Music Monday: Rainy Days

It has been raining here for a little over a week now. Little peaks of sunshine here and there, but mostly rain. I love rainy days most when I get to stay home, sleep late, maybe bake something, and watch a movie. But since that occasion is rare, I rely on my wonderful ipod to get me through schlepping in the rain. Here are some of my favorite rain-centric songs:

this has become one of my absolute favorite songs. It is such a feel good, uplifting song for any day.

because I absolutely love Kaskade. ♥

so calming, and makes rainy days almost bearable.

every time i hear this song, I imagine myself walking off the tube in London, in a trench and rain boots with one of those large clear bubble umbrellas. Ah, the power of imagination.

What songs keep you from feeling down on those gloomy rainy days?

PS: Congrats to everyone for surviving the "rapture"!!! Ironically enough on Saturday, when I ran out to get at around 5:45pm, it got pitch black and started to pour. Seeing people absolutely fa-reak out thinking the rapture was indeed going to happen was quite hilarious. 

Scones

When I was growing up, the only scones I ever remember having were from (the now sadly closed) Yura Bakery on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. When I was of age, and allowed to take my self to camp, I would meet my friend Emily at home and we would walk together to the Y. Every morning, we would pass by Yura and the smell of all the fresh baked goodness was truly intoxicating (as intoxicating as 12 year olds would know). On days we had special late or overnight trips, we would make a special trip to Yura, and get chocolate chip scones for the special day. (When I got older, Yura was on the same block as my weekly Weight Watchers meeting. I never had enough points.)

Being that I look for any occasion to try a new recipe, when the Royal Wedding rolled around, I decided to give scones a try to add something new to my baking repertoire

 Scones are high maintenance. They need to rest for 10 minutes before being baked.

I used this recipe and really liked the way the scones came out. There were two things in particular that I really liked about this recipe. For starters, I thought they would be difficult to make, but they turned out to be really easy. To make things even easier, I used the food processor with the dough blade. 

The other thing I liked about this recipe is that it is quite adaptable. For the first batch I made for the Royal Wedding, I used raisins and orange essence. With the batch seen in the pictures, I used orange essence again and chocolate chips. I think pretty much whatever your heart desires, whether it be strawberries, blueberries or almonds, the scones will come out great. 

Oh, there is one more thing I really like about this recipe. Less than an hour between prep, baking, and cleanup. My kind of recipe.

"Thrifting"

One thing I would love to do is go thrifting. The pieces I often love on my friends, strangers, or other bloggers, are always ones they thrifted. The reason I don't thrift? I am super squeamish and kind of freaked out by it. Slowly but surely, I hope to one day get over my fear.

So in the mean time, I will take baby steps, and practice "thrifting" at home.

My dad decided to clean out the walk in closet that him and my mom share last week, and I waited anxiously to see what gems would be unearthed from the depths of their closet.  

And I must say, I did quite well.

 I have been obsessing over pussybow blouses for a while now and was just giddy when I came across this top. The color is so bold, and the fabric is light enough that I can wear it now and not be too hot.

Another piece I have been wanting to add to my closet for summer. It has a slip lining which makes it impossible for me to fit into (so constricting), so I'm going  to rip it out (cue Tim Gunn saying "Make it work!") and wear a slip underneath.

I also "thrifted" a faux fur floor length coat and a camel colored boyfriend style blazer.

What treasures have you found from other peoples "trash"? And if any of you have been hesitant to thrift at first, but have gotten over it, PLEASE share your tips with me :)

DIY: exposed zipper skirt

I absolutely love DIY projects. During the school semester it is tough to start a project, let alone complete  it due to time. But I hope come summer, I can accomplish some projects on my growing list.
With the few days I had off for Easter break, I managed to complete a DIY I have been wanting to do since February: an exposed zipper skirt.

I love the look of these skirts, especially when the zipper is in the back, because it reminds me of a mullet...business in the front, par-tay in the back. Of course I could have easily bought the skirt from any number of  retailers (for example, Torrid has a similar one for $49), but where's the fun in that?

In addition, the total cost of this DIY came out to:

Forever 21 bandage skirt: $9.80

Thread: $1.79

Zipper: $5.49         

Total: $ 17.08

 The savings will go to funding my Starbucks/Red Mango/Shoe/Shopping habit.

Do you love to DIY? What are your favorite types of DIY's to do?