Missing Downton? What to Watch Now

Who else is sad that season 2 of Downton Abbey is over and we have to wait until January 2013 (in the US) for it's glorious return? Here are a few things Teresa and I have found to fill the Downton sized hole in our lives and our need for British period drama.

Available on Netflix Instant:

Land Girls Follows the lives of four women in the Women’s Land Army durring WW2.  

Season 1 is available on Netflix.

Bleak House Based on the Charles Dickens novel by the same name. 

The cast includes Carey Mulligan and Gillian Anderson, random, I know.

Any Human Heart Another miniseries from Masterpiece Classic. 

This follows one man through his life, from school in the 1930's through WW2 and beyond.

Also check out Wives and Daughters, Island at War (with Downton's Joanne Froggat), Daniel Deronda (with Downton's Hugh Bonneville), Gosford Park (with Downton's Maggie Smith), I Capture the Castle and Wuthering Heights


Available on DVD:
Upstairs Downstairs A sequal of sorts to the 1970’s TV show, takes place in 1936 and similar to Downton, captures the lives of the wealthy living in the home and the servants down below.
Cranford Follows the lives of widowed women in a 1840's English village. Judi Dench is in this one.
Pride and Prejudice I love both the BBC miniseries and the 2005 movie version..."You've bewitched me, body and soul and I love, I love, I love you." Oh P & P...

Nicholas Nickelby  Based on Charles Dickens, cast includes Anne Hathaway and Christopher Plummer.

Shades of Spring: How to Wear Neon Makeup

My fabulous sister Laura was in town last week visiting us from Florida! We had a blast bashing around town and getting caught up on all things big and small. Plus, it’s always fun having her in town to give us tons of makeup and skin care tips! Laura is a make-up artist and esthetician who has worked for the likes of Bobbi Brown, Estee Lauder and Aveda.

Jenny and I asked her if she’d be willing to guest blog about spring's neon makeup trends and lucky for all of us, she agreed!

(Mark Jacob's spring collection)

Laura's Neon Make-Up Tips:
Neon colors are popping up everywhere this spring, from hot pink and orange pants to color blocking whole neon outfits (which could be a bit overboard in my opinion, one or two neon pieces is enough, we're not all runway models).


A fun way to wear spring's hottest trend is to add a pop of neon color to your makeup routine. Red lipstick with coral hues and bright neon eye shadow colors are showing up in many of the larger makeup companies spring lines. It's always best to choose lips or eyes as both can look a little clownish...no one wants to look like Bobo.


The easiest way to wear neon eye shadow is to focus on one basic shadow color and apply it through the basic steps outlined below. For Jenny, I wanted a shadow that would compliment her blue eyes so we chose a MAC hot pink matte shadow. 

1. Chose a flat and matte shadow as the neon is enough of a statement without extra sparkles for a daytime look.
2. Prep the eye area with a neutral base shadow color to neutralize any skin pigmentation.

3. Sweep the neon shadow across the lash line getting as much pigment as you can and angle the brush to get a slight wing tip on outer corner of the lash line. Continue to blend the neon up and almost to the crease so that it fades into the neutral shade. This will give the illusion of wearing a neon liner but is slightly softer because of the blending.
4. Sweep a tiny bit of neon shadow on the bottom lash line just on the outer corner.

5. Apply mascara (curl lashes first if you prefer, we did not in this case).

Along with the eye makeup we did a nude lip Bobbi Brown Rich Lip Color in Beige Gold with Rich Color Gloss in Angel Pink and glowing lightly bronzed skin (Bobbi Brown Brightening Finishing powder). If you wanted to dress up this look for nighttime you could add a thin black liner.

Fun trends like this are great to try out to see if it's something that suits your personality. The first day I wore my hot pink pants the only person that complimented me was an 11 year old girl. I was starting to think I should be in grade school until I met up with some girlfriends for Happy Hour and they boosted my confidence. Whenever you take a fashion risk just own it and have fun, fashion isn't supposed to be super serious. If it doesn't work for you then you can always try something different. 

PS. Cute Michael Kors neon pants

Michelle Monaghan in a great neon outfit
Other celebs in neon from InStyle

Monday Motivation

Jason discovered these lining the halls at Farmers Life Insurance headquarters when he was working on a video project for them in December. I wonder if I would be more motivated at work if I had to walk by these every day?

Friday Roundup

Friday is finally here! What's everyone up to this weekend? Jenny and I are going to have a little taste-test party for the March Drink of the Month, stay tuned for the results.


With no further ado...here is your Roundup!


Happiest animals in the world! (see also photo above)


I want this spring jacket. Or maybe this bright one?


Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal, get in my belly.


Totally addicting website, what's your color?


Hank the Cat is running for US Senate, this makes me smile. 


A hot tub boat on Seattle's Lake Union. LOVE.


Clever Malcom Gladwell bestseller generator.


World's most livable cities, do you live in one?


Happy Bday Dr. Suess! 30 DS quotes to live by.


Why Rebecca Romaijn named her daughter after after Dolly Parton.


Finally started this book, laugh out loud hilarious.

A Photo Lesson...

Today I conspired with Jason, my husband and co-owner of JKoe Photography, to bring you some tips for taking awesome iPhone photos. Enjoy!

Our basic advice for shooting with your iPhone, actually applies to all cameras. However, since iPhones (and all camera phones, for that matter) don't really give you the options to manually change your settings, it makes these tips even more important, since these are the only variables you can control.

Instagram photos by jkoephoto.com. While in Kenya last month, Jason and I spent a lot of time shooting with our iPhones. Believe it or not, even with an abundance of giant cameras and nice lenses, sometimes it's more fun to just whip out your phone.

1. Find Good Light The best light of the day is always the two hours before sunset and the two hours after sunrise. Want to get good pictures of something? This is when you should shoot. Obviously this isn't always possible, so in the case that a child or kitten that has the audacity to do something cute in bad lighting, walk around them or even move the phone around and look for the angle where the light looks best. Start paying attention to the subtleties of light, it varies from angle to angle.  

2. Change Your Perspective No, this isn't meant to be some sort of philosophical look at photography. I literally mean, get on the floor or shoot from above your subject. Different angles make things interesting. Everyone sees things at eye level, spice things up. 

3. Get Your Subject Out of the Center There is a concept in visual arts called the rule of thirds.  The basic idea is to keep the dominant part of your subject out of the very center of the photo and to try and place it along the lines and intersecting points, studies have shown that this is more pleasing to the eye.* For a visual aid...

*Keep in mind, all "rules" in art are meant to be broken. Sometimes it just works artistically to have the subject in the dead center. Check this out for more on the rule of thirds. 

The Apps We Use the Most

Instagram is free and great for sharing and cool filters, though we generally recommend shooting with the iPhone's regular Camera app.

Camera+ ($1.99) is actually a great camera for really close up (macro) shots. It also has cool filters and a great sharpening tool called "clarity".

Filtermania is also free and like it's name suggests, offers lots of fun filters to get different looks for your photos.

Photoforge2 ($1.99) For all of those familiar with Photoshop, this app is substantially closer to actual Photoshop than the Photoshop app itself, allowing you to use layers, curves, levels, overlays, shadow highlight and hundreds of other tools.

Diptic ($0.99) is our favorite for making collages.

Slow Shutter ($0.99) is really fun for doing night shots and long exposures.

Snapseed ($4.99) is a fairly easy to use editing app and Teresa's favorite.

All photos via my talented husband,  Jason's instagram feed and all shot with his iPhone 4S. Follow Jason on Instagram: @jkoephoto

Check out more of our work here: jkoephoto.com, facebook.com/jkoephoto

Travelogue: Photobooth Guestbook

Patrick and I had the opportunity to spend the 2010/2011 school year in Dublin, Ireland while he studied for his master's degree. While we were there, we welcomed so many guests from the States that I took to calling our two bedroom flat The Hillis B&B! When my friend Stephanie was visiting we discovered this eclectic little bar called Shebeen Chic that has an old school photobooth in the back. We ended up taking all our guests there for an authentic photobooth quad-shot to commemorate their visit. Instead of having a regular guestbook, we had everyone put their photo in a little notebook and then write a memory of their time in Ireland.

One day I’ll find a cute way to display these in my house, any ideas from you creative types out there?

I love how the photos trace the seasons, some with winter hats and coats, others in t-shirts. Each photo brings back a memory of a fun night drinking pints in a great city with treasured friends and family.

Also, please note that in the last strip Patrick and I are competing for best Jason Bourne hardcore face… I obviously take the cake.

Sláinte!

The Biggest Wiener I've Ever Seen...

What was supposed to be a fairly mundane trip to the grocery store suddenly turned a bit more awesome when I pulled in and saw the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile!

I'd seen it on the freeway going the opposite direction so I didn't have enough time to whip out my iPhone and take a photo. I actually surprised myself (and my poor friend Brittany) with how excited I was to see it. I wasn't quite Kristen Bell with a sloth excited, but I was pretty giddy.

According to Wikipedia, Weinermobiles have been on the road since 1936 and the drivers are called "hot-doggers". The hot-dogger we met was really nice, he gave me a Weinerwhistle, which, similar to getting wings on an airplane, are usually for kids, but I was acting like I was seven at this point, so, I got one! He told us that there are six Weinermobiles crisscrossing the country now. He let us look inside too. The ceiling was painted to look like the sky, which wasn't at all what I expected to see inside of a meat shaped vehicle.  

All in all, a good trip to the grocery store, although I didn't buy any hot dogs. 

Here's my Wienerwhistle!

More after the jump...