I Remember When...

we would go to Union Station, just because.

I was laying in bed the other morning, in one of those half asleep-half awake moments and I looked past the shades in my room to the outside world. It glowed white, looking like there was snow on the ground (there wasn't). It was just cloudy and the way the world looked through the windy, it looked chillier than normal. Do you know what I mean?

I laid back into bed and closed my eyes. All of a sudden, I remembered walking into Union Station, holding Dad's hand, and seeing the pictures. At the entrance of Union Station, the one we would always walk into, there used to be a kiosk that belonged to an artist. He had simple line drawings of St. Louis set up. I was always transfixed by the ones with the hot-air balloons. Every year, St. Louis has a hot-air balloon festival. I loved the different stages of the balloons in the painting/drawing - some were just getting off the ground, others were half inflated, some were high in the sky.

I remember always begging dad to get it. I have no idea how much they cost or anything like that. I was probably six or seven. But I remember that kiosk so well. And now it's gone. Union Station has pretty much deteriorated into a Hooters, a Houlihan's, and a hotel. There used to be all kinds of shops there - the Disney store, the Nature Company, a WaldenBooks...stuff I cared about. None of those things are left.

Entryway

Joanna said that she liked this entry way.



I like it, too. I want a vintage steamer trunk. I saw one on freecycle/reuseitstlouis a couple of days ago but it was in bad shape. However, upon looking up some information on craigslist...there's some good, cheap options in the St. Louis area out there. I just don't know where I would put it...

Pretty Tulle Jackets

Liz posted about these on her blog and I was blown away. Coats that are this pretty...and this cheap? Is there something wrong with them? I hope not.


see the green one here


see the blue one here


see the grey one here


see the yellow one here


see the cream one here

What the World Eats

Someone (again, didn't pay enough attention to know WHO) posted this on twitter and then I looked at it and was in awe.

You should look at it, too - it's pictures of families around the world, with all the food they have for the week in front of them. Each caption also shares what their weekly food stipend is, a family recipe, or favorite food.

Very interesting. The first two pictures looked kind of normal to me and then the third one...whoa. Definitely puts things into perspective.

Micaela reminded me...

This sort of goes hand-in-hand with my size 14 jeans.

I LOVE Glamour magazine. Adore it. It has a great combination of fashion (but not too much), lifestyle, music, books, girly stuff, etc...

I used to have a subscription to it...in fact, the most recent issue was my last one, I think. And so I was flipping through it and I got to page 194 and my eyes just RESTED on this woman.



How gorgeous is she? I mean, I looked up from the magazine and Pete was just awkwardly staring at me, and he said, "what's wrong?" and I held the pages up to him and said, "Pete...she looks like ME."

I was so happy. Literally. Thank GOD that some magazine editors are trying to combat the world of skinny women in media. I'm an avid magazine reader (I probably buy one or two mags a week and when the newest batch of monthly issues come out...well, I buy a lot more), and there are not normal looking women in the majority of the magazine ads...or even the magazine article pages.

The tummy roll, those thighs...she even has stretch marks. It's perfection. It's the WAY women are supposed to look.

Anyway - I don't want to shove the whole weight thing down your throat. It's been interesting reading some other comments about the whole thing. On Vitamin G (a blog on Glamour's website), someone wrote a post about it and some people commented saying that they don't want to see a person looking like her in a magazine and that she needs to lose weight.

Well, I digress. Thanks for the reminder, Micaela!! And if you click on the Vitamin G link up in the last paragraph, you can read a small interview with Lizzie (the model/woman in the picture), and 748 of the comments posted about her.

Wait Until You See Number 9...

I was tagged by the LOVELY missy. Sorry it's a bit late, love!

The rules are, erase the answers already listed and fill in your own then pass it on to four bloggers of your choice. here goes:

1. Who is the hottest Movie Star?
[it should be known that I don't really consider people "hot"...it's more "cute"

BOY: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

GIRL: Zooey Deschanel

3. What is your most treasured memory? - family vacations. We went all over the country every summer, to Hilton Head and out to California and up to Boston and to the Southwest to see the Grand Canyon...it's funny, because we were in cramped spaces (the car, hotel rooms, etc) but we seemed to get along so well on vacations. I guess we were all just really excited.

4. What was the best gift you ever received as a child? - I particularly remember receiving a Barbie mini-van back in the day and I thought it was the BEST THING EVER. But now, looking back, my mom used to write me and Emme poems every couple of years. I still have all mine and I think that's the best thing ever. And when I graduated from high school, part of the invitations for my grad party were detachable and people wrote advice on them and gave them to me at the party. I still read through those now and then and they are just wonderful.

5. What is the biggest mistake you have ever made? Hmmm. I try not to look at things as mistakes, but as opportunities (I know it sounds cheesy, but it's true). Lying to my parents, in general...those were not opportunities. That was just dumb. (One time in particular.)

6. 4 words to describe yourself? - ha, I used to have this on my facebook profile: "sometimes cranky, always artsy". But for real... compassionate, goofy, creative, weird.

7. What was your highlight or low light of 2008? I just sat in front of the screen for a good four or five minutes and cannot remember ANYTHING that is really bad or really great. I enjoyed being an RA for the second half of 2008 and it was pretty fulfilling. I also hated being an RA for the second half of 2008, especially the three AM phone calls about puke in the stairwells. Sweet.

8. Favorite Film? - Amelie. Garden State. Little Miss Sunshine. The Royal Tenenbaums. But first and foremost, Amelie.

9. Tell me one thing I don’t know about you. - I was Homecoming Queen as a senior in high school.

10. If you were a comic book/strip or cartoon character, who would you be? This doesn't really count, but probably Lucy Knisley. She wrote French Milk and I think it would be cool to be her. But out of, like, superheroes...Superman.

I tag....

Laura
Karen
Rosemary
Bridgett (although I'm not sure if this meme is u p your alley or not)
Micaela

To the Readers.

To the readers - to my friends who pop in from time to time, and to the friends that I have known for years that read religiously.

To the strangers that read and get to know me through words and pictures - but really, you are all friends in my eyes.

To the people whom I got to know better through blogging - really, I'm thinking of a few people in particular who ALWAYS make time to read and comment.

I just want to say THANK YOU to all of you. It means to the world to me, to know that people care enough to see what I have to show you and say to you. You are all wonderfully creative and lovely and smart people and I love reading what you have to show ME as well.

Basically, we're just awesome.

254 letters!

I wrote my first letter! It isn't super interesting - it's a cousin that I have always deeply respected but rarely talk to.

It's funny because as days have gone by and I've been thinking more and more about this project, I get excited about writing certain letters to certain people. But I am FORCING myself to go in order of the contacts on my phone.

Read along if you want; I would really love it if you did!



[image via papertissue's tumblr]

Old Soul New Heart

Okay, I TOTALLY remember when I first saw these - Joanna! Ah, Joanna. She's getting married on Saturday! Very excited. And I feel weird getting excited for her wedding, since I've never met her and probably (booo) never will, but she's delightful. I DO know that.

She posted about these gorgeous headbands. They are very similar to Ban.do's style, but much easier on the wallet/pocketbook/wherever you put your cash money.

I have decided that I am going to wear some type of headband on my wedding day. I'm leaning towards a poofy headband. I like poufs! Poufs and glitter. Those two things together are the best.

Grey Gloves

I love alliteration - just typing "grey gloves" up there in the title bar made me feel happy.

These are another twitter find. Sorry. Whoever showed them to me is awesome! I want some!



They also come in other colors. They are also $49.50. Ugh.

Yet Another Commercial

I need to start keeping track of how I get to things I see on the Internet. Twitter has made this difficult. People tweet links or pictures and I open them all in new tabs and forget who said what.

But anyway, someone on twitter posted this link and I LOVE this commercial! Usually Budweiser/Bud Light/anything Anheuser-Bush commercials bother me (my dad works at A-B so I've been paying special attention to commercials from them for years) but I really, really like this one. Cute!

Space Mountain

Want to see what Space Mountain looks like with the lights on?

Oh, now you can! Check it out. (I have to say it still looks pretty terrifying to me.)

Perfection.

This was in the Reading and Writing Go Hand in Hand tumblr. Like I said, perfection.



I get excited! I make things! I have a Moleskine notebook! (I'm on my third, actually, and pretty proud of myself.)

The Swell Season

Did you see the movie Once? No? You should have.

I actually have a really sad story about Once. Pete and I used to write for a music magazine called playback:stl (I guess we still do but I haven't contributed in a long time). I would get many, many emails each work on the listserv, about local shows, CD/book releases, etc. Occasionally we would get emails about movie premieres (I say occasionally because come on. I live in St. Louis. Movie premieres don't usually occur here). This email was about a premiere for Once. Glen Hasard, Marketa Irglova (the two stars), and the director of the movie would all be present and would take questions after the movie was over. So we watched the trailer and the trailer REALLY didn't look that good. So all was forgotten.

A couple of months later I was hanging out with my friend Sam. He mentioned how much he, as a boy, LOVED it and that it was right up my alley. So we went and saw it, and Sam and his other friend Mike totally teared up and wouldn't admit it. The next time Pete was in town, we saw it. And Pete loved it. And I had forgotten about the free movie premiere with the TWO STARS and DIRECTOR...for awhile. And then I remembered and was really sad.

That's it.



The soundtrack from the movie is great. Glen Hasard and Marketa Irglova just work together so beautifully. As a duo, they call themselves The Swell Season. And they are in the process of releasing another album. And if you go here, on NPR's site, you can listen to some of their new stuff! It sounds so good.



This picture above is from when Hasard and Irglova won the Oscar for Best Original Song from a Movie, or whatever that Oscar is called. It was so sweet - you could tell they were just in awe. But then Hasard talked the whole time and played them off stage, and Jon Stewart brought Irglova back out so she could actually get a word in of acceptance speech. It was annoying (that they played her off) but so sweet that Jon Stewart helped her out.

And, as good measure, here's their award-winning song, "Falling Slowly", set to snippets of film from Once. If you like the look of this, you'll love the movie. You should go rent it now.

Reading and Writing Go Hand in Hand...

This been making its rounds around the blogs and kirtsy and all that.




But to me, it's perfection. I love reading AND writing, so...I rest my case.

If you're ever in need of English-y inspiration I suggest that you start here!

Size 14 Jeans.

When I was in high school, I was really, really skinny. Like, size 2 skinny. And it wasn't for any reason, either. A couple times a semester someone would saddle up to me, grab my arm, and get all close, saying, "Kaylen, are you bulimic/anorexic?" Every year. Without fail.

I never was. I never had any issues in that department. Anxiety and small bouts of depression, yes - but it rarely effected my eating. I love food and pretty much always have. I'm not picky when it comes to eating. It must have been my thyroid (or lack thereof).

Mom would see me in my swimsuit every summer when we were on vacation (whether it be at the beach or on a marathon vacation, in the swimming pools of the hotels) and say, "Oh Kaylen, you look so SKINNY I can see your ribs oh my gosh how did you get like that?" all in one breath. You know what I mean, right?

I had a tough time my senior year of high school. The boyfriend (at the time) was not being super nice to me, and we were finishing up high school and making choices about the futures and slowly saying goodbye to everything that we had been familiar with for the last four years.

So, I went back on Paxil. I had been on Paxil for a year, about four years earlier (for a big, stupid reason that I don't want to get into), and the anxiety was taking a toll on my life at school. I would get these horrible panic attacks and have to run out of anatomy class. Especially anatomy class. Who knows why.

So, Paxil. I started to gain a little bit of weight back - nothing substantial. Maybe 10 pounds. Once summer ended and freshmen year of college started, I looked pretty good. Skinny-ish, maybe a size 4 or so. But as college wore on, I ate more food and didn't really exercise at all. And the food I ate was dorm food, especially freshmen and sophomore year - freshmen were pretty much always eating in the cafeteria in the ground floor of the big freshmen dorm, and sophomore year, I was an RA in the freshmen dorm, so...I had free food there.

Throughout the whole thing, and really, ever since I was maybe in 10th grade, my mom has been harping on me for my weight. In high school it was because I was too skinny. In college and up until now, it was because I was too "fat". There was maybe a three or four-week period in which I wouldn't get disdaining looks or comments from mom. I've mentioned it a few times before on this blog. It's annoying.

Anyway. I vowed to NEVER be "one of those girls", the ones that get all worked up about certain sizes they wear and the ones that refuse to wear clothes with tags that are past a certain number. But...I kind of was. A month ago or so, Pete and I went shopping for clothes. Nothing special, just to look at the sales and try stuff on. There were some stores where I couldn't even fit into a size 16. And in short, I was mortified. MORTIFIED. After that fiasco I was cranky and didn't want to go back into another dressing for a long time.

I went to Old Navy a couple of days ago. I love Old Navy. Ever since I first went there back in the late 90s (I'm trying to make myself sound old, can you tell?) I have consistently found things I like there and their jeans are always my favorite jeans out of the ones I have in my dresser/closet. Anyway, my current size of jeans at Old Navy is a size 12. I mean, I can squeeze into size 12. It's not super comfortable. I get the dreaded "muffin top" from time to time but I usually just deal with it.

But I decided to try something new, and try on some size 14 jeans. And they are a little too big, but they're COMFORTABLE. I feel like I can move around in them. I can squat down to little-kid eye level (which is half of my job during the school year) without popping out of them. It's really, really nice to feel comfortable. And like I said, they're a bit big. I need a belt.

But unless you've done the same thing as me, I can't really describe to you how amazing it feels to be COMFORTABLE in my clothes. Even though the size is a little bit bigger than what I would like for it to be, I love how comfortable I am. And you know what? I think may be a bit more comfortable with my weight now.

Revelations at Borders

Last night I was at Borders. It had been a long day at work (which I feel bad calling work, because it's just babysitting two kids for 10ish hours a day). I was exhausted after watching them all week, all day long, and staying up late reading since I didn't get out of there until about 6 each night.

Anyways. I stayed extra late last night because of some sort of dentist emergency. After I finally got out of there I decided that I really, really had to go to Borders to use up my 40% off any boxed DVD set. So...I bought a season of Seinfeld and also...the 2nd season of Gossip Girl.

Get over it.

Anyway. The Borders I regularly frequent is on Brentwood Blvd, which is out in the counties of St. Louis. There's a huge mall nearby and a ton of strip malls, complete with a Container Store, Trader Joe's, Target, Whole Foods, etc...it's ridiculous. But I love going out there because everything I would need is there - food, organizational tools, food...everything.

So, I'm at Borders. I got the DVDs I wanted from the DVD section and then I wandered over to the next section, which is crafts. I read all the spines of the books, running my hands over them, looking at all the titles and the pictures of the covers. The next section was home decor, followed by DIY in the house, like woodworking and plumbing. Then there was the art section - ahhhh I love the art section.

I spent a good 45 minutes putting names of books into my phone to add to my amazon wishlist and wandering. I was sitting there thinking about why, why, WHY I didn't go into graphic design. Or interior design. Or...something like that. The closer I get to student teaching, the more I'm rethinking future plans. Teaching is such a respectable profession and sometimes I do look forward to it, but there are other moments where I wonder what I was ever thinking.

I feel like that's how a lot of people are, though - rethinking their decisions.

One thing I've always wanted to do, since high school, was open my own business. I took a great entrepreneurship course my junior year of high school and our big project was to create our own business. It could be anything we want. We had to create a business plan, complete with a list of items we would need to begin the business, promotional ideas, stuff like that. My project? Holly's drive-in. It was an old-fashioned drive-in movie theatre with a restaurant attached. I don't remember a lot of specifics but I had such a blast doing research about what types of machinery I would need for a restuarant, and things like how much start-up cash I would need, and stuff like that.

We had to drive around St. Louis and scout out where we would want our places to be built (it didn't matter whether or not the land was already occupied). I also loved doing that. I decided Holly's would be downtown.

So as I wandered through the bookshelves of all the pretty, colorful books, I was wondering: what should I do. And 16 hours later I still don't know.

Thoughts?


image credits:
1. gorax
2. alison catherine
3. notemily
4. mickey p

Cute Bridesmaid Idea.

Hmmm. I got cards for some of my bridesmaids when I asked them to be in my wedding. Others I just didn't want to wait any longer to ask, so I just...asked them.

But, I wish I had seen this before because I think it is just so cute and I want to do it. Maybe I will anyways?

Behold the cute:



If you ever want to look around a cute happy website about wedding stuff, I suggest Once Wed. It's my favorite wedding blog and everything seems to match my personality. I love it.

The Impossible Project

I'm a fan of Polaroid film. Pete got me a Polaroid camera for Valentine's day a couple years back and when I have a few extra dollars I buy some film at WalMart. Well, I guess that last part should be in past tense, SINCE THERE IS NO MORE FILM TO BE FOUND. It's so sad.



Production of Polaroid film halted in June 2008 and at that point, there were no plans for another company/subsidiary to pick up the pieces, so...nothing happened.

Until The Impossible Project showed up. These people really like Polaroid film and somehow they had enough money to lease (for 10 years) the entire factory where the film used to be produced. Oh, and also, all the equipment. In the Netherlands.

And so, by early 2010 there will be more Polaroid film! Also - Urban Outfitters is helping out. I'm still somewhat unclear about HOW they're helping out, but it's still pretty awesome.

Also, if you are so inclined, The Impossible Project is selling stuff that will all go directly towards their cause of getting Pola film back on the shelves. I especially like this shirt. It's called, "Without You I'm Nothing". Check out the rest of the stuff they sell here.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Pete is starting a new blog. Remember when he created daily cinema? Well, summer is over for him (he started school again this week) and daily cinema has unofficially ended.

He bought a book called The Magicians, at the request of his friend Matt Essner. I'm excited to read it, eventually, because he literally could NOT put it down. And honestly? Pete doesn't read all that much, so this was a big deal.

Anyways. The Magicians reminded him a lot of The Chronicles of Narnia - hence, his new blog. He plans on reading through all seven of the Chronicles book and recounting the chapters on the blog. He'll talk about what he thought of the reading, his memories of reading it in 5th and 6th grade, and stuff like that. I'm really proud of him for committing himself to another project.

So, about 10 minutes ago, he passed me the first book - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and told me to read the inscription. It's so sweet, I had to show/tell you.

"My dear Lucy,

I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old understand a word you say, but I shall still be

your affectionate Godfather,
C.S Lewis"

How amazing is that? Brought tears to my eyes.

Anyways. I'm excited to see what all Pete does with his blog. Keep an eye on it if you want! He's pretty funny.

Card Catalog.

Ever since I showed the lovely world my awesome card catalog, people are asking - where did you get it? How? That's so cool! (that last one isn't a question...)

Well, here's the four-one-one.

I got it from Millikin University's library. Sad - they're getting rid of their catalogs because really, they aren't being used anymore. However, not sad for me (and potentially any of YOU) because they are selling them for ONLY $100 !!!!!

They are amazing, wonderful things. I saw all ten of them when I picked mine up (apparently I was the first one that expressed interest). They're really sturdy and everything is in working order.

And there are FOUR LEFT. You should totally nab one of these. They are in Decatur, Illinois, which is about an hour and 45 minutes from St. Louis. Not a bad drive for an amazing piece of furniture.

If you're interested, send an email to Denise: ddgreen@mail.millikin.edu

Tell her you want one. Tell her you'll give her a nice, crisp $100 bill. And then revel in all that is your VERY own card catalog.

Well, it's official.

I started a blog. And wrote an introduction post.

I'm so, so, SO excited to get this project rolling. I'm planning on writing my first letter tomorrow sometime.

Wish me luck!

Three Columns - YES!

As you may be able to tell, I've done a little work around good ol' happy notions.

I've created three columns (I feel bad saying that I'VE created them. Really, I just followed a tutorial and it was magnificent). I updated the link list. I'm currently working on a new header, but it's nowhere near ready.

But keep an eye out.

Because it will be soon.

Craft Swap

Maggie of Magchunk is hosting an AWESOME craft swap. You should sign up - I just did!

If you've never done a swap before, it's super fun! You send in your address to the creator of said swap, and then a couple days (or weeks, whatever) they send you an address. Then you send a package of goodies off to the person whose address you've received!

For this particular swap, you have until MONDAY, AUGUST 24th, to sign up. Get emailing!

254.

The above number is the amount of contacts I have in my cell phone, currently.

I'm starting a new project. Over the course of my life (oh, it's so long, I'm so old...) I've found that it's really, really important to write. To journal, to write thank you notes, so on and so forth. And lately, I've really been wanting to acknowledge the people in my life that have influenced it to sway different ways, or have been helpful/knowledgeable in our pasts together.

So, hence the new project. I'm going to write a letter (write, yes, so handwritten) to every one of my phone contacts. I realize this is a big undertaking. I just counted and there are 254 contacts. Now, some of those contacts are double - like I have my dad's cell phone, plus my mom's cell phone, plus my sister's cell phone, plus our house number - so not all of them will be accounted for. But give or take, I would say that about 240ish letters will be written.

The goal is to write one a week. At first I thought about writing one a day, but come on, really? That won't happen.

There's also a twist: I'm going to post them all, on a separate blog. Example: Pete is obviously in my cell phone. So, when I get down to the "P" section, I will title the blog post something like, "Dear Pepe", when really, it's a letter to Pete.

Rosemary will become "Rhonda", etc.

The other blog is not set up yet. But it will be. I would like to start this week with my project.

So, here's what's going to happen: I will write the letter by hand, then type it into the blog. Then post it. Then postmark it, and then they will have a happy little something something to read.

I'm not going to lie, this is going to be a bit weird. I have all types of people/places in my phone, everyone from parents of the kids I babysit for, friends I have had falling-outs with, my alma mater, ex-boyfriends/flings, etc. But in general, I'm pretty excited to start this project.

[image via h.wren]

Ten Open Memos to People/Entities Who Do Stuff Right

1. Luvy Duvy's - today, with your spice cake, you made my life complete. Thank you. It was also nice that you (Rick?) gave Pete and I lots of extra chips and stuff. Totally made my day.

2. ReadyMade Magazine- at first I was disappointed when your last magazine (June/July) arrived in my mailbox and was so skinny. THEN, however, as I opened it, I realized that there were virtually no ads, meaning no wasted paper. And it made me SO happy. Can I say that I've been reading you since 2000 (yes, grade school - I was awesome), and you have always, ALWAYS put your best forward and made me feel complete? One of the consistently best magazines I have ever read. Props!

3. Wonder Hanger - thanks to you, I am able to hang things in my closet that is only 13 inches deep. These things do work, people. Buy some up!

4. Summer - you were busy. And hectic. And lots of stuff happened when you were around. But in all, you did good this year. I mean, I got engaged. THAT was pretty sweet.

5. Starbucks Employee at the Drive-Thru - I don't like coffee, but I liked that you talked to us when we were waiting for our drinks at the window. I was kind of blown away, actually. Usually drive-thru people are awkward and quiet, but you made me feel pretty comfortable. Thanks!

6. Any and All Farmers Markets - you rule. I love your produce and the majority of the people that you attract. I like seeing the kids and the dogs and the happiness of the vendors. In all, you're pretty fly.

7. Jason & Laura - you are amazing, wonderful people and you gotta get yourselves moved in up here. Seriously. Okay? We had too much fun last night.

8. Twitter - I heart you. We've been together for awhile now and I'm still fascinated by you and your tweets.

9. My Future Honeymoon - I am so excited for you. I told my mom today and SHE got so excited for you. Why are you 11 months away?!

10. My Future Husband - The other night there was a huge beetle crawling on the ceiling and I made him kill it. He didn't like it at first but he did it anyway. That's love!

Ten Open Memos to People or Entities Unlikely to Respond

Ridiculously stolen from Bridgett.

1. Bridal Stores - try to get receptionists that are not snooty. I'm nervous and excited and ready to try stuff on but right away you've got the receptionist, my FIRST impression of the place, being kind of annoying, looking at my shoes, and staring at me like I have three heads. Really? Could we maybe be a little bit more...oh, I don't know, NOT OBVIOUS? [This is really just one store in general, so far.]

2. Certain Moms with Kids - Ladies, I understand that it's hard to have children, keep track of them in big, loud public places, and teach them all the good stuff that they have to learn to be decent human beings - but really. 10 year-olds should not be pushing in front of little girls at a line in the Magic House. ESPECIALLY if you, their MOTHER, is standing right there, cheering him on to pull the big magic bubble ring over his head. I was disgusted. And unfortunately, there's more than one of you out there...

3. St. Louis Humidity - I'm sick of you already. Scram.

4. Kate, of Jon & Kate + 8 - I'm sick of you, too. I read a magazine article about how you hit your children. WITH PICTURES. Are you that silly? Really? You know that there are paparazzi around your house, like, ALL the time, and yet you smack your kids around. That made me angry. Also, it made me SO angry that I wasted $2.99 on a crappy star-stalker magazine (People or US Weekly or Star or whatever it was). And you have weird hair. And you should spend some time with your kids and stop lugging your cell phone around with you all the time.

5. Highway 40 - I loved you at one point. Please come back? All in one piece? I miss your speediness.

6. Masking Tape - you aren't holding my Polaroid pictures up very well. Every morning, I stumble out of bed, make my way into the living room, and always, ALWAYS, there is at least one picture that has fallen onto the ground. WHY? You're usually so good! You held heavy pieces of construction paper up on the walls of Gries, which are those weird spackle walls. You can't stay up on a smooth, painted surface?

7. Martha Stewart Magazine Subscription Services - figure it out: I've moved. I want to change my address. I've paid. I've sent my check in - then cancelled it and paid it online. PEOPLE MOVE. THESE THINGS HAPPEN. IT SHOULDN'T BE SO HARD.

8. People Who Hate Their Jobs - just because you're cranky does not mean you have to be cranky towards me. You chose your path. Deal with it. I bet it does suck working at a bank where thousands and thousands of dollars go through your hands everyday, but really? You don't have to be rude to me. Put on your big girl pants, smile, and do what you have to do to get through the day without angering someone.

9. To That Guy at the Fountain - you weirded me out. And I couldn't get a good read on you. I pride myself on getting good reads on people that I don't know. But you confused me and I didn't like it.

10. The Guy from Charter - I was so angry when you came to the apartment and "set up" our Internet - even though the Internet had already been up and running for two days. It also sucked when you came because you turned off the free cable we had been...borrowing. I was REALLY looking forward to living off the grid (kind of) and having free cable! Ugh. You ruined my week after that happened, seriously.

Hungry? You Should Probably Skip This Post.

No, it's not something I made this time.

I was reading Bakerella, (another site you should NEVER go to if you are):
a) extremely hungry
b) craving sweets
c) lucky enough to have a fully stocked pantry, consisting of unlimited sugar, vanilla extract, etc

and Bakerella linked to Cakespy, and Cakespy linked back to Cannelle et Vanille, which is a foodie site I followed in my bookmarks BEFORE the great-laptop-crash-during-finals-week-2009. ANYWAYS. Long story short, the writer/creator/genius behind Cannelle et Vanille has finished assembling her food styling portfolio - and may I say, everything looks delicious.



Her name is Aran Goyoaga, and you should look at her portfolio right now! (And maybe it would even be a good idea if you are hungry.)

All of the pictures have been taken from Cannelle et Vanille, because I have a Dell and have no clue how to take pictures from a flash website! But really, you should look at her portfolio...

A happy umbrella.

This umbrella has all my criteria:

1. It has stripes.
2. It has yellow - a heart, no less!
3. It has a hook handle.

However, it also has something that is not my criteria:

1. It is WAY expensive.

Some pictures of the apartment.

Not many. But here are a few.

A kitchen vignette (in the process of making zucchini bread a few weeks back)


A weird nook. I hung posters and a lantern.


And last, but not least: my beloved card catalog.

Umbrella Caddy Part 2

Whee! I finished it! I still need one thing - a pot bottom that you put inside of it to catch any run-off moisture - but it hasn't rained in St. Louis in awhile and really, I doubt I'll be using my umbrellie anytime soon.

I cut the big concrete pour-er thing in half. This part took awhile. I did what the directions on design*sponge said - make slits in the cardboard with the box-cutter. I also had an old, kind of icky little saw that I tried to use. It didn't work very well. However, in the comments section, someone said that a jigsaw works nicely.


Then, I cut out lots of raindrops.


Then, I used mod podge on the back of the raindrops and slapped 'em onto the cork!


And done. I like it! Every time I walk by it in the hallway, I think, "wow, that is WAY too cool to have in my apartment."

Some details:
1. I used a roll of cork from Home Depot. It was actually cork found in the contact paper section, and it had adhesive on the back of it! So much easier than gluing it all down.
2. I used a 10" concrete pillar, not a 12".
3. I had no contact paper, so the inside of the caddy isn't blue, like it is in the original project. Also, since I had no contact paper, I cut raindrops out of two blue pieces of construction paper.
And finally...
4. If YOU want to make a caddy, I have half of a concrete thing left! If you live in St. Louis it's YOURS. Right now it's sitting in my closet, missing its other half...

Umbrella Caddy

When Grace first featured this on Design*Sponge back in June, I saw and instantly fell in love.

I'm FINALLY making it today! Right as you read this, maybe!

I'll update later and tell you how it went. I hope it goes good.

Old Man Crush #2: Robin Williams

I met Robin Williams back in 2002. My family was taking a vacation through the Eastern part of the US - we started in St. Louis, then drove up to Cleveland, spent some time in Boston, went to New York City, and to Niagara Falls (both Canada and NY sides).

Anyway. We were in NYC for about 14 hours. We stayed somewhere out in Connecticut and then took the train in for the day and took it back out late at night. It was a pretty depressing day, at first. We started at Ellis Island and found our ancestors' names on the wall. Sad, depressing. Then we got stuck on the subway, underground, for a half hour. Boring and scary. Then we visited Ground Zero. Obviously that was sad.

We began walking towards Carnegie Hall. There was this great, famous sandwich place somewhere near there (I don't remember, but any readers who may know what I'm talking about, let me know).

We were waiting to cross the street when I heard a familiar voice. "DAD," I shrieked, whispering, "THAT'S MRS. DOUBTFIRE!" So we all started freaking out. My dad, the tourist, pulled out his old, chunky camcorder and started taping him from across the street. Finally, dad said, "you know what, we have to go say hi, or else we're going to regret it." So we awkwardly crossed the street and dad introduced us all to him.

He was SO nice. He shook all of our hands, asked us all for our names, and smiled and was just generally very sweet. It was awesome! And he looked so normal, just wearing a crappy baseball cap and carrying a beat-up suitcase.

But even before I met Robin Williams, I really, really loved him. My first memory of him was when he was Mork on Happy Days. Hysterical! Funnily enough, I never really watched Mork & Mindy when it was on Nick at Nite, but Happy Days was awesome. My next memory was Mrs. Doubtfire, which is really (in my opinion) one of the greatest movies EVER. He made me laugh and cry during that movie. Then, there was Dead Poets Society, and Jumanji, and the Aladdin movies, and The Birdcage, and Flubber, and Good Will Hunting, and Father's Day. They're all great, all funny, all smiley.

Unfortunately, I haven't really been a fan of any of his new movies. I saw License to Wed and really, really didn't like it. RV and Man of the Year both looked pretty...well, not great.

But those aren't the things that make me happy. I love how he makes different faces and voices. I could listen to him change characters over and over again, for hours at a time. He seems like he is a great dad and husband. Also, while reading his trivia page over at imdb.com, I saw that his classmates voted him "least likely to succeed". I LOVE LOVE LOVE when people are successful after all their stupid high school classmates voted them in the wrong direction.

Some other good things I read, and that made my heart smile:

Williams and Christopher Reeve were good friends until his death in 2004. After Reeve's accident, Williams went to this hospital where Reeve was, dressed in scrubs, wearing a surgical mask, and speaking in a Russian accent. He made Reeve laugh for the first time since the accident.

He ad-libs EVERYTHING. Apparently, when he first appeared in Happy Days, the writers left huge gaps of show-time, saying, "Mork can go off here...". While making The Birdcage, Mike Nichols, the director, required that Williams and Nathan Lane HAD to do each scene scripted, but then they could do several other takes ad-libbed. And apparently most of his dialogue in Aladdin is ad-libbed. SO COOL!

He was offered the role of Frank in Little Miss Sunshine (I think he would have been great!) but he turned it down. (Frank was played by Steve Carrell).

When James Lipton asked Williams what he would like God to say when he arrives in heaven, he responded with, "There is a seat for you in front", for the concert of Mozart and Elvis.

When he accepted the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Good Will Hunting, he said, "Most of all, I want to thank my father, up there, the man who when I said I wanted to be an actor, he said, 'Wonderful. Just have a back-up profession like welding.'"

August 10, 2009...

So weird. In exactly 11 months, I'll be getting married. Probably to the MOMENT.

It's weird. Could I say weird more? Probably not.

In the first two months that we've been engaged, we've gotten some things figured out. We each asked all of our attendants if they would do us the honor (the answers were all yes). We are only moments away from signing a contract with Windows on Washington, where our reception will be held. We've made a guest list. I have ideas for how I want the save-the-dates to look. We've asked the four flower-girls. We have a couple of churches in mind.

I've started running. My mom made a bratty comment about how "most women try to lose weight before their wedding" (seriously). I do want to lose a little bit of weight, so...hence the running. Now, when I say I've started running, I've only gone running three times. But I pushed myself and I've been trying.

I found a dress I really, really like - it's by designers Birnbaum & Bullock. Unfortunately, a) the closest place to even try it on is up in Chicago, and b) it's probably thousands and thousands of dollars (which is not what I want to spend on a dress I will wear once). It's short, and very classy, and really, it's just me. Sometimes I think I want a long, puffy dress, but I like being able to move around and kick my legs up and DANCE, so...this is a good option, for sure.



What do my readers think?

Bridgett gave me the name of a seamstress/dressmaker so has made her daughter's first communion dress. I mean, this dress is pretty simple. I'm going to email her the picture and ask her if she thinks she can do it, and for how much.

Image via martha stewart

Brad Pitt: My New Fave

Thanks to Megan over at Lovely Happenings, I had the privilege of reading this mini-article of an interview with Brad Pitt. Megan mentioned that she was sick of hearing all about Angelina and Brad and how they're always in the limelight, etc...but hearing what Mr. Pitt had to say makes me feel pretty good.

On when he’ll marry Angelina Jolie: “I have love in my life, a soul mate–absolutely. When someone asked me why Angie and I don’t get married, I replied, ‘Maybe we’ll get married when it’s legal for everyone else.’ I stand by that, although I took a lot of flak for saying it–hate mail from religious groups. I believe everyone should have the same rights. They say gay marriage ruins families and hurts kids. Well, I’ve had the privilege of seeing my gay friends being parents and watching their kids grow up in a loving environment.”

On the right to love: “It’s ridiculous that Prop 8 took away gay people’s right to marry! I have no understanding of that kind of hatred. Maybe it’s fear of difference or of the unknown. If you feel belittled, maybe you need someone else to belittle to feel powerful. It’s the only way I know how to explain it. You’ve got religion telling you what to think about homosexuality, about marriage. They say homosexuality is a choice, a lifestyle, something you can be cured of, and that isn’t true. But if you’re tucked away and have no friends who are gay, you’ll believe what the preachers say. Just think of it in terms of being in love–how would you feel if someone told you that you couldn’t be with the person you loved?”

On wanting the best for his children: “Would it bother me if a child of mine turns out to be gay? No, not one bit. Listen, I want my kids to live the lives they want to live. I want them to be fulfilled. I hope I teach my kids to be who they really are.”

From Parade Magazine

Also, he's aged well. I mean, still a cutie-pie. Gotta like that.