Academy Awards 2013

It's the finale to award show season- the Oscars! I hate to say that we've been lax on going to the movies and still have yet to see any of the big nominees like Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, and Lincoln. In fact, we're so far behind that most of these are close to being released through Netflix. Oh well...Silver Lining's Playbook was my favorite movie to see in a long time, so I kept cheering for it!

As always, there were many hits and misses fashion-wise and since I caught a big sale at Banana Republic this weekend, I feel qualified to give my opinion.

My girl crush, Jennifer Lawrence, looked wonderful. And bless her heart, she took quite a tumble going up to accept her well-deserved Oscar:

I loved Amy Adams' dress. It was a unique color, but I'm a big poofy dress fan if it's on the right person and thought it suited her well:

White seemed to be a popular dress color and Queen Latifah looked elegant. Something tells me if given the chance, she wouldn't have lip-synched at the Oscars like her Chicago co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones did:

At first, I wasn't sure I liked Naomi Watts' dress. The cut at the top was a little severe and coupled with the silver, it just looked odd to me. Once I warmed up to it, I thought it was just different enough that I liked it:

I'm a little on the fence about Jennifer Garner's dress. I loved the color and cut. I even liked the bow on the back. I'm just not sure I liked that the bow was chiffon instead of just basic silk. It seemed a little too busy, but I thought she looked beautiful:

My best dressed probably has to go to Charlize Theron. Not only can very few people pull off her haircut, but her dress (in popular white) was stunning on her. She wore the right amount of jewelry and even had a cute dance number with Channing Tatum:

Now on to the misses...

At first, I didn't think Kerry Washington's dress was so bad. I still don't think it's terrible. However, the beading at the top made it look like a cheap Dillard's clearance rack reject:

Halle Berry used to be such a glamourous dresser. You could always count on her to make bold choices that worked. Now, she just looks like a Studio 54 wannabe:

I'm still trying to figure out how and why Kristen Stewart was invited to present at the Oscars unless it's just for everyone's entertainment. Poor girl is a train wreck and I'm not referring to the fact that she was hobbling on crutches:

Look who came to the Oscars before going to the prom! 

I believe I've mentioned before that I have a large amount of disdain for Anne Hathaway. I'm sure she's a really nice person, but she appears to try so hard to be nice that she's fake. And really- if I won an Oscar, I'd cry. I wouldn't fake cry or talk softly so everyone thinks I was really overcome with emotion, using random words and phrases so people think I'm smart, too. 

Sigh...rant over. 

Anyway, this looked like a prom dress and there was no need for the necklace. I will give her credit for the cute haircut, though:

I'm not certain why Brandi Glanville was at the Oscars and I'm kinda hoping that given this mess of a dress she wore (just barely), she might not be invited back (although I do love her on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills):

My favorite train wreck of the night, though, had to go to Julie Dartnell, who really should have known better since she won for best hair and makeup for Les Miserables. Check this woman out- hot pink tights, barely any make-up, and a wild hairstyle with random clips and barrettes. I couldn't even find a crazy enough picture of Helena Bonham Carter to pretend like this one didn't make the worst dressed list:

Hopefully next year I will make it to more movies and have more of an opinion on if the best nominees actually won!

Golden Globes 2013

It's awards show season and the Golden Globes, my favorite, was televised last night. Everyone drinks and it's much funnier than the Oscars, especially when you have people like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosting (although I loved Ricky Gervais, too).

We haven't seen many movies this year, so we have a lot to see before the Oscars. We saw Silver Lining's Playbook (I loved it, Jeff thought it was okay), but Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln, and Argo are on my list. 

Unfortunately, I didn't think any of the fashions this year were amazing. No one stunned me, although there were plenty that really didn't hit the mark.

Bless Jessica Chastain's heart- nothing about this dress was cute.

Love Jennifer Lawrence and her dress. I was so glad she won for Silver Lining's Playbook.

I am OBSESSED with Homeland. We just finished season 1 and the first two episodes of the 2nd season through a free preview weekend and now I'm trying to justify us getting premium channels. Anyway, I love Claire Danes, her entire look, and am trying really hard not to be jealous that she looks better 1 month after giving birth than I do 3 years and 3 months after it.

This dress looked so familiar to me and I think I know why. My grandmother wore a similar one when either my parents or my aunt got married. Both happened in 1977, so if Mayim Bialik was going for "vintage", she succeeded.

Another reason to upgrade- Girls. I've heard great things about the show and it won several awards last night. Best dressed to Lena Dunham wasn't one of them. 

Some of my favorite awards show people are Helana Bonham Carter and Tim Burton. This is a tame look for her, so I have to admit, I'm disappointed. 

I realize I'm in the minority on this one, but sometimes I love Anne Hathaway and other times, she seems so over the top that it's almost unbearable. It's almost like she tries so hard to be genuine that she becomes disingenuous. She reminds me of a kewpie doll here (even though I love the haircut), but the dress doesn't "WOW" me.

We get it, J. Lo. You're older and can still pull off a dress most people would never give a second look to. Just because you CAN wear it doesn't mean you SHOULD. Jessica Alba, however- I love the dress, the hair, the makeup, and especially, the purse.

Eva Longoria bordered on the J. Lo line with her dress, but for some reason, I think she pulled hers off better. Daring, yes, and maybe a bit much with the slit in the front and up the leg, but it was much more elegant.

I'm one of the 10 people in the world who hasn't caught on to the Downton Abbey craze, but loved Michelle Dockery's dress. I thought the color and shape looked so elegant on her.

And just because...

The Last Few Months

I can't tell you what has kept me from updating the blog more often the past few months. Maybe because there's only a few people that read it (not that y'all aren't important!), but so much has been going on that I guess I have let it go by the wayside. 

I'm posting a bunch of pictures. They're pretty self-explanatory, but just know that Cooper is keeping us on our toes and cracks us up constantly. We survived our first trip to the dentist, he thoroughly enjoyed Christmas and our Elf on the Shelf, Fred, and we have discovered that he is not a morning person if he cannot wake up on his own. He is already talking about going to St. Pete this summer (looking forward to vacation must be hereditary) and will gladly show you any of the cars, Legos, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, or Toy Story toys he has. His new favorite movie is "The Cook", known to most as "Ratatouille." He knows Saturday mornings are Chick-fil-A breakfast days and has managed to convince both sets of grandparents that when he stays with them, picking up a chocolate donut and/or Chick-fil-A is mandatory. 

Christmas 2012

One day, I'm going to sit down and really update. I have pictures from Fall break, Cooper's 3rd birthday, and leading up to Christmas, but for now, I'll leave you with a picture of Cooper's big gift that was left at Pops and YaYa's house:

Someone's Been Pinteresting

And from the looks of it, you'd think it's Cooper. If you've been on Pinterest, you've surely seen the pictures of the cute/perfect/whimsical (add whatever other adjective) food/craft/wreath (add whatever other noun) coupled with the "fail" picture someone has goofed up. That's what happens in most cases with me and Pinterest.

At the top, you will see cupcakes I made for my department's open house. You will see I attempted to make Christmas trees, wreaths, and Rudolph and you will see the attempt failed. Thankfully not so bad that I felt the need to remake them (or call Muddy's for an emergency order), though others may disagree.

Next are pretzel, Hershey Kiss, M&M bite things. I don't think or know if they have an official name, but I didn't screw these up as much as the cupcakes. Hooray! Lay out some square pretzels, put Hershey Kisses on top of them, let them melt slightly in a 350 degree oven, then smush a M&M into the kiss. So easy even I can do it. These are also for the open house...my poor co-workers.

The last picture was one of my contributions to Thanksgiving. It was a Weight Watchers friendly Pumpkin Spice Trifle. I really went out on a limb on this one, not only making something other than congealed cranberry sauce and Sister Shubert rolls, but in tweaking the original recipe I found and not trying it out before I served it to others. Certainly not the prettiest, but I'm pleased to report that it was a hit.

I've got all kinds of things pinned for the holidays and Jeff can tell when I'm a roll when the grocery list gets longer and more obscure. He laughed at me decorating cupcakes so much I started getting a complex.

Dijon Lime Chicken

Another day, another Pinterest/Weight Watchers recipe. This time, it was Dijon Lime Chicken. I liked it, but the jury is out on Jeff. I got "It doesn't taste like I thought it would." and "It doesn't have much flavor, but I like it."

Not exactly a glowing recommendation.

So if you decide to throw caution to the wind and give this a try, here's the recipe:
-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-3 tablespoons dijon mustard
-2 tablespoons lime juice
-1 tablespoon lite mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
-1 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degress. Lay chicken on greased baking dish. Mix dijon mustard, mayonnaise, lime juice, and pepper together and spread on chicken. Bake for 45 minutes or until done.

It took ours about 50 minutes to be done. The picture looks like I burned it, but oddly enough, I didn't.

We'll see if this actually gets added to the rotation. What you see pictured will be tomorrow's dinner, so maybe a decision will be made by then. It's 5 Weight Watchers points a serving, so if nothing else, it's well within Jeff's point allottment for the day.

Does this look Weight Watchers friendly?

I'm not completely positive it was, even though my Weight Watchers recipe expert website, Pinterest, told me it was only 3 points a serving. When you follow the recipe perfectly, it probably is.

Butterfinger Pie
-Low fat graham crackers (I used chocolate)
-2 containers Fat free Cool Whip
-1 Butterfinger bar (I used a bag of fun size)
-Sugar free caramel sauce

Lightly grease a 13"x9" Pyrex pan. Line pan with graham crackers. Chop up the Butterfinger, mix with Cool Whip, and pour on top of the graham crackers. Pour caramel sauce over Cool Whip mixture. Refrigerate.

It seemed to go over well at dinner, although I have a sneaking suspicion my mother thought it was too sweet. Whatever...Jeff seemed to like it and he's the one on Weight Watchers, so we're going to consider it a success!

Skinny Funfetti Cake

In Jeff's continuing quest to lose weight, I try to find Weight Watchers friendly recipes. I have to brag on him- he's done amazingly well. He started at the end of February and as of last Wednesday, he has lost 84 pounds!

I'd love to say I jumped right in and not only made Weight Watchers friendly recipes each night, but perfected my cooking skills simultaneously.

That did not happen.

I have found a few recipes we've added to our rotation, but Jeff deserves all the credit for exercising more and finding ways to make "everyday food" fit into his Weight Watchers plan. This has become more difficult as the weight has come off because you start with a certain amount of points, but those decrease as your weight drops. He's accepted the challenge and does really well managing his portions and points.

I thought this recipe might be a good compromise between easy for me and good for Jeff and his point allottment for each day.

Skinny Funfetti Cake
*1 box Funfetti cake mix
*12 ounces Sprite Zero
*1 container Lite Cool Whip
*1 large box vanilla Jello pudding mix
*Sprinkles (optional)

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Mix cake mix powder and Sprite Zero together. Pour into greased 13"x9" pan and bake until golden brown (about 40 minutes for our oven). Mix Lite Cool Whip and vanilla pudding powder together. Spread over cooled cake, then sprinkle with, well, sprinkles if you want.

Jeff deemed it a success. It's definitely not as good as the full fate version, but it will satisfy a sweet tooth. Now I'm interested to see if the "icing" can be made into a chocolate version.

Ole Miss, White After Labor Day, and Being a Sorority Girl

Ole Miss instituted a "Goodbye to Summer" tradition by inviting (also known as "ordering" or "strongly suggesting") everyone attending their football home opener to wear white because every good Southerner knows you don't wear white after Labor Day.

Unless it's "winter white" then it's totally okay.

I had to share this with my big sis from KD, Leigh the Supermom- then we discussed how difficult it must have been to find a white dress. In Oxford. At the end of summer.*

As the article pointed out, the poor girl who couldn't find a dress? She's probably blacklisted from the "good" sororities and won't be able to drop out of school from embarrassment because recruitment is after the drop date. This might have been me. I was the girl bawling on Bid Day because I didn't get my first choice of sororities. Memphis did recruitment before school started way back when, so I could have slipped easily into the commuter student abyss and never been seen or heard from around Greek Life again. I stuck with it, Leigh took me under her wing, and we're very close to this day. My college experience wouldn't have been near as fun without Greek Life.

Sorority Girl habits die hard. I've written several recommendations for former students, family friends, or relatives and I always get so excited for them. I despised recruitment, mainly because it really cut into my sleep schedule and our recruitment chair always decided camping or bunking at a livestock auction house was a great retreat idea, but I also remember how much fun those times were. And you better believe I'm writing those recs knowing exactly what's being said after parties end for the day.

Part of me realizes the Ole Miss white-out game and reasoning for delayed recruitment is insane. The other part of me wishes Memphis had been more like them because they end up having article written about them and their fashion choices for a football game. See what I mean about Sorority Girl habits?

*Please don't misconstrue this as me thinking Oxford isn't a shopping mecca. If we strike it rich, I'll be shopping there all the time. What?!?! They've got super cute clothing down there. Oddly enough, I've never seen a white dress on the Square. 

Vacation 2012

We recently returned from our annual trip to St. Pete Beach, FL. It was an odd year with Tada not being able to join us because of his new job and several of our friends were in the same position. Lots of our 75+ people group of friends didn't make the trip or had to shorten their trips because of work.

We left Memphis a little after 2am and drove straight through. Cooper was a champ the entire way. He watched DVDs, slept, talked with us, and looked out the window. We arrived in St. Pete at 7pm, just in time for a massive storm and a quick run to the grocery store before calling it a night.

The rest of the week was spent by the pool, at the outlet mall, walking to and from breakfast, looking for lizards, and having lots of fun. Jeff and I are really missing our morning swims with Cooper. He's growing up way too fast. More little boy than baby now- he's independent, talkative, and even though I'm biased, the cutest little kiddo.

We stopped in Atlanta to stay with my friend, Jenni and had a great time relaxing before the last leg of our trip. We got home at 3pm, which gave me time to knock out a bunch on laundry before starting in-service Monday. Our reservations are made and we're ready to go back for more fun in the sun, but for now, here are some pictures from our trip.