Gardening in High Heels

cultivate a beautiful life

Sunday Lately, 12

March has gone by so incredibly quickly.  It feels like there are things that just happened yesterday, like the March Levo Pittsburgh event, though now it’s actually two weeks ago.  Does that happen to anyone else?  Ugh!  Just when I feel caught up, things sneak up and tap me on the shoulder and say, “Ha, thought you had a handle on me, didn’tcha?”

What have you been doing lately? Link up and let me know!

Doing

Last weekend, I spent hours clearing things out of my father’s house.  There’s still more work to be done, but it’s getting cleaner.  It’s a sad and surreal experience.  I’ve lived in different places and grown up in my mom’s house, too, but my first memories are in that house.  It’s hitting me that I’ll probably never read a book on the back porch underneath all the trees or see the really big Christmas tree in the living room…and I’m now going to cry.  So onward with the other things!

Appreciating

Seriously, the small things.  Like the ice cream glacier Jonathan brought me on Tuesday night.  (For those of you who aren’t near a cute little mom-and-pop ice cream stand, a glacier is like a Blizzard – I hope you’re all familiar with DQ.  If you don’t know your ice cream, we can’t be friends.)

Also suuuper appreciating when traffic isn’t that bad in the mornings.  I’ve been leaving my house on the early side, a little after 7am, just so I can avoid traffic.  I get to work about 30 minutes early, but I’d rather do that than sit in rush hour traffic.  I hate traffic.  Boo hiss traffic.

Designing

My blog blah blah blah I say this every week and nothing ever gets done.  Ugh!  I just need someone to tell me how to make the content area wider.  I can probably figure out the other CSS changes myself, but I’m just not figuring out how to make this one (kinda big deal of what I want this to look like) change.

Humming

I have a co-worker who likes to sing one line of popular songs over and over again.  That results in me leaving work with “Uptown Funk” stuck in my head on repeat.  Not cute.

Expecting

Quite honestly, I have no idea what to expect anymore.  I know I wrote about getting back into hyper planning mode last week, but I have no idea how to plan for half of the big things that are looming over me.  I have no idea how to sell a house.  Or help to clear out a house.

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So that’s what I’ve been doing.  I’ve also been reading a lot.  If you missed it, I’m giving away a copy of Hausfrau to a lucky reader.  Check out this post to see a review and enter!

What have you been doing lately?

Hausfrau book review and giveaway

There are so many questions I have after reading Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum.  I’ll try not to give any spoilers here, but I seriously read the last sentence and was like, “Is that all?!?  What happens next?!”

I’m not going to lie, it took me a while to get into the action of the novel.  I didn’t dislike Anna, but I didn’t like her either; that made for some pretty bland action at first.  Basically, Anna is this exhausted, complacent, lonely hausfrau (who never confirms that she is lonely/bored/etc) and enters affairs…because she can pretty much.  Again, we never know why.  I love that we don’t.  Some things in life aren’t explained and just happen.

The more I read this, though, the more intrigued I became.  How is Anna going to disengage herself from these lives of lies?  What will her husband do?  How will she get found out?  Will she get found out or will she extract herself no harm, no foul?

It was sort of like reading about a train wreck.

Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum is beautifully written and has crazy amounts of intrigue. Review and giveaway!

There were more than five things that stood out to me as I was reading this that really made me wonder.  (I tried not to do this, but there is a spoiler and it’s noted as such.)

The Bruno Scale

When Bruno is around more, Anna acts out less.  The more attention she gets from him, the less she needs it from other people.  That’s a pretty basic observation, but I do think it’s worth mentioning.  His presence in the present can’t undo the past, so there must be some retribution for Anna’s actions (and oh is there ever).

But he’s trying!  You see him trying!

I actually like his character.  He appears to be the only one who is active.  It’s true, Anna is doing the cheating, and she’s probably doing it because he’s passive towards her, but when we see him interact with other characters, he’s always active whereas Anna closes herself off.

Mary

Oh lordy, I do not like Mary.  Everything would have been fine if she just kept her mouth shut.  Trust me, I’m not rooting for Anna here, but I’m definitely rooting for Mary to mind her own damn business.

She’s the catalyst for both good and bad.  She brings Bruno back to Anna, but she also really, really breaks Bruno and Anna apart.

There is a lot to say about her character, which is interesting because she only appears for part of the book.  She sets a lot of things into motion.  She’s almost like Anna’s affairs themselves: provides something to feel good about for the moment but ultimately is a downfall for Anna.

Maybe I’m reading this at a basic level, and every book needs a villain, and I’m just inserting Mary into that slot where it wasn’t the intention.  Help me out here, anyone else see that in her character?  Perhaps foil is a more appropriate term.

Anna’s birthday

Here’s another thing that Mary screwed up!  [Spoiler alert] She planned a birthday party for Anna when Anna expressly said not to do anything.  Mary and Tim / Anna and Bruno had a fantastic day together with their kids.  You see a hint of humanity in Bruno and a switch slowly turning for Anna.  I almost thought this was the pivotal moment moment for them.

And then Mary doing Mary got in they way.  Lady, if someone says “I don’t want a party,” you don’t force them to have a party, especially when they’re as standoffish as Anna.  And have so many different lives.

What happens when Bruno finds out?

This is kind of a big question that drove me to keep reading.  So, Anna is cheating, this we know.  What we don’t know is what will happen when Bruno finds out.  I can tell you – it’s good.  And all Mary’s fault!  Well, okay, Mary didn’t force Anna to cheat.  But she started it!

I wrote this one down as I was reading and it seriously bugged me.  Like I mentioned, this question drove me to keep reading.  If Bruno is one of the most active characters, what action will he take when he finds out he’s been cuckolded?  We never see him get scary-angry, but his power and authority is definitely conveyed.

Fire…what?

What does the fire symbolize?  Playing with fire, I guess, but where does it come from?  It happens when Anna meets Stephen and carries throughout, but it only appears at certain times.  I guess it’s play with fire, but maybe it’s also destruction and may be renewal (like a phoenix).  Pay attention when you’re reading this for the fire references and tell me what you think they mean/where they come from.

I’m almost leaning towards destruction, but 90% off the book is destruction and there aren’t that many references to fire.  Perhaps it is referring to Stephen and his particular involvement in the novel.

Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum is beautifully written and has crazy amounts of intrigue.

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So, have I piqued your interest in Hausfrau?  Good!  The book is already out (released on a lucky day, March 17th) and one of my readers can win a copy of the book thanks to Penguin Random House and 20SB!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What have you been reading lately?

[disclaim]I was provided a copy of Hausfrau to read and review and another to give away bu Penguin Random House and 20SB.  These are my honest opinions about the book.[/disclaim]

March Birchbox Unboxing

I was so excited to do a post with all of my favorite green nail polishes for St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow…and then I got my March Birchbox in the mail.  And I said I’d never do another video after the Dessange unboxing, but I lied.

I made a Birchbox unboxing video for you all.

March Birchbox Unboxing! The month's theme is creativity and you can definitely play around with some fun stuff here.

The March box this month is all about creativity, which is right up my alley.  It was one of those fun boxes where you could just pick one of the samples in your box or get a specialty box (like last month’s Birchbox X Rent the Runway box).  I really wanted to try Amika’s blowout spray, so that’s what I picked for my box.

Items in my March Birchbox

Amika Bombshell Blowout Spray
Smashbox Be Legendary Lip Gloss in Disco Rose
Harvey Prince Sincerely
Macadamia Professional Nourishing Moisture Mask
Jelly Pong Pong GLOW GETTER Highlighter

Some months there are only five items, others there are six.  It seems very random.  Did anyone else notice that?

So far, I’ve enjoyed the Smashbox lip gloss; it’s a pretty shade and it adds just the right amount of color to your face to be casual or to be paired with a bold eye look.  I also like the Harvey Prince perfume, though I didn’t smell it strongly throughout the day.

I don’t know about you, but when I buy perfume, I take time to smell all the different kinds and see how they wear on me; I will rarely purchase something online without smelling it first and I don’t think I’ve ever purchased a scent that came in a Birchbox.  Not that they are bad (quite the contrary!) but I like to take time to be selective.

Did you get a Birchbox this month?  What’s in it?

[disclaim]I’m not sponsored by or affiliated with Birchbox I just really like what they have going on. Link to sign up for Birchbox is a referral link.[/disclaim]

Sunday Lately, 11

Let there be sun!  Finally, the weather is turning the corner and it doesn’t feel so depressing anymore.  I’m not going to lie, I’d still like the solid excuse a snowstorm gives you for sitting around inside all day not doing anything.  BUT I have tons to do and I’m digging the above-30 degree weather.

What have you been doing lately?

Planning

I’ve been trying not to plan things out and go with the flow a little bit more, but it’s competing with who I am.  I am a planner.  I plan things.  I like to know what I have to do and how long I have to do it.  That said, if I’m having a relaxing weekend day with Jonathan, I just need to know when it’s going to start and have a general idea of what will happen.

That said, if it’s a work day and I have tasks to do after work, I need to list them all out.  The long and short of this is that I need to start planning again.  Time to break out my trusty Moleskine planner that I made for myself this year!

Loving

The “Upper Strip Amble” that Jonathan and I did on Wednesday.  Wigle Whiskey organized it, so you started at their distillery with a complimentary cocktail (I had a Nimbus made with local coffee-flavored yogurt and vanilla mole and it was like drinking delicious, boozy, melted ice cream and a I-Can’t-Remember-The-Clever-Cloud-Name but it had ginger beer and was like a Dark & Stormy).

Then you moved to appetizers and more drinks at Savoy (I skipped the drink as I already had two).  I hate to say it, I wasn’t impressed with the service – the bartender totally forgot about us!  And we were sitting in the middle of the bar.  The quesadilla was tasty, but it was also 7pm and I was starving, so anything would be good.

And you ended at Klavon’s, an old-fashioned ice cream shop, with Wigle-infused milkshakes made with….Penn State Creamery Ice Cream.  My favorite.

Reading

Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum.  I’ll be sharing a review next Friday.  It’s a little…darker..than I thought it would be.

Wishing

For a burger, wings, and/or Chinese.  Oh, and maybe a pizza!  I didn’t go grocery shopping this week and I had a lot of after-work events, so I haven’t really been cooking a lot at home and I’m going nuts with my food desires.

Feeling

Slightly stuck.  I’ve been looking at some new blog themes that I like, but I don’t want to give up on this one.  I know I can modify the CSS, but I can’t figure out how to modify the big thing I want to change.  I’d like the content width to be wider than it is and no one has guides for changing that.  Color?  Sure.  Padding?  You bet.  Content width?  Nada.

I have cute new photos and patterns and ideas I want to implement but I don’t want to do it and then have to re-do it all over again with a new theme.  #FirstWorldBloggingProblems #AmIRight?

Shameless plus: take a look at what I’ve been writing this week, especially about Dessange hair care (free from Influenster) and the Creative Soul Connection Weeknight Retreat!

What have you been up to lately?

Five things you don’t know about me from reading my blog

There are things I don’t share with the internet – actually, there are a lot of things I don’t share with the internet.  Sure, I’ve talked about recent struggles, terrible jobs, and lots of makeup.  So it may come to a total and complete shock to you when I say that for the most part, I try not to divulge suuuuper personal things online.

I don’t want to be superficial, and I am real with you guys, but I have family members reading and I know current/future employers will be checking in on me (my profession is digital marketing, I know how our minds work).Five things you don't know about me from reading by blog (thing one: I hate selfies).

 

But today we’re breaking that down.  Are you ready for some stories you’ve never heard about me? Thing one: I hate the term “selfie” and how I can no longer document cute outfit days for fear of being a “girl who takes selfies.”

I broke a backboard

I always tend to lead off with this one, but it really should be a closer.  I was in the indoor color guard when I was in middle and high school.  This was during the marching band off season, so we practiced (as indicated by the name) inside.  In a gym.  Where someone didn’t raise the hoops before we started.

I was attempting a saber toss and instead of coming down neatly into my hands, it arced, hit the plexiglass, and shattered it.  I should remove the “wanna-be” because I am a badass just from that.

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was little

Maybe you did know this one.  I’ve wanted to be a writer for ages.  If I could sit in a little coffee shop and write all day, I would.  I sound like a loner, don’t I?  I promise, I like people…sometimes.

I took a journaling class at a community college with my mom when I was younger.  The instructor was skeptical about having me in the class, but my mom insisted.  It’s a good thing she did.

There is seriously nothing better than creating something beautiful with my words.  If I could write something that moves people to comment and share their thoughts on it, that’s fantastic.  If I can make a difference for businesses with my words, that’s powerful stuff.  Words are organic and spontaneous – they can hurt or help on a very deep level that something physical simply cannot do.  I love words.

I was an intern for Yelp in Pittsburgh

If you followed SyntaxxErrorrr on Twitter, you probably knew this one, too.  Man, I need to revisit what “unknown” means.

It was a fantastic opportunity and it pained me to leave when I found a full time job.  I worked with an amazing woman, met amazing people, and got to promote amazing small businesses in Pittsburgh (three things that are like professional crack to me).

What I really liked about Yelp is that I got to work from these great local businesses that I was helping to bring awareness to.  It was so relaxed which allowed me to do some of my best creative work.

It also was the first time that I really experienced event marketing and it was a blast!  I got to collaborate with these great Pittsburgh businesses, pitch ideas, and see them come to life. That my friends, was so cool!

I used to go to Gettysburg every summer

My mom would drag me there for years when I was in school.  I say drag because now history is kind of cool and it’s been a while so I wouldn’t mind to see what has changed, but it used to get a little repetitive when it was every summer.

We even went for the 147th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.  We couldn’t make it

My argument of “It’s been here for 150 years, it’ll be here for 150 more, can I be excused this summer please?” didn’t really hold water.

I graduated from college in 3.5 years

And I earned two degrees.  I graduated in less time with twice the degrees than most people.  When I was a junior and picking my classes, I realized that I could bump my English minor up to a second major and still be done early.  At that time I was already on track to graduate in 3.5 years.

Even though I’m proud of my accomplishments, it did mean sacrificing some social time.  I did make sure I had plenty of time to relax, but I didn’t go out and spend lots of my time at bars and parties.  And I went to one of the biggest party schools in America.  Part of my feels like I missed out, but another part of me is okay with how I spent my time (and parent’s money).

Bonus round:

I’m pretty dorky – I have a favorite punctuation mark and a second favorite punctuation mark.  Depending on the day, it’s either a semi-colon or an ampersand (they switch back and forth).  I’m also a total goofball if the moment is right, especially around Jonathan.  If you don’t believe me, come see me after I’ve had a beer.

So..what don’t I know about you?

Let’s Play

           

People Really Dug These

We Belong in the Garden Together