I know I said I wasn’t going to have a ton of time to post while I’m in Nashville, but this calls for an announcement. You see, I have some pretty big and exciting news to share with you all: I painted my nails yesterday (third time in two days) and the nail polish is STILL on!
Just kidding. Well, that part is true, but the bigger news is this: I’m engaged!
This was my Great Grandmother’s ring and I’ve been saving it for my engagement. Julian snatched it out of my jewelry box when I wasn’t looking!
It’s true. In the middle of a faux-video shoot yesterday afternoon in front of a bunch of “crew” (family and friends), my handsome Julian popped the Big Question. I, of course, said yes, then began sweating, hyperventilating and shrieking in a pitch that only animals can hear. The past twenty four hours have been pretty surreal, and I will share the details with you soon (including a video of the moment, because of course my filmmaker boyfriend fiance catches EVERYTHING on film!)
All I will say for now is that I’m SO, SO happy and can’t wait for the this upcoming chapter of our lives! I never thought I would be so lucky as to wind up with someone who is this amazing. I am truly blessed!!!
Also, I’ve finally found the solution for not picking your nail polish off. Get a big honkin’ diamond on your finger so everyone wants to take pictures of it and look at it. I guarantee you won’t TOUCH your nails.
Just a quick note to all 5 of my readers to say MERRY CHRISTMAS and to let you know that my internet access may be limited these coming weeks. By miracle, I have finished all my work for the year and by this time tomorrow I will be in Nashville with my sweetheart to spend Christmas with his family and friends.
First, I’ll be dropping my Macbook Pro off at the repair shop because it is broken (I spit coffee on it on accident a couple months back and have been using an evil external keyboard ever since), which means if I do any blogging, it will be either via WordPress iPhone app or Julian’s laptop.
If you don’t hear from me, I’m still wishing you all a very happy holiday and a WONDERFUL New Year!
At long last, the trailer for Sex & the City 2 has finally arrived! Yes, it’s true, I am a junky for this show (don’t judge me! It’s not all about sex, and if you watched the show, you’d know that!). I own the entire series on DVD in a pink faux-velvet case and counted down the days to the first movie which, while fabulous, wasn’t exactly what I wanted. The ending was happy though, and hopefully so will the second film, which is coming to theaters next May!
Based on the trailer (below), it looks like the girls will be doing some traveling again, though no specific plot lines are revealed. It appears the primary focus is the glitz, the glamour, the fashion, the fabulousness of their lives, careers and relationships. It’s the perfect chick flick.
I don’t use Photo Booth a lot, but when I do, I tend to go a bit nuts, taking up to 20 shots at once. (One could pin me as a narcissist, and well, they might be partially right – after all, aren’t all bloggers self-lovers?) Last night, I had Photo Booth open to take a picture of myself wearing a face mask (because, what else are you supposed to do?) and started looking back through the pictures. It gave me some tingly feelings inside as I remembered funny days at work, lazy days in the dead heat of LA summer, and even earlier in the year when Julian and I were long distance and spent hours on Skype.
Here is a random selection, just for fun:
Excited about my blinged out ethernet cable (thanks, Josh!) – check out cutie Charlotte in the background!
♥ ♥ ♥
We were meant for each other. June 2009
Team Spirit. Team SocialVibe.
A hot summer day with nothing else better to do than make funny faces. I’m just me.
With the precious Cookie. Can’t get over how short my hair is!!
Proud of my purple nails.
The day I decided to use Daily Booth. I only took 3 pictures and quit. (Cute Scoutie on the couch behind me)
SocialVibe in Seventeen magazine! (Please note my nails were painted in this picture…. later in the day below)
Sitting at our booth at Social Media Strategies in SF. Later, my buddy Brian Solis came to sit with me and I told everyone he was my intern.
Another shot with me and Miss Cookie! Her wardrobe is better than mine. This was her tennis outfit.
Anticipating Christmas in October.
Halloween at work. Wearing Julian’s bunny costume (yes, really).
Incapable of not making a goofball face.
Once again… this time trying out my Halloween wig.
I’ll end with the original purpose of the Photo Booth… face masks (Clinique Deep Cleansing Emergency Mask, btw) are always better when paired with Boyfriend Hoodies.
I have a confession to make: I can’t wear nail polish for more than 24 hours. I must be extremely anxious, or neurotic, or just a nitpicker, but for whatever reason, I begin picking off the nail polish within 24 hours after applying a fresh coat. Seriously, it’s disgusting. At any given time, there are little pieces of pink or red (or purple or white) polish chips on the ground beneath me. It’s quite sad because I have a thing with OPI nail polishes – I really, really like buying them!
Is it just me? Why is it so hard just to LEAVE IT BE? Let it be pretty? The thing is, I’m a perfectionist, so if one gets messed up even a hair, I have to start over. If I’m not in a place with polish remover and polish, I’ll just chip it all away, often tearing at the layers of my nails. It’s really cool to watch (yea right). On top of that, I’m also impatient (though I try). I can’t wait to let it dry because there is always something that is more important – I want to make the bed, fold the laundry, bake something, read something, fluff something, pet something, whatever – and my nails always look crackpipealicious afterwards.
This is just one small part of my lifelong troubled relationship with my nails. My entire childhood I was a dedicated nail-biter, despite repeated efforts by my family (and myself) to get me to stop. Once I even bought that stuff “No Bite” or whatever it is called, from the drugstore. I remember putting it on before going to the county fair and picking it all off (even with my teeth – despite its horrible taste) before I got home. My poor Stepmom Stella even bought me a fancy little manicure kit when I was younger, thinking the right supplies for perfect nails would be incentive enough to stop biting my nails. No dice.
It wasn’t until high school that I grew my nails out for the first time EVER. I remember sitting in Physics class looking at my thumbnail which had grown longer than the tip of my finger. That was a first! I was SO proud. It didn’t last. Eventually, my Mom took me to get acrylics… what a disaster that was. Expensive, and disgusting. After several rounds of “filling,” tearing them off, getting another full set, refilling, and tearing them off again, I vowed never to put that nastiness on my hands again. So gross. I was going to have to learn to have pretty nails on my own.
Eventually, I trained myself to not bite my nails. Willpower was really the only thing I can attribute to my success. Yet I still do it from time to time; I tend to go months alternating between biting and non-biting. It’s a nervous habit, something I do when I’m reading, watching movies, basically anytime I’m not using my hands to do something.
Right now, they’re short but in the process of growing out. I want them to look nice for Christmas and Valentine’s Day and all other days of the year, but still keeping them short because I live on a keyboard what with being a professional blogger and all (I love saying that, btw, I’m a professional blogger. What now?), and having long nails that prohibit me from reaching keys is a bad idea.
Manicures might be an obvious choice, and they do work, matter of fact getting a manicure has been the only thing that keeps a coat of nail polish on my nails for more than 2 days at a time. That being said, I’m a frugalista and I’m not paying $15 (plus tip) for someone to paint my nails when there are starving people half a mile away. That is NOT one of the things I allow myself to splurge on.
Tell me- how do you keep from picking away at your nails?
This blog has been a bit silent this past week, but I promise it is for a good reason! You see, all this week, my life has revolved around MAKING CHRISTMAS GIFTS. If you recall, I declared I was going to make all my gifts by hand this year – which, as it turns out, requires a good deal of planning, collecting, purchasing, and then of course… making. By hand. And shipping, on time, to ensure they arrive by Christmas.
While I don’t regret a moment of it, trying to get it all done with only a few days to do so was EXTREMELY exhausting! When I wasn’t working this week, I was dragging Julian through Michael’s, making him cut 2x4s (by hand) for my letter blocks, browsing thousands of fabrics, cutting, gluing, sanding, painting, taping, beading, gold-leafing, folding, brushing, wrapping, etc. While my whole body aches from lack of sleep and from moving from one project to another with only brief momentary breaks for food, my fingers have received the brunt of the pain – I can’t decide if hot glue guns are my best friend or my worst enemy. I also have splinters. Delicious.
But the good news is – I got every last project done! And with the exception of a few minor mishaps (i.e., burning the cover of a scrapbook while attempting to iron on letters, spilling half a box of tiny beads all over the floor), it all went smoothly. I even managed to get them to UPS on time and they should arrive by Christmas (unless the 20″ of snow expected in Virginia tonight slows them down)! Love UPS.
I will post photos of my lovely creations, but I can’t just yet for fear of spoiling the surprise for my Moms, Dads, sisters and brothers! While it was tough on a short timeframe, all in all the process was amazing. I really missed making things with my hands… it is so, so gratifying and fun. I wish I were going to be able to watch my family open the presents.
All together now…. EXHALE.
I am SOOOO looking forward to the weekend! Tonight is a date night with my superstar boyfriend (whose new video, Techno Jeep, is currently going viral) and this weekend will be spent relaxing, reading, enjoying fires in the fireplace, and maybe (MAYBE) attempting to make hot chocolate on a stick again. You see, I destroyed the first four batches I tried to make because the melted chocolate did not agree with the cocoa powder. IDGI. It prompted my first (and God willing, my only) holiday meltdown of the season.
So, in summary, if I had time to write Things I Love Thursday yesterday, it would have been HANDMAKING GIFTS. So much fun, even with dark circles under my eyes, burnt fingertips and possible beads in my cat’s stomach.
Hi! Who has time to write a singular blog post for every cool thing they find on the web? Not me. So here is my very first Bits ‘n Pieces, a collection of random “stuff” I find on my daily journey around the internet. Better to accumulate stuff online than in real life, that’s what I say. There is no theme, like I said, it’s very random. Hope you enjoy it.
The tiniest studio in New York. This couple knows how to do minimalism right. They don’t even have a kitchen – or a trash bin! Plus, 2 cats in 175 sq feet – I have mad respect for that.
Sketchy Santas. Good for a laugh. I have a few of these photos I could submit.
Living Ornaments. These are so cool! Living ornaments would go so well with a living Christmas tree. If only I had the time…
Swiss Underground Home – How AMAZING would it be to live here? The Swiss have it all figured out, I’m convinced. Highest quality of life in the entire world. On another note, I could do an entire one of these things with only links from Apartment Therapy. I love that blog. It’s like porn for the domesticated.
CONFETTI! Arguably not the most environmentally-friendly item, Urban Outfitter’s PARTYPARTY line by Confettisystem makes me want to twirl.
Jeggings. Actually, I’m not quite sure how I feel about these. I love jeans, and I love leggings, but do I love their lovechild? The jury is still out. Now that Levi’s is jumping on the jeggings bandwagon, I might have to try them on and see for myself. I even saw them in the window display of Fred Segal the other day. What do you think?
Fairtrade Kit Kats. Such a wonderful decision on Nestle’s part. They even launched a worldwide campaign to support cocoa farmers on the Ivory coast – one of the most popular cocoa regions in the world. If only these were available in the US!
BookSwim – It’s like Netflix, but for books! I prefer books to movies, though I enjoy both. This is a brilliant idea, but I’m not sure I could commit to the $20~ a month cost for 3 books at a time. I have trouble finding the time to read one a month, though I did finish half of The Shack this weekend.
Teacup Candles. I REALLLLLLY need to make some of these. I wish there were enough time before Christmas! Maybe there is!
TN town passes nation’s first Green Food Resolution – Tennessee is happening, man! I love this! A Green Resolution is: “an ordinance designed to counteract the massive health and environmental damage created by large-scale factory farms and the meat industry, by encouraging local farms, plant-based diets, ecological sustainability and nutritious eating habits.”
Heather Bailey’s studio. I’m green with envy. I’ve got my Mom sending me two gold gilt mirrors sitting in the family basement so I can do this treatment on them and make myself some of those turquoise mirrors!
What makes a Saturday even better than eating nothing but donuts & coffee all day? Making pink and white paper snowflakes! I might be a terrible photographer (as these rough looking iPhone photos will prove), but I am a darn good snowflake-maker! Today I felt inspired by the festive paper snowflakes on Holy Experience, so I decided to make my own. I used a few sheets of pale pink printer paper I had stashed away, along with some tissue paper from Coach (from a clutch that I’m currently selling in the name of getting rid of crap I don’t need.)
I had to make do with the supplies I had – a few different sizes of scissors, scotch tape, thread from a sewing kit, and some snowflake patterns I found online (like this one, and this one).
It was very easy. Once I got the hang of it, I even make my own patterns. All in all, I made about 15 snowflakes. They’re a little flimsy, so they may or may not be destroyed by the end of the season, but I’m going to look into making more from cardboard/poster board and fabric that will last for years (hopefully).
I hung the pink ‘flakes in my kitchen window, and taped (carefully) the tissue paper snowflakes to the french doors on my balcony, so the whole neighborhood can enjoy them (if they can see them).
One tip for getting the snowflakes to be flat: iron them on a low-setting between two sheets of paper.
I don’t know about you, but Christmas is my favorite holiday, hands down. Yet year after year, without fail, I spend more time stressing over what gifts to get who, how I’m going to afford it all, how I’m going to ship it all, and how I can manage to squeeze every last drop of free time out of my vacation days. This year, I’m….
I am SO on the same page as the Advent Conspiracy folks, shifting our focus from gifts, shopping and (down the road) bills and to sloooowing down, spending time with our loved ones, REALLY giving back to those in need around the world and in your community, cherishing the season and really celebrating the TRUE meaning of the holiday.
See what I mean:
“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”
-Hamilton Wright Mabie
