Obama

I can't lie, Obama fans definitely make the most fun designy cool shit. If you haven't already, see here and here (could go here, but the page is overloaded).

And just for fun:



Keep crossing your fingers.

(via)

Stephanie Congdon Barnes

It's no secret I have a huge blog crush (web crush?) on Stephanie Congdon Barnes, who makes little softie animals and is one half of 3191. SFGirlByBay did an "unexpected guest" Q&A with Stephanie this week and I really liked this one thing she said. In response to the question "Who do you admire and why?" she said, "I admire people that live simply and intentionally." I really like that. That is what I would like to do -- that's why I have such a girl crush on all my design bloggers. Anyway, I just thought it was a good way of putting it. I had really strong intentions when I posted my New Year's Resolutions, but they have already fallen by the wayside a little bit. I am hoping that this week (Sunday, provided I'm not just totally recovering from Peattie's 2nd birthday party of the week -- and I really can't call him a selfish bastard because I have had two birthday parties for like the past four years) I will be able to reclaim that a little bit. Yay for living deliberately.

And on a petty house-decorating note, I really really want to have some kind of whimsies tray like this one. (Minus the Q-tips I guess.) I actually found and saved a few little whimsies when I went through all my old stuff in the garage at my parents' house. I would like to do something with this. The problem is, with everything, that I don't have enough space, at least not enough surface space. Sometime I gotta get myself my own apartment and fill it up with all of my random little things I love instead of squirreling them away. Bah.

I will post a roundup from Snow Trip whenever I get more pictures. I totally did not take any. Besides, all the pictures we have so far include about 584930 cans of beer in them. What's that about living simply and intentionally...?

Scary teddies, and blasts from the past

This teddy bear in a suitcase freaks me out.


It reminds me of the giant teddy bear in that Park Ji Yoon video that my roommate Silvia was so into our freshman year. (She taught us the dance. I was really bad at it. I'm trying to forget that right now.) If you want to see a weird video for a Korean pop song, watch away:



(via NOTCOT)

Things I'm thinking about

I'm moved in, finally, or rather, I'm moved out of my old place. But I'm not settled yet. Here are some things I've been thinking about as I'm getting settled and exploring:

-Rugs. I need a rug for my room, and we probably need one for the living room as well. These are (currently) the candidates for my room, but I haven't explored very much: Moroccan window rug (I have wanted this one in orange for a while, but they are out of orange - I'd get brown), honeycomb rug (I am apparently on a bee/honey curiosity kick), or Ikea orangey rug which kind of looks like a cross between mushrooms and a brain.

-Curtains. I have these filmy curtains on my front window that came with the apartment. I need to replace them, since they are somewhat transparent and people can probably see me changing. They are also ugly. I think I'm going to replace them with these pretty bird curtains I had in my room growing up, from Urban Outfitters. But that throws my decorations into a tizzy, since the bird curtains are very bright and multicolored and my bed right now is this increasingly annoying Laura Ashley white with red-and-blue tiny flowers printed on it. With some brown and gold tints here and there. Plus with these curtains it's hard to get that orange rug I want.

-Lampshades. I have this sweet (as in, rad) owl lamp and no shade for it. I want this one from Anthropologie, but it's, um, $100.

-Plants. For my front yard. I want some grasses, but I also want some flowers, and I need only plants that can go in planters.

-The 70s. I just watched the movie "Diggers" - it's really very good - and was incredibly inspired by the fashion. It's sort of mid-later-70s working class slash 70s collegiate/Love Story, if you really want me to paraphrase Lucky magazine style. Lauren Ambrose has these great outfits. And Maura Tierney has my haircut, only she rocks it slightly differently (and also I'm in sore need of another one). That movie, combined with my purging of magazines from my household (which involves me going through old Lucky magazines bookmarking pages to tear out, so that I can use them as inspiration for a) shopping for new clothes in the aesthetic i want and b) combining old clothes to create the aesthetic I want), is really making me think seriously about my clothing. I'm tired of only wearing jeans, flats and tshirts/sweaters/cardigans. It gets really predictable. I really want this particular dress from J. Crew (second row, far right, the plaid "Bridget" shirtdress). I might really buy it. (Also PS, I love Paul Rudd in Diggers.)

-Tea tins. I have TONS of tea and it's all in boxes and currently since our kitchen is tiny, tiny, tiny all the tea is in a paper bag in my room. I want to get vintage tea tins and put the teas in those so it becomes decorative.

-A new wallet, and a new purse. I want a worn brown leathery purse, a kind of golden light brown (see: the 70s), with some nice strappies. And I really need to replace my wallet. I got it for $5 in the Fashion District in LA and it's fake Gucci and getting torn and really not cute.

-Movies. I'm falling behind! There are so many I want to see and so little time. And I feel sort of lame staying in every night in my new city to watch Netflix. Justifiably lame.

-Honesty. I have been driving and traveling a lot recently since I now have a much longer commute and I've been thinking about just owning up and being totally straight with everyone on this blog. Meaning, not write it so much like a public service announcement and more like a journal. I'm not sure I have the time to do that though. It usually takes a lot of energy to parse my emotions into functional, readable, meaningful sentences for public consumption.

This is really awesome. It's a map of what an LA subway should/would look like if the map looked like the London Tube map. I'd be way out on the yellow line somewhere between the Colima and Beach Blvd. stops. In Zone "I say I'm from LA but when I say that to people who are from LA proper they get a funny look on their face."

Via Notcot.org