Bead for Life

Today I bought a few bracelets and a necklace that were on sale by a few student groups in our cafeteria. They are sold as a part of Bead for Life, and are made by women in Uganda. The proceeds are sent back to these women to help them receive education, health treatments, vocational training, etc. It helps them create a sustainable way to overcome poverty by providing a form of income instead of just sporadic aid.

On top of this, the jewelry is quite well-made and gorgeous! I've made jewelry before, and this is better than anything I could ever hope to do.

The beads are actually made out of rolled strips of newspapers and magazines, and there is a spot on their website where you can see how they are made. The video is really cool and very inspiring. It's convinced me to go and get another bracelet for my mom. I hope she doesn't read this post before I give it to her!

More banh mi

We tried another Vietnamese sandwich place on the list from the Seattle Times, this one was called Pho Cyclo and also has lots of other delicious dishes. There is a sit-down area (only if you order off of the menu, sandwiches are take-out only), and this is a picture of the rickshaw in the middle of the restaurant. Sorry that the first photo is a little blurry.

Vietnamese Deli Sandwiches

Yesterday for lunch we went to this delicious Vietnamese deli for lunch, where we got BBQ pork sandwiches. The name of the deli is Seattle Deli, and reviews and the address can be found here.

My mom heard of this deli through a review of places in Seattle to get 'banh mi', which is the Vietnamese name for these type of sandwiches. That article can be found here.

Don't they look amazing?? But be careful, mine was full of jalapeños!

I Love Water Bottles

I am always thirsty, but I never used to drink very much water. This was because I found it very inconvenient to do so.

However, ever since plastic water bottles started showing up everywhere (and not just on hikes or camping trips as they had been used previously in my family), I have accumulated a large collection of water bottles of different sizes, colors, and brands.

Here are my favorite four water bottles:

1. CamelBak Water Bottle

I really love that this has a straw, because it makes it so user-friendly.

I have a purple one with the WashU logo on it, but as I am now perusing their website, I'd really love to have this one.

Why? The colors are fabulous and it's insulated! If there's one downside to a water bottle, it's that I like ice and ice means drips everywhere (shout out to Tervis Tumblers, which are also insulated, but aren't water bottles so don't belong in this post).

2. Nalgene 32 0z. Wide Mouth Water Bottle

I have on in orange, and one of my favorite things about this size Nalgene bottle is that they are so easy to customize. My orange Nalgene has a blue lid (I also have white, and it came with yellow), and a smiley face Splash Guard.

I also really like the size of this water bottle. It's unlikely that I will ever need more than 32 ounces of drinking water at one time. Also the long strap makes this bottle very easy to attach to my bags with a caribiner.

The one downside? It doesn't fit in most cup holders.














3. Nalgene 16 oz. Wide Mouth Water Bottle



I also have this one in orange. I like it because it's small enough to fit into my purse or school bag when I don't have room for a larger water bottle. This prevents me from leaving it behind, which I do quite frequently with my other bottles.





4. Contigo 24 oz. Auto-Seal Water Bottle


This is an interesting water bottle, because you drink out of it by pressing a button, that opens a hole in the lid, which you then drink out of. Basically it's sort of like a sippy cup. If you drop it, chances are it probably won't spill.

The reason I like it? I tend to always spill all over myself whenever I'm drinking from a water bottle, so I try to buy products that help me avoid this (a trend which you may have noticed: straw, splash guard...).

This water bottle is also great for use in the middle of the night. I can just feel around on my night stand, find it, and can drink out of it one-handed. Can you imagine unscrewing your Nalgene lid and drinking from it in the dark? That's just a disaster waiting to happen.



Added bonus? I bought mine in a 3-pack at Costco. Just the fact that they sold these at Costco made me want to buy one, because I love Costco and almost every product it offers.

I. Love. Costco.

Chi Omega

As many of you may have noticed, it's been quite some time since I last posted. I took a little break to concentrate on my winter semester at school, and am proud to say that my efforts paid off. I consider last semester to have been quite successful.

A big event that has occurred since my last post is that I am now a member of Chi Omega Fraternity. I am not yet an initiated member, as Initiation is on March 25th, but I am most definitely a part of this wonderful community of Chi Omega sisters!

Part of the fun of being a Chi Omega is that now I get to shop for things with owl or skull and crossbones designs (those are two of our symbols). My only purchase along those lines thus far is a really awesome owl necklace from Claire's. I've had to stop myself from buying a whole bunch of other things because I'm waiting for Big/Little week. This is all in an effort to avoid buying myself the same things that my Big Sister ends up buying me. I'll be sure to post photos from that week when it comes. I've got another month to go!

Chill Frozen Yogurt

This new Frozen Yogurt store opened not too long ago on Wydown Boulevard in St. Louis, possibly within walking distance of my dorm, but that theory has yet to be tested. In my (and everyone else's) opinion, Chill is way better than FroYo Frozen Yogurt on the Delmar Loop. Their non-dairy flavor is the best I've ever had - blood orange!

Vera Bradley Winter 2010 Patterns!

Just a short post (I know it's been forever, but what can I say? I'm a college student!) today about the new Vera Bradley Winter 2010 Patterns. I am beyond excited and everyone I see throughout the day knows it. These patterns aren't even released until September 23rd, and I'm already super excited about them! There will probably be a better post after I see them in person.

The new catalog is online as of today, I suggest you go and take a look at it.

Dancing Flower

My mom sent me a package, and I finally remembered to go to the campus post office today and pick it up. When I opened it I was very excited because it turned out to be another dancing flower. This is a plastic flower whose dancing is powered by solar energy, as you can tell by the mini solar panel on the front of the base. It is made by Flip Flap, but the only places to buy these flowers in the United States are on websites like ebay and Amazon, or perhaps random little stores around the country.

I love these flowers because I have a complete lack of skills for gardening. In case you don't believe me, last year I killed my bamboo. When I finally threw it out it was crispy. I didn't forget to water it, I think I actually over-watered it. I've heard you're only supposed to water them once a month, but my flower pot wasn't clear, so I couldn't see when it ran out of water, so I had to make a few educated guesses. In any case, it's very dead now. So that's why I love this little guy. I can't kill it! Also I think it looks exactly like the marigolds in the fabulously addicting computer game, Plants vs. Zombies.

Organization

I love the Container Store. I love being organized and having a place where everything belongs. It's only when stuff doesn't have a place that my room gets messy. This goes hand-in-hand with my Container Store love, because they have containers to hold EVERYTHING! Seriously, anything you can think of that you want to store, and the Container Store will have a way to store it.

My favorite recent purchase from the Container Store is called a Jewelry Spinner. They come in both necklace and bracelet sizes, but as I wear far more necklaces than bracelets, I opted for the necklace one.

It looks super cute on my desk with all my other containers, and it makes everything really easy to find when I need it :].

Fitz's

If anyone from the St. Louis area hasn't heard of or been to Fitz's, you really need to leave your house more than once a year. This restaurant/bottler is located on the Delmar Loop, which is conveniently located right near Washington University in St. Louis (me!). The coolest part about Fitz's is that they make their own sodas, which during the day are bottled right on the other side of a big glass wall that makes up one side of the lower dining area.

Fitz's food is pretty typical American food, but surprisingly almost everything is high-quality and delicious. My favorite thing to order is the fish & chips - substitute sweet potato fries - as I love both fish and chips and sweet potato fries. Theirs are the waffle kind, and I think they're pretty delicious.

The best part about Fitz's is their rootbeer floats. They have some fun ones like rootbeer and chocolate ice cream and rootbeer and coffee ice cream. One free float if you have a bear discounts card :].

Back to School Again

Well it's been a long time since I've posted on my blog. I've been busy moving in to my dorm, unpacking stuff, and being a counselor for the Hatchet Yearbook Pre-Orientation Program.

My room looks pretty good, I may post photos later on, and for now it's decently clean.

I just have one recent purchase of note, and that is a copy of Glee: The Beginning, which is a book telling the back story of the characters in Glee, and what happened before the television show. I haven't started reading it yet, but I'm pretty excited.

A Day Eating in the St. Louis Area

* Steak and Shake

* Our Home Café

* Tropical Sno

* The Fountain on Locust

Leaving Home

I haven't posted in forever! I'm so sorry dear blog, I'm breaking my promise. I have been trying to not skip more than one day ever and here I've gone and skipped three whole days! I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but three days could easily lead to three weeks and then never writing again! And that can not happen. Not yet at least. I have promised a lot of people that I will actually keep up with this blog.

So here I am today. I haven't really got a lot to write about. I've been really busy hanging out with friends, going swimming, and mentally steeling myself to pack and say good bye to everyone before I have to leave tomorrow to go back to school in St. Louis. I am not excited. Summer has finally kicked into high gear here (over 70 degrees five days and counting!) and I don't want to leave. Seattle is way to beautiful and St. Louis just really is not. There is no arguing this point. I love St. Louis, but it is not beautiful.

How about a picture of the view from my front deck? Just to prove that the sunlight actually does reach Washington sometimes. Well ok I took it from my living room window. Big deal.

I have to try and continue packing now. So sad. See you tomorrow bright and early at the airport!

Love,

Andrea

P.S. I have no idea how this turned into a letter to my blog. Just go with it.

Why Oh Why Did I Get on the Vera Train So Late?

Seriously, can anyone answer this for me? I know that my beloved Bellevue Square Signature Store has been around for at least a couple of years, so why did it take me this long to fall in love with Vera Bradley? And how in the world did it hit me so hard?

I'm not going to share my Vera spreadsheet here (yes I have a spreadsheet for keeping track of all of my purchases), because that would be a little embarrassing (only because I've spent so much money in so little time) , but let me tell you - it is impressive!

The reason I'm lamenting my late-blooming Vera love is because my favorite pattern of all time (Peacock) retired a long time ago. Boo. But at least it is fairly attainable on the internet (ebay, Facebook, Amazon, and occasionally vb.com). The other reason this really sucks is because almost all of my favorite bags are retired. This includes the large tic tac tote (in Peacock) that I ordered (and blogged about) a few days ago.

And now my new favorite bag of all time (in Peacock) is the Lindsay. And it's retired too! It's like a mini messenger bag (which I also blogged about), but small enough to be used as a purse. I'll just have to keep my eyes peeled for one that I can afford. Maybe someday I'll get to go to a Vera Bradley outlet store! That would be a dream come true. But for now, I'll continue to peruse Verabradley.com and add to my ever-growing wish list. And my Christmas list. And maybe even my birthday list (for June 2011 :]).

Real Chinese Food from Real Chinese People :]

Today I went to my friend Courtney's house for dinner. As you might have been able to tell from the title, she's Chinese. This is therefore authentic Chinese food :]. Doesn't it look delicious?

Bamboo Garden

This is my favorite Chinese restaurant ever. It's also quite possibly some of the cheapest Chinese food I've ever had. The fact that it's simultaneously the cheapest and the best seems to me a good reason for this to be my favorite restaurant. Let's face it - how often with Chinese food can you have quality, tasty food for a decent or even bargain price? Not very often.

I always order their lunch special. It ranges from $4.99 to $6.99 and includes a bowl of soup (hot and sour or egg flower), some of their house salad, rice (fried or steamed), and a large helping of the entrée of your choice (hence the price differences).

Here's the soup.

Here's the rest. I got Kung Pao Tofu - my favorite! $4.99 :].

Red Lobster

I went to my first Red Lobster today! It was definitely an experience worth repeating, even if I did have to go all the way to Federal Way to eat there. It's really wasn't out of the way though because I was in Puyallup this morning for my drive test (which I passed - yay!), and on the way back we drove through Federal Way and went to Red Lobster!

I got their delicious crab cakes, and I was favorably impressed with their bread basket. It didn't have any real bread in it - just light and fluffy cheesy biscuits that somehow already had garlic butter inside them! I immediately fell in love. I suggest you give them a try.

Ordered Another Vera Bag!

I just placed an order for a slightly used Vera Bradley Large Tic Tac Tote in Peacock, which is my favorite pattern! I ordered it from a lady on the Vera Bradley Sales Board on Facebook, and hopefully it should be here soon. This is a picture from Amazon, but I will take another photo when it arrives! I'm so excited! I even got it for a good deal - $35 which includes shipping!

You know how you can really tell I'm excited? Look how many exclamation points I just used. Lol. :]

Trip to the Sanrio Store

This is Chococat. Chococat is a licensed character of the Sanrio company, which means that he is friends with Hello Kitty. And if your next question is who is Hello Kitty, then you should probably stop reading now. I suggest some Google therapy.

Anyways, lately I've been reading this blog, called Bentobloggy. It was the featured blog on my dashboard a few days ago, and I've fallen in love with it. It's written by a mom who blogs about the bento-style lunches she packs for her 4-year-old daughter every day. The pictures are adorable! She uses a lot of Hello Kitty lunch boxes, and I've been inspired to get one for myself.

So today I made the infrequent trek upstairs in my local mall to the Sanrio store. Now the Sanrio store is a bit of mystery to me. It's been in our mall for at least 10 years, right next to the oft-visited Claire's store of around the same age, but when I was younger, the Sanrio store had a reputation for always being completely empty anytime anyone walked by. So of course I never went in it much because what 10-year-old wants to be the only person in a store? Then I would have had to talk to the salesperson! Anyway when I went into the store today, it was completely packed. I was astounded. I've always wondered how this store even managed to stay open for so many years when it appeared to have no customers. Turnover at our mall is ridiculously high. I guess all the invisible customers spent a lot over the years.

Today I bought two items at the Sanrio store - both Chococat. I got a lunch/sandwich box type thing with utensils stored in the lid, and a little compact mirror shaped like Chococat's face. They're both adorable!

So I Bought Some More Vera Bradley Today....

Well that's not exactly true. I exchanged the new Slate Blooms Zip ID Case I bought on Wednesday for this beautiful Lemon Parfait Zip ID Case. The reason I did that is that this color, Lemon Parfait, is a Spring 2011 Preview item. As in, this is a Spring 2011 pattern that won't officially be released in stores until some time in January.

How did I get one already? All Vera Bradley patterns are tested in stores months before they are actually released in order for the company to get an idea of purchase patterns. The Winter 2010 patterns were tested this past May, and the Spring 2010 patterns are in a few select signature stores now - but they're only at my store for two weeks! Today was the first day they were out, and I pounced immediately. I'm just so glad that I hadn't used my other Zip ID Case yet and was able to exchange it.