Planning a Viewing Party

The Oscars are coming up on Sunday, and Gossip Girl is back on Monday. What better time to plan a little viewing party for your friends or yourself? Epicurious has a detailed entertaining guide for everyone who’s a planner. It’s a little too detailed for my personal tastes, but I’m basically a fly by the seat of my pants entertainer. I’ll have themes picked out for months, but wait until the day of to throw everything together, including costumes, food and music, which keeps me from getting too perfectionist-y about it.

But sometimes I like to plan a little in advance, especially where food is concerned. It’s not a secret that Gossip Girl is my favorite night to eat snacks and vegetate, a joy that will soon be taken from me once my Hip-Hop class starts. But I still have three weeks to enjoy the last snackfests of this season.

What am I thinking about eating?

There’s always the classic Strawberries and Champagne—classy and delicious, just like these two events!

It’s pretty hard to go wrong with veggies and dips—instead of ranch or blue cheese, there are a million other options. One of my favorites is salsa (even more veggies!) or artichoke parmesan dip-- something I only eat at parties. I can’t have it in my house without gaining five pounds, hahahaha.

For the Oscars, cute little bags of parmesan pepper popcorn sound like just the ticket. Or if you want to get even more movie themed, Epicurious has a list of menus and recipes based on the best picture nominees here.

For Gossip Girl snacktime, there’s always the infamous truffle grilled cheese from the Gossip Girl pilot. But even more themed? Brunch food! Time to bust out the waffle irons, it’s waffle time. Josh Schwartz has always had a thing for breakfast food in his shows, and right now our waffle love is coinciding. Melted cheese and fruit on waffles? Yes please! Maybe even some cinnamon and other spices? Yes!

Although, knowing myself, I’ll probably just make some sushi.

Do you like viewing parties? Or are you all viewing partied out after the Superbowl and the Olympics?

Image from youknowyouloveme.org.

Things for Spring

It’s been atrociously warm here the past week for February, and I got spoiled with three great days of sunshine and shorts weather. It made me long for spring, and even the renewed rain isn’t dampening my springthinglust. Here are some of the things I’m digging for this:

Waffles! A cute waffle place just opened up down the street from my work, and my friends and I are loving up on it. Sweet waffles, savory waffles, it’s all amazing. Yes, savory waffles—It’s like a sandwich on a waffle and it’s amazing.

Quinoa- nothing is beating fresh quinoa salad for me lately, I love it! And Self just published a recipe for Quinoa stir fry in their Feb issue that I can’t wait to test out.

Gossip Girl- March 8th, save the date! It’s been long awaited in these parts. Gossip Girl is the only show I live-watch anymore, given the craziness of my schedule. I love setting aside some snacks and a nice glass of wine and settling in for an hour of tv. Can’t wait for my little dorky Gossip Girl viewing parties again.

Rainboots and Dresses by kitkati

Seasonal weather—I want the rain and the sun and the balmy temperatures. I love getting up and puzzling out an outfit based on the weather. Rainboots and little dresses, yes please!


Yoga- I have some back issues right now which are improving, but I’m not at my prior level of fitness yet. (Don’t look for me to be taking up roller derby anytime soon!) I’m kind of like Payson in Make It or Break It—yeah, I’m cleared for exercise as long as I don’t push it too hard, but getting back on those uneven bars (or weights and dancing, in my case) and possibly re-injuring myself is kind of terrifying. Thank god for yoga. It doesn’t tweak my back, and it actually helps soothe it, while I’m getting a mild workout. My abs are ridiculous right now. Side benefit—I’m more focused in all aspects of my life (hence this return from the dead post! Let’s keep it up, yoga!)

What’s everyone looking forward to this spring? Or are you still hoping for more winter weather for your snowboarding and winter Olympics?

images from polyvore.com and periodicstyle.blogspot.com

Smudged and smoky into spring!

If you're following our Tumblr, Periodicals, at all, you may have already seen the Beauty Counter blog article on the Rag & Bone make-up for Fall '10/'11. But since I love Rag & Bone -- and Gucci Westman's looks for Rag & Bone, as this isn't the first time I've loved her work -- I'm pointing it out again here, because this is exactly the look I want for spring. The smudgy "yeah I should have taken off my eyeliner but I didn't" eyes and the soft lips? Love it.

The best part? It's easy and inexpensive to recreate -- holla at your Revlon! I picked up the Soft Nude Colorburst lipstick at Walgreens, but you can grab it at drugstore.com, too.

While I've generally been shying away from the nude lip, as it sometimes gives me a bit of the zombie-face, I can't deny that it can look really great with a dark liner. And even though right now I'm looking at the fall faces, I don't see why it can't be incorporated for spring.

Another great dark-eye soft-lip look from the most recent Fashion Week is the NARS look for Marc Jacobs, which features the sheer peach Barbarella lipstick and a soft violet-tinted smoky eye with lots and lots of eyeliner. It's just the right amount of pretty and dirty that's hitting my sweet spot for spring. (Plus, with Marc Jacobs specifically requesting Barbarella as the lipstick for all of his models, I think it's a little apparent that I needed to Have It Too. So it's on its way.)

With all of the French-mod-hipster lady references, how could I resist? Everyone already knows I want to run away to late 50's/early 60's Paris. (And yeah, maybe there's a little bit of the Kate Moss in there. What can I say?)

Since I usually play up my lips with colors, it'll be an interesting trial for me to see if I can adjust to a pale lip. I've been dragging my feet for what feels like years on it, but these looks are just that good. It's probably just an issue of finding the right lipstick, much like how everyone worries about finding The Perfect Red. So far, I'm digging the Revlon, but I'm excited to play with Barbarella.

Plus, then I can put the juicy colors on my nails -- I'm thinking glossy jelly pink, like Butter London's new Twee. Dark eyes, pale lips, vibrant nails? Sounds like a swinging mod spring to me!

Finally, after all of these months of ennui, I'm feeling much more inspired. What a relief!

So -- what did you see at NYFW that you really like for spring? Even if it's for fall, what do you think you want to pull in as an "early adopter"?

images from style.com and narscosmetics.com

Bath salts for sore bloggers!

I've been working out a lot more than usual -- my goal is to work out at least four or five times a week if I can. I'm also considering running a 5K in June, which would be something completely new for me (and would be completely shocking to everyone who knows me).

Naturally, this is both good (hooray! running! skating! doing good things for my body in general!) and bad -- my muscles are shrieking at me all the time about how they hurt.

Since I'm a regular bath-taker anyway (I have seriously turned down apartments because they don't have bathtubs, just showers -- true fact), I've been adding epsom salts to the water to help soothe my muscles. I originally bought the lavender-scented salts from Walgreens, but the smell was so pungent that it clung to me all night. There's got to be something better, I said to myself.

Then I realized -- of course, Etsy will have lovely epsom salts!

- Right off the bat for sore muscles, there are Muscle Rescue aromatherapy salts from thesoapbuffet.etsy.com. They feature eucalyptus and peppermint oils, and would be really refreshing after a long workout.

- The beautifully-photographed (as you can see above) Oats, Milk, and Honey Dead Sea bath salts from mookasoap.etsy.com sound perfectly relaxing and soothing with powdered goats' milk and oats for soft and calm skin along with the muscle-relieving epsom salts.

- After my experience with the Walgreens lavender salts, I have a good feeling that the lavender salts from foxtrotting.etsy.com and the lavender and geranium from ripebeauty.etsy.com will be a great improvement.

- I love a smoky leathery vanilla just as much if not more than a cupcake-vanilla, and soaking in the velvety vanilla bath salts from housemakara.etsy.com sounds like it's right up my alley.

Ultimately, I did jump and buy the Apple Crisp Salt Snow from productbody.etsy.com -- the offshoot studio of one of my favorite body product shops, productbody.com. I'm looking forward to smelling delicious and to having happier muscles!

What are you up to lately? And are you a bath or a shower person? (Seriously, I'm a bath girl. It's totally a dealbreaker.)

image from mookasoap.etsy.com

What's Your Jam? for February 10th

After all of my grousing, here's something to lighten you up -- it's my jams for today, February 10th!

- First off, my first jam is the movie, Sita Sings the Blues. It's showing tonight at the Red Vic Theatre in San Francisco, but it's also available to watch through a Creative Commons license at www.sitasingstheblues.com. I adored it -- it pressed pretty much every "things Jeanne loves" button.

- Lady Gaga, of course, is also my jam. I think we should be friends, just because I would love to hang out and get a little time inside of her head. "Fame Monster" is the bomb and I love working out to all of her music (although everyone probably is wondering who the crazy chick rocking out on the elliptical is -- whatever, I don't care, it's my JAM). And while I'm still hesitating on buying those Heartbeat headphones, I can at least pick up MAC's new Viva Glam Gaga lipstick for all of my Gaga-karaoke needs. (Turns out it's the lipstick she wore to the Grammys!) And Viva Glam Cyndi also looks like a great color to add to my collection. Viva!

- It's just about New York Fashion Week time, so everyone on Twitter is at fever pitch getting ready. I'm not going this season, because I knew that February in New York would be difficult, but I'm excited to see what comes up! NYMag has the entire NYFW schedule here.

- Oh, and Valentine's Day is this Sunday, of course. What I do love is eavesdropping, and so this collection of overheard love stories (if you can call them that) from San Francisco. With charming lines like "If he can't figure out the public transportation system, well... I don't want you dating him", how can you resist?

What's your jam right now? What's lifting you up in the middle of February?