Happy 1 Year to William and Kate!

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Can you believe it's already been a year since the wedding of the century?  I can't believe how much has happened in one year!  I feel like it's been so short and yet so long at the same time.  My own wedding is a little over 80 days away.  It's funny how much excitement and hype leads up to a single day of your life.  I can't even imagine the stress Kate Middleton went through before her wedding...I feel enough stress and I don't have the entire world watching my wedding!

Here are a few of my favorite moments from the Royal Wedding:

The two kisses by the royal couple were great, especially because you can tell how much they love each other.  But this flower girl's grumpy face definitely takes the cake.

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The ugly hats.

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Pippa and her bum emerging as a star.  Speaking of Pippa, has anyone heard her talk yet?  It fascinates me how she became a fashion icon overnight, and yet no one really knows anything about her!

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And my favorite part of the wedding...the trees lining the aisle in Westminster Abbey.  It took my breath away!

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What did everyone else like about the Royal Wedding?  Can you believe it's been a year already?

Disneyland!

It's Friday!  Yay!  I have some good news to share with everyone.  I finally got hired at a CPA firm!  I am so excited.  It's exactly what I've been looking for.  I start in 1 1/2 weeks.  To celebrate, my fiance and I are going to the happiest place on Earth today...Disneyland!!! 

Have you seen the retro Disneyland posters from the 1960's? I love the artwork!

Sources: Adventureland & Fantasyland
Sources: Tomorrowland & Peoplemover
I'm so excited to ride all the rides and eat a delicious Monte Cristo sandwich at the Blue Bayou (the restaurant that's inside of Pirates of Carribean...highly recommended!)  It will also be nice to just hang out with my fiance all day since we've both been so busy with work (or in my case, looking for work) and school.  

Does anyone else have exciting plans this weekend?  Besides Disneyland today, I'll probably just have a relaxing weekend and bake another batch of chocolate chip cookies!  Have fun everyone!

Travel Thursday: Packing for Europe

It's beginning to be that time of the year when people are starting to get ready for their adventures to Europe.  I must say, I'm quite jealous of anyone who is traveling the next few months.  I was just helping a friend pack for her vacation to Hawaii.  I normally help a lot of friends pack for things.  I'm an excellent packer.  So since travel season is right around the corner, I figured I would share some tips!

I recently stumbled across this great article in the New York Times on how a flight attendant packs for 10 days all in a carry-on.  It's a fantastic tool that features a slideshow on the best way to fold and roll all your clothes to get the most use out of your suitcase.  However, I do have her beat.  I only used a carry-on suitcase for my month long trip to Europe!  It was definitely a great accomplishment.

Okay, here we go.  The most important tip that you need to remember is that you must plan out your outfits.  I started thinking about what I was going to wear months in advance.  Do some online research about the sort of weather you might experience at each place you're visiting.  Since we visited in April and May, I brought a heavy coat, a wind breaker, and 2 sweaters.  The trick with the heavy coat is to wear it onto the plane, that way you don't have to worry about trying to shove it into your suit case.  You also wear your bulkiest shoes to save room in your suitcase.  We did bring some space bags once the weather started to be too warm for us to wear our heavy coats onto planes.  The space bags helped us fit everything into our bags much easier.

Outside of Dublin in my gray peacoat and sparkly scarf
When planning out your outfits, you must think of what will go with what.  My friend and I wrote a blog post on our Europe Travel Blog that showcases how to come up with different outfits using the same shirt, jeans, bag, and shoes.  Basically we packed a lot of different black shirts.  When I go back to Europe, I will probably experiment a little more and bring different kinds of neutrals.  But you really can't go wrong with black.  It also lasts longer between washes.

Wearing black shirts in Rome.  The guy who took our photo said "You two look great in black." We got a kick out of that because we had been wearing black the entire trip!
For the restrictions of carry-on liquids...this was a fun one for us to do.  I really wish I took a picture of our bag.  We literally STUFFED the quart size bag to full capacity.  Definitely stock up on travel size items.  You really don't need that much shampoo to make your hair look and feel clean.  It was helpful traveling with someone because we shared a lot.  We shared sunscreen, eye makeup remover, etc, etc.  Also, Tide makes little laundry detergent packets that you can use in the sink while traveling.  Bring a few of these so you can wash everything once a week.  This helps limit what you need to pack.

So here's a break down of the clothes I packed in a carry-on for our April-May Europe Trip:
  • 5 shirts- I did 3 black shirts, 1 grey one, and 1 bright blue one that I could also use to go out at night in.
  • 2 or 3 pairs of jeans.  I'm pretty sure I only packed 2 since I don't usually sweat a lot or smell.  You might want to pack an extra in case your jeans get dirty easily.
  • 2 sweaters- you can use colors for these to add a little something over your neatural shirts
  • 1 heavy jacket like a peacoat
  • 1 light jacket
  • A weeks worth of underwear and socks, and then we washed them in our hotel room for the cities we would be in for a while so they have time to air dry.  We also took advantage of washing machines for when our hostels had them.
  • 1 pair of black lounge pants for sleeping in and hiking in and 1 shirt for sleeping in
  • 2 cotton sundresses for warmer days, going to a nice dinner, and using as a beach coverup.  You could also subsitute a dress for a skirt or shorts.  I'm not a big skirt or short wearer so I just stuck with 2 dresses.
  • 1 bathing suit
  • 2 pairs of shoes.  This is really important because if you don't switch your shoes every couple of days you will get HORRIBLE blisters.  I packed a pair of broken in black tennis shoes and a pair of black flats.
  • 1 pair of sandals for beach days and walking around your hotel.
  • Accessories!  I brought 2 scarves (and I bought another one in Paris), lots of earrings, few necklaces...anything you want.  The accessories are key to not getting bored wearing the same thing all the time while traveling!
Brittany wearing the same black shirt in Paris (left) and in London (right), but using different accessories.
  • Hair ties.  I didn't bring any styling tools.  I'm lucky in that my hair air dries really well.  But for those bad hair days or when it got hot, I could just put my hair up into a pony tail.
  • 1 pair of sunglasses
  • A good size black purse that works with everything you're bringing and can hold maps, water bottles, and anything else you need with you while traveling around town.  You can also use it to put your carry-on liquids in so it's easier to get them out when you go through security.  I also used it while we were on the go to store my mini umbrella (that I purchased at Old Navy) and my mini laptop that we used for blogging and skyping with our friends and family.  This why it's important to get a bag that's pretty large but still easy to carry around.
I really hope this was helpful!  It's important to play around with your packing list and figure out what works best for you and what would make you the most comfortable while traveling.  Bon Voyage!

White Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats

For Easter this year, I really wanted to make Cadburry Egg cupcakes.  Unfortunately, because of all the essays I had to write, I had to settle to make Rice Krispie Treats.  I forgot how much I love these marshmallow delights.  I know Easter was weeks ago, but I just have to share the recipe.  My mom tweaks the standard recipe a little bit by adding salt and vanilla extract.  These two additions really make the flavor in the treats really pop. 


This year they had white chocolate M&Ms!  I'm not sure if this is a new thing or I just never noticed it before.  But they are seriously so freaking delicious.  We had to use them in these treats.  If they're not in the stores anymore, feel free to use other white chocolate candy or white chocolate chips.  Or regular M&Ms.  The beauty of Rice Krispie Treats is that you can throw whatever you want into them!

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of butter
4 cups of mini marshmallows (the mini melt faster)
6 cups of Rice Krispies cereal
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 package of white chocolate M&Ms (or whatever else you want, just eyeball how much you want in your treats)

Directions:
1. In large saucepan, melt butter over low heat.  Add mini marshmallows and stir until completely melted. 
2. Add vanilla and salt.
3. Remove from heat.
4.  Add Rice Krispie cereal and stir until well coated. 
5.  Stir in M&Ms.
6. Using wax paper so it doesn't stick to your hands, evenly press mixture into a buttered 13x9 pan.
7.  Let completely cool and then cut into bars!



Recipe adapted from the Rice Krispies website.


Instagram Life

So what have I been up to these last few weeks besides finishing up my Masters program and job hunting?  I figured I would update you all with Instagram photos from the last several weeks.

First of all, I had my hair and makeup trial!  It was quite exciting.  My Maid of Honor came with me.  It was weird to have someone fuss over you and do your hair and makeup.  I felt sort of like a celebrity.  I liked how it turned out for the most part, just a few tweaking here and there...but that's what a trial is for is it not? 


Secondly, my mom finally placed an order with Sprinkles for us to try their mini cupcakes!  At our wedding I'm having a mixture of regular and mini cupcakes.  I figured having the mini would be fun so people can taste test the different flavors I'm going to have.  However, we had to make sure the mini cupcakes were just as delicous as the regular sized one.  Wedding planning can be such hard work...


Thirdly, I spent a lot of time reading in bed and snuggling with this cute thing.  I realized I haven't introduced my cats on my blog yet.  Well blogosphere, I would like you to meet Sweet Pea, aka the fluffy love of my life.  We're pretty certain she's a Nebelung, which is a rare breed of cat.  I have another cat named Nyx who is a giant fat black cat.  She's also the devil in cat form. 


And lastly, I also spent a lot of time testing different chocolate chip cookie recipes for our wedding favors.  Again, wedding planning is SO HARD!  I'll post about this later as well, especially when we find the perfect recipe.  We're getting closer!


I do have some exciting posts planned the next few weeks.  I've gotten a lot of wedding things out of the way that I really want to blog about.  And of course I have a few recipes I want to share.  Just be a little patient while I jump back into my blogging routine!

I'm not dead!

I swear!  I swear I didn't die.  I am so so so sorry for neglecting this blog for the past 2 weeks.  Or has it been 3 weeks?  My class literally kicked my you know what.  BUT I PASSED!  So I officially have my Masters degree.  *everyone applauds* thank you, thank you.  Anyways, being in that class sort of sucked all my creative energy out of me.  So I spent some time just relaxing and not doing anything.  I've also been job searching a lot and doing some interviews.  Fingers crossed that I find an amazing job soon!

One thing I did a lot while I was in my class and needed a break is that I watched a lot of movies I've been wanting to see.  Did you know you can rent movies on Amazon now?  It's sort of addicting, especially when I was already on my laptop writing an essay.  I would just mosey on over to Amazon and with a few clicks, bam! I was watching a movie on my laptop.

One of the movies that I particularly enjoyed was "Like Crazy".  It isn't your typical Hollywood romance movie.  I won't ruin the ending, but it definitely wasn't clear.  I actually liked that.  At first I wasn't sure if I liked the movie but I've been thinking about it every now and then ever since I watched it. 

Want to know what's even crazier about "Like Crazy"?  Most of the dialogue was improvised by the actors.  It makes the love story a lot more natural and more believable.  It also makes me want to go back to London! 

If you're looking for an interesting movie to watch, you can just rent it on Amazon for $3.99.  I definitely recommend this film!