Currently.

Hello, July and goodbye, June. Here's some things that have been on my mind and going on lately. 

Cupcakes. 
I've been going to an adorable cafe in Providence called the Duck and Bunny with a lot of my friends lately for tea and cupcakes. This is seriously one of the cutest places I've ever been to and so delicious too. I'm obsessed with their honey cupcake with lavender frosting and the vegan dark chocolate, mixed-berry cupcake. I've been there twice in the past month and want to go soon for lunch to try their crepes (and most definitely devour a cupcake). 

Debating renaming.
When I started Living Bittersweetly about a year ago, I really liked the name. It seemed fitting. I liked the idea of bittersweet, two opposing forces that work well together and it describes me pretty well and I still like this idea and the way it sounds but I'm not crazy about the "living" part anymore. I've been thinking about changing the blog name for a while but am not sold on anything yet. Anyone have suggestions?

Seeing.
Rainbows everywhere. Ever since I had to put Penny to sleep I've been seeing a rainbow at least once a week, starting with the day after. I'm not that superstitious or anything but to me it's a sign that she's okay and happy and looking after me.

Studying.
For my driver's permit. I know most people have their licenses the instant they turn 16 but I never took driver's ed in high school because I couldn't afford a car, gas or insurance and it seemed silly to go through all of the things to get a license. Now, I'm getting it so after college I can get to places if I leave Boston and surprisingly a lot of places don't accept state IDs as valid identification..

Freaking out over.
I'm going to be a senior in college in two months time. It's so weird to be that close to finishing school and embarking on real life with a job and an apartment and grownup things.




 

Tea & Cupcakes

Tonight, I went out with my friend Kayla. Kayla and I have been friends for about four years now and have worked together at the same shoe store for just as long. She's an awesome person to spend time with and just graduated from UConn with a Communication degree so she's pretty much exactly where I'll be in a year. It was great to catch up with her because we haven't talked all summer except for a few conversations during work shifts.

We chatted about all the drama at the store and what's going on in our lives. We talked about all the bad dates we've gone on and how she's doing her best to stay positive after a pretty terrible breakup and how excited we were for me now that my love life is going so well.

We got together with plans to go to the Duck & Bunny, a fantastic place in Providence, RI. We both ordered mixed berry, dark chocolate vegan and red velvet cupcakes and shared an enormous pot of vanilla chai spice tea! Everything was so delicious. This place is adorable and, other than the awful lighting, is so photographable. I instantly whipped out my phone to snap pictures of my cupcakes and then little by little the entire cafe filled up making pictures impossible! I managed to get a few cute ones of our table though. Ever since my confession about food photography, I've been determined to take more pictures! 

There's nothing better than catching up with good friends over dessert. What have you been doing with your pals lately?

Weekstagram: December 2nd - 8th

1. An improvised birthday cup made by my lovely friend, Alex.

2. Birthday (scallion pan) cake & sushi

3. One of my favorite prints I made recently

4. Polkadot tights and bear tattoo

Weekstagram: November 24th - December 1st

1. Pretty roses.

2. Beginning of the etching process for my printmaking final
3. Molly's comments about the celebrities that inspire her... We will never stop hating Kristen Stewart's acting.

4. Sushi!

5. Hedgehog print in my doctor's office.

Photo Booth + Gummy Bears

Why would I be doing homework in the library when there are funny pictures to take and gummy bears to eat? Clearly, my friends and I have too much fun with Photo Booth to care about our papers... except Alex....

Sephora Lovin'

I had a coupon for last weekend for Sephora and felt like that in addition to my current stress level was a sure indiction of my need for retail therapy. Molly and I went to a friend's place as an excuse to try out our new makeup and celebrate the long weekend too. In sad news, my Cannon Powershot is mysteriously not working which is my primary camera for going out and about because my Nikon D5100 is too big to carry around. Plus I'm still afraid to take it out.. Anyways here's some product photos and going out webcam shots from this weekend.

 Nars Blush in Desire

Lately...

I haven't been keeping up with my weekend posts, but like always I've been snapping pictures. Here's a few pictures from the past two weeks or so.

With all the homework I've been doing, I pretty much live at my desk. Of course there's coffee and a gridded cutting mat nearby.

My Weekend: Tattoos, "The Room" and working

This weekend was a fun one. I got another tattoo. Yes I know I just got one but you only live once right? And tattoos are something I love and I always knew I'd be covered. This time I got a skeleton key on my bicep. I'm pretty happy with it and I'm suffering through the gross healing process now. This is my biggest tattoo ink-wise and my first piece with color. Molly, my roomie, also got one on her forearm and we took a picture with our "battle wounds" in the T because people kept looking at us with these giant bandages on our arms. 

In addition to the tattoo, I went to see a midnight showing of The Room. If you haven't heard about this movie you need to Youtube it IMMEDIATELY! It's probably the worst movie ever made in history and I've seen some shitty movies. I can't even explain it. Other than The Room and my tattoo, I've been working a ton. A lot of my coworkers went home for the long weekend and I picked up a bunch of shifts. That's my fancy name tag.
 

Photos from my Weekend

This weekend was a fun one. I got a tattoo with my roomie and best friend, Molly. We both got bears with puns. Mine says "[bear] with me" and her's says that's unbearable. Also, I only refer to it as a "sweet bear tat." We'd been planning on doing it for a while but spontaneously decided that this weekend would be a good time so we did it. It was a lot of fun and makes me want to start saving my money so I can get a big tattoo that I've been planning for a while.

Other than the tattoo, my weekend has been pretty routine. Lots of studying. I did paint my nails though and I used these adorable tokidoki Cactus Dog decals. 

What did you do this weekend?
 

Life this Summer

I'm trying to enjoy my summer. Really, I am. I wanted to be in Boston but I'm not and still attempting to make the best out of it. Between two jobs a biweekly internship and a science class I am stressed and always busy. As, I've mentioned before, my dog has the early stages of kidney failure so I'm doing the best I can with keep a solid medication schedule and going to her doctors appointments. On top of it all I'm trying to still spend time with friends and family while I'm in Rhode Island. In the midst of my crazy life, I snapped a few calming pictures I thought I'd share.

What are you doing this summer?
xo,
Kristen

It's all in the details.

I am a firm believer that the little things make life exciting. I find that the photos I take (I'm trying to take even more!) are of random things that I see. These little details make my life exciting and I'm excited to start sharing them with you in my "It's all in the details" series. 


I went to the beach with my family last Thursday and it was a great time. I went swimming and caught up on some guilty pleasure reading. I can't help it! Cosmo is just perfect for the beach... Anyways, the beach was beautiful. I couldn't help but include this silly photo of me and my nana. She hates having her picture taken because she says they come out so bad. Most of the time, it is her fault considering she's moving or talking. Either way I thought this picture was super cute. I found this crab shell in the sand. It was pretty but looked kind of gross so I took a picture instead of picking it up.


My eleven year old Golden Retriever, Penny, makes the most adorable faces. I swear she has no idea that she's a dog and responds to what you say to her. Penny is sick and has the early stages of kidney disease. This means that she takes a ton of pills every day and doesn't want to eat or drink. I've been cooking chicken and rice or ground beef and rice for her and giving her at home IV's to keep her healthy. I've been trying to be the best puppy-mama I can and have been wrestling her to eat and take her medicine. It's a challenge, considering how uncooperative she is but she's definitely more energetic after she's eaten.


In the middle of working two jobs and doing a summer internship I finally had time to spend with some friends from high school. Erin, Kristen (yes there's another one!, Lily and I got dinner and ice cream and hung out for a few hours. While waiting for Erin to get out of work, the rest of us found some awesome graffiti in a random alley way. I'm loving the ram's head with bows and hearts. 


xo,
Kristen