Lotion commotion

I had to re-order my most favorite eye cream this morning, and I thought it might be fun to share all the products I love the most with my dear readers. Oh yes, I certainly know how to have fun.

I have tried a lot (a lot a lot) of products, and I thought people with sensitive skin might be curious. The kind of sensitive skin that doesn't like that (aggressive!) plain cotton shirt attacking it on a perfectly pleasant 70 degree day. That kind of sensitive.

Body wash: Aveeno Soothing Relief Creamy Wash. This is billed as a product for babies, so it can be found with the diaper rash cream.

Body lotion: Aveeno Intense Relief Repair Cream. If I could buy stock in this cream, I would.

Eye cream: Ultra Gentle Eye Cream. For years, I used a product called Calm Balm from Origins. And then Origins cruelly decided to stop making this miracle product. It took years (years, people!) to find a suitable replacement.

Face moisterizer: Vanicream. This is a wonderful, thick lotion that I love a lot. I also use their sunscreen, bar soap, and occasionally the shampoo and conditioner. You can also buy this in a drugstore. It's not on the shelf -- you have to ask for it at the pharmacy counter, but don't need a prescription.

This Vanicream tip is almost like finding out about those secret bars in NYC where you go to the back of a gross looking Chinese restaurant, pick up the red phone on the wall and say, "Rubber boots go squish" before being ushered quickly into a dark, hidden room behind the kitchen where Mike Meyers is drinking a White Russian with a model on his arm.

Or something.

Fore!

So, learning how to golf! It's really, really hard.

I had my first lesson on Saturday afternoon. Glenn was an awesome instructor; very calm, never giving too much information in one breath. And he could do really great tricks like drive the ball while standing on one foot or with only one hand. He would tell me lies like, "You have raw talent!" and, "That was a great shot!" He was quite the stud.

Still, it can be hard to not get frustrated. I was trying to do everything right: keep my head down, flick my wrists just so, shift my weight on my feet, follow through...and still my balls would go in crazy directions. Or worse! I would miss the ball entirely. It's very embarrassing but also funny when you swing with all your might, and the ball is still waiting patiently on the tee when you're done.

On Sunday, Peter and I went to a driving range so I could practice. And wouldn't you know, it was the best I've ever been! I kept hearing Glenn's little instructions in my head, and Peter gave me a few pointers, too. On Monday, I was super sore from moving my body in all those funny positions, but it was worth it. I'm really, really excited to go again.

I love a good beret. I would probably look amazing in this one.

You're invited...

...If I can ever decide on invitations, that is.

I love notecards, and get an embarrassing amount of pleasure out of sending thank-you notes to people. But I'm having a lot of trouble pulling the trigger and picking out some fun invitations to use for our wedding. The photos above are samples from Reaves Engraving (thanks to BBL for the suggestion!). There are some really lovely ones.

I just keep thinking, "Do I really love this pattern? Is it better to keep it simple and classic, or have a fun design?" People on wedding-ish blogs always seem to be so creative with their invitations. I know it's not something I care so much about, and I thought it would be easy to just pick something pretty and be done!

I think I'm feeling a bit indecisive because I know how I look at other people's invitations and think, "Those are so cute!" or "Those are UGLY!" And I don't want people to think UGLY when they see mine.

Can you say paranoid!?!

I know. THE WORLD DOES NOT REVOLVE AROUND YOUR PAPER PRODUCTS, JULIE.

Overheard in the Pittsfield Brew Pub

Hat guy: What's new, man?

Beard guy: Well...getting used to the single life.

Hat guy: Yeah, man, that's rough.

Beard guy: But I'm going to Orlando next weekend. It's a Mickey Mouse wedding.

Hat guy: A Mickey Mouse wedding? You have got to be kidding me! That is un-freaking-believable.

Beard guy: It's like, $1,500 for Mickey to attend your wedding.

Hat guy: That's some serious coin for Mickey.

The hard work

A seriously ambitious endeavor: this woman is a reading one book EVERY DAY for a year. Isn't that amazing?! It makes me think I could be reading a whole lot more.

In other book news, I have finally found a fun NYC book club to join! After leaving my wonderful book club in Washington D.C. more than two years ago, I couldn't seem gather up the energy to start another one up. The hard work for this was done by Sarah at Pink of Perfection.

Our first book is The New Yorkers by Cathleen Schine. I've only just started it, but it's very cute so far. The first meeting is in a couple of weeks, and I'm so looking forward to meeting the other members and chatting about lovely books!

You're welcome

Do you guys get the Vera Bradley catalog? I do. Actually...it always comes addressed to Peter. I think that's very funny for some reason.

Anyways! It just arrived, and it has all sorts of cute paper crafts! They have a new wrapping paper line out, and there are all sorts of fun ideas for using it to make Christmas ornaments, matchbooks, and plant pot covers. Very fun.

If I were more tech-savy, I would be able to figure out how to extract the pictures from their website catalog. But I'm not, so you'll have to look at it online. Page 22-23 have all the fun stuff. You will have to settle for an awesome picture of the wrapping paper!


You're welcome.

Happy weekend!!!

Definitely just more

Last Saturday afternoon I was at the Mount for a panel talk on the future of food writing. Of course, I was most excited to see Amanda Hesser, but it was wonderful to hear from Judith Jones, the legendary food editor at Knopf, Kim Severson at the New York Times, and a handful of others.

Everyone seemed a bit sad about the future, to be honest. The moderator asked Judith Jones if in this modern, online era, she was seeing better food writing, or just more of it. "Definitely just more." Everyone laughed. I laughed too, as a "food blogger" who mostly contributed dribble.

Amanda Hesser mentioned that cookbook sales were actually up by about 4% this year; Judith Jones didn't seem to believe her. Judith wanted everyone to think a lot more about home cooking, and seemed tired of all the emphasis placed on new chefs and restaurants.

Another interesting thread of the panel was the discussion surrounding the yelp phenomenon. Oliver Strand felt like it was totally useless. I love yelp, and I really believe that the wisdom of a large crowd can point you in the right direction. He seemed mostly sad that it was replacing the role of a true reviewer, "who you would know and trust." (Did anyone ever really feel that way about their local restaurant reviewer?)

I don't remember how, but Oliver also talked a bit about the unique role of American food writers tackling international cuisine. He said that no one else in the world is sending writers to Tanzania to cover local honey production, or to Morocco to learn a new butchering technique. Magazines like Gourmet make this possible, and without them, we would lose that kind of writing.

Of course, that made it even more sad to hear on Monday morning that Gourmet was closing. Kim Severson wrote a great article in this week's New York Times dining section about what the magazine meant. Amanda said that the future of food writing may go back to being something that only the wealthy can afford to do.


And that would be very sad indeed.

Gotta have sole

I have bad shoe taste. Well, that's not true exactly. I can pick out cute shoes, really I can. I just refuse to wear ones that aren't comfortable. And I mean seriously comfortable. That's why I end up wearing these about 99% of the time when it gets cold out:

The other 1% of time is spent in ballet flats. But those are looking shabby these days. I can do better! (Probably.) I got paid today, and that only happens once a month, so it's cause for celebration. The time for an upgrade is now!

I know the shoes above aren't a huge step up from Merrill clogs, but they are cuter, right? Please say yes.

And I know these red shoes are fun. They are Anne Klein iFlex shoes. Super, super comfortable. I would recommend them to other people who hate when shoes pinch and give blisters. What am I saying, everyone hates pinching and blisters. I now recommend these shoes to absolutely everyone.

Last but certainly not least, aren't these white flats pretty?! I saw them posted on a wedding blog. I think these are darling wedding day shoes. But sadly, they are almost sold out from Nordstrom. If you have very small or very large feet, you should snap them up! I wish I could!

P.S. Finding new shoes is a hobby, right?

I didn't think so...

Roar

Peter and I took a little drive down to the Red Lion Inn on Saturday afternoon. He had never been there before, and we have a block of rooms there for wedding guests.

Isn't it charming?!? I hope lots of people want to stay here! We want to stay here after the wedding, and have all our friends meet in the Lion's Den Tavern after the reception!

Aren't these gourds impressive? They put my little pumpkins to shame...

Then we took a look at this darling church down the road from the Red Lion. I just love it. First Congregational Church of Stockbridge, please let us be married in you!


When we were walking up to it, I was trying to image standing outside after our ceremony in a receiving line, hugging all of our wonderful guests. Every time we do a wedding planning activity, I try to imagine what it will feel like to have all of these people that I adore so much in one spot. And for us! I cry a lot in general, but thinking these happy thoughts almost always makes my eyes feel a bit heavy.

Not golfing

On Saturday afternoon, it was too rainy and grey to have my golf lesson. But fear not! I have a lesson scheduled for next weekend that I am very much looking forward to. I will certainly report back.

I asked Peter to stop at this farm as we were leaving Mezze.

We got to do one of Peter's favorite activities!

Just kidding. He actually doesn't like petting zoos. He thinks they smell bad! Peter, they probably think you smell bad. (See, that goat is trying to hide his nose from his icky human smell.)

Doesn't that sky look moody and romantic? Or scary. Take your pick.

It was a fun afternoon, even though I had been very excited to learn how to hold a golf club properly. But that's not all we did! I'll post more pictures soon.