THURSDAY'S THOUGHTS

ILLUSTRATIONS BY HERBERT GREEN

THINKING ABOUT: Leave it to my favorite brand of gin—Hendricks, obvi—to bring a thirst for adventure back to flight in the form of a ginormous airborne cucumber. Yes, you read that right. The 130-foot dirigible will appear in 13 cities across the nation giving a small number of gin enthusiasts a ride in their boozy blimp. Ooh, pick me, pick me! Let's just take a second and imagine what it would be like to take a tongue-tingling sip of Hendrick's aboard a FLYING CUCUMBER. Now THAT is a slice of heaven, my friends. Unfortunately, I'm sad to report I learned about this a little too late because it already made its grand appearance in Austin at the beginning of May. Aw, shucks! Perhaps this is a sign it's time I ditch the Volkswagen for something vegetal.

FEELING: In last week's Love List I featured artwork by the fabulous Herbert Green and promised to share more of her illustrations on the blog this week. Lucky for you, I didn't forget. I mean just look at these gorgeous cutouts and patterns—how could I? So today I present to you some of my colorful favorites in a GIF-tastic format. When I browse her Tumblr admiring the creations, I swear it feels like someone jumped inside my mind and heart. This is the closest I've ever come to finding an artist who perfectly expresses how I think and feel in such an accurate and visual way. Simply put, the artwork brings me great comfort and happiness.

THANKFUL FOR: A couple of weeks ago, we were in line waiting to checkout at Wally World when a stranger asked me, "How old is your baby?" I responded happily with seven months. That's a pretty good answer, right? The stranger went on to ask, "No, how many WEEKS?" I froze nervously and gave a ballpark estimate. I had that look of panic written all over my face, and I knew she knew I wasn't one hundred percent sure of the exact number. Gulp. Thankfully, we were next up in line and that was the end of that conversation. When we finally got to the car I felt frazzled like I was failing terribly as this whole mom gig. How could I forget how many weeks old Max is? Determined to be equipped with the right answer, I whipped out my phone and looked at the calendar. Ugh, the idea of counting weeks back to October felt overwhelming and honestly quite boring. I've never been a numbers person so details like this escape me quite often. Finally, with a hint of sarcasm and despair, I Googled "How old is my kid?" I expected Siri to jump out of my phone and slap me, but much to my delight I found there's an actual website that answers this specific question. Score! The genius creator behind the site made me feel human again and deserves a special shout out. I can't thank you enough. Now I keep this handy window open on my phone for reference because I will probably (erm, definitely) forget the number of weeks. Again.

EATING: Since we have an abundant amount of peppers, I whipped up this Cilantro Jalapeño Hummus. It reminded me of the bottom layer in Trader Joe's Three-Layer Hummus only spicier. It was a simple and tasty snack that I would totally make again and again! I also took a stab at these Orange Chicken Meatballs recently and paired them with some veggies and brown rice. Flyboy was a BIG fan and requested we add them to our ongoing list of go-to meals. Note: These weekly Thursday's Thoughts posts push me to try new recipes so I have something to share with you in this category. Thanks for keeping me motivated and out of a meal planning rut!

LISTENING TO: It's no secret I rely on the iTunes Pop radio station to get me through my spinning workouts. After cycling through some of the latest and greatest, I heard the most recent rendition of Taylor Swift's poison letter Bad Blood. Max isn't much for pop-culture commentary and it would be hours until Flyboy came home to humor me, so I picked up my phone and sent the following text to my sister: "Crazy to think we once lived in a world when Bad Blood existed without Kendrick Lamar." Just as I hoped, Aubrey responded and we exchanged a series of emoji-filled texts that consisted mostly of me explaining Swift's rift with Katy Perry. After going back and forth for ten minutes, my sister didn't respond again for a good hour. I guess she has a life or something... Anywho, while surveying my texts in anticipation of Aub's next snarky remark, I couldn't help but feel RIDICULOUS for knowing an absurd amount about these dueling divas and this hater's anthem. So in the event you have any other tween-related inquiries, I'm your girl.

WATCHING: On Sunday night I got super excited because I thought THIS was the week Real Housewives of Orange County and Odd Mom Out premiered on Bravo. Nope, try again. It turns out I was off by a week, but on the bright side I'm super excited for next Monday and Tuesday. Maybe in an effort to fill my trash TV love tank we should go ahead and discuss New York alphas Bethenny and Heather? Holy awkwardness! When will Yummie Tummie learn that B ain't no HOLLA-back girl? See what I did there?? To compare the loss of your nanny of nine years to Frankel's childhood and current legal drama is just heinous. Get to steppin', Thomson.

READING: The summer issue of Domino magazine arrived in my mailbox last week, and while I haven't had a chance to devour it as I'd like, I do have a comment or two about what I've seen so far. I'm not sure what it is about the layout in this issue but I'm having the hardest time deciphering whether the spread is part of a feature or ad. I've found the pages to be overly busy, which takes away from the gorgeous content. I realize ads are needed to keep publications like Domino afloat, but this wasn't executed as well as it's been done in the past. I've learned to expect this from magazines like Real Simple and Glamour, but for $12 a copy I'd like to think the designers at Domino might find a way to seamlessly weave ads into each issue. This just feels clunky and cheapens the overall aesthetic I've grown to love over the years. Let's hope it was just a mishap this time around.   

LOVING: Since mother always knows best, I took advice from my mom and tried Urban Decay's Ultimate Ozone Multipurpose Lip Primer as soon as she text me to recommend it. Just as promised, this clear and creamy stick fills in fine lines and prevents lip color from feathering. Hooray for no more embarrassing smudges! As I've gotten older, I've realized that a little bit of lipstick makes me feel put together and look more awake, but I don't always have time to reapply throughout the day. Oh, hey, Max! After using this pencil, I was so impressed to see my lipstick lasted all day without any touch ups. Hours of sipping on reheated coffee and smooching on the baby and my lip color looked just as good as when I applied it in the morning. I'm sold! 

Enough about me. How are you feeling today? What are you up to? Thanks for stopping by!!