Hearts

Nothing says "happy February" like heart-shaped doughnuts from Krispy Kreme.



mmmmmmm.

Walt changes my mind(?)

I've never been a big fan of Walt Whitman- always thought he was a bit overhyped, like a small town, high school hero, but in the poetry world- but I'm taking a Poetry seminar this semester and we're going to be reading much of Leaves of Grass. I was kind of dreading that, but we read this portion of it in class last night, and it's been on my mind all day...

"Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mocking-bird’s throat, the musical shuttle,
Out of the Ninth-month midnight,
Over the sterile sands, and the fields beyond, where the child, leaving his bed, wander’d alone, bare-headed, barefoot,
Down from the shower’d halo,	5
Up from the mystic play of shadows, twining and twisting as if they were alive,
Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,
From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,
From your memories, sad brother—from the fitful risings and fallings I heard,
From under that yellow half-moon, late-risen, and swollen as if with tears,	10
From those beginning notes of sickness and love, there in the transparent mist,
From the thousand responses of my heart, never to cease,
From the myriad thence-arous’d words,
From the word stronger and more delicious than any,
From such, as now they start, the scene revisiting,	15
As a flock, twittering, rising, or overhead passing,
Borne hither—ere all eludes me, hurriedly,
A man—yet by these tears a little boy again,
Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves,
I, chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and hereafter,	20
Taking all hints to use them—but swiftly leaping beyond them,
A reminiscence sing."

-Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass

OC Filming

Exciting things are happening at The Gazette; the February issue is out, and I got to write an article on the History of Film in Orange County. I had so much fun! I met with the OC Film Commissioner, as well as a local director/producer who's been involved in the Newport Film Festival (this April marks the 11th Festival, by the way), and learned a ton about the richness of this county's film history.

Here's a little map I whipped up a couple days ago (click on it to make it bigger), that shows just a few of the many hot film spots across OC:


Read my article on The Gazette's website (be sure to check out the rest of the cool editorials included this month- Chris Poblete wrote a cool piece on welder/artist Michael Kalish, and Alexandra Baird wrote about local nonprofit Ronda's Dream Center, an innovative, up-and-coming center in Costa Mesa, among other neat contributions like a fashion column, a wine column, and more)

Happy Thursday everyone! :)

Pin Pals

{Pin Pals}

Cross-stitched buttons!



and pins!
and earings!

I'm such a sucker for cross-stitched anything. sigh.
Visit their etsy store or read about them on Readymade.com

A growing obsession

I grew up in Seattle, and you don't see a lot of succulents up in the good ol' Pacific Northwest. I'm finally coming to appreciate the whole desert plant family...



These beauties are for the public's enjoyment in the Laguna Design Center courtyard. I'll post photos of my own growing collection soon. I recently rewarded myself after a few months of hard work with a "donkey's tail" plant (looks like those long light green dangly ones above). God bless Armstrong Garden Center and it's year-long succulent sale!

On an unrelated note, I started up in school again, so my apologies if my posting becomes even more sporadic. I have to suffer through Critical Theory this semester. :/

The [magical] Glass Shop

I went to take pictures in a glass shop in my work complex a couple weeks ago, and ended up taking some extra ones just because I was so enchanted by the sun coming through the colored glass samples in the window.




the colors! the light! *sigh*

Currently loving

Urban Outfitters' 1940s inpired clothing:





They're offering free shipping through Monday (on orders over $75). Now, if only these things were a smidge cheaper... :S

Charlotte Gainsbourg
Classic, refined, & feminine

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
-Martin Luther King Jr.

it's the little things that make life sweet.

like self-serve frozen yogurt with J.



This was taken on our one year last June <3

Old Ford

If old cars ran more like new cars (or even like in-good-shape used cars), then old cars would be the cars for me. That probably made little sense, at least after the first read-through. You know what I mean though. Found this old van sitting on the street. I can daydream up a whole alternate reality where I drive all over the country in this puppy.

Breakfast with Sonya

I had Sonya come over on Saturday so I could make her a birthday breakfast since her b-day was on Friday. I sent up the picnic table outside and we had omelets and turkey sausage and loads of fruit, coffee, and mango juice. At least I had loads of all of it. mmmmm,

Living room friends

These guys have been living on the coffee table for a few months now. There's something really comforting about their quirkiness to me.

Details, details

Been taking more around-the-house pics lately. Thought I'd share these with you.


Indoor light is so different than outdoor....



(above is one of the homemade headbands that I kept for myself)

Crafty days

are the best days, I think.



...and usually not so tidy. This is after clean up.

Pushing Daisies

After countless recommendations, I finally checked out Pushing Daisies (sidenote: Netflix is my best friend).



The colors! The characters! The clothes!




There's really not much to say other than: watch it. Especially if you are a fan of Amelie. It reminds me a lot of Amelie, with it's popping colors and omniscient narrator.
The only thing is: I have yet to find a boy who enjoys the show. Jordan's not a fan, and his bro Adam kind of made fun of the show. I don't get it. :/
Ignore them- ignore all of us, for that matter- and decide for yourself.

Regarding Light and Subconsciousness

Sometimes when I'm driving home from work (or school, or Jordan's house), I sort of shift into auto-pilot, and don't think much about where I'm going. Then I'll get home and wonder how the heck I got home. I mean, I'm paying attention of course, and if someone starts to come into my lane or something, I snap out of it, but otherwise I'm sort of in the zone, thinking about something completely unrelated to driving.
This happened on my drive home from work yesterday, except my auto-pilot kind of failed me. I saw a big group of birds (swallows, maybe) flying overhead, and I had a series of thoughts:
You guys are a little late- winter started two weeks ago.

Maybe they're from Washington. In which case they're right on schedule.
How do they know where to go? Who's the leader?

As I was busy thinking about the maybe-swallows, I missed the freeway on-ramp. I was in the right lane (not the far right lane, but the next-to-the-right-lane right lane, where you have the option of going straight or getting on the freeway), but I just kept going straight. So I took the non-freeway route home, which always takes longer, and took me longer to meet Jordan for dinner. But it made me think about my auto-pilot and I started to wonder if our subconsciouses age.

On a completely unrelated note, later last night, Jordan and I found an old kerosene lantern in my grandma's kitchen and took a series of extended exposure shots.


kinda creepy, mostly cool.

Happy Friday, and to my dear friend Sonya, Happy Birthday!! :]

P.S. I Made This

Earlier this week I stumbled across a plethora of cool blogs- I feel like that happens only every so often; I'll find on ecool blog somehow, and then a whole chain of them, all connected to one another. This series was a bunch of crafty blogs, and I'm getting a lot of inspiration for future craft nights (or days).

For instance, on PS I Made This, there are tons of cool DIY ideas. Like this one for fun bubbly white bottles:

(click to enlarge)

Reminds me of those old bubbly glass lantern shades. Like this one:

This project would be a good way to accomplish this.

Giveaways...

I want to start doing some giveaways. I'll have to overcome my post-office-procrastination in order to do well with this, but ...stay tuned.

!!

Dressember Recap

or What I learned from a month of wearing only dresses:

1) Dressing up makes me feel good. The sort of "ready for life" good. I felt prepared for any professional or social occasion. I'll admit that my apparel was not as well suited for manual labor and/or domestic activities. Luckily, men exist for toilet repair (a necessary task at my residence last month), and I don't do chores (kidding. sort of).


2) Dresses are comfortable. I'm not the skin-tight-dress sort of wearing lass, so I found my flowy frocks quite freeing (and poetically inspiring, apparently).


3) Dresses are easy. It's a whole outfit, in one piece. What could be easier than that? Other one-piece outfits include: jumpsuits, rompers, leotards, and moo moos- all of which are arguably less fashionable than most dresses. I could even throw in overalls for good measure, but those aren't exactly on the hot list of fashion right now. Or ever, for that matter.


4) Dresses are warm enough for California Decembers. A dress + tights + a cardigan or light coat was my standby recipe for warmth during my month of dresses. I found it to be a satisfactory checklist.

5) Dresses are cute. Turns out most heterosexual men think dresses are attractive on women. My boyfriend loved my month of dresses, which kind of makes me a good girlfriend by default, don't you think?

Now, to be fair, I'll address the drawbacks of a month-long dress-sesh by discussing:

1) Pants are functional. Remember the manual labor and domestic duties I mentioned above? Well, in pants, you got it covered (literally). Need to fix a toilet? You're good to go. Provided you know how to fix a toilet.
Beyond plunging with gusto, I do not.

2) Pants are stress-free. Not that dresses are stressful, but you certainly don't have to worry about how you're sitting or whether your legs are crossed when you're wearing pants. That makes for a carefree day, if you ask me.

3) Pants are unisex. Guys have been buying girl pants lately, and I've known girls who buy mens' pants for years. If you're into equal opportunity, unity of the sexes, or tight/baggy jeans, this perk is on your side.

4) Pants give you another option. I'll admit it: I got tired of wearing dresses. I missed having the option of wearing pants if I wanted to. According to my boyfriend, I always had the option of wearing pants, but I disagree; when a girl makes a public declaration in the blogosphere that she intends to wear only dresses for a month, she does not have the option to wear pants, even on the sly. And I didn't. I promise.
You're going to have to take my word for it.

Read about the origins of Dressember.

Read this exact post on The Gazette blog.