Huge Change

Wow! So, I've told everyone about my major hair woes...yikes! (Sorry if you hate reading about it, this will be my last one, I promise!!) I've had SO many different hair colors in the past 2 months alone, that I needed to take a break. I've been highlighting my hair since I turned 15. That's almost 4 years without a natural hair color...yikes again! I talked about my recent hair problems in this post. Well yesterday I went to my real hair stylist to see what we could to about my chameleon color hair. I told her that I wanted to go back to a shade close to my original color, and since she's been doing my hair since I've started caring about it truly, I knew she'd have good input, be able to take care of moi, and remember what the color was. She also does my mom's hair, my sister's hair and a few of the other women in town. She comes highly recommended around!

This has been my hair situation over the past few years, basically since my Junior year winter--that's how far my photos date back! (this is a very narcissistic post...sorry about that. I've had a few friends want to see photos but I'm not going to facebook them because I want it to be a surprise at a big high school alumni function on Monday night!!):

Junior Year-Winter (this is a Natalie Franke Senior Shoot photo): hair is dirty blonde from highlights with roots, short length

Senior Year-Winter: hair is very light, from highlights and very long (~growth 1 year)

Freshman Year of College-Summer before I left: hair is the lightest ever, with dark under layer, short again

Freshman Year-Fall: hair is browny-gold (after being fixed from orange. That color was so awful I refuse to post photos, although they do exist on good ol' FB), short still. The color got to this horrible auburny-goldy-orange color that got progressively worse every time I showered that I needed to do something ASAP. It didn't help that my dark dark dark roots were showing up fast. My hair and nails grow extremely fast.

Freshman Year-Winter: This is the current look (although not the nicest photo). Its 1/2 a shade darker than my original color so that it can fade and the colors will resemble one another. I got this done yesterday and I like it SO much! I wake up and forget that I have dark hair, but it's so much healthier and much more shiny! (Shout out to Audrey M., I hope you like it!)

I promise that this is the LAST hair post! To qualify it as preppy, I read The Updated Preppy Handbook the other day, and realized that I majorly broke the hair rule:

Hair

Preppy hair is, for the most part, left the way God and nature intended it. Blunt cuts of chin length, shoulder length and mid-back length are acceptable. Ponytails and headbands are the most common variations from the unadorned, side-parted look. The luckiest Preps (many of them) are born with thick, straight, shiny hair in a blonde or dark brown shade. Preps that are curly, frizzy, or limp in texture usually favor ponytails. Preppy hair should not be colored (before age forty, that is).

...oops.

Can't wait for the holidays to kick up a notch in the next week! Almost 1 week until Christmas!! Merry Holidays! Tonight was the "11th Hour" shopping for the store!

xxKatie

P.S.: I was explaining this little blogging community to a fab new co-worker today and I realized how much I like it, so thank you fellow preppy bloggers!

Blog Roll

Hey everyone, this is a super quick note! I've updated my blog roll a bunch so let me know if you'd like to be added/taken off. There are about 150 +/- up there now. If you don't feel like looking through just leave me a note and I'll do a second check! Hope everyone's enjoying their time off--I know I am!

xxKatie

Pink Julep's Musical Christmas Countdown: Day 25 - Christmas Tree by Lady Gaga Featuring Space Cowboy

Only 25 days till Christmas! Have you put up your Christmas tree yet? If not, play Lady Gaga's Christmas tree (beware it's a little dirty... inuendo and whatnot) and rock the boogie while you trim your tree! If you're having a Christmas rager, this song is a must... such a great party song!

Cherry cherry boom boom y'all! Tomorrow's December 1st! Woo hoo!

Pink Julep's Musical Christmas Countdown: Day 26 - Santa Baby by Madonna

This is a classic and performed as only Madonna could do... nuff said!

Pink Julep's Musical Christmas Countdown: Day 27 - Christmas is a Pain in the Arse by The Accelerators

For those of you who hate fruitcake, shy away from crowds of angry shoppers fighting over the last Hannah Montanna doll (in my youth it was Cabbage Patch dolls, remember?), snub your noses at the commercialism of Christmas or if you generally don't buy into the sentiments of Peace on Earth for only a couple of months a year, this is the song for you! This song was introduced to me by a boyfriend I had in college from England who had a great sense of humor and angst about Christmas in general! Christmas is a Pain in the Arse by The Accelerators is a classic! Have a giggle and enjoy!

Pink Julep's Musical Christmas Countdown: Day 28 - Rockin Around the Christmas Tree by Miley Cyrus

I'm a big fan of Miley Cyrus... I admit it! Don't judge! And I just love the way she rocks out this Christmas classic! It is after all called ROCKIN Around the Christmas Tree! Less than a month till Christmas... how's your shopping going?

Pink Julep's Musical Christmas Countdown: Day 29 - Baby It's Cold Outside by Lady Antebellum

I've never been the biggest fan of this song, but Lady Antebellum does this song so well that I had to include it on my countdown! They give it a country feel which works really well and I just love Lady Antebellum. Their voices are so interesting and this song is lovely for the holidays!

Pink Julep's Musical Christmas Countdown: Day 30 - Someday at Christmas by Stevie Wonder

I'm very excited for Christmas! It's the best part of the year!!! I love all the lights, food, presents, shopping, sales, festivals, crafts, need I go on? I've got a fun collection of Christmas music that I'm very proud of so this year I'm going to do something special! I'll be counting down the days until Christmas with some of my favorite Christmas songs!

Today is Thanksgiving, meaning there are 30 days until Santa Clause comes to town! Today's song is Someday at Christmas by Stevie Wonder. Enjoy!

Turkey For You, Turkey For Me

Source

Wishing all my fellow Americans a happy and safe Thanksgiving!!! Today I'm thankful for my family, my friends, my wonderful husband and all our blessings! I'm also thankful for all of you and the friends I've made in Blogville! I hope you all have too much turkey today, enjoy your food comas and score big at the Black Friday sales!!! xo

And to keep it light, please enjoy one of the funniest things ever from Saturday Night Live, Adam Sandler's Turkey Song!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

The lights are up and on all over London! Christmas trees are popping up left and right! The weatherman has been predicting snow for a couple of weeks... he's been wrong everytime, so I'm wondering if it's wishful thinking, but the concensus is, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in London! I've still got a bit more decorating to do, but here's a cheeky sneak peek at our holiday decorations!

I snatched up this advent calendar at a little shop in Greenwich when we were there last week! I just love it! I've only got a few days to find something to put in it... I'd best get moving on that or the first few days of the countdown might be disappointing!

A close up of our cute votives from Marks and Spencer. They have glittery red candles inside with a cranberry orange spice scent! YUM!

Our tree and one of my favorite items, the tree skirt from John Lewis! I've never had a tree skirt before and though this piece was kind of ridiculously expensive, I just love it! I think it really pulls everything together and it's going to last forever!

Our tree is pretty short to be honest... we were afraid to get anything too big because we're in this holiday flat which is quite small and we didn't want the tree to take over the whole room... so it's our starter tree. Hopefully next year we'll put this midget tree in the bedroom and get a huge one for our sitting room!

I love the Nordic ornaments we got from John Lewis!

The star is not my favorite... but it's all I could find... It could be worse, I suppose...

This sign came with us from Cayman... I just couldn't leave it behind! It's too cute!

And this one as well... it perfectly describes my views on Christmas! It's a meaningful holiday of course, but let's be honest, we all love the shopping and commercialism of it all! It's unneccessary, but fun... I just love buying everyone presents and wrapping them up! I love the shopping bags and the holiday music in the stores! It's just too much fun!

I was a little disappointed in this candle lamp from Next, but it's still cute! I thought it would be much bigger and come with real candles... I was a little dissappointed to find it's electric, but whatever... I can find other ways to put enough candles around our house to make it look like a shrine to the inventor of scented wax!

Also from Next is our greeting tree, which I love! I got this as a center piece for our dining table! It's too cute, I think and made of nice sturdy wood!

And last but not least, our coordinating Christmas crackers for dinner this year! I got enough to have them for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day (the day after Christmas)!!! There will only be three of us here, but that's no reason to skimp on the festivities! I plan on stuffing my husband and his mum like sausages before sending her back to Ireland and him back to work! I'm going to start working on the menu for Christmas week very soon so I can book a coveted delivery slot for groceries! I'm so excited I can't stand it! I've always cooked for Christmas except last year when we went to LA, but this year we have a guest!

Are any of you hosting Christmas dinner at home this year? What will you be serving?

British Goods Found Stateside

Photo: www.waitrose.com

I have been lucky to be exposed to some fabulous British foods and goods through the years, first with my English college boyfriend, later through my Irish husband (many products available in Ireland are actually British) and now because I live in London. After my first trip to England in 2003, I was positively smitten with so many different things that I had there, but had never seen in the USA! For a while, the guy I dated from England would ship certain things to me, but later I began to realize as the years passed that many of the products were available in New York and other cities if you knew where to look for them. When we moved to Cayman, many more things were available, since Cayman's population is heavily British and it is a British Overseas Territory after all.

So this got me thinking... even if you can't squeeze a trip to the UK in your budget or schedule this year, it doesn't mean you can't experience some of the traditions from the comfort of your own home! The internet has made it possible for many things we could never get our hands on before to be delivered straight to our front doors! I enjoy a lot of these things around the holidays for some reason, probably because my first trip to England was at Christmas! Here are some of the British foods and goods I'm absolutely loving this holiday season:

Christmas Crackers are uniquely European by tradition and I love these so much that I've had them every Christmas since my 2003 trip to England for Christmas! Basically, they are little tubes of cardboard, usually decorated and you can get them in any theme from traditional red and green to Disney characters, or in all different colors including pink, purple, turquoise and more! Crackers range in price and quality as well. Basically, you include these in your place setting for Christmas dinner (or if you're really festive for Christmas Eve and Boxing Day dinners too!) and you open them at the table. Grab one end and let your neighbor grab the other, hold tight and pull. It should make a pop! Inside you normally find a paper crown that must be worn at dinner (embarrassing or not), a joke or riddle and a tiny gift. The gift can be something practical like a mini calculator or a key chain or it might be a small toy, depending on what kind of crackers you get. Crackers are really fun and increasingly available in the United States! This year we ordered our crackers to match our decorations with Nordic themed red and white reindeer designs. The British also do great advent calendars as a Christmas staple! There are super cheap ranging to super expensive. I've always had cardboard ones where you pop out the date and there's a chocolate inside. Now Loreal has done one with beauty products and you can pretty much get them with anything! I posted a photo of ours here... haven't decided what to put in it yet!

Walkers shortbread amazing! So buttery and rich! It's my favorite, next to homemade of course and it usually comes in a gorgeous plaid tin or package. I think it hails from Scottland, but I'm not sure. It's delicious with tea or coffee, before or after a meal.

The first time someone offered me Squash to drink, I was positively discusted, thinking they meant the vegetable. I had no idea what it was, but once I tried it, I was hooked. It's basically a concentrated drink. You pour a little in a glass and add water. I prefer orange Robinsons, but there are several brands and flavors to choose from. It's a great way to trick yourself into drinking water and it's also a good alternative to sodas!

Custard is one of life's great pleasures! Bird's Custard is my favorite and you can buy it ready-made or in powder form. It's basically like a lighter version of vanilla pudding and it's amazing on deserts like apple pie, chocolate cake or just drissled over fruit. Serve it hot and it's amazing for winter deserts! YUM!!!

Walkers Crisps are very popular in the UK. The logo looks like Lays and who knows? Maybe they are owned by the same company? They are definitely not the same though... people here are serious about their crisps (aka Chips) and they are delish! My favorite is Walkers Ready Salted, but they come in several flavors including Cheese & Onion, Prawn Cocktail, Salt & Vinegar, Roast Chicken, Sour Cream & Chive and others I'm sure.

Maltesers are like Malted Milk Balls, but oh so much softer and yummier!

PG Tips is my favorite British tea. I've been drinking it exclusively since 2002. There is no other in my opinion! It's the best and can actually be found in many American grocery stores!

One of my all-time favorites, Heinz Spaghetti Hoops, which were introduced to me by my husband in New York. I was very loyal to Spaghetti O's and Chef Boyardee until I tried these. They are 10 steps above the rest with less additives, sugar and salt. I love these and often we have them for dinner with frozen Chicken Kievs or potato waffles. Yum!

Heinz Baked Beanz are not at all like American baked beans and they are served differently as well. I made American-style baked beans for a dinner in Cayman and the UK contingency thought they were something totally different! Heinz beans are very very popular among Brits and not only served as a side dish for lunch or dinner, but also as a major player in the famous traditional English breakfasts! You'll often see Beans on Toast here (one of my favorites) for breakfast and I've also spied people putting beans in jacket potatoes (brittish for baked potato) and though it sounds weird, it's actually delicious!

Cadbury, though not my favorite, is unlike any chocolate in the world! If you've never had it, you must try it! They have so many different types of candy bars and the chocolate has a distinct taste, different from any other I've ever tasted! My favorites are Caramel, White Chocolate Dots, and Dairy Milk with Hazelnuts. Mr. Julep is a Crunchie fan, basically it's like crispy honey covered in Cadbury chocolate.

All photos with the exception of the first one found at www.britishdelights.com

Jacob's Cream Crackers are hands down, THE best crackers in the world. There's no salt on them, but they are lush! Serve with soup, cheese or brie! YUM!

Here are 3 websites where you can purchase many if not all of the above items:

www.britishdelights.com

www.myersofkeswick.com

www.teaandsympathynewyork.com

If you find yourself in the New York City area or if you live there, you must visit The Butcher Block on 41st Street and Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside, Queens. It's owned by a friend of ours, Mike the Butcher and stocked full of Irish and English goods and sweets! You can also get amazing cuts of fresh meat cut to your liking or hot pre-prepared food and I can attest to the amazing quality of it!

Also in New York is Tea and Sympathy, a great spot for English breakfast and tea with a shop attached! Next door to that is A Salt and Battery fish and chips shop. I have never eaten there, but I hear its great! Myers of Keswick is nearby and is a great shop too!

So, will you be putting a little British into your Christmas?

Random London Post

It's gotten colder in London all of a sudden and it's raining a lot more than it was when we got here. I have to say, it's nice. It's getting dusky now around 4pm and by 5 or 5:30 every day it's pitch dark. This is a photo of the view from our flat at about 4:00 one day last week.

It's also getting really Christmassy here. There's no Thanksgiving in the UK, so Christmas takes off right after Guy Fawkes Night! All the shops are decorated and playing Christmas carols. I don't mind... I'd put up my tree in July if hubs would let me! haha The photo above is a shop that I love here called Butlers. It's German and they have the cutest stuff for the home at really good prices. So when I went on search for the perfect Christmassy couch cushions, this is where I went first!

And I found them! I love the knitted sweater look for Christmas! These cushions are so fluffy and fat and snuggly! I had to have them and I think they'll go pretty well with the black leather couch in our flat.

Last week I also ordered our Christmas tree and all our decorations! I'm so excited for them to come in!!! I decided that since there was so much available and we're starting from scratch to go with the whole Nordic reindeer theme and keep it red, white, green and silver. If you're a regular reader, you probably know that in the past few years, I've had a pink tree with purple, pink, green and turquoise decorations... I've decided to switch it up this year as we left all that stuff behind in Cayman and we're starting over.

On Saturday we went to Greenwich to view a flat. We weren't impressed with the flat, but Greenwich is a lovely part of South London with markets, history, parks and lots of quirky shops! While we were there I found this adorable advent calendar in a cute little shop and I just had to have it!

We also did some other exploring over the weekend.

This is the London Bridge area of London.

The views are really cool on the river.

We could see Tower Bridge from the bridge we were standing on.

I don't know what this big column is, but it's pretty and people were walking around on top of it! I wanna do that too!

This is the famous Gherkin Building in London. My husband is slightly obsessed with this building so we walked over to it. It is pretty impressive and beautiful up close, but from far away, it looks like a Faberge Egg!

Across the street from it is this pub... I laughed and had to snap a photo! What a name!

This is the famous Lloyd's Building... it's really cool and has won awards for architecture or so I'm told by my husband who likes to read books about that kind of stuff.

This is a church in that same area of town. I don't know what it's called, but I thought it was really beautiful and interesting.

This is the Gherkin Building shot by me laying down on a park bench underneath. Fabulous building!

This pub was closed... otherwise, I'd have gone in and ordered an Edward. (bwa ha ha - couldn't resist)

Another beautiful church

My gorgeous husband posing next to this statue because I told him this is what he looks like when he pouts, minus the boobies of course!

It was a great weekend! We also found a pub with a juke box that we like in our neighborhood called The Old Oak! It's a great pub! Many of the London pubs are owned by big corporations and they have no soul... finding what they call a "free house" or an owner opporated pub, can be tricky, but we found one!

How was your weekend?