Awesome Avventure!

Two sisters, two cities, endless adventures.

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Is this thing still on????

Well, hello again!

(After a compulsory password change) we’re back just in time for Christmas with a special treat! I’m a complete sucker for a gift guide this time of year and I’ve put together this one for all those Schitt’s Creek fans in your life. (If you haven’t seen the show, stop reading this right now and get on Netflix!) Without further ado...A Very Schitt’s Creek Gift Guide:

For the Johnny Rose in your life:

For Moira Rose:

For David Rose, high-end eye cream, what else?!:

For Alexa Rose:

And I would be remiss if I didn’t include a link to the official merch store:

https://www.roseapothecary.ca/

Happy Shopping!

~zap

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Pintoberfest: Day 7

Pin: DIY Trinket Dishes My Pinterest Board: I think I can Category: Crafts Level of Difficulty: ?? Cost: Spent $4 on Model Magic, I already had paint.

To close out Pintoberfest, (and because it’s Halloween) we’re going to end with a pin that went “frightfully” wrong. (Ok, I may just be exaggerating for the sake of more puns.) But all kidding aside, this project was a Pinterest fail. This trinket dish looked stupidly easy to make, but as I found out, Model Magic does strange things when it dries out, like crack all over the place. Exhibit A:

Don’t worry, I’m consoling myself with copious amounts of Halloween candy.  

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Pintoberfest: Day 6

Pin: Earbud Storage Technique My Pinterest Board: Home Tips Category: Life Hacks Level of Difficulty: Easy Cost: FREE!

Here’s another extremely easy and free life hack pin. Take your earbuds from this:

to this:

Worked well, but probably the sort of thing I will instantly forget about and never remember to do again.

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Pintoberfest: Day 5

Pin: Non-Black Smoky Eye My Pinterest Board: Beauty is a Beast Category: Makeup Level of Difficulty: Difficult Cost: Ranges depending on your makeup stockpile, I spent $20 on new eyeshadow and eyeliner colors.

Now, I’m not the type of gal (do people use this word anymore?) who wears makeup on a daily basis, not even close. But I do consider myself mildly adept, and I definitely found this tutorial to be a bit of a challenge. I think part of my issue may have been the eyeliner I chose, it didn’t blend as easily as I would have liked. Since this is a dramatic look, I wore it for a wedding I was a part of.

Overall, I was pleased with the result, but I’m not sure I’d wear my makeup this way again. More photos in the tutorial would have been a huge help I think.

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Pintoberfest: Day 4

Pin: No Sew Hot Pads My Pinterest Board: I think I can Category: Crafts Level of Difficulty: Medium Cost: $9 for 6 yards of upholstery cord, I had glue and acrylic paint already.

Being a lifelong craft enthusiast, I couldn’t do a Pinterest challenge without including some DIY crafts! This little trivet is something new I was pretty excited to try my hand at. The process is outlined pretty clearly in the pin, and here’s my finished result:

My only complaint would be the finished size of this project. Using the recommended 2 yards of cording, my trivet ended up being more of a…large coaster. Since I still have an extra 4 yards of cord, I think I’ll make another larger one so that I can actually set stuff on it.

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Pintoberfest: Day 3

Pin: Homemade No Scrub Jewelry Cleaner My Pinterest Board: Home Tips Category: Cleaning Level of Difficulty: Easy Cost: I spent approx $4 on a gallon of vinegar; I had the rest of the ingredients already.

This. Pin. Is. Awesome! I own WAY too much jewelry; when I reach for silver pieces I wear less often they frequently look like this: 

No bueno. I do own several polishing cloths, and I try to buff my stuff every now and again, but some items (I’m looking at you necklace chains!) are a pain in the ass to clean. I honestly grabbed the first handful of tarnished jewelry I found and decided to give this a whirl. 

It worked extremely well, as evidenced by the after photo: 

This method is recommended for sterling silver jewelry only, but I threw in a ring with a glass stone, and a necklace with diamonds and they both did fine. 

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Pintoberfest: Day 2

Pin: Hairstyles for Wet Hair My Pinterest Board: Beauty is a Beast Category: Hair Level of Difficulty: Medium Cost: FREE!

Mornings…not my thing. My commute time is about to go from 5 minutes to an hour with our upcoming office move, so I’m in the market for some ways to streamline my morning routine. I found this pin for wet hairstyles and thought “This was made for lazy ladies like myself!” 

Pretty happy with the outcome, and it didn’t take too much effort or time to put together. (Bonus points for this pin because my boyfriend noticed I did something different with my hair and complimented it!) Now if only someone had a pin for building a teleporter….

~ZAP

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Pintoberfest: Day 1

Pin: How to Remove Wax and Reuse Candle Jars My Pinterest Board: Home Tips Category: Life Hacks Level of Difficulty: Easy Cost: FREE! This seemed like a great first Pintoberfest pin to try. I’m definitely not the type to try and salvage every empty candle container I own, but I have two recently finished candles that I used as guinea pigs.

Enter Pinterest, who assured me that all I needed to turn them into beautiful, usable (wax free) containers was some boiling water. My expectations were, admittedly, high - I was hoping this would work like a charm, but here’s what it actually looked like after the first boiling:

Overall, it was a good method for removing wax, and if I had a container I really cared about, I’d probably try it again. Not bad Pinterest, not bad. (Full disclosure, I gave up on the green one and threw it out. Even after multiple washings, it was very greasy.)

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Pintoberfest!

If you’ve deigned to read past the terrible pun of a title for this post, then I applaud you. In an effort to justify the embarrassing amount of time I spend on Pinterest, I’ll be attempting one new pin a day for a week, and I’ll report back on the outcome. I’m pretty excited to wade through my nearly 5,000 (how did that happen?!) pins and choose some to execute. You can be assured that they will all require minimal time, effort and money.

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Creepy Italy

I'm a pretty huge Halloween fan (in case you couldn't already tell) and therefore I thought it only appropriate to highlight some of my favorite lesser known creepy sights in Italy:

Crypt of St. Mary of Eulogies and the Dead (Rome) 

Monster Garden at Villa Orsini (Bomarzo) 

Museum of Souls in Purgatory (Rome) 

Museum of Medieval Torture (San Gimignano) 

Valley of the Mills (Sorrento) 

Parma's Abandoned Mental Facility Art 

~ mep

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Creepy Articles from the Smithsonian (Past & Present)

Since the museums of the Smithsonian Institution are currently closed, I thought I would bring them to the masses.  Check out what they've been able to dig up on Halloween and other things that are just plain creepy:

Meet the Fantastically Bejeweled Skeletons of Catholicism's Forgotten Martyrs 

Edinburgh's Mysterious Miniature Coffins 

12 Creepy Kids in Halloween Masks 

In the Long History of Creepy Robot Babies, This One Takes the Cake

Phantoms of the Museum 

The Great New England Vampire Panic

- MEP

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Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Take me out with the crowd

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack

I don't care if I never get back

Let me root, root, root for the home team

If they don't win, it's a shame

For it's one, two, three strikes you're out,

At the old ball game!

~ZAP

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What happens at Girls' Weekend, stays at Girls' Weekend...

Except for these photos that I'm posting on the Internet for everyone to see.

Drying my nails with a mini-fan.

Toby "blue" herself!!

3:05 AM, dressed as our Arrested Development alter-egos: Tobias and Lucille Bluth

Toby and Rachel, doing what they do best, making art!!

Well, if I show you any more of these, I'd have to kill you.

~ZAP

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So, you’re not a fan of Arrested Development…

COME ON!!!!

I can hardly sleep at night I’m so excited about the impending Season 4 Netflix premiere this weekend. I, like many loyal fans, have completed my marathon re-watching of the original 3 seasons, and for those of you who haven’t ever seen it (do you exist?) or have seen some episodes and aren’t fanatical (I’m judging you) I’ve compiled a list of my top 10 favorite episodes. Feel free to disagree with me, but I won’t hear it and I won’t respond to it.

Zoe’s Top Ten Arrested Development Episodes (Seasons 1-3)

1.       Public Relations (Season 1)

2.       Good Grief  (Season 2)

3.       Key Decisions (Season 1)

4.       Pier Pressure (Season 1)

5.       Motherboy XXX (Season 2)

6.       Ready, Aim, Marry Me (Season 2)

7.       Top Banana (Season 1)

8.       Afternoon Delight (Season 2)

9.       Prison Break-In (Season 3)

10.     Immaculate Election (Season 2)

~ZAP

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Impulse Buys: A Cautionary Tale

I accidentally bought $25 worth of cherries today. How did that happen?

(In case the scale isn't quite clear, it's two sandwich bags of cherries...)

I’m a classic impulse buyer. I rarely go to the grocery store with a shopping list or even a vague idea of what I plan to buy. Rather, I like to see what piques my interest. Today, it was Mt. Rainier cherries, which are the only kind of cherries I like, and which are usually only available to purchase in Maryland during a very short period in late Spring/early Summer. Owing to my love of them, I grabbed two bags, not thinking anything of it. I also purchased some water, iced tea, and a container of foods from the Whole Foods hot bar. My total at the register came to $40, which DID seem a bit steep, but since I also never pre-tally my purchases, I paid it and went on my way. Curious as to how much my hot bar lunch had cost, I checked out the receipt when I got back to work, only to discover that I had purchased $25 worth of cherries.

Lesson learned?

~ZAP

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Beach on a Budget

It’s officially “birthday season” and since the number of April birthdays in my life just seems to keep multiplying, I tried to stay frugal while enjoying a weekend getaway to my favorite former residence, Rehoboth Beach, DE. Here are some tried and true cheap thrills. 

Arena's Deli & Bar

It would be safe to say that if I'm visiting Rehoboth, I'm eating at Arena's. Friday and Saturday nights from 4pm-9pm they feature a steamed shrimp special, $2 for a 1/4 lb. (Only $8/lb!! That's my kind of seafood.) Miller Lite pitchers are $6, but they also have an extensive bottled beer list, which is nice for people who have beer snobs for friends. (No comment.) Arena's is also home to my favorite grilled cheese ever. I get it with Swiss cheese instead of American, and ask for an extra pickle!  My sister would be mad at me if I didn't also mention that the Death Fries shouldn't be missed!

Irish Eyes Pub & Restaurant

After filling ourselves with shrimp (and enjoying a chocolate fountain for dessert, thanks to my brother rOB) we headed out on the town and made our first stop at Irish Eyes. Irish Eyes boasts PBR on special for $1.75 all day/everyday. (I remember when it was only $1!!) They also run a ton of other drink and food specials, usually advertised on the sandwich board out front. It's a relatively quiet place, especially this time of year, but there are lots of TVs, so I often end up there watching some sporting event or another. Here's the tab the four of us racked up: 

Not too shabby, if you're willing to drink PBR, which I certainly am! We had brunch at Crystal restaurant the next morning, which was delicious, but I was too tired to remember to take any pictures, maybe next time!

-ZAP

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Note to self...