stuff i'm into, volume 1

I've decided to start this regular post for a couple of reasons:

1. I think it will be interesting to look back and see what I liked at the time and say, "what was I thinking?!".
2. I want to share things that I've found that I've been really excited about!

I don't want to clutter this with stuff that I've loved for years (e.g. Paris, sushi, etc.) or the obvious (e.g. Brian, Josh, Nikita, etc). I'm just going to post about stuff I've discovered or re-discovered in the past few months that I was really excited about. Since this is the first list, I may babble a bit, but here goes...

#1 Whittards cherry blossom tea - Liezel is my tea connoisseur and she introduced me to this tea. I love it. I take it with a lump of sugar and it's perfect. It's a white tea, and I'm not sure what the deal is with white. I usually drink pretty normal black teas like English Breakfast or Empress Afternoon and I usually add milk and sugar. I also drink green tea, to which I never add anything. This cherry blossom tea is a nice, refreshingly light tea that you can sip on it's own. I typically like to have tea with food, but I enjoy this one much more on it's own so I can enjoy it's fragrance. The drawback with this tea (for me) is that I think you have to go to the UK to buy it. I checked their Web-site and I can't seem to find a "cherry blossom" tea (this particular one is a teabag tea, not loose). Liezel is going back to London shortly and I've asked her to bring some back for me. Cross my fingers that they still have it!

#2 charm necklaces - We went to Seattle a couple of weeks ago for Brian's track day. Since we had a Brian-day on the track, Brian suggested we have an Yvette-day, which, obviously, consisted of shopping. I went into Urban Outfitters, which I usually don't because they are typically out of my price range, but I noticed their accessories and was intrigued. I saw many of these charm necklaces and I tried on a few and ended up buying one. The one shown here is not the one I bought, but it's one I'm contemplating buying. They are long necklaces that sit just below your chest (lower if your boobs are smaller!) but they look great as an added layer in the layered look or even to spice up a plain shirt. I haven't worn long necklaces since the late 80's/early 90's, but I guess they are coming back in style. I like this variation to the long necklace because the different sizes, shapes and colours add texture and depth to the necklace.

#3 shoes from Nordstrom - No shopping trip would be complete without spending the majority of time trying on shoes . And no shoe-shopping trip is complete without visiting shoe mecca - Nordstrom. I commented to my sis-in-law that Nordstrom always has an unbelieveable selection of shoes. Not only do they have the best styles, but they also have a varying range of price points. It truly is shoe mecca. Well, Caroline informed me that Nordstrom actually started out as a shoe store. I did not know that! That explains their uncanny sense of shoe style. So, I bought my first pair of orange-coloured shoes ever. They are fabulous. The colour is actually called "Sunflower Yellow", but they are indeed a summery shade of orange. They are made by a company called Chinese Laundry. Their shoes are more trendy than classic, but they are reasonably priced.

#4 MAC Lustre glass in Love Nectar - I don't really wear make-up. Occasionally, I "try" to apply foundation and mascara, but on a day-to-day basis, you'll usually see me wearing only lip stuff. I'm a MAC loyalist. I've used their lipsticks forever and I can always find a shade that suits me. These days, it's all about lip gloss for me. It is such a refreshing look and believe me, my look needs refreshing! I went to MAC to find a new summery colour of lip glass. The MAC girl suggested a lustre glass - aptly named because it's has more shimmer than the usual lip glass. She recommended Love Nectar. MAC describes the colour as "ultra-soft apricot with pearl". It's lovely - nice, light and summery. Ironically enough, I went back to MAC a few weeks later to get a birthday gift for my sister-in-law. I wanted to get her some lip glass, among other things. I showed the MAC girl a photo and then went on to tell her that I wanted something like Love Nectar for my sister-in-law, because I loved the colour. The MAC girl was actually bold enough to say that I could get Love Nectar for my blonde-haired, fair-skinned sister-in-law. It's a colour that looks good on anyone. If it didn't look good on you, then you likely need more help than just lip gloss. OMG, I can't believe she used her out-loud voice for that comment...

#5 Grey's Anatomy - I know I said that I was wasting away in tv-land, but I can't stop watching Grey's Anatomy! I was going to make the "thing I'm into" more generic - tv series' on DVD, but really, it's the Grey's that I'm into right now. I never watched it when it first aired and I recall that people said it was good. We started watching it religiously in Season 3 when they had the big ferry boat accident, so we're all caught up from there. I was told that the series started out better than it has been recently (especially since Isaiah Washington left), so we decided to watch it from scratch. I think that we've missed alot of the explosive drama because we're watching it knowing how it ends, but it's still good drama. I understand now why people are getting tired of Meredith and Derek's on-again-off-again relationship. And it will be interesting to see where they take Season 5, given that the last season finale was sort of a happy ending. Not like the end of Season 1 where Meredith and Derek are happily in love and Addison walks in for the first time! THAT was drama! I would have hated waiting until September if I watched when it first aired. So, the Grey's thing is almost over, but I've already had recommendations for our next TV series on DVD - Battlestar Galactica, Huff, Lost, Deadwood...

#6 Google Analytics - my co-workers hooked their blogs up to Google Analytics and I thought it was interesting so I tried it out. Well, I'm hooked. It's a bit freaky, actually. I'm trying to figure out who's checking out my blog in Kentucky! Were they one of the people that found my site in a search engine? And why were they searching for "mini zee" or "satc season 7" or "why does my dog stink?" or, most suspiciously, why were they searching for "motorcycle racer brian van"?! Google Analytics tells you all this. It tells me that my site has had 115 visits since I "hooked it up" on June 23rd and while the majority of visits are from Canadian locations (mostly Vancouver), I've had several visits from locations in the US, UK and Australia. Cool! It makes me nervous what I'm posting now that I have evidence that complete strangers are reading my blog!