Anthro Adoration, Take 2

Ooohhhhh, guess what time of year it is?!  Answer: the time of year when companies graciously shower me with birthday wishes in the hopes that I'll spend some bank in their stores!  Last year, I was over the moon when I found out that Anthropologie was amongst list.  Before I get all squealy on you, let me first say that Anthro is my most favorite store (I'm wearing one of their cardigans as I type this), and if I were loaded, my friends would need to flock together to do an intervention with my shopping addictions.  I also might try to live in an actual store, because they make me so happy the second I walk through the doors.  But, I digress.

Round about this time of year, Anthro sweetly mails me a cute little card with a coupon for 15% off a purchase.  I don't care much about the discount; it's the packaging that makes me gushy and giddy....

 (I may or may not have greedily started ripping open the envelope

before remembering that I posted last year's photos and hey,

maybe it'd be neat to do the same again this year?)

A funny thought I just had:  Remember that part about wearing an Anthro cardigan as I'm typing this?  I just realized that it's the one I bought last year with my birthday discount, ha!  I'll have you know that I paired it today with skinny jeans from Walmart.  Just so that you're not thinking that I'm a spoiled little clothing snob or anything.

She's a Pisces too.

The day that Anthro starts selling dog stuff, I'm in a heap of trouble. 

Cooking with Sara: Buffalo Sliders

It's Thursday!  So, it's my day to cook for the food blog!

Over at the food blog, we spent this week posting recipes that would be fantastic ideas for Super Bowl parties.  My own party-food repertoire is pretty lacking, so I'm really excited that these Sliders turned out really yummy and so much healthier than traditional wings, to boot!  Never mind the fact that we don't yet have any plans for Super Bowl.  But if we do opt to do something last minute, I've finally got at least one option I can whip up with confidence.  Do any of you have any recipes that I need to add to my Party Collection?  If so, please share 'em!

(Healthier) Buffalo Chicken Sliders on From Blah to Ta-Daa

Wordless Wednesday: Birthday Sidenote

(Last year's bday photos here!)

Split End Stuff

This stuff is supposed to be pretty dang amazing, so I'm trying it out for us.  I'll totally let you know what we think after a couple of weeks, okey doke?

Nexxus Pro-Mend Leave-In Creme

Amaryllis By Morning

Gah.  Do yourself a pretty favor and click-zoom to look at that photo in its huge glory. 

I have no earthly idea how Bo got this photo to look so stunning with the colors and texture, and with his freaking cell phone camera no less.  But rather than whine about how I've never taken such a gorgeous photo with my Fancy Pants Camera, I'm just going to enjoy the fact that he captured the scene behind our dining table.  Yep, that photo was taken in our house!  (We planted bulbs around Thanksgiving, and the Amaryllis didn't open up until just this last week.  The Paper Whites opened up right after Christmas, if you're curious about planting timelines.)  That chair is the back chair at our dining table, and just to the left and right are long benches.  The right-side bench is next to a window, and it's where I take nearly all of my Sarandipity photos, because the lighting there is pretty great.  But, no matter.  I'm just loving this picture!  Happy weekend, everyone!

Cooking with Sara: Apple Vinaigrette Dressing

It's Thursday!  My day to cook for the food blog!

I'm being pulled in 47 directions today, so I'll keep this short and sweet.

We're doing an apple-themed week on the food blog, but I'm a total apple snob and struggle buying apples that aren't from Washington state (Pacific Northwest shout-out, what what!).  And because apples aren't in season right now, the pickings are worse than slim.  So I decided to come up with a recipe that didn't require fresh apples.  A novel idea, yes?  And because I'm pretty much in love with the Panera Fuji apple vinaigrette dressing, I thought I'd scour the web for a copycat recipe.  While I didn't find anything claiming to be The Exact Recipe, I found lots of ideas to work with, and came up with something that's darn tasty.  And cheap.  And lacking funny additives I can't pronounce.  And nondairy and vegan and gluten-free and low in sugar and all that healthy-ish stuff.

Hope you like!

Apple Vinaigrette on From Blah to Ta-Daa

Potpourri No. 6 (Anticipation.)

Gosh, I'm just so delinquent with posting!  I've written 18 posts in my head already; have you read them?  No?  Maybe when you develop that super power, we can truly be friends.  Until then, you'll just have to content yourself with my disjointed scraps of thought. 

• After much squealing and jumping up and down, I finally got to see the Hood to Coast movie last night!  I ran that 197-mile, 12-person-per-team relay in Oregon in the summer of 2009, and I absolutely loved every dirty, chaotic, brutal minute of it.  Marnie and I flew up to Oregon to run it with a drama-drama-drama team, and it became one of the many running experiences that have bonded us.  (Ohhhhh, the stories she and I giggle over)  We both want to do the relay again (I'm insisting on being Captain next time!); anyone want to join us?  You think I'm kidding, but I'm so not...  The dvd for the film will be released in the next few months, and they're working on doing more showings in theaters.  I'll keep you posted - you definitely need to see it.  If for nothing else than to see how beautiful the state of Oregon is ♥

• Remember this girl?  Caley (aka Sidenote) is flying all the way here from Minnesota to vist me tomorrow!  Holy cow, I'm so excited!  Also?  How lucky am I to have two best friends flying to see me within in a 2 month time span?  Over the top, pot o'gold (and not the Alabama kind of gold, folks), pinch-me lucky.  While she's here in the ATL, we're planning to do girly nonsense like bake cakes, make crafts, thrift shop, and visit book museums.  Yes, indeedy, we're a couple of wild ones, watch out. 

• We've lived in our cute little condo for 11 months now, and I just finally broke down and bought an area rug on Monday.  There isn't a speck of carpet in our downstairs, and dangit, I'm tired of having cold toes.  Bo and I have completely different tastes in area rugs; he's more Modern, while I favor Traditional.  He thinks what I like is dusty and uptight; I think his choices are primary color havoc.  But the beauty of procrastinating a purchase like this is that it totally wore me down.  I found one for cheap, with free shipping, in the right colors, and hit Purchase.  I kinda really think that it looks like a 3 year old took crayons to it, but Bo assures me that it looks nice.  It's supposed to arrive tomorrow, so cross your fingers that it doesn't cause erratic behavior or seizures every time I stare at the swirly geometric shapes.
• Tomorrow is my day to post something for the food blog, and guess who hasn't even settled on a recipe choice yet?  Eek.  I have an idea in mind, but I'm completely worried that it'll flop and I'll be forced to post a whole writeup for something that's icky.  Related:  Anyone have a recipe for Apple Vinaigrette dressing?  One that tastes a whole lot like the one at Panera?
• I haven't posted photos of mockups for a long, long while, so I thought I'd end with something - literally - sweet:



Mockups for a baby girl's baptism ♥





Cooking with Sara: Thai Chicken Soup

It's Thursday!  Which means that it's my day to cook for the food blog!

As I'm sitting here with frozen, stiff fingers, I'm wishing I still had that bowl of soup here to keep me warm.  I'd even plunk my frozen digits right into the bowl, a la Palmolive commercials from the 80s.  When I woke up this morning, the "feels like" temperature was hovering right around 5 degrees, and you wouldn't believe the number of clothing layers I'm wearing right now.  Most of Atlanta is slowly recovering from our crazy weather earlier this week, but our little road is still covered in ice right at the crest of the hill where it connects to the main street.  The street with stores and gas stations and food and space heaters.  I used to be very pfft! about radiant space heaters; they feel great, but we have no need to spend our money on anything of the sort when we have central heating.  Well, folks, I really want one.  I want one baddddd.

But back to the matter at hand - Thursday cooking day for the blog!:

Thai Chicken Soup on From Blah to Ta-Daa!

Also!  Today is my blog's birthday!  I didn't have any cakes handy (which is actually kind of surprising, considering it's me we're talking about here), so I'm settling for a clip-art-Thai-soup-birthday-wish instead.  Flip off the lights, squeeze those eyelids shut, and take a deep breath.....

WISH!

In case you're utterly bored, here is the link for my very first post here.  Entertaining?  Not in the least.  But hey, like I said then, a meager start is still a start.

Big smooches to all who've become my "blog and twitter friends" over the past two years and to those I've been able to get to know better, despite the distance between us.  You make my life more interesting and more amusing and more sweet ♥

More Snow

Behold.  Bo's first ever snowman.  (Er, snowlady in this case.)

It seems crazy to me that it took 34 for years for him to ever have built a snowman, but I suppose that's how life is when you grow up in Florida.  He's loving the snow and the weather here, which is great, because I was mildly worried that he'd hate the cold and icky winter weather that I'd missed so much.   He's outside shoveling ice as I type.  Rory's taking her 5th nap of the day, and I'm sitting at our dining table, wrapped up in 3 layers, sipping coffee.

Hope your morning is just as peaceful and cozy as mine!

Snow in The South

Just how much did it snow here in Atlanta last night?  We got 2" in less than an hour last night; it was literally pouring down snow outside!  Rory absolutely loved it, and was hopping around like a bunny, lol.  

This morning, we woke up to a fully-covered neighborhood.  Apparently, this much snow is a rarity in Atlanta, and as such, the entire city is basically shutdown.  Anyone you talk to will tell you that the City of Atlanta owns only four snowplows.  If there's even a speck of truth to that, it explains why the news for the past 12 hours has consisted only of snow photos and road closures.

This photo is looking up our street:

 And then, down to the left:

Bo's poor truck.  It's only ever lived in Florida and California, lol.

(Yes, I do own a pink tape measure.)

This morning, Rory went nuts!

And ran next door to play with her boyfriend, Bear.

Rory plays dirty; she always goes straight for his ankles.

Action shot!  Bo got a fantastic pic of Bear catching a snowball!

And Rory actually caught one too!  (She's not much of a fetcher.)

Oh, yes he did.

Snow in The South from sara eddy on Vimeo.

Ripping Off Bossy Betty

This will only make sense if you scoot on over to Bossy Betty's fabulous post with a handy new (and pretty) product idea - "The Jab."  So, go read it!!!

Finished?

Ok, I found these (far inferior) bells on clearance at Pier One over Christmas and had to snap a photo to share with Bossy Betty.  It's obvious that someone completely ripped off her idea back in April and is using it to make buckets and buckets of cash!  No fair!  I think Bossy Betty deserves at least a portion of the clearance-priced earnings!

Cooking with Sara: Spicy Bean Salsa

It's Thursday!  Which means it's my day to cook for the food blog!

This stuff is yum city. And pretty darn healthy (and nondairy and vegan and gluten free!), so I found myself snacking on this A Whole Lot in the days it sat in my fridge.

Spicy Bean Salsa on From Blah to Ta-Daa

Some notes:  This recipe makes up a whole vat, so it's a great option for parties or large gatherings.  Also, it honestly tastes way better on day 2 (and day 3 and 4 and 5 and...), so make it ahead of time and let it marinade.  The flavor will go from "Ok, this is pretty alright" to "Yummm.. must shovel more into my mouth as fast as this chip can possibly transport it."

p.s.  I love my fancy camera.  It does me so proud :)

Word-full Wednesday: A Review That Makes My Heart Burst

(click-zoom to enlarge the print)

The Sarandipity Sweets listing on Yelp

Operation Pretty Up, No. 1



photo credit


As in, pretty myself up.  But on the inside; not so much what might make me drop-dead anything to anyone else.

As everyone is talking and writing about New Year's resolutions, I've been reflecting over this past year and how I currently feel about myself.  I'm in the middle of a small lull in my side business, and it's giving me much-needed time to breathe and think and strategize.  You see, I've been feeling downright awful about myself over the past four months.  Longer than that actually, if I'm being completely honest.  And it's not just the usual, obvious things that women generally lament.  My issue is that I know full-well how to take care of myself, but I'm just not doing it.  Not hardly a speck.  Sure, I slap on makeup every morning, and I do make an attempt with my mop of a hairstyle.  But there are other things I've let go by the wayside - like ample sleep; eating well; working out; heck, shaving my legs more than once a week.  And I'm tired of feeling ugly for not doing them.  I yearn to feel feminine and alert and, well, pretty again. 

So, with the New Year beginning, I'm putting myself on the track to Pretty Up.  And I don't care what the rest of the world thinks of how I look on the outside.  This is all about feeding my soul some beauty.  I'm going to do the things - no matter how small - that make me feel like a girl.  A pretty girl. 

Today?  Today, I work out.  I will bust my shoulders and quads to the Jillian Michaels dvd, and I'll (stiffly) walk away feeling so proud of myself for doing a small thing to feel good inside.