Obsession of the Day

I absolutely adore reading. When I was a kid, I couldn't wait for summertime to roll around so that I could sign up for the summer reading program at our local library. To be frank, I was a badass at reading. To this day, nothing gives me joy like buying a new book [or 5], but I just dont have the free time to read like I used to. That's why I love holidays. Over the Christmas holiday, I literally read a book in mere hours.

Yesterday, I took full advantage of the holiday, marched right out and bought myself a new book with crisp, never turned pages. My drug of choice? "Bossypants" by Tina Fey.

While I did not impressively read it all in one day [I was too busy drinking mojitos-Spurgie shoutout!], I did frequently laugh out loud at her anecdotes [luckily there were only four legged furry animals around to judge me harshly]. Despite the fact that I haven't made it to the end [which I plan on doing tonight], I am already giving this book the Your Friend Lela stamp of approval. If you love to read and laugh [and who doesn't?], go out and purchase it asap!

Love,

Your Friend Lela

Tunesday Tuesday

Here are some more Tunes for your Tuesday!

Reasons Why This Video Is Awesome

They are drinking Sun Drop and Vodka while mudding. That is the only reason this video is awesome.

Tunesday Tuesday!

Due to the holiday yesterday, we missed Music Monday. We could be sad about it, or we could just shout "Do over!" and have Tunesday Tuesday instead. I vote for the latter!

I have randomly heard the song below twice today and felt as though I should share. I am generally not a huge fan of Train, but this song makes me feel sappy and weepy. That doesn't happen often, so it must be pretty good.

Obsession of the Day

I may or may not have missed my Obsession of the Day post. Oops. Guess there just wasn't anything of being written about.

Today, however, oh today. Today I got a new J.Crew summer catalog in the mail. I'm not sure if my love for J.Crew continues to grow because its been so long since I've worked there [3.5 years!] or because their line keeps getting better and better. I think it may be a c

ombination of the two. My only complaint is that everything is just so gosh darn expensive, but I guess it ain't cheap to look this cute!

These are a few of my favorite looks for summer.

I love the slightly Native American feel of this tunic. Great with denim shorts [as seen here], but would also make a great swimsuit cover up and will transition easily into fall!

The shoes are a MUST for football season in Tennessee [and would also look great with the tunic above].

She totally looks ready for the beach, and I am right behind her. All that's missing from her outfit is the fabulous teal gladiators below

I am 100% obsessed with this dress. It also comes in black, but I think the white is so great for a bridal shower [but only for the bride of course!].

I need this perfect, summer strapless maxi YESTERDAY.

Love these sandals. Perfect for spring, summer and fall and the color is so refreshing.

MEOW

This bag is sassy as hell and I'm pretty sure it might be big enough to actually hold all of my junk, while still managing to look chic.

This is the perfect dress for summer and since it comes in a variety of colors, you could wear it almost every day!

This jacket may not be perfect for summer, but it is perfect in general so I just had to include it. Every girl needs a tailored leather jacket in her wardrobe arsenal. It is a timeless look that works in any season and can jazz up any outfit. Trust.

Duh. These are perfect.

J.Crew has also become well known in recent years for their "Collection", which includes everything from party dresses to bridesmaids dresses to bridal gowns. Let it be noted that if you are, like me, in love with any of the dresses below, you should be prepared to have a rich daddy, a rich groom, or be willing to have a lot of credit card debt.

I love the Bohemian, casual style of this dress. Beyond perfect for a farm wedding.

I do! Now quick, someone find me a groom!

Love it. Two spaghetti straps is kind of a boring look, but one spaghetti strap and one strap with feathers? Total sass.

Romantic ruffles. Can't go wrong.

I love the bottom of this dress. The thing that makes J.Crew dresses so unique are the unexpected details.

So romantic.

A twist on a totally classic dress.

Elegant and simple.

There is something about this dress that makes me absolutely die. Love, love, love it.

Little Monsters

Ok.......this is hard for me to say.......BUT I just purchased the new Lady Gaga album.

Wait- what? Why?? Because, dear readers, it's only .99 cents and I just cannot pass up a good deal! As I mentioned the other day, I actually quite like the song "Edge of Glory" and it was worth .99 cents to me to buy that song alone. Might as well get the whole album for that price! Click Here to get your copy for less than a dollar!

UPDATE: I hate pretty much the entire album except for "Edge of Glory". Good thing it was only 99 cents!

Hilarious!

As you all know, I absolutely LOVED the movie Bridesmaids. A little birdie sent me the link to the outtakes video below [Sarah Shout out!] which made me giggle uncontrollably. I love outtake scenes but my absolute FAVORITE are blooper reels. I hope that they release one of those soon. In the meantime, enjoy the video below!

Drowning My Sorrows

Today I am beyond sad. I feel like I have lost a dear, dear friend. Why am I so upset? Well, call me dramatic, but one of the shows I was looking most forward to this summer was that of my favorite Aussie, Brooke Fraser. I just found out that the show has been cancelled due to lack of sales [dramatic pause here to hold back tears]. First of all, you should all be ashamed of yourselves if you don't know who she is. Please, please, please check her out. Meanwhile, I'll be drowning myself in "Albertine" and "Flags".

I have this song on repeat today. Check out the live video below, but also, please listen to the album version which features Aqualung [bet you haven't heard that name in awhile, huh?].

Obsession of the Day!

Today had been kind of slow on the "obsessed" front until......dun dun DUN....Tumblr stepped in.

As you all may have heard, Chris Meloni has announced that he will be leaving Law & Order: SVU [might as well cancel that show right now! Good thing Ice T has a new reality show to keep him busy]. As sad as this news is, it inadvertently led me to my Obsession of the Day: Elliot Stabler: RageCop.

A few of my favorites are below, but see the full site HERE.

Where In the World....

is Damien Rice? Could someone please find him for me? I need MORE.

It's True

There are two things that I love today: the shuffle function on my iTunes and Joshua Radin. Sometimes I forget how much I love Joshua Radin and then my shuffle smacks me upside the head and is like "Hey dummy, you forgot about Joshua Radin!". And then I am happy again.

There was a time in my life that this song "spoke to me" [if you'll forgive the cheesiness] and maybe it will do the same for one of you today. If it does, you have my iTunes shuffle to thank!

WELL, LORD BLESS

It's finally happened. The worlds second loneliest spinster has FINALLY gotten engaged. If it can happen for this old hag, then surely it will happen for me too!

My 4th favorite Kardashian, Kim [ just in case you wondering, in descending order my favorites are: Khloe as first favorite, then Kourtney, then Robert] recently got engaged to a guy who not only has the same name as her mother, but also spells it the exact same way. Just for the record, if you have the same name as my dad, brother, or mother [which would be super weird in my case], we are definitely NOT going date. Things would definitely get super weird in the bedroom and that is not a place that I want to go [i'm just sayin!].

Kim and Kris announced their engagement today, not in the old fashioned way via Facebook or Twitter, but on a magazine cover. Hope they already told all of their friends and family!

Can we all pause for a moment and take a look at that 20.5 carat ring? Holly Wowzas! I'm not sure if she was in competition with Khloe [who's ring is also ginormous], but if so, I think she may have won. TMZ reports that the Lorraine Schwartz design is estimated to be worth 2 million dollars. TWO MILLION? Can we just discuss how unsafe that is?? What if you get mugged, or lose it, or get carpel tunnel from wearing it every day? I think this could be a bad life choice but hey, I wouldn't have said no to that sucker either!

I feel bad for Scott Disick that not only is he the douchiest Kardashian significant other, but he is also the least athletic and the poorest. Maybe one of Kourtney's sisters can hook her up with an NBA Baller [and if she doesn't want them, kindly pass them along to me!]

Obsession of the Day

I am a huge water drinker. I occasionally partake in other beverages [Sun Drop anyone?], but I try to stick to water at least until have had my work out for the day. That's all well and good, but sometimes trying to suck down 2 liters of plain ole water just isn't easy. That's where my obsession of the day comes in.

SoBe Life Water, the zero calorie just as good as water flavored water. Now, if you happen to be on a serious diet or restriction plan, I will mention that there are 6g of Carbs and 25mg of Sodium, but neither of those things are enough to deter me. I used to be a huge fan of VitaminWater, and I still drink it, but SoBe has way, way, WAY better flavors. There have been one too many times that I have wanted to simply spit out my VitaminWater because it was too gross for words. The Yumberry Pomegranate is probably my favorite flavor, but I'm currently sipping on the Black and Blueberry and I coudn't be happier.

I don't recommend fully replacing water with flavored waters, but its just a nice way to mix it up every now and again.

Have one and enjoy!

Love,

Your Friend Lela

PS...

Tell your friends about the new posts! If every person reading tells their friends, and then that friend sees this post and they tell one friend, and then that friend reads this post and tells a friend, then........well, i'm not so good at math which is why i have a blog, but a LOT of people will have read the blog. And it will have been all because of you. *smile*

Purdy

I love, love, LOVE this dress and just wanted to share. Wouldn't it make a really sassy wedding dress?

GROSS

No thanks.

Billboard Music Awards: The Fashion

This post will be slightly more abbreviated than my previous fashion posts, mostly because there are fewer pictures from the red carpet.

I feel the need to start with Taylor Swift....

I don't want people to think that I am constantly picking on her, but gee whiz, it's just so easy sometimes. I have to say that this dress is phenominal, and she looks really great, but this is the Billboard Music Awards, not the Oscars. Lighten up a bit! Unclench that ass and have a little fun! She's got legs a mile long and this would've been the perfect opportunity for her to showcase them in a sassy mini dress [ like this one or this one.]

Fergie's outfit is kind of dominatrix...

but its FUN. That is what this awards show is about. Don't those shoes look dangerous?

Rihanna looks to have either dropped her extensions or changed her wig, but either way she looks PHENOMINAL.

This look is fresh and sophisticated, but also young enough that she rocks it hard. Well done sista!

And then there was Selena Gomez....

I appreciate the fact that she might have missed her senior prom, but that doesn't mean she should wear her prom/ pageant dress to the Billboard Awards. I am not a fan of this look at ALL. No thanks, Selena. Also, not that sweet little gomez was ever anything more than tiny, but is she skinnier than usual. Has she lost the mythical "baby fat"? She seems ultra skinny and adult looking. She looks super gorgeous, I just happen to hate the dress [and the shoes. They scream, "There's no place like Payless!"].

Now, here's my gal Ke$ha...

I completely appreciate that she went out of her personal box for this red carpet and did something different and more "red carpety". I don't especially love the long tuille on the short dress, but I actually happen to like the dress portion [which is saying a lot considering I usually despise cut out dresses- see above]. Lookin hawt sista!

Nicki Minaj is a crazy biotch, but in a more relate-able way than Lady Gaga. I love her and her craziness. I'm even considering dying my hair pink [no I'm not].

There no way this ass is real, right? RIGHT?

While not exactly relevant, Kelly Rowland sure is smokin!

Lady Antebellum look really sassy and are having FUN with their look. See guys, its all about the F word. Fun, Fun, Fun.

And that concludes our very short red carpet recap from the Billboard Music Awards. Agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts!

Love,

Your Friend Lela

Obsession of the Day

Dear Readers,

In an effort to give you more material [like you've asked for and you deserve!], I am attempting to commit to an Obsession of the Day post in an effort to blog at least once every day. I would love your feedback!

Today's obsession is: Hot & Cold

Hot & Cold is "A Bongo Production" in Hillsboro village and is housed in the former Taste of Tokyo location [pour one out for the Waffle House of Sushi]. You can get everything from a hot shot of espresso, to a paleta from Las Paletas [which was the treasure we hunted today since the flagship store on 12th is closed on Mondays. Who knew?!], to a deliciousness that my mouth has never tried: Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream. The ice cream [and the super attentive fellow behind the counter who encouraged us to try as many flavors as we wanted] quickly replaced the paletas in the "I Need It Now" category. Paletas are forever, but you just never know when this ice cream will disappear.

I went with a small basic cup of the salted caramel, of which I devoured every bite [see evidence below], while my friends went for a Hot and Cold [A small cup of ice cream served with a shot of espresso. You are technically supposed to pour the espresso over the ice cream, but you can also just drink it on the side like Friend #1 did] and a Skinny Dip [two scoops of Jeni's Ice cream, in a waffle cone, with the sauce of your choice].

The options are almost limitless [you can dip your Paleta into Olive and Sinclair chocolate!], and I recommend going by asap. I am going to try to stay far away [swimsuit season is coming up you know], but I have a feeling you'll find me there frequently.

This is the remainder of my Salted Caramel ice cream. Good to the last drop!

For some reason, I thought I also needed an Iced Rosewater Mint Cuban Latte. The name was so pretty I just couldn't resist! Best decision I've ever made. It is more rich than the name implies, so take my recommendation and have this OR ice cream. You don't need both.

Check out Hot & Cold in Hillsboro Village and let me know what YOU think!

Love,

Your Friend Lela