What Are You Reading?

Just a couple weeks ago, I had gotten caught in an endless "Hunger Games" loop of rereading the books, literally hungry for more of those damn games. My friend Nakiya asked me what I was going to read next, and I knew I better read something good to come down from that high. I took a little inspiration from the movie, though, and after looking at Jennifer Lawrence's list of upcoming projects, spotted a movie in development called "Serena." 

It turns out it's based on a 2009 novel by Ron Rash, a great Appalachian author, and is like Lady Macbeth set in the timber business, on the cusp of the Great Depression and the famous chestnut blight. It's interesting, reading a book with such an unlikeable lead character, but I'm finding it really deliciously dark. The movie doesn't come out till 2013, so it's nice to be ahead of the bandwagon for a change.

 Next on my list will be this book, a big best-seller this year about college baseball and coming-of-age...

And then another coming-of-age story, but this time about the true life love and friendship between Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. 

I'm probably going to go ahead and load the next two on my Kindle for our flights to Ireland (next week! OMG!!). What are you reading these days? Any book you just have to evangelize because it was that good? Any huge letdowns?

Wine Club: Blends

Wine Club has been all about celebrating lately — namely, our newest member Melissa and her upcoming marriage. To mark the occasion of her soon-to-be blended household, our most recent themed night was "blends," including Jen's amazing sweet and salty snacks, shown above.

 Jen also served breadsticks, veggies, fruit and my fave, caramel dip.

•  14 Hands Hot to Trot: A spicy blend of berry flavors and mocha.
• Menage a Trois California Red: We love this blend of zinfandel, merlot and cabernet. Fruity, a little spicy, but smooth.

•  Zamarro white blend: This tasted almost like a Chardonnay, which is to say it wasn't my favorite, but might be yours.
• Third Wheel White Table Wine: This blend of chardonnay, chenin blanc and gewurztraminer was my fave. It had a slight effervescence and sweetness that made it just delicious, to me.
• Sexy Wine Bomb white wine: This was another delicious blend on the sweet side, made with chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, muscat, gewurztraminer and marsanne.

• Davis Valley Winery White and Red: Alone, these were almost TOO sweet. But together, they were magic! Jen said the owners of this Rural Retreat, Va. winery used to serve them blended at the annual Norfolk WineFest and it was so popular, they tried bottling them together. Somehow, the effect wasn't nearly as delicious, so they're back to separate bottles.

• Chocolat Rouge: We finished the night with this chocolate wine blended with red wine. It was good, but not great and very rich. For the record, my favorite chocolate wine is called Noche, by Cooper Vineyards, in Louisa, Va.

Sunday Best v.105

Guys, I had a bridal shower/bachelorette-filled Saturday and my feet are protesting to that much time in heels! I had so much fun, though! Everyone needs a raucous night out once in a while. What did you do this weekend?

On to my favorite links of the week:

• 17 guys you should never date.
• Your face isn't oval or square or round or heart-shaped? Here's a guide to choosing sunglasses for you.
• Is Facebook making us lonely?
• The guide to New Girl's make-up drinking game, True American.
• Beyonce has a tumblr.
• Animals talking in all caps.
• Find your public radio name!
• An illustrated guide to table manners.
• Pop culture myths, busted!

Today I Like ... Swans

What's more graceful than a swan? Sean and I saw "Swan Lake" recently and the look has stuck with me. I love the long, long necks, pale, fluffy feathers and black spots. Swans have been popping up as a fashion motif lately, too, and I'd love to get my hands on a pretty swan necklace or print blouse.

Swan painting by Mats Gustafson

Um, inflatable swan? Yes. (I think this was from Vogue).

Swan Necklace, $48 by Mimi Pong

Swan Purse, $140, also by Mimi Pong

Swan blouse, from ASOS (out of stock, unfortunately, but maybe it'll pop up again?)

Swan print skirt from Topshop.

swans by amberfiona featuring a flare dress

1. Swan pillow, 30 pounds at Mengsel

2. Swan watering bucket, $13.71 at Amazon

3. Swan dress, $288 at Modcloth

4. Origami Swan necklace, $155 at Boticca

Happy Birthday Sean!

Today is my husband Sean's birthday! Unfortunately we won't be celebrating today, because he has to work tonight and I have to cover an event. But we celebrated Saturday, or "Sean Day," in true Sean fashion, with Chinese food and a Deadwood marathon.

Last night, I tried to surprise him with Guinness brownies, but oh lawdy, was that a disaster. It was the first time in the history of my baking experiences that I tossed the batter.....it looked like oatmeal with flecks of chocolate. No idea what went wrong there, but I'm resolved to try again. Luckily, Sean's best trait is that he's unflappable and he didn't care one bit...especially because I had a spare box of Duncan Hines brownie mix to save the day.

Happy Birthday, Sean!

Hot Pink Lipstick

 It's taken a few tries, but I've found three great bright pink lipsticks in my quest to look like a J.Crew catalog. The pictures aren't perfectly accurate ... my normal camera battery is charging, so camera-phone stood in, but trust when I say these are flattering. They're perfectly on-trend when worn with a simple face of make-up, but could look garish with a full eye.

From left to right: NARS Carthage pure matte; NARS Funny Face; and Tarte Lively stick (I had to pull it out of the packaging, which tends to get stuck).

 Carthage is a lighter neon pink (dulled a little bit by my camera phone)

 Funny Face is darker and more saturated...

And Lively is deep and super-matte.

I think hot pink goes just as well with neutrals as bright-colored clothing. It's tied with coral lipstick for my favorite make-up trend these days.

Sunday Best v.104

Happy Easter! If I had kids or was planning a family get-together, I would have been all over Martha Stewart's marbleized eggs. But without kids or family nearby, it's kinda hard to get into the decorating eggs-searching for eggs-hollow bunny parts of the holiday.

I hope you have a lovely holiday, and I hope to do something blog-worthy soon! In the meantime, enjoy the links:

• After our talk this week about online glasses, I had to laugh at spoof Warby Barker.
• The lady gets it done. Text from Hilary Clinton.
• One NPR reporter asks why wedding dresses cost so much.
• Ryan Gosling, real American hero.
• A 35-year-old man retakes the SAT.
• I love this: Babes of NPR.
• Discovered via Entertainment Weekly, one man's quest to find the most 90s movie ever.
• A beautiful source for party supplies, Darlybird. Wish it had been around when I was wedding planning!
• Old link, but amazing explanation of global money. 

Ordering Glasses Online

After something like five years of nagging, I finally have convinced Sean to get new glasses. He's not a big designer frames kind of guy, so I had an idea that glasses from Warby Parker might be perfect.

Warby Parker, if you're not familiar, is an online company that sells hip, stylish frames for a fraction of the cost of name brand glasses. You can order your lenses online and everything, and even try them on virtually. The company is named for two characters in Jack Kerouac books, and like Toms shoes, the company gives glasses to people in need in third-world countries. Awesome, right? But it gets better.

You can order up to five pairs to try on at home FOR FREE and then send back within five days to avoid having your credit card charged. I promise this isn't a commercial, it's just an awesome service I think everyone should know about. The glasses come in this cool case and you get to have your own little fashion show.

Sean tried on all five pairs and our favorite ended up being the second-to-last. We put two pics up on Facebook to help us settle and everyone agreed on these, the "Thompson" in black.

Sean went to the eye doctor to get his prescription and we filled it out while we checked out online. The glasses should come by next week, which would mean from start-to-finish, this will have been about a 10-day process. The frames cost $95 (WITH LENSES), which is awesome for stylish, hipsterific glasses. As I told Sean, glasses are about the only accessories men have, so they've got to be great.

Would you ever order glasses online? I don't actually need glasses, but if I did, I'd be all over that.

Bright Young Things for Spring

Twenty years ago, I loved neons like any other child of the 80s and 90s and nothing has changed. I am loving the uber-saturated brights for this spring, and am getting to a point where I might need to cut myself off buying so many trendy pieces!

The colors that burn the brightest for me these days are coral, neon pink, tangerine, red-orange, mint and cobalt. Here's some inspiration for you:

1. Boardwalk Tote by J.Crew. $60
2. Noir "Jaipur" earrings from Endless. $110
3. Bobbi Brown Neon Gloss in "Cosmic Pink." $23 at Macys.
4. Orange top from Zara, stores only. (I'm sure there's something similar out there, right? RIGHT?)
5. Minnie pant in "Vibrant Flame" from J.Crew. $89. I have very similar pants from Gap, for about $60.
6. Hudson jeans, $165 at Revolve Clothing. ASOS has much cheaper ones, too.
7. Janna Conner cobalt ring, $88 at Max and Chloe.
8. Thakoon's NARS polish collection. WANT THEM ALL.

Sunday Best v.103

Is anything funnier than the perfect pop culture reference GIF? We've been giggling over the hilarity of What Should We Call Me, which recently featured this favorite clip of mine from The Cosby Show. 

I fell back down the rabbit hole with The Hunger Games this week and did little but re-read the books. Now I'm debating what my next read will be....it's gotta be a good one. If you have any recommendations, leave them in the comments!

• The Wall Street Journal breaks down bright lipstick, my current favorite trend.
• Did everyone but me know about the Betches blog? Anyways, it's hilarious.
• Bruce Springsteen proves why he's the Boss.
• Downton Arby's. Nuff said.
• Neurons fire when they see Jennifer Aniston.
• The cutest push pins.
• Jenny is amazing! She cut a frame down to size.
• This writer expressed my feelings about being ready for kids better than I could.
• What Would Don Draper Do?, a flow chart.