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Yesterday I attempted to make the salted caramel macarons I saw on my favorite blog, Cupcakes and Cashmere.  To look at Emily’s pictures, you’d think these cookies were a fluffy piece of easy-bake heaven.  To make them yourself, you will realize they are messy, not-so-fluffy and just downright frustrating.

Like her post about the macarons, all of Emily’s other posts indicate that her life is pretty close to perfect (or at least it looks that way in pictures).  As if Hollywood wasn’t bad enough, social media and the blogosphere has given us girls a whole slew of women to compare ourselves–and feel inferior–to.  While I don’t doubt that many of the ladies who put their lives online each day do lead a fabulous existence, the truth is that all of our lives (celebrities, bloggers and social media mavens included) often look a little more like MY macarons: sticky, difficult and kind of a disaster.

Unfortunately, many of us fail to remind ourselves of that aforementioned truth as we look at the fabulous outfits, careers, families, houses, etc that so many of our favorite personalities–or even some of our closest friends–put on display online.  I mean, seriously, how often have you navigated away from a blog or even just logged off of Facebook feeling discontent because at least 10 other people are leading a life that is far more fabulous than yours? It’s a vicious cycle, and it has to stop.

So, in an attempt to expose just how much your favorite bloggers and Facebook friends aren’t telling you about their life, I’ll be launching a new series called The Style Geek In Real Life (otherwise known as TSGIRL).  Starting next week, I’ll be sharing some of the more glamorous moments of my daily life with all of you on this blog and then linking to the TSGIRL version of that moment on my other blog, JennPrentice.com.  (Yes, that means I’ll finally get to start blogging over there too.) This series will be part of a larger movement I’ll be starting to encourage all of you to “Live Counterculturally” in 2012.  (More details about that to follow on Monday as well.)

If nothing else, I hope that my TSGIRL posts serve as a reminder to all of you that no matter what it might look like from the outside, no one’s life is perfect.  But like my salted caramel macarons, sometimes the sweetest moments in life lie in our greatest failures.

I feel the need to lighten the mood a little after yesterday’s post, and I can’t think of a better way to do that than by chatting about the HOLIDAYS!!!!!!

Halloween is almost here and while it’s not one of my favorite holidays, it is my personal harbinger of the holiday season. So if I celebrate, it’s mostly because I’m looking forward to the days ahead.

That being said, there is one thing that I LOVE about Halloween: Adorable children in cute costumes! On Friday, the owner of our company is letting us dress up (if we want) and letting the employees with kids bring their children into the office in their costumes for some Halloween fun. (A.k.a- Candy!)

I’m sure these kids are going to get their fair share of pre-packaged sweets, so I was trying to come up with something different to pass out to them. Here’s what I’ve found from the people at Bright Ideas.com:

Those are the most entertaining baked goods I’ve seen a long time! Unfortunately, they’re kinda complicated to make…but I think I’m still gonna give one or two of them a try.

Hope you guys enjoy as well!

Until Tomorrow,
Jenn

PS- The weather girl just said we might need to wear mittens when we walk out the door this morning!!!!!!!!! YAY for cold weather!!!!!!!!

I hate getting the mail. Not necessarily the physical act of pulling it out of the mailbox–though it would be nice if we still lived in a world where the postman (who you knew by name) brought the mail to your doorstep–but more the things that you receive in the mail: bills, bills, spam mail and more bills.

Today, however, my trip to the mailbox yielded a much better return than I anticipated. Crate & Barrel catalog. JCrew catalog. And the crowning glory of them all: the Williams-Sonoma catalog. Surprised? You thought I’d say JCrew, didn’t you? Don’t get me wrong, the bright cardis and matchstick cords do put a smile on my face, but there’s something about Williams-Sonoma that warms my heart. Just walking in the store from October 1st-December 31st makes me feel festive. So, as soon as I saw the cover of the catalog, my mind thought “FALL” and my fingers flipped through the pages.

This month’s catalog channels its inner Julia Child and brings us The Best of France, even printing a recipe for beef bourguignonne. I’ll admit, it’s a shameless way for the store to piggy-back on the success of the movie Julie & Julia (if you saw the movie, you know what I mean) but nonetheless, I am going to ask for a bright red Le Creuset cocotte and a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, for Christmas.

For those of you who don’t get the catalog, I’ll list a few of the highlights (including the beef bourguignonne recipe) below. Who knows? You might want to ask Santa for a few of these items yourself.

Until Tomorrow,
Jennifer Lynn

Williams-Sonoma Top Five
1.) Slide Frittata Pan
2.) Halloween Pancake Molds
3.) Three Tier Oven Rack
4.) Personalized Recipe and Entertaining Journal
5.) Beef bourguignonne