Category Archives: Cute Ideas

October 15, 2012 · 10:28 pm

FALL. And my aspirations for it.

Oh hey guys. It’s been awhile since I posted. I’m sorry. I hope you missed me. The last post I wrote was epic. Thank you so much to everyone who sent me sweet comments and notes afterwards.
After that post, (if you even remember it by now), my friend Fitz texted my boyfriend the funniest 4 texts in a row.

They probably aren’t funny if myself and this person are strangers to you, but if you know me personally, and Alex personally, and Fitz personally, and our group of friends…it’s hilarious. First of all, I mentioned in the post that Alex looked like an Italian man. (I could go into an essay on the many attributes that liken him to a man from Rome, but let’s not). I’ve never said that out loud to any of my friends, and he seems very ‘white’ to them, not even counting that his last name is “White”, so first thing Cait noted was “Since when is Alex White Italian? I like it.” The post was like FOUR MILLION paragraphs long so the fact that she honed in on that particular sentence/detail enough to send a text about it, of ALL the content in the post, is why she is hilarious. For the record, he is Italian because of THIS photo: (and no it’s not just because he’s smoking, it’s the hair and his physique and the way clothes fit)–

Next, she casually stated for the record: “PS, I’m funnier than Kate Abbott.” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I jokingly made the claim that Kate was the funniest and that our friends would likely agree. “PS I’m funnier than Kate Abbott” is a hilarious text to receive, especially being that it was sent to my boyfriend and not me. It perfectly captures how we all relate to one another. Kate/everyone will laugh out loud when they see that. Our conversation with one another is pure sarcasm, a la,  “ehhhhh I thiiiiink we can all agree that I’m the funniest at this table and have been for years but hey let’s not dwell on it l’chaim!” Our conversation is the way Denis/Charlie/Mac/Dee’s speak on It’s always Sunny, when they’re trying to convey disagreement or defensive condescension, or are talking about something they’re not experts on and know they’re not experts on (like arguing with a lawyer who is trying to keep his calm as they discuss the most harebrained, idiotic, illegal schemes they are trying to convey as being within the realm of the law), or are being self-effacing, or are becoming subtly frantic about something, and do it in that intentionally/comedically passive aggressive way where they just barely talk over one another and try to cut the conversation off with a one-liner that will shut it down and segue into a change of subject, but another person in the conversation just picks it up and keeps going, so then they all keep volleying the verbal ball back-and-forth long after they’ve stopped making any sense, but they’re all in on it together.

Like when someone is like “oh these cookies are great, I love store-bought cookies” and you’re like “ehhhhh that’s uh, that’s nice Gwen, but act-ually they were made from scratch but we can’t all be homemakers so don’t beat yourself up about it HOW BOUT THIS DAY!” And then Gwen refuses to let it go and is like “But…I saw the Betty Crocker box in your trash” and you’re like “Right, well, my niece was over last night and she loves her some Betty–you know kids– so she actually made those from the box, so why don’t we just move on, why don’t we?” and then Gwen is like “I thought your niece…died last year” and you’re like “OK listen Gwen, I’m gonna need you {long pause} to get off your high horse and shut that damn mouth of yours for a minute here mmkay? So what’s on the agenda for today?” And then Gwen is innocently bewildered and the liar is so PUT UPON. In that scene Gwen would totally have been the annoying Pollyana character with a high ponytail and the liar would have been Denis and he would have gone way further down the road to protect his lie. It’s also very Larry David in Curb.

This scene below, from It’s Always Sunny, is LITERALLY how my friends and I, and Alex and I, and Alex’s friends and I speak. It’s schtick but like, so part of us that’s it’s even not really schtick it’s just…….our senses of humor.  It’s my favorite kind of comedy in the world. If I’m ever snappy, like PMSing and in a really bratty mood, and I say something hilariously outrageous that I kind of know I shouldn’t have said, Alex COMPLETELY disarms me with it. I’ll say something smart-ass and he’ll pause for the longest time, smack his lips, unhinge his jaw slowly, like he’s contemplating something really deeply, really en-un-ciate, and really sarcastically, slowly, in a falsely cheerful voice say, “hmm…uh….that’s in-tresting…” (and that point, he’s caught my attention because he says it all so borderline seriously that I think he is about to tell me something real, and that alone makes me pause….waiting to hear what’s next) and then he’ll continue, “Because I was under the impression here, that we’d checked the-uh, the….. att-i-tude at the door, But-a, please, by all means, cor-rect me if I was wrongggg,” (and REALLY holds that “g” in wrong so he’s almost saying “wrongg-guh” in an obnoxiously over-the-top staccato way, and it’s soooooo sarcastic and then I start cracking up and all tenseness of the moment is completely dissipated in a flash despite my very best efforts to remain in a bad mood and take it out on the world. (Please watch this clip. It is worth every second of your time. And if you watch it and don’t find it funny then please just never read my blog again, thanks):

This scene makes me cry with laughter. Wet tears. On my cheeks. From Laughing. The WAY he talks about the stage at the beginning, “OKAY Denis and Dee Renolds, we’re back, doin’ another podcast, uhh you might hear some construction sounds in the background don’t worry about THAT, uhh, that’s just, you know, doin’ a little, we’re always up to something around here, so, we’re building a little stage and now that we’re gonna do a little, put on a little show later, um, but uh, listen TODAY we want to talk about..BORDERS.” A lot of intentional, non-genuine, enunciated “Uh’s” “Um’s” “SO’s” and dramatic intakes of breath as a way to transition between sentences that you’ve either botched, or that have been ridiculous and you are trying to move on from, are key to the comedy. And when Denis starts trying to speak Spanish to say “no passing,”….”nada, nada, no nada, no pasa, no masa pasa ti, pasa ti NO.” And then at the very end when they’re wrapping up in complete nonsense, about the oil returning to the ground and ashes to ashes dust to dust like in the Bible oh my god. This entire scene. If I ever need laugh therapy I will watch this on repeat. The way Denis and Dee relate is my favorite, second only to Denis and Charlie. I think Denis is the best part of the show. I haven’t watched it in so long but GOD it’s funny. Actually after watching this scene for the 900th time, I realized Alex’s tone/demeanor/way of being is almost identical to Denis’s from the show, right down to his cadence and the pitch he uses for certain words. And I think that’s why I’m in love with him. Because Denis’s character is basically my dream guy. Hilarious, with a touch of insanity. Yep. That’s pretty much how I like all people. Hilarious and slightly insane.

Back to the text Fitz  sent. She then asked Alex to tell “his girlfriend” to give her some happy pills. And then she signed off. The texts came in successively over the span of 60 seconds. I could hear everything she was saying out loud to herself as she read my post. Then she called me and proceeded to ask me what the fuck was wrong with me, and what drugs I was on as I wrote the post. HAHAH I love her. I love you Cait. She was like “……….. We need to discuss this post. Is there something I’m missing.” And that is why she is my friend. Her humor is in her delivery/tone so if you don’t know her this was a waste of your time. Even “love you two later” is hilarious when you know how she is saying it. Whatever just trust me.
ANNNNYWAYS back to FALL. Or had I ever even started on Fall? Regardless, FALL–>

I made a list on our chalkboard wall of things I’d like to do this season, because that way I can’t forget that I want to do them and when we wake up on a weekend and think “hm what should we do today” we can consult this GLARING list that we can’t ignore. (Details on the new additions to our dining room to come in a separate post. I’m aware it’s all too blonde/yellow. From the overhead lamp, to the light bulb itself, to the parquet floors to our old Ikea dining chairs that match the floors perfectly (and without any rug to separate them, blend as one form into the floors). A person can only do so much at one time. For now, our dining room is Black and Yellow. I’m aware and it kills me. We need– a colorful centerpiece, different chairs, some texture (maybe a new rug– we sold our old one that we’d gotten for free, because that’s how it’s done. Making money off of something that was free– #winning. Though my interiors guru says “when I think of rugs under dining tables, I just think….CRUMBS”, and she has a point), and some art/objects off to the right and left. It looks better in person too, the shades and overall look really doesn’t photograph well. And yes, is that the most badass cow skull-and-horns you’ve ever seen? I KNOW. I KNOW. I make visual love to it every time I lock eyes with it. It’s magnificent. We’ll talk about it later).

The Fall List is:

  • Try Rogue 24 (a CRAZY restaurant that I wrote about in this Refinery article, that’s since gotten some major national press. It’s like, in an alley, in a garage, with a graffiti-ed door, with a CRAZY menu.
  • Eat at Big Bear Cafe. I’ve only ever had the coffee and hear the food food is delish.
  • Try Blind Dog Cafe. Not a particularly novel place in DC but just something I want to finally do.
  • Go on a date to Chez Billy, a newish quaint French restaurant that opened up in town.
  • Pick apples at Butler’s Orchard then have a caramel apple decorating party (apple PICKING season is over, apparently it’s only in August (the fuck?) but we will still go to the farm because I’ve wanted to go to Butler’s Orchard for a while and it’s more authentic to buy them there than at Harris Teeter, if we want to be Portlandia about it). The Caramel Apple decorating party would include an assortment of toppings (crushed oreos, nuts, shredded coconut, m&ms, candy corn, chocolate sprinkles, etc), like this, from Emily’s blog

  • Have an old school scary movie night with Halloween, Rosemary’s Baby, Carrie, The Omen, and a good Hitchcock (I’ll leave that pick up to my boyfriend, he is the Hitchcock expert). Those four are some of my all time favorite movies, period, let alone of the scary genre. THEY ARE ALL SO GOOD. OH MY GOD. ALL OF THEM).
  • Have people over for a seasonal brunch of blueberry sausage, cinnamon french toast, and bloody mary shots. I saw this idea on Daily Candy and thought it was the cutest thing EVER.

  • Try a deep plum/black/burgundy/oxblood lip, such as this one:

  • Make Rosemary Garlic baked brie, the idea for which I got from Natalie’s adorable blog and her “garlic-themed” party idea:

  • Buy Good Wood’s pine scented candle (I stopped in on Sunday and they had THE MOST divine smelling pine candle I have ever encountered and I can’t live without it this season).
  • Make homemade chocolate chip cookies. I already check off one thing from my mental Fall list, and that was making HOME MADE, from scratch, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. As in, I mixed the flour, eggs, pumpkin pack, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar, vegetable oil, and chocolate chips together mySELF. No box, bitch)

Had them this morning with grass-fed whole milk from Smucker Farms + fresh berries, just crushing Fall

  • Go on a hike
  • Go to an indoor haunted house
  • Cook a meal fully with produce from Dupont Farmer’s market
  • Have people over for gourmet grilled cheese and tomato soup with Alex’s homemade croutons (they’re the best thing you’ll ever taste! Thrown into tomato soup? See ya). (I get like 90 percent of my ideas from Natalie’s blog. She is literally more crafty and clever in the kitchen than……I don’t know what than, but I am in awe of the things she casually whips up for dinner parties. Fancy grilled cheeses are about as far as we can go. I’m not in the department of making cripsy polenta with succotash, though I wish I was).

That’s my Fall list. I will, GUARANTEED, cross off every single thing off of that list before December 21st, likely before Thanksgiving itself. Because I am a do-er when it comes right down to it. I do things. I tease myself that I am a lazy non-doer who would rather lay in bed watching TV than do anything that requires me to put shoes on (and I DO enjoy doing that), but when I get ideas in my head I am too impatient/excited/impetuous to not do them. When I hear about a cool place to check out, like Beach Bar or The Arboretum for its amazing photo backdrop opportunities, I go. The curiosity and my stubbornness otherwise kills me. If I see a good recipe, I will think about it every day until I finally make it and know what it tastes like and thus am able to sleep at night.

What’s on your Fall list?

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Filed under Cute Ideas, Life and things

July 12, 2012 · 3:40 pm

MY DC

HEY Y’ALL!!

I did a super-fun feature for Meg’s blog, where I showed her my fave spots in DC, answered some great questions, and filled out a really fun/cute rapid-fire questionnaire with quirky questions. If you want to know more about me and “MY DC”, check this *ish out!!!

http://www.mimiandmegblog.com/2012/07/my-dc-alina-of-hyperbalist.html

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Filed under Blog, Cute Ideas, Fashion, Food, MyStyle

June 15, 2012 · 10:19 pm

Homemade Drink Tags, a.k.a being extremely resourceful with the scraps and tools you have on-hand

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I hosted a bagel brunch for 12 of our friends. [I love having people over, but cooking is just extremely difficult, time-consuming, stressful, and expensive, at this age. We have a tiny kitchen and it's just really hard to actually COOK food-food for 12 people, timing all of the dishes, making sure the things are hot, etc. Really though, cooking eggs alone for 12 people is really an undertaking, and we know because we tried cooking eggs/bacon once for 7 people and it was h-e-l-l. It's just giant quantities of shit, and the smoke alarm's going off and one thing is finished but the bacon is burning and things are sizzling and there's no counter space and half the eggs are too overdone and we're doing it in like 3 pans because we don't own a big enough pan to do it at once.  I mean it's just not worth it.]

Which is why BAGELS are just a no brainer. Delicious and easy, no prep involved, huge crowd pleaser, inexpensive, and you can make the table spread look pretty and filled out with toppings (tomato, onion, lettuce, capers, lox) and fruit. AND MIMOSAS, OBVVVII!

I am going to post some more about what we did and how it looked, but first phase up: THE ‘DRANKS.

Mimosas are just the clear, obvious brunch drink. Easy, delicious, alcohol. We’re not about to whip up some craft cocktail (money, effort, #no), and bloody mary’s would be the only other option but some people hate those, and NOBODY hates a mimosa.

People were coming over at noon on Sunday; so on Saturday evening, we stayed in and listened to music (the new Gavin DeGraw album which I adore, Sublime, Gotye, and Sarah Bareilles), and set everything up so all we’d have to do that morning is buy fresh bagels.

I knew I wanted to put some kind of name-marker on the champagne glasses because a.) it’s cute, and b.) it’s legitimately the dumbest thing ever to NOT do that. Probably the most common thing that occurs in life other than humans losing keys, is being at any event/party, and, EVEN IF YOU AREN’T DRINKING ALCOHOL: losing track of which cup, glass, drink is yours. You can be drinking water, and get confused. “wait is that yours, I don’t know, hm I thought I put mine over here, ehhhhh mine had a little bit more than that, yeah I think that’s mine.” The amount of times I’ve said those exact words at an event in my life, or heard them, or been told them by a friend, is …A LOT. I do it when I’m not even at an event/party. Like I do it just eating breakfast at a cafe. I’ll be sitting down with my brother and dad, and like ten times throughout the meal be like ‘wait is that yours? which one is mine? hold on did you put your water down here? I think I saw you put yours down over there. So this is mine right?” AND I NEVER KNOW. I NEVER KNOW THE ANSWER. NO ONE EVER DOES.  Getting confused on your water or drink-glass is like a Seinfeld-worthy small absurdity of life.

But, it was 9 p.m. already and I hadn’t put any thought into how I was going to make the drink tags, and I literally said out loud to my boyfriend, “….shit’s about to get weird right now…we’re gon’ have to get REALLLLLLLLL crafty/resourceful up in here in order to make these drink tags.” I thought I was going to have to use like…..rubber bands and the pages of a book or magazine and like…poke a hole in the paper with a twig from our orchid plant. I literally just had nothing on hand and am always able to pull some weird makeshift macGuyver thing together because I never accept the alternative…which would be NOT using drink tags. Or I guess another alternative would have been to spend stupid time earlier in the day driving around to some craft/party store and buying drink tags which is lame and a copout and unnecessary money.

Now……I’m not a crafter and I don’t own a stock of cute stationery, wrapping papper, and tools. I don’t have a stockpile of stickers and hole-punches and glitter and tags and shit. Because I’m an adult 26 year old woman with a job. And other things to spend my money on than Martha Stewart glitter and metallic pens. I don’t spend 40+ hours a week working for other people, to take my compensation for that work and buy craft supplies with it. THAT’S JUST ME. But, I also keep things I know I’ll use later. ANDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD, I happened to have a LITERAL rectangle of silver glitter wrapping paper leftover from when I had to wrap my boyfriend and friend’s Christmas presents 5 months ago, along with some $2.49 gold ribbon from CVS (it was $2.49 for a 3 pack of gold, silver, and red), and brown card stock that I’ve been using for thank you notes for 4 years. This measly scrap pile of budget supplies was sitting on the shelf of my closet that’s dedicated to… random scrap piles of budget things I know I’m going to use one day.

SO.

Being that we don’t own a hole puncher or ANY skinny, pointy, pole-type thing that would pop a little hole into the card stock and glitter paper so that we could pull ribbon through it and tie it to the base of the champagne glasses (I tried a pen and a fork first, and the tip of the scissors was too clunky and kept cutting to the edge of the square so that the ribbon didn’t have a secure hole to slide through),– we used the tiny little curled tip of a CORKSCREW to punch the holes. !

I literally felt so resourceful. It was like, “oh shit, HOW am I going to make DRINK TAGS right now?” And then…”oh I’ve got a RECTANGLE of glitter wrapping paper, brown card stock, and gold ribbon, I’ll just punch holes in the card stock with a corkscrew and string it all together!” Satisfaction from these small triumphs bring me joy in life.

And used a black sharpie for the names.

We had a little assembly line, where I wrote and punched holes and then Alex threaded ribbon and did that thing where you slide the edge of the scissors against the ribbon so it squiggles out, because when I try I just cut the ribbon. Period.

I thought they turned out so cute! And then, Alex had the G-E-N-I-U-S idea to put them all on a little serving tray–instead of AT the table at individual place settings–as like a little beginning-of-the-party favor. So when they came in, they just got to grab a glass with their name from the tray and pour themselves a mimosa. We have this marble slab from Good Wood that literally was made for that exact function.

We placed it on this console area where we have some art and a little bar set-up to the right.

(And to give you some context for where this is in relation to guests coming in the front door…)

I loved how these personalized, homemade drink tags turned out. 3 cheers for being resourceful with what you have on hand.

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June 8, 2012 · 11:55 am

Stickygram: and a cute gift idea for a friend– surprise attacking their fridge with photo magnets while they’re out of town, assuming you have the key to their place

One day many months ago, while working at my editor’s house, I noticed these really cute instagram photo magnets on her fridge. I instantly asked where they were from, and she told me it was this cool company Stickygram. (Since she’s a fashion/lifestyle editor, of COURSE she knew about stickygram literally 7 months ago– always on top of the cool trends and products and companies out there!).

I filed that little nugget of knowledge away in my brain as something I wanted to do for our fridge, but totally forgot. For months. I’m sure some of you do this too, actually probably everyone relates to this, where then at like midnight on a random Thursday 2 weeks ago, I suddenty remembered about the idea. Nothing prompted it– I wasn’t using instagram or looking through photos or staring at a fridge magnet, I was probably like, watching a Mildred Pierce episode and my brain just went “OH YEAH THOSE MAGNETS HOLLY HAD!”

But then, I had an even BETTER idea than getting them for our fridge (though of course I did get them for our fridge). For nearly one year, I’d been meaning to do something cute for my friend Cait with the GAGILLIONS of instagram photos I have of her pug. See, she and I used to be roommates– which meant her pug was our house’s communal pug. I mean he was just another roommate. So for 8 lucky months, I got to snuggle with that pug as though he were my own, and all I ever did was take adorable pictures of him on instagram. But……what was the point in ME having those photos? Some of them were really sweet vigniettes that she didn’t even know I’d taken– of her asleep on the couch, with the pug asleep on her forehead. Or her sitting on her bed scrapbooking on a random Tuesday night, and the pug snuggled up under her arm like her trusty partner in crime. Things like that.

So then of course I thought- why yes– I’ll get my favorite of these photos turned into MAGNETS– and I’ll wait until she’s out of town and sneak into her house and put them on the fridge so when she comes home she finds a surprise photo montage of her most precious thing in life– her wee little pug!

Memorial Day Weekend afforded me the perfect sneak attack opportunity, because she went to the beach. Since we live about a 10-minute walk apart (this is the same friend I was visiting whenceupon I stumbled upon our dream couch, as chronciled here)– I have a key to her place so I can sneak in and visit the pug whenever I want, or use her rooftop pool, or just be a creep on her couch. We have the kind of friendship where if I’m supposed to be meeting her to watch the Bachelorette at 8pm but I’m not doing anything and it’s 5 p.m., I’ll just go to her apartment and watch TV on the couch with the pug, and then she’ll call me and be like “hey so what’s the plan for tonight” and I’ll be like “No plan, already on your couch. Come home.” and she’ll be like “Of course you are. See you there bye.” And then she’ll walk in and I’m under a blanket with the pug eating her Ben  & Jerry’s and already walked Tyson. We are married. Actually as I’ve written before, my boyfriend and I and her are kind of a threesome. She got two extra pool passes to her rooftop pool this summer (our building doesn’t have one–the horror) and gave them to me and Alex, and when she’s out of town and calls me to ask what we’re doing, she’s like “uh….I’m awkward that you’re NOT at my pool right now.” Like on a given day she’s basically offended if me and Alex don’t stop by her place, visit the pug, or use her pool.

On Monday of this week, we had our usual Monday Bachelorette plan where I walk to her house and we get dinner and drink wine with the pug  (if Monday doesn’t work then she records it and we watch on Tuesday– and yes we’re obsessed; have you SEEN Emily Maynard?). It was Monday, I was exhausted, the day was dragging on, I’d been up since 6 a.m., so I texted her around 11 saying “I cannot make it through this day. All I want is to be on the couch with the pug and Emily. I’m going to die before this day is over. Can’t do it.” Her response and our subsequent texts pretty much could not sum up our friendship more:

And that was all we had to say about that.

She and I have been friends since age 12. I just went to facebook to gather some photos of she and I, including some of our hilarious younger moments. We’ll go backwards, from our most recent coolest phase of adulthood, to being total highschool losers. (not actually, we were really cool, but you can definitely see a style evolution here haha…..)

At a barbecue 1.5 years ago

At our friend Kate’s birthday party two years ago

Shopping in Soho two Falls ago

At a bar in the west village..

And a little drunker now…..HAHA

At our friend’s apartment in Brooklyn two Halloween’s ago:

As two drunk Halloween girls in red and pink wigs at your basic warehouse rave in Bushwick…(she was Rihanna, I was Nicki Minaj)

At a blogger event in DC last Fall:

Overexposed, at her birthday party this year:

As freshman in college, back home after our very first semester:

Being dorks in Barcelona, when I studied abroad there:

Thinking we’re cool/hot on a stripper pole at some loser club in Barcelona:

hahaha I love this one—dancing in highschool:

Visiting her at Notre Dame when we were juniors:

Dancing to Pitbull’s “Sh…be Quiet” song. CLASSSSIC college apartment in the background (One Love Bob Marley poster, Will Ferrel Old School poster, BEATLES poster (hahaha!!!!) and Rooney poster! I mean could this BE a better, more CHARICATURE-ESQUE embodiment of your classic college dorm room circa 2006? I had posters of Sammy Davis Jr. and the rat pack + Marilyn Monroe…only slightly better):

Being ridiculous on New Year’s Eve in highschool:

Being ridiculous at a party in highschool with phallic ice cubes:

Being ridiculous at a party in highschool:

Being ridiculous at a Wiz Khalifa concert at 9:30 club last year:

Theme– ridiculousness around one another.

So now after that glorious trip down the memory lane of our friendship (it really was for me and looking back one day, sorry for the detour, but at least now you have visual proof of a decade of ridiculous moments together)……

Memorial Day Weekend 2012: it was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, so I loaded the magnet sheets into a paper bag, and Alex and I took the nice walk down from our house to hers. We let ourselves in, and got to work on her fridge. She had a bunch of stuff on it already so we had to strategically move things around and maximize grid space for the montage.

Then, as I sat down to write her the ‘surprise note’ Alex drank a Corona from her fridge and began leaving hilarious notes for her to find. Such as…….

In our re-arranging of her current fridge surface set-up, he found a to-do list of hers from April 10th, so he naturally left this note for her:

And this one, for an outdated CVS coupon:

Then we pasted my little note to her and snuck off into the night.

Actually we snuck off to meet our friends for cocktails and dinner at Pearl Dive Oyster bar on 14th street and then we all strolled leisurely all the way from 14th st to Georgetown (about a 25/30 minute walk) to get an ice cream cone and more drinks, on one of those super balmy, slow, lazy, summer nights where your skin is bathed in warmth (in an easy, calming way; not a stifling way),  and everything around you feels like summer when you were a kid, from the way the air smells to the actual humming sound of crickets and fireflies. It was the perffffffffect Memorial Day weekend day/night itinerary. Is there ANYTHING better than summer??? Why not inject a little adventure/surprise into a lazy summer Saturday with a break-in (or non-forced entry using an actual key…) to an unsuspecting friend’s house to leave a thoughtful little gift. Could be a bottle of their favorite wine, a trio of bright Essie nail polishes, or instagrammed magnets on their fridge!

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October 8, 2011 · 5:05 am

Idea for Moving Organization: Moving Binder

 

So today I discovered Pendaflex ‘project sorters,’ and today my life changed forever. I am obsessed with them! They are a visually pleasing, file-folder like organization tool with color-colored tabs on the front, and see-through front and back pockets. They make doing a project so fun, and a lot easier.My boyfriend and I are moving into a new building in a new and muchhhh cooler part of town {thank you Jesus Christ in heaven} in exactly three weeks, and I needed everything to be organized in one place. This is what I did, and what you can do too the next time you move:

1st thing first: I printed off a simple grid “Moving To-Do Checklist” for the front, to keep track of all the tasks associated with moving. I highlighted stages: Pre-Move, Moving, Utilities, and Mail.

Pre-Move is things like:

  • Buy boxes, packing tape, sharpie
  •  IKEA trip
  • Order couch for delivery on date of move-in
  • Selling anything?, i.e.- go through stuff and figure out what is being packed, versus sold or thrown out, etc.
  • Pick moving company and make reservation

Move is things like:

  • Reserve loading dock at current place
  • Reserve loading dock at new place
  • Figure out dimensions of freight elevator and doorways at new place

Reserving the loading docks when moving is suuuuuper crucial, IF you live in an apartment building and/or condo that is. Obviously houses and townhouses with front-door entry into the units don’t apply. But if this isn’t a task on your to-do list, you forget to do it and then 3 days before you move out, you call to reserve it and it’s already full and you can’t do a single thing. If you don’t have loading dock access for couches, beds, etc., you basically can’t move. It can really screw you over.

Utilities is things like:

  • Cancel electric/gas/cable at current place
  • Set up new service or transfer service to new place

Mail–>Change of Address, lists all the places I need to contact about my new address. Things to consider/remember are:

  • Officially at the post office
  • Banks
  • Doctors’ Offices
  • Magazine subscriptions
  • College
  • Loan Lenders {if you have student loans}

These days everyone does paperless everything, but people still get mail, so just look through your mail and think about where you are sent mail from, and make sure they have the new address because you DON’T want any correspondences from your bank getting sent to a new person living in your old place.

On the checklist, put contacts and phone numbers for everything you can think of– the moving company, the leasing office at your new place {or if you are not renting, whoever is in charge…condo/homeowner’s association, whatever}. This mostly applies to renting though.

So that’s the checklist.

Then, I used a label-maker to print labels for the big ticket items.

  • Floor Plan
  • IKEA List
  • Paint
  • Rugs
  • Room Inspiration
  • Lighting
  • Art
  • Decor
  • Textiles
  • Furniture

Like SO: TAB1: The floor plan to your place governs pretty much everything, so I put it as the first tab. You refer to this GILLIONS of times throughout the pre-move and initial phases, when considering dimensions of furniture, what will fit, where it will go, etc. Even when figuring how much paint to buy, you need to know how tall/long the walls are, etc. I had our leasing people email me an electronic copy of it, and I printed off three clean copies. I kept two clean, and decorated one with my not-to-scale sketch of what will go where. See my outline of the cow’s hide? hahaaha that’s my favorite part. And the only part that looks good in this drawing. But it all makes sense to me. TAB2– “IKEA List.” My boyfriend and I are broke. We are the kind of broke that your parents talk about being, when they were law students living off of loan money and Ramen and lived in a shoebox sized apartment on top of each other in New York, and worked 3 jobs and donated blood to earn extra cash. We sat down the other night and went through all of our finances {it was really fun} and determined that between all of the bills we have to pay, i.e. FIXED expenses, things like credit cards, loans, car payments, insurance, gas money, move-out costs [like the fee we have to pay our apartment for them to re-clean it before the next person moves in, etc.], that after all that, we have exactly– EXACTLY– $400.00 for the move. We don’t have furniture………………………The things I OWN include things like side tables, lamps, one console table {that I’m selling because it won’t fit in the new place}, shelves, etc., but the TWO things that a person needs in a place are: a couch, and a coffee table. Those are the two things we don’t have.

Sidenote– Have you ever moved into a new place? The first time I ever moved into a new places was last year, when I moved into the place I am currently living in as I type this blog post, and also the place I will be moving out of in 3 weeks. It was my first lease, and my first experience walking into a completely empty room. While at Dartmouth, I lived in the dorms all 4 years and dorms come furnished so I never learned what you NEED when moving in to a new, empty, residence. Well friends, when you move into a new place for the first time, you notice within two hours—two hours– the things you didn’t realize you need, and those things are: A shower curtain, a trash can, paper towels, toilet paper, and scissors. They are things you would never think about before your first move, but after your first move, TWO HOURS into the new place, you’re like….”oh shit…..this isn’t a hotel. there is quite literally NOTHING here.” You realize, that there is nowhere to throw anything out. That you went to go pee, and there are no paper products. You start to unpack things, and have no scissors to open anything. You wash your hands, and can’t dry them. You need to take a shower from all the dirty moving and unpacking, and you realize you are standing naked in a tub with no shower curtain…and you don’t know where the towels are. It’s just something that I personally didn’t think of. I remember walking into our place for the very first time, and going to the bathroom and realizing……..oh….right….there is N-O-T-H-I-N-G here. I made a list right then and there, of the 5 things that are like, a mover’s emergency stash. You have to have those things on hand immediately.

But THEN, there was a realization that took a bit longer than 2 hours. Our couch wasn’t being delivered for a few days, and we hadn’t yet picked out a coffee table, and by 10 pm that first day of being in your new places without those two things, you’re like “uhhh okay joke’s over…get me a fucking coffee table and couch NOW.” There is nowhere to do anything without those two things. while a person can live without MANYMANYMANYMANYMANYMANYMANY things, including ALL DECOR, book shelves, accent chairs, curtains, etc., there are two things a person needs BEFORE they even move in, and those two things are: COUCH. COFFEE TABLE. That’s it. Those are ESSENTIAL.Your life will be miserable until you have a couch and coffee table.

So we have 400 dollars to get a couch, coffee table, buy packing materials, hire movers, etc. HAHAH Good luck, US. #Nothappening. NEEDLESS TO SAY, allllllllllllllll of this was to get to my point that IKEA is literally the only place we are looking/going for at least 2 months. There is not a SINGLE place that can beat IKEA’s prices. Their “Lack” coffee table is $39.99, and their Ektorp couch {which is very comfortable, long, and has 3 cushions as opposed to two} is $399. 399 dollars and is hands down THE cheapest couch we’ve come across, especially for one that is aesthetically pleasing and comfortable. Unless we buy….like, some SUPER ghetto couch off Craig’s List or Goodwill, but that’s ghetto. I’m cool with refurbishing side tables and chairs from places like that, but your COUCH– no thank you. There are a few other things we are aiming to get at IKEA- like the UBIQUITOUS “Expedit” grid bookshelf, some knives {we don’t own any and they’re $4.99 at IKEA}, a cow’s hide {if there aren’t cheaper ones on EBAY or something of the like}, and some other things, and at IKEA.com, you can select everything you want, and it will look up the numbers and availability at the store location of your choosing, and then you print it out and take it with you for easy shopping. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, our IKEA List has its own tab, because we are going to be living off of our IKEA shopping list for like the first 4 months of being in our new place. With each new paycheck, a new thing can be bought because that is how life is when you are 25 and hustling.

For the rest of the tabs, I simply printed images fit to full-sized 8 1/2 by 11 printer paper, in full color. These are good to have on hand because a.) they remind you of your ultimate vision, so you don’t get carried away. And b.) So you show people at the stores where you go. “I am looking for a rug like this.” Etc.

Tab3– PAINT. Paint colors are crucial. I don’t want us to go too long without painting, because then you just get lazy and like 6 months pass and your walls are still eggshell white. #NO. I have MASSIVE folders of images I’ve saved for years, so I printed out the images of painted walls I have that caught my eye in various editorials from magazines or Apartment Therapy or blogs or whatever. They go in the “paint” tab so that when we walk into Benjamin Moore or wherever, we can just look for paint chips to match the pictures, or show the pictures to staff and say “we’re looking for a green like THIS.”As we start collecting paint chips and going through that whole process, they will be stored in this tab too.

Tab4– RUGS. Ditto on the rugs. We need a cow’s hide, a Moroccon-esque kilim rug, a graphic modern black-and-white striped rug, and a flokati.

Tab5–Room Inspiration. Here, I printed out images of actual ROOMS that I like, instead of individual things like “rugs” “lamps” and “art pieces.” The rooms are ENTIRE rooms whose look I like.TAB 6–Lighting.

Tab 7– ART.

Tab 8– DECOR

Tab 9– TEXTILES

TAB  10– The ACTUAL furniture. This is last because we won’t be able to afford the good stuff for awhile. The IKEA Ektorp $399 sofa is temporary…ultimately my dream couch is the blue velvet sofa from Ethan Allen that you may have seen on other blogs. It’s a dream couch!

At the very back of the binder, I have the full collage I made of the overall design look for the house.

I also made a list of ‘resources’ if you will, for home stuff, even though it’s IKEA in the short term. I did this because I sometimes forget about places, like Home Goods when I’m on the hunt for something, so I spend all day looking for a lamp and give up and go home and then remember I didn’t go to Home Goods because I’d forgotten it existed. And for the front of the binder, I printed out calendar months for the last months of 2011. It’s just nice to have things laid out visually, so if you go into a store and ask about delivery or whatever, you can look at your calendar and see how it fits into things. I KNOW people have phones, but I like being able to hold things and touch them and write on them. So that’s my moving binder. It was SO easy to make. Pendaflex’s are 11 dollars at Staples. The checklist was made using grid boxes in Microsoft Word. A simple label maker made the labels for the tabs. And then I printed all of the images. Literally all you do is right-click to save an image to your desktop, then open it and click file–>print, or “Control+P”, and whether you have a PC or a MAC, it should just automatically print the image to the size of the paper. It’s legit. I CAN’T tell you how obsessed I am with this binder. Every time I see it, I just want to make out with it. It’s just makes me want to wake up and start slaying life. Just owning our move. I’m normally not THIS organized. Without Pendaflex project sorter, all of these things would have been in ten different places, but this little magical part-file folder part-binder gave me a place to put it all together, in a very visually satisfying way. #obsessssedwithPendaflex. #notsponosoredbyPendaflex. #wouldbeweirdifIwas.

An empty pendaflex:You also don’t have to use labels and can instead used colored sharpies to fill in the tabs. Alright good night. It’s 2 AM on Friday night and I’m still up posting about this.

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September 30, 2011 · 1:09 am

Industrial Loft Living: How to do it right

Can you EVEN believe it’s the same space??? Take a good look.

I discovered Natalie’s blog the way I discover half the shit I discover– clicking link after link after link until I couldn’t tell you how I got to where I am IF you paid me to. What I do know is that an online magazine of some sort had featured her due to her DIY bunting project that was really creative and cute. Seeee: She made that. The entire thing, in her spare time, because she is Martha Stewart.

In terms of the space she currently lives in, I was always really amazed when she blogged pictures of her loft BEFORE I saw the before picture!! Like even before seeing it, I thought it was amazing and so cool and funky and thought for sure she must have a background in interior design based on how well she filled such a cold and just large space. And then I stumbled upon her before picture and was in shock! So, look again: beFORE

Like WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT???? What an incredible transformation! The picture you saw up above, at the start of the post, was of the area re-arranged to accommodate guests for her and her fiance’s 26th birthday party. They rented chairs from a party company and had all of their closest friends over. But normally it looks like this. The best part is that she is so crafty and thrifty that like, half of the things in the pictures were DIY-ed, thrifted, refurbished, or bought from Craigslist.

Let’s get down to a few specifics. Her awesome bubble chandelier above the dining room table. SHE MADE IT. Out of CB2 Plastic Bubbles. You may not even believe that, because it’s so incredible, butttt she photographed the entire thing and blogged a step-by-step DIY on how to do it haha. Man, some people just are Martha Stewart. But better. The idea of me crafting this lamp is LAUGH-A-BLE. Amazing right?

She also DIY-ed these amazing mid-century modern-esque lounge chairs. I’m so jealous of abilities like this.Above, are the final products in their home in the living area. Below, is what they looked like when she found them:

I am totally obSESSED with the piece of artwork that draws all eyes to it, in their dining room area– this amaaaaaaaaaaazing 3D piece that is a turquoise blue-ish skeleton-looking face with these funky eyes and mouth. It’s just fucking COOL. The story is even cooler. It’s by this San Fransisco based artist named Pete DooLittle, and they went to his show, and found it by the dumpster outside after the show, asked the gallery owner what it was doing out there, and the artist said he was supposed to give it to a friend who didn’t want it anymore so he offered to sell it to them for a hundred dollars. I….am dying. I want this EXACT piece of art. I love how he rendered the mouth. I also love his funky graffiti-like signature in the bottom right corner.

She also re-did their back deck which is as amazing a transformation as inside. I meannnnnnnnnnnnnn. Do you not wish you were her friend so you could have drinks on this loft-deck at night? I certaintly do.

Their loft is in downtown Los Angeles and like…..I need for it to be my loft. I wish DC had cool loft spaces that WEREN’T like 4 million dollars and in the ghetto.

She’s also super crafty with food…and crafts…not just interiors. When they invited everyone over for their birthdays, they made supercute appetizers, cooked the whole meal for all the guests, printed hand-made/designed menus, and created the cutest table-setting I’ve ever seen a NON professional party planner create. Working backwards, the tablesetting: {this is inside their apartment. She did all of this. The runner, the confetti, the flowers, the plate settings and home-made polaroid place settings!!!}The menu {which she and her fiance cooked} The garlic & herb cremini mushrooms {I want to be someone who cooks GARLIC AND HERB CREMINI MUSHROOMS FOR MY FRIENDS ON MY OWN BIRTHDAY}The appetizers {HOWWWWWWWW CUTTTTEEEE ARE THESE}The dinner was inside but the cocktails and appetizers were out on their back deck:What a lovely little evening…..I may copy every single element for a future party.

Natalie, thank you for the inspiration! You are a very talented person! For the record, she is NOT a professional party planner or interior designer by trade. Butttt she should be.

ALL photos and graphic design elements are Natalie’s own! I just wanted to feature her amazingness.You can follow her creative happenings here, on her blog MintLoveSocialClub.

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September 14, 2011 · 7:01 pm

Cute Idea for House Guests: Midnight Snack Surprise Gift Box

Melanie from one of my ALL TIME favorite blogs, “You Are My Fave,” puts gift boxes together for her house guests, with a personalized sticker label that she makes on Pinhole Press. Can you eeeeeven process how cute this is? She puts in local favorites {she lives in Colorado}, like Boulder Canyon chips, chocolate bars, crackers, and nut butter. I can’t WAITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT until my boyfriend and I move in to our new place and get out-of-town visitors, and I can make something like this for each person, but totally personalized, with a sticker seal from a photo of DC I’ve taken…the pretty skyline with the Washington Monument…! I’d rather do things than food, because who ACTUALLY wakes up in the middle of the night to drink fizzy soda and eat chocolate bars. I mean, don’t get me wrong, people enjoy snacks and some cute snacks will definitely be a part of my future gift boxes, but practical things are even better in my book. Although I guess if you are schwasted, having a box next to the bed with snacks would be helfpul.

Regardless, for my girl guests, this is what I would put in their box:

  • A really cute hand-made sleep mask off of Etsy {how fluffy-luxurious is this one?}
  • A cute handmade washcloth
  • Face/make-up remover wipes
  • Fun nail polish
  • Comfy, cute socks
  • Cute neon undies {who DOESN’T need an extra pair when they are on vacation. Doing laundry is never the easiest option.}

I told you before– in my “about me” section of this blog– something being “cute” is basically my only criteria in life. A cafe; a neighborhood; a miniature muffin; some striped socks; if it’s ‘cute’, I am interested in it.

There are just endless ideas of cute things you could put in said box. You could put bobbi pins and travel-sized shampoo and conditioner and other toiletries for girls…the things that you sometimes forget when you are out of town and would be overjoyed to find in a surprise box next to your bed. For guys…..well, let me get back to you on that one. I’ll ask my boyfriend on gchat,  ”what are cute things a guy would want to find next to his bed on vacation?” and he’ll go…”excuse me?” And I’ll exhale exasperatedly like CUTE. THINGS. ALEX. IT’S NOT COMPLICATED. DON’T GUYS LIKE CUTE THINGS TOO? UGHHHHHHHH. And I’ll say, “You know, like a girl would want a magazine and nail polish and a little pair of socks. Like what’s CUTE to a guy? A cute little surprise thing he’d want to find?” And he’ll either surprise me with something hilarious or be like “…a bottle of Jack Daniels?”" haha I ACTUALLY can’t wait to hear what he says. Maybe condoms would be a cute little surprise for an out-of-town guest. Designer condoms! Like the ones Marc Jacobs sells at his mini Marc store in Soho. What WOULD a guy visitor like? Oh! I’ve got one thing. In the guy’s box, you can list the best local bars that are near the apartment. And in the girl’s box, you can list the best local shops! Ugh, simplistic gender reductions, gotta love it.

OHHHH MY GOD I JUST THOUGHT OF A GENIUS ONE!!! A bottle of Tylenol and/or Excedrin!!!!!!! CAN. YOU. HANDLE. THE. CUTENESS.

omfffggg. Just imagine you’re visiting a friend in any city. You don’t know the area, where the closest 7-11 is…. that, and even if you DID know, you wouldn’t want to have to go walk to one and get what you need…and you went out the night before and had a leeeetle too much fun, and THERE IS A GIFTED BOTTLE OF TYLENOL NEXT TO YOUR BED. I mean……………

You know what? MAYBE, I might even throw in a packet of Emergen-C. I DON’T KNOW. I JUST DON’T KNOW. Things could get a little crazy.

UPDATE: Intel from the boyfriend: {click to enlarge}

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August 18, 2011 · 12:58 pm

Tom Binns DIY

I’ve been eyeing these Tom Binns necklace for MONTHS. I love crystal necklaces that look sort of costume-y, and I love neon, and that’s basically what his jewelry is, except the materials are legit since the pieces are near a thousand dollars. So when I discovered there was a way to make them yourself, and that it was the WORLD’S easiest DIY, I was thrilled and literally kind of embarassed. I was embarassed that I was ever going to consider paying for a Tom Binns piece and didn’t realize on my own how easy it was to fake it. ALL YOU DO IS USE COLORED NAIL POLISH!!!!!!!!!!!!

That picture above was made by using NAIL POLISH to paint the crystals. That’s it. WHAT!!! Like sure, it would certainly be nice to own something of his, and the earrings are around $200.00 so maybe something like that in the future, but at the same time, I felt like an idiot that I would have ever paid hundreds of dollars for something that is THIS EASY TO REPLICATE, and who the fuck is really going to know? You will get the exact same effect. On top of that, when you are dealing with clothes, “fakes” are one thing because a pair of Forever 21 shorts isn’t going to fit as well, look as crisp, or last as long as a pair of Phillip Lim shorts. But with jewelry? Nothing is “fitting” so who the eff cares? I couldn’t believe myself when I saw this DIY. I was really amazed. This is all you do, with the colors of your choosing:

So here is the best part: crystal necklaces like this are PAINNNFULLY easy to find. They are at EVERY flea market you have ever been to or will ever go to in your life, and ANY vintage store you will ever walk into. They are SO easy to find, and come in so many different styles, and are the cheapest things IN THE WORLD. My favorite necklace like this, which I wear constantly and have blogged about od infinitum, I got at DC’s Eastern Market for $8.00.

Tom Binns Photos from Net-a-Porter, DIY photo from http://ispy-diy.blogspot.com/, nail polish painting photo from http://www.littlepinkmonster.com/2011/07/11/diy-neon-necklace-tom-binns-inspired/, bottom photo mine

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July 27, 2011 · 2:05 pm

Favorite Nail Trends To Try Right Now

GLITTER STRIPES!!! Love this. {DIY and photo via}

Wearing different shades of the same color in no particular pattern {Photo via} Newspaper nails! {photo via}One fully glittered nail and the rest solid {Via}

The OPI Shatter Line {which I am obsessed with}– If you layer the “shatter” color over a solid color, it expands and breaks and makes your nails look like they’ve been shattered with color. There are tons of different colors to choose from so the combinations are endless. {via}

Sally Hansen Minx Nail Decals

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June 25, 2011 · 7:46 pm

A Present for a Friend’s 25th Birthday

Going BACKWARDS from the final product above

{After using individual “2″ and “5″ stamps and gold metallic ink to stamp her age all over the paper}

{The skull&bones paper before the stamps}

{Barney’s Co-Op Box}

{Neon pink & yellow tissue paper and leopard tissue}

{The Goods.}

The Gift:

It was my friend Whitney’s 25th birthday and I wanted to get her something fab because I only see her once a year, and I also stayed with her in LA last year for a full week and she was such a sweet host. I started gathering little things to give her literally in December (4 months before her birthday!). The first thing I got was the Marc Jacobs lucite keychain while in NYC at the BookMarc store. The store has tons of cute little $5.00 gifts like keychains, notepads, pens, etc., emblazoned with the MJ logo. I loved these clear lucite ones with the black typography, so I picked up a handful of them for gifts.

Next was the rainbow Test Tube beaker shot glasses from Urban Outfitters which were $14.00. I blogged about them a bunch when I first discovered them because I was OBSESSED. I knew that Whitney would appreciate this colorful little oddity for parties.

The third part of the present was the Marc Jacobs moleskin scribble notebook that he designed for Barney’s Co-Op’s 25th anniversary, which is fitting since it was Whit’s 25th! But more importantly, I’d owed Whitney a cute notebook for 5 years. We know each other from being roommates while living in Barcelona, and 5 years ago while there, I accidentally left her notebook at a Locutorio (the cheap phone places that enable you to call America for like 10 cents a minute haha) and we both forgot about it but I never really forgot.

Fourth Part was NARS Baby Doll lip lacquer. It’s my most favorite lip product in the ENTIRE universe. It is always on me. I am totally addicted to it and Whitney fell in love with it while I was in LA last year so I’d been meaning to send her a little pot of it. If they ever discontinued it I would buy 6,000 of them to load up for the rest of my years on earth because I can’t envision a day without the ability to put this lip lacquer on.

And last but not least, when I was in Boston in May for my boyfriend’s birthday and the Adele Concert, I came upon the real-live version of the Madewell hexagonal colorblocked bangle that I had blogged about. I saw it online and was amazed at how cheap it was ($17.00), and then several months after first blogging about it, came across it on sale at Madewell for $7.00! I bought two, one for me, and one for Whit. It was TWENTY TIMES more showstopping in person that it even was online. I love when that happens. The gold and navy is so beautiful together and the gold is muted, not super shiny. It’s a great piece.

The wrapping:

I was looking for wrapping paper at The Paper Source and saw sheets of this black and white skull&bones paper– MY DREAM. I am OBSESSED with skull/bones/skeleton imagery, not in a creepy way, haha, I just like it visually. But it looked a little lonely, so I saw a really pretty metallic gold stamp-pad and had the idea to buy a “2″ and a “5″ stamp and stamp gold “25″ all over the paper in honor of her new age : ) And then I bought a very pretty hot pink chiffon ribbon. I LOVED the final product. I didn’t want to send it off to LA : ( It looked so pretty just sitting in our living room wrapped up haha.

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