Life on Wednesdays

Life on Wednesdays is a weekly post of odds and ends from my life - food-focused for sure, but everything else? Wingin' it.

I forgot to mention in last week's post that despite the perpetual Wednesday post date, I promise not to subject you to any quips involving the phrase 'hump day' and a certain verbose camel. Or a guy named Mike. I'm sure you get enough of that elsewhere.

I have a tendency to be a very cautious over-thinker. There's great merit in "measuring twice and cutting once" for sure, but presented with a quandary I go a little beyond that. I'd probably mull it over for a few days, feed some teasers to my trusted board of advisers (B and my parents) to feel out their initial thoughts, Google it incessantly and eventually go with my gut, which is tough because most of the time all my gut's telling me to do is to keep researching.

All that, and I'm probably trying to decide which gold spray paint I should buy or something equally trivial.

These characteristics most certainly carry over into shopping, where more often than not I'll go to the mall and only come out with a nice cappuccino. Recently though, I'll be browsing around, see something I like and can use...and I buy it. Right there. On the spot. No comparing prices, no polling the crowd, nada. This is BIG.

Either there's some fundamental shift in my inner psyche going on, or I've run into some pretty great stuff lately. In case it's the latter, I better tell you about it.

1. Torani Sugar-Free Belgian Cookie Speculoos Syrup

OMG. Not much more needs to be said here. If you're not aware, speculoos/cookie butter has been blowing up the blogosphere. It's a spread made of ground up cookies (you can buy it at Trader Joe's). Sweet and slightly spiced, it's fab as an ingredient - or eaten straight up with a spoon. Not like that's happened or anything.

B and I were gifted an espresso machine for Christmas, and we stopped by World Market to look for flavored syrups to make lattes. Is anyone else impressed by the breadth of World Market's specialty grocery department? Anyway, we hit the wall of Torani syrups and within a few seconds this one had jumped in our basket and begged us to take it home. That's how quickly I made up my mind.

Two lattes on a Sunday night does not an easy sleep make, but when you just bought a syrup that's full of sugar and spice and everything nice (minus the actual sugar - it's sweetened with Splenda), a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

2. Coated Charlie Super Skinny Jeans from Lucky Brand

This purchase was the tipping point where I knew something was up:

A) I bought them online, without having tried on the Charlie Super Skinnies before.

B) Had I been in the store, I most definitely would not have tried them on, because any jean touting their super skinniness probably wouldn't be a jean that my calves would get along with.

C) I was in bed, in my sweatpants, after a delicious Christmas dinner. Not exactly feeling super skinny.

Against my better judgment, free shipping and a nice sale coddled me along the check-out process. I bought two sizes, fully expecting neither of them to fit. I got them, tried on the smaller of the two sizes first (I'm a dreamer here), and they fit - PERFECTLY. The thighs fit without there being too much room in the waist. My calves didn't hate me. They stretch, and my feet can fit through the "super skinny" leg opening...albeit not with much room to spare, but they do. Holy comfortable! They're a little low on sizes at the moment (online, at least), but I'm hopeful they restock because my closet needs more of these, pronto.

3. Three Songs on iTunes.
...iTunes was having a sale. $0.69 each! Even now at full price, it's well worth the extra $0.60 for these talented artists. (Sequined factoid #2 - I love, love country music).

Friday Night by Eric Paslay

Could It Be by Charlie Worsham

Follow Your Arrow by Kacey Musgraves

Anyone else have a three-day weekend ahead? Woot woot! See ya Friday with a quick and easy Asian-inspired dinner that's perfect for those weeknights after work!