A Hairy Situation

For those of you who have been following along on my journey for a while, you probably remember when one day in December I decided to chop off 17 inches for Locks of Love. I mean, it was really long. I felt good about it, though, knowing that a child would benefit from my 'do. I was a little bummed because I could no longer do the natural wave thing (as seen here), but I enjoyed the sleek, mod feeling of a bob.

But now here I am, some 8 months later, my hair has grown several inches and I'm in this awkward hair length stage. I do want to grow it out again (so I can chop it off and donate it again), but before I got it cut in the first place I was attempting to do the whole "ombre" thing.. unsuccessfully. The lady misunderstood or just didn't know how, but it resulted in me sitting in the salon (still drunk at first) for hours upon hours as she tried, failed, retried (deathly hung over at this point) and I eventually gave up with a you're-about-to-get-puked-on-lady-just-let-me-pay kind of attitude. It was WAY subtle and you could barely tell I got anything done (except when you looked at my depleted bank account, that is).

So now I'm wondering if I can pull it off with my medium-length hair..

Drew Barrymore style.

Or Hannah Montana style.. why not?

What do we think, friends? Am I trendy enough to pull this off? Does this only work when you're a movie star? Does anyone else think Drew Barrymore's a badass?

All important questions. Let me know. 

I'm going running because guess who's birthday is tomorrow?! THIS GUY! Aka.. I'm eating cake 'til my face falls off.

KBYEEE

Music Monday Ramblings

Passion Pit just released Gossamer about a week ago. I haven't heard the whole album, but I am obsessed with this song. And I think I'm going to have to buy the album. 

Up until a couple months ago I was paying $10/month for Rhapsody, a music program that allows you to listen to albums the day they come out, create playlists and listen to your saved library from devices that have wifi/the Rhapsody app. I signed up for it in the first place so I could do album reviews for LiveMusicGuide.com without buying each album not knowing if I even liked it yet, and it's a pretty sweet deal, if you spend a lot of time on your computer. I started having issues with the app and songs would randomly stop playing/load really slowly and I found that I was rarely even opening it when I was actually sitting at my computer so I figured I'd be better off spending $10 on an album each month. 

That way I can make sweet mix CDs for my friends (I didn't realize how much I missed that!). Now the only problem is.. I want to buy so many albums!! On my iPhone it's waaaay too easy to just click "buy" and type in my iTunes password. In the past month I bought new albums from The Lumineers, Motion City Soundtrack and Fun (you can read all about my long standing love affair with them here, here and here). 

Despite the fact that I'm trying VERY hard to save up money and not spend it frivolously, I must say I don't regret these purchases at all. I'm obsessed. I just love music, and even though I know I could easily pirate this shiz for free, the altruistic lady inside me feels that I should be supporting these artists monetarily. So I do.

BUT in order to combat the whole must-buy-new-music-now feeling, I've been burning my (and my sister's) lifetime collection of CDs into my new music library. All five cases worth:

I suppose that would be the only good thing about the CD player in my car not working (it hasn't worked for a couple years now, good old Betty the Blazer) and I'm pretty sure I no longer own a CD player.. so some of these discs haven't seen any action in quite some time. I especially like how I have about 12 different mix CDs with labels like "Wicked" and "Awesome Shit" that each have four of the same songs on all of them. Good job, middle school Kens. You rock it out, girl.

Anyway.. does anyone else get chest palpitations when they see/hear Brandon Flowers?

I am in love with this man.

Methinks I shall have to buy this album when it comes out too.

What music are you folks obsessing over on this rainy (metaphorically or literally, here it's quite wet) Monday? Do any of you bloggers do a "Music Monday" feature, or would you be interest at all in participating if I started a linkup? I'd love to see what music y'all are into these days! Let me know, and if you did one today please leave a link in the comments so I can check it out!


Linking up here for #YOLO Monday.

Guest Post: Low-Carb Meals

Hi, friends! My super awesome new friend Sarah from {Ad-ven-cher} is here to share some of her healthy cooking adventures with us! Take it away, Sarah!

Ahoy there, mateys!  Err, sometimes I forget to talk like a pirate in blogland but being a Plucky Picaroon makes it kind of essential. ps. In case you're wondering, a picaroon is a type of  pirate, not to be mistaken for a macaroon as many of my Plucky Piquettes have asked at one time or another... Greetings, readers of MacKensie's blog! Isn't she just the cutest thing ever? If my tush was tinier I would definitely be asking that girl if I could raid her closet. She recently guest posted on my blog and now I have the honor of posting here for you beautiful people! I, unlike our lovely blog hostess here, am NOT a runner. I detest it. I do like looking great in my bathing suit, however, so I've been exploring my options. A quick search for "simple healthy recipes" on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago led me to this sweet web service called eMeals.  Not being great in the kitchen in the first place, and also looking to change up my diet a bit, I was happy to discover this site that sends me a menu plus shopping list each week. I picked the Low Carb Meal Plan, paid the fee for a 3 month stretch of menus (the smallest increment of time - $21 total), and headed straight to the grocery! Unfortunately I had to Google "shallot" before I got there and the poor kid stocking bananas probably thought I was going bananas as I trekked back and forth across the produce section in search of various items. [Oh! The red onions are back over by the tomatoes but where's the minced garlic and are these pea pods or green beans? #hotmess] By the time I gathered up all of the ingredients for one week, my grocery total was $100. Are you kidding me?!  I'm now a few weeks into the recipes and I certainly don't have the funding for hundred dollar grocery runs each week.  What I've learned so far: {::}Canned in water/light syrup = stays fresh longer, is already diced up, and way cheaper {::}Meat is very very filling {::}If one of the recipes calls for making salsa, I'm perfectly comfortable with just purchasing a jar of salsa instead {::}"Deli Sliced Ham" and "Ham Slices" are two VERY DIFFERENT THINGS. My Chicken Cordon Blue attempt went south in a hurry with this little mix up. {::}Green peppers are delicious. Red peppers are potent. {::}Frozen chicken breast works just as well as fresh Tyson chicken, plus it's cheaper and lasts longer {::}I don't really miss bread that much. This is the weirdest one of all, considering I am a bread fiend usually {::}I don't need to / won't make every single meal each week. I had way too many leftovers that first week, and that's even with taking portions of each dinner as lunch to work the next day. Portioning for my lifestyle is totally okay. {::}Cooking real food takes more time and dirties more dishes but is absolutely scrumptious and I think I'm hooked My Handiwork:

Entree: Baked Salmon with Sour Cream & Cucumber Sauce Side: Tomato, Red Pepper, & Cucumber Salad

Entree: Burger Bites with Diced Carrots, 

Red & Green Peppers, & Red Onion in BBQ Sauce

Entree: Chicken Teriyaki w/ Diced Carrots & Pea Pods 

on Brown Rice          Side: Pineapple Chunks

Entree: Stuffed Burger filled with Cream Cheese & Spices 

***FAVORITE SO FAR***

Entree: Turkey Avocado Wraps

Side: Red & Green Pepper Slices

Sadly, these are the only ones I've remembered to take pictures of! I've probably made twice as many meals as the ones listed here and most of them have been really delicious and really easy! I can see my face changing as the bloating from all of the bread I usually eat goes away and when I finish one of these meals, I.Am.Stuffed. Cuts down on some of the post-meal snacking. I'm excited to sally-forth on this cooking adventure! Thank you for letting me stop by, MacKensie G! Hope to catch you all over at my blog home sometime. Lots of exciting adventures await! Oh, and as always, please share pictures of YOUR cooking excursions or if you know any "simple healthy recipes" (particularly sweet little snacky ones, thank you kindly), feel free to shoot 'em my way! 


 With Eyes on the Horizon,


Sarah

InstaFriday's Letters

Dear "Vegetarian" diet, Sorry I haven't been following you very strictly. I'll get there eventually. Dear Friends, Thanks for being silly and making me laugh all week! Dear Crystal River, You are gorgeous and I need to spend more time in you. Dear Ziggy, I am SO sorry for making you run in 90-degree weather yesterday. I forgot you're super out of shape and covered in hair. Next time I will bring water and avoid having to dunk you in a duck pond. Dear Readers, Be sure to enter my giveaway going on right now if you haven't already! It ends Thursday, August 2. Dear Birthday, HOW are you almost here already?! I absolutely do not feel old enough to be 23. That just sounds far too adult-like to describe this guy.

Dear Instagram, Thanks for giving me an excuse to look at and repost old photos of my younger, crazier days of Jell-O shots and full-bottles-of-tequila nights in college. #throwbackthursday Dear Body, It's time you started ignoring all the crap I eat and just focus on the running I've been doing instead. Calories don't count when you run, right?! Dear CMT, Thank god you exist. Without you, there would be no music videos for me to watch ever. Dear Chick Fil-A, My bod sends you and your discrimination a big ole thanks. Since you are a necessity when recovering from a particularly terrible hangover, I will be forced to drink less seeing as eating you is officially off the table. In the words of my mom, "Vote with your money." Dear Warped Tour, I am so ready to travel back to my middle school days by rockin' out to Yellowcard, Anti-Flag and Taking Back Sunday. Also, thanks for the free 30 iTunes downloads! Badass! 

Sincerely,

MacKensie

Linking up here, here and here!

BritNYC Interview + Giveaway

Hi friends!

Today I have a very special interview with the creator of the fashion line Brit. 

Her name is Brittany, she's incredibly talented AND she is one of my sorority sisters.

I'll let her tell you a little more about herself.

I founded the line in 2012 after studying Fashion at Parsons the New School for Design and working for Betsey Johnson, Anthropologie, and Natori. I studied Advertising and Fine Art at Univ. of Florida and combine my beach-town roots with my New York streetstyle. I've been drawing and painting since I was 5 and knew I wanted to work in fashion at a young age. Working on Brit is a dream come true and I can't wait to see how it will evolve!

How did you decide what kinds of clothing to include in your collection?

I started the line in college because I was bored of everyone wearing plain solid tank tops, so I started the line as embellished and hand-painted tanks that would be your go-to comfortable shirt that also had this great fashion forward design on it. So now I've revived the line with the same mentality: comfortable, easy to wear silhouettes with on-trend prints.

I see that many of your designs are inspired by music festivals, what are some of your favorite bands?

Yes, the Spring/Summer line was inspired by music festivals like Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonaroo. I was a big music junkie in high school and college, getting songs before they were released, going to concerts at House of Blues Orlando, crowdsurfing, etc.
Currently some of my favorite groups are Phoenix, Passion Pit, Fun., Florence + the Machine, Walk the Moon and I just saw Temper Trap in concert. Of course, like the rest of America, "Call me Maybe" is my guilty pleasure!

Where else do you draw inspiration from?

I read a million fashion blogs and am constantly on Pinterest looking for new ideas in art and design. I grew up painting so I'm still inspired by classical and modern Artists, for example I have a style named after the Cubist movement, Cubist Squiggle, and a style named Mondrian based loosely on the geometric artwork of Piet Mondrian.

What are some of your favorite pieces from your new Spring/Summer 2012 collection?

I love the Kelly Crop with Tribal Angle print and the Laurie tank with Miami Vice print, which was a remake of a style I made while in college. I also love love the leggings because you can dress them up or down and take them day to night just by changing your shoes!

Who are some of your favorite designers and why?

Matthew Williamson is a huge inspiration for color and texture, his designs are just so beyond incredible! I also love Balenciaga and Alexander Wang for their unique silhouettes and modern approach to design.

What are some of your goals for expanding your line in the future?

I'm looking to start selling in boutiques in addition to the online shop and I plan on incorporating dresses, shorts and skirts into the mix. I also want to add some embellished styles with trims and texture to bring designs to the next level.

Thank you for sharing with us, Brittany!

Wanna win this shirt from the Brit collection?
Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What I Wore

 Dress: F21, Necklace: Grandma's // Shirt: Target, Cardigan: AE, Shoes: Ross

Blouse: Buckle, Earrings: Brighton, Shoes: Target // Skirt: Target, Shirt: MarketPlace on Broadway

Wow, I didn't realize how uncreative (read: lazy) I've been with my hair this week.

Next week I shall strive for better hair, but for now my brain is shot from copy editing like a boss.

Oh, AP style. You kill me sometimes.

So margarita time it is!

Check back tomorrow for something AWESOME.

Linking up with:  The Pleated Poppy, Rae Gun Ramblings, Transatlantic Blonde and Rolled Up Pretty

A Birthday & A New Friend

First of all, I'd like to send a big ole HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Daddio up there. 

I will be spending the rest of today with him over in Crystal River (also pictured).

And while I'm gone, I would love for you all to go meet my new Bloggy friend, 

Carly from Lipgloss and Crayons. 

She is beautiful, bubbly, super fun AND she lives in LA (SO jealous), 

so be sure to stop by and say 'Hello!'

Take it away, Carly!

Hello all! I'm Carly, and I blog over at Lipgloss and Crayons. I'm an elementary school teacher, a newlywed, a Christian, and a fashion lover. On my blog you will find crafts, recipes, beauty tips, and fashion obsessions plus a little info about my life in the City of Angels. Stop by, and make sure you say hello.....I love meeting new friends!

                    

I have an exciting surprise for you all coming very soon, so be sure to check back!

Linking up here:

Music Monday

Flashback to the Dave Matthews Band concert we went to for my 21st birthday in honor of their recent FL concert and my fast-approaching day of birth. Yikes.

Discovering from LittleLionWoman on 8tracks.

This is what I am jammin' out to today on this rainy Monday.

Besides that I've just been working my booty off, and not in a oh-now-I-have-a-nice-butt kind of way, 

but in a I-barely-have-time-to-blog-and-all-I-want-is-to-eat-donuts kind of way.

Oy.

But, at least I'm making that monaaay (Honey boo boo child!).

And speaking of things that make you go 'lulz'..

Yea, you're welcome.

Linking up for #YOLO Monday

If you're visiting from there, Hello and welcome, friends!

Happy Monday!

On My Heart

Just a little song to make you smile this weekend.

The tragic shooting Friday morning in Colorado has been weighing heavily on my heart, and as I'm sure many of you have been affected by these events too, I figured we could use a reason to smile. Even if it's just for 3 minutes and 11 seconds.

All my love, thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and those who have lost loved ones in Aurora.

(source)

Be sure to check out my guest post today over at {ad-ven-cher} for a more light-hearted discussion about running and motivation. 

Sarah's one of my newest, awesomest bloggy friends. You'll love her.

xoxo

Currently Crushing

First of all, I'm totally crushing on my new laptop. This bad boy is shiny and beautiful and, most importantly, doesn't take 20 minutes just to open the web browser. Also, it allows me to take ridiculous photos of myself as shown here.

Pastels & Peace Signs by mackensieg featuring cropped jeans

Lately I'm all about the bright colored pants. I recently bought a pair of bright orange and bright green ones at Kohl's for a great deal and I'm pretty excited about it. I may have to return in the near future to buy one in every color. And fringe sandals? I've been obsessing over these for so flippin' long, I have no idea how I've managed to not purchase a pair yet. As far as peace sign earrings go, I have a ton, but no studs. I think I need some peaceful studs.

The new No Doubt song, "Settle Down" premiered just a couple days ago (if you follow me on Twitter, you probably sensed my textual excitement) and I am very happy. It seems that after cringing through such disasters as this and this, Gwen is finally back and ready to deliver me the ska/white-girl-reggae that I have been craving all along. (Although I must say that I do love this one that she did solo. I want all the clothes from that video.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is I have a big, fat crush on No Doubt. There's no better version of Ms. Stefani than the one with a tank top, huge baggy pants, pink hair and pencil thin eyebrows. I am not missing their tour this time around. On that note, flashback time.

And one more for good measure.



And this one I don't think needs any explaining:

*sigh*

Happy Thursday!

What I Wore

 Dress: F21, Shoes: Guess, Ring: F21 // Dress: Lauren Conrad, Shoes: Target // Dress: Mudd, Shoes: Lauren Conrad, Bracelet: Charlotte Rousse

This week I set some sort of personal record for dressing up. This may or may not have everything to do with starting my new job, but either way I'm pretty proud of the effort that went into the whole process. I also managed to take some pretty sweet sweaty self-portraits and, more importantly, got commended by Foursquare for hitting the gym for three weeks in a row. Thank you, thank you.

 If you really want to know where these shirts came from, I'll tell you all about it. ;)

Boots: Steve Madden // Dress: H&M // Bangles: Dillard's // Necklace: INPink and Gift

 Just some fun leftovers from last Wednesday

Shirt & Shoes: Lauren Conrad (I'm obsessed, apparently) // Pants: Mudd

Don't worry, guys, I saved the sexiest for last:

Hahaha I got a MACBOOK PRO!!! Oh em gee! I'm in love. You're probably going to be seeing a lot more nightmare-inducing photos like the one above from now on. You're welcome.

 Linking up with:  The Pleated Poppy, Rae Gun Ramblings, Transatlantic Blonde and Rolled Up Pretty

Music Monday

Dress: Lauren Conrad // Shoes: Target // Earrings: Betsy Johnson // Necklace: INPink

I started my new job today, and I bought this dress for the occasion!

It was a great day, and I'm really excited about it.

And since I feel like good things are coming, I think it's time for a good times playlist. 

Yes?

Yes.

Enjoy.

InstaFriday / Friday's Letters

Dear Hair, Thanks for growing quickly! Keep up the good work. I'm ready to be able to do a super stylish top knot bun. Dear Beach, I really like you, and I would love to spend more quality time in and around you very soon. Let's make that happen. Dear Sweet Boy, Thanks for the pretty flowers. You make me smile.

Dear Bod, The break's over. It's time to get down to business. I let you slack off for too long. Running is our way of life now. Dear Weather, Although your mood swings are pretty funny, they are not good for my new way of life. How am I supposed to jam out to the tunes on my phone when chances are you're just gonna start pouring on me halfway through my run? Dear Essie Nail Polish, You are the shiz. Dear Probiotic Granola, I didn't even know you existed until two days ago, but you are flippin' delicious. I'm hooked.

Dear Friends, I have good news. I start my very first journalism job on Monday! I will be writing for a real-life magazine and I am beyond excited. Maybe I can even put my press hat and Brenda Starr Girl Reporter book to use! I officially have two jobs. Look at me go! I'm hoping that my new-found busyness will lead to extra productivity and that I'll have lots of fun things to blog about. (I'm also hoping my hair will return to this length... soon.)

Love,

MacKensie G. Girl Reporter

 

A Recipe & A Plan

It's been quite a while since I've posted any recipes on here! As an easy segue back into the cooking world, I went with Thai red curry with tofu. I've decided to give the whole vegetarian/almost vegan thing another try. I don't want to be held accountable, but on the other hand, I don't want to eat meat or dairy for health reasons as well as ethical ones. Basically my eating (and exercising) habits need to change drastically if I hope to feel better physically and mentally any time soon. I'll get to more on that later but for now the recipe. Curry is one of my favorite dishes and it's super delicious with tofu so I make it often, but generally follow different recipes each time as I acquire better ingredients and find different suggestions online. 

This time I was lucky enough to be able to incorporate green and red peppers that were grown in my mom's garden! That was pretty exciting. Besides that I followed this recipe and I used snow peas, an onion, extra firm tofu, bamboo shoots, sprouts, coconut milk, red curry paste, salt, Asian fish sauce, garlic, vegetable oil and Boil-in-a-bag brown rice. It wasn't the best curry I've ever made, but it was definitely tasty and super easy to make. Definitely worth it.

So in addition to eating far less meat and dairy (which I already rarely eat because I'm lactose intolerant), I am also trying to lower my sugar (and alcohol!) intake and amp up my workouts a lot. You would think after training and completing a half-marathon I'd feel like I was in better shape, but I think all my crazy eating habits lately have gotten in the way. I don't have a certain weight loss goal or anything, but I just need to feel comfortable in my body again. This doesn't feel like me. Generally I am pretty cautious of writing anything that hints at insecurities especially weight-wise, but the point is to be real, right? And even though I don't consider myself "fat" by any means, I feel that it's important to feel comfortable and confident, and to be able to talk about it when I don't feel this way.

I recently read a post by a very health-conscious running blogger about this issue and it definitely resonated with me. If you're interested, please check it out here. The point is, everyone has insecurities, and this is my plan to get back to where I'd like to be. So hopefully there will start to be many more posts on here documenting my workouts and healthy cooking conquests. Who knows, perhaps there will even be a full marathon in my future.

Happy Thursday!

What I Wore

Dress: H&M // Boots: Steven Madden // Bracelets: Dillard's & Gifts // Necklace: INPink & Gift

My 7-year-old nephew took my photos for me today. How flippin' cool is that? He even picked out the spots in the yard that he thought would make the best backdrops. Love that kid.

I think this song describes the feel of my hippie/country outfit today. Enjoy.

 Linking up with:  The Pleated Poppy, Rae Gun Ramblings and Rolled Up Pretty