First Try :: Pedicures

Last Friday I had my first ever pedicure.  And I loved it!  Vida, a friend from work, suggested we go to a nail salon that served drinks while you got your nails done and I was totally game.  We met up and arrived to find a full salon at 11 AM on a Friday!  There was a wedding party ahead of us and so we chose our colors and then went and shopped a bit and got some Starbucks and headed back to see if the big group had been taken to their seats yet.  We only had to wait a bit more and we were taken back.  At this salon they also serve wine, beer and a few mixed drinks while you get your manicure or pedicure!  It took a while to get our drinks but eventually we got our Mimosa and Lemonosa.  Yum!

The drinks were better than some you get at nice restaurants in town.  And once I got into the idea of someone else scrubbing my feet and massaging lotion on them it was really enjoyable.  They massage your feet and legs and you just feel so relaxed at the end of it.

I got French tips with a nude base and Vida got French tips with a blue base.  We've decided that this needs to be a monthly gift to ourselves, so I've already scoured Pinterest for some ideas for next time.  Maybe I'll do pastels.  Or glitter.  Or just one with glitter.  Or maybe polka-dots with one nail reversed colors, or mermaid, or one with a heart! So many ideas!  Thank goodness there are 12 months in a year...  :)

Three Things Thursday :: Outlander, Soy Candles and Interstellar

I'm getting back into the swing of blogging again and on the way home today I remembered it was Thursday and I am currently obsessing over a few things....okay just one thing really, but it is THREE  Things Thursday so I had to come up with another two.

So my big obsession right now...Outlander.  I may be a bit late to the game but I fell HARD.  It had been recommended a couple of times to me and I'd read what it was about and found it intriguing.  At Mom's retirement party a good source said that she has read the books multiple times.  Her husband admitted that she reads them from the first to the last when a new book comes out.  That is Harry-Potter-level devotion and I respect that and it tells me these must be pretty good.  So this weekend Mom and I bought just one episode of the show on our Apple TV...and then we bought the whole season...and binged watched it in a couple of days.  I had bought mom the first book and she graciously put it in the bathroom where I could read it too.  I'd read ahead and then reread what we just watched and she told me I could take it and read it but I refuse to.  As long as it stays in the bathroom I'm not really "reading" it and I really need to finish up one or two of these books that my Goodreads says I'm reading.  I bought it on my Kindle so that when I do finish one of these books we can be reading at the same time.  And did I tell you that there are EIGHT books already.  Omigosh it's like getting the entire Harry Potter series at once.  I'm pretty sure I would have had some serious eye strain if I'd had all of those at once.  I've also downloaded the soundtrack (because it's AHmazing) on Spotify and have been listening to it constantly when I'm driving this whole week.  But wait there's more!  What we saw was only the first HALF of the season and more episodes will be coming out in April!!  **Squeals and screaming and jumping up and down**  I love getting fully obsessed with things every now and then.  :)

Now to flesh this out with something other than Outlander...soy candles!  I really enjoy going down the candle aisle in Target and finding something new that smells good.  I found these candles there and the scents work together so well and are light and not too fake smelling.  They really fill up the living room with lovely spring-y scents and are pretty too.  Do it.  Go to Target and let your nose lead the way.

And now for something that isn't available on Blu-Ray YET but will be in 19 short days...Interstellar!  I've already pre-ordered mine.  Tell me you don't want to sit and watch this about 50 times in a row until your brain is so full of mind bending physics that you feel like you've been working on a PhD!  I might even have to put Outlander on hold to obsess over this for a while.  ;)

Three Things Thursday :: The Girl on The Train, British Magazines and Americanos

It's been a while since I've posted about what I'm loving right now so here they are!

The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins

I start this book on February 6th and I'm already halfway through it.  Dang those free Kindle samples from Amazon!  I saw a review about it in my Entertainment Weekly and it sounded like a good read, especially since it was about a girl who rides the train into London and watches the goings on of people in the houses that have gardens against the tracks.  I could immediately see those houses in my mind because I enjoyed looking into those same gardens on our rides on the train when we were there.  I admit that I have crytoscopophilia (cry-toe-sco-po-feel-e-ah), as do many people.  Crytoscopophilia is a word brought to me by the Yarn Harlot from her book All Wound Up and it is the urge to look into people's windows as you pass.  As she says, this doesn't make you a stalker because the "as you pass" part is what separates you.  Ultimately it is the enjoyment of getting a snapshot of someone's life, as you would from a picture.  People making dinner, watching TV, playing with their kids or even knitting, drinking coffee on a patio or hanging laundry out to dry.  When we were in England I loved seeing the little garden room additions or the laundry strung from one side of the garden to the other.  I liked seeing the uniquely British part of their lives and the other things that were common to us all.  So this book intrigued me deeply and in the first few chapters I was sucked in and bought it.  It is also a thriller as one day she see's a woman that she watches kissing a man who isn't her husband.  A woman who ultimately goes missing.  Where is she?  If she's dead who killed her?  Who knows what's going on and who doesn't?  I like that the author displays life with all it's intricacies; where we look at someone else's life from the outside and see it as perfect but then we get to see the inside and real goings on.  The main character is a very fractured person and rather than identifying with her I feel almost protective of her.  While everyone's life in the novel isn't perfect why has she been dealt the worst hand?  I want her to find victory and happiness, to overcome her drinking and bad choices and be able to pull her life together.  But I don't know yet if she's involved somehow...

Country Living UK and Country Homes and Interiors

Oh my British magazines how I love thee!  Luckily enough I have found that our local bookstore, Inklings, carries these and I frequent it monthly for my editions.  I tried to have it delivered to our house, but it was only available in a tablet edition and there is just something about having a real magazine that makes it better.  I'm sure you've seen these in my pictures recently as I've been obsessed for a while.  I love reading them bit by bit and seeing what sorts of British style I can incorporate into my house.  You are all aware of my love of tea and the Anglophile that I've become, so none of this should be a surprise.  But really you should grab one!  They are so quaint!

Americano

At Christmas time I was drinking Cinnamon Lattes but then I found a drink that was the best tasting low calorie espresso around...the Americano!  Now I will admit that I am not fluent in the language of espresso drinks and I didn't know what exactly the difference was between them.  An Americano is shots of coffee in hot water rather than milk.  How is this different from brewed coffee you ask?  Well it is much more smooth and can be stronger than brewed coffee based on the number of shots you get in it.  I like to add one more shot than they usually put in whatever size I order and I add Splenda and a splash of cream.  And I'll admit the best Americanos I get are at work.  I typically only get a tall but with two shots.  They use Lincoln Ave Espresso coffee and it is soooooo gooooooood.  My current weakness for sure.  So much so that I've been researching small home espresso makers but I keep chickening out.  I think I'll let the experts handle this and just keep forking over the $2.50.  ;)

Three Things Thursdays :: Fire Within, Cinnamon Lattes and Spotify

Another idea I had in my blog organization was to have a recurring post that shares what I'm into at the time.  In my perusal of my other favorite blogs (especially Cider with Rosie) I've enjoyed when they share what they are listening to, what it trending in fashion or even what espresso they can't get enough of.  So in a tip of my hat to those posts I'm starting my own.  Here the first one...

1.  Listening to Birdy's Fire Within album on repeat in my car.  The first song I heard from Birdy was Skinny Love and it just came up on an iTunes radio station I was listening to.  After getting that song I listened to the others that were on the album and decided that it was good enough to buy the whole thing!  I hardly ever do that anymore!

2.  Cinnamon dolce lattes from Starbucks.  I'm trying to cut back on calories again and lattes are comparatively low calorie in Starbucks-ville.  (Nothing except water, unsweetened tea or plain brewed coffee is truly LOW.)  It's definitely better than the Peppermint Mochas I've chosen in the past.  The cinnamon flavor also gives me that holiday vibe without overdoing it.

3.  Recently the radio station I played most often at work changed from "80s, 90s and Today" music to rock.  Now I'm not saying that rock is bad music but we already have a rock station in town why did they have to take away the only easy listening station so they could have two rock stations?  So now I can choose between country (something I only listen to occasionally), popular (aka - the same 5 songs all day) or the aforementioned rock.  What I ended up doing instead was to use my semi-competent hacking skills to stream Spotify on my computer and play it through our stereo.  This is a bigger accomplishment than you might think because where I work the internet is regulated and most entertainment sites are blocked.  So now we get to enjoy better music than we had before!  And I'm loving the playlists that Spotify brings up for me to try.  I've found some new music that I probably never would have come across!  And then there's days like today where you just want some ambient background noise without words.  Much better than that ole scratchy radio!