Seasonal

It would be so much easier if I could just buy all my own Christmas presents. I'm not good at asking for things. I've hated it my whole life. Example: when my grandma took me and my brother to Toys R Us and said we could get anything we wanted, I wandered through the entire store feeling too guilty to pick anything and ended up with a little bag of bouncy balls that was by the cash register. I did make a list of books and other little things on Amazon and mailed it to my family. They asked!

Here are some things I would buy myself:

Diary from Gadanke.com.  $17.75



Kate Spade iPhone 4 case - $40.00

-or-

Penguin Books iPhone 4 case - $35.00 (this site has a lot of wonderful cases)

DANNIJO rings - particularly the gold and silver - $38.00 ea

Knottedrush Ring from Bario-Neal.  I'm obsessed with this slender gold ring.
I will probably end up buying it for myself if I can't get over it!

So, just a few little items I find myself dreaming about. In all honesty I'd be perfectly happy with a gift certificate to my favorite masseuse and a good bar of chocolate. Or four. Of each. But mostly the massage. Or chocolate.

Merry Christmas.

Food for thought

I wish you could plug me in like a cell phone.  I need recharging.  Any of these places would help.

Acropolis overlooking Assos, Turkey (2008)

 (my camera developed a spot, unfortunately.)

Assos



Twisp, Washington

I'm just feeling a little out of sorts. I feel impatient, but I'm not waiting for anything in particular.  Maybe it's just the shock that comes from it already being December and putting things on the schedule for 2012.  Ever since I heard a story to this effect on NPR I get a little depressed when I realize it's my perception of time that's making it seem to go so fast:

"The passage of time is about the ordering of events, things that happen one after another. Numbers, some say, are devices that were created to help us order time. Maybe, although counting chicks is also very useful if you are a hen. However, if we are to order events, we must remember them. Ergo, the perception of time is deeply related to memory. If our memories were to be erased, we would revert to the wonder of babyhood, where time extends forever. The more we have to learn, the more memories we make, the slower time passes. Routine, sameness, makes time speed up. Since routine is not usually equated with fun, this seems to go contrary to the "time flies when you're having fun" dictum."

I want to learn more. I need to learn more. I miss learning so badly it hurts my heart. I need a new routine.

Thanks be

In a big way this year, I'm thankful for my David and my furball loves.  The combination could not be any more sweet and wonderful.

He's everything I need, even in my fuzziest moments. Especially in my fuzziest moments.

Also, I'm grateful for the beautiful state that is Kansas. All that I am and all that I'll ever be is wrapped up in this beautiful state full of sky and goodness.

A Note on the Pinning of Things

*Disclaimer: Wherein I Bitch About A Wedding To Which I Wasn't Invited

To start - I love Pinterest. It's basically everything I always wanted the internets to be - a place to save ideas without having just a list of https://www.blah and/or confusing notes to myself. I like seeing what other people pin and getting those emails that 3201885 other people have repinned my pins (ok, only 3, but still.) I'm proud of my pins because I like to dig a little bit and not just repin the first and most popular pins I see. Same with wedding blogs - I'm not planning one of my own (yet) but I like to look at pretty pictures and read fun writing. The uniqueness is what I love about blogs like The Knotty Bride and The Charity Wedding. They don't just grab images from Pinterest that are adorable - they seek out the original and thoughtful, so people are inclined to be inspired and not just imitators.

My sweetie and I attended our 7th (or 8th, we've lost count) wedding of 2011 a few weeks ago. It was in an amazing space, Foundation Architectural Reclamation in Kansas City, Kansas. Long story short, the couple's original reception spot was declared condemned or something so this location was found last minute. Picture a huge old warehouse in an old part of the city, revamped speakeasy on the first floor and reclaimed furniture and architectural pieces on the second floor. I didn't know what decade I was in. Unfortunately, the older the building, the thinner the walls, and there was a seocnd wedding going on somewhere else in the building that had a live band rocking out, which kind of disturbed our friend's carefully picked slideshow music, but whatever. Not a big deal. It did not manage to disrupt their first dance to Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)", thank goodness. (Is there a better first dance song? Or longer? I don't think so.) Anyway, the music continued through the walls for a while, and when we decided to take our drinks outside to look around we found the entrance to that wedding. We just walked in, as it basically opened up into the street, and crashed our first wedding.

  

It looked Pinterest had barfed all over everything.

via Pinterest via The Farmer Family

The wedding we crashed had it all. Mason jars instead of glasses. A cake with one of those adorable little bunting/banners on it with something cute written on the tiny flags (you KNOW the cake I'm talking about. It's freaking everywhere. Is it an Italian thing or something?).

Via Pinterest via Belle The Magazine

 Actually, a whole table of adorable cakes and pies. Burlap tablerunners and seat decorations. Mismatched vases on every table with sparse-yet-whimsical flowers. Cowboy boots. A photobooth with hideous mustaches (lol! mustache!! I AM SO SICK OF MUSTACHES) and huge neon plastic sunglasses for props. The space itself already looked like an old barn, so add that to the list. If it's been on any DIY Wedding list in the last 6 months, this wedding had it. I half expected to see a sign saying "this wedding brought to you by every wedding blog, ever!"

via Intimate Weddings

Now, DON'T GET ME WRONG. I LOVE Mason jars and will be using them at my wedding because they're harder to break. I think burlap is great in small doses. I think cowboy boots are infinitely better for dancing than heels. Photobooths are the funnest thing ever. I'm not trying to bash this bride or the couple AT ALL. Hell, I'm the one who walked into someone else's wedding. For the record, everyone looked like they were having the best time ever and I totally would have gotten up there and danced to that band. I don't know the couple. Maybe all of those touches were specific to them.

I guess I just don't think it's a reflection of who you are as a couple when you do what everyone else in the world is doing and obviously get all of your ideas from the internet. A wedding isn't an expectation to live up to, it's a reflection of two people and what they care about most. What people are going to remember are the special moments and the tears and how good the cake was and how much their feet hurt from dancing and how much in love the couple is. (Well, that's what I remember. My first thoughts the morning after a wedding are: "holy geesuz I should have taken all that leftover cake home. Where can I get it?" and whether or not zappos will accept those heels if I return them because please god I still can't feel my toes.)

  Am I all alone on this? Do I spend too much time looking at pretty wedding pictures so every wedding from now on is going to be ruined for me? The thing is, I don't think so. Like I said, we've been to approximately 16 weddings in the 3 years David and I have been together and every single wedding was special in its own wonderful way.  I guess a part of me is still so stymied by the multi-thousand dollar extravaganza that is the modern wedding. All I have to build on is my parent's living room ceremony, and I don't think anything could get much better than that.

Meat. Loaf.

Uniglo



Via the New York Times

Is that a down coat made into a skirt??!! To that idea: I love you.

What's in a?

I think about this decision a lot. Even though I don't technically have any decision to make yet.

lurv

How did J.Crew know to be so perfect? Maybe it's the cranberry satchel. I feel like it would tie my whole life together.

DIY Fashion Skirt

These skirts are everywhere.

The Man Repeller - Skirt by Rag and Bone, probably 100s of dollars

American Apparel $62

instyle-girl

I like the style.  I'm way more into long skirts than short ones.  I even kinda like the fanciness of the accordion pleats.  I think they're cute with any sort of top, and they're basically just really fun.  I looked at American Apparel a few weeks ago but I refuse to shell out $50+ for something like that.  It's just not going to happen.  But the other day I found the perfect skirt at the Salvation Army.  It's long, blush/nude colored, and has hundreds of tiny pleats.  Only problem:  it's attached to a dress.

$5.99! Fashion doesn't get much better than that.

As soon as I research the best way to cut polyester without destroying the skirt, Ima go to town on this baby. 

arty of the irst art

We watched Anatomy of a Murder last night as part of our effort to a) watch more movies and b) watch more old movies.  I'm now really in love with Lee Remick.

I really want to find a picture of her in the scene where she's talking to Paul (Jimmy Stewart) and she's wearing incredibly chic cowboy boots and she says to him, "I got them in Phoenix.  Don't you think they're smart? I think they're terribly smart."  I wanted to jump in the movie and say yes! they are!

I love her cat eye glasses and high waisted pants, and her little dog, too.

 

{via starlet showcase}

(can you spot the principal from Grease back there?)

Cupcakes and a new dress

A brand new pretty dress came in the mail yesterday and I fell in love with it so much that I felt like I had to go a little June Cleaver-y and bake something beautiful and delicious while wearing it (with an adorable apron, of course).  The best part about the dress, besides the color and the perfect fit?  It was free!  I entered maybe my second ever online blog giveaway on Kris' beautiful blog Young Married Chic and lo and behold, I won!  The dress is from Shabby Apple and I still can't believe how perfectly it fits.  I am so in love.  Thanks, Kris!

(I'll add pictures later.  Neither my cat or my puppy are very good photographers, so I'll have to wait until I have a human to aid me in this endeavor.)

My excitement about the dress, however, was overshadowed by the fact that my boss is out for a few days because she is had a masectomy yesterday morning.  She'd been cancer free for 7 years, but earlier this summer her doctors had cause for concern, so after a few tests and conferences with her doctors and family she decided to get rid of the offending breast.  She has been in remarkably amazing spirits through the entire thing and was ready to get it over with once and for all!  Even though she had been so calm and excited all week, I could definitely feel the emotions starting to well up when I told her goodbye on Wednesday and gave her a hug.  Fortunately the procedure went very well and she was home by 10:00 a.m.!  In honor of her and breast cancer survivors everywhere, I made pink lavender grapefruit cupcakes.  The last time I made a batch I gave some to her and she told me later that she had saved the last one until she could sit on her deck and eat it alone, and the lavender was so calming and soothing that she could just feel herself relax while eating it!  The recipe is from a 2006 article in the Lawrence Journal World.  Here it is:

Lavender Pink Grapefruit Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons lavender flowers (no stems)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup pink grapefruit juice
1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup mild honey, preferably clover
2 large eggs

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. With the back of a spoon, crush lavender flowers and combine with flour mixture; mix well and set aside.

In a liquid measure, combine pink grapefruit juice and buttermilk; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy; scraping sides of bowl, as necessary. Add honey; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl after each addition.

 Add half of the reserved dry ingredients to the butter mixture; mix on low until just combined. With mixer running on low, slowly add the grapefruit mixture. Add remaining dry ingredients until just combined.

 Fill paper-lined muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake 18 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove to wire rack; cool. Frost with Pink Grapefruit Buttercream Frosting, if desired. Makes 12 to 14 cupcakes.

Pink grapefruit buttercream frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup grapefruit juice
2 tablespoons mild honey, preferably clover
4 to 5 cups powdered sugar
2 to 3 drops red food coloring (optional)

In a mixing bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add grapefruit juice and honey; mix well. Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until desired spreading consistency. For a darker pink color, add food coloring, if desired.
- AP recipe developed by Lisa Bishop, courtesy National Honey Board (<------- methinks I need to investigate this NHB...)

I love this recipe because a) I love lavender more than most things and b) there's no sugar in the cupcake recipe, in case you have friends who are weird like that and you want to make them a treat.  There is the slightest hint of citrus when you bite into one of these babies, making it just the tiniest bit tart, and the honey adds so much flavor you'll wonder why you even need sugar anywhere in your life.  (kidding!)  If you're not too sure about the flavor, wait a day or two and then try one again.  Like most good things, they get better with a little bit of time.

I like this sort of thing

Weck Juice Jar set
Terrain

Farmer's Market Basket
Anthropologie

scarf techniques

coolest site ever, especially if you ever pretended to be a hobo running away from home and had to tie up pieces of bread in a kerchief to survive when you were younger

DIY, Kate edition

While working oh-so-hard the other day at my job, I happened across this adorable project from Cupcakes and Cashmere.  Here's her finished product:

{via Cupcakes and Cashmere}

Isn't it lovely?

I thought about it all day long and decided I had to make one.  If there's one thing in plenty at my parent's house, it's old lumber and mason jars. 

First, a few things you should know about me:

1.  I worked in a hardware store for almost 5 years.  I did not get hired due to my construction skills.  I mean, I know which end of a hammer to use and how to insert a drill bit and lots of other things, but it's not exactly second nature to me.

2.  I hate planning projects.  All the instructional blogs I read say "here are the tools you'll need" and have them all laid out neatly on a tray:

{For example, a Little Green Notebook re-upholstery tutorial}

3.  I don't live at home anymore, and to add to the un-familiarity that comes with being out of there for a few years, my parents are remodeling and everything that used to be on the first floor is now in the basement, so I don't know where anything is times two.

Whatevs, I still wanted a floating vase.

 I wandered around our old shed for a while looking for the materials I would need, which consisted of 1. a piece of wood 2.  wire  and 3.  mason jar.  2 and 3 presented themselves quickly, but the lumber was harder to come by.  Finally I found a piece that was weathered just enough to make it pretty, but was still strong and not entirely crumbly.  After sawing off a piece with a pruning saw (NOT THE SAME THING AS A REGULAR SAW.  I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THEN HOW THE REST OF MY PROJECT WAS GOING TO GO) I took it inside and went to the basement to find my tools.


When she wasn't following me to the top of the basement stairs to make sure I was okay, she was lying here. See how worried she looks?

I came back up with a set of hex keys, a ball pein hammer, wire cutters, and pliers.  My plan was to make the holes by hammering in a nail, and then pulling the nail out.

Proximity of hammer (not ball-pein) to clean glassware.

Proximity of clean glassware to my workspace.

@#%!*! screw.  See the two nails there?

Here's the part where I called my brother and asked him if he knew were mom keeps her drill.  He said "I think it's under the back deck." Really? After another few confusing minutes I realized he thought I was asking where she kept the grill.  So not helpful.

 Eventually the two nails and screw did the trick.  Sorta. 



The left side hole still was not all the way through the board.

Last ditch effort.  Hex key for the victory.

Light!

Almost there!  Time to pick the flowers.

Have you ever seen a prettier, more perfect zinnia?

Didn't pick this, but it's gawjus.

In my mind, zinnias are the perfect summer flower.
They're hearty and bright and beautiful, and you can play the "he loves me, he loves me not" game
forever.

A friend of mine got attacked by a crazy cat when we were younger and she had to get shots in her butt for a long time.  But I guess that was rabies, not tetanus.  But still.

Finished product!  I haven't added the wire at the top to hang it, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.  

Can you see the slightly worried look in my eyes where I'm thinking "maybe I'll get tetanus!"

hoc verum est

LOVE this:

Do you see it?

I'm going to start lobbying for a "Realistic Fits" section in clothing stores.  It sounds a lot better than 'Plus Size' or 'Women's'.  I'd shop the heck out of a Realistic Fits section!  What the hell does Plus mean anyway?  Body Plus a butt? Body plus a chest?  Body Plus thighs?  Not only does it sound better and more welcoming, I think it would make people consider about the opposite: Unrealistic Fits.  Striving to be a size 0 or 2 if you're not born that way is unrealistic.  Squeezing into an outfit because you think it'll make you look good if you're wearing cool clothes is unrealistic.  Giving up yogurt and cheese and ice cream and avocados and beer and ribs and half-and-half is unrealistic! 

I love my realistic body. xoxo