Juicy in New Jersey

I just realized that I left out one of the JUCIEST parts of weekend...a trip to the Juicy Couture outlet at Woodbury Commons! I have been there before and was never too impressed- the store almost entirely consisted of Juicy's famous tracksuits, which is lovely of course, but they were hardly marked down. Not exactly what an outlet is made to be. Even so, as soon as I saw the cute, pink little sign, I was drawn like a magnet to the store, leaving Keenan struggling to catch up.


I was DEFINITELY surprised at the drastic changes the Juicy outlet store has undergone. They carried the full range of Juicy Couture products- bathing suits, clothes, shoes, wallets, bags, socks, etc. etc., even the Juicy Crittore line (I was dying to buy Abby her own special carry bag). The prices were even slightly reasonable (but once again, you can't put a price on the beauty that is Juicy Couture). And I certainly won't be forgetting the look of the store anytime soon- pink EVERYWHERE!


Even though I had Keenan looking over my shoulder to make sure I didn't spend any money (I cutely suggested that maybe HE should be the one spending money...on ME), I was sorely tempted to buy a couple of things. First, I really wanted a this gorgeous bangle that I saw hanging out by itself on the jewelry table (even more reason to snatch it up, it was the last one!). I love bangles lately, I'm always stealing my mom's Coach ones. Isn't it nice?

It's (obviously) called the Juicy Couture Her Majesty Bangle. Juicy has been really into making bangles lately, so I might just have to save up for one.

I also considered snagging a wallet to go with the Juicy Couture velour tote that I will be getting for my birthday...thanks mom for making it so obvious. But I might just have to hold out on that until I see which one I get...I'm hoping for a very Juicy birthday.

Since I went off to college, I've become a girl of many hobbies. I've always loved food (if I had kept going at the rate I was going, I wouldn't be able to FIT into my velour Juicy suits) but once I moved into a place of my own, I decided to take control of what I was eating by cooking for myself. In the last year or so, cooking has moved from a way for me to drop a couple of pounds to an obsession. I've dragged Keenan into it with me- while he doesn't agree with my love for Rachael Ray, we're constantly making fun of Paula Deen and her accent to cover up the fact that we're obsessed with her, and Guy Fieri is the chef that we turn to when it's late at night and we're starving. He's also become my guinea pig; he doesn't like to cook himself (unless its Kraft or a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch), but he will never say no to one of my experiments in the kitchen.

At school, we have a tradition. Since neither of us have class on Friday, we use Thursday night to relax and kick off the weekend. We watch Grey's, drink wine, and I'll cook something. Since it's the summer and we don't get to see each other on Thursday's for now, I try and cook something once a weekend. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible for it to be relaxing with my family running around the house. Especially when Marissa is in the mood to sing (read, always). But it's still something that I love to do.

This week, while reading YumSugar, I came across a recipe that I instantly knew Keenan would love because it combined some of his favorites: broccoli, chicken, alfredo sauce, and lemon. So that's what I ended up making on Saturday night: Chicken and Lemon-Broccoli Alfredo. We both really enjoyed it, and I had fun making it because it was a departure from my usual pasta creations (I love to eat pasta, therefore I love to make it). I was too hungry to remember to take a picture, so for now I will present you with someone else's take on it (yeah, mine looked NOTHING like this).

I'm hoping this will be a weekly post (providing I get the opportunity to cook once a week!), so I promise from now on I will take my own pictures. Expect some food network stars to appear next week.

Besides wearing and buying lots of Juicy Couture, one of my other favorite hobbies is to read anything and everything. This has been the case since I was just a mini Juicy girl in my crib- my mom loves to tell the story of how I wouldn't go to sleep unless I had exactly three books with me. This being said, i ALWAYS have a book that I am reading, even in the middle of the school year when I should be reading my textbooks and those silly course packets.

Right now I am reading a book called This Charming Man by Marian Keyes. Marian Keyes is an Irish author who I really fell in love with when I studied abroad in Florence last spring. That was the first time I had been out of the country and while I had a great time, the homesickness was really hard for me. The one thing that never failed to comfort me was buying a book from Martelli, the international book store. I don't remember what made me pick up my first Marian Keyes book, but I spent the rest of the semester plowing through her whole collection. So I was ecstatic when I went to Barnes and Noble the other day and saw that she had a new book out. I bought it for the ride to Pittsburgh but didn't really get into it until yesterday. Since then I haven't been able to put it down.

This Charming Man employs one of my favorite Marian Keyes techniques- the stories of multiple women are told separately and then are (eventually) weaved together in a creative way to show how their lives intersect. This book focuses on four Irish ladies who are all connected in some way to the biggest politician in Ireland, Paddy deCourcy. I am only about 200 pages in (the book is about 600 pages!) but so far I am completely hooked on these four women. I especially love Lola, whose story is told like a diary entry and everything is abbreviated.

Today Keenan told me about a story on that he saw in The Daily News about the way that Marian Keyes manages to inject dark topics into a genre that can only be called "chick lit". I wasn't aware of this, but this largely comes about due to Marian's past struggles with alcoholism. It was really great to learn some more about my favorite author: check it out.

Still getting used to the whole "blogging every day" thing and the whole "coming up with clever and interesting anecdotes from my life" thing. I honestly did not have time to update this weekend as I was many miles away in Pittsburgh without a computer of my own (or the time really). Thankfully, the wedding weekend's fun made up for the 6 hour bus ride- the cookie bar alone was worth it. The reception had basically been extracted from my imagination- there was pink EVERYWHERE. And not just the light pink that most people might image is appropriate for a wedding, but hot pink, my absolute favorite color. Why do you think I like Juicy Couture so much?

Speaking of Juicy, these just appeared on the website and I don't think I have any choice but to get them:
Ahhh, the Sammy Scottie-Print rain boot. I do love my Coach rain boots, but these are definitely more my speed. And I just have to mention how amazing I think it is that rain boots have become stylish. Living in New York City for 2/3 of the year make it imperative that I own a pair (I never miss my car so much as when its pouring buckets and I have to walk to class).

If I thought it was exciting when I got my boss the opportunity to speak about his book on one of the biggest branding sites on the web, then I had no idea how awesome it would feel to be on the road to securing your first media placement. I've been developing online media lists (blogs, internet magazines) since I started my internship and I finally got to put them to use last week in an e-blast for a certain diet product. I started my follow ups today- which was scary by the way since I already got yelled at by one blogger. I had only sent out a few e-mails when I got my first reply asking for a sample! I know I am being overly optimistic by assuming this will lead to a placement, but I like to think that sometime in the near future I might be able to put my name up on the media hits white-board of fame. The world of public relations is a cutthroat one kids.

I had a huge drama queen moment this weekend, thanks to what my mom would call my "dumb blonde side". Unfortunately our plans for fun were somewhat altered this weekend because Keenan puked all Friday night and topped it off with a 103 degree fever. I was fine taking care of him; I knew the chances of me catching what he had through the air were slim. But any confidence that I had in my immune system completely disappeared once I realized that I had used his toothbrush Saturday morning...and he had used it the night before...DUMB BLONDE MOMENT.

I never knew I was a hypochondriac until that moment. But apparently I am, because I left that night at 1 am, convinced I was going to get sick, and wanting to be home in case it happened. But it didn't. And Keenan told me I was retarded, basically repeating what Justin had said to me the night before. Oh well, I'm dramatic, what can I say? It's the Juicy in me.

Apparently I'm also completely incapable of using any form of sunless tanner. Last night I tried using Loreal's Sublime Bronze Self-Tanning Lotion against my will and it did NOT work out so well. I went to work today looking like a giraffe, especially under the fluorescent glow of the conference room and kitchen lights. I tried my best to hide my arms under the table during my meetings. Actually, now that I think about it, it definitely wasn't my fault because I had an amazing experience with Bath and Body Work's Glow and Steady. I will definitely be picking up some more of that tomorrow so that I can be nice and (fake) tan for the wedding I'm going to this weekend.

I'll be missing work on Friday, so I'll only have to make it through a four day week, sans my usual Thursday night cycling class. You can't beat working out to Kate Nash. I think I will leave you with a video of her playing "Baby Love" live in Toronto.

This is a little crazy for me. It's the first time I have done any sort of blogging since I had my last LiveJournal when I was 17. Except we didn't call it blogging back then- it was an "online journal" or "eljay" (what ridiculous people my age liked to call it). Now I'm 20, about to turn 21, and I've decided that it's time to give it another stab. I read about 15 incredible blogs every day, so why shouldn't I have my own? Even if no one reads it, I definitely have a lot of things to say ;)

To be honest, one of the main reasons why I'm giving in to the trend is because I've been absolutely surrounded by blogs at work. About a month ago I started an incredible internship Rosica Strategic Public Relations. Instead of being a typical PR job, where I would spend all my time compiling media kits or doing mass mailings full of unsolicited products, I've been given the amazing responsibility of launching the company's Internet PR division. This means that I've had to dive headfirst into the world of social media- and I LOVE it. So it seems pretty silly not to have a blog, wouldn't you agree?

So welcome to my incredibly random life. After seeing the title of my blog I bet you expected a post filled with "likes" "uhhhs" and "ohmygods". But I'm here to dispel the myths about Juicy girls- yes we do spend $95 dollars on t-shirts. But we also would take that $95 and spend it on books, or food to experiment with in the kitchen, or even tutition for Social Media University, Global.