Teens

I think I have fallen in love with San Francisco. Sure, I might have only been here two days and maybe the majority of my time here has been occupied by work. And I have been here before, twice. But my God, this city has so much to offer that I love. Matcha green tea lattes and Uniqlo, for a start. Cable cars and gorgeous architecture and historical districts and great food and awesome people and just, wow, I’m in love. I’ve never been able to see myself in DC indefinitely but I also haven’t really been able to sense where within the US I would go if I were to relocate in a few years. Now, I might have an answer. Even in San Francisco doesn’t turn out to be the answer, I at least have a little more clarity in what I’d want in a city I would relocate to later on down the road. Aside from falling in love with San Francisco, traveling for work has also been a new experience. This is my first business trip and I’ve enjoyed it so far, although I could do without the early wake-ups that are a result of needing to report to work at 6 a.m.! I don’t even miss my bed; such is the luxury of having a king-sized bed when on work travel. Beauty I love The Beauty Department’s makeup tips and their tip for perfect eyeshadow blending is most excellent as I’m slowly mastering the smokey eye technique. Life I loved Jennifer’s grandfather’s poem “When the Lilacs Bloom.” Olga writes about the drafting, drafting and re-drafting process of writing. Sarah sums up why writing a short bio is a daunting task. Like Shannon, I consider myself a writer; like Shannon, I am better at the telling than I am at the imagining. Writing is a skill that can pay, as long as you play your cards right. Shayes writes about how Stephen King’s advice to “kill your darlings” when writing books has affected her approach to working on her first novel. Online I can totally relate to Clem’s post about feeling old on the Internet. Was it really pushing ten (!!) years ago that I started dabbling in writing in online journals? The post Link Love, Vol. 17 appeared first on Break the Sky. Want to continue the conversation? Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

  My most basic essentials, I like simplicity for everyday. I'm a grey tee junkie and always on the quest for the perfect sloppy oversized one. This Zara tee comes pretty close! I've been a big fan of AG's Stilt jean for years now so I was really excited when they did this perfectly faded version for summer. Wore this to grab a quick lunch, and yes, I had to buy a pack of Imperial Sugar Dr. Pepper to bring home. It's the Texan in me. Wearing Zara grey tee, AG Stilt jeans, H&M sunglasses, and Nike sneakers    

I probably shouldn’t be admitting this in a public setting considering my best friend R was absolutely horrified when I told her this fact, but my favorite mascara ever in my makeup rotation was, uh, not from a recent time. As in, it may have been one of the first mascaras I ever bought in my early teen years (thanks, Maybelline). I might not have used it consistently since the time of purchase and there was definitely a several year window that the mascara was not used at all, but I cannot deny the fact that my favorite mascara was Very. Very. Old. It was most definitely older than the three month lifespan that mascaras are advised to have. R told me to throw it out. She actually pleaded, “For the love of God Manda, please just throw it out.” This is coming from the girl who doesn’t ever wash her makeup brushes, so I knew that I should REALLY just throw out my beloved mascara. (Sorry for sharing with the world that you don’t wash your makeup brushes ever, R.) It was with a heavy heart that I threw it out. Luckily, I already had several new mascaras to try out in my stash, thanks to a combination of mascara tubes courtesy of Ipsy and cashing in some coupons at the drugstore several weeks ago. I had picked up Maybelline’s Colossal Volum’ Express mascara at the drugstore, thinking that it would be the same as the tube I had thrown out. I knew there was a chance that it wouldn’t be exactly the same since I wasn’t 100% sure what type of mascara I threw out considering the markings on the tube had worn off a long time ago. Still, I assumed it would be close enough. Wrong! Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the brush is different than my old one. In all likelihood, the formula is probably a little different too, but I can say for certain that the brush is probably the main reason why my lashes aren’t as volumized as I’d like them to be. The moral of this story is to not get so attached to an old mascara that is discontinued and have no new favorites lined up to replace the discontinued one. My lashes are fairly lengthy naturally, so I like to use mascara for volume rather than length. Maybelline’s Colossal Volum’ Express mascara is fairly good, but I’m a little disheartened that it’s not turning out to be a replacement for my beloved old mascara. Anyone got any tried and true mascaras they can recommend? My one requirement for mascara is that it’s at a drugstore-friendly price. The post When You Don’t Replace Mascara Every Three Months appeared first on Break the Sky. Want to continue the conversation? Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

A friend and I caught up over lunch last weekend and decided that we wanted to try eating somewhere new. After consulting my Scoutmob app, we picked LiLLie’s Restaurant in Woodley Park. The coupon via Scoutmob offered us 50% off our bill (max discount of $15), so we figured that even if lunch went horribly wrong, at least we wouldn’t be paying full price. I was really impressed with the atmosphere at LiLLie’s. I think that may have been the most impressive part of my experience, actually. It was a small, cozy restaurant that had an intimate atmosphere that I could see being perfect for an quiet brunch or romantic date night. My friend and I were seated by the window, and I enjoyed the view that the seating provided. I ordered “the schnitzel,” which was comprised of “lightly breaded chicken breast, two over easy eggs, lemon, roasted potatoes, arugula.” The eggs and schnitzel were cooked to perfection and the arugula side salad with fresh mozzarella and cherry tomatoes was the perfect size. However, I would have appreciated more than four (small) measly roasted potato wedges as well as a more seasoned plate. The eggs and schnitzel may have been cooked wonderfully, but it was sorely lacking some salt and pepper. Easily remedied on my own, but our table didn’t have either, and our server was nowhere to be found for the entirety of our meal. Not once were my friend and I asked if we wanted anything to drink (we didn’t want anything besides water, but it’s customary to be asked), or how our food was, or if we wanted anything else to eat (dessert?). Not once did I even see our server, actually, so I’m not sure how we would have flagged her down had we decided to request salt and pepper or something besides water. It’s not like the place was packed; we were one of three tables and were the second of the three to be seated. Did I enjoy my experience at LiLLie’s? I suppose. But mainly because my meal cost a total of $12 including tax. Would I have enjoyed it if I didn’t have a Scoutmob? In all likelihood, no. There are some great restaurants in DC so I’d much rather be spending my time and money there rather than a mediocre one. The post Eating Out in DC: LiLLie’s Restaurant appeared first on Break the Sky. Want to continue the conversation? Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Ipsy is a monthly beauty subscription service. For $10/month, members get deluxe samples and full-sized products along with a tote bag to keep all the items in. Each month’s tote design depends on that month’s theme. The theme for May was Spring Fling. Ipsy COMPLETELY outdid themselves this month, guys. I know I am generally impressed with Ipsy every month (which is a great thing for a monthly subscription service!) but this is the best Ipsy bag I have received, hands down. (It definitely tops any Birchbox that I ever had.) Why is this month’s bag so great, you ask? Well, just check out the brands included (and the size of the items!) For previous Ipsy boxes I’ve received, check out this tag. ZOYA: Nail polish in “Blu” Zoya Nail Polish and Treatments puts beauty, fashion and style into every bottle with innovative custom color creations and fashion trend adaptation resulting in a truly luxury cosmetic experience. The award-winning, ultra long-wearing Zoya formula is also vegan friendly an

I am in love with this sporty Three Floor sweatshirt. I feel like 90% of the tops I own are sweatshirts, it is shameful. And in the summer I start to hack all of their sleeves off! But I won't be doing that to this one. We've had a freakish year in weather here in Texas, I'm very grateful that Mother Nature has put off the usual sweltering heat until later. P.S. these Free People jeans are my new holy grail pants. They're the dream jeans I've had in my brain for years, so when I found them I got two pair!! Wearing Three Floor sweatshirt (c/o), Charles Albert Alchemia cuffs, Free People destroyed ankle skinny jeans, Balenciaga booties, and Prada dinosaur bag

It seems as though sooner or later everyone monetizes their blog. Personally, I’m torn about the direction I want my blog to go in when it comes to advertising. Sidebar Ads I debated for a while with using Passionfruit Ads to host ads in my sidebar to other blogs. I’ve found that it’s a good way to discover new websites that are relevant to the website that the ad is on, and it’s a simple enough set up. Except that every time I view a site that has Passionfruit Ads enabled in their sidebar, it doesn’t seem to load. I don’t think it’s fair to charge someone for ad space (even if the rate is more than reasonable) for an ad that just won’t appear. (Something to address, Passionfruit! Take note.) Of course, I could always offer advertising space manually and have all the transactions done through Paypal. Automated makes life a lot easier but if the best automated system I know of doesn’t work as well as manually doing it, then that kind of decides the situatio

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there and most importantly, my mother! None of us would be the people we are today without our mothers, and I am forever grateful for the strength, courage, grace and poise of the wonderful woman who raised me. It means more than I can express that through the last two weeks or so my mom has been unfaltering in giving me her unconditional support during this stressful time. Mom, if you’re reading this (and I know you sometimes read this blog!) I love you and I hope you have a great, great day. Luckily, a major stressor has been lifted (more on this to come!) and I can fully focus my energies where they need to be for the next week and a half in preparation for my first business trip! I’m taking off on Friday to go to San Francisco for a few days, which is very exciting. I know it will be a lot of work before, during and after the trip, but this is a great professional opportunity and I am determined to get all I can out of it. On a personal note, I&#

When I went on vacation recently I went off the grid. No emails, no social media, no phone, nothing. It was glorious. So glorious, in fact, that now I am a little more indifferent towards being as vigorous about staying in the loop as I was before I went on vacation. I think this is a good thing overall; I was definitely a little too dependent on social media and email before. But I am a little surprised to see just how long it’s taking me to fully get back on the grid. It’s taking me a little longer to reply to emails, I check Twitter and Facebook more infrequently, and I struggle a little with coming up with blog idea topics. (The irony of writing this post is that I probably will start tweeting incessantly and come up with tons of blog entry ideas after I hit “publish.” Oh, well.) A big chunk of the reasoning behind my new-fangled stance towards social media is the fact that life has become incredibly busy and stressful this month, so my priorities have shifted temporarily and curre

This August 2008 editorial from Vogue Paris is one of my all-time favorites. The editorial was called Reality Show and showed high fashion and dressed-down versions of each of these looks. I preferred the street style looks! Such a timeless editorial. Photos from I Want To Be an Alt.