Speaking of weird and quirky art: Wilhelm Staehle, everyone.
You know you've lived in Florida too long when you look at the pictures in this article and wonder: "How is that weird?"
Woe is you—you've accidentally befriended (or worse, started dating) an artsy type. Never fear! Just for you, I've compiled this versatile list so that you don't get crushed by the incredible weight of your own boredom. How to Enjoy an Art Museum (for the utterly bored)!
I'm pretty sure this pamphlet is supposed to make me dislike the Girl Scouts and all it did was make me look up where I can buy more cookies and how I can become an assistant troupe leader.
January 24th Ingrid Michaelson's new CD releases! And everyday until then she is releasing clips of songs off the album entitled Human Again. I can't wait!!
Miracle taste changing berry used to help cancer patients eat better? For once it seems Florida got something right!
My sweet and fashion savvy friend Courtney is living the dream right now! Move to Seattle, open a super cute Etsy shop and start an equally wonderful blog!
Time Magazine's person of the year: The Protestor. This photo montage, complete with individual stories from around the world is touching, gut wrenching and all around beautiful. All social change comes from the passion of individuals.
Oh and while we're talking about obsessions, I am in love with this book. And if the description didn't spark your interest, how about this picture of Penny cuddling with said book?
Sometimes, no matter how well you plan a day, they manage to go to crap anyways. Mean bosses, people with stank attitudes and unsupportive friends topped off with an early morning trip to the OBGYN is definitely not the making of a stellar day off work. So tonight it's time to wind down and remind myself why the world is still an awesome place!
The Glee Christmas special airs tonight! Yup, I'm a Gleek.
Curve-a-licious bodacious women who's style sense makes me want to gain a little more junk in my trunk!
Inventing my own variation of Spiced Chai Tea Cupcakes.
...with my brand new mixer that I have used everyday since it came in the mail!
Starting to redesign my layout (sit tight, I know you'll love it!).
And most importantly, helping others with their problems.
Have you ever been to the wonderful website Emotional Bag Check? It's a fantastic website powered by Grooveshark that lets you opt to either 'Check' your bags or 'Carry' someone else's. Select 'Check It' and the site will ask for your (completely anonymous) e-mail address and then ask you to let out what's eating you up inside. After about 10 minutes you will start receiving some of the kindest words you ever thought possible from complete strangers who offer a song to fit the mood and some advice on what's bothering you.
Or, you can choose to 'Carry It' and the emotional bag check will let you send a song and an anonymous response to someone who has a problem. Either way, if you are ever feeling down on the world and want to restore your faith a bit in humanity, this site is the perfect place to waste 10 or 20 minutes. That and you get a pretty neat collection of music out of it!
This is all music I have either sent or received myself.
I've been such a bad blogger the past few days guys... Forgive me? But between finals, fighting a seemingly loosing battle to still graduate next semester (Surprise! You need one more class! Second surprise! It's not offered again till Fall 2012!) and wrangling a puppy has me at my wits ends and I just can't wait for this week to be over. I should have thought about this ahead of time and did a call for guest posters. We'll just file that idea away in the For-Next-Semester category for now!
So tonight I'm taking a break, blogging, having a glass of wine and making baked mac and cheese. More studying can wait until tomorrow, my sanity however, cannot. I didn't have the free time to pull together a true top ten Tuesday so how about this time we go for a few less links and a few more puppy pictures?
I want to be friends with the blog lady over at Vintch just in hopes that hear heart is as lovely as her writing.
2. The other day Nick and I watched this amazing documentary called Life In A Day. Compiled from over 80,000 hours worth of video submitted from over 120 countries all over the world from a single day.
First of all, sorry for dropping off the blog-o-sphere. This week and last weekend were rough to say the least and school felt the need to hand my ass to me on a silver platter. But! 4 days of little to no sleep and 27 research paper pages later, I'm back! And exhausted.
An amazing and beautifully written article about what real love is like. Because, sometimes the romances worthy of poetry, aren't the loves that last a lifetime.
The Perfect Bucket List. A community based project of all the things people want to do before they die! Really cool and very inspiring!
You asked for pictures of Florence, so I dug a few up! I'll do a full post on the experience when school slows down a bit, so be on the look out and for now, enjoy these!
This week I've decided to mix up the Top 10 and make a list of my favorite moments from my first weekend as a 25 year old! Hopefully you love it as much as I did!
1. Flowers on Friday from the best boyfriend ever!
2. Birthday cards from my amazing family that I miss oh so much.
3. How cool is this present!? Nick got me a handmade large format pinhole camera! Rob Kauzlarich not only made a gorgeous camera that I can't wait to use, but he also included a detailed list of instructions on how to use his creation with an open invite to e-mail him questions! What a guy!! Did I mention the camera is made out of a drawer?!
4. This song started playing right as the clock struck midnight. It felt like a good sign for the next year of my life :-)
5. A night out on the town with my bestie and her AWESOME new boyfriend!
6. This amazing birthday card Halley (friend and fantastic sponsor from The Life of Something New) sent me! I giggled my butt off when I opened this e-mail, thank you Halley!!!
7. CAKE POP MAKER!!!
8. This amazing stop-stressing-over-school-and-have-a-fun-birthday package I got from my best of best friends who recently moved all the way to Mississippi (sad face..)
9. The best "birthday cake" ever!!
10. As luck would have it, my birthday landed on a time change which means that my 25th birthday is 25 hours long. Odd, but awesome, turn of events!
1. Guess who just ordered a Book of Adam portrait!? If you haven't seen his work or blog both are hilarious.
We tried to pick out an equally goofy family portrait to send and the final choice landed on this one:
I am so excited to see what he does with it!
2. White crackle polish on silver sparkle nails.
3. The new Tory Burch bags… swoon worthy for sure.
4. Thai tea… mmmmmmm… Nothing can give me a faster pick me up on a bad day than this stuff. Nothing. I really should try making it myself since I found this recipe.
5. Graduation is a go. Class of 2012 here I come!
6. I am so unbelievably behind the times on this one, it's borderline embarrassing. I finally got and started using Twitter!
7. Vintage Winnie The Pooh prints found at none other than Goodwill! Thrift store gold!
8. Tara over at Deer in a Bottle is simply a genius. Anyone that knows me personally, look for one of these in the mail over Christmas. Anyone that doesn't, get on over to her blog and check out this fabulous (and simple) gift idea!
9. Animus by Seonna Hong. A strange but beautiful pop-up book I snagged from an art gallery in Portland. It's an adorable book with an artsy flare and a fantastic message. I want to hang onto it just to make sure I have it around when I have kids of my own.
10. Attack The Block. Strong language, gratuitous violence and one of the best and most original alien flicks I've seen in years!
Color it Mia has me so reminiscent of my summer in Italy. She has a real knack for expressing the good, the bad and the beautiful of being so far away from home but in such a wonderful place.
I must have been living under a rock for the last week or so because I only started reading about Occupy Wall Street about 2 days ago. I am now fascinated and want to break my vow of never having a Twitter account. @vivalarevolution anyone?
I recently re-discovered one of my first blog world loves, Una Bella Vita. And of course, what's the most recent post? Rome, and many many gorgeous pictures of it.
1.This simple but poignant anti-bullfighting poster.
2. Once upon a time in a crappy night club in downtown Orlando Florida, a boy and a girl met. Two years later one of the other girls in the photo, e-mailed me this picture that I didn't even know existed!
5. After I got back from Italy, I e-mailed my mom a few of my photos and she created these fantastic watercolors out of them! Go check out her Etsy page!
8. Making my very first diabetic friendly Peach Cobbler and then having it completely eaten in less than 10 minutes. I take it I did a good job?
9. And pretty much every other Google Chrome commercial. Seriously! Go watch!
10. Breaking Bad. Is it possible to be physically addicted to a television show? Because Nick and I started watching Saturday and as of last night are well into season 2. I think I need help, guys.
You may want to mentally prepare yourself for this and possibly grab a box of tissues. StoryCorps is an organization that interviews ordinary people with amazing life stories and turns them into animations. This particular one is about Brooklyn natives, Danny and Annie, who have been lovingly married for 27 years. The story recounts everything from their first date to daily love letters throughout their marriage and finally when they are forced to part ways when Danny contracts terminal cancer. It's heartfelt, beautiful and secretly what everyone probably wants their life to be like.
2. On a lighter note... It's pumpkin season!!!
Beer and pie and lattes and muffins and... and.. It's too early in the morning for me to be getting this excited.
3. Honey Milk Tea
Recently, I have been trying for the first time things that most people have known where amazing all their lives. Pastrami, food trucks and the flavor filled combination of milk and honey. Who knew!? If you haven't tried any of those things, I highly recommend them all!
If you're a Pinterest addict like myself, I'm sure you've seen these countless time. Now, if you also happen to be poor like I am, you have probably tried to make one of these yourself and subsequently discovered it's one of those things that is WAY harder than it looks. This builder is bit tricky because you have to get the number of letters and spacing right, but other than that, it is infinitely more simple than trying to make one of these bad boys in photoshop.
I may fancy myself an ok graphic designer but the truth is, I suck. And most of the graphics on the blog are a result of me getting frustrated with my computer and pleading with Nick for help. So things like this paper, fascinate me and of course, make me want to buy it all. I know this maybe jumping the gun a bit but I think Flocked Up would make an amazing wedding invite, don't you?
A flickr page composed of nothing but number pictures, 1-365, in order, with multiples of each. Imagine the creative possibilities! I have a few ideas in my head already so once I get around to them (my craft list is getting obscenely long...) I'll definitely share! I discovered this amazing web find through Krissy over at Shimmer Like Gold. You should really check out her page. She is hands down one of my favorite new blog discoveries, a super sweet chick and a creative genius! Need inspiration for just about anything? Go pay Krissy a visit!
7. Harry Potter as a teen comedy.
8. Happy stories.
Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I am so por gay marriage, people probably think I'm gay myself. The other day at the craft store I ran into a lesbian couple planning out their wedding, we chit chatted for a bit, talked about our significant others and gushed over cute things before then parted ways. As I was walking out to my car however, they were coming out behind me and happened to spot the equality sticker on the back of my car. One of the girls thanked me for the support and told me the world needed more straight people like me haha. It made my day!
The ASPCA is currently holding a city versus city challenge for who can get the most animals into homes! As you may or may not know, my awesome boyfriend works for the ASPCA in Orange County and rescues puppies for a living. Each city is challenged to beat their own adoption numbers from last year and the city with the highest improvement gets $100,000 to update facilities, expand their outreach to the community and of course, save more puppies! So, if you're thinking about a new pet, why buy when you can adopt? I have rescued every single one of my pets and can tell you first hand that they have all been amazing in their own way.
