InStyle Mag's Style Questions

1. What's the secret to making yourself stand out?

Laughter

2. Is there one piece of jewelry every woman should treat herself to?

One statement piece that is you. It can be diamond earrings or a chunky stone necklace. Something that you can save for special occasions that instantly allows you to feel like you are doing something special.

3. What do you splurge on?

Art. Art. Art.

4. The one piece of advice most women need and don't get?

It's you, and only you, who decides if you are beautiful or not.

"Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical."

-Sophia Loren

5. Who is your style icon?

Kelly Wearstler

6. What is your favorite brand of jeans?

Citizens of Humanity

7. What is one thing a woman can do to her wardrobe to make it look chicer?

Belt a cardigan or sweater vest over one of your usual shirts

8. What is your secret talent?

Looking through recipes, which I do a lot, and knowing which ones will be good or not

9. What is your favorite beauty product?

Aveda products. I love them all...their hand relief cream, rosemary mint shampoo and conditioner, blue oil, foot cream...

10. What is your guilty pleasure?

TV. I watch a lot of it and love it. No excuses or apologies.

11. What do you sleep on?

Pure Beech modal jersey sheets. They are heavenly. And Dwell bedding--so cozy!

12. What is your secret cheapie?

Plain white mens undershirt tees from Target in the packs. They are comfy and versatile and CHEAP. You can cut them up or layer with them or just rock them plain. I love them.

13. What is one piece every woman should have in her wardrobe?

A perfect pair of dark jeans

14. What is your signature scent?

I go back and forth between Gucci II and Origins Ginger, that I've been wearing for ages.

15. What is your go-to accessory?

A watch. I could get rid of all other jewelry (rings, earrings, necklaces, etc.) and just be happy with a good watch.

16. What is your must-do when traveling?

I love to visit an art museum or art festival in that city. I love checking out a vegan or vegetarian restaurant. I also can't pass up visiting their Anthropologie store. In my defense, they are all different.

17. What is your favorite flower?

Right now, light pink/white peonies

18. What is your favorite comfort food?

A big ole veggie burger and a pile of sweet potato fries

19. What is the secret to having great style?

Being brave! And being yourself.

Today's To Do

1. Go through R's clothes and find out what fits

2. Go through Al's old clothes and see if any of that works for R

3. Read my new InStyle mag

4. Make veggie burgers

5. Lunch picnic

6. Clean the bathroom

7. Wash all bedding

8. Fold all laundry

9. Call my sisters

10. Call my brother

11. Put together Christmas lists!

Top 10 TV Mini-Series Of All Time (taken from listverse)

1. Roots (Liked. I watched it when I was way too young to, which would also describe most of the tv and movies of my childhood)

2. Jesus of Nazareth

3. Band of Brothers (Loved. My grandpa bought HBO just to watch this)

4. The Winds of War

5. North and South (We watched this when it aired originally. My sisters and I can act out many scenes. To say it is a "dean classic" would be a gross understatement. LOVE)

6. Lonesome Dove (Also, a family classic. I made my husband watch this with me because he had never seen it, so now, he loves it, too. I own it. And North and South)

7. Shogun

8. Shaka Zula

9. Thornbirds (Another family classic. I remember wishing I looked like Meggie)

10. I, Claudius

11. V (We were into this one, too. I remember it being good, and I remember them eating mice whole)

12. Star Wars: Clone Wars

13. D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers

14. Gulliver's Travels

15. John Adams

My Favorite Glee Moments

1. Rachel losing her voice singing "The Climb"

2. The old lady librarian (in response to them singing "Whoomp, There It Is")..."That was cute! I'm going to talk to my pastor about you all performing at our Sunday service."

3. Sue and any time she makes fun of Mr. Schuster's hair or hair gel. (like "I think I smell cookies wafting from the ovens of the little elves that live in your hair.")

4. Mr. Schuster and Neil Patrick Harris doing "Dream On."

5. Kurt's dad (on not obeying the "stay out..." sign on Kurt's door)..."I thought it was just the beginning of one of your murder mystery dinners!"

6. Anytime Brittany says anything.

7. "So you like show tunes. It doesn't mean your gay. It just means your awful." -Sue Sylvester, to Kurt.

8. I Am A Winner And You Are Fat, Sue's book title.

9. Rachel and Finn doing "Faithfully." That whole Journey medley was good.

10. Brittany's Lady Gaga costume with the silver lobster claws.

11. Rachel's Gaga costume her dads made with the stuffed animals falling off. "We've got a jumper," says Kurt.

Top 11 Favorite Movies Of All Time

1. Lars and the Real Girl

2. Almost Famous

3. Hoosiers

4. Coraline

5. Remember the Titans

6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

7. The Royal Tennenbaums

8. My Best Friend's Wedding

9. Zoolander

10. Big Fish

11. Moulin Rouge

600th Post

1. 600 posts = 600 days

2. 51 followers? I would've thought I'd be on Oprah by now.

3. A favorite list of mine is THIS ONE.

4. Of course, I like THIS ONE, TOO.

5. I went back and tagged my posts (I skipped a few) so that it can be fun to look back using the tags that are on the side of the blog.

6. A lot of my posts are about food. I'll try to get more creative.

7. My memories (especially the ones I did about my childhood) posts are my favorites.

8. THIS ONE made me cry a little bit.

9. I also do a lot of whining on here!

10. I like THIS POST. It's very me.

11. And THIS ONE.

12. The Saved By The Bell Post, Favorite Office Moments, Favorite Friends Moments, and that Lost list are good, too.

13. Thanks for reading.

Randoms

1. Yesterday, some girl looked at my two babies and asked, "How do you do it?" and I replied, "I don't usually feel like I'm doing it well."

2. W poops almost every time she pees.

3. My parents bought R these two cute little horses. He has barely put them down.

4. Some people say imitation is the highest form of flattery. I find it annoying.

5. I might give myself a pedicure tonight.

6. I have white begonias and English ivy growing on my balcony.

7. I now have to watch The Office online next day because our 2 TiVos are not enough to record all of my Thursday night shows.

8. I made black beans yesterday because I had a dream about them. I woke up craving them and had some for lunch with diced onions and celery in them.

9. R is such a good "reader." He will set on the floor with a pile of books for such a long time, thumbing through the pages and looking at the illustrations.

10. W has wore her new black cowboy boots all day yesterday.

11. While my parents were in town, we ate out at Chevy's, Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen, Houlihans, Fitz's, The Old Spaghetti Factory, and had sweet treats at a cookie store in St. Charles and Chill in Clayton (so good!)

12. My dad's birthday was Wednesday. He is a young 58. We gifted him a little Asian fountain that he liked.

13. My elbow is throbbing with pain right now because I landed on it in the bathroom. My toddler took me down.

14. I just spotted myself in the mirror. My hair is laughably ridiculous right now.

15. I think we'll have homemade pizza tonight.

16. I'm not getting good sleep lately because I've been having terrible nightmares and an overactive bladder.

17. I have 6 loads of laundry to fold tonight.

18. I am counting down the days until I get to decorate for Christmas.

19. I get really excited when those "real men of genius" commercials come on the radio.

20. I love the farmer's market. It's only going to be here for 3 more weeks.

Unwanted Animals In My Houses

1. My childhood house turned out the occasional mouse.

2. That same house also had spiders and scorpions.

3. When we first moved to Arkansas, we returned from vacation to find a bird that had taken up residence in our house.

4. That house had a few mice, too. I did not like that house.

5. My first house in college- we lived through a month long roach infestation. I did love that house.

6. Our second house had a teeny-tiny ant problem. They were so tiny that they were almost loveable. We were able to easily get rid of them.

7. I walked in on a squirrel jumping out of my ficus tree in my first apartment in St. Louis. It was embarassingly one of the most frightening days of my life.

8. A blue-tailed lizard was in the bathroom of my parent's current house when I was home visiting this summer.

Grocery List

1. Bread

2. Yogurt

3. Milk

4. Orange Juice

5. Soymilk

6. Canned pumpkin

7. Canned green beans

8. Dry black beans

9. Cereal for kids, cereal for A

10. Strawberries

11. Bananas

12. Spinach

13. Avocados

14. Asparagus

15. Sweet potatoes

Animals That W Is Knowledgeable Of Because Of Diego

1. Blue Morpho Butterfly

2. Pygmy Marmoset

3. Sloth

4. Puma

5. Llama

6. Chincilla

7. Tapir

8. Iguana

9. Macaroni Penguin

10. Porcupine

11. Flying Squirrel

12. Spectacled Bear

My Favorite Desserts

1. Banana Pudding (it has to be good. the real thing.)

2. Stoby's Strawberry Cake

3. Sacher (?don't know how to spell it) Torte that they used to sell at Wild Oats in Little Rock

4. Coconut Cream Pie

5. Chai Milkshake from Koffee Kartel

6. My Great-Aunt Mert's Fudge Biscuits

7. Peach Pie from Katie Pie's at the Farmer's Market

8. My mom's carrot cookies with pineapple frosting

9. Blackberry cobbler from Cracker Barrel or anywhere else that makes good cobbler. I like my cobbler and pie cold or room temp. (not hot!) with vanilla ice cream.

*What are your favorite desserts?

What's Hanging On The Refrigerator

1. W's art-- four of her handprints she made with finger paint colors all mixed together

2. A Cat in the Hat magnetic notepad I got in the Target $1 bins

3. A stainless steel clip

4. A Chicago Art Institute magnet

5. A Paul Klee magnet

What I Ate Yesterday

1. Banana bread Larabar

2. 4 strawberries

3. Glass of chocolate soymilk

4. Kashi 5-grain crackers

5. Pinto beans with red onion, celery, and orange pepper

6. Glass of water

7. Granny Smith apple

8. Roasted vegetable sandwich and garlic mashed potatoes from McGurks

9. A Magner's cider

9. A chocolate chip cookie ("just one cookie! what great self-control!" -yeah, it was about 6 inches in diameter)

The Mess That Has Completely Hidden My Island Counter

1. Camera bag

2. 2 pairs of pants and one shirt and their receipts I need to return

3. W's first preschool art piece

4. Bag of crayons

5. Some poster or something rolled up (it's A's thing, I have no idea what it is)

6. A lab request for R's bloodwork

7. Whole Foods receipt

8. Our camera (not in it's bag, clearly)

9. W's birth certificate

10. Southern Living

11. A's bike owner's manual

12. Artist bios from the art we purchased last week at the art fair

13. Bubbles (from Gymboree...those are the best)

14. A bag of Billy Goat chips

15. 4 Preserve toothbrushes (we just got a yearly subscription)

16. My sunglasses

17. My tote bag filled with a bunch of randomness--waiting to be cleaned out

18. 3 big cookies in packages

19. A pile of napkins

20. Our fruit basket with a granola bar, 3 Granny Smith apples, 3 sweet potatoes, and 4 bananas

21. Laptop

22. A cardboard envelope needing to be in the recycling

All My Fall Weekend Plans

1. Parents and aunt coming into town

2. Volunteering at the Shaw Art Fair

3. Casino night at A's office

4. Branson weekend

5. Conway week

6. Keithley/Dean reunion

7. Bonfire in Washington, MO

8. Halloween Party

9. Trick-or-Treating

10. Apple picking

11. Pumpkin farm

My Cookbooks

1. Veganomicon (Moskowitz and Romero)

2. Pizza (Franco)

3. Super Smoothies (Barber and Whiteford)

4. Fast Fixes With Mixes (Taste of Home)

5. Deceptively Delicious (Seinfeld)

6. Biggest Book of Cookies (Better Homes and Gardens)

7. From Our Family At Ozark Wal-Mart (sounds weird but it is a favorite of mine)

8. Spice of Life (Quilter's Guild of Plano)

9. The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen (Berley)

10. Vegetarian Cooking (Betty Crocker)

11. Organic Baby and Toddler Cookbook (Vann)

12. The California Pizza Kitchen Cookbook

13. Vegetarian Food For Friends (Noralika)

14. Gather At The Table (First United Methodist Church of Pine Bluff, AR)

15. Simply Irresistible (Junior Auxillary of Conway, AR)

16. Cupcakes! (Klivans)

17. Panini, Bruschetta, and Crostini (La Place)

18. The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (Garten)

19. Top Chef: The Cookbook

What's In My Bowl

1. The last of my spinach...not very much

2. Red pepper

3. Red onion

4. Celery

5. Bulgur wheat

6. Wheat germ

7. Olive oil

8. Sauteed garlic and mushrooms

9. Two cut-up Gardein strips

10. Italian brown rice

11. Sauteed zucchini

List From My 8th Grade Diary

(listing even back then...don't hate- I was pretty cool)

1. TV Show: The Wonder Years

2. Song: Love is on the Way by Saigon Kick or When I Look Into Your Eyes by Firehouse

3. Clothing Store: Maurices

4. Books: Island of the Blue Dolphins or The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

5. Teacher: Mrs. Grubbs and Mr. Redus

6. Food: Fried mushrooms at the Dairy Lane in Crane

7. Saying: Sha-reet/Sha-right (I think this was a substitution for saying "yeah right")

8. Restaurant: Trotters (I think that it really should have been the Italian restaurant at the Battlefield Mall...oh goodness, was that Pasta House?)

9. Movie: Can't Buy Me Love

10. Place to hang out: Braum's or Amber's downstairs

11. Game: Cards (??? I think I was grasping here)

Why The David Gray/Ray LaMontagne Show Was Amazing

1. Back-to-back "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" and "This Year's Love" from David. Then "Babylon" and "Sail Away." It was some sort of one-two punch that felt wonderful.

2. Ray performed "Jolene." It was almost too good to be true.

3. Ray actually talked besides saying just "thank you." He told a funny story. Three shows of his under my belt, and that was a first.

4. David knocked "Nemesis" out of the park during the encore. It was artistic and beautiful.

5. Outdoor amphitheater, under the stars in Santa Barbara

6. Made me cry three times

7. As usual, "Please Forgive Me" in the encore was amazing...David's best concert song of all time

8. David's set list is always so thoughtful and wonderful. I've been to 9 of his shows, and they are all always so different from the next.

9. Went with some REALLY good friends

10. Ray played a great mix from all four of his albums

11. I think every one of the 4500 people there were singing at the top of their lungs and dancing to "Babylon"

12. David was pure energy the whole time, double-tapping his foot and swinging his head around the way he always does.
13. Ray's "Like Rock & Roll and Radio" was beautiful and had everyone in the amphitheater silent listening

14. The show started at 6:30 and was over at 10:00 sharp. I could have stayed all night long, but it was nice to not be out so late!

15. Both artists gave us the two songs we were longing for from their sets during their encores.

16. Great concessions- I had veggie pizza waiting for Ray to come on stage.

17. A and I went a little crazy with merch...I got a cute little David Gray t-shirt and we got two posters for our concert poster collection (one was signed!)

If I Could Go Back In Time, I'd...

1. Attend Monterey Pop in 1967
2. Get married again (same husband, though)
3. Go to original Broadway "Wicked"
4. Spend more time with grandparents/family/friends who actually matter. I now know who actually matters.
5. Be nicer in high school

6. Have studied abroad for a little while

7. Be a British spy for the American Army during the Revolutionary War

8. Go see David Gray in some tiny pub when he was young and unknown

9. Taken my golf lessons more seriously

10. Seen Bob Dylan perform at the Newport Folk Festival

11. Invent the internet

Some Stuff I Am Liking

1. Shirt Dress

2. For Next Summer

3. Bag, But Trying To Avoid Leather

4. Side Tables

5. Necklace

6. Dress

7. Boots

8. Dress

9. For R's Bedroom

10. Yoga Pants

11. Cozy Tee

12. Plates in Decor

13. Necklace

5 Reasons Avocados Will Make You Healthier Right Now (from this month's Southern Living mag)

1. They protect your eyes from disease (because of their carotenoid lutein)
2. They will lower your cholesterol (because of their beta-sitosterol)
3. They help regulate and reduce blood pressure (potassium)
4. They are a great source of Vitamin E
5. They will moisturize your skin (avocado butter and oil)

Things I Like About Fall

1. Cardigans
2. Apple crisp
3. Successful 2 point conversions
4. Leaves that change colors...makes me long for Northwest Arkansas
5. Pumpkin pie
6. Arkansas Razorback football
7. Any event that sitting on a hay bale occurs
8. Getting close to Christmas decorating
9. Buying school supplies
10. Taking walks and not worrying about the kids overheating
11. Dallas Cowboys football (I'm still dreaming of being a cheerleader)
12. Butternut squash ravioli
13. Cider

What My Mom's Cooking For Lunch

1. Fried chicken strips (special for A because they are his favorite)
2. Mashed potatoes
3. Grilled carrots, squash, zucchini, and onions
4. Oven bread (my favorite)
5. Collard greens
6. Green split peas
7. Sweet Tea

What I Can't Decide Between On The Smell Of This Plane

1. Doritos
2. Vomit
3. Meat pizza
4. Spicy body odor

Animals I Saw Today

1. Sea gulls
2. Pigeons
3. Dolphins
4. Sea Lions
5. Fish getting cleaned
6. Dogs

What You See A Lot Of In LA

1. Scientology centers
2. Spanish tiled roofs
3. Smog
4. Palm trees
5. Houses built into hills
6. 60s and 70s style architecture
7. Sprawl
8. Signs in other languages
9. Sunglasses

Today

1. Brunch at "the best place to eat breakfast in California"
2. Shopping on Robertson Blvd.
3. Driving around Hollywood
4. Watched some FNLs on Mark's computer
5. Dinner at Barneys in Pasadena
6. Games and ice cream with friends
7. More FNLs. Feeling sick.
8. To bed at 1:30, then remembered to do this list. Goodnight.

People Waiting For Our Flight

1. Man in a Razorback t-shirt and two types of camo
2. Two teenagers with brown hair and dyed red bangs who I just explained what volunteers on a flight were
3. Man in full army fatigues
4. Guy named Muhammed who brought too many personal items. Including his "pillowbag"
5. Guy in a t-shirt featuring a widemouth bass about to take a bite
6. Two types of camo guy has a fancily-dresses wife
7. Big guy dressed in all black wearing a Omaha Nighthawks jersey
8. Some lady who looks like she stepped right off the set of Real Housewives of New Jersey
9. An old lady who was so nervous about her luggage
10. College boy wearing a flourescent pink Delta Gamma hat
11. College girl wearing an Aggies jersey and knee high gladiator sandals
12. Two men, both shoed in what I would consider "waders" I would've worn to teach canoe at Kanakuk
13. Man wearing a t-shirt that says he's an "Amazing Dad with Magic Money"
14. A girl about my age who made me think "we are going to LA, not St. Barts"
15. A guy who clearly idolizes The Situation.

My Favorite STL Restaurants

1. McGurk's

2. Il Vicino

3. Maya Cafe

4. 1111 Mississippi

5. Vin de Set

6. Fitz's

7. Almonds