Happy Birthday Lexi!

Today, my little sister Lexi turns 20 years old. It's so crazy to me that she is now in her 20s! To celebrate this exciting birthday for her, I thought I would share my top 20 memories that I have with her!

(Just to warn you, you may not understand everything in this post since some inside jokes between us will be included! And some of the things in the list may sound strange to the average person. We tend to bring out the weirdness in each other haha)


1. For about 10 years now, we have kept a little journal in our bathroom, and we write notes to each other while we go to the bathroom. We recently found one of the old journals and couldn't stop cracking up at all the weird stuff we wrote in there!

2. We wrote a spoof of Harry Potter called Harry Potter and the Whore-ceror's Stone, and then started (but never finished) a script spoofing the second Harry Potter. It's the funniest thing, and we even filmed the Christmas scene from it one year!

3. 11:16

4. Throughout middle school and high school, I had a trundle bed in my room, so Lexi would sneak into my room most nights and sleep on the trundle, and we would stay up for hours talking and playing games like "Would You Rather" and one that we made up called "Mattress Love" haha

5. When we were younger, we loved playing with Bratz dolls. We made our Bratz form a rock band and even wrote songs for them to perform!

6. Speaking of bands, we were in an all-girl rock band together in high school called the Pink Tuxedos

7. We've seen lots of awesome concerts together: Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, All Time Low, Cobra Starship, Metro Station, Kelly Clarkson, and the Jonas Brothers before they were famous!

8. After the show The OC ended, we were so depressed that we sat in my room in total darkness for an hour, and then wore all black and thick black eyeliner for days after the finale to mourn the end of the show.

9. Going with my parents to move Lexi in for her freshman year of college, and then going up to visit a couple of times last Summer.

10. Talking to each other in weird voices, like the "Voldie" and Gollum voices, and random terrifying sounding ones haha

11. Travelling together (and with our parents) to Bermuda, Montreal, California, Disney World, DC and Virginia, and Prince Edward Island.

12. Sending each other some of the most hideous Snapchats the world has ever seen

13. When we were little (probably about 3 and 5), we used to love the Lion King, and would sometimes play and pretend we were lions from the movie. And to make it as authentic as possible... we would play naked LOL

14. When "notes" were a popular thing on Facebook, we would spend hours late at night writing joint sister notes together!

15. We call each other "sta" which is short for "sista"  (Usually I say "sta" and Lexi calls me "Stie" which is a weird nickname for Christie haha)

16. "Destiny" and the Four Seasons

17. Our rewrite of the Kim Possible theme song that I still remember every word to

18. We've made lots of random videos together over the years, and made a pretty awesome music video for the Metro Station song "Tell Me What To Do"!

19. When we're both home, we like to have "sta bonding sessions" and go to a coffee shop nearby called Marylou's. And when we're driving around, we always bring an old CD to jam to in the car! Some of our faves are old school Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, and My Chemical Romance!

20. My very first memory is actually of walking into the hospital with my dad when Lexi was born!


We have lots more exciting stuff coming up too, so we'll be making so many more exciting memories together in the near future! We will both be home this Summer (so there will be lots of "sta bonding"), we are both planning to start YouTube channels over the Summer and will definitely feature each other in our videos a lot, and in the Fall, I will be visiting Lexi in England while she is studying abroad!

Happy Birthday Little Sta! xx Luv ya <3

And now for a bunch of pictures!

meeting Lexi for the first time!

Disney World 1999

taking our 3rd sister Chloe home for the first time in 2004!

in Washington DC 2007

we got ourselves into a little trouble in Bermuda

trying to look seductive on our cruise to Bermuda in 2009 

Christmas 2010

in Bermuda for the 2nd time in 2011

trying to look like we're from the Jersey Shore

Lexi's high school graduation in 2012!

superhero theme night at Lexi's last night working at the local ice cream shop. We're Cat Woman and Superman!

getting sassy in Montreal 2012

moving Lexi into college!

we met Aaron Carter in NYC in December 2012!

Christmas 2013

My Bucket List

I have always been kind of a dreamer, so I love to imagine all of the exciting things I want to do someday. I am a very open-minded person and love to experience new things, so this list could go on forever! But here are some of the things that are at the top of my Bucket List:

1. Go skydiving

2. Travel to all 7 continents

Yes, even Antarctica. So far, I've checked off North America and Europe!

3. Live abroad

I would be open to living pretty much anywhere in the world in the near future, but I would like to end up in London!

4. Go bungee jumping

5. Take a surfing lesson

Preferably in Australia or Southern California.
          

6. Attend a red carpet event

7. Play blackjack in Las Vegas

          

8. Go on an African safari

          

9. Ride a camel in the desert

          

10. Visit the Great Wall of China

         

11. Walk up the Sydney Harbour Bridge

          

12. Go to Carnival in Rio de Janeiro

          

13. See the Northern Lights

          

14. Ride in a hot air balloon and a helicopter

          

15. Swim with dolphins

          

16. Attend a music festival

          

17. Road trip across the US

While I've seen lots of different places in Europe, there are still so many places in the U.S. that I want to see: Chicago, the Grand Canyon, Miami, Northern California, New Orleans, Colorado, and Hawaii (which I know wouldn't really be possible to road trip to, but I still want to go there!)

          

18. Become fluent in French or Spanish

I speak both French and Spanish at an intermediate level, but not well enough to really have a conversation with a native speaker of that language. I'd love to get to the point where I can have a conversation in French or Spanish without stressing or having to translate in my head!

19. Fly First Class

20. Experience New Years Eve in Times Square

          

21. Learn how to cook a good go-to meal

For Christmas this year, I made chicken marsala for my family that actually turned out pretty good! If I perfect this, it could be a contender!

22. Get my bartending license

          

23. Go to an airport and buy a ticket to the next flight out

I saw this in the movie Yes Man and have wanted to do this ever since! Although the characters in the movie end up getting a flight to Lincoln, Nebraska, so I might try to go for something a little more interesting!

24. Attend Fashion Week in Paris, London, or New York

          

25. Try a local dish in every place that I travel to

I have been doing pretty well with this so far! I've had escargot in Paris, fish and chips in London, paella in Barcelona and Madrid, pasta and gelato in Rome, countless traditional dishes in Lyon where I studied abroad, a caipirrinha in Lisbon, schnitzel and pretzels in Munich, Korean food and a kabob from booths in Pike Place Market in Seattle, bagels in New York, and lobster and Cows ice cream in Prince Edward Island!

And while I have lots of things I still want to do and experience, I have been really fortunate in my life so far and have already crossed off some things from my bucket list! Some of them are:

• Climb the Eiffel Tower by stairs

• Attend Oktoberfest in Munich

• Ride the London Eye

• Learn to play an instrument (I played guitar in high school and was even in a rock band with some friends!)

• Study abroad

• Stay out all night long

• Ride an elephant

• Go to a wine tasting in France

• Get "discovered" (When I was 14, I went on vacation with my family to Southern California, and when we were in LA, a woman approached me wanting me to audition for something. I'm sure that happens all the time, and it turned out you really need to live in California for it to work out, but it was still cool!)

• Go on a cruise

• Dance on top of a bar

• Become friends with people from all over the world


I can't wait to cross more things off my bucket list, and I will keep you posted as I have more fun experiences! Leave me a comment telling me about some of the top things on your bucket list! :)



**these photos were taken from Google and do not belong to me

My Current Favourites

Recently, there have been lots of things that I've been loving! Some fashion and beauty related things, but also movies, food, books, and lots of other things I thought I would tell you about!

First of all, I absolutely love the colour coral because it just makes me think of Summer and vacations and fun! So since the weather has been getting a little nicer lately, I thought it was time to start incorporating more coral into my everyday life! So I got a new coral nail polish and a coral lip stain that I have been wearing almost constantly since buying them a couple of weeks ago. The nail polish is the 60 Second nail polish from Rimmel in the colour Instyle Coral, and the lip stain is Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in the colour Audacious. I mentioned both of those products in my previous post of beauty products I've been loving, and still love them so much! They are both really pretty shades of coral, the nail polish dries really fast and stays on well, and the lip stain lasts a while and doesn't make your lips dry.

            

P.S. I know my nail polish is a little chipped, but that was after a week and half of wearing it, so not too bad! :)

Another makeup product I got a couple of weeks ago is an e.l.f. eye shadow palette called the Beauty Book: Natural Look. I had seen it online before as a "dupe" for the Urban Decay Naked palette, and thought the colours looked so pretty. When I was home over Spring Break, I saw it in TJ Maxx and have been loving it ever since! It has six different eye shadows that help you make two different smoky eye looks (or you could mix and match for more looks), a brown eyeliner pencil, and eyeshadow primer. Like I mentioned before, I have a hard time finding affordable eye shadow that really stays on, but this one has been so good! The shades are really pretty, and I can wear it for hours without it creasing. I know I'll be wearing this eye shadow a LOT this Spring and Summer!

         

There are lots of new fashion trends I am loving at the moment as well. One is the new daisy trend. It's no secret that florals are popular every Spring, but I like the daisy look because it brings more of a trendy, edgy vibe to florals. I got a black and white daisy crop top from TJ Maxx that I am really excited to wear when it gets a little bit warmer! 

I'm also really loving Lauren Conrad's line for Kohl's this Spring. I have been a huge fan of her clothes for years, and am never disappointed! I would consider Lauren Conrad to be one of my style icons, and everything in her line looks like something that you would see her wearing. While I was home over Spring Break, I ended up seeing a Lauren Conrad dress that I loved and will be wearing to my cousin's wedding this summer and a formal event for my business fraternity next month! It's a little hard to see the detail in the picture, but it's a really pretty "fit and flare" style lace dress with some more sheer bits. I'll definitely be taking some pictures of myself wearing it at the business fraternity event and wedding, so you'll be able to see it better then!

While I was home, I had lots of time to relax and watched a bunch of movies, particularly ones that had been nominated for Academy Awards this year. I saw Dallas Buyers Club, American Hustle, Twelve Years a Slave, The Hobbit, Frozen, and my favourite, the Wolf of Wall Street. I really loved all of the movies and could see why they were all nominated for awards. And since seeing Frozen, I haven't been able to get the songs out of my head! I still want to see Her, Gravity, and some more of the Academy Award nominees, so I'm sure I'll be making some trips to Redbox over the next few weeks!

              

Recently, I haven't had as much time to read as I would like, but a book I read not too long ago and loved was the new Bridget Jones book. I loved the first two books and the movies, and although this book was a lot different in some ways, I still loved it! This book took place more than ten years after the second book which had been published in 1999, so Bridget has a whole new set of dating problems when modern day technology is added into the mix. Bridget also has two children in this book, but even though she's a mom, she's still the same funny and loveable Bridget from the first two books! If you haven't read the Bridget Jones series, I would really recommend it for the Summer as it's the perfect beach read. Next up on my list of books to read are Fault in Our Stars by John Green and Inferno by Dan Brown!

And the last thing I've been loving lately are Cadbury Mini Eggs. I always get so excited around Easter time when these are in stores, because they are so good! I've already eaten several bags and will definitely be stocking up on some more before the end of the season.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about some of the things I've been loving recently!

How to Make Ice Box Cake!

Last week, I was home for my Spring Break, and one thing I always love to do while I am home is bake! This break, I decided to switch it up and make something different than the standard cookies and brownies I usually bake. When I was little, the woman I went to for day care was an amazing chef and baker, and one of my favourite recipes of hers was something called Ice Box Cake. When my mom mentioned it, I decided I had to try making it!

Here's how I made the Ice Box Cake. Best part: it's so easy and takes just about 5 minutes to prepare!

To make Ice Box Cake, you'll need two boxes of pudding mix, milk (to make the pudding), a box of graham crackers, a pan to put it in, and that's it! So simple!

First, mix up your puddings. I used one box of chocolate pudding and one box of white chocolate pudding, but you can use whatever flavours you like.

I used almond milk to make the pudding a little bit healthier!

Next, lay your graham crackers along the bottom of your pan. Make sure there are no gaps!

Then, pour one of your puddings on and spread it evenly across the graham crackers.

Repeat the last couple of steps. Make another graham cracker layer on top of your pudding, again making sure there are no gaps, and then spread your second pudding over it.

You can either stop here or do what I did and sprinkle some graham cracker and Oreo crumbs over the top. To do this, I put the graham crackers and Oreos into a big plastic bag and went over it with a rolling pin until it was just crumbs. Sprinkle these over the top, and then you're done!

Once your cake is prepared, put it into the fridge for at least three hours, and then it's ready to eat. 

Enjoy!

So delicious!