yogurtcupcakes

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Traveling to the SWE Conference

Yesterday I started my journey to Houston, TX for the Annual Society of Women Engineers Conference (WE12). It is literally one of my favorite weeks in the year - I've made friends and networked with many women from across the country and this week I get to see them all again. It's a lot of networking, advancing, & sisterhood, with many professional development sessions and workshops throughout the week.

I was bumped to First Class on my 4.5hr flight yesterday morning. Which is an excellent way to start any trip - Thanks United Airlines! It has only been the second time up there in big seat heaven and was treated to breakfast this time around! Besides getting a drink the moment you sit down, it's 100% personal service the entire flight.

On the flight, I started reading the book "All your Worth" - which has been truly eye opening. I was a little hesitant because it was written in 2008 and I wasn't sure of its relevancy. But so far it has been spot on and a really can't-put-the-book-down read. Can't wait to go home and put our finances in order!

Today's schedule includes a trip to the local Farmer's Market followed by a few hours of SWE Committee Meetings.

Monday, November 05, 2012

Copy Cat Bag

Are you on the Cambridge Satchel Company bandwagon? Their gorgeous bags have been popping up all over US Shipping-friendly stores like Bloomingdales and ASOS. I've been especially intrigued by them because I desperately need a bag with structure that doesn't become a bottomless, glorified trash can.

And while perusing the Nordstrom Half Yearly Sale I found a very, very similar bag... on sale for about a quarter of the price ($58).

So do I sacrifice quality and originality for a more budget friendly find?

Original ($175)

Copy-cat (sale $58)

Sunday, November 04, 2012

My go-to jewelry

From the last post you've probably, correctly, assumed I missed the "how to be a girly girl" chapter of my adolescents -- and had a lot of making up to do in my 20's. I did grow up with an older sister who thankfully did my makeup for Prom and bought me my first piece of nice jewelry. We are over 4 years apart in age, so there wasn't much sister/sister bonding beyond that.

My lack of real jewelry appreciation led me to buy several sale jewelry from Express and The Limited in college. All those pieces were incredibly boring, cheap, and lasted only a few years before decaying or breaking. Then I hit a "omg crafts and local artists" period of my life when I grew up and moved out on my own. I appreciate their love of their craft and one of a kind feel each piece has.

If you're in Seattle, I highly recommend visiting the summer and winter Urban Craft Uprising Fairs. Tons of amazing artists with a large variety of crafts and homemade items. Nationally, the Renegade craft fair is supposed to be spectacular, and I hope to attend one in the near future.

And my love affair with Etsy is strong and well known (I will never forget when my treasury list went to the front page - famous!!). I want to showcase some great, mostly northwest, jewelry crafters tonight:


Stone and Honey

I might have a thing for triangles, arrows, and pyrite.

Saturday, November 03, 2012

Braids

You know how girls are often jealous of other girls who have straight hair when they have crazy spirals... and vice versa? Yea, that's me 100% - I'm a straight hair, boring brunette lady who has always wanted crazy big, colorful hair. I'm also that way about braids - I never learned to french braid and have the bare basic skills to pull a braid together. I'm not much of a hair stylist and if I can't curl it, thank goodness for bobby pins to whip something up!

So I'm currently lusting over these styles: