Wear, Watch, Want #21: The Allergic Dreadful Goddess Edition

Wear: Nike Neon Accented Sneakers

These aren't the actual Nike sneakers I've been wearing constantly, but those are sadly un-findable on the internet. However, this pair looks almost the same. They're very, very similar. Anyway, the reason why I like them so much, and reach for them all the time, is because they're simple, gray, go-with-anything sneaks, but they have these neon details that make them a little more interesting. I get compliments on them all the time, and  the other day I was waiting to cross the street and the woman standing next to me was wearing the exact same pair. Like almost all of my sneakers, I bought my pair at Nordstrom Rack (seriously, the best place to buy fancy athletic shoes at non-fancy prices), but this pair isn't exorbitantly expensive at $80, and is readily available at Zappos.

Watch: Penny Dreadful

I had never seen Showtime's Penny Dreadful until a few days ago. I didn't know much about it, and I was kind of indifferent to it. But I was reading Entertainment Weekly while making some dinner and they described it as "kinky-creepy," and once I read that I was like, "You have my complete attention, Entertainment Weekly. Please go on." It was a fairly complementary review, so I decided to give the show a shot. And, well, I got completely sucked in and ended up watching all nine available episodes in two days.

Penny Dreadful is an amalgamation of different 19th century horror stories like Dracula and Frankenstein, and as well as including other supernatural characters. In the first season our ragtag team of supernatural explorers is formed, and they embark on a quest to track down a noted adventurer's daughter, who's been captured by vampires. Plus, an impossibly charming Irish sex worker gets consumption and an American boyfriend, a rich emo loner manages to get all the sexual attention, a doctor doesn't have any friends, so he makes his own out of corpses, and a woman gets put through absolute and potentially literal hell because it's the 19th century so of course she does.

I like supernatural stuff a whole lot, but one of the things that I look forward to in each episode is Eva Green's character Vanessa's costumes. She wears a dress in episode six that is divine. Sadly, she wears it on her date with Dorian Gray, which is a complete waste of a gorgeous dress (from my small amount of Googling for this post, I am led to believe I am alone in my "Ugh, puh-leeze." opinion of Dorian). Anyway, she's wearing it in the above photo, but despite a lot of searching, I can't find a more decent picture of it. Just trust me. Oh! And she wears some fantastic coats as well:

In case you were curious (I was!) the costume designer is Gabriella Pescucci, who has worked on some amazing period pieces, been nominated for a whole slew of awards, and even won an Oscar for her work.

Eva Green's costumes aren't the only outstanding performers, Green herself is, in my opinion, the unequivocal star of the show. It makes me very excited to see her portrayal of Miss Peregrine, I can tell you that much for sure. Plus you've got Billie Piper, who I can't imagine anyone not loving, Timothy Dalton, who is a famous person, and Teen People dreamboat Josh Hartnett. And I'm not even mentioning the actors who play snoozefest Dorian Gray, sad sack Dr. Frankenstein, OR his creation, who by the looks of him is hoping for a role in The Crow: The Victorian Years.

The second season of Penny Dreadful is airing now on Showtime. With very minimal effort, you can be completely caught up in two days.

Want: Allergy-Friendly Cereal

A little background: I have a myriad of food intolerances, and I'm not too big on preparing food. In my experience, one of these traits would be fairly easy to work with, but both can be very frustrating. Say I liked cooking: I'd be happy to prepare wonderful meals that didn't violate any of my dietary restrictions. On the other hand, say I was lazy but had no limits on what I could eat without getting sick: Pop-Tarts for every meal.

I do have a few easy-to-make, yet also allergy-friendly meals that are my go-tos, but sometimes I'm having a fibro flare up or I'm exhausted and I just can't be bothered. This is when cereal is a great option. But it is SO hard to find cereal that is both gluten and cane sugar free. It's practically impossible, actually. And if you do find one? It's either flavorless or it costs $10, or both. I like Nature's Path fruit juice sweetened corn flakes, but they're kind of blah. And I recently discovered Paleo People's banana nut granola clusters, which are divinely delicious, but pricy. I want the flavor of one for the price of another, but so far that's only a dream. I will keep hunting though (and of course, let you know when I find it).