I should be embarassed but I’m not.

The above title pretty much sums up my taste in a lot of things: movies, TV, books, music, the fact that I have 40 episodes of Say Yes to the Dress on my DVR…

But back to the point. I decided, in cleaning up my room, to put all my mix CDs on my computer. These date back to senior year in high school, so…2001/2002ish era.

Bands I forgot I listened to:

Reel Big Fish

Poe

some guy named Syd who seems to whine a lot with his guitar

Vanessa Carlton

a variety of other Reel Big Fish sounding bands that were trying to bridge the gap between 90s era ska and emo

Yellowcard (before they got popular)

Fastball

Bands I listened to then that I still listen to:

Dispatch

Billy Joel

John Mayer

Aimee Mann

Elliott Smith

…among others

I also discovered an album that I labeled as a mix, but is essentially 12 dispatch songs, two by American Hi-Fi, and one Enya. I don’t even know where to begin on explaining that.

Oh yeah, and I have approximate five different covers of ‘Take On Me’. It’s pretty sweet.

Goodbye, 2009. Scratch that. Hello 2010

“So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.” – The Perks of Being a Wallflower

There are few things I love (and fear) more than a great milestone. Birthdays, holidays, endings, beginnings. Middles I’m not so great at. But for maybe the first year in a while, I don’t feel any need to mark the end of the year with resolutions, or promises to change or anything that can be measured. In 2010 I want to take some of the pressure off of myself.  I want to get used to the middle, and maybe have a few more of the highs, and a few less of the lows (even though they make the highs feel so good). I would like less goodbyes, and more hellos. I want to spend the year in pursuit of happiness, and tranquility, and all the sentimental things on the inside of greeting cards.

Anyway, happy new year to the few, dear readers of this blog. And to me.

Everything I know in life I learned at too early an age.

I can remember the night I learned what the word masochism meant. We (my parents, sister, and I) were on the porch in our old house listening to the radio and that Eurythmics song “Sweet Dreams” came on and I asked what the lyrics meant that say “some of them want to be abused.” And my parents explained. I was probably under the age of 10.

The reason I bring this up is that I have this weird tendency towards brain masochism. I like to be mentally challenged to the point of frustration. And in this vein, when an acquaintance mentioned a photomosaic puzzle she’d recently slaved over and vowed never to do again, my interest was piqued. So now I’m on the hunt, googling the nearest Toys R Us and seeing what Barnes and Noble has to offer. I’m really digging this one that’s a world map. I could be really cheesy and glue and frame it. I can just see it in my future home hanging with the posed family portraits.

Or not.

TV filler

I’ve been watching The Sing Off on the DVR,which if you aren’t aware of, is an a capella competition hosted by Nick Lachey and judged by Ben Folds, Nichole Sherzinger, and Sean Stockman. Basically, Nick Lachey delivers a bunch of puns and tries not to laugh at whatever comes out of the judges’ mouths. They can’t seem to stop reminding the audience that there are NO INSTRUMENTS used, it’s just their voices, NO REALLY, THERE’S NO BACKUP BAND. We get it! It’s a capella!

Also, Nichole Sherzinger can’t stop feeling the spirit in every performance, it’s her go to comment. But since I’m stuck in a TV black hole until shows come back from hiatus, this is pretty much it.

winter solstice

I have always been one of those people who enjoys the buildup to something as much as the actual event. It’s important to me that the tree is up even time ahead of Christmas to anticipate Christmas. There should be cookie baking and holiday movies and Christmas songs throughout the whole month of December. And of course there should be snow. Usually my best laid plans don’t come through, but Mother Nature was looking out for me this year:

And since she did her part (to the tune of almost 2 feet), I figured I’d do mine:

Christmas lights are strung in my room, nutmeg scented candle is burning, and White Christmas is waiting on DVD. I’m a happy camper today.

men really are from mars

So I’m making my xmas list (a little late, perhaps, but my parents haven’t started shopping yet) and I’m looking through watches, since I need one. Now, I am not a dainty watch kind of person. I like a wider band and large face, so I’ve been looking through the men’s watches as well. And it is here that I discovered an essential difference between men and women. Men’s watches have these “multi function” faces with several dials that look like they belong on the dashboard of my car. I have a pretty good feeling most guys don’t even look at these dials, let alone know what they do, but they just like to have that extra gadget-like feature. Whereas women’s watches rarely even have the day/time on the face. But maybe I just have simple tastes.

whining because I’m ornery

As a lady of leisure these days (and by leisure, I mean that I work retail part time and apply to grad schools) I have a lot of time for extracurriculars. And while my time would be much better spent at the gym or learning French or something, I bake. Pumpkin chocolate chip bread, banana nut muffins, chocolate orange loaf cake, and soon to be something ambitious involving a pomegranate that I could not resist at the market.

For research, I read a lot of food and recipe blogs, and I’m noticing a worrisome trend involving swiss chard. As far as leafy greens go, I’m a spinach girl, and I just can’t get behind collards and ramps and all those other etc roughages. But I figured out what bothers me so much about swiss chard. It doesn’t sound like a food. It sounds like a type of boat or something. “Oh yes, while vacationing in Geneva we took a Swiss chard out on the lake.” Or something like that.

my hair hurts

I have the flu. And I am a horrible patient. At this point, I’m feeling really grateful for that whole ‘unconditional love’ thing my mom and I have going, since I spent the day whining about how tired I was and how much I ache. And she spent the day making tea and checking my temperature and making soup. But really, nothing helps like a cool hand on a hot forehead.

Normally my overloaded DVR intimidates me, but today I was really glad I for all those episodes of Say Yes to the Dress and Private Practice.

PS – Currently reading This is Where I Leave You and loving it.

Daring to design

I’m all about trying new things, right? Well here’s something I’ve never tried: designing clothing.

Shabby Apple makes really wonderful dresses (and fitness clothing, and accessories, and kids clothing), and they’re holding a Dare to Design contest. So, I decided to take a shot.

Dress designs for Shabby Apple Dresses:

RSVP Dress

I’ve always loved a sweetheart neckline, but not the strapless dress that so often accompanies it. I wanted to do a dress with a sweetheart neckline with sleeves. Christian Lacroix did a dress with a sweetheart neck and long sleeves for Fall 2009, in gold and lace, so I thought why not try? The neck and sleeves would be laser cut as a nod to lace. For the body, I see a watercolor print fabric, with the top in a solid. The ruching at the bottom would reveal another peak at the solid color, tying the dress together. For color, I thought some color bright colors would be great for a party dress, but it could work in black, grey, and white as well. This could be done in cotton, or even a brocade for a little glitz.

Friendly Skies Dress

My inspiration for this was actually vintage uniforms, from the Girls Scouts to flight attendants. I think the collar is what makes this classic shirt dress interesting. I’d love to see this in an open plaid fabric, yellows, oranges, and tans to keep things light. Done in something breezy like a cotton poplin I think this would be a great every day dress. It makes the menswear and plaid trends easy to wear.

Petal Dress

I spent four years in DC for college, and even though the Cherry Blossom is the flower most people associate with that area, there are also tulips planted all over the city. This dress was inspired by those tulips. The body of the dress would be a deep lavender, with a lighter lavender at the tie and collar. Pale yellow would back the dress, peeking out when the dress moves. The sleeves repeat the petal overlap at the bottom, as well as the collar. For this dress, I think a cotton jersey with some stretch would work well.

Obviously I’m not a designer, but I really enjoyed taking on this challenge. All the dresses are simple, but they have a little something that makes them special and unique. I always love when a classic design has fun details, and that’s what I tried to do here.  Below, I’ve included some photos that acted as inspiration while I was drawing. None of the photos are mine, their original sources are listed.

From: http://belladia.typepad.com/bella_dia/2008/04/watercolors.html

From Style.com: Christian Lacroix F09 Ready to Wear

Peter Castleton's tulip photo on Flickr

Doing my own haunting

I get ‘memory lane’ now. I really do. Yesterday afternoon I literally drove down memory lane, back through the neighborhood I grew up in. I wish I’d had a camera with me, but I’m sure one of these days I’ll go back with one. It’s a strange thing to be only 25 (still getting used to that number) and so nostalgic, but when you move around as much as I did, you can’t help it. Driving around yesterday I realized that I always figured I’d be back there someday, in what capacity I’m not sure, just back.

It’s surprising what changes, and what doesn’t. The Wawa is gone, but the post office is still there. All my friends’ houses are still there, the swim club, too. The place where I cut my knee and had to get stitches, the streets I used to trick or treat on, ride my bike on, the streets I took to get to school. It’s all still there, and I was disappointed and pleased at the same time how much of it was still the same. After 10 years, you don’t expect things to be the way they were, but you’re happy when they are. I drove by the old house, slowly, which probably made the people who live there now a little suspicious. I just wanted to see it. I half expected the plastic skeleton to be hanging from the big tree in the front yard like we always had on Halloween, but that tree was gone long before we moved.

Cliche as it is, you can’t go home again.