Posts from — March 2010

It’s time for a brand spankin’ new Sunday ritual— The Love List. It’s a collection of the things I’m totally loving this past week. And, of course, you can get in on it too. What have you been loving this week? Leave the good stuff in the comments.

1. These shells remind me of summers spent on the shores of Long Island. I could walk for miles along the coast, on a mission to find the most beautiful shells for my collection. Yes, I’m still totally obsessed with A Collection A Day.

A Collection a Day: #86  Seashells

2. Jamie of From Me To You (an amazingly gorgeous tumblr blog) dishes out the recipe for some fantastic Tacos al Carbon, Homemade Tortillas, & Fresh Roasted Salsa. Get in my mouth, you beautiful food.

3. Younicorn Me turns anyone with an iphone and a minute or two into a UNICORN. I discovered this last night. I was, in a word, overjoyed. Totally worth the 99 cents. I think I make a very majestic unicorn:

my unihorn brings all the boys to the yard.

4. And since we’re on the topic of unicorns, I’ve got something even more magical to share with you: Robot Unicorn Attack! This game is presented to you with the highest recommendation: the Oak Owl Crest of Magnificence.

That title sounds so awesome, I just might need to make a graphic for it.

I must say, Robot Unicorn Attack! is absolutely thrilling. The premise: you are a robot unicorn. In the style of super mario world, you are moving forward throughout the game, leaping (or even double leaping!) from rock to rock. When you leap, you leave a beautiful, sparkling rainbow trail. Your objective is to collect rainbow butterflies with your leaping skills, and impail huge metallic stars blocking your path with your magical unihorn. Or else you crash and burn in a very big, robotic way. If for nothing else, please try this game for the sound effects and theme music. Absolutely magical.

5. My new purple sneakers are totally awesome.

6. This song is looping in my headphones all week. The accompanying video is very pretty, as well. It’s not the official music video or anything, but it is a beautiful collection of slow-moving nature clips.

On a completely unrelated topic, I dreamed of Samuel L. Jackson as his character in Pulp Fiction. The Crest of Magnificence should go to my brain this morning. I actually imagined up extra scenes to the movie, in which Jules Winnfield tours the local burger facilities in hopes of finding “a tastier burger”. Yep. Thanks brain, for leaving me completely puzzled (and a little bit hungry) upon my awakening.

1. a beautiful mind, 2. dark horse, 3. mirrors for the sun, 4. bagel at bergen, 5. st. patrick’s day cupcakes, 6. sweet tooth, 7. goddess of the koi pond, 8. dreams of school, 9. one owl, two owl…

I call it a retreat because that is exactly what I did. I retreated from the hectic and ever-busy Miami. I climbed into my big blue bed and had long sleeps. I spent some quality time with my couch that swallows one whole. Have I ever explained my couch? It’s like a big, fluffy brown beast. Sometimes, I think I can feel it breathing ever so gently, as if it has been hibernating in a deep sleep for months.

I went to see Alice in Wonderland, which was the biggest retreat of all— being thrown down the rabbit hole for an hour pair certainly did the trick.

I think I’ve just passed through an Escapism stage in my life.

That’s not to say things were particularly bad. I just felt like running away to someplace comfortable for a while. And oh did I get comfortable. It was practically a SARKtastic pajama party.

And I whipped out my SX-70 for some serious playtime.

Speaking of Polaroids, have you heard the news?! The Impossible Project has brought Polaroids back to juicy life! They have two new films: Px 100 and Px 600, which can be fed to SX-70 cameras and 600-type cameras. These films go on sale this Thursday. Cha-ching! Sign me up for the inaugural batch.

That was certainly the cherry on the cake for my spring break. Without further ado, here be the top hits list from my adventures:

{ taken by the lovely chelsea olson }

best of spring break: retreat style

1. my big blue bed.
2. my fluffy beast couch.
3. waking up to birds greeting the spring through my open window.
4. baking st. patty’s day cupcakes.
5. visiting the horse stables.
6. walking around on the first beautiful day of Spring. My cheeks turned a little pink from the Sun.
7. playing loud music in my car with friends & windows down. all the way down.
8. cooking leek & potato soup. always a comfort.
9. Alice in Wonderland. of course I saw it in Imax 3d.
10. taking polaroids around the neighborhood.
11. family dinner at a lovely local restaurant.
12. crazy winds to keep me inside and cuddled up.
13. hosting a dear friend for that crazy stormy weekend.
14. finding some brand new purple shoes!
15. teaching a young (and totally awesome) horse-loving girl how to take photographs of her favorite horses
16. meeting a fabulous thrift store collector of the stars, Marion the Magnificent.
17. pleasure reading and warm baths

Overall, totally relaxing and much needed break. And so I welcome the he arrival of April, my last month of school work down in Miami.

Bring.

It.

On.

It’s time for a brand spankin’ new Sunday ritual— The Love List. It’s a collection of the things I’m totally loving this past week. And, of course, you can get in on it too. What have you been loving this week? Leave the good stuff in the comments.

1. It’s official, I am completely obsessed with Lisa Congdon’s A Collection a Day. Each day, my RSS feed gets a little gift delivered to me in the form of quirky, charming collections. Some of my favorites from her Collection project:

vintage plastic figurines

vintage boy scout cards

2.  Amanda from the lovely blog Mocking Bird talks about the creative bliss that comes with a lost afternoon. Slowing down and taking a creative break (I prefer mine along with some tea and chocolate) is a very important, nurturing ritual that everyone should infuse into their weekends. Amanda talks about taking time to create, just for her. That’s something I can totally get behind.

3. This totally HOT bedroom decor:

The black hardware, circle swirl designs, all against that turquoise… what a sexy design! Thank you laced.candy for a most excellent eye for style.

4. Everyone should be downloading their own free copy of Lianne Raymond’s crazy beautiful compilation e-book, What is Dying to Be Born? This is an absolute gem, filled with creative inspiration to go forth and be awesome. As Lianne says, “It is a celebration of the imagination and vision of women.  The ideas in this book are important and my dream is that they will be shared widely and freely, with love, so that they can make a difference.”

5.  All credit goes to my sister for this one. This is quite simply THE trailer for Every Oscar-Winning Movie Ever. And it’s hilarious.

This should have been done on Sunday, but it’s going up on a Tuesday. I adjust for weekend sickness (dude, it sucked).  Hope you have a t-t-terrific Tuesday!

Spring Break is upon us! I checked out a couple days early and flew on home for the middle of March. I’m happily lounging around on the big island until March 21st. This is an excellent thing.

I get to break out the sweaters and boots once more, which have been waiting patiently for me to return from the Miami heat. Tomorrow night, I get to hang out with my local Audubon chapter at the Woodcock Watch in my park, AND go to see Alice in Wonderland (obviously in IMAX 3d) with my mom. I don’t know if my Friday can get any more bad-ass than it already is.

I’ll be certain to share the tons of photos I plan on taking this break. And hopefully introduce a new member to my happily little camera family. (It came with a zoom lens and horseshoe flash attachment!) To be honest, I just wanted to stop by and hang out on my blog for a little bit. Now, back to Kitchen Nightmares with Sir Gordon Ramsay. And a little ice cream.

It’s time for a brand spankin’ new Sunday ritual— The Love List. It’s a collection of the things I’m totally loving this past week. And, of course, you can get in on it too. What have you been loving this week? Leave the good stuff in the comments.

Jenny Blake’s blog post on Empty Spaces & Moving Past Loneliness offers an honest look at the empty spaces that show up in our days, and what we can do about them. Jenny is a terrific writer. This post was something I really needed to read, since I’m working on my own empty spaces in the downtime that comes with a long distance relationship.

This excellent song: So Aware by John Brown’s Body.

BBC’s got a hold of an epic humpback whale battle, filmed while 40 ton male whales duke it out for mating rights. Whales are awesome creatures to begin with, but witnessing the sheer mass and power makes this video extra awesome. In a word, epic.

The card art on Papaya! is gorgeous. I’m really loving this “Eat Cake Bitches” art card. Just waiting for some spare cash to find it’s way into my bank account. Then I’m totally splurging on at least five of these beautiful cards.

Kevin Bauman’s collection of 100 abandoned houses as haunting and beautiful, all at the same time. Bauman captures the dense emotion of forgotten homes across the United States.

This:

spring in hiding by amalia chimera

The colors & tones possible with expired polaroid film are truly incredible.

What are you loving right now?

here comes the sun

—the Sun. it will rise each morning, no matter what.

—a nice pb&j sandwich on wheat bread.

—my sneakers. they’ll carry me wherever I go.

—itunes shuffle

—Ina Garten, barefoot contessa

—my Nikon D40

—my brilliant friends & their music

—the coast

—cadbury chocolate

—funky nail polish

—birds may leave for a while, but will always come back.

—knowing I am loved

—a good book and some warm tea

—a hot bath

—coming home

sasha, posing at home. we tend to share broody moods on occasion.

Only one week to go. Deep breath.

Schoolwork is the pits, man. Sometimes I rise to the surface of the flashcard sea for a quick breather. But, of course, the semester system is scheduled to take a shit on you right before you’re actually about to enjoy yourself. Before Christmas, you get to kick and scream your way through the hell of “Finals”. Before Spring break, you’re gifted five billion Midterm exams. Thanks, education system. It’s totally a great idea to demand intricate reiterations of textbook reading. Just throw some guy with a degree in the front of the room for an hour with a projector. You know, for shits and gigs. He’ll talk for a while, press a couple buttons to change slides. We’ll nod in faux agreement as our eyes glaze over from the horror of our boredom.

Sometimes I let my eyes glaze over.

Most of the time I’m on flickr browsing gorgeous photos.

And when Midterms roll around…

I’m making a list of fun for Spring Break!

Here’s some bits & pieces I’ve got planned:
— bagels & jones beach mornings
—cookie baking (or maybe even cupcakes.) okay. definitely cupcakes.
—panera bread afternoons. especially broccoli cheddar soup. mmm!
—dinner at milk & sugar, one of my favorite cozy town restaurants.
—bookstore lollygagging, and shameless book purchasing.
—slumber party, probably involving gushy chick flicks and wine.
—city trip, because NYC and I have missed each other.
—movie night (do I see an Avatar repeat?)
—lots of photos. as usual. this time I’m bringing my SX-70 home!
—coffee dates at indie spots. I’m actively trying to avoid Starbucks.

One of the lovely things about coming home is the wining & dining I get to enjoy with my family. We are a family of Taureans, after all. We love our creature comforts.