Gadget I Can No Longer Live Without: PowerGen Mobile Battery Pack

Quick post today, but I feel like people need to know about this:

 

PowerGen Mobile Battery Pack (affiliate link)

My iPhone has reached that point where it no longer holds a charge for a full day.  I'm lucky if I get a half-day.  I took it into the Apple store to try to get a replacement, but apparently the problem is my usage because there is nothing wrong with the performance of the battery according to whatever voodoo test they conduct at the Apple store.

In any case, this gadget is about $30 on Amazon and I get two full charges of my iPhone on this thing before it itself needs to be charged.  It will also charge my iPad and comes with adaptors for other things.

Highly recommend.

[I know this sounds like an ad, but I have basically five minutes to write a post and I have been loving on this thing so hard since January that it seemed about damn time I told you all about it.  After all, this is some stuff this Jewish Girl likes.]

OOTD: It's Brights Time!

Summer brights! Welcome to my life.

In this Outfit:

Ann Taylor Loft Colorblocked Crepe Dress (8 - a smidge big. For reference if you've generally tracked me in sizing, I've gone up a size) (here) (affiliate link) (link updated since I originally posted the wrong one)

Jessica Simpson Minna Wedges (9.5 - these run a half size small) (I get SO many compliments on these shoes and I'm always embarassed to tell people they are by Jessica Simpson) (PS: don't get them in black patent)

Necklace: Ann Taylor Loft (from December)

Kate Spade Lever-back earrings in citron

Marc by Marc Jacobs Marci Watch

Sorry about the iPad photo....I know it looks ridiculous. I didn't bring my phone to the locker room on Monday morning.

I bought this dress online from LOFT last week, before I decided to impose a no-more-clothes-purchases-until-normal-weight-is-achieved policy upon myself. (I'm about TEN pounds up from where I like to be; some of that is crossfit muscle so my new happy weight may change but I GUARANTEE YOU that a good bit of that is not muscle.) BUT I am glad this dress snuck its way into the mix. It's lightweight, comfy, and reminds me that summer is practically here.

Anthropologie Dashed Knit Blazer (L)

Michael Kors Gansevoort Tote (my jeans stained the leather a bit blue within its first week of life, but the stains came out with some leather cleaner I found on Amazon) (here) (affiliate link)

...Except for the fact that it was like FIFTY DEGREES in DC earlier this week!! What gives, weather?? I like my spring without a sprinkle of winter, tyvm.

I love this necklace and wanted to show you a close-up. I am not just making an excuse for posting a photo of my chest. Consciously.

(Quick post today because I'm traveling and overwhelmed with work, but LOOK AT ME STILL POSTING when I'm traveling and overwhelmed with work! PROGRESS, you guys!)

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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED (Kate Spade Surprise Sale)

OMG YOU GUYS. This bag? That I neglected to buy for $199 during a Kate Spade online sample sale in December 2010 and have whined about ever since? (See, e.g., here)

$495 $229 HERE RIGHT NOW.  (affiliate link)

IT IS NOW MINE!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA.

A thoughtful and timely text message from my friend Michelle alerted me to the fact that my bag was on sale. I immediately presumed she meant on eBay, where I did indeed see two newly-listed All Typed Up Clydes for the low low price of...$600 BIN, OBO. Sigh. I contemplated making an offer at $350 or $400 as I went down to the office gym to shower.

When I returned to my phone, I saw these fateful words: "Kate Spade surprise sale."

And sure enough, there it was. My typewriter bag. From 2010. For $229. I could not submit my order fast enough. (Seriously, I may have yelled at the computer while the pages loaded.)

Kate Spade, if you cancel my order due to some mistake in my inventory I swear I will cut you. I will cut you.

PS: Be sure to check out the sale! Lots of other oldies and goodies are available, including (FYI the links below are affiliate links):

Pride and Prejudice Book Clutch -- $328 $99

All Aboard Ship Clutch -- $358 $139

Cobble Hill Travel Leslie -- $648 $229

Gold Coast Lily -- $298 $119 (also available in tan!)

Made in the Shade Sunglasses Clutch -- $328 $79 (I think this is kind of hideous but it's hugely marked down, so if it's your thing, cash in on your counter-market taste!)

Horseshoe Cove Darek -- $98 $29

Journal Bon Shopper -- $148 $49

Sprinkles Mallory -- $138 $49 (image source)

Kate Spade Lever-Back Earrings -- $58 $19

Radio Belt -- $128 $49

The Easiest Frozen Bananas

PART ONE: THE BANANA

1. Peel some bananas.

2. Cut them in half width-wise, so you have a top half of the banana and a bottom half. (Not a left half and a right half.)

3. Stick a popsicle stick (affiliate link; and FYI those are also the sticks I bought for myself) in the banana halves and arrange on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper so that the bananas are not touching each other.

4. Put the bananas on the cookie sheet in the freezer.

5. After about half an hour (or three hours, if you sit on the couch and forget about them while catching up on Grey's Anatomy), they will be "flash frozen" and you can stick them all in a ziplock bag without worrying that they will congeal together in a big lump of banana.  Then let them freeze for several hours before you proceed to part two.  [Incidentally, this flash freezing thing is a very nifty trick for anything homemade that you want to freeze in bulk. I do this with uncooked homemade french fries, muffin-tin omelets, etc.]

You end up with this. ^

PART TWO: THE SAUCE

1. Combine roughly equal parts of chocolate chips and coconut oil. You can eyeball it.

2. Melt in the microwave. For small amounts, I do 30 seconds on high; for large amounts I do a minute. Roughly. Better to undershoot than overshoot and burn the chocolate. It doesn't have to be perfectly melted when you take it out, since it will get smooth in Step #3.

3. Stir until smooth.

See, told you. Smooth.

4. Dip a banana in the chocolate mixture. Swirl around until evenly coated.

Or you can be awesome and leave a little uneven spot like a boss.

5. Feel free to dip again if you want an extra-thick chocolate layer.

6. The chocolate shell will harden within about 30 seconds. [FYI, yes, this is "magic shell," but it's homemade, cheap, and lacking in crazy preservatives and chemicals (as long as you use chocolate also lacking in crazy preservatives and chemicals).]

7. Enjoy while reclined on the couch, but try to be diligent about picking up wayward chocolate shards as they fall into your cleavage. Or don't, and make it a fun little game for later. Your call, honcho.

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OOTD: Palm Beach International

So remember, oh, MORE THAN A MONTH AGO when I told you I was having an awesome week of getting dressed? [Admittedly, an achievement in which most [normal] people would not take so much pride.]

 

 

Well, this is the only outfit I'd left out of the photo collection from that week. Incidentally, this is also the outfit I was most happy with:

 

 

Save the best for WAY WAY FORGETTABLY LAST, AMIRITE??

 

^ fashunabul blogger shameface :-\

 

This was a new dress at the time and I loved the idea of wearing dark florals with a light blazer. Sort of an inverse of this outfit, which was in turn inspired by this outfit, both of which involved florals and blazers and which I loved (yes, I loved my own outfit, I'll say it):

 

 

Anyway, I was very proud of myself for flipping the florals formula. Something about the floral pattern and the light pink blazer made me think of the tropical and retiree-filled West Palm Beach. Don't press me on that association, though, because that's all I got.

 

In this Outfit:

Floral Dress by Corey Lynn Calter

Payless Chelsea Flats (9)

Kate Spade Kingsbury Park Shelby

Lauren Conrad for Kohl's (I KNOW OKAY) blazer

Kate Spade "It Takes All Sorts" Necklace

 

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