Frankly, Scarlett...

I'm Gone With The Wind, right now...completely and utterly.  Have you actually read it?  Do so.  Immediately.  From the first few pages, the beauty of Georgia somehow magically captured in Margaret Mitchell's prose casts a spell of awe on its readers.  Mitchell's characters light up her pages with real dimension and charm, fostering a deep appreciation for her ability as a writer to create such real, beautiful people.  She successfully paints Georgia in the 1860s for the reader to discover and live in for 1,024 pages, but not a page too many.  You'll fall in love with Mitchell as a writer, Georgia in the mid to late 1800s, and the beautiful, familiar characters.  As an English teacher of five years (and counting) and a literature lover to the fullest, I honestly don't know how this book has waited patiently unread on my bookshelf.  Perhaps the literary gods knew I would need this escape right now in my life.  Head on over to Amazon.com to get your very own copy delivered right to your doorstep.

Head Over Heels...

Ahhh, JCrew does it again...a store after my own shoe-loving heart.  The newest heel over which I'm gaga is Mona--classic with a fun, personality-filled twist.  Bright in color, timeless in shape and material--I'm so in L-O-V-E.  If I do happen to land that cup-of-tea job I'm eying in the fall, I'm pretty sure this is going to be my reward.  The problem is, every time I settle on my number-one color, another color starts to look just a little bit brighter.  Gosh!  They're all gorgeous.  Check them out!

You light my fire, MATCHBOOK MAGAZINE!

Seriously awesomely creative, fun, carefree, and full of whimsy, this magazine strums my little girl heartstrings and thrills my happy-go-lucky adult half.  If you happen across this post and you feel inclined to check out the link, you will probably find yourself longing for the opening week of each month so that you can scour the playful, innovative writing and view the equally fun photos in each month's edition.  Full of style regarding decor and dress, as well as classic personalities (last month featured Ella Fitzgerald) and books I admire as an English teacher, it's pretty much THE magazine that has my name written all over it on every single page.  I bet you'll feel similarly.  While I wish they had printed versions as I am a serial magazine chopper and gluer (into my journal and various art projects), I do appreciate and admire Matchbook's use of technology and expression of modernity.  If you're in the mood to read a magazine that channels Kate Spade-ish fun in its style of expression, pick one up.  Check it out, Issue 4, hot off the presses.  (And, while you're at it, dig deep into the archives to read issues 1-3.)  Feast your eyes on Matchbook Mag right here!

My Secret Weapon

Ok, I formerly swore up and down in countless beauty polls that the one make-up product without which I would never leave the house was a sweep of mascara.  However, one multi-tasker that never fails to make me look and feel my very best has pushed that mascara to the side, at least for my most minimalist face days--Benefit's Benetint.  Just swiping the little paint brush on my apples, a swipe on my forehead, and a dab on my nose and chin, then blending does the trick.  A simple swipe or dab and blend lasts ALL day and into the night.  The color looks natural and beautifully noticeable all at once.  For a more dramatic look, I always put one extra dab right in the center of my cheeks after I've blended the first time.  Then I just blot the drop in with my finger tips rather than blend.  Last but not least, for a more complete look, I swipe a coat (or two in the evening hours) onto my lips.   I'm also in love with the rosy scent (reminiscent of Rosy Rose Petal, a childhood friend some of you may remember).  I will never, ever be able to say enough about the glow I get from this charming glass jar.  $28.00 will get you a bottle that lasts a year (and counting) even with daily use.  As a Sephora-obsessed shopper (to which my make-up drawer can attest), I've tried MANY stains--Tarte, Urban Decay to name two, and nothing comes at all close to this magical potion! Out of all of my greatest make-up lessons and purchased products, I count this as my number one, a product that I will use until I'm a little old lady, or even then!  While it's been out for ages, a new shade, Poppy, has joined forces with the original.  I've yet to try it because I seriously doubt I can love anything else as much as I love this classic.  What do you ladies think?  Has anyone ever tried it?  What are some beauty products that have stolen your hearts?
To add this product to your make-up bag, click here!

Forget the Glitter Nail Polish,

I'm crazy for glitter flip flops!  Old Navy's recent addition to their infamous array of flip flops just got a little bit more sparkly!  The shining star of the store's seasonal flip flop wall is VERY reminiscent of last year's JCrew Jelly flip flops, only much cheaper and in more sparkly color options.  I am currently at a fork in the road to my color choice, but am leaning most towards the gold glitter pair.  Blue seems fun, too, for that color pop, and it's certainly cemented itself as one of the top runners in the race to Color MVP of 2011, along with green; after Kate's (errr, Catherine's) Navy engagement announcement dress and Pippa's evening reception dress, both seem to be neck-and-neck.  At $9.50, they're flying off the shelves (especially in silver).  What do you think--too immature, or fun and adult-appropriate?

Check out the entire description and snag them here!

A New Cotton Crop Harvest...

This season, a new cotton basic has been catching my eye...the cropped tee.  For me, this is the perfect shirt to feel stylish while lounging around the house.  I can especially envision these guys making their fabulous ways into my gym wardrobe to replace the (yawn) sports bra tank in the gym.  They've been popping up in every store from American Eagle to Victoria's Secret, and the very basic version that is on my list is the version from Forever 21.  No designs--just basic, solid cotton.  Here they are; at $7.90 a pop, you can certainly add a few to work them in from one laundry day to the next!

Get the crop here!

or 

here, at Forever 21

My heart takes the appearance of the Kate Spade Karolina in Aqua

When oh when will Kate Spade put these beauts on sale?!  At least they're back online.  They disappeared with the old site, nearly giving me a heart attack, and, luckily for me, reappeared on the newly designed site recently.  I thought they were a goner, and despite searching high and low everywhere, there wasn't an aqua-colored Karolina sole in sight!  Now that they're back up, I have a slightly higher chance of adding them to my shoe shelf bordering the perimeter of my closet ceiling, but my owning them is still a very long shot considering the husband's thriftiness, and the recent addition of the Calvin Klein snakeskins (both peep toe and traditional pump).    One thing's certain, though: they'll never ever disappear from my wishlist!

Wish List: Anthro Jewelry

While perusing Anthropologie, a site that the powdered pigment dress put into my heart, I noticed a bracelet, and then two, and then three, and then some earrings.  My heart went wild.  I wanted so many things, so I clicked the X and walked away.  However, they've been on my mind.  I'll post the photos below (a baby step towards adding them into my shopping bag).

Oceans Wide Bracelet: Crisp clean white, perfect to brighten up any outfit.

Warp Whirl Cuff: I've been eyeing this little guy for a Navy blue, off the shoulder dress I'm wearing to a summer wedding, and also for a basic throw-on to any other outfit daily.

Interrupted Hoop Earrings, which would look great with my short, cropped cut, or my ponytail once my hair FINALLY grows out!

Carved Stone Posts, which I believe are just lovely in the most simplistic way.

Painting Leonardtown Red

I always feel my most happy, movie-worthy romantic mood when I am pre-gaming for a date to a restaurant with my husband (by enjoying a glass of wine on the back deck on a cool, sunny evening).   While the small, independent restaurant count in our new town is minuscule compared to the love of my twenties, Ghent, we have managed to find the few of which we've heard so far.

One of our first weekends here, we followed our glasses of wine on the back deck with a night of drinks and supper at The Front Porch.  This restaurant will be my haven for seared, rare tuna and wasabi when I'm craving (often) that dish, but too lazy to go find the perfect tuna and actually do the searing.  The two guys behind the bar were really friendly, funny, and even shared some guacamole with us.  They made a mean vodka and soda, too...talented pair, they were.

While nothing will ever replace the hole in my heart that Luna Maya left when I moved away, Salsa's Mexican Cafe offers delicious, well, salsa, a hallmark of any decent Mexican restaurant...perfectly spicy and thin like I like (I can't forget to mention their mole sauce, either--perfectly sweet.).  The atmosphere is average, but the waitstaff's friendliness, the huge 30-something ounce mug of Dos Equis for  4 smackers, and the fact that my husband and I get to have a bicycle race to and from the restaurant ( a mere two-minutes on two wheels around the corner) have given me a restaurant that I can sort of look forward to visiting and miss the old town a little less.

We took my parents to Blue Wind to try their daily wine tasting and enjoy some food after.  While you have to know how the restaurant works and the routine, or you're admonished for seating yourself (no sign), expecting the wine tasting to be brought to your table (stand at the counter), it was my parents' first wine tasting, and the man who facilitated the tasting was knowledgeable and provided us a variety of wines to walk us from dry to sweet.  Also, it was only $6 for us to conduct the tasting--what a cheap thrill!  I ordered the seared tuna (of course), which came with a salad.  My family ordered wraps, all healthy and delicious in appearance and taste.  One of my favorite parts of this restaurant was the character of the bathroom--yes, the bathroom.  Quotes about wine, beer, scotch (my favorite quote), etc were scrawled all over the glossy white brick in the room.  I loved it.  I will definitely go back and count myself lucky to have that place around...this restaurant would fit in well on the Colley Avenue stretch of restaurants that  I miss so much.

I still miss dressing up on a weekly basis and going to nice restaurants in Norfolk and Virginia Beach (people in Leonardtown don't dress up much, I've noticed).  Oh well--you can take the girl out of Virginia Beach, but you can't take the Virginia Beach out of her closet!

Fitness Greatness

Two of many fitness innovations that have increased my knowledge of fitness and my physique...

Iphone App's 100 Pushups:
This application guarantees to whip you into enough shape to do 100 pushups.  I'm in.  Pushups are the key to toned shoulders, arms, back, chest, and core in one exercise movement.  Push your way to firm, sculpted arms and be held accountable on your Iphone.  Your phone counts down the time in between each set, giving you the perfect amount of recovery time--a factor that can either make or break the success of a workout.  The app also posts reminders onto your phone's calendar.  Since having pretty major spine surgery that currently limits (still...yawn) the amount of upperbody weight lifting I'm allowed to do, I am relying almost solely on this app to reshape the way my arms look in my sundresses this summer...until we meet again, bench press and pull-ups! Learn more about this app here.

Cross-Fit:
An ex once led me to this website and took me into the gym to try this workout, well, out.  He insisted that the gym time I was logging by doing traditional weight lifting was outrageous, and that Cross-fit made you much fitter anyway by keeping your body's muscles guessing.  Cross-fit relies on Olympic Powerlifting movements, kettle bells, the pull-up bar, etc.  While I can't really subscribe to this way of life in the gym with my body's surgical recovery limitations, I can attest that Cross-fit helped me to run a half marathon on zero training and PR (set a personal record), and my body looked great.  Every exercise has demonstration clips.  The workouts are posted each day, even on rest days.  Usually, the routine either encourages as many rounds as you can do in a certain amount of time, as much weight as you can lift in a given number of rounds, or how much time it takes you to complete a specified amount of rounds.  Don't be intimidated because you can start small, adjust the day's workouts to fit your current fitness levels, and work up.  There are also an increasing amount of gyms offering Cross-fit classes, and even gyms that are only Cross-fit gyms.  Click here to get started.  I've always maintained that the only thing I did get out of this relationship, besides lessons learned about yucky guys, was a hardcore fitness regimen.

Big Fish, Small Gym

The smallness of the gym I've chosen as mine in Leonardtown is demotivating me.  Same face at the desk, same people (if anyone is in there) in the weight room.  I'm accustomed to the very large, beautiful, sophisticated One Life Fitness in Norfolk, the less elegant but still huge location in Virginia Beach, and my familiar Navy gym in Norfolk.  I really miss them all, the last one most of all because I had made it my home with my gym partner, Liz.  In the first two gyms, I could hide behind the crowd and do my less than attractive supplementary exercise (think squats with the dumbbell in between your legs to work your inner thighs--or heel and toe walks, etc), or if I were having a fat day or just a bad day in general.  Here, there's absolutely zero hiding.  I miss escaping into those big, familiar gyms.

Particularly embarrassing, I asked the small gym on which I settled for information on their available job positions after very, very much pushing from my husband.  He really wants me to earn any sort of supplementary income, and he thought the gym would be a good fit since I'm entertaining  personal training as a possible stray from my English teaching background.  It didn't stop there.  Hand in hand with inquiring about the job was filling out an application and calling to check on its status--all husband driven.  Well, small gyms are no place to make your own after job hunting.  Now, every time I walk past the same desk person who both took my application, encouraged me to call the manager and talked to me for one of the interviews, I am met with a weird stare and crossed arms where there was once a friendly greeting.  "I didn't want the job anyway, buddy, especially if having it requires me to glare at guests who do anything out of the ordinary card swipe/workout/exit," my inner voice defensively maintains.   It's less than motivating to hop into the gym on a regular basis now.  How weak of me to let this stand in the way of an activity, more, a routine, that's shaped the very core of who I am for more than half of my life so far.   If it weren't for it's less than a mile distance from my new home, I'd abandon it and flee to the free Navy gym in Patuxent River.  Perhaps I should anyway...except the gas prices...  Maybe I should just work out at Patuxent until I have established a regular routine and then mix in this very tiny, truly small town gym.

I think I've also been depressed mildly due to the new move and other factors, so the gym job rejection isn't the only culprit behind my laziness for two months.  Because I'm beginning to resign to my life here (and also because, just in time for spring weddings and beach season, my muscles are atrophying in a major way),  I'm going to snap out of it today.  No more excuses--no "I'm traveling home for Easter tomorrow so what's the point of doing two workouts and then taking time off?"...nope.  I'm working out.  No excuses.  Breaking the excuse change.

  But, let this be a lesson that small towns are not always synonymous with the nice and down to earth reputation that they've earned in other ways.

The Real Housewife of St. Mary's County

Given a combination of about 5 things, I'm now (temporarily--until I find a job in a small town) trying my hand at housewiving--a stay at home mom, minus the kids, but with the foxhounds.  Despite being bored, lacking inspiration since the Feb move, etc, I'm not really doing a great job at it.  I am giving my pups plenty of lovin' and interaction, yes, but I'm letting dinner go to the wayside, not keeping up with the dishes, and the only reason at all I'm doing laundry in a timely manner is that I have a new Samsung washer and dryer with steam and vibration reduction technology (a consolation prize for moving?).  In fact, this is the only housewife-ish duty I'm fulfilling, and it sums up my daily hours in a complete nutshell. So, this is my first post for my first real attempt at blogging so that perhaps, if I'm online accountable, I'll give life in Leonardtown, MD (strides smaller than the restaurant ridden streets and jobby life in Norfolk) a real, fighting shot.  I'm going to share the things that grab my attention, inspire thought, etc.  Being that I've lived in the weight room and in my running shoes since 15 yrs of age, fitness and nutrition will rear their heads in this blog.  Since I'm TRYING to answer with conviction on a daily basis my husband's daily inquiry into what's for supper, I'll probably track some intriguing recipes as well.  Because I am obsessed with clothes and shoes, I will definitely snap some shots or post some fashion inspiration, tips, or advice requests in this blog.  As well, I'm in love with indoor decor and outdoor floral.  Guess where you can find my take on those two things?  I am also smitten with my dogs (two adopted foxhound-ish things who lie in the center of who I am and my current purpose in life).  True to my English teaching roots, great book finds and great book loves of my life will appear from time to time.  So, brace yourselves for the random disorganized (in an organized way) thoughts that flow throughout these pages.  Hopefully, you'll find some inspiration (or hopefully a soul or two will find my page in the first place), and with some luck, by letting my inner self flow somewhat publicly, I'll regain a thirst for life in a new, smaller town, and shed this strange boredom and idleness that I hope to never let take over me again. It's been two months since I've moved into my new life; it's time to live it!

Welcome to my blog!

love,

Meggers