Storytime…

So a couple years ago Shawn and I went to one of those outdoor art festival things they have at Rittenhouse Square. He became pretty enamored with this one painting that was at one of the stands. The painting was a vibrant ocean scene involving a penguin standing on top of a turtle. Ridiculous, I know. But we left because everything at those art displays usually costs a bajillion dollars (slight exaggeration) and I can’t say I was as in love with it as Shawn was. haha. Well ever since then, he has brought up this painting a number of times and how awesome it is and how he should have gotten it. We didn’t write down the artist’s name, so we had really no way of tracking it down. We googled various search terms such as “penguin standing on turtle”, which produced several pictures of cute baby penguins…but no painting. We even went back to the same art festival to see if we could find it again, but it wasn’t there. Anyway…so this past weekend we decided to go to the Manayunk Arts Festival because its close-by to where we live and there was nothing else to do. We were just kind of strolling along when all of a sudden Shawn goes “LOOK!!”. Low and behold, there is the painting right in front of us…in all its (ridiculous) glory. Pretty sure we just kind of stared at it in disbelief for a few minutes. I mean…what are the odds that we would actually find it again? Well we got the artist’s name (Phillip Singer) and website this time (here is the painting, in case you want to see it). Shawn hasn’t bought it (yet) but you can buy the print off the website, so maybe he’ll do that at some point…not that it even remotely matches anything in our apartment, but that’s besides the point =p

That was pretty much the high point of our time in Manayunk on Saturday. There was a stand with some really cool candles that were made out of drink bottles (soda cans, liquor bottles, wine/beer bottles…). I really wanted to get one of the liquor or wine bottle ones (would look awesome in the kitchen!) but they were a bit pricey and I already have more crap in the kitchen than I can fit on my very small counter-top. The one thing I did get at the festival was some yummy mint chocolate chip ice cream. Besides the cheesecake flavor from Coldstone, mint chocolate chip is definitely my favorite ice cream flavor.

In other news, I placed an order with Vera Bradley a couple weeks ago and received it yesterday! I kept seeing all those pretty designs on bags and stuff but had never known what company they were from until I stumbled upon the website. Since their stuff is a wee bit pricey, I’ve been putting off getting anything for a couple months…but recently they had an awesome sale that was $5 shipping and 20% off all items already on sale, so I couldn’t pass that up! The hardest part was selecting the designs because there’s so many pretty ones. I got this lunchbag in “Pirouette” (which will thankfully replace the random black computer accessory bag I’ve been using to carry my lunch), this lanyard in “Hope Garden”, and this card case in “Folkloric” to hold my bus pass and building card. I love all of them so far…but especially the lunchbag! I was originally going to get a very bright pink design (you know how much I <3 pink) but I decided against it because I figured the black design would be more professional to carry around, and I was probably right. And the super bright lanyard is much easier to find in my endless black void of a bag. O yea...I'm hosting my first giveaway on my beauty blog! Click below for deats.

ETA: I forgot to post an update on my back pain (like anyone is waiting in suspense or anything to be updated on it…), but it gradually faded away on Sunday evening. There’s still a feeling of “tightness” there, if that makes any sense, but the pain has thankfully gone away at least for now. Of course I started working out for the first time in a couple weeks so pretty much everything else hurts now…but at least I know why. lol.

I <3 Handmade: Pink Bow Bath Boutique
The company I’m going to review today is called “Pink Bow Bath Boutique“. Their products are absolutely adorably packaged in black containers with a little pink bow around each jar. Their products range from creams and soaps to fragrances and hair products… read the rest