Tag: saturday musings

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Taking Photos in a Mall Starbucks

Published on by lensembledujour5 Comments

My friend, Jane, giggled at me the whole time I was taking the photos for today's blog.

I've gotten used to taking photos in public – you put on your sunglasses so you don't have to make eye contact with anyone, and then pretend no one's judging you. It was weird at first, and I used to purposefully avoid public places for my photos, but I'm immune to the embarrassment now.

So it's funny when I hang out with friends who aren't used to my constant photo taking because they usually look confused and awkward when I whip out my Canon in the middle of a restaurant and start taking pictures of my coffee. Which is funny, you know, since we teenagers have no problem taking photos with our phones to post to our Snapchat stories – but pull out a real camera, and *Heath Ledger voice* everybody loses their minds!

To relieve Jane of her embarrassment (and also to get to a spot with better lighting), I scooted over to an empty table a few feet away to snap my photos for my Saturday Musings post today.

I dunno, there's just something really cute about a nice flatlay with some sparkly things, coffee, and a plain white background, and it makes for a really lovely Instagram post to break up all the OOTD photos. It makes the uncomfortable stares in public places all worth it.

Plus, since I suffer no embarrassment anymore from public photo taking, it's funny to watch my friends cringe and look like they don't know what to do when I start arranging all of my accessories on a table and snapping pictures.

Anyway, that’s it for today! Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com.

Saturday Musings + Coffee – I Have 15 Minutes to Write This Blog

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Wow, it's been quite a while since I've done one of these, huh?

Yes, while I wish I could keep up with these Saturday Musings posts a little better, I often have to go to work early on Saturday mornings, making writing these posts a little difficult. I don't exactly have the time to sit down, enjoy a nice cup of coffee, and reflect upon my life or whatever when I'm rushing out the door to beat the morning traffic, and I definitely don't have the time to write a blog about it.

Thankfully though, there are these wonderful things called afternoons, which come after mornings, and it's just as acceptable to enjoy coffee at 2:00pm as it is at 8:00am.

So that's what I did today. My mother and I were meeting with a former coworker at Starbucks to chat, so I thought I'd bring along my camera to take some artsy photos of my iced coffee and do one of these posts.

If it weren't the summer, and if it weren't too hot to drink a hot coffee, you can bet that's what I would be drinking. I'm not really into all of the cold coffee concoctions. I feel like to have a cold coffee, you really need for it to be sweet and dessert-like, but I'm not really into sweet coffees – I always take mine black. But sadly, I don't have the guts to drink a black cold-brew; I've tried and I'm sorry, it's just disgusting.

My compromise then is a lightly sweetened vanilla iced coffee – less caloric and less sweet than say, a frappuccino (not ashamed to say I Googled how to spell that), but still less disgusting than a plain cold brew. But like I said, at the end of the day, I like a hot, black coffee, and the fact that I cannot drink those on summer afternoons is just another reason why I am not a summer person.

And it looks like my fifteen minutes is nearly up! I started this blog at 4:45, and I have a friend coming at 5:00, so this post was something of a little exercise to see how long I could stay focused and write when I was under a time limit. It's not the longest, most in-depth post ever, but it's something, right?

Anyway, that’s it for today. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com.

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Planning for London

Published on by lensembledujour9 Comments

Hey there.

As some of you might know, I’m going on a trip to London in a little more than a week, and I’m beginning to get quite excited!


The whole thing was a little impromptu actually – my friend, Amanda, has a family friend in England, and she was talking to me in January maybe about how she was planning to visit over the summer. So me, being rather jealous, jokingly asked if I could come along, and to my surprise, she was cool with it. 

We’re getting to stay with this family friend for free, so no hotel to pay for, and Amanda’s mother used to be a flight attendant, so our airfare was greatly discounted. It’s all very lucky for me, because there’s no way I’d be able to pay for a trip like this otherwise. I’m still surprised it’s happening.

Anyway, Amanda and I met for lunch the other day (I actually wrote about it a little here) to discuss what we wanted to do while there. We’ve already got tickets to see Cage the Elephant (ironically, a Kentucky band) in their acoustic set at Union Chapel, but otherwise, our schedule is fairly free for whatever we want to do on any given day.

We decided we definitely want to do the Climb the O2 experience, as our means of getting a good view of the city from above, rather than doing something like the London Eye. We also want to hit Shoreditch for its beautiful Instagram opportunities,  St. Paul’s Cathedral (I’m a sucker for old, beautiful churches), Brick Lane Market, and probably way more things than we’ll actually be able to see. 


We’re going to meet again sometime before we leave to sort out our priorities, but, since I know many of you guys live in Europe, and some even in England, I thought I’d ask – what should I make sure to hit while in London? And honestly, even if you’re not English, but you’ve visited the country – or if you’re simply a person who likes giving their opinion – please leave me a comment below! I love hearing feedback, and I know I won’t be able to get to everything I want, so I’d appreciate any advice you can offer.

There’s so much still to do – pack, pick out clothes, order tickets, figure out how many bags I need and what needs to be checked and what can be carry-on – and so little time! I’m beginning to get rather excited though. This is my first time out of the country in years; the last time, I was in third grade and my parents took me to see China. That was such an amazing, memorable experience, so I hope England can compete!

Anyway, it looks like it’s going to be a short post today – my parents are calling me for dinner. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one!

Saturday Musings + Coffee – I Made a Cake!

Published on by lensembledujour2 Comments

Baking is one of my all time favorite hobbies.


It all started the summer after my freshman year – it was probably the week before school started again, and I was so bored. Back then, I was too young to work, and too young to drive, so I basically spent every day stuck at home by myself, which, though peaceful and relaxing, was hardly exciting.


Anyway, I had just started to learn to cook things from scratch (on account of the Food Network being one of the only good channels on at 2pm on a weekday), and I was looking for a new recipe to try on Pinterest. Lo and behold, as I was searching through the #food tags, I came across one of those beautiful cake designs from a baking blog.

 I remember thinking it was beautiful  but that there as no way I could possibly do it myself. Still, I followed the link through to check the directions, and they seemed doable – mix some ingredients together into cake batter, separate into tins, tint them different shades of pink, and then coat with icing. Seemed simple enough.

In a sense, I guess, it was. I completed the cake, and though some sides were definitely more attractive than others, it wasn’t a far shot from the image I saw on Pinterest. Plus, it was a ton of fun following the directions and having them turn out into a beautiful, tasty creation.

 Flash forward to today, and I’ve made cake baking a little hobby of mine. It still takes me almost a half day to complete one, start to finish, so I usually only do it a couple times of year  – during winter break, summer break, and maybe fall or spring break.

 

Today’s cake, which I mentioned baking back a few days ago , was inspired by a recipe on The Cake Blog. Their version was arguably more beautiful than mine, and I kinda wish I’d made mine tall like theirs, but I think mine has a creative spin to it. In addition to the birch “bark,” which circles the cake, made from Ghirardelli melting squares, I melted some extra candy and swirled it around on some parchment paper to create the flourishes on top. I really do love working with chocolate; it’s really easy to shape into forms to make pretty, if delicate, designs.

J As for the cake itself,  it’s a walnut and cinnamon flavor with buttercream frosting. I didn’t try to be creative with that; I find that while in cooking, they’re plenty of room to add your own flair, in baking, it’s more of an exact science.

 Anyway, that’s it for today. I’ve got some work to do (always) if I’m going to have some time to celebrate Father’s Day tomorrow. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Preparing for Work

Published on by lensembledujour4 Comments

I thought I’d add a new series to my blog, in addition to my typical OOTD posts. These posts, which I’m titling Saturday Musings + Coffee, will simply be a way for me to let out some of the thoughts I have in the morning while I sit and sip some coffee. It’ll be more about lifestyle than anything else, but I might throw some fashion in there too. I don’t know, we’ll see!

Anyway, I woke up this morning with a pretty stiff neck after having slept on the couch.


I didn’t mean to, of course – I just happened to do it after falling asleep watching some television with my parents, and I apparently just stayed there all night. I woke up this morning wearing the same slightly sweaty t-shirt and shorts I walked the dog in last night. Gross.

The other problem with that is that I didn’t charge my phone at all, which I usually do overnight with a cord by my bed while I sleep. Thus, I woke up this morning to a completely dead phone, that I’m somehow hoping will charge itself to 100% in an hour and a half before I have to go into work.

I’m doing an eight-hour shift today, by the way, so wish me luck! My job involves being on my feet a lot, which is something I simultaneously love and hate. Love, because I hate sitting for so long, and hate, because it gets exhausting after about the three-hour mark. No idea what eight hours is going to do to me!


I did go running this morning, which I’m hoping will give me a little extra energy this morning. I like to go either in the morning, before I’ve eaten anything, or in the late evening, after all my food has settled. Otherwise, I often wind up cramping and not being able to run as far as fast, and I’m fairly confident it’s to do with the food I eat. I hadn’t been able to go for the last few days because I found myself so exhausted after work, but today, since I didn’t have to go in to the store until later, I had a chance to get my excercuse in beforehand. 

Anyway, it’s about time I get going to shower and dress for my day. Again, please wish me luck on this long day of work! I hope I won’t need it, but, better safe than sorry. I really enjoyed doing this little blog in the morning to help organize my thoughts, and I hope you enjoyed reading it!