LYBS - Shows I'm Addicted To

Welcome to "phoning it in" week on the blog.  I kid, but I have been picking posts that have been pretty mindless to write, which is nice, my brain just needs a break.  So today I'm linking up with the Let Your Blog Shine prompt of "Shows I'm addicted to."  

We actually don't watch that much TV overall, especially in the summer, but some nights it is nice to unwind with something and sometimes we just enjoy binge watching our favorites. Today I thought I'd discuss my tried and true faves, the shows I'll watch again and again and why I love them.  

Friends - So I've been a fan of Friends from the very beginning.  I was probably too young to even really be watching when it was first on the air, I think I was in 7th grade when the first season aired. But I watched anyway and while some of the jokes I appreciated much more as I watched in re-runs later, I've just always loved it.  It has the right amount of humor and heart.  There is something relatable in each character.  And I think while they were a good 15 years older than me, I could relate to them sort of coming of age from their twenties to their thirties while I was coming of age from my teens to my twenties.  I still cry when I watch the finale.  I live my life in "Friend-isms."  I'll just always love this show!

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Everything about this show is so wrong it's right.  It's actually the anti-Friends in a way.  There isn't a single likable thing about any of the characters and yet, I just love the show.  The scenarios seem almost unbelievable at times.  So I just can't say why I love it and yet I can watch it again and again because while all the things I said are true, it just makes me laugh so much.  

Corner Gas - I've talked about this cute Canadian show before.  It's clean, wholesome and light hearted and we just love it so much. We own the entire series on DVD.  It takes place in a small town and has that small town charm about it.  Sometimes we just need some basic fluff.  We pretty much watch this series beginning to end about once a year.

Snuff Box - This was a British show that ran for one season only and many British seasons are only six episodes long, so there aren't many episodes of this show.  It's kind of a sketch comedy starring Matt Berry (who plays the boss on The IT Crowd if any of you have ever seen that show) and American actor Rich Fulcher.  They work as hangmen and much of the series is about the time they spend in this club where the hangmen get to relax and unwind.  Rich is kind of a doof and Matt is pretty much a jerk, but the little sketches interspersed with the main storylines are pretty funny.  And we like dark comedy so we just love this show and pretty much quote it all the time at our house. And being that it's British, it is a bit crude at times too, but we don't mind that much!  We watch this pretty much once a year too.

Black Books - Another British show that is hilarious, it takes place in a book store run by a guy that's pretty much kind of a sloppy drunk and the mis-adventures he has with his employee and female friend who runs a shop next door.  My favorite episode is when Bernard the owner and Manny, his employee, decide they're going to write a children's book because there are no good children's books and they end up getting drunk (happens a lot on this show!) and write a book called The Elephant and the Balloon.  It's just classic.

Dead Like Me - Fantastic show that was only a couple of seasons long but so well done.  I believe it was a Showtime show or maybe HBO when it first ran.  The main character is killed by a toilet seat falling from an airplane (it's another dark comedy) and she ends up becoming a grim reaper.  She becomes part of a family of grim reapers and has to deal with her life in the afterlife while still on Earth where she lived her previous life.  I don't know how else to explain this one, but it's just a great show, definitely a little bit darker, but actually has a lot of humor and heart too.

Psych - LOVE, love, love this show.  I'm not usually much for police/crime type shows, but when Nate got me into this show he hooked me by saying there were a lot of 80's references because of flashbacks and things like that and I was pretty much sold from the first episode.  Shawn the fake psychic has a lot of charm and you just can't help rooting for him.  It has some more serious moments but overall never lets itself get too dark and heavy, though there is an episode they do that recreates some famous Hitchcock moments that gets kind of intense at times.

The Muppet Show (original) - You knew this would be on my list right?  The original Muppet show was intended to be mostly for adults.  I have always loved the sort of "Saturday Night Live" feel to it. It's definitely the show I go to as a pick me up when I'm feeling down.  My favorite episode has always been the Steve Martin one. I'm beyond excited for the new Muppet show coming out this Fall, I love that they're going to be doing it in sort of that faux-documentary style similar to Parks and Rec and the Office.  There was a long extended preview released yesterday and I can say it just fueled my excitement even further if that is even possible!

There you have it.  I frequently discuss what we're currently watching and what some of our favorite shows are, but the ones I just listed are the ones I'll watch again and again until I die and would want on my iPad or something if I was on a deserted island (provided I got to have an iPad with me that is).  What are your tried and true favorite shows that you'll watch again and again?

LYBS - Top 10 Foods for Life

I haven't had a chance to do many of the Let Your Blog Shine writing prompts this month, but today's seemed too fun to pass up - it's all about food!  How can we not love food?  The topic is - Top 10 foods I'll eat for the rest of my life.  So basically, what are my ten most favorite things to eat?  It's actually hard to narrow it down, but I've done my best here!
Beth's Top Ten Favorite Foods:
1. Cheese.  In any form.  I love cheese.  I eat a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch most every Friday.  My favorite at home date night is when Nate goes to one of our local cheese shops and picks out some fancy or funky cheese and we enjoy it with some wine and bread.  I love cheese on salads, I love cheese on pasta.  I just love cheese.  
2. Cereal, especially Cheerios, Rice Krispies or Cocoa Krispies.  Nate likes to give me a hard time about my love of cereal, as there really isn't that much nutritional value to cereal, but I'm just a cereal girl.  And I think it always tastes different at night than it does in the morning - so funny, but for real, it almost seems like a treat or something!
3. Spaghetti and meatballs, especially made by my Chef Husband.  I love a lot of Italian food, I love to go out for Italian food, but my favorite is made at home by Nate.  We make the Bobby Flay meatball recipe a lot, but Nate makes his own sauce and it's pretty dang good.  And this reminds me we haven't had it in awhile, so now we need to make some.
4. Mexican anything, but I guess if I have to pick I'll go with tacos.  We have a Mexican night at least once a week at our house and rotate between tacos, nachos and fajitas mostly.  We'll start making enchiladas this summer with our fresh CSA veggies.  I'd say the tacos are my favorite though.  We usually use whatever leftover meat we have in the house and season it up ourselves and it turns out so good.  
5. The French Fries from Five Guys.  I love good quality french fries.  I really love the ones from Five Guys.  I know that even though they use fresh potatoes and even tell you where they're from, that they're probably still horrible for you, but I just love them.  They remind me of the fries we used to be able to get at this local diner that folded up years ago.  Mmm, french fries.  I'm getting hungry now!
6. Chocolate chip cookies, especially my mom's.  I love cookies pretty hardcore, they're my favorite form of dessert, but the classic chocolate chip cookie is the best and my mom makes some pretty dang good ones!
7. Nate's corned beef hash.  Yeah I know, a lot of Nate meals ending up on this list, what can I say, he's a really good cook!  I love it when he makes us corned beef hash for breakfast, he has his technique down pretty well and it's delicious.  We just had some on this last Sunday in fact.  With a bloody mary on the side.  Soooooo good.  Am I making you hungry yet?
8. Pizza.  I love pizza.  I love when we make homemade pizza, but I also love pizza from out.  We have a great greasy spoon joint near us that makes awesome thin crust when that mood strikes. Sometimes we get Papa Johns delivered.  Sometimes we go get a chicken bacon artichoke pizza from Papa Murphy's.  For a good deep dish style, I love Davanni's.  And then there are couple of gourmet local chains we love too - Pizza Luce and Punch.  You can't go wrong with pretty much any pizza in my book!
9. Hamburgers.  I love hamburgers.  And similar to the pizza, I don't care if we make our own or go out and get them somewhere.  You can't beat a hamburger and a beer.  
10. Oreos.  Come on, are we surprised that this is on my list?  Biggest weakness in my life, but I can't help but love them.  
So there you go.  I realize very little on this list could be considered "healthy" but hey, that wouldn't be fun if the whole list was salads and such right?  Although I do love a good club salad or caesar salad!  What would be on your top food list?  

MN Bloggers Favorite Things 2015

Happy Monday!  I'm just off of a very full, but very fun weekend.  I had the chance to spend time with a bunch of my favorite Minnesota bloggers (a couple of them I was lucky enough to even see twice!) and my heart is always so full and my spirit is always so refreshed after spending time with these lovely people.  Saturday I had the chance to participate in the Minnesota Bloggers Favorite Things Party and it was so much fun!  

We gathered together at J. Arthur's Coffee in Roseville, MN and very appropriately they gave us the Minnesota Room!

The awesome Lauren from Our Crazy Ever After was kind enough to organize and set this whole shindig up with the help of Megan from Mr. C and Me and they did a great job.  The idea at a favorite things party is everyone brings three of their favorite things (we kept the price limit to $5-$7) and then we draw names and everyone gets to choose someone else's favorite thing to go home with!  I totally forgot to take a picture of the favorite thing I brought, but it's on the table below here - I found the cutest mint polka dot coffee mugs at World Market and I stuck an individual pack of one of my favorite coffees that they have, Vanilla Bean.  

It was so fun to get to meet a bunch of new bloggers - before we drew names, we went around and everyone got up and introduced themselves and their blog and then explained what their favorite thing was.  Lauren said this was one of the biggest turnouts that they've had and I believe this was the third favorite things party.  I am so excited about the goodies I brought home with me.  I chose lipstick that one of the gals makes herself - it's awesome, it was a "surprise" color and I think is supposed to be like a mood ring, changes color with your mood.  It's been mostly peachy on me so far, but I really like it!  I also chose some awesome truffles from Trader Joes, they sound absolutely amazing.  And finally, one of the gals has a daughter named Bailey and she said that she's her favorite thing, so she brought little bottles of Baileys liquor along with a pen and a Reeses Egg.  I can relate to that since Ollie is definitely one of my favorite things, not to mention, I love Baileys!  Yum!

And naturally, we're bloggers, you put us alone in a room together and of course the cameras are going to come out.  Some selfies, some large group shots.  First I grabbed a selfie with Sara from Writing With Bangles and Jen from Wonderfully Unkempt.  These two ladies are two of the sweetest people and I just can't put into words how much I've really come to appreciate their friendship this last year. (#youjustgetme).

These next two pictures were stolen.  I took this next one from Megan Bird.  We were definitely missing Nora (but California does seem to agree with her so far!).  It's a shame we're not photogenic at all.  Or pretty.  

And this last one is a group shot of everyone.  I wish I had had more time to get around and talk to more people, but it was a really big group!  We were smart enough to pass around a sheet to have everyone write down all their social media info, so I'm just going to have to try to get to know some more of these lovely ladies online and hope that we all meet up in person again soon!

Overall it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon!  I can't say it enough how much I love blogging and the community that comes from it!  The internet can be used for good!

Bag Lady

It is likely no secret if you've been reading this blog for awhile now (or just know me in person really well) that I love bags.  I'm a crazy bag lady.  It's like being a crazy cat lady, but instead of a million cats, I have a million bags. (Side note, I am a crazy cat lady too with my two furry girls at home, but that's another subject.)  Bags just make me happy the way shoes or makeup make other people happy. I like changing up my bag quite a bit.  Recently though, I have stumbled on to what just might be the holy grail of bags for me and I haven't really changed up what I've been carrying now much at all in the last several weeks - that's a pretty big deal for me!

I was talking with a friend who used to sell Stella and Dot and she was getting rid of some samples she no longer wanted.  She is not a bag lady and offered me the How Does She Do It bag in pewter because she knew I was a bag fan.  I wasn't about to say no, so I took her up on it.  And then I got it home and was like...hmm.  This is a LOT bigger than what I usually carry.  So it sat in my closet for a bit.  Then I finally said, ok, I'm bored with my usual bags, let's give this a try.  Oh my god.  What was I waiting for??  First of all, it can be made SMALLER.  All you need to do is flip down the two sides and it become a great sized hobo, over the shoulder bag.

See?  Isn't that cute?  I also absolutely love that it has this large pocket on the front outside of the bag - this is the best slot for my cell phone and work badge to slide into.  Now, I did take a quick picture of it expanded so you can see that too - there are some instances that I have actually liked having it be bigger, especially because I found out there was a crossbody strap that could be added and was able to order one through my new Stella and Dot enabler - Sara from Writing With Bangles.  

So when you open it up like that it becomes a pretty large bag, but I like having the extra room to throw in a few things for Oliver on the weekends - then I don't have to carry a diaper bag AND a purse.  It even has a little water bottle holder inside, so I can stick his sippy cup in there if I want (just need to be careful that it is actually sealed - learned that one the hard way one weekend, but thankfully the inside is a water resistant fabric that drys well.)

It looks really cute when you wear it crossbody - makes it nice and hands free for shopping/chasing after my child/etc.  But I also still like making it smaller and wearing it over the shoulder as well.

And the inside is just too fun - I love purses that have fun colored insides, this one is pink and how cute is that little message by the zipper pocket that says "Hello Gorgeous"?  It also has two slip pockets on the side.  Lots of room.  Even snapped into it's smaller silhouette it has tons of room inside, I don't even think I could fill this up all the way!

The most surprising thing about this bag to me is, it's actually relatively lightweight.  I'd expect it to be super heavy, but it only gets that way if I have added a bunch of Ollie's stuff.  I think it would also probably weigh more if I added my laptop, which is supposedly supposed to fit, but I have a different bag for that.  So anyway, I have hardly stopped carrying this bad boy since I pulled it out of my closet in January.  I'm even starting to get rid of other bags that just don't add up  - and that's huge!  Now I did decide to host a catalog party with a friend who sells Thirty One and some of their new purses have the potential to rival this one for me, so I guess we'll see what happens, but for now, this bag is pretty much the new love of my life and I just had to share.  Do you have a favorite bag?  Or are you more of a shoe/something else fan?
(Links because I love, I am not affiliated with nor do I sell Stella and Dot.  I think this bag is actually sold out at the moment anyway!)

Five on Friday - TV

So my work computer contracted Ebola yesterday which totally blows.  I'm still going to be dealing with the aftermath of that today.  So I'm kind of phoning it in with my post today and just doing a five things on Friday type post.  Today I will give you my five favorite TV shows of the moment.

Masters of Sex - It's not as dirty as it sounds if you haven't heard of it before.  It's currently just finished it's second season on Showtime.  We're a little behind, we are halfway through season one.  It's very similar to Mad Men but instead of an ad agency it takes place in an OB/GYN setting.  Dr. Masters is a doctor who is known for his work in treating infertility.  He becomes fascinated with human sexual behavior and starts a study to learn more about the science of it.  There is much more to the story besides that though, he and his wife are trying to conceive but cannot because of fertility issues.  He starts to fall in love with his secretary turned research assistant.  She has her own issues in life to deal with.  Overall it's a really entertaining show and I love the time period it's set in!

Manhattan - This is a show that is a fictionalized version of the Manhattan Project.  Again, this is a time period that is always been interesting to me.  This show has been really interesting so far, they are keeping things pretty historically accurate while developing the characters involved.

The Lottery - I'm a sucker for dystopian type stories.  This is another one of those futuristic type shows that reminds me a little of the movie Children of Men.  The premise is in the 2020's the world encounters a fertility crisis, no one is able to get pregnant any longer, and the human race as we know it is threatened to become extinct.  A group of scientists are able to fertilize an embryo and it's determined they can fertilize 100 embryos.  The US Government decides to hold a lottery to choose 100 women to carry the embryos.  Of course it isn't all tied up in a pretty little bow, there is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes.  Lots of intrigue.  It's interesting so far.

Parenthood - I have only seen the first episode of this final season and it's going to be an emotional roller coaster this year - but when is this show NOT an emotional roller coaster?  It's such a heartwarming show and over the years I've really grown attached to this family - it will be sad when we say goodbye to them for good!

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - We've been fans of this show for years.  We just found out the entire series is on Amazon streaming so we started it from the beginning again.  It's crude, rude and well, we find it hilarious.  We need some fluff after all of these serious shows every night so, we watch at least one of these before we go to bed!

So there you go!  We also love The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family and Parks and Recreation.  We have other shows we love that don't come back until later in the winter like Shameless.  And of course I've professed my love for Orange is the New Black a ton on here before too!  What are your favorites?  Any good new shows this fall we should be checking out?

Favorite things

This dress is one of my very favorite things.  I know you're all going - ok Beth, every dress you wear you tell us is one of your favorites ever.  Fine, this dress is one of my favorites ever for FALL.  How's that?  It seriously has some of the best colors for fall.  It's also been in my wardrobe since close to the beginning of this entire blog!  I was looking at it and figured, the waistline is very high in this dress, might I squeeze in at least one wear of it while I'm pregnant?  The answer, happily, is yes!

I was pretty dang excited.  I'm guessing in another month or so it might not be the case, although there is a lot of room in the skirt of this dress.  At any rate, I'm going to enjoy it for today, that's for sure!!

Other favorite things in my outfit today?  Ruffles in the sweater, ruffles in my Jenna Lou bag, tweed on my shoes.  You just can't go wrong when you wear all your favorite types of things.

Dress - Axcess by Clairborne, thrifted

Sweater - Style&Co, consigned

Bag - Jenna Lou Designs

Shoes - DSW

Jewelry - Bead for Life

For fun, I searched my archives and found the many other ways I've worn this dress in the last two years. 

September 2011, October 2011, March 2012, August 2012, December 2012, January 2013, February 2013, March 2013.  There might be more too, but these are the ones I easily found.  It's been quite a versatile piece I guess!!

Simple is good

Hey hey it's Friday!  And the weekend ahead isn't as crazy as last week's was for me so I am very happy about that!  Today's outfit is pretty simple.  And in fact, it may even be a combination I've worn on the blog before, I'm too lazy to go look.  Sometimes the simplest outfits are the ones I love best though!

I wear this necklace a lot.  Practically all the time you've probably noticed.  The thing I love about it is how versatile it is.  It's from the La Coco collection from Stella and Dot, which is meant to be mixed and matched and played with.  It's one of the best purchases I've ever made I think, because I can make this work with just about anything.

These sandals are one of my favorite things ever too, I haven't worn them much this summer because they are on their last legs.  Today they were just begging to be worn though, so I happily obliged.

We met a couple of friends for a beer at our favorite bar last night to celebrate National IPA Day.  It was last minute, but it was nice and the sun was already going down when we got to the patio, so it wasn't even terribly hot out.  I'd say it was summer at it's best!  Hope you all have wonderful weekends!

Outfit rundown:

Shirt - Maurices

Skirt - LOFT, thrifted

Sandals - Kohls (old)

Necklace - La Coco from Stella and Dot

Bracelets - S&D, Premier, Charming Charlie

Earrings - Charming Charlie

One Year Anniversary "Beth's Favorite Things" giveaway

You guys.  I've been doing this blog thing for ONE YEAR.  How does a year go by so fast?  It has been a blast.  I've enjoyed every single minute.  Looking back at my earliest posts I can see how far I've come in a year too.  You can go back in the archive if you want, the earliest posts are not good - my photos were awful and my formatting wasn't so great, so I'm not going to highlight them, but it is fun to see how I've definitely improved.  When I set out to do this, I had no idea where it would go or what it would become, but I'm proud of what I've done here.  Most of all, the reason I've stuck with it and the reason I have so much fun is because of ALL OF YOU.  Those of you who take the time to read my rambles, share your thoughts, and say hello.  I love this blogging community, I've made some wonderful friends and have been blessed to meet some of you in person and I hope I can meet more of you in person sometime too. Whether near or far, you are all such gifts to me.

So as a gift to all of you, I'm doing a "Beth's Favorite Things" giveaway - think like Oprah - I wish I could give away ALL of my favorite things and I wish I could give them to each and every one of you, but until I have my own talk show like Oprah or win the lottery, sadly I can only give a few things away to one grand prize winner.  First off - here is the loot:

1. Vintage handbag from the fabulous Salvaged Strawberry (visit her Etsy shop here)
2. Megan Mae Buttonflowers in my latest favorite colors of oranges and reds (visit Megan here)
3. Necklace, earrings and bracelet from Target in fun summer colors
4. Burt's Bees Lipbalm
5. I Love Shopping notebook
6. Coffee mug

Above is a closer shot of the bag.  Ignore the playing cards to the right, they are not part of the deal, though I do love cards!  Anyway, this lovely bag will be a great added touch to any summer outfit!  Below are close ups of the jewelry and buttonflowers.

I feel this encompasses many of the things I love - purses, jewelry, accessories, bloggers I enjoy,  coffee, etc.  I hope that you all will love them too.  I did pay for all of these items out of my own pocket and I link because I love.

So how do you enter to win?  Simple.  Please leave me a comment with your email address and let me know  that you follow via Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin.  That's it.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.  Yes I appreciate my Twitter and FB followers too, but I'm keeping this bad boy simple.  And yes, international readers can enter.  I will figure it out if you win, no worries.

I'll accept entries from today, June 15th through 5pm CST Friday June 22nd.  Winner will be chosen in a video blog and I'll be joined by a special guest!

And again - Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for your love and support over the last year, I hug you all times a thousand.  I hope you'll stick with me in the future as well!

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