Weekend Update

My cousin visited me not long ago from down south and left these leggings with me. Where I live the Summers are pretty cold (not where she lives though) so I can use them more than she can right now! They're from Forever 21 and so cute and comfy! 

When my cousin was here I kept stealing one of her shirts to wear. It was just like this one, in the picture, but kind of a faded red color. I liked it so much I went and bought one for myself! It's O'Neil and really soft. 

I have been watching One Tree Hill like, nonstop on Netflix. This is a picture of Nathan and Haley if you didn't already get that. They have this whole long love story on the show. Tons of problems off and on, but so in love. They made me realize what a hopeless romantic I am. They get married at age 16 and somehow made it work. Like I said, they had all kinds of problems. But they survived. Their love survived. I really want to believe in that. Not necessarily the whole 'married at 16' thing but the fact that they could always work through their problems and keep being in love.  

Target cotton balls are Puffy fluffs now! What? Random, right? I think it's pretty funny.  

I tried out the bordeaux! I love it! It's not as dark as I thought it would be, but it's still really nice. As you can see in this picture, i still kind of suck at painting my nails, but I'm getting better with practice! The geranium color was amazing too, but it was kind of growing out. The Essie nail polish works really well, it wears off at some point of course, but not in big chips or flakes like most other polishes. It stays looking good for a long time but, of course, nails grow and there ends up being a gap if you don't fix them up. Anyway, I'm a big an of Essie nail polish now, especially the geranium and bordeaux colors. 

Anyway, that was my update. I haven't been up to much lately, but I do have a trip to Texas coming up soon-a California girl in the south-that should be interesting! More on that later I guess. 

Moneyball

Last night I rented and watched Moneyball. I am a huge fan of sports movies, and this is a great one (about baseball). Brad Pitt is a great actor and Jonah Hill really steps up in his role as a Yale graduate. The movie is based on a true story about Billy Beane, the general manager for the Oakland Athletics and how he changed the game, basically. He lost some players to other teams that had more money (like, waaaay more money) but he managed to make a great team by replacing those players with a bunch of undervalued players that other teams just didn't want. Along the way Billy Beane learns more about his role as a GM. It's a great underdog story. I definitely recommend it. 

Book of the Every-Now-and-Then

A while ago I watched a BBC mini-series version of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South on Netflix. It was amazing! Seriously. A great story, great acting, just great. I watched it more than once before I decided to read the book. I bought it used for a quarter (plus shipping and handling-like, 4 dollars total) at Barnes and Noble online. I'm not very far yet but it so far I love it. The great thing about BBC is that their mini-series adaptations of books are always really faithful. That holds true for North and South.

North and South was first published in 1854, written by Elizabeth Gaskell. It is about a young woman named Margaret Hale who lives in London with her aunt and cousin until her cousin's wedding. She then moves back to her parent's home in the country. She loves Helstone and loves being back there. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long. Her father leaves the church for reasons of doubt (rather vague, I know) and moves the family to the North, to a manufacturing town called Milton. Her father intends to do private tutoring there and already knows of one young man who is interested- John Thornton (the love interest of the novel). Margaret and Mr. Thornton have a Darcy and Elizabeth type clash of ethics but there is romance between them. Margaret learns to love the North and for once in her life sees the faults of the South. 

Sweet Potato Fries

So, I love french fries. Love them. But, as one of many women trying to lose weight, I don't want to eat them anymore. Sad, right? So, I bought a bag of sweet potato fires one time and they were pretty good, but as so many organic foods are, they were really expensive.  So, the other day I bought a few large sweet potatoes at the grocery store and made my own fries-sweet potato fries! The don't quite taste like regular fries but let me tell you, they are damn good. Plus, sweet potatoes have a ton of vitamin A and lots of protein making them a complex carbohydrate (better for you than a simple one of course). 

So, to make sweet potato fries you basically just cut the sweet potatoes into fry-shaped pieces (kind of hard to do since sweet potatoes are really hard) and then put them into a bowl or a plastic bag of some kind. Add in a few tablespoons of oil (I used about a 1/4 of melted coconut oil), spices like garlic powder, paprika or chili pepper of some kind and salt and pepper, all to taste really. Mix it all up and then spread the coated fries on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. 

Put them in the oven at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes and then turn them over for another 15 minutes. Serve hot with or without ketchup. 

The classic meal-burgers and fries! At left-organic burger in a gluten-free bun and the low-carb version above (no bun). A very yummy meal!

Some of my favorite things

I recently started using Jergens Natural Glow Healthy Complexion lotion after I was my face. I thought it might make my face actually tan but no! I love it! It really just helps to even my skin tone and well, glow! It feels great and is nice and moisturizing. 

I've had a lot of problems with dry lips. Recently I got a couple of new chap sticks.  Dr. Bronner's Magic All-One Organic Lip Balm and Maybelline Baby Lips with SPF 20. I use the Baby Lips for during the daytime because it smells nice (not too scented though) and it's a little more light weight and plus, the sunscreen. The Dr. Bronner's I use at night, or when I'm just at home doing nothing. both are really healing and feel really good. My lips haven't been dry in a long time. 

Nail Polish!

Yesterday I went to Target and bought two Essie nail polishes-geranium and bordeaux. I've never been very good at painting my nails so usually I don't even try--until now. I love the way bright nails look so I started trying again. Today I painted my nails with the geranium polish and they look great! Essie is a great brand and I can't wait to try the bordeaux next!

So I guess I failed with the whole "Book of the Week" thing so why don't we go with a "Book of Every Now and Then" type thing? Sounds good to me!

I recently ordered both of these books--I have read both of them before, but I love to reread good books. These two books are great summer reads. These authors are a couple of the best authors of "Chick Lit" or young adult novels (usually for girls). I don't know which one I will read first but I know that I will read them as fast as I did the first time around. I ordered the books at Barnes and Noble online but I got them used for really great prices.

The first book, The Secret Life of Prince Charming, is about a girl who is raised by women who are kind of down on men. She finds out that her dad isn't as cool as she thought he was (big surprise, right?) and ends up going on a road trip with her sisters to make some of the things he done right.  Along the way she meets a boy of course and the girls all bond. My description might sound cheesy but that's mostly just because I'm trying not to give anything away. For more by Deb Caletti visit her website at debcaletti.com.

The Truth About Forever is about a girl who's dad dies. She has to learn how to actually be OK again, not just pretend for her mom. She ends up working for a catering business and meeting a guy and again, I don't want to give anything away, you'll just have to read it! To find more books by Sarah Dessen (they're all good, trust me) visit her website at sarahdessen.com.