Daily Photo

Happy Easter, my friend. 🙂

I’ve always liked Easter because it’s spring and there’s this sense of renewal, and the world has come alive again. And I like that it’s a day of family, and you gather together to spend time with each other and share a meal or two.

Tabs likes Easter, too. He even commissioned this fancy desktop wallpaper, which you can put on all of your computers and gadgets — you know, to celebrate his awesomeness and his side job working as an Easter bunny (except in his case he hides makeup instead of painted eggs).

Do you have any plans for brunch or anything? El Hub and I are going to brunch with his parents and then driving out to the East Bay to spend some time with my folks. I’m looking forward to doing LOTS of eating.

Have a great day today, whatever you’re up to.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Who is Tabs the Cat?
About seven years ago I befriended a stray, flea-bitten tabby cat with a bad case of worms. I could see he’d fallen on hard times, but his profound knowledge of high fashion and department store cosmetics led me to believe that he was more than meets the eye. We became fast friends, and now he’s actually my boss (and a successful kitty model).

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My in-laws are visiting us this weekend and wanted to visit Chinatown, so we all drove across the bridge into the city, parked at Union Square and walked down Grant Street, which is the main street in Chinatown.

When we got hungry, I Yelped a place called Hong Kong Clay Pot Restaurant (OMG, the walnut prawns… To die for! I also inhaled an entire plate of their Chinese broccoli with garlic.), which was really, really good and affordable.

From there we walked back to Union Square, which is a few city blocks away. I thought it might be fun to take my mother-in-law to the MAC Pro Store at 45 Powell Street and treat her to a lipstick.

She ended up falling in love with the new Patentpolish Lip Pencil in Fearless, a sheer, soft pink.

Of course, I couldn’t leave empty-handed, so I picked up Pro Longwear Lip Pencil in Staunchly Stylish, a pinkish beige that works great with pink and peach lip colors. 🙂

To kick off your weekend. 🙂

Which bouquet would you like? Pink or magenta?

Now THAT’s a beautiful bouquet. So delicate and girly. 🙂

The new Anna Sui Rose Cheek Color N in 602 ($36) has four flower-ful shades — apricot orange, tangerine, champagne gold and beige rose.

This one arrives in June to Anna Sui counters.

That’s the butternut squash soup with fried sage and walnut oil on the left and the 1808 Chopped Salad (with satsuma oranges, asher blue cheese, watercress, toasted almonds, cranberries and eucalyptus honey vinaigrette, OM NOM NOM!) on the right.

This was from the 1808 Grill at the Hutton Hotel in Nashville the other day.

Yep, little bit yummier than the egg salad sandwich with baked Cheetos à la mode I had today…

I added arctic char for protein to the salad, but you can also get it with chicken or flat iron steak.

Kinda craving.

…Broadway! (on Broadway!)

It rained last night in Nashville, and it was quite a beautiful sight.

Here are just a few quick snapshots I took from the back of a cab. These are of downtown Nashville’s famous Broadway Street, which is lined with lots of restaurants and entertainment.

I’m back in the Bay again now, and no rain here at all. Air travel is so weird, isn’t it? One minute you’re in the rain, and the next you’re not.

Someday I hope to make it back to Nashville for a longer visit, ideally on a sunny day when I have more time to explore. From the short time I was there, it seemed like a very cool town.

I overheard a couple of people call it “Nash Vegas,” and it does kind of have that feel. I would’ve walked around downtown more, despite the rain, if I’d had a little more time and, um, didn’t have to worry about my blowout… But I’d just gotten my hair done earlier in the day by Neutrogena celebrity hair stylist Sam Leonardi (who is a very charming man, BTW), and I was not about to leave its fate to the rain, LOL!

Priorities, ya know? 🙂

There were a lot more caramels in this shot before I started eating them.

Oh, my gosh!

So, I found this. There’s a local candy company out in Nashville called the Bang Candy Company. They make these bomb-@ss boozy caramels with Whisper Creek Tennessee Sipping Cream (and, um, bourbon), and girl! — let me tell you, I’ve had many, many caramels in my day, but these are probably the best caramels I’ve ever had.

I am seriously, like… There were about 20 caramels here before I picked up the camera, but then one thing led to another as I was composing.

But anyway! 🙂 These caramels are super sweet, so incredibly soft and just effing lovely. They have enough, like, chewiness to them, but they’re not so sticky that they get stuck in your teeth for days.

They’re just the best freaking caramels I’ve ever eaten, and who knew I’d find them in Tennessee??

If that got your sweet tooth’s attention, you can find them online at bangcandycompany.com. (Although, brace yourself, the website says they’re currently sold out. I don’t know, though. I’d check anyway.)

I’m actually thinking about getting a few more (with “few” being polite for “many”) of these, hopefully for myself, but maybe also for others, LOL! Great for Christmas or birthdays or whatever, but I have a feeling that if I do get some as gifts, I’ll probably just end up eating them.

You gotta wear cowboy boots. 🙂

Say howdy to the Frye Billy Short Boot in Dark Brown Calf Shine. I wore them last night to country line dancing! — my very first time ever — at the Wildhorse Saloon.

Hey, if you’re going to take up country line dancing, there’s no better place to do it than Nashville.

I actually surprised myself by not being completely terrible at it. I thought I picked up the steps pretty quickly. At one point I think I was even teaching a mini class on the dance floor, LOL! One of the dancers around me said, “It’s like you were our spirit animal, and you brought the moves out of us.”

Yup, that’s me. 🙂 Karen, the Country Line Dancing Spirit Animal.

So, about the boots…I didn’t even have to break ’em in! I wore them with insoles (helloooo, no arches) and a pair of thick Thorlo socks, and my feet were actually comfortable.

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