Calming music.

My commute last night had all the makings of a hellish, road-raging, two-hour disaster: rain, terrible traffic, the stupid new iPhone maps app that won't tell me how long it will take me to get from A to B, and with every passing minute, the impending closure of our neighborhood dog bakery where I had to pick up one lucky pup's birthday "cake."  And then the one thing keeping me from losing it, my audiobook (the Fug Girls' Messy, which is completely mindless fun, by the way), ended.  

On the brink of a total meltdown, through the magic of Spotify, I stumbled upon what can only be described as a soothing balm for road rage: Ed Sheeran's The A Team.  Only four songs, but they're soothing and wonderful.  Crisis averted.

(Images via Cape Cod Collegiate, original credit unknown; Elephantine.)

Hello there.

Hello there everyone.  Apologies for my absence: things went a bit haywire last week and I was spending some time with Tall and Salty's biggest fan (my mom), who unexpectedly went on the DL and has had a brief sojourn in the hospital.  I love writing Tall and Salty, but I love her more.  And I don't think I could have strung together many coherent sentences, so let's just consider my radio silence a blessing for you all, shall we?  She's doing better now, and hopefully that means my head is on a bit straighter.

Tall and Salty isn't a particularly personal blog, and that's by design -- my day job (and hope of getting other day jobs in the future) requires that I maintain a certain level of anonymity here, so I haven't done a lot of sharing of personal details.  However, I'd like to take a quick time out from our regular diet of style, design, pop culture, and other random interestingness to note something I've observed in the last few weeks.  As we were heading to her surgery, I told my mom that one of my friends was sending her good thoughts, and my mom said that what she's taken from this experience is that people are so nice.  And I agreed: we are so fortunate to have surrounded ourselves with incredibly thoughtful, nice, people who have gone out of their collective way to step up and do good when things have been down.  Thank you so much to all of you.  I am grateful.

And with that: onward to the interestingness!  Since I went AWOL last Thursday, I figured that I'd jump back into things with the weekend links I owe you (I trust you still had a lovely weekend, even without your usual post).  

The first ads for famous books.

All of Jenna Lyons' outfits, all in one place.  

Salty chocolate chip cookies!  

With all the huff and puff going on about the Kate Middleton photos right now, this post about Princess Diana is so interesting

In the spirit of Work Week, this advice on managing Fashion Week seems to be good advice for managing any busy work project.

This picture cracks me up.

Oldie but goodie beauty products and the newbies that might take their place. 

Love medals.

Bonnie and Clyde?  Maybe they will end up on Mugshot Doppelganger, which is seriously awesome.

Pretty tray.

James Cameron tells you why Jack and Rose couldn't really both fit on the piece of wood.

(Image: Dream Fall by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison.)

Whoopsie.

Oops!  As I alluded to in my last post, last week got a bit out of control: work busier than usual, compounded by a week shorter than usual because I was traveling more than usual.  Hope you can find it in your heart to forgive my absence.

This weekend I was in a teeny beach town in Maryland for a wedding.  It was actually a vow renewal: the couple had a City Hall wedding a few years ago, moved abroad, had an adorable baby, and came back stateside to renew their vows with friends and family.  How cool is that?  (The ensuing party was fairly awesome, too. :))  And I got to catch up with some of Tall and Salty's most ardent readers, too (hi boys).  Hope you had a similarly great weekend, and here are some (belated) links for you.

How many of you are there?

Restaurant lingo.

Beautiful dress.

MARS! (via @brainpicker).

This is totally what it would look like if I met the Queen.  Which means I shouldn't laugh at it, but come on.

Olympic Shenanigans.  Capital "S" included.

How can Olympic Shenanigans not ensue from this?

Kobe holding a leopard Kate Spade phone case makes me giggle.

Image of Diane Keaton in Looking for Mr. Goodbar via Miss Moss.   

Glitter nail polish: yea or nay?

A silly topic to start the day:

So, I'm thirty.  I'm a lawyer.  I also kind of enjoy a glittery nail polish every now and then.

My brain tells me that this is not a good thing, but my eyes typically betray me when it comes to sparkly things.  (And it's economical!  Glitter is an excellent chip-concealing device.)

I try not to wear it to work, because "glitter nail polish" sort of screams "Elle Woods, attorney."  I also worry that the appropriate age for glitter-wearing is somewhere (far) south of thirty.  But sometimes, it's just fun, isn't it?

What say you, readers?  Harmless fun, or best left to those who still have a prom in their futures?

PS: five gold glitter polishes, and tips for getting your glitter off (it's harder than one would think!).

(Image via This is Glamorous.)

Car trouble.

YUCK.  But hey, it apparently happens to the best of us.  Stars: they're just like us.



Image via here


Things helping me at the moment: I'm extremely fortunate to have exceptionally nice coworkers who are happy to help.  And I'm holding out hope that I run into Pacey at the shop. 

Hope you're having a better day!