America. And Wine.

Ahhh....America. I'm not the most patriotic person. Blame my father. I don't Love America purely by virtue of having been born here. Well....that's not the right way to put that, because I do, in fact, Love America. I cry during the Star Spangled Banner. Well, I particularly cry at this line:

"Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there."

You could even narrow it down to still there. I Love what America stands for - resilience, ingenuity, perseverance. We walked away from situations that were simply unacceptable all around the world. We formed a country and kept at bay everyone who would take that away from us. When we were wandering astray, our own citizens brought us back and work every day to make life here better. America has ushered in the modern world. Trust me.

And while I might not agree with everything we do....well, Steve and I fight sometimes, too, and I still love him. So I'll probably give America another shot...after all, if I made it through the last 8 years with Still-President Bush, I can survive anything, right? Although, I hear Vancouver is nice...

So what inspired this particularly insipid blog? Wine. You read that right. Wine. In this month's Domino is an article on wine. The adventuress went to a school to become a wine "expert" in 2 days. I know enough to know that's a load of hooey, but she did come away with enough meaningful information to make ordering wine at dinner not suck. And because I love wine, and I feel that everyone should have at least enough knowledge to say confidently whether they do or don't like it...I'm sharing the table from the article. And encouraging everyone to go buy a bottle of something you've never had before just to see what you think.

On Sunday, Steve and I went to the movies. We saw Bottle Shock, which is based on a True Story. It was LOVELY. It made us both want to have a wine tasting. Maybe we will....after I get the leaves for the dining table built. :-D


Watch this trailer, and not the other. The other gives away Too Much.

A Closet Cop-Out

If you've read this blog even a little you'll know that I've had the VERY ambitious plan to organize and catalogue my wardrobe for several months now. April's InStyle even had a rather thorough article about how to do it. The fab folks at Team Sugar were nice enough to post the article, which I'm going to c&p here:

By Cynthia Weber Cleary
Step 1: Pick your eight best pieces
First things first: Select your favorites and build from there. For me, special pieces are often ones I've splurged on, but they're not always the newest items in my closet. Whether it's style, cut or fabric, these pieces have an indisputable "it" factor. They should be unique enough that you always feel fabulous in them.

Step 2: Lay your choices out on the floor
You can put them on the bed too! Really, do whatever works for you. The idea is to be able to see everything in front of you. It's easier to analyze and hone a workable color palette this way. Then, start refining and styling for different occasions.

Picking a color palette
Unless your closet is strictly a black, white and neutral affair, your outfits--starting with your best pieces--should reflect seasonal palettes. Two go-to color groupings this spring are: khaki, brown, ivory and gold with yellow and red accents; or black, white, gray and silver with bright pink and turquoise accents. As a rule, two of your best pieces should be neutral for ease of mixing.

Step 3: Pick your basics
The key to finding a good, working basic is to keep in mind its cut and proportion to other pieces. For example, this spring your slim capris may work with a hip-length jacket, but your wide-leg pants won't. Look for colors in the palette you've picked.

Spring Musts:
Wide-leg pants
Knee-length dress
Capri pants
Knee-length skirt
Thin-knit cardigan
Lots of tanks

Step 4: Make a list of what's missing
Now the fun part--it's time to hit the stores! After all this work sorting through your closet to pick your best pieces as well as your basics, it will be clear that you have an affinity for one style, cut or color at the expense of another. Have too many solid pieces? Consider adding textures or prints. Your list will be a work in progress as you continue to edit your wardrobe, so be open to updating as you go along.

Step 5: Create outfits and try them on--shoes and all!
Dainty or chunky, heels or flats, shoes are crucial in determining how well your outfit comes together. As you put everything on to figure out complementary cuts and colors, you'll discover exactly which pairs have the right attitude--and correct proportion--for the overall look.

Step 6: Choose a handbag
Don't play it safe: An all-black outfit with an all-black bag is blah. Now's your chance to add texture and contrast while staying within your palette. Keep in mind you'll need three bags: a structured day bag, an evening bag and a casual bag.

Step 7: Accessorize!
Jewelry is highly personal, so try on bracelets, earrings and necklaces last, and go with what you feel works best.

Step 8: Snap the looks
Photograph your outfits and keep the shots on hand for easy reference. You'll be set for every occasion and then some.

So now you have the basics and you're in need of some inspiration to mix it up. This morning Design Mom pointed me towards two "Daily Wear" blogs - one run by an adult and one by a 15 year old (go figure, my fashion lines up rather nicely with the 15 year old's) and then her readers added many many more to the mix. I've culled them down to a nice little list of links for your inspiration (and mine!)

whatiwore2day
Childhood Flames (this is the 15 year old, Camille)
Style Rookie (Tavi is no more than ten or eleven and dresses much like I did. I see great things in her future.)
Another What I Wore, this one on tumblr
and a flickr group, which of course I joined.

Here's hoping I have the inspiration to start shooting some of my own outfits. Maybe I'll plan to do that when I get knocked up. I feel like that would go on the design blog, though. I'm actually toying with moving the fashion musings over there, since it's all related. Hm...thoughts?

Ok - but a little more searching on Tavi's site and I find the link to weardrobe.com, which appears to be an online closet site. THIS might be what I've been looking for all along! Too bad I only have one more day off!

Because it's the middle of the night and I can

I love this song:



(I picked it because it was posted by pooptimemachine :-D)


and then this is just....well what it is:



which leads to some random hot guy in a rather disturbing outfit pulling a hamburger out of his ass:

It's OK to Nap with a Pretty Piece of Flesh...

And I would nap. Except that I've got tomatoes bubbling on the stove waiting to be canned. So I can't actually nap. Because then they would burn and that would be bad. So I'm slowly working on the office organize/redecorating...which I'm blogging more about on the Design Blog since it seems to make more sense there.

In other news - my Gossip Girl Season One DVDs arrived in the mail today. So Excited. I'll be watching that while I'm Not Napping. Although I must say that since every time I look at Nate I see HIS DAD my enjoyment of him as nothing more than a pretty piece of flesh is somewhat diminished. Ok. A LOT diminished. I spent the entirety of season 1 not able to figure out why he looks familiar and then I was visiting with his dad and saw a family portrait and it all made sense. Cue: shudder.

Of course now that I've made the connection (been hit in the face with it, really) the next time I see him I'm going to have to control myself so I don't ask all of those embarrassing questions that the 17 year old in me would ask. You get a numbered list so I can purge them. (Or remember them, whichever way you want to look at it)

1) Do you watch the show every week? Do you tivo it so you can discuss it with him later?

2) Is it weird to watch him roll around and be practically r-rated? Do you watch those scenes?

3) Will you get him to autograph my already signed-by-the-author copy of the last Gossip Girl book? The one where they all wrap up high school and move on with their lives. Not the prequel, which was lame.

I might refer to him as Man-Bangs. Just for kicks.

Yeesh.

I'm going to leave you with two clips..the first in which Nate is topless. A Lot



the second: a Pretty Piece of Flesh Video. The song is from the Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack and is by One Inch Punch. No official video, though, so I went with a fan-made one featuring Spike...Here you go:

News That Made My Morning

I mentioned in this blog that polaroid is discontinuing their instant cameras...I found out this morning that the end of that sentence should be AS WE KNOW THEM. (and I feel fine....)

Why do we change that sentence? Because this morning I read on Apartment Therapy (a daily read for me) that they're simply updating the technology. Says AT:

"The good news is that Polaroid has not closed up shop for good, at least not yet. The R&D-heads at Polaroid are working on a new camera that will feature an integrated Bluetooth printer.

Of the few details that the blogosphere has gotten is that the new camera will be a ‘professional and business’ model with an integrated printer capable of printing photos up to 4" x 3" in size, the same size as the famous polaroid snaps themselves. This will definitely feel like an old friend.

Polaroid is also asking Amateur Photographer readers to help design the camera. A survey on the site allows readers to specify attributes like pixel count, print quality and the battery’s print capacity, with prizes for the best suggestions.

The new cameras are due out in 2009."

(they got the story via ubergizmo)

In the meantime (since we all know I'm getting one the minute they're released) you can feed your nostalgia by going here and perusing all of the polaroid offerings on hand.

And just for the fun of it - here are some Polaroids that I've scanned lately:


My grandfather in 1938


My grandmother and her mother...not sure of the year.

My mom (bottom right as you look at it) with her parents and siblings - 1970.



Me and Kris having a tea party...I'm probably 3 here. (81)


Me and Kris again. I'm probably 4 here. I do know that I had the distinct um...honor...of wearing both of those dresses. My father's mother made them. I'm um...sad...to say that I don't know where they are. So should I have a daughter, she'll just have to look at the photo of us in the ghastly chicken dresses she'll never have to wear.

From there I moved to 110 and then 35mm and now I've added digital (and potentially pinhole if I can nut-up enough to actually do it...and find 110 film...)

So there you go. News that made my morning.

A full weekend

I took Friday off. It was nice. I meant to sleep in, but as is the way with these things I was up with Steve at 6:15. Word. So, in the words of H's Dad: I cured cancer, baked enough bread to feed a starving village and flew to the moon. Twice. All before breakfast. What I really did was get the house clean and errands run. Productive but not quite such a high-bar.

On saturday afternoon H showed up. We love it when H is in town. He's mucho fun. Had some dinner at the Press Box, where R and his facial hair joined us:

This is Steve's beer. It's funny because when I had foot surgery I told people that I'd been attacked by a landshark. This was before I cooked up the Completely Fictional but Based on an Animal Planet Show Story about the Sandfish in Marrakech. It (the beer) tastes like river water.



So then after that we played some Guitar Hero and waited for J to show up. Hee Hee. Little J. I'm going to call her that from now on. I think there's a resemblance, don't you?



Ok, not really. But that's mostly because my Little J is badass and Jenny Humphrey is a conniving bitch. But we'll see what Season 2 has to say about that. I can see my Little J in that outfit, though.

So then she showed up and we headed to R's place for some partying. It was wicked. There were some stripper hags and their pimps in the elevator. Seriously. They could have been on Temptation Island or something.


And then there was general lounging about:



And fooseball:



And then the next morning we dragged ourselves to the Farmers market for some eggs and other tasties and then R and SP wandered down for brunch and even more Guitar Hero.

Best part of the whole weekend? No Driving. Woot!