HAPPY ZOMBIE DAY

Source: angry-eyeball.deviantart.com via Sarah on Pinterest

I may not be a Christian, but I. LOVE. ZOMBIES!

Speaking of Zombies, ave you tried the ZOMBIES, RUN app for iPhone?

It is a new running app that makes you feel as though you're being chased by zombies. It even plays music from your iTunes library in between story lines. Super cool.

Friday Faves

1. Starbucks VIA instant iced coffee.

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Homemade iced coffee is a pain in the booty-hole to make. How much easier could Starbucks make it for you? Maybe selling it pre-mixed by the half-gallon? Just saying, Starbucks. Just saying.

2. This gluten free quinoa pasta. 

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I don't know for sure that I am gluten intolerant, but my mother has tested positive for it and I have been struggling with a few of the symptoms myself (namely eczema and digestive issues). Plus knowing that wheat is not great for me from reading some of this book (and the oh so reliable method of judging this book by its cover), it doesn't completely break my heart to make some attempts to reduce it in my diet. Some gluten free pastas suck balls, but this kind is delicioso! BTW, this is coming from the girl who just ate a cupcake. Not a gluten free cupcake; just a cupcake.

3. The fact that we may be buying a house very very soon. 

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I can hardly contain my excitement!!!! But I will. I'll contain it and save it for a future post.

4. Audio books!!!

I love them! They count as reading, and anyone who says differently is lying, cheap, stubborn, old-fashioned, or just plain jelly! It's called multi-tasking, people! This it what I'm currently reading. Don't. Hate.

5. Springtime! Enough said. No picture necessary

6. Winnie Bear.

Obviously. This isn't turning into a blog about my dog, I swear. But she is the bomb-doggity and I cannot ignore that!

7. This lipstick. 

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It's perfect for all those in club lip gloss that just cannot step foot into club lipstick without feeling like a poser clown fool. Just me? I'm wearing #819.

8. Sandals! Oh how I've missed you!


Also, about 90% of the time when I attempt to type the word " you," I type the word "toy." Again, just me?

That's all. You may return to your regularly scheduled pollen induced zombie-coma. Happy Spring!

p.s. Nobody paid me to write niceties about their products or services. Obviously. The only person who reads this blog is my mom. All of the nice things I have to say are purely my opinion.

Best books I've Read (and Loved) in 2011

When I was a teenager, I had this binder. My special binder. I tore out pages from magazines and put them in there. I also hid all of my love letters from my then boyfriend, now husband, inside of its protective covers. I had lists of things I wanted to do, of books I'd loved, of names I liked for future children.

My how technology has changed everything! Now instead of my special binder, I have google. I have my blog and my google docs, full of lists, spreadsheets, links, and pictures. I never really thought about how similar it is to my special binder until recently.

The best part about keeping these lists is that it helps you make goals, and keep track of the progress you've made. My favorite spreadsheet is my book spreadsheet. I love reading, so in my spreadsheet, I keep track of all of the books I've read. At the end of last year, I'd finished reading 33 books. I thought to myself, "I can totally read 52 next year!" Well, I wasn't right about that. I'm not going to make it to 52 books (Shout out to Star, who actually completed this goal! Wish I knew about her having the same goal when I started. Maybe I would have completed it if I had). I have other hobbies that take up a lot of my time and money (boot camp, for one). Plus, although I love to read, I really need to balance it out with something active, like boot camp, because it involves many strait hours of sitting. When I sit too much my butt hurts and I need to move

So without further ado, here are the best books I've read in 2011, broken down by category. The other books in each category will be listed too, just so you can see who the winner's competition was.

Best Zombie Book:

 Hollowland, by Amanda Hocking

This book beat out:

World War Z by Max Brooks, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith & Jane Austen, The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan.

This is kind of a big category. I love zombies. I love zombie books, zombie movies, zombie TV shows, and even zombie art. I have also read more books this year by Amanda Hocking than by any other author. At first I was a little put off by the bad grammar and typos, but with a little investigating, I discovered that Ms Hocking is self published, and didn't have a good copy editor to pick up on the errors! And even with the errors, Amanda Hocking's books were all so great that I couldn't stop reading them until I'd  read every single book she'd published at the time. The sequel to Hollowland just came out, and I can't wait to finish my current book and get started on it!

Best Paranormal Book:

 Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

(Runner up was  Bloodlines by Richelle Mead)

This book beat out:

Eragon by Christophe Paolini; Switched, Torn, Ascend, My Blood Approves, Fate, Flutter, Wisdom, Hollowland, Virtue, all by Amanda Hocking; Kiss of Midnight by Laura Adrian; World War Z by Max Brooks; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith & Jane Austen; The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan; Wings by Aprilynne Pike; Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble, Toil and Trouble by H. P. Mallory; The Alchemyst by Michael Scott; Under Her Skin By Various Authors including Jeaniene Frost; Dark Fever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever, Shadowfever also by Karen Marie Moning; The Iron King by Julie Kagawa;City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.

This category had the most competition, which means this book was awesome!!! O.M.G. I've never read a faery book that I liked this much. It wins best faery book too. This was just amazing. So action packed. So sexy. So different. I loved it. I cannot stop raving about it. The whole series was phenomenal. Just read it.

Best Fiction Book (Non-Paranormal):

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morten

This book beat out: 

The Help by Kathrynne Stockett, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, and Outlander by Dianna Gabaldon

This category is small, but the contenders are big! The Forgotten Garden wins out, however, because it was so beautifully written, creative, and full of suspense and mystery. I could not put it down from page one. I liked The Help a lot too. It gets 2nd place. I did not care for Outlander. 

 

Best Nonfiction Book:

Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch

This book beat out:

The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson

I love to read about nutrition and health. It may bore other people, but I find it fascinating. I'm actually still reading The Primal Blueprint so I can't really say that Intuitive Eating wins for sure, but I sure did love Intuitive Eating! It really pushed me walk away from diets for good. The Primal Blueprint is another health book, and it's about eating and living the way we evolved to as a species. These books may be different from one another, but they work together really well.

And as for my favorite book of 2011.... It's a tie! Between The Forgotten Garden and Darkfever!

Here's to 52 books in 2012. Maybe I'll make it this time!

House Fantasy

I am obsessed with buying a house. There, I said it. Obsessed. I find myself fantasizing about my future house on a semi-regular basis. Like, at least 264 times per day. I daydream about layout, furniture, artwork, paint colors, gardens, parties, holidays, how many Christmas trees we'll have, where we'll put said Christmas trees, and many other psychotically obsessive things completely irrelevant to my apartment-dwelling everyday life. I try to stay away, but about once per week I binge on zillow.com, and spend several hours salivating like a puppy on BLT night. This obsession is both fueled and complimented by my Young House Love obsession. Fun fact: I am strongly opposed to painted brick, much unlike YHL, and I strongly desire an exposed brick wall in Fantasy House.

Joe is positively bored and exhausted with all of this house talk. I can't blame him. It's not like I'm soft spoken about this obsession. And we never go anywhere because we're trying to turn our savings account into Haloti Ngata in order to buy this aforementioned future house. So, many hours of boredom due to staying in inevitably lead to many hours of me babbling like an idiot about Mr. Future K. Housington.

Despite the fact that I know that this obsession is unhealthy, and that I know we aren't buying a house until Spring 2012 at the earliest, I spent the last 1/2 hour on polyvore.com visualizing my future basement. Looky:

























future basement by ccandfbbaby on polyvore.com


Ahhhhh. It's so beautiful and perfect.

I'd have to say that the basement is the room I dream about the most, probably because it's the place in which we'll spend the most time (Because of this, I fantasize mostly of split levels due to their abundance in finished basements). Obviously, we'll watch football in the basement. It'll be a football cave, if you will.

I also find it very important that our basement be semi-scary. Basements are supposed to be scary. That's just how it is. A universal rule. To help with the scary factor, I want an ornately-framed picture of Edgar Allan Poe and an ornately-framed picture of Zombie Lincoln. You might be thinking "Oh SJ, It must be hard to find a picture of Zombie Lincoln. That's oddly specific." Actually, it's not hard to find AT ALL. I've located several on the interwebs.

Oh. That's not what you were thinking? You're siding with Joe on this one? You think it's weird to want a Zombie Lincoln as the focal point in the imaginary room in your imaginary home where you will spend most of your (imaginary) time?

That is BULL.

ZOMBIE LINCOLN IS A BEAUTIFUL WORK OF ART THAT SHOULD ONLY BE GAZED UPON WITH WONDER AND ADORATION.

Excuse me, please. This is very important to me.

Moving on, I also want a huge black leather sectional in the basement. You know what? I want the basement to look exactly like that polyvore board. I don't think any further explanation is necessary.

Back to Zombie Lincoln.

So tell me, are you on Team Zombie Lincoln or on smelly Team Joe?

Is a Zombie Lincoln picture a totally awesome and beautiful work of art suitable for a family football cave?
ABSOLUTELY. I'm awesome. No. It's weird. Also, I smell terrible.
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I'll eat your brains. Recognize.