Bohemian Goulash

Cooking to-do list

2010-10-08T16:53:00.006-05:00

For the past month and a half of having a puppy and happily obliging him in his need for constant love and affection, cooking has totally fallen by the wayside. I'm fed up with Arroy Thai (even though I love you) and pizza (not the homemade variety, but the frozen and ordered, even though I love you). So aside from making actual meals, which who am I kidding, will probably just be something stew-like in the slow cooker, I've been wanting to make the following for quite some time:

First up: Vafler for Saturday Breakfast

photo via Food in the City

These aren't going to be true vafler as our waffler is for much thicker, American waffles. What's important here is the cardamom and the sour cream. Recipe from Sons of Norway which will have to be adapted so it's not so runny for our maker. I'll serve with jam and we thankfully have some Gjetost cheese that I've been meaning to devour.

I knew you'd come in handy

Savory Apple & Cheddar Galette for Sunday Brunch

via fresh 365

We have a whopping three friends running the Chicago marathon this weekend. That's a crazy amount of friends doing a crazy amount of running. To celebrate, we're going to a brunch while they run :) I've been wanting to make this galette for some time and I think this is the perfect excuse.

Happy weekend!

Spring 2011 Collections Part I

2010-10-07T13:45:00.008-05:00

I have by no means finished culling every bit of pretty from the Spring 2011 Collections (experienced through New York Times slideshow), but here are many things by which I've been inspired thus far.

I won't pretend to be literate in high fashion. So consider this an official cop out from saying anything of real credibility below. Commence the pretty:

Jil Sander, Milan Fashion Week

The colors! This brings me back to the excitement I felt when Crayola launched their fluorescent range. Razzle Dazzle Rose, Unmellow Yellow, Neon Carrot... they could work it together back then and they're back together to work it in 2010 on the Jil Sander runway. This time around, it's a more sophisticated if not more edited color usage than that found in my coloring book circa 1990. I would wear all of this*.

*But it is important to note that I cannot support the goggles on the top center.

Jonathan Saunders, London Fashion Week

This Jonathan Saunders collection is Spring. I can feel the slightly chilly, breezy air just looking at this -- the time of the year when you stubbornly ditch the boots and wool tights in anticipation of nicer weather -- willing the new season to come even when it hasn't yet. I always feel drawn toward preppy and athletic that time of year too.

The sheer panel cut-outs are super sexy. And that yellow dress makes me wish, once again, that I could successfully wear yellow. The whole palette is gorgeous and I suggest checking it out. One wish: some of those dresses weren't so damn short. I ask for just one more inch, Jonathan.

Paul Smith, London Fashion Week

Paul Smith felt like waking from winter hibernation. The palette was heavy and masculine and a lot of the styling was disheveled -- in a state immediately before it's totally shed.

But what I really want to talk about are the double-belts here. I dig this detail and would like to incorporate, but I'm a wee bit concerned about the real-life application. This is an element that could easily stray into the 'mom trying to be trendy, but just missing the mark' aesthetic territory. And no, you don't have to be a mom to be in that territory, they've just defined the aesthetic. They're ironically too busy being selfless to pull-off effortless-chic most of the time. Why do I feel like I'm getting into more and more trouble as I try to explain my association?... I love moms.

Masterpieces

2010-04-29T15:56:00.013-05:00

Masterpiece Theatre is really channeling the bleak lately. Gone are the days of yet another (but still welcomed) Jane Austen adaptation. This season ended with "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "Small Island." Both were really, really well done, but they ended with the same really, really pathetic scene: me choking on my sobs, clutching an open jar of peanut butter, questioning the goodness of humanity from my couch.

Eating this solves problems

And it feels wrong to be distracted by one of the dresses in the wardrobe of "Anne Frank," and I promise I felt guilty, but the palette is too awesome to go unnoticed. Love the desaturated green and peach paired with the orange-red belt.

Ellie Kendrick as Anne Frank from BBC One

In fact, the entire wardrobe was beautiful.

Chevron Mania, or 'Chevrania'

2010-03-31T17:57:00.015-05:00

For the past year, I've been preoccupied with chevron, so preoccupied that I consulted my desktop thesaurus and came up with a name for it: Chevrania. This barely beat out 'Chevsession,' which is arguably just as void of wittiness. Celebrity tabloids have taught me many things, but one of the biggies is that if you want to coin a term for something, just awkwardly merge two words or names that are associated (e.g. Brangelina, TomKat) and force feed it to people until it sticks.

Chevrania started when I saw this dress on BurdaStyle. Since then, I've been saving images of anything in the shape of a zig zag.

Dress by michelleiswell. The asymmetry really makes it. I could pass on the collar, but who am I to critique?

Vintage chevron dress from Elizabeth Wren

* * *

My Chevrania has been mainly focused on interiors lately.

The combination of the herringbone parquet and overlay flooring is pretty awesome / Roman and Williams

Aside from the flooring, this is just a really amazing kitchen / Roman and Williams

Shot from Remodelista

Erin Adams Herringbone for Ann Sacks

Really expensive rug by Madeline Weinrib
And I know it's expensive because they don't even list the price. You have to 'contact to inquire'

Old Friend, New Friend

2010-03-28T15:21:00.013-05:00

Rob won Christmas this year by a landslide. I gave him a casual watch for everyday use. He gave me a digital SLR.

* * *

Before the coming of the Christmas Camera (1 day B.C.C., if you will) I was still glowing with satisfaction over my Panasonic Lumix with the Leica lens. Pre-Lumix, my life was a medieval abyss of disposable Kodak Funsavers. I relied on pillaging photos from friends' Picasa albums to update my Facebook account and fill my iPhoto Library. And this was 2006 (3 B.C.C). So the Lumix was quite a renaissance.

Panasonic Lumix, shot by Canon EOS Rebel T1i

But then I opened up my Christmas present this year and became an instant snob, forgetting all the lessons I've learned and friends I've made during the Funsaver years.

Canon EOS Rebel T1i, shot by the Panasonic Lumix

Holiday Shopping Begins

2009-12-04T11:08:00.004-06:00

You Make Me Feel Like a Grown-up

2009-11-24T14:30:00.006-06:00

Rob and I recently bought our first piece of adult furniture. I was so excited that I just stared at it for a couple days. Then I progressed to taking a lot of pictures of it -- a reaction more appropriate to the birth of one's child.

The baby

It's the International Year of Astronomy!

2009-11-23T10:21:00.010-06:00

If you were in the dark on this, no worries. I overlooked it too, but we still have a little over a month to celebrate. Here is some recommended party decoration:

Official IYA09 poster series

New York Times Magazine featured posters being used for the IYA09 designed by Simon Page. I love them for their retro-textbook feel, simple geometric patterns.

"The result is a beautiful exercise in conceptual minimalism, with a clear geometric bent that betrays Page’s math-nerd origins." Alexandria Symonds, NYTimes Mag

The part that really pisses me off about this Simon Page fellow is that he wasn't even trained in design. His background is in applied mathematics. He just sort of picked up design as a hobby two or three years ago. If I were to guess, he's also a champion fencer, a published novelist, and prefers to spend his free time volunteering at a hospital for children.

But perfection can be bought and is now available for purchase in his store.

love the use of white space in this one

* * *

I took cosmology in college -- the lovechild of astronomy and philosophy. By the end of the semester, I took away a few things:
1) Theoretically, we could be sucked into a black hole and routed to a parallel universe at a different point in the space-time continuum;
2) I thought that would be really cool as long as I was transported to the time of Jane Austen and was part of the landed gentry (requirement), but I don't think it works like that without a DeLorian DMC-12 outfitted with a nuclear reactor;
3) My mental capacity was much smaller than previously thought; and
4) Stephan Hawking has fathered children.

This Is Cooler Than My Obama Action Figure

2009-11-03T12:04:00.010-06:00

A former coworker at The Royal Order, Scott Thomas, went on to fame as the Design Director for the Obama campaign. He's coming out with Designing Obama, a book dedicated to artwork surrounding the campaign. There are forwards by Steven Heller and Michael Beirut (design celebrities!).

The book shows the role of art and design in the official campaign and also includes unofficial pieces done by grassroots supporters. Hopefully Obama Hot Sauce (it exists) is included. And Obama-Fingers certainly are because it brilliantly melds racial stereotypes with images of the Golden Gate Bridge and the American flag.

Danke, Germany

But something tells me that the 'unofficial grassroots art' is going to be classier stuff than the Hanes tshirts with the iron-on transfer of an Obama family photo that were being sold 2-for-1 around Grant Park. There really has been some good-looking work created surrounding the campaign. I have no doubt that the book will be beautifully crafted, so I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.

It's being self-published through Kickstarter (keeping with the grassroots theme). If you're interested, it's available here with a minimum pledge of $50, but the price goes up November 5. It's estimated delivery is around the first of the year.

Golden Birthday Spoils

2009-11-02T15:03:00.009-06:00

My birthday on Wednesday. This was a big birthday -- the golden birthday -- 28 years on the 28th. I've waited a long time for this one and it didn't disappoint.

If there's one thing that I've learned from my experience of having birthdays over the years, it's that you need to set expectations high and be vocal about them. For example: I've never been happy simply with a single birthday, so I usually enforce a birthmonth celebration. This sandwiches the actual day with 15 more days on either side to exercise tyranny and partake of gluttonous pursuits.

This year, for the golden birthday, I was very clear that I expected all gifts to come in the form of gold. The real nutty part is that Rob actually takes them seriously and I received some pretty amazing earrings.

But the list of loot doesn't stop there...

I still receive birthday money from my grandmothers and I'm not above accepting it and spending it immediately. I'm on the search for some black boots (a search that deserves its own post), but then I got distracted by Amazon -- the black hole of shopping -- and never returned. I did score a ton of amazing books though to add to the library that we have no room to accommodate. The wine they're serving in the breakroom this afternoon may have something to do with it.

Graphic Design, Referenced
from UnderConsideration

The UnderConsideration online network includes, Brand New and FPO: For Print Only, both of which I read regularly. So I figured it was low-risk to invest in one of their books without paging through beforehand. This reference is 400-pages (so you know you're getting your monies-worth per page) cataloging basic principles, sought-after resources, influential designers, iconic work...

This book was recently profiled on grain edit. And it is now mine. All mine.

Images from grain edit

The Sartorialist
by Scott Schuman

I use The Sartorialist blog as a motivational tool. It gets me out of the jeans, long-sleeve tee, and Converse sneaker rut that I'm prone to fall into. His eye for beauty is so enviable -- he finds it everywhere and unexpectedly. He reminds me to pay attention.

Paperback version cover

There's a hardcover deluxe version, but it's quite expensive. As much as I appreciate the craft of beautiful book design, I was really buying it for the photographs.

His girlfriend, Garance Dore, who keeps a blog that I value for similar reasons, hinted at coming out with a book of her own at some point in this interview my friend Amie did with her for shopbop (Super-cool name drop! Oui!). I'll support.

Penguin Classics
designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith

When my brother, Mike, was in town this past weekend, we hit up the bookshops. Both of us could spend an entire afternoon paging through books, revising our to-read lists and commenting on book design. We disagree a lot, but we certainly agreed that the new clothbound Penguin Classics were super sweet. I snatched up Wuthering Heights that day.

The first set of ten already released

I bought a few more of the first set on Amazon. They're selling for amazingly cheap price of $13.60, so I couldn't resist when I added the extra inducement of wine in the afternoon.

The second set -- I don't know when this is coming out

And thus ends the tale of a very spoiled and happy birthday.

Bonne Musique

2009-11-02T15:03:00.006-06:00

I've been listening to and enjoying Bon Iver (a Wisconsin native!). Yep, that's a bastardized version of 'good winter.' Apparently, questionable French language education is prevalent throughout the state. I spent four years of high school French spinning my wheels on conjugating passé composé, so I can relate to Mr. Bon Iver.

"For Emma, Forever Ago (2007)" was listed as #29 in Pitchforks Top 200 Albums of the 2000s. This list oozes pretentiousness and self-consciousness, but is still fun.

Invitations continued

2009-10-22T12:25:00.000-05:00

I say I'm going to post something the next day, and then it takes me over a month to actually do it... Here are some shots of our invites. The quality of these images are not so good. In hindsight, I should have had our photographer get some shots, while we had her in our power.

Folded up, referencing our Save the Dates

In the process of unfolding (I'm trying to give the full experience)

Lots of info for those not inclined to use the internet

Not the most accurate map, but people should really just use the internet.
Grandparents, let that be a lesson to you.

Flip side: the Alphabet poster that took a large chunk of my life to illustrate
The letters G, S, and T are supposed to coordinate with the itinerary on the other side.
Don't know if that was clear.

I do like to design me some icons

Personal stories surrounding the alphabet.

Wedding invite and tourist brochure

RSVP cards -- Rob lobbied to use the phrase "meal of food"

Weeks later, Rob pointed out a typo. My instinct was to get really angry at him, then cry. It was a small misspelling, but it's enough to annoy me for all of eternity.

My intention is to turn this into a more generic poster for Door County and to seek my fortune in the gift shop circuit (that will hopefully cover cost of production). This time, there will be no misspellings.

Some Favorite Things: von Trapp skirts

2009-10-20T15:07:00.020-05:00

Every year, the community theater in my hometown puts on a production of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever." It was kind of a big deal to 10-13 year-old me and I tried out a few times.

During my first year of auditions, I was inexperienced and did not come equipped with a song, so they told me to sing "Happy Birthday." Halfway through, I forgot the words and froze. Then I just nervously wandered off the stage, thinking that if I just exited casually, they might not think I was actually auditioning.

Reflecting on my performance afterward, I decided that I should have been more spontaneous and just made up a whole new birthday song. They would have said 'she may be an idiot, but dammit she has the moxie we've been searching for in this talentless town.' Lesson learned. Next year they would see moxie and the addition of some choreography.

So the following year, I came fully armed with a routine to "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music. In my interpretation, there couldn't be enough physical zest to express "raindrops on roses" and "door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles." I tended toward the literal in my interpretive dance. But when I ran out of ideas, I filled time by waving my arms in a sunrise motion while tapping my heel. My mother told me that it was a performance to remember. I agreed and imagined the casting director discussing my star quality over dinner later.

Much to my surprise, I didn't get a call back.

Not taking the hint, "My Favorite Things" appeared again for my third audition. This time around, it tasted strongly of bitterness. I was thirteen and started to be conscious of my degradation as I waited to be called, sitting between the 8- and 9-year-olds who were all cast in the play last year. Sadly this didn't end my career in theatre and I continued to seek out humiliating roles in school plays, such as "Hippie Dancer," "Santa's Third Reindeer," and "Elderly Betsy Ross."

***

That anecdote is a very off-point segue into the reason for this post: von Trapp-inspired skirts.

Rob's sister, Elinor and her friend Evelyne are starting a custom clothing company called E&A&E&A&B&K&Co. One of their designs is called the Von Trapp skirt and I love it, especially the contrasting interior pockets. The fabric is of course inspired by upholstery. I'm convinced if I had worn this as part of my audition ensemble, I would have clinched a speaking role.

They're on Etsy or you can bid on one of their custom creations at the Seduction of Duchamp Live Auction. So if you're auditioning anytime soon, this is a must:

This one is my favorite

From Miss to Ms!

2009-10-07T16:16:00.009-05:00

The title 'Ms.' is noncommital. It inhabits the bland middle ground between Miss and Mrs. that is very unclear. Are you a divorcee, widow, or just really hate bras? Who's to know which? And whatever the case, it implies a learned cynicism or a world-weariness that I'm fortunate not to possess at the present.

I've started to brainstorm a friendlier version that says 'I'm keeping my maiden name but I also like my bra and heels.' 'Ms!' is as far as my wits have taken me.

***

I am now officially a Ms! and very happy to be so. Besides the obvious bonus of being married to my favorite gentleman, I also don't have to plan a godforsaken wedding again. To be clear, I loved our wedding and was overwhelmed with warm fuzziness, but the week preceding the day was a circle of hell I would rather not reenter.

Our photographer, Erin Hansen did an amazing job at capturing the warm fuzzy parts of the wedding and making us look better than we do in real life. Here are some people shots:

Of note

2009-08-20T11:45:00.006-05:00

My constant hinting has worked and I got some pretty awesome flowers! There's a lesson to be learned here and I think it's that public harassment pays off.

The spoils of harassment

Moron

2009-08-18T16:20:00.003-05:00

image from here

Wedding Invites and Throwing Stars

2009-08-06T13:32:00.011-05:00

I had kind of cut myself off from reading any wedding blogs a few weeks ago to keep things sane. But I cheated and peaked at Green Wedding Shoes this morning, where I found examples of some awesome new invites from Studio on Fire and someone I previously had not seen, Erin Jang.

Ms. Jang does some handsome and clever work. And her type takes my breath away (and type really can do that -- take breath away).

I like the carnival-esqueness to this, like your organist should be the bearded lady and the ring bearer the two-headed boy, bride and groom depart on elephant...

I would keep this program if I went to their wedding

This type is gasp-worthy

When I kicked off design of my own invites, I did a lot of hunting for inspiration and image loading. I was finding a lot of the same stuff out there -- birds, big blooms, everything letterpressed -- lots of pretty stuff, but not especially thoughtful, so most just blended together. Once in a while something would really blow me away, and it was more often than not from Studio on Fire.

Here are some more recent pieces:

This pattern is somewhat unexpected for a wedding invite

It's all bird-trendy, but this type is so handsome

Not a wedding invite, just cool

I need to get my act together and photograph our finished invites. I'm really happy with how they turned out. Here's a preview of the folded and packaged piece, pre-envelope stuffing:

Clutch Progress

2009-08-03T17:22:00.005-05:00

I'm happy with how the bridesmaid clutches are turning out. I'm working off a really simple pattern by Keyka Lou that I found on Etsy. Here's the making of the prototype:

Pieces cut out and ready

Finished interior

Cute little guy

I liked my little prototype, but something wasn't quite right with the fabric. It wasn't luxe enough and the print was bugging me. I'm a little sick of Damask-inspired prints. And what these pictures don't show are some serious alignment issues at the seems.

So I chose to move to a solid by using a dark, espresso-brown velvet as the exterior. The inside is a floral cotton print. Here's a sneak peak of the six bags in progress:

I just need to insert the lining and other end of the magnetic snap... and then, Presto! I've got me part of a bridesmaid gift. Hopefully I'll have the finished product up tomorrow.

The Spritzer

2009-08-03T14:18:00.009-05:00

Martha did not fail me this weekend and the two recipes I tried for the bike trek/picnic were tasty. And the carrot cake-wiches from Sprouted Kitchen -- amazing. Gabby made a Pomegranate Spritzer, which was really good and made me consider how good it would be if it combined super powers with either gin, vodka, or dare I say white wine...

***

I've always had a certain disdain for the nefarious breed of woman who will order 'a White Zin with an ice cube' in a superior tone. Working in a wine bar during college, I saw much of this specimen. She warranted inclusion into our employee training where we were taught to respond, 'I'm sorry ma'am, but we don't serve White Zinfandel. May I suggest a Gewürztraminer or Reisling' to which the typical reaction was an annoyed facial expression that damned me a Philistine.

The specimen's back-up order was more than likely a White Wine Spritzer, which I came to also disdain by association and because it's just a lame drink order.

***

But I find myself sitting on a picnic blanket enjoying a close relative and wanting more. Although vanity prevents me from ever ordering a White Wine Spritzer in public, I will certainly buy a magnum of Beringer and mix my own at home.

Stigma be damned, the spritzer is good

Weekend Sovereignty

2009-07-31T13:52:00.009-05:00

Rob is gone on his bachelor weekend to Northern Michigan, which means the apartment is my dominion and I have unconditional Krista-time.

The royal to-do list for the weekend:
1. Go for a bike ride/picnic with Gabby
What's exercise without the promise of food? I'm in charge of the picnic eats, so I'm thinking of making these two things that Martha says I should and this recipe I've been dying to try from Sprouted Kitchen.

Chicken Salad and Havarti Cheese Wrap (Martha)

Chickpea, Cherry Tomato, and Feta Salad (Martha)

Carrot Cake-wiches with Greek Yogurt (Sprouted Kitchen -- her photography is amazing)

2. End my summer sewing hiatus. Bridesmaid gift spoiler alert.
I'm making clutches as part of their gifts for being attendants. I just found some awesome fabric from JoAnn's (quelle surprise?!). Here's hoping they turn out...

3. Watch all of Mad Men Season II while drinking scotch
Rob likes to watch TV series in moderation, whereas I prefer to wait for the DVDs and watch the series all in one sitting. There's something wonderful about getting caught up in the story, not noticing that the sun went down, and later realizing that it's already 3am and, dammmit, you don't care.

Product placement works. Mad Men puts me in the mood to drink scotch and I plan to do just that. We only have Dewar's at the moment, but that will nobly fill the bill.

4. Get coffee from Julius Meinl and hit up the bookstore
I love Julius Meinl for the following reasons in descending order of importance: a) the founder is Bohemian, b) they have great packaging, and c) I like the taste of their coffee.

5. Sleep diagonally

Dude-wear

2009-07-21T10:29:00.012-05:00

Rob and I went out hunting for his marital suit this weekend. We set out looking for a three-piece suit, but had no luck. Almost no one carried them, which was kind of disappointing. We're in the wrong season and the addition of a vest makes the suit cost skyrocket, which leads to no demand for supply in this cursed economy.

As our level enthusiasm for the shopping trip started to subside, we gave up on our quest for the three-piece. But in the end, Rob found a really great fitting suit that was actually long enough for him and he is pretty excited about it.

BOSS Two Button Suit, Charcoal

For the groomsmen gifts, we're hooking each of them up with a shirt, tie and a tie clip. I love the ties! They're slim, but not super anemic like something Pete Doherty would wear. And although the economy at-large worked against our favor in the suit situation, it helped us in the tie department.

Mixture of Ben Sherman and Calvin Klein, Rob's is the plaid in the middle

I think they'll look sharp with the addition of a tie clip. The Art of Manliness has a post about outdated men's fashions that still have charm and the tie clip gets a mention with a picture of this manly man. The article is fun, but for the record, I disagree that the tie clip is indeed outdated, or an item that ever goes in-and-out of style for that matter.

I would sit in a lawn chair on the driveway with this man any day

Other less manly men with tie clips, just 'cause...

Milo Ventimiglia from GQ

Ditto

This has J.Crew's fingerprints all over it, but I'm not entirely sure where I grabbed this

Renting Pros and Cons (not an exhaustive list)

2009-07-16T14:19:00.011-05:00

I go back and forth on my feelings on renting an apartment, but most of the time I love it. The lack of responsibility and the ability to just pick our stuff up and leave are big points in the 'pro' column. That kind of freedom is comforting in case of attack on the city of Chicago or the coming of the 2016 Olympics.

There's pressure to own because 'it's fiscally responsible' and 'paying rent is like flushing money down the toilet.' But how sweet can any deal really be when you also get a pile o' stress and sacrifice in the bargain. You are now a slave to you habitat, cleaning gutters, putting money into roof repair instead of going on vacation, and worrying about the condition of your wood floors.

Our back porch could fall off at any moment and a wooden window frame is rotting before our eyes in our bathroom, but my care for this is minimal to non-existent. I'm not going to get bids from contractors and have to take a day off of work to manage the project. I might shoot an email to my landlord if I remember. And that kind of apathy feels really, really good.

Why don't more people rent apartments for life?

Perhaps one day I will not be OK with decaying wood in my living space. My standard of living will inevitably rise. I may find another more perfect food than Bagel Bites. And these things are probably all positive personal growth.

But at this point in my life there's only one huge point in the 'con' column of apartment living, which is a lack of private outdoor space. Not a mow twice a week, pain in the ass lawn -- but space for a garden to hang out in with iced tea and maybe grow some veggies.

I found these nice, very non-rented gardens on the website of my favorite crazy robot lady.

this one is my favorite

not an outdoor garden, but still pretty and full of greenery

I buy my own flowers

2009-06-26T10:12:00.009-05:00

Rob just doesn't understand the value of flowers. And I'm not referring to the super-expensive, professionally arranged variety (which even I question every Valentines Day), but just the grocery store assortment labeled 'filler flowers' you can pick up for under $10 everyday (read: spontaneous, unexpected, romantic).

I gave up on waiting to receive surprise flowers and adopted the mantra of 'I don't need a man to buy me flowers. I'll treat myself because I'm worth it. And then I'm going to buy me a right hand ring.' But by the time I reach the register, I'm just annoyed by the injustice of buying my own flowers. The bouquet just becomes an arrangement of my resentment. But resentment can be a beautiful thing in the morning at my kitchen window.

Unsung beauty: filler flowers at Jewel

Weekly Weird: Queso Sombreros and McDahmer's

2009-06-23T09:59:00.012-05:00

We headed up to Wisconsin this past weekend for Father's Day and to see the California-contingent of my family who was visiting. Right when we pulled out of our parking spot to head out of the city, the torrential downpour began. Rob really didn't feel like going and this didn't persuade him further, but I was adamant that we would make the trip. Our 20mph pace through the city slowed to 15mph as we reached the highway and continued at that pace through Milwaukee.

The southbound lane was completely flooded, so we had no choice but to keep going north. There was no turning back now. After three hours in the car and still being south of Milwaukee, we pulled off to stop at a McDonald's and get an iced coffee. While in the drive-thru, we were stuck behind this maniac that seemed to order everything off the McCafé menu. I was getting angré and impatienté for my coffee, so I started loudly sputtering surliness.

Rob shushed me with a harsh whisper that the guy driving the car ahead of us looked way too much like Jeffrey Dahmer for me to annoy in any way. He was right. He had those eyeglasses reserved exclusively for sexual predators and wispy sand-colored hair with a deep part to the side.

This man likes his McCafé and he can take as long as he likes in the drive-thru

We looked right and another guy similar in appearance walked by our car on the way to his pick-up with his to-go bag -- a to-go bag roomy enough for a severed head. I shut-up and looked forward as Rob rolled up the window. We got our iced coffee and left the McDahmer's behind us.

***

Brenda recently did a list of five things she loves about Texas that are sadly missing in foggy London-town (for the record, I enjoyed the Texas Embassy in all its mediocre glory). I decided to create my own list of weird things I miss about small-town Wisconsin that are missing in Chicago. Note: this is highly romanticized

1. The natives have GI-tracts of steel
There is no amount of dairy or saturated fat that can phase someone from Wisconsin. There's a firm belief that a dish is always improved by adding cheese, cream, and butter. True, true and true.

2. When I recycle something in WI, I'm confident that it will actually make it to the recycling center.
I'm sure this is universal for all larger cities, but I'm quire sure that my recycling just gets combined with the garbage. I've been fairly skeptical of the Great Oz that is the Chicago Blue Bags for some time now, but I'm resistant to pull back that veil. I will continue to stock up on the more expensive blue bags, diligently rinse out my plastic/aluminum/glass containers, flatten boxes, and pat myself on the back after doing so.

3. There are more outdoor activities in winter besides digging your car out of a snow drift.
Snowshoeing, skiing, sledding, ice fishing (so I've heard); these activities are part of the culture and make winter not just tolerable, but enjoyable.

4. Less likely to meet someone who drinks Pabst because it's ironic. More likely to meet someone with genuinely bad taste.
I have a low tolerance for hipster-based irony and an especially low tolerance for someone who chooses to drink a shitty beer because it makes them feel like they're keeping it real. Yes, I enjoy shopping at thrift stores even though I can afford new clothing, laugh at the occasional ironic UO t-shirt, and use 'UO' when referring to Urban Outfitters, but there's something refreshing about going to a place where someone says 'I really love the BoDeans' and they mean it.

5. They have an industry dedicated to stuff like this:

Surprisingly, not the strangest cheesehead product I've seen

When it's all said and done, I'm pretty apathetic when it comes to team sports. Sure, I can muster up some enthusiasm in certain situations, but it usually just bores me. Although, if I had to pick one team that I will never be embarrassed to have some sort of allegiance toward, it's the Packers.

I don't usually care about sports, but when I do, it's the Packers

Mindy Kaling is really funny. Shopbop is still a tempting temptress.

2009-06-09T16:40:00.013-05:00

Kelly Kapoor is one of my favorite characters on The Office and now I'm suspicious that her character is not too far from the actual Mindy Kaling. Reading her blog, things that i bought that i love, is like being cubicle mates with Kelly at Dunder Mifflin. It's all things shopping and funny.

Also of note: Mindy is a big shopbop fan, an obsession that I share thanks to friend and shopbop writer, Amie.

* * *

I was looking through today at things I can't purchase because I'm saving my lootcakes for a camel ride in Morocco. Lately, this blog seems like a sad spinoff of Kaling's, titled 'Things that I can't buy that I love." Here's what's making me question if camels are really that cool today...

Outfit Uno

Let it be known... I'm pro-romper; Tucker floral romper

Frye Billy Short Booties

Outfit Due

Alex and Ani Eagle Cuff; wear this without irony on the Fourth of July

Pedro Garcia peep toe pumps with feathers

I didn't include any clothing for outfit due -- not because I wasn't finding plenty that 'I can't buy but love' -- but because it's not necessary. It would distract from those beautiful, beautiful shoes.

Don't see Marley & Me

2009-06-08T10:21:00.006-05:00

Watching Marley & Me will come to no good. You will wake up with a headache and scratchy throat from crying yourself to sleep. And then you'll want to spend your work-day browsing Petfinder, looking at puppies while your eyes periodically well-up with tears wondering why Hollywood always has to kill-off the family dog.

Weekly Weird: cake babies and balls of clay

2009-06-03T16:02:00.028-05:00

You might say that my Weekly Weird could probably be more accurately described as monthly. No matter, I'll soldier on.

* * *

Rob and I were in San Francisco a couple weeks ago for a way-too-short weekend. Rob's sister, Deet Dee (ejddiamond*) of I Dream of Cake fame was graduating from San Francisco Art Institute with her MFA in 'New Genres' -- a concentration that sounds very avant-garde and way over my head.

The weekend was a whirlwind with a thesis show opening at Fort Mason, graduation ceremony, party, taco stand.

* * *

The thesis show was really fun and chock-full of weird. Jail cell constructed out of soap -- weird and impressive; Man making ball after ball of clay with staring problem -- weird and creepy; ejddiamond's baby sculptures made entirely of cake -- weird and super awesome!

In their incubator-fridge

Actually cake!

Missed opportunity: Deet Dee could have totally trumped clay ball man in the weird-creepy performance-art genre if she actually ate these.

* * *

A couple things of note on art school graduations: it's not like a customary graduation. It becomes immediately apparent that no one is there to receive their B.S. or is German (logic: scientists and Germans need order). For starters, it took me a while to realize that the ceremony had started because people were kind of drifting in (and out) and only 10% of the graduates were in gowns. I wised up when someone started talking into the microphone and asked me for a donation.

Procession; Niemand hier spricht Deutsches

If you've never been, the SFAI is a really amazing building, full with Diego Rivera mural, pretty courtyard, and beautiful rooftop view of the city. I would normally think it was really awesome to hang out on their roof, but it happened to be 90-degrees that day and the roof happens to be made of clay. My species was not made for the sun and I think desperate thoughts when I start baking on clay tiles. I wanted to give Ed Ruscha a mouth kiss for giving only a 90-second speech to accept his honorary degree.

But the most significant note about art school graduations: you can apparently tack on a speech even if you're not in the ceremony program and it's 90-degrees outside (true story). So while the ceremony hijacker talked and talked, I thought about what I would say if I had the moxie to grab the mic away from her. I think it would begin with "I'll be your party master this afternoon. Hey-Ho! [blow horn]... A wise man once said, [insert Jesse Helms quote]" and then lead into a long retrospective of Anne Geddes.

Cool things to do on a roof overlooking San Francisco Part I

Cool things to do on a roof overlooking San Francisco Part II

* * *

More Deet Dee cake at the after party:

even tastier than bacon

* I'm in charge of setting up Deet Dee's portfolio site in exchange for what will be a really cool wedding cake. I need to fix some image issues, but then I'll post so you can see how cool her work is.

The Lady and her Gent are photographed

2009-06-03T11:20:00.010-05:00

We had our engagement photo session with our photographer, Erin Hanson, on Saturday and she just posted some shots on her blog. We had so much fun! And I was brave enough to wear the feathers, despite getting scathing comments from my brother and Rob beforehand ('It's like you have roadkill on your head,' 'What the hell is that,' etc). Whatever guys; don't question my flair.

One of the favs

Sassiness with the heal kick

Water was cold, cold, cold

Just, you know, dancing in the bay like we always do

Love this one. Rob looks handsome.

I thought Erin was great and I'm so excited to have her take our wedding day pictures.

Bonus: we made the homepage of her site!

She's a lady

2009-05-21T15:44:00.010-05:00

I was hunting around for an outfit for our engagement shots next weekend and I found her. I'm undecided on the whole feathered headband though. I love the feathered hair accessory trend, but I also envision myself wondering what the hell I was thinking in a few years. It will probably depend on how I'm feeling that evening -- if I'm in the mood to damn timelessness, then she will be worn and that bird will not have lost its feathers in vain.

Classy dress

4" heels will make me only 2" shorter than Rob

A bird is naked somewhere

This outfit also calls for some red lipstick, but I'll have to feel out my level of bravery for that as well.

I asked Rob what he was wearing and his answer was more or less "a shirt, maybe some pants..." This means that I get to call the shots and tailor his outfit to mine. We're ordinarily not a couple that coordinates outfits to events and such, but I'm going to wield the hand of art director in this scenario.

* * *

We were in San Francisco last weekend. I always leave that city feeling so inspired and motivated. Once I get more caught up at work, I have some cool stuff to show from the weekend.

Ruscle Melaxers... yawn

2009-05-13T10:38:00.008-05:00

Something sinister has been going on with my neck this week. I can't move it due to muscle spasms and am forced to walk around like Herman Munster in a drug-induced haze.

me; minus the smile, plus the drugs

In my 48-hours of being a user, I've learned that muscle relaxers are for serious. So my goals for this work day are just to 1) not drool in front of anyone, 2) avoid heavy machinery and 3) paint with all the colors of the wind* ...this client needs a mascot -- something magical like a gnome riding a griffin bareback. That's funny... This palette should be rainbow-colored... I need a sixth cup of espresso... I crave Arby's... These thoughts make sense for fleeting moments.

But I truly wish I could take my psychedelic-self to the room scene below (or really any place that's conducive to nap taking). Our user-testing room is the only place in our office where I could take an emergency nap, but that lacks a bed and waking up to a fresh pot of french-pressed coffee in a world without neck pain.

room scene via Design Sponge -- world without neck pain

*While we're on the topic of drug-induced haze, who thought this was worth making?

Williams, Vanessa (1995). "Colors of the Wind"

'Something Blue' Dunzo

2009-04-30T15:14:00.006-05:00

I like superstitions, so I've decided to follow the tradition of wearing 'something old, something new; something borrowed, something blue' for the wedding.

I just found my something blue in the form of some pretty earrings. Score.

Hemimorphite and Aquamarine

I was looking up what that custom even means. I figured I should know if I'm going to follow through with it. This is what Ask Yahoo! told me:
+ 'Something old' symbolizes continuity with the bride's family and the past.
+ 'Something new' means optimism and hope for the bride's new life ahead.
+ 'Something borrowed"' is usually an item from a happily married friend or family member, whose good fortune in marriage is supposed to carry over to the new bride. The borrowed item also reminds the bride that she can depend on her friends and family.
+ 'Something blue' symbolize love, modesty, and fidelity

That's kind of nice. Love, modesty, and fidelity for the bargain price of $29.99 from Banana Republic Clearance.

Past Life Analysis; do it

2009-04-24T14:05:00.004-05:00

So this is what I was up to back in 1025:

I don't know how you feel about it, but you were female in your last earthly incarnation. You were born somewhere in the territory of modern West Russia around the year 1025. Your profession was that of a handicraftsman or mechanic.

Your brief psychological profile in your past life:
Seeker of truth and wisdom. You could have seen your future lives. Others perceived you as an idealist illuminating the path to the future.

The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:
You fulfill your lesson by helping old folks and children. You came to this life to learn to care about the weak and the helpless.

What was your past life?

Weekly Weird: Sleeveface

2009-04-24T13:46:00.013-05:00

In their own words, Sleeveface is 'one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion.'

My favorite illusions:

Lisa Stansfield: the first album Small Krista ever bought

Bonus points for using a soft

Four eyes

2009-04-24T10:14:00.007-05:00

I was recently perusing the Oliver Peoples site for a couple reasons: 1) I love spectacles (not 'glasses', but 'spectacles'), and 2) like most people, I have a girl-crush on their spokesmodel Zooey Deschanel.

I love spectacles I was one of those kids that always wanted to wear specs. I've been blessed with over 20/20 vision, but not without a little vexation over the fact that I could look so much more intelligent and urbane with specs. I've owned a fake pair once, which I wore for a week, but then I just felt really vain and developed this paranoia that everyone else could see through my ruse.

These beauts are too expensive for me to use in my next cunning attempt to appear sophisticated and indie cool, but they are beauts:

Tycoon

Sheldrake / my brother should wear these

Riley

Deacon

Zooey Deschanel and Matt Costa did this cute little video campaign for Oliver Peoples.

I have a girl crush on Zooey Deschanel She could sell me most things. The other day, I saw this commercial she was in and I remember saying to myself "I want whatever this is advertising" and then I figured out it was for Cotton, the Fabric of Our Lives. But then I just tried to figure out how I should go about buying more cotton.

Oh, and I'm really digging her band with M Ward, She & Him. I know, I'm living in a musical time capsule from 2008.

'Bout Time

2009-04-23T16:34:00.006-05:00

Brenda, aka Aesthetic Dalliances, is about to have a baby any day now and I've been focusing some craft energy on her unborn.

I just shipped off a care package to London-town via pony express because International FedEx is attainable only by kings and gentry. So who knows when this will actually show up! In short, I'm taking a chance by posting this right now and ruining any surprise.

Snuggie: it's a backwards robe for a baby

Biggest challenge: finding masculine baby fabric that's not ugly

I first noticed this on Ali's* Black Sheep Knits (and Sews too!) and fell in love with it. Turns out the pattern is in Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones. I love Butler's books as they're easy to follow for the novice.

But as most of my projects go, I find something to mess up. This time it was the button holes that were supposed to act as delicate little belt loops. In what I've now termed the 'ingenuity phase' of all my projects, I came up with an alternative belt loop that was not delicate, but hey, it's industrial strength. There's a funny little patch on the inside, but the yet unborn won't mind especially when I promise to spoil him.

Back belt loop

* Aleks, the artist formerly known as Ali is grown up and a serious 2nd-year law student, 'Ali' is forever five years-old and helping build elaborate blanket forts in my parent's basement. I can't move on.

A Better Weekly Weird: American Society for Social Hygiene

2009-04-17T12:40:00.008-05:00

I wasn't totally sold on the 'weirdness' of yesterday's Weekly Weird, so I thought I would redo it by posting this public service announcement I found via Studio on Fire. They used it to advertise their birth announcements :)

Beware the autorides.

Speaking of Studio on Fire, if you want to see some truly inspiring and beautiful letterpress design from a nice, respectable Midwestern design shop, check out their blog, Beast Pieces. Here's a sampling of their cool work:

Love how the solid color block brings out the texture on the Crane's Lettra

Pretty wedding invitations -- I like non-traditional wording and format

Weekly Weird: Fail Blog

2009-04-16T14:27:00.008-05:00

I don't know if I'd personally consider Fail Blog 'weird,' but it's in the Webby Awards 'Weird Websites' category and it's certainly entertaining. Three humorous Fail images:

Burglar fail

Car repair fail

Life Choice fail

Speaking of The Webby Awards, The Royal Order's work was nominated in Best Visual Design Aesthetic and Corporate Communications for Patagonia's Tin Shed. Vote!

Shazam!

2009-04-16T10:47:00.006-05:00

It's a ring pillow.

I was hunting around JoAnn Fabrics (which is my prefered way to spend a Friday night these days) on the lookout for some goat's milk base to try my hand at soap making and I also came across this pretty purple fabric that matches the bridesmaid dresses. So I had some fun with it and made a nature-inspired ring pillow.

The gold-tie needs a little finessing (or replacing), but I thought the leaves were cute. The button sort of looks like tree rings.

Incidentally, you can't really see much of the purple fabric in these pictures

Photographs and soap

2009-04-10T11:45:00.009-05:00

I found Anna Williams via 100 Layer Cake, one of my favorite wedding-related blogs. She has such beautiful work.

from her France series

I love that staircase, from her People series

from her Interiors series, also on Marthastewart.com

Upon closer examination, I also recognized some of her interior shots from Martha's* Home Tours. I don't think she shot this one, but I really love the Country Cottage one.

But back to 100 Layer Cake. I admire their style and ideas a lot. They have this simple recipe to make your own soap as favors. I want to try the lavender oatmeal this weekend. I'll take pictures if I'm successful. I have some pretty brown bakers' twine that I've been wanting to use.

photos via 100 Layer Cake

Fuck you, Gocco

2009-04-10T10:49:00.008-05:00

So I had a gocco disaster when I tried to print our save the dates a while back. It really wasn't Mr. Gocco's fault as I soon learned the intended design was totally inappropriate for the medium, but I was still angry with him.

To add to the mess, I also lost a goodly number of freshly addressed, lined, and stamped envelopes out of my car window when I was in an accident last month. I thought these were fated to never go out.

But my luck changed. I'm fortunate to have a generous matron of honor and mother that helped redo things in a matter of a couple hours. I had other offers of support (thanks, Betsy!) which warmed my heart. And it turns out that the combination letterpress-offset cards look beautiful.

My moo-cow creamer, who also survived the crash, makes his debut on this blog

printed with all soy-based inks

paper is Mohawk Superfine Eggshell-finish White (manufactured with windpower)

liner paper is French Mod-Tone Violet (wish I had a better picture)
envelopes are Paper Source Khaki, sized A6

And as for Gocco, we will hopefully be more successful printing our thank you notes, so he can redeem himself in my eyes.

Mathleticism and life equations

2009-04-02T10:56:00.007-05:00

I was initially not a proud mathlete in high school. My friend Katie and I competed purely for the extra-credit as we reminded ourselves. I was embarrassed the first time that I caught myself high-fiving a teammate.

But somewhere during an awards ceremony (I was never a medal-winner) I had a revelation: I'm having fun. And mathleticism is really not much nerdier than National Honor Society, first-chair alto saxophone, and cross country (all three in a prominent place on my resume). In other words, I was already standing at the bottom of a slippery slope of cool v. uncool.

Thus I entered one of the final phases of adolescence -- the reaction to many years of trying too hard, wearing Davidoff Cool Water and white eyeliner -- no longer agonizing over fitting in.

Because of its place in my personal development, math meets will always have a soft spot in my heart. Segue to: these funny, life equations at New Math by Craig Damrauer.

The Weekly Weird, introductory edition

2009-03-31T10:57:00.008-05:00

In my apartment, I like to offset a room with something curious, such as the plastic dinosaur on our fireplace mantle, the alligator head on our bookshelf, or the line-up of dry wishbones on our kitchen sink window. I don't feel like my living space is complete if it's too normal, conventional.

I gravitate toward the weird and I realize that I come across a lot of weird in the course of a week. I revel in the strange details in life, so I'm creating "The Weekly Weird" as an excuse to document some of it.

So what's weird this week? This freakish twin egg, that's what.

free-range chickens are into some freaky shit

I still used the egg, but I got sort of suspicious when the next two eggs had two yolks as well (and annoyed during the separation process). Nevertheless, all three freak eggs went into the graham cracker cake I tried to make for Rob's mom.

Alas, the cake in its intended form was not to be as I forgot the baking powder. I passed it off as a tort instead and it was actually tastier than it had any right to be given its density.

freakishly dense cake-tort made with the freakish twin eggs

I was interested in the whole twin egg thing and wondered if it was common. A basic Google search confirms that it is somewhat weird and further tells me that I will either give birth to twins or have a morbid death in the family, depending on my choice old-wives tale. I'm hoping neither and that the ruined cake-tort will appease the gods.

Color-coordinated shelves -- to do or not to do?

2009-03-26T13:54:00.013-05:00

When Rob moved into his previous apartment, I helped organize his movie collection. Having a bunch of plastic DVD cases up on a bookshelf usually looks so horrible, so I thought I would at least simplify the clutter by organizing them by color on the shelf.

This method of organization makes sense to me. Being more of a spatial versus verbal learner, I remember where things are by sight and color much quicker than scanning words and I usually remember the general appearance of a book or movie cover that I own.

Example: when I'm looking for Harry and the Hendersons, I immediately know to look in the blue section. On a side note, if you haven't seen anything weird today, check out the German intro to Harry and the Hendersons, the TV show.

Harry was more of a Kinesthetic Learner

I was out-numbered: Rob and his roommate, Aaron, had them in alpha order by the month's end. But I still think there's something to the color-method. Anyone else?

Hey, at least it looks neat:

It really tied the room together

2009-03-25T11:59:00.007-05:00

White vinyl venetian blinds have no place outside of a heroin den, but they've been in our bedroom for seven months.

I prefer that my windows and the light that was intended to come through them are left unviolated even if it creates some awkward moments with the old guy next door who's always outside smoking on his porch. But I can deal with the knowledge that my neighbors see me naked on a regular basis -- it's the price I'm willing to pay for maximum natural light.

In the past, the first thing I did in a new apartment was to get rid of the dreaded mini blinds, but Rob values privacy more than I do and also needs a dark room to hibernate, so I've had to compromise a bit. I'd gotten away with hiding the blinds in almost every room but the bedroom, where they continued to assault the finer senses.

Well, we found these awesome curtains last weekend, so the problem is solved. And they really do tie the room together.

Spring!

2009-03-20T18:50:00.003-05:00

These flowers from my friend, Gabby, really put me in the spring mood.

I used to hate Spring as a child. It's an ugly time of year in the Midwest with the grey melting snow and the mud -- it always made me impatient for the really good weather when I could bust out my summer uniform of a swimsuit and my apple skirt that twirled really well.

Now that I've outgrown the apple skirt, I look at Spring a little differently. I love the anticipation. I check the 10-day weather forecast more often and it makes me so happy to have the rare 70-degree and sunny day. I appreciate it more than in summer.

Ann Sacks' latest lovelies

2009-03-20T15:22:00.008-05:00

Man, am I ever loving tiempo, the new hand-painted terra cotta at Ann Sacks.

gitanos 3 in robin's egg, ochre, off white and antique green

moroccan field in banana

la spezia 2 in off white and royal blue

gitanos 5 in paprika, vanilla and honey

gitanos 7 in off white and dark stain

Style quiz

2009-03-19T20:09:00.009-05:00

I love profile quizzes. I ran across this personal style quiz on Sproost. It tests you by reading your reaction to various room scenes.

Here are some of the room scenes I reacted well to:

This kitchen set-up is amazing.

I want to be in here on one of those first warm days in spring

It's like a contemporary drawing room. Anyone in this room should be doing needlework.

I love those dining chairs

A comfy, broken-in couch that still looks chic

Apparently, I'm 67% Cottage Chic and 33% Rustic Revival. Or a longer explanation:

You love the carefree spirit that the cottage interior inspires, but you are also serious about your appreciation for modern art and hip treasures. You love old and new alike, and love to highlight them all to expose the uniqueness of each.

You love to mix of modern and country. The clean lines of the modern softened by rustic/vintage elements is the perfect mix in your mind. And can we blame you? You've taken the best aspects of two popular designs and mixed them in a manner that appeals to young and old alike. A subtle background of white or light colors provides a nice canvas for all the wonderful flea market, eBay, or garage sale finds as well as the classic modern pieces that you love.

Honeymoon, v2.0

2009-03-19T11:45:00.008-05:00

Rob and I had settled on Port Douglas, Australia for our honeymoon a while back for some quality beachtime and wildlife adventures. Then we read that it's jellyfish season when we're going, which means the dreams I had of myself romping in the waves and having a From Here to Eternity-style make-out session came to a screeching halt.

As my dad (an avid National Geographic reader) told me, take whatever bizarro wildlife we have in the States and multiply the danger-factor by ten in Australia. I'm picturing jellyfish with the head of a bear and the tail of a scorpion thirsty for blood -- my blood.

So instead, a location that was on our initial list was resurrected: Morocco. This change turns out to be a great thing because we've been much more excited to plan honeymoon, v2.0. The thought is to spend most of the time in Marrakech where we can use Starwood points from his parents at Le Meridien (awesome). We're deciding between Essaouira or Agadir for a 3-day seaside excursion where we'll stay in a more traditional riad. As long as I have myself a camel-ride on the beach, I'm a happy bride.

Side note: did you know that camels can reach 40mph?

Shop 'til we drop in the souk

Djemaa el Fna / good eats

A black soap rub-down at Les Bains de Marrakech

Ben Youssef Mosque

Images from NYTimes.com

Another checkmark on the damned Knot Checklist

2009-03-06T10:40:00.006-06:00

I've been belated in many decisions during the planning of this wedding. Some of my unmarked checkboxes with the screaming exclamation mark don't necessitate a cautionary icon -- things like take engagement shots and announce it in your local newspaper or reserve disco lights that project your wedding logo on the dance floor.

But one of these unchecked boxes cannot be messed with -- the bridesmaid attire.

I had toyed with the idea of having everyone wear their own dress in a certain color range and then looking at dress lines that you can choose unique silhouettes in the same fabric/color. I have no desire to have everyone be all matchy-matchy, but then I found this dress at Nordstrom and fell in love with the color.

Finding this dress was good on many levels: for one, I love it and think everyone will look great in it. (And I happened upon a Real Wedding on snippet & ink with these. Gorgeous!) But an added bonus is that I finally have a poster child for the wedding palette.

"What are your colors?" is usually the first question that people ask you if they're curious about how the planning is coming along. Almost a year into planning and I had no answer to give on this, purely because the answer sounds too wacky. I'm all about the palette consisting of 5-6 colors and materials, but when I try to explain that by saying "Plum and sage are the dominant colors, secondary colors of sky blue, ivory, and packing paper, and tertiary colors of antique-ish baby pink and gold metallic... ," they respond with a judgmental facial expression that says "get your shit together or your wedding is going to be tragic."

I like to blame The Knot for many things and one of them is for peddling the idea that everything needs to work within a range of two colors or things will be a mess. Whatever the case, I can just say that the bridesmaid dresses are purple and circumvent discussing the palette in all its crazy glory.

I could deal with having a country home

2009-03-05T11:19:00.009-06:00

I really enjoy the NYTimes Great Homes and Destinations section. It enables my guilty pleasure of peeking in the windows of other people's dwellings.

I'm fascinated by homes that deserve names other than their street address. It doesn't need to be grand in size or have luxurious amenities to be christened; it just has to have a pulse of its own and the ability to influence the way you live and interact with others in a positive way. I appreciate homes that bring people together and ease socialization.

The Beekman is grand in size (and kind of ridiculous looking on the outside), but it demands its own name because you get the sense that it's living. I can picture myself spending hours in that kitchen everyday.

A weekend of productivity and supreme destruction

2009-02-25T10:36:00.012-06:00

I can't help but insult the taste of the previous tenants of our apartment: every room had been painted the same lackluster color that lived somewhere between yellow and beige, but never made up its mind as to where it was -- it lived in a no-mans land with its indistinctness. It depressed me and was repainted before we even moved in.

But the bathroom had been left unassailed by their non-color. It was instead painted in a stark white -- not the kind of white that has a subtle hint of another color that casts a certain glow, but a white that is devoid of emotion and has no purpose being anywhere but a psych ward. While we managed to right the wrongness of the rest of the apartment, the bathroom had remained untouched for some time and was a source of some embarrassment for me.

I finally did something about it last weekend:

Before; blech

After; much cheerier!

Notice that the missing light bulb in the 'after' shot. It was one of the many casualties from the painting operation. What this picture doesn't show you is a hole in the wall, and various fixtures laying on the ground in shambles around the corner.

During the second coat, I started to get lazy with adjusting the ladder and found myself stretching to get some final trim. I fell and took the towel bar, toilet paper dispenser, and part of a shelf with me. And then the light bulb exploded (yes, exploded!) while I was in the shower cleansing my wounds. At that point, I decided to give up on life for the day: I left everything, tiptoed around the shattered glass and made my way to the couch where I confined myself for the rest of the evening.

#&%$ &()@#*(#(@^(

2009-02-13T15:03:00.004-06:00

This week has not be stellar for many reasons, but the icing on the crap cake was my failed attempt at printing our wedding Save the Dates.

Rob gave me a gocco printer for Christmas, which was a really awesome gift. I had expectations of printing all our wedding materials on it. I've seen so many great examples of this on various blogs, but I failed spectacularly... I don't know why... I think my design was a little too detailed?? The 9pt reversed-out type didn't have a chance... I'll post an image of that wreck once I have the heart to take it.

Our save the date design (or, 'STD' as my file is labeled)

I think I'm going to send an emergency order to my usual letterpress printer at Letterpress Chicago (his midge video of the press on the homepage makes me smile). It will have to be one-color and I'll have to axe the variance in tint in the sky as I did not budget for gocco failure.

The silver lining is that it will be on #100 Mohawk Superfine and I think the design will translate to letterpress in an interesting way. It will make our lame little wedding logo pop. Yep, wedding logos are lame and God only knows why I slapped one together, but then again, why am I slapping on a veil? There's a metaphor in there somewhere.

I plan to steal from my grandmother

2009-02-12T00:44:00.008-06:00

I was looking through my Grandma Issy's wedding album recently. She really gets a kick out of going through all the pictures and explaining the customs and I get a kick out of her 'getting a kick.'

Her wedding day was an ordeal -- it was a full day of celebration which included all three meals and apparently a lot of keg drinking (see below). It wasn't super-schmancy and I think that made it all the more beautiful... and fun. Also, I love the masses of evergreen boughs and I'm totally ripping off that idea for our decorations.

Cedar boughs filled the garage where the evening party was held

Grandma drinking beer in a very lady-like fashion

Prost to Grandma Issy and Bop Joe

She wore red lipstick -- brave woman

Life as I know it right now

2009-02-11T15:50:00.008-06:00

The Royal Order is in the midst of refreshing CB2.com, which currently needs a little tender love and care. Consequently, I've been knee-deep in the Crate&Barrel and CB2 product catalogs for the past couple weeks and I'm starting to know product names and prices by heart (which came in pretty handy when having to register last weekend).

CB2 has a lot of gems. Here are some of my favorites right now:

overnight table lamp

The NPR map

halogen credenza

grid pillow

alchemy stool

Like Christmas, but even more spoilier

2009-02-09T14:35:00.008-06:00

Rob and I went to Crate&Barrel's registry event on Sunday. There were many reasons why this was cool. To name a few: the mini quiches on the buffet table, mimosas, the product demos (wow, this $120 knife really is more awesome than this $60 one... we'll scan it), another mimosa, let's scan this $2300 hutch...

So there's a lot of editing to do, but we did manage to find a lot of practical items that we really need and are excited about. I've never cared before, but I'll admit that I'm slightly excited to have matching dishes and flatware. This is what spending three hours in Crate&Barrel will do to you:

Stockton placesettings

Acacia platter

Slate cheese board

Shun chef's knife

Bialleti cappuccino maker

Cute awkwardness

2009-02-06T15:05:00.006-06:00

I was hunting around Etsy for some Valentine's gift ideas and ran across these by Sharon Montrose:

I thought these were pretty cute in an awkward sort of way. She makes the animals look super dorky, which makes me laugh.

For similar reasons, Fuck You, Penguin is one of my favorite blogs. It has headlines such as "What conceited meercats really want to do is direct" and "This cat's world is about to be destroyed." If you're willing to help fight the good fight against heart explosions due to cuteness, there's a tipline.

Aesthetic Dalliances

2009-01-29T11:12:00.006-06:00

Brenda the Beastlet, one of my closest girlfriends from college (and bridesmaid! and soon-to-be mom to Ludovictus the Unborn!), just started a blog. Knowing her passion for all things beautiful, tasty, and amusing, this will be a good one to follow.

Where else will you find a personal anecdote involving a playground, an escaped bull, and a midge-Beast who happened to wear red to school that day?

It gets the highly sought-after Extreme Boheme* endorsement, which is notable both for the rarity of its bestowal and the arrogance behind creating one's own award.

*In actuality, I just like using that term as much as possible, such as with the Boheme Machine (my iPod) and the Boheme Supreme (my computer).

It's stolen from my grandmother, who refers to Bohemians as "The Bohemes." I'd assume this is a racial slur if it weren't so funny when she says it. Additionally, she doesn't do well with the 't-h' sound (so cute), so it sounds more like 'Ta Boheems."

So you may ask: what is the best sentence you've heard Grandma Issy say to date? Easy: You have to go through Duluth to get to Thunder Bay.

Good things come to those who wait (or get lucky)

2009-01-14T15:23:00.010-06:00

I made two big scores this week:

by Shepard Fairey

1) Inauguration tickets; Rob and I are able to attend the Inauguration, thanks to a friend of a friend of a friend. We had all but given up hope when the tickets fell into our lap this week.

We had requested tickets a while back from every source available to us, but ran into dead-end after dead-end. I was even laughed at by a staffer (I'm talking about you, Eric in Senator Kohl's office) for even asking. So I was disappointed, but not yet daunted, and decided to still head to DC to hang out with my girlfriend Kristine. The city would still be exciting and I always have a great time with her -- she's a foodie extraordinaire.

Now we find ourselves with tickets and were able to extend our stay (me) and book a flight (Rob). Plenty of pictures to come!

And something less civic-minded:

2) This Luxe Beaded Sash Belt from JCrew; I've been eyeing this ever since it made an appearance in their catalog with this awesome dress .

Silk Taffeta Kate Gown

Shopping options were kind of limited growing up in Northern Wisconsin, so it was a red letter day when the JCrew catalog arrived. My best friend, Katie and I would pour over every page and painstakingly over-analyze every investment of our babysitting money. I really hated watching people's kids, so the stakes were high.

Katie just got married this November. And as a thank you for being an attendant, she gave me a gift card to JCrew in sweet remembrance of those days. The thought was really cute... and the gift card was really burning a hole in my pocket.

So I've been tracking this belt and have watched it go from a full-price of $175 to 'reduced price' to 'sale item.' Cha-ching! I feel like a winner when I find something I really love on sale, especially when I've exercised some self-control.

Street Style

2009-01-12T10:13:00.004-06:00

via The Sartorialist / August 08

I'm hooked on street style sites. The interest began with following The Sartorialist and has grown to include many, many more blogs. Here are some of my favorites from various cities:

Paris / Garance Dore
London / Face Hunter
Amsterdam / Dam Style
Stockholm / Stockholm Street Style
Budapest / Budapest Style
Tel Aviv / The Streets Walker
Copenhagen / Copenhagen Street Style

Holiday sabbatical

2009-01-09T13:55:00.015-06:00

I spent two wonderful weeks up in Wisconsin. With limited internet access and cell phone reception, I was cut-off from everything. Instead I had plenty of time to romp outdoors.

I love the cold and snow. And I especially love being by Lake Michigan this time of year -- it's so brutal and unforgiving -- I feel at the mercy of the elements and the mini Christopher McCandless in me digs that... But I'll be so over my romantic view of winter by March and wanting to wear springish things and go skip in a manicured park or something... but for now, these photos from my break seem very nice indeed.

Icy treetops on a grey, grey day

my snowshoes

my brother bundled up

Cana Island Lighthouse

Ditto

Grrrrrr!

Christmas List: Type

2008-12-18T14:34:00.006-06:00

I get periodic emails from Veer, peddling their design geekery (which I love but am too embarrassed to actually wear) and giving updates on their type specimens.

Their latest update had two that I've been wanting: Memoir and Epic.

Memoir

Epic

I want to spend Christmas here...

2008-12-12T16:52:00.003-06:00

I think this room is pretty near perfect. I love living spaces that revolve around fireplaces instead of TVs. It makes me want to curl up and read a book for several hours.

Photographer, check

2008-12-12T15:46:00.007-06:00

Rob and I have clearly defined roles in the planning process. His territory is music and booze and mine is any and all pertaining to aesthetics. The whole finding a photographer thing was quite an ordeal for me and if the search is indicative of how the rest of my decisions are going to go, I need to chill out. Wait until I get to invites...more on that later.

Ugh. There is a ton of talent out there, but I felt like I spent a whole lot of time wading through portfolios full of super tacky Photoshop effects and spot coloring. Double-ugh: the 45-degree tilt of the camera to make the shots look spontaneous.

My mom finally came across Erin Jean Photography in my tiny hometown. Excellent! She's really talented and SO nice -- chock-full of Midwestern charm. So we officially have a photographer. Take that, Knot Checklist.

Below are a few of my favorites from her blog:

Trendy birds

2008-12-09T16:56:00.008-06:00

Our family Christmas tree growing up was pretty motley. My parents have an old TV box full of mismatching ornaments, which is a lot considering this box originated from the era when TVs were still designed as if it were a piece of heirloom furniture. Half of these ornaments were broken, but all were required to hang on the tree. This rule even applied to the clay or melted wax ornaments we would make in school every year.

When we were younger, my brother and I would seek out all of the gaudiest family ornaments and place them at the front of the Christmas tree to irritate the mama bear. There was a lot of competition for this mantle of honor, but we would usually pass over my respectable collection of unicorn ornaments in favor of the birds. All of these birds were crafted from elaborate plumes, laboriously sought after by our dog, and needed several branches for support apiece.

Over the years, my mom has started gifting us bird ornaments in retaliation. I have a healthy collection that's growth rate has escalated ever since they've become a commodity in the Target Holiday department.

So why are birds so trendy? I have no idea. They're on every piece of stationary I see now.

Here's the really sick part: now I think birds are cool. And I think this bird mobile is the coolest.

via Spool Sewing

Pretty, pretty

2008-12-04T17:33:00.004-06:00

Oh, I like these from Stephanie Simek (via Brooklyn Bride):

Am I the only brat that ends up finding and buying more for herself when Christmas shopping?

Christmas Tree Hunt

2008-12-02T14:20:00.017-06:00

I love this time of year for many reasons: it's cloudy, cold and snow are still a novelty, and of course there's the abundance of holiday vacation time! Rob and I were up in Wisconsin this year for Thanksgiving. As is Seidl Family tradition, we visited a tree farm the day after to get our Christmas tree.

Shaking and wrapping the tree

Um, yikes; at the nearby bar

Honeymoon, I think??

2008-12-01T13:48:00.003-06:00

I think we finally made a decision on the honeymoon... Australia!

OK, that's still really, really broad. But narrowing it down to one continent/country is actually a big step for us. We've been hemming and hawing about location for a while now. Rob wants to be hand fed peeled grapes at a beach resort; I want to avoid third-degree sunburns and sugar-comas from fruity drinks and seek adventure and culture. Somehow we're managing to meet in the middle. I think this guy sold us:

This made me laugh

2008-11-19T17:09:00.004-06:00

I really like the reproduction of the "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters, but they're a little too everywhere for me right now. This spin-off made me laugh though:

via FFFFound!

Shoes, glorious shoes

2008-11-18T16:38:00.003-06:00

Shopbop goodness:

Sigh

2008-11-18T15:57:00.006-06:00

I like to keep reasonably up-to-date on what's going on in fashion, but alas, my budget and I agree that I'll buy designer only if it hits the racks of Target.

I snapped up Alice Temperley when she was there in 07. She's so British and girlie and I appreciate her magpie tendencies. Here are two of my favorites from her Autumn/Winter Collection:

Centerpiece idea

2008-11-18T15:37:00.005-06:00

I'm not really into flowers. Perhaps that's good, because Rob never surprises me with them (ahem, hint). That said, I'm always happy when they're around; fresh flowers can really energize a room. But as we're considering the wedding budget, they're pretty low on the priority list.

I think candles will do the trick and an assortment on each table could give the room a nice glow. I already have a bunch of these guys collected from various antique stores:

But I'm also considering using these guys (IKEA):

I think the silver lantern and blue mason jar would work well together.

I like

2008-11-18T15:32:00.005-06:00

I can't remember where I found this little mark (oops, sorry citation gods), but I thought this was so simple and nice.

Save the Date paper

2008-11-03T22:28:00.004-06:00

I hit up Paper Source this weekend for two reasons: 1) to see if they happened to have any last remaining Goccos in stock (yeah, right), and 2) to check out paper for our Save the Dates (a more successful venture).

We both like the combo below, but the liner paper is super expensive and would take up a hefty chunk of our invite budget. I'm still going to look around...

A makeover story (Part II)

2008-11-03T22:15:00.005-06:00

OK, so the first pillow I made for the bench was ugly -- really, really ugly. I'm not going to show it, but it was the wrong size and the fabric wasn't doing much for me.

But, I found much cooler fabric and I'm more excited about attempt numero dos. It's from Art Gallery Fabrics, which is decidedly more awesome than the deep discount bin at JoAnn Fabrics.

A makeover story (Before)

2008-10-28T14:59:00.009-05:00

I continue my enterprise of craftiness with the bench by our front door. At the moment, it serves as a storage place for a basket of mittens and a sock monkey; so while very necessary, it's safe to say that this area isn't living up to its full potential.

To help spruce it up, I'm constructing a pillow for the top to make it more of a bench that someone might use instead of throw miscellaneous decor (gourds?). This will hopefully come in handy when it comes time to pull out the Sorels for snow season.

The Offender

The Pattern (Amy Butler's Stiches)

The Material (cotton-linen blend)

Ready to baste to the muslin

Gabby's Wedding Invites + Images

2008-10-28T13:39:00.013-05:00

This is a super belated post... my best gal pal just got married in September. Back in January, she asked me to design an invitation set, which was really, really fun. It's very rare that I do print design nowadays, so I love when I get the chance. And I got to letterpress them.

Save the Dates

Invitations

The invitation and RSVP card

Her wedding ceremony was at this beautiful cathedral in the Polish neighborhood of Cleveland where her dad grew up and the reception at a country club outside of the city. The whole day had a very traditional and luxe feel to it. It rained for maybe twenty minutes -- enough to get some really pretty umbrella shots (below), then it was clear and beautiful for the rest of the day. The photographer* did a beautiful job capturing the day.

Granted, I am a little biased, but it was the most fun I've ever had at a wedding. It beat-out my aunt's wedding where I convinced the band to play "Shout" three times during the night (six-year-old me thought that was pretty awesome).

Romantic umbrella shot

Super ornate cathedral; the Poles don't mess around

Every picture of me alone was put in black & white.
Thanks for the self-esteem boost, photographer.

the brand-spankin'-new Mrs. D'Anza and me

*photos by Z Media

Sunday distraction

2008-10-22T10:57:00.007-05:00

Rob was working all Sunday, so I got some quality weekend time to myself to get all crafty. I decided to sew a really simple apron pattern from Amy Butler's Stitches (instead of working on an informative website for our wedding guests... more on that later). It was my first attempt at pleats. My previous experience has been more about making basic stitches and trying to keep them straight, so it was a step-up for me.

I think it turned out pretty well, but in the future, I would probably make this pattern a lot shorter. I could correct this version, but who am I kidding?

Below are the awkward shots of me trying to photograph the finished project on myself:

Sad day

2008-10-21T12:25:00.005-05:00

Today, I finally surrendered my Wisconsin driver's license.

Despite not living in WI for eight years (and having braces in my photo ID--terrible), I had a hard time letting it go. I've been living in Chicago for over four years, but I have not been able to bring myself to accept the unsavory title of "Illinoisan." From a young age, we are taught to scorn our southern neighbors who invade our state in the summer, swindle us out of our lake frontage, revel in our quaintness, and *gasp* root for the Bears.

It took the impending expiration of my last government-certified proof that I am not really a FIB* to make me haul my arse to the DMV.

The better part of my morning went as follows:
+ wait in preliminary line for 20 minutes
+ get yelled at for not having all documents out and ready
+ get yelled at for having a beverage (coffee) in the office
+ take ticket #F609 and stand in another line
+ wait for 1.5 hrs
+ listen to other people get yelled at
+ get yelled at for still not disposing of coffee
+ take/pass test (process which consisted of four more lines)
+ take a photo that I'll be embarrassed to show for four years

While having an Illinois license with current address will be really quite useful on a day-to-day basis, there are pitfalls when you cross the border into either Wisconsin or Michigan. These pitfalls usually come in the form of traffic tickets. Sigh.

* FIB: Fucking Illinois Bastard, or FIP: Fucking Illinois People for those who like to limit the swearing.

Writing partner... check

2008-10-15T22:13:00.003-05:00

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved. --NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month is coming up in November. It's piqued my interests in previous years, but I've never participated. I feel like writing 175 pages of crap in one month would be like training for a marathon -- you need a training partner to get through something like that and guilt you into working when you're thinking of every excuse not to.

I just coerced my friend Amie into joining me. She works as writer for Shopbop in Madison, which is a pretty awesome job. So by day, she's works as more of a "sprinter" in the writing world (if we're going to keep this whole running metaphor going), whereas I find walking challenging.

Hopefully I'll be able to limp to the finish line on November 30.

Midge-haversack

2008-10-15T21:46:00.003-05:00

I just completed a short beginner's sewing course at JoAnn Fabrics. I was the youngster in the class by a couple decades, which made me kind of a social outsider from the rest of the class. That's ok -- I could kick all their asses at threading a needle.

We got to vote on what our final class project would be. I was vastly outnumbered, so we ended up making a mini haversack. I'm not really sure what you're supposed to do with it, but it's holding my foot control for now.

DIY + a trained electrician

2008-10-15T14:38:00.005-05:00

I have only a rough idea of what we're going to do for our reception centerpieces, but this much is known: it will involve putting some untamed-looking floral arrangement into vintage blue mason jars. My mom and aunt have hunted down about 30 of these things, which leads me to wonder what I'm going to do with them afterward. Here's a really awesome idea via Design Sponge:

This takes care of 4 out of 30...

Nuptial Sanity

2008-10-10T16:16:00.004-05:00

Since getting engaged, I've gone through an evolution of sorts. At first, I was gobbling up every wedding magazine, etiquette book, and blog in sight. I really wanted this impressive, made-to-remember event. Thank God we have a long engagement...

Because after month three, I realized that every magazine issue was the same. The Knot began to feel more cancerous than helpful: the exclamation marks next to tardy tasks made me feel inadequate and the peddling of tacky crap like disco lights with our initials annoyed me.

All the pomp was starting to feel stale... and narcissistic... do people really want a keepsake item with the happy couple's monogram or wedding theme? That all seems rather embarrassing. I started to twitch every time a vendor would use the phrase 'it's your special day.' So I put myself on a wedding diet -- not the weight-loss kind -- but from sensory gluttony.

I've got a slim list of blogs that I'll check from time to time for ideas or inspiration, and there's one that I love in particular, A Practical Wedding. This blog is a rare bastion of nuptial sanity. She's not ascetic or an extreme DIY-hero. She just has great common sense and keeps things in marvelous perspective. I love it.

I read this blog whenever I feel a tinge of guilt for wanting to 'keep this whole thing simple.'

My Doctrine

2008-09-16T13:17:00.005-05:00

I woke up late again this morning. Rob had already left for work, so I was alone -- going about my morning business of making coffee, weighing the pros and cons of showering or getting 20 extra minutes of sleep -- when it appeared.

It possessed a fairly evolved exoskeleton and moved in a slow waddle that shifted the balance of his elephantine body with every step...

I've never been good at dealing with insects or arachnids. I'm indiscriminately afraid of them all and have an unwavering policy on such things. I'm certainly not capable of resolving things passively through a 'catch and release,' so I usually end up throwing a shoe from several feet away just in case the intruder decides to get aggressive -- a preventative attack.

...I stand there frozen, watching the brawny sway of this monster as it lumbers down the hall and approaches the bedroom door. I can't let it reach the carpet. This is do or die. I grab Rob's shoe because it's heavier (and also not my own shoe). I miss. This leaves me one more shoe before I have to start launching my nearby flip flops, which would inflict nothing but a superficial wound and only serve to anger the beast. I thankfully strike and kill on the second toss. Yes!

Now I have to deal with a corpse... I leave the aftermath for Rob when he gets home.

Something like this

You need better friends...

2008-09-15T13:17:00.005-05:00

...to put the kibosh on this.

A recent NYTimes article covers a supposed trend in dictating the dress code of wedding guests. This level of direction doesn't refer to helpful guidelines on the formality of the affair, but borders on a uniform code.

...I'm having flashbacks to parochial school -- standing in the lunch line -- the length of my skirt measured with a yard stick and eyelashes inspected for mascara... before being allowed into your ceremony for which I traveled 500 miles and paid +$800 to witness.

So I ask: where are her friends on this one?

"On the Web site for her January wedding, Mariela Pérez is requesting 'hacienda chic,' which, as interpreted by the bride-to-be, means seersucker suits for men and brightly colored cocktail dresses for women.

Ms. Pérez said that she did not want her guests to show up in dark colors, which she thought would look out of place in a tropical setting. 'I admit it may be a little bit controlling,' she said, 'but I do think it’s my right to want to look around in my wedding and see people looking nice.'"

I don't think it's worth dissecting the many reasons why this is nutso--or questioning her definition of a "right." But I do think it's worth calling out her nearest and dearest for shirking their primary role as bridesmaids, to temper the prima donna.

They got the invite

Long time, no see

2008-08-20T13:59:00.006-05:00

For the last month or two, my life has been utter mayhem -- I've moved, changed jobs, planned a wedding shower for my best girlfriend, visited the bro in Colorado, and have been juggling some new freelance work. Phew. I somehow survived and only had a couple breakdowns of note.

When my daily routine gets out-of-whack, I tend to drop the ball on some things, namely this blog (and exercising). But now I'm back and ready to stick to my plan of posting regularly (and lowering my cellulite to body mass ratio).

Lately, I've been wanting to get back into sewing. I started to learn about a year ago and that totally fell by the wayside (another 'dropped ball'). I recently started visiting the blog of one of my childhood friends, Black Sheep Knits, and have been re-inspired to start learning again. She's made the coolest quilts. She's good:

McGuire Furniture

2008-06-09T16:51:00.005-05:00

The Royal Order, in partnership with Gorilla Polymedia, just launched a new site for McGuire Furniture. I thankfully can take a big chunk of credit for this one. The image and media galleries are some of my favorite pets on the site. Shawn Hilgart put these together in Flash and made them work spendidly.

McGuire has some of the most beautiful furniture -- each piece is handcrafted by artisans. Their assets were beautiful as well, which really made our job a piece of cake.

They have this Northern California cool about their designs -- natural, eclectic. In other words, I wouldn't mind winning this Dream Kitchen if I were eligible.

______________________________________________________

I Dream of Cake

2008-06-04T10:44:00.006-05:00

Having a really fancy and expensive wedding cake has never been on my nuptial wish list. I would rather plunk down money for a variety of desserts and candy. Rob and I talked about having a very small cake for the sake of tradition, but maybe in the shape of our Wii characters or sculptural busts of our heads -- something we would find funny.

Rob's sister, Elinor, made her own wedding cake last November, which was delicious and gone within a couple minutes of the cutting (otherwise I totally would have tried to nab seconds). She recently took a job as a baker/decorator at this San Francisco-based bakery that I have to admit has made me reassess my feelings on the wedding cake.

The bakery is I Dream of Cake, which has some really impressive and some really crazy designs. They're truly pieces of art. Below are a few of my favorites:

This has to be red velvet cake a la "Steel Magnolias"

Memorial Day on North Beach

2008-05-27T13:53:00.013-05:00

Rob and I got back home early from a weekend at his family cabin in Northern Michigan. So we went for a walk on the Lake path down to North Beach to regain mobility after 6+ hours in the car.

It was a crazy obstacle course: us versus kids on those shoes that double as rollerskates, families with gigantic coolers carried length-wise, and the way-too-serious-for-the-Lake-path cyclists in the full spandex. Once we got to the end of the pier at North Beach, the crowd thinned out and I was taking pictures galore. Here are some favorites:

Laziness

2008-05-21T14:42:00.004-05:00

I've been really lagging on my daily post resolution for the past week+

This is what I've been up to:

It's official... and far away

2008-05-21T14:22:00.007-05:00

Rob and I finally set our date for September 19, 2009. At first, I thought it would be great to have so much time to plan without worrying about a tight timeline. Now this seems like such a long, long time away -- 486 days from today to be exact. Let the countdown begin.

Here is our ceremony site where we have the whole Catholic shebang:

View walking out

Christy's Race

2008-05-07T12:20:00.007-05:00

Every Memorial Day weekend, my hometown holds the Christy's Race, a 4-mile run that helps raise money for a college scholarship for a track & field athlete. I was a recipient of this back in the day when I was physically able to pole vault and hurdle.

Now that I'm a big girl, I'm able to give back to the race in my own way by designing this year's tshirt. Here were the options:

The Winner; runners forming northeast Wisconsin

Some subtle patriotism for Memorial Day... those are stars

The third option

Sold: one typeface

2008-05-06T13:06:00.008-05:00

As I was looking through the Webby Award Winners, I came across Veer's Type City, which won an award for Best Use of Typography. The music makes me feel like I'm navigating through a Tim Burton movie. It also successfully sold me a typeface.

Even better, Patagonia's Footprint Chronicles (which The Royal Order helped create) won the People's Voice Award in Corporate Communications!

Type City

LTC Fournier Le Jeune

Awwww

2008-05-01T15:05:00.006-05:00

I came across the illustration of Matte Stephens on Etsy. So cute.

Love it

2008-04-30T13:28:00.011-05:00

Vera Wang for William Arthur laser-cut and embossed note cards at Paper Source. So intricate. Great colors.

I have to admit that writing on nice stationary kind of makes me nervous. My handwriting can't take the pressure; it's not a talent on which I can rely. I think the wedding might be a good excuse to take a class so I can calligraph the hell out of my invitations and, one day... write expensive notes with confidence.

He's kind of talented

2008-04-29T16:54:00.011-05:00

I was on Naked & Angry looking at patterns and came across a post on Yehrin Tong. His work is really breathtaking. Here are some samples of his illustration and type:

Tiger repeat pattern design

Snake repeat pattern design

240 Volts label illustration

Tatler Russia

GQ Style Russia

Lusciousness

2008-04-25T16:52:00.006-05:00

I like wine. I love good wine, but I also find sub-par wine worth consuming to the last drop. In other words, I know what I like but I don't practice wine snobbery or wastefulness. Once I've financially invested in a bottle, I will drink it. If it's free at an event, I will drink it.

Now that I've convinced you of my high standards...

I'm really into Alamos Malbec right now. I first had it at Montagues, a wine bar in my hometown of De Pere, Wisconsin. It was a fateful night that involved liberal amounts of Alamos, a snow storm, and having to dig my car out of the blinding snow the following morning.

Anyways, I found it at Binny's and the price is right at $10/bottle.

If I were a homeowner

2008-04-25T16:20:00.014-05:00

Here's some pretty sweet vintage wallpaper from Second Hand Rose. They have paper dating back to the 1860s, which is fascinating to see. Most of what I find interesting would only be tolerated in small chucks of wall space:

It's good form to give credit to the blog on which one has found something... but I can't remember where. Sorry :)

One can dream...

2008-04-23T15:34:00.012-05:00

I like my job, but I might trade up for the life of a chocolatier.

The Mast Brothers Chocolate is a Brooklyn-based chocolate company run by two brothers with some pretty great packaging design and solid use of Futura.

Rick and Michael Mast

I found this via ~>O<~ who found it via Racked.

The Footprint Chronicles

2008-04-23T14:51:00.007-05:00

The Royal Order worked with Patagonia to create The Footprint Chronicles, which charts the environmental impact of a rotation of featured clothing from design to delivery. This is all in effort to become more sustainable as a business. Ultimately, Patagonia's clothing will be fully recyclable by 2010.

The project is nominated for a Webby Award in Corporate Communications. Vote!

This is was also mentioned on Dwell Blog and Cool Hunting.

Sweden: good pop music, good textiles

2008-04-23T14:13:00.015-05:00

During my foray into sewing last summer, I really got into checking out fabrics. That skill-set has been on the back burner lately, but I still love perusing fabric, purchasing it, and doing nothing with it.

IKEA's textile line is graphically pretty neat -- although I can't attest to it in person.
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Fredrika

Patricia

Berit

Stockholm Blad

Lena

Bohemian Goulash

Cooking to-do list

Spring 2011 Collections Part I

Masterpieces

Chevron Mania, or 'Chevrania'

Old Friend, New Friend

Holiday Shopping Begins

You Make Me Feel Like a Grown-up

It's the International Year of Astronomy!

This Is Cooler Than My Obama Action Figure

Golden Birthday Spoils

Bonne Musique

Invitations continued

Some Favorite Things: von Trapp skirts

From Miss to Ms!

Of note

Moron

Wedding Invites and Throwing Stars

Clutch Progress

The Spritzer

Weekend Sovereignty

Dude-wear

Renting Pros and Cons (not an exhaustive list)

I buy my own flowers

Weekly Weird: Queso Sombreros and McDahmer's

Mindy Kaling is really funny. Shopbop is still a tempting temptress.

Don't see Marley & Me

Weekly Weird: cake babies and balls of clay

The Lady and her Gent are photographed

She's a lady

Ruscle Melaxers... yawn

'Something Blue' Dunzo

Past Life Analysis; do it

Weekly Weird: Sleeveface

Four eyes

'Bout Time

A Better Weekly Weird: American Society for Social Hygiene

Weekly Weird: Fail Blog

Shazam!

Photographs and soap

Fuck you, Gocco

Mathleticism and life equations

The Weekly Weird, introductory edition

Color-coordinated shelves -- to do or not to do?

It really tied the room together

Spring!

Ann Sacks' latest lovelies

Style quiz

Honeymoon, v2.0

Another checkmark on the damned Knot Checklist

I could deal with having a country home

A weekend of productivity and supreme destruction

#&%$ &()@#*(#(@^(

I plan to steal from my grandmother

Life as I know it right now

Like Christmas, but even more spoilier

Cute awkwardness

Aesthetic Dalliances

Good things come to those who wait (or get lucky)

Street Style

Holiday sabbatical

Christmas List: Type

I want to spend Christmas here...

Photographer, check

Trendy birds

Pretty, pretty

Christmas Tree Hunt

Honeymoon, I think??

This made me laugh

Shoes, glorious shoes

*Sigh*

Centerpiece idea

I like

Save the Date paper

A makeover story (Part II)

A makeover story (Before)

Gabby's Wedding Invites + Images

Sunday distraction

Sad day

Writing partner... check

Sigh