Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Wooly Mammoth

I'm moving in approximately 2.5 weeks, and this weekend was in search of a place.  It was traumatic.  Found a place, and in the process gave a total stranger every piece of critical information she'd need to ruin my life if she wanted.  (At the end of the document/information demands, I couldn't conceive of a single other thing she could possible want, or need. Save my firstborn or a kindney.)

Clearly, this is a person who should've been on board managing loans during the mortgage bubble.  She called every reference.  She scrutinized.  She emailed and texted repeatedly requesting clarification and more information all while making barbed references to the credit and back round checks.  Squeaky clean past and excellent references won.  Move in can start this saturday.  There's three square planting boxes in the backyard, and the teeniest most badly set up kitchen ever.

In celebration, I bought this rug at a thrift store.  It's wool.  (Confirmed after setting some on fire.)  It's crazily patterned and in a delightfully retro combination of cream, brown, avacado and mustard.  It may be too big to fit in the biggest room in that new apartment.  I'm  pretty sure (due to the wisdom of the internets) that it is both vintage, and handmade. The middle is a bit worn but the outside is crazy plush.  Get excited for your new home, crazy rug.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Paddle Boarding

Ever tried paddle boarding?  It's like kayaking and surfing had a love child, and you, as the name suggests, paddle around on a board.  My roomie rented a pair locally and we took them to a quiet resevoir to cruise around last weekend, and I fell in love with it.  I started out kneeling or sitting cross-legged, and then got up the courage to stand and balance and row around.  It was the perfect way to quietly explore, sneak up on duck families, and get some water and sunshine without being to hot or too cold.

Later, I started pricing out boards and then decided maybe that investment wasn't in the cards. However, I did keep finding pictures of paddle board yoga classes, which made me laugh, because one of those activities isn't enough at a time.  Of course I want to get my own board and try it, though.  A core workout isn't quite the same without the threat of heading overboard, right?


Monday, March 5, 2012

Camera Update

Anyone remember the vintage camera I picked up a couple months ago?  I dutifully loaded it with film and carried it around in my purse and shot a whopping 48 shots (half frames, remember) over the course of my work days.  I finally wound it up, dropped it off at the only decent film processor in town and an hour later had in my hot little hands.......

.... a woefully disappointing roll of blank negatives, for a $2.13 processing fee.  Wah-wah.  Talk about a let down.  I was racking my brains, trying to decide if it leaked light or was loaded incorrectly, and I just don't know. Do I sacrifice a second roll of film to shoot a few shots and see if it was user error?  I was so confident in my little prize because of the abandoned roll of film inside, I just assumed that it was working. If it doesn't work, I don't have room to keep another beautiful retro camera purely for display.  (polaroids, I'm looking at you....)

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Computers

It's been radio silent over here for the last couple weeks, unintentionally, due to my laptop (a hand me down, replacing my real laptop over two years ago) kicking the bucket unexpectedly.  I did everything from my iphone since it's a mini laptop anyways, but was pretty sure that my spelling was going quickly downhill (typing....so....crampy......)

So, my boyfriend brought me his giant mac desktop and magic mouse and wireless keyboard and I've been re-learning how to run a different computer and quickly getting spoiled by it and it's enormous screen.  I was considering replacing the laptop with an ipad, but now I'm considering keeping this computer forever.  But I'll be in school again in the fall and will need some sort of portable computing/designing device for all my arty classes.

Anywho, the dearest hope to my impoverished little heart is that my boyfriends wonderfully nerdy roomate  can take either of the two dead laptops I threw into his lap and make one of them work.  (My much nicer one, pretty please.)  And then I won't have to buy any electronic devices, even the incredibly attractive ipad one.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Moonrise Kingdom

I've been a fan of the kooky and heavily stylized films of Wes Anderson for ages.  It's about time a new one came out.  Giddily waiting for May 25.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Tomgirl Style

from here
Since the great closet reorganization, I've been really trying to hone in on what clothes I need and what clothes I'll really wear.  I've been immersing myself in style blogs and tumblrs and pinterest, trying to pinpoint what I like.  I've been building a rational list of closet holes (black blazer, casual but crisp everyday button downs) and trying to only shop for things that are well-made, perfectly fitting and classic.  (no more old navy clearance rack impulse purchases!)

from here
I've dubbed my new style inspiration "tom-girl' because I want my closet to be clean, classic-lined menswear, but with a kicky girly twist.  I think the trick is cute girl hair, casual makeup, sweet shoes, and an ever-ready swipe of bright lipstick, to keep it from feeling too, uh, manly.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Zuppa Toscana Knockoff

Saturday's dinner plans got cancelled due to a suspected case of strep throat and a death in the family, so we stayed in instead and convalesced.  You want to make a sore throat feel better?  My advice for you is spicy sausagey soup, like this Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana knockoff.   We used masses of spinach and beef broth and half & half and I added carrots, turned out really delicious.   Like most soups, a really adaptable recipe and usually better the next day.