Secret Society of List Addicts

Have you seen this website? It's brilliant. Combines my love of lists AND fun things...

some of my favorite topics that I have contributed to...

1. Guilty Pleasures

2. Best Album Titles Ever

3. Various Things I Want to Make

4. Ridiculous Things I Do With my Significant Other

Here is the man that I am in love with

I know, it's kind of disgusting. I need to get over it.

Heeee!

I'm just sorta kinda maybe a little bit in love with him.

But this is nice, too

[ffffound]

Holy Moley!

This is only the best thing I've seen all day...

[via ffffound]

Living Etc.

So Living Etc. is this fabulous British magazine that I've read about, and seen in stores like Left Bank and Borders for some time now. The thing is, since it's British, each magazine is $8.50 here in the US of A. But today, after a leisurely lunch at Companion (while it seems like I go there a lot, it's not true) Pete and I wandered down to Left Bank (again, I'm really not there too often) and I just bit the bullet and bought both the January 2009 and February 2009 issues.

I haven't had a chance to look at them yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be uber-inspired and want to get an uber-expensive subscription to them. SO DON'T LET ME.


[via madebygirl & living etc]

Days with Snow

I skipped a class and Pete had the day off, so we did something we've been wanting to do ever since we had been there for the first time together - go to the Missouri Botanical Gardens when there is snow on the ground.

And. It. Was. Gorgeous.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our day.






I didn't do much else over the last couple days - I actually had class (boooo!). But I did start a new book, called Who's Your City. It's all about globalization and why people choose to live where they live. Very interesting.

La Balon Rouge

Quite possibly one of my favorite movie clips of all time. Last Christmas, the Tivoli showed this movie, along with another one by the same director called The White Mane, and me and my momma went. It was beautiful and just as magical as I remembered from when I was younger.

Genius

iTunes is fantastic. I was a little late jumping on the bandwagon...meaning, iTunes on my super-slow computer really did not like this whole "let's download a new application" thing...and it took THREE TRIES.

But I can't complain. Because it is AMAZING. So, I began with "A Sunday Smile" by Beirut, and here is the playlist it came up with (it's soooo good and perfect for blogging/snow-falling/painting):

1. A Sunday Smile - Beirut
2. Knife - Grizzly Bear
3. Ragged Wood - Fleet Foxes
4. Challengers - New Pornographers
5. Nothing Changes Around Here - the Thrills
6. Middle Distance Runner - Sea Wolf
7. The Last Beat of My Heart - DeVotchKa
8. The Gulag Orkestar - Beirut
9. Chinese Translation - M.Ward
10. Rainbowarriors - CoCo Rosie
11. Kicking the Heart Out - Rogue Wave
12. Fiery Crash - Andrew Bird
13. Your Arms Around Me - Jens Lekman
14. Objects of My Affection - Peter, Bjorn & John
15. White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
16. John Wayne Gacy, Jr - Sufjan Stevens
17. I Think I Need a New Heart - Magnetic Fields
18. Suffer for Fashion - Of Montreal
19. Guymas Sonora - Beirut
20. Love's Lost Guarantee - Rogue Wave
21. Easier - Grizzly Bear
22. Heart it Races - Architecture in Helsinki
23. Plasticities - Andrew Bird
24. Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car - Iron & Wine
25. The Opposite of Hallelujah - Jens Lekman

Soooooo good. I highly recommend all of these bands. If you are so interested, let me know and I can send some good tunes your way.

(PS: For all the song links, if you want to listen to them on the page they are linked to, down on the verrry bottom of the screen, towards where your "start" bar is - there's a small play button. Hit that and you are GOLDEN.)

(photo via here)

Wouldn't it be nice...

...to dress up like Wednesday Addams for a day?

Well, cherry blossom girl did. I'm enjoying this look. Very Marcy (my roommate).

Colorful Snow

This picture is gorgeous, found at Sweet & Low...


Thanks for the pretties, Megan!

Please Excuse the Mess

I'm currently wanting a fancier blog. Or a blog that just isn't so...pink.

So, excuse my progress! Someday, hopefully soon, this will look halfway decent again, but as of now, I'm trying lots of different things out. I apologize if you come to this page and see no header, or the columns are out of whack. I am a novice when it comes to writing HTML...

That reminds me. Anyone out there that doesn't feel like they are going to chop of their feet when attempting to code? If so, help would be loved.

(via here)

Your Personal Moon

Yes please. These pictures are GORGEOUS.



from here, who found them here

RIP, dreams...

So remember when I wanted to buy those gorgeous Hunter Boots?

I went back to the store yesterday. ALL the boots were on sale in the store, at 50% off, EXCEPT the ones I wanted.

I was pretty sad...

Hunter Boots

So. I really want them. And I decided this year that I am going to start working out, start losing some weight, etc. Just generally eat healthier and get into shape. So, behind every good resolution and promise is a bribing tool, right? In my case, I created one for every month:

January - Hunter Wellies
February - printouts of all my pictures from snapfish
March - this beautiful poster
April - Birkenstock clogs
May - Northface Jacket
June - Chicago poster
July - this cupcake bowl and this perfume
August - lovely organic woven blanket
September - for like EVER poster
October - floor lamp
November - something from Three Potato Four, under $50
December - nothing. Spend money on Christmas presents!

Now, Hunter Wellies usually go for about $115, I think. But when Rosemary and I were out and about the other day, there was a boutique in the CWE that had a 50% off all boots in store...and HUNTER BOOTS ARE THERE.

So here's my conundrum: No, I have not lost weight. I have not even started working out. HOWEVER, I have been eating pretty healthy. Sweets from time to time, yes, but I am watching what I put into my mouth. If I have a piece of cake tonight, I will not be eating a Rice Krispy treat for breakfast in the morning...you know, that kind of thing.

So should I get the boots? I mean, I couldn't even get boots for $57 on eBay, or a discount shoe place, so I might as well, right? Maybe I will get them and cut out my "reward" for February? ARGH I DON'T KNOW HELP ME INTERNET!




please?

Me and My Crafty Goodness

Okay, so I was just so lucky as to be able to have coffee/cupcakes with the lovely Rosemary yesterday. We started out at Companion (which has DELICIOUS quiche in the morning, I highly recommend it) and then window-shopped around the West End for quite a bit. We went into some ADORABLE stores. I don't remember the names of all of them but Cassie's and Left Bank Books were a definite.

Cassie's is a cute little boutique on Euclid that has all kinds of fun stuff, but their main schtick is creating custom-made fragrances. They have all these teeny bottles of scents, and you can mix and match them however you want to create the ultimate YOU fragrance. I should also mention that they have many "knock-off" designer fragrances, like Chanel No. 5 and Dior, etc...so, you could go there and get 2 oz. of Chanel No. 5 for $20, as opposed to the $260 1 oz bottle of fragrance at Macys.com. So, they kind of win. I decided that mum and pops will be treating me to a BRAND NEW PRETTY SMELL for my birthday.

Left Bank was great, too. I've been there tons of time but it was so much fun being there with someone else who just wanted to LOOK at things, and not necessarily buy. When I go with Pete he likes to get in, get out...and not really browse. We looked at poetry and cookbooks and art books and I didn't spend a penny! It was pretty great.

ANYWAYS. The whole meaning of those post has to do with the fact that while at Left Banks, Rosemary pointed out a book to me: Born Again Vintage, by Bridgett Artise & Jen Karetnick. It. Is. Perfect. The entire thing is about picking up two (or more) random pieces of clothing at a thrift shop, like Salvation Army or St. Vincent de Paul, and sewing them together to create a lovely hipster dress, blouse, legwarmers, etc. In short, it's genius. And I want it.

So I'm sitting there thinking, wow. Seriously? Me, getting another craft book? I was thinking about all the craft books that are sitting on my bookshelf right now: ReadyMade: How to Make [Almost] Anything; D.I.Y., Design it Yourself; and Handmade Modern, just to name a few. I was so excited to buy each of them! I ran home and went through the whole thing, bookmarking up a storm and imagining where each thing I LOVED would be in my future home.

But guess how many projects I have done so far? ZERO. ZERO ZERO ZERO. And so with this fabulous new book in my hands, I thought, "What will I do with all these crafty wonderful lovely books? They just sit on my shelf and do nothing." And then my mind went into the sad thought of giving all these books away when I'm 80 and I can hardly walk, or making my kids pack them into boxes and they sit in a storage closet somewhere. And what will I have to show for my years of buying crafty books? NOTHING."

So, while somewhat morbid, I've been crafty all day. I pulled apart an old phone to create a rolodex, soon to be filled with tons of phone numbers (when Pete asked why I would waste my time doing this, as all my numbers are in my cell phone, I didn't know what to say). I FINALLY put my Ikea frame to good use. It looks like this:

I finally tracked down some REAL corkboard, at my local Hobby Lobby, cut it to size, and am turning it into a bulletin board. It's in, but I'm also going to spray paint the whole thing white tomorrow, when I'm not stuck in a small apartment for the evening. It's going to be aweeeesome. I'm going to make it my 'inspiration board', where I tack everything up that inspires me. Yes, I am quite excited.

ALSO, exciting news! I got the last things needed to start using my GOCCO! The bulbs came in two days ago. So now I have to get a design ready, and put on my big girl face because I am so afraid I'm going to mess up and ruin an expensive screen or bulb. But I guess trial and error is pretty important.

So, because of my little realization in Left Bank, I am on a craft kick. I have a decent amount of free time throughout the days this semester, so keep an eye here for fun craft projects! I don't have my camera or else I would document right now...