Chocolate Galore

Ce n'est un secret que je suis une sérieux chocolat addict. De crème glacée à bonbon, de gâteau à milkshakes. Je l'aime tout. Hier tandis que j'étais contemplant mon besoin de chocolat dans une maison qui est tristement manque de chocolat magnificence, je me suis ici et le les nombreux, nombreux livres sur chocolat qui sont disponibles pas plusieurs sites web. Voici quelques de ceux qui apparu prometteurs à moi et aussi un couple des personnels chocolat favoris.

It's no secret that I am one serious chocolate addict. From ice cream to candy, from cake to milkshakes. I love it all. So yesterday while I was contemplating my need for chocolate in a house which is sadly lacking in chocolaty wonderfulness, I got on here and perused the many, many books about chocolate that are available through several websites. Here are some of the ones that looked promising to me and also a couple of personal chocolate favorites.

There are two well known chocolate "bibles" out there. One ( left) has gotten great reviews from every source and looks wonderful and the other (right) is used at Le Cordon Bleu, a school I once considered attending before I switched to fashion.

Chocolates and Confections; Formula, theory, and technique for the artisan confectioner by Peter P. Grewling is also used at a school, The Culinary Institute of America. This book is getting rave reviews and if you search it on amazon, click the link that lets you look inside and you can see a great sample of the book. All of the measurements are in both metric and US measurements, and, as the title claims, this book is more than just a cookbook. It goes in depth and explains sugar densities, formulas, and many other aspects of chocolate artistry. This book might not be one for beginners but I would love to try it all the same.

The Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate by Robert Steinberg and John Scharffenberger is supposed to be one of the best chocolate books out there. According to reviewers there are pictures accompanying nearly every page, backgrounds and trivia on the history of chocolate, and great instruction. It's not all sweet stuff either. According to ecookbooks.com there are several savory recipes that contain chocolate. Not sure if that sounds appealing but maybe I'll find out!

Fine Chocolates: Great Experience by Jean-Pierre Wybauw has a cover that speaks for itself. If that doesn't induce gallons of saliva I don't know what will. Accompanying this book are two sequels written by the same man, Fine Chocolates 2: Great Ganache Experience and Fine Chocolates 3: How They Last Longer And Taste Stronger. This one, in particular, is one that I would like to grab because it reminds me most of the chocolate you would find at See's Candies. If you have never heard of See's Candies please do yourself a favor and go to their website: See's!


Midnight Milkyway: I love these guys. I've always been a big dark chocolate fan and combining that with marshmallow and caramel- best idea ever.











Reese's Peanut Butter Cups: This is a match made in heaven. Peanut butter and chocolate. Yum!








See's Candies' Scotchmallow: Inside this little ball of chocolate is honey, caramel, and marshmallow; a favorite of mine at the See's Candies store.







That is all the chocolate for now. Tomorrow I will be posting on what will probably turn out to be a very long rant about the Spring 2011 Couture shows.

French word of the day: Chocolat which means chocolate.

Au Revoir!

"I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot." - Marilyn Monroe.

Finals

Les finales sont à venir jusqu'à pour moi et je suis stresser! J'ai une finale de chimie que je connais va me tuer, j'ai essayé de préparer pour mon Algèbre 2 finale et je ne peux pas rappelez-vous rien du passé six mois, j'ai concurrence de l'État prochaine mois, un test d'ions en chimie aujourd'hui et un français finale dont je suis également prendre aujourd'hui.

Finals are coming up for me and I am stressing out! I've got a chemistry final that I know is going to kill me, I've been trying to prepare for my Algebra 2 final and I can't remember anything from the past six months, I've got state competition next month, an ions test in chemistry today and a french final which I am also taking today.

So. . . (I wrote the above part this morning and have therfore already taken my two tests today) I got thirty out of thirty on my chem. retake and then got nine out of ten on the extra credit ions test (which I missed last week since I was sick). It was dumb because I forgot to put the 2- on the ion formula for sulfite. Still though that's an A+ and nine extra credit poitns, I'll take it. The french test was fairly easy and I get to finish it tomorrow so I'm looking up anything I didn't get although there is still some stuff that I will probably not get because it involved in class listening to a recording, which I could not understand. In a french class you would think that on the recordings they would use a woman you could understand rather than one who speaks french like the average french person and slurs it all together. I bet when they are teaching English they don't use someone who speaks it like I do because they wouldn 't be able to understand me, at least not in their second year of language.

I took a break from studying my ions last night to check out borders website for cook books (who by the way is supposedly going out of business so if you have gift cards, borders bucks, etc., I advise spending them soon). I also checked out Barnes and Noble, whose website, in my opinion, is much more accessible than Borders. Anyways, everytime I go some where to look for cookbooks I always end up collecting a large pile of baking books. I'm just drawn to the colorful pictures and the beautiful confections of sugar on their covers. Below are some that I've found that I like (yes I am judging them by their cover), simply for the look and the reviews that they have gotten. Hopefully when I get a little more cash I will be able to go out and experiment with them.


Cupcakes and Say It With A Cupcake by Susannah Blake: Just look at the covers! The posh cupcakes, and the gorgeous little flowers on the right and the cute dainty ones on the left. This is one that I'm really looking forward to buying.

Hello, Cupcake! by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson: This one is very creative. Non-traditional cupcakes but they appear to be done really well. This is one of the books that has the highest ratings on various websites. On amazon the lowest rating was three stars, and for the most part people only rated it that because they were disappointed with the actual cupcake recipe, not the decorating aspect of the book. I personally never make  stuff like that from scratch, unless that's the reason I'm making it. If I'm going for cool decoration than I make the box mix (which is perfectly good) and then focus my energy on the decoration. These pictures seem really cute and the five star reviews all rave about how easy and how wonderful everything turns out.

Sweet and Simple Party Cakes by May Clee Cadman: The problem I have found with cake books is that I'm always drawn to the ones that require fondant, which doesn't particularly taste good if you can't afford the good kind, and is difficult to work with. But the reviewers of this book claim that it is a great beginner's book and that it made using fondant extremely easy.

Also by May Clee Cadman, Cakes for Romantic Occassions: Similar to the other one, it is getting   great reviews, and just look at the beautiful cake on the cover!


















Tomorrow I will be posting some great looking chocolate books that I've found online. I think I might pick up one of these cake books next week and start experimenting!

French word of the day: Gâteau which means cake.

Au Revoir!

"Fashion is made to become unfashionable." - Coco Chanel.

Designers Then And Now

Voici une liste des mes favori designers, (certes je n'ai pas vu tous les, je suis sûr qu'il y aura d'autres à venir). Ci-dessous est certains images et des notes de eux ont changé et cultivé au fil des ans. Appréciez!

So here is a list of my favorite designers, (admittedly I have not seen all of them, so I'm sure there will be more to come). Below is some pictures and notes of how they have changed and grown over the years. Enjoy!

Christian Louboutin: I absolutely love his shoes. I love how identifiable they are. Even without the red under sole you can tell they are his simply by the quality and the style of them.

Fact: Did you know that Christian Louboutin incorporated the red sole in 1992 and didn't even mean to? "This happened by accident as I felt that the shoes lacked energy so I applied red nail polish to the sole of a shoe. This was such a success that it became a permanent fixture." - Christian Louboutin.

One of my personal favorite Louboutin pair

Valentino: Valentino has always been a long time favorite for me. I love his signature red and how there are always bows and frills to be seen wherever you may look. Valentino is truly the princess' designer.

Then: Spring 2004 Couture

Now: Couture Fall 2010

Chanel: When I was born my parents got one of those framed posters that lists things like movies that we're popular the day I was born, or important events that occurred in other years on my birth date, etc. . Well, one of the lists was of famous people that were born the same day as me, August 19th. One of them happen to be Coco Chanel. I remember when I first started becoming interested in designing, rereading that sentence over and over again and thinking it must be destiny that Coco Chanel was born on my birthday, it had to be! Thus began my obsession with everything Chanel. From movies to books to the design house I was and am still very interested in her. She led, at times, a very hard life, yet she created something for herself; a name. A name that would live on long after she was gone and become what the world would come to recognize as elegance in it's simplest form.

Then: Fall 2006 RTW

Now: Couture Fall 2010

Christian Dior: Dior. Is there a sexier name? Does it not just roll off the tongue? Besides having an irrsesistable name, Dior has year after year produced beautiful lines. John Galliano, who since 1996, has been the head designer, is still going strong, designing show after show that every time proves to be both exciting and incredibly stylish.

Then: Couture Spring 2003

Now: Couture Fall 2010

Oscar de la Renta: I absolutely love him simply because you can almost always tell when you are in the presence of an Oscar de la Renta gown. It's elegant, it's beautiful, it's in every way wonderful. I hope to someday have the opportunity to wear one for myself, or better yet meet the maker.

Then: Spring 2001 RTW

Now: Pre-Fall 2011

Christian Lacroix: Yet another designer with the first name Christian. I guess I just have a thing for the name?

Then: Spring 2004 Couture

Now: Fall 2009 Couture

Prada: What cannot be said about Prada? It's probably one of the best known brands out there. Even non-fashion freaks know who Prada is. They have definitely earned their place in the fashion world, creating the chicest of looks every year.

Then: Fall 2000 RTW

Now: Spring 2011 RTW

Alexis Mabille: Mabille is a new designer who I personally love but the critics seem to not be very fond of. I love how girly everything is and how over the top he can be. Yet even with all the "frou-frou" everything he designs still manages to be incredibly wearable.

Then: Couture Fall 2008

Now: Spring 2011 Couture

Alexander McQueen: It's hard to believe that a fashion icon like McQueen could really be gone but I think that Sarah Burton is doing a fantastic job keeping everything together. The past couple shows of hers have been great and I'm excited to see what is coming.

Then: Spring 2003 RTW

Now: Fall 2010 RTW

Badgley Mischka: Everyone knows Badgley Mischka. You can see their dresses on Blake Lively, Katy Perry, Queen Latifah, and just about every other celebrity known to man. Like Oscar de la Renta, their dresses are usually very identifiable. They are often the trendiest and most on-the-moment piece of clothing at any party.

Then: Spring 2000 RTW

Now: Resort 2010

And finally one of my top favorites, Dolce and Gabanna: There are too many things that can be said about Dolce and Gabanna. The list goes on forever. Sophisticated, gorgeous, timeless, sexy. They never failed to make me happy each and every year.

Then: Spring 2001 RTW

Now: Fall 2010 RTW

Sorry about the spacing (blogger is freaking out). Hope you enjoyed this!

French word of the day: Designer which (guess what?) means designer.

Au Revoir!

"The leading cause of death among fashion models is falling through street grates." - Dave Barry.

More Runway Photos. . .

Bonjour tout le monde, j'ai voulu à houblon sur à poste un couple plus d'images de certains passé montre que j'ai été en appréciant.

Hello everyone, I just wanted  to hop on to post a couple more pictures of some past shows that I've been enjoying.

Valentino Couture Show Fall 2007

Valentino Couture Show Fall 2007

Alexander Mcqueen's 2008 Spring RTW

I will make sure to post some more tomorrow. I'm thinking of doing a kind of then and now catalogue of the runway shows. We'll see!

French word of the day: Pain which means bread.

Au Revoir!

"A cause may be inconvenient, but it's magnificent. It's like champagne or high heels, and one must be prepared to suffer for it." - Arnold Bennet.

You Never Know

Donc surprise, surprise! J'ai placé troisième dans mon catégorie pour DECA et je vais à etat cette année encore! Je vraiment ne peux pas le croire. Soit je ne vraiment bien sur l'essai à compenser mon mauvais jeu de rôle ou ils pensé je n'ai vraiment bien (même si je n'ai pas encore pense que j'ai fait).

Spring 2007 Couture Christian Dior

So surprise, surprise! I placed third in my category for DECA and am going to state again this year! I really can't believe it. Either I did really well on the test to make up for my bad role-play or they thought I did really well (even though I still don't think I did). 

What is nice is that since I'm doing a role-play I won't have to deal with taking stuff up to competition like I did last year when I needed props. Yay!

Today I stayed home sick. . . again. I've been working on putting together a sort of inspirational fashion binder. In it I'm putting quotes and pictures I find and I'm also going to start adding drawings of my own and sketches, etc. It's like an idea board only in a binder. Maybe when I get more in it I'll post pictures.

I spent today looking at fashion shows both recent and old and will be posting pictures of my favorites over the next couple of weeks. Here are a couple to get started. (By the way sorry about the formatting. If any of you know how to get rid of the white border around the pictures please post a comment below so I can fix them! Thanks!

Spring 2011 RTW Oscar de la Renta

French word of the day: essai which means test.

Au Revoir!

"Dressing is a way of life." - Yves Saint Laurent.

Competition

Aujourd'hui je suis allé à l'école de tout façon quoique ce matin je ne pourrais pas parle, ma l'oreille, pour certains inconnus, un mal d'enfer, mon nez a été bouché, et je toussais. J'ai eu de la conncurrence et a été en mesure de concurrencer depuis que j'ai enregistré ma voix tous le jour mais je suis sentant toujours malade.

So today I went to school anyways even though this morning I couldn't talk, my ear, for some unknown reason, hurt like hell, my nose was stuffy, and I was coughing. I had competition and was able to compete since I saved my voice all day but I'm still feeling pretty iffy.

God, I wish I could get on here today and say that I did great today, that I'm absolutely qualified for state, but unfortunately, no. I did not do very well on my role-play and even though I won't find out until tomorrow if I placed, I have a very strong feeling I didn't. The scenario was very odd and had nothing to do with automobiles whatsoever. It was a vague situation where some construction workers who are waiting for their automobiles to be finished are waiting in the waiting  room and are being rude and obnoxious while a family is in there. The family asks them to stop and they don't so you (me) as the customer service manager have to go in and talk to the construction worker's boss (the judges) and talk to them about it. It felt very weird because it was like I was antagonizing the judges which made me feel like I was doing something wrong and made me stutter a lot which I never do when I speak in front of people. Also this was a customer service role play and had absolutely nothing to do with automotives. I had studied up on trends in the market right now, different manufacturing companies, facts about hybrid cars, in order to be really prepared for this today when this role play was not at all specific to the topic of the competition. It just wasn't a good day.

I think I'm going to take a very long, very hot, bubble bath and go relax. I probably won't go to school tomorrow since I still feel pretty bad right now.

French word of the day: Concurrence which means competition.

Au Revoir!

"I love fashion. I think it's so important, because it's how you show yourself to the world." - Emma Watson.

Spa Day

J'avais un fantastique jour hier! Ma mère et moi sommes allés et avait un grand jour ensemble et est alors allé à homage rouge et finis un nuit avec Baskin Robbins glacée. Nous avons allons à le Valley Athletics  club station thermale et j'ai reçues une faciale, un sourcil épilation à la cire (d'apprivoiser mon indisciplinés chenilles), et mani/pedi. Il était très détente et très merveilleux. Mes ongles comparer bon et j'ai reçues un petit cerise orteil anneau qui est très joli. Une faciale a été un peu rugueux mais un sourcil épilation à la cire n'a pas été ce mauvais. Il a été rapide et maintenant mon sourcils ont un belle arc et ne plus pas ressembler qui chose vivante sous une roche.

I had a fantastic day yesterday! My mom and I went and had a spa day together and then went to Red Lobster and finished the night with Baskin Robbins ice cream. We went to the Valley Athletics club spa and I got a facial, an eyebrow waxing (to tame my unruly caterpillars), and mani/pedi. It was very relaxing and very wonderful. My nails look great and I got a little cherry toe ring that is really cute. The facial was a little rough but the eyebrow waxing wasn't that bad. It was pretty quick and now my eyebrows have a beautiful arch and no longer resemble that thing living under a rock.

At Red Lobster I had my usual steak and scampi and we also ordered the lobster pizza appetizer which was really good. The manicurist that I had was one of the nicest people I've ever met. She was really interesting and actually reminded me of myself a little because she is really into traveling and a bit of a thrill-seeker. I really enjoyed talking to her, although, because of yesterday (will explain in a minute), I could barely talk and when I laughed at something it sounded slightly better than a dying cat. The reason my voice is going is because on Sunday on our daily walk I decided to run a lap, walk a lap, run a lap, etc. and ended up doing five miles, 20 laps, running 10 of those. A piece of advice; never attempt to all of a sudden do five miles when up until then you had been doing nothing of the sort.

There is something so wonderful about running that is hard to describe. It's like buying shoes (technically a bad analogy since I shouldn't be encouraging the purchase of expensive footwear in this economy but . . .). At first you're really excited about them, thinking how great they look on you and what you'll wear them with, and then you look at the price tag. If you're anything like me your taste far exceeds your budget. But then once their bought, you feel great, and can't wait to flaunt them later. Similarly with running, at first you're all pumped up about it. 'Yeah! I'm going to get in great shape and just keep running!' And then you start and after about twenty seconds you want to trip yourself just so you can lie down. But then once you're done with that lap or that half a lap or that mile you feel great. (If you're confused on the similarity between the two, trust me it works).

While running I find that your mind is set free. It wanders around while you run and really gets the brain working. I find that I end up thinking of the most creative things when I'm running or just about to go to sleep. The problem is, because you're about to drift off into la-la land, or in the middle of nowhere running your guts out, you don't really have time to stop and write down whatever you were thinking so that by the time you make it back to the car or wake up the next morning the idea has blurred in your mind, lost it's definition.

Today I woke up and felt awful. My throat burned and my head was heavy. I went to school anyways but the very, very, bad news is; if my throat does not improve immensely by tomorrow I will be unable to compete for DECA since the judge will be unable to hear/understand me. Not to mention that in my actual marketing class the project we are working on is slowly deteriorating. My partner and I have to come up with a hypothetical ad campaign for a local business ( a lot like I did last year for competition) but we actually have to call the business and go talk to them. Every single business we have contacted has been unable to work with us or wouldn't be able to help us before our deadline. As it turns out our deadline to get a company has already past and the irony is if we had stuck with the first one we might have a company by now. Our most recent one finally got back to us after waiting for four days only to tell us that they can't do it. I'm sorry but if you're answer is going to be no why not tell me on the spot rather than making me wait? My teacher says that she has a friend who runs her own company that we can use so hopefully that works out.

I've got to get some sleep if I have any hope of competing tomorrow.

French word of the day: malade which means sick. . .

Au Revoir!

"The dress must follow the body of a woman, not the body following the shape of the dress." - Hubert de Givenchy.

Marketing, Monday Favorites, and Monotony

L'année dernière, je me suis joint au club de mon école DECA (DECA est un national de commercialisation et d'association d'affaires conçu pour aider les jeunes entrepreneurs en herbe apprennent à devenir plus expérimentés dans les affaires). Quoi qu'il en soit, l'année dernière, j'ai participé à la compétition où j'ai participé à l'épreuve de simple de commercialisation de la mode. J'ai créé un plan de promotion pour un magasin et a dû le créer dans pas moins de onze pages, puis il a présenté à une rangée de juges pour une quinzaine de minutes. Après que je devais passer un test de marketing de niveau collégial (100 questions en une heure) et puis juste attendre de voir comment j'ai fait. J'ai reçu la première place régionale et a 100 solide sur ma présentation (quelque chose que mon professeur avait jamais arrivé avant). Je suis allé à l'état où j'ai placé 7e de plus d'une centaine de personnes également en compétition dans ma catégorie.

Last year I joined my school's DECA club (DECA is a national marketing and business association designed to help young aspiring entrepreneurs learn to become more experienced in business). Anyways, last year I participated in competition where I competed in the singles event for Fashion Merchandising. I created a promotional plan for a local store and had to create it in no less than eleven pages and then present it to a row of judges for about fifteen minutes. After that I had to take a college level marketing exam (100 questions in an hour) and then just wait to see how I did. I received first place regionally and got a solid 100 on my presentation (something my teacher had never have happened before). I then went to state where I placed 7th out of over a hundred people also competing in my category.

This year I will be competing in the individual series for automotive services marketing. This year instead of doing a written event I will be doing a role play which consists of going in, reading a business scenario, and presenting it to a judge (after getting ten minutes to read it and come up with a plan) who is pretending to be your boss, manager, etc.. You have about five minutes to present and then you leave. The problem with role plays, is they are very unpredictable, and there are a LOT of people competing in them. With the written event you have about two months to prepare and you know what you're talking about. You have time to research, double check things, etc.. With the role play you just kind of have to do it by the seat of your pants. Hopefully I'll do well this year, I've never done a role play before so I'm a little nervous! If you want to read more about it, here is the website: DECA

This weekend has been pretty boring. I'm trying to decide on a new haircut. If you have any suggestions please feel free to comment!

In class we've begun reading Lord of the Flies, which I'll admit, I thought was a joke book, written after Lord of the Rings. Surprise, surprise! It isn't. It's an odd book about a group of boys who are stranded on an island after a plane crash. I don't really dislike it or like it at this point, since I'm only two chapters in, but so far it's been . . . odd and it actually reminds me of the TV show Lost. I'm also reading a book called: The Year We Disappeared. It's really good, and surprisingly, non-fiction. This is perhaps the first non-fiction book I have ever found that I actually enjoy.

Monday favorites this week were my favorite quotes:

1. "Life isn't about how many breaths you take but about the moments that take your breath away." - Hilary Cooper.

2. "All is fair in love and war." - Francis Edward Smedley.

3. "Curiosity is a willing, a proud, an eager confession of ignorance." - S. Leonard Rubinsteing, quoted from; Writing: A Habit of Mind.

4. "Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today."- James Dean.

5. "You put high heels on and you change." - Manolo Blahnik.

6. “Desserts are like mistresses. They are bad for you. So if you are having one, you might as well have two.”- Chef Alain Ducasse

I hope everyone had a great day today! We had a two hour late start due to the snow (yay!) and I took advantage of that by sleeping! I had a pretty bad nightmare, unfortunately, so the extra two hours only prolonged that but, oh well, my personal opinion is it's better to have some nightmares than to never dream at all.

French word of the day: livre which means book.

Au Revoir!

"Happy, happy fashion- there is not much more to it than that."- Marc Jacobs.

The After-Math of Christmas. . .

Maintenant que j'ai bon quelques-uns des jours à récupérer de Noël folie je suis retour et essayer à faites face avec ce défi j'ai décidé à prends sur. J'espère tout le monde avait un fabuleux Noël, je certainement n'a. Chance pour moi, ma famille sait moi très bien, et j'ai été bombardés avec des talons hauts, vêtements, etc., et peut-être mon favori; un station thermale jour avec ma mère (nous sommes très proche). L'un des articles les plus chers que j'ai obtenu était un manteau de laine. Je effectivement, techniquement reçues deux, mais c'est pace que j'étais allé au centre commercial avec ma mère et puis mon père et ils deux avait obentu le mateau que j'avais gravitait vers ce jour-là. Alors j'ai ouvert l'un d'eux et puis avait à décider entre les deux. J'ai fini par aller avec la un je l'origine voulu. C'est une rose manteau en laine par Guess, c'est croisé et a boutons dorés militaire. J'adore et je serait mettre une image de celui-ce que j'ai trouvé en ligne (mon ordinateur est agit en place alors je ne peux pas mettre une image de moi) mais une image fait ressembler à un morceau vraiment horrible de vêtements alors j'ai décidé de ne pas. L'ecole a commencé à nouveau aujourd'hui (ugh) et ma soeur est se réjouissaient de la semaine supplémentaire elle descend (le petit gosse). Je suis prierque les deux prochaines mois volée par.

Now that I've had a good couple of days to recover from the Christmas madness I'm back and trying to cope with this challenge I've decided to take on. I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas, I certainly did. Lucky for me, my family knows me extremely well, and I was bombarded with shoes, clothing, etc., and possibly my favorite; a spa day and dinner with my mom (we're really close). One of the more expensive items I got was a wool coat. I actually, technically got two, but that's because I had gone to the mall with my mother and then my father and they both had gotten the coat that I had gravitated towards that day. So I opened one of them and then had to decide between the two. I ended up going with the one I originally wanted. It's a pink wool coat by Guess, it's double-breasted and has golden military buttons. I love it and I would post a picture I found of it online (my computer is acting up so I can't post a picture of myself in it) but the photo makes it look like a truly horrid piece of clothing so I decided not to. School started again today (ugh) and my sister is gloating about the extra week she gets off (the little brat). I'm praying that the next couple of months fly by.

Back to the challenge, I've just come to realize how truly difficult this challenge is going to be. I am totally unprepared for this so forgive me if I completely butcher the language and also if my posts become more and more infrequent. It takes more than double the time to post now because I have to rewrite it in french so I'm having a hard time fitting that into my schedule. Today concludes the sixth day of the new year and my new year's resolution is to be happy. That might sound like a sad excuse for a resolution but I think that it is the most basic and most important resolution that can be made and influences every other potential resolution I might have made for this year. I'm very excited for my sophomore year to end and my junior year to begin and I think this is going to be a great year!

Monday Favorites today (from, let's see three days ago? Whoops.) are going to be quick. They are all bath related products that I really love and hopefully you will too:

1. Bath and Body Works warm vanilla sugar bubble bath. This bubble bath always puts me in a good mood. It smells great and produces a good amount of bubbles especially when used with my favorite item number 3, listed below. For best results I suggest using about three cap-fulls of the solution.

2. Garnier Fructis shampoo and conditioner sleek and shine. This was recommended to me by my mother's stylist who said that it would work great for my hair, which can sometimes be frizzy. I think it's working pretty well but there are times when I find that it makes my hair overly oily or frizzy. Might be how I am using it or the way I dry my hair but I'm planning on looking into it a little more.

3. Bubble bath jet. I have one of these and it works great. It produces about twice as many bubbles as it normally would.

4. A bath pillow. A good one of these will make a bath much more relaxing. You'll want to get one with suction cups so that it will stick to your tub and not move around on you when you're trying to relax. You'll also want one that has a cushion that wraps most of the way around so that the hard plastic is not cutting into your neck when you lay down.

5. Victoria's Secret Shimmer lotion in Very Sexy. This lotion works great and smells awesome. It is a holiday special and is now on clearance so if  you want some I advise running out soon.

Also there is a new shampoo I'm thinking of using but I wanted to know if anyone had any insight on it. I don't want to spend the money if it is not a good product. The specific one that I am looking at is called Organix Shampoo Pomegranate Green Tea (Revitalizing). If you have any input, that would be great. Thanks!

Also you may have noticed that I only wrote the first paragraph of this post in french and that is because if I were to rewrite this ENTIRE post in french you as the reader would want to shoot me and I would happily let you. I've decided that I will only being doing the first paragraph per post, at least until I can get my head wrapped around this thing.

Better go. I've got chemistry to study for (bleh!)

French word of the day: le bain which means the bath.

Au revoir!

"Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn."- Gore Vidal.