then feel bad and proceed to comment on the FB of anyone who I'm actually good friends with. I'm a horrible friend. Horrible. Shame on me.

Anywho, it's Ten on Tuesday time! Feel free, as always, to link up over at Roots and Rings. (Also, it's one of my fav blogs, so check it out, anyway =)

1. What type of phone do you have? Do you like it?
iPhone and I am totally an iPhone person. I will spout its glories to anyone who will listen. I have a 3GS, and I want a 4, but since my upgrade with AT&T doesn't happen until next February (ooh hoo hoo,) and there are rumors that the 5 will be out before then, I may just wait and get the 5. Hopefully by then we will have the money to throw away on fancy gadgets. Because really, I'm in agreement with the commercials: If you don't have an iPhone, well...you don't have an iPhone.

2. How old were you when you got your first cell phone?
Uhm...high school, I think? Sohpomore year. I got one pretty much as soon as they became vaguely affordable. It was about the time my friends started driving, so I was out and about and getting rides from school to theatre and theatre to home, so my parents wanted to know where I was.

3. How many cell phones have you owned since your first?
Let's see...I had a little baby Kyocera for my first one. Then I stepped on it, cracked the screen (I take real good care of stuff, can't you tell?) and it slowly went crazy until I was forced to get a new one. I loved that little phone. After that I had a couple flip phones. My sister and I got a contract for the two of us, so pretty much every time that was up, we got the new "free" phones when we renewed. An exact number is hard, though. Somewhere around 5?

4. How much is your average monthly phone bill?
Uhhh....I don't know. Nate pays the bill. I want to say it's like, $130, for our two data plans (thank goodness for being grandfathered into unlimited data!) We also have unlimited texting, with the lowest number of minutes possible...and we still have rollover. Neither of us talk on the phone very much.

5. When you were a kid/teenager, were you allowed to have a phone in your room?
I don't remember if I ever had the actual phone unit itself. We had at least one cordless phone from the time that cordless phones were available -- my Dad likes new technology -- and at least two phones lines from the time I was 11 (though one was for dial-up (oh my gawd, dial-up?) or DSL, when we switched over,) because we are an interwebs family. In any case, who needs the phone when you can just take the receiver up to your room and leave it there?

6. Do you like talking on the phone or do you despise it? Or somewhere in-between?
I hate talking on the phone. It makes me feel so, so very awkward. I'd much rather text/email/IM.

7. Do you text a lot? Is texting/talking while driving illegal where you live? Are you guilty of it anyway?
Yup. I don't think it's illegal here. I don't have a car, so I don't text and drive. I used to text at stoplights in Tallahassee, but I was pretty good about not texting while the car was actually moving and under my control.

8. What sort of texting keyboard does your phone have? Touch screen, slide out, or something different? Do you care?
Touchscreen. Oh yeah, iPhone.

9. Look at the last call in your call log – who is it? What were they calling about? Who calls you the most?
Yesterday I got a call from a number I didn't recognize, as I was leaving work, so I didn't pick up. Turns out it was from a research firm in Boston that I had signed up for while I was living there, for some extra money, seeing if i wanted to participate in a study. Awesome how they never called me while I was living there...

10. What is the longest phone call you can recall having?
I remember I used to talk for hours late-night on weekends to my guy friends, because obv there were no sleepovers happening, since we were in middle school and all. It was before computers got real popular for that kind of stuff. And my friend Evan didn't have access to a computer/the internet, for a while, anyway, so we chatted on the phone.

tell us of the night

One of these days I'll stop being a lazy bum and start writing regularly again so I don't have to lump our giant weekends o' fun into one long and slightly boring post. Ah, well. A girl can dream.

This weekend was one of the most gorgeous times I have seen in seattle. Friday and Saturday were both super sunny, and Sunday was marginally sunny, so Nate and I took full advantage and walked around for a total of 13+ hours from Friday night to Sunday night. All our pictures are on the real camera -- we took the real camera out, aren't you proud of us?! -- so I don't have many to post here today, but as soon as I can muster up the energy to steal them from Nate's computer, I'll post our marathon walking tour.

Friday evening we walked downtown because a) it was nice and I wanted to get some exercise but b) Nate was still a bit of a sicky, so we weren't going to submit the gym to his snot just yet. We walked down to Pike Place and got some awesome shots of Rainier over Qwest.

The crazy-ass giant volancomountains is one thing I will definitely miss whenever it is we decide to scurry back over the east coast. I love the Appalachians, but there's really nothing like craggy, snow-capped peaks in the distance. It's one of my favorite things around living in Seattle, for realz.

Friday night we watched The Fighter. I though it was good, but I really have no love to give to fighting -- it just isn't really my sport. I don't like watching people get hurt. Nate said he thought it wasn't as good as he thought it was going to be.

Saturday we woke up at a vaguely reasonable hour, got ready and set out to find breakfast. We had yet to find a decent breakfast place and upon some further inspection, discovered a diner, Planet Java, right on the waterfront, a straight shot down Washington from our house! It's super cute and has that old-school, 50s diner vibe, including the music. There's vintage Coke and diner paraphernalia everywhere, but the most ridiculous thing is that the entire place is covered in clocks. Most of them are cool. Some, like the scary clown clock, not so cool. But the vibe and food (and our waitress) was AWESOME and just what we wanted.

After eating, we were going to wander down by the waterfront (along with everyone else who lives in and/or was visiting Seattle,) but we got distracted by the ridiculously loud sounds coming from Qwest, so we walked over there to check it out. There was a U2 concert on Saturday night, and they were setting up and sound checking while the Mariners game was happening at Safeco right next door, so we were not alone. (When we walked home later, I got an awesome shot of Lenny Kravitz -- their opening act -- using the digital zoom on the camera and focusing in on the giant screen above the stage. It almost looks like we were there! ;)

Afterwards, we headed to the waterfront, and walked and shopped and took pictures for the rest of the afternoon. We ate dinner at Contour, where they have a $2-5 happy hour menu until 8PM with some really delicious food. We also got a free round of drinks because they neglected to tell us until much, much later that they didn't actually have the fried calamari we ordered. Oops. Free booze!

I wound up getting a little sunburned from walking around, but considering were out for hours and my chest is just a little pink, I'll take it. Saturday night we watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. It is kind of horribly depressing, but really really good. Beautiful cinematography and music (by James Horner,) but man, I did not see that ending coming. You should see it. And then be kind of depressed for a while.

Sunday wasn't as nice, but we went a-walking anyway. We would up at Planet Java for breakfast again before heading downtown to do some shopping. Originally we went for cologne for Nate, since he's almost out, but we wound up with six pairs of shoes instead. Hahaha. Hah. Ha. Oops. =\ But we needed them, and we got rid of some shoes that were really quite past their prime (which the shoes we bought replaced) when we got home, so it wasn't completely frivolous. Nate replace his semi-dressy black shoes, his gym shoes and walking sneakers and I replaced two pairs of casual walking shoes and got a pair of wedges for work. See, see?! We needed them. Neeeeeed. I mean, yes. Plus, they're having a BOGO sale until July 4th. Totally justified.

I also got this awesome ceramic owl at UO.

Technically he is a piggy bank, but since we keep out change in a Cafe du Monde tin near the door, he is simply a decoration on the window sill. He was on sale for $1.99, how could I say no?!

TGIF and all the goodness

I'm so glad this was a short week because I. Am. Beat.

I had my first two free personal training sessions at the gym. The girl was very cute and nice and I hurt all over. We did arms for 45 minutes on Tuesday and legs for an hour on Thursday. I'MSOTIRED. Working out is hard and stuff. But now at least I know how to use the machines and don't feel as awkward about it. Holla. My trainer is also trying to get classes for the evening to happen at this gym location, which I am all for. Some people live downtown and only have one gym membership. Hmph.

I'm also crazy excited about the fact that next week this time I will be in BOSTON! Granted, I don't get to spend much of my time in the New England actually in Boston -- I'll be in Maine Friday night/Saturday and in New Hampshire on Sunday -- but that doesn't make it any less exciting. I am returning to the land of Dunkin Donuts and Chik-fil-a. It's a dream come true.

You guys, I'm looking forward to fast food chains. This is my sad, sad reality.

Not that I don't love Seattle, especially right now. It's beautiful here, being able to live right on the water without paying exhorbitant prices is pretty freakin' cool (cooler if we could see the water from our apartment,) and the whole Pike Place/Space Needle area of downtown is really, really nifty. But I am affected by sunshine, or lack thereof, and I just can't handle it being 45 and drizzly most of the year. If it's going to rain, I'd rather have crazy thunderstorms that last for an hour or two than constantly being spit upon by the overcast sky. Personally.

Did you know Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks and UPS? Nathan discovered UPS's Waterfall Garden right downtown near my work today.

It's also the birthplace of grunge.

You know what Boston is the birthplace of? Awesome.

But seriously, I'm glad to be here for the time being. I am embracing the newness of it all, even 8 months later.

(also, I got a new follower! Helllloooo, new follower! =)