What I've Been Up To....

Fall is officially upon us! I went back to work September 1st and it's been a lot of transition for all of us but it's going great overall. I've been getting back into a routine and enjoying these little treats if you need a recommendation:

Reading... Liane Moriarty. How did it take me this long to catch on?? This is exactly what a sleep deprived mother needs. Also, they are making Big Little Lies into an HBO series with Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon!

Watching... Easy on Netflix, check it out, lots of star power and good conversation starter.

Listening... The new Solange album (so good) and the new Bon Iver.

New Show: Chef's Table

Patrick and I are about half way through a fabulous new series on Netflix called Chef's Table.  It showcases different chefs from around the world, how they got started, their creative process, support system, and what makes them great.  The cinematography and showcasing of the different dishes is incredible. Even more than the food though the show's emphasis on hard work and creativity is inspiring. I'd highly recommend it! You can watch the trailer here. 

Cures for the Winter Blues: Pride and Prejudice!

It has been downright frigid here in Seattle and the winter blues are setting in. I have been trying to think of fun wintery activities to keep me positive, cue the "Cures for the Winter Blues" series. I'd love any recommendations that you all have as well, I know we can all use some fresh ideas to get through these dark months.

Do you have movies or series that you watch annually at a certain time of year? Jenny and I always watch Little Women during the holidays, it's a fun tradition and a wonderful movie (young Christian Bale, swoon). This November I watched all six hours of the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries staring Colin Firth in all his glory as Mr. Darcy. It was wonderful. I watched it via Amazon Prime so I had available on my phone, TV and computer and watched it in little pieces at the gym, in the evenings, and whenever I had a free moment. Perpetually sunny and summer-like, cheerful-movie-rural-England is a lovely place to escape to on these winter days.

After I finished I went down the internet Pride and Prejudice rabbit-hole and discovered that there is a new BBC two-part movie called Death Comes to Pemberley which just showed on Masterpiece and I'm dying to watch. It is a murder mystery that takes place after Elizabeth Bennett and Darcy are married and settled at Pemberley and looks very entertaining. It stars two of my favorite TV actors, Matthew Goode (The Good Wife) as Wickham and Matthew Rhys (The Americans) as Darcy.

PS. More P&P adaptations, ranked.

Also, just because we all need a winter-smile, Darcy in the lake:

Binge-Worthy: Peaky Blinders

So Patrick and my current TV obsession is a new Netflix show (originally produced by BBC) called Peaky Blinders. It's set in post-WWI Birmingham, England and stars Cillian Murphy. It has gangster drama, romance, suspense and interesting cinematography. Definitely recommend it! And season 2 comes out soon with new cast member staring Tom Hardy!

My Favorite TV Show

It's no secret that I watch a LOT of television. I make excuses like I have a baby that goes to bed at 7:00 so I have to stay at home, etc, etc but really I just love good TV. Patrick and I watch most of the award winning dramas and some of the comedies. We love the big hitters like Game of Thrones, Homeland, and Mad Men but our absolute favorite doesn't get nearly enough credit: The Good Wife. The show has an unfortunate title that seems to turn people away but it is so incredibly well acted, compelling, thought provoking, and surprisingly fast paced for a legal/political drama. The new season started last Sunday and it seriously seems to get better each year. Most of it is on Netflix and it's worth watching from the beginning.

If you don't believe me, here are Vogue's four reasons you should be watching the Good Wife.

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Nerd Alert: Downton Abbey Tea

I need to get it together with the blogging this week -- Jenny is finally home and it's time for me to get inspired and post some original content up here! In the meantime, I'm sipping my delicious Downtown Abbey English Rose tea from The Republic of Tea that I found at Fireworks this weekend. LOVE it.

An Update on Lent

I may have been a little to ambitious with my Lenten resolutions. Not consuming sugar proved to be a bit too much to handle with crazy times at work and baby at home. I did however scale back a lot and am happy to say that I'm no longer addicted. 

I am proud to announce though that my resolution to watch no TV for the Lenten season has been a success! I only have five days to go and I can't say I've even missed it very much (although I'm VERY much looking forward to getting caught up on Game of Thrones). I've had more time to read, think, clean, exercise, cook....and play Candy Crush. Ha. 

But in all seriousness I've been surprised how little I've missed binge watching television. Not to say I'm done with it forever but it does feel nice to scale back and get some perspective. More on the three books that I read later this week...

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Brilliant Teacher

This article made me laugh. Game of Thrones premier next weekend! I'll be waiting until after Lent to catch up but I'm excited for this season because I didn't read this far in the books so everything will be a surprise.

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Smart Entertainment

A couple weeks ago, Teresa shared that she hasn't read a novel since Myles was born in July.  Now it's time for my crazy TV confession:

Since mid-December, I've watched five seasons of Parks and Recreation, the first two seasons of Scandal, the first seasons of Orphan Black and House of Cards, all episodes of Ja'mie: Private School Girl, two seasons of Bob's Burgers and I'm caught up with my favorite shows airing now, Downton Abbey, Girls, Modern Family, etc. 

To be fair, I like to have Netflix on in the background when I layout wedding albums and input data into Quick Books, so a good chunk of my TV watching has been fairly productive.  It's always helpful to be laughing at Leslie Knope when you discover the total amount you've spent on parking tickets in the past fiscal year. 

All that said, I'm working on transitioning into more edifying things! I've been listening to more This American Life podcasts, but I'd love other recommendations! What are good TED talks? Or how about documentaries on Netflix? 

PS. Just in case you were wondering, I totally recommend all the TV shows listed above!

PPS. This made me feel infinitely better about bingeing on Scandal. Apparently I'm in good company.

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New Work Wardrobe

Are there any Scandal fans out there? I admit the show is RIDICULOUS but oh so entertaining. I binged watched every episode over "Christmas break" and now am dying to revamp my work wardrobe. Kerry Washington's clothes as Washington DC fixer Olivia Pope are feminine, yet work appropriate. And I LOVE all of the gorgeous wool coats she sports throughout the three seasons. I'm keeping my eye on winter sales now hoping I can snag a good deal on a grey or creme wool coat.

Also, I gave in and joined Stitchfix now that I'm back into more normal sizes. My first shipment of clothing arrives in a couple of weeks, I'll let you know how it goes.

Who are your favorite TV fashion icons?

The New Bachelor

The First Gay Bachelor with Jesse Tyler Ferguson and George Takei from Jesse Tyler Ferguson

If you're a fan of the Bachelor this is hilarious! Jesse Tyler Ferguson stars as the first gay Bachelor, too funny.

New Fall TV Shows

Since I've been on maternity leave the past few months I've had the chance to follow fall TV premiers for my old favorites and catch a few new series. The show that has hooked me so far is "Masters of Sex" on Showtime-- it follows William Master's and Virginia Johnson, the doctor and his assistant in the 1950's who went against the current and decided to study human sexuality. It's definitely risqué considering the subject at hand and channel it's on but the plot is fascinating, acting is great (love Lizzy Caplan!) and the fashion is so fun. What new shows are you enjoying? 

WIGS

I've gotten sucked into the WIGS channel on YouTube. I'm not even sure how I found it, but I'm glad I did. They have great short series and short films with a much higher production value than I expected to find on YouTube. The entire channel is original content and features dramas with female leads. Among others, there's Jennifer Garner in this short, and Maggie Grace and Anna Paquin in this series.  

My favorite thus far is Blue, starring Julia Stiles, an actress I've loved ever since she nailed late 90's teen angst in 10 Things I Hate About You. Anyway, Blue is the story of a young mom who juggles single parenting and a full time job while moonlighting as a-ahem-call girl (lady of the night, prostitute...what's the nicest way to put this?) anyway, there's a bit of a hooker with a heart of gold/Pretty Woman vibe going on here while delving into the character, giving you a peek at how she got into prostitution and how it impacts the rest of her life. Check it out.

Binge TV Watching

I don't know about you, but I enjoy an occasional binge TV watching session of an old show that all of the episodes are available online. With baby's arrival just around the corner I can anticipate I'll be partaking in this vice/hobby/pastime over the summer. I remember in Tina Fey's book her talking about how she watched all of Entourage while nursing/pumping when her baby was first born. Patrick and I recently started 24, which neither of us ever watched when it was on TV. And we're both finishing up House of Cards, staring Kevin Spacey on Netflix (so good, check it out).

Any recommendations for great shows to binge watch over the summer? What are your favorites?

Pride & Prejudice

I recently stumbled upon The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a re-imaging of Pride & Prejudice for today, basically, our heroine now has a vlog. Have you seen it? There are 100 short episodes and over the weekend I managed to get through the first 50. If you're a P&P fan, it'll suck you in! They've done a great job of updating the story, telling it through a different medium, while staying true to Jane Austen's story. 

New Show Alert! The Americans

Have you been watching the new FX show The Americans? Patrick and I are totally addicted. It's in the same vein as Homeland but with a 1980's twist. The show centers around married Russian spies who having been living as an American couple and working for the KGB for 20 years. It stars Felicity, I mean Keri Russell, and she is HARDCORE. Anyway, it's a great show, check it out.

What are you watching these days? We're pretty pumped for the Mad Men premiere in a couple of weeks!

Whirlwind Weekend in NYC!

Patrick and I spent 48 hours in NYC with my family to see my little brother Ryan play on Saturday Night Live last weekend! It was a short trip but we had a blast and made the most of every minute. It was my sister Laura's first trip to NY so it was really fun to see her experience the city for the first time. And on Saturday we had the once in a lifetime experience of being backstage at SNL, something none of us will ever forget. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves-- so proud of Ryan!

Mindy's Bedding

While I was  home all weekend,  simultaneously catching up on work and TV, I found myself pausing The Mindy Show on Hulu so I could Google her bird bedding.

Thankfully, I wasn't the only one curious about it and found numerous posts that quickly lead me to Dwell Studio's CHINOISERIE DUVET SET. Love this. 

Are You Watching The Bachelor?

Ok, so I'm a little ashamed to admit this but I've become a bit of a Bachelor fan. We all have our guilty pleasures! Are you watching this season?? I like Sean more than I thought I would based on Emily's season. And Tierra is providing so much entertaining TV!

Who are you routing for? I like Lindsay and Leslie but of course am rooting for Seattleite Catherine!

PS. Have you seen ABC's Bachelor Tumblr page? Endless entertainment. :)

Downton SPOILED

Relax, you'll find no spoilers here. This is just a cautionary tale about getting any news from British sources if you're hoping to enjoy series three of Downton Abbey as it airs in the U.S.

This year, I was good. I didn't illegally stream Downton Abbey as it was airing in the U.K. I chose to patiently wait and watch it on PBS with the rest of America. But yesterday, I happened to be reading a completely unrelated article in The Telegraph and there was a headline GIVING AWAY THE ENDING OF THE SEASON in the sidebar! I was pissed! Naturally at that point, I couldn't not read the article. Bad choice. I'm pretty sure this article managed to name every big thing that happened in series three. 

Are you watching Downton Abbey now? What did you think of the first episode? Or were you lucky enough to already have watched it? I wish I had... 

PS. What job would you have at Downton?