Thursday Things

Wow, I'm a terrible blogger. 17 months since I started this blog and not one post yet? I'm going to try to be better. 

I'm going to start with a pretty standard list of my current favorite things. Maybe this will be a recurring Thursday thing? We'll see.

Books:

Jodi Picoult's The Storyteller I went through a phase a few years ago after reading Mercy where I went and picked up every Jodi Picoult book I could find. I quickly regretted this decision, as her formula gets tiring after 3 or so books in a row. There's always a moral dilemma... some crisis happens, your heartstrings are tugged, you hate everyone in the story for being a selfish jackass, you question what you would do in the situation, and then you wrap it up with a bit more heartstring-tugging. That said, after a break from her books, this was a great book to read on a rainy summer weekend. There's a lot of bread. A Nazi war criminal or two. I finished the book two weeks ago and found myself thinking about Josef last night while I was washing dishes. If you like fiction, and if you've liked a Picoult novel in the past, you should pick this one up. 

Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins I picked this book up based entirely on the cover alone. I don't care what anyone says, sometimes that's a good way to judge things. The story is set in Hollywood and Italy and umm.. Idaho I think it was? and it spans 50 years and has several main characters and it just came together so beautifully and I wish I hadn't read it so that I could read it again for the first time. 

Food:

This chicken with mustard cream sauce is everything. It's from the Pioneer Woman and while she suggests serving it with a simple salad, my guy does not eat salad so I like to steam broccoli and cook up some jasmine rice to serve with it. I've served it to guests, made it for quick last-minute dinner, and EVERYONE loves it. And if you don't like mustard, you should still try it, because Mike was certain he'd hate it as much as he hates mustard on anything else but he was so, so wrong. I didn't take a picture of it any time I cooked it, and I'm not sure what the protocol is for stealing the picture straight from the PW, so just click the link and go to her page if you want to see what it looks like ;) 

Beauty products:

This Lorac Lustre Lip gloss in Ruby. I received it in a limited edition Hautelook lip bag, and I love it. I am NOT a red lipstick/ lip gloss girl, I'm more into berry pinks and sheer shimmery colors, but this is SO universally flattering that I've already helped one friend find it at Ulta and ordered one for my daughter so she'd quit stealing mine.

So I've been looking for a great night cream for my stupid skin. I'm 32 with and starting to see the smallest signs of loss of elasticity in my skin and it's always dry because I live inside with the air conditioner. I get hormonal acne AND as an added bonus I have eczema and ridiculous skin allergies. I don't even like to TRY new lotions because I might look like a leper for a week while my skin recovers from the reaction.
I've never looked at Olay products in the store because, to me, it's for *old* ladies. That said, I got this lotion in an Influenster box, and my current night cream was just not cutting it. I opened up this jar and the consistency seemed to be exactly what I was looking for... so for the last 4 nights I've slathered this onto my (clean) face and neck every night before bed. It smells way better than the Tea Tree lotion I had been using, leaves me waking up without dry patches, AND I haven't broken out from it (yet)!

Anyway, those are the things I'm raving about this week. I'll try to check in again before 2015! 


-Sarah