rainy day style

I don't care what anybody says, I LOVE a good pair of yellow rain boots. They have saved my feet from nasty, dirty New Jersey puddles on MULTIPLE occasions, and I personally think that they can be very cute! This is one of the looks that Allie and I put together for her lookbook, and given the dreary overcast weather here today, I couldn't help but share it!

I had so much fun pairing these bright yellow boots with equally bright accessories. Sometimes, you just gotta go all out!

yellow rain boots & coat / Old Navy, top / thrifted, jeans / Levi's, bag / Marc Fisher, belt / Forever 21, earrings / Target, hair piece / Charlavail

Tomorrow I'm getting my wisdom teeth out (ouch!) so I might be M.I.A. a little this week, depending on how I'm feeling. My wonderful boyfriend CJ will be by my side though, and he'll help out if need be! If you can find the time, say a little prayer, please! I know it's probably no big deal but I've never had surgery before and I've heard multiple horror stories so I'm definitely a little nervous! 

Love you guys!
xo, e.m. 

Carlton Place, pt. 1

I am beyond excited about this (kind of huge) project that CJ and I are working on. As you may or may not know, my boyfriend is a hip hop producer, and a very talented one I might add! Since high school, he's been working from his basement with the occasional trip to Brooklyn for weeks at a time. As it would seem, a home studio space/man cave is a necessity. Necessity is the mother of invention, and thus Carlton Place was born! Yesterday was our first "BIG STEP" in the process. We even got this AWESOME (and super many coffee table) for less than $20. I love thrifting! I'll be sharing lots of photos along the way, here is the first round.


xo, cj and e.m.



this week in instagrams


I'm actually beginning to enjoy this lazy Saturday ritual. This quick recap of the lovely parts of my week and these pictures both make me smile a lot! Did you all have a good week? Any fun weekend plans? I'm sitting on the couch with my brother watching The Count of Monte Cristo (one of my favorites) and relaxing and pumping myself full of all the nutrients possible for my surgery on Tuesday. I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out! Three impacted and one routine extraction. Needless to say, I am not excited. I am excited to try out a bunch of new smoothie recipes though, since they're all I'll be eating for a while. I'm already dubbing next week's posts as "Smoothie Week!"

Hope you all have a great rest of the weekend!
xo, e.m.

easy and delicious dinner

After my shopping trip yesterday, I was excited to play around with new ingredients and try to come up with a few new recipes. With Jenna as my test subject, I set out to create an easy and spicy pad thai. It was so simple! This recipe is full of flavor and will take under 25 minutes to create. As you know, I rarely measure out ingredients for things like this, I just eyeball it. With the amounts that I used here, it created one large bowl of pad thai, which Jenna and I were able to split and be completely satisfied! 

Before we begin, here is what you'll need: Pad Thai noodles (I used whole wheat and I didn't even see a difference!), snow peas, boiled and shelled edamame, asparagus, cilantro, peanuts, a couple little bits of ginger, Seitan (a gluten-based meat substitute), and Szechuan marinade. Obviously, you can tweak this recipe to include vegetables that you like as well! I want to try it with tomatoes and carrots next time!

1. Soak your noodles. Place them (completely covered) in hot water for 8-10 minutes.

2. Prepare your veggies. While the noodles are soaking, de-string your snow peas and chop up your asparagus, ginger and cilantro.

3. Brown your "meat". Place the Seitan in a pot with a tiny bit of olive oil. Let it brown for about 3 minutes on high heat, flipping it to brown on both sides. 

4. Add your veggies. Add them slowly, beginning with the veggies that will take a little longer to cook. Leave out the peanuts for now! Make sure to stir the ginger around so that the flavor with spread to all of the veggies and the Seitan. Keeping the heat on high, this should take only about 4 minutes. 

5. Add the noodles. Drain your noodles and then toss them into the mixture as well. Stir often, the pad thai noodles WILL stick to each other.

6. After 2 or 3 more minutes, add your sauce. Add a little bit at first, mix, and see what the coverage looks like. If your stir fry is getting a little dry, don't be afraid to add a little bit of water or more sauce. Just don't add TOO much sauce, it can get a little salty. Before dishing it out, remove the ginger. Most people wouldn't be too happy biting into a gigantic piece of ginger.

There you have it! This meal was so delicious. If you like a little extra spice, some Sriracha sauce goes really well with it. Also, this dish pairs really well with some Ginger Beer. (One of my favorites!) 

Happy munching!
xo, e.m.

a spring lookbook

About a week ago, my best friend Allie asked me to help her with a school project, which was to compile a Spring lookbook. Needless to say, I was beyond excited! Yesterday, CJ and I had such a fun time taking the photographs and I just had to share some of them with you. Isn't CJ a great photographer? There's more to come soon!