Sasha Darling & The BellJar Blog — Beauty

Had a nice dinner with the ladies last night at Emmy's Spaghetti Shack. Love that place. Have been going there for like 10 years and I honestly think I would have a heart attack and die if they ever closed down. And I usually don't even care for spaghetti. I swear they but crack in the Spag. I dream about it sometimes. Got up at 7 and went to the gym. Totally did not stop for a stop sign and the police pulled me over. I swear it makes me so happy I'm a girl with some long eyelashes that I can bat...the nice officer just asked me "to do him a favor and make sure in the future, I come to a complete stop." Now that's what I call justice. Honestly I have been pulled over at least 10 times in my life and only received one actual ticket. It pays to be charming, no? Ok so at the gym I was thinking about how I have been preaching to my mother, who has been ill, that she needs to practice positive thinking. Have any of you read about Masaru Emotos ice tests? He claims that if you freeze water with the word love attached to it, it forms symmetrical and beautiful patterns and with the word hate attached the patterns become broken and chaotic. There are of course believers as well as naysayers, as with most things in this complicated, mysterious world. Well, when I saw my Mom last week, she was withered and hunched and for the very first time in my life, she looked like a little old lady. She was in a load of pain and was lying in her bed crying when I walked in. After a day with me, and a lot of talk about positive thinking, and the power of the mind to heal she felt a bit better. My Mom is an expert gardener and when I was a child we basically lived off our garden in the summertime. She is obsessed with flowers and nature and is just a cute old, hippie lady, who has been bogged down by chronic pain. The second day I was with her, I made her take a walk through the country. It's spring where she lives and the flowers were in bloom like wildfire in the hills. We walked and talked all the while she was stopping to look at the different plants and flowers and explaining to me their names and origins. At one point she was smelling a wild rose, and she was smiling and laughing and all of a sudden she looked like my mom again. I asked her how she felt and she said her pain was almost completely gone. I of course have a life here in SF, and can't stay and council my mother 24 hours a day, or force her out to enjoy the beautiful world, but I can believe and remind her to have faith in the universe. I choose to walk blindly behind people like Dr Emoto, even if his teachings turn out to be complete scientific myth. His attempts to evoke hope and beauty in our world, is something I can stand behind. I love it when people pose a question that makes you wonder what if? I have seen the positive effects of belief and can attest to it's power in my own life. I can't seem to find a negative way to spin that!

As I mentioned in the previous post I have recently been adhering to a kinda all organic, non processed food, almost Vegan Diet. While I was in LA it was so strange but almost every person that I had a conversation with, we got on the topic of food and eating and health. I'm a food book addict. I love to read anything and everything about food. Cook Books, Health books, books on vegan and vegetarianism, and I recently read Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan. So now I'm reading in the defense of food as well. I think his books are of the most important books of our time. The state of the world and our relationship with food is so completely out of control at this point, it's hard for me to even fathom what steps are needed to re-educate the world about food. I was raised mostly Vegan and or Vegetarian as a child and I was lucky to have parents that believed in knowing what and where your food came from. For me a treat for being well behaved was a super sweet slice of apple. I thought Carob was chocolate, and Carrot cake was my fav. My Mom cooked breakfast and dinner every day and packed me my lunch. I noticed at school that my food was different. I had raw almonds and raisins rather than chips and cookies. My sandwich with thick, dark bread slathered with Avocado and sprouts was absolutely un-tradable. At times I was embarrassed by the food I was sent to school with because it made me feel different. But honestly I loved ever morsel of my moms cooking and secretly did not understand the concept of a twinkie. When I was old enough to pick my own foods and hung out with my friends after school, I totally got sucked in to the fast food joints. And I'm not gonna lie, that food tastes really amazing, but it made me soooo sick. And I heard this little voice in the back of my head while I snaked on chicken nuggets or a big mack, telling me that every bite was killing our rainforest. I'm not sure if it was the guilt or the bad food that made me so ill, but the junk food diet only lasted a few years. Now I'm one of those people that struggles with my food consumption. I love food..all sorts of food. My main joy in life is to eat out. I love rich french food and cheese is my total downfall. And all these things are fine in moderation, but if I had it my way I would eat at Absinthe every night of the week if I could. So from time to time I just have cleanse myself and just eat simple fresh foods. I think a lot about beauty; Hair Make-Up, mani-pedis, fashion, fake eyelashes, all these things give me so much joy and I could never live without them. But lately I have been thinking just as much about what goes inside me as I do what goes on me. And when I eat healthy and work out 4 to 5 times a week, I feel so beautiful and happy, in a way that not even a new pair of stilettos can make me feel. And that's saying a lot!!! Anyway, last night I felt kinda itchy to get out, but I made myself a yummy dinner and felt kinda tired, when I realized Food Revolution with Jamie Oliver was on TV and any and all desire went away. Not only have I had a crush on Jamie since the naked chef days, but he is one of the most amazing real, honest personas on TV. So I was sucked in immediately. I'm not gonna go on and on about what happened on the show, but for me it was riveting to see how reluctant and emotional we have become about our food and health. But you all HAVE to watch this show. We live in such a bubble here in SF with so many easy ways to eat healthy and we are aware of our food, even if we do like some taco bell on a road trip. But it seems to me most of america has slipped so far away from the understanding of real food that its almost as if we are viewed as radical communists for desiring the world become food aware and healthy. So last night after watching two back to back episodes I was up till like 3 am tossing and turning thinking about food. It's so crazy I know, but it's just so important, and I'm so happy that it seems the media is finally catching on and putting shows like this on prime time cable TV. Oh yeah and I officially love Jamie Oliver. If he wasn't already married I would go to London and ask him to cook me dinner. So all you glamour girls. Go fourth and put something lovely in your body, and then put on a cute dress and flirt with some boys! Oh and Thanks Ashly for letting me cook you a yummy healthy breakfast this AM!!! xo

Lovely Creature paintings, mostly birds, but we like birds!!!

Come in all day to get your New Years Eve Dress at BellJar and Have a glass of Champers with the ladies!

From 5-7 The Fabulous Hairdresser Goergia will be their with her amazing team and will be doing hot-rolls and up-dos for the ladies!!! So get there early to sign up to make sure we can help you be even more gorgeous for New Years than you already are!!!