I’ve had a bit of a cloudy disposition these past couple days because the sun has decided to boycott Los Angeles, despite it being July and us saying “sayonara!” to June gloom days ago. What’s up with that?! I am all for a bit of cloudy weather, when the time is right, but right now I’m in need of some serious rays of sunshine. To help brighten YOUR day, here are a few fun things I’ve found this week. Happy Hump Day!
How dainty and delicate are these ruffled sheets? I promise, not as ugly as they sound. I love!
These rosette pillow shams are also really sweet, but it looks like something that could easily be DIYed. Any takers?
Observations of spending based on income. Sad to see how much “General Shopping” goes up whilst “Charity” stays about even, until people reach super high income levels (and probably start to feel guilty.)
In the name of avoiding consecutive blog posts series containing dates in the title, I’m officially moving Bits & Pieces to Wednesday instead of Saturday. What’s that? You didn’t even notice they are always posted on Saturday? Well ok then. I love you too, and hope you enjoy these super cool tidbits I’ve collected the past few days.
this open letter to men by Christina Hendricks (of Mad Men) is really making it’s rounds. I spotted it on Gala Darling’s blog first, then on Sarah Wilsons. Perhaps it is because it’s so very true?
I need to seriously limit my posts that contain the date in the title. It’s kind of irritating and not very pretty, one after another. So what’s on the agenda this weekend? A little BBQ with friends, finishing LOST once and for all (so we can get back to normal life), trying my hand at baking rolls from scratch, with a lot of errand-running and relaxing in between. Sounds like a plan! We love plans!
SHTUFF:
Summer in Paris – Ah, I already miss it!! I really hope to go back sometime soon when the weather is warmer. Despite our honeymoon being in mid-May, the weather was cold, cold, cold. And rainy. And cloudy. What’s the point of bringing cute clothes if you’re covering it up with a coat the whole time? These photos make me happy.
Ever stop to look around at your wonderful life and think, “something bad is definitely going to happen soon.” You’re not alone. Jon Acuff wrote this spiritually-driven piece about that belief and why we should stop worrying and simply enjoy the goodness in our lives.
American Migration Patterns – where are people moving to and from these days? These illustrations are awesome, and very interesting. Sidenote: I am jealous of all the people getting out of LA.
Why I Quit A Six Figure Job – don’t get any crazy ideas, I’m not quitting my job. But the pros & cons measured in this quick and to-the-point blog post do a great job at illustrating the benefits and draw backs of working for yourself vs. working for someone else. I want to add an important note here: the reason this guy COULD quit that job? He has two years worth of living expenses saved up. He also seems to live a pretty low-maintenance lifestyle, something most of us could try and imitate a bit more. (Thanks for tweeting this, Chris!)
4 Tips For a Less Stressful Morning – I could definitely take some of this advice! I tried the playing music bit and it really did help! So does taking a few minutes to do something that is totally not “getting ready to head to the office.”
THE LITTER BOX. This isn’t cool and/or pretty, but it’s still worth posting for any cat owners who have ever experienced their kitties boycotting the litter box. Seeing as this is one of the BIGGEST reasons people banish their pets to the animal shelter (or worse), it’s worth taking a look and seeing what you can to to rectify the situation before resorting to extreme measures. HINT: CLEAN THE DARN LITTER BOX MORE THAN ONCE A WEEK. Would YOU want to use a port-o-potty for a week straight? Thx!
Black & White Delight is a really neat blog, if you’re into home decor, black & white, and damask.
Abandoned Hotel photos – before and after. This is so cool! I am obsessed with looking at old, abandoned (and might I add, sometimes hideously designed) buildings in LA and wondering what they looked like back in the 60s, 70s, or 80s (or even before!) when they were hip and happening. Even in a young city like this, there’s still so much history. So curious!
My girlfriend, currently living in Naples and about 17 months pregnant, sent me these PRECIOUS baby photos from a local photographer. If you don’t love babies and cute things, don’t bother looking. If you do, enjoy.
Conventional, Organic, Local, Whatever. Just eat it! Let me summarize this brilliant article for you – the benefits of eating product FAR outweigh any risk of contamination by pesticides. It beats the alternative, which is avoiding fruits & vegetables and snacking on chemically-ridden processed foods. (P.S. Thanks to my sister-in-law Jes for finding this one!)
Jacaranda Trees in LA – one of the little pleasures about living in this region. The bright purple flowers always brighten my day for these few short weeks.
Ahhh, four day weekends. There is nothing better in life. Don’t harp on me about how I just got back from my honeymoon – this new Mrs. is tired from all the action! Just zip it and enjoy these little gems I found for your entertainment. Xoxo, Sarah
Body scans of two women, both different weights – pretty eye opening when you see it from the inside!
Short slideshow of some of the oldest “jumping photos.” The photographer, Phillipe Halsman, was the first to use this popular method, and used it on people like Richard Nixon, Marilyn Monroe, Salvidor Dali, and Audrey Hepburn (shown below).
Interview with Molly Rogers, partner in crime of Patricia Field’s – the brilliant lady behind the fashion in Sex and the City – about the second movie (which I’m going to see tonight, despite terrible reviews! It’s gonna be great!)
Love Gives Me Hope – collection of short and touching tales of love and hope. Must-read for anyone who needs a pick-me-up. This one is by far my fave.
Really interesting piece on Hidden LA about the hidden, underground oil rigs in shopping malls and hollowed out office buildings in LA. Watch the video! It’s part of VBS.tv’s series “Uneven Terrain,” devoted to “urban exploration and uncovering the hidden, underground and forgotten corners of the world’s leading metropolises.” So hard to believe this is going on all around us.
Bicycle rush hour in the Netherlands. How cool is this?! Ooooh I really really need a bike! Driving 3 miles to work is a disgrace.
HAPPY SUNDAY! I’m not so happy today, because my fiance is out of town for the next week (sad face), but at least I’ll have plenty of time to catch up with my girlfriends and…. blog. Ugh. Come back, Julian! In all reality, I’m looking forward to making a dent in my reading list and watching shows and movies he’d begrudgingly agree to watch.
Here’s a list of random stuff that will hopefully distract you from the list of Sunday chores you should be doing right now.
- New app tells you what music is hot on MySpace right now. Say what you will about MySpace, but one cannot deny their reign as King of the music world. We Are Hunted created a new radio app that lets you listen to MySpace artists that have had the most playing action in the last 60 seconds. It is a phenomenal tool for discovering new music. And it’s not nearly as pop-heavy as you’d think – quite the contrary, actually. It also comes in iPhone and Android form. Try it here.
- Easter Bunnies Will Steal Your Soul. Just like the creepy Santa photos blog, but instead of child-molester looking Santas, you’ve got rabid looking Bunnies.
Terrifying.
- Food, Inc. director wearing organic tux for Oscars ceremony – and I truly hope he gets to show it off! If you haven’t yet watched this film, get on it. It will enlighten you. Don’t stop there, if you’re moved by the documentary – there is a wealth of information out there about our atrocious food industry just WAITING to educate you!
- Norway’s luxury prison/spa has more amenities than my apartment does. A gym, training room, chapel, library, family visiting unit, football (possibly soccer) field, a school, and, most unbelievably, a sound studio.
- Nerd Merit Badges – I think everyone was going gaga over these a couple weeks ago, but I just found them. They’re like little FourSquare badges, only they’re REAL, and they err on the side of nerdiness (i.e., a badge for reaching Inbox Zero). Back in 8th and 9th grade, I used to go crazy over some patches on my bookbag.
- This picture of Darth Vader riding a white cat into battle with a light saber is also moderately funny.
- The Cat Hammock Coffee Table – Sorry for all the Geekologie links, but I couldn’t not include this baby. My cats would looove to lay on this – even more so because they can be adored while lounging – the top is made of glass. Julian- don’t think I will forget that you said we can get this.
- Dating Tips from 1938. Some of these are still very important and hold true today, for example, not passing out drunk in the middle of your date (never a good look.) Some others, however, not so much:
- A tweeting bike that shares your location as you cruise around town. It was created to encourage and aid social media connection for an upcoming festival in London…. sounds cool! And only a little bit dangerous!
“Love is tender, and any real relationship is based on forgiveness, compassion and vulnerability.”
- Martha Stewart pitches new TV show, ‘Help Me, Martha!” – I imagine this would be something like Clean House, but instead of Neicy Nash’s tough love, slobs would get a dose of Martha’s honey-dipped words of wisdom and a how-to solution for their toughest household problems or entertaining disasters. If I had cable, I’d watch, because I love anything Martha.
- There’s going to be a live-action/CGI film version of The Smurfs? And Katy Perry will be the voice of Smurfette? Well, ok. I guess I’ll add it to my Netflix queue – this will be interesting. So, what else can we raise from the dead and remake? The Snorks? Fraggle Rock?
A parody of the incredible Old Spice commercials that Julian is now obsessed with. Being the Apple lover he is, this must have sent him over the edge.
Al Pacino as Han Solo? John Travolta as Forrest Gump? Animator Dan Meth presents clips from classic movies, if actors once considered for important roles had been selected.
- Unhappy Hipsters. Need a break from your day? Read it & laugh. Or cry.
- What’s Your Excuse for Not Saving? Great post by my girl FB about the lame justifications people make for spending frivilously instead of investing in their future. Just FYI: you do not NEED a mansion, a gardener, a luxury car, a weekly french manicure or a $500 pair of shoes. Especially if you are in debt.
- LA Tech vs SF Tech – My favorite line has to be: “However, while both crowds love to love the city of San Francisco, San Franciscans love to loathe Los Angeles, which is understandable in some regards. Traffic here is tragic, and this IS where buttock implants were invented.”
- Also relevant… Why You Should Start A Company In LA, the latest in Fast Company’s look into startup appeal in cities other than Silicon Valley.
- Six Word Memoirs by famous authors. My personal favorite is Frank McCourt (author of Angela’s Ashes, Tis, etc): “The miserable childhood leads to royalties.”
- Award-winning cookies – perfect for Oscar parties, which I am hoping to partake in this coming weekend! Check out the Best Actress selection below. Wonder if they taste as good as those women can act? Also adorable, Oscar statue cookies!
- Empty bellies do not beget genius. – Brilliant piece by the bold and beautiful Gala Darling on female body image and why you should say “screw you” to the pressure to be stick thin.
- I Want That Hoodie So Bad. I really do. It has nothing to do with the fact that my fiance designed it and that it’s modeled after his latest sketch, which you can see below.
- Gummy Worm Chromosomes – if learning about DNA was this delicious, I might have taken a more passionate interest in biology in middle school. Imagine me as a biologist. Solving medical mysteries. Mixing things in a lab. Not wearing makeup. All jokes aside, I did briefly consider a career as a veterinarian – until I realized it’s harder to get into vet school than it is to get into med school. And that my heart would break everyday watching animals suffer.
- Top 10 Books Perfect For The iPad. Haha…. this one is for Julian, who thought he was doing me a favor by suggesting I get an iPad instead of a laptop. PLEASE.
- The wedding invitation of our friends Kayla and Tyler, who are getting married just a couple months after Julian and I. It’s the sweetest and most creative wedding invite I’ve ever seen – plus I got to watch Julian and Tyler making it while they were in LA!
- Kitchen of the Year. I’d say! That place is making me salivate, it’s so gorgeous.
- ChatRoulette is all the rage these days. Even Ashton Kutcher is on it, and one math student in Calgary took a screenshot of the convo he was having with Mr. Aplusk. I can see the appeal of the site, that randomly connects you via videochat to people around the world, but I don’t see why I would use it. It would have provided hours of fun in college, though.
- Butch Cupcakes – this bakery in NY designs cupcakes with men in mind, because everyone deserves to enjoy a nice cupcake, but how masculine is it to eat a pink cupcake with heart sprinkles? Camo or wood-grain patterns are so much more macho.
- Study shows cat owners are more educated than dog owners. I’m feeling a bit of justice to all women who have unfairly been called “cat ladies” now. By the way, I love dogs too. Just not as much as kitties.
- Another new study about how awesome Boulder, CO is. This particular one states it is the happiest city in all the US. Apparently Boulder knows how intellectual, healthy, bicycle-friendly and clean their city is, because I found a hefty list of credentials on their website. Proud, maybe. But I’d still move there in a heartbeat.
- Speaking of awesome places to live, check out this little house on a cliff in Iceland. Talk about breathtaking!
- Depths of the Ocean, Scaled to Human Size – this is both crazy and terrifying, especially for people like me who get the heebie jeebies about deep, dark water. What’s DOWN there?!
Lauren, who is in Hawaii this week, requested we play this loudly in our office on repeat. For the record, this is on the wall of our office:
I thought this video of two koalas bickering was super cute at first, until one of them provokes the other and it breaks out into a nasty fight. My maternal/animal-lover instinct kicked in and I wanted to scoop up the babies to protect and calm them down. Then I realized, they’re just like kids… fighting and picking on the other for no good reason.
My Little Ponies performing musicals – LIVE! MLP hold a special place in my heart, even if this is extremely strange.
A little bit of this, a little bit of that. That’s what you’ll find in this post. Here’s a list of fun/funny/interesting/awesome/educational/snoozeworthy things I’ve come across lately. Enter at your own risk! Happy Saturday everyone!
- First up, this phenomenal Macbook cover that disguises your 21st century device as a vintage book. So distinguished.
- Before the Haiti earthquake, we had the San Francisco earthquake, and a couple weeks before the San Francisco earthquake, thousands of seals disappeared from Fisherman’s Wharf – where they had been hangin’ out for TWENTY YEARS! These smelly yet adorable seals totally knew something was up.
I find this fascinating… animal’s sixth sense! The newsroom security camera footage below shows a dog freaking out a full six seconds before the earthquake actually hit.
- Calvin & Hobbes snowmen. So much respect for this guy. I know this exact cartoon, too, because my Dad is a HUGE fan of C&H and my brother and I used to read his comic books over and over again when we were tikes. Calvin & Hobbes forever! Sidenote: I miss the snow so bad.
- Some nutcracker actually thinks Stanley Kubrick filmed NASA’s footage of the first moon landing and “revealed” his plan to the world in The Shining. This guy is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs! Imagine the time it took him to figure that out.
- My own Mother’s soap kitchen: Isn’t it the cutest? This is where she mixes, mashes, molds, cuts and labels all her soaps that she sells at the Farmer’s Market (and soon, online!) I plan on doing many, many giveaways of my Momma’s soap, because it is BY FAR the BEST soap you have ever washed yourself with. And it smells GRRRRREAT! She even makes man-friendly scents.
- Tweeting Tags for your Dog! This dog tag is a wireless device that connects to a USB receiver on your computer and transmits tweets based on your dog’s activity – barking, sleeping, eating, etc – it’s actually pretty clever! Not technically available for purchase, but when it is, it’ll only be about $25. This is pretty funny because Julian and I were just talking about putting Scout & Pepper on Twitter this morning. I know, the world doesn’t need yet another animal Twitter account, but our tweets would be SO funny I PROMISE!
- I’m totally geeking out on wedding planning at the moment, but a week ago I would have gladly flown to a foreign country and eloped. This PRECIOUS New Year’s Eve elopement was serving as major inspiration behind that idea! Now that’s how you elope in style!
- Choosing organizations to donate to after Haiti. Anytime you give your hard earned money to non-profit organizations, especially in the wake of of a natural disaster that has international attention on all levels, you have to choose wisely when deciding who to contribute to. This blog post has some sound advice from aid workers about the best ways to help, what to donate, when to donate and who to donate to. My personal advice is to NOT give to the Red Cross. I prefer Direct Relief, but there are many, many great organizations out there who will use your full donation to provide help.
- Arguing about whether Heaven will serve Chick-Fil-A or In ‘N Out (Part 1 and Part 2). This is old, but so awesome. And I really miss Chick-Fil-A.
- A YouTube enabled microwave. It chooses from millions of videos to find one that is the exact length your food is cooking, so you don’t have to just wait around with nothing to do. This is kind of sad, actually.
- Cheap, easy and beautiful Mod Podge projects. I am especially loving the $3.99 tray from Goodwill and the baby food jar magnets. Oh, and the coasters. All of this stuff was found on Flickr!
The magnets.
- Love making lists of places you want to see or go? How about a list of places you’ll never get to go? We’re talking top secret, underground, exclusive places here. Sucks, because a lot of those places look awesome.
The Vatican Archives
The trailer for the new Banksy documentary premiering at Sundance, “Exit Through The Giftshop.” First time he has ever appeared on film!
Martha Stewart pole dancing. Work it, honey!
This post is dedicated to Casper, the famous cat-riding bus, who wasrecently killed after being hit by a car. RIP, Casper! You gave the world much laughter.
It’ll be a lot easier on me (and you) if I do these more frequently rather than waiting until a month has gone by and the list of starred items in Google Reader is longer than my legs. Here are some of my favorite things I’ve encountered on the interwebs the last couple of days:
The King & Queen of LA Tech are having a baby! Congratulations to Sean & Laurie Percival, who announced they’re pregnant with a spawn today. Kudos to them for holding it in as long as they did, I don’t know if I’d have been able to do it! The news, I mean. I’m sure holding the baby in is a piece of cake.
What it costs to be me: Financial profiles of 5 women across the globe. General consensus is that the women who bring home the largest paychecks are spending more whereas the women making less each month are saving, saving, saving. Great read for anyone taking a fresh look at their finances in the New Year!
H&M New York busted for shredding perfectly good unsold clothing. In the name of all that is homeless – why destroy perfectly usable clothing when ONE THIRD of your city is in need? Bonkers. They’ve since apologized – but only after they were called out by the media.
“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” -John Allen Paulos (tinybuddha)
Love this video Save The Date from Tim & Jane… maybe we’ll do something like that! After all, I am marrying a man who clearly knows his way around a camera.
