a few good words to live by

etc

bits & pieces: may 28, 2010

Ahhh, four day weekends. There is nothing better in life. Don’t harp on me about how I just got back from my honeymoon – this new Mrs. is tired from all the action! Just zip it and enjoy these little gems I found for your entertainment. Xoxo, Sarah

Body scans of two women, both different weights – pretty eye opening when you see it from the inside!

Cutest Twitter themes on Earth!

TIME posted a list of the 50 Worst Inventions – among them, FarmVille. Can’t argue with that! Crinoline, however… I quite like it.

What the BLEEP is on Sarah Jessica Parker’s head?

Who wants breakfast? O…. M… G…

Short slideshow of some of the oldest “jumping photos.” The photographer, Phillipe Halsman, was the first to use this popular method, and used it on people like Richard Nixon, Marilyn Monroe, Salvidor Dali, and Audrey Hepburn (shown below).

Cute collection of handwritten thank you notes about everyday stuff. Gets me in the mood to write all my own thank you notes!

How to make a 46,000 calorie Kit-Kat bar – Ohhh my. Is it wrong that it makes me want a Kit-Kat?

Interview with Molly Rogers, partner in crime of Patricia Field’s – the brilliant lady behind the fashion in Sex and the City – about the second movie (which I’m going to see tonight, despite terrible reviews! It’s gonna be great!)

Love Gives Me Hope – collection of short and touching tales of love and hope. Must-read for anyone who needs a pick-me-up. This one is by far my fave.

Really interesting piece on Hidden LA about the hidden, underground oil rigs in shopping malls and hollowed out office buildings in LA. Watch the video! It’s part of VBS.tv’s series “Uneven Terrain,” devoted to “urban exploration and uncovering the hidden, underground and forgotten corners of the world’s leading metropolises.” So hard to believe this is going on all around us.

Bicycle rush hour in the Netherlands. How cool is this?! Ooooh I really really need a bike! Driving 3 miles to work is a disgrace.

things i love thursday

Quite a bit of time has passed since my last Things I Love Thursday, and with all the incredible things in my life lately, I’m not even going to try to attempt to make up for lost time here. That list would wrap around the planet at least twice. Here are some things making me swoon lately!

• Being able to sleep in my own bed again.
• Successfully (so far) warding off a cold by drinking green tea by the gallon and getting lots of sleep. Oh, and the Neti-pot didn’t hurt either.
• Pepper sleeping on Julian’s head and drooling on his lap when he pets her.
• Coming home to find that Julian not only took our massive donation pile to Out of the Closet (months I’ve been waiting) but cleaned the whole apartment! He knows the way to my heart.
• Being able to cook again. Eating out is so limiting.
• My cousin Korin’s blog, Scenes and Senses. She’s so adorable and reminds me a lot of myself. I was able to see her and her sisters and her parents (my aunt and uncle) at my wedding for the first time in years and it was magical!
• Upcoming movie dates to see Sex and the City 2 with Clay and Molly. Julian might kill me after reading this – I will say this much – it was definitely NOT his choice of movie.
• Looking at my wedding band.
• Glowing reviews of my Mom’s soap. It really is the best!
• Watching Julian on stage in front of thousands of people in Berlin. So proud of him.
• The sun not setting until 8pm.
• Netfix’s amazingly sweet streaming movie (and TV) database. Now that LOST is over, we’re finally going to start watching it – from the beginning!
• New York, I Love You
• Writing things by hand instead of typing them.
• This.
• New shoes (thank you, Lindsay!).
• Finishing not one but two books.
• Discount stores like ROSS (what? I’m from Virginia.)
• Chips and salsa – any hour of the day.
• Empty wine bottles as vases.
• Friends who clean and decorate your apartment while you’re gone, leaving you goodies like food, wine and coffee creamer (I love you, Lauren!)
• Chick Fil A adding a spicy chicken sandwich to their menu this summer. YES PLEASE!
• Making lists of things that I’m going to do now that life is slowing down a little bit.
• Looking at photos of the wedding on Facebook and basking in the memories.
• LONG WEEKENDS! I love you, Memorial Day!
• This photo:

That’ll do for now. What’s making you beam today?

the bookworm found time to read

While my hobbies and interests have changed greatly over the course of my life, there is one thing I can say I have always enjoyed, and that thing is reading. I really don’t understand folks who “can’t read” (my husband included), because to me there is no greater joy! Ok, that last part is a stretch, but reading is pretty stinking wonderful. Sadly, these days I usually give up reading books in lieu of watching movies, surfing the internet or sleeping, but on our honeymoon, I read TWO books front to back. Yes! I am quite proud of myself. Not because I read two books in a short amount of time – I inherited my Mother’s ‘speed-reading’ gene – but that I was focused enough to actually tell Julian to find something else to do because I was reading. Usually I feel guilty and put the book down.

Plus, I can’t sleep on planes, and with the many long flights we took, reading was just about the only thing I could do.

Anyways – both books I read were fantastic, historical fiction (kind of) – The Help (about maids in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 60s and one woman who wants to share their story) and The Heretic’s Daughter (from a young girl’s perspective as her mother was tried as a witch in the Salem Witch Trials). I highly recommend!

Side note: Julian really loves the cover art for The Heretic’s Daughter. Everytime he sees it he mocks me saying “Are you kidding me?” – I guess I give him that look from time to time…

I started to read Pride & Prejudice on the last flight but am only 1/8th the way through. Gotta see what this Jane Austen character is all about, ya know.

It seems like everyday, I add another book to my Amazon wish list. I try to prohibit myself from buying new books until I’ve read the ones I already own and haven’t read but IT’S SO HARD!

Tell me, what are you reading these days? What do you recommend? How dorky would it be to start a reading club on my blog? I promise I won’t do that.

there’s no place like home

I’m thinking of becoming one of those ladies who drinks coffee through a straw, because I seem to be unable to have my morning coffee without spilling (or splattering) it all over my white shirt. Hi!

It’s been a long time since I’ve written, but boy am I glad to be back. I am now officially married – Mrs. Julian Smith, or rather, Mrs. Sarah Smith. Though I haven’t even tackled the whole name changing thing yet… one thing at a time. So far, married life is just divine, and I sure got a good one!

Our wedding was perfection, our honeymoon beautiful (and exhausting), and I’ll have photos of these events as time goes on and we get settled back into everyday life here in LA. Those few weeks we were gone felt like an eternity with all the traveling and time changing. We had seven flights in three weeks – LA to Nashville to LA to Paris to Berlin to New York to Nashville to LA. I’m telling you, I’ve never been so happy to be in this city and in my own bed, which is WAY better than hotel beds. I am also welcoming the sunshine with wiiiide open arms after two weeks of overcast skies and wool coats in Paris and Berlin.

This is my very un-thought-through “welcome me back” post, before I dive back into posting all the things I’ve been dying to share with you. Thanks to anyone who is still reading this after my hiatus…