Laura Marling - Rambling Man

Laura Marling's voice is soft yet strong and her lyrics carry such sincerity.  Love!  The video for "Rambling Man" makes me a) cold and b) want to visit Brighton, England.

An Elephant-Puppy!

Aaawww, a baby elephant-puppy!  In this Danish short film pilot, Hugo's a kid who's blind as a bat and thinks his friend Holger, the elephant, is a dog.  I hope Teddy Kristiansen and company get enough support to finish the film.  Super cute!  I especially like the part where he drags the poop bag to the trash. :)

Hugo And Holger Pilot from Teddy Kristiansen on Vimeo.

A Berry-Pickin' Good Time

At Rachel's suggestion, she and I went strawberry-picking this morning (once we found a farm that was open on Memorial Day).  We were prepared to sweat with sunscreen and bug spray, but failed to bring our own collection containers.  Oops.  Thankfully, the proprietors gave us some small cartons.  A very nice old gentleman named Harry directed us to a specific strawberry patch location and provided pleasant conversation.  (He told me rhubarb season should be ending this week, so I'd better get on that!)

The best part about strawberry-picking is testing the merchandise while you work.  Mmm, yum, strawberries off the vine are delish!  I filled two cartons of strawberries and paid $5.43 ($2.19/lb).  There are already two cartons of strawberries in the refrigerator, so I'd better be baking some strawberry shortcake and strawberry-rhubarb pie pronto.  I might be over-strawberried!  Is that possible?

Then, after I returned home, I helped Mom replant her old and new cacti into a planter that, oddly enough, came with sympathy flowers for my Mamaw's funeral years ago.  We sure know how to make a mess and I loss count of how many times Mom pricked herself on that nasty bugger with the thorns.  With a touch of pink in the decorative stones, the cactus garden turned out pretty nice.

Lemmings Get a Bad Rap

Photo by Erika Leslie

For some reason I was thinking about that age-old adage about lemmings jumping off cliffs, and its use as a metaphor for people who mindlessly conform.  Then, I found myself wondering, "What the hell is a lemming?"  Answer: a small Artic rodent.  These cute little rodents get a bad rap!  They don't commit mindless mass suicide.  They're just trying to migrate, yo!  And they don't actually jump off cliffs.  In fact, the makers of the 1958 Disney film White Wilderness (winner of an Academy Award for Documentary Feature) imported lemmings and launched them off cliffs with a turntable.  That just ain't right.  (Thank you, Bob McKeown and the CBC, for bringing Hollywood's animal cruelty to light.)

Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy

Skeletal jamming!  AW, YEAH!  It looks like so much fun!  Here's "Skeleton Boy" by Friendly Fires.

Manushi's giraffe print

Cotton Candy

The short film Cotton Candy by Spanish director Aritz Moreno almost made me cry.  Maybe it has something to do with my devastation over the loss of my first pet when I was 6 -- a goldfish.  Here's an excerpt:

To watch the entire film, go here.  I don't really understand the title choice, but will now be extra careful when donning turtlenecks.

My Brain Logic: Topiaries --> Flashdance

Doxie Topiary

Browsing the June issue of Lucky Magazine I found the cutest topiary dachshund for a mere $110 (HA!) and I thought to myself, "How hard would it be to make my own topiary?"  Well, considering my garden thumb is a pale shade of green, I struggle with patience, and I'm a cheap-ass -- probably pretty hard.  First, I would need the appropriate topiary form (i.e. a dachshund), but I would be unwilling to shell out $50+ for metal framing.  If I had any skill with a welding torch, I might be able to create my own, but no dice.  And of course, welding inevitably makes me think of Flashdance.  Cue the Irene Cara!

Anywho, then I'd have to decide if I want a vine topiary or a shrub topiary; choose, purchase, and plant the selected green stuff; and train and prune it.  Sounds like a lot of work, but if you're the kind of person that likes Bonsai trees, you might enjoy topiaries, so go here.

Speaking of Flashdance, here's something I can do: Make a Flashdance sweatshirt!

Pumpkin-flavored good-byes

In case you didn't hear, today was the Oprah finale.  I didn't watch, not because I have anything against Oprah personally -- I SWEAR I have vague childhood memories of her pre-celebrity presence on WJZ-TV in Baltimore, so what if I was 3 when she moved on -- but because, since I can think for myself and choose my own reading material, I don't have much need for her show. (I haven't watched since someone drew my attention to her annoying habit of interrupting her guests, which is now impossible to ignore.  Equally annoying? Herself on every damn cover of her magazine. So I guess I have a bit against her personally after all.)

Image via Pumpkin Passion

But I have said good-bye/godspeed in my own way, and that way was using my Bath and Body Works Pure Simplicity purifying pumpkin face mask.  Like many a person, I was first introduced to it via Oprah's Favorite Things

(see Jezebel for a sobering account of the cost of Oprah's Favorite Things) , where it featured on the affordable end of the list for 2003. After which it become one of MY favourite things. (Be sure to include the U.)

Sadly, it (and the entire Pure Simplicity line) have been discontinued for a number of years now. BUT, I happen to have in my possession the dregs of one container and, thanks to Emily, another unopened (that I could probably sell on Ebay if I felt so inclined.) I've been rationing it, forgoing its use in favor, lately at least, of the Original Mint Julep mask (see here).

But today is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion dammit. So here's to you Oprah. The awesomeness of the pumpkin mask almost makes up for your unleashing Doctor Phil upon the world. And also, this Pink Sister anyway liked your pink dress.

Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger

I've never read The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, but was intrigued by her follow-up novel Her Fearful Symmetry.  Why?  Aesthetics and morbidity.  The library's hardback cover is shiny blue-green with tree-branch lettering and the primary setting for the story is London's Highgate Cemetery.  I'm a sucker for attractive book covers and I love cemeteries, history, and ghosts.

I was unfamiliar with Highgate Cemetery prior to reading this book, but I must say, it's the most interesting part.  The cemetery opened in 1839 on the outskirts of London as the city's population, and subsequently its mortality rate, were exceeding available burial acreage.  It seems burial here was somewhat of a posthumous one-upmanship of fancy funerals and swanky memorials, excluding London's poor, of course.  With a decline in new residents, negligible funding, and virtually no landscaping or grave maintenance, the cemetery nearly fell into disrepair; however, the Friends of Highgate Cemetery have been working to restore and preserve the cemetery since 1975.  Hats off to them!  I'm not familiar with many of the "famous internments," except Karl Marx (I read The Communist Manifesto in high school...fun) and Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

But back to the novel, I greatly disliked most of the characters, which presented a roadblock in my reading enjoyment.  Niffenegger's depiction of identical twins made me profoundly grateful for my singularity and protective of my individuality.  I feel like I should chat up some twins to confirm that they're not all absurdly dysfunctional.  The story requires some suspension of disbelief, to which I excel, but it doesn't make the characters' behavior more bearable.  I'm just gonna say it: everyone in this book is a selfish whore (except maybe Martin, Marikje, Jessica, and James, the last three of which are fairly peripheral)!  I finished it feeling annoyed.  Mind you, it's well-written with well-developed characters and plot, just not particularly pleasurable.

Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love

I finally relocated my Florence + The Machine album today!  It's my happy music. :-)  Confession: I first discovered Flo more than a year ago while watching a Dr. Who montage on YouTube.  I'm a nerd, guilty as charged.  This is the first song I heard...

It's Ali's Birthday!

Behold my red velvet masterpiece!...From a box.

Today is Ali's birthday.  I made her a cake.  It was tasty, but I ate too much of it.  Here is my gift to her:

NIV Ladybug Bible

Fossil Elephant Clutch - I WANT!

As usual, I like most things FOSSIL, but refuse to pay so much for them.  $48.00 for a clutch?!  Um, no.  But it's soooooo cute!

Fossil Kelly Tab Clutch Wallet

Ronald Reagan Piñata

'80s-themed parties are always fun because you get to dress ridiculously, listen to power ballads, and reminisce about your childhood (well, if you're an '80s baby like me).  Several years ago, Ali had an '80s party for which I made a Ronald Reagan head piñata.  It was a rushed job.  He wasn't completely dry and hardened and I forgot to paint on his eyebrows.  A few days ago, our friend Lanie decided to give her birthday party an '80s theme and when she caught wind of the previous Ronald, she asked if I could make another.  Short notice = another rushed job.  I started him on Thursday with a balloon and some cardstock for his neck.  Then it was just a repetitive process of dipping 1-inch wide strips of newspaper in a mixture of 2 cups flour and 3 cups water, applying the strips to the piñata and leaving a hole at the top, letting it dry, and repeating three times.

I then used newspaper and cardstock to form facial features, including his pompadour, and covered his face and hair with another layer of flour-water newspaper.  THEN, feeling pressed for time, I followed the advice of Ali and Mom (against my better judgement) and put him in the oven at a low temp to quicken drying.  Um, yeah, that just popped the balloon and blew a huge crevice in his head and jacked up his nose.  In the midst of expelling numerous expletives at my wits' end, Rachel arrived to drop off a book, and then stayed for an hour and a half to help save Ronald.  Bless her heart!  To repair the Hinckley oven's assassination attempt, we made a three-layer-deep bandage of flour-water newspaper, both using blow dryers between each layer.

Then we managed the world's fastest paint job.  I painted flesh, she painted hair.  She mixed lip and eye color, and I painted 'em on him.  Add some wrinkles and blusher, and voilà!  I used an exacto knife to cut through his pomp to the previously made hole for candy and Rachel used an awl to puncture string holes.

Ronald was filled with smarties, tootsie rolls, and jolly ranchers and everyone enjoyed whacking him with the plastic bat.  To quote Lanie's 2.5-year-old daughter,

"I whacked 'The Gipper' too!  He had candy in his head."

Our Mutter is awesome in any/every language

Also known as SOMEONE had way too much fun using Google translate and spent way too much time with the table to NOT post this. :-)

Mother	English
Moeder	Afrikaans
Nënë	Albanian
الأم	Arabic
Մայր	Armenian
Ana	Azerbaijani
Ama	Basque
Маці	Belarusian
Майка	Bulgarian
Mare	Catalan
母亲 or 母親	Chinese
Majka	Croatian, Serbian
Matka	Czech, Polish, Slovak
Mor	Danish, Norwegian, Swedish
Moeder	Dutch
Ema	Estonian
Ina	Filipino
Äiti	Finnish
Mère	French
Nai	Galician
Mutter	German
Μητέρα	Greek
Manman	Haitian Creole
אמא	Hebrew
मां	Hindi
Anya	Hungarian
Móðir	Icelandic
Ibu	Indonesian, Malay
Máthair	Irish
Madre	Italian, Spanish
母	Japanese
어머니	Korean
Mater	Latin
Māte	Latvian
Motina	Lithuanian
Мајка	Macedonian
Omm	Maltese
مادر	Persian
Mãe	Portuguese
Mama	Romanian, Swahili
Матери / Матері	Russian / Ukrainian
Mati	Slovenian
แม่	Thai
Anne	Turkish
ماں	Urdu
Mẹ	Vietnamese
Mam	Welsh
מוטער	Yiddish

Our favorite middle school librarian (Hi Rachel!) sent us this via text today.

Why yes, that is a 50 year old anthropology book in a middle school library. I'm sure it's not racist or anything. :)

I for one CAN'T WAIT to get my hands on it. 

Ellie Goulding - Guns and Horses

Man, I am a blog SLACKER!  Ali's been gettin' on my case.  I'm gonna try to do better.  So, here's a music update.  I love my female British pop and you should too.  Here's Ellie Goulding's "Guns and Horses."

This also reminds me that I've been meaning to make a playlist of handclap songs for about two years now. Don't steal my idea, bitches!  I'll post it when I'm finished. :)

Mutter has good taste in Tiffany lamps

I have a room!!!!

 I haven't had a room of my very own since October of 2009, when I packed up all of my material culture and relocated to less-than-sunny NorCal. I did have a room of my own in SF and it was a haven when it needed to be, but since I had no money and most of my stuff languished in my parents' basement, it wasn't particularly cozy. 

By the time I came back from California, Emily had returned home from Tennessee and taken over my room. (I cried when I found out. I couldn't help it; I'd lived in that room since I'd stopped sleeping in a crib.) She had taken pains to turn her old room into a welcoming, family-themed guest room which morphed into my room when it became clear I wasn't going back to California.

And so I have lived in it these many months, grateful but stifled. There's no getting around that this room is closet-sized. (There's a reason Emily jumped at the opportunity to give it up; my dorm room at Brunel was bigger.) And to make matters worse, the closet itself was filled with other people's stuff. I NEED my room to be neat and orderly, and it seemed like no matter what I did, my room was a disaster area (by Ali standards anyway) every other day and consequently, my productivity was at an all-time low. 

I recently retook the eerily accurate Color Quiz at Anna Chlumsky's suggestion (yes, THAT Anna Chlumsky),  which listed my "actual problem" as:

"Needs to find a stable and peaceful environment which will free her of the worries that are preventing her from achieving the things she wants."

So I've spent the last week turning the guest room into MY room, that is, a stable and peaceful environment.  I've removed the extraneous furniture,  bought a bookcase and a new desk, and reclaimed the closet.

The finishing touch was to be a desk lamp for my new desk. (This was before I discovered my freshman year desk lamp still chilling in the basement; I was about 95% sure it had finally made its way to Goodwill. Supposing I can find a light bulb for it, I'm set.) Which is how I discovered that the major market for desk lamps would appear to be persons (college students?) who feel the need to channel their surplus of team and/or school spirit into home (dorm?) decor.

Which is how I then discovered these:

Very incandescent. This <insert school/team> Tiffany table lamp will brighten up any home or office. Featuring a team logo graphic for official appeal, this <insert school/team> Tiffany table lamp is the perfect beacon for every die-hard fan.

I don't pretend to understand team spirit and/or American middle class home decorating trends. I try not to judge, I really do. But somewhere (Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, to be more precise), Louis Comfort Tiffany is rolling over in his grave.

Then again, recent scholarship has discovered that many of Tiffany's most famous lamps weren't designed by Tiffany himself but by Clara Driscoll, director of his Studios' Women's Glass Cutting Department.

I think Tiffany would have died if word had gotten out that Driscoll designed some of his most famous lamps, said Martin Eidelberg, professor emeritus of art history at Rutgers University.  ...Tiffany never disclosed the names of his designers, preferring to keep the public focus on his own considerable artistic and business talents.
("Out of Tiffany’s Shadow, a Woman of Light" by Jeffrey Kastner, New York Times, 25 February 2007)

Peacock lamp, probably designed by Clara Driscoll
pre-1906, 18½ in. diam.
New-York Historical Society,
Gift of Dr. Egon Neustadt.

So maybe I don't feel so bad about the heinous collegiate lamps bearing Tiffany's name after all. Karma's a bitch.

Wisteria lamp, designed by Clara Driscoll
c. 1901, 18 ½ in. diam.
New-York Historical Society,
Gift of Dr. Egon Neustadt.

Peony shade, designed by Clara Driscoll
c.1900-04, 22 in. diam.; base designed pre-1906.
New-York Historical Society,
Gift of Dr. Egon Neustadt.

today on zulily

Red Kristen Ballet Flat  by China Doll Shoes

"Your gal will click her heels together in these sparkly sequined flats. The adjustable strap creates a perfect fit, while the girly glam style makes her feel special every time she peeks down at her toes. Don't be surprised when she gleefully skips and twirls wherever she goes.

If these came in my size I too would gleefully skip and twirl wherever I went. Like Dorothy down the yellow brick road.  And then I looked at their cute ladybug-themed website and was even more enamored.

today on zulily

 

Yellow Little Giraffe Art Card by The Modern Baby Co.

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