Hard Knocks

"I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best."
-Oscar Wilde

There are so, so many things I love about life- which I'm sure you've gathered. There are some things I hate about it, too. In the true spirit of Sunday, let me just elucidate for you a few of my non-favorite things. Just in case we ever meet, you will know what not to talk to me about. Ready, set, go...

1. When people smell like food.

2. Mayonnaise. I've never trusted it and never will.

3. Anime.

4. I believe I've protested against this one before, but, I have absolutely no time for people who say "could care less". No time.

5. Crocs.

6. Bejeweled clothing.

7. People who litter.

8. Guys who wear pink shirts.

9. Waking up to an alarm. 

10. Sticking needles in my arm (Jk).

11. Snow aka @#$%.

12. Fast Sundays.

13. Dreamcatchers. Ugh. 

14. Do I even have to list cats?

15. Dirty fingernails. Cue gag reflex...

16. The smell of metal.

17. Tobey Maguire in Spiderman. 

18. Anne Hathaway in anything.

19. Animal cruelty. This one's new. And totally unexpected since I don't even like animals. And since cruelty in some form another comes so naturally to me. I don't get it. But whatever.

20. This exchange:

B: "What if God was one of us... Just a stranger, one of us..." 

Anyone, anyone at all: "Hey who sings that?"

B: "Joan Osbourne, I think."

Anyone, anyone at all: "Yeah, let's keep it that way."

B: "Oh... Ha. Welp, excuse me while I go put some water in your mom's dish."

21. Gingers. This abhorrence in particular I inherited from my darling Uncle Brad. (Except for Joan on Mad Men. I la la LOVE her.)

22. Peggy on Mad Men. I do not la la love her.

23. When girls wear purses and backpacks to school. Pick one.

24. Kids. Jk. 

25. The name Ann. Everyone knows it looks dreadful. Anne with an "e" is much more distinguished.

26. Loud breathers.

27. Collarbones.

28. Hot diggity dogs. I know. How can I even claim being American?

Since I don't want to run the deplorable risk of being heretofore viewed as a pessimist, I'm going to allow my self to leave my Hatorade half-full and stop there. I hope all this negativity doesn't take the cherry from anyone's Sunday. Peace and Love. (I also hate maraschino cherries, btw.)

Girl: Happy

"Simple things bring infinite pleasure."

-Joan Marquez

Here's what's making your girl happy today:

Lemon Bars oh Lemon Bars. This absolutely DOES NOT mean eclairs have been replaced. It's just that these are more accessible lately and so I'm not about to turn them away.

She's bohemian and passionate and intelligent and a little bit scandalous. Her words feel like my own, sometimes.

This is absolutely divine. You'll never want to leave your sheets. Relax and Refresh, you implore? I don't mind if I do.

I just saw this movie. I already loved L.M. because of Gossip Girl and Chuck Bass. I'd never seen homeboy before but it didn't take long before I facebook status'd his name (the definition of true love). She's delicious. He's delicious. Their chemistry is palpable. I'm jealous of the whole bloody thing. I've probably watched this video 42 times.

My best days are the ones where Aubs and I have textcapades. She is my very kindred-est of kindred spirits.

And... the messy bun. This has been my go-to lately. I love low-mai anything, so naturally, when it comes to my hair, I'm going to be as lazy as possible. Mine rarely looks as good as hers though.

It usually ends up looking more like this.

And on that note... Happy Hump Day. Peace and Love.

Make Me Know It

Happy Tuesday. Peace and Love.

Girl: Happy

"I simply remember my favorite things- and then I don't feel so bad."

-Fraulein Maria

The Sound of Music is one of my very most cherished and favorite movies. For awhile I put in on every Sunday as I was getting ready for church. I watched it today with the little peanuts I nanny and even they seemed mesmerized at times by it's charm. (What good is being a nanny if you can't indoctrinate the little people into having good taste?) As we were all (kind of) singing along to "My Favorite Things", it made me think of how Maria was just oh so very right: thinking about one's favorite things can truly turn a hypothetical gray sky to blue. I decided I would compose my own little version of "My Favorite Things" to sing to myself when I'm having a case of the blues, or even the mean reds. I am certainly no poet, so the rhyming is a little feeble... But if it doesn't shout Brittany Anne Smith, then I don't know what does. 

Sing it loud, sing it proud:

Laughing and Audrey and long, steamy showers,

The lovely aroma of lavender flowers,

Old-fashioned movies and cameo rings,

These are a few of my favorite things.

Big, fluffy blankets and tea cups and sighing,

Eclairs and long hair and casually lying,

Songs that are laced with harmonica strings, 

These are a few of my favorite things.

Dictionaries, and libraries,

Laying under trees,

Clean sheets and bubbly drinks, waterfalls, paper-dolls, 

Smelling an ocean breeze.

Sunshine and summer and Earth Day and praying,

Dresses and daisies and piano playing,

Finding just the right word to suit just every thing,

These are a few of my favorite things.

The Stones and Moon River and quarters and dreaming,

Matt Dillon and Elvis and eating and scheming,

Knowing I know not what tomorrow will bring,

These are a few of my favorite things.

A good night's sleep and faith that keeps and

hearing a kindred tune,

Night swims and girlish whims, baby's toes, brand new clothes,
All these things make me swoon.

Mascara and Carlsbad and grammar and basil,
Cinnamon, fireworks, eyes that are hazel,
Fortunes in cookies and butterfly wings,
These are a few of my favorite things.
Anne of Green Gables and singing and starfish,
Hideaway Russian dolls and getting my heart's wish,
Flirting and red and my sweet Eponine,
These are a few of my favorite things.
Carousels and wishing wells and raindrops in the spring,
Romantic chills, scary thrills, summer nights,
being right,
Kissing, kissing, kissingggg. 

So... It's not gonna win a grammy any time soon, but it'll do!

Peace and Love.

Aud(b)rey

"For me, the only things of interest are those linked

  to the heart."

-Audrey Hepburn

 Happy Birthday to a very classy lady indeed. I can't ever thank you enough.

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

Not to live for the day, that would be materialistic — but to treasure the day. I realize that most of us live on the skin — on the surface — without appreciating just how wonderful it is simply to be alive at all.

Let’s face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me.

And I love to be alone. It doesn’t bother me one bit. 
I’m my own company.

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 
'I'm possible'!

I was born with a terrible need for affection and a terrible need to give it.

I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most important thing in a person.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman is seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. True beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It's the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows.

 

If I get married, I want to be very married.

I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.

There is more to sex appeal than just measurements. I don't need a bedroom to prove my womanliness. I can convey just as much sex appeal, picking apples off a tree or standing in the rain.

If I’m honest I have to tell you I still read fairy-tales and I like them best of all.

Make-up can only make you look pretty on the outside but it doesn't help if you're ugly on the inside. Unless you eat the make-up.

The most important thing is to enjoy your life — to be happy — it's all that matters.

  
Peace and Love. Darling.

Girl: Happy

"It is the sweet, simple things in life that are the real ones after all."

-Laura Ingalls Wilder

Confession: This blog is purely and whole-heartedly a device for cataloging my eccentricities. To what end, I'm not sure. But, since someday I will have children who will only know me as their old battle-axe mother and not as this sprightly young girl that I am now, I feel it important to somehow document the spontaneous and admittedly eclectic thoughts that roam through my mind and heart so that there is proof that this girl once existed. 
(Yes, my heart has a mind of it's own. Oh and I hope against hope that I don't ever become a battle-axe, but one never knows.)

I've decided upon a new habit for L.M.T.'ly, one that will hopefully help me achieve one of my New Year's Reso's which was to think absolutely positive thoughts on the reg. With that goal in mind, I introduce you to...

Girl: Happy.

Only those readers who are as enamored with Elvis as I will note that each blog post is dubbed with an Elvis tune as it's title. Marvelous, right? You didn't think I came up with Love Me Tenderly all on my own, did you? (I did have to change it to the adverb since whether a blessing or a curse, grammar is the oxygen that I breathe.)I found the song title Girl Happy exquisitely fitting for what I have in mind. I la la love the idea of finding "Heaven's hand" in the day to day. So often, these simple joys and sweet nothings are what puts the living into life, but sometimes get overlooked by the mundane that inevitably comes with the day to day as well. 
 If you are asking yourself: 
"What the gobstopper is she babbling about now?", 
I'll tell you. From now on, L.M.T.'ly will have at least one entry a week canvassing the sweet little nothings and simple joys that helped contribute to my quest for living a charmed life.
Here's what I have so far:

No, I'm not 96, though I think I must be an old soul because why else would I love cinnamon disks and ginger ale so much?

Sally Hansen nail strips. For those lacking in steez what so many of our Vietnamese friends effortlessly execute, these are a girl's bff.

Goodreads.com. I am a lush when it comes to this website. It goes without saying, I think, that books.period. are at the very top of Life's Little Thrills list. Right??

e.o.s. Lemon Drop lip-thingy-stuff. This has made me into that lady from the Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun" video, circa 1994. Anytime I apply it I want to eat my own lips. Yum.

 Andddd... Of course, my long-lost love, The Sun. He is radiant and buttery and generous today. And I indeed am a girl (most very) happy.

Peace and Love.