Increase Your Happiness: Wear These Pants

Whew! Is December over yet? Guru girl has been on the run, trying to get everything done. I haven’t broken my cardinal rule: always wear mascara. But I have broken my friend Jane’s, which is: you can’t wear yoga pants all day.

You actually can wear yoga pants all day. But it’s not pretty and worse, I’m not fooling anyone that I’m actually going to the gym… after the mall and the grocery store and the post office and the school.

I wear yoga pants because they’re easy and comfortable. This is precisely why I fought the skinny jean trend for so long. Because skinny jeans are the exact opposite.

Until now.

I just found some skinny jeans that I love so much I have given them a nickname. I call them my happy pants. Because it makes me happy just to put them on.

That’s how fantastic they are. The Ann Taylor skinny jean is as easy and comfortable as your favorite yoga pant. The jeans are made from some miracle material that is somehow stretchy, forgiving and beyond flattering.

They are genius! Pair them with black boots and a slouchy shirt and – presto! – you have a stylish outfit that’s as comfortable as your gym gear.

I got my happy pants last week and have tested them out on several different days. There’s no butt or knee bagging out issue, as can sometimes happen with stretchy materials. They also look fine if you have to do a mid-day switch into tennies and a fleece to walk the dog &/or trundle stuff around in the house that you still haven’t fully unpacked.

Handsome and hard-living, these are the 007 of pants

 – the Sean Connery 007, not that creepy Roger Moore.

The picture doesn’t do them justice. Throw caution to the wind and order them online – if you do it soon, Ann Taylor’ll give you 50% off your whole order… which means your happy pants will only cost you $45, a fact that will make you even happier. And Moneypenny too. (Click this link to go to ann taylor's website to view the modern knit slim pants.)

2 Top Titles: "The Husband's Secret" & "The Silent Wife"

 

Clearly I’ve been watching too much “Homeland”. Because when I found out every important political leader from every important country will be at the funeral for Nelson Mandela this morning, I got worried.

It doesn’t seem to be a good idea to have all these important people – and Oprah! – gathered together in the same place.

What if there’s some kind of terrorist event? Who will run the world then? And the Oxygen network?

I blame these paranoid thoughts on my “Homeland” obsession, but books could also be the culprit. I just finished two of them that were based on the same disturbing premise: most fellas are up to no good (and some women too!). Especially if they’re attractive, successful and good with kids!

There are four, interwoven storylines in The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty. They’re all hook you in pretty much immediately because you really like the characters – the girls and guys both – so you want to find out what’s roiling the waters of their seemingly happy, suburban lives. Let me tell you. The secret is a total shocker, one that not even paranoid me guessed!

The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison plays with the same concept. Only in this book, Harrison leads with the disturbing truth: successful therapist in her early 40s kills her own husband. Harrison spends the rest of the story showing us how it got to that point. Even though we know how it ends, the story somehow manages to be both suspenseful and gripping.

Both books ask you to rank bad choices. It’s like that ethics game where you have to rank who is the worst in terms of ethical flaw. Can good people do very bad things? Are those choices ever justified?

So many moral quandaries! The books are like an episode of “Lost” without the confusing time travel. For a good, quick read try either book. They will raise your paranoia level but not about polar bears.(Click this link to go to amazon.com to learn more or order "The Silent Wife" and "The Husband's Secret". )

One Great Read: "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt

I just took 30 seconds out of my day to look at the Kardashian holiday card.

Really.

And earlier, when I saw a poster about the casting call for “America’s Got Talent” happening in Denver on Saturday, I took another 30 seconds to think about it.

For the Dynamic Duo have many talents.

And then I snapped out of it. My interest in trashy television is going to get my parenting license revoked. So I am just saying no to the “America’s Got Talent” casting call.

America will simply have to watch some other elementary schoolers burp “America The Beautiful”. My two will be busy reading this weekend, in an attempt to enrich their brains and offset the negatives of having a pop culture fiend for a mother.

This prescription works great for me. Whenever I go on a trash t.v. binge, I simply follow it up with a literary fiction binge.

So I just finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. It was excellent and multi-layered and 1,200 pages long! It was also chock full of symbolism and meaning and thoughtful messages about our life and times, but mostly it was just a really good read.

The book’s about Theo, a 12 year old who lives in New York City and has the misfortune to be visiting an art museum the day some terrorists blow it up.

Theo survives, and The Goldfinch is the story of Theo’s next 18 years as he cobbles together both a makeshift family and a sense of himself. He’s survived the unthinkable, which is good. But then he starts to make choices himself that are unthinkable, which is bad. And Theo’s friends and neighbors aren’t exactly paragons either.

But just as you start despairing for our society and wishing you’d just watched another Kardashian marathon instead, Tartt brings it around to a conclusion that feels honest for the characters and – huzzah! – inspiring to the reader.

I love books that keep you thinking days after you’ve finished them. That’s staying power. And, in a world that churns through ideas and new, reality stars every week, there’s something to be said for a book that not only talks about legacy but makes a bid to become one. (Click this link to learn more about "The Goldfinch", available at amazon.com, for around $15.)

Ready, Set, Go: Gentlemen, Get Your Stocking Stuffers

It wasn’t until I was enjoying a tranquil walk this weekend with my friend Sarah that I learned she walks with a switch blade.

Yes, a switch blade. Sarah doesn’t mess around with matters of personal safety. Neither do I. Which is precisely why I don’t carry a switchblade. Am pretty sure I could inflict some damage with a knife, but not on any bad guy.

Which is why another friend encouraged me to carry rocks in my pockets. Rocks to throw at the bad guys in my neighborhood. Bad guys who travel in packs, specifically: coyote packs.

The big problem with this solution is that my aim is terrible. So I was excited when I came across this new gadget: the clip on personal alarm from the Container Store. It goes for$14.99.(Click this link to go to the containerstore.com for more info.) When you pull the alarm off your jacket, it emits an ear-piercing shriek, perfect for scaring off a mongrel or two.

The clip on alarm would be a great gift for the switchblade carrier, I mean urban walker, in your life too.

Nothing says I care about you and your health like a good, old-fashioned, personal alarm. But if you want to continue to risk personal life and limb with your switchblade, the Container Store has you covered there too, with some very cute retro ice bags for $12.99.

Stocking stuff away, guru girls & guys!

Gobble Up: 1 Healthy Turkey Meatball Recipe

 

In anticipation of Thanksgiving I was perusing my mom’s stash of gourmet cookbooks. I love gourmet cookbooks because the recipes are delicious. But they are also often fattening, complicated and requiring of ingredients I have never heard of.

So the cookbooks were a bust for Thanksgiving, but in my mom’s humble, scrawled, recipe notebook I found just the ticket: a recipe for turkey meatballs that sounds both delicious and healthy. And * hallelujah * it doesn’t involve butter, frying or mysterious sounding ingredients like Pernod.

Since I am not making the dish requiring Pernod, I will be saving all the time I would have spent hunting for this damn thing at Whole Foods. And I am instead going to use this time to make Mom’s turkey meatball recipe! Not for Thanksgiving… but sometime over the holiday break.

 Turkey Meatballs & Spaghetti

Ingredients:

3 cups bread crumbs

 

2/3 cup whole milk

2 pounds ground turkey

½ pound sweet Italian pork sausage (take casings off)

3        ounces thinly sliced prosciutto

1 cup grated Asiago cheese

½ cup minced fresh parsley

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, salt and black pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 large eggs, beaten

3 jars marinara sauce (They should each be 24 ounce jars.)

2 pounds spaghetti

 

Directions:

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.

In bowl, add bread crumbs & milk. Set aside.

 

In a large bowl, combine turkey, sausage, prosciutto, bread mixture, Asiago, parsley, oregano, red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 ½ teaspoon pepper.

 

Combine ingredients with your hands. Add the 3 tablespoons of olive oil and the eggs and stir with a fork to combine.

 

Wash hands.

 

Roll mixture into 2 inch round meatballs and place them on the prepared sheet pans. Brush meatballs with olive oil. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the tops are browned and the centers are cooked.

 

Pour marinara sauce in a large pot, add meatballs and bring to a simmer.

 

Cook spaghetti in large pot of boiling salted water according to package directions. Drain and place spaghetti in individual bowls and top with meatballs and sauce. Serve with Parmesan cheese on the side.

 

Make this recipe to power yourself up after hunting down all those Black Friday deals, guru girls & guys. Happy upcoming Thanksgiving!

2 Ways To Twinkle This Holiday Season

It’s not that I have no willpower about all trends. I did not, for instance, buy the magic bun maker. Even though it’s advertised on t.v. all the time, and positioned on end caps at stores everywhere.

And I’m not getting the Vitamix blender, even though it’s this season’s “it” item, especially if you juice, says one of my friends. I don’t juice. Regular juice has too many calories. And juice made from kale is – gah!—made from kale.

But I might give into this lamp trend. Funky, enormous letters have been a home decorating trend for awhile now. This season they’re showing them adorned with little lights. I have never met a twinkle light I didn’t like.

This lamp gives off a great retro vibe. And light too. It’s a two-fer. And I love two-for-one deals! The lampersand light by modcloth retails for $90.(Click this link to go to modcloth site.) If that’s on the spendy side, you can still embrace your love of twinkle lights and retro cool.

 

One catalogue is showing a bunch of twinkle lights – little, white ones – coiled up inside a clear hurricane vase.  So festive, so easy, so cheap. The trifecta of good!

The holidays are coming. Twinkle away, guru girls!

Fall's Best Fashion Find: The Mirabel Jacket

What does this coat have to do with the NFL? Read on to find out...

 

In a departure for me, I am very interested in the NFL. Every few years this happens. NFL players start acting like soap opera stars, and suddenly I’m engrossed in the pigskin. Wow, that sounds kind of dirty. But you know what I mean.

What has my interest lately is the bullying scandal featuring Miami Dolphins players Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. One of them allegedly bullied the other. When is it bullying? When is it life? So many questions.

Here’s the other thing I’m obsessed with these days: sweater coats. Every year there are 3 things that happen to me in fall: daylight savings, Halloween candy binges and new coat lust.

This year I’m all about the sweater coat. Because it’s a winter wardrobe’s most versatile piece. You wouldn’t want to walk the dog in it, but if you’re running errands around town, and you need a cute jacket to take the edge off, a sweater coat is just the thing!

You can throw it on over a basic, long-sleeve t-shirt and suddenly you look stylish with minimal effort!

Anthropologie has got some really cute ones these days. I’m either hot or cold on Anthro – I either love all their stuff or hate all their stuff. This season, it’s “love”. Here’s their cutest sweater coat: the Mirabel jacket. It’s also available in burgundy, which is the color I’d go for, instead of the cream. It retails for around $148.(Click this link to go to Anthropologie to see the Mirabel jacket.)

Spendy? Yes. But if you wear it a few times a week for the next few fall/winters, it will be your smartest purchase this season.

I got my last sweater coat from Anthro 5 years ago and still wear it. Now that’s style with endurance. So basically the sweater coat is the NFL athlete of outerwear, soap opera hijinks not included.