Blondies!

photo courtesy of kern.justin on Flickr

Today is National Blondie Appreciation Day-- as in blonde brownies, not the musical group led by Debbie Harry (although they deserve their own national appreciation day too!). I am torturing myself by posting this because I heart blondies even more than regular brownies. I am jonesin' for one, but I am still on my quest for skinniness in 2010, therefore I will refrain as long as possible.

But could someone make a batch of Martha's Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies and email me with every single detail of how they taste????? HA!

In other highlights from around the blogosphere:

• Check out these adorbs printable Valentine bags from Farm Chicks
• The cutest Happy Birthday post from Danielle at Thompson Family Life
• Free downloadable brownie bag design from Kathleen at Twig & Thistle (photo courtesy of Kathleen's blog). Maybe you could fill it with some blondies!
• Some drammer surrounding my best dressed Golden Globes gal, Christina Hendricks (in Christian Siriano, might I add). On a side note, if I could look like anyone in Hollywood, despite my constant quest to lose weight, it would be Christina Hendricks. I think she is soooo impossibly beautiful. Cathy Horyn is just a hater.
• I so want to see The Runaways and not just because I love KStew. I think Joan Jett is such a bad ass, and I'm so excited to see her story told. Looks like it's debuting at Sundance and will be released in March. Gotta love the fashion and makeup of the late 70s.

Any fun weekend plans? I discovered a realllllly gooooood (although Ryan thinks it's trashy) low-point cocktail: Skyy Grape vodka and Sprite Zero (2 pts!). So I'll be drinking my meals. Ha. Besides that, Q has her very first ballet recital tomorrow night! I'm so proud of my lil' goofball. Happy weekending, all! xo

Bowl-Riffic

Sorry for the lack of posts! Last week, the Girl Land household was rife with the gack. V had it one day, then Q three days later then Q AGAIN two days after that!!! I never thought we'd get healthy. Somehow, Ryan and I dodged that bullet. I'm sure we'll pay later somehow.

That being said, Q had her first real birthday party yesterday. It was a bowling party for her friend, Ramona! Q had a blast, and I did too. Somehow I passed up the yummy cupcakes (I'm trying to be good...yes, again), but I did have a bite. Here are some pics from the festivities:






We also got to have date night last night and somehow pulled a DOUBLE FEATURE. We also both had to take a No-Doz. How lame are we? We saw The Lovely Bones and A Single Man. More on both later this week, but I was disappointed with the former but in LOVE with the latter. Off to watch the Globes now, but I will seriously be disappointed if Colin Firth does not win something for his role which, in my opinion, was his best role ever.

Hope all is well with all of you. Being a government employee, I get tomorrow off (yippee!). Planning some Jazzercise and some sort of artsy craftsy project for the girls-- maybe some tissue paper flowers! xo all.

Twenty Ten

Here's a little recap of Girl Land's 2009 Flickr pics! Some of my faves, in fact.


Was today your first day back to work? Mine too. Wasn't as bad as I thought. I was more depressed on Saturday anticipating the return, but it was a'ight.

So deja vu-- I'm yet again trying to lose weight. Ugh! It's a never-ending battle, I tell you. I don't want to be complacent with where I am. I'm tired of being fat. I have tried every program under the sun-- Medical Weight Loss, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers and Nutrisystem. They all have worked, but then I lose momentum. I can't do it by myself, but I'm afraid I'm going to fail if I start back up. Horrible attitude, no? All I can do is KEEP trying, and that's what I'll do. I just hope I can keep up the motivation. Sigh.

Here's where I am now (and this isn't even as unflattering as most of my Xmas pics...shudder, shudder):


Here's where I want to be again (this pic is from about 6 years ago):


I wasn't super skinny here, but I was HAPPY. And I felt good about myself which is really what it all comes down to.

Wish me luck!!! xo

Girl Land's Top 20 Films of the Decade!

In the spirit of Roger Ebert's list, here is my own, but I couldn't pick just ten. I'm bored. Can you tell?

28 days later (2002)

Amelie (2001)

Lost in Translation (2003)

Chocolat (2000)

Monsoon Wedding (2001)

About a Boy (2002)

25^th Hour (2002)

Stranger than Fiction (2006)

The Good Girl (2002)

Napoleon Dynamite (2004) Punch Drunk Love (2002)

Brick (2005) – Let the Right One In (2008)

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Match Point (2005)

The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005) The Lives of Others (2006)

Inside Man (2006)

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Gone Baby Gone (2007)

The Orphanage (2007)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

In Bruges (2008)

**Post Edit: Forgot about some of my faves! :) Let me know if you liked any of these. xo

Almost 2010!

How was everyone's Christmas? Ours was lovely. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents then went to the in-laws. And the girls found this pic when they got home from our trip on the 27th:


That rascally Santa! Q got her unicorn Pillow Pet from Santa. Huzzah! I also got some surprises. One big one was from my bro, SIL and niece:
Yup, that's an autographed pic of all the Glee kids. I'm filled with Gleekiness! I found that I received many gifts suitable for a 13 year old girl this Xmas, but I loved them all. My mother even bought me the Robsessed DVD (I didn't ask for it, I swear). She actually told the Target salesman that it was for her granddaughter. She is ashamed of her woman-child daughter. Ha!

Here are some super sweet gifties from Kat that I received yesterday in the mail.



I actually commissioned a super awesome print for our basement. Once it's up, I will post pics. Thanks, Kat!!! You're sweeeeet.

I have been spending my time yesterday and today recording a Dexter Season 4 DVD for two of my girlfriends to borrow. I made this lovely DVD label on Photoshop! I'm becoming comfortable on Photoshop. It's actually quite fun! Feel free to download and use as a label if you are a fellow Dexterite.

Last night, we saw An Education. It was very lovely. It takes place in 1961 England. The main character, Jenny, is played by Carey Mulligan (who's dating Shia Le Boeuf). The film follows her internal struggle between going to Oxford or marrying an older man played by the creepyriffic Peter Saarsgard.


Next, I want to see A Single Man! It looks wonderful and I didn't know it was directed by Tom Ford. Makes perfect sense because the trailer alone was beautifully styled and looked like a piece of art. I was also happy to see Nicholas Hoult in it who was the kid in one of my fave movies, About a Boy written by Nick Hornby who also wrote An Education!. My useless film trivia comes full circle!

Tonight, we're going to my cousin's house for an early kid-friendly dinner. Then the movie marathon will commence tonight after the girl's bedtime and will last through tomorrow as well. Ryan stopped at Whole Foods, Papa Joe's AND our local Holiday Market today. We have enough food and alcohol to feed an army. We won't be leaving our house or getting out of our PJ's all day tomorrow. Ahhhhhhhh...Happy New Year's!!!